November 6, 2016 (pt. I)

Yixing kept his promise and arrived at the palace somewhere around ten in the morning. He wasn’t too sure if that was quite a desperate move, but the way Yifan had opened him the door and pulled him into his arms told him the older one hadn’t minded him coming back this early at all.

“I have to ask you to do something for me,” Yifan said as soon as Yixing set one foot into the room.

“Huh? What’s that?”

“Come with me and Yili to the hospital.”

“You really want to do this today?”

The look on Yifan’s face told Yixing that no, he didn’t want to do this today, maybe he didn’t even want to do this at all. But then Yifan explained that Yili had pushed Yifan to go, because Mr. Deng would always spend time with Yifan on his birthday – and if Mr. Deng couldn’t be at the party, Yifan had to pay him a visit, simple as that. Yixing wasn’t too sure if the prince’s reluctance to go stemmed from the dislike for his senior that he had displayed more than once in the last weeks, or because he didn’t feel ready for visiting a man that was most likely about to die. He didn’t want to know the answer though so Yixing squeezed Yifan’s shoulder and tried a smile. Fifteen minutes later, they were on the way already, Yili carrying a big bouquet of sunflowers (wherever she got them from in November) in her arms while Yifan stayed silent the whole ride. His sister tried to lighten the mood a little with some smalltalk, but Yifan didn’t pounce on her attempt of engaging him in a conversation.

“I hate hospitals…” Yifan said when they stepped out of the car and walked to the entrance of the facility.

“Nobody likes them,” Yili said while she strode over to the elevator.

Some heads turned when they walked through the entrance hall but they had caused bigger buzzes elsewhere so the siblings didn’t really realize the looks some people threw their way. Yixing, on the other hand, was overly aware of them and tried to hide his face a little more in the collar of his jacket.

“Well, I do,” Yixing responded while they waited for the elevator to get down to the first floor.

The prince and the princess looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

“They reek of disease, death, and sterilizer, and people only go there when they are in a bad place, what’s there to like about it?” Yifan shot Yixing’s way.

“Yeah, that’s one way to put it,” Yixing said with a provocative smile, “But you guys have to look at the bright side: People also come here to visit mothers and their healthy newborns. When people get out of hospitals, they are usually better and cured from whatever they had. I’m pretty sure that, even though people also die here, the majority is getting saved or even put into this world. So hospitals are actually good places.”

Yili and Yifan were so perplexed, they forgot the elevator whose doors opened with a bling. It was Yili who spoke up:

“God damnit, Zhang Yixing, always finding beauty in the ugliest things. How do you do that?”

“Oh come on, that is just common knowledge.”

Yixing pushed both of them into the elevator and deemed the conversation as over. Yili looked like she wanted to retort, but as soon as they arrived on the floor where Mr. Deng’s room was located at, her attention snapped back to the reason they came here. Now even Yili got awfully silent while they walked down the long corridor. They came to a halt in front of room 713 and the woman turned to her brother.

“Be nice, Yifan,” Yili said and then it was like someone had pushed a button – she put on a bright smile, one of those that she plastered over her face on every official occasion, and knocked at the door.

She didn’t wait for a sign to come in and pushed down the door handle before she flung it open and strode into the room.

“Mr. Deng! Hello!” She cried out in glee and fell into the arms of the man who seemed to be genuinely surprised to see her.

“Yili, my girl!”

Yixing was the next to come in and when he turned around to check on Yifan, he was still standing in the doorway, staring at Mr. Deng with a stone hard expression on his face. Yixing had to admit that Mr. Deng looked bad – he had always been a tall and handsome man for his age. He used to be a well-built and strong guy with a sharp jawline and muscular arms. When he had entered the office of the newspaper, people had turned their heads for him and watched how he strode through the room with a warm smile on his face.

Now, the skin around his arms was loose and wrinkled. Yixing was sure that he could grab Mr. Deng’s wrist and his thumb and middlefinger could touch each other. His full and wavy black hair was gone because of the chemo. He was smiling, but he looked drained, like someone had his vigor out of his body. It wasn’t the man that had left the paper two months ago. Laying on the hospital bed was barely the shadow of the man he used to be.

“You came too, Yifan!” Mr. Deng said and his smile widened, “I’m sorry I cannot make it to your party tonight. Happy Birthday, my boy.”

These words seemed to finally make Yifan realize what was going on. He jumped at the last words and then, Yifan just turned around and left the room. His sister got furious:

“YIFAN! How incredibly rude, come back here at once!!”

She was about to get up and follow him, but Yixing held her back.

“I’ll check on him. You stay with Mr. Deng.”

He found Yifan at the end of the hallway, his face turned to watch out of the window and down into the garden of the hospital, which would have been nice, if it hadn’t been withered away already. Yixing caught up to the prince and asked:

“Are you okay, Yifan?”

The other one didn’t answer but his shoulders started trembling which Yixing took for a rather bad sign. He let out a sigh, then, after taking a quick look over his shoulder down the empty hallway to make sure no one was around, he placed his arms around Yifan and hugged him. The prince tried hard to calm himself down with a few breaths and then he turned around. His eyes were wet with tears that he tried to suppress and Yixing pushed him onto one of the chairs the hospital had placed in the hallway. Yixing didn’t mean for it to sound rude, but his question came off like that when he said:

“I thought you didn’t like Mr. Deng that much?”

Yifan shot a glance at him, then he wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes and said:

“Of course he annoyed me! With all his advice and stuff! But isn’t family supposed to annoy you?”

Yixing refrained from a comment and sat down beside Yifan to caress his back. When Yifan seemed to have gotten a hold of his emotions again, he continued to explain:

“He’s always been there and… he was more of a father figure to me than my actual father. I mean… you met him. He’s not the nicest person and very cold, even to his own children. Like I said, I have never gotten a hug from him ever in my life. And then there was Mr. Deng who made up for that.”

Yifan looked like a lost little kid in his chair fiddling with the hem of his shirt. He didn’t wait for Yixing to respond to his words.

“I mean, yes. Every time he came over I got rather annoyed, but that was mostly in the last years… he knew about my addiction and he tried to help me, way before my parents even realized what was happening, but I never took his advice. But as a child… the hours I spent with him are some of my favorite childhood memories…”

“I see,” was everything Yixing said and pulled Yifan a little closer to comfort him.

They sat there for a while, their temples touching and then Yifan said:

“He really is a good man. He does not deserve this.”

“That is life, Yifan,” Yixing said and pulled away to look at the other one, “It’s never fair. And people who deserve no harm in the world have to endure the most hardship, usually. It’s the curse of the good.”

“It’s ed up,” Yifan announced like a stubborn four-year-old.

“You know, you could make it a little less ed up and get back there to spend some time with him. I think he needs that right now.”

Yifan whimpered. Yixing knew he didn’t want to go back there and see Mr. Deng like this, but Yifan was an adult and couldn’t be shielded from all evil in this world anymore, and the prince probably knew that. So he took another deep breath, nodded to give himself a little more courage and got up to walk back to the room. Yixing followed him with a few reassuring pats on his back. When Yifan opened the door, he tried to hide behind the same kind of smile Yili had put on before, but it wasn’t as convincing as his sister’s.

“Sorry about that, I’m an ,” he said as he came closer and while Yili nodded to indicate she thought the exact same thing, Mr. Deng just snorted.

“It’s okay, I know I must be looking…,” he started and stretched out his hands that looked like those of an 80-year-old rather than a man in his fifties, “… horrible. There’s no other way to put it. I, sometimes, even scare myself when I’m forced to look into a mirror.”

He heaved a sigh and let his arms flop down onto the bed. Then he leaned back and stared at the ceiling.

“This disease is truly letting my body rot away.”

“You don’t look that awful…” Yili started but the senior journalist shushed her immediately.

“Let’s not speak about this for the moment, please. These so called doctors talk about it all the time, I’m getting tired of listening to them.”

He turned from Yili to Yifan and then he finally seemed to realize Yixing was here too.

“Zhang Yixing! My successor!”

“Oh, no, no, no! I’m not your successor!” Yixing shot back right away.

“Oh, but you are!” The man grabbed a copy of the newspaper he used to write for and held Yixing’s article up in the air, “Isn’t that your work?”

“It is, but…”

“So that makes you my successor!”

“As soon as you’re back in the office, I will gladly let you write these again,” Yixing answered and Mr. Deng tried a smile, but the short silence that followed told Yixing that Mr. Deng didn’t quite believe he’d be returning.

“They’re good though,” Mr. Deng said, “Reminds me of my early days when I was still a volunteer at the Shanghai Daily…”

Yixing was flustered, because Mr. Deng had always been one of the people in the office Yixing looked up to. He mumbled a thank you and tried to hide his blush, while Yili grabbed Mr. Deng’s hand.

“Are they treating you well, Mr. Deng?”

“Well, it’s a hospital…” the patient said, “It’s a rather dreary life I’m leading right now. Almost makes me happy that my insurance stopped covering for my treatment. I might finally get home and die in peace.”

The last sentence caused the siblings to riot. Mr. Deng silenced them with another rather harsh hand movement.

“I mean it, kids. I’ve been fighting this for way too long now. I got the diagnose over a year ago, and…”

“Wait, you’ve known this for over a year already?” Yifan cut him off and his mouth dropped, “Why didn’t you tell us?! We could’ve done something earlier!”

The man crooked a smile then answered:

“For the very same reason, my dear Yifan, why you didn’t tell me about your addiction. Because I didn’t believe it at first… because I denied it… because I didn’t want this to make anyone else’s problem. You and me, we’re not so different after all.”

Yifan wanted to protest and probably argue that a drug addiction was nothing like a cancer diagnosis, but he remained silent.

“I’ve given this a long thought, because, let’s face it, you do a lot of thinking here,” Mr. Deng went on, “And… what is life, exactly? What is it that we cling so much to it?”

He looked at Yili, then at Yifan and lastly at Yixing. None of the three had an answer for him, so he sighed.

“Life… of course, I like to live. But sooner or later, we all die. I’ve done so much and seen so many places, it almost feels like the life span of a centenarian. Maybe I have lived too fast and this is the result. It is how it is, and it’s nothing anyone has power over, not even the doctors,” he said and Yili pouted, still holding on to his hand, “Besides, this body of mine… it’s not really useful anymore, the cancer has eaten away most of it.”

Even in a situation like this, Yixing couldn’t hold back his admiration for Mr. Deng’s way with words. The way he wrote was exactly like the way he spoke and somehow, Yixing always felt goosebumps covering his skin when he read his words or heard his voice.

“Bodies can recover,” Yifan retorted.

“Yifan, I’m forced to urinate into a plastic bag attached to my hips. It’s really nasty.”

Yixing couldn’t help but to snort at Mr. Deng’s comment and the siblings looked at him as if he had lost his mind. Mr. Deng though said:

“See? At least one person in this room still has a sense of humor.”

The younger journalist tried to hide his grin behind his hand and said:

“Sorry, I’m just as big an as Yifan…”

“Never change, Zhang Yixing,” his senior said with a smirk and a wink, then he turned to the royal siblings again, “Kids, if there’s anything that I learned from this is to appreciate the time we’ve been given. I’ve seen you two grow from little kids into young adults and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”

He squeezed Yili’s hand a little tighter and grabbed Yifan’s who only slowly wrapped his fingers around Mr. Deng’s. Silence broke out between the four in which Yifan seemed to be in very deep thought, before his head shot up and he said:

“Yili, a word.”

His sister nodded and followed him out of the room after he had told Yixing to stay with the patient and just like that, Yixing was left alone with Mr. Deng.

“Wow, awkward…” he mumbled.

“Oh, believe me, there are much more awkward things than this,” Mr. Deng said and shifted his weight a little, folded his hands together and looked at Yixing.

“Yeah, I think the first time I met Yifan can be categorized under ‘super awkward’…”

Mr. Deng giggled.

“He can be intimidating, right?”

“He was just so…”

“… rude?”

“… such a brat!” Yixing closed.

“And he’ll forever be… his parents have spoiled him too much. All hope is lost with that one.”

He leaned back and exhaled a long breath. Then he grunted in pain, maybe because the morphine slowly lost its effects and he got reminded of what was actually happening with him and his body.

“Yixing, mind helping me out for a second?”

He lifted his head and pointed to his pillow – Yixing got up and fluffed it up. When Mr. Deng laid his head down again, he sighed in contentment.

“Much better. Yifan has proven to have developed a better taste in people than he usually had.”

“Oh dear lord… so you have read that too…”

“Of course I did! Reading is the only way to somehow participate in the outside world from this hospital bed! Especially the articles in the tabloid press light up my days!”

“And you truly believe what they write in those magazines?” Yixing asked and thought of a good argument to convince Mr. Deng it was all just a PR gag that was cursing around and would hopefully die down sooner or later.

“What are you afraid of exactly?” Was Mr. Deng’s counter question and it threw Yixing off track.

“I… I don’t understand what you mean.”

Mr. Deng chuckled and slowly sat up – Yixing hurried to help him, but he waved at him to keep him from pulling him up. When he was seated properly he folded his hands again and looked at the other one with a sad smile.

“Yixing,” he started, “Why is it that I had to state Ms. Wang as my emergency contact? Why the person that has been my boss for the last ten years, and not my wife or my kids?”

“Umm…”

“It’s because I don’t have neither.”

The answer was simple and it hung in the air like the smell of cold cigarette smoke. Mr. Deng looked outside the window next to his bed and seemed to be thinking, then he turned back to Yixing.

“And why is it that I don’t have any family?”

“I don’t know,” Yixing admitted and felt his hands get sweaty.

“Oh, I think you do.”

It was the look on Mr. Deng’s face that made it slowly dawn on him and Yixing let out a surprised sound.

“Wait, you’re..?”

The other one nodded. Then he shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess women were never my thing.”

“But… then… don’t you have… a partner or something?”

Yixing was highly confused and he knew he sounded like a complete moron but his brain had just shut down, so that was all he was capable of.

“That’s the other thing… Back when I was your age, everybody believed that the whole concept of homouality was a choice and abnormal. So instead of admitting to what I was, I kept it hidden. It’s not what I’d recommend to you, Yixing.”

Yixing felt sorry for Mr. Deng, because, unlike him, he had grown up in a rather welcoming environment regarding his ual orientation. He surely had had encountered people who loathed him for not liking women. He had experienced discrimination in more or less obvious ways because of it. But at least he was outed, and didn’t have to hide, which was a privilege he only understood now.

“There’s something you need to promise me, Yixing,” Mr. Deng pulled Yixing out of his thoughts and the younger one snapped back into reality, “Promise me to be brave – and you will probably need enough bravery for the two of you.”

Mr. Deng nodded into the direction of the door where Yifan had gone through a few minutes before. Yixing stared at it for a moment, then he turned around again.

“Umm… okay…?”

“I mean that. That boy’s soul is too sensitive. He cannot handle obstacles very well. I mean, yes, he’s a brat, and like I said, all hope is lost with him, but as soon as you peel off that layer you have nothing but an emotional bundle of nerves. So please, take good care of that boy.”

“What if he doesn’t want me to?”

Yixing had supported his head with his arms that he had placed on the mattress of the bed. Mr. Deng tilted his head in question, so Yixing had to elaborate further:

“What if, one day he wakes up and decides: ‘That’s it. No more .’ – what am I supposed to do then?”

Mr. Deng burst out into roaring laughter for the first time since Yixing had stepped into the room and for a moment, his old senior came back through the laughs. He laughed so hard, tears started to stream down his face and it was so contagious, even Yixing had to laugh along.

“What makes you so sure he’s going to say that?”

“Well… he’s had girlfriends?”

“Who most of the time didn’t last longer than a month,” Mr. Deng cut him off.

“That’s not a real proof for anything. He’s a notorious player.”

“Oh, believe me, I’ve seen this boy grow up,” the older one said, still wiping away the tears off his face, “He’s so not into girls. As a kid, he and Yili used to play with Yili’s Barbie dolls a lot, very much to the dislike of their father. Yifan once suggested to have two Kens taking care of Shelly instead of Barbie and Ken. Because, and I quote him on that, ‘why shouldn’t two Kens have a kid too?’ That was the moment when I just knew.”

“Huh!” Yixing made and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms, “That is indeed very interesting!”

“I don’t think he’s really aware of the concept of any kind of uality though… otherwise he would’ve reflected once on why he never really liked being with his girlfriends. He would always complain about how they always needed kisses and cuddles and .”

“I feel like my whole world view is getting destroyed with what you’re telling me!” Yixing cried out and felt like someone had run him over with a car – was Mr. Deng actually talking about the same Wu Yifan Yixing had gotten to know?

“He treated that mostly like a ‘necessary evil’ that came along with relationships. I mean, not that he has any idea of how a proper relationship works…”

Mr. Deng winked and grinned amused when Yixing just kept shaking his head in disbelief. They could really hardly be talking about the same person. It’s weird how I always need to touch you. Yifan’s words were still ringing in his ears and now, seeing it from this point of view, Yifan’s statement made more sense than a few hours ago when he had said it.

“Hmmm, looks like you’ve experienced other things…” Mr. Deng said and Yixing blushed, suddenly reminded of that make out session in the kitchen or the night on Halloween. The patient grinned and leaned back to lay down again, “I wonder why that is… hm…”

Yixing knew the comment was supposed to be sarcastic but before he could answer, Yifan and Yili came back. Mr. Deng threw Yixing a last knowing look, before his attention went back to the siblings.

“So? The royal council has come to a decision? What conclusion has Your Highness come to?” The man asked.

The siblings rolled their eyes in unison, and then Yili said:

“We’ve talked to the doctors. We’re taking you home.”

“Huh…” The patient made, “Home?”

“To us,” Yifan added, “Where we can take care of you.”

“Yifan, my boy, no offense, but I hardly believe you will be there to change the plastic bags of urine at the end of every day that dangle from my leg.”

Again, it was Yixing who started to laugh and even Yili chuckled for a second. Yifan started to stammer incoherent words and kept looking for a way to defend himself, but soon had to give up, because everything he’d be saying would make him sound stupid.

“Anyways!” He roared and silenced the other three, “We only need you to sign some papers and you’ll be released after this weekend.”

“And we invite you to stay with us until… umm… well…” Yili added and pressed her lips together.

“Aren’t they cute, Yixing?” Mr. Deng said and smiled, “They almost make me want to try a full recovery.”

“We could also cover this!”

Yifan’s comment made the man chuckle and then he nodded to show he agreed on the sibling’s proposal. Afterwards, a nurse knocked at the door and brought in some lunch that consisted of tasteless Zhou, a few apple slices and a cup of yoghurt. She left with the notice that he still had an appointment with his doctor to run a few more tests in about an hour.

“Yes, we definitely have to get you out of here,” Yifan wrinkled his nose when he saw the lunch.

“The yoghurt isn’t even that bad,” Mr. Deng said and slurped on the watery rice, before he made a grimace, “The Zhou though… it really takes the crown for ‘worst thing I’ve ever eaten’…”

He put the bowl back on the tray and sighed. Then he looked back to the other three.

“What? Are you really going to stay and watch me slurp this stuff? You’ve got a party to prepare!”

“But… we’ve been here for barely an hour!” Yili said.

“Kids, believe me, this hour was good enough. You heard the nurse, I’ve got this appointment soon anyways. Until then, let the old man rest for a bit.”

The siblings only reluctantly gave in to his request, maybe because they saw that Mr. Deng had indeed grown tired over the last thirty minutes. Yili walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“We’ll pick you up on Monday.”

“I’ll be here, it’s not like I’m going anywhere else.”

Yili huffed and rolled her eyes, not believing Mr. Deng was still capable to crack his jokes, but Yixing found it rather amusing and also fascinating how he had still managed to keep his humor even though he knew he’d soon be dying. Yili was right, Yixing really saw beauty in the most horrendous things. Yifan joined Yili and took Mr. Deng’s hand, patting the back of it with the other.

“I hope your party will be fun, boy.”

“I’ll try to. You’ll be missed.”

“Oh come on! You’ll have fun, I know you! Just go easy on the vodka, it does weird things to you.”

Mr. Deng’s words seemed to trigger some bad memories in Yifan and he whimpered, while Yili laughed.

“I promise.”

The senior journalist smiled and patted Yifan’s arm before the prince let go of him and turned with his sister for the door. Mr. Deng turned then to Yixing who got up and nodded awkwardly in his direction.

“Don’t forget my words, Zhang Yixing.”

“I won’t, that is my promise.”

“Huh? What kind of words?” Yifan butted in and turned around to face them again.

“Oh, Yifan, I guess that is a thing between me and your man,” Mr. Deng said with a grin on his face and placed his hands under his head, “You don’t need to know everything.”

Yixing hurried for the door and before Yifan could demand an explanation, he pushed him out of the room. With a last look over his shoulder, he saw Mr. Deng looking out of the window, still smiling. There was somehow a look of relief plastered on his face, like someone who leaned back and took a look at their finished project. Oddly content – tired and drained, but happy.

When they got back, Yifan and Yixing spent most of the day lounging around on the couch where Yifan had tangled up their feet and Yixing was caught between the older one and the backrest of the sofa, but for the first time in weeks, he didn’t really mind and even came to enjoy how the other one threw his arms around him and kept him close. Yifan was unusually pensive and ignored calls and messages from family and friends wishing him a happy birthday. Sometimes he’d voice one or two thoughts he had on Mr. Deng and had tried to make Yixing tell him what the two men had been talking about while he was gone with his sister, but Yixing decided to let him hanging in the air a little more. It felt wrong to blurt out what seemed to be the senior’s biggest secret, even though he probably would not mind if Yifan knew.

“I’ll tell you another time,” Yixing said and tried to shift the focus on something else, “I’m proud of you, actually.”

“Huh?”

Yifan furrowed his eyebrows in question when he heard these words.

“Yeah. You kind of adulted today. That’s good.”

The prince snorted and rolled his eyes while Yixing giggled. The younger one expected a comeback, but instead Yifan turned his head to him and said without even blinking:

“Kiss me.”

“Huh?!”

Now it was Yixing’s turn to let out weird noises of surprise. Yifan’s mind seemed to spit out another weird reference and Yixing needed a second to collect himself.

“Oh, how does that song go?”

“What song? Are you high, Yifan?”

He clicked his tongue to negate the answer to the second question while he hummed the melody of a song that Yixing might have heard once in his life, but he didn’t quite catch it.

“God, it’s that Marilyn Monroe song…”

“…. The hell…?”

“Oh! Yes!” Yifan’s face lit up in enlightment, then he sung, “I wanna be kissed by you, nobody else but you…”

“Oh my god, if that isn’t the cheesiest I’ve ever heard!” Yixing cried out and felt his ears burn up – why was Yifan so lame?!

“Come on, it’s a good song! A true classic!”

“I’m not even going to ask why you know Marilyn Monroe songs…” Yixing said and shook his head.

“Well, then don’t,” Yifan changed their positions and pressed Yixing down into the couch with his weight, “It’s not that important anyways.”

With that, he kissed Yixing and drowned the younger’s last cocky comments about Yifan’s weird taste in music. Yixing sighed in pleasure when their lips touched, outing himself to be just as needy for affection as Yifan himself – but before Yifan’s hand could even slip under the other one’s shirt, the alarm on his cellphone got off and reminded them to get ready for the party.

“UGH!” Yifan cried out and rolled off Yixing to silence the phone – Yixing seized the opportunity and got up himself.

“Well, let’s go get ready, tiger!” He cried out.

In the following hour Mr. Li came along with the fixed suit for Yixing and another one for Yifan that he had been getting ready especially for the party in the evening. They changed their attire quickly and Yixing was ready way before Yifan who could not seem to decide on a proper hairstyle. A look on his watch told the younger one they should get going in about ten minutes, but Yifan was still standing in front of his bathroom mirror and grunted whenever something he tried did not work out.

“Just go like you go usually?” Yixing suggested but Yifan protested, arguing that it was his birthday and he had to look perfect.

Yixing rolled his eyes and then the door opened and Yili stepped in.

“Woooooooh, it’s so coooooold!” She exclaimed and shivered while closing the door.

When Yixing saw her, he choked on his own saliva. In her green Zuhair Murad gown (Yixing only knew the designer because she had been overly excited to wear it and had started bragging about it weeks ago) Yili looked like one of those fairytale godmothers that lost kids in stories met in the woods. She looked absolutely gorgeous and Yixing slipped a “Wow, are you trying to turn me straight?” which Yili answered with a snort.

“Nah, I’d rather you stay with my brother.”

She nudged him and fixed the short sleeves of her dress that barely hid her shoulders. No wonder she had been freezing on her way over to her brother’s bedchambers.

“Okay, okay, I think I’m ready!”

Yifan came out with the usual hairstyle but Yixing’s comment got drowned when Yifan saw his sister and gasped. He clasped his chest and said:

“Yili, why are you so gorgeous?”

“Probably because of this dress,” she answered and shrugged her shoulders while her brother gave her a hug and a kiss, “Ugh, you’re embarrassing me in front of your boyfriend!”

Yixing wanted to protest but once again, his words weren’t heard because Yifan told them to get moving.

“Isn’t that great how my two favorite people are with me today.”

“Are you drunk already, Yifan?” Yili asked while they got into the car and the driver brought them to the venue.

“Nope, he’s been sober the whole day actually,” Yixing said nonchalantly while checking his phone and ignoring his Twitter and Weibo mentions that told him to make sure to get Yifan a “big birthday surprise”.

“Oh! Now that’s what I call an achievement!” Yili answered and Yifan rolled his eyes but did not try to retort with some sort of comeback – his party was about to start, after all. And even though the day had had a rather bitter start, he wanted to make the most of it.

I DON'T KNOW WHY THE FONT IS DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER CHAPTERS. I WAS IN TIANJIN THE WHOLE DAY AND I AM DRAINED SO I DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO FIX IT. I WILL THOUGH. ANOTHER DAY.

 I WILL ALSO REPLY TO YOUR COMMENTS AGAIN ONCE MY TY WIFI LETS ME DO THAT ACTUALLY IDK MAN NOTHING I WORKING HERE RIGHT NOW SORRY SORRY I STILL LOVE ALL OF YOU AND I READ THE COMMENTS AND I AM HAPPY SOMEONE IS ACTUALLY STILL READING THIS PILE OF BULL BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeee.

God all this capslock makes me look like a moron.