How Can Two People From Different Sides Ever Fall in Love? - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

◎ OOTD ◎

Early morning, sunlight filtered through the gaps in the window, spilling onto the floor.

In a state between dreams and wakefulness, Raven reached out to his side, but felt nothing. The vanished body heat made his eyes struggle to open just a sliver.

“Just leave it here, thank you.”

Through the bedroom door, which was also left open a crack, came Hollis’s deliberately lowered voice; he seemed to be speaking to someone.

Raven rustled as he moved from the bed to the floor. Aside from a bit of soreness, his body felt refreshed and clean.

However, getting out of bed stark naked revealed skin without a single patch of “unscathed meat,” vividly manifesting the intense battle of “a short absence is better than a honeymoon.”

He couldn’t help but curse: “Brute.”

After cursing, he hurried to find clothes to put on, drawing a clear line between himself and the beast.

Picking up the shirt Hollis had folded and left on the pillow, his well-defined fingers moved from the bottom up, revealing a slender neck and deep collarbones.

Fully dressed and preparing to go out, the shirt fabric brushed against his chest, making him feel a bit uncomfortable.

“Hiss—” Raven took a sharp intake of cold air. His fingers went to the buttons, wanting to take the top off, but he suddenly recalled through his daze that he seemed to have heard Hollis talking to someone. His hand rose and then dropped.

He cursed again: “Brute.”

Enduring the discomfort, Raven walked out of the bedroom.

At the entryway, Hollis was squatting on the floor alone; there was no one else.

Raven scanned the surroundings and approached in confusion. Seeing a cardboard box placed on the tiles, he asked curiously: “Who were you talking to just now, a courier? What did you buy that got delivered so early in the morning?”

“Mm.” Hollis didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he accelerated his pace of opening the box, took out the item inside, and stood it up in front of Raven for him to see for himself.

It was half a person’s height, deep gray, with a metallic luster and a high-tech feel. However, a slightly thicker cylinder sat atop the slender pole, looking like a standing microphone from a KTV.

“A microphone? Why buy this out of the blue, do you want to sing?” Raven had never heard Hollis sing; usually, the man didn’t even hum a couple of lines.

Having bought a microphone for no apparent reason, he kindly advised: “Better not. The soundproofing here isn’t great, and I don’t want to receive a citation for violating public order regulations.”

Hollis remained squatting, looking up at Raven. One of his broken eyebrows quirked, and his tone carried a hint of surprise as he asked back: “You didn’t recognize it?”

It should be a common item in daily life; he had not only seen it but likely used it.

Raven asked suspiciously: “A hair dryer?”

“Bingo. Too bad we’re only having noodles for breakfast; I can’t give you a reward.”

Hollis’s tone was flat, coaxing the “child” as if coaxing a ghost. He suddenly stood up, lifted the long pole of the hair dryer with one hand, walked past Raven, and found a suitable spot in the living room to set it down.

The hair dryer looked like it had some weight, but he lifted it with ease.

“It would be great if Councilor Raven’s cleverness could be spent a little bit on daily life.”

Hollis sighed: “When the soy sauce bottle tips over, you don’t know to prop it up; when the remote falls on the floor, you don’t know to pick it up. Let those things go, but for heaven’s sake, don’t ever take the hair dryer back to the bathroom again.”

Raven: “…”

Facts speak louder than words. He couldn’t be bothered to argue, even though a soy sauce bottle had never appeared in this house before Hollis moved in.

“Just as well, you should be too lazy to move this one,” Hollis stood right next to the new hair dryer. “It wouldn’t fit in the bathroom storage cabinet anyway.”

Raven wasn’t entirely devoid of safety awareness; he at least knew that using electrical appliances required avoiding water sources.

“Not bad,” Hollis plugged it in, tested it out, and nodded with satisfaction. “From now on when drying your hair, you can completely free your hands. It suits you quite well.”

“In exchange,” he went back to the balcony, took the hair dryer out of the cabinet, and waved it at Raven. “I’m taking this one away.”

Having eaten noodles for two consecutive meals, Raven still ate with great appetite.

After the meal, Hollis took the initiative to wash the dishes. Raven returned to the room, put on a military-green trench coat, and fastened the belt to cinch his narrow waist. He changed his shoes, preparing to head out.

Just as he got up, Hollis approached, dangling two hangers in his hand. Hanging on them was the silver-gray suit Raven had taken off yesterday.

“Are you planning for your upper half and lower half to live separate lives?” Raven’s pace toward the door slowed as he scanned Hollis’s outfit. He hesitated several times before finally being unable to hold back.

“Even though it’s spring now, the spring wind is chilly. You have a high body temperature, so fine, forget the coat if you only want a thin hoodie on top. But what is with the shorts underneath?”

Raven pointed angrily at the shorts; he had clearly found them an eyesore for a long time and wanted to vent as soon as he found an opportunity.

Hollis listened to the lecture obediently and explained properly: “My legs aren’t cold.”

“Have some respect for spring,” Raven said earnestly. “You’re only ‘not cold’ right now.”

“Is there some sort of saying? Are you trying to give me a science lesson on ‘old cold legs’ (rheumatism)?”

Raven didn’t want to; because of cultural differences, it was hard to explain clearly. He just subconsciously found it an eyesore because he’d heard elders nag about it too much as a child, and he couldn’t appreciate this kind of OOTD.

However, Hollis unexpectedly knew the term “old cold legs.” Before Raven had time to be surprised, he heard him say: “The first time I heard of this ailment was when I was a child, from an elderly person.”

The “elderly person” (Raven) felt intuitively offended.

At this point, Hollis hung the hangers on Raven’s hand: “Fine, I’ll listen to you. Wait a moment, I’ll go change now.”

Raven was passively transformed into a coat rack. He wanted to call Hollis back, but since the house was too small, he could only watch as his figure vanished into the bedroom doorway.

He curled his lip. Why wait? They weren’t even going the same way.

In less than half a minute, Hollis came out having changed into long pants. Raven’s brow still didn’t relax; he frowned and straightened the uneven hood strings on the hoodie.

“Did it on purpose, didn’t you? They were even before you went in.”

Hollis looked down at Raven’s hand and smiled without saying anything.

On the way to the parking lot, Raven had his hands in his pockets while Hollis carried the hangers. Leather shoes and sneakers made different sounds on the concrete.

Hollis chatted as they walked: “Going back to visit ‘Laolao’ (Grandmother) again.”

“Who are you calling Laolao?” Raven muttered, his expression somewhat hard to describe. “Not entirely. I have to look after children this time.”

It did sound quite tiring. Hollis looked surprised: “Look after children?”

“Mm…” Raven’s tone was forced. “Sort of… a relative’s children.”

Saying this, he took out his car keys, sat in the driver’s seat, and gave a teasing smile: “I’ll introduce you if there’s a chance. I guess you two would have a lot in common to talk about.”

“Leaving now. See you around, Mr. Councilor.” He waved his hand and drove off.

Behind the car, Hollis stood watching him until he was far away.

Hollis arrived at his destination before Raven. He carried the hangers and walked into a dry cleaner’s.

The shop door chimed “Welcome,” and the male owner reflexively put on a business smile. After seeing who had entered, his smile became more sincere: “It’s your turn to come today. Haven’t seen you in a while, right?”

“Mm,” Hollis handed the clothes to the owner. “Business trip. Just got back yesterday.”

“Oh, right. Your friend left some clothes here last time, and there was a delivery slip in the pocket. I called both of you, but no one answered. I thought, since you come every month anyway, I’d just wait until the next time you show up to give it to you.”

Hollis was stunned, thinking it must have been left behind when Raven came to drop off the laundry himself during those two weeks he was away.

During that time, he was either flying in the sky or running on the ground; he might have accidentally missed the owner’s call.

“Sorry,” Hollis said with a slight apology. “Thank you.”

The owner waved it off: “Small matter.”

Folding the clothes and putting them in a bag, the owner took out the delivery slip and handed it to Hollis as well: “I saw a signature on it; I guess he’d just finished signing for it and stuffed it in his pocket out of habit. Don’t know if you still want it, but I’m returning it to its original owner now.”

Hollis took it to look—a strange address, not the apartment where Raven currently lived.

He had just parted from Raven and only knew that every Monday when he was free, he would go visit his “Laolao.” As for the specific location, he hadn’t said, and Hollis hadn’t asked.

Now it seemed it was likely the address on this delivery slip.

He couldn’t see what was bought; the product information was covered by Raven’s flamboyant handwriting—if you didn’t know better, you’d think he was signing an autograph for a fan.

Hollis didn’t take it to heart. He curled the corners of his mouth slightly and casually stuffed the slip into his hoodie pocket.

He nodded to the owner: “Trouble you then. I’ll be going now.”

The owner waved back at him.

At the same time Hollis got the delivery slip and saw the address, Raven slowly parked his car in a garage.

After getting out, he didn’t enter the house immediately but walked out the gate to the entrance of another villa next door.

Just as he raised his hand to knock, the villa door opened, and a white-haired, well-proportioned old lady walked out.

Before Raven had time to greet her, the old lady’s energetic, loud voice came first: “I could hear a car passing from a mile away; I knew it was you as soon as I heard it.”

But seeing his dandy attire as he approached, the old lady was instantly displeased, her smiling face dropping immediately.

“It’s not that I’m picking on you, Xiao Gu, but even though it’s spring now, don’t you go flaunting yourself in a thin trench coat just because you’re young.”

The old lady put her hands behind her back. The more she looked, the more uneasy she felt.

“It looks good, but what the hell use is looking good? You’ll know when you get older.”

The old lady looked like she was mourning over a piece of “iron that won’t turn into steel” (unmet potential): “Bet you’re not wearing thermal underwear again. I knew it, I knew you wouldn’t be wearing it; you’ve hated wearing it since you were little. You young people, you don’t understand the importance of health at all.”

“Xiao Gu” was Raven coming from his other name, You Gu.

Now, only this Oriental-faced old lady would call him that.

Raven was a biracial person; his mother’s family had fled to the Olo Federation during the war in the past.

The old lady before him, named Li Lan, actually shared no blood relation with him at all; she was a friend his maternal grandmother, You Junyu, had met after settling in the Olo Federation.

The two women had originally raised their children alone. After coming to a strange country, they met and accompanied each other, supporting one another all the way to the present day.

Li Lan had watched Raven being born and watched him grow up; he was no different from a child of her own family.

You Junyu was born in the South, and Raven called her “Waipo” (Maternal Grandmother). As for Li Lan, she looked upon You Junyu’s daughter as her own, and based on the relationship with his mother’s family, Raven was made to call her “Laolao.”

“Laolao is right, but I only changed into this after the weather warmed up.” Having been nagged, Raven still responded to Li Lan with a smile.

Experiencing a similar scene again, except the person being lectured was now him, the smile on his face deepened.

Adhering to the spirit of “rather let a fellow traveler die than myself,” he sold out Hollis on the spot: “I even saw someone going out in shorts these past few days.”

Li Lan glared at him: “Why are you comparing yourself to those people? When they get ‘old cold legs’ in their old age, they’ll know how serious it is. Really, you don’t learn the good things, only the useless ones.”

Raven thought so too.

He didn’t have any desire to emulate that behavior; he was just imagining—if Li Lan ever met Hollis, how would the old lady deal with the man she’d call a candidate for “old cold legs”?

“Oh, right,” Li Lan spoke up, breaking Raven’s fantasy. “Hurry inside and take your Uncle and your cousin away.”

Raven’s smile instantly froze on his face.

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