Yun Ci took the gift box.
His fingers were stiff, and his heart skipped a beat.
Then it resumed beating at an even more intense rate.
The unsteady heartbeat was hidden within the off-key singing coming from around them.
He avoided Yu Xun’s gaze, hesitating in place.
“Aren’t you taking it?” Yu Xun spoke again, like a passing stranger.
Yun Ci opened his mouth, but no sound came out. It was as if he had lost the ability to speak and didn’t know what to say. Even more suffocating was the realization that there seemed to be nothing to say between them.
Then he raised his hand and took the gift box.
Their hands each rested on one end of the box, politely avoiding each other, not even the possibility of accidental touch.
Finally, he said, “Thank you.”
After saying this, Yun Ci didn’t linger. He forced himself to walk forward, passing through the long corridor and into the private room Li Yan had booked.
“……”
He didn’t look back.
So he didn’t see that Yu Xun was still standing in place behind him.
Yu Xun’s hands hung by his sides, slowly clenching. He leaned against the wall, standing there for a long, long time. Then he couldn’t help but reach into his pants pocket, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
He skillfully held the cigarette pack with one hand, pushing out a cigarette.
“Click.”
The light from the lighter flashed briefly under the overhead lights, turning into another color.
Then, the familiar smell of smoke spread.
The phone rang for a long time as well.
He answered, and Liu Zi’s voice burst out: “Where the hell are you? I need help urgently. It’s my first day at work, and the customers in this private room are crazy, insisting on drinking this brand of beer.”
“What, is this beer more special?”
“They’re all five yuan a can. What’s the difference?”
“If it weren’t for this place just opening and being short-staffed with high hourly wages, who the hell would stay here with all this crap?”
Liu Zi shouted for a while and then asked again: “Buddy, where are you?”
“Almost there,” Yu Xun said casually after finishing a cigarette, “At the door.”
Liu Zi sounded exasperated: “I’m at the door.”
Yu Xun: “Then pretend I didn’t say anything.”
“……”
Liu Zi: “So how long is your ‘almost’?”
Yu Xun threw the cigarette into the trash can: “Wait for me.”
Liu Zi wanted to say something else but noticed that Yu Xun’s voice on the other end sounded more hoarse than usual.
As if he were hiding something.
“Alright, just hurry up,” Liu Zi said. “I’ll finish work soon. Let’s grab a meal together. But you’ll have to wait in the employee lounge for a while.”
*
In the employee lounge.
The lounge was at the end of the corridor, without a door. You had to turn in from the stairway. It was more like a storage room for goods than a lounge.
A few people were lying inside, some playing games to kill time, and others who had night shifts were there early to catch a nap.
This place had just opened, so most of the recruits were students, with a few older workers.
When Yu Xun pushed the door open and entered, the room suddenly fell silent.
He didn’t mind, finding a corner to sit in.
He lowered his head to look at his phone, repeatedly staring at a chat box without typing or chatting. The people around him had no idea what he was looking at, thinking this handsome guy was just staring blankly at his phone.
Liu Zi, who had only been here a few days, was already well-known among the group, with everyone calling him “Liu-ge” wherever he went.
When Liu Zi finished work and went to the lounge to find Yu Xun, people leaving the room stopped him to chat: “Liu-ge, there’s a really handsome guy in there.”
“He’s sitting inside. Too handsome; everyone’s staring at him.”
“Is he the star here? Wow, we offer that kind of service?”
“……”
Liu Zi knew who they were talking about with just a thought. He knocked the guy on the head: “Get lost. What star? Say one more word of crap, and I’ll shut your mouth. That’s my buddy in there.”
A female staff member coming out laughed and said, “With such a handsome friend, why didn’t you introduce him to us?”
“He has a bad temper,” Liu Zi thought for a moment and said, “Introduction would be useless.”
Coming from Liu Zi, who had a bad temper himself, this “bad temper” seemed very convincing and subtle.
The female staff member recalled the scene when she had pushed the door open earlier—seeing the guy looking at his phone for a while, then suddenly getting up to push open a window, leaning against it to smoke.
Under the swirling smoke, his striking features were shrouded.
Sensing her gaze, he glanced over through the smoke, but it was a very indifferent look.
Liu Zi didn’t want to argue with them anymore: “Hurry up and switch shifts. I’m starving.”
After entering, Liu Zi joked with Yu Xun: “A female colleague just asked for your contact info.”
Yu Xun walked to the door to wait for him: “Don’t have a phone.”
Liu Zi: “People saw you using your phone.”
Yu Xun gave him a look: “Do you have a death wish?”
“……”
See?
That’s what he meant by a bad temper.
Liu Zi shrugged, signaling to the female colleague who hadn’t gone far: I tried.
After seeing Yu Xun, Liu Zi kept complaining about his workday: “If I don’t buy him beer, he’ll complain. Let him complain. I’ll smash his head before he does.”
“Three minutes,” Yu Xun interrupted, “If you’re not ready, go eat by yourself.”
Liu Zi: “Our friendship is only worth waiting three minutes? Do you have an urgent matter?”
Yu Xun: “No.”
He added, “Just don’t want to wait for you.”
Liu Zi: “……”
Liu Zi wanted to ask why the rush, but three minutes later, he had changed his clothes and was heading out, checking his phone while walking, and saw a post from a friend he had labeled “Idiot Li Yan” on WeChat Moments.
[Happy Birthday to Me!]
Liu Zi clicked on the picture and recognized the familiar decor. As an employee there, he could almost guess which luxury champagne room it was.
“Wow, must be rich.” Liu Zi muttered.
Then he remembered, if Li Yan was here, then that someone else must be here too.
……
Thinking about this, Liu Zi looked up at Yu Xun, who was walking ahead of him.
Yu Xun was standing by the roadside, waiting for the traffic light.
He had a particularly strong craving for cigarettes today, never without one.
Since moving dorms over a year ago, Yu Xun had gradually become a stranger.
He was more silent than before, with a casual exterior that was actually hard to get along with, indifferent to many things, and a bit reckless when he acted out.
But was he really a stranger?
Liu Zi thought about it and felt not completely.
Actually, this state of Yu Xun, he had seen it before.
That was back when they first met at a barbecue stand at the beginning of high school.
He had overheard Yu Xun on the phone behind the shop: “You find. If you find her once, I’ll find you once. Want to see who dies first?”
The words had made Liu Zi’s hair stand on end, and he silently upgraded Yu Xun’s level of being tough to deal with in his mind.
The current Yu Xun was also very much like the one who, despite not knowing how to ride a motorcycle, could still rev it up and take Liu Zi for a ride.
Even this year’s Yun Ci was not unfamiliar to him.
At the beginning of high school, though he was in Class 7, he had heard about the “top student” in Class 1, who studied like there was no tomorrow and had to win every competition.
And that guy had a pretty handsome face, making him quite famous in middle school.
……
If anything, it seemed these two had just returned to the life paths they would have had if they had never met.
If they had not met in high school and had not become enemies, constantly fighting and causing chaos in West High, they would have continued their lives separately, looking just like they do now.
Wait a minute. Damn.
Something suddenly clicked in Liu Zi’s mind.
……
Liu Zi stood there, feeling so artistic that it made his teeth ache, a bit unable to accept this version of himself.
The place they went to eat was in a mall, with movie posters hanging outside the restaurant.
The cinema was upstairs.
Liu Zi slurped his noodles, shaking his leg as he eyed the poster: “Fast and Furious, this movie looks interesting, it’s about car racing. How about we watch it after eating?”
He said this without waiting for Yu Xun’s response and then denied it himself: “It’d be weird for two grown men to watch a movie together. If I were going, I’d take a girl.”
But then he remembered that he had watched a movie with Yu Xun before.
In the second half of their freshman year, a few months after Yu Xun had moved dorms.
He had heard from others that his buddy was moving stuff, and the rumor had spread quickly, turning into: Yun Ci and Yu Xun’s relationship had just improved, but then rapidly deteriorated, resulting in a fight that lasted from morning to afternoon, ending with Yu Xun dragging his suitcase and bags, kicked out of the dorm by Yun Ci!
Liu Zi: “……”
Not to mention how ridiculous the fight lasting from morning to afternoon was.
He rushed over to see what was happening.
Yu Xun’s new dorm was unfamiliar—though Liu Zi had frequented many dorms, usually leaning against the wall, glaring at Yun Ci to support his buddy.
But after so long, he had feelings for the wall in 608.
The sudden new environment was unsettling even for him.
Yu Xun’s new dorm was very empty.
The vacancy was because the roommates were all juniors, some had arranged to commute, leaving the beds empty.
Juniors were halfway out of school, so the dorm had fewer things, and the roommates talked less, unlike the lively freshmen, focusing on minding their own business.
When Liu Zi arrived, he saw Yu Xun quietly unpacking his things.
To this day, he could hardly describe that feeling.
The suffocating atmosphere was so intense that it even affected him as an onlooker.
Yu Xun had taken half a month’s leave, claiming family matters.
Liu Zi couldn’t imagine what kind of family matters could keep dragging his buddy back since high school, no matter where he went.
During that half-month leave,
He called Yu Xun once and unexpectedly heard a woman’s scream through the phone, sharp and piercing into his eardrums.
From that day on, Yu Xun started smoking.
Oddly, though, while most people picked up both smoking and drinking, Yu Xun didn’t touch alcohol at all while smoking.
A few months later, Liu Zi couldn’t stand it anymore and dragged him to the cinema to “relax”: “You don’t drink, but how can a man with worries not drink? Let’s go see a movie, I bought an extra ticket.”
The movie itself was mediocre, and the theater was almost empty.
Yu Xun didn’t sit in his assigned seat; he went to the last row, the furthest corner.
He didn’t watch the movie, just stared at his phone.
The phone’s glow illuminated his face.
After a long time, he turned off the phone.
Then he raised his hand, and even though the theater was dark, hiding his expression, he still buried his face in his hands—a very subtle, emotion-hiding gesture.
At that moment, Liu Zi had the illusion that he seemed to be crying.
It wasn’t until the movie ended that he inadvertently glanced at Yu Xun’s phone screen.
He discovered that Yu Xun was looking at chat records.
In the chat records, he caught sight of the frequently used term “reporting,” and at the top was a note labeled “boyfriend.”
These were just fleeting glimpses before Yu Xun put away his phone.
“……”
Then, Liu Zi’s thoughts wandered to the middle of their sophomore year. He went to visit Yu Xun’s cold dorm room. Yu Xun was busy with a lawsuit, seemingly involved in a legal battle with someone. He didn’t find him, but before leaving, he saw a box on Yu Xun’s desk.
The box was particularly eye-catching, colorful, and fancy. He couldn’t resist and, out of curiosity, opened it.
Inside were some empty medicine boxes and some other small items, including a black string that looked like a necklace.
There was also a letter.
And a paper rose, carefully placed, which had appeared on WeChat Moments before.
……
Liu Zi marveled at how his friend, with a face that attracted so much attention, had broken up yet remained so sentimental.
Liu Zi snapped back to reality, quickly finished the remaining noodles, and sent a message to a girl: “I’m calling people right now to see if anyone can come watch a movie with me. It’s unreasonable for me to still be single in my third year.”
Yu Xun didn’t say anything.
Liu Zi was used to his brother’s silent version and continued talking to himself: “I’ve been in touch with someone recently, and I feel like she has a bit of a good impression of me.”
“I’m planning to keep trying,” Liu Zi mused. “She seems to play that mobile game, the one you used to play.”
Mentioning the mobile game, Yu Xun’s hand holding the chopsticks paused for a moment.
Liu Zi continued: “Is it fun? No one around me plays that game, so I don’t know if it’s easy to get into. Maybe I should borrow an account and pretend to be a master to attract attention.”
After a while, Yu Xun said, “It’s okay.”
Liu Zi was too busy daydreaming about his romance to notice that Yu Xun still had that game app on his phone, right on the first page for easy access.
*
Meanwhile, in the KTV private room.
In Yun Ci’s left ear was Li Yan singing “Give Me a Piece of Love,” and in his right ear was Zhou Wenyu singing “Let Me End This Loneliness.” The two of them ended up singing together, hugging and lamenting: “We’re almost graduating, when will we get a girlfriend.”
Zhou Wenyu: “But to be fair, we should reflect on our own issues.”
Li Yan: “What issues?”
Zhou Wenyu: “Being passive.”
“Love can’t be passively waited for,” Zhou Wenyu said. “We have to be proactive.”
Li Yan: “You’re right. We’ll discuss this further when we get back.”
Zhou Wenyu continued: “But there’s still some good news.”
Li Yan: “?”
Zhou Wenyu patted his shoulder: “Liu Zi is still single too, you haven’t lost!”
“……”
Li Yan was speechless and carefully glanced in Yun Ci’s direction at the mention of Liu Zi.
Fortunately, Yun Ci seemed to be zoning out and didn’t hear it.
Li Yan reminded: “Mention Liu Zi less.”
Zhou Wenyu was puzzled: “Huh?”
Li Yan: “…… I don’t get along with him, mentioning him brings bad luck.”
Zhou Wenyu accepted this reasonable explanation: “Oh.”
Yun Ci indeed didn’t hear a word.
Since entering the room, he has felt dazed, his mind repeatedly replaying the earlier encounter, constantly reconstructing that person’s features, trying to etch them into his heart.
Was he doing well?
Was he dating someone else?
Did he occasionally think of him?
Although each of these questions felt like a sharp blade to him, hurting with every thought.
……
Yun Ci sat there until the end.
Li Yan got drunk, and he helped him back to Zhou Wenyu’s place.
Zhou Wenyu rented an apartment off-campus, sharing with others, but he had a private room. Yun Ci carried Li Yan inside and threw him onto a sofa piled with things.
Li Yan turned over unconsciously and fell into a deep sleep again.
Zhou Wenyu was busy tidying up, trying to make a place for Yun Ci to sleep: “It’s a bit messy, uh, just bear with it.”
Yun Ci stood, glanced around the small room.
The off-campus apartment looked just like what he had seen on the rental app, simple decor, no worries about the school cutting off the power at night.
“It’s fine,” Yun Ci saw he couldn’t tidy up a place and said, “Don’t bother, I won’t sleep.”
Zhou Wenyu: “You won’t sleep?”
Yun Ci only said: “I have trouble sleeping in a new place.”
Though it was an excuse, he indeed couldn’t sleep.
To be precise, he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time.
Yun Ci ended up sitting in the corner of the sofa all night, perhaps because of the unexpected encounter or to pass the long night. He impulsively opened a certain mobile game again.
After the game update, the system prompted on the login screen: “Dream of the Jianghu, welcome back, old player. Click to receive a return gift.”
Having not logged in for a year, the game interface had changed a lot.
New tasks were added, and maps and gameplay modes were updated.
But some things hadn’t changed.
……
Yun Ci’s hand manipulating the character paused, stopping by a black-clad character.
This black-clad character with a sword at his waist had a somewhat familiar name above his head: Number One Martial Artist in Jianghu.
Game status: [Online]
But strangely, this person’s level hadn’t increased.
Yun Ci had played obsessively, raising his level very high before quitting for a year, but now his level was not considered high.
And this person’s level was even lower than his.
Has he been in the game all year?
Is this a player or an NPC?
No tasks, no level-ups.
He was just wandering around the spot where his character logged off.
Yun Ci couldn’t resist and poked this person.
[yc: It’s been a year, and you still haven’t completed the tasks?]
The other person typed each word slowly.
As if they had just learned to use Pinyin.
Yun Ci waited a long time, only to get one word.
[Number One Martial Artist in Jianghu replied to yc: Mm]
[yc: ……]
[yc: Are you a student?]
A long time later.
[Number One Martial Artist in Jianghu replied to yc: Elementary student.]
……
Yun Ci glanced at the time displayed on the top right of his phone, 2:38 AM.
[yc:?]
__________
Author’s note:
Here it comes! The dawn of the introverted elementary student’s exposure! See if you can hide! There’s nowhere to hide! 😎
Ahhhhhh T_TTTT I’m gonna sob these two are torturing themselves cause they don’t want to ‘burden’ the other