Chapter Text
“You’re looking, but you don’t see.”
Mingjue plucks a piece of fried chicken from their takeout dinner and bites it in half before he says something mean. “Eat your dinner.”
“I’m serious.”
“Didi, if you don’t drop the Sherlock crap and just tell me what you want to tell me, I’m going to cut your allowance for the month.”
Huaisang gasps and clutches his fan close to his chest. “Da-ge! You wouldn’t do that to your poor didi, would you? Who only loves you and wants the best for you?”
“Then tell me what I need to know,” Mingjue grinds out, “or I will just get a dog. Maybe a pair of them, little gray poodles, and I will give them all my love and money and attention.”
“You should do that, da-ge. Get a dog or two, I mean. Not that other stuff. Because Jiang Wanyin loves dogs.”
“And I care about Jiang Wanyin why?” Mingjue asks, keeping a stern expression even as his heart flutters a bit at the thought of the grumpy barista at the cafe near his office.
“Because Jiang Wanyin has a massive crush on you, da-ge.”
“What? No he doesn’t.”
Huaisang bops Mingjue on the head with his fan. “Looking but not seeing, da-ge! I know he has a nice ass and forearms that just make you want to be pinned down and --”
“Nie Huaisang!”
“All I’m saying is, he looks at you like you’re a full course meal and he hasn’t eaten for a week. You need to ask him out.”
“He’s nice to me -- he talks to me because it’s his job to talk to people.”
Huaisang throws up his hands and gets up from the table. “Fine!” he says as he pours himself and Mingjue another glass of iced tea. He plonks Mingjue’s glass down with more force than is strictly necessary. “Continue to mope like a creeper. But you’re not the only one interested in him, and sooner or later, he’s gonna go with the person who actually talks to him.”
“Who else is interested?” Mingjue can’t help but ask.
“Hmm, well, there’s Xue Yang and Wen Zhuliu for sure--”
“Those assholes?” Mingjue scoffs. “Wanyin wouldn’t--”
“And the scary guy in black, with the scarf, who works for the weird cops down the street. Jiang Wanyin actually blushed when the guy said he made good coffee.”
“Okay, that’s just--”
“Oh, and the scary lady who always wears red lipstick and works with the scary guy in black, a few Jin cousins who met him at his sister’s wedding--”
“How do you--”
“And that’s just the people I’ve seen at the cafe,” Huaisang concludes. “I’d bet there are more at the gym, in his department at school, people he meets when he takes his nephew to the park.” He looks at Mingjue, a look of gentle pity on his face. “But right now, he’s looking at you.”
Mingjue smiles. “I think I should get a coffee now.”
“Go get him, da-ge.”