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“For the last time! No, I’m not dating your brother!” says Nie Huaisang, throwing his arms up in the air. “That text to the group chat was a prank! A dare by Wei Ying!”
“Oh. I see,” says Lan Huan
“Wha-” Nie Huaisang reels back, “Why do you sound disappointed, Huan-ge?”
“Well…” he laughs sheepishly. “I suppose I was prematurely excited. With all the things Lan Zhan has said about-” he stops.
Nie Huaisang narrows his eyes. “What things?”
“O-oh just some trivialities. It doesn’t matter,” Lan Huan replies, avoiding his gaze.
“Spill it, Er-ge.”
“It truly is nothing, Huaisang. Just-”
“Lan Huan, you tell me what you know!”
“Nothing! I don’t know anything!”
Nie Huaisang growls, “That’s my line.”
“Jin Guangyao,” Mingjue says placidly from across the table. “Do correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought we were here to have tea, not to sit in on an interrogation.”
The man smiles and lifts his cup. “I thought so too, Da-ge. Though I’m not opposed to being treated to tea and a show.”
“Who says this is free!” Nie Huaisang snaps. “If Er-ge refuses to say anything, I’ll be starting in on you two!”
Lan Huan throws them both an imploring look, though whether he’s asking them for a rescue or to flee and save themselves, Mingjue does not know.
Either way, Huaisang is his family’s child, so Mingjue should probably speak up before he sprains something.
“Sit down, you’re going to trip.” He pulls his brother down into the seat next to him. “And where have your manners gone? Lan Huan is older than you!”
“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang rounds on him, indignant. “He-!”
“I don’t care,” says Mingjue with a glare. “Treat him with respect.”
His didi turns his head mulishly away.
“Nie Huaisang.”
“Fine!" He scowls. "I’m sorry or whatever!”
Mingjue is just about ready to drag him out of his chair by his ear then, but Lan Huan just laughs awkwardly.
“It’s alright, Da-ge. I know he was just excited.”
Give Nie Huaisang an inch and he’ll take a mile. Smelling blood in the water, he closes in.
“Huan-ge, I am sorry,” he casts his eyes downwards. “It’s just… Things between A-Zhan and I have been…”
Lan Huan has always been soft towards Huaisang, but Mingjue can’t help but roll his eyes at how quickly he folds.
“Oh, A-Sang, you know how he gets. Maybe just give him some space. He probably needs to just think things over for a moment.”
“But what if it’s not just him thinking things over? What if…” Nie Huaisang’s eyes go big and dewy. The little shit. “What if he thinks it through and decides he doesn’t want to be friends with me anymore?”
“Now, what could you do that would make him think that? You’ve both been friends since before you could walk.”
Nie Huaisang sniffles. “I don’t know. Maybe he just realised that he doesn’t want to deal with how useless I am at everything anymore.”
“Huaisang! You know you shouldn’t talk like that about yourself!” Lan Huan chides. “You may not be as skilled as other people in some things, but has A-Zhan ever complained about that before?”
“N- No, I guess he hasn’t.”
“Good, because I would have been disappointed to find out that my didi was the type of person who would denigrate anyone for being weaker than him.”
“He’s not!” Nie Huaisang cries out. “He would never!”
“Yes, I know,” Lan Huan smiles. “A-Zhan is a good man.”
“He is! I pulled an all-nighter once trying to get the inking done on a uni assignment piece, but I fell asleep on my desk. And when I woke up, A-Zhan had finished the inking for me and made me breakfast!”
“Oh! What a kind thing to do! He must have seen you working so hard and wanted to help.”
“Yes! He’s always helping me! And it’s not just me either. We went out to eat once, and at the barbecue stall, someone was being rude to the grill auntie and didn’t want to pay. A-Zhan stopped him before he could get violent and made sure that the man gave her the money he owed.”
“He has always been very responsible. Even when he was a small child.”
“Right? It was so annoying! He would never let me do anything that was against the rules, and he always told on Wei Ying and me at school.” Nie Huaisang sighs, a smile on his face. “But that’s just who he is. Stupidly noble. That guy at the barbecue stall was twice as big as him.”
Lan Huan nods. “A-Zhan has a big heart.”
“He does,” Nie Huaisang rests his head on his palms, staring into the distance. Mingjue turns to see what he is looking at and sees nothing more interesting than their kitchen wall. “You know, once he held an umbrella over a stray cat for two hours because it wouldn’t let him take it inside, but it was also raining really hard and he didn’t want it to get sick and die.”
Holding an umbrella over a stray cat? What is this, a tv drama?
Mingjue wonders if all young people live like this or if his and Lan Huan’s younger brothers are just odd. He would ask Jin Guangyao, but as the younger brother himself, Mingjue thinks he would likely lack perspective.
See? Look at him smiling like sheltering stray animals from the rain and taking righteous stands against thugs were perfectly normal events to have occurred in their day-to-day lives.
“He sounds like a very kind person,” says Jin Guangyao, sipping his tea.
“He is, Yao-ge!” Huaisang nods. “Super kind! Stupidly kind! He won’t even-” He bites down on his lip. “When I get too close, or get too touchy, he doesn’t even have the heart to push me away. Even though I’m trampling all over his boundaries.”
Nie Huaisang smiles, but the expression is sad with his eyes downcast.
“He’s just too nice.”
Lan Huan looks at him consideringly for a moment before chuckling gently. “You know, A-Sang. A-Zhan doesn’t let me hug him very often. Only on special days.”
“Huh?” Nie Huaisang lifts his head. “But he loves you so much, he-”
“I know,” Lan Huan smiles, “and the fact that he loves me very much doesn’t change the fact that he prefers not to be touched most of the time. It’s alright because I like expressing love in other ways too, but it’s different with you, isn’t it?”
Nie Huaisang has always showered the people he loves with affectionate touches. An arm around their shoulders, tugs on their hands, nuzzles to the cheek. Mingjue and Lan Huan had worried initially that he would be too overwhelming for the reserved Lan Zhan, but they were both proven wrong very quickly.
“He lets you touch him, and not just because he is being kind to you,” says Lan Huan. “It’s your way of communicating, and he wants to talk to you too.”
“That… That…”
“Have you been listening to him, A-Sang?” Lan Huan leans in, voice gentle.”What has he been trying to tell you?”
“I…” Nie Huaisang visibly flounders for a moment, eyes going wide, before something seems to settle within him. He firms up his shoulders and stands abruptly. “I have to go. Right now.”
“Mm!” Lan Huan pats his arm encouragingly. “Good luck, A-Sang!”
“Thanks, Huan-ge!”
Mingjue waits until the sound of the front door slamming shut fades away, and then he claps his hands at Lan Huan.
“Very well done.”
The man smiles and lifts his cup. “A-Sang is so adorable.” He takes a sip, his expression stiffening at the now stone-cold tea.
“It’s always a pleasure to see you both at work,” says Jin Guangyao, dimples out in full force. “But it’s scary also. You’re scary, Er-ge.”
“You should’ve seen how Da-ge did with A-Zhan,” Lan Huan replies easily. “Now that was a master at work.”
“Oh, it wasn’t all that. Huaisang is a brat, but Lan Zhan is a good boy. I just had to ask Jin Zixuan for some tips.”
“Haha, I see.”
Jin Guangyao lifts his cup, then pauses.
“Wait, what?”