Monday 6th
Feng Xin worked part-time as a barista at the Nan Yang, in Harajuku – a stylish café in a chic neighbourhood. He wasn't supposed to interact much with the customers, thanks to him dropping f-bombs all the time. He was hired by his looks, and the place paid well, so he worked three days a week after school, plus the occasional weekend.
During summer, all days were busy, including this Monday, and between nonstop orders for fancy iced coffees and ordinary hot drinks, he saw, sitting on a table outside, none other than Mu Qing! He couldn't believe it: Mu Qing was always broke, never went to student cafés near school, let alone a fashionable one in Harajuku.
And, he was with that girl again! Fuck, it's definitely a date, he thought: nor even Xie Lian or him could have made Mu Qing come to a place like the Nan Yang. Nor even when he offered his staff discount, which was good, 50%, and Mu Qing said to his face it was still overpriced.
Guess it's the company then, he thought bitterly, narrowing his eyes at the girl Mu Qing was with. Guess he must think she's so cute and special he has to take her somewhere nice and pay double for a stupid caramel latte with whipped cream on top.
And, he couldn't help but think, Mu Qing was not even feeling a little bit sorry because they weren't talking. They were friends since forever, with all their arguing and fighting, still, either than Xie Lian who else put up with Mu Qing's weird ways? Feng Xin was always saying he didn't care, but that wasn't true and he knew it.
Now Mu Qing just going around on dates... really showed what a friend he was, how he didn't care.
•
Tuesday 7th
He was having lunch with Xie Lian again, but this time sitting at the cafeteria – the rainy season had started, so no outdoor lunches for a while. Feng Xin was quiet; Mu Qing dating someone he didn't even know disturbed him more than he thought. Fucking Xie Lian was right, he was jealous.
Thing is, like Xie Lian had pointed out, Feng Xin was always meeting girls in and out of school, but that was all, he was going with the flow. He himself didn't realise he was a school hottie: tall, muscular, with bright eyes and big smile, and also very straight-forward in his roaring laughter and silly sense of humour. All girls thought him super sweet, and asked him out.
But he's never really been into anyone, and if that happened, he'd definitely tell his friends, he humphed: he wouldn't just fucking show up with a girlfriend all of a sudden. He and Mu Qing weren't talking but Mu Qing dating was surprising, he couldn't help but feel a bit left out.
Xie Lian didn't comment on it, so apparently Mu Qing didn't tell him either. But then, Xie Lian was, again, looking at the art club boy sitting far away with another group. At times, that boy smilingly looked towards them, back to Xie Lian, or so Feng Xin assumed. Xie Lian also hasn't told him what was going on between him and that boy.
Feng Xin leaned against the wall with crossed arms and kept looking at the falling rain against the windows dazedly. He himself knew he was a bit dumb, not getting why some people acted weird sometimes. There was a lot he didn't get, even about his own feelings, and for the last few days he's been thinking on different ways of liking someone...
•
Monday 13th
"When... when did you know you liked him in a different way?", Feng Xin asked Xie Lian quietly while they were both leaning against a window in an interval between classes.
He's been meaning to ask that for a while, and maybe waited for Xie Lian to say something – he didn't, and for some reason Feng Xin just blurted out the question there and then. He didn't look straight at him, but noticed how Xie Lian blushed and hesitated. It must be awkward to be outed like that, Feng Xin thought, but then, well it's me, c'mon!
Xie Lian smiled softly, "Why are you asking me that?"
"Hum, well because", Feng Xin replied, "If it's a girl and she's cute, you know you like her. But if it's a boy, you can like them only as a friend, or... how do you know... it's not as a friend?"
Xie Lian didn't reply straight away, and Feng Xin for a moment was worried if he had been pushy. He didn't think Xie Lian would still be confused about his own feelings – maybe he just wasn't ready to talk.
"You just know", Xie Lian replied, smiling again, this time a knowingly smile, as if he knew very well why Feng Xin was asking that, or who he was talking about. He continued, "You think of them all the time. What they're doing, how they're feeling. Wanting to be with them."
Feng Xin slowly nodded, realising to his surprise that Xie Lian's answer matched his gut feelings. And he also felt relieved Xie Lian actually replied, so it's not that he didn't trust him – maybe Xie Lian thought he wouldn't get it, Feng Xin didn't usually talk about this kind of thing.
He also kept thinking over and over: why am I asking that, what does it fucking have to do with me... Why am I feeling this way, why am I so... confused?
•
Tuesday 21st
"C'MON WE DON'T HAVE ALL DAY YOU KNOW", the PE teacher shouted on the top of his lungs, while Xie Lian and Feng Xin were making their way to the swimming pool. Feng Xin was dragging himself to the class: he's been feeling down these last few days, unsettled and impatient, and his bad mood showed as much.
"Fuck, why he must shout like that?", he cursed under his breath
But Xie Lian pffted a laugh and pinched his ass playfully, saying, "C'mon Feng Xin, just show off your hot body already!"
Feng Xin grabbed him and hissed, "What's your man gonna say about you fucking grabbing my ass huh?", and pushed Xie Lian in the swimming pool, jumping right after him, between maniac laughter and trying to push each other underwater with much cursing and splashing.
They heard a whistle, and the teacher, "NO PUSHING, NO JUMPING IN THE SWIMMING POOL!"
Too late, and Feng Xin and Xie Lian kept pushing and shoving each other underwater. Then Feng Xin eyed someone on the swimming pool shower, and couldn't help staring: very pale skin, smooth-looking with light goosebumps from the cold water, and his body slender but muscular, well-toned arms going up with his hands cleaning off water from his face.
"Mu Qing's looking good", Xie Lian observed, "He's been working out from home, with an app."
Fuck, he did look good – Feng Xin of course had seen him only in shorts many times, but on these last months it seemed he had grown, now he looked more a man than a boy.
Feng Xin replied, "What is he doing here? I thought he'd rather be with the girls, with his girlfriend."
"Oh right I forgot to tell you", Xie Lian said, swimming very close to Feng Xin and lowering his voice, "That girl he's been hanging out with, Banyue, well he's actually just tutoring her. Maths. It's been arranged by Mei Nianqing-sensei. She actually goes out with Pei Su, you know him."
Feng Xin knew Pei Su, he was one year younger, and his mate in the athletics club. He drew some breath and went underwater, feeling his whole body cooling down, the tickling of bubbles coming out of his nostrils. So Mu Qing was just helping that girl with maths, not dating her then. He emerged just to hear the teacher shouting again.
"RIGHT! CLASS A COME THIS SIDE, CLASS B TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SWIMMING POOL PLEASE!"
Xie Lian was from class B, so he nodded and swam away, and Feng Xin waded to the side the teacher had just called, and climbed on the swimming pool's ladder, coming up right in front of Mu Qing. Mu Qing gave him an almost unnoticeable once-over, and blushed madly. He was so pale, Xie Lian and Feng Xin always laughed at him when he blushed.
What is he fucking blushing about, is he a girl now?, he thought to himself smugly – did he actually enjoy being checked out by Mu Qing? He felt his own face burning, and walked away to the end of class A's queue, as far away from Mu Qing as possible.
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