Yixing jumped in headfirst, squeezing his eyes shut right before he hit the water. It quickly rushed in, pulling him in deeper towards the bottom. A shiver ran down his spine as he pushed himself even lower into the refreshing cold pool water. For a second, he wished he could have been born as a merman, swimming with all kind of little fishes while doing nothing but enjoying the crystal blue water and the serene calmness of the sea. No daily humans’ worries, no untrustworthy family members and most importantly, no shoes needed; and as he stalks these unfortunate humans by the shore, he’ll one day come across his prince charming. A funny eared goofy looking prince with a gorgeous smile that could make anyone swoon at its sight. Yixing smiled at the thought as he pushed himself off the bottom of the pool and swam up; gasping for air once he broke into the surface.

Jongin’s amused face greeted him the second he came out, towering over the Chinese male with a white towel in hand.

“Isn’t it a bit cold for an early morning swim?” Yixing took the towel with a thankful smile, droplets of water dripping down into his squinting eyes.    

“I’m used to it by now.” Jongin merely chuckled as he followed Yixing’s moving figure with his dark shades covered eyes; scanning the smaller male’s back with a crooked brow. His amused eyesight dropped to Yixing’s swim trunks clad bum and a smirk bloomed on its own at the delightful sight of the Chinese male’s jiggling .

“So, what are your plans for today?” Jongin said as he approached a seemingly busy Yixing concentrating on drying his wet hair. The tanned male took a seat next to him with legs casually settling on top of the marble table. Yixing glared and Jongin grinned.

“About my mom you mean?”

“No, about our first date I mean.” Jongin burst out laughing when Yixing’s glare darkened. “Oh, c’mon, I’m just kidding, what other plans would I talk about if not the ones about finding your mom? Don’t blame me for your low IQ.” Yixing rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut as he waited for a couple of maids to leave. One of them however, a young one with long straight dark hair, didn’t really seem to be leaving anytime soon as she stole glance after glance of where Jongin was comfortably seated. Yixing frowned in disgust when Jongin lowered his shades down a bit and winked at her, making the young maid burst into quiet giggles and quickly bite on her lower lip to restrain any louder sounds from coming out. Meixiang, an old maid with grey hair pulled into a bun, and the only one who didn’t call Yixing ‘Young master’ as she practically raised him when he used to live here, glared daggers at the girl before scolding her with rapid Chinese. Jongin, once again, burst into an obnoxious fit of laughter even though he didn’t understand a word of what the old lady had just said. Yixing took a sip of his Jasmine tea with a light frown.

“Yixing-ah, is there anything you would like from us to do before leaving honey?” Meixiang asked with a soft voice and a light bow. Jongin popped open a bag of chips as he smirked at the shamefully embarrassed young maid, who kept hiding behind her elder with a gloomy expression on.

“If it’s possible I’d like to ask you about something before you leave, Meixiang jiě jie please take a seat.” The elder woman nodded before jerking her head back towards the young maid and sending her away with a stern look.

“I’m all ears Yixing-ah dear, what would you like to ask about?” Jongin rolled his eyes when Yixing grabbed the elder lady’s hands with pleading brown eyes.

“My mom.” The woman’s eyes widened comically before swiftly changing back to their natural size, it happened so fast and if Jongin wasn’t more than sure he noticed it, he’d say it was nothing but a figment of his own imagination, the way her tiny body tensed and her bushy eyebrows furrowed for a split second. She quickly took control over her face and smiled a soft somehow sad smile at an agitated Yixing. Jongin popped a chip into his mouth and reached into the bag for another one.

“What about your mom, honey?” Yixing, as it clearly showed, was painfully clueless to the way she hesitated before asking.

“I just want to know more about her, how was she like? And why are there no pictures of her? I mean, were my parents married by love or was it an arranged marriage like Jongin and I’s one?”

“Oh, dear. It’s been so long, what made you think back of all of this?”

“Meixiang jiě jie, please don’t answer my questions with more questions, I want to know more about my mother, can’t you please just tell me what you know?” Yixing begged and the elder lady looked like she was about to surrender and tell him what she knew. Jongin was so enjoying this, he couldn’t wait for what was about to come.

“I—I really don’t know what to say, I mean…why don’t you just ask your grandfather or uncles honey? It’s better if you asked them, I’m sorry…I can’t—“ The woman took her hands back from Yixing’s grasp with an apologetic small smile. “—I’m so sorry Yixing-ah, but I can’t help you on this one. I’ve promised your grandfather to never speak of what happened in the past. All I can say is…your mother loved you very much and…I’m sorry, if you don’t need anything else…” Yixing’s hopeful expression fell, a disappointed one easily replacing it.

“Oh, okay…I understand, it’s okay.” The dark haired male took a shaky breath before reaching his hands to grab the elder woman’s ones again and squeeze them tenderly with an understandable halfhearted smile. “We don’t need anything, you can leave if you want to, thank you anyway.” The elder maid got on her feet, bowed to both males then excused herself; a pained expression invading her wrinkled face as she walked away.

“You do realize she’s hiding something, don’t you?” Jongin’s voice startled Yixing from his daze, he locked his gaze with the younger male’s one and blinked at him for a second before slowly nodding his head yes. “Are you planning on doing anything about it?”

“No.” Jongin mouthed that ‘no’ with a perplexed expression as he waited for Yixing to explain. “I won’t push her for answers, she’s right, promises aren’t meant to be broken, especially when that promise is made with someone like my grandfather. She’s afraid and I understand that, to be honest I’m quite afraid myself.” Yixing pushed his wet dark hair back from his forehead before taking a sip of his tea to calm his nerves. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“You think your grandfather would hurt her if she said anything?”

“Maybe not physically, but he’ll fire her in an instant and make sure no one else would ever hire her.” Yixing looked down at that. “She has a family to feed…a big one actually.”

“I see…” Jongin trailed as he took a sip from Yixing’s cup and immediately frowned; spitting the tea back into the cup. “How the hell do you drink that stuff?” Yixing’s face scrunched up in disgust for a second though he couldn’t help but crack a tiny smile at the way Jongin threw the cup away towards the pool without a single care in the world. A splashing sound quickly followed.

“You know you’re going to clean that up, right?”

“Oi, I thought you were the wife in this relationship.” Jongin grinned in victory when Yixing burst into a warm fit of giggles, slender pale hands covering dented cheeks and pearl-white teeth. Jongin reached his own hands to take Yixing’s ones off his face; the giggles stopped at that and Yixing stared in anticipation at what Jongin had to say. “Don’t cover your dimples from me, I kind of grew fond of them.” Yixing blinked at him for a second before clearing his throat, a pale shade of pink dusting his cheekbones for whatever reason.

“I’ll call Chanyeol,” Yixing choked and Jongin made a small ‘huh’ with his mouth, not fully understanding what Yixing meant by that. “I mean, I think I should call Chanyeol again, I tried calling him this morning and he didn’t pick up. I called him last night as well...I don’t know why he's not picking my calls up or at least tried to call me back till now. I’m worried something bad might have happened to him.”

“Or maybe he’s just busy.”

“Well, that’s not really an excuse, we promised we’ll call each other every day, at least twice a day.”

“Then, maybe he got bored of you and found himself an even prettier boy with no attachments whatsoever.” Yixing’s brows furrowed at that.

“You’re not funny.”

“I’m not trying to be funny. I’m being honest.” Yixing pushed his chair back and got up on his feet with a deep scowl on display.

“You’re an imbecile, that’s what you are.”

“I don’t really care what you think of me.”

“I’m sure you don’t, if you’ll excuse me I’ll go call my boyfriend. My boyfriend, who happens to love me more than anything else in this world.” Yixing sounded utterly childish, foolish even as he stomped his foot in a tantrum.

“I’m sure he does, that’s why he’s not answering your calls, because he loves you more than anything else, it shows really, I envy you guys.” Jongin faked a sad pouty face with a hand seemingly wiping his nonexistent tears, making Yixing growl in irritation and storm into the house with barely audible Chinese curses; Jongin’s high-pitched loud laughter following him like an annoying ghost.

♭

Kyungsoo pushed his way into Chanyeol’s room, only to find him lying motionless on his bed with red puffy eyes. He’s drunk, the doe eyed male concluded as he carefully closed the door behind him.

“What the hell are you doing? What would you gain by not answering Yixing’s calls?” Chanyeol blinked at him for a second but didn’t budge nor answer back; Kyungsoo groaned under his breath at that. “Chanyeol, I’m talking to you? Are you really giving up on him this easily?”

“It’s none of your business.” Chanyeol gritted; his deep voice unusually cold and barely audible.

“What do you mean by ‘none of my business’? And why didn’t you answer my phone calls and messages? What’s gotten into you Chanyeol? I mean I get that you’re sad and whatever but you were the one who sent him away, it was by your own well, so stop acting like you’ve been betrayed!” 

“I have been betrayed, Kyungsoo.” The doe eyed male walked closer towards Chanyeol’s bed and stopped when the other male motioned for him with his hand to not come any closer.

“What are you talking about?”

“Can you please just leave? I’m not in the mood for pointless chit-chat.”

“No, hell no! I’m not leaving until you get back to your senses. I might even have to knock it out of you, but I’m certainly not leaving.”

“What the do you want from me Kyungsoo? I don’t want to see you or anybody else, get the out right now!”

“A few curses won’t scare me, and you’re perfectly aware of that.” Kyungsoo’s eyes widened when all of a sudden Chanyeol got up and hars