Wild Dogs on a Desolate Street

[Blurb]

After a night shift at a blind massage parlor, Yi Wan taps his white cane as he walks home. For the umpteenth time, he encounters an obstacle in the middle of the tactile paving. He has no idea whether this time it's a fallen shared bike or a carelessly placed sign.

Yi Wan gives a cold laugh. For a blind man living alone in this city, life is harder than climbing to heaven.

He loses patience and, without caring what the thing in front of him is, swings his arm back and brings all his strength down on it with his white cane.

A muffled thud. The "obstacle" lets out a pained groan. It turns out to be a person lying by the roadside, like a stray dog.

*

After meeting Fei Qian, Yi Wan feels as if he's taken in a filthy, stinking stray dog.

The guy has no sense of decency at all. Taking advantage of the fact that Yi Wan is blind and lives on the first floor, he finds all sorts of ways to climb through the window and mooch food, drink, and a place to sleep every day.

Even after Yi Wan changes the locks on the window ten thousand times, nearly sealing the whole thing shut with aluminum alloy, he still can't keep Fei Qian out. Fei Qian always waits for him late at night, when he gets home from the massage parlor, smelling of blood and cheap cigarettes. He squats in Yi Wan's bedroom and calls out in his usual nonchalant manner, "Hey, blind guy, mind if I hang out here for a bit?"

Yi Wan: "Are you ugly? I'm a looks person. I only let handsome guys stay over."

Fei Qian: "I'm hideously ugly."

Yi Wan: "Then get lost. I'd rather take in a dog than you."

Fei Qian: "Come on. I can work as a guide dog, too."

*

On the day the police sirens blare, Yi Wan's keen hearing makes him the first to hear the police dogs barking and the loudspeaker crackling as it threatens and urges the people inside to surrender.

Hating his own sightless eyes, he whirls around in a panic and grabs Fei Qian by the collar, trying to ask what is going on. But the person behind him pulls him tightly into an embrace that smells of cigarettes and leather, then presses a wild, passionate kiss to his lips.

He hides in a dark corner, listening to the footsteps draw closer amid the piercing sirens. In the depths of his terror and the darkness, he desperately reaches out his tongue, clinging to the only warmth he can touch as he kisses and cries.

At last, Fei Qian pulls away from his lips. Still wearing that same carefree expression, he chuckles softly by Yi Wan's ear.

"Blind guy, time's up. Let me say one last thing to you."

"I love you."

#Born a stray dog on a deserted street, beaten to death with no one to grieve for me. If no one will save me, I'll save myself#

#Being a stray dog on a deserted street hurts too much. I want to be a happy guide dog, wagging my tail#

This story has a happy ending!!!

[Bonus Scene]

Yi Wan reaches his front door and realizes he forgot his keys. He's looking through the ads pasted on the plaster wall for a locksmith when the man behind him reaches out and pulls the name badge from his chest.

"What are you-"

Before he can finish the word, there's a crisp click, and the lock has been picked.

"Guess there's nothing like going back to your old line of work," Yi Wan thinks helplessly, trying to take back his badge.

A hand rests lightly on his chest. He hears Fei Qian laugh in his ear. "There's no lock in this world I can't pick, including the lock on your heart, blind guy."

"You're so cheesy you could fry a whole plate of food, you damn thief." Yi Wan says this, but still finds the man's lips with unerring accuracy. Then he teases him with a light flick, delighting in the way the breathing beside him grows heavier and heavier.

Content warnings: Fei Qian really does go to prison for manslaughter. The love interest really does have low vision, and it won't be cured by the ending. Both are each other's first and only love.

Theme: Hold fast to your ideals and convictions.