Work Text:
Hua Cheng was late.
Well, maybe not late, technically. He Xuan didn’t have an appointment, really. But Hua Cheng was typically at the shop well in advance. And he had promised a really cool design idea this time.
He Xuan fished the spare key to Ghost City Tattoos from his pocket and opened the door. Flipping on the lights and locking the door behind him, He Xuan decided to break into the mini fridge in retaliation. See if you leave your best friend hanging again when you have to buy new snacks, asshole.
Having obtained “the goods,” several of those yoghurt mix-in things, the fancy ones, He Xuan settled into the only comfortable char in the shop. Something colorful caught his eye, it was a stack of children’s books. What the hell? What grown-ass, childless man has any reason for this many kids books?? Was it that damned bookstore worker that Hua Cheng wouldn’t just shut the fuck up about? What did he say his name was? Xie… something… He Xuan couldn’t say he had actually been listening when Hua Cheng started up. The last several free sessions He Xuan had gotten from his artist friend had been absolute torture, and not just because the tattoo was on his neck and chest.
Hua Cheng had “found” his soulmate. He Xuan didn’t believe for a second that his friend had just randomly entered a bookstore and walked into a fairytale. He had a feeling that this guy was the same one Hua Cheng had been actively stalking online since MySpace.
It took He Xuan about three minutes before he pulled the books over in frustration. He flipped through a few of them quickly, but eventually he began to slow down. The books were… cute, but He Xuan would never be caught dead admitting that out loud.
He was reading about a stupid llama trying to eat cake, when he noticed the pages were slight warped. Something had dried on the paper and caused it to buckle slightly. He Xuan’s first thought of what it could be almost had him hurling the books away in disgust and never talking to Hua Cheng again. But the, ahem, spread was wrong, too uniform.
He Xuan had, for reasons he only knew as an edgy teenager, attached a miniature black light to his first car’s key ring. When that car broke down he transferred the light to the new car key. And, over the years, as the light was damaged or broken, he replaced it.
It was a note, written in UV reactive ink. He Xuan could tell immediately that Hua Cheng had not written the note, since it was legible. “I know you think you’re a bad person, but I disagree.”
He Xuan sneered a little, did the bookstore guy write this? The handwriting was absolutely beautiful, he had no issues admitting that, but what kind of cheesy garbage was this? There were no more notes in this book, so He Xuan started to go through all the books to find them. Twelve books each had one to three notes inside, all written in invisible ink. Twenty four little notes revealed themselves to He Xuan. He marked each page he found them on with a post-it, he figured if he made the notes easier to find Hua Cheng might still give him a free tattoo. He Xuan didn’t think Hua Cheng had noticed them.
All the notes said things like “Your creativity is inspiring,” and “You make me want to laugh every time we talk,” or “I know you walked past my shop to see me for months before you came inside,”
He Xuan nearly choked when he read “I remember when we first met, you fell off that bridge, I can’t believe I caught you.”
Hua Cheng had told him this story. He was walking home when he heard some kids playing under a bridge. The bridge wasn’t very high up, Hua Cheng had peeked over too far and lost his balance. One of the other kids happened to be standing in exactly the right place at exactly the right time, and caught him. Hua Cheng said they had both been surprised. In the end, Hua Cheng had run away, embarrassed. This couldn’t really be the same person, could it? Had Hua Cheng’s cyberstalking started out as normal stalking??
“I didn’t think you would be the type to read kids’ books.”
He Xuan looked up, locking eyes with Hua Cheng. Smug bastard, smirking like that when he was late. A colorful book was tucked under his arm.
“You got another one?” He Xuan reached out a hand. “Give it to me.”
Hua Cheng snorted and tossed the book over. He began putting his things down and setting up.
Catching the book and immediately flipping through it He Xuan found what he was looking for a couple pages in.
“I wonder if you’ve found these? Maybe I’ll keep my secret for a while longer.” The note read.
Xe Xuan snorted and flipped through some more pages. Hua Cheng glanced up when he choked and snapped the book shut.
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
Hua Cheng lifted an eyebrow. He Xuan tossed the new book onto the neat stack he had finished marking.
“What’s with the post-its?”
“No reason.”
Now thoroughly unamused Hua Cheng grabbed a couple books and flipped to the marked pages, but he didn’t see anything there. He glared at He Xuan.
“Give me your keys”
“What? No, they’re mine.”
“I can see you had them out, this has something to do with your stupid light. Give me your keys.”
“Fucking make m-“
Hua Cheng lunged, making a grab for the keys. He Xuan lurched back. The men toppled the chair over and wrestled on the ground for ownership of the coveted keys.
Hua Cheng jumped up, keys held victoriously in his hand. His hair was a mess, his arm was bleeding from where it had been bitten, and his ribs hurt.
He Xuan proposed himself up and watched his friend flip through the books. His jaw was going to swell from being punched and he had been kneed in the kidney several times.
As he read the invisible notes Hua Cheng didn’t even seem to be breathing. His hands shook, almost imperceptibly as he picked up the newest book. He found the first note, then flipped to the second. Hua Cheng stared at it for a long moment, then snapped the book shut.
His keys hit He Xuan in the chest as Hua Cheng said “Lock up for me. We can do this tomorrow,” and he rushed out the door, book clutched in his hand.
“I have work tomorrow!” He Xuan shouted, but Hua Cheng was already gone. “Asshole…”
Well, at least Hua Cheng wasn’t going to be stalking the guy anymore.