A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 099 – Melting

I Missed You a Lot, I Missed You Every Single Day.

Sheng Wang wasn’t actually the type to cry.
Every time there was a sour ache building up in his nose, he would widen his eyes or look up. A moment later, the excessive wetness would sink back down by itself. With a few more rapid blinks, the urge to shed tears would be over. Only, the ends of his eyes would redden.

Jiang Tian had seen him this way before, and that was also the only way he had witnessed. A long time ago, he had heard Sheng Mingyang mention that as long as his son did not cry, it would not be a big deal. Judging by Sheng Wang’s habits, he probably did not have any “big deals” after his infancy, and even when his emotions were at the most extreme, the ends of his eyes would at the very most redden. That’s all.

But just this time alone, when Jiang Tian pressed a kiss against Sheng Wang’s eyes, his lips tasted of nothing but a salty bitterness. He had lost many things over the course of twenty and more years of his life — he had experienced “loss” over and over, but it was the first time he experienced “losing something and gaining it back” for himself.
Turns out, it tasted like saltiness; it was damp, it was turbulent and bitter too.

Sheng Wang’s mind was empty, but his heart was full. Jiang Tian was holding his hand, leading him back to where he’s staying, all while his head was still up in the clouds. They climbed up the stairs, and entered the house.
He was pressed against the door, and nearly couldn’t catch his breath.
Jiang Tian appeared to be cold, but his kisses were always gentle. Back then, even with the inexperienced restlessness of youth, his kisses were solely intimate, while being on the verge of losing control. However, it was all different today. It was as though he was verifying a certain existence for himself, and his kiss was deep and passionate.

At one point, Sheng Wang thought that he wouldn’t know where to start after not doing something for too long; people who had not seen each other for such a long time would end up having nothing to say to each other at all.
That was until he slightly parted from him by mere centimeters, turning aside to catch his breath, and then chasing after Jiang Tian with a kiss by grabbing the back of his neck just like years ago, then he realised — the human memory is much more stable than he ever imagined. Not only in the heart, but also on the body.
Despite having just drank — his slow reaction — not knowing what to do at all — he still had his muscle memory, of the way he was when he was seventeen-eighteen years old. The muscle memory to pursue and to respond to the person he liked, just like instincts embedded deep within his bones.

Etched in my bones, it says: I still love you.

“Wang-zai.” Jiang Tian slightly separated from him, his gaze falling onto him from his lidded eyes, a light gleam in the delirium. His voice was low, and as it rang in the quiet night, it turned his heart into goo. “Let’s get back together, okay?”

When he was young, he always wanted to wait for a bit no matter what he wanted to say or do. He thought that that was being mature and rational. He would wait for them to leave Utopia, for Sheng Wang to understand, for sobriety, for them to grow up……
Later on, he eventually understood: the world is constantly changing, nobody knows what would happen the very next instant. Just like the “we’ll talk about it later” sprouted out at the corner of the stairs the night he turned eighteen — who would have thought the “later” would be so many years later.
Now, he no longer wanted to waste a single second longer.

Sheng Wang was stunned for a long while, and nodded his head firmly. Every move of his screamed that he wasn’t quite sober, his reactions were a little slow, making him look especially frank and earnest in particular. After he nodded, he lowered his eyes again, seeming rather dejected. “But I’m not quite the same as before, that’s what a lot of people say.”
His dangling thumb started squeezing at the joints of his fingers, unconsciously fidgeting again. He wanted to say, “You can make your decision after waiting for a while”. But before he could open his mouth, he heard Jiang Tian let out a “Mn”, saying, “I’ve heard — more people like you than ever now, more than in high school.”

Sheng Wang was a little befuddled, wanting to say that that wasn’t what he meant. If he was in his usual sober state, he would have instantly realised: with Jiang Tian’s intelligence, there was no way he didn’t understand what he was trying to say. A pity though, that he was still drunk right now, so all he did was to dumbly stare at the other person.
Until Jiang Tian spoke up again. “Then let me do the wooing this time, you can decide if you want to say yes.”

“Nah,” Sheng Wang said, resigned. He was quiet for a moment, and mumbled under his breath, “I couldn’t bear for you to.”
The mannerism he spoke with was clearly no different from the way he was when he was seventeen-eighteen, causing people to want to tease him for no reason at all. But at this moment, Jiang Tian’s heart was filled with nothing but pain. He only watched him peacefully, and then lowered his head to lightly peck kisses at the edge of his eyes — his cheeks — the corner of his lips.
Sheng Wang’s heart itched unbearably much because of him, and couldn’t help but to respond right back.

*
If it wasn’t for a certain furry thing nudging at his legs, startling Sheng Wang and causing him to stumble and knock against the corner of the coffee table, they would have ended up on the sofa or even the bed at this very moment.
With muscle memory at work, as Sheng Wang kissed, he couldn’t help but to gravitate to Jiang Tian’s Adam’s apple. In the past, it was out of mischief and possessiveness, wanting to see his Ge go from his cold and unaffected self to slowly losing control bit by bit, all from his teasing. Now……
It seems to be like that too.

Those devilish thoughts in youthful years always reared its head in similar contexts, he didn’t need to think about them intentionally at all. As long as he was before Jiang Tian, he could gradually — little by little — open himself up.

The coffee table was made of wood, the corners a little sharp. Jiang Tian actually did purchase silicone guards for the corners, but his mind flew to Guangdong with a certain someone, so the guards had yet to even be unpackaged.
Sheng Wang scraped his lower leg, creating a small mark with small beads of blood seeping out. He rolled his pants leg up and sat on the sofa, staring off against the culprit currently sitting atop the coffee table.

Perhaps it was the way the cat’s gaze was overly targeted; the last of Sheng Wang’s nerves struggled amidst the drunkenness, and felt an enigmatic awkwardness. So he grabbed a cushion for hugging, and quietly covered the front of his hips.
This cat was so spoiled by Jiang Tian that it feared no god — it dared to sit anywhere, and was even completely unafraid of strangers.

The moment Sheng Wang thought of the word “strangers”, he was a little displeased. Jiang Tian went inside the bedroom to look for ointment, so while the other person couldn’t hear him, he leaned forward, hovering over the cushion, and looked at the cat as he said, “Are you the long lost son of mine?”
The cat possibly thought that he wanted to scratch him, and its head wordlessly backed away from him.
Sheng Wang then asked, “Why have you grown this fat?”
The cat glared at him fiercely, and its ears flattened like an aeroplane.
Sheng Wang still wanted to speak when he saw Jiang Tian exiting the bedroom, a small box on his hand as he said, “It is that one; it isn’t fat, it’s just fluffy.”

The moment he appeared, both living creatures in his living room put an end to the stare off. The cat sat like a human and started licking its paws, Sheng Wang curled back up with the cushion on his lap.
Moments later, he said an “oh” without any further fuss.
“Don’t cross your legs.” Jiang Tian indicated for him to put down the injured leg, and took a bandaid from the box. “I just moved in, so I don’t have anything else.”

“I can do it myself,” just as Sheng Wang’s hand was about to reach out, Jiang Tian already avoided it.
The band-aid was pasted over the wound with a faint scent of bitterness. The tips of Jiang Tian’s fingers landed on the skin of his lower leg, touching and smoothening at the edges of the band-aid. Sheng Wang curled his leg back on instinct, and silently hugged the cushion even more tightly.

The cat must have been curious about the scent of medicine or something, it suddenly went up to him, and sniffed the inner part of his leg with its wet little nose.
“Is what it’s doing kissing me?” After all, this cat was painstakingly picked out by Sheng Wang years ago; a slight indication that it was being friendly, he would feel that it was truly a charming creature.
Unexpectedly, just as he was somewhat enjoying this form of closeness, Jiang Tian decided to be a wet blanket. “No, it’s just smearing its snot.”
Sheng Wang: “???”
To hell with that.
Sheng Wang kicked him — it wasn’t heavy, more similar to a knee jerk reflex after injuring his leg.

He only realised what he had just done after he kicked him, and was the one who was stunned first. Yet, as he looked up, he saw Jiang Tian keeping away the bandaid box, and then a chuckle escaped from his throat as he looked aside.

Sheng Wang felt like he was a traveller who had been travelling thousands of miles in the snow; he had waited by the bonfire for a long time before he finally felt warmth belatedly. Thawing began from the tips of his limbs, and his blood, now fluid, trickled through his entire body, reaching his limbs and flesh and bones.

Turns out, despite all the years that passed by, no matter if he himself personally thought that they were ruined beyond recognition, he could still bring a smile on that person’s face — just like the way it was before.

Jiang Tian’s low laugh was like a switch. After that, Sheng Wang suddenly became clingy, following him in and out of the bedroom and kitchen, watching him brew up a cup of honey water to dispel the effects of the alcohol. With an abnormal act of self-awareness, he grabbed it and downed it down.

He gradually became more talkative. At the start, he asked Jiang Tian questions. Asking him why he changed his WeChat account, asking how he did in school, asking if he was living well, asking if he had made any close friends.

He heard Jiang Tian answer that where he lived had pretty good air quality, just that it was barely populated. Whenever it was a holiday, especially before Christmas, the surrounding shops would never open. The only ones with lights coming out were small and cramped marts, but he could never find what he wanted to buy.
There was a Chinese restaurant nearby, but the taste wasn’t quite satisfactory. One time, when it was Chinese New Year, a few classmates invited Jiang Tian to go fold dumplings together — but the only vinegar they could find was fruit vinegar. One maverick figured might as well go big or go home, and squeeze in chili sauce and wasabi into the vinegar, both equally strange in their own rights. A Chinese New Year Eve dinner nearly gave them a lifetime of trauma.
The exchange students often held gatherings and meetups. Jiang Tian was dragged to join in twice, but he honestly wasn’t interested, so he never participated ever since.
……

Slowly, Sheng Wang switched from questioning to answering, and talked about himself.
He had always been living a busy life, and would rarely recall the experiences of the past few years — who he’d met, what he did and all; like whatever that happened were left in the past, he wasn’t willing to go into the details. Only today, then he truly cut open a slit into these few years, telling Jiang Tian in bits and pieces.

He thought he would feel upset, but as he actually spoke them out loud, he felt that everything was still fine instead.
He spoke of his university life, placing emphasis on complaining about the intoxicating “aroma” that came from the next dorm over, thus forcing him to move out and rent a place rather early. He wanted to keep a cat at one point, so his rented place wouldn’t be too quiet and empty. But everytime he picked, the one that got adopted away years ago came to his mind instead. So he bought an entire set of cat bed, litter box, and cat toys, only to be all set aside.

He even spoke of various clubs and competitions. He actually didn’t remember them all too clearly, but he managed to make them sound extraordinarily lively under Jiang Tian’s attentive gaze. Eventually, as he spoke, his true self started to show, and subtly bragged about his ability to plan events and pull in sponsors in the student council.
He saw Jiang Tian’s raised eyebrows and the astonishment that revealed itself, and it was as though those days of running all over the place and living on a screwed up schedule did not go to waste.

It had been a long time since Sheng Wang had chatted with someone like this, like he had an endless amount of things to say. The same way he really didn’t have much going on back in high school, but was still able to go back and forth with Jiang Tian on his phone, and spend his entire day on WeChat in the gaps in between classes.

At one point, Jiang Tian was starting to get worried that he would be thirsty, and his eyes swept across his lips quite a few times. He finally couldn’t stand it anymore, and got up to go to the kitchen and poured him a glass of water. By the time he came back with the glass, the person who was going on about wanting to cross over into the new year with his eyes wide open had already fallen asleep.

He had already showered, the reserved and mature shirt removed, and dug out a loose T-shirt and sweatpants from the closet to wear. Due to the way he was curled up, the contour of his shoulder and back was rather striking. The cotton material was wrapped around his waist, creating a thin and clean line.
He still liked to sprawl over the pillow as he slept, his hair messily falling onto his face. Due to the over-sufficiency of the heating, there was always a few bits of dampness by his forehead, the exact same as many years ago.

Jiang Tian drank a glass of water himself, propped himself against the edge of the bed, and kissed him. Sheng Wang licked his lips unconsciously, and turned his head to another direction, burying himself deeper into the pillow.

He suddenly recalled the day after Fuzhong’s cultural festival; also a late night just like this, Sheng Wang tyrannically took over most of his bed on the lower bunk. He had already fallen asleep before he made it to midnight. He also kissed him just like this, and waited for the new year to come in his foggy drowsiness.

In this moment, all the scenes matched up seamlessly, like those years that missed out each other did not exist.

It was December 29th yesterday; he stood on the enormous stage in the hall in Fuzhong, wearing a shirt with another name, playing “Childhood” on the guitar that he learned at the last minute.
Today was December 31st; he switched off the lights and laid on the bed as usual, and the person he liked was mere inches away.
New Year was arriving soon. He closed his eyes in the last few seconds, and grasped Sheng Wang’s fingers, murmuring, “Wang-zai, happy new year.”
I missed you a lot, I missed you every single day.

TO BE CONTINUED.