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“Do you believe in the afterlife, Julian?”
Julian turned to his boyfriend, with a raised eyebrow. Said boyfriend, Irwin Zhou, was slouched over the study table, head resting on his arms. His face was turned towards Julian doing up some final touches to his paperwork for an upcoming trial.
“Why the utterly random question?” Julian stretched his arms as he inquired.
Irwin lifted his head from his arms.
“You’re always working so hard. It’s almost as if you believe that you only have a life here and not in any sort of afterlife,” Irwin chuckled at the other.
Julian stood up from his seat to clean up the plates and cups on the main table of his room, Irwin following suit.
“Heaven, hell, purgatory, I don’t particularly have any interest in at the moment,” Julian sighed as he locked his eyes onto that of his lover’s.
Irwin nodded in understanding.
“It’s complicated, I would say. Right now, at the ripe age of 23, what’s most important to me is making money, getting married to you, and taking care of Joni and my parents,” The plates clinked as Julian explained while cleaning each plate with utmost care.
Irwin nodded again, slower this time to process that Jullian had just stated that he had intentions to marry him.
The two stood in the kitchen face to face when Julian finishes tidying up the kitchenware.
“So, you don’t think of it now?” Irwin queried, hand wrapped around Julian’s as they made their way back to the latter’s room.
Usually, on days like this, Julian’s mother would have been nagging to remind them to leave the door open. It was a relief that Joni had a parent-teacher conference for the whole afternoon.
Julian shakes his head firmly to confirm his previous statements.
The pair lie on Julian’s bed, staring at the ceiling of glow-in-the-dark stars. Those were a product of a memory shared between the two of them, when they were just established as a couple. It was evident in the stars’ placements too, who had placed what and where, The carefully placed spaced out ones were Irwin’s, those with too much space in between were Julian’s, and the clumped-up-together stars were Joni’s
“That’s kind of sad,” Irwin lamented, running a hand through Julian’s messy coral pink hair.
Julian shifted his gaze to meet Irwin’s. “How so?”
“I was going to say that ‘heaven is a place on earth when I’m with you’ as a corny pick-up line, but alas…” Irwin stares into the distance wistfully, before Julian jokingly hits his shoulder.
“You cheesy son of a bitch,” The shorter one mutters into the crook of his lover’s neck as they cling onto each other in a hug.
What a pleasant Friday it was.