Invitation

"So, what's your guild position in the game? Members' count?" The question was directed at Chao, but Lei was the one who answered it.

"They are third. And enough guild members, just a few of them are actually pretty good. Decent for a new team." Chao's father nodded approvingly. But inside he was still pissed that they chose some foreign game to play, rather than his.

"Actually, Huobai is coming to Hong Kong to study here, so I thought that he could stay here. Just to train him a bit better." Chao turned in his chair and looked back at his brother and father. Lei only raised his brow and looked around.

"Where will he be sleeping? In your bed?" Yitian sharply turned around too when he heard it. But Chao shook his head.

"Yitian will sleep with me. And Huobai will take his room," he said but looked at him with widened eyes.

"I will what?" He was so surprised by Chao's statement, that he forgot to finish the game in the arena and the losing dialog popped up. On the other side, Chao's was winning. He mercilessly killed him, when he was turned around.

"I waited for you, why did you do that?!" Yitian punched Chao in the shoulder, but he only laughed.

"It's your fault for being distracted. In the tournament, no one will wait for you." Chao lectured him and Yitian made a sulking face and turned to face the computer again.

"So, like that. He has nothing against that." Chao said and turned around to face Lei and his father again. His father was holding back laughter and Lei had his right brow up. Then Lei nodded and looked into his laptop.

"We got an invitation to 5v5 in the arena from Landahai." Lei stated and because he wasn't fully knowledgeable about the game, he continued. "I'm accepting, okay?" Chao and Yitian opened their mouths, stunned. How could he not know this?

"Landahai is a subgroup of Lanbo on our server," Yixing said, coming back from the toilet.

"Lanbo?" Lei frowned and Weiwu, Chao's father, shook his head.

"Are you even the manager? If you will be the boss of their team, you need to know everything about your opponent, subdivisions, their team members, and everything. You need to keep an eye on everyone in the scoreboard, and even about your own players." Weiwu was shaking his head when talking to his son, who was obviously hopeless in games.

"So, I have to do a lot of things?" Lei's eyes lightened up when he heard about how much work he had to be distracted with.

"Workaholic." Chao shook his head and turned to Yixing and then to Yitian. "Are we up to this? Who will we take with us?" he asked, thinking about the strategies they were practicing.

Call Huobai and Shanshan," Yitian said and they hopped on the voice chat in the game.

"Shanshan?" Chao asked, confused.

"Yang Shan, HNYG..." Yitian answered smiling.

"Why are you calling him like that?" Yixing frowned.

"Oh you guys don't know but he is like four years younger than we are. He is still in high school." Both Yixing and Chao looked stunned, they probably did not read that group chat, when they were talking about age and everything.

Chao sent a message on WeChat to both of them, telling them to go in the game. Soon, they both hopped into the voice.

"'Sup?" Huobai was one year younger and living in the outskirts of Mong Tseng Tsuen. But now he was starting Hong Kong university as him, surprisingly being Chao's junior in the same faculty.

"Hey guys, we have awesome news." Yixing started. He was most fond of Huobai, becoming his friend.

"Ehm? What's the news?" Shanshan asked shyly. He was still getting used to their calls. He was a bit timid.

"You are not gonna believe that! Landahai wants to have 5v5 with us." Yixing exclaimed and shouted so loud, that Lei and Weiwu jumped up startled.

"Huh?" They were both confused. but then Shanshan livened up a bit.

"You mean? Lanbo? Lanbo subdivision?" Suddenly as if another person, he got excited. Yitian held back laughter.

"You mean us? We will play against Lanbo's second team?" Shanshan continued asking. but everyone was silent, surprised at his sudden change.

"So I guess we should try that? I had no idea if you would love to pvp them. But it looks like yes…" Chao chuckled when he was interrupted by a loud shout.

"Yes!" Bothe Shanshan and Huobai shouted at the same time. Chao chuckled, took off his headphones, and went to Lei and his father.

"Accept it, they agree." Then he turned to his father, "why are you here? You didn't say why you came." he asked his father, whose eyes darkened. Weiwu took a deep breath.

"I want you to come to your mother's grave." Chao inhaled sharply. He closed his eyes and went to Yitian's chair.

He peeked from behind the chair and laid his head on Yitian's shoulder, scaring him in the process.

"Help me," he breathed out and put his cheek against Yitian's, feeling his warmth.

"I will help you. Say what you need." Yitian ruffled his hair and smiled softly. Then he turned around to face Chao.

"I need you…" Chao hugged him tightly, Yitian almost couldn't breathe, but he was caressing Chao's back to make him feel better.

He looked at Chao's father and nodded. He would do everything in his power to help Chao, to get away from his past, to accept it.

"We will go. I will go with him if it is okay?" Yitian said towards Chao's family. They only nodded and then got up and walked out, leaving them to play again.

Yitian looked at Yixing, who wasn't that surprised anymore. Chao told him what happened to Yitian and him too. Somehow Yixing took it as a sign that he had no idea what to do. And being the friend he was, he smirked and ran away.

"I'm here for you. I will go with you." Yitian was caressing Chao's back, calming him down. And at the same time, calming his fast-beating heart.