BL - One Night In Pingjing

"Hi," Cheng Jian said with a small, polite smile as he sat down. His ears were a crimson red. Perhaps from excitement, perhaps from anxiety. Whatever it was, it gave Xuan Chaya a sense of relief. He wasn"t the only one who felt strange after all.

"Hi," Xuan Chaya replied.

"Did you wait long?" Cheng Jian asked. He had felt a sense of security when Lan Haiyang had asked him that same question before. It just felt right to ask.

"It"s okay," Xuan Chaya smiled and shook his head politely. "I didn"t mind the wait one bit. Moreover, my dad always says, "In desperation, a dog will leap over a wall.""

Cheng Jian smiled at Xuan Chaya"s proverb. As he didn"t know how to mince words, he asked outright, "So, you"re a desperate dog?"

Xuan Chaya nodded. "Basically." He lifted his hand and gestured for a waitress.

The waitress approached their table swiftly and took both of their orders.

Cheng Jian glanced at Xuan Chaya curiously. The last person he met who spoke in proverbs was his mother. "Did you grow up in China? I"m surprised that someone who looks so... "Foreign" can speak and type Chinese fluently. You"re even speaking proverbs."

Xuan Chaya smiled and scratched his left ear. "Actually, I grew up in America. But my dad didn"t fail to instill Chinese values and cultures in him."

Xuan Chaya stopped to nod at the waitress who had brought their meals to the table. He continued, "He got me a mandarin teacher when I was little and up until today, I don"t think he has spoken up to ten English words to me."

"That"s cool. Your dad is an admirable person. Once some people leave China, they almost always forget where they come from."

Xuan Chaya shook his head. "Not my father. My mum... She"s American, but she spent some time in China. College and work. She"s very fluent in Chinese as well. It made things a lot easier, I guess."

Cheng Jian pointed his chopsticks at Xuan Chaya. "I"m guessing you got your beautiful eyes from her."

Xuan Chaya nodded and scratched his left ear from embarra.s.sment. A lot of girls had told him he had beautiful eyes before. And those were all girls who were either sleeping with him or wanted to sleep with him. His brain had learnt to a.s.sociate the compliment with flirting. While Cheng Jian didn"t have a single lascivious look on his face, the compliment still made it feel like he had been flirting. Being raised by a woman who was actively pro-LGBT, Xuan Chaya didn"t have a single h.o.m.ophobic bone in his body; hence, any feelings of disgust were far away from his mind. Instead, what he felt was flattery.

However, when Xuan Chaya blushed, only the tips of his fingernails turned red. He would forever be grateful for that as it had saved him a lot of embarra.s.sment in the past. "Yes, I got my eyes from her." He replied.

They both ate in silence.

As the silence started to become a bit uncomfortable and awkward, Xuan Chaya spoke. "I wish you"d let me pick you up from work like I said I wanted to."

Cheno Jian chuckled. "Then... You"d have caught me smelling like popcorn. I didn"t want you to catch me like that the first time we met."

Xuan Chaya paused. The words Cheng Jian said, they all seemed like flirtatious words. But this person still didn"t look like someone who was flirting. In case he was, Xuan Chaya couldn"t help thinking it would be embarra.s.sing if he didn"t flirt back. With a smile, he said, "I love popcorn."

"I don"t." Cheng Jian said bluntly.

The blunt reply stunned Xuan Chaya. Maybe Cheng Jian wasn"t flirting with him afterall. Also, he"d never met anyone who didn"t like popcorn. "You don"t?"

"No." Cheng Jian said. "The good news is that even I find it strange that I don"t."

Xuan Chaya chuckled. "Why?"

Cheng Jian shrugged. "Because everyone likes popcorn."

Xuan Chaya nodded in agreement.

"I do eat it," Cheng Jian said. "But I can never eat a lot of it. So, I never spend my money on it."

"I see."

"Yes," Cheng Jian continued. "Unless when I was little. My mum loved it so, if I had extra money on my way back from school, I always bought her some."

Xuan Chaya smiled at that. He always loved it when people took care of their mother.

"Oh G.o.d!" Cheng Jian cried.

Xuan Chaya looked at him and saw his eyes were fixed on his chopsticks. He had picked up some food from his bowl and the limb of a c.o.c.kroach was entangled in it.

"G.o.d, is that...?" He raised his hands to call the waiter but Cheng Jian stopped him.

"These people work so hard for their living," Cheng Jian said. "Don"t make things difficult for them. Just settle the bill so we can go."

Xuan Chaya gave him a small smile. He liked reasonable people and Cheng Jian seemed to be one of those. He called the waitress" attention, settled the bill and walked away from the restaurant with Cheng Jian beside him.

"I completely lost my appet.i.te after that." Cheng Jian chuckled.

"I"m sorry I took you to such a place." Xuan Chaya scratched his left ear.

"Why are you sorry? You didn"t know that would happen."

"It"s just that I could have taken you to a better restaurant. But I thought that since you"ve been indoors working all day, you might enjoy eating outside. With the fresh air and what not."

Cheng Jian looked at Xuan Chaya and smiled. "That"s very considerate of you. Although the meal was rubbish, I feel very warm inside knowing your intentions were good."

Xuan Chaya scratched his left ear again and threw Cheng Jian abother curious glance. Cheng Jian looked ahead disinterestedly, but it still felt like he was flirting with him. Every sentence this man said turned the tip of his fingers red and made his heart skip from the flattery of being hit on by a man. Yet, somehow, this man seemed strangely cold and uninterested. Xuan Chaya couldn"t help thinking that Cheng Jian was a bit mysterious.

"Where are we going?" Cheng Jian asked, pulling Xuan Chaya out of his thoughts.

"There"s a park just there." Xuan Chaya pointed into the distance. "I noticed it on my way here. Do you want to go there to talk?"

"Is this a date?"

Xuan Chaya was stunned again and immediately replied, "No, no. It"s more like... A business meeting."

Cheng Jian nodded. "Good. You know, we haven"t really talked about your thing yet. I thought you asked me out on a fake date to be your fake boyfriend."

Xuan Chaya immediately thought Cheng Jian"s words were stupid. He couldn"t help chuckling. This made him curious again. Stupidity had never been amusing to him before. He asked, "Why would you think that?"

"My friend, Lan Haiyang. He told me that when people want to ask people out, they ask them out to dinner or lunch. And sometimes, they take a walk. This is exactly like he described."

"You didn"t know any of that before?" Xuan Chaya raised a curious brow at him.

"Well, Lan Haiyang tried to stop me from coming here. He doesn"t believe your story and he thinks I"m dumb to. He also thinks I shouldn"t be meeting up with a stranger who would tell me such a wild story."

Xuan Chaya frowned. He already didn"t like this Lan Haiyang.

Cheng Jian continued, "The truth is, academic-wise, I"m not dull. But, I really have no emotional intelligence. I can"t read people or what they are thinking or feeling. I"m so dumb emotionally, I can"t sometimes tell what I"m feeling. It makes me think that if I ever fall in love, I wouldn"t even know until I have lost the person. The thought of it makes is scary;  that I could lose the person I"m looking for because I"m so bad at emotions."

Xuan Chaya gave him a sideways glance. So Cheng Jian really wasn"t aware of just how flirtatious he had been this evening. That was quite interesting. What was even more interesting was the fact that he thought Cheng Jian"s lack of E.Q was quite adorable. He had never found any type of dumbness appealing before. "Move in with me." Xuan Chaya said.

Cheng Jian threw him a horrified look. "What?"

"No. It"s just, so far, I"ve found you so mysterious and I want to get to know you better." Xuan Chaya explained hurriedly.

"I don"t understand why I have to move in with you for that to happen. Can"t we meet when I"m free and just hang out?"

"No, that"s not enough. I need to know you like the back of my hand before I introduce you to my mother. So she doesn"t suspect anything."

"Oh!" Cheng Jian muttered as understanding slowly wormed his way into his senses. "I do have to work though. And Lan Haiyang"s place is a lot closer to my place of work."

Xuan Chaya felt a tiny bit of jealousy at the mention of that name for what seemed like the hundredth time. So, Cheng Jian lived with that friend of his. "Why do you have to work?"

"Because I need money?"

"I know you need money. Everyone does. But like I said before, I"ll pay you to pretend to be my fake boyfriend."

Cheng Jian chuckled. "I know that. But this is a side thing, right? I"m certain you won"t pay me a hundred dollars every month just to meet your mother."

"If you move into my house, being my fake boyfriend would be a two-four-seven job for you. I"ll pay you two hundred dollars every week to be my full-time fake boyfriend."

Cheng Jian raised a doubtful brow at Xuan Chaya. "Are you sure? That"s a lot of money."

Xuan Chaya chuckled. "Do you think I can"t afford it because I took you to this kind of restaurant?"

Cheng Jian snickered. "Make it two-fifty then. So, I know I"m earning a thousand dollars every month."

"Okay, done." Xuan Chaya said with a nod.

Cheng Jian smirked. "You"re a big shot, aren"t you?"

"Kind of." Xuan Chaya replied.

"And I don"t have to have s.e.x with you?" Cheng Jian asked skeptically.

"No, you don"t have to."

"And I can go out with some other guy if I wish to?"

"Of course." Xuan Chaya nodded.

"So, this arrangement gives me money, and some time to look for love too. That"s the two things I"m looking for to complete my life."

"If the two things you need to give you a sense of completeness are love and money... Since I already solved one of your problems, I"ll try to give you the other one until you find someone who can provide it."

"What do you mean?"

"Like this." Xuan Chaya grabbed Cheng Jian"s hand as they walked along the road. He explained, "Since you"re doing me such a big favor, I"ll treat you very well. Like I am in love with you. Until you find someone who actually is."