Chapter 12 – Talk

说话
（一）Hold index finger of dominant hand in front of your mouth
（二）Circulate index finger in front of your mouth, as if words were coming out of it

Around five o’clock on April 11^th Yifan found himself on the outdoor basketball field at the sidelines and waited for the game to start, because the weather was already warm enough and it had rained in the morning which meant the air was good enough to do some sports and not drop dead. The guests from Qinghua University were already there and the coaches eyed themselves carefully, as if they were about to jump each other’s throats. The bleachers were already filled with both PKU and Qinghua students that came to cheer for their team. Yifan had spotted Yixing right away who was seated between Suho and Luhan – Yixing had signed him that he really thought he looked good in his basketball clothes, but still preferred him . Yifan had try to hide the blush on his face and right when he was about to give a good comeback, Yin Hang stepped in front of him. She was wearing the cheerleaders’ uniform which consisted of a short skirt and a crop top with the university’s logo printed on it. She waved her pompoms in front of Yifan’s face and cried out:
“Are you ready, my dearest match maker?”
“When was I ever not ready?” was Yifan’s counterquestion.
“I could name a few situations, my love!” Yin Hang teased and Marie joined them, so Yifan couldn’t respond to her comment.
“Yifan, be honest, do you think this skirt is too long?” she said with an unsatisfied look on her face.
“Too LONG?” the guy asked in shock and Marie nodded.
“I’ve got the feeling it could be a little shorter…”
“Trust me, if your skirts are any shorter, they’ll be a belt.”
“Really?”
She lifted her left leg and examined it.
“Yeah. You girls are making every male here already drool like babies while teething, there’s really no need to make anything shorter.”
She looked up and smiled.
“Aaaaw, Yifan, are you worried about other guys staring at us?”
“No. I’m worried about slipping and falling in said drool during the game.”
Yin Hang burst out laughing but Marie looked kind of shocked.
“You can never say anything nice to anyone, right?” she asked.
“Oh, Marie, in all those years that I’m associating with him, he gave me maybe two compliments. He lives by the rule: If I’m not critizing, it’s enough praise already,” Yin Hang said and grabbed her friend’s arm, “Let’s go, we need to get ready.”
Yifan got back to his teammates while Britney’s song ‘Pretty Girls’ blasted out of the speakers that Yifan and his teammates had had to set up in the afternoon and the cheerleaders started their opening act, accompanied by the mostly male crowd’s cheers.
“Man, that new girl is really hot,” a guy next to him sighed while Marie ended the performance with a perfect split.
“Yeah, I guess,” Yifan answered and shrugged his shoulders.
“You GUESS? Damn, Yifan, what is wrong with you?”
“Dude, if you want to try to get with her, I’m not holding you back,” Yifan said and looked at his teammate whose facial skin had been tormented by acne.
“Really? You’re not dating her or something?”
The hopeful look the other one got almost hurt Yifan’s feelings, because he just knew that Marie would never give this guy one chance to even talk to her for five minutes.
“Nope. I’m not. And I don’t intend on doing that.”
In that moment, their coach called them to get together one last time to bark some semi-motivational sentences at them before they stepped on the court and got into their positions. When Yifan took his position, he looked up to Yixing and the others who simultaneously held up their hands and crossed their fingers. He signed an ‘Okay’ and smiled. And then the referee gave the signal to start the game.

About an hour later, the PKU had walked out of the game as the winner and Yifan was greeted by his friends at the entrance of the gym where he had taken a quick shower and had changed into other clothes.
“Big boy! You were amazing!” Luhan cried out and gave him a big hug.
Being the center of attention in this way was making him uncomfortable, because he had trouble handling praise.
“I’m sure they wouldn’t have won if it wasn’t for you.”
“Okay, stop it guys. Qinghua was like seven points behind us.”
“Yeah, but you scored those points,” Tao reminded him and Yifan rolled his eyes.
He then turned to Sehun to change the topic as fast as possible:
“So, where should we go?”
“I’m glad you asked! Suho and I recently discovered a Korean bar, about a twenty minute walk away from here. And since it’s a weekday there shouldn’t be too many people.”
The rest of the group gave their consent and Yifan looked at Yixing.
“Are you okay with this?”
“It’s his birthday, if this is what he wants, I’m okay with it.”
Yifan ruffled his hair and smiled. When they were about to set off for the bar, Yin Hang and Marie emerged out of the gym. They too had changed into different clothes and when Sehun saw Yin Hang, his face lit up in joy. It was almost disgusting how he was drooling over her.
“And where exactly are you going, Wu Yifan?” Marie said when they had caught up to them.
“Celebrating with my boys…” he answered but Marie wouldn’t even let him explain himself:
“No, no, no, you’re not going to walk off just like this. We’re going to celebrate at my place, my parents went to Canada for a few weeks.”
“Ummmm, but… I… we…” Yifan stammered.
“Everyone is invited!” Yin Hang threw in in a loud voice and looked straight at Sehun who took the bait immediately.
“Change of plans! We’re going to Marie’s!” he proclaimed.
Yifan wished himself dead. That was not what he had had in mind.
“Greaaaaaaat!” Marie cried out and clapped, “Let’s go immediately, how does that sound?”
The others didn’t really bother whether they’d be getting drunk at a bar or at a house party, so they nodded and they walked to the West Gate to catch some Taxis. Yifan was sharing a car with Suho, Tao and Yixing who looked out of the window with a thoughtful look on his face. He touched his boyfriend’s knee and Yixing turned his head to face him.
“I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure house parties aren’t your thing.”
“As long as you’re there I think I can handle it,” Yixing responded and took his hand.
“I hope the party so we leave early, I was really excited for the food there!” Suho complained from the passenger seat.
He then turned around while the driver was maneuvering the car through the heavy traffic.
“Is it just me or is Sehun after that one girl, what was her name again…?”
“Yin Hang,” Yifan answered, “And yes, it’s pretty obvious that he’s after her. But she’s just as annoying as him, so I think they’d make a good match.”
Tao snorted.
“Charming as ever!”
“But do you really think he’d have a chance with her? I mean, he’s just this tall and clumsy Korean guy, and she’s sort of out of his league,” Suho pondered and Yixing giggled lightly.
“Oh please, Yin Hang isn’t an untouchable goddess.”
“But her father is pretty rich and has a high influence on a lot of things. And her mother is one of the few female high ranking party officials, isn’t she? Shouldn’t she be expected to date someone of her kind?” Tao asked.
“Yeah, that might be true, but I think Yin Hang doesn’t even like to associate with people of ‘her kind’,” Yifan answered.
“Right, I mean, she dated you, what was I was expecting?”
For this comment, Tao received a smack on the back of his head and the driver pulled over.
“We’re here. That’s 12 kuai,” he murmured in a thick Northern accent and Suho payed him while the other guys stumbled out of the car and joined the others who were already waiting for them.

Marie and her parents lived on about 130m² furnished with the most expensive designer furniture that Yifan had layed his eyes on – and he had been at Yin Hang’s home already. Marie and Yin Hang had been doing preparations beforehand and could already offer some cool drinks to their first guests. In the first thirty minutes it was just the two girls and Yifan and his friends, and they engaged in a rather pleasant conversation. But then a bunch of teammates and cheerleaders arrived who had brought their friends and suddenly the apartment was full with people sipping on beer bottles and dancing in the living room. It was around nine, when Marie and Yin Hang waved frantically at Yifan from the the other side of the room to catch his attention.
“Goooooood, what do they want now?” he asked and put his bottle down, “I’ll be back in a few.”
With one last encouraging smile at Yixing who tried his best to be as relaxed as possible he left and reached the girls.
“What?” he asked.
“We’re about to give out a toast to all the players,” Yin Hang explained.
“Great, you couldn’t have said that earlier? I left my drink with my friends.”
“Oh, that’s the smallest problem!” Marie said and turned around to get a new bottle of beer out of the mini bar behind her, “Here you go!”
“Thank you.”
Yifan took a big gulp to prepare himself for whatever was about to come. But he sure wasn’t prepared for what Marie was just about to drop:
“You know, I admire you, Yifan.”
“Huh? Why is that?”
Yin Hang slurped on her Vodka mixed with orange juice while she looked out for the other four players that were somewhere among the people.
“You’re such a grumpy guy, but you can be also very sweet.”
“When was I ever sweet to you?”
Marie laughed and waved her hand as if she wasn’t even going there.
“Yeah I get it, I have to work my way up to the top, but I was actually talking about you and your friends over there.”
He looked over to the others who were talking to each other – Suho and Yixing were doing something which looked like Yixing tried to teach him some trivial stuff in CSL. Suho was really good at this and caught up really fast, Yifan had to admit. Seeing them interact now made him even relax, because Suho would take care of Yixing when Yifan couldn’t do it himself. He was sure that without Suho, Yixing wouldn’t have even stayed during the game. Nobody really knew why, but Suho had a thing for taking care of people, which had already resulted in the group calling him ‘the mother’.
“When was I ever sweet to them?”
Except to Yixing, he added in his mind and turned back to her. Marie chuckled.
“You have a very subtle way of doing that. Like, for example, the way you integrate that one friend into your little group, that’s really amazing.”
Suddenly, Yin Hang’s attention snapped back to Marie and she took another sip from her drink. Yifan frowned.
“What ‘one friend’? I don’t get it.”
“You know which one!” Marie responded and nudged him, “The mentally impaired one? The one who doesn’t talk much but when he does it’s very hard to understand.”
“WHAT?!”
Yin Hang choked on her drink and when she was finally able to breathe again, she eyed Marie in horror, while Yifan’s mouth had dropped open but Marie didn’t even seem to realize what she just had said.
“Is it autism?”she asked, unaware of the outrage that was building up in Yifan’s chest.
“Oh my god, Marie! Autism isn’t even a disability!” Yin Hang exclaimed and when she saw Yifan’s angry look on his face, she sensed a lot of danger.
Yifan placed the bottle on the sideboard next to them and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He needed to relax, because hitting girls wasn’t really what he usually did – but he sure had the urge to hit something. Very hard. And repeatedly.
“Okay, Marie. Listen up, because we need to get some things straight here: That ‘mentally disabled one’ is called Yixing. And for the record, he’s deaf, and I’m very sure he beats you mentally because what you just said was the most ridiculous I have ever heard in my life!”
Marie’s eyes grew wide, Yin Hang eyed her as if she wanted to say ‘Damn girl, you ed up big time…’ and Yifan seized the opportunity to clear something else:
“But you know what? I don’t care, because I’m not going to have anything to do with you anymore. I’m out of here. And I’m taking my boyfriend that you just insulted with me.”
“Boyfriend?!” both girls spilled out and Marie looked at Yin Hang.
“You told me he was single?!”
Yin Hang was at loss for words.
“I… what… wait… when did that happen, Yifan?”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m leaving now!”
He turned around and pushed himself through the people. When he reached the others, they looked up to him.
“So, what was so important?” Chen asked but Yifan grabbed Yixing’s hand and said:
“Yixing, we’re leaving.”
“Woooooh, wait, wait, we just arrived like an hour ago!” Sehun threw in, because he hadn’t even had the chance to talk to Yin Hang alone.
“Sehun, it’s just me and Yixing leaving, you can stay if you want.”
“But… why? What’s the matter?” Luhan asked.
Yifan didn’t want to answer but then Yixing spoke up:
“She said something about me, right?”
“Did you see it?”
Yixing nodded and curled his lips, something he did when he was trying to hold back tears.
“What did she say about him?” Suho demanded to know.
“It was just stupid stuff, okay? We don’t need to discuss this any further. And hey, Yixing,” Yifan cupped his face and looked him straight in his watering eyes, “What she said isn’t true and you know that, okay? Don’t let that get to you.”
Yixing slightly nodded, but he clearly wasn’t convinced.
“No seriously, what did she say to make you this upset?” Tao asked, “I have seen you angry but that’s the case 80% of the time. But I have never seen you like this before.”
“We don’t need to discuss this now, Tao!” Yifan hissed again and Yixing took away his hands from his face.
“It was something about ‘mentally disabled’ and ‘autism’, right?”
The others gasped when they heard Yixing’s statement.
“Ooookay, that girl needs a real good smack!” Tao said and got up, “Luhan, hold my beer!”
“We’re not going to smack anyone here, Tao!” Yifan said and pushed him back when he was just about to leave for Marie, who was still at the other side of the room and she was talking to Yin Hang – or rather, she was arguing with her, “I’ll just leave with Yixing.”
“Nah, you’re not going to leave alone,” Suho said and stood up.
“You really don’t need to do this, Suho.”
“Oh, I think I do. Yixing might be your boyfriend and stuff, but we’re also friends, and if a friend gets insulted that way, I’m taking action. I’ll get our coats!”
Suho’s speech left an impression on the rest and one after another got up too.
“Yeah, let’s go, this place blows anyway, the snacks aren’t even good,” Chen tried to lighten up the mood.
The others nodded in agreement and placed their bottles and glasses on the expensive living room table, except for Sehun who looked at Yin Hang for a moment and then sighed in defeat.
“Okay. Let’s go.”
“Sehun, if you’d rather stay…” Yifan started but Sehun cut him off:
“What? Staying alone at a party with a host that’s acting like she’s superior to everyone? Nope, not going to happen. Yixing is more important than a woman I met once at a club. Suho is right.”
And he turned around to help his roommate with the coats.  Weirdly touched by his friends, Yifan grabbed Yixing’s arm and led him out of the living room to the wardrobe where the others were already putting on their jackets. Yixing did not say anything when they got out of the apartment and left for the elevator. While they waited for it to arrive, they heard the clicking of heels in the hallway.
“Wait for me guys!”
Yin Hang ran around the corner and was relieved when she saw that they were not gone yet. Her coat hung loosely around her left shoulder; she hadn’t even bothered to put it on properly.
“What are you doing here now?” Yifan asked dumbfounded.
Yin Hang pointed her index finger in the direction of Marie’s apartment and she hissed:
“That started a fight with me because apparently I embarrassed her because I didn’t know you were having a boyfriend? She needs to get a reality check. I mean, if anything, it was her who embarrassed herself just now!”
Tao and Luhan surpressed their laughter, because Yin Hang always looked very adorable when she became furious. But if you told her that, she even became angrier which caused more cuteness and so forth – it was a vicious circle that could go on for half an hour.
“So, you just left?” Luhan asked.
“Yeaaaah, I told her to off. And then I left,” Yin Hang said matter of factly, “I mean, who does she think she is to talk like that?! I thought she was nice and fun to hang out with but – no, I don’t want to have anything to do with people like this!”
To undermine her statement, she pulled her coat over her shoulder and threw her hair back in a resolute manner. Then she eyed Yixing and Yifan and sighed.
“Why didn’t you tell me about this? When Marie said she found you cute… god, Yifan, I would’ve never brought you into these situations if I had known!”
“Wait, are you saying you tried to hook me up with her?”
“Well, I was under the impression you were single so why the hell not?! Why didn’t you tell me anyway?”
“Yeah, remember last time you sabotaged my relationship? That’s why,” Yifan answered and Yin Hang groaned.
“That was only because that girl was a ! She slept with the whole football team, I just didn’t want this particular near my best friend!”
“I now know why she’s on such good terms with Yifan,” Tao whispered while he leaned over to Luhan who caught up on his drift immediately.
“It’s the language, right?”
Tao nodded and they fistbumped each other, which made the Koreans laugh but Yifan and Yin Hang just shot the two an angry look.
“Yixing, I’m really sorry about what happened. I feel ashamed that I kind of dragged you into this,” the young woman then said to Yixing but he just responded:
“It’s okay, it’s not you who said these things.”
“Sooo, do you think your boyfriend can forgive me?”
“Hmmmmm,” Yixing made and looked up to Yifan, “Can he?”
Yifan looked at Yin Hang who pouted and tilted her head. Yifan knew she was truly sorry about a thing that wasn’t even really her fault. And that was one trait about her that he liked – she was honest and she never tried to hurt anyone.
“There’s nothing to forgive,” he answered and opened his arms.
Yin Hang squealed and they gave each other a big hug. They parted when the comments of the others got too much and the elevator had finally arrived.
“Okay, so, I’d say we go to the bar. And I really want to get there before midnight!” Sehun said while Chen pressed the button for the first floor.
“Why, is it closing at midnight?” Yin Hang asked.
“No, but it’s going to be his birthday!” Minseok answered.
Yin Hang gasped.
“But… I don’t have a present!”
“Well, me neither, and I’m his roommate,” Suho said and shrugged his shoulders.
“No, you bought me breakfast today,” Sehun reminded him.
“Aaaah, right. I spent 10 kuai on him. That’s how much I value him.”
Suho’s comment made everyone laugh when the elevator doors opened and Sehun led the way to the bar that had been the original plan. Yifan reached out for Yixing who had fallen a little behind. The smaller one cracked a smile and took the offered hand into his and squeezed it.
“Thank you,” he signed with the other one.
“There’s no need to thank me.”
“Guyyyys, stop flirting back there and get moviiiiiiiing!” Tao called from afar, making Yifan roll his eyes.
When the two caught up to them, the mood had finally shifted from really awkward to light-hearted and joyful and the whole group made the silent agreement to not bring up what just had happened and focus on something else. It didn’t happen very often, but Yifan felt thankful towards all of them.

A/N: YOOOO guys we hit the 100-Subscriptions mark! WHAT AND HOW?! /curls up into a ball and starts shedding tears of joy
I'm happy to keep my promise but I need some input for that - I got one suggestion so far, but I'm sure you can give me a little more to work with. 
I've also got an announcement to make: I'll be going on a four to five weeks break with this starting 7th September. I'll be visiting a friend of mine in Changsha (I know what you're thinking, don't judge me lol...) from 9/7 to 10/7 and I won't be taking my laptop with me so I cannot update. I'll try to finish as many chapters as possible now to keep the updates coming as regular as possible afterwards (or give you one or two chapters more depending on how fast I work). Please wait for me during that time, okay? :)
HAVE AN ABSOLUTELY LOVELY WEEK EVERYONE.