Chapter Text
The moon has hours ago replaced the sun on the sky. This didn’t concern Cheng Xiaoshi, as he was sleeping over at Qiao Ling’s house tonight.
And since it’s the weekend, her parents don’t keep coming in her room to tell them to go to sleep already. So - they learned - they can play video games late into the night, so long as they keep quiet. Various types of snacks cover the floor around them, and Cheng Xiaoshi struggles whenever he reaches for one of them. He can’t play and eat at the same time, unlike Qiao Ling, who had been gifted with the power of always winning games no matter what.
As expected, he lost again.
“No way! I was doing so much better this time, too!” he complained, the controller in his hand being in danger of getting thrown across the room.
“Be quiet, or dad will get mad at us,” she shushed him. “Hehe, however well you do, you’ll never beat me!”
Cheng Xiaoshi pouted. Qiao Ling grabbed his favourite snack and handed it to him. It’s easy, calming him down. He never stays mad at anyone for long.
They munched on the snack in silence for a few minutes. Until Qiao Ling started giggling quietly. She seemed very entertained by her thoughts, whatever she was thinking about.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing…” she smiled at him and then giggled to herself once again.
Cheng Xiaoshi thought he connected the dots: he lost against Qiao Ling in every round and now she’s giggling uncontrollably. “Are you laughing at me?” He pointed a finger accusingly at her, and hid his favourite snack behind his back so she couldn’t reach for more.
“Hey, that’s mine, don’t try to hide it!” She reached towards her brother, but gave up right away. “I wasn’t laughing at you. It’s just, something really nice happened yesterday…” she smiled dreamily.
“You’re acting so weird, I’m not sure I want to know what happened…”
“Do you mind if I share, anyway?” Cheng Xiaoshi looked at her with distaste, but she punched his arm playfully. “Come on… it’s nothing bad! I just happen to have a crush on a classmate.” She looked a little embarrassed at those last few words, but quickly recovered.
“Oh. I guess that really isn’t bad.” Cheng Xiaoshi replied, “but aren’t we too young for this sort of thing?”
“Maybe you are! I’m older than you, and besides, girls mature much faster than boys. I’m basically an adult, Cheng Xiaoshi, show me some respect!” She straightened her back and raised her chin proudly.
“Of course, landlady,” they both laughed.
“Ah, but… he really was so cool,” she brought back the topic of her crush, “and it was so romantic! Like straight out of a comic book!” she gushed.
“What, did you bump into him and he helped you collect your empty sheets of paper or something?”
“No, you silly goose. Why would I have empty sheets of paper with me?”
“But isn’t that how the main couple always meet in dramas and stuff?”
“Sure, whatever, Cheng Xiaoshi,” her eyes rolled. “ This was way better than that!” Bragging had always been a habit of hers, but this time, Cheng Xiaoshi was confused about why she would brag about something so… what? he asked himself, so what? What word can I use to describe this? Weird? Unimportant? Neither of those were words that fit the way he wished to describe what he thought about this topic.
“So, what exactly happened?” he asked impatiently, and frankly, kind of unimpressed.
“Shush, I’m just getting to that,” Cheng Xiaoshi resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He’d almost forgotten about the snack behind his back, but remembered in this moment. He reached for it now. “Well, he’s on the boys’ tennis team… They had practice yesterday and I went to watch, and he played so well-” Cheng Xiaoshi was already starting to get bored. “-and then our eyes met as he was about to hit the ball and win. But instead, he kept staring at me! He chose me over winning!”
“Well, it was only practice…” he muttered under his breath. Qiao ling did not notice.
“And I felt my heart pound, I’m telling you, it felt exactly like in those comics! ” her hands were on her cheeks as she kept on fangirling about how exciting this all was. “And then the tennis ball hit his head and he had to go to the infirmary… but he was okay! And that was so adorable!”
Cheng Xiaoshi snickered. Why would clumsiness be more attractive than a really cool tennis move?
They continued chatting on about this and that until it was quarter past midnight. Cheng Xiaoshi yawned for the second time already, so she decided it was to stop.
“We should sleep now, it’s getting late, even for the weekend…” Qiao Ling said as she got up to turn off the TV screen with their game still on.
Cheng Xiaoshi didn’t object like he normally would.
With the lights turned off, to sleep they went: Cheng Xiaoshi in a crumb filled - from the snacks - sleeping bag on the floor, Qiao Ling in her own bed.
“Good night, sleepyhead.”
“Good night, landlady.”