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Ligong watched Zheshou out of the corner of his eyes as Zheshou attempted to keep his balance on top of the rickety cobblestone surroundings of a garden with a sign indicating in bold characters “Do Not Enter”. The duo planned to be headed towards the ice cream truck at the corner of a street a few blocks away from where they were currently walking. They wanted to get to the truck before noon, when the line would be too long. Ligong and Zheshou had gotten ice cream here previously, Zheshou with his vanilla cone topped with colorful sprinkles (“That’s the most basic flavor,” Ligong teased) and Ligong with his mint chocolate chip (“How can you eat that stuff?”, the taller had said, calling it toothpaste flavored ice cream.) The joke was on Zheshou though, considering he had dropped his ice cream, after being distracted from losing a bet he had made with Ligong about how fast he would be able to finish his ice cream.
“Are you sure you’re not going to fall over?” Ligong asked, the corners of his mouth turning up as he glanced at Zheshou. The other was currently looking intensely at the ground, focused on not falling over. The crisp breeze of the late afternoon made the ends of Ligong’s hair brush against his ears, tickling him which only made his smile grow wider.
Zheshou looked over, their smiles now matching. However the smile quickly faded as his hand slid to his pants pocket, patting himself repeatedly.
“Shit,” he murmured, before finally losing his balance due to his heel tripping over an uneven piece of the stone.He stumbled for a second before he jumped down. He was now at the same level as Ligong who was currently looking at him with a concerned smile on his face.
“What happened?” Ligong stopped walking, the concern apparent on his face.
“I think I dropped my money,” Zheshou mumbled, his voice initially soft, before the panic seeped in. He looked down at the cobblestone fence, as if assessing the structure. Ligong could hear the gears turning in Zheshou’s mind, as he too realized the fence could only reach up to their hips making it easy to get over. Zheshou glanced at him in an expression Ligong couldn’t quite decipher. Zheshou patted his pockets once more to check if the money was there, before decidedly hopping down the fence. From this capricious decision, Zheshou didn’t look around to check if there were other people there.
Ligong starkly contrasted this, proved by the manner in which his eyes nervously flickered to the sign with bright red font informing its readers that they were unwelcome here. Ligong paused, taking in his surroundings. It was unlikely that whoever had put the sign up was around and if they were, it wasn’t as if they could do much or that the two boys couldn’t easily hide behind a shrub or something. After taking these factors into consideration and looking back and forth at the sidewalk, noting that no one was there; he too went over the fence.
When he made his way to the other side, he immediately noticed the taller boy. Zheshou was on all fours scamming the ground. He picked up a leaf to examine it as if the money would have been under there. The scene would have almost been comical if not for the clear panic spelled on Zheshou’s face. Ligong scanned the area where Zheshou had been walking near and walked alongside it, eyes on the dirt looking for the lost money. The two boys spent the next few minutes in silence, with only the occasional question from Zheshou asking “Have you found it?”, to which Ligong would pointedly reply “No.”
Ligong had no idea how much time had gone by, by the time he had finally found the money. While he was looking back at his best friend, he noticed a man with patchy hair step near the garden. While Ligong had no idea whether this was the owner or not, Ligong would have preferred no one seeing them on private property. Ligong noted the other man seemed to have not noticed them yet. He thought quickly, turning around to see Zheshou attempting to get up, sweeping hair out of his eyes.
Ligong cursed in his head before running up towards Zheshou who was still blissfully ignorant that there was now a third party. Quickly he grabbed Zheshou’s wrist to drag him away, much to the other boy's confusion.
Ligong tugged Zheshou behind a tree, pulling the other boy close to him. Zheshou looked frazzled, confused. Ligong would feel the other boys heartbeat beat against his own.
“Look, there's a man right there,” Ligong raised his hand slightly towards the random man, watching as Zheshou's line of eyesight followed his friend's hand. He couldn’t entirely read Zheshou’s expression on whether he was confused, agitated or some odd mix of the two.
“Sorry I-,” Ligong murmured, almost embarrassed. “I just didn’t want to get in trouble.”
“Hey, don’t worry,” Zheshou smiled, that pleasant expression spreading on his face. That was the smile he used for everything, with girls, with school teachers to justify himself whenever he got into trouble. Ligong knew that smile like the back of his hand, it was in nearly every picture that Zheshou insisted they take. Ligong knew that playful look was often directed towards him as well whenever Zheshou was asking to blow off school or something of that like. Ligong would initially chastise him, and remind Zheshou how derivative their futures were based on their education, before eventually caving. Zheshou would rarely even pressure him, Ligong just couldn't say no to him.
“My hand just feels a little sore, is all.” Zheshou laughed, and this time Ligong reciprocated, the air of fear around this situation dissipating.
After explaining the situation to Zheshou, Zheshou let out a soft sigh. “Thanks for helping anyway,” Zheshou said.
Ligong looked almost befuddled for a moment before remembering that in the midst of the situation he hadn't told Zheshou that he had found his money. “Here,” Ligong said as he pulled the money out of his jacket pocket.
Zheshou let out a smile, this one different though Ligong recognized this one too. This one was reserved for Ligong with his front teeth showing, his eyes slightly crashed upwards.
“Oh damn,” Zheshou smiled back, looking at the money in Ligongs hands.. “Thank you so much- Wait, how did you even find this? I looked all over-”
“It was just by the area that you walked by,” Ligong answered. Zheshou looked at him blankly, before breaking out into laughter. The answer of where the money was, seemed so obvious in hindsight. Both boys spent a solid minute behind the tree laughing out of the pure idiocracy of the situation and being in such an enclosed space in such close proximity to each other. Ligong looked over and noted that now no one was there.
After the two had gotten themselves over the fence, laughing with each other all through it, the atmosphere seemed much more relaxed now. Now that they were out of the situation, it seemed almost stupid to be so worried over that. Ligong was looking at the truck, it was now in his field of eyesight. As he was about to turn towards his friend, Zheshou grabbed his hand.
Zheshou looks down to make eye contact with Ligong and tightens the grip on his hand, and it all feels too much and for the breifist of seconds Ligong thinks that Zheshou is going to lean down and kiss him. The scariest part is that Ligong doesn't know whether he would stop Zheshou from pressing his lips against his own.
"Hey," Zheshou started, the playful smile entering his face once again. "Race ya!"
Before Ligong could process, Zheshou had already released his hand and begun running. Ligong wanted to mourn the warm touch of his friend, only realizing now Zheshou was nearly a meter away from him and he too started to run. The two run almost side by side for despite Ligong’s frame appearing smaller, Ligong could hold his own. The two shove each other playfully as they laugh, which definitely slows them down but it was clear neither really cared all too much about who wins.
After about a block of running Ligong could feel his sneakered feet trip over themselves as he stumbled into Zheshou’s back.
“Are you alright?” Zheshou turned around to view Ligong’s face, a genuine look of concern gracing his features. His hand brushed away a stray hair obscuring Ligong’s face, before patting him down as if there's some dust covering him. “Sorry, I guess I should've have told you I was going to be running-”
But Ligong didn’t listen to the rest of Zheshou’s apology. Not because he didn’t forgive his friend, but because he was too fixated on the series of events that had just occurred. The lost money and the balding man had long since left his area of focus but he was still thinking about how they were behind a tree or when Zheshou looked at him as if he wanted to kiss his best friend. He couldn’t quite set his mind on the right way to describe how he was feeling. This certainly wasn’t the first time something of this like had occurred. LIgong had a habit of overthinking whether it was over academics or his relationships with the people in his life, and there was simply no shortage of things to think about with him and Zheshou.
Ligong tried to shrug away these feelings as they concluded the walk to the ice cream truck.
When the two finally made it to the truck Zheshou got his vanilla ice cream, and Ligong’s mint chocolate chip ice cream (which he still pointed out to Zheshou when the other asked, as clearly the superior flavor). As they got up to pay, Ligong patted his jacket to get his own money to pay, before Zheshou placed his hand over Ligong’s. As Zheshou paid the man in the truck, he had kept his hand on the other’s hand.
After Zheshou had kept his hand there for a slightly awkward amount of time, Ligong awkwardly thought of a reply.
“Thank you,” Ligong said. “I’ll pay you back tomorrow-”
“Don’t worry about it, we’re friends! We help each other out, you don’t have to pay me back,” Zheshou cut him off, the warm smile spreading on his face, linking his arm around Ligong. Ligong smiled contently at this touch. He knew one day he would have to confront how he felt, but for now he was comfortable with shoving those thoughts away, enjoying ice cream with his best friend underneath the blue sky of the summer day. At that moment it had felt like they had all the time in the world left, just for each other.