Us. (HIStory2 越界 - Crossing the Line: Zhen Wen x Zhen Wu)

A Glimpse of Uncertainty (Zhen Wen)

I run down the stairs and directly head to the dining room. The food's on the table and as I am taking the plate from the shelf, Mom stops me.

"Ei, ei, wait for your brother." She takes my plate away and puts it on the table.

"Wha—Ma, I'm so so so hungry I could die if I don't eat at this very second," I'm practically begging her.

"Aiyo, go watch TV or something. Your brother will be down here soon. Just wait for a little longer, ok?" She says.

I pout and bring my heavy legs to the living room, making a dramatic leave. Mom chuckles and goes to her room. Dad's not here yet. I guess he'll work overtime.

After some time abusing the remote to flip through the boring channels, I hear Zhen Wu's footsteps going down the stairs. I jump from the couch that very second and dash to the dining table to take my plate and fill it with rice. I also fill Zhen Wu's plate.

"Slow down, Zhen Wen," Mom calls from the kitchen. She's ladling some kind of soup to three bowls for all of us. "Your brother here almost died waiting for you," she tells Zhen Wu jokingly.

"Yeah. I'm dying." I sit down and Zhen Wu takes a seat beside me. I put his plate in front of him and he looks at me like I've never done this before. He smiles at me and says thanks. His voice is so gentle it turns my hunger into butterflies.

I clear my throat, and manage to blurt out anything that comes to mind: "What took you so long? Did you fall asleep in the shower?" I let out a stupid laugh.

I notice his cheeks begin to show a faint blush of pink. Why is he blushing?

"Why are you blushing?" I don't realize I said it out loud. When I finished that question, I bring my spoon to cover my mouth.

"N-nothing. I normally take this long," he says, avoiding eye contact, and then gulps the cold water in front of him.

I know my ears are red. I can feel the heat on them, and I clear my throat once again. My brain screams at my stomach to stop the butterflies and at my heart to stop drumming. I try to distract myself by stuffing everything in front of me inside my mouth. Mom's cooking is, as always, delectable, but I can't afford to think about that right now.

"Zhen Wen ah, slow down. You'll choke," Mom says while putting a piece of fish meat on my plate.

I gulp a generous spoonful of the savory pork rib soup and mumble, "I'm okay." I don't know if they can make out what I say with my chipmunk cheeks. Zhen Wu lets out a small laugh. I glance at his direction and smile. He then takes some vegetables and puts it on my plate, after which I whisper thanks. And I get a beautiful smile back.

Before I realize it, the side dishes keep on coming when I don't even lift my chopsticks to take them. I know Mom will occasionally give me something, but it's Zhen Wu who refills my plate endlessly. When he takes some vegetable and then put it on my half-gone rice, I tell him to just eat comfortably, don't need to think about me.

"Look at you guys. So glad you finally made up! Your Dad and I got so worried when you weren't talking to each other. We thought something really bad happened." She looks concerned. "But we didn't really want to get too involved, hoping you guys can resolve it on your own," Mom continues, and she is beaming with pride, seeing us finally 'resolved the problem on our own'.

I let out an awkward laugh, not knowing what to say or how to respond. What will become of that smile when she finds out the thing that's between us? Thankfully Zhen Wu steps in.

"Yeah, there were some problems at the volley club. Even everyone was tense, but it's okay now. Don't worry, Ma." Zhen Wu smiles reassuringly—the kind of smile that melts away all your worries. Beneath that, however, lays a glimpse of uncertainty only I can see.

"Good, that's good. Stay like this, okay? After all you only have each other."

Her last sentence pinches my heart.     

***

And this concludes Zhen Wen's POV! We'll see how things are from the eyes of Zhen Wu on the next chapters.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to update until the 24th :( because I'm going to visit my hometown (after so long!), so I'll upload the next chapter on the 25th of June!

Thank you so much for reading <3 votes and comments are very much appreciated!