Lately, It's Winter Season.
Chapter 39 - It already exists.
I woke up feeling thirsty. I was about to get up and go to the kitchen, but as soon as I moved, a sharp pain suddenly came from below. The pain was so bad that I lost my balance and fell face down on the floor, making a loud noise that woke up the person next to me, who was sleeping soundly and screamed.
“Ben! What's wrong with you?!” Sing rushed to help me up, frowned when he saw blood coming out of my nose, then grabbed a tissue next to the bed to wipe the blood for me.
“What are you suddenly doing face down on the floor?”
“I was going to get some water, but my back hurts so much.”
“Beennn…”
"What?"
“Does it hurt? Because I did it?” Sing pouted, looking apologetic.
“You'll see when you see it.” I glared at him, “It's just a little nosebleed and you're making a fuss.”
“But you're bleeding! You're my wife, how can I not take care of you?”
“I'm fine.” I replied, “Have you forgotten? I've worked with you for so many years, it's just a nosebleed.”
“What if you bleed to death?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“You were bleeding somewhere else last night.”
“…!”
I glanced at it helplessly: "Why mention that?"
“Sorry…” Sing lowered his head, his expression slightly regretful, “I was too strong and hurt your waist, and… I was a bit too loud, so I made you bleed…”
“…!”
“It hurts so much that you can't even stand up. You're too weak. I thought you were better?”
Just apologised and then turned around and said I was weak?
“Try lying down, you bastard.” I couldn’t help but growl, “I almost died! You know it was my first time, and you didn’t hold back at all!”
I was still confident that I was strong enough, even though I had not been active for a while, but I didn't expect that doing it 'down there' would be so exhausting. It hurt so much that I couldn't speak a word. Although the feeling afterwards wasn't bad, during the act, it really sucked all my energy out. I'm not sure about others, but I couldn't stand it.
“But you told me to be rough. I get aroused easily. If you told me to be rough and I did it lightly, isn't that like looking down on you?”
“Okay, okay.” I waved my hand, “Never mind. Get me a glass of water, I'm thirsty.”
"Okay."
Sing stood up to get me some water. Looking out the window, it was already morning. I took the glass of water and suddenly suggested:
“How about taking turns? Even and odd days?”
"Are not!"
“What's wrong? Let's try it.”
“Ben, give me a break. Just this.”
“I knew you wouldn’t give in.” I sighed. At first, I thought I would be the one to take the initiative, but I met someone who felt the same way. In the end, I was the one who had to give in, as usual. In the ten years we’ve known each other, I’ve never seen Sing give in. I’m the only one who always has to give in.
“Do you want anything to eat? Or do you want to do anything? Take a bath?”
“What else?”
“Seeing you like this, as a husband, I have to take care of you. Just because you have a wife, I can't neglect her.”
“Don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. Just do it like before, like when we were friends.”
“How can you take care of yourself? You can't even get yourself a glass of water.” Sing frowned at me.
“Now I just have a pain in my waist.”
“And you still want to act like you were friends?
You are my wife now!”
“And then?”
“I have to take care of you. I love you so much.”
"I'm just afraid you'll be reluctant."
“What's there to be reluctant about? If I didn't want to do it, I wouldn't have done it, you know that.”
“That's right.” I nodded, put the glass of water down next to the bed, “What's wrong with looking at me like that?”
“Ben.”
"What?"
“Do you like it here?”
“I like it, if I don't like it, then why would I come?”
“What about staying with me? Which do you like better?”
“What a stupid question. Of course, I like being with you.” I answered immediately, making Sing, who was worried, smile.
“What? I get to go back with you?” I asked in surprise. I had made a big deal out of leaving the gang; if I shamelessly returned now, the leader would definitely order me to be killed.
“I've decided to take you back, so who dares say anything? As my first wife too.”
“…!”
I was speechless when I heard the two words, ‘first wife,’ and thought, ‘Just leave me in my old position.’
"Impossible."
“What about your dad? Doesn't he object?”
"No."
“No objection, but you can shoot me dead.”
“He won’t do anything; he respects me a lot. I’m the branch leader and the heir.” Sing said confidently, “But I don’t want you to come back to work, I’m worried. If something happens to you, how will I live?”
“You would die without me.” I replied, “Didn't you say you couldn't do anything without me?”
“But… Ben…” Sing started whining again. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. He wasn’t usually this whiny. “I don’t want you to get in trouble. Just do the paperwork, okay?”
“Are you crazy? I hate paperwork the most.” I pouted, “We’ve worked together for more than ten years, now that you have me, you’re whining, you devil?”
“I care about you. I want to take care of you, too.”
“Then go get another glass of water.”
“Okay!”
Oh, so positive. I got another glass of water from it. “Anything else?”
“It's over. I want to go back to sleep.” I said and then lay down with difficulty, falling asleep immediately because I was so tired. When I woke up, the place beside me was empty. The pain was better than before, at least it was no longer so sharp that I couldn't sit up. I slowly stood up and went to look for Sing.
“Sing.”
“Huh?!” Sing was cooking when he immediately threw down the spatula and ran to help me, “Why didn’t you call me?”
“I can walk by myself; it hurts less.” I let him help me to the dining table. “Are you cooking?”
"YES."
“You've never cooked anything in your life, have you?”
“Yes. But when my wife is sick, it's my responsibility, right?” He continued to stir-fry something as he spoke, “I watched the tutorial video; it's not that difficult.”
“Really?” I looked at its clumsy appearance and suddenly found it adorable, “Getting to eat the food you cook is something I never thought of.”
“Yeah, just this once.”
"What's wrong?"
“I see you are about to lose it.”
“Didn't I say it wasn't difficult?”
“Chopping vegetables and meat is not difficult.” Sing replied without turning to look at me, “But stir-frying is difficult. Half of the vegetables and meat spilt out of the pan.”
“Oh.” I just noticed the kitchen was a mess. “You can order takeout, I'm afraid it will be too much for you.”
“Yeah, call it. I give up, you devil!” He threw the pebble down helplessly.
“Turn off the stove.”
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
“What to eat?”
“Actually, I want to eat the rice you cook.”
“Look at my condition.” I glared at him, “Order something. If I feel better by this afternoon, we can go to the supermarket.”
“What are you going to do? The closet is full.”
“Celebrating your birthday. Yesterday was your birthday, and we didn't celebrate anything.”
“Oh yeah, that's right.”
“Um.” I nodded, picked up the phone and ordered breakfast.
“Ben.”
"What?"
"Why did you make up with me?"
“Huh? You don't want me to make up?” I raised my head to look at him, “Then we can continue arguing.”
“No! No more arguing!” He pouted a little, “It’s just that at first I thought you would be very angry if I came three months late, and I had to coax you a lot. I even prepared a plan to coax you.”
“Just having you standing in front of my house made me soften.” I said bluntly, “Why should I be angry with you any longer? You’re here already, and I understand that the reason you’re late is because of work. Besides, you love me too, you just realised it a little late, so there’s no reason to be angry anymore.”
“Um, I see.”
“Yeah, good. Don't ask stupid questions anymore.”
“Why do you look so upset?”
"Back-ache."
"Are you mad at me?"
“Not angry, I told you I was upset because of back pain.”
“But your back pain is because of me.”
“Yeah, but I'm not mad at you.”
“No, it was me. Are you mad at me?” Sing started whining again. Why did it feel like he was looking for trouble? “Bennnnn.”
"What?!"
“Hey, raise your voice at me.”
“You are looking for trouble with me.”
“I'm not looking for trouble! Aren't you mad at me?”
“What’s wrong with you?” I asked again, not understanding. He wasn’t angry but he wanted to be angry, “You want me to be angry?”
“Sob.”
“Wait, what are you crying about?”
“You yelled at me.” Sing started crying, just like the day he cried over Tiger. Tiger would just say something, and he would run to me for comfort. I didn’t think he could cry over anything other than his brother. But now he was crying over me… damn it, I couldn’t be harsh with him anymore. I had to be careful not to curse,
“Sob… You don’t love me anymore?”
“Love.”
“Sob… sob sob… I’m sorry, I won’t do it too hard anymore. But I tried to be as gentle as possible at first.”
“No, no, it's okay. I was just a little upset, but it's gone now.” I smiled brightly, “Look at me smiling, I'm in a good mood.”
"You fake smile."
“Huh?”
“I can see it, sob.”
“Oh my god… It's just because my back hurts, so I'm not in much of a mood, but I'm not angry with you, nor am I upset with you.”
“But your back hurts because of me… And you fell face down on the ground because of me, too…”
“So next time you do it below?”
"No."
“Doing it from below is a little painful.” I sighed. No matter how much my back hurt, I still had to try to sit up and comfort Sing, who was crying unreasonably, “You don’t have any experience yet, so let’s take it slow, okay?”
“Sob… sob… Is it because I'm not good at it?”
“Not that you're not good. You're very good.”
“Really?” He looked in disbelief, tears still streaming down his face.
“Really. Last night felt amazing.”
“How amazing?”
… How much more does it want to ask? I gritted my teeth and continued speaking.
“My eyes were floating. Like, up in the tenth heaven. You're so good, Sing. I'm not lying. I thought it was really good for both of us, being our first time .”
“Sob… really?”
"Real."
“You feel good, right?”
"Very good."
“Sob… then it’s okay.” Sing finally stopped crying. I breathed a sigh of relief, “I was afraid I didn’t do well… seeing you in pain, I was worried.”
“Oh my gosh, pain is normal! I looked it up, and everyone gets pain. But after the pain, you will feel it. Don’t worry too much.”
“Um…”
“Yeah, is it okay? Not worried anymore?”
“Um.”
"Good."
“Ben, next time I will do better, so it will hurt less.”
“Um hmm.”
“But… about the size… I don’t know what to do.” He spoke so seriously that I almost looked bored. But I was afraid he would continue whining, so I secretly sighed in my heart. Normally, I would have scolded him because his face looked really hateful right now.
“Yes.” I nodded.
*************
We went to a restaurant in town for breakfast. Sing ordered a bunch of food for me, telling me to eat a lot so I could get well soon. Then we went to the supermarket to buy items for Sing's little birthday party. When we got home, he offered to help me cook, but I noticed that he was just getting in the way, so I told him to go and attend to other things.
The table was covered with food, candles lit to set the mood, and two glasses of wine were half-filled. We sat across from each other. We celebrated birthdays like this every year, but it never felt as romantic as this year, even though it was no different.
“So when do we go home?” I asked while eating.
“Tomorrow,” Sing replied.
“Okay.” I nodded, “I thought you had some time off and would stay and play for a bit. It’s beautiful here.”
“What a pity, I really wanted to go out with you. But something urgent happened, so I sent everyone home first; we'll be the only ones going home later.”
“What?”
"You will know when you get home."
"Why hide?"
“Since we have a chance to celebrate a happy birthday like this, let's not talk about stress anymore.” Sing raised his eyebrows.
“Ok, so what should we talk about?” I nodded.
“About us.”
“What else is there to say?” I frowned, “We don't need to get to know each other anymore.”
"What about later?"
“Just be together. What's wrong? Do you want to do something?”
“I will publicly announce you as 'big sister-in-law'.”
I sighed when I heard that.
“Eldest sister-in-law? Does that mean there is also a younger sister-in-law?”
“Yes, Tiger has a boyfriend.”
“Oh, is that the kid? The one he's had a crush on for years?” I asked, and Sing nodded in response.
We continued chatting while eating. Until the meal was almost over, suddenly there was the sound of breaking glass at the back of the house. We both turned around, followed by the sound of footsteps of many people rushing into the house.
“Liam,” I muttered. Since he was a powerful man in this area, and Sing dared to touch him like that, it was no surprise that he would come back to retaliate. What was surprising was how he knew Sing was here, “When you were waiting in front of my house, you weren’t covering your face, right?”
Sing shook his head.
"So how did they track it?"
“I don't think about that at all, I just think about you.”
“Never mind, follow me.” I led Sing down to the storage basement. It was filled with weapons that I kept. Not that many, but just ready for self-defence.
“Is this all?”
“What more could you ask for? This area is peaceful; no one has guns. I have plenty of these.” I said, loading the gun, “Do you have a gun? Oh, forget it, I don’t. Just take it.”
“I'm taking it.”
We stayed inside until someone found us. When one of them opened the door and walked in, Sing punched him, knocking him out instantly. The other two nearby immediately turned their guns to shoot in our direction. We split up, waited for them to get close, then attacked. It ended easily. Dead bodies were scattered around my house.
“You think it's Liam's man?”
"YES."
“I should have killed him at the bar. He touched my wife's ass and sent someone.” Sing gritted his teeth.
“Are you crazy? That's my shop.”
“But you were going to close the shop.”
“It was right not to shoot him,” I said and heard the sound of police cars outside. I knew how Sing could escape arrest. With the weapons he had just pulled out, there was no way he could be released overnight, so he must have had connections. However, if the police came in such large numbers and investigated seriously, it would be a significant problem.
“You go hide first, I’ll deal with it.”
"Okay."
Sing sneaked out the back door. I took a deep breath, tried to act naturally scared, and opened the door for the police to enter and search the house. They quickly took me out first to ensure safety.
“You handled it all yourself?” one of them asked, looking surprised to see the bodies lying everywhere.
“Yes. They came in armed, and I was just defending myself.”
“Are you okay?”
"Are not."
“You did well. We will investigate who they are, don't worry.” A policeman patted my shoulder to reassure me. Suddenly, a voice rang out.
“I know who these guys are!”
"Who?"
“Liam Winston's man. I recognise his face.”
“Liam Winston?” The policeman frowned, “Get someone to look for him now!”
I sat and watched them work for a while until a man who looked like the team leader got a call on the walkie-talkie. He frowned, his expression became serious, and he talked to the other end of the line for about five minutes before coming over to me.
“Sir, Liam Winston – the leader of this group just died a few minutes ago. Our agents found his body.”
“We will thoroughly investigate who is behind this. For now, we will clean up the scene, so you can go home and rest. There will be someone on guard tonight, don’t worry. We may also need your help in investigating this case.”
“He just died a few minutes ago?” I asked again.
“Yes. Or do you have a clue?” I shook my head in response, but it wasn't just a clue—I also knew the mastermind.
Just look at Sing's face when he found out that Liam was behind this. He would never forgive Liam. What about me? I suddenly became a witness and a person present in an important case in the city. Now, how can I go back with Sing tomorrow? And what about Sing? The police are still searching for the killer, which means he hasn't been caught. But where is he? He can't come back to find me because the police are still guarding outside.
I kept thinking about it, feeling regretful because today we could have celebrated Sing's birthday properly.
“Haa…”
“Miss me a lot, right?”
“Damn it!” I was startled when I suddenly saw him appear at the window, “How did you get in here? What about the police?”
“Easy as pie.” He climbed in and sat on the bed.
“I might not be able to go home with you tomorrow. I am an important witness.”
“To find me?”
“Well, I don’t know. Even if it was self-defence, after killing more than a dozen people, they definitely won’t let me go abroad right now. I’m also a key witness, so I mustn’t let anything slip. I think it’s better to wait until things calm down a bit before coming back to you. It’ll probably take a month.”
“No. In a few days, they will find out that it was another gang. It was a small drug gang nearby. So two gangs were taken down at the same time.”
“Are you saying you help the police?”
“Yeah.” Sing chuckled, “I actually have to go back early tomorrow. I don’t want to leave you behind, but it seems like your matter will take a few days, and I can’t wait.”
"Is it such a big deal that you have to rush back?"
“My dad is dead.”
“…!”
I was stunned, “Really?”
“Yeah. He has a chronic illness. I didn’t even know he had one.” Sing continued and called my name,
“Ben.”
“Hmm?”
“The gang is in chaos right now. They have to decide on a successor quickly, and I am one of them. But others are interested. Do you understand?”
I nodded. The branch heads in different countries were all vying for the position to gain power. Even though Sing was the biological son of the supreme leader, anyone else could have taken the position. The gang was currently in chaos without its leader. It was definitely a fierce power struggle, and I could imagine the chaos.
“How long has it been?”
“I just got the news yesterday, right when I came to see you.”
“Now I understand why you had to hurry home.”
"YES."
“Sing, are you okay?” I asked worriedly.
Sing just shook his head, smiling faintly. There was no sadness in his eyes. I understood him well because we had been together for a long time. Both Leo and Tiger had never received love from their father, and neither had their mother. All they had received was physical and mental pain, pressure on all sides. The worst thing was that the father could kill his own son if he felt they were no longer valuable.
Once, it was said that their relationship was more like that of a master and his subordinate. Just because his father treated him well did not mean he loved him. It was just that he had to respect him because he was the branch leader.
“Of my relatives, Tiger is the only one I consider family.”
“I understand.”
“And soon, I will have you too.”
“…?”
“When I'm done with everything, I'll become the supreme leader of the gang… Marry me.”
“Marry… marry?” I widened my eyes.
“Yes. Marriage.” He took out a ring from his pocket, “I originally planned to propose to you at your birthday party, but things turned out like this, and I might have to go back to Thailand now.”
“Ah…”
“Then, when everything is settled, I will come back for you. Then, you will truly be mine.”
“I’ve been yours for a long time.” I smiled, holding out my hand for him to put the ring on. We leaned in, sharing a light kiss, “Come back soon.”
“Yes. Love you.”
“I love you too.”