Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My young boyfriend found his biological parents through a televised reunion program. They were billionaires.
With his striking looks and his parents’ investment, he became an overnight sensation.
But after ten years at his side, I—the person who had loved him through all of it—had become a stain on his reputation.
He was afraid his parents would discover he was gay and throw him out of the family.
I didn’t care. I was dying.
“I’ll marry you.”
Leaning against the filthy wall of an old Greenwich Village lane, I exhaled a thick ring of smoke and looked at him without a flicker of emotion.
The young man froze. Then he took my hand, still dusted with ash, and solemnly slipped the plain metal key ring from his electric scooter onto my finger.
“Bro, this is my engagement gift. From now on, you decide where we go.”
I smiled too.
“Anywhere is fine. Just not New York.”
After ten years as struggling big-city transplants, we’d still ended up with nothing but this miserable life.
Back then, I’d thought we should leave. We could find somewhere with less pressure, settle down, and build a home together.
But only a few days later, Julian was found by the billionaire family he’d never known and taken home.
To make up for the years they’d lost, his family immediately invested in several major productions and cast him as the male lead.
The dream of becoming stars—the dream we’d chased for ten years—came true for him just like that.
I was the only one left hiding in a dark, damp basement, unable to bring myself to call him again.
On television, Julian was being interviewed at the launch of his latest romantic drama. He smiled at the actress playing his leading lady.
I sold the battered electric scooter and used the money for my travel expenses.
“That’s enough, Julian. I’m leaving first.”
Julian Whitmore and I had been classmates at the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts. We were in the same year and shared a dorm room.
Most students at the Academy came from money, so hardly anyone lived on campus. That left just the two of us.
We exchanged polite nods.
Hunching his shoulders, he quietly introduced himself as Julian. I had never been shy around strangers, so I gave him a once-over and said, “With that clean-cut leading-man face, Julian sounds too formal. I’m calling you Jules. It suits you.”
He smiled bashfully, then turned away to make his bed.
Chapter 2
I was considered handsome myself, but beside him, I looked almost rugged. Fortunately, rugged was what casting directors wanted back then. I ran a hand over the stiff stubble on my jaw and thought no more of him.
Julian was timid. After making his own bed, he turned to me and hesitated before asking, “Hey, bro… want me to do yours too?”
I threw an arm around his neck.
“Jules! Are you scared of me?”
He waved his hands awkwardly, and I casually ruffled his glossy black hair.
“Relax. I’m not a bully. I’m Adrian Bennett. You can call me Adrian.”
He looked as though he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“Adrian, I only asked because you’ve been wrestling with that duvet cover for ages. I thought you might need a hand.”
Embarrassed, I rubbed my closely cropped hair.
“Yeah… I’m not very good at this.”
Back then, the dorms still had old iron bed frames instead of loft beds with desks underneath. Since it was only the two of us, we naturally claimed the lower bunks.
Julian was good with his hands. He gave the duvet a single practiced shake, and the cover slipped neatly into place.
Then he folded it into a crisp, perfect rectangle and set it at the head of my bed.
Just like Julian himself: clean and immaculate.
Lately, I had no idea why I was sleeping so much.
It took a full day and night before I finally woke up. Only then did I realize I hadn’t even taken off my heavy coat before curling up and sleeping through the night.
No wonder I still felt exhausted.
After paying the rent, I had only a few thousand yuan left in my bank account.
Where could I go with that?
I hadn’t even figured it out when I remembered what I’d been thinking while researching places to live. Going farther north would be too cold. Julian’s health was too fragile for that. He could barely make it through New York winters without catching one cold after another.
The rainy season down south lasted too long. Julian might break out in a rash, so that was out too. Anywhere farther south would be unbearably hot, and he was allergic to ultraviolet light. He couldn’t go there either.
With someone so delicate to worry about, there were very few places where we could settle down.
Now, of course, none of that mattered anymore.
I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, then leaned against the doorframe and said goodbye to the little place we’d called home for six years.
I took every photograph of Julian and me with me.
It wasn’t because I couldn’t bear to leave them behind. Julian was so famous now that I was afraid the next tenant might recognize him. What if they used the pictures as ammunition and started attacking him online?
That would make me a real sinner.
In stories about this sort of thing, it was always the billionaire’s wife who showed up, slapped a check in my hand, and told me to leave her son.
I had it much worse. Julian’s mother didn’t even know I existed.
A billionaire.
That was a fate neither of us could ever have dreamed of.
I dragged my suitcase out of the shabby apartment building.
Chapter 3
“Adrian! Julian’s been everywhere these past couple of days. Didn’t he say he’d get you a few supporting roles?”
Daniel Brooks leaned against the outdoor air-conditioning unit upstairs, cracking sunflower seeds as he called down to me.
I tipped my head back with a smile and shouted, “I’m done with acting!”
I had taken only a few steps with my suitcase when I looked up again.
“Daniel.”
It took me a moment to find the words. “Sunflower seeds are loaded with calories. You still have acting to do, you know. Cut back a little.”
No one knew about my relationship with Julian.
A few years earlier, I’d been cast as the third-billed actor in a World War II drama. Daniel played a Japanese soldier.
Julian hadn’t been able to find any work at the time. Since he had nothing else to do, I brought him along to play a Japanese soldier too.
He had such a clean-cut, fair face that I covered him in black soot from head to toe.
Daniel was the kind of person who acted like we’d known each other forever. With a handful of sunflower seeds in his pocket, he came over and asked, “Adrian, is this your little brother?”
I looked into Julian’s clear eyes, bright with teasing.
Then I pulled out another generous handful of soot and smeared it over his face.
“Yeah. My brother in all but blood.”
Julian laughed so hard he could barely stand. He kept calling me one name after another.
“Bro! Bro! Adrian! My honorary brother, my real brother!”
Back then, I thought our good days were finally coming. Julian and I had been holed up in a basement apartment, making solemn promises to each other.
“Julian, if I’ve got a piece of meat, you’ll have a bone to gnaw on.”
“You jerk, Adrian! Wrap the meat in dumplings for me, and simmer the bone into soup. Otherwise, I’m not sticking with you.”
I muffled a laugh and pulled him into my arms.
Unfortunately, the editing and distribution dragged on, and our film missed the brief era when World War II dramas were all the rage.
The investors pulled out and disappeared. My film was buried before it ever had the chance to premiere.
I caught a coach to the train station.
All the way there, I stared at my phone, still on the last messages Julian and I had exchanged.
“Adrian, pork bones are on sale at the market today. I’ll make you soup when I get back.”
“A show that helps people find their families just called me. They said I’m a missing child. Did you sign me up as a guest performer, bro?”
“Urgent, urgent, urgent! What kind of persona did you give them for me?! They’re still calling. Am I supposed to burst into tears or start cursing them out?”
“Adrian! Adrian!”
I’d been filming that day, carrying a massive prop broadsword while following the male lead back and forth across the set. By the time it got dark, I finally saw the messages.
I had signed him up.
But I no longer knew how to answer.