Even A Heartthrob Can Lose A Puppy - Chapter 1

Si Yu had imagined countless scenarios for his reunion with He Yun, but it was never like this.

In the April island rain, showers fell endlessly.

Beneath the dripping eaves, He Yun removed the hood of his black windbreaker, revealing his handsome, deep, mixed-race profile. He smiled as he skillfully took the child from the woman’s arms.

The hand that had caressed him countless times plucked a small flower from the vine, making the toddler giggle with delight.

“You have a child?”

Si Yu asked.

Beneath the eaves, the man’s body stiffened visibly, and the small flower slipped from his fingertips.

The watery glint in He Yun’s dark pupils trembled just like his body. He put the child down and walked toward Si Yu in the rain.

It is raining. You will catch a cold.

Slap!

A sudden slap caused He Yun’s head to turn to the side, the red flush on his cheek standing out sharply against his wheat-colored skin.

Ah, it hurts. This is not a dream.

With a calm expression, he raised his head and gazed steadily at Si Yu.

Si Yu tried his hardest to hold back his tears, but his vision remained blurred, so blurred that he could not clearly see the reflection of himself in He Yun’s eyes at that moment.

The two of them stared at each other in silence in the rain, greeted by another rumble of thunder in the sky and a childish voice from behind.

“Mom! Little Uncle!”

Si Yu started, turning around to see a young girl of about ten or so running over with a large umbrella. He turned his head back to look at He Yun.

He Yun, who had never once looked away the entire time, finally averted his gaze.

“Ah! Si Yu!” The girl shrieked as she rushed over. “You are Si Yu! Are you really Si Yu?”

Si Yu was still in a daze when the rain above his head stopped.

Before he knew it, He Yun had opened an umbrella beside him.

“Peach, go back with Mom and your younger sister first.”

“But this is Si Yu!”

“Peach, listen to your Little Uncle.”

Unable to outargue her mother, the girl still stomped her feet coquettishly. “Then Little Uncle, you have to let Si Yu in to escape the rain! When the rain stops, I am coming back for an autograph!”

“Have you watched my movies?” Si Yu smiled. “How old are you anyway?”

Peach shook her head. “I have not watched them, but our whole class, oh no, the whole school’s girls love you!”

“Naturally.”

Si Yu nodded earnestly.

Peach let out a dazed “ah,” and before she could say anything else, she was grabbed by the scruff of her neck by her mother and dragged away.

Si Yu waved at the reluctant young fan.

He had to admit that he had been coaxed into a good mood by that title of Little Uncle.

However, as soon as he saw He Yun turn around with the intention of walking away, his heart sank once more.

“He Yun.”

He Yun glanced at Si Yu’s dripping wet blonde hair. “Come inside and talk.”

The three-bedroom apartment was very small, incomparable to any of their villa apartments in Jiangcheng, London, Paris, New York, or anywhere else. It could not even compare to the small self-built rental building where He Yun had stayed with him while he was filming in the remote mountain villages.

Yet, just like every place they had ever lived together, He Yun had kept everything impeccably clean: the dining table was draped with a tablecloth, the walls were covered with framed photos, and fresh-cut flowers were placed inside glass vases.

Only, the tablecloth in this apartment was not chosen by Si Yu, there were no photos of Si Yu, and the glass vase did not contain the roses Si Yu loved.

This apartment did not belong to him and He Yun.

He Yun had left him long ago.

On the very first day of the new year last year, the day he came home carrying a birthday gift.

Si Yu did not know why, which was why he需要 to find He Yun and get a clear explanation.

“Did you come looking for me for something?”

He Yun walked out of the bedroom, placing the towel he was holding onto the table between them.

Si Yu instinctively reached for the towel, only to be overtaken by anger once again.

“What do you think? You just vanished into thin air like that, what do you think I came looking for you for?”

He Yun paused as he gripped his glass, then said flatly, “I left a note.”

Hearing this, Si Yu, who was reputed to have a face so flawless that even pausing frame-by-frame at 360 degrees revealed no blind spots, had his features contorted with rage at that moment.

With that, he hurriedly searched his pants pockets for something.

“I have two hundred million Instagram followers, and you dumped me with this?”

Si Yu held up a slip of paper clumsily mended with clear adhesive tape.

“Let us break up, and you did not even put a punctuation mark!”

Si Yu did not know why he was saying this.

Clearly, what he wanted to say was that in order to come find him, he had not only gotten lost on the island, but also been chased by dogs and soaked by the rain.

He wanted to express his grievances, hoping He Yun would hold him tightly just as he had countless times before.

No matter what happened, even if Si Yu accidentally scalded his fingertip with hot water, He Yun would blame himself for not doing a good enough job, for not placing the cup more securely, or for failing to let the hot water cool down before serving it.

He Yun never allowed him to feel aggrieved.

But now:

“So it was because of this.”

Si Yu finally waited for He Yun to turn around.

Yet He Yun’s expression was cold, just like when the two of first met, devoid of a single trace of emotion in his eyes.

“I just did not want to be together anymore.”

“I do not believe it.”

Si Yu shoved the note back into his pocket, as if doing so could deny everything.

“You are far too conceited.”

He Yun said.

“我们从来没有吵过架。你忽然离开，不就是因为那段时间我工作太忙，不能经常回…”

“We have never argued before. When you suddenly left, was it not just because during that period my work was too busy and I could not return often—”

“No.”

He Yun interrupted him.

“Have you ever thought that, given your temperament, the reason we never argued was simply because I was always putting up with you?”

He Yun took a step forward.

“I grew sick of acting like a nanny, washing clothes and cooking every day while waiting for you to come home.”

He Yun walked closer to Si Yu.

“I also do not like you dragging me into rehearsing scripts. I detest it completely.”

He Yun stopped right in front of Si Yu.

“I dislike everything about you now, so I refused to endure it any longer, and that is why I am breaking up.”

A dull knife cuts flesh slowly, causing pain.

He Yun’s uninterrupted words hurt even more.

They seemed to tear apart the illusion with which Si Yu had been self-medicating.

He began searching through his memories, desperate to find proof that He Yun did not love him:

After they ended their long-distance relationship, Si Yu’s first outdoor shoot was in the northwest desert.

Barely two weeks in, he was tortured so badly by longing that phone calls and video chats were completely insufficient to soothe his restless state of mind.

After pulling several all-nighters, Si Yu finally cleared his schedule and flew home late that very night.

The moment he pushed open the door, he saw He Yun fast asleep on the sofa.

Reluctant to wake him, Si Yu crouched beside him and watched for a long time until He Yun stirred awake.

“Why did you not go sleep in the bedroom?”

“A house without you is a place I cannot bear to stay in for even a single second.”

He Yun pulled Si Yu into an embrace from behind, the two tall adult men squeezed together on the sofa just like that.

They expressed their longing after days apart through lingering caresses and endless kisses.

“I love you.” He Yun propped himself up slightly, looking at him. “Si Yu, I love you.”

Immediately following that, Si Yu lost the initiative in the kiss.

Intertwining his fingers tightly with He Yun’s, their grip grew firmer, unwilling to separate even for a moment.

Si Yu failed. No matter how hard he tried, he could not find a single piece of evidence that He Yun did not love him.

He Yun loved him.

Of this, Si Yu was fiercely certain.

Si Yu: “How long did you spend preparing those lines just now?”

The lowered eyelashes of He Yun trembled.

Si Yu: “If I had not come, would I have let down all that practice you put into reciting it by heart?”

He Yun’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down.

Si Yu stepped forward and grabbed He Yun’s arm. “Look at me.”

He Yun gazed at the slender fingers resting on his forearm, wanting to reach out and hold them, but then, as if waking abruptly from a deep dream, he took a large step backward.

“You are Si Yu. You have never lacked people willing to look at you.”

Ignoring whatever else He Yun had just said, Si Yu simply stared blankly at his empty hand. The contact had been far too brief to even preserve He Yun’s body heat.

Si Yu let his arm drop limply to his side.

Yet shortly after, his dimmed gaze was illuminated by the array of photographs lining the long table behind the sofa.

“Then what is this?!”

Picking up a photo frame, Si Yu demanded in a loud voice, “Why do you still keep the pictures we took together? Every single one is from a place we visited as a couple!”

He Yun remained silent for a long time before answering in a raspy voice, “I took all of these photos myself. Why should I not keep them?”

Si Yu took half a step back and let out a light laugh.

“Say it again.”

He Yun flicked his gaze upward slightly. “What?”

“Say that you do not like me. The moment you finish, I will leave immediately.”

He Yun watched him, standing frozen in place.

Inside the room, silence prevailed, while outside, the wind, rain, and ocean waves grew increasingly fierce.

“I already gave you the answer you wanted. Why are you still refusing to let it go?”

He Yun took the photo frame from Si Yu’s hands and accurately returned it to its original spot.

“Can not bring yourself to say it?”

He Yun’s chest heaved in sync with the white sheer curtains beside him.

“Fine, then I will tell you. I—”

“I do not want to hear it anymore.”

Si Yu interrupted him calmly.

The parted lips of He Yun froze as if hit by a pause button.

Even the shattered light within his dark pupils mirrored the sea surface battered apart by the storm outside.

He watched as Si Yu pulled open the door, steadying himself against the frame, stingy enough to leave only a profile view for him.

Si Yu’s long blonde hair was whipped into a chaotic mess by the wind, and his white shirt, soaked through for the most part, made his figure look even more fragile.

“My patience has its limits, and your time for answering took far too long.”

With that, Si Yu stepped out into the rain.

Before He Yun lay only the door slamming violently against the howling gale.

Water droplets from his sleeve traced down his arm, slipping onto He Yun’s numb fingers before finally falling silently onto the floor.

One step, two steps, three steps.

In He Yun’s field of vision, there were milk-white Anubis daffodils dropping their flower crowns along the edges of the stone path; there were blue-purple Siberian squills blooming all around the courtyard entrance.

There was no Si Yu.

He shuffled over to the dining table and sat down, staring in silence at the plants in the garden whipped sideways by the howling wind.

In the early morning, thick fog billowed.

It rolled from the garden before He Yun’s eyes, accumulated toward the headland of the coast, and was slowly pierced apart by the rising sun.

The weather cleared, and the plants lifted their heads once more.

Tap, tap!

The fingernails embedded deep within He Yun’s palms relaxed. He stood up from the dining table and pulled open the door.

The landlord auntie greeted him with a beaming, smiling face.

“Little Ho, I came to tell you:” Auntie Zhou pointed toward the house behind the western courtyard wall, “I rented it out. You should take a moment to move your seed boxes from over there.”

He Yun nodded. “Alright.”

“Do not you worry, though! The new tenant is very kind-hearted. She said it is fine if you leave them there a bit longer, and even mentioned finding time to learn how to grow flowers from you!”

He Yun did not respond.

Auntie Zhou called out toward the low wall nearby, “A-yu? A-yu!”

He Yun felt like a puppet manipulated by strings, his fingers twitching uncontrollably.

“Coming!”

At that sound, He Yun looked over.

The person who had vanished into the rainy night yesterday was poking the upper half of his body out from atop the blue-and-white stone wall, waving at him.

Si Yu: “The door is a bit far, do you mind if I just climb over—”

Auntie Zhou: “You cannot climb over! It is loose! Oh dear!”

“Si Yu!”

He Yun dashed forward without a moment’s hesitation toward the falling Si Yu.