You Won’t Understand Me - Chapter 98

It had only been a few months since they had bought a house and moved in. It was a nice neighbourhood. Safety was Yul’s priority and privacy was Zeng’s. They finally found their dream home in a silent neighbourhood.

But unfortunately, douchebags would be everywhere.

The neighbours, most of them, were taking it well that two men had been living together in their neighbourhood. While most of them didn’t mind, a few didn’t hide the disgusted snarls. It all stopped one day when they saw Yul in his uniform.

Zeng, who had been squirming in discomfort under their judgemental gazes, had almost snorted at the looks of their faces. They never bothered them again.

After breakfast, they were basking in the sun in the backyard when Yul remembered that he had seen the mailman stuffing something into their mailbox.

Yul came out of the house to retrieve the mail. On his way across the lawn, he heard barks mostly addressing him. When he looked to his right, Tiffy, the neighbour’s dog, had his tongue out as his furry tail wagged from side to side.

Yul smiled at the dog and even waved. Upon approval, Tiffy decided to just jog his way to Yul and circled his legs. Yul knelt down and scratched his neck and ears.

“I didn’t see you yesterday. Missed me?”

The dog, confused, merely tilted his head.

Yul laughed.

“There you are!” Tiffy’s owner, Feng Li, called out as he put his arms on his waist like a mother who is tired of her child’s antiques. “Stop running away like that, will you?” He said, making his way over, the belt of Tiffy’s collar in his hand. Yul immediately dropped his smile, his face coming to its neutral normality.

“I am so sorry if he troubled you,” the man apologized, “Tiffy often slips away and runs around the neighbourhood.”

“It’s not a bother,” Yul said looking at Tiffy, “He is a lovely boy.” The dog smiled as his eyes shut in semicircles, his tail wagging.

“Looks like our Tiffy likes you.”

“I noticed.”

Feng smiled, “By the way, we never formally introduced ourselves. I am Feng Li. I live here with my wife Susan Li and Tiffy. You must have seen her. She goes for morning walks with our daughter, Anna.”

Oh yes. Yul had seen a lady pushing a walker around the park some days.

It was his turn. Since the person before him had volunteered to know more by telling about himself, it would be rude to leave him with only a name.

“Officer Wang Yul. We just moved in two months ago. I live here with my boyfriend, Xiao Zeng.”

“Ohhh. A gay couple?”

Yul was waiting for him to say one wrong word but surprisingly, the man didn’t.

“And what about it?” He said in a time that wouldn’t be tolerating any bullshit.

“It’s a pleasure,” Mr Feng exclaimed, clapping his hands. “Welcome to the neighbourhood. Don’t worry. We are pro-LGBT, my brother is gay too. So we are totally fine with it.”

“Oh.” Yul nodded.

“If you need anything, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“Sure. Thank you.” Yul bowed. Feng Li was about to open his mouth for another long conversation when he was interrupted by a shrill noise.

“Feng! You left the fridge open again!”

A lady had screamed from the Li household. “Oops, Wifey’s calling,” Feng paled at the tone of her voice. Looked like he was in deep trouble. He turned to Yul. “Gotta go. Come on Tiffy, say bye to Mr Wang.” The dog rubbed its nose against Yul’s leg and dashed off to its house.

Yul witnessed the chaos as the couple next door argued over some small thing. Looked like it was a lively neighbourhood. They didn’t seem like bad people.

Yul walked to their mailbox and took the letter, it was more of a parcel. It had Zeng’s name written on it. He brought it to where Zeng was sitting on the chair.

“Here’s a parcel for you.” He said handing over, slipping in his seat.

Zeng put away the book he was reading. “Me? But I didn’t order anything.” He took it and tore it open.

“Oh, it’s from Fanxing,” Zeng said excitedly.

The name sounded familiar to Yul but he was unable to make out a face. “Fanxing, who?”

“Wu Fanxing. My intern, back at the City hospital.”

At once an image popped into Yul’s head of a young man with round glasses and a skittish demeanour. “Oh, that kid.”

“You remember him?”

“Of course,” he nodded, “He used to give these secret fanboy smiles and had that curious expression on his face whenever you talked with me at the hospital.”

Zeng chuckled at the description, “Yup, that one. I may have an idea what this is about,” he said, looking at the parcel, practically smiling from ear to ear.

He unwrapped the entire thing. There was a large card inside, red in colour with golden writing.

It was a wedding invitation.

“He’s getting married,” Zeng said, his eyes scanning the invitation with fondness and tracing over the art of the bride and the groom over its cover. After he was finished reading its contents, he quickly dialled his former intern’s number while Yul took the card and began reading.

“Hello, Fanxing.”

“Hi, Sir. Did you get the invitation?”

“Yeah, just a minute ago.” Zeng replied, “Congratulations!”

“Thank you,” the ex-intern, who was now a doctor himself, said with a giddy smile on the other side. “I want you there on my wedding day. Please Sir, you have to bring Mr Wang too.”

“I’ll try,” Zeng said and talked some more. When he was done he turned to Yul.

“Fanxing asked for you to attend the wedding. Will you come? It’s on the last Sunday of the next month. The venue is a bit in the countryside.”

“Of course,” Yul agreed, “I can manage.”

After that, Zeng returned back to his book but he was not able to concentrate. “He sounded very happy, Yul,” he said looking at the sky, “I am glad that he found a perfect partner.”

“What about us?” Yul asked before he could stop himself. He set his phone aside. Maybe, this was the right time to initiate the conversation that he had been planning to hold.

“Hm?” Zeng was confused.

“Marriage, Zeng ge,” Yul said, “Ours.”