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yi heng’s eyes widened to the point of resembling two iridescent marbles. just as he was about to scold jiang shuo for completely misunderstanding what he has just said, he was reminded by him instead.
“eyes on the road.”
his hands inadvertently clenched on the steering wheel a bit tighter. his eyes still wide, gaze a little dumbfounded. a second ago he was bracing to smack jiang shuo’s back of the head, but now all the words seemed to be stuck somewhere in his throat.
they have just exited the dance hall. they went there in order to find someone willing to share some information that could contribute to the murder case of zhang zong bao, and luckily one of the presented afforded a few minutes for a talk.
although the operation couldn’t go on with a few quite expected hassles. but if two young, lively men in their prime enter a place seething with pairs, beautiful women and elegant men dancing in a slow rhythm of live music, no wonder they caught attention. since yi heng’s fashion sense was out of the ordinary – jiang shuo noticed it from the first time he saw him – not to mention his attractive features and imposing aura, a party of women, who still couldn’t find a partner to dance with, got distracted.
out of a few, only one was boastful and conceited enough to approach two men, who came inside for different reasons. with a purple fan made out of feathers, she let her hand travel up yi heng’s buttons.
“gentleman.” she said, her voice deliberately saccharine. “come and dance with me.”
yi heng’s eyes rolled, avoiding looking at the coquettish expression the woman wore. his hand pushed her lightly, implying that he was not into dancing, or at least not into dancing with her.
even though he was stern, his gaze uneasily going to and fro, the woman didn’t feel discouraged.
“stop acting so cold.” she whined, her long, cherry nails holding yi heng’s shirt cuffs. “you came to dance.”
jiang shuo got deja-vu as the woman got rejected once again, motions and actions the same. her hand traveled up but got taken off by the masculine one.
“please show some respect.” the raucous voice was a sign that it was high time for her to reconcile, even jiang shuo started losing patience. he looked up to yi heng for being able to deal with the woman so calmly and reasonably.
the woman backed off, but only for a few steps. as the men started conversing with each other about Mo Li – the woman involved in the case – she chimed in with her sugary tone, trying to butter up the one she liked.
“are you here for Mo Li?” she asked, finally gaining the attention she wanted.
saying that the respective girl won’t be here today, she once again within such a short time attempted to allure the doctor. jiang shuo looked at her with a discontent expression, thinking that her hands must have been itchy. this time something triggered, and he got stirred to take action. yi heng’s polite, mannerly behavior hasn’t worked so far, it was his less sensible character to get in the way. he pushed the girl away, making enough space between her and yi heng to smoothly go into it.
“show some respect.” he reminded, angered. “stop touching him.”
jiang shuo couldn’t handle his emotions as well as yi heng, and so the girl was lucky that another man soon approached the two at odds, trying to alleviate the matter.
with the said man did the two go to a private room, finally earning what they came for. during the meeting, one word turned out to be completely unknown to poor jiang shuo, who – most probably educated in the past – was lacking knowledge due to his amnesia.
“qin er.” he scooted closer to the man sitting next to him on the sofa. “what does it mean to be hired by someone?”
the woman they had to put up with mentioned it, and now it appeared again, remaining a mystery for jiang shuo.
“that means she was a sugar baby.”
jiang shuo looked at the other, his eyes still quite lost so yi heng knew the topic wasn’t over yet. the boy fell quiet about it until the moment they were alone again. the doctor was driving, they were going over some matters related to the case when at this moment the boy couldn’t but bring it again.
“so to be “hired” means being a “sugar baby”.” he summed up nicely. “but what does “sugar baby” mean?” he looked to the left, where he was given a brief, yet honest smile from his friend.
“I don’t suppose you know. sugar babies are people who are fed and kept by upper class people like us.” he finished, as “us” meaning himself, his family, etc.
“I get it.” jiang shuo exclaimed, the light bulb, at last, shining above his head. “like what I did for you at the compound.”
here comes the big eyes, the focus off the road, the car slowly turning to the right.
and here yi heng thought the matter would be dealt with. jiang shuo pretty much understood the meaning, or at least one part of it, and so the other gave up on revealing the whole truth.
when they had to go to the dance hall again a few days later, his decisions backfired him. however unexpectedly, even this didn’t make him feel like he should enlighten the other. once again some woman kept on pestering him, yet this time jiang shuo reacted faster.
“he doesn’t need you, he has one sugar baby already, and it’s standing in front of you.”
if yi heng remembered how it was like to blush, he would have known that the warm sensation on his cheeks was them getting reddish. he took jiang shuo by the arm, excusing themselves from the woman’s judging, taken aback gaze.
and although the other asked “have I said anything wrong?” the other just shook his head, waving his hand. it showed that the matter was insignificant, so jiang shuo stopped bothering himself about it as well.
fortunately for yi heng’s poor heart, which was pounding every time, jiang shuo would claim himself as his sugar baby, the case was solved without stepping into the dance hall again. after merely a week, the former almost entirely forgot about their conversation, being immersed in chasing liu zhi with jiang shuo on his side.
one night, though, as he was getting ready for bed, a figure barged into his room, creating a sudden gush of wind as they lunged instantly.
“qin er!”
the man was at that moment standing by the drawer next to his bed. just getting out of the shower, he was dressed in the dressing gown. only.
"how could you not tell me!"
yi heng creased his brows as jiang shuo's hand hit his arm languidly. it didn't hurt at all, was nearly palpable, still, he distorted his lips, exaggerating: "ouch, what was that for?"
"for not telling me that being a sugar baby means having sex with you!”
yi heng's blood froze in his veins, jiang shuo's eyes wide, his hand covering his agape mouth. did he really just shout out of the bottom of his lungs, that he...
"I am sorry." feeling ashamed, and suddenly bashful, he lowered his head, the tips of his shoes have never been so tempting to look at.
"it's my fault, don't say sorry."
silence, the awkward one, sent cold down yi heng's spine. it has never occurred before with jiang shuo. the boy gregarious and talkative, with a grin on his face, was nowhere to be found and yi heng knew he was the cause.
"why didn't you..." jiang shuo fiddled with his fingers, his eyes slowly raising so as to see the reaction of the other to the question he is about to ask. "why didn't you tell me the truth ever since the first time I called myself your sugar baby?"
the man was at a loss for he didn't know the answer himself. should he lie again? say that he didn't know the real meaning either, play a fool? his mind quickly let go of the idea, jiang shuo knew him too well to fall for that. he sighed buying himself more time.
"do you want me to be your-"
"n-no!" yi heng got so agitated that he put his hands on the other's shoulders, their faces closer. "o-of course not! who do you take me for?"
"who do you take me for?"
silence, once again, although this time it was getting interrupted by the hammering of their hearts. two of them knew what they wanted to say, but neither dared to face it.
"the only friend I have." yi heng uttered, his voice unusually uncertain and hesitant.
the other's corner of the lips went upward.
"I see..." he knew the man in front of him didn’t tell him the truth, was lying. and he was very bad at it. "if that's the case - can I stay with you tonight? as a friend?"
they gazed at each other for a second. yi heng's tips of strands had still droplets of water, it was cold against jiang shuo's skin, he could feel it as he placed his hand on the meek cloth on the other's torso.
was he a sugar baby, or wasn't he, it didn't matter. what mattered was, that this night, a hand drew him closer to warm up under the quilts in the darkness of the room.
// ☆ //