Little Steps to You (3/3)

Break came, and the dried leaves of the trees littered inside the gymnasium from the wind while the sunlight splashed in all directions.

The students crowded around the entrance of the gymnasium as the members of the martial arts club had their matches.

Dressed in black and white jiujutsu uniforms, Gu Xiao and Zhang Yongyin rolled and grappled each other. They would often attempt to underhook one another, trying to break each other's postures. Without letting Zhang Yongyin take control of his ankles or wrist, Gu Xiao drove his foot forwards to prevent him from getting to his underhook.

Little by little, the loudness of the chatters from the audience resonated across the school grounds that it caught the other students' ears to gather around too. While Zhang Yongyin was on top of him, Gu Xiao lifted his hips and pushed his friend's knee out.

The match went on for a while since neither of them got caught by the other. Keeping his head pinned on the mat beside Zhang Yongyin's head with the heavy pressure from his shoulder, Gu Xiao kept his friend flat on his back. When Zhang Yongyin had both arms fighting to recover his guard, he made the mistake of exposing his neck.

After extending his arm out to lock his friend's head, Zhang Yongyin tapped his friend to surrender, which concluded the casual training match. At that moment, the voices of the students on the side drowned the entire gymnasium with piercing cheers.

Sweat drenched Gu Xiao's entire body as he panted and helped Zhang Yongyin up, though he responded with a sour face.

"I hate this," Zhang Yongyin complained, wiping the sweat dripping from his forehead. "I should've just stuck to taekwondo only."

"Let's just say this is payback for the years of suffering you put me through in taekwondo."

Zhang Yongyin frowned, and they both walked to the side to let the other members use the space.

"Oh, right, I saw your father yesterday," Zhang Yongyin said. "He was with the lady again. Was it the one that you mentioned before? They were in front of an office building."

"I don't know. I just said it was a suspicion, but I'm not sure if they are really seeing each other. Well, it's my father's love life, so I'm not going to be nosy about it," Gu Xiao responded, but Zhang Yongyin noticed the dismissal tone of his voice, so the other didn't say anymore.

"Are you going to go play basketball after school?" Zhang Yongyin asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah. I need to leave earlier though since I have to buy Gu Heiyu dinner."

"Oh! She seems to be doing pretty well. I hope your sister doesn't end up burning someone's hair again. Or shoving someone's head in the toilet."

"Well, she said she's living a new life now. So, I hope not."

Gu Xiao's gaze wandered into the crowd as he looked around the gym.

The familiar short black hair, the thin figure, and the narrow back that tried to walk away from the swarm of students.

Gu Xiao's lips parted, as though a name was hanging by the tip of his tongue, but nothing left his throat.

He swallowed to ease his thirst and finally, he called, "Student President!"

Lan Yuning flinched, and he slowly turned around. When Gu Xiao saw Lan Yuning's blank face like he was caught being somewhere he shouldn't be, Gu Xiao chuckled, and a bright smile played over his lips.

Although Gu Xiao was surprised to see Lan Yuning there, he didn't think too much about it and waved at him. Yet, Lan Yuning simply darted his gaze left and right before rushing away clumsily.

An arrow shot through Gu Xiao's heart, and Zhang Yongyin patted his back.

"You should stop scaring him," he sighed.

"Me? How did I scare him?"

...

The sounds of aggressive tapping and Gu Xiao yelling at his phone sounded throughout their home, like always.

While he was playing the last round of his game, his mind drowned in a state of blankness when he thought about Zhang Yongyin's words about his father and the person he might be seeing.

Same as Zhang Yongyin, Gu Xiao had only seen that lady once or twice outside the same office building, but the way their father looked at her with endearing eyes immediately gave Gu Xiao an idea of what was happening between them.

Gu Xiao's parents divorced six years ago, so the two constantly moved from house to house when he was twelve.

After their mother passed away because of a certain incident, they were forced to move in with their father who moved to Beijing because of a job offer. And this was the point when Gu Xiao's detachment between his own understanding of his self-perception began drying away.

The time where he dreaded meeting anyone, any amusements, any places, he even dreaded being who he was. What he was. He didn't know.

Upon thinking about those years, he was reminded of the past. Gu Xiao was constantly in the dark and had been punishing himself for all times he made indiscreet mistakes, which brought painful wounds to him and everyone around him.

Unlike the scars from the beating a man might give, these wounds cut inwards deeply, bringing intense discomfort. Once inflicted, it was hard to recover from such wounds, though Gu Xiao thought he was doing much better than before.

Still playing his game and yelling occasionally, a loud kick echoed from the other side of the wall, and Gu Heiyu yelled at him to go sleep.

Multiple notifications from his messages sprung rapidly, and with the slip of his fingers, he accidentally clicked on the notification tab and left his game.

"NO—!"

"Can you shut up?" Gu Heiyu yelled and kicked the wall so hard that dust started falling down the ceiling.

His room rocked with violence, and Gu Xiao darted his head left and right with eyes rounded like an owl.

Instantly shutting his mouth, he slowly rolled to his side, resting his face on his elbow, ensuring the bed didn't make a single creak. If it did, his sister might indeed punch a hole through the fragile wall.

"Song Anwen created a group chat for our presentation?"

They were dividing the parts and planning the structure of the presentation. Just the word "presentation" forced his nose to recoil from distaste.

Yet, something else distracted him. He clicked on Lan Yuning's account and zoomed in on his profile photo.

A "oho," escaped his mouth, and he smirked, "Not only does the student president look good in real life but also in photos. But he definitely looks better in person."

He scrolled through his moments, but there wasn't much posted, only two snapshots of the sky and food with no captions. But scrolling to the third picture, his brows raised in surprise.

"It's the same artist from last time. Does he like Blueberry6 too?"

[Zhang Yongyin] mentioned you.

Swiping back to the chat, they had already planned the sections, topics they would discuss, and slide formats.

The brains of the top two students were indeed different. If the team was only composed of the other two, Gu Xiao and Zhang Yongyin would probably make their presentation the moment their teacher called them up to present or buy one off the internet.

Song Anwen:

- [Lan Yuning, can we meet up at your place? The library will be packed on the weekends so it will be hard to find a table^^] 01:13

Zhang Yongyin:

- [Student president's home? I want to go I want to go] 01:13

Lan Yuning:

- [Ok.] 01:14

Song Anwen:

- [Then we will try to finish everything on that day^^]01:14

Gu Xiao read Song Anwen's text particularly slowly, but his sleepy brain still failed to understand such foreign words. Start and finish in one day? He didn't know whether he should pretend to be hospitalised or pass away right now, but both options looked extremely appealing.

Song Anwen:

- [@ Gu Xiao are you free on that day?]01:14

Gu Xiao:

- [Yeah, I'm ok with that] 01:15