Chapter Text
Mo Guan Shan stared at the antique clock in the corner of the store and groaned in frustration.
It was not the kind of clock he had ever imagined staring at to find out how much time was left until he could leave work. Just like every other surface inside, it was framed by plants and flowers. The clock had been hand-painted by Guan Shan’s mother, displaying a pattern of bright red and yellow blossoms. Balanced on top of it were three pots, barely fitting in the small space. Ivy cascaded down the sides of the clock and cloaked it in an evergreen hull.
It all looked very beautiful, sure. But the ivy had grown into the clock hands again and refused him enlightenment regarding the time. He was getting hungry.
The sound of a bell alerted him to a customer and he quickly tied on the apron he had loosened a few minutes before to soothe his aching belly.
“Welcome to Honeypot, what are you looking for… today…”
He trailed off, the forced chipper tone still sounding awkward in his head, but that had nothing to do with why his mouth became too dry to speak and his stomach suddenly hurt twice as much as before.
There, in the doorway, just as prominently framed by cascading ivy as the clock in the corner, stood a man he had never thought to see again in his life. A man that had haunted his dreams for countless months. A man who had no business being a man at all, since Guan Shan only remembered him as a boy.
For a moment, everything got dark. Guan Shan had to lean on the counter to keep himself from falling.
It was He Tian.
He Tian was standing in the door of the Mo family’s flower shop, and he had the gall to grin from ear to ear, hands casually hidden in the pockets of a posh looking blazer.
“I’m looking for a very special flower, actually,” He Tian said. The tone of his voice, the cockiness, the deep rumble, the sharp intonations – it was all so familiar, yet Guan Shan had never been able to properly recall it in his head. Now it felt like a punch in the gut.
“You!” was all Guan Shan was able to spit out. His head felt hot, his eyes watery. He was trembling. He Tian had reduced him back to a teenager in a mere second. What should he say? What should anyone say when one’s long lost boyfriend suddenly showed up and acted like he had just gone out for cigarettes? Guan Shan clenched his fists.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he bit out.
He Tian strolled towards him, carefully circling the pots and vases on the floor. His face looked just as haughty and unbothered by other people’s feelings as Guan Shan remembered it. That face was forever etched into his memory.
“Wow, little Mo. I never would have pictured you standing behind the counter of a flower shop with a colorful little apron. I was almost afraid you had changed. But now I see that you’re still the same easily irritable punk as when I left. Phew.”
A hot surge of anger that Guan Shan had worked very hard to suppress came bubbling up from his intestines. The sort where everything went red, as if the whole world had started to bleed. He blanked out for a second - next thing he knew, Guan Shan stood on the counter and threw himself at He Tian like a show wrestler.
He Tian easily caught him – the blazer was hiding a new set of muscles that Guan Shan – between cooking classes and his part time job – hadn’t had the time to build.
“I missed you, too,” He Tian smirked, completely ignoring how Guan Shan tried to struggle out of the embrace. If it had been hard to overpower He Tian two years ago, it was now completely impossible. Thankfully, He Tian soon let him go, holding him at an arm’s length to give him a good look-over.
“The apron suits you,” he said.
“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!”
Guan Shan had finally lost the rest of his composure and was now screaming uncontrollably.
“You dare waltz back into my life after two fucking years? After you left without even saying fucking goodbye? I don’t even remember you that well. You think I cried a single fucking tear after you, you dirty bastard?”
“You’re literally crying tears right now,” said He Tian.
“My eyes are getting teary from the stink of you!” Guan Shan shouted. “You’re standing way too close. All the flowers are gonna wilt from the smell!”
He Tian’s answer was to simply pull him back into another embrace. It was like a chokehold. Guan Shan did his best not to ease into it, although it was harder now that he had started to think about He Tian’s smell. The truth was, He Tian smelled very good. Like laundry detergent and hair products and safety.
“I’m sorry, little Mo.”
Guan Shan felt the words rumble through He Tian’s body, felt his arms tighten around him even more, as if he never meant to let go again. Well, it was too late. Much too late.
“I missed you. I missed you a lot.”
Damn it. Guan Shan could already feel how that tricky voice was starting to get to him. He was getting weaker. The voice was tenderizing him like the Viennese Schnitzel he had prepared in the restaurant yesterday. Thinking of the restaurant and its eccentric owner made Guan Shan stiffen again.
“Didn’t you miss me at all?”
A deep breath escaped Guan Shan when he opened his mouth and choked, “Of course I did, you fucking asshole.”
He Tian’s body shook in a silent chuckle, but he still hadn’t won. Guan Shan remained stiff. He didn’t melt into the embrace until He Tian loosened it to look into his eyes.
“I’m back. For good. I promise.”
What was that asshole thinking? That he could simply show up one day, looking fit and well dressed and having grown even taller, spewing pathetic lines about how he had missed Guan Shan oh so terribly, and Guan Shan would fall for those same empty promises?
He Tian had been the first person Guan Shan had ever opened up to. His relentlessness, his physicalness, the way he never held back with anything – all of it paired with open longing, protectiveness and understanding – it had been the exact recipe to break through the hull of aggressive teenage Guan Shan, who thought he had no choice but to be the way he was, until He Tian came along and completely turned his life around.
He Tian had learned to stop trying to control Guan Shan and in turn taught him to accept help. He Tian had always made it clear that he was not a hero saving his distressed damsel, that he was simply lucky to have the money and connections to help Guan Shan and was now going to share that luck with him.
However, their frail little relationship had only lasted a week. Seven short days after Guan Shan had finally admitted to himself that he may have fallen for He Tian, five days after he told him to his face, one day after they kissed for the first time. Guan Shan had stood in front of He Tian’s building with his trusty yellow umbrella and waited and waited. But that had been it. He Tian had fallen off the face of the Earth. His phone number was no longer in use. The teacher said he’d been transferred. Guan Shan remembered sitting on the mats outside of the school, watching through a game of basketball with empty eyes, until he was startled by something he first thought to be his own reflection.
Instead, it had been Zhan Zheng Xi sitting on the other side of the field, wearing the exact same look.
Later that day he learned that Jian Yi had disappeared too.
But now, now He Tian was standing before him. The two years suited him well, he had grown into his height and his eyes almost looked a little wiser. Guan Shan noticed a little scar above the eyebrow – barely visible, had He Tian not been mere inches from his face. It was almost too late when Guan Shan realized that He Tian was leaning in for a kiss.
“Hold on a second!” Guan Shan screeched. His hand had managed to squeeze between their lips just in time and He Tian was looking at him with dark eyes, half of his face covered by Guan Shan’s hand. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I had some duties to fulfill. Now I came back to continue where we left off.”
Guan Shan didn’t know what to say to that. Was He Tian joking? He had to be joking, right?
“You’re serious…” he realized after a few seconds of blankly staring at He Tian’s face.
“You’re FUCKING SERIOUS!”
Great, now he was shouting again. Good thing there had been no customer for a while.
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE! Do you think I put my life on hold after you vanished, huh? That after TWO YEARS you can just turn up again and here I would be, ready to throw myself into your arms LIKE A FUCKING BIMBO?”
A well-known darkness now clouded He Tian’s eyes, but where teenage Guan Shan might have pissed himself a little at that look, current Guan Shan was just angry enough to push He Tian away into a ficus benjamini.
He Tian managed to stay on his feet and so did the tree.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked, surprisingly calm. “You need some time? That’s fine, I can win you over again. It was a lot of fun last time.”
“I have a boyfriend!” Guan Shan shouted – and finally, his words seemed to have some effect. He Tian opened his mouth, didn’t find any words, and closed it again.
“That’s right,” Guan Shan huffed. “Did you seriously think I would grieve for two years before I moved on?”
“No,” said He Tian. He was standing tall again, now looming over Guan Shan with a sort of coldness that sent shivers down his spine. “I guess not. I just didn’t expect…”
“What, that anyone would want me?”
He Tian said nothing. His brows were furrowed, as if he were confused by something. Guan Shan had a hunch what that might be. Maybe Guan Shan hadn’t seen He Tian for two years, but he was sure that He Tian was very well informed about his life.
About six months into his disappearance Guan Shan’s mother had mysteriously come into a lot of money. Some distant relative had died and she was the only remaining heir – that had been the official explanation. But however deep Guan Shan dug, he couldn’t find any mention of that person in their family tree. In any case, his mother had not looked the gift horse in the mouth, had paid off their debt, paid for her husband’s bail and fulfilled her dream of opening her own flower shop. Just as mysterious was the sudden lack of gang members trying to cause trouble in the Mo family’s life.
All in all, they had become a normal and happy family.
Of course, Guan Shan wasn’t stupid. Things like these didn’t just happen. They were made to happen by powerful people. People, who may show up one day and ask you to return the favor. He had always known that the trouble was never really gone. It was steadily bubbling on the back burner and as soon as you forgot about it, it would turn to total shit.
So He Tian had kept track of him for the past two years. That explained why it would seem logical to him that they could still be together – he had never actually been gone. But Guan Shan’s reality was a different one and He Tian had to realize that.
“Are you happy?” He Tian asked, grim.
“Happier than ever.”
He Tian nodded slowly. “Well, I’ll be honest with you. I imagined a very different outcome for this meeting. Let’s just say, I’m not amused.”
How he managed to say that without sounding completely ridiculous was beyond Guan Shan.
“But,” He Tian said, “I’m here because I’m done with… that world. And I’m trying to become a person who doesn’t have to rely on violence to get what he wants. I’d like to be friends with you again, if you think you can do that.”
Now his expression lost some of the coldness – he even winked at Guan Shan.
“I’ll say before we start that it won’t be easy to resist this.”
“Thanks, I’ll manage,” Guan Shan tried to snap, but it sounded more like a croak.
He’d have to work on his tells before he could pull off a balanced friendship with He Tian.
“Good.” He Tian suddenly turned and walked towards the exit, which generated a short- lived panic attack in Guan Shan’s stomach. What if he just walked out of here and vanished again? They hadn’t even exchanged numbers. Guan Shan would be completely on the mercy of He Tian coming back to him. He’d drive himself crazy trying to figure out if it had all been real or a fever dream.
Thankfully, before Guan Shan could yell a desperate “Wait!” He Tian turned around with a lopsided grin.
“I moved back into my uncle’s old apartment. It would be nice if you could visit this evening. No need to bring housewarming gifts – but you could bring your boyfriend. I’m very curious to meet him. And don’t worry, I won’t secretly send any hitmen after him.”
“I’m definitely worried now!” Guan Shan said – nope, still croaked – and bit his lips.
“Anyway. I’m sure Jian Yi will be happy to see you again, too.”
With those words, He Tian walked out of the shop, leaving Guan Shan with an even bigger hole in his stomach than when he had walked in.
“Jian Yi… is back?” Guan Shan whispered to himself.
He turned and ran around the counter, almost slipped on a wet patch on the floor, where he had over-watered one of the flowers, and slid into the little back room hidden behind a curtain of plants. His phone was lying on a shelf lined with succulents. Glancing at the display, he noticed that the store should have been closed for half an hour already – no wonder no one had come in. But there were more important things to do than get angry about that right now.
He didn’t have to go through his contacts – the number he wanted to call was his most called during the past two years and had earned the only spot on his short dial list.
“Pick up pick up pick up!”
“Hey,” said Zheng Xi, sounding a lot less monotonous than usual. “Not the perfect time, actually.”
“He Tian and Jian Yi-“ Guan Shan started to ramble but stopped in his tracks when he realized that there could only be one reason for the weird quality to Zheng Xi’s voice. Since they shared the same fate and had already been something like friends, they had grown very close over the past two years. Their shared activities had included elaborate investigations into their friends’ sudden disappearance, coming up with plans on how to get involved with the mafia, building little voodoo dolls of Jian Yi and He Tian, going on drunken rants about how those guys were the worst people in the world, and basketball.
So it was no problem for Guan Shan to deduce that Jian Yi had to be wherever Zheng Xi was right now, probably acting just as carefree and confident as He Tian just had.
“Yes. I’m aware,” said Zheng Xi, voice pressed.
“Oh…” Guan Shan hesitated, wondering how the reunion was going on their end.
“I… uhm… I may have done something stupid, which I hoped you could help me with… for maximal revenge potential.”
“I’m listening.”
“I… I kinda told He Tian that I have a boyfriend. And since I obviously don’t, I need you to-“
“What a coincidence,” Zheng Xi said on the other end. “I told Jian Yi the exact same thing.”