30-year-old BOYS

Chapter 8 - Riding in cars with boys

Chapter 8 – Riding in cars with boys

Huang, you did something to me. It’s something I don’t have words for. But it’s something I feel in my heart. I think I’m falling for you.

~ Daniel Cheng

“Huanying huilai! We sell big raw men.”

Daniel’s eyes grow big and wide, “W-what?!!”

“Raw men,” the old lady talks much, much slower.

Cheng scratches his head, “Err, don’t you mean ramen?”

“O! Ta ma de. Shi. Yes,” the old lady laughs at her mistake.

It’s been a couple days since Daniel last saw Huang. And it appears that the 32-year-old bad boy is MIA, nowhere to be found, his shadow not even in the construction site where he usually spends his mornings at, lifting heavy metal, melting beams, and bolting screws of buttah lovin’

Daniel is in his relaxed tailored suit. He’s taking a break after closing a multimillion dollar investment to put up shopping malls in Kowloon Tong and Tai Tam, two of the richest, hottest places in Hong Kong where money pours in and out of at the drop of a dime, or a hat, whatevs.

It is mid-afternoon and the sun will soon set on the horizon. It’s been a long day for one Daniel Cheng, travelling from Kowloon City District to the Southern tip of Tai Tam. But his exhaustion is nothing compared to the worry that his Hung Lau might be in trouble, or worse, in danger.

Daniel snaps his fingers for his bodyguard to pay the old lady his bowl of steamy, hot ramen. This is not the first time Cheng ate what people call ‘the poor man’s food’ for he was once invited by Huang to sample the piping hot noodle swimming in a bowl of delicious chicken broth. That was when Lau invited Daniel for a low-key kind of date, because Huang wanted to pay for everything, asserting that he is the ‘man’ in their relationship.

Daniel had no objections with Huang’s desire to pay for food. He actually found the gesture to be…um…a turn on. He likes that Lau is trying to be the ‘man’ in their relationship, for clearly Lau has more testosterone and libido in his body than little ole Daniel Cheng. And in that knowledge Daniel feels content. He likes seeing Huang Lau in charge and dominating. It makes him feel taken care of and looked after like a kid. It kinda’ turns him on, makes him hard almost, to the point that he starts thinking b**m and s**t. Yeah. Smexy s**t.

“Fetch me the spices,” Daniel commands his bodyguard, clearly he’s not satisfied with the taste.

In Daniel’s world, there’s ramen and there’s ramen. The difference? The kind that Huang took Daniel to is the one made by deep-frying the noodles, making the ramen a perfect recipe for clogging one’s arteries and increasing one’s chances of getting a heart attack. So it’s basically cheap poison that poor people can afford to eat. But even Daniel has to agree. The ‘poor man’s version’ tastes so much better than what he’s used to having. His version of ramen however is the kind served in exclusive ramen shops and restaurants, where the dish is made with fresh ramen noodles which are hand-made and are often served with delicately roasted pork, savory kobu—aka seaweed—engorged mushrooms, and other buttah lovin’ goodness. Hmm…tai hao chile. So, so, so deliciously delicious! So, so fu—beep—ing good yo!

Daniel can’t help but smile at the memory when Huang paid for their ramen using coins and smaller bills. He is smitten by the fact that Huang was trying to ‘feed’ him. He was really trying to be the ‘provider’ in their ‘relationship’ which—after weeks of careful deliberation—Daniel still has no clue if they really are boyfriends or not. Maybe we are, Daniel thinks to himself as he rings Lau’s phone one more time. Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service at this time, spiels the recording in his earpiece. Hmm…where the hell are you? Daniel ponders, worried and anxious because it’s not like Huang to leave his phone unattended, “Feichang ganxie nin,” Daniel thanks the old lady then snaps his fingers for the bodyguard to open the door for him. He slides into his car and snaps his fingers to the driver, “You. Drive around. And you, you help me look for Huang. You watch your right. I’ll watch my left,” he gives his instructions to both driver and bodyguard as he sinks into the black leather cushion. He is rifling in his mind the many places where he can find his horny 32-year-old bad boy lover.

They cross towns, enter suburbs, and even go off-ramp to search every nook and cranny of the city, and yet no Huang Lau can be found. Daniel hates the constricting fear that grips his heart. And the feeling takes his mind to a place of anxiety the more he worries about his Hung Lau, “Mr. Cheng. Right there,” says the driver, and immediately a flood of relief washes over Daniel’s heart, driving the feeling of anxiety to separate and dissolve into a pool of reassurance.

Lau is standing at the gates of the community college. Daniel’s car parks across the street, “Wait for us. I’ll go get him,” Cheng tells his driver, and he’s about to hurl and throw himself to Lau when he sees him dipping his face to kiss the forehead of a much younger man. The pain of rejection shoots straight to Daniel’s heart at the sight of Huang kissing a young boy. Daniel’s vision blurs as his face explodes in anger, his eyes turning red, and his ears fuming with hatred at the sight of his man, his man canoodling with a minor…a minor—!

Daniel can feel the pain in his heart slowly choke him around the neck. His body starts to shake and he doesn’t understand why. All he can process at this very moment is the feeling of emptiness as it swallows him whole. He stands motionless, speechless, and helpless as he watches Lau talk animatedly with the young boy. Huang molds a hand intimately below the young man’s back as they enter a taxi. Is this what heartbreak feels like? Daniel asks himself as he sheds his first tear for a man who rides in cars…with young boys.