crimson_carnation

Due to a combination of sickness, stress, and other forms of suffering unexpected factors, I'm afraid I won't be able to post an update today (⁀ ▽ ⁀ ;) To make up for it, I decided to post an extra scene of Waylaid in modern setting. It's quite a bit larger than usual and I didn't quite know where else to put it, so here we go~ (๑• ᴗ •๑)

CEO Yan and Bodyguard Ning enter a haunted house attraction in the amusement park.

Like most people, Bodyguard Ning is unsettled by the eeriness and the sense of sinister gloom pervading the space. Strategically placed colored lights and artificial fog intercept the darkness and deepen the disquieting atmosphere. As they walk through the narrow corridor with suspicious sounds echoing in the distance, Bodyguard Ning feels his vigilance sharpen while his heart beats faster.

Beside him, CEO Yan is completely unaffected. Looking at the dimmed lights and shadows pooling in the corners, all CEO Yan sees are potential places to make out in peace. Look, there is even romantic mood lighting! So what if it’s a dim purple or green? He’s sure he could get his lover in the mood no matter the color!

Putting away those thoughts for now, CEO Yan decides to take this opportunity to get closer to his beloved. He thus leaps towards Bodyguard Ning to plaster his body against his lover’s and wraps his arms tightly around him.

Bodyguard Ning, anxiously: Ah-Xuan? Are you afraid? Shall we leave?

Unfortunately, CEO Yan doesn’t sense the slight eagerness in his beloved’s voice.

CEO Yan, blinking pitifully: Ah-Wei, I’m just a bit scared, but I want to do this with you. Can you stay close and protect me as my bodyguard? Make sure to not let any scary ghosts near me!

Bodyguard Ning, hesitantly: …Alright, stay close to me.

Bodyguard Ning winds an arm around his lover’s shoulder and pulls him nearer while looking around vigilantly. Only he knows whether the gesture was done to reassure his beloved or himself.

CEO Yan, smiling sweetly: Alright, I’ll stick very close to you.

In the meantime, his hands have taken the opportunity to roam up and down his lover’s arm and back, squeezing and fondling the hard muscle gleefully.

After a few minutes of this, Bodyguard Ning abruptly stops and looks at his beloved with realization.

Bodyguard Ning, wryly: Ah-Xuan, you…aren’t really scared, are you?

CEO Yan, blinking innocently and shrugging: Actually, no. I know none of this is real, so why would I be afraid? But Ah-Wei, this place is so cramped. We have no choice but to walk while pressed together. Don’t you think so?

Bodyguard Ning, nodding all too enthusiastically: Yes, you’re right. Don’t let me go then.

CEO Yan, delightedly: Yes!

Following that, though CEO Yan’s molesting of his beloved continues, Bodyguard Ning is only all too happy to pay for his lover’s reassuring closeness and protection in this foreboding place with his body.

Due to his obviously clingy behavior with his beloved, CEO Yan ends up being considered by the haunted house employees as the easier one to pick on. And so, a short while later, a bony hand glowing in a strange green slowly creeps out from a gap at the junction between the floor and the wall to slowly close around the younger man’s ankle.

CEO Yan almost trips.

Frowning, he looks down, sees the glowing hand, then proceeds to impatiently kick away the obstacle before continuing on uncaringly.

Bodyguard Ning, worriedly: Ah-Xuan? Did you just stumble?

CEO Yan, smiling easily: There seem to a few tripping hazards here, that’s all. Walk carefully, Ah-Wei.

The employee in the costume of a glowing skeleton clutches his hand to him and looks tearily in the direction the pair went. These customers were so uncooperative!

The employee suddenly senses someone else arriving and brightens. He slowly begins to stick his hand out of the gap again in preparation, only to have it kicked away again.

Crying out in pain, he peeks out of the gap with grievances on his face, then freezes in fear. There’s nothing outside in the darkness except a small, blinking red dot floating high up.

Was it…a real ghost?!

When the employee whimpers in fear at the thought, the red dot bobs up and down as if nodding to itself in satisfaction, then turns and disappears, stealthily following behind the pair that just left. Freaked out, the employee huddles into his hiding space and shivers.

Meanwhile, after seeing that the younger customer wasn’t one to be scared so easily, the other employees in costumes decide to go for the older one instead.

As a result, a few minutes later, Bodyguard Ning finds long and thin, spidery fingers crawling up his legs creepily and freezes in place.

CEO Yan, stopping and frowning concernedly: Ah-Wei? What’s wrong? You’re as white as a sheet.

Bodyguard Ning, in an exceedingly inflectionless tone: There are hands climbing up my legs. Thin, inhuman hands.

CEO Yan, alarmed: Climbing up your legs?! Did they dare to touch your butt?!

Bodyguard Ning: …?

Without waiting for his answer, CEO Yan pulls his beloved behind him as if to shield him and swats away the hands hovering in the air where Bodyguard Ning had just been standing. CEO Yan directs a furious scowl at the various employees costumed to look like horrifying monsters, each more terrible and haunting than the last.

CEO Yan, folding his arms and lecturing: What do you all think you are doing?! This man is mine, do you understand? Mine! No one is allowed to grope and fondle his butt except me! Just because it’s nice and firm enough to tempt anyone into sin doesn’t mean you can just touch it! You will respect my man’s personal boundaries and control yourselves or I will personally spank sense into each one of you with a wooden plank to show how it feels when something happens to your butt against your will!

The employees: ……

Why did they feel guilty even though they were only doing their job?!

Bodyguard Ning, hiding his face behind a hand: ……

Even if a real life monster came to kill him right now, he would actually thank it for helping him out of this embarrassing situation!

Leaving behind a group of costumed employees who had their monstrous heads lowered in confused shame after being thoroughly scolded, the couple resumed their journey.

On the way, the traumatized Bodyguard Ning can’t help but jump warily at every small noise or movement seen through the corner of his eyes, his hand reaching for the place where he usually strapped his holster.

CEO Yan, worried: Ah-Wei? Are you still apprehensive?

Bodyguard Ning, gulping while his gaze keeps darting around: Yes, I feel a bit jittery. It’s alright, I just need some time for my nerves to settle down. Don’t worry, Ah-Xuan. I’ll protect you no matter what.

Realizing that Bodyguard Ning is rattled enough to think that they are in actual danger, CEO Yan feels his heart squeeze at how sweet his beloved’s unconscious words of reassurance are.

CEO Yan, smiling affectionately: Darling, look at me. Let me help you settle your nerves.

Before Bodyguard Ning can do more than look at his lover perplexedly, he feels his beloved’s familiar fingers frame his face and pull it down. Their lips touch and the rest of the world recedes to leave only the warmth and taste of his lover’s mouth. Bodyguard Ning’s erratic pulse slowly settles.

Meanwhile, all the other costumed employees waiting in the shadows nearby for a chance to frighten them look at the couple, wronged.

Where are the screams?! Where are the faces gone white with terror?! How can they be so heartless as to replace all that with the sound of passionate kissing and completely ruin this place’s atmosphere?!

These customers are so cruel! Not only are they not scared in such a situation and stole away the employees’ chance to jump out at them, they even started smooching and dealing abuse to their fragile hearts instead! How inhuman!

After a few minutes of intense kissing, Bodyguard Ning is finally calm and leans back to catch his breath. But suddenly sensing something by his face, he slowly turns, then freezes in horror.

An unnaturally white and wrinkled head is hanging right by his face, upside-down. Its bloodshot eyes are peeled wide open and staring at him with unnerving focus. Its thick lips painted an uneven and garish red slowly open to reveal rows of needle-sharp yellowed teeth. It’s dangling close enough to Bodyguard Ning’s face that he can feel its humid breath.

Bodyguard Ning staggers back with a choked scream that sounds more like a heavy grunt. His hands frantically scrabble over his clothes in search of some weapon.

CEO Yan smiles helplessly and pats his beloved’s arm.

CEO Yan, soothingly: Ah-Wei, it’s alright. It isn’t real.

The dangling head grins, its eyes squeezing into gleeful crescents while a rattling hiss escapes its mouth.

Bodyguard Ning grows white as a sheet. On autopilot, he turns and lifts a surprised CEO Yan into his arms and rapidly flees in the direction of the exit.

Nestled in his beloved’s arms, CEO Yan snuggles deeper with a happy hum and directs a covert thumbs-up towards the upside-down head. Whoever that employee is, CEO Yan is pleased at how their actions let him be carried while held close by his beloved. The head winks at him in reply and retreats into the darkness.

Outside the haunted house attraction, Bodyguard Ning feels a bit weak in the knees and sits down heavily in a nearby food court.

CEO Yan, patting his shoulder sympathetically: Wait here, Ah-Wei. I’ll go and see if they have some tea to help you calm down.

Bodyguard Ning nods, his complexion slowly recovering. CEO Yan walks away and rounds a corner.

Pressing his back to the wall, CEO Yan peers at what seems like just another pool of shadows behind a potted plant.

CEO Yan: Do you have it?

A small, blinking, electronic dot of red light slowly detaches from the shadows, then switches off. As it emerges into the light, it is revealed to belong to a video camera. The light had been the indicator blinking to show that it was recording. A black-clad hand is attached to the camera, seeming to be a part of a certain man crouching behind the plant in tight-fitting black clothes right out of a spy movie.

Ruan Shu, offering the camera to his master: Yes, I took care to record every instant of your interactions in the haunted mansion stealthily.

CEO Yan, taking it with a pleased expression: You did well.

Later, a new post goes up in the CEO’s account, captioned: Today, I shielded my lover from being molested by miscreants and defended his chastity. Later, I was carried away from perceived danger by my lover in his arms without care for how it would slow him down. True love is both protecting and being protected by your beloved.

Just when the fans are feeling touched and angrily wondering who those shameless molesters are and what dangers their CEO and his boyfriend found themselves in, they see the accompanying picture.

It’s a photo taken inside a haunted house, if the deliberately eerie lights and props are any indication.

At the center, the intertwined silhouettes of a pair of kissing men are limned in mild purple and red light. A frightening face hangs upside-down and too near to the couple’s faces. From their lack of reaction, the couple was either clueless to it or just indifferent.

A variety of other monsters lurk in the shadows around them. Their helplessness and frustration at being unable to do their job of frightening this pair of strange customers clearly exudes through the image. One of the monsters is sympathetically patting another that has their head in their hands as if due to being unable to see such a shameless scene. Some with uncovered faces even look envious as they are unwillingly being stuffed with dog food.

The Fans: ……

The Fans: We take that back. These monsters are clearly the ones who should be pitied more!

crimson_carnation

Did my bribe work? (๐╹ω╹๐) The next chapter should be out on the day after tomorrow at the usual time~ See you then! (৹ˆㅅˆ৹)