Requital hope

Fifty-three

Zhan's Pov.

When Yibo saw the monkeys hopping just behind the glass his face lit up just as much as it had with the zebras. This time he wasn't allowed to pet them though. That was probably for the best. Monkeys are unpredictable. The little girl of the family that was beside us also had the same expression as Yibo. It made me realize how much of a kid he still was. A lot of his childhood was taken from him by his family, and it's as if his emotions laid dormant, as he locked himself away from the world. The more I get to know
him the more I see his true self. He's a cheerful, caring, energetic dude. He's been through so much, he deserves this happiness, and it's just the tip of the iceberg.

We continued going from exhibit to exhibit. We saw dolphins, sea lions, turtles, giraffes, and several other animals. He named several of them. Stella, Jack, Big Head, Bobby, Johnny, Long Nose, and many others, but the most prominent name was...Sean. I think he's just doing it to tease me at this point though.

Even after all of the exhibits, we went to we still hadn't found the Penguins. Just as we were heading over to the exhibit board to find their location my cursed stomach had to go and growl. To be honest, I'd forgotten about breakfast, and it's already time for lunch. I was having too much fun to even notice how hungry I actually was. I didn't want to stop us from seeing the penguins though, we'd already been searching for them for a long time. Yibo didn't mind, but I still felt bad delaying the guy's reunion with his little penguins.

Yibo smiled at me upon hearing my stomach's call for food. "I can buy us lunch." He offered, but there was no way I was going to accept that.

"No no, I'll buy us lunch." I declined. Today I was paying for everything. Despite how stubborn he can be sometimes he knew that I wouldn't change my mind.

He broke a little half smile before speaking. "Are there any places to eat around here?" He asked.

"I actually don't know." I replied before scanning the nearby area, hoping to find
something even though I knew it wasn't likey.

"Excuse me, are you looking for the cafe?" One of the workers asked, walking up to us.

"There's a cafe here?" I asked with a curious expression. I don't remember seeing anything about that when looking this place up.

"Yeah, it's two halls down and on the left. You should be able to spot it pretty easily. She explained. We thanked her before following her directions.

We reached the cafe and like the woman said, it was hard to miss. It was both an indoor and outdoor cafe. Yibo looked taken aback by the well-designed interior. It wasn't anything special to me but he scoped it out like it was a pure work of art.

While Yibo was off in a daze I went up to the counter and began ordering.

"What can I get for you?" A small teenage girl asked from behind the counter. I quickly glanced over the list and decided what I wanted.

"I'd like a sloppy joe and a plate of chicken rice." I ordered.

"Anything else?" She asked while writing my order down.

"Yeah, hold on a sec." I told her before calling out to Yibo. His gaze snapped from the room to me before coming over.

"What are you getting?" I asked.

"Oh, uh..." He looked over the sign for a moment, trying to decide what to get. Knowing him he was probably going to go with something cheap. "And don't hold back just because I'm paying." I quickly added, in a stern voice. A small smile flashed onto his face for a second, almost confirming his intentions.