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Wen Ruohan sighs. “Do you really have to look so serious while we’re doing things like this? Weren’t you ever a kid?”
“I was, once,” Lan Qiren says stiffly. Obviously, an amusement park date is definitely beneath his dignity. But, Wen Ruohan is determined to make Lan Qiren admit he is enjoying himself, so he doesn’t push the question.
As they are strapped in, side-by-side into the roller coaster car, Wen Ruohan grins with excitement, while Lan Qiren sits with his perfect posture and a blank face, hands folded in his lap. He’s put his glasses in their case, inside his pocket, and Wen Ruohan is about to say something about he looks cute this way, too-
But then, they’re off.
They hurtle forward and upward, and Wen Ruohan whoops loudly. When they reach the highest point of the track, and the roller coaster cars stop for a single moment of suspense, Wen Ruohan grins and looks over at Lan Qiren. “Come on, this is fun.”
Lan Qiren looks over at him. “I am glad you are enjoying yourself.”
Wen Ruohan doesn’t have enough time to ask whether Lan Qiren is being sincere or sarcastic, because the roller coaster ‘drops’ and begins to hurtle down the track. In the coaster cars behind them, there are shrieks, but Wen Ruohan just lifts his hands up and yells, “Yeah!”
Then roller coaster’s tracks go upside down, and as they do a loop, Wen Ruohan looks over at Lan Qiren, thinking, If he’s scared, I’ll hold his hand. As he chances another glance at Lan Qiren, Wen Ruohan almost cries with laughter.
Lan Qiren is sitting just as stiffly and properly, with as blank a face as one could ask for. Entirely unperturbed, like a pamphlet for proper posture at the doctor’s office.
At the highest part of the upside-down loop, Lan Qiren meets his gaze, and stiffly nods in acknowledgement, before turning back to staring straight ahead.
When the ride is over, Wen Ruohan is still trying to suppress laughter, while Lan Qiren has already exited the coaster car and stands on the platform.
They exit through the ticket stand, where pictures of the recent ride are cycled through the monitor above the counter. Wen Ruohan roars with another gale of laughter as he sees the two of them – Wen Ruohan with his hands in the air and face frozen in an excited grin, and Lan Qiren, looking like a stony statue of the Buddha.
“I’ll buy them,” he says to the person behind the counter. “The pictures.”
Lan Qiren shakes his head and puts a palm over his face. “This is ridiculous.”
“Shut up, I’m framing these.”
--
“…Bumper cars are fun as hell,” Wen Ruohan argues as they each climb into one. “Don’t take everything so seriously all the time – I’ll ram you, you’ll ram me, it’ll be a fun experience.”
Lan Qiren raises an eyebrow, completely ignoring the fun little innuendo Wen Ruohan had slipped in. “In 2018, there were 63,194 fatalities in traffic accidents across the country.”
“Yeah, but these aren’t real cars,” Wen Ruohan rolls his eyes. “Hey!” he calls over one of the fun park attendants. “How many people have died playing bumper cars?” he asks. “I’m trying to prove a point to my boyfriend.”
The fun park attendant looks mildly disturbed. “Um, none? At least not in our park. It’s very safe. We’d not recommend you to play if you have some sort of injury, but other than that… It should be safe?”
“See!” Wen Ruohan exclaims.
Lan Qiren sighs, and inclines his head to the attendant. “We apologize. Thank you.”
However, this, apparently, is all Lan Qiren needs to go into intensely competitive mode. He takes the lead around the track, and when Wen Ruohan moves to bump him out of first place and take it – Lan Qiren twists the wheel, and sends Wen Ruohan spinning back with a loud screech of rubber on polished cement.
“Lan Qiren, you traitor, I thought you loved me!” Wen Ruohan roars as he spins into a wall, and tries to wrest control of his little vehicle. He stomps on the gas and pulls even with Lan Qiren again.
Lan Qiren barely spares him a glance. “I’ll buy you something sweet when we get off the track. But while we are racing, there is only victory.”
Wen Ruohan roars with laughter and slams into Lan Qiren’s little car – sending them both spinning… Over the finish line.
Lan Qiren spins just a little further. “I won,” he says, looking neither stoked, nor disappointed. “I will buy you sweet things.”
--
As they exit the food court with a massive carton of cotton candy, which Wen Ruohan devours in record time, Lan Qiren slips the map of the fun park out of Wen Ruohan’s back pocket and looks it over. “If we visit these four places before four-thirty, we will have adequate time to visit these three before five. Then we will have completed seventy percent of the amusement park with utmost efficiency. If you wish to stay here until eight – we may even be able to complete the next thirty percent.”
Wen Ruohan snorts. “This is supposed to be fun, why are you doing math?”
Lan Qiren blinks up at him. “Math is fun.”
“You absolute nerd,” Wen Ruohan sighs affectionately around a mouthful of sugar. “Here I am, trying to get you back your lost childhood, and you’re doing math.”
Lan Qiren rolls his eyes. “…Shooting gallery first,” he decides.
Wen Ruohan shoves the rest of the cotton candy in his mouth and discards the carton. Cracking his knuckles, he grins. “Oh, yeah. I’ll show you what I’m made of there.”
Lan Qiren puts the map back in Wen Ruohan’s back pocket. “Your teeth are pink,” he only says.
--
Wen Ruohan is good with a gun, and shoots down many of the cans, getting many prizes. With a sense of superiority, he hands the gun to Lan Qiren, and his jaw drops when Lan Qiren shoots down the furthest one.
“Which one do you like?” he asks, face as blank as usual. “I’ll get it for you.”
Wen Ruohan decides to change tactics. “This one,” he says, poking Lan Qiren’s shoulder. “I want this one.”
“Shameless,” mutters Lan Qiren, and shoots down a few more cans.
As they exit the shooting gallery, the attendant making them promise never to return, and twenty stuffed animals between the two of them – Lan Qiren brings up a dilemma. “What are we to do with these prizes?” he asks. “There are too many to carry conveniently.”
Wen Ruohan snorts. “You should have thought of that before you started showing off.”
“Hypocrite.”
In the end, Wen Ruohan spots a group of children holding some kind of birthday party, and wordlessly dumps the plushies onto their picnic table – knowing that his boyfriend finds ‘do-good-ing’ attractive.
--
After they get through the remaining ‘thirty percent’, it is already eight – and the only ride they have not experienced was the Ferris Wheel. Wen Ruohan laughs to himself about the teacup ride – Lan Qiren spinning wildly past him with a completely empty expression – and munches on the cheap burger from the food court.
The sky has already gotten dark, and the lights are all on at the fun park – very colorful, and bright. Wen Ruohan checks his phone and grins. “Hey, if we get on the Ferris Wheel now, by the time we get to the top, there’ll be fireworks.”
“Very well,” Lan Qiren says. “Then we must hurry.”
The crowds have gotten even thicker at night, and Lan Qiren takes Wen Ruohan’s wrist in order to drag him politely through the throng. “Excuse me. …Excuse us. …Thank you.”
Finally, sitting in the cabin of the Ferris Wheel, Wen Ruohan leans back comfortably. “So, today… Fun, right?”
Lan Qiren gives a solemn nod. “Extremely enjoyable.”
“‘Extremely’? Like, how much? Give me a percentage,” Wen Ruohan teases.
“Eighty-five percent,” Lan Qiren says, completely seriously, but Wen Ruohan catches the hint of a smile.
“Only eighty-five?” Wen Ruohan exclaims, a little bit offended.
Lan Qiren raises an eyebrow.
“You are really…” Wen Ruohan shakes his head. “Why aren’t you sitting on the same bench as me, even? This is supposed to be romantic!” He demonstratively gets up and sits beside Lan Qiren, and then drops an arm over his shoulders. “I know you hate PDA, but come on. Nobody can see us.” He wiggles his eyebrows.
Lan Qiren gives him a flat look. “Whatever you’re thinking; no.”
Wen Ruohan looks mock-offended. “I was just thinking I could rest my head on your shoulder and hold your hand – what were you thinking?”
“I know exactly what you were thinking,” Lan Qiren says dryly. “Look at the view and be quiet.”
“My boyfriend,” Wen Ruohan says, rolling his eyes, “What a romantic.”
Lan Qiren rolls his eyes, then reaches over to push Wen Ruohan’s head onto his shoulder.
At the top, the cabin stops, and swings a little, leaving them looking over the bright lights and colorful fixtures of the park, and beyond, with the city’s lights, and the ocean’s reflections. Wen Ruohan grins and the arm around Lan Qiren’s shoulders tightens, as he wraps the other arm around Lan Qiren’s waist in a sideways embrace.
“When I own the city,” he says, “I’ll take you to the top of every tall building – and every view is going to be mine, to give you.” All day today, bickering and laughing – having Lan Qiren buy him sweets, calling Lan Qiren his ‘boyfriend’ to others, their rollercoaster picture along with the map in his back pocket – nobody calling him ‘Shao-ye’, the strange feeling of being a normal college student on a date – it’s not so bad, for a little while.
Lan Qiren snorts, but his free arm goes around Wen Ruohan in an uncharacteristic display of affection. “You’re ridiculous,” he says.
“You don’t think we’ll last that long?”
Lan Qiren’s hand, that was resting on his side, pinches him. “Do not say idiotic things.”
“Oh, so you think we’ll last?” Wen Ruohan asks with false lightness.
“It is a mutual effort,” Lan Qiren only says.
The fireworks startle both of them – the screech of a little light rising into the sky, then blooming into color. The glittering stars fall, then another one rises, and another, until the sky is purple from smoke, their eyes almost water with the brightness, and their ears ring with each ‘boom’.
Yelling to be heard over the fireworks, Wen Ruohan calls, “If this was a movie, this is when I would go in for a kiss!”
In a brief silence between fireworks, Lan Qiren frowns. “Enjoy this brief view. We may kiss afterwards, as many times as we care for.”
Wen Ruohan groans. “My heart! You can’t just say things like that, I’ll get emotional-”
He’s cut off by more fireworks, and Lan Qiren’s hand over his mouth.
When the fireworks are over, and their cabin begins to move slowly down, Wen Ruohan finally gets his kiss.
But by the time they reach the bottom, and the fun park attendant opens the door to their cabin, Lan Qiren, in true Lan Qiren fashion, is sitting perfectly properly on the bench across from Wen Ruohan, a blank expression on his face once more – his lips with only a little more color in them.