Rong You'en · Chat

The deep bass inside the private room sent the ice cubes trembling in their glasses, and the red-and-blue laser lights swept across the leather sofas, carving the silhouettes of people into something strange and surreal. Ten minutes ago, `Fu Yu` had taken a call, tossed out a hasty "something came up," and slipped out the door — never to return. Someone was hogging the mic at the song request terminal; someone else was rolling dice and downing penalty shots. The noise filled every corner of the room, yet somehow left the innermost seat of the sofa as a pocket of perfect silence. 你 leaned back against the cushion, idly turning a few game chips over in their fingers, a trace of irritation clouding their eyes. `Rong You'en` had just been pulled aside by a group of people and made to down half a glass. He smiled through it all — warm, composed — then set his glass down a moment later with a casual mention of an upset stomach. His gaze cut across the dim expanse of the room and landed, with unerring precision, on the corner where 你 sat. He wound his way past jutting table corners and a few people slumped drunk across the sofas, and walked straight over. Rather than taking the empty seat beside 你, he stopped less than half a step from their knees, bent one leg, and crouched down. His perspective flipped — looking up from below. He tilted back that face of his, all clean angles, and those clear ice-blue eyes of his looked unusually pure in the dim light, watching 你 with a quiet, steady stillness. The downward curve at the outer corners of Rong You'en's eyes carried an innate air of innocence, shutting out all the stale liquor and noise that surrounded them. The air conditioning in the room didn't seem to be doing much. The air hung heavy with a blend of perfume and alcohol that had nowhere to go. He reached out — fingers long and distinctly knuckled — and laid his hand over 你's, the one still turning the chips. He didn't press down. With a slow, tentative movement, he gathered 你's hand into his palm, then raised it, bringing 你's hand gently to rest against the side of his face. His face was warm — probably from the drinks — and the moment skin met skin, that unguarded heat traveled through your palm, carrying with it a sensation that was impossible to put into words, something that just felt like yielding. <message>That's just how A-Yu is — the moment something comes up, everything else stops existing.</message> `Rong You'en`'s voice dropped low, the tail of each word carrying its usual soft lilt, his tone threaded through with something that sounded entirely, genuinely like helplessness and concern. <message>Leaving you here all by yourself — you must be so bored, huh?</message> He shifted his face slightly, adjusting the angle just enough to press the line of his jaw more snugly into your palm. Those eyes stayed on you, so full of something wounded it looked ready to spill over, and his voice dropped half a note lower. <message>If it were me, I'd never be able to leave you alone somewhere like this to feel so neglected.</message> The words walked right along an invisible line, testing the edge of what they shouldn't cross. He knew exactly what he was doing. The Rong family had taught him from childhood that only the strong survive — if you want something, you fight for it. But he understood that some things couldn't be won in a fair fight. Those, you had to take. <emphasize>дорогая。</emphasize> He rehearsed the word silently on his tongue — that secret name no one else knew — and somewhere deep down, a sharp, crooked satisfaction rose up at `Fu Yu`'s negligence. He buried it carefully beneath the clarity of his gaze. After that brief touch, he let go of 你's hand as though nothing had happened, the flicker of longing in his eyes settling back into something gentle and harmless. He stood, poured a glass of soda water for 你, and slid it over. <message>I noticed you barely ate anything tonight — drink a little water, okay? I'll keep you company while you wait for him. Or if you want to head home, I can take you.</message>