No Time - Chapter 39

I’m from an orphanage. My parents died when I was 7.

My mom dying from some sickness led my distraught dad to go drunk driving. And next thing he knew, crash, death.

But seriously, what about me?! I can only tell you, they were very lovey-dovey and also cared for me very much. But they weren’t too responsible.

Both were very much in love with each other.

I cried so much at their funeral. Nobody wanted to take me in. I had relatives, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, but no one wanted me.

My parents didn’t have much savings, so they wouldn’t be able to get out anything from the measly amount they had left. Adults are so cruel.

So I was passed off to the orphanage.

Life was normal but the orphanage was poor and crappy.

I pickpocketed often and gambled to make enough money to buy school supplies and pay for field trips in the orphanage. I wanted to seem normal.

But in 7th grade, I realized. I couldn’t ever be normal.

Because was liking men normal?

No, it had turned out that I was gay.

Maybe it was due to the fact that I never really saw girls as nothing more than friends.

Maybe it was due to only being able to drool at handsome boys.

I just liked boys. That’s all.

I’ve even had several crushes. But they were all fantasies, I couldn’t do anything with them in real life. Or they would be disgusted.

I went to high school, and during my 9th-grade year, I was accused of stealing a rich kid’s wallet.

It was absolutely not me. I didn’t steal at school. But some people in the orphanage said that I stole all the time. Those brats.

So I was sent to the school I was in currently now, St. Barbara.

It was actually a pretty great thing.

There were boys everywhere, the gave free wifi even if I didn’t have any devices, they let us go free with supervision during weekends, and the food was decent too.

And now, I was better than ever.

But I was being called Shame and was rumored to be gay. What did they mean by rumors? I really was gay!

Rain is a great guy. Andrei was nicer than I thought, and he’s really hot! Jack Larson’s a psycho and Ryan Labelle’s really mature and calm. They all look above average, so it’s kind of a mini paradise for me just to have some eye-candy around.

I’ve been getting good grades because Rain didn’t let me slack off and helped me study. He’s also been training me. Ugh, he’s too harsh on me, my body hurts even while lying down.

On the night when Rain showed off his abilities, I was secretly laughing in my heart. Their expressions… too funny! It was freaking hilarious!

Jack turned pale, Andrei put on a serious expression that was too funny on his young face, and Ryan looked shocked and curious.

I’m Rain’s only disciple! Haha! Cower before me, weaklings!

Hmhm, I’ll become powerful like Rain too someday.

Rain isn’t an immortal, but he is a superhuman of some sort. And with the skills he has shown me, I believe what he said about the apocalypse. I wonder if there’s some kind of secret organization that has superheroes in China!

Really, I’d like to see a zombie! But I wouldn’t want to be bitten by one. Would they rot and shrivel up or would they still be how they looked when they turned?

So many things I want to ask!

Andrei and Ryan are fairly friendly with us but Jack stays silent and stares at Rain in fear and tries to stay away from us. Seriously, it’s not like he’s done anything to you!

Well, besides that, 2 months have passed and it’s late October.

Rain said my ability to comprehend strategy was even better than his younger brother, and supposedly that kid’s a genius, so I’m pretty proud about that. He said it was because I had more experience in dealing with tough situations.

These days, during the weekends, we often go out to participate in drag racing. And my word, Rain is so awesome! He’s so fast, it’s zoom zoom all the way!

Hehe, but this weekend, we’re going shopping for Halloween costumes. Rain said he was going to bring me, Andrei, and Ryan to China for a party at his old school. It was good that we had prepared our passports and had them in hand. Rain already bought 4 tickets for us.

I just decided to be a mummy, wrapping toilet paper and some sticky glue to make sure it didn’t fall off. Andrei would be a fancy vampire, and Ryan wanted to be the phantom of the opera.

I’m so excited! Technically, the dean was coerced by Rain to give us a special pass. There will be a supervisor, but I was told by Rain that the guy would only be accompanying us to the airport.

So after a night without rest from too much excitement, I woke up very tired but still enthusiastic.

My first time out of the country! And it’s a foreign Asian country!

On the plane ride, I was so nervous. I knew that the hyperplane was safe, but still, going into the air without worries was impossible. I was a creature of the land, how were the people around me still chatting and acting normally?

Rain noticed my trembling hands and patted them. His hands were even colder than mine but it somehow made me feel better.

China, when we got there, was very bright and it was already 11 AM. The airport was big and had an aquarium too! We had a quick lunch with some dumplings and Asian pancakes from the stalls in the city after we were dropped off by the airport bus. They were delicious and only a little greasy.

It was apparently still school time for everyone else, so we got to go to Rain’s house.

And by god, it was huge! It was the largest mansion I had ever seen in my life! Maybe even as big as the president’s White House I saw while on a field trip to the capital!

I rushed in and looked at all the luxurious things. I could only feel envy and admiration for Rain.

Rain had told me that all this was his work along with the help of his siblings. Their parents didn’t do anything but raise them up when they were young.

Rain’s cooking is really good too! It was spaghetti and cream soup for lunch and it tasted absolutely divine!

Rain got his costume from his room and we stayed in the house until Ryan asked if he could go shopping.

He wanted some paint and paper that were only sold in China as a specialty.

So we went into the garage that was full of sports cars, limousines, and a bunch of other vehicles. I wanted to ride in a limousine all fancily, but Rain said that my clothes would not match, so we went into a room right next to Rain’s room(which is awesome by the way), which was full of musical instruments and had a glass-applied studio-like look. On the other side, was a whole place full of clothes, clothes, and more clothes.

Rain said he upgraded this place and had even more clothes in the next room.

He picked out a lot of clothes for our size and stuffed them into suitcases.

“Take them. They won’t fit me and my siblings don’t wear them anyways. I want to see the outfits I coordinate on people, not on hangers.”

Woohoo! So I earned 4 suitcases full of clothes, shoes, and accessories. Everyone else had the same amount so we felt that it was fair.

He picked out for us each an outfit without even looking properly. A pile of clothes and accessories were each thrown at us. We were told to change while he went to pick out some shoes.

Wah, we looked so cool!

Andrei had a grey blazer, white shirt, and tight-fitting black pants. Rain picked out brown leather Oxfords for him.

Ryan wore a soothing cashmere cardigan that was light grey, a jean shirt, and very light blue jeans that were slightly ripped at the knees. Rain provided expensive white and black sneakers out for him.

I wore white formal pants, a thinly light-blue striped collared shirt, a fancy navy button-up vest, and a leather belt. Rain even gave me sunglasses and an expensive watch on top of formal leather shoes!

Rain had on a casual but nevertheless expensive outfit of tight-fitting black pants that showed his long legs, a pale light blue sweater/shawl thing that had mid-sleeves, and black ankle boots. He even added a pair of sunglasses like me, a black choker, and let down his hair and parted it to the left. He looked like a beautiful and quite stylish androgynous person. Maybe I should try growing my hair too!

Hmhm, feeling very cool and awesome, we got into one of the limos and relaxed while it drove by itself.

We had brought our costumes into the car since Rain didn’t want to meet his siblings yet. He had partly forgiven them but was a bit petty, cute.

I asked, “Rain, I thought you didn’t like wearing androgynous clothes?”

He replied, “After living in America, where the fashion is to wear something that would suit your looks, I decided that my beauty wasn’t such a bad thing.”

“Ok, so what else are we going to do besides shopping art supplies?” I looked towards the two other guys who were talking to themselves quietly. Not joining in the conversation eh?

“We’re going to get you a new costume. You can’t possibly think that I’ll let you wear toilet paper around all day long. What if it falls off? Glue doesn’t work if somebody bumps into and tears it by accident,” Rain stated.

Excited, I quickly asked, “What should I be then?”

“What do you want to be, sexy or cute?” he asked with a nonchalant smirk on his face. The two boys who were conversing with each other suddenly stopped and listened in.

“Sexy!” I replied almost instantaneously. Andrei and Ryan choked and coughed. I glared at them.

“Then, do you want to try cross-dressing? I think you’d look ‘sexy’ with a short skirt, and belly showing crop top. You can try being a prom queen or something,” Rain suggested.

Me, being the guy with the power of gay, agreed. Who wouldn’t be interested in cross-dressing anyways? At least, not me!

So we first went to an art shop where we spent almost 2 hours because of Ryan who wanted to buy everything, size 1, size 1.32, what’s the difference?!

We then went to a dress shop. I changed my mind about the prom dress thing and decided to be a Chinese hostess, going for a short Chinese styled white-with-pink-lace-at-the-ends dress.

Rain then told me to wait in the dressing room and try on the dress while he ran off quickly(yea, you know how fast he is) to some store to get those fake breast pads.

He came back minutes later with C-cup sized breast pads. …Was, was I that flat? Just kidding! I asked that, and Rain patted my chest as if making sure that I was flat and replied, “Yes, you’re very flat.” Hahaha, I had a good laugh about that!

The C-cup sized breast pads were only because the dress was sized for those type of breasts. So yea, Rain stuck them on me without any shame and I was a little embarrassed, but we were friends and had no ulterior motives, so I was fine with it.

Looking at the mirror, I did look quite pretty. I had large brown eyes, nice smooth skin, and a wig that totally matched my natural hair color. All I needed were some accessories, shoes, and make-up.

Rain worked hard by bringing those things back from his mansion and applying the make-up himself. I have to say, this kid is talented in everything! Yea, I learned that I was a few months older than him, I was born on 4/14.

Anyway, Andrei and Ryan were surprised that I looked so pretty when I came out of the dressing room. They had been bored, waiting outside the dressing room, playing games on their phones. Typical boys, they don’t understand the joy of shopping.

Hm, now I looked like a proper hostess, so it was the others’ turns.

Ryan made a fantastic phantom of the opera, he said he molded the mask himself in the school’s kitchen. How he got permission for that, I found out that Rain had once again threatened the school dean…

Andrei made a dashing vampire, Dracula, whatever. All that mattered was that his fangs looked ready to bite prey and he looked handsome.

Rain was a perfect fox spirit exorcist and his white fox tail and ears, as well as his make-up looked so realistic. He told me that this was one of his powers, to change into a fox-human form. So cool! I want to try being a hybrid fluffy human too!

We got on the limo again since it was already nearing 5 PM. They would serve us lunch there, so I was looking forward to how a fancy school would give luxury meals… Ack, I was already drooling.

The limo dropped us off and drove away by itself into the parking space. Wow, even the parking space was huge, and the school was… I don’t know what else to say but GINORMOUS.

People with costumes on were already trickling in and handed in tickets as they were stopped at the gates.

Rain reassured us, “Don’t worry, my friend’s uncle is the headmaster of the academy, she saved tickets for us. The doorman should have them.”

And yes, the doorman did have them. We proceeded to follow Rain to the entrance. The school was huge and decorated like a super old haunted house. I wonder how long it took.

They even announced our names as we went in.

According to Rain, they said, “Please welcome, Mr. Shui Yu, Mr. Andrei Kovalev, Mr. Ryan Labelle, and Mr. Shane Deus.”

Rain must be a popular dude since after his name was announced, everyone started muttering ‘Shui Yu’, Rain’s Chinese name.

Some girl who was in a green dress came by, talked to Rain in some rapid Chinese, greeted us politely, and went away to go talk with some adults. Hey, I guess this wasn’t merely a students’ party since there were so many distinguished looking gentlemen and ladies here.

Rain’s siblings hadn’t arrived yet, neither his friend(apparently, that girl was the headmaster’s niece, Rain’s friend), so we waited at the side, grabbing a glass of red tomato juice. It tasted refreshing and only a little salty.

I was talking happily with Rain when the light turned bright and stung my eyes.

“Oh, it’s the dance floor. You don’t have to dance, do you even know how?” Rain asked.

“I do know how to street dance! But not the fancy type of dance…” I muttered the last part.

Rain sighed and held out his hand.

“Here, you’re nimble and a quick learner, so try not to step on my foot. I’ll teach you how to dance. If you get the hang of it, it’ll be fun.”

Rain instructed me and told me the basic steps. We stayed at the wall’s side where it was still darker and practiced. After 10 minutes or so, I memorized most of the steps and was confident enough to go out to the dance floor.

“Andrei, go with Shane. Ryan just got taken away by some girls. I guess they think you look scary,” Rain teased.

So I got pushed onto the dance floor with Andrei. He knew how to dance too. Do all rich people know how to dance? Surely that shouldn’t be, right?

But Andrei was good at leading. I didn’t step on his feet and he swung me around when I was about to, so it felt ok to mess up.

Hm, I was getting the hang of it. This was pretty fun! The music was getting faster, so we had to spin around faster too. Andrei showed a hint of a smile that we never had gotten to see before. Feeling pretty great and in a good mood, I flashed a smile at him and laughed as we went faster and faster.

When the song ended, we were still in an exhilarated mood and went to Rain who was drinking tomato juice and conversing with a boy dressed up as a wolf.

“Rain,” I called out.

Rain seemed to say goodbye and turned to us. The boy smiled and went to the girl who we had previously met.

“You guys looked like you had fun. They should be doing some regular dancing. Do you want to dance in that constricting outfit for just regular dancing?” Rain said pointing at my dress.

“Is there any other outfit?” I asked.

“Yes.”

We headed to the men’s bathroom. A couple of boys were in there and stared at me.

“I’m a boy.” My voice was deeper than a girl’s so they knew and went back to their business.

We went into the largest stall, which was as big as our small bathroom in the dorm, and Rain took out a suitcase full of clothes and other stuff. Ah, he had the space ability, right, how could I forget that?

He gave me a red crop-top tank top with a large logo on it and comfortable loose black pants. And to top it off, Rain also handed me a cap and comfortable sneakers.

“Rain, you’re so well prepared! Thank you! Are you going to dance?” I asked after getting changed.

“I’m going to wait for my siblings.”

“So you aren’t really mad at them, right?”

“No, not really. I’m still a bit pissed off. I wonder how they lived without me though. The house was still clean, so I’ll give them that.”

“Pft,” I laughed and went back to the dance floor.

Ryan could be seen socializing with some adults and girls kept looking his way. Andrei was leaning against a wall and calmly looking onto the dance floor.

I patted him on the shoulders and gave a wide grin and flashed a V with my fingers.

“Hehe, I look good as a girl, don’t I?” I asked.

“Yes, you look cute.”

…You didn’t have to answer so seriously! I’m blushing because of you!

“…Oh, are you doing to dance?” I asked.

“No.” Well, that was expected, but still.

So, I dragged him onto the dance floor.

“It’s weird not knowing anyone here, let me at least have a friend around.”

Andrei gave into my pout and sighed, “Then, how do I dance to this type of music?”

I gasped in mock horror and whispered, “You-you don’t know how to dance regularly?”

“Shane,” with his deep voice, he growled.

“Fine, hey, just move and you’ll be fine. These people are just moving their hips and swaying. They can at least try to jump. All the songs are in English, so I know them. They’re pretty famous, do you really not know them? You just try swaying with the crowd. Just watch me, I’m probably the greatest dancer in this place!”

So I left Andrei behind and went to the spotlight, the middle of the whole ballroom.

The music was one I was familiar with, it was an old classic, “Stronger” about a breakup sung by a famous singer a long long time ago.

I spun, whirled, did some handstand jumps, and other cool moves taught by watching people on the streets break dancing.

At the end of the song, I jumped up high, grabbed my toes, and rolled myself into a ball and spun in the air. Landing perfectly, I was greeted with an applause. All that training with Rain had paid off after all.

“Hey, I was good right?”

“Yes, you were good.” Hmph, same type of answer, same routine.

I spied with my little eye, a person with a name depicting a type of weather talking with a group of people. I once again dragged Andrei along.

“Rain, introduce me!” I panted since I was a little tired from the intense dancing.

“You’re already this tired after a round of dancing? More training for you” was his answer. Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have approached him…

Andrei laughed at my misfortune behind his hand. Don’t laugh!

“These people are my family members and some others.”

He pointed at each one and introduced them to me.

“This is my older brother, Shui Jing. This is my little brother, Shui Lai, and his friend, Zhang Xing. This is my little sister, Shui Bing. And this bastard’s Li Hun.”

“Oh, that bastard,” I nodded along.

“Xiao Yu…” Rain’s older brother sighed.

“Fine, his name is Lu Han. But what the heck would we want to remember him for?” Rain said.

“Yes, he’s an insignificant character,” I nodded along again. Rain was boss, whatever he said, went.

But oh god, these people were gorgeous. The young lady was cute, the little brother’s friend looked cute, and everyone else was handsome! What a bright aura around them!

Rain didn’t want to seem to switch back to Chinese, so he introduced us to the group.

“My friends, Shane Deus and Andrei Kovalev. Another friend, Ryan Labelle is somewhere else.”

“Hi, nice to meet you guys!” They hadn’t said a greeting before, but I should set an example, right?

Andrei only gave a nod to the group. Andrei was too tall. 2 meters and more, so not fair! It was hard enough to pat his shoulders even if I grew taller from the deadly training that Rain gave(I’m 168 now~). So he bowed, but it didn’t really make much of a difference.

They also noticed their impoliteness and also nodded and smiled apologetically to greet us.

The two taller people, Rain’s brother, and the bastard were dressed up in suits and had sunglasses in their coat pockets. The little girl who was strangely taller than me was wearing a tight leather outfit with a whip stained with some suspicious liquid at her side. Surely it wasn’t real, it should be a prop. And the other two were the only normal ones, being aliens.

“Hello, how old are you, older sister?” asked Rain’s little sister, who should be called Shui Bing? Yeah, Shui Bing.

“Oh my, I’m flattered, do I really look that pretty? I’m as old as your brother! And I’m actually male.”

“I was wondering why my brother would have a girl as a friend if he went to an all boy’s school,” she remarked.

Everyone soon went away to socialize or dance. Rain’s older brother and his boyfriend were chatting and laughing. I want a relationship like that too~

But the two were interrupted as a bunch of older kids went to Rain’s older brother and goaded him on.

“I wish I knew what they were talking about,” I said out loud.

“They want Shui Jing to sing and dance. He’s an upcoming star after all.”

I turned to Andrei and asked, “You know Chinese?”

He nodded, “A little.”

We kept our eye on Shui Jing and cheered when he went upstage.

The dude had some gobsmacking voice and moves!

It felt like some weird force was moving as even the adults who weren’t interested begin to look at Shui Jing and cheer.

“My brother can charm anyone,” Rain came back with another glass of tomato juice.

“Oh, that’s your brother? He has a remarkable voice,” Ryan also came back after talking to people.

I understood what Rain actually meant. His siblings had some kind of power too.

“Ryan, who did you talk to?” I asked.

“Some people I saw in art auctions. And some of my parents’ acquaintances.”

“We don’t have much to do left in China, and we need to go back in two days. I have some business to attend to, so I won’t be leaving for another week. Do any of you want to stay?” Rain asked us.

“I can’t stay for long, I’m about to graduate and go back to France. I’d love to, but sorry,” was Ryan’s answer.

“I want to stay!” Of course, I’d stay! School was so boring! Maybe I could even escape from there with Rain’s help!

“Me too.” Maybe Andrei was bored too?

We toured around China for two days. Rain said China was really big and that he hadn’t gone to many places, so we were all new to this tourism. But it was fun. We had food, went to many places, and bought some souvenirs.

Ryan waved until we couldn’t see him anymore at the airport.

“Ok, let’s go.”

Huh? To where? To Rain’s home?

I guess it showed on my face because Rain gave a smile.

“Didn’t you want to join a secret organization?”