BL - One Night In Pingjing

Smiling, he shook his head. Of course, he wouldn"t be getting breakfast in bed. He wasn"t the protagonist in a romance movie.

Yawning, he dragged his body out of bed and into the bathroom for a shower.

When he was done with his bath, he noted with a little worry that Xuan Chaya was still missing from the room. He look at his luggage and immediately decided to wear another of Xuan Chaya"s s.h.i.+rt.

As soon as Cheng Jian opened the door that led outside the room, his nose was immediately attacked by the aroma of fresh food. He followed the aroma ztraight to the kitchen where he found Xuan Chaya busying himself.

"Good morning," he greeted Xuan Chaya.

"Oh! You woke up already?" Xuan Chaya asked.

Cheng Jian nodded in response.

"Can you do me a favor and go back to bed for some thirty minutes?"

Cheng Jian raised a brow. "Why?"

"I promised you breakfast in bed. I just want to fulfill my promise."

Cheng Jian chuckled. His heart fluttering. "So you want me to go back to bed for not five, but thirty minutes." Shaking his head, he said, "And people tell me I"m dumb."

Xuan Chaya gives Cheng Jian an questioning look. It was nice to know he"s been told that he"s dumb before now. But it also seemed Cheng Jian was calling him dumb. "What "people" dared to call you dumb?"

"Who else but Lan Haiyang?"

Xuan Chaya was immediately unsettled. In under twenty-four hours, that name had been mentioned far more times than he would prefer. "Well, you are dumb. But in a cute way." He said.

Cheng Jian raised a brow. "Are you insulting me or praising me?"

"I called you "cute." How can that possibly be an insult?"

Cheng Jian"s face brightened up with a smile. "Oh! That"s right."

Xuan Chaya laughed heartily. How was it that it was easier to convince Cheng Jian than it was easier to convince a kid?

Cheng Jian looked at Xuan Chaya who had turned his back to him and was now busy on the stove. "I thought you said you"d make a sandwich." Looking at the mess in the kitchen, he asked, "What"s all this?"

"Well, you mentioned pancake last night, right? This morning, I was about to make a sandwich. Then I remembered that I can make a mean pancake. So, I opted for that instead."

Smiling, Cheng Jian nodded. "Oh! That"s very nice of you."

Xuan Chaya flashed him a smile. Apologizing, he said, "I"m sorry I didn"t keep my promise to bring you breakfast in bed. I overslept." Muttering to himself, he added, "Mostly because someone kept kicking me out of the bed."

"Did you say something?" Cheng Jian asked.

Xuan Chaya flashed him a smile. "No, I didn"t."

"Don"t worry about your promise," Xuan Chaya said with a wave of his hand. "I appreciate the effort."

Xuan Chaya snickered. "That"s like saying, "Hey, you got an F. But at least, you wrote the exams.""

"You"re cute." Cheng Jian commented. "By the way, I hope you don"t mind that I"m wearing your s.h.i.+rt. I"m too lazy to unpack this morning."

Xuan Chaya shook his head. Wearing a perplexed look in his face, he said, "Surprisingly, I don"t mind at all."

"Why is it surprising?" Cheng Jian asked.

"I usually hate it when some other guy wears my clothes. It causes a fight between my best friend and me all the time." Thoughtfully, he added, "Instead, I discovered that I like my s.h.i.+rt on you. It suits you nicely."

"You picked out a s.h.i.+rt for me by yourself last night." Cheng Jian reminded him.

"I know." Xuan Chaya said. "When you were in the bathroom, I could stop thinking about it. I"ve never willingly given anyone my s.h.i.+rt before. Not even my mum."

"Maybe you already fell in love with me." Cheng Jian said playfully.

Xuan Chaya turned off the stove and gave Cheng Jian a careful look. His heart beating fast, he muttered, "I... I..."

"What?"

"I"m sorry. I stutter when I"m nervous."

"What"s making you nervous?"

"I think I... Maybe—"

Just then Cheng Jian"s phone rang, interrupting Xuan Chaya. Cheng Jian stared at the phone sceptically. "Who might this be?"

"Are you going to take it?" Xuan Chaya asked after releasing a deep breath.

"Of course." Cheng Jian said and picked up the call. Pressing the phone to his ears, he muttered, "h.e.l.lo."

"h.e.l.lo, Cheng Jian. It"s Hua Zhendan."

Cheng Jian removed the phone from his ear to study the number. "Did you change your phone number?"

"Yes, I did. How are you?" Hua Zhendan asked.

"I"m brilliant." Cheng Jian replied.

"En, how"s everyone at Jiaxiang?" He asked.

Cheng Jian gave Xuan Chaya a careful look. Noting that the former was paying him no mind, he replied. "We haven"t talked for a while, so you probably don"t know this. But I don"t work at that place anymore."

"You don"t?"

"No. I stopped a long time ago. Since the day you introduced your boyfriend to me."

Hua Zhendan paused, then said. "Xuan Tianyi and I aren"t together anymore."

"Oh! How can you two break up? You guys are so sweet together. You even inspired me to start looking for a serious relations.h.i.+p."

Xuan Chaya looked at Cheng Jian and shook his head.

Hua Zhendan chuckled. "Really?"

"Really. What happened?"

"It"s a long story. For another day."

"Hmm, okay."

"So, where do you work now?"

"That is a long story as well. For another day. But, I live in Tianjin now."

"Oh! Is that so? Where in Tianjin?"

Cheng Jian mumbled the name of the area Xuan Chaya"s apartment was located.

"I"m in Tianjin myself. Can we meet a little later?"

"Hua Zhendan. I don"t do that stuff anymore."

"No, that"s not the reason I want to meet you. I just thought it would be nice to hangout. You know, catch up. Moreover, I need a friend I can talk to at the moment."

Cheng Jian didn"t reply.

"Can you come? We"ll meet at a cafe or something if you aren"t comfortable."

"Okay. I"ll see you later then."

"Okay, bye." Hua Zhendan said and disconnected the call.

"Are you going somewhere?" Xuan Chaya said, raising a brow.

Cheng Jian nodded.

"Where?"

"To see a friend."

Xuan Chaya gave Cheng Jian a cryptic look. "Is it a date?"

Cheng Jian raised a brow at him. "You said I was allowed to go on dates."

Xuan Chaya nodded. "Of course, you are."

Cheng Jian nodded and proceeded to save Hua Zhendan"s number on his cellphone.

"What"s your favorite color?" Xuan Chaya asked.

"Pastel colors," Cheng Jian replied. "Light pink, light blue, light green... You name it."

Amused, Xuan Chaya chuckled. "Your taste is so girly."

Cheng Jian shrugged. "It"s not my fault all the good colors are stereotyped as "girly" colors."

Xuan Chaya shook his head. At this point, there wasn"t anything that Cheng Jian can"t say.

"What"s your favorite color?" Cheng Jian asked.

"Yellow."

Cheng Jian frowned. "That"s very cliché. Girls like pink, boys like yellow."

Xuan Chaya smiled. "Now that I think about it, in this relations.h.i.+p, you"re the girl and I"m the guy. So the stereotypes might actually be true."

"What part of my body resembles that of a girl?" Cheng Jian asked, the humor in Xuan Chaya"s words lost on him.

Xuan Chaya shook his head again. He wasn"t even mad at Cheng Jian. He changed the topic. "Do you have allergies?"

"No. Not that I know about. Is that important?"

"Not really. But now, you are allergic to mushrooms, okay?"

Cheng Jian was confused. "How come?"

Xuan Chaya explained. "Not in real life. I mean, as part of the act. If my mum calls, she"ll ask me what to prepare for when I"m bringing you over. If I mention that she can cook anything, but you"re allergic to mushrooms, it"s going to seem like I know you quite well."

Cheng Jian smiled. "Aren"t you cunning?"

"I"m a good businessman. Call it what you want." He carried a jug of freshly squeezed orange juice from the fridge and handed it to Cheng Jian. "Help me drop this on the table."

***

"Hey." Hua Zhendan greeted Cheng Jian with a smile when he sat at his table.

"What is that abomination you"re wearing?" Cheng Jian asked, distaste prominent on his face.

"What? My T-s.h.i.+rt?" Hua Zhendan looked down at his s.h.i.+rt.

"It"s ugly. And the quality. I mean, I buy cheap clothes because I can"t afford good-quality ones. But even then, mine aren"t as ugly as this."

"The s.h.i.+rt isn"t that bad." Hua Zhendan said defensively.

"What happened to you? Did you go bankrupt?" Cheng Jian held Hua Zhendan"s chin and took a careful look at him.

Hua Zhendan stared silent and let Cheng Jian have his way.

"Did your mother disown you?"

"No." Hua Zhendan replied. "I"m just not talking to her at the moment."

"Oh! Poor you. How will you survive now?" Cheng Jian clicked his tongue.

Hua Zhendan smiled and shook his head. He knew Cheng Jian had a tendency to be overdramatic and this was one of those moments.

"Wait. Did she have something to do with your breakup again?"

Hua Zhendan nodded.

"Of course. You should"ve taken your relations.h.i.+p far away from her eyes."

"I know. And believe, I tried to. It"s just that someone refused to listen to me when I warned them about her."

"You must be so mad at her this time that you decided to starve yourself to punish her." Cheng Jian said, eyeing Hua Zhendan"s s.h.i.+rt.

Hua Zhendan smiled and changed the topic to one he wanted to talk about. "I found my birth parents." He said.

Cheng Jian opened his mouth in surprise. "Did you go looking for them?"

Hua Zhendan nodded.

"Even after they abandoned you?"

Hua Zhendan shook his head. "That was the only part of the story Shen Rui told me. If you know the whole story, it"s not not difficult to forgive." Hua Zhendan said, then proceeded to narrate the story of first, his abandonment, then of his breakup to Cheng Jian.

When he was done, Cheng Jian shook his head. "Shen Rui is even more even than I ever imagined. And I feel so bad that you always forgive her."

"What can I do? The bond I share with her isn"t something even her evil is strong enough to break."

"So, you aren"t mad at her?"

"I"m always mad at her. This time around, I even changed my phone number so she can"t reach me." Hua Zhendan chuckled. "The part that makes me so miserable is the fact that I"m dying to call and check up on her. I mean, before, when I was mad at her, I always saw her around the office, so I knew she was fine. But now, I"m so worried about her."

Cheng Jian laughed. "You were happy for one minute, then you went right back to being the pitiful person I"ve known this whole time."

Hua Zhendan chuckled.

"If your boyfriend got to listen to that recording with Shen Rui"s confession and decide to come back to you, will you get back with him?" Cheng Jian asked.

Hua Zhendan shook his head. "I know it sounds unreasonable that this is such a big deal for me, but he made his choice. It"s not the first time he"s did something like this, but it has to be the last. I"m tired of getting hurt in the name of love."

Cheng Jian listened attentively.

Hua Zhendan chuckled. "Is this the love you said you"re searching for?"

"I"ve lacked love a lot in my life, Hua Zhendan. If I find love now, it"ll be kind to me."

Hua Zhendan smiled at Cheng Jian"s optimism. As for him, he had decided he was done with the whole relations.h.i.+p thingy.

"Tell me, what"s your real family like?"

"Kind." Hua Zhendan said with a smile. "That"s the first word that comes to mind."

Cheng Jian nodded.

"I have a kid sister too. And she"s adorable, but she"s started thinking about boys at her young age."

Cheng Jian laughed.

"My mother is a trader. She sells fish at the market. And my father, he works in a construction company. Both jobs make me sad.

"My father"s most especially because although he works all the time, I hear him complaining about how his boss refuses to pay him."

"That"s horrible."

"And I"ve seen some of his jobs. He"s very good at it. If he started a company of his own, he"ll be far better off. And I"m sure, he"ll pay his workers as well."

"Why don"t you tell him?"

Hua Zhendan shook his head. "If he starts a company now, he hardly has a reputation. He won"t get any jobs and might give up. If he feels like he somehow failed, I don"t want that to be because of me."

Cheng Jian"s eyes sparkled in delight as an idea struck him. Hitting the table, he said. "Tell your father to start his own company. I"ll get him his first client."

"From where?" Hua Zhendan asked him.

"You just do your part and I"ll do mine. Trust me, this is going to work out fine."