Ex Syndrome

[False aloof beauty, gravity-type top x touch-starved, spoiled, temperamental, sharp-tongued sweetheart bottom]

Ye Zhiyang dumped Gu Xiuyan.

That seemed perfectly in character for him.

He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, the whole family's precious darling. Growing up, he got everything he wanted.

He was exceptionally refined and beautiful, and exceptionally spoiled, too.

A sudden, clean break was nothing. He could afford to do that.

But this was Gu Xiuyan.

The Gu Xiuyan who was so far ahead of his peers that even the older generation found him intimidating. The Gu Xiuyan who was always cool and indifferent toward others, but treated Ye Zhiyang differently.

In Gu Xiuyan's arms, Ye Zhiyang wasn't a brat who made a fuss over everything. He was a good boy who wanted nothing more than his big brother's attention. Gu Xiuyan was the best big brother, the calm to his little drama queen, and the guide who showed him the way through life.

He was the boyfriend Ye Zhiyang had begged for, crying, making a scene, and threatening to kill himself.

But having his big brother become his boyfriend wasn't as wonderful as he'd imagined.

The first time Ye Zhiyang asked to break up was after he sneaked out in the middle of the night to dance at a male-model bar. Gu Xiuyan caught him and took him home for a scolding. As Gu Xiuyan soothed him, Ye Zhiyang blew on his bright red palm and cried that it hurt, sobbing, "I didn't, I didn't use this hand to feel his abs! You hit the wrong one!"

The 1,001st time Ye Zhiyang asked to break up was on the eve of going abroad. By then, their disagreements had piled up, and they fought almost every day.

Gu Xiuyan's gaze darkened. A rose thorn had pricked his finger, drawing blood, but he still didn't let go. His jaw clenched, though he pretended to be casual as he asked, "You don't like the gift, or do you think I'm being too controlling again?"

"I just think it's exhausting." Ye Zhiyang stared into his burning eyes. "I feel like I can't breathe when I'm with you. Please let me go."

At first, asking to break up was a way to throw a tantrum. Later, it became a way to get what he wanted. Ye Zhiyang had said he wanted to break up and be free a thousand times. Gu Xiuyan would coax him, kiss him, hold him, see what he really wanted, buy him toys, cars, and villas, and promise he could have anything as long as he didn't say they were breaking up.

But he never expected Gu Xiuyan to agree the 1,001st time.

He said, "Fine. But this is the last time I'll indulge you."

Years after going abroad, they met again. Gu Xiuyan, who'd been dumped without warning, sat at the head of the table in an expensive suit, the picture of a sophisticated, successful man. His expression was as cold as snow that had never melted.

The ex who'd been dumped so cruelly wasn't on good terms with him, and Ye Zhiyang didn't dare look up.

Before, if Gu Xiuyan saw him at a bar with some man whose relationship with him was unclear, he would have said, "You dare wag your tail at someone else? I guess life has been too easy for you."

But now, all he got was a cold, indifferent glance.

The huge difference made Ye Zhiyang feel as if his heart were being squeezed tight.

As they clinked glasses, his fingers brushed Gu Xiuyan's. His touch-starved skin flared up at once, as fierce as a wildfire, burning so intensely that he could barely stand.

His long-suppressed condition had encountered both its true trigger and its cure. The uncontrollable longing set his very soul ablaze.

"...Can I touch your abs again? Please, big brother."

Dazed and trembling all over, Ye Zhiyang buried his face in the man's palm, breathing out the smell of alcohol. His fingers spread and reached downward. At last, the maddening craving was about to be eased, if only a little.

Gu Xiuyan held a lit cigarette between two fingers and exhaled a ring of smoke. Looking down at the person lying across his thighs and thanking him, he curled his lip into a cold smile.

The boy he'd raised with his own hands had abandoned him and left. Now, just as he'd been trying to move on, the boy had come back. He didn't know whether love or hate had won out, but one thing was certain.

He closed his hand around that slender wrist and said calmly, "My indulgence and generosity are only for the person I love. Given what we are now, 'thank you' isn't enough."

A preview of my upcoming story, Being His Son Would Be Nice Too. Please add it to your collection! Here's the blurb:

"That's right. I'm your long-lost biological son."

In an elegant, retro-style cafe in the Upper District, seventeen-year-old Ji Shute wore a faded old outfit. He surreptitiously rubbed the mud off his soles against the carpet and looked sincerely at the impeccably dressed, powerful man across from him.

He'd grown up without a father or mother, scraping by in the Lower District. His handsome, mixed-race-looking face and his thunderous attitude of "What are you looking at?" and "If you've got a problem, let's fight" had earned him plenty of enemies.

A few days earlier, he'd accidentally offended a young master said to be from the Upper District. When a row of towering bodyguards came to corner him and take revenge, Ji Shu hid in a half-height trash can with a garbage bag over his head, peeking out at the bodyguards searching for him.

The young master from the capital was in a panic, talking into his phone. "What did you say? My brother has an illegitimate child? How is that possible? If the old man dies, won't his illegitimate child take an even bigger share of my inheritance?"

"Come on, let's hurry home!"

Ji Shu's small canine tooth showed as he pondered this.

Liang Jingyang looked at the child in front of him, who seemed about fifteen or sixteen, and thought that unless he'd gotten someone pregnant while still a minor, there was no way he could have a son that old.

Still, the old man had recently been using a fake illness to pressure him into marrying and having a child. He insisted that he wanted to see a grandchild before he died.

"If... if you don't believe me, I have proof..."

Ji Shu was intimidated by the other man's steady, imposing manner and hurriedly pulled out a stack of forged documents and a death certificate.

Liang Jingyang undid his cufflinks, took a tissue, and wiped the sweat from the boy's temple. He said gently, "Being my child won't be easy. I'll take you to meet Grandpa in a bit. What will you say if he tells you he wants to find you a new mother?"

Ji Shu froze. "O-okay?"

"You have to say that your dad belongs to you alone, and nobody else is allowed to take him away." The man fixed his gaze on Ji Shu. "You don't want a mother."

"I want a little troublemaker who'd turn the world upside down, not a well-behaved child. Got it?"

Ji Shu thought, What kind of bizarre demand is that?

He quickly nodded.

Liang Jingyang's lips lifted slightly. "Good. Now let me hear you call me Dad."

Theme: Return to the beginning, before everything falls apart