Chapter Text
1. Lemon Tea, More Ice
Date: Two months after the start of First Year
The first time Yu Yang collated orders drink orders in freshman year, his eyes nearly fell out of his sockets.
“You guys get more ice with your tea? Added ice?”
“Yeah,” Lao Jiang said, turning from his computer to stare at him with wide eyes. “Is there something wrong with that?”
“I– what?” Yu Yang felt so wrong-footed, he didn’t even know where to begin explaining what was wrong. Getting tea with more ice was about as impious to him as entering the pool with socks. “The drinks cost money? The– the Expense?”
“Yeah, so?” Lao Jiang tilted his head at him in incomprehension. Was he issuing a challenge? Should Yu Yang pull the chair from out under his ass to teach him about adding ice to bubble tea? “I like to eat the ice.”
“You’re paying for the ice!” Yu Yang screeched. “Space in the cup that could have gone to the tea! Make your own ice at home, for free!!”
"Our dorm has no freezer."
"Then perish???" Yu Yang could not believe he was hearing some weak-ass excuse like our dorm has no freezer to justify the abomination of adding more ice to a cup of tea. "Plus, it's not like the drink doesn't already have ice, so why would you need to add more ice? I don't get it, it's ridiculous and–"
“Woah woah woah,” Xiao Ji said, holding both hands in front of him, “No need to get defensive, Yu Yang. Lao Jiang is right, the ice is tasty. Plus, I usually can’t finish the drink if I don’t get more ice, so–”
“Get a smaller size, Xiao Ji?”
“That’s my own business, Yang...”
"Things are getting heated in the bubble tea fandom," Da Bai observed sagely, taking a sip from his water bottle.
"Shut the hell up and don't buy tea if you have water!" Yu Yang fired at him.
"But I'm thirsty~" Da Bai whined, and Yu Yang reflected that he was fighting a losing battle with his friends. His inane friends who added ice to their bubble tea orders. Who also happened to outnumber him three to one.
"Why are you so passionate about the ice discourse anyway?" Lao Jiang asked. Da Bai snickered, and oh Yu Yang really wanted to pull the chair out from under Lao Jiang and then run Da Bai's toes over with it–
"Okay," he said, taking a deep breath. "Okay. Enough. I'll get the orders: lemon tea for Da Bai and Xiao Ji, black tea macchiato for Lao Jiang, and oolong latte for me."
"I think you're forgetting something essential," Xiao Ji said, innocently.
"MORE. ICE. For you morons, and no ice for me." Yu Yang ground out, emphasising each syllable through gritted teeth. He felt like he was going to get heartburn.
"That's good," Xiao Ji said, with a sweet smile that made Yu Yang want to run over Xiao Ji's toes after he was done with Da Bai's. "Just checking to see that you hadn't forgotten."
"Oh, we haven't talked about sugar levels," Da Bai said, suddenly. "We should confirm those. What level do you guys usually get? I usually get around 75 percent."
It turned out that Xiao Ji usually got around 50%, while Yu Yang and Lao Jiang usually got around 75% too.
"I think I'll just get 75 percent then," Xiao Ji said, "It'll be less trouble on the barista to remember our orders."
"Okay," Yu Yang confirmed. "Then I've got the order down. I'm going down to buy the tea now, and if any of you bastards change your mind along the way, I absolutely do not want to know and will not comply. So do not text me to tell me that you want something else. Bye."
There was a lazy chorus of byes, and don't get run over by a bike, yang, and Yu Yang shut the dorm door on the three depraved ice-guzzlers.
***
"Two lemon teas, one black tea macchiato, one oolong latte. All 75% sugar, and no ice for the oolong latte and more ice for the two lemon teas and the black tea macchiato."
The barista at the counter gave Yu Yang a Look, and then glanced at the long line forming behind him with tired eyes.
"Okay," he said, and Yu Yang could tell he was holding in a sigh reserved for single customers who get four cups of tea. "That will be 69 yuan."
"Nice," Yu Yang said automatically, and gives him a twenty and a fifty.
"Keep the change," he said, feeling very generous. He was on a roll, doing good deed after good deed. First, buying tea for his good-for-nothing ice-munching dorm mates, and then, resisting his urges to run their toes over, and now, tipping? What was he, a model citizen?! This was too much. Good karma had to throw a boyfriend in his way soon, if he kept this up.
***
"I'm, back," Yu Yang breathes heavily, standing at the door with his delivery bag of tea. He was not a jock– climbing up four floors of stairs with the added weight of teas was too much. Maybe the school could consider installing elevators in the student dorms. If it cost too much financially, they could prioritise the Arts blocks, and leave the Sports blocks last. He was going to have to bring this up at the next Liaison Department meeting, and seriously pester Huanwen until he agreed to circulate a student petition on the matter.
His deadbeat dorm mates swarmed to the door in an instant, like moths drawn to an open flame, and Yu Yang handed out the drinks to them. He felt like the father of three ungrateful children who never greeted him at the door unless he had food in hand.
"My macchiato has no ice?" Lao Jiang said, voice going up in disbelief.
Yu Yang was instantly filled with malicious glee. He could hardly believe that God had intervened in such a way, taking direct action against Lao Jiang and teaching him the ways of the light.
"Ha, GOOD," Yu Yang gloated, pointing at him. "I'm not going to walk back and tell them they got your order wrong, drink your iceless drink and be thankful that such a mistake–"
"Wait, I think yours has ice– like, a lot of ice–" Lao Jiang said, holding up Yu Yang's oolong latte. To Yu Yang's horror, he saw that Lao Jiang was right. The ice that should have chocked Lao Jiang's macchiato was instead crowding out the drink in Yu Yang's tea. He felt claustrophobic just looking at ice in his drink, tightly piled on top of each one another to form a domineering pillar in his plastic cup.
"It was a mix-up?" Da Bai asked, shocked. Yu Yang thinks that his soul must have left his body by now.
"Looks like our order was too confusing," Xiao Ji said, chuckling. “Gotta make it simpler.” Yu Yang groaned, and cursed at the sky, but mostly at his terrible, coercive dorm mates. Coercive, ice-chomping dorm mates.
"No more tea with no ice, Yu Yang. From now on, you're getting more ice, just like the rest of us."
***