Constant Gaze

Half a semester passed. Wu Shijiu hadn’t established much affection for his new school, but his relationship with Xu Xing got friendlier and friendlier.

Xu Xing wasn’t his elder, he didn’t have any duties to perform or requests to exert with him, so there was no class antagonism between them, and he had gained the teenager’s trust to the maximum extent. They still didn’t spend much time together, but the ways in which they did were subtly changing. It was no longer as polite and estranged as it was in the beginning, their mutual rapport was based on a sense of distance, which could be forgotten now, like a miraculous pair of friends despite their difference in age.

After the midterm exams, the iron-hearted school who only gave them half a day of rest every week was moved by some unknown mysterious power and miraculously gave them a two-day vacation. When his classmates spread the news, the scene was lively and touching. When Wu Shijiu reacted, he almost shed tears as he sent Xu Xing a message saying he wanted to eat out, and didn’t wait for a reply before he returned home in high spirits.

There was no one home, the door was locked.

Oh, right, Xu Xing didn’t know he’d returned early.

He sat his butt down on the emergency fire extinguisher box on the staircase and sent Xu Xing a text.

Wu Shijiu: Uncle Xu, I’m on vacation.

Wu Shijiu: Uncle Xu! I’m free!

Wu Shijiu: Mr Xu, I’m your long-lost nephew.

Wu Shijiu: ??? Xu Xing you’re not home, you didn’t leave a message, you’re not answering my texts, don’t tell me you’re out there cheating!!!

He was about to starve to death until Xu Xing called.

“Hey, I’m out talking to some people, how about you come over? We can go out to eat once I’m done, I’ll send you the address.”

“Okay, scumbag!”

“…Wu Shijiu, you’re on speaker.”

“……”

He took a taxi there and, on the way, calmly bought a facemask and put it on.

He arrived at the address Xu Xing gave him, the place was a low-key and secluded coffee salon with few customers. He spotted Xu Xing sitting at a table with five other people through the row of French windows, his colleagues were both male and female, young and fashionable, wearing uniformly-coloured business attire.

He hastily looked down at himself; his backpack was slung over his shoulder, he was deliberately wearing his school uniform like a hooligan with his sleeves rolled up unevenly, it wasn’t that it looked ugly, it was just rather out of place —— he actually felt at a loss for a moment, until Xu Xing rose and vacated a spot on the sofa he was on, letting him sit down closely next to himself, and ordered a dessert for him, then asked if he wanted his milk tea iced or warm.

Wu Shijiu was just nodding as he greeted the others, and it was a while before he leaned close to Xu Xing’s ear and whispered, “Iced, iced. Don’t I need to say something to them?”

“Say what?” Xu Xing handed the menu back to the waiter, “New Year’s greetings?”

“……”

The group of co-workers actually didn’t mind, rather, they seemed to quite like this mask-wearing young delinquent, greeting him warmly and kindly one after another. A fashionable white-collar woman with fine makeup and a motherly air repeatedly tried to torment the little high schooler, but was quickly stopped by Xu Xing, “Hurry. Decide which proposal we’re going to use next week.”

He held a ballpoint pen between his fingers and tapped it on the documents spread out all over the table, grabbing everyone’s scattered attentions back to the matter at hand. He was wearing a black shirt today, with two buttons undone, and his necktie was loosely tied with the part that should have been hanging down fastened to his chest pocket by a tie clip, making it easier for him to bend over the table and write.

Wu Shijiu knew it wasn’t a time for him to butt in and disrupt them, so he silently cast a glance around: every document seemed to be filled with something different, numbers, diagrams, and tedious marks and symbols, not only could he not interject, he couldn’t even understand what he was looking at.

The disparity between him and the “adults” wasn’t only in terms of age.

Soon after, the group of people once again became absorbed in the conversation that had previously been interrupted, using their actions to let Wu Shijiu know he could do as he pleased. He sensibly put his earphones on, and couldn’t bear the loneliness for even ten minutes before he began listening to music and playing games, quickly becoming cut off from the rest of the world. He was entirely unaware of what progress the adults were making, or when it would come to an end.

He had just finished playing a new round when his right earphone was suddenly pulled off, the sound of the music was interrupted for some reason, replaced by a man’s quiet, low and hoarse voice.

“Hungry?”

He stiffened from head to toe.

Xu Xing was leaning extremely close with his chest pressed against his shoulder, one of his hands was draped on the back of the sofa above his head, and the other was cupping his exposed right ear, blowing warm air as he spoke. “We can just leave if you’re hungry. I’m tired too.”

He saw Wu Shijiu’s frozen, motionless profile, and a long time passed before his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. From this angle, Xu Xing could clearly see the hollow of his collarbones inside his white collar and the faint, small mole on the left side of his chest, and could feel him gritting his teeth with force as his eyelashes trembled.

The three colleagues sitting across from them were chatting about non-work topics, and the other two had gone to the bathroom and not come back yet, the night scene outside the window was hazy and the distant lights waned, so no one discovered them.

Xu Xing realised something, but didn’t plan on drawing back.

Wu Shijiu took of his other earphone and turned slightly, meeting the man face-to-face, and his gaze carefully roamed from his eyes to his lips. There seemed to be a secret hiding under his drooping eyelids that had never been there before.

He could hear his own thundering heartbeat, and his ears burned like fire.