Chapter 28

Unedited atm, please forgive me if the English gets wacky QAQ

Content warning: descriptions of car crash & loss of life

“Hey, Winston!” Hunter squinted his eyes as he smiled and waved his hand. “I wanted to show off to you. You can see a very beautiful lake from the window of my room!”

“Winston, I didn’t think that I would be able to see you here. I hope that you’ll still be able to defend the championship position.” Audrey

However, Winston only nodded cooly and softly replied, “Thank you.”

Audrey wasn’t angry, she had long gotten accustomed to Winston’s alienating attitude.

But Winston walked over to Hunter’s side, softly asking, “You’re staying here?”

Hunter pointed in the direction of the hotel with his hand, “I don’t remember the name. It’s a hotel with a pretty long history, you can even still hear the creaking sound when you walk in the room. But it’s really close to the competition venue.”

“En. we’re not staying in the same hotel this time around.”

Audrey, who stood at the side, was a little surprised. This was her first time seeing Winston have a chat with someone else, and it had nothing to do with the competition.

“You got drunk previously, does your head still hurt?” Winston faced over, his eyebrows drooping, unexpectedly causing his originally indifferent temperament to soften at this moment.

“You still want to talk about alcohol with me?” However Audrey was still close by, Hunter abashedly closed in on Winston and whispered, “Didn’t you say that you’ll keep an eye on me? Take a look at this!”

Hunter fished up his collar and showed it to the latter, although it wasn’t as deep as before if he was attentive enough, he could still see the shallow marks.

“I’ve been constantly watching you,” Winston replied.

“Liar. “ Hunter pointed a middle finger at Winston. “I was clearly calling out for you, but you just ignored me!”

“I didn’t lie to you, who was the one who sent you to the hotel. Don’t tell me you didn’t have a good time?”

Winston’s rhetorical question made Hunter speechless.

“You didn’t feel satisfied?” As if he couldn’t let it drop unless he heard Hunter’s answer, Winston faced over, almost as if he wanted to press it onto Hunter’s cheeks.

His voice was light as if there was a hand constantly comforting an area that Hunter couldn’t control.

That wild, unrestrained kiss that made him breathless controlled over him. The sense of a strong, overwhelming danger attacked, feeling akin to an addiction. Causing his face to immediately redden.

“I… I did… I was just muddleheaded, what a shame… ” Hunter sighed.

“You can always enjoy it again when you’re awake.” Winston’s voice was cold and faint. It was as if they were discussing whether to put basil into their macaroni tonight.

Also, why did Winston’s voice sound as if he kissed him that night and made him release several times…

Hunter raised his hands to cover his eyes. He doesn’t dare to consider such a notion… If his little Hunter dared to close into Winston’s lips, Winston would definitely use his hand like a knife and be more agile than when crossing the finishing line.

Even thinking about it hurts!

Even though the discussion wasn’t loud, Audrey who was at the side couldn’t discern what they were chatting about. But when Winston leaned towards Hunter, painting a scene of a close relationship, she wouldn’t have imagined it even in her dreams that one day, Winston would display such closeness to someone.

“You guys seem to be very familiar with each other?” Audrey smilingly asked.

It can’t be that the racer Hunter just mentioned was actually Winston? This is incredible.

“Yes,” Winston responded softly.

“The you today seems so peculiar. Also, I’ve forgotten to wish you a happy birthday.” Although Audrey was interested in the relationship between Hunter and Winston, but she could also feel that she can’t blend in with them.

“Today’s your birthday?” Hunter asked Winston.

However, Winston only nodded towards Audrey and said a word of thanks.

“Then I’ll be leaving first. There’s not enough daylight, so the results of the photos won’t be good. I’ll see you after the race, Hunter.”

Audrey blinked and turned around to leave.

At this moment, Hunter got excited, “Audrey said earlier that she wants to have a one on one interview with me after the race!”

“Do you like her?” Winston asked.

“Is there any men who wouldn’t like a woman like here?”

Just as Hunter finished, Winston turned and strode away with his long legs.

“Hey! What’s wrong with you? Don’t tell me that you like her? Then why were you so lukewarm earlier?”

Hunter chased after him to walk side by side with Winston.

But Winston didn’t even bother to give him a line of sight.

“Hey… Worse comes to worst, I’ll stay far away from her! Even if I do like her, you’re still more important!”

“You little liar.” Winston’s voice was still frosty, but Hunter could feel that the latter was no longer angry.

“And who did I lie to?”

“Right now, you say that you’ll distance yourself from her…” Winston suddenly faced over, his finger hooked onto Hunter’s chin, raising it in his direction. Catching Hunter by surprise, he stumbled. “By the time she expresses a little goodwill towards you, you won’t hesitate to send your entire self to her.”

“Hey— Don’t imagine me as someone with no will!”

Hunter wanted to shift away and evade Winston’s fingers, it’s pretty clear that he was watching when Audrey jokingly hooked his chin earlier.

Just don’t assume that Winston’s fingers are just slender, it actually had a lot of strength. Hunter’s chin was starting to hurt from his pinching.

“Who can shoot just from kissing?”

Winston’s eyes went wide.

The other’s kiss that night was too enthusiastic, he couldn’t hold it back…

“You… you couldn’t just be watching at the side right?”

Didn’t Winston stand outside of the tent?

Or did Lilith tell him?

Winston didn’t reply to him, he only loosened Hunter’s chin and continued his walk.

Hunter pitifully realised that Winston had a new addition to his black history.

“Hold on, where are you heading?”

“Going to your room.”

“Going to my room?”

“Didn’t you say that the view from your window is great?”

“The sky’s getting dark, what kind of view can you still see!?”

But pondering on it again, today was the other’s birthday, Hunter started to regret it again.

Winston gave a lot to him, but he had nothing that he could give to the other.

“Let’s go see if we can get a cake?” Hunter asked.

“I don’t need to have a special way to spend my birthday.”

“I just want to eat cream, ok? It happened to be a competition day when I celebrated my 19th birthday, furthermore, the results weren’t good, no one bothered to remember my birthday at all.”

“Then let’s go get one then.”

They walked to a dessert shop at the side of the road. This place wasn’t a bustling city, so the cake styles were simple.

Returning to his room, Hunter placed the cake on the table and pointed at the furnishings in his room, “Isn’t it so antique? Even the wardrobe would creak when you open it!”

“Yea.” Winston came to the window, he could still vaguely see the reflection of the moon in the lake from afar.

“What’s your room like?”

Hunter opened the box of the cake as he asked.

“They renovated perhaps due to wanting to welcome the customer flow that’ll come during the Grand Prix. I don’t like the taste.”

“Oh… it would’ve been better to book this place, right?” Hunter poked Winston’s back with his finger, “Hey, do you want to blow a candle and make a wish?”

“No need. My wish will still come through regardless.”

Others would call this ‘being conceited’. But when this guy says it, it has a sense of being a heaven’s decree.

“But I’ve lit it up for you…”

Even though it’s a little childish, Hunter still hoped that it would bring out a birthday atmosphere.

“Then it’s fine.”

Winston walked to the side of the table from the window and sat down.

Hunter was originally dishonest, swaying on the way back, hence the cake had already become crooked.

Suddenly feeling anxious, since Winston seems like a perfectionist at first glance, this cake definitely doesn’t suit his aesthetics.

But he chose to close his eyes as if he really devoutly wished.

Hunter felt that this Winston was so beautiful. It seemed like the evaluation from the media previously about him being ‘aloof and unreasonable’ were all nonsense.

But when Winston opened his eyes, Hunter quickly shifted his gaze away.

“Hey, what wish did you make?”

“Don’t you know that it won’t happen if you say it out loud?”

“Cut it… You’re taking it so seriously!”

Hunter couldn’t wait any longer and started to scoop at the cake with his plastic fork, not planning to wait for Winston to slice it and eat.

Anyways, this guy doesn’t even mind his saliva.

“However, only you can fulfil my wish for me.”

Hunter froze, suddenly recalling something that Winston had mentioned before, ‘I’ll wait for you at the corner.’

Warmth surged from the bottom of his heart.

“Ok, I’ll make sure to make this wish of yours come true.”

Winston gave a soft ‘en’, lifted his fork and proceeded to scoop his cake.

“It’d be nice if there were two bottles of beer!”

“Carbonated drinks are prohibited before the race.”

“It’s not the start of the competition yet! There are still two days till the practice match!”

“Even when it’s still inching close to the Grand Prix, don’t touch alcohol .”

Hunter felt helpless… then who was the one who watched him get drunk two days ago?

“Then do you have anything planned for tomorrow?” Hunter bit onto the plastic fork, accidentally breaking it in the process.

He expressed a bitter expression, flipped through the box, to realise that there’s no extra forks… how stifling.

“I have a technical meeting at 10 o’clock.”

Winston used his fork to scoop a slice of the cake, stretching it towards Hunter’s lips.

“So do I, how are you planning to get back to your hotel in a while?”

Hunter had just finished his words before the cake was shoved into his mouth.

“Um…”

“I can walk back.”

“Ok, but handsome guys like you should be careful, there’s a lot of car-crazed fans lurking around the neighbourhood. If you’re suddenly attacked by them when you’re walking on the forested path shrouded by night, then even if you call for the heavens, the heavens won’t answer.”

Hunter spoke enthusiastically but was suddenly stuffed with another mouthful of cake.

“Um…”

This cake was originally bought for you ok!?

“You can have it.”

“You really don’t want it? There’s still half left.” Hunter asked while having Winston’s plastic fork in his mouth.

The other half-opened his mouth, gazing at Hunter without saying a word.

Hunter rolled his eyes in his heart. Here this guy goes again… it’s like this when we smoked, and it’s also like this when we’re eating.

Watch how I can disgust you!

Hunter smirked and purposely licked the fork in front of the other, then he proceeded to scoop the cake and stretched it out to the latter.

If you have the ability to, then eat!

If you don’t loath it, then eat!

At the next second, Hunter’s wrist was hooked, its strength dragging him forwards to the latter. Winston had actually swallowed up the cake and ate it nonchalantly.

His eyebrows raised as if saying, ‘What other tricks do you have up your sleeves.’

Hunter admitted that he was disappointed.

He originally thought that he could see Winston’s annoyed expression, or that he had always assumed that Winston couldn’t tolerate many things, but he realised the other’s bottom line was far beyond his imagination.

“You seem very disappointed?”

“How could that be!” Hunter laughed dryly. “I feel very honoured!”

“Honoured by what?”

“Honoured that you don’t mind eating my saliva!” Hunter deliberately showed a despicable expression.

“You’re the only one.”

“Really? I feel so special? You haven’t had someone close enough to wear the same pants, drink the same bottle of beer, get high together by watching a movie?”

“There was for the first two, but not for the last one.”

Winston’s eyes fell, while Hunter’s heart ached inexplicably.

“If you said previously that you’ve never watched a movie alone, I can believe it. But you’re so very pretentious when you play, I don’t believe that you’ve not gotten high from watching a movie.”

“I can think of you in order to.” Winston rubbed his chin.

Hunter showed a helpless expression, “If you give up on yourself like this, then be careful that I’ll also give up treatment.”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Then I’m curious, who exactly wore the same pants as you, and even drank from the same bottle of beer?”

“He left me,” Winston answered.

“Left you? Is it because they couldn’t stand your ‘matter of course’ way of ridiculing others with embarrassing jokes?” Hunter playfully asked.

“One day as I was lying down on my bed while reading a book, his team manager called to tell me that he and an engineer from his team crashed into a lamp post while driving.”

Not everyone could see Winston’s emotions through his eyes.

But Hunter knew at that moment, the Winston spoke about the one who crashed into the lamp post was different from the Winston who spoke embarrassing jokes.

“I don’t have that big of a curiosity… Today’s your birthday, we can chat about happier things.”

“He had once made me happy.” Winston faced Hunter, his voice flat from start to end, “ I’ve never realised it until I couldn’t see him anymore. I thought that we’d have happier times ahead, but we actually didn’t.”

Hunter opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

Winston also changed his posture, propping up his chin to watch Hunter.

With such a gaze, Hunter felt as if he was in another world.

“Hunter, there’s something that I’d like to say to you.”

“Ok, I’m listening.”

“When I first met him, it was at a Charity dinner. Everyone was just chatting, suddenly, a fire alarm sounded, so all the guests were beelined to the exit. I didn’t even see the smoke, there was nothing in the air except the smell of alcohol.”

“Did someone activate the fire alarm by mistake?”

“Yes. I felt calm at that time, I was thinking that once everyone came to realise that it was activated by mistake, they would calm down. But someone had suddenly grabbed onto my hand. I’ve never been pulled like this before, and that feeling was so special to me.”

“Did he pull the wrong guy?” Hunter curiously asked/

“That’s right. He turned around and was surprised when he saw me, while his female companion for the dinner, who was not far away from him, had pointed a middle finger at him while cursing.”

Winston’s gaze turned soft, even the corners of his lips fell slightly.

“This bro must be pretty miserable. His companion would’ve definitely assumed that he had left her to run away.”

“Um…” Winston closed his eyes, his smile becoming more obvious, “At that time, he knew that he pulled the wrong person, but he still didn’t let go of my hand. Later, I asked him why.”

“Let me guess…” Hunter tilted his head, simulating the scenario in his mind and smiled afterwards, “Did he reply that since he had pulled the wrong person and can’t avoid being misunderstood by his companion, he might as well continue to pull you. It wouldn’t be a loss either.”

“Correct, this was how he replied.”

“Huh?”

He really randomly guessed it right?

“Later on, we would frequently smoke together before the race, and discuss the performance of the race as well as the techniques of the racers afterwards. We would play tennis together, climb mountains, and even go to watch the aurora… Until one day, he asked me if I wanted to go to a barbecue, I told him that I wanted to go to bed early. He replied on the phone that my work-rest habit was like an old man.

“You only pretend to be an old man.”

Hunter thoughtfully smiled, regardless of the warehouse bar in Montreal, or the ‘Lilith’s night’ in London, Winston wasn’t as cold as he seemed to be.

“At nine o’clock, I was reading a book while leaning onto the bed head, afterwards I picked up a call… the other told me that he crashed into a lampost while driving, it smashed down onto his old jeep… I felt that the things said on the other end of the phone should be someone else’s business, and had nothing to do with him and that all of this wasn’t real. I thought that I should finish my book, then close the lights to sleep, and be able to hear that guy’s voice the next day. That all of these were just a dream.”

“Winston…”

“I drove past the speed limit that day, my team told me that there were several policemen on their motorbikes chasing after me… but I still couldn’t catch up to him. I saw many familiar faces sobbing in the corridors of the hospital. The doctor cleaned up the blood on his body and face and covered his body with a white cloth. I told myself that perhaps it might not be him… he might still be in the operating room, although injured, but perhaps the doctor would tell us that he’s out of danger a few hours later. But while even covered with the white cloth, I could tell from its contours that it was him.”

Hunter’s eyes started to blur.

The surroundings felt like it was soaked in icy cold waters, spreading everywhere, unable to escape.

“Someone told me, told me to not pull off the cloth, to not look… but how could I not look? I lifted off little by little, I saw his familiar soft hair, his boyish forehead, and the huge wound that killed him. I couldn’t help but think if he was in pain? Did he think of me when he was in pain?”

Winston’s voice was still steady, but Hunter could see that his shoulders were trembling.

“It’s enough, Winston… I get it…”

Hunter reached out a hand and pressed his palm to his cheek.

“I called his name, again and again, he still didn’t open his eyes to see me in the end. Just like every time he ran over to hug me because he attained a good rank, I hugged him tight, full of expectations… but there was no response. I thought that as long as I cry and appear devastated, this asshole would immediately spring up and laugh at me, gleefully talking about how good his makeup is, about how hard it is for him to not move! I clenched his hand, imagining how his hand would suddenly tremble, just like when we first met, clenching me tightly… deathly clenching me tightly, telling me how he would be at a loss if he didn’t clench onto me longer…”

Hunter stood up and walked to Winston’s side to hug him strongly.

“After that, I doubted every minute and every second of my life. Wondering if I’m still dreaming, wondering why that asshole doesn’t call me to wake me up.”

We were born alone and got used to being lonely.

If we ever felt warmth, then the loneliness from before would crush us by hundreds and thousands of times more.

“… I’ve sat at the bedhead and thought about it countless times. When was the last time that I saw him? What did he say to me? What were we doing? But I can’t recall anything. Hunter… It turns out that In life, there’d be one person who has never bid goodbye, yet you would still want to see him one last time.”

Winston’s face leaned towards Hunter’s chest, listening to the beat of his heart.

“Yea… Just like my dad, and just like your friend.” Hunter’s heart was moved, hurting together with Winston.

“Don’t do the same to me again, Hunter.”

“Ok.”

“No matter what I do, no matter how angry you get… don’t leave me…”

“Ok.”

Hunter proceeded to hug Winston tight, he didn’t know how else to comfort him.

Winston’s hands rested on Hunter’s waist, he pressed harder onto Hunter’s chest.

“Never ever forget what you’ve promised to me.”

“Of course.”

At this moment, Hunter clearly felt that Winston was depending on him.

He was obviously as strong as him, but he was relying on him like a child.

“It’s late, I should get going.” Winston lightly patted Hunter’s back.

“Let’s sleep together! What if you got swept away by the crazy fans while heading back? You can run back to your hotel in the morning tomorrow.”

Hunter lowered his head and said with a smirk.

“Ok.” Winston’s reply was so natural that Hunter wondered if he had already planned to spend the night here.

–

The author has something to say:

When frying eggs:

Hunter: My birthday wish is super simple!

Winston: What is your wish?

Hunter: Bunny girl party!

Winston: Sure, I’ll give you one on your twentieth birthday.

Hunter: Really?

Winston: You can see but you can’t touch.

Hunter: You might as well punch me and make me faint… damn it.

nura: I’m releasing two (unedited) chapters today as an end of year special! Please rememeber to click next~