At the supermarket downstairs, I was lingering at the underwear section, and it piqued the shopkeeper’s interest. She came over and asked me in an intrigued tone, “For your father?”“Yes.” I randomly took one and tried to get away from her.Instead, she held my hand and stopped me. “I think that’s too small. Your dad has a sizable belly, so maybe this will fit better.”“He… He’s on a diet.” I grabbed the one she forcibly put back onto the shelf. Then, I ran toward the clothing section and picked a sports jersey and a pair of shorts.At the cashier, the shopkeeper was giving me an odd smile while she scanned the items. “Do you have a boyfriend?”I was taken aback by her words. I could feel the blood rushing to my face.“N-No! My cousin came over, so I’m just getting him some spare clothes.”I paid for the clothes and ran.When I reached home, my mother instantly took note of my panicked expression. She asked, “Why are you so out of breath? Where did you go?”“A morning jog.” I
I ran to the door and placed my ear against it in an attempt to hear what was going on outside.Who knew that the door would be pushed open by my mother instead.“Why aren’t you up yet? Our guest is already up. Come out quick.”What was going on?I got dragged to the dining table and saw him lazily sitting there.My father was enthusiastically serving him some pancakes, and even gave him a cup of soy milk.My mother pushed me onto the chair, and I felt like I was sitting on thorns.“Dylan, I’m not sure what you like for breakfast. Do you prefer milk or soy milk?” My father practically pushed everything on the table to him.In front of me were just two lonely buns.“Give it to sis. I believe she would like it.” He pushed the soy milk to me.Could I be the only one having dirty thoughts? Why do I feel like he has a hidden meaning behind his words?Suddenly, the atmosphere became a little awkward.“You both…” My father glanced at him and turned to me, while I just kept my head
Right after Dylan left, my mother crept up to me sneakily. “My gosh. Your dad’s boss’s son is so good-looking,” She exclaimed, “I want to have him…”I looked at my mother and felt my father’s position being threatened.“I mean I want to have him as my son-in-law. What are you thinking?” My mother glared at me.“Oh.” I realized I might be getting the wrong idea after all. Oh, wait a minute. “Forgive me for my incompetence, but I can never get a son-in-law like that for you.”“It doesn’t matter how competent you are.” She sighed as she looked up at the sky. “I heard Dylan is getting engaged.”“Engaged?” I almost broke my teeth from gritting it too hard.“Yup. I heard that he’s getting engaged to another corporate boss’s daughter. It’s to build a strong alliance between the two corporations.” My mother swept her eyes over me and shook her head. My heart dropped and my mind went blank. Oh gosh, what I did to him last night became a great sin. I was done for.“What are you dayd
So what if I was blocked? Even though I felt like I had been completely brought down, I couldn’t be bothered anymore.After a week, my father told me that something went wrong with Dylan’s engagement.At that moment, the potato chip in my hand suddenly became tasteless.“My boss has been in a bad mood recently. I heard he gave Dylan a good beating and threw him out.” My father vented about what happened at work in the family chat group.“Dylan is so good-looking. I could never bear to hit him if he was my son.” My mother sounded heartbroken, as though Dylan was her own son.On the other hand, I was taking my stance as an undercover agent, sneakily trying to verify if this matter was related to me.“Dad, why did this happen? What about your promotion?” I tried my best to do it discreetly and not show any traces.“What else could it be? With his good looks, it isn’t a surprise to catch him having a few girlfriends…”“Oh…” Sure enough, he was a womanizer.I instantly felt relieve
During dinner, the three of us sat by the dining table for our meal. I lowered my head and decided to observe the situation before I say anything that will sell myself out.“Why did you leave the chat this afternoon?” my mother asked me with a suspicious tone.“Hmm? Did I? Let me see.” My acting skills were top-notch as usual.After my father finished his meal, he went to take a bath. He suddenly came back out while holding a pair of underwear. He asked my mother, “When did you get this for me? Don’t you know my size?”My heart almost leaped out of my throat.My mother looked at my father and turned to me. She pinched the underwear while she said, “This is not yours. I will never get you something so expensive.”Then the both of them turned to me in unison.I uneasily swallowed, struggling to find the right words. “Could it be from our neighbors upstairs? Maybe it fell from their balcony”They both were silent for a few seconds and agreed with me. I gave out a sigh of relief
“Steph, come here.” My father called out to me with a stern look on his face.My heart tightened in my chest. I thought I was done for and that everything was exposed.As I walked over in fright, I stole a glance at Dylan and noted his injuries on the neck. I could also see bruises on his knees through his ripped jeans. I gasped. What on earth? “What is it, dad?” I stood obediently with my fingers intertwined together.Dylan stopped playing his game and raised his head to look at me. He gave me a light smile, but that smile terrified me.How could he be playing games at a time like this!“Right. Dylan will be staying at our house for a short while. In the meantime, can you tutor him on his additional mathematics since your math is great?”What? Tutor? I let out a breath of relief.Wait. Additional mathematics?“Dad, my additional mathematics is bad.” I was at a loss for words.My father threw me a glance, stood up, and pulled me to the side. “Didn’t you get full marks durin
For the next few days, our dynamic with each other was like oil and water.He would come to my room every night under the pretense that I tutored him for an hour.In fact, he was just flipping through my comic books.I really could not understand my father’s logic. Why would he try to promote himself by getting on his boss’s son’s good side?In the last few days that Dylan was staying over, no one came to look for him. I guess his family gave up on him after all.“How long are you planning to freeload here?” I was sitting next to him with my eyes glued onto the game I was playing.He did not bother to look at me. “Until my father decides to throw me somewhere out of the country.”“To study abroad?” I asked.“Something like that…” He obviously did not intend to answer me properly.“That’s great. You’ll be like a model student plated with gold. Which school are you going to?” I asked casually.He stopped playing his game and said sarcastically, “That will depend on which school
I was afraid that I would wake someone up, so I was barefooted with just a robe wrapped around myself. I pushed his door open softly.To my surprise, he did not lock the door. With the light from my phone screen, I crept up to him.He was sound asleep.I was taken aback by how he looked when he was asleep. His expressionless face somehow made him more attractive.I hesitated about waking him up to apologize. After half a minute, I felt like there was something seriously wrong with me for standing there while he was asleep. I could very possibly scare him. I decided not to wake him and started to creep back out. I could probably talk to him tomorrow instead. Just as I was about to leave, a hand wrapped around my wrist and I got a good fright. He even gently covered my mouth.A pair of cold eyes stared into mine under the dim light for a few seconds. When he saw that it was me, he slowly let go of his grip.“What are you doing?” I pushed his hand away.He laid back down on his b