"Hello?"
"Hi Mei, is Kiku there, aru?"
"Brother Yao!" Mei cried. "How are you?"
"Very well, thanks, aru," Yao smiled as he heard his little sister's voice through the phone. Somehow her voice comforted him. "Can you get Kiku on the phone?"
"Oh, fine – you don't want to talk to me…" Mei mock-pouted.
"It's not like that, aru – I just…"
"It's okay," Mei continued, feigning hurt and apparently not hearing what Yao said. "I'll go get him – hold on."
Yao sighed at his sister's antics. She was always an attention-seeker.
"Hello?"
"Kiku, aru!" said Yao happily.
"Hi, brother," Kiku said, smiling. "How are you?"
"He hit me."
Kiku blinked. "What?"
"Arthur – he hit me, aru," Yao said, his voice cracking.
Kiku exhaled. He knew that Yao's marriage wasn't perfect – hell, all marriages weren't perfect, and Yao had told him of Arthur's temper. But Kiku really didn't expect the Englishman to be so violent. "What happened?"
Yao sniffed. "I was supposed to be at home to receive a package for him, but I met Yong Soo for lunch and lost track of time, aru."
"So you didn't get home in time for the package."
Yao nodded, even though he knew Kiku couldn't see him. "So when he got back, he was mad, aru," he said softly. "He accused me of having an affair!"
Kiku shook his head. Trust the blonde-haired man to be so irrational.
"Then he slapped me, aru," Yao concluded miserably. "I don't know what I did wrong, aru! Why is he treating me like this?"
"Brother, do you want me to go over there…?"
"No, no…" Yao shook his head. "I just needed to vent, aru. I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yes, aru."
"Forgive me for saying this, brother, but this marriage seems to be making you miserable," said Kiku worriedly.
Yao chuckled bitterly. "It's okay – I have a plan, aru."
"What is it?" Kiku immediately perked up.
"I will continue to be nice to him, aru. I will ignore what he is doing – I am sure he is doing it on purpose because he was really nice when I first met him. Although why he is being a jerk, I do not know, aru."
Kiku was worried. What if that plan backfired on Yao? "Are you sure? I mean…"
"I will be understanding, I will be patient, I will be kind… all to the point that it drives him crazy till he regrets being an ass to me, aru," Yao declared confidently.
Kiku shook his head. It was so like Yao to come up with something this complicated. Yao was trying to beat fire with water; he was trying to beat Arthur's unpleasantness with niceness – to Kiku that was a battle lost. "Well, if you're sure…"
Yao huffed. "You're damn right I'm sure, aru!"
Arthur couldn't pay attention to the report he was writing. His mind kept drifting back to Yao. Despite how badly Arthur treated him, despite how much he yelled at him, Yao remained… well, Yao. He was nice, kind, forgiving – he almost immediately forgot what Arthur had done to him, and was perfectly amicable the next moment.
Frankly, it drove Arthur insane.
Arthur wanted to shun Yao, to make him avoid him, so that Arthur didn't have to face Yao and their marriage. But it looks like his plan had backfired on him.
He was beginning to fall in love with Yao and his warm personality.
Arthur groaned and buried his head in his hands.