Hope You've Been Well

After he spoke, Zhuang Fanxin was somewhat embarrassed. He'd never fought with a friend before, so he wasn't quite sure how to handle it, else he wouldn't have avoided him for so many days. So when Gu Zhuoyan came to the door, he couldn't help but feel nervous.

But when Gu Zhuoyan heard what he said, he thought, So Zhuang Fanxin really cares about how I treat him, that's a good start!

They released their handshake and stood idle on the porch for a moment, until the German Shepherd had finished the biscuits and came out. Gu Zhuoyan gave the dog a knock on the head. This dog really wasn't as loyal as he ought to be-anyone with food could steal him away.

Zhuang Fanxin stroked the dog fondly. "PC39007, shake," he said.

Gu Zhuoyan figured that Zhuang Fanxin would never manage to remember the German Shepherd's number, not in this lifetime. It was fine, 007 was a good number too; James Bond. He spoke decisively, "I'm changing the dog's name to Bond, will you be able to remember that?"

"Why wouldn't I," replied Zhuang Fanxin.

Ignorance wasn't as bad as ignorance of one's own ignorance. Gu Zhuoyan found himself at a loss for words. The inside of the building was much cooler than outside, so the German Shepherd didn't linger long before dashing back in-clearly he didn't consider himself an outdoor dog at all.

Gu Zhuoyan and Zhuang Fanxin followed him into the living room. There was a schoolbag and an art tube lying on the couch; evidently, Zhuang Fanxin hadn't gone upstairs after reaching home. Was Zhuang Fanxin watching TV in the living room the whole time? Gu Zhuoyan quietly wondered. That means he was just waiting for me, right?

"You were waiting for me to come over this whole time?" he asked.

Zhuang Fanxin was taken aback by his words. "No." He weighed the remote control in his hand, trying to piece together the most dignified response he could. "I wanted to watch TV, and you came right on time."

"I came over pretty quickly, didn't I?" said Gu Zhuoyan slyly.

"What do you mean, quickly?" Zhuang Fanxin instantly objected. "I watched two whole stupid programmes before you came over."

He realized something was off when he finished speaking. Seeing Gu Zhuoyan's slightly punchable smile, he realized he had accidentally exposed himself. He'd embarrassed himself and felt deeply dissatisfied, so he simply decided not to speak.

Gu Zhuoyan had somehow managed to turn the atmosphere awkward with a single sentence. After their days of not talking to each other, his plan to draw the other over with his dog had failed, so he could only go over in person to make nice. But now that they'd reconciled, he'd implied that it was the other boy who was so eager in the first place.

After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly confessed, "Actually, I tried to look for you three or four times in the past few days.

Zhuang Fanxin relaxed slightly. "Actually, I checked my phone a lot too... but you never sent anything."

"I wanted to say it in person," he said. That's not enough, he thought, looking at Zhuang Fanxin's unusually gentle expression, so he braced himself and added, "And I wanted to see you too. I hadn't seen you in days."

Zhuang Fanxin couldn't stand it. He stood up suddenly. "I'll get you some ice cream!"

He darted into the kitchen to hide. As he opened the freezer, he felt like stuffing his head inside to cool himself down. My god, didn't Northerners have a reputation for being manly? Why was Gu Zhuoyan so mushy!

It took him ten minutes just to get an ice cream. Zhuang Fanxin returned to the living room and sat down to watch TV with Gu Zhuoyan, the large dog between them. Just as night fell, Gu Zhuoyan took the dog and said goodbye as Zhuang Fanxin walked them to the door.

Every trace of sunset had vanished completely; the sky was a deep black. Zhuang Fanxin decided to turn on their pull-switch porch light. The light hung on the wall to the left of the door, and a short, colourful hemp rope dangled from it; Zhuang Fanxin could just about reach it on tiptoe. But perhaps the wind had blown a little too hard, for the rope was now tangled on the lampshade above it. He tried and tried again to grab it, but to no avail.

Gu Zhuoyan, who was standing just behind him, took the chance to step forward slightly, reach forth, and slowly unknot the tangled rope. He was standing very close to Zhuang Fanxin, his arms a cage around Zhuang Fanxin's head; Zhuang Fanxin tried to step away, but was blocked by his shoulder.

"Ugh, why." Zhuang Fanxin felt oppressed by the height difference.

Gu Zhuoyan finally untangled the knot. He held Zhuang Fanxin's wrist up from behind and tucked the tail end of the rope into his hand, then took a step back. "Pull it yourself. Nobody's going to tease you for being short."

Clack. The lamp lit up, casting a warm glow over them.

Zhuang Fanxin turned and saw a small shadow in the distance. Gu Baoyan ran over, her head crashing into Gu Zhuoyan's legs. "Ge, come home for dinner," she panted.

After she said this, she turned to Zhuang Fanxin. "Xiao Zhuang gege, I went to see my new school today!" blurted the child.

"What school are you going to?" asked Zhuang Fanxin.

"It's an international primary school, the uniforms are so pretty!" Gu Baoyan was extremely satisfied. She fiddled with her pigtail as she spoke. "There was a foreign teacher at the interview. I'm thinking of getting my hair done the same way."

Zhuang Fanxin had earlier decided to straighten his hair the next day, so bringing a child along was simple enough. Gu Baoyan immediately let go of Gu Zhuoyan and promised to go to the hair salon with Zhuang Fanxin tomorrow.

At night, Zhuang Fanxin took his art tube into his second-floor studio. He had to finish an incomplete design sketch. On the paper was a gemstone ring displayed from three angles; he still needed to take care of some details.

Zhuang Fanxin's paternal grandparents ran a jewellery export business in their younger years, later moving to Los Angeles to open a jewellery company. It was probably under their influence that he had been fascinated by all sorts of jewellery and precious stones from a young age, becoming obsessed with jewellery design when he grew older.

He sketched into the night, finishing it in the wee hours before sending it to his client. If they were satisfied with it, he would get a commission in two days. Gu Zhuoyan gave him a pair of sneakers worth thousands of yuan, so he wanted to give something of similar value in return, and had to rely on hard work to first earn that money.

Zhuang Fanxin went to sleep past 3 a.m. He was awakened the next morning by notifications from the boys' group. What witchcraft was this, that a group of late-sleepers would be so excited this early in the morning?

He lay prone against his pillow, his eyes slightly open. "What happened?"

The class sports committee rep: "Check the announcement in the class group!"

Zhuang Fanxin looked at the class group chat. It turned out that Xia Wei had inquired this morning if they had completed their homework, then reminded them that there were only two days left till the start of term. But hadn't they finished their work at the gathering the other day? "You guys didn't finish the homework that day?" he asked.

Qi Nan: "We just ate cake."

Ten minutes later, the class president laid out their schedule: "Since the cake at the place in the Creative Industry Park wasn't good, let's meet at the café next to the library at 9 a.m.!"

Zhuang Fanxin flipped over and ruffled his hair. He suddenly remembered that he was meant to get it straightened that day. Immediately, he sent a reply: "Sorry guys, can't make it!" Then he set his status to "Do Not Disturb" amid the sea of condemning messages.

After going back to sleep for a short while, Zhuang Fanxin woke up nearer to the time. He tidied up and took out two ice creams, then went out. Gu Baoyan was quite punctual, standing at the doorway all dolled up. Gu Zhuoyan was there too.

"My brother's paying," said Gu Baoyan.

Zhuang Fanxin handed over an ice cream. "Then the two of you can share this."

Gu Baoyan wasn't too pleased about this, and only let Gu Zhuoyan take one bite, so Gu Zhuoyan took a massive one and left her with just the cone. Gu Baoyan flew into a rage and ran after Gu Zhuoyan smacking him, just like the day they had first arrived in Rongcheng.

The hair salon wasn't far away. Since it was the weekend, they had more customers that usual, so the trio sat in the waiting area and waited for their hair wash. The siblings never stayed mad at each other; Gu Baoyan now leaned on Gu Zhuoyan, acting coquettishly the way she normally did with Gu Shibo and Xue Manzi. "Gege, they do beauty treatments too. Should I try one?"

"Beauty treatments kill children," said Gu Zhuoyan.

Zhuang Fanxin almost did a spit-take. Do you really need to scare the kid? He tried to cheer Gu Baoyan up. An only child like himself could never understand Gu Zhuoyan's pain.

Gu Zhuoyan lowered his head and checked his phone. His best friend Lu Wen had posted on his Moments: it was a photo of a boarding pass with the personal details covered. Show-off, goodness knew where he was going this time.

He suddenly felt his ear itch. He turned. There were many waiting customers, so they sat quite close together; the tips of Zhuang Fanxin's hair had accidentally brushed against him. The shock of hair floated gently, the curls looking soft yet lustrous.

Gu Zhuoyan stared at Zhuang Fanxin's hair and felt unexpectedly reluctant to see it go.

The curls that made him look puppyish, or like someone of mixed descent, were going to be mercilessly straightened in a few moments.

He couldn't help but raise his phone and dazedly open his camera app, then subconsciously angled his body and filled the lens with Zhuang Fanxin as a matter of course. But it was too close. Zhuang Fanxin turned towards him almost immediately, meeting his gaze through the camera.

Gu Zhuoyan remained unruffled, simply adjusting the angle.

"What are you doing?" asked Zhuang Fanxin.

Gu Zhuoyan scratched his eyebrow. "Taking a selfie."

Zhuang Fanxin smiled. Snap, went the camera.

It was finally their turn. While Zhuang Fanxin and Gu Baoyan went to have their hair done, Gu Zhuoyan sat on the sofa playing games. It was fine at first, but after he had finished his fourth round, he found that their hairstyles were still largely unchanged.

Gu Zhuoyan clearly had but a superficial understanding of these things. He thought that the hair styling would take about the length of a school class, but even after an hour there was no end in sight.

To put it in more ambiguous terms, Gu Zhuoyan was just like a man waiting for his wife and kid at the shopping mall, his expression growing colder and colder, contemplating divorce and handing over the custody rights too.

Gu Zhuoyan put on his earphones and went to sleep. He had almost a hundred songs on his usual playlist and played them on shuffle, dozing off when his eardrums had grown numb to the sound.

Three hours later, Gu Baoyan had a head of pretty waves, just as she'd asked for. She ran into the waiting area and shook Gu Zhuoyan awake. "Ge, I'm done perming my hair!" she said happily.

Gu Zhuoyan opened his eyes and was shocked. "Damn, you look a hell of a lot older, like a sixth-grader."

He rubbed his eyes and was about to ask what fool had styled his little sister this way, but when he stood and looked around, he saw many hair stylists but not Zhuang Fanxin. Gu Baoyan pulled him over to see Zhuang Fanxin, saying that he was blow-drying his hair and it was almost done.

Gu Zhuoyan let the brat tug his hand and lead him to a row of revolving chairs in front of their respective styling stations. One of them turned, and suddenly Zhuang Fanxin was facing him.

The boy was sitting upright, his cape still on and his slender neck poking out from it. The little curls were gone, and in their place was a head of silky straight hair. The older woman next to him yawned as she waited for her perm to finish. The hair dryer was very loud, and the customer and cashier haggled over discounts; in the midst of all the noise and hubbub Zhuang Fanxin sat, extremely quiet and placid.

He raised his head. "Is it alright?"

Gu Zhuoyan stared at his face. The Pan-asianness of his appearance had lessened, but those pair of eyes seemed even clearer than before. It was a good opportunity to compliment his beauty, but Gu Zhuoyan seemed to hesitate, then lied somewhat stiffly, "It's okay."

Just then, the voice in his headphones sang: "When I'm by your side, lost in your eyes-"

The fuck? Hey singer, who are you, how did you know?!