Yixing stared at the nearly illegible scrawl of numbers he'd hurriedly tattooed onto his arm with a fountain pen from his drawer. 

 

It wasn't the same number he'd memorized years ago when he'd dialed it nearly every night but that was to be expected. 

 

He had revisited the wrinkled phone book in the drug store beneath his apartment and scribbled LuHan's home phone number onto a pad of paper before transferring it onto his skin when he went back to his apartment.

 

Yixing wasn't sure if LuHan would remember him. No, he was sure LuHan wouldn't forget. It was forgiveness Yixing was worried about. 

 

It was he who had let their friendship fall apart in a loose pile of complaints and half hearted meetings. It was he who didn't look up when LuHan walked away.

 

Yixing glared at the digits marring his pale skin before grabbing a tissue and smudging them into blobs. 

 

Today wasn't the day.

 

Instead of full out skipping his regular cafe visit, Yixing arrived at three rather than four-thirty in hopes of shaking off a rather persistent flame-haired girl. 

 

He didn't see Jill or Phil, but he made a few more new lives with some of the people passing by. 

 

When he stood up to leave the cafe, a waitress stopped him.

 

He stared down in shock at the tiny woman. He recognized her as Scarlett's friend.

 

The woman blushed - a light rose covering her cheeks. She was cute, but her eyebrows were too thick, her nose too short, and her chin was too round to be considered beautiful. 

 

"This is yours?" She held up a wallet.

 

Yixing creased his eyebrows before shaking his head. "No, sorry." He turned and exited. 

 

He briefly wondered what he would do today as his muscles were still complaining from his overload the night before. 

 

He could call LuHan... The voice in his head was quieted quickly and Yixing rubbed the smudged numbers on his wrist subconsciously. 

 

Not today. He wasn't ready yet. 

 

The stores that lined the street were too familiar to hold any interest for him so he eventually decided that the park might be able to relax his foggy mind. 

 

His routine had already been sacrificed to the pits of Hell. He might as well make it official.

 

Yixing used to visit the the park when he was in high school. As a transfer student, he found the expanse of nature to be comforting. It was the only thing familiar to him in a new world of faces he didn't know. 

 

LuHan was also a comfort as a fellow Chinese person. He too was a transfer student so they found a likeness between themselves that attracted each other instantaneously. 

 

The park hasn't changed much when he arrived. They had cleaned it up a bit, but everything else seemed pretty much identical to how it had looked a few years ago. The rusty swing set and cracked, plastic slide looked the same. The circle of trees enclosing the soccer field looked the same. Even the closed down bike rental shop next to the abandoned hiking trail looked the same. 

 

Yixing sat down on a wooden bench and watched the grass sway quietly. He wondered briefly if when he closed his eyes, a pair of sparkling black ones would appear in front of him again. 

 

Sighing, he closed his mind off to the world and wished for a different life.

 

。。。

 

Yixing was laying on his couch with nothing to do. His limbs were too sore to go to the dance studio at the University and he had never saved up for a TV to put in his apartment. So now he was transitioning between face planting the musty cushions and staring at the dirty wall. 

 

He moaned loudly, his boredom worse than the pain. 

 

He wouldn't have even minded if Scarlett barged into his apartment now. 

 

When there was a knock on the door, Yixing was almost convinced he had subconsciously summoned Satan to relieve his boredom. 

 

He shuffled over to the scratched, wooden frame and squinted through the tiny peep hole.

 

A mess of wild, red hair greeted his eyesight.

 

So he didn't summon Satan but Yixing figured it was close enough.

 

He pulled the door open with some trouble. It would always stick when it was nearing summertime. The humidity caused the wood to expand and make Yixing's life more difficult. 

 

"Hi!" Scarlett beamed up at him.

 

Yixing grunted and limped back to his couch to fall onto it heavily. 

 

Scarlett let herself in through the door he hadn't bothered to close and stood over him with a disapproving look on her face. 

 

"I told you that you shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard." She frowned, her hands forming fists to rest on her hips.

 

Yixing grunted again.

 

"Aren't you going to offer me some tea or something?" 

 

"That would mean that I had something to offer." 

 

"You don't have any tea?" 

 

Yixing shook his head, the skin on his cheek chafing roughly against the hardened fabric of the couch cushions.

 

"Food? Coffee?"

 

He shook his head again. 

 

"Wow..." Scarlett looked around. "How come you let me in? I didn't think you liked me."

 

"-s lonely." Yixing murmured.

 

"What?"

 

"I was lonely. Any company would have been welcomed."

 

"Why don't you go visit some friends or something? It's really nice outside. Plus, it smells a whole lot better outside than it does in this shabby apartment."

 

Yixing let out another grunt.

 

"Do you have any friends?"

 

He didn't reply.

 

"I'll be your friend." Scarlett offered.

 

"No thanks."

 

She gave a little 'harrumph' and studied the apartment some more. "Is that your bedroom over there?" She disappeared from his line of sight.

 

"Hey," Yixing sat up and launched himself at her. "You can't just walk into people's bedrooms without asking." He grabbed her by the arm before she could slip into his room.

 

"What? Do you have something bad in there? Drugs? Or perhaps you're into that erted stuff and you don't want people to see your... toys." She smirked at him.

 

Yixing grimaced. "Of course not. If you don't mind, you can let yourself out. I think I prefer the boredom to this." 

 

Scarlett puffed out her lower lip. "Aww, don't be like that. I was just kidding."

 

"Just go home."

 

"I don't want to." Scarlett pulled her arm out of Yixing's grip and before he could react, she had slipped into his bedroom.

 

He followed her quickly and attempted to tug her out of the room.

 

The walls were bare of any pictures, or artwork, as well as the top of the bookshelf. His desk only had blank paper, pencils, and pens with a lamp watching over them sadly, the bulb having burned out weeks ago. His bed wasn't made, and his laundry was overflowing from the blue bushel. Nothing in the room seemed personal save for the worn, black guitar case in the corner. It was the only thing in the room that wasn't collecting dust. A few music sheets with lyrics were scattered around it in an arc. 

 

All in all, it was probably the saddest room in the apartment and Yixing hated it. But he still found himself here more often than he was anywhere else. 

 

"Can you play a song for me?" Scarlett motioned to the guitar case, disregarding the rest of the room. 

 

"No. Now get out." Yixing dead panned.

 

"Only if you come with me." Scarlett stared him straight in the eye and they remained in their glare off for a few minutes before Yixing broke it by looking away.

 

"Why do you keep bothering me?" He asked tiredly.

 

"I told you. It's because you're sad. I don't like it when people who are surrounded by life choose not to take part in it. Don't you realize what's out there? Go rob a bank for all I care, just stop living like this." 

 

"What I do in my life isn't of any concern to you." Yixing flopped down on the couch. He was prepared to wait her out. 

 

Scarlett, unfortunately, seemed to be very good at being patient. 

 

"Maybe not but I still don't like it." She took a seat on the unoccupied end of the brown couch. 

 

Yixing closed his eyes and hoped she would be gone when he opened them.

 

"I'll make you a deal." Scarlett shook his shoulder, rousing him from his daydream.

 

He grunted to let her know he was listening.

 

"Spend the rest of the year hanging out with me and then I'll be out of your hair forever." She grinned, pleased with her proposal.

 

"Are you asking me out?"

 

A rose color crept onto her cheeks. "Of course not! Don't be ridiculous. We just met. What kind of girl do you think I am? I just want you to spend the rest of the year with me, then I'll leave you alone. But you have to actually do stuff with me. I'll teach you how to live on your own so when I'm out of your hair, you can continue." 

 

Yixing pondered the offer for a moment. The answer was obvious to him, but for some reason, his tongue seemed to have its own opinion. "Fine." 

 

Scarlett beamed. "Great! I'll see you at the cafe at four-thirty. Rest those muscles. We're gonna have fun tomorrow!" She patted his shoulder and jumped up from the couch. "Later!" She skipped out of his apartment, leaving Yixing staring in shock at the scratched floor boards.

 

"Wait... What?" 

 

 

---

 

A.N

I hope people don't think I'm rushing their relationship too much. Everything I've done in this story was put there for a reason.

I'm trying to make their pairing as unique as possibl without straying into the lands of unrealistic couples.

Now here's Yixing being cute Yixing :D