Chapter 2 – Really

真的
（一）Point index fingers of both hands.
（二）Index finger of dominant hand taps index finger of other hand, forming an “X”

The weather on Friday was on their side which made Yifan actually get excited about the trip to the Forbidden City with Yixing. After his last lecture he jumped right into the bus and took the rocky ride to the subway station. When he arrived, Yixing was already waiting. He didn’t have to say or do anything, his facial expression made it clear that he was nervous about the trip. So far, Yixing had never taken the subway – the only times he had left his apartment was for grocery shopping and when he walked down Chengfu Street to get to the campus.
Now, it was not like Yixing was super anxious about a lot of people and taking public transportation. Back in Changsha, he didn’t have any problems with that. But Beijing was kind of different – while Changsha’s subway system consisted of two lines, Beijing was constantly adding new ones, for example. The city had a whole different mentality compared to his hometown and he was feeling kind of lost and alone. And that’s why he spent most of the time in his apartment, performing follow-up course work on the lectures he had visited (and that took up most of his free time) or working on his paintings.  
“Hey, you’re already here!” Yifan stated.
“I’m living on the other side of the street, so yeah…”
When Yifan tilted his head in question, Yixing pointed to a window in the building opposite of the station. It was in a building where a lot of stores and bars had opened in the first two floors. The rest were apartments.
“Wow, you’re basically living where I spend my Friday nights,” Yifan stated when he saw that his favorite bar was in the same establishment.
The Wudaokou subway station was relatively small compared to others in Beijing, but there were still a lot of people getting on and off the trains. Yixing grabbed Yifan’s jacket and held onto it the whole trip. Yifan didn’t mind though, and led the smaller one safely through the pile of people. When they finally got off at Tiananmen East 45 minutes later, Yixing looked distressed. They had had to change the lines three times and Line 1, which was the line that went straight through the city, had been the most packed one. Besides the Beijingers using the trains to get to their work places, a lot of tourists, Mainlanders and Foreigners, were also using the subway and that ended in hopelessly overfilled carts.
“I swear, the worst part is over,” Yifan tried to calm him when they stepped out on Tiananmen Square, one of the biggest squares in the world.
When Yixing laid his eyes on the place, he blinked in confusion.
“What’s wrong?”
“Who on earth needs all this space?”
Yifan laughed and he grabbed Yixing’s elbow.
“Come on, we’ve got to get tickets.”
Yixing followed him over the square, turning his head in every direction to capture every detail about it, from the Monument of the Heroes and Mao Zedong’s Mausoleum to the Tiananmen Gate they had to pass to reach the Forbidden City. Yifan bought the tickets at the counter, while Yixing waited up for him in the background. He was obviously stunned by the high red walls that used to separate the emperors and their royal household from the normal people.
“Ready?”
Yifan waved with two tickets in front of him to bring the smaller one back to reality, and Yixing nodded.
“Let’s go.”
When they walked through the Meridian Gate to the first court of the site, Yifan was relieved to see that most of the tourists indeed were gone. He remembered the day he went here with his mother who had visited him during the National Holidays. It had felt like half of China was there, too and Yifan couldn’t remember if he had actually been walking by himself or the crowd had carried him away.
“I have to ask once again: Who needs all this space?!”
Yixing took a look over the court, with its five bridges that led to another hall.
“I think the emperors’ egos needed it the most,” Yifan stated and the other one chuckled.
Everytime they crossed a new hall and got further into the city, Yixing needed a moment and took a closer look at all the decorations and paintings on the walls, the ceilings and the columns. At first, Yifan did not quite understand why Yixing made such a fuss about it – in the end, it all looked the same to him. Then he thought that maybe Yixing’s enthusiasm came from his major at university, but he didn’t dare to ask since it might’ve come off as rude. After a while, they reached the inner part of the palace, where eunuchs and concubines used to reside. Yifan had feared that the crooked alleys would be crammed with more people than in the big courtyards, but they actually found one yard with a small hall where only some old grandmothers from Guangdong (Yifan came from there himself and immediately recognized the Cantonese) had sat down and talked about how exhausting this whole Beijing trip with their group was. He chuckled when Yixing leaned over a small statue and examined its texture. The smaller one saw it in the corner of his eyes, stood straight again and gave him an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry I take so long. We can leave if you’re bored.”
“Oh no, please. Take your time. The only thing stopping you are the closing hours,” Yifan said and took a look at his phone, “And they’re going to close in about sixty minutes.”
“It’s just like this: I don’t really hear anything, so I try to take a closer look at things. It’s just like blind people develop very accurate hearing. I kind of developed accurate seeing, if that term even exists.”
 Yixing shrugged it off like it was nothing and proceeded to the hall. Yifan caught up to him.
“So, is that why you’re majoring Arts?”
“You could say that. I started painting as a kid, and it’s the only thing I’m really good in,” Yixing answered and waved his phone that he had been using to take billions of pictures of every little detail in the Forbidden City, “I think it’s pretty safe to say my next painting will contain elements I saw here.”
The taller of the two smiled and remained silent. While they went back to the main route that visitors were advised to take, another idea popped into his head.
“Actually, Yixing,” he said, interrupting him in taking a picture of the imperial garden, “I’d like us to leave. There’s something else you need to see before they close everything.”
“… okay?”
Yixing put his phone away, linked his left arm with Yifan’s right one and followed him with a questioning look out of the site. Yifan walked pretty fast, because the closing hours of nearly every park and sight in Beijing were near and he wasted not one second explaining Yixing what kind of thing he wanted to show him. They crossed the big main road and walked straight to the entrance gates of Jingshan Park. Basically, Jingshan was an artificial hill that had emerged when emperor Yongle ordered to dig up the soil for the moats of the Imperial Palace and the gardens surrounding it. The soil had to go somewhere, and maybe nobody wanted to make the effort to bring all of it outside the city, therefore this hill was created and today it served as a park. When they had paid the entrance fee, because apparently, almost nothing was for free in Beijing, Yifan told Yixing:
“I hope you don’t mind a little hike.”
“I still don’t know what you’re up to, Yifan,” the other one simply responded.
“Trust me, it’ll be cool.”
Yixing nodded, then they walked up the 150 feet high hill in an enormous speed. The sun was about to go down and Yifan wanted to be on top before that. On top there was another hall that was somehow connected to the Forbidden City, but Yifan did not care about the architecture this time. He also didn’t care for the photographer that asked him if he and his friend wanted to try on an emperor’s costume and take a picture (that was the thing to do when coming here, even foreigners from Europe and America played emperor-dress-up). Yifan dragged Yixing to the edge of the balustrade – during the day, the smog had started to creep back into the air and you saw that very well when you looked down on the city from a height like this. The streets seemed to be covered in mist, which was the result of all the cars causing too many emissions. But Yifan didn’t come here to show how bad Beijing’s air situation was, because that never needed any big proof anyway, he came here to show the Forbidden City from another point of view. Right in front of them, the whole sight unfolded. Yixing’s confused expression made way for a stunned one – then he started to smile widely.
“Wow, that’s beautiful.”
Yifan felt somehow proud of his idea. He had to admit, he liked this place much more than the Forbidden City itself. It put the whole thing in a different perspective: The pretentiously decorated halls and hallways disappeared and only the golden painted roofs remained. The buildings and walls that seemed to crush you became small and meaningless and you realized that the Forbidden City was just that: a ‘city’ that used to be the home of a very small minority in Imperial China. It was almost ridiculous that the decisions of the very few residents there made dynasties go down – even the whole Chinese Empire. Yixing did not seem to care a lot about the whole historical facts surrounding the buildings. He made sure to capture every angle for any future references that were possible. Yifan sighed a little, and supported his head with his arm, while leaning against the balustrade. In moments like this, he actually liked Beijing and almost forgot that he hated it most of the time. Not even Luhan who was a true Beijinger (with the real Beijing accent, even though he had learned to not overuse it around Tao and Yifan who hated the typical dialect more than final exams) had managed to convince him to believe that Beijing was one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Even though it was covered in thick smog most of the time, Luhan did not seem to care a lot about it. Yifan had figured that growing up in Beijing made you oblivious to some things, and these things included air pollution, the necessity to use a god damn tissue when blowing your nose and queuing when entering the subway (the tissue-issue did, fortunately, not apply to Luhan though).  While he was lost in thoughts about his friend, he did not see how Yixing was looking at him for quite some time and then pointed his phones’ camera right at him. Only the clicking of the release brought him back to the present.
“Ey! Did you just take a picture of me?!”
Yixing looked surprised.
“How did you know?”
“Your camera clicked. Next time you need to put that on mute.”
“It’s not on mute?!” Yixing took a look at his camera settings and then sighed, “I always forget to do that.”
He looked back up and asked:
“Do you want me to delete it?”
“It’s okay. As long as you’re not posting it somewhere on Weibo, you can keep it.”
Yixing laughed and Yifan realized that it was a pleasant laugh. He immediately wondered how Yixing sounded when he talked.
“Don’t worry, I don’t have an account. The only thing I have is WeChat.”
“Guess I have nothing to worry about then.”
They took a last long look over the scenery, before Yifan stated that he was hungry. Yixing admitted that he had been feeling hungry ever since they had entered the last part of the Forbidden City, so they decided to leave the park to grab a bite. When they stood at the main road, Yifan said:
“Let’s go have dinner in Ghost Street. There are plenty of restaurants to choose from and I reckon the restaurants around here are too expensive anyway.”
Yixing didn’t mind, and he was delighted when Yifan caught a taxi, saying they wouldn’t use public transportation to get there, because otherwise, the trip would be about 50 minutes and the taxi reached the street within 15. Beijing’s traffic and the public transportation system was crazy like that.

Ghost Street wasn’t only famous for the huge variety in food but also for the many red lanterns that lightened up the place and gave the whole thing the “ghosty feeling”. It was yet another spot to catch poor tourists, but Yifan knew exactly which restaurant was worth the money, or worth the wait.
“Do you like spicy food?” He asked Yixing whose face had lit up in joy when he saw the lively scene and they made their way past customers who had to wait outside of the restaurants for a table.
“I’m from Hunan, of course I like spicy food!” Yixing shot back, with an expression on his face as if this question was totally unnecessary.
“Oh. Sure! Sorry about that!” Yifan chuckled, “Then I know just the thing for you. Follow me.”
He grabbed Yixing’s arm and took once again the lead and Yixing was happy to follow. They reached a restaurant that was smaller than most of the other establishments and advertised hot and spicy Sichuanese food.
“I know it’s not Hunanese, but this one is really good. They’ve got the best Chongqing Laziji in the whole city.”
“It’s okay, I also like Sichuanese,” Yifan responded with a smile.
The huge advantage of the restaurant was that it wasn’t packed with people as the other ones, but there were still enough customers to indicate that the food was good. That was the number one rule to choose a restaurant by: if even Chinese did not like the food there, it really wasn’t good and you should avoid it at all costs. Yifan and Yixing got a table at a window without waiting too long, and a kettle of hot tea. Yixing poured Yifan a cup who examined the menu.
“Sooo, do you want to order the Chongqing Laziji or do you want something else?”
“Oh, I don’t care, just choose a few dishes. I’m not very picky about food.”
“Wow, we should go out to eat more often. When I’m out with my friends, they quarrel for at least fifteen minutes about what to order, you on the other hand are way easier to handle,” Yifan exclaimed and made Yixing laugh once again.
In the end, Yifan ordered said dish, along with three others (that contained fish, pork and tofu, so they had some variety) and some rice to fill their stomachs. When the food arrived, Yixing was laughing again about a joke that Yifan had just cracked.
“My god, you’re easy to entertain,” he taller one said in amusement.
“I’m really sorry about that!” Yixing answered and tried to hold back his laughter while the waitress was placing the hot and steaming dishes on their table.
“Enjoy your food,” she said hastily, before she hovered over to another table that was calling for her.
“It’s just… I haven’t really talked to anyone since I arrived here; it’s just really great to make conversation with someone.”
“It’s okay! You’re the first one to like my jokes, so I’m not complaining,” Yifan responded and Yixing broke out into another wave of giggles.
Right when they started to eat, Yifan’s cellphone chimed. He grunted.
“I usually don’t get any calls, but when I do, it’s when I’m eating,” he complained and Yixing simply grinned, while he put one of the spicy fried chicken pieces into his mouth.
When Yifan checked who called him, he sighed. It was Luhan. Not answering the phone was no use with this guy, because Luhan would just continue to call until you picked up. And leave a billion of messages, just in case calling wasn’t enough.
“Yeah, what’s up?” Yifan asked and shoveled some of the tofu into his mouth.
“Tao and I are wondering where you are, my love!” Luhan sing songed and Yifan could make out indistinct chatter and clattering of glasses in the background.
“Um. Where exactly are you?”
“We had a date at Lush, have you forgotten?”
Yifan blinked confused and Yixing looked at him, trying to read his lips. It made Yifan a little uncomfortable, but he did not say anything.
“I… when did we say that?”
“Jeez, Yifan, where’s your head these days? Today’s live music at Lush and a longer Happy Hour so we said to meet up around eight to grab a table. You said you’d be back from your trip by then.”
“It’s EIGHT ALREADY?!”
“It’s half past eight, to be more precisely,” Luhan corrected.
Yifan rubbed his head.
“ Luhan. I’m sorry, I totally forgot about it. I’m still out with Yixing.”
“Huh? Did you get lost in the Forbidden City and cannot find a way out?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m having dinner with him.”
“But Yifan, we always share cheese fries?!” Tao interrupted and Luhan said:
“Go away Tao, let me handle that! – So, you two are still on your romantic date?”
“It’s not a –“ Yifan began, but stopped, since Yixing was following every little move of his lips, “Whatever, but yes, I’m still out with him.”
“Okay, so you bail on us. And leave us alone with the King Size Mojitos, the Cheese Fries and a weird Psychedelic Indie rock band from America. I get it.”
“Oh my friggin’ god, don’t be such a drama queen. I’ll be there, I just don’t know when.”
“But Yifan, Happy Hour is buy two get one free, who is supposed to drink the third glass?”
“I don’t know, you two guys can share it.”
“We are talking about HALF A LITER of Mojito – PER glass!”
“Oh my god, Luhan, can I live?! I said: I’ll be there. As soon as Yixing and I get back to Wudaokou, I’ll catch up to you.”
Luhan let out a long, melodramatic sigh, then he said:
“Alright then. One last question: Where exactly are you having this fancy dinner with your little boyfriend?”
Yifan massaged his right temple and tried to stay calm.
“Ghost Street,” he simply replied.
“Wait WHAT? But that’s like on the other side of the city, you’re going to take ages to-“
Beep. Yifan had hung up on Luhan, muted his phone and put it back into the pocket of his jacket.
“Who was that?”
“Luhan, a friend of mine. We were supposed to meet at eight at Lush, but I kind of forgot the time.”
Yixing’s eyes widened in shock.
“So, do you need to leave now?”
Yifan shook his head.
“No, we’ll have dinner and when we get back I’ll swing by.”
“But won’t he be bored?”
“Oh no, don’t worry, there’s another friend that can entertain him just fine.”
Yixing didn’t seem to be very convinced and frowned a little. It seemed as if he felt guilty about the situation.
“Hey, this isn’t your fault. It’s mine. I forgot about him and the whole thing.”
“Would you like to be there now?”
“I’m fine where I am now, Yixing,” Yifan replied, when he sensed that Yixing might feel like he was holding him back from having real fun with his friends.
“Really?”
“Really.”
The smaller of the two managed to crack a smile when he believed what Yifan had said. Yifan looked into the rice bowl that Yixing had picked up again and realized he had picked out all the carrots of the pork dish.
“You don’t like carrots, huh?”
“Not with Yuxiangrousi, no,” Yixing admitted.
Yifan bent over and snatched the vegetables away with his chopsticks.
“I’ll eat them if you don’t mind.”
“They’re all yours.”
The tension had faded and they grinned at each other. Yifan wasn’t lying when he had stated that he was fine with where he was now. The thought of going to a crowded loud bar later kind of annoyed him right now. It was really nice hanging around with Yixing, but he figured that Yixing wouldn’t be up in joining him, so he put the carrots into his mouth and decided to enjoy the rest of the laid back part of the evening with Yixing as long as it lasted.

After their dinner, they made their way back to Wudaokou, which meant that they had to face another one hour ride with the subway. But since the worst of the Rush Hour was over, it was a rather pleasant ride and they didn’t have to change once. They simply took the train on Line 13 which took a big turn around the outer parts of the city center. Only a few other people were sitting in the cart and got off at stations like Huilongguan, where there was basically nothing but skyscrapers in which another hundred Beijingers lived. When they got off at Wudaokou, the station was almost empty. It was unbelievable that it had been such a crowded place a few hours back. Outside the sation a lot of  vendors had scattered different stuff on blankets on the dirty floor and tried to sell it – the items varied from shoes and clothes to books and one even sold lamps, just in case one of the people passing by were in need of one.
“I had a really great time today,” Yixing stated when they had crossed the street and they had to part ways.
Yifan needed to head for the entrance that led to the bar he was supposed to go, Yixing needed to get to the gate of the apartment complex itself.
“Yeah, me too.”
An awkward moment of silence broke out where nobody really knew what to do.
“So, if you want to repeat that – we could go somewhere else next week,” Yifan suggested, “You’re an artist, right? We should definitely go to the 798 Art District then.”
When Yixing saw Yifan signing the words ‘Art’ and ‘District’ his eyes widened and it looked like somebody had just told him that Christmas and his birthday were going to be put together on the same day (if Chinese celebrated Christmas).
“Count me in!” he responded cheerfully.
Seeing him that happy, Yifan smiled and congratulated himself for this marvelous idea.
“Cool. Let’s text and set up the details. If I don’t get in there now, Luhan will kill me.”
“Then I’d rather not hold you back. Goodbye, Yifan.”
“Goodbye.”
With a last big smile and glowing cheeks Yixing turned for the entrance gate. Yifan followed him with his eyes, until the gate was opened by the guard and Yixing had slipped in. Then he sighed deeply and stepped into the building himself. The bar was located on the second floor of the building, the first one was a restaurant that served snacks and icecream during the day. When he went upstairs, he heard the loud noise of the band playing tonight and he could tell immediately that this was going to be unbearable if he didn’t get wasted right away. When he stepped in, the place was packed with people. The waitresses had a hard time bringing the food and the drinks to the tables and the kitchen counter overflowed with dishes that had to be brought to the customers.
“Yifan! I knew you’d come!”
The Lush was owned by an American guy who was married to a Chinese woman and had stayed in China for at least ten years now. There was also another woman co-running the place, called Lisa. She was from a country in Europe (Yifan could never remember which one it was exactly, but he always thought of a Scandinavian country when he saw her blond hair and big, blue eyes) and absolutely lovely. When Yifan, Yixing and Tao had come here the first night, she had paid them a round of Tequila shots, because they were participating in the weekly Pub Quiz and had scored a total of lousy 20 points, and Lisa had been feeling sorry for them. When they met at Lush for dinner, she slipped them some extra Cheese Fries on their plate or let them try out new dishes that the cook had come up with. She fought herself through the crowd and hugged him.
“Luhan and Tao are already waiting for you, they’re in the back!”
She had no time for smalltalk and hovered into the kitchen, but told him she’d swing by their table if she got a few calm minutes. Yifan sighed once again and squeezed himself through the crowd of people to the table in the back. Tao was the first to see him.
“Aaaah, look! The man of the hour is finally here!”
A total of five heads turned – and Yifan did not know four of them. Tao grabbed another chair and told him to sit down. Luhan placed a King Size Mojito in front of him. The ice cubs had already melted and watered the drink, but Yifan did not mind.
“We have been waiting for you!”
“Okay, cool,” Yifan responded and eyed the other four people he had never seen before.
“Oh, let me introduce you! We have been making a few new friends since it took you so long!” Luhan cheered and pointed at each of them: “This is Minseok, Sehun, Suho and Chen, they’re exchange students from Korea and we offered them a place at our table.”
Yifan nodded, then took a huge gulp of his cocktail. He did not mind other people, really. But right now, he kind of longed for a little silence.

A/N: "Half a liter of Mojito? You're making that up!" - Actually not. I have seen Chinese men go down with this drink. And they went down under the table we have been sitting at. While I was laughing it off and drank the thing like it was water. Oh yeah. Good old times. I miss them a lot.
ANYWAY. It's Friday here where I live that means it's time for an update since I won't be able to get on the computer very long tomorrow. 
Btw, I was asking myself if I should put some Pinyin to the characters that I'm using as the chapter titles? I sometimes forget that there are people who cannot read them (oh god that sounds so cocky I'm sorry I don't mean it that way) & don't know how to spell them. So let me know if yes or no.
Enjoy the chapter & also enjoy the upcoming weekend, loves!