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Tong Yao and Chen Jinyang were having a girls day out, sitting in a cafe, gossiping about ZGDX, YQCB, their university friends, the latest trending posts on Tieba, and just about everything under the sun.
“Cheng-ge’s birthday is next week” sighed Tong Yao
“Eh what are you sighing for” questioned Jinyang
“…I haven’t bought his present yet. Darn, why is it so difficult to buy presents for him. He has so much money, there’s no point buying him anything expensive. How do you buy a present for a man who has everything?”
“Just wrap yourself up and call it a day. I’m sure he’d have a fine time unwrapping you” came Jinyang’s reply, accompanied by a cheeky smile and a wink.
“……” a blush crept across Tong Yao's cheeks as she chided her friend "JINYANG"
“Aiya, whatever you get him, he’s sure to like. Cheng ge is so obsessed with you he would be happy even if you gave him socks”
“But I don’t want to just get him anything”
Lu Sicheng woke up to find himself alone in Tong Yao’s bed. It was not uncommon, as she tended to wake up before him. He got up and got himself ready for the day.
As he headed downstairs, he was met with a chorus of “Happy Birthday, Captain” from the teammates below.
“Where’s Tong Yao?” he asked
“Tsk, not even a thank you. You only know how to look for your girlfriend” said Lu Yue.
“……”
“How did you guys know it was my birthday anyways?”
“Xiaojiejie went out earlier. She left a note on your computer. We uh…eheh” Xiao Pang trailed off, worried that the captain would kill them for prying.
Lu Sicheng stalked over to the computer and picked up the pink sticky note pasted on his monitor.
Happy Birthday, Captain.- ah that was how they knew. They really were busybodies, the lot of them.- I’m sorry I’m not there, I had an emergency to tend to, had to go home. She had drawn a cute little birthday cake on the note. Lu Sicheng found the drawing cute, and so stuck it to the bottom edge of his monitor.
He turned around to look at his teammates and asked “Did she say when she’d be back”
Xiao Rui shook his head.
Lu Sicheng walked over to the fridge, grabbed a yoghurt drink and sat down in front of his computer. While outwardly nothing looked much off, the man was actually quite disappointed. He had planned to spend his birthday with his beloved girlfriend, celebrating it for the first time in years. Yet this popped up and now he would spend his birthday the usual way. He briefly considered going to Tong Yao’s home to join her, but then decided that it would be rather rude to barge in on them, especially since they were having some sort of emergency.
The rest of the day went by with him spending most of the day playing games. He even livestreamed out of pure boredom, much to his fans delight. At lunch, Xiao Rui brought in a cake. The team sang happy birthday, and the cake was cut, yet it didn’t feel right without the shorty. Finally, when night fell, the next door AD came by.
“Shall we go get drinks for old times sake?”
Lu Sicheng decided that moping around wasn’t going to get Tong Yao to come back sooner, so he might as well celebrate his birthday in some form, albeit with his second favourite person instead.
“Yeah, okay”
Li Junhe called a cab, as it wouldn’t be a good idea for Lu Sicheng to drive if they were going to be drinking. They drove into the city. The cab stopped outside Chen Jinyang’s apartment complex. Lu Sicheng raised an eyebrow, questioningly.
“Have to get something for Ai Jia” explained Li Junhe
“Ah”
They got out of the cab and entered the complex. Li Junhe made a quick phone call, probably to let Jinyang know he was there, and the two entered the lift. Li Junhe pressed the button for the top floor.
“Rooftop garden?” questioned Lu Sicheng, as that was the only thing on the top floor
“Ai Jia’s girlfriend said she’s up there getting some fresh air”
Why would someone go up to the rooftop garden when they were expecting someone? Lu Sicheng shook it off thinking maybe it was short notice. Then, things got even weirder. As they exited the lift, they came to a door that required an access card. Yet Li Junhe, pulled said card out of his pocket and waved it against the sensor. Why on earth did Li Junhe have an access card for Chen Jinyang’s apartment complex? At this point the confusion was clearly evident on Lu Sicheng’s face. Li Junhe opened the door slightly, looked at his former teammate with a smirk, and then swung the door wide open, pushing Lu Sicheng through the door.
“Happy Birthday, Chessman” he said, as he closed the door, leaving Lu Sicheng out in the garden, confused, frustrated, and with no access card to get back in.
Then it clicked. Ah. This must be some sort of birthday surprise. Since this is Chen Jinyang’s apartment-
Lu Sicheng whipped round to see his girlfriend sitting on a picnic blanket
“Surprise!!” she giggled, holding up a pair of champagne glasses.
He ran to her, picking her up and twirling her around.
“I missed you” he whispered, kissing her forehead.
“Look, look” she said, pointing at the blanket.
Lu Sicheng then paused to take in his surroundings. The blanket Tong Yao had been sitting on was covered in plates of picnic food, and a teepee was set up behind it, with fluffy pillows lining its floor. String lights were wrapped round the teepee, as well as along the glass railings surrounding the small garden.
“Did you do all this…?” he asked, slowly.
“En. You like?”
“So there was no emergency…?”
“Eheh…no”
“……”
“Cheng ge come eat, come eat, I’m hungry” she dragged him to sit by her side.
Upon closer inspection, the food looked handmade, with everything looking a little rugged. Tong Yao held a sandwich up to his mouth and he took a bite.
“Is it good?” she looked up at him with shining eyes
“En.”
“Thank goodness” she sighed “I got one of my university friends to teach me how to make a few things. She was our university Masterchef! Ah try this, she gave me the recipe to her famous brownies!!”
Once they finished eating, they put all the dishes back in the picnic basket and lay side by side on the blanket, looking up at the stars.
“How long have you been planning this”
“Eheh not that long, just a few days…”
“Not bad. You even roped in Li Junhe”
“En” she said, with a giggle
“So there wasn’t actually an emergency. To think I was worried. I’m already older than you, you don’t need to make me grow old any faster”
“Eheh…”
Tong Yao suddenly sat up and exclaimed “Right!” before running behind the teepee. Lu Sicheng sat up in response. He hears her rustle through a few things, before returning with a little box and a triumphant smile.
“Your present, captain” she says, her eyes turning into crescents, and her hands holding the box out to him.
Lu Sicheng takes it from her and inspects the wrapping. The box wasn’t big, or heavy. It was wrapped with sparkly black paper, and finished with a white satin ribbon, tied in a pretty bow. A brown paper tag hung from the ribbon, with “Happy Birthday, Cheng-ge” written on it, as well as a drawing of a birthday cake not dissimilar to the one he had found on the post-it note earlier.
“Hurry up and open it” Tong Yao tugged at his sleeve impatiently
Lu Sicheng looked up at Tong Yao, who was now sitting facing him, and smiled. “En.”
He carefully unwrapped the present to reveal a little leather bracelet with a small metal plate. The outer side of the metal plate had a chess king engraved on it, clearly referring to his iconic game ID - Chessman. On the underside, was a series of numbers. No, not numbers. Dates. The day Tong Yao joined ZGDX. The day they got together. The day of their first kiss. The day they won nationals. The day they won worlds. There was space for more underneath. He looked up at Tong Yao who looked a little nervous.
“I didn’t know what to get you. It’s so hard to buy presents for you, you have everything in the world, so there’s no point in getting you anything expensive…” she mumbled
He looked at her and smiled “Thank you” lifting one hand to ruffle her hair
“You like it?” her eyes brightened up
“En.” He leaned in to kiss her softly. "And I look forward to engraving more dates on it, with you" before continuing to kiss her. Finally, they both needed air and broke apart. He gently brushed her cheeks with his thumbs, brushing her hair behind her ears.
“Actually, I got you something too”
“…the hell, it’s your birthday, why’d you get me a present??”
He chuckled. “Shouldn’t I do my favourite things on my birthday?”
“What does that have to do with this”
“Spoiling you is one of my favourite things." he said with a smirk. At this, Tong Yao began to blush
“I don’t have it with me though. I thought I was going drinking with Hierophant, so I didn’t bring it. It’s back in the base. Whose fault is that eh?”
“Eheh…but if I didn’t do all that I wouldn’t have been able to prepare your surprise”
“You know, you could’ve just wrapped yourself up and called it a day. That would've been a plenty good surprise too”
“Lu Sicheng, you pervert!!”
“Actually, you could still do that. There’s a hotel across the road”
“……Hey we still need to clean up”
“But I’m the birthday boy. Ask Jinyang to. Consider it her present to me”
“……”
“Besides, I believe someone needs punishing”
“LU SICHENG!! It was for your surprise…”
“Well even then, birthdays are for doing one’s favourite things after all” he said, dragging her out and into the hotel across the road, causing Tong Yao's flushed face to turn an even redder shade.
In the early hours of the morning, Lu Sicheng picked up his phone and climbed into bed, sparing a look at the other being in the bed, who was already sleeping, exhausted from their earlier activities. He chuckled before sending a couple of messages to Xiao Pang, instructing him to bring some clothes and the little black paper bag on his bedside table to the hotel. He then switched his phone off, and closed his eyes. It had undoubtedly been his best birthday yet.