Xie Yang slept through the lunch and two periods before opening his eyes to see his husband's enlarged face with a thoughtful expression.
Zhou Kai was deep in thought and didn't notice that his beloved had woken up. He was still thinking of ways to get Xie Yang to have a comprehensive checkup.
The physical checkup should be pretty easy, but psych-evaluation is bound to be a different story. What if he gets the wrong idea and refuses? Forcing him will only have adverse effects and might even deepen the psychological issues rather than solve them.
Zhou Kai's mind was running through different scenarios of getting his beloved to go through with a psych-evaluation, but all of them ended badly.
Just when he was about to get a headache from his overthinking, he felt the figure in his embrace shift.
He instinctively started patting his back to lull him back to sleep and glanced at his face to check for discomfort, only to be met with a pair of bright eyes gazing at him in a look full of dependence.
Zhou Kai's heart skipped a beat before increasing rapidly. His face flushed a beautiful red, which was noticed by Xie Yang, causing him to flash a mischievous grin with his eyes full of mirth, looking like a cat who had succeeded in its hunt.
Zhou Kai felt as if a feather was tickling his heart, itchy but not painful. He sighed and asked in an indulgent tone.
"When did our Pres wake up? You should have called out."
Pleased by his husband's earlier reaction, Xie Yang wanted to respond to him in a cheerful voice, but when he tried to talk, his voice came out rather hoarse.
He cleared his throat and opened his mouth to speak once more, only for a glass of water to touch his lips, pausing him.
Xie Yang glanced at the glass and then at his husband holding the glass with no intention of backing down unless he drank the water, and obediently drank it.
The water helped immensely as the discomfort in his throat as well as the hoarseness in his voice lessened.
"I woke up when Kai was deep in his thoughts~ Kai looked so handsome that I just wanted to keep looking at you~"
This response evoked a chuckle out of Zhou Kai, who gave his sweetheart head pats.
Xie Yang enjoyed the pats and shifted around a bit to get more before leaning back into his husband's embrace and closing his eyes. The panic attack had drained his energy, and even after resting, his strength had yet to return.
Zhou Kai paused for a second before continuing his patting. While eyeing his beloved's tired expression, he asked the question he had been agonizing over.
"Pres, would you like to do a full body and psych evaluation? No, please do it. I promise, I'll make sure that it's a comfortable experience for you and you can get whatever you want after the fact."
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"Hmm. Alright."
Zhou Kai had imagined countless scenarios, Xie Yang getting angry, defensive, deflecting, even outright rejection, but not once had he imagined an agreement, let alone one so straightforward, it threw even him off.
"….That's it?"
"Hmm?"
"I mean, don't get me wrong, your agreement works in my favour, but aren't you deciding a bit too hastily? Aren't you at least gonna inquire where and how this evaluation will be done? What if I'm doing this to get you expelled or even locked up in a mental asylum? Shouldn't you be a bit more cautious?"
Xie Yang smiled without opening his eyes and replied in a languid tone, but his answer, like a cupid's arrow, shot straight through Zhou Kai's heart.
"You'll never hurt me, besides you promised."
This answer left Zhou Kai speechless for a moment. The answer may seem thoughtless at first glance, but the more you think about it, the deeper it gets.
Xie Yang truly trusted Kai not to harm him and had full faith in his promises.
Admittedly, others would call this decision idiotic. After all, who in their right mind would put their trust in Zhou Kai of all the people? Also, believing a verbal promise? How old was he? Acting this naive.
Despite his inner scoldings, Zhou Kai felt as if happiness was coursing through his veins. This time, no amount of discipline or self-control could stop him from kissing his sweetheart. He still managed to limit the kisses to his forehead only.
Zhou Kai impulsively kissed his forehead, and after making sure that there were no negative reactions, he showered his forehead with kisses, kissing his temples, the space between his eyebrows & his crown.
Xie Yang didn't react, but a smile remained adorning his lips. He was clearly enjoying the affection.
Seeing the relaxed smile, Zhou Kai almost gave in to the desire of kissing his beloved silly, but managed to rein himself in.
'After confession, after confession, after confession…. Sweetheart seems to like me as well, so my confession will most probably be successful. I'll kiss him properly as his boyfriend.'
After the rain of kisses ended, Xie Yang brought the topic back on point.
"I'll agree to the evaluation, but can we do it later?"
Zhou Kai frowned at this question but still asked gently, "When should we do it then, Pres?"
"On the weekend."
This response smoothed out Zhou Kai's frown. Today was Friday, and waiting another day was no big deal.
"Alright, as you wish."
Getting the answer he expected, Xie Yang went back to resting.
"Why'd you agree to the testing?" Leo asked, his tone lacking the usual sarcasm.
'Gee, not even an "are you OK?"'
"Cut the crap, you're just acting lazy. I've seen you recover from worse panic attacks in 30 minutes."
'Whoops! You caught me!'
"Answer the question, Xie Yang. What will you do if the psychiatrist actually diagnoses you correctly? Symptoms of long-term abuse and sexual assault with no record of such a thing ever happening, they'll think you're either faking for attention or just batshit."
'Hmm. Do you think this is my first psych evaluation? I'm someone who has already recovered from that trauma. I've been normal for quite a while, and I can control the flow of the diagnosis. Not to mention, the psych evaluation of this era is way more rigid and straightforward than 4 decades from now. It's going to be easy as pie."