"Zhan," Mrs. Xiao called as soon as she walked into the room, where her son was currently getting ready after his packing for moving out for his new college.

Zhan looks so worn out and the dark patches under his eyes are getting more prominent as time goes. He hasn't slept properly in the last couple of days with thoughts falling back and forth between Wang Yibo and their memories together.

He had drowned himself in those memories of great melancholia while sitting in his room ever since coming back, with a life that was thrown away just for the selfishness of his mother.

And now watching the women coming at him, talking as if she cares was more than painful than slicing him into pieces at this point. It hurt him more than anything that she is not understanding why he shouldn't have left his lover all alone by himself without a proper explanation.

And now the sadness embraced him like his shadow on the way he passes, with the heavyweight weighing him down with each step.

She hesitated as words got stuck in his throat with the lack of response from her son, and the and welcoming demeanor of his yet she couldn't help herself from being concerned when she said, "I know you don't want to talk to me, but please take care of yourself son."

He was silent once again, refusing to talk even a word more than he had done the other day because it genuinely exhausted him. It was tiring to be in a constant struggle where you wanted to bust out and keep everything to yourself at the same time.

"Call me if you need anything." her voice rang inside his room as he collected his bag, and his eyes wandering around room once again to check that he hadn't left anything around that to be carried away.

"Mn," with a soft ham at the last response, Zhan walked out of the house without turning back even when his mother called out, "Bye Zhan-Zhan."

And that was the last time he talked to her for a long time, before he stepped away from a place he thought of home, of a place that will console him and calm him down for a long time.

.

.

.

"Oh hello, Xiao Zhan right..?" He was startled by the sudden voice that rang across the room, once he walked into his new dorm room a block away from his new college.

It's almost a two- and half-hour journey from his other school to this and the trip was comfortable enough. Yet he couldn't help himself from being exhausted to the bone all the way down here while he sat inside the cab which bought him here.

" ... " 

Zhan was silent, looking at the guy who was now smiling carefully at him, welcoming him as he stood up from his bed on which he was lying. That guy had if find built and looks fairly handsome with a smile put on his face.

Watching the confusion dancing across his face the new guy introduced himself, "I'm Cheng, your roommate. I know you were coming today. Nice to meet you, buddy." with the hand extended for a handshake.

Staring at the extended hand for more than 5 seconds, Zhan extended his own hand in an attempt to you not come off rude to his new roommate. holding the lattice hand firmly, he smiled, "Nice to meet you too."

turning around to show the room, the boy pointed at the left side with a bed and a table near the window and said, "By the way, that side is yours since it's just the two of us here. Hope you are fine with that..?"

"Yeah, I'm good," Zhan agreed before walking towards his bed and putting his luggage down.

He was tired and wanted to take a nap that he didn't even care which side he was assigned to, because, nothing interested him anymore.

With a soul that's exhausted from everything going on and an equally tired body, he slumped down on the bed sighed deeply with a hand over his forehead covering half of his face as he lied there.

Almost an hour had passed with Cheng helping Zhan to unpack his things and settle down before Zhan went for a shower. Feeling a bit more awake after the shower, Zhan walked back into the room with a towel in his hand still drying his hair, and a simple t-shirt with sweat pants on.

He wanted to sleep but realized it's noon and his body is in requires when Cheng's voice once again echoed, asking him, "Zhan Wanna go out for lunch..?"

But at the same time wanting to spend some time alone, it was so tempting that he said, "Ah, I still had some paperwork to be done." just to bail out of the plan of having to go out and have lunch with a stranger who happened to be his new roommate.

But Cheng had his own plans as he waved that off and said, "It's fine. Come on, let's do that after lunch. I will give you a small tour around the campus too."

Leaving no way around for the latter to refuse anymore, as he knew he really needs someone's help in finishing those things; if he is not ready to go through the Hustle of running back and forth wasting his time.

having no other choice but to go with his roommates' plan, Zhan got ready without wasting much more time and walked out of the room with Cheng in tow, as they went ahead and did all the works before heading towards the cafeteria to have lunch together.

A month later

A month has passed since he moved out of his old lifestyle to a completely new surrounding with your people buzzing around constantly. Things were going fine and he did make a couple of friends here and there. get somewhere he was still trapped in the melancholy of his love that he failed.

His appearance had changed over the month as he became skinnier than he already was, with the lack of sleep and eating disorder which he developed.

Zhan was busy doing his project, munching on some protein bars as he's kept his lunch once again for the reason of being busy when he noticed a text from one of his teammates reminding him of the practice that evening.<