Mao Lu entered his apartment the same way he'd left that morning, like a zombie. He crawled into his bed, curling into a ball, and fell unconscious straight away. He wasn't working until the following afternoon so that meant he had a lot of time to catch up on lost sleep.
Or at least that's what he thought until..
"Knock, Knock, Knock" someone came knocking at 23:15.
At first Mao Lu tried to ignore it, surely they'd think he wasn't in and kindly just leave! But 10 minutes later they were still knocking and louder than ever.
Mao Lu flung open the door, he just wanted to sleep more and enjoy his free time, he glared with bloodshot eyes at the short and cute man on the other side.
"What do you want Tanaka!?"
Tanaka Kato[1] was Mao Lu's friend and colleague from his part time job as a waiter at Cafe E'clair. Tanaka was an international student from Japan whose Chinese was excellent. He studied modern languages at Tsing Hao University. He and Mao Lu had become instant friends when they met 2 years ago during a shift, that friendship only thickening when they both found out the other was gay.
Their interactions consisted of sending each other memes, spamming, swearing (basically quality banter) and drinking. They had each others backs like true brothers.
At the moment Tanaka was standing in Mao Lu's doorway holding two beer bottles.
"Do you not remember messaging me?" Tanaka irritably replied, holding out his phone.
On the screen the wechat app was on display and there could be seen a message sent by Mao at 10pm saying. "Bing Bing and Detong are getting married."
"The moment I saw that I knew you needed to talk so I came over as soon as I finished work. Even Bei Lao[2] came." Tanaka pointed behind himself. Only then did Mao Lu notice Tanaka's boyfriend, Bei Lao, lurking awkwardly in the doorway.
"Are you okay?" Bei Lao inquired, just like Tanaka he was concerned for Mao Lu.
Bei Lao was an office worker so he had that standard office hairstyle. Even though he was quite tall his back was bit hunched, probably from spending hours stooped over a computer, so he appeared a lot shorter. He wore glasses, was slightly on the older side, and appeared cold and stoic. But in reality Bei Lao was very friendly, timid and quite sensitive.
"Yh, you're not planning to kill yourself or something are you?" Tanaka added warily whilst scanning Mao Lu's messy apartment.
Other than the unwashed dishes piled in the sink and various dumped articles on the floor it didn't look like he'd gone out of his way to buy any charcoal grills[3], and there were no knives lying around.
Mao was offended. "What do you take me for!!! I wouldn't kill myself over this. It doesn't even bother me."
"It doesn't." Tanaka and Bei Lao said in unison, with equally disbelieving and doubtful tones.
"..."
Mao only sighed and walked into his apartment. "Just come in already."
"About time you let us in." Tanaka harrumphed, strolling into the small flat like he owned the place, Bei Lao following closely behind in a more reserved manner.
Tanaka kicked some clothes away and sat down and opened a beer. Whilst Bei Lao began picking up the clothes and folding them.
"You don't have to do that." Mao Lu quickly said, as he began picking up the clothes and scattered magazines himself, cleaning his apartment.
"No let me help." Bei Lao stubbornly demanded, not stopping and instead moving to the sink and washing the dishes.
As the two cleaned Tanaka just lazily sat cross legged on the floor whilst drinking his beer, clearly having no intention to join in.
Any stereotypes you would originally have about the Japanese being very polite, timid and clean are entirely broken once you meet Tanaka. He was loud, bold, impolite, and messy. Even though he looked cute and small like one of those bishounen boys in anime, Tanaka often told tales of his previous Yankee days back in High school. If Mao was a teacher he would have dreaded having Tanaka Kato in his class.
"All done." Bei Lao smiled, the apartment had gone through a complete transformation. From its earlier doom and gloom it was now clear, clean, and ordered.
"Awesome you guys did a great job." Tanaka clapped. Bei Lao and Mao Lu both glared at him, they didn't want to hear praise from the guy that didn't help.
…
Soon they were all sitting on the floor drinking.
"So you're sure you're okay." Bei Lao asked again.
"Like I told you I already prepared myself. I'd been ready for this since they started dating 6 years ago. They've always been a beautiful couple that were madly in love with each other and looked great together. Even though Detong can be a fool and a complete arse most of the time, he still cares for Bing Bing deeply. That's the reason why they've lasted so long. A marriage was going to be on the horizon eventually. Marriage won't change the way things have been between all of us."
"Wrong" said Tanaka, "Marriage changes everything. It's a lot more serious of a commitment, they won't have time for you like they did in the past. They'll move onto family planning and soon have kids running around and you'll end up being their Uncle Mao. Zhao Detong is straight as well, so if he even dared have an affair it wouldn't be with you."
"Zhao Detong isn't that stupid he wouldn't have an affair! And I would never try anything!!!"
"Yh yh.. okay, I don't know enough about the guy" Tanaka rolled his big eyes, "You get the point though don't you? You won't even be able to entertain the thought of being with him like you used to, and if you still do it'll just be more painful for you. So my advice is to fully move on Mao. Find love, stop being such a wet blanket."
"You've never actually been in a relationship or done anything with a guy right?" Tanaka bluntly asked.
Mao blushed, his face going hot with embarrassment, "So what!?"
"I'm just saying, you need to test the waters a little bit. Go and find someone amazing, fall in love."
"As if it's that easy."
"It is that easy if you put yourself out there a little bit. Never going out, always working, and always pining after Zhao Detong. That just isn't healthy."
"I'm not in the financial position to date. I barely have 200RMB to my name, and I still have outstanding debts. If I had time to date I'd rather spend it working."
Tanaka scowled, "You're impossible, honestly."
Bei's calm voice chimed in, "I agree with Tanaka. You working all the time and pining after Zhao Detong isn't healthy. You should go out and try dating a little. No one's ever ready to date, you might not be financially stable in even the next 10 years, rather than wait for too long try going for it now when you're young. I wasted most of my youth not coming out, not saying anything. I worked long stressful shifts and underpaid overtime for years. I'd practically given up on love and ever being happy, but then I met Tanaka during a business trip to Japan, and he changed my life. We've been together 3 years now. He gave me the courage to talk about it with my parents and be accepted. He made me a better man.
Happiness is only around the corner Mao, you just need to reach for it."
Mao was surprised since Bei was usually the quiet type and normally didn't say that much. Deep down Mao knew Bei was right, that he should try living a little but… he honestly didn't know how to start.
"You are right." He conceded.
"Yes!" Tanaka pumped his fists in the air and excitedly squeezed Bei's arm. "Your awesome speech worked." he praised.
Bei's ears went a little red and he just nodded "Un."
"Gosh I know so many guys I can introduce you too." Tanaka squealed. "Of course only the best for you!"
Mao immediately felt uncomfortable looking at the excited scheming eyes of Tanaka, it was just like Fei Bing Bing's eyes from earlier. Why did everyone want to play the matchmaker, honestly?
…
After much discussion and drinking Tanaka decided that they'd all go to a popular cafe next weekend for some boyfriend hunting. Tanaka and Bei didn't leave until around about 2am which allowed Mao to finally crawl back into bed and get a well-needed rest.
…
In the afternoon Mao got up and robotically prepared for his shift at the Cafe. As he walked out he noticed a pile of letters on his doorstep.
Inwardly despairing he picked them up. Five of them were bank notices telling him what he needed to pay and how long he had to pay it and the consequences of not paying. It also looked like some interest had been added to his debt...Great oh joy (sarcasm).
The sixth letter was the one that surprised Mao. It was a black envelope. It had gorgeous calligraphy on the front, in gold strokes it said B&B law. What surprised Mao the most was that it was addressed to Zhang Lu. Zhang was Mao's name before he'd switched to using his Mother's maternal name 'Mao', after the incident.
He'd used Mao for nearly six years now, he never got letters addressed to his old name and he'd moved a lot of times in the past few years and his address was under Mao Lu.
He opened it curiously. The letter was from a man named Mr. Baker that worked at B&B law firm. According to the letter someone named Wang Cao had died and had given Mao Lu everything he owned in his will. Mr. Baker wanted Mao to drop by the office in Guomao so that he could claim his inheritance.
"An inheritance! For me! Who was this Wang Cao?" In Mao's head he ran through a list of acquaintances his parents had had. Most of his parents so called friends distanced themselves from the family the moment they went bankrupt, and after the incident only one or two had turned up to his Mother's funeral. His parents had had him quite late so his Maternal and Paternal grandparents were dead by the time he'd been in his teens. He had no close relatives, and there was no one with the name Wang related to his family.
Was this a joke?
[1] Tanaka (The name Tanaka means dweller in the rice fields. Kato (One of my best friends, his last name is Kato, I have no idea what it means I just thought it sounded cool.)
[2] 'Bei' (North) 'Lao' (wise). So his names Wise North
[3] Tanaka was worried that Mao Lu would try to commit suicide by burning charcoal via Carbon monoxide poisoning.