They sat like that for another half hour. Gill telling wild stories, Yuen surprisingly enjoyed them and found himself laughing in the way he does with his own friends.

A number of these stories were about Iahn, and the crazy things this boy did as a child.

Honestly, some of it sounded exactly like stuff Shi Qingyi does, has done, or has no doubt thought about doing.

The stories differed from trying to pop popcorn by wrapping it in tinfoil and hiding behind the couch while he used a laser pointer on it and when that didn’t work, he used two laser pointers, the heat of the sun, and a flashlight. To the time he put on a pair of his mother’s tallest heels (which happened to be a pair of 6-inch, hot pink, and blinding levels of glittery stacked-stilettos) because he was too short to reach the cookie jar Gill had tried to hide from him and this savage old man just watched from the doorway — just to see if toddler Iahn could actually get it.

That boy has a bloodhound’s nose for sweet things. Gill used to bribe him into doing his homework with them. For every worksheet he finished, he got a treat of some kind, and boy did it work.

Iahn went from the lower rung of his class to holding the top spot for three years in a row, and it fostered a thirst for knowledge that Gill had never been able to instill in anyone else he had taught, in all his years as a teacher.

They weren’t all good stories though. Some of them were… almost cruel. Not the stories themselves but what led up to them. Iahn did something funny because he was upset, and he was upset because of something no kid should ever have to worry about.

Most of them lead right back to one person and Yuen found his blood boiling at the mere thought of that hag.

Even Gill admitted that he and his daughter don't have the best relationship, though it was better than when she was Yuen’s age.

"Sorry if this is rude, but can I ask why you don’t get along?"

Yuen had tried before but no matter how much he thought, he could not wrap his head around what that woman’s deal is and he couldn’t pass up this opportunity to find out if she actually has a reason for being the way she is. So, he muddled up a little shameless courage and asked, but he wasn’t going to hold out any hope.

It would be one thing if she was a shitty person and admitted that she was, because at least then it would just be her being true to herself, but his problem with her is that she thinks she’s a good & decent person when she isn't.

Yuen may be a little biased because he already hates her, and fully admits that he’s no saint, but at least he doesn’t pretend to be, and he doesn’t have any respect for assholes who think they’re angels.

Gill sighed deeply as if he was expecting a question like this, and suppressed a small cough before he answered, "Some things happened between her mother and me when she was a teenager and she's never forgiven me, even though my wife & I worked it out in the end."

He sighed again, shaking his head. "My daughter has always been high-strung and free-spirited and has a habit of taking her feelings out on others. I will be the first to admit that she's not a considerate person and rarely puts herself in another person’s shoes. I had hoped she would grow out of it once she became an adult, once she realized that couples fight and it's not necessarily a bad thing to have occasional squabbles with the people you share space with and that there’s no reason to turn things that ultimately don’t matter into life-long grudges. So long as you make up, admit it when you hurt someone else and apologize,"

'Easier said than done,' Yuen shifted as the bitter thought flitted across his mind and unconsciously glanced at the treehouse.

"And work out the problems together, then everything is fine. But sadly, I don’t think she’s learned anything from growing up. Even now, she still acts out like she did all through her teens. Perhaps that’s just what sort of person she is. I suppose it makes her strong in the face of adversity, in her own way. Maybe she just needs more time and more experience.”

“I hate to admit that it was probably my fault. As her parent, I didn’t teach her how to apologize properly and I was not a great role model for making up with people. Unfortunately, she got her stubbornness from me. I didn’t teach her about when it was time to give in and the importance of differentiating what matters. Back then I didn’t have the words that I do now. I was a young man myself in many ways. Perhaps too many."

“Now, all I can hope for is that she will realize on her own that if something won’t matter to you in a month or a year, then it’s not worth holding onto, and if it will then, well… thinking of things in these terms makes it easy to figure out what is really important and help you let go of what isn’t. I admit it’s easier said than done though.”

In other words, Yuen was exactly right about that woman being an incapable parent and a vain person, but he didn't understand everything about her.

She's also petty, immature, jaded, has a few complexes, and is about as far from being an introspective person as a person can get.

And he also may have judged her rashly, but he still believed she was a bad person, and it would take a miracle to change his mind. Especially knowing that she’s always been like this with pretty much everybody and there’s almost no chance that she will change.

"She got better when she met Iahn's father." Gill's face sunk as if he had lost his own child.

"That boy was the best thing that ever happened to our family. He was the only person my daughter ever listened to, and in many ways, I suppose he was the only one who ever listened to her either, at least in her mind."

"After he passed away, my daughter and I grew distant, but I suppose that's better than being angry and impatient with one another for the rest of our lives. I only wish she didn't grow distant from Iahn as well. She was never fond of children, but Iahn's father was a good man and loved kids, and he was happier than anyone to be a father. They were young when they had and didn't have much money. So Iahn often stayed with my wife and me to look after, while they were working, but his father always made time for him. He was a good father. Better than I ever could have been."

Yuen had no comment for that.

It was obvious Gill felt guilty and was disappointed with his daughter, blaming himself for her turning out that way, but honestly, Yuen didn’t think it was his fault. There’s only so much you can blame on upbringing, and people fighting is normal, that doesn’t mean you’re responsible for someone else’s shitty attitude about it.

Besides, he said they worked things out, didn’t they? Then it’s her own problem that she hasn’t dealt with her feelings about something that she wasn’t even involved in.

Yeah, it sucks when people you’re close with get into a fight — trust him, he had a friend group of teenage boys and some of them are highly competitive, there was no shortage of arguments — but if they work it out and forgive each other there’s no reason you shouldn’t either. And there’s definitely no reason for you to hold a grudge over someone else’s argument for so long. That’s ridiculous. You can’t get much pettier than that. Just let bygones be bygones and move on with your life for Pete’s sake.

No one said it was easy, but it isn’t that hard.

What Iahn’s father (or his own for that matter) saw in this woman, Yuen will never understand.

The temperature outside started to rapidly decline and the two only sat and talked for another few minutes before the cold got to them and they moved inside, where Gill started making hot chocolate as it grew darker outside. He wanted to send the boys off right before they catch the last train home.

Yuen watched him, and helped a little bit, getting mugs and things for the number of people they had. He’d spent long enough talking to the old man to know he’s sick. Really sick. He had asked the old-timer if he was okay, but Gill merely smiled after his coughing fit. “I am old, my boy. There comes a point in your life when you have done all you intend and are ready to reunite with old friends. Just like those young ones out there, I too have friends I haven't seen in a long time. Ones whom it is about time I paid a visit to.”

It occurred to Yuen after a few seconds of contemplation and thinking about his own circle of friends — the ones he hopes they'll be friends for life, that they haven’t heard or seen the preteens in almost an hour.

Gill chuckled, drawing Yuen’s attention as the old man handed him a steaming cup of warm chocolate.

“Watch.” He cracked open the window above the sink and leaned back on the counter, with a patient and mischievous smile. Waiting.

Yuen wasn’t sure what was going on but one second, he thought Gill might not be all there, and the next Iahn was at the window, fingers latched over the white windowsill and only a pair of eyes peering over the edge as he stood on his tiptoes to see inside the kitchen. “Is that hot chocolate?”

Yuen choked on the drink he’d barely taken a sip of, and Gill burst out laughing; The other preteens outside howled in hysterics, with one or two actually collapsing from laughter.

They’d watched the whole thing through the other windows strategically placed throughout the spacious homey kitchen. Hell— they’d followed their best friend the second he had sniffed and stood up, going directly around the side of the house.

They knew that look and had kept to their tradition of looking at Mira who wiggled her eyebrows as she said, “The hunt is on.”

Iahn ignored his friend’s dying — as it happens all the time, in favor of watching in wonder as Yuen choked, scrambling to put the cup down without spilling it and coughing his lungs out into his elbow.

He had actually never seen Yuen smile so openly. ...Not when he’s around at least. He’s seen his gummy smile once or twice before, but never without the teen’s friends around. They were the only people Yuen seemed to smile with.

After Yuen was done choking, he took another sip — actually getting a chance to taste this one — and he was in heaven. It was like liquid euphoria.

Meanwhile, the preteens ran around the house to the living room — which was visible through the kitchen — and climbed through the window one after another, like bunny rabbits through a doggie door.

‘What is it with these kids and windows?’

Yuen is kind of amazed that Gill lets them do this sort of thing. Most people would scold kids for climbing through windows and not using the door, but the old man was simply smiling, sipping his cocoa as he watched them with fond eyes; not bothered in the slightest.

“Springy little ones, aren’t they? Been that way since they were tots, not one of them clear of mud,” The old gentleman chuckled with a little nostalgia.

The preteens lined up on the other side of the counter bar and grabbed their mugs singing “Thank You~” in increasingly ridiculous voices until it got to Iahn who used a startlingly deep tone.

For a second Yuen actually thought the kid's boys dropped right then, but Iahn’s voice and expression were back to normal half a second later, and he seemed to be the only one who was wondering what the Hell that was.

Gill and the kids were just laughing, watching Iahn’s eyes roll back in bliss for the chocolatey substance as if he did this all the time. He felt a little awkward for being the only one to think that was odd, but strangely enough, it didn’t make him feel out of place. He couldn't say if this was what Iahn was usually like around these people, but it was certainly the first time Yuen had seen any of this. Who knew Iahn was the comedy relief in his group? Yuen only had him pegged as the shy kid, but after this trip, he was seriously doubting his evaluations. Maybe Iahn was more like the quiet kid than a shy kid if you know what I mean. And that’s even weirder because Yuen of all people should have recognized one of his own from the minute they saw each other.

As he was watching, Yuen noticed one of the boys watching Iahn with slightly more fondness than the others and a slightly redder face. An expression that Yuen has seen between some of his friends a lot.

He looked back and forth between the two for the remainder of their hot chocolate time, politely turning down cake while the preteens — Iahn especially — jumped at it and devoured every crumb on their plates; One of them literally licking it clean while their friends laughed.

Iahn didn't seem to be aware of how his friend was looking at him but he's so… touchy with his friends. It reminds Yuen (yet again) of his own friends, always some sort of touching like they're afraid each other will disappear, messing around, arms over shoulders, hugs, high fives, teasing, hair ruffling, even sitting and laying on each other. You didn't need eyes to see that they were an incredibly close, tight-knit group.

It was almost enough to make Yuen second-guess his creeping suspicion, but you could say he & his friends are the more experienced version of this little group. He knew what he was looking at. It would be hard not to recognize it after he'd spent so long around two people who were much less subtle (and yet still too dense to realize it).

Whatever, it's not his place to meddle, they'll figure it out eventually, and as for these kids... setting aside the fact that this also isn't any of his business, they might be just a little too young to fully understand themselves and their feelings.

Some people figure this out right away, but for others, it can take a while and he's not about to out a kid he just met to all of his friends, especially based on a hunch (more like educated guess).

Iahn got up, pulling Yuen out of his thoughts, and got his backpack out in the living room, and passed some pages between his friends, who immediately lost their shit as soon as they realized what they were looking at.

He had drawn portraits of all of them together and done a copy for each of them. He said it was because he missed them — which he did — but he actually drew them whenever he was having a really hard time. It made him feel like they were there with him, all his friends around to cheer him up, and made his day feel a little less dark.

He wanted to stay here forever and go back to the way things used to be, but he knew he had to go back eventually. Even if he could come back here to stay, it would take time to try to convince his mom, and several weeks after that to make the arrangements. He would do everything himself if it would convince her.

Iahn looked around at his friends and his resolve hardened. He will convince her. No matter how long it takes — even if he has to try for years, even if he has to wait until he’s eighteen and she can’t stop him anymore. He will come back here and live with grandpa and take care of him as he gets older in the house that Iahn grew up in.

After the wonderful visit finally came to an end, Iahn said a long, reluctant goodbye to his grandpa, promising to visit again as soon as possible, and took one last look at his art room again before going outside to say another reluctant goodbye to his friends.

Yuen was about to go out when Gill stopped him to hand over an envelope.

Yuen raised a questioning eyebrow, but the man just gave him a smile, eyes full of sympathy and trust that twisted his gut and made him unable to look the elder in the eye, “This may be of use when times are tough.”

Yuen took the old envelope and was about to open it, but Gill cut off his train of thought, “Go on now you two. You don’t want to miss your train. The next one isn’t until morning.”

Iahn waved almost desperately to his grandpa, wanting nothing more than to stay here as they started off.

The old man waved from the porch, smiling; one hand resting atop the cane his brilliant grandson detailed for him, and Yuen carefully thumbed the envelope in his pocket wondering what was in it and when he would be back here with Iahn again.

He wouldn’t put it past Iahn to ask to come visit every time something happens that warrants a gift. And Yuen has a feeling that he will always be the one designated to bring him here, seeing as the hag isn’t too keen on seeing her father and Yuen’s own father is always busy.

He could complain but… at least he wouldn’t mind talking to Gill again. The old man had some wild stories to tell, and he felt like he had only scratched the surface even though they had talked for hours today.

Yuen isn’t big on road trips but maybe next time he should drive. Having to deal with train stuff and public transportation is more hassle than just taking his own car, even if it’s a bit of a long drive.