I Guess I’ve Grown Fond of You…

Two boys hid under a bridge, listening out for police sirens.

"So." Lukas threw his bag onto the ground and massaged his aching shoulder. "You want to talk about it?"

Wu Shen kicked at the bag of weapons, unwilling to talk.

"It's nothing."

Wu Shen couldn't even fool himself, so how was he supposed to fool Lukas?

"Is that so?"

His vibrating phone prevented him from saying anything else.

"Xiaozhi, how was it?"

There was a flurry of words from the older girl, and Lukas' expression changed drastically.

"Ok. I'll call her later. What about you? Where are you?"

Lukas' expression turned even worse when he heard that Yu Jing had somehow found the station and was now sitting next to Xiaozhi in a convenience store, eating an ice cream.

He was sure that the young boy was supposed to be with Mike…

What was he thinking, scampering around a place he was unfamiliar with?

He finally ended the call and glanced at Wu Shen.

You won't speak to me, I guess I'll have to use an extreme method.

He waited for the wailing sirens to subside before standing up.

Wu Shen looked up at him.

"We're leaving already?"

Lukas frowned as he saw the boy's reddened eyes that had been obscured by the cap.

"Follow me. I'll take you somewhere nice."

. . .

Wu Shen originally had reservations towards what Lukas deemed to be 'nice', but when they approached the bustling town square, his suspicions immediately flew out of the window.

The shopping district had no shortage of stores to select from.

The boys enjoyed window shopping for a while and Lukas took this opportunity to check up on Tingting.

He was left wishing he hadn't called.

Wu Shen spotted his bad expression and questioned him, only to regret asking.

He peered at himself in the window reflection, and scrunched his face.

"Ah, f*ck! I look like sh*t!"

Well, whatever. Lukas ended the call abruptly. Who knew what else the mother might request of him?

He tossed the problem of Tingting's mother wanting to see him to the back of his mind and led Wu Shen a little way off from the high street, soon approaching a motorbike dealership.

Shiny new bikes lined the front of the store with security guards standing watch in multiple positions.

Wu Shen immediately had a terrible feeling.

Lukas smirked.

"Do you trust me?"

"No."

"I'm glad that we trust each other."

He patted the troubled boy's shoulder and crouched behind a vehicle, signalling for Wu Shen to follow.

Not too far off from them, a dealer was handing the motorbike keys to a customer, most likely to drive around, and test it out.

"Look at them. What do you think when you see them?"

Wu Shen squinted his eyes and took in both men's figures.

He scoffed as he answered.

"Weak."

'I could easily take them on in a fight… Why is he asking me this?'

Wu Shen's suspicious gaze bore into Lukas' hands that was weighing the weight of a brick.

Where did the brick come from?

"It's good that you're confident."

Lukas smirked and stood up.

The bad feeling grew even stronger, he felt like he was going to have a stomachache.

"What are we doing?"

"Improvise."

Throwing some bullsh*t over his shoulder, he swung his arm high in the air and hurled the brick at the store window.

Wu Shen's mouth made an 'oh' sound as he watched the glass become a web-like fracture before shattering.

'He really just did that? In front of everyone?'

But people continued to walk by as if nothing happened.

The same couldn't be said for the security guards and the dealer.

"Hey, what the fuck?!"

The dealer stuffed the keys into the client's hands and rushed at Lukas, not forgetting to scream at his security men,

"Get him!"

Lukas threw a couple more rocks as a taunt and darted off.

'Well, I've been through worse.'

It was purely on instinct that Wu Shen took advantage of the chaos to tackle the client to the ground and wrestled the keys out of his grip.

Without a second thought, he jumped on the motorbike, revved the engine, and drove in the direction Lukas ran.

. . .

The wind whipped his face as he ran from the guards.

Lukas quickly returned back to the crowded town square and tried to squeeze by.

The crowd was, however, an immovable force. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to push past them.

It was at the moment his irritation peaked that he felt something rough grab him by his collar.

'D*mn.'

The guards cackled as they grabbed him by his shirt.

"Not so quick now, are you?"

He failed to escape the man's grip and blanched as a heavy fist made contact with his nose.

"Ugh-"

He tilted his head back as he felt blood begin to trickle.

'Please don't be broken…'

As he braced himself for another mind-numbing attack, he heard screams and angry swearing.

"Move!"

As far as Lukas could tell, some crazy kid was riding his bike right through the town square, not caring about the chaos left in his wake.

His eyes widened as the bike that showed no signs of stopping drove right in his direction.

He patted the guard's hand, a smirk sitting on his bloodied face.

"Wanna let go? He's not going to stop, you know?"

"F*ck!"

The guard threw Lukas to the ground and jumped back just in time.

The motorbike screeched to a stop in front of Lukas.

Wu Shen licked his lips in anxiety and smirked.

"Your face looks like sh*t."

"I'll take that as a 'great to see you're doing well.'"

Lukas jumped on just as the guard swung his fist.

Wu Shen revved the engine once more and stuck out his tongue.

The two sped away, and for a while, they drove in silence until Lukas felt a vibration in his pocket.

He checked the caller ID and tapped the boy's shoulder.

"Hey! Pull over!"

Wu Shen pulled the bike over and Lukas jumped off.

Clutching his head, he answered the incoming call.

After the call ended, he turned to Wu Shen.

The boy had a really bad feeling. Though the speaker wasn't on, he heard Lukas utter the words, 'pick you up'.

"Get Tingting from the park near the station."

"How about you?"

Because there was no way three people could fit on the bike.

Lukas waved his screen in front of Wu Shen's eyes.

"Forget about me. Just go to this location afterwards, ok? I'll message it to you later."

"Sure."

Lukas watched the boy's figure fade out of sight and sighed.

He really wasn't good at consoling others, was he?