Someone In The Crowd

Chapter - 20

             Wangji's world stopped, seeing the man of his worst nightmares, standing in front of him like that, in all glory. His breath got hitched for a minute. Slowly remembering the surroundings and his position, he came back to reality and decided to just stick through the programme. But who knew that his miseries could not be avoided so easily. Just as he was slipping away from the hall, unnoticed, the principal called him and handed over to him the man, he so desperately wanted to avoid. He told himself that he had to suck it up but one only could have so much patience. When Guangyao brought up the topic of his parents and just asked him how long he was planning to ignore him, he lost it. He just lost all the patience he gathered within himself, reminding himself to bear with it all till he can be alone. He snapped. He snapped at the guest of his institution who was put under his care. But did he care? Not till he got his some of his senses back.

             As he was driving back towards his home, he slowly came back to his senses. His rage, quite subsided not gone, was replaced by a slight sense of fear,

'What if he reports to the principal against me.'

But he could not and would not go back. He could feel his panic surging and knew he needed to take his meds before things get out of his control. He could not afford having a panic attack now, no one to support him, no one to take control of the car, no one to draw him out of the darkness he would get drown into. And his suspicion that Guangyao might have reported him did nothing to ease his worries. He slowly parked his car on the side of the road and took a moment to regulate his breathing, after feeling a little more stable than before, he again hit the road.

             Stumbling on his way to reach the apartment, he breathed a sigh of relief when he finally entered the key into the key-hole. Locking the door, Wangji slid down to the floor, breathing heavily. He slowly closed his eyes, trying to fight the guilt and the images that were crawling out of his mind, trying to support himself up to reach to his bed room. After an agonizing struggle of fifteen to twenty minutes he finally pulled open the drawer where he kept his medicines. Taking the prescribed dose, he slowly slipped out of the clothes and somehow threw himself on the bed, tugging the blanket to cover himself. Now all he needed was a sound sleep to let the medicine take effect. Everything else, well he could see what he can do about them tomorrow.

             But before he could completely slip into the world of dreamless sleep, he thought that he heard the doorbell ring once. At first, he ignored his notions thinking that probably he was just hearing things in his sleepy and muddled state of mind. But when the ringing continued, he was shaken out of his stupor and was forced to waddle his way to the door, all while desperately hoping that it was anyone but his brother on the other side of the door.

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            After five or so minutes the door opened.

             After seeing that it was Wuxian, Wangji opened the door wide enough to let the other in.

             The inside of his flat was neat and clean, being in perfect synchronization with his personality. After inviting Wuxian inside, Wangji showed him a sofa and dropped himself on a one-seater. He looked ragged, pale, tired and completely not pleased to have an uninvited guest at this hour.

"I called..."

"I put my phone on silent... you need something?

Wuxian dived straight to the subject,

"Why did you leave like that Wangji? You know that you'll be in trouble if he reports you right?"

"And how do you know what happened?"