Chapter Ten – Change

He had never felt so humiliated in his entire life. addicted bastard indeed. He couldn’t believe that after all the things that he had given him, he still had the audacity to ask for more! The nerve of him!

It all started when he was talking to Wufan about his birthday, when all of a sudden, the man uttered something so unbelievably, despicably low. “So I was thinking, since it’s your birthday tomorrow, we could do something fun to celebrate.”

Ok, so that wasn’t it. It was what he said after it that made his blood boil.

“Since you’re kind of a hermit, I was thinking of taking you to the host club just around the corner from where my mum works, so you can practice being an actual male.”

Eyes blazing, he turned around and jabbed a finger into his boyfriend’s chest. “What do you mean, ‘practice being an actual male’?”

Wufan shrugged, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Come on, have you heard yourself talk? Its research this, bacteria that, nothing an actual person would talk about!”

And just like that, they had their second fight.

“Research is my passion! How dare you denigrate my love of the sciences!”

“But your research is so boring! Even a cat would make a better conversationalist than you.”

“What, so you’re now comparing me to an animal? If you think so highly of it, why don’t you become its boyfriend instead?”

“I might as well! At least it’s cute and has an actual personality!”

“Are you suggesting I don’t?”

“Oh please. Even a blind two year old can see that you’re nothing but a bore!”

It went on for two hours, and it led to what was to become the most humiliating thing Yixing had ever had to endure.

Of course, their first fight had been humiliating enough, what with Yixing finding out that his boyfriend was indeed a -crazed monster, if his wanting to be hit again was anything of an indication. Luckily, Yixing had ran out of the apartment just in time to avoid anything of the sort, but ever since then, Wufan hadn’t even bothered to hide his obvious ual intent.

Sure, he had been a gentleman for the first few weeks after the fight, calling him all the time, leaving little “I’m sorry” and “I’ll try to be a better boyfriend for you” messages, even watching adoringly while he worked on his research. But little by little, the gentleman slipped away and the monster started to show its true face, often to the point when even a chaste kiss on the cheeks was interpreted as a come-on. And then that happened. Yixing was now unsure if forgiving him had been wise.

Which was why he was ignoring his boyfriend’s calls again while drinking coffee with Jongdae.

“You guys fought again?” Jongdae asked, shaking his head. “Honestly, you guys are like vines. Too suffocating to breathe around each other yet too tangled to leave, it’s as if you both need each other to survive.”

“Shut it, Jongdae.” Yixing glared at him. “I don’t want to know what theory you have this time. It’s nice to know you’re also into the sciences, but frankly, your ‘theories’ are baseless and totally unproven.”

“I’m hurt.” Jongdae shot him his best puppy eyes. “I thought they hit the spot. But no matter. I’m just going to say one more thing, and that’s all you’ll hear from me, promise.”

Yixing set down his coffee, groaning. “What is it?”

“Well,” Jongdae took a slow and deliberate sip of his latte, eyes never leaving his best friend. “Do you remember that time when I said you didn’t feel human?”

“Oh god, not that again.”

Change.

Yixing couldn’t say he liked that word. Change meant doing things he wouldn’t normally do, going out of his comfort zone, being a different person than he normally was. What if everything came crashing down on him? No, he didn’t like that word at all.

But, on the other hand, it was what made science interesting. If he thought really hard about it, change was basically the whole reason for his research. There are many types of antibiotics available to treat bacterial infections, but scientists often had to invent new types because certain strains were resistant to the existing ones. There are certain strains which are resistant to almost all of the current antibiotics, and these strains are called super bacteria. To get to this stage, a normal species of bacteria would have to go through several mutations, those of which would change its genetic code. This was good for the bacteria, as it enabled it to survive longer.

Of course! Yixing could feel the light bulb go off in his head. These bacteria had to adapt to the environment in which they lived in, and change accordingly in order to survive.

It was the same with humans.

___

Author’s notes: I know I said this update would probably be three weeks away, but I wanted to get it up earlier because today is a very special day. That’s right, it’s LAY’S birthday today! Happy birthday, you beautiful, special little unicorn!! I was going to make this chapter longer too, but as exotic_buffalo pointed out, I do enjoy cliff-hangers. Don’t want to ruin the surprise now, do we?

Chapter 11 will be… interesting, if I may say so myself, so please look forward to it! :3