Author: Dong Mi

Translator: chiangyus.h.i.+en, Renkun27

Proofreader: KainGuru

Haiqing's room was neat and tidy, unlike the room of a boy in adolescence.

Pinjun also had his own room, but it was not as tidy as this. His things were littered and stacked. As long as he could find it when he needed it, it should be fine. Haiqing's room was undoubtedly the cleanest amongst all of his friends' rooms, whether that person was the same age or was even older than he was.

Haiqing took out the painting tools from his bag and placed them in their designated places, one by one. He was quite agile. It was apparent that this was one of the things that he frequently did.

“Wow, are you OCD [1]? You make everything so tidy…” Pinjun looked at his desk. There was only a pencil case and a desk lamp on it. There was not even a bit of unnecessary things. He could not help but feel deeply impressed by it.

([1] OCD stands for obsessive compulsive disorder. People would usually use this term to tease people who are neat freaks, though it's not exactly what it meant.)

“My dad usually checks my room.” There was a sense of helplessness in Haiqing's voice. No matter how old he was, he still could not freely handle his room's furniture and decoration.

After he heard this, Pinjun knew that his father's authority was above all in this family, so he only nodded and made no further comments.

“What about your mother? Just now, Grandpa asked me, but I couldn't answer it.”

Haiqing smiled at him. He was amazed at how quick Pinjun could integrate into his family.

It all started a few days ago. After going to the studio, they went to eat beef noodles. Pinjun heard that he had to come back early to take care of his Grandpa, so he wanted to help Haiqing. When Haiqing was busy with housework, Pinjun would chat with Grandpa and watch TV. After a while, Grandpa gradually became accustomed to Pinjun's company. Due to the dementia, his Grandpa often could not remember things clearly. Haiqing introduced Pinjun to Grandpa as his tutor. Occasionally, Grandpa would suddenly sober up and remember that Pinjun came to teach Haiqing on his lessons.

── Hurry up and study! You have to pa.s.s the exam in art school! Grandpa always shouted to them like this and forced them to go to the room.

“There.” Haiqing pointed to the ceiling and a beam of loneliness flashed in his eyes. He has not talked about his mother's pa.s.sing away for so many years. Pinjun was the first person who made him relax and feel at ease.

“She's upstairs?”

“Idiot! She's not upstairs.” Haiqing burst into laughter. Just now, he thought that he was smart and considerate! “She's in heaven.”

“Oh… I'm sorry.” Pinjun scratched his head. “I even told Grandpa that she was traveling.”

“That's all right. My dad also told me like that at first.” Did all the single-parent families in the whole world play this trick? Your mother went to travel, it would take her a long time to come back, but she still loves you… Although that was not entirely a lie, Haiqing felt that it was better to be honest. Little children nowadays were not easy to be deceived as they were back then.

This time, Pinjun unexpectedly did not have any words that he could say to comfort him. He stared at Haiqing's face. In addition to the obvious loneliness and the incomprehensibility of this topic, Haiqing was like an innocent young boy who bore many premature responsibilities and was imprisoned in this house alone.

Pinjun quietly held on to Haiqing's wrist. The subtle shaking from the palm of his hand was accompanied by the incomprehensible low-pitched groans that he made; however, in the end, Haiqing did not break free, which made Pinjun sigh in relief. After all, he did this move after mustering up his courage.

“I'll tell you a secret.” Haiqing smoothly put his hand on Pinjun's back and took him to his bedside. His room was quite small so that they did not even need to take too many steps.

“When it's a full moon, my whole bed gets illuminated by the moonlight, then I would sleep on it.” After he finished his words, he sat down on the bed. The sun was s.h.i.+ning through the window into the room, and the sheet was brightly illuminated. Pinjun could not help but think that if the sheets were black or dark blue, and the headboard was embellished with silver-white irregular dots, it would look just like the Milky Way.

He tried imagining Haiqing lying on this galaxy as he would fall asleep. The moonlight was like a beautiful quilt that was spread all around him. Pinjun thought that it was definitely the most beautiful scene in the world.

“And then?” He showed his curiousity and sat down on the bed while he shared the same idea with Haiqing. The soft touch of the mattress transmitted from his b.u.t.tocks to his brain. Pinjun did not doubt that this mattress would be quite good to sleep on. At least, it was certainly better than the few-thousands-of-renminbi [Chinese currency, RMB] mattress that was in his own room.

“I'm sleepy!”

The two men looked at each other and laughed. This silly topic unexpectedly made them feel at ease. Haiqing lied down. Pinjun's hand still held by him, and he could only lie flat with him. The breeze blown by the electric fan roamed between the two of them, but heat rose slowly under the friction of their skin. A drop of sweat flowed down from Pinjun's forehead and finally fell on the sheets and made a dark trace.

It was only then that Haiqing realized how close the two of them were.

He did not notice that Pinjun's eyelashes were so thick, even after interacting with him several times before. He thought to himself that this may be the reason why Pinjun's facial features seemed so deep. Haiqing slowly extended his hand to Pinjun's face. Pinjun closed his eyes and felt the subtle stimuli caused by the light source jumping in front of him and changing direction. He was quietly expecting the feeling of Haiqing's fingers caressing his skin…

Ding!

The sound came so loud that it startled them.

“It's a text message.” Haiqing easily turned over and looked for his mobile phone that was randomly put at the bedside. He grabbed it and found that it was Xiao K. When he opened it, he saw the obvious six words.

"What are you doing? Come out and play." [2] It was a straightforward and non-artificial statement that made Haiqing laugh again. With Pinjun by his side, he seemed to be able laugh more often than usual. Haiqing thought that it felt good.

([2] This message in Chinese has 6 words.)

Your friend? Pinjun also sat up, but he waited in the place where he was before and asked by silently mouthing the words. He did not realize that he completely did something unnecessary to show his consideration.

Haiqing saw his action. He also intended to answer “yes” with his mouth, but he had second thoughts about the necessity of this… It did not seem necessary! He was not making phone a phone call… eh? Haiqing suddenly stared at Pinjun seriously, then he grinned and slowly moved into Pinjun's embrace. Correction, it was not into his embrace. Instead, he just slowly moved close and positioned himself in front of Pinjun. He was so close so that if he leaned back a bit more, then he would touch Pinjun's bosom.

Haiqing turned on the camera function of his mobile phone. After the screen turned from black to light, Haiqing and Pinjun slightly adjusted their positions so that their face would appear in the middle of the screen. Haiqing made a bit of “Hmm, uh” sound. It was not easy to make a good position “kacha." The two people's photo appeared with a brilliant smile in the chat window with Xiao K.

Xiao K immediately replied. Haiqing had just closed the window and the beep sound already popped up again. There was no interval at all.

This time, Xiao K's message was very simple. It only had two words.

"s.l.u.t [3]" Haiqing instantly laughed. He could imagine how funny Xiao K's expression was on the other side of the chat. After he excitedly typed, his whole body swung like the head of a doll that was very big and wobbly.

([3] Has two characters in Chinese.)

Now that the photo has been sent, sending a few more would not make a difference! Haiqing simply leaned on Pinjun's body. He took selfies in various poses, sticking their faces together, and soon, they kissed. There were all kinds of postures that came in a variety of ways. When their messages with Xiao K would come and go, they seemed to be very happy. They even laughed heartily a few times. They laughed so excitedly until they had tears in their eyes.