There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)
Chapter 293 - 285. A Bouquet of Flowers

Chapter 293: Chapter 285. A Bouquet of Flowers

Zein watched the wedding ceremony in a daze.

Something was tickling his heart and altering his vision when Abel nervously waited for his bride, feet fidgeting and never still until the music played. His mind started to wonder then;

Was Roan also nervous during his wedding? Was his father fidgeting and sweating as he waited for his mother? How did they do it at that time? Did they use the dock and get officiated right beside the lake under the falling cherry blossoms?

As the organ played and the bride walked along the isle, shyly blushing from nervousness and happiness, he saw a young woman, younger than him, with hair like warm sunlight and eyes like a deep ocean, walking beneath the shower of fluttering petals, in a white gown as innocent as her bright smile.

Ah...Zein had dreamt of it; they looked at each other, as Lucia walked down the aisle, and Roan smiled gently at her, offering his hand so they could be united under the blue sky.

As Abel and his bride spoke of their vow, Zein wondered what kind of vow did Roan and Lucia make. What kind of promise they made on that lakeside, an esper and a guide bonded together long before their matrimony.

What kind of regret they had when they knew they couldn’t fulfill those promises...

He felt rather bad that instead of concentrating on the wedding, his mind wandered to the past that he had never seen, and instead of feeling happy and touched by the beautiful display of union in front of him, he felt a pang of sadness in his heart.

But he prayed—he prayed that Abel and her bride would never meet the same fate as his parents.

As he closed his eyes, Zein felt a warm, strong hand held him firmly. The warmth from that hand traveled from his fingertips to his arm, nestled in his heart and spreading to the rest of his body, just like magic. And it was magic; a magic he had been so familiar with now.

Opening his eyes, Zein stared at the altar, at the bride and the groom smiling happily, widely, just like the couple he saw in the picture that was now standing on the bedside drawer of his and Bassena’s bedroom.

Both of those pictures were warm, as warm as the man beside him.

* * *

After the ceremony was done and Abel officially became a married man, they moved to another, larger hall, with a buffet containing large varieties of food, which the guests could freely take. There were several round tables they could use to enjoy the food or just converse, which Zein used to take a rest from the festivities.

He observed the venue itself, which was decorated with a lot of flowers as if it were spring. The flowers were real too, so he knew one of Abel’s sources of stress now. But at least the result was satisfactory, proportionate to the money they needed to fork out.

Despite being inside a room, Zein felt like he was in a flower garden. The pillars were decorated with climbing roses, the ceiling had wisterias hanging, and all kinds of flowers that Zein obviously didn’t know the name of neatly arranged on pots and flower beds. The venue basically felt like one giant greenhouse, completed with climate adjustment formation.

Perhaps that was why they had to do it indoors—how else could they have a blooming flower garden in the middle of February?

"Something in your mind?" Bassena put the plate of food he had taken for Zein, staring at the guide’s rather blank expression.

Zein had been kind of out of it since the ceremony, as if he was floating. Bassena had to hold the guide’s hand just to make sure Zein was there—also because he just wanted to hold Zein’s hand while watching other people getting married.

The blue eyes blinked slowly, and with a rather dazed voice, Zein asked; "Does an outdoor wedding have the same ceremony?"

Bassena raised his brow, knowing where this question might come from. It made him pause and late to respond. It was Rina who answered the question, who had a big plate of various kinds of cakes in front of her. "Well, it depends on the couple, I guess? Most ceremonies are based on the customs of the Old Era, but a lot of people also choose to just register their marriage without any ceremony or reception," she explained, before munching on a slice of strawberry cake. "Why do you ask? Do you want to have an outdoor wedding?"

"Hmm..." Zein smiled a little bit, flipping the fork in his hand over and over, which prompted Rina to blink in surprise while looking at Bassena.

"Huh? You do?"

Zein chuckled and pulled the plate Bassena just got him closer. "I’m just thinking about someone’s wedding," he said lightheartedly, stabbing his fork on a slice of chicken.

"Oh, who?" Rina leaned closer, eyes twinkling in intrigue.

"My parents,"

Rina swallowed the cake in her mouth at once, almost choking on it as she recalled what Zein’s backstory was. "Oh..."

Zein watched Abel, who was no longer nervous now that the ceremony was over. Now he could smile brightly along with his beautiful bride, whose eyes were as warm and kind as Abel, as they enthusiastically greeted the guests who came to congratulate them. They were so busy talking with the guests that Zein hadn’t seen the both of them taking even a single bite. But even so, they looked energetic, bright, and above all, happy.

"It’s beautiful. They looked beautiful," Zein muttered, unclear if he was talking about the couple across the room or the one inside the frame of his memory. Perhaps both.

"Well, it’s a beautiful place with two beautiful people as the main character, so..." Bassena smiled, leaning on the table and tilted his head to look into the blue eyes clearly. "It looks like a fairy tale."

"That’s a lot of beautiful," Zein chuckled.

"And they have a beautiful son," Bassena added, not even giving brake to his warm eyes and spellbound smile.

"Don’t flirt, Abel will get mad,"

Bassena smirked cheekily and shrugged. "Only if he hears it."

"I heard it, and I’ll tell him if you’re not going to be considerate of me! Hmph!" Rina said with narrowed eyes while stabbing the chocolate cake in front of her with a fork until it bled chocolate sauce onto the plate. "Flirting in front of someone single, tsk!"

Bassena rolled his eyes, but Zein just chuckled and started to eat his food before Rina got spiky again. But at least she got happy again after finishing the big plate of cakes, which got Bassena shuddering. She even came back with a second plate of more cakes and fruit skewers slathered in sugar and chocolate, which got Bassena moving because Zein looked at them with sparkling eyes.

By the time Bassena came back with those fruit skewers, the only one on the table with them was Dean; no Rina, Nadine, or the other espers in sight. "Where are the others?"

Zein pointed to the center of the room, where a large number of young guests gathered, excitedly raising their arms with open hands as if they were ready to catch something. Because they were.

"Ah, the bouquet?" Bassena chuckled, looking at the podium where the bride was cheerfully holding a bouquet of flowers to be thrown at the cheering crowds.

"Rina wants to catch the bouquet and dragged Nadine with her," Zein told the esper. "But what’s the deal with the bouquet? Why are they fighting over it?"

"Another tradition from the Old Era," Bassena explained with a smirk. "It is said that the one who manages to catch the bouquet will get married next."

Zein raised his brow. There were quite a lot of fascinating tales and traditions from the Old Era, it seemed. It was also fascinating watching other people, his peers, lightly and teasingly shoving each other away so they could be the ones who caught the bouquet. When the bride turned her back against the crowd and raised her arms high, it became even more chaotic, and the other guests who were spectating also cheered the crowds.

As he smiled toward the spectacle, he felt a warm thumb pressing on his palm, absentmindedly making invisible scribble on his skin. "Outdoor wedding...sounds nice," Bassena mumbled softly, almost inaudible even for Zein who was sitting beside him.

But Zein, like espers, had a heightened sense, so he could hear it clearly. His lips curled by themselves, and he took the esper’s hand, intertwining their fingers. "Yes, it is," he muttered a reply.

A serene lake, raining petals, the scent of orchard. Or perhaps, a sparkling sea, a cool breeze, salty scent and warm sunlight.

Bassena turned his head, eyes wide and lips parted in surprise. Was that...was that a code? Was that a green light?

At that time, when Bassena was still stunned, the bride swung her arms and threw the bucket. The crowds raised their arms too, looking up to follow the bouquet trajectory—which was thrown with the force of an extra energetic athlete—and watched with mouths opened wide as it made a large arch and landed on a fair hand who was as surprised and as flabbergasted as them.

With a raised brow, Zein stared at the colorful bouquet in his hand. The room went silent for a few seconds, before erupting in loud cheers and excited shrieks. The bride even jumped energetically on the podium, while the groom clapped his hands and laughed out loud—seemed like it didn’t count as stealing his thunder.

Bassena blinked at the unsuspecting bouquet in Zein’s hand, and as if he hadn’t been dazed enough from Zein’s earlier reply, the guide let out a crisp, melodious sound of laughter. The blue eyes looked at him, and mischievously, Zein raised the big bouquet in front of his face, before leaning closer and kissing the stunned esper behind the flowers.

As the applause and the cheers filled the room, Bassena had to exert all of his self-restraint to not go down on his knees right there and then.

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