Gu Xiao flung his head up and looked around, only to see the absence of people. The night wind travelled through the small gap between the window, though he could barely feel the cold brush since it was shut tightly.
The columns of clouds obscured the pale moon and stars, filling the bedroom with a soft white glow from the moonlight. Aside from the unbearable heat of the mornings and afternoons, the nights were always chilly, which prompted him to always sleep in.
Light footsteps made their way from the corner, and Gu Xiao's eyes glued on the boy that emerged from the other room, dressed in a new set of clothes.
"You're awake?"
Lan Yuning's smooth, ink-coloured hair was still relatively wet, with tiny droplets still hanging by the edges of the hair strands.
It must've been the moonlight, but the soft glow exaggerated the silhouette of his lips, and his body seemed so vulnerable and delicate that if he was just to press him down, he might accidentally fracture his arm.
Strangely, the thump of Gu Xiao's heart sounded. It was a short, foreign skip, and he instantly avoided his gaze.
A wash of bewilderment drowned his head, and Gu Xiao pressed his chest, yelling in his thoughts. He definitely hasn't woken up properly. Either that or he overate, and now his heart was beating restlessly from overheating and increased blood flow.
"Did they all leave?" Gu Xiao asked.
"Yes."
He checked his phone and gasped, "I've been sleeping for three hours?"
Just as he was about to stand up to stretch, a notification sprung from Lan Yuning's phone, which remained at the table he was sleeping on, but that wasn't what caught Gu Xiao's eyes. Instead, it was the background photo. He pointed to his phone, and his eyes lit up.
"Do you like Blueberry6 as well?"
Lan Yuning raised his brows and stared at that bright smile, asking, "...You know Blueberry?"
"Yes. I have been following them since the first year of junior high school. Wait, let me show you my favourite artwork. Come, come." Gu Xiao waved his hand to beckon him to sit and scrolled through his phone.
Lan Yuning flung the drying towel around his shoulders and sat down beside him. But seeing the distance he so clearly set between them, Gu Xiao pouted and hopped closer to his side.
With the sudden closing of space, Lan Yuning's back stiffened while Gu Xiao continued scrolling through his gallery filled with somewhat questionable photos of people and screenshots.
At some point, there was an image of an edit of Mr. Shen's face stuck onto a bear that he had forgotten to delete.
"I remember I saved a folder. Here. This was the first artwork that I saw from him that I liked a lot."
It was a watercolour painting of the shore at night, and there stood a boy's face, who was blurred due to the distance.
There were no stars, no moon, only the dull clouds that floated amidst the empty sky. Gu Xiao could discern that Lan Yuning was remarkably stunned by that painting, as though this artwork had triggered something within him.
"A beach in Shanghai."
Gu Xiao straightened his posture, and a wave of surprise drenched him. He stared at the painting of the shore for a moment and let out a laugh from his heart.
"Is it?"
Gu Xiao's voice wavered, and his smile grew solemn. He leaned back and continued to scroll through the album filled with the artists' works. Surprisingly, the two talked more than usual.
Maybe it was because it was late at night, but the tones of his bedroom light, the lack of cold wind, the energetic voice that replaced the silence, and the scent of peaches from the hair conditioner all raised the tranquil ambience that relaxed both of their stiff characters.
As Gu Xiao continued displaying his admiration for this artist, Lan Yuning drew his knees up and rested his chin on them, hugging his legs close as a loose smile slipped through his lips.
"I heard that he's the same age as us. I remember I once even claimed so proudly that I would become an artist after trying to copy one of his drawings. But I gave up after a day when my sister used my drawing to spit out watermelon seeds."
A call screen popped up, which read "Waste of Money," and Gu Xiao quickly pressed accept.
"What do you want?" he asked.
When that alias appeared, Lan Yuning blinked in confusion to see whether his eyes were playing tricks, and shortly, his mind drifted off into the distance.
"Alright, alright. Yeah, they all went home. What? Why are you sad? What? Hello?" Gu Xiao scratched his head and stared at his phone in confusion.
"Is everything alright?"
"Yes, that was just my sister. I should go home now," he sighed.
✎✎✎
Lan Yuning walked him to the front entrance, but before Gu Xiao stepped out of his house's grounds, he turned around with the same dazzling eyes that not even the night could suppress such liveliness.
He leaned in close, slightly bending down a little to meet Lan Yuning eye to eye, and said in the same flirtatious voice. "I'm very happy tonight, Student President. Do you want to know why?"
As always, Lan Yuning didn't respond and simply gazed at him with an indifferent face since he would probably say something strange like always.
"Because you asked me questions," he laughed, "It used to always be me talking, but now I feel like we—Wait, wait."
Lan Yuning pushed him out of the entrance and shut the gate immediately, not sparing a single second for him to continue his words.
"...Go home."
Gu Xiao clicked his tongue. "Fine, fine."
Maybe it was during this warm season that it was easier for the body to heat up, so Lan Yuning thought little about it.
Before Gu Xiao turned around to leave, Lan Yuning's lips parted, and the words hung at the tip of his tongue.
"Ah..." Lan Yuning started.
Gu Xiao shifted his head back with a smile. Those eyes were exactly the reason why Lan Yuning's words were always lost in the upcoming breath of the air. It was because of the way Gu Xiao looked at him that it regularly touched this slight twinge through his shoulders, tensing his muscles.
With a nervous tremor of his heart, Gu Xiao waited patiently for Lan Yuning to continue speaking, but was only left with Lan Yuning lowering his head with a collision of emotions all entangling with one another.
"It's nothing..."
Gu Xiao blinked in confusion, but eventually let out a short laughter. "Alright! I will see you tomorrow."
When Gu Xiao left, Lan Yuning slapped both his cheeks twice and gazed at Gu Xiao's back, which slowly drifted into the distance.
Soon, tires screeched, and a yellow light stabbed into the soft night glow.
A car pulled down the driveway, and a man emerged out of the vehicle. He had slicked-back hair, naturally narrow eyes, and with each step he took with his newly polished shoes, a solid tap echoed from the marble tile pathway.
The more the man approached closer, an intense suffocation immediately coursed throughout the atmosphere. A savour of sourness spread in Lan Yuning's eyes, and the two just looked at each other, only allowing the rustling leaves and birds to fill in their conversation.
"Not going to greet me?" the man asked.
"You are back early, father."
His father gazed in the direction Gu Xiao had walked off and brought his stares back to Lan Yuning. This was an extremely familiar scene for his father. So familiar that it sickened his father to his stomach.
"Do not fool around."
His voice was dry and dictatorial, emphasizing the word "not" so clearly that it resonated throughout the garden. Before Lan Yuning knew it, his fists were clenched, and no more comments were exchanged between them.