Two Violins, One Love, BAE

Chapter 16 For the boy who swings freely: Huī sǎ zì rú

The ice ring turned out to be a fiasco. Despite queuing for hours, they never managed to get in, and eventually, they gave up. They hung out in the vast malls, searching for entertainment until Brett began to think he'd much rather have gone to old Taipei, and walk among the crates of herbs and the indigo dye sellers - with Eddy.

At the restaurant, in the evening, Brett was in an ebullient and grateful mood again. He talked to the vlog camera.

"Thank you everyone for making it here this evening. Such a good restaurant. Recommended by Ray, hi Ray. Say hi, everyone. And Yanis over there, hahaha, Yanis. And oh, Eddy's just arrived."

Brett stopped recording and checked Eddy's face. He looked ill at ease, frustrated maybe after a day indoors, and all the editing. Brett carried on with his upbeat patter all the same, but when he looked round the table he saw that they were all a little uneasy, as if they could all feel something wasn't quite right between the two of them. Eddy was sitting next to Ray and, like him, began checking his phone. And whenever he stopped talking, his face would take on a serious expression again.

Brett crossed his fingers under the table. As the evening would go on, Eddy would relax and - he hoped - start enjoying himself. When they left the restaurant, he made sure to walk by his side, and talk only with him, all the way to the night club.

挥洒自如

Brett leaned against a pillar and smiled. The music was good, loud, but not so loud it would injure his eardrums, and Eddy was on the dance floor.

He danced, his lips slightly apart. His hair swished across his forehead, his arms drew some mysterious symbols in the air. Brett felt a bead of real happiness fall on his chest at last. It spread over him like a drop of red ink on water.

"Hey, are you Brett Yang?" Two girls were staring at him.

"Sorry?" Brett jumped, startled away from his reverie.

"Oh my god!" the tallest shouted over the music, "it's you, isn't it? Twoset Violin! We follow you on Youtube. Oh my god, oh my god! It's him, you were right." She glanced at the smaller girl next to her whose eyes grinned over the rim of her cocktail glass.

"I'm Ing-Wen, and she's Hsiao-Han," the taller girl went on. "I play the cello and she plays the violin." The smaller one nodded vigorously to confirm, and held her glass a little higher in front of her face.

Twoset fans! He wanted to make a good impression, be nice. It was so sweet. It didn't happen often at all, not outside Brisbane anyway. But of course, they had nearly 200 thousands subscribers now, and more joining every day.

"Hey, it's great to meet you," Brett replied. He raked his brain. Ask them questions!

"You play... oh great. You've been playing for some time? Like, are you in some kind of youth orchestra maybe?... Oh, brilliant."

And they began asking him questions too. Yes, he loved it when him and Eddy started in a youth orchestra all these years ago, no, that's not quite where they met. Yes, the day before, at a math tutorial, no, they had no intention to stop making videos, yes, it was a job and a really fun one.

From time to time, Brett would glance at Eddy, still on the dance floor. He was Twoset's front man while Eddy twirled to the music, but he didn't mind. They both knew what they were best at. He talked to strangers while his Eddy was... beautiful. And funny. And inspiring. And bursting with ideas. And a really good dancer.

"His" Eddy? Wait. What was "his" about the young man moving to the beat on the dance floor? Eddy was always his own man, with his own gentle integrity and sharpness of mind. The old feeling crept over Brett again, the sense of strangeness, of separation. "His" Zhī xīn? Who was he kidding? And the drop of red ink began to ebb away from his chest.

"Sorry?" Ing-Wen was just telling him something and he'd missed it entirely.

"My friend would like to be your girlfriend," she repeated more loudly, nodding in the direction of the other girl whose face had entirely disappeared behind her hand.

Brett's smile froze on his face. "I'm... I'm... flattered. Very. Er... thank you." He bowed a little. "Thank you," he repeated, "but... er... I think... I'm already... spoken for."

"Told you he would!" Ing-Wen told the smaller girl. "Can we just take your photo with us?"

"Sure!" Brett said. And the two girls stood either side of him, with their heads tilted towards him, almost resting on his shoulders while Ing-Wen held her phone aloft.

He glanced in the direction of the dance floor, feeling slightly alarmed. But Eddy was still dancing, caught up in his own dream, surrendered to the pulse around him and oblivious to everything else. Brett stretched his lips into a smile while Ing-Wen took the shot that would release him.