Chapter 3 – Friend

朋友
（一）Put thumbs of both hands up
（二）Bring both hands together to the middle

Yifan wondered how people in movies and music videos always looked so relaxed while leaning their heads against the windows of busses that were driving around the city. The last twenty minutes, he had been dozing off while the bus was fighting its way through Beijing’s crazy traffic, but every time he leaned his head against the bus window, his head bumped against the glass, leaving him with a slight headache. He sat back up and sighed deeply. He looked at the young man next to him, leaning his chin on the empty seat in front of him.
“Hey, you’re okay?” Yifan asked after he had tapped him on the shoulder.
Yixing turned to him and smiled.
“Sure. Just a little tired.”
“Just a little? My god, where do you get all this energy from?!”
They had spent half the day wandering through the 798 Art District, because the first times they went weren’t enough to see everything of the whole area. The buildings in this district had been originally built to serve as military factories in the 1950s, before artists had taken over the area to open their studios in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Now it was a place filled up with creative works of Chinese and foreign artists – even Ai Wei Wei used to frequent the district, before clashing with the Chinese government. Most of the artists also lived in the building complexes and when you  were lucky enough you could get a hold of them in one of the bars, cafés and restaurants that had opened up there to catch the tourists. Yixing had fallen in love with the place immediately and demanded to go back almost every week, because there were constantly new exhibitions opening and the area was so huge, they always found new corners they hadn’t gone to before.
Yixing only gave Yifan an apologetic smile, then he lifted the picture he had bought from an artist from Shanghai (it was a replica, which was the only reason how Yixing could’ve possibly afforded it).
“Do you want to help me put it up in my apartment?”
“Wow, you’re inviting me over to your place? What did I do to deserve this honor?” Yifan joked.
“It’s easy, you’re way taller than I am, so you put up the picture while I watch,” Yixing replied unimpressed, but cracking a smile.
“That should’ve been the moment you confirm that we are friends, Yixing…”
Yixing giggled, then the display over their heads blinked and showed them that the next stop was Wudaokou bus station where they had to get off.
“I’m confirming the friendship with a dinner after you’re done?”
“Your treat?”
“Yes.”
“Deal!”
Yixing smiled widely when they got off the vehicle and linked arms with Yifan. It wasn’t like Yixing necessarily needed the guidance, especially not around Wudaokou, but he liked being close to Yifan and the taller one never seemed to mind the contact. Sometimes he would even casually offer his arm, hands buried in the pockets of his jacket, since the relatively warm October had made way for the cold November in the last few weeks, and Yixing happily took the offer every time. When they passed the entrance for Lush bar, Yixing gave the taller one a questioning look and Yifan answered:
“No worries, I did not make any plans with Luhan and the others today. I’m all yours.”
It had been a constant seesaw between his college friends and Yixing the last weeks, and Yifan had tried hard to make everyone happy. The small trio had grown into a larger group, ever since the day Luhan and Zitao had made friends with a bunch of Korean guys at their favorite bar. As it turned out, Minseok and the others participated in Chinese language courses at PKU and Luhan seized every chance to meet them for lunch or dinner (Luhan defended himself with the argument that he only wanted to train his Korean and help them with their Chinese, but Yifan and Tao sensed that he was secretly crushing on Minseok). They also hit the bars around Wudaokou and Sanlitun together, and often Yifan was torn between partying it up with them, because their nights out always ended in a legendary story, or staying with Yixing, who preferred nice and laid back evenings at restaurants or cozy cafés. The whole dilemma settled into an unspoken rule between him and the rest: one evening on the weekends was for the ‘pack’ (the Chinese and Korean men had overdosed on the Hangover Trilogy), one evening was for Yixing, and none of the parties dared to interfere with the other. While Luhan, who was kind of the unofficial organizer for their trips, always demanded a five day head-up for Yifan’s meetups with Yixing so he could plan the weekends, Yixing barely dared to ask if Yifan had time for him, because he feared he’d keep him from having fun with his other friends. But that made Yixing just more adorable than he already was, Yifan thought. While the smaller one opened the gate with jiggling keys, Yifan smiled, even though he was tired as hell.
“My place may be a little untidy,” Yixing stated while they drove up to the tenth floor.
“I live in the cheapest student dormitory the Beida provides. Trust me, there’s nothing that can shock me anymore,” Yifan assured when the doors of the elevator slid open and they stepped out on the floor.
Yixing’s apartment was at the end of the very long hallway that somehow reminded Yifan of every horror movie ever: the walls were grey and dirty, and some lamps didn’t work anymore. When they passed the doors to the other apartments, Yifan could make out muffled conversations and the noise of televisions broadcasting yet another TV-Drama that had made it to the prime time slot of CCTV 1.
“How do you live here? It’s scary.”
“I’m not living in the hallway, Yifan.”
“I’d be creeped out if I had to pass this hallway every day.”
“You get used to it, I guess.”
Yixing opened the door to apartment 1001 and asked Yifan to come in. The taller one widened his eyes in surprise. It was like he had stepped into a whole different world. There was one big room with a small kitchenette in the corner, a peninsula serving as the dining table separated the cooking area from the rest of the room. There was a big blue couch in the middle of it, with a small table placed in front. Yixing’s notebook rested on it, still opened. There was neither a television nor a stereo to be found, but there was so much other stuff to see: like a big sideboard filled with novels and art books, and painting utensils. Yixing had placed an easel next to the window heading south, which seemed to be the place with the best lighting conditions. A ton of papers were lying around, with doodles and sketches that he had drawn before putting some of the drafts on canvases in acryl – a lot of Yixing’s finished pictures leaned against the walls. He hadn’t put up one of them up though. There was a small hallway with two more doors, one leading to the bathroom, one to the bedroom. Yifan turned around to face Yixing who seemed a little nervous about what his friend would say about his apartment.
“Wow, this is pretty cool.”
“No, my mother always scolds me because I never tidy up the place.”
Yixing hovered over to the pile of sketches and stuffed them into a drawer of his sideboard.
“I like it. It’s way better than my room in the dorm.”
The younger man gave him a thankful smile.
“So, where do you want this picture to be put up?” Yifan asked and grabbed Yixing’s newest possession that he had placed on the coffee table in front of the couch.

When the picture had finally been pinned to the wall, Yixing turned to his fridge to check the content. Then he let out a huge sigh.
“I thought I had some leftovers from yesterday, but I was wrong,” he told Yifan when he closed the door again.
Yifan could tell how Yixing’s ability to be around people had reached its limits. The thought of going out for dinner again made the smaller one frown and he additionally crossed his arms in front of his chest, something he always did when he felt uncomfortable.
“Should I go and get some take out?” Yifan therefore asked, while sitting down on one of the peninsula’s bar stools.
“You’d go out again to get food?”
“Sure. There’s a Hunanese that just opened up a few days ago two streets down here.”
Yixing’s face lit up in excitement.
“Do they have Bingtang Xianglian?!”
“I don’t know but if they have I can get them for you.”
Yixing did not need to give it a second thought – he flew over to his backpack, took out his purse and gave Yifan one hundred Renminbi and his keys.
“You’re the best, Yifan!”
“What’s my reward for this?” the taller one asked while he opened the apartment door.
“My endless gratitude!”
Yifan laughed and said he’d be back in maybe half an hour, before leaving the apartment. He made his way back to the streets of Wudaokou and walked down the main street, dodging the people that went into the other direction for the subway station. On his way, he passed small boutiques, a Burger King, a McDonalds and three hairdressers, all of them blasting a different song out of their speakers to get the passenger’s attention. Yifan was used to the constant noise pollution, but he wondered how Yixing would react if he could hear all of this for the first time. He came to the conclusion that he might be scared off for at least a month because that would be clearly too much for his sensitive soul to handle. Yifan turned into a smaller side alley that was filled with different kinds of restaurants. The Hunanese was the newest looking one and pretty easy to find. When he stepped in, he was greeted by a teenager, obviously the son of the owner who had to help out after school.
“How many people?” he asked, while he gave Yifan a big smile.
“I’d like to take out some stuff.”
“Sure, here’s the menu. The red prizes are for take out.”
“Wait, you’re charging an extra of 0.5 yuan?”
“I’m sorry, Sir,” the younger one answered, “But my father charges customers for the plastic bags. He says we should get more aware of all the waste.”
The boy looked like he did not approve either, so Yifan just nodded and ordered three dishes (plus Yixing’s beloved Bingtang Xianglian). When the boy went into the kitchen to give the cook the order, Yifan heard someone calling him:
“Ya! Big boy!”
When he looked up, he saw Suho, Sehun, Chen and Minseok waving at him from the other corner of the room.
“What are you doing here?” Yifan asked the four Koreans, while he grabbed a chair from the empty table next to them and sat down at the head of theirs.
The table was filled with different kinds of hot dishes that they had ordered, and they were clearly too much for the four of them.
“We heard about this new restaurant and wanted to give Hunanese cuisine a try,” Minseok explained.
“Yeah, I see. Did you order everything off the menu?”
The Koreans looked at each other, as if Yifan had caught them in the act.
“It was Suho’s call. We couldn’t read all the names and we didn’t really know what was good, so we randomly picked out some.”
“Ey!” Suho yelled at Chen and hit his shoulder with a fist, “You were the one suggesting it!”
“Hey, I’m not judging, don’t fight,” Yifan threw in and laughed.
“So why are you only getting take out?” Sehun asked.
“I was out with Yixing and we decided to have dinner at his place. I’m just getting it for us.”
“This Yixing guy is such a mystery to me,” Minseok joked, “If we ask you to get drinks you just tell us to get them ourselves. How did he manage to convince you to get food?”
“He’s a level five friend. You’re level two. You first have to work yourselves up to deserve my services.”
Chen snorted into his tea when he heard Yifan’s comment.
“You know what? You should bring him over some time,” Suho suddenly said out of the blue.
“Suho, he’s not a friend of parties and loud bars…”
“Yeaaah I know, he’s deaf and such, and a huge introvert, but I mean, we could all have dinner together or something. I’m just curious about this guy. And everybody else is, too!”
The other three Koreans nodded in agreement. Yifan groaned.
“You’re curious about him? Wait, I’ll show you a picture.”
The Chinese grabbed his phone out of his pocket, opened a random picture that he had made of Yixing today at the Art District and handed it over to Suho.
“There you go.”
“Woaaaaar, he’s handsome! How do you know such people?!” Suho exclaimed and Sehun took Yifan’s phone out of his hands to take a look himself.
Sehun nodded, as if he wanted to agree with Suho and handed the phone over to Chen who already had stated that he wanted to see too. When Yifan’s phone had made it back to its owner, Suho said:
“You definitely need to bring him over one day. You cannot keep that for yourself.”
“This sounds so wrong on so many levels,” Minseok stated, but Suho shushed him.
“Good lord, if I say yes, will you leave me alone?”
“Let’s say I won’t let it go until you do!”
Yifan was spared an answer, because the boy came out of the kitchen with a bag full of dishes and looked for him.
“I gotta go, guys. See you tomorrow. I heard Luhan and Tao want to go to Helen’s?”
“Yeah I heard that too. It’s Karaoke Night,” Minseok answered and the two shared a sorely afflicted look.
Karaoke meant that Tao and Luhan would go crazy, while the others just sat there and drank everything the bar had to offer. Most of the time, it resulted in at least four of them being extremely hungover. And then they’d meet up for a hangover breakfast – at Helen’s. It was like a vicious circle that never seemed to end.
“I’ll take your silence as a yes, by the way!” Suho called after Yifan, when he got up and said his goodbyes.
Yifan rolled his eyes and did not respond. Sometimes it was better to let Suho just talk, most of the time he would forget what he had said a few days later anyway. He went back to Yixing’s apartment but right when he was about to put the key into the lock of the apartment door, he heard Yixing talk.
“Yes, I eat enough!”
Yixing slurred the words a lot and he did not get the tones accurate 100%, but Yifan stopped his movements and stared at the door, waiting for Yixing to say something else. He made out a female voice that sounded distorted, as if she was talking over a video conversation.
“Are you sure? You look so skinny!”
“MA, I’m fine!”
“Do you need me to send something? Is your money enough? Beijing is such an expensive city!”
“No, I don’t need…”
Yifan decided to enter the apartment and Yixing jumped up when the door opened. His eyes widened in shock.
“Yixing?”
“Ummmmm…. Ma, I need to hang up now.”
“Yixing, you know the rule: No sign language while video chatting.”
Yixing groaned in frustration as Yifan approached who was grinning from one ear to the other. Then he just plopped down next to Yixing and appeared in the window of the QQ video chat that Yixing had started with his mother. She was shown in a much bigger window and Yifan immediately knew who his friend got the good looks from. When she saw Yifan with a bag of food, she raised her eyebrows.
“You’ve got visit!” she stated.
“Hello, I’m Yifan!” the taller one greeted, as Yixing buried his face in his hands, but kept peeking through his fingers.
Her face brightened up.
“Ooooooh, you’re the buddy from his university, right?”
“Maaa, he’s a friend,” Yixing threw in, in a very loud voice, as if raising the volume would make his slurs and spelling mistakes go away.
“Um, yeah, Mrs. Zhang, I got assigned to be his buddy. But we’re also hanging around outside of university.”
“You’re bringing food I see? It’s good to know that he has someone who takes care of him as long as I can’t do it.”
“I’m not a child, you are embarrassing!”
She clicked her tongue in disapprovement. Then she turned back to Yifan and asked:
“Tell me, is he talking a lot?”
Yifan side eyed Yixing, because he was not sure what to answer, but Yixing had long given up to stop his mother and decided to grab the bag with food to put it on a few plates.
“Actually this is the first time I hear him talking?” Yifan answered truthfully.
She hit the table she was sitting at with her flat hand.
“I knew it! This child, seriously…”
“Why is that important?” Yifan asked, while Yixing came back, balancing three big plates with the food.
“He hasn’t told you about the implant?”
Yifan shook his head. Yixing sighed heavily.
“I don’t want this!” he then said and crossed his arms in defense.
Mrs. Zhang ignored her son and explained the matter:
“His father and I want him to get a Cochlear Implant, but I want him to train his speech first.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a device that would bring back his hearing abilities, but he refuses to get one.”
She shot her son a sour look but he remained unimpressed.
“Why would you do that, Yixing?” Yifan asked.
“I’d have to get one on each side. I’d look like an alien!”
“But you could finally hear, son!”
“Oh yeah, I love being ugly and disabled at the same time!”
Yixing shot up and fled to the Kitchenette to grab chopsticks and the rice that had been cooking in the rice cooker. His mother turned back to Yifan.
“See? That’s how it’s been going for years now.”
“Ummmmmm,” Yifan answered and felt a little uncomfortable.
She sighed, then she said:
“Okay, I’ll let you guys have dinner. Yifan, take care of my son for me, would you?”
“Sure Mrs. Zhang.”
“Thank you. Goodbye, guys!”
When she hung up, Yixing finally came back and closed his laptop in frustration.
“I’m sorry,” Yifan stated.
“It’s her fault, not yours,” Yixing answered with a distressed look on his face.
Then he gave Yifan a bowl of rice and a pair of chopsticks but while he did so, Yifan just knew that Yixing was really upset about the fact his mother had brought up this topic – his hands were shaking and he avoided to look directly at Yifan, pressing his lips together.
“Hey, Yixing,” Yifan set his bowl aside and grabbed the wrists of his friend, forcing Yixing to look at him, “I’m not going to take sides with your mother and try to force you to do something you don’t want.”
The smaller one jerked out of Yifan’s grip and responded:
“But everybody does as soon as she comes up with it…”
“I won’t, okay? You made it very clear that you don’t like the idea, so we won’t talk about it unless you want to.”
Yixing seemed stunned by Yifan’s words and mouthed a “Thank You”, before he threw his arms around his neck and gave him a hug. Yifan was startled by the sudden move, but returned the hug, since it seemed that this was something Yixing needed really badly right now. When they parted, Yifan said:
“Let’s eat before the dishes get cold.”
They turned back to their food and Yixing’s mood was way better now than it had been a few moments ago. When they had finished they carried the empty plates to the sink. While Yixing cleaned them, Yifan dried them and tried to put them back to their rightful places with the help of the other one. Sometimes Yixing’s hands were downed in the water and he could not sign anything, so he gave directions verbally, but it seemed that Yixing had suddenly gained more confidence about it in Yifan’s presence.
“You know, I don’t think you sound weird when you talk,” Yifan admitted when he placed the last plate into the cupboard next to him.
“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”
“No seriously! Do you know how my grandmother communicated with us? The older she got the more she sounded like a barking dog.”
Yixing laughed, then shook his head.
“That’s a mean thing to say, Yifan.”
“But it really was like that! I think you’re doing great considering the fact you cannot hear your own voice.”
Yixing did not answer, but was obviously flattered about the compliment, since he turned away as soon as he had realized that he was blushing.
“I better get going,” Yifan stated when he had checked the time on his phone.
It was already ten o’clock and the dorm would be closing its doors in about an hour. He did not want to take any chances today, since he had basketball training tomorrow at eight in the morning with an important game against the Basketball Club of Qinghua University coming up.
“I’ll take you downstairs.”
“You don’t have to, I’ll find my way out,” Yifan replied while putting on his shoes and coat.
“Suit yourself then.”
Yifan e last time in the doorway of Yixing’s apartment.
“Do you have any appointments next week I have to accompany you to?”
Yixing frowned and thought hard about next week’s schedule, then he came to the conclusion:
“No. I just have the usual lectures.”
“Oh. Okay. So – let’s meet next Friday then?”
“Sure, let’s text about the details this week. Now get home, I don’t want you to spend the night out on the streets.”
Yifan chuckled, ruffled Yixing’s hair and said:
“Good night.”
“Good night.”
When the door had closed shut behind Yifan, he snuggled into his coat to prepare for the cold outside. He tried to remember the name of the implant that Mrs. Zhang had brought up – sure, he had promised to not bring the topic up, but getting informed on the whole matter didn’t sound like a really bad idea, either.

A/N: I hope you like the chapter (or the direction this is heading). Let me know if yes, if no - let me know also.
Have a nice weekend, everyone! ♥