He Broke Me to My Lover's Music, Now the CEO Chases Me novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Four Hours

Mingzhou woke with a dead arm and a man's head on his chest.

Pale sun came through the curtains. The harbour horn had stopped.

At some point in the night Yuheng had slid down from sitting to lying, and he had one arm thrown across Mingzhou's waist and his face turned into the pillow.

He was still asleep.

His breathing was slow and deep.

The line between his eyebrows, the one he wore at every meeting, was gone.

Mingzhou lay there and did not know what to do with his own heart.

The door opened a crack.

Ou Jin's face appeared, and then the rest of him, tiptoeing in his socks.

He stopped when he saw the bed.

He took off his glasses, wiped them on his tie, and put them back on.

"It's seven twenty," he whispered.

"I know," Mingzhou whispered.

"He has the board at nine."

"I know."

"He hasn't slept more than two hours in a row since the plane." Ou Jin's voice cracked slightly. "Five years. He's tried pills, a clinic in Zurich, a monk. Last night I checked the monitor on the stairs. He slept four hours and ten minutes."

Mingzhou stared at him.

"Please," Ou Jin said, "don't move."

"I'm losing the feeling in my arm."

"Lose it."

He backed out of the room and shut the door softly.

Mingzhou stayed where he was.

It was strange, he thought, to be the thing that worked.

For eight months he had been the thing that got in the way. Now a hand on his hip, and a few bars of a song he hadn't known he knew, had put this man to sleep.

He thought about the way Yuheng had said it.

Two hours. On a good night.

Without asking for anything.

At seven fifty Yuheng woke.

It happened all at once. His eyes opened, his whole body went rigid, and for one raw second Mingzhou saw how frightened he was.

Then he saw where he was.

He sat up so fast that the blanket went with him.

"I didn't..." Yuheng started.

"You fell asleep," Mingzhou said.

"I don't fall asleep."

"You did," Mingzhou said. "For four hours and ten minutes. Ou Jin was very moved."

Yuheng looked at the clock, and then at Mingzhou.

For once, he had nothing smooth to say.

He pushed a hand through his hair, which made it stand up on one side, and Mingzhou had to look at the ceiling.

"What did you do?" Yuheng asked.

"Nothing."

"Mingzhou."

"I hummed." Mingzhou sat up, too, with his own hair a wreck and his shirt twisted. "Four bars. That was all."

← Chapter 4 · All chapters · Chapter 6 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend