Skimming through her clothes, she finally grabbed a pair of clothes that she would be wearing to work today. It was still early and Yixing was still sleeping soundly. She tried her best not to wake him up so, she made careful and noiseless moves.

She put the clothes on the chair in front of her vanity and left the room to prepare breakfast for the two of them. By the time she was almost finished making breakfast, she heard soft footsteps coming near her.

“Good morning, babe. Why are you up early? I was supposed to make breakfast for us,” Yixing said with his morning voice and kissed her cheeks. He yawned and rubbed his eyes as Mei Lin chuckled at him. “Morning. I don’t know. Just had a really good sleep I guess. Prepare the table, Yixing.”

Yixing followed without any hesitation and set up the table. He helped her transfer the food at the serving plate when she finished cooking and she sat in front of him as he started putting food on her plate.

It has been so long since they did this. She appreciate small things a lot including this – Yixing putting food on her plate.

“Yixing, what are you doing? You put too much!” she whined at him and he shook his head firmly.

“Babe, you’re too thin. You look unhealthy. People might think I’m starving you.”

“No, it’s just you. I’m either completely healthy or a little bit healthy.” She stabbed her food and munched angrily while Yixing eyed her carefully, still not acknowledging the fact that she’s not thin.

Ironically, at the back of his mind, he knows that she is healthy but he just missed seeing her eat as weird as it may sound. He couldn’t even remember when the last time they had breakfast together was.

“Babe,” he called.

“Hm?” She looked at him and pursed his lips. “You don’t call me that anymore.” He felt a little sad knowing that she somehow got awkward around him.

Mei Lin felt a little bit guilty and sadly, she felt a little hesitant to call him sweet names or endearments. “I’m sorry,” she muttered.

He put down his chopsticks and took her hands from across the table. “We already talked about this. Please, let’s start over again and talk everything out. Don’t keep things to yourself and shut me out slowly.”

As if he could read her mind, she inwardly admitted that she was shutting him out slowly, afraid of getting hurt again. “I’m sorry, Yixing. I’m just scared that once I trust you again, things will go downhill again and… and you’ll do that again.”

He said to talk everything out, so she did.

He was slightly taken aback by her words. It’s the truth no matter how much it hurts. “I know that I hurt you.” He wanted to add the word ‘once’ at the end of his statement but he quickly remembered that it wasn’t just once. “Things wouldn’t work out if you’re still stuck in the past. I know this might sound selfish because I’m not as hurt as you are but, please, cooperate with me.” He tried his best not to sound demanding because he really wasn’t and she understood that completely.

“This might take a while, Yix