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Yanfei looked at her phone, “Five voicemails from Hu Tao.” She opens one of them.
“ Did Xingqiu give you anything? Like, a letter, perhaps? I pray to Morax that he actually didn’t… but if he did not not give you the letter then I look like an idiot leaving this. Uhm…. call me when you get this? ”
Then Yanfei opened the next,
“ Hey, best friend! Not to bother you or anything, I know you’re sick- honestly, you rarely get sick so I don’t believe you or Xingqiu but if you are, I’m sorry and I hope you feel better soon! Anyways, uhm, can you please call me back? At this point I feel like Xingqiu did give you a letter that I wrote. It wasn’t even done! ” Yanfei hears another voice that she presumed belonged to Xingqiu, “ What do you mean ‘it wasn’t even done’? That was already two pages! You told me you’d give it yesterday but you chickened out so I did it for you! You’ll be thanking me later, I swear! ”
And the next,
“ Heya! Ugh, what’s the point? She’s probably already read it… Xingqiu, this is your fault, by the way.” There was a pause, “What? No, I ended the voicemail after ‘heya’! ...Okay, it isn’t… how do I turn it off? ”
Yanfei softly smiles to herself. “Fourth voicemail.”
“ Hi, Yanfei! Xingqiu here, remember the envelope I gave you yesterday? It’d be great if you didn’t read it, or you’ve probably read it already, I think it’s best I let you and Hu Tao talk about this. ”
Yanfei combs her hair before opening the last voicemail.
“Heya, it’s your favorite person in the world, Hu Tao! Well, I can’t stop you from reading it. So, I assume you’ve read it already. Or not, I don’t know if my handwriting’s that eligible. Well,” Hu Tao softly screams over the phone for ten seconds, “sorry for screaming! Anyways, I’ll be coming over to your place so we can talk about… the letter. Archons, I hope this goes well.” Yanfei smiles at her phone. Should I give her a text? I mean, she sent this, like, fifteen minutes ago and her house isn’t that far from me- I mean, she lives with Chongyun so it’s their house. Anyways, I haven't actually read the letter for I, too, am very nervous to see its contents! When is Hu Tao arriving?
“Ding dong!” A voice yells out. “Yanyan, let me in!”
Oh, just in time! “No!” Yanfei opens her door and welcomes Hu Tao with a hug, who accepts it. “Hey, girlfriend!” Hu Tao’s grip on Yanfei tightens, she knows that Yanfei says it all the time in a platonic way but lately, everytime Hu Tao gets called ‘girlfriend’ by her best friend, her face gets all red. “Girlfriend… yeah, hey, girlfriend!” The two pull apart and sigh. “You… have you read the letter?” Yanfei shakes her head. “Haven’t opened the envelope, don’t worry.”
Hu Tao sighs in relief. “Good. Good. I’d rather see your reaction face-to-face… you know I wanted Xingqiu to come along? But he was all like ‘no, you should talk to her about this alone . I’ll go spend time with my boyfriend.’” The brunette rolls her eyes. “But, yeah. I guess he’s right. Is the envelope here? I mean, obviously, Xingqiu gave it to you! I’m sure you gave the envelope multiple glances then decided not to open it because one, you’re very nervous to open it and two, you respect me and I know you’re a kind person. If Xingqiu had to give it to you instead of me there’s a reason I didn’t do so and there’s a reason that he did that. Sorry for rambling.”
“No worries! Now, I’ll go get that envelope,” Yanfei sits on her bed, motioning for Hu Tao to do the same before reaching for the cherry red envelope. “Time to see what it says!” She eagerly rips open the envelope and examines the two papers, “Hu Tao, your writing’s really pretty here. I mean, it always was, I’ve tried to copy your handwriting because I liked it so much and mine wasn’t all that but alas, I couldn’t.” A blush creeps up on Yanfei’s face, making Hu Tao’s eyes widen.
What? What the fuck? Is she talking about me?
“Hu Tao?”
She rarely calls me by my full name. Yanfei usually calls me ‘girlfriend’ in a friendly manner or some other nickname she found online like ‘bestie’ or she’d call me Taotao but… My full name? She only does that when she feels very strongly about something or… someone. When that happens, Yanfei usually talks about them in a soft tone, like, very hushed. Then she blushes after finishing her sentence if it’s about a person… I mean, she does that too when she talks about something she’s passionate about because she’s ashamed that she talked too much but honestly I feel like she doesn’t talk enough.
Holy shit.
“Hu Tao?”
The brunette just stares at her… friend? The brunette just stares at her friend, unable to talk.
“Taotao! Girlfriend, hey! Dearie? Bestie. What other term am I going to call you? Uh… Love?”
Love?
“Yes, love?” Hu Tao smiles at Yanfei, who was now the silent one, “Yes, love?”
Oh my God, I know we usually do this as a joke but holy shit, why am I turning red? Can’t I just read the letter and get this over with? Yanfei’s eyes land on the letter, then at Hu Tao, then back to the letter, then Hu Tao over and over again until Hu Tao had to snap her fingers.
“Hey!”
Yanfei takes a deep breath, “Sorry! I’ll get to reading your letter now.”
Shit. Almost forgot why I was here. Morax, what if she rejects me? She wouldn’t, right? I mean, we could stay as friends? Yeah. But, the… the hushed voice thing. Yanfei literally only did that, like, two times? Didn’t remember who, though, was too busy being jealous. Kidding. “Alright.” Was all that Hu Tao said before zoning out the whole time that Yanfei read her god-forsaken letter.
May Morax have mercy on my poor soul.
“ You know when we pretended to be a married couple when we were, like, elementary? ” Yanfei reads aloud, chuckling, “Of course. Well, I guess that was the start of me liking you for a whole lifetime… Next page, lol. ” She turns to Hu Tao, “You really wrote an acronym in your letter.” The brunette nods. “I think it’s cute.”
She thinks it’s cute.
“ Enough about the past, time to talk about the present. You know how when you’re very passionate about something, or someone, you talk about it in a very hushed tone then turn red after doing so because you feel like you’re rambling or you’re annoying? Well, I think you don’t talk enough. It’s really clear to me that you’ve got a lot of thoughts stuck in that head of yours... Taotao, you noticed.”
Hu Tao huffs, “Of course I do.”
So far so good… she’s at page two already and all she’s shown is positive reactions… is it possible she actually likes me back? Lol? Seriously, ‘Lol’? Can my brain get a grip?
The two were silent for a while, Hu Tao occasionally glancing at Yanfei, who was reading Hu Tao’s letter. “What else did I write there?” The brunette mumbles to herself.
There’s a lot of things that I like about you, believe it or not! I like it when you get competitive and I beat your ass in some silly fighting game, I like it when you slightly pout when you’re really engrossed in a book you’re reading, I like when we go out together and the first thing you do is reach out for my hand.
I also liked that one time we planned to wear matching outfits but ended up literally matching, we didn’t coordinate which outfit we’d wear! There’s also that one time we went to the arcade together and took a bunch of photos in the photobooth and played a lot of FPS games- well, mostly you since those aren’t really my type, but I like seeing you have fun. It’s silly memories like that and those cute stuff I mentioned above that make me like you. The stuff that makes you you , I like every one of those. I like you. Oh, look, I guess that’s the end of my letter? Honestly idk. I feel like I’d add some more stuff.
“ Your favorite butterfly, Taotao. ” Yanfei looks at Hu Tao, “You know I like you too, right? I mean, why would I call you names like ‘love’ and ‘dearest’? I almost lost hope but then there were moments where I thought that I was just reading into it too much and that maybe you were just playing along-” Hu Tao cuts her off with a kiss. “Do I have to kiss you to make you stop talking?”
Yanfei sighed, “If that were the case, then I wouldn’t stop talking.”