Lollipop

08 - Make Up And Lollipops

Corey

"What's with that ugly Doraemon stuff toy?" The reflection of Aimi raising her eyebrows flashed in the car rear view mirror as the question broke the awkward silence. Corey glanced at the Doraemon, which was about half Corey's height and let out a small sigh. Indeed, the Doraemon he bought did not seem all that appealing. And it was supposed to be Jun's birthday gift, too.

"If you're gonna buy anything for the lover boy, buy him something related to Naruto. Especially Uchiha Sasuke. Or Umaru from Himouto Umaru-chan, she's his anime wife," Aimi made another remark. Corey was expecting her to give him hell after what he did to her beloved friend. Apparently, she didn't. At least not as much.

"He said he loved Doraemon..."

"Not the ugly one that you bought." 'Ouch,' he winced. He knew that he shouldn't have asked Jermaine for gift-related advice as she had the worst aesthetic sense out of everyone he knew in his entire life. However, being a good friend that she was, she insisted on helping Corey choose a birthday gift for Jun. What made this even worse was that Ana, the complete opposite of Jermaine in terms of artistic senses, had a part-time job that day when they chose the gift for him.

"I could have just stood you up and let you converse with the people in the airport using Google Translate, but that would be too easy on you."

"..." 'Didn't Jun say before Cancer and Scorpio are perfect soulmates? I don't believe in horoscope, and this justifies the reasons why I don't,' he scowled to himself. If looks could kill, he would probably be dead by now. Her death glare through the car rear view window caused him to fidget with his fingers. He looked out of the window, trying to ignore the murderous intent that was filling the car.

Apparently, that did not work as well as he thought it would.

"Look, I know I'm a little too harsh on you, but you can't blame me for that. He's like my brother, you know? He is the brother that I never had. He was always there when I need it, so it's my turn to protect him now." 'A little, you mean a lot?' Corey could hint a smile from her (even if she tried to hide it) as she tried to reason with him. If Jermaine were to get hurt, he would have reacted the same.

"I'm bringing you to his house now. I checked earlier, his mother is not at home. This is the perfect chance for you to reconcile with him. Don't screw it up."

"Thank you, Aimi, for helping me."

When he received no reply, his eyes wandered out the window. This time, I'm not going to screw this up, he made a mental note to himself. Oh, yes. He fished his phone from his pocket and was ready to go to Skype. However, he stopped his actions immediately once he realised that he didn't buy a data plan for roaming before travelling. 'Yeah, Corey Winston. You're the smartest dude in the world for not unblocking him w******p and Skype and buying data plan before you leave,' he felt an instant urge to kick himself in the shin.

The car came to a temporary stop when the traffic lights turned red. Just by the side of the road stood a Starbucks outlet. In a swift, he connected to the Wi-Fi provided by the Starbucks and he unblocked him, on both Skype and w******p. Though, the younger man's profile picture and his status did not appear. He was about the scratch his head in confusion and checked his profile again, but the traffic light had turned green and the car drove off.

After approximately 20 minutes, they arrived at what seemed like a typical residential house. Aimi parked her car in the parking lot of the household and they both alighted the car. She tried to discourage him from bringing the Doraemon with him, but he insisted that the Doraemon should come along. Just like people, Doraemon should not be judged for its appearance, he tried to persuade her. That earned him an eye roll as she inserted a key into the lock and unlocked the front door. Then, she made a hand gesture for him to enter the place. 'They must have been really close for her to own a key to his house,' he thought.

The house was spacious - but there were signs of life. The interior design of the house was top-notched--the colour scheme of black and gold of the furniture to the walls and floors in the living room fitted perfectly together like a puzzle. It felt like he entered a house decorated by a legitimate well-known interior designer. True enough, Jun had once told him before that his father worked as a marine biologist while his mother was a relatively famous interior designer before she quit her job to become a housewife.

"I was surprised too when I first came here a few years back," she told him as they made their way up the stairs. Then, they stood by a room that was directly in front of the stairs. "I'm pretty sure he's watching anime," she sighed and she raised her hand to knock the door. "Either that or some documentary." Without waiting for at least half a minute, she twisted the doorknob and flung the door open. 'She's not even holding back,' he swallowed his saliva as he braced himself. 'This is his room.' His eyes lit with hope when he heard the voice that he loved echoed in the room once she forcefully opened the door.

"I don't think I want to say it anymore, Ai. It's fruitless. But I'll say it again, don't open the door with such force. I happen to like that door, you see..." He could hear Jun's voice trailing away as he shifted his attention from the computer screen to them. Truly, Jun's computer screen displayed an episode from an Anime. Higurashi When They Cry, to be exact.

Suddenly, the door was shut with a loud click sound. He turned behind him and found out that Aimi left the room discreetly (maybe not so, since Corey knew that Aimi would leave them alone). His eyes met Jun's dark midnight eyes contained a mix of confusion, sorrow and anger. A painful silence engulfed them and Corey knew that he had to break the tension somehow.

"How's life?" Corey mentally face-palmed himself after those words left his mouth. 'Of all things, this? f**k, I haven't even said what I want to say and I screwed up already?'

"Why are you here?" Jun eyed him suspiciously as he turned the computer off. "Don't just stand there, take a seat." Corey moved to one of the bean sofas surrounding the low glass table in the middle of the bedroom. He was pretty sure that Jun was raising his eyebrows as he peered at the Doraemon as they settled down. He took a deep breath and gulped his saliva once again. 'Here we go.'

"I owe you an apology," He was about to look down as he spoke, but Jun's words to him a year ago stopped him from doing so.

"I was indeed busy with my studies and all. All the things I told you about, like a busy schedule, seminar test, presentations and homework--all of them are true. As for the breakup message, I initiated it because I feel like I wasn't able to schedule my time properly at that time. Not to forget, there's this huge time difference between the places that we live, Jun. Whenever you're free, I'm not. Whenever I'm free, you're not. There's too much things for me to handle and I feel like I will break down if this continues. I should of expected that when I agreed to this relationship with you, I know. It's the bad management of time on my side. So I needed a break. A short break," Corey looked away before continuing.

"But that wasn't the reason why I blocked you. I didn't block you, really. It was my sister, Cait. Everyone in my family accepted me when I came clean to them about dating you. However, she was skeptical about it. She wasn't homophobic. However, she was very protective of me. She initially wanted me to force you to come back and face her interrogations, but I stopped her from doing so. We had a heated argument about this matter and we ignored each other's existence for days." He fluttered his eyes shut for a while, and continued while he struggled to maintain his composure.

"At first, she just took and hid my phone and my laptop before she returned them to me every three days. She told me that if I truly liked you, I would be able to go for days without contacting you. This is the reason why I couldn't video call, message and phone call you as frequent as... before..." He felt moisture gathering in his eyelid as he tried to make out the words. His head faced the ceiling of the wall as he tried to hold his tears back. Thankfully, the attempt was not a failure. "I can't talk to you, but I am glad that you are an avid user of i********:, so I could look through your account and the pictures you've uploaded. I could always direct message you, yet what my sister said made sense to me. So I didn't message you."

"Then she blocked you with my phone without my acknowledgement. I didn't even know that your contact was blocked until Aimi called me a week before. I tried to go to i********: and message you, but you've already blocked me. I confronted Cait about it and I flared at her about it. She was apologetic and she knew that she went too far this time, so she helped me write a letter to the school so that I can come over here to look for you. It's not her fault though, she just wanted to protect me from harm. But it's too late, eh?" By then, tears once again blurred his vision and they trickled down his cheeks uncontrollably. He took a deep breath, as if such action could stop the tears from flowing. 'Don't cry, not here. Men don't cry. I'm older than him, show him your masculinity.'

However, all of the pent-up emotions he had he felt inside him escaped from his fragile heart and he couldn't help but to let everything out. His body trembled as he avoided making eye contact with Jun again. Out of the sudden, a pair of muscular arms embraced his body tenderly as those hands that he loved patted his back softly.

He missed this feeling.

When Jun let him go, he stood up and took something from the drawer. Confusion was what came first when the younger male handed him two lollipops. Guilt, yet delight replaced confusion as he forced a chuckle out of his quivering lips.

"You really love lollipops, don't you?" He raised the question and Jun took one lollipop away from him. His hand unwrapped the lollipop instantly and he offered it to him. As Corey reached for the sweet, Jun used a piece of tissue paper from the tissue box that lied on the table and wiped his face.

Despite having no emotions shown on his handsome features, Jun's benign actions managed to set the butterflies in his stomach free.

This reminded Corey of the day that they had met. Deja vu, he thought as he stuffed the lollipop into his mouth. It was a coke-flavoured lollipop this time.

"You're really, really mean." The taller male aimed the stained tissue into the trash bin beside his door after he was done. Needless to say, it did not go it. Jun let out a 'tsk' before standing up and threw the crushed tissue inside properly. "I was about to give up on you. I was about to tell myself that you're just someone who would come and go. I was about to let you go and officially cut off all contacts with you. And then you come to me. And then you tell me all of these. You're really, really cruel. It's true, eh? Cancers are the meanest sign of all the 12 horoscopes." He said with obvious bitterness in his voice.

"..." Corey waited for him to carry on.

"You did hurt me." That sentence stabbed Corey in the heart. 'I know,' Corey winced mentally. "I did think about it, you know. Would you be like her? Did you lie to me just so you could leave me? Sure, I was devastated when I drowned myself into these thoughts. However, after that, I began to think logically. Why would you waste your time with me if you were going to tell me that all of these was faux in the end? We were initially two strangers who wouldn't have met if I hadn't gone on a vacation to your country. That was when I realised that I was being really stupid. Yes, you blocked me. Yes, you wanted a short break from us. But I didn't hear your side of story. Who am I to assume everything and get all depressed if I have not heard what you have to say?

"But you did not contact me, you know. After a month I started to believe that maybe long-distance relationships would not work out. All these myths about long-distance relationships that I'd read about online were probably true. So, I decided. I should let you go. Guess what? You appeared right in front of me again, making me fall ten times harder for you than I already did. I hate you for that," Jun avoided his eyes before facing him again. "But I loved you even more." A look of a stunned vegetable was shown on Corey's face as his eyes lit up with hope.

"...Do you want to repeat that again?" Corey asked with anticipation.

"Repeat the whole thing? Are you serious?" Jun cried in bewilderment as he faked a faint.

"No, no. I mean, the last sentence. What did you say, again?" Corey moved closer to him this time and stared into Jun's moonstone-like eyes. 'He has a helix piercing now,' Corey noted.

"...That's why Cancers are horrible. Fine, sit up and listen carefully. Corey Winston, I'm in love with you." With the supposedly magical phrase said, the shorter male leant back onto his bean sofa and made no sound. They remained like that for a few seconds before someone kicked the door open.

"Yo bitches! I am here to see my brother-in-law's hubby!" A tanned-skin guy 'greeted' them with such enthusiasm as his necklaces tinkled in unison. Corey observed the newcomer up-and-down and left-and-right. 'Another Japanese dude who is fluent in English. I should drop the stereotype that Japanese are horrible in English,' Corey made a mental note to himself. The tanned skin dude was the pure example of a wasted beauty. If he thought that Jermaine had the worst aesthetic sense, boy, the dude brought aesthetic senses to a whole new level. 10 piercings on his ear, his face was peppered with star stickers, his hair resembled Kenma from Haikyuu (in other words, his hair looked like pudding) and his flamboyant outfit was one that only someone with distorted fashion taste would wear. He peeked at his companion and of course, Jun looked pissed.

"The both of you are so gonna pay the full price for my poor door if it breaks, Kei," Jun threatened the dude with obvious annoyance shown on his face. The 'Kei' dude did not even seem like he cared. When he tried to approach Corey with a creepy smile on his face, Jun immediately blocked Corey from him.

"Come on! Let me look at him thoroughly. Oh my god! He has green eyes! I want that too! Too bad he is a brunet, but that works for him, I guess. Let's see..." 'What the hell, dude. He's invading my personal space that he’s starting to creep me out.'

"It's great to meet you, but I'd appreciate it if you could back off. I don't know why you're so excited to see me, but you're invading my personal space and that’s not very comfortable," Corey asked as politely as he could while he retreated away from him. As if Jun and Corey were linked by telepathy, Jun grabbed Kei's shoulder and pulled him back, with a glare evident on his face. A hint of blush crept onto Corey's cheeks as he suppressed a smile. Just then, Aimi entered the room with a frustrated expression on her face.

"Kei, if you don't get out of there in 10 seconds, I'll castrate you so badly that you can't have a child in the future," she hissed as she pulled the dude's ear.

"Ouch! But, if I can't have babies, then we can't have a baby! Think about it, love. We will be lonely old man and woman without kids!" Kei complained exaggeratedly. 'So that is Aimi's boyfriend. She has a rather unique taste in men.' Thankfully, the murderous glint in her eyes gave Kei the hint and he cowered out of the room after he waved at them with less enthusiasm. Silence was back again and this time, Jun broke it with a laugh.

"I swear the both of them are going to pay for my door one day." That made Corey laughed a little. "Well, Kei's a Gemini. Gemini and Virgo don't get along, but we miraculously do. You might get along with him though. Don't worry about that, that's what he do when he meet new friends. A lil over-the-top, but it's cute. He's a fashion design student." Jun leaped up and sat on one of the bean sofas. At first, Corey wondered why Jun talked about horoscope when they first met, but after many messages, phone calls and video calls, he found out that the latter was an avid fan of astrology. Corey then remembered that the Doraemon was with him all along. He then took the mega-sized stuff toy and shoved it into Jun's arms.

"That's a very interesting looking Doraemon," an amused smile flashed on the younger male's face.

"Don't judge it by its appearance," Corey ate the last bit of the lollipop and threw the stick into the bin.

"Are you sure that you... love me? I mean you're younger than me and I'm pretty sure there are many girls out there that you have not met yet. Are you sure that I am the person you love? I'm an emotional mess and I can be very troublesome to deal with and-" his words were interrupted as Jun advanced to him and pressed their lips together. There wasn't any room left for hesitations. Their kiss deepened as if parting wasn't a choice. Of course, it was mutual consent that they should part to catch a breath.

A string of saliva was left to connect them like the red string of fate before it broke. If Corey were to describe his feelings in words, love and admiration towards the other male would be that. Jun cupped Corey's face and brushed his finger across his face. The onyx iris with a glint of life that Corey always found mesmerising softened as Jun enveloped Corey in his embrace.

Corey loved Jun's warmth.

"Where am I suppose to find someone like you? I don't want anyone other than you. Don't you ever doubt my feelings for you. And I'm not that young, we're only a year apart. Do you love me, Corey? Do you think we should give this a try again? You know, I want to." Jun claimed as he offered to unwrap the last lollipop for Corey.

"I'm going to get diabetes if you keep giving me lollipops," Corey said as tears threatened to escape from Corey's eyelid. In desperation, he grabbed the Doraemon and hid his face.

That failed though.

Jun snatched the Doraemon away and deliberately looked into its eyes. "You're one hell of an interesting looking Doraemon but that makes you unique. Okay, I'll name you Cory and from now on I'm your Papa and Corey is your Daddy. Cory do you want Papa and Daddy to make up?"

Corey almost snorted but he stopped himself as he could sense that Jun wasn't done yet. "Papa loves Daddy, you know? Papa want to give a lot of lollipops to Daddy! Papa wants to overwhelm him with lollipops! So, Cory what do you think?" Corey coughed a little at that. It was very obvious that his cheeks were as red as a tomato, but he made no attempt to hide it.

"Now I will never see that Doraemon the same way again," Corey rolled his eye and continued, "Daddy loves Papa too. Daddy hurt Papa, but Daddy loves Papa. Maybe. Though Daddy thinks that having a toothache from eating too much lollipop would be quite stupid." Corey leant closer to Jun and placed a gentle kiss on the corner of his lips. With that, they shared a knowing smile and immersed themselves in each other's warmth. That did not last long as a loud cough cut their union short.

"Jun? Oya, who's this young man?" They pulled apart as a woman who shared similar facial features with Jun looked at them with her mouth agape.

"Mom?"