A small WARNING: This chapter contains at some point a trigger warning for a slight violence scene, so if you are a sensitive person in this matter, you can skip reading  starting with this  gif
 

 

 

 

 

As usual, the park at the lunch hour was not animated, as it was too hot outside. 
The children and the old people were at their homes, and the young people were at their working places or their studying places, thus he assumed that he could have some nice moments of privacy and relaxation in his favorite park.

Alone with his thoughts.

 

 

 

Whenever he comes here, memories from years ago keep coming to his mind.
Wang Yibo was a 12 years old kid who was enthusiastically trying his new skateboard, when a creepy laughter and some suspicious sounds coming from the bushes, scared the sh!t out of him. 

 

 

He was  afraid of ghosts ever since, actually he is afraid even now when he is eighteen already.

When he was about to bolt out of there, "the ghost" came out of the bushes, limping and tripping in "her" own legs.

Yibo hid behind a thick tree, but it took only a few seconds to understand that the "ghost" was nothing but a  person getting bullied by a bunch of teenage punks. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl, as the victim was wearing jeans and an oversized hoodie covering his or her head. Yeah, it was a very tall person, but that couldn't necessarily mean to be a boy, it could be a tall girl as well.

He watched horrified how they held their victim to the ground, while one of them was drawing on his/her face with lipstick, and another one was crumbling his/her bare feet into some weird shoes.

Then one of them shouted to the bullied person: "Stand up, you dirty, disgusting trash! And make some fabulous twirling for us! We want to admire that pretty face of yours and your y, long legs dancing in these gracious Cinderella shoes! 
Did you know that these custom made shoes are very expensive?
But we are sure that Qing will not regret spending the money when we will show her the recording. She will have such good laughter, ha, ha.
I'm sure that she will finally agree to be mine."

"Yeah, probably it was a girl, probably  hated by another girl, named Qing.
And the punks were trying to please the Qing character by bullying her rival.", Yibo mused to himself.

The tall girl didn't do what the bullies  ordered her to do, therefore they started screaming and kicking her.

When Yibo noticed that one of them was preparing to punch her in the face, he got bold and threw his skateboard, with all of his strength of a 12 years old kid, onto the  puncher's head, shouting: "I called the police!", even though he forgot his phone at home.

The gang got so scared that they didn't even check who was the voice's owner. 
They just ran like hell, while Yibo ran towards the lying victim.

But he didn't even have time to help her, as  she stood up hastily and started running away, not even carrying that she was running bare footed.

Why bare footed?
Yibo picked up a shoe left behind the runner.
Woah, the shoes that the bullies forced her to wear were smaller than any normal size, and on top of that, were made from glass.
Now Yibo understood the meaning of the sound of broken glass when the  bullied girl  started to run and why there were blood prints left behind her.
Probably one shoe broke and her foot got injured by the glass shards.

 

 

end of 

 

 

"Why would those animals do something like that to you?
I hope that they will get their karma soon and will be punished as they deserve!
I'm sorry for not stepping in sooner.", Yibo whispered, whipping his teary eyes  before carefully shoving the undamaged glass shoe into his small backpack.

 

 

 

                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

The "prince" closed his eyes to enjoy better the birds peaceful chirping, and whispered to himself:
"Dear Cinderella, whoever and wherever you are, I hope that bad things never happen again  to you, I hope that you are happy now, loved and protected by your family, friends and especially by your prince. Because what would be Cinderella without a prince to love her? 
Even though...Just look at me, they call me the prince of school...but I have no Cinderella beside me...  
Why does everyone think that being the school's prince it's so amazing?
Why do they envy me?
I am the most popular and the most wanted flower boy from my school, and I have nobody to love  and nobody to love me back!
I'm sick of all those girls who want me only as a trophy, to parade at my arm before their friends or their exes."

And tonight I will have to go through the whole nightmare of the school's costume party, what a boredom...I'd better stay here the whole day and whole evening.",  the boy tormented by these thoughts, sighed, and  adjusted himself in an even more relaxed sitting position, with his arms hooked on the  bench's backrest and his legs stretched  out recklessly on the pathway.

 

 

His serenity was cut off by a sudden arrival, out of nowhere: an individual  resembling a Christmas tree, loaded with all kinds of big boxes and bags, who was trying to keep the pace with a seven years old kid running before him.

"A-Yuan, please wait, I can't run anymore!", the Christmas tree shouted, panting heavily.

The skinny kid, who turned his head to his follower for sticking out his tongue at him, had stumbled over the outstretched legs from the pathway, kissing hard the ground.

After a short moment of dismay, a loud cry chased away all the birds from the neighborhoods:
"Whaaaa, uwhaaa!!!"

The owner of the outstretched legs stood up hastily from the bench and lifted the crying kid into his arms, then sat him on the bench.

 

 

"Shhht! I'm sorry, please don't cry, look here, blow your nose in this!", the  worried boy spoke,  handing him a piece of green clothes pulled out from his backpack.

"But this is not a napkin, GeGe,  he gave me his t-shirt!", the kid sobbed, wrapping his arms around the Christmas tree boy's waist.

 

 

"You can use it, I didn't wear it yet, it's new! Look here is the label, I have just bought it!
Sorry for what happened, I apologize for not withdrawing my legs at time, before the kid stumbled up. My name is Wang Yibo.", the boy spoke, reaching out his hand at the still panting Christmas tree boy.

"No need to apologize, my brother is always like this: a little spoiled brat, walking with his head in the clouds.
The brat's name is A-Yuan and I am Xiao Zhan, nice to meet you Lao Wang.", the kid's gege shook the apologetic boy's hand, smiling with the brightest smile  that Yibo has ever seen.

  

 

"I am not a brat, and definitely not spoiled, why are you embarrassing me, GeGe?", the kid yelled, wiping his eyes and blowing his nose into the green t-shirt.

"Oh, my God, Mèimei(A/n: younger sister in Chinese) will kill us if the dress is ruined!", Xiao Zhan screamed suddenly, startling the other boy who was still holding his hand and staring fascinated at his beautiful features .

The boy ran to the boxes and bags scattered all over the pathway.

Yibo followed him to help him to place the packs on the bench next to the child who was now calmly eating the chocolate given by his GeGe.

"Why are you carrying all these bags and why didn't you take a cab or something?", Yibo asked curiously.

"Because we live not that far from the tailor and no cab would have taken me for such a short drive."

"Tailor?"

"Yes, all these are for my Mèimei, who will be Cinderella at the costume  party from her school, and I hope nothing was ruined, because she will cry even louder than my A-Yuan did.", the ball of sunshine smiled again, when his DiDi protested with his mouth stuffed with the brown chocolate.

Yes, the ball of sunshine, that is what Yibo was calling the smiling boy, in his mind.

His porcelain skin was shining in the light of the afternoon sun, his huge  anime character eyes were converting in two cute crescents in the moment he was smiling or laughing...and he was smiling and laughing a lot, warming everything around him and spreading a glow of kindness and happiness on his whole face.

 

 

Yibo didn't even notice when his hand went, unwillingly, to touch that soft,  flawless cheek.

He snapped out only when Zhan's eyes grew even bigger than they already were:
"What are you doing?"

"Ehem, ehem, you had something on your cheek.", Yibo coughed awkwardly, quickly removing his hand while asking himself what the heck did he just do.

"So, why are you not at school at this hour?",  he asked, to divert the other's attention from his questionable gesture.

"Oh, school, how I'd wish, ha, ha...I have already graduated, two years ago, and sadly I couldn't attend the college after that, because our father passed away and..."

"I'm so sorry...
Let me help you with your bags.", Yibo  tried to change the topic, and took a few boxes from the bench, after squeezing in comfort the suddenly sad boy's shoulder.

He ignored a few times the phone that kept buzzing in his pocket, but as the caller was very insistent, he excused himself and finally answered the call.

While talking on the phone, the  ball of sunshine loaded himself with all the packages. 
He, then, struggled to free a hand to wave goodbye, but Yibo managed to grab his hand and muttered a bit of a too desperate 'WAIT!', stopping him from going away.

Wang Yibo was talking with somebody who apparently was getting him angry, because he didn't release Zhan's hand from his grip,  but squeezed it hard, till little A-Yuan pulled him by the hem of his shirt:
"Why a