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Ever since she became a member of the Astral Express Crew, Dan Heng has been March 7th’s biggest challenge.
They're practically roommates, and yet she feels like there’s almost nothing she knows about him.
Dan Heng is one of the few people able to stomach Himeko’s coffee; he apparently sees it as something of a test of courage. March 7th is amazed he’s even capable of drinking the foul liquid with a straight face.
He likes to tell dry jokes when he’s in a good mood, and can even be pretty funny. He doesn’t like being disturbed when he works in the archives, which he does all the time, so she’s stopped caring about that.
He teases March 7th when he’s annoyed with her, but also when he’s happy, which is extra annoying. He has occasional nightmares that keep him up at night and even woke up screaming once.
He is a reserved person, but he can talk about the data bank for hours if you know what to ask him – too bad that everything that comes out of his mouth during those times is just so boring.
He’s a competent fighter, fiercely protective of the rest of the crew.
His spear is very important to him, hence why he refuses to let her “play around” with it. (It’s not playing, she just wants to give it a few swings!)
Most of all, though, Dan Heng doesn’t talk about his past. She has tried everything to make him spill the beans. It got to a point where Mr. Yang has eventually asked her to stop, that Dan Heng probably has a very good reason for refusing to talk about it and that they should give him the privacy he needs.
Okay, so that’s actually quite a few things, she thinks as she looks at the list she managed to put down in her diary. But it still doesn’t feel like enough.
Dan Heng was March 7th’s first friend, as far as she remembered, which was not even a full year, but still. Her only friend, even, if you decide not to count Mr. Yang and Himeko who are older, her social media mutuals, and her imaginary friends. Her best friend, she’d even claim proudly if she had any others.
But Dan Heng always manages to sneakily avoid answering all the questions she has for him.
No, if she wants to get Dan Heng to tell her about himself, she is going to need a real strategy.
March 7th lets a devilish smile creep on her lips. Dan Heng won’t know what’s coming to him.
—
“Dan Heng! We’re going on a date!” March 7th claims as she slides the door to his room wide open.
The young man barely lifts his head to look at her. He is sitting at his desk, a book in hand, like the big nerd he is.
“March,” he greets her. March 7th has long given up the idea of making him call her her full name. “How can I help you?”
“We’re going on a date,” she repeats since he doesn’t seem to have heard her properly the first time. “Just you and me.”
Dan Heng’s gaze slides back to his book.
“Sorry, I already have plans for today.”
“Do these plans involve stepping out of the archives at all today?”
“Yes.”
“...Except for getting food?”
“...”
“Yep, that’s it. We are going out.” If she repeats it enough times, he’s bound to give up eventually.
“I need to read through th–”
“No, you don’t. It’s your day off. I’ve asked Mr. Yang and Himeko and they said they were worried because you were working too much, and not spending enough time outside when we’re finally stationed on a cool planet!”
Dan Heng finally looks up at March 7th.
“Did they really say that?”
“You can ask them if you don’t believe me.”
There’s quite a long moment of silence. March 7th knows Dan Heng is weighing his options, but she also knows he’s going to give in.
“...Fine. I guess it doesn’t hurt to take one day off.”
He sighs, begrudgingly puts his book down on his desk, and gets up.
“So? Where are we going?”
Yes! This was too easy, March 7th thinks smugly. Except…
“Wait, wait, wait!”
Dan Heng stops in his tracks.
“You can’t go out dressed like that!”
Dan Heng raises an eyebrow.
“This is how I always dress.”
“Exactly! You gotta try a little harder for a date!”
“I don’t really own anything else, though…”
“That’s not true. Himeko told me she bought you a set of casual clothes as well when she got me my wardrobe,” March 7th points out.
“...I had forgotten about that,” Dan Heng admits.
“Perfect! Then it’s settled. I also have some preparations to make, so let’s meet in 30 system minutes in front of the Express!”
Dan Heng sighs again. “Fine,” he relents.
March 7th gives him a triumphant smile. Her plan is working!
—
“You don’t look that different from usual,” Dan Heng says when March 7th steps out of the train platform.
“Thanks, Dan Heng,” she answers as she forcefully rolls her eyes. “You look great too.”
She’s not even lying about that one. Seeing him wearing anything else than his stuffy coat is new enough, but the layered T-shirts and relaxed shorts gave him a casual and sporty vibe she never thought would look good on him.
“Sorry. You… Put on some make-up, right? It’s nice.”
The compliment is sincere enough to satisfy her, and March 7th lets out a giggle.
“You can’t really expect me to be good at this, though,” he adds. “You know I usually don’t have any interest in… this kind of thing.”
A pang of guilt hits March. She did bring him out of his room a bit forcefully and took him out on a date when he had planned to stay home all day with his books. It was a bit too much to expect him to do everything perfectly, right? He is Dan Heng, after all. And the point of this is for both of them to have fun.
“Oooookay,” she says, transitioning smoothly to the next topic. “So? Is there anywhere you want to go?”
“...A library?”
“Anywhere you wanna go with me, you silly! You can go to the library on your own time!”
Dan Heng takes a moment, and March 7th is pleased to see that he is giving this whole thing a serious thought.
“Not really, sorry,” he ends up answering. “This was your idea. You should take the lead.”
“Okay… but you’ve got to tell me if you don’t like what we’re doing, or if you happen to have an idea of something you wanna do. Okay?”
“Deal.”
“Okay! Then let’s go get some parfait!”
“But we’ve just had lunch…”
—
The place March 7th takes Dan Heng is one that she found after looking up “best spots to take your introverted date to” on the net, and she is very proud of that one. It’s a stylish rooftop café with the particularity of offering perfect sound isolation from the rest of the world.
She thought that Dan Heng would appreciate being able to speak without being heard, or hearing any other people; besides, the translucent bubble they were in tainted the sky above and the city beneath a soft pink hue, and it almost felt like they were floating in the air.
“Okay, first things first…”
She takes out her smartphone and concentrates for a few minutes, trying to get the perfect shot of her strawberry parfait to post on her social media while Dan Heng waits patiently. After a few shots, she decides on one that shows all the layers of the parfait overlapping with a city background, as well as her new nail art – she had spent a lot of time working on that one, after all. It would be a shame not to show it off to the world.
“Perfect! And now…” She twists on her chair, raising her arm which holds her phone firmly.
“Time for our selfie!”
Dan Heng raises two fingers in his usual V-sign pose – he always takes that one whenever March 7th is taking pictures of him. She’d ask him to smile a bit more or try something else, but she is so worried he’ll stop indulging her altogether that she doesn’t dare ask him. He doesn’t protest whenever she snaps pictures of him, so March 7th assumes he actually likes it – at the very least, it doesn’t bother him, as long as she doesn’t post his face online.
“Ooooh, looking good! This one is definitely going in my favorites folder.”
After that’s done, she finally takes a bite of her strawberry parfait, and lets out a delighted sound.
“Hmmm!! So good!”
She looks up to see Dan Heng staring at her.
“I’m not sharing, you know,” she says defensively. “Your fault for ordering a sherbet and black tea.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t want your parfait.”
“Hmph!”
March 7th takes another bite. It was really a good thing to come here, she thinks. The weather is perfect (although it usually is in this city with artificially generated weather), the scenery is beautiful, the taste of her parfait is heavenly and the company is… well, the company is not smiling, but he’s not complaining, so he has to be enjoying himself.
Maybe now would be a good time to ask her questions.
“So, I’ve been thinking…” she starts. Dan Heng raises his head to look at her. “I want to learn more about you, Dan Heng.”
The shift in his expression is almost frightening, especially for March 7th who’s been getting better at reading him lately. He looked relaxed just a moment ago, but now he’s on the defensive, and he’s almost glaring at her.
“Wait, wait, wait!” she almost yells before he can say anything else – it’s a good thing they’re in a soundproof bubble. “It’s not like that. I don’t want to pry.”
He looks at her for a few seconds, perhaps trying to see if she’s telling the truth, then says in a careful, measured voice: “What is it, then?”
“So… I get that asking anything about your super mysterious past is off-limits. I won’t say I’m not dying to ask you about it, I really am, but… I don’t want you to tell me anything if it hurts, you know? It’s not like I want you to feel bad. Not to mention I’d be cooked if you repeated this to Mr. Yang and Himeko…”
This time, Dan Heng looks confused. “Then… what do you want to know?”
“Uh… normal stuff! Like what’s your favourite food, the first thing you’d buy if you won the lottery, what kind of people you’ve had a crush on… This kind of thing!”
Dan Heng seems too shocked to even answer, so March 7th pouts.
“Come on, you can’t actually be that surprised.”
“I guess I just… never expected to be asked stuff like this. It feels weird. Why do you even want to know?”
“We’re friends! Isn’t it natural that I’d want to know about you?”
Doubt seizes her as she says these words.
“We are friends, right?” She didn’t make that up on her own, did she?
“What are you even saying? Of course we are.”
“Oh.”
There’s a moment of silence as March 7th internalizes the information. Dan Heng has just acknowledged that he thinks of her as a friend. Okay.
“So then does that mean you’ll answer my questions?”
Dan Heng sighs. “I guess I can try. But don’t ask anything weird, alright?”
“Yes!” March 7th almost shouts. Victory!
“I have to say, I’m really glad that you accepted,” she confesses. “Like… It’s not fair that you get to know everything about me, but I don’t know anything about you.”
“I don’t think I know everything about you,” Dan Heng points out.
“You kinda do,” March 7th says. “You’ve been there ever since I woke up. You and the whole crew, of course. I don’t think there’s anything I know about myself that you guys don’t know as well. I mean, technically, there is plenty you don’t know about me, but…”
But it was all stuff that she didn’t know either. After all, she could’ve been a completely different person before she met Dan Heng and the others – and there was no way to know for sure how different this March 7th was from whoever she was in the past.
“I like rice-based foods,” Dan Heng says suddenly, interrupting her train of thought. “I’ve loved cosmic fried rice for as long as I’ve been travelling, but I’ve started to enjoy mochi as well recently, especially mochi dango.”
“What?! Those barely qualify as desserts! Except maybe the ones that are covered in syrup, but I haven’t had the chance to try them yet…”
“And if I won the lottery, I guess I would buy some of these expensive encyclopedias I’ve been meaning to get for the archives. Not sure where I’d put them, though…”
“Why are you thinking about work even in this situation?!”
“I love my work,” Dan Heng deadpans – and March 7th rolls her eyes. “Though I guess I’d also get a few gifts for the crew. Not sure what.”
“I’ve never had a crush before,” he adds, and she almost chokes on her parfait. She didn’t think he’d actually answer this question.
“None at all?! And you’ve never… liked-liked someone? Fallen in love?”
“Don’t act like you have, either.”
“It’s different! I don’t remember! And I might have… someone waiting for me, somewhere.”
There’s a moment of awkward silence as March 7th realizes she’s being all gloomy again.
“I didn’t… really have any meaningful relationships before I boarded the Express,” Dan Heng says quietly. “I’d been travelling on my own for a few years when I first met Himeko and Mr. Yang. I would just… board any ship that took on passengers, and go from one place to another aimlessly.”
“You know, I was actually wondering about that… You don’t have to tell me about it if you don’t want to, but I wanted to ask you about the time you joined this Express.”
Dan Heng raises an eyebrow. “It’s not as exciting of a story as yours. What do you want to know?”
“I guess, how you met them, what it was like at first, why you joined, why you stayed…”
“I honestly don’t remember most of the details. I told you I’d board almost any ship, right? I usually didn’t even look up what kind of ship it was or what kind of people were travelling there. And that’s how I ended up on a Mourning Actors spaceship.”
His lips twist ever so slightly, in what March 7th has interpreted as Dan Heng’s expression of disgust.
“The whole thing is kind of… blurry.”
Okay, so that’s a pretty bad start.
“I remember that they tried, and almost succeeded to steal my memory, and forced me to listen to some mad ramblings…”
Ouch. Not fun.
“The whole thing still feels like a fever dream, but I remember defeating some huge monsters… not sure what they were, but when I disembarked at the next port… That’s when Himeko came to meet me for the first time.”
“What?! So you don’t remember any of the details?? I don’t get to hear the retelling of your epic battle against these monsters?” March 7th pouts. Dan Heng was right: his story is boring. Or maybe he’s just telling it in a boring way.
“You should ask Himeko and Mr. Yang if you want the details. As I said, my mind had just been messed with by the followers of the Elation, so…”
“Okay, okay. What was your first impression of Himeko, then?”
“...When she thanked me for defeating the monsters, I thought she was just being overly polite, but when she asked me to join the Express Crew, I… wondered if she had any underlying motives.”
“Wow, you were really distrustful, huh…”
“You have to be, when you’re travelling alone like I was.”
“So then… How did she convince you to join?”
“...She said I could get off whenever I wanted, once I had made up my mind on where to go.”
There is a moment of silence.
March 7th can’t say such an answer is unexpected when it comes to Dan Heng. It sounds like something he’d say – sounds like something he’d do.
And yet, she feels her heart being squeezed inside her chest by an unknown force as she realizes something.
Dan Heng could, at any moment, if he wished to, leave the Express and never come back.
Of course he can, she tries to rationalize. But the thought of it feels so wrong. Ever since she woke up, they’ve always been with her. Pom-Pom, Himeko, Mr. Yang, and Dan Heng. They were a family. Family members couldn’t just… leave each other.
It seems Dan Heng also knows the implications of what he just said to March, because he’s not saying anything either. He just picks up his tea and sips it in silence.
March 7th wants to ask him. She wants to ask him if he’s figured out where he wants to go, and she wants his answer to be the same as hers, for the place he wants to go to be wherever you’re going.
Now that they’re not talking anymore, it only takes her a few minutes to finish her parfait.
“I just…” he says quietly, breaking the silence. “I don’t think I…”
He seems to be struggling to find his words, something that’s so unlike him that March 7th can’t help but be fascinated.
“I’ve grown quite fond of trailblazing.” A beat. “If… Hypothetically. If I were never to find where I want to go… Then that would be fine.”
What does that even mean? March 7th thinks – but for some reason, she finds that she can’t bring herself to ask him.
“Where are we going next?” he asks. Clearly, he doesn’t want to delve any deeper into this topic.
“Want to go to a bookshop?” she suggests.
Dan Heng raises an eyebrow. “I thought you said I could go to the library on my own time.”
“Well, a bookshop and a library aren’t exactly the same thing,” she says. “Besides, it should be closing in about an hour, so you can’t make me stay there for too long.”
—
When March had mentioned a bookshop, Dan Heng hadn’t been sure what to expect, but he certainly hadn’t been this.
Rather than a bookshop, the place he has been brought into is a comic book store. March is fluttering happily among the shelves, apparently having a hard time deciding what she wants to buy. As for himself, he doesn’t really have any interest in reading fictional stories, so he finds it hard to get just as invested as her.
In the end, he settles for waiting in a corner for March to finally be done with her selection.
She’s back to her usual self now. She seemed a bit down earlier, and Dan Heng could hardly blame her.
Back then, he’d wanted to tell her that he was going to stay – that he wanted to stay, like he’d never wanted anything before. It just hurt that much more that he couldn’t promise anything. It was almost a miracle that he had been able to stay this long – but that luck is bound to run out eventually.
“Okay, I just paid for my stuff!” March’s voice brings him out of his reverie. “You’re not getting anything?”
“I’m not really into this kind of thing,” he says as they exit the bookshop. Evening has started to fall on the city, but the streets are still just as busy as they were in daytime.
“You should’ve said that earlier,” March says, even though Dan Heng doesn’t doubt she already knew, “because I bought you this.”
Dan Heng turns to her. She stopped in her tracks, holding out a book at him with a playful smile. The two men on the cover are embracing in a way that leaves little room to interpretation.
“...What… is this?”
“It’s a gift, duh.”
“...Are you making fun of me?”
“I’m not! I even made sure to pick one that wasn’t… too scandalous. Come on, I’m sure it’ll be fun!!”
Dan Heng shakes his head. “I don’t know what made you think this would make a good gift for me, but… fine. I’ll read it. Don’t be surprised when I end up not liking it.”
He takes the book and puts it in his shoulder bag, secretly hoping Himeko and Mr. Yang will never find out about this.
“Why did you even get me anything?” he asks.
“Because you said you were clueless about romance! Just think of it as necessary education. And… I wanted to thank you for today,” she says. “I did drag you out there even though you didn’t want to. Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” he answers before he can stop himself. “I’ve had fun, too. This kind of thing… it’s not bad from time to time.”
Her face immediately lights up. “Right?! I knew you’d like it!”
He looks at her bright smile and shining eyes, and somehow, just a little, he feels appeased.
“There’s a lake on the other side of the city, right?” he asks.
“Huh? Yeah, why?”
“Let’s go, then.” He starts walking again, but turns back after he remembers something. “March, how do you feel about alcohol?”
“Huuuuh?!”
—
Somehow, seeing Dan Heng with a bottle of baijiu and two small paper cups feels like they are doing something illegal. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that March 7th doesn’t really feel like an adult, although she is legally considered one (at least, that was what Madam Herta said at the Space Station).
“Are there any rules about this on the Express?” she asks.
“Yeah,” Dan Heng answers. “Himeko says I’m not allowed to bring any onto the Express, but I think she allows Mr. Yang to keep a few bottles somewhere. And Shush told me once that they had a stock of beers in the Party Car, for parties.”
“Can we trust anything Shush says?” March 7th asks with a wince.
“Probably not,” Dan Heng admits. “There are no rules about drinking outside the Express, but I’m probably going to get chewed out by Himeko if I bring you back home drunk, so don’t overdo it. It’s your first time, right?”
“As far as I remember,” she answers. “So… you do this often? Drinking alcohol at night?”
“No. I’ve only done this twice since I joined the Express. That seems like a good spot,” he says as he points to a stone table with a bench. The two of them sit as Dan Heng opens the bottle.
“It looks like water,” March 7th comments. She sniffs the liquor. “Wow, that’s an intense smell. …You’re sure I’m allowed to drink this?”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, you know,” Dan Heng says.
“No, no! I want to!” She takes her cup in one hand. “Do I have to drink it all in one shot? Oh, should we start by making a toast?”
“I’ll make the toast. This liquor is pretty strong, so don’t drink too fast.”
“Uuuuh… okay!”
She watches him as he pours his own glass in a practiced manner. He said he didn’t do this often, but the way he acts feels like he’s done this many, many times before; perhaps there's even a sense of nostalgia hidden in his movements, although she could be imagining it.
“Sān yuè qī, wǒ jìng nǐ,” he whispers, so quietly March 7th thinks she’s misheard him.
“What was that?” she asks. She almost thought she heard a foreign language, but that shouldn’t be possible with the Synesthesia Beacon.
Dan Heng raises his gaze, looking at her in the eyes, and says: “To you.”
He fills her glass, and she giggles. “To us!” she corrects him, raising her glass.
Dan Heng takes his in his hand as well, holding it a bit lower than hers, and nods.
“To us.”
“Cheers!” she says happily, and as she brings her cup to her mouth, she watches, fascinated, how Dan Heng downs his own in one go. Then, she tentatively dips the tip of her tongue in the baijiu, and removes it immediately.
“It’s strong!” she yelps. “And you gulped it down just like that?!”
“I have a pretty good tolerance,” he says as he pours himself another cup – but he leaves it untouched for now.
March 7th takes a sip. “Wow, it’s all warm in my throat… It tastes pretty good, though! It’s a bit… sweet? Almost floral.”
Dan Heng nods. “I picked an aroma that’s easier on beginners, and I thought you’d like something sweet better.”
“You seem to know a lot about it,” March 7th comments. “Especially for someone who claims not to drink too often.”
Dan Heng stares at his cup.
“It’s mostly just second-hand knowledge,” he says quietly.
“Huh,” she simply answers as she takes another sip. She gets why people like this, if all alcoholic drinks taste this good.
“This is nice,” March 7th says. She looks up at the night sky.
The moon is full tonight, and its reflection shines upon the lake. Dan Heng had chosen a good spot, she realizes. He spent the whole day with her without complaining, answered her questions, picked a liquor that he thought she’d like and took her to a beautiful place to spend some time together.
Perhaps there’s something to be said about that.
She drinks what’s left in her cup in one last gulp.
“Thanks for today,” she says, sincerely, and she smiles at him. “I mean that.”
Dan Heng smiles back. “No need to thank me.”
Dan Heng smiles back.
March 7th’s heart skips a beat.
Then it starts to beat very, very fast, and she realizes this must be adrenaline because she needs to take a photo right now, needs to engrave this very moment into numerical memory forever–
She scrambles to grab her phone, no, wait, her camera would be better, aims the lens at him, and…
“What are you doing?” he asks, puzzled.
“NOOOOoooo,” she whines. “I missed Dan Heng’s precious smile…”
“You what?” He seems visibly confused.
“This is the first time I see you smile! It’s an important moment!! I just… don’t want to forget this. Can you blame me?”
Dan Heng stares at her, and for the briefest of moments, she thinks he gets it, until he asks:
“Are you drunk?”
“Wh- no! I’m not!”
He nods. “You're right. You usually act like you're high on something, drunk or not.”
March 7th is so scandalized she gets up and slams a hand on the table. “Hey! Take that back!”
And then– it happens again. His lips curl into something more akin to a smirk than an actual smile, ever so slightly, and a low-pitched noise escapes his throat.
Click!
March 7th presses the button of her camera without thinking.
She blinks. Once. Twice.
Was that a laugh?
More like a scoff. A half-scoff? Is that even a thing?
“Are you making fun of me?!”
“...No.”
“I knew it! You're avoiding my eyes! My revenge will be terrible! You better beg for mercy while you still can!”
—
The next day, when March 7th opens her diary, the first thing she does is stick a picture of Dan Heng on a new page. It’s well below her usual standards – slightly blurry, and pretty dark since it was taken at night – but you can still see his half-gentle, half-mischievous smile, so it’s definitely her new favorite picture.
The second thing she does is to come up with a revenge plan.