It was 8 pm, right after dinner...

XLII

The next morning, Brett got a long awaited phone call from the Singapore General Hospital.

"Mr. Yang, hi! We have good news! You can come in for a MRI-scan in four days at eight a.m.. Does that work for you?"
"Do I have a choice?", he asked, a bit annoyed by the forced politeness the lady on the phone was putting on.
"Of course! You'd have to wait for quite some time though until you get another appointment, but I'm sure we can arrange something."
"Nah! I'm good. 8 a.m. works fine!"

He put down the date in the calendar he shared with Eddy, took his new violin and picked up from where he'd left off in the orchestral part of the Sibelius violin concerto.

By now, two hours of practice were the absolute max Brett could do. Afterwards, he'd felt like he'd played all the 24 Paganini Caprices in front of the Berlin Phil adjudicators and they gave him a crushing feedback.
So he normally only did one hour, sometimes less, when he had a particularly shitty day.

Today was such a day. He had woken up with his head tormenting him with a pounding pain. Then, he had spent half the morning on the toilet, his body getting rid of the little nutrition he had by casting a nasty diarrhea on him.

Brett felt like crap. And he'd felt so much like crap these past few weeks, that it was very easy for a variety of negative thoughts to flood his exhausted mind.

Luckily for him, there was almost always someone around who should receive a gold medal for cheering Brett Yang up. And just when Brett wanted to lament over his lack of energy, Eddy stepped into his room with a big smile.

"You got an appointment for the scan?", he asked cheerfully, his phone showing their calendar.
"Yeah, finally! They called about an hour ago."
"Finally indeed, bro! We're going to find out what you have in no time now!"
"Doesn't feel like no time to me." Brett put his violin in the case and slumped down on his bed. Eddy's smile faltered, causing Brett to regret his last sentence immediately. He could do with happy Eddy, so why drag him down the black hole where his mood was? Idiot!

"Sorry! It's great I finally have that scan! Thanks again for speeding things up."
"No worries!", Eddy said and sat down next to him, "I guess, I can't even imagine how shitty you feel. Is there anything I can do? No need to hold back the venting, you know."
Brett tried to smile gratefully at Eddy. "Thanks! You do plenty. I'm good."
Eddy nodded. "Try to get some rest and don't overdo it with practicing. I just quickly head out for a meeting with the apparel team. Are you going to be fine?"
"Oh, shall I come with?", Brett asked, trying to sit up again, but got held back by Eddy.
"No need! They're going to show me the newest design ideas. I'll run them by you when I get back. Just stay put!" He got up and soon, Brett heard the front door being shut and the apartment went silent.

He felt so God damn useless it wasn't funny! To let Eddy just do all the work and he himself lying around most of the time wasn't exactly what boosted his self esteem. Practice was just not on anymore, so he decided to do some admin work and started his laptop.

After like half an hour, Brett's concentration slipped and he started to feel drousy. He shut his laptop before he would do something stupid like send a wrong email to the wrong person and leaned into the couch, closing his eyes.

How depressing, being in his late twenties and not even able to work properly. Brett really hoped, that the examination would bring to light what he really was suffering from. And since he had no energy to do anything else, he might as well ponder about his new found sexual orientation or whatever.

So, he was gay, apparently. Or bi at least. Maybe just gay for Eddy? He'd never had any interest in men before, not even the beautiful, marvelous ones from those K-pop videos Eddy loved to watch. And also not in any Australian blond beach boys with the perfect sufer bodies, fighting the waves.
So, just gay for Eddy then. But gay for one guy or all the others didn't matter in terms of catastrophe level for his family and how he'd ever break the news to them without instantly killing his poor mother he had no idea. Yes, he was an adult, responsible for his own life, but it was a bit different coming from an Asian family. The bonds were strong, whether one was five or thirty years old.

But did it matter? Brett was convinced there was just no way Eddy would feel the same and he could, of course, never tell him! So for the outside world, nothing had to change. And since he'd established, that there was a high possibility Eddy would be the only guy he'd ever fall in love with, he never had to tell anyone.
So, problem solved, kind of?

Brett sighed and got up. Maybe going out and getting groceries would take his mind off things a bit. He got his wallet and a shopping bag and headed off.

The Singaporean heat was brutal at this time of the day. It was the kind of heat, where one could see the heatwaves tremble above the concrete streets and Brett already regretted his decision to go shopping. Paired with the low energy and empty stomach, he felt like he was walking through wall paper paste. He was sweating buckets when he finally arrived at the supermarket and he'd never been more thankful for AC before in his life.

Just when he stepped through the entrance, his phone vibrated in his pockets.
"Eddy?", Brett answered the phone with one hand and tried to pull out a basket with the other.
"Dude, where are you?"
"Shopping!"
"What? Without me?"
"Groceries, dumbass. Where are you?"
"At home, just came back and couldn't find you. I got worried you know."
Brett felt the by now familiar butterflies taking off and smiled. "That's what phones are for. Anything you need?"
"Green tea and rice. There is almost none left."
"Got it! Anything else?"

Brett walked towards the vegetable section, when he suddenly saw black spots dancing the Nutcracker ballet in front of his eyes.
"Don't think so, some veggies maybe and ginger. Shall I come and help you carry stuff?"
Answering quickly lost priority, as Brett was busy looking for a place to sit down. Normally, grocery stores weren't equipped with chairs though.
"Brett?"
There was no seating around and if there were, he couldn't see them anyways by now. He breathed heavily, as he lowered himself to the ground.
"Brett, mate! Are you there?", a concerned voice rang through the speaker.
"Eddy...", Brett managed and carefully leaned back, hoping he'd hit some more or less stable wall and not a stacked up tower of soda cans.
"Brett! What's going on?"
"Sir, are you alright?", Brett heard an unfamiliar voice next to him.
"Not really... I just need to sit for a bit... Sorry", he huffed.
"Brett, I'm coming over! Tell me, where you are!"
It took Brett every ounce of the little energy he had left to answer: "Our usual groceries, but Eddy..."
"Nah! Already on the way. Don't talk, but stay on the phone."

And Eddy proceeded with telling Brett all about the new TwoSet Apparel designs and ideas their team had suggested, while he probably ran all the way to the store.