How Can Two People From Different Sides Ever Fall in Love? - Chapter 17

Chapter 17

◎ Kick right here ◎

Hollis sensed the change in the atmosphere.

With the security door behind him and Raven standing in front, the cramped space felt like a pincer attack, making it difficult for him to breathe.

“What’s wrong?”

He possessed a certain animalistic sharpness, but living in a civilized society with a strong, athletic build, there were few occasions where it proved useful.

Except when facing things that truly frightened him.

“Hollis,” throwing the keys seemed to be a release. The frustration Raven had carried all the way home seemed to have found an outlet; he calmed down quickly, looking thoughtful. “Sometimes, I really wonder…”

Wondering if this relationship should have happened at all.

Clearly, in the beginning, they were just taking what they each needed.

People are so strange—adding and subtracting in a “fast-food” relationship. It’s like busying oneself to serve a nutritionally complete meal when, originally, he just wanted a bowl of instant noodles.

But once you scrape away the nutritional side dishes on the surface, the staple food underneath is still deep-fried dough.

“What do you wonder?” Hollis’s expression began to look even worse than Raven’s. Instinct told him not to press further, but he couldn’t control himself; he desperately wanted to understand everything related to Raven.

Raven wiped his face and let out a long sigh. “Nothing.”

If you know words will hurt someone, don’t say them.

Spilt water is hard to recover, and in the end, it isn’t necessarily the person who was hurt who regrets it the most.

“We’re off work,” Raven changed the subject, not wanting Hollis to keep asking. “Let’s not talk about work matters.”

Hollis held his breath, quietly gazing into Raven’s eyes.

At this moment, Raven’s eyelids were half-drooped, and his grey-green pupils looked so deep in the shadows they were almost black.

“What work matters?” Raven’s groundless evasion made Hollis’s already cluttered thoughts even more tangled. Work definitely wasn’t the only trigger for Raven’s mood—at least not all of it.

This was a middle ground, within a controllable range.

It just so happened that Hollis’s emotions also needed a vent.

“Since we left work, your mood has been bad. Since you mentioned work, then in terms of work, which point of mine has made you dissatisfied?”

Raven was very dissatisfied now. He had almost convinced himself to let it go, but Hollis insisted on being relentless.

“Every point.” Back in a familiar space, Raven found it hard to maintain his external composure. He unbuttoned his suit, tugged loose the knot of his tie, and turned to face Hollis directly.

He spoke syllable by syllable, as if Hollis’s crimes were too numerous to record, and every word was a piece of evidence.

“First, at work, you have your position. It is beyond reproach to argue for your own camp to seek greater benefits.”

Raven truly couldn’t bring himself to point a finger at others, so he could only tap on the surface of the shoe cabinet to ensure his logic remained smooth while speaking rapidly.

“Second, we aren’t completely opposed. From the moment we took over this task, we had a common goal. But you? You contradict me at every seminar. We are here to cooperate, not to bid against each other.”

Raven rarely spoke so much at once, especially under such intense emotion. By this point, his head was swimming, and even tapping the cabinet surface couldn’t guarantee his logic would stay smooth.

“Take the venue, for example. Just a venue—you argued with me back and forth for so long that it took me exercising my one-vote veto for you to stop. I thought that in this cooperation, I would never have to use that right.”

The so-called one-vote veto didn’t mean one could veto everything; generally, using it once meant one fewer use in the future, and it was rare to use one so early in the working phase.

Hollis suddenly picked up his thread. “This might be an opportunity.”

“What opportunity?” After a bout of output, Raven only felt exhausted. He had lost the ability to think; even keeping his eyelids open felt like a drain.

Hollis pondered for a moment. “You feel that with the economic downturn, we should seek stability.”

Raven didn’t even have the strength to argue. “Continue.”

“But there is no construction without destruction.”

“Hollis,” Raven suddenly said solemnly, “Destruction doesn’t necessarily lead to construction. It might just be ‘breaking a cracked pot’ (letting things go to hell).”

“I know. That’s why I stopped mentioning it later.” Hollis muttered again, “But without trying, who knows what the result would be?”

“I just don’t understand. Why are you so obsessed with a financial district?”

Raven had some understanding of Hollis’s family background, and it was precisely because of that understanding that he couldn’t figure out what benefit holding the Light and Shadow Art Week in the Klaus Financial District would bring him.

It hadn’t been unheard of in previous years, but at that time, the economy was in an upward phase. Every industry was thriving, many people believed they had a bright future, and social contradictions had not yet intensified.

Raven asked exactly what he was thinking: “What benefit exactly does holding the Light and Shadow Art Week in the Klaus Financial District bring to you, or to the Dawn Party?”

This was his fixed mindset; years of navigating the workplace had made him usually start from the perspective of interests when considering problems.

Hollis clearly did not possess this kind of thinking. “Is that how you think of me?”

Raven realized belatedly that the question was a bit hurtful, but he didn’t feel he was in the wrong. In the workplace, even more hurtful words were common. Nonetheless, he involuntarily swallowed.

“Just discussing the matter as it stands.”

“As it stands?”

“Hollis, don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. We are in different camps. Even if we support our own and attack the opposition, it’s beyond criticism. You don’t need to cling to a few words.”

“Now the camps are different,” Hollis let out a cold laugh. “Who was it just now who said we aren’t completely opposed?”

Realizing that the more he said, the more mistakes he’d make, Raven licked his lips to moisten them and didn’t respond.

“Support… own… attack… opposition.” Before speaking, Hollis seemed to trace those words with the tip of his tongue; every syllable held a strange tone. “Fine.”

He nodded several times in succession. In a lunging posture, he grabbed Raven’s legs, propped his shoulder against Raven’s abdomen, and stood up easily, carrying him into the bedroom like a sack of grain.

“What are you doing?!” It took Raven a full two seconds to recover his wits. “If you have something to say, say it properly!”

“Properly? Haven’t you already sentenced me in your heart?”

At this moment, a small space had the benefit of being small. With the starting point and destination not far apart, the dizziness in Raven’s head from being upside down and the discomfort in his abdomen from the pressure had only just begun to surface before they turned into the lightheadedness of being thrown onto the bed.

Everything happened too fast. Raven hadn’t even thought of a strategy to respond before Hollis leaned over again, tearing away the already loose tie.

With a flick of his hand, the tie traced a perfect parabola in the air and hit the floor.

Performing this series of actions, Hollis still had the nerve to say shamelessly, “Since you say supporting one’s own and attacking the opposition is beyond criticism, fine. Let’s just go all the way—you attack me, I attack you. After all, our camps are different.”

As soon as he spoke, the thin white shirt fluttered to the floor, and the mischief-making hand immediately landed on the belt.

With a clunk, a pair of black suit pants was pressed onto the shirt.

Soon, Raven was left with nothing but a pair of “Jinjiang Voldemorts” (underwear).

Truly impressive—launching an “attack” until the heat rose.

Raven delivered a “Shadowless Kick” to stop Hollis from advancing further. “Watch out or I’ll kick you!”

Hollis, unafraid of the threat of the Shadowless Kick, braved the difficulty. “If you’re going to kick, kick right here.”

Realizing where the Shadowless Kick was aimed, and that even a slight lack of care would result in “the bird flying and the eggs breaking,” Raven couldn’t help but widen his eyes. “What kind of nerve are you hitting?!”

“Heh.”

With a cold laugh, Hollis leaned down, sealing his lips with a kiss, replacing an answer with action.

“Actually, you were partly right.”

The “attack” had ended. Raven lay on his side on the bed, still immersed in the afterglow of “settling a grudge with a bang.” Hollis spoke up out of the blue, and the post-act scalp massage service gradually slowed down, until Raven’s aimlessly wandering thoughts, which were like a stretched straight line, suddenly snapped in his mind with a pop.

“Hmm?”

“About the Klaus Financial District.”

Raven let out a lament and curled his body, wanting to bury himself in the quilt. But because Hollis’s torso was right behind him, he had to give up before he even started.

“Can we stop talking about it?” He truly didn’t want to argue anymore, nor could he withstand a new round of “attacks.”

Seeing Raven’s rare lack of spirit, Hollis couldn’t help but chuckle and grumble internally.

And he still dared to clamor about attacking the opposition.

“No, we can’t.”

Raven turned his head. He could barely keep his eyes open, yet he was still trying to glare fiercely at Hollis.

Hollis took this as a sign that Raven was waiting for him to continue.

“You’re right. The interests behind the People’s Rationality Party and the Dawn Party are different. A single venue for the Light and Shadow Art Week truly can’t shake the current situation. But the Light and Shadow Art Week connects the vast majority of the working people in the Olo Federation. A good ‘promotion’ will make our work implementation smoother for the coming year.”

Therefore, winning more negotiation space meant having more of a say.

A small venue was a probe that was unlikely to go wrong.

“It’s more than that, isn’t it?” Raven didn’t entirely believe Hollis’s rhetoric.

To put it simply, the Klaus Financial District was a major stronghold for the forces behind the People’s Rationality Party.

Since ancient times, the old have wanted to monopolize while the new have wanted to stand out. A festival belonging to the working people was clearly evolving into an arena built by various major forces. Raven couldn’t help but find it somewhat ironic.

Hollis heard the deeper meaning in his words. He was silent for a moment, then reached out to cover Raven’s eyes. “It’s late. Sleep.”

In his unsaid words, there were actually thoughts he found difficult to utter.

Whenever he encountered Raven, especially in the professional field, he would inexplicably lose control of his male biological instincts, wanting to leave a good impression on Raven.

Since the cooperation began, he had argued forcefully not just for the interests of his camp, but so that Raven’s gaze would stay on him longer and with more admiration.

But currently, it seemed things were going against his wishes.

Hollis turned off the light, stared at the pitch-black ceiling, and let out a faint sigh.

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