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"Lin Zhen," said Yu Xia, leaning over the counter. Lin Zhen's eyebrows rose with unconcealed bemusement. "How's business?"
Lin Zhen visibly tried and failed to suppress her smile. "Just fine. Why, are you looking to finally leave the noodles to us?"
Yu Xia rolled her eyes, turning around so she was leaning her back against the counter so that her own restaurant— a true restaurant, not the little noodle shop Lin Zhen was trying to run— was directly visible on the other side of the road, bustling with activity. "As if," she scoffed, trying to hide her own smile. She was doing a much better visual job than Lin Zhen, she thought, since Lin Zhen couldn't even see her face, but she suspected her smile was audible. "We're booming. Look at us. Not a moment of rest."
Yu Xia heard the soft thump of Lin Zhen's elbows landing on the counter behind her. Lin Zhen was both closer and further away than expected when she spoke, inches from Yu Xia's ear, her breath a soft breeze that lingered across Yu Xia's skin. "Then why are you here?"
Yu Xia carefully forced herself to not straighten up, letting her back stay relaxed. "My people have it handled, don't you think? So efficient."
"Hmm," Lin Zhen said, and it might have been an agreement, but Yu Xia got the feeling that it wasn't quite. "And what do you do?"
Yu Xia shot her look. "Not labour away in the kitchen. I'm the owner, Lin Zhen. We've got multiple branches. People love us."
"Do they?" Lin Zhen asked, and infuriatingly enough, it didn't sound like a challenge. Just a simple musing, wondering. Lin Zhen's face was soft and open as ever, and her eyes were attentive as they always had been. Yu Xia looked away. "I supposed you'd know."
Yu Xia didn't know what to say to that. She would, wouldn't she? Business was booming for her, her chain elongating effortlessly, her menus altering with every new day, seasonal ingredients selling out well before the end of the season, her stock reserves having to go up, and the revenue was beautiful. Her annual gross profit could turn the entire little village into a small city. Her net profit could do the same, with some costs cut. Yu Xia's business was thriving, in short.
She had no idea why she kept returning to Lin Zhen's little place, time and time again.
Lin Zhen had been the one to suggest the break, to simply split into separate businesses, had said their interests didn't quite align anymore, and Yu Xia had pretended she hadn't felt her heart break alongside the partnership. Lin Zhen was thinking too small, anyhow. If she hadn't said suggested it, Yu Xia would have done it herself. Lin Zhen had said it with such a soft smile. There had been something else there, too, but Yu Xia hadn't been able to make herself meet Lin Zhen's eyes long enough to puzzle it out.
Lin Zhen had nudged her. Don't become a stranger, she'd said, still softly.
Yu Xia had swallowed on something that felt like it would swell and swell and swell until it burst through tattered remains of her throat. Of course not. I promise.
She wasn't sure that she'd managed to keep the promise.
"I rather like the kitchen," Lin Zhen mused out loud. It might have been defensive from anyone else. It wasn't from anyone else. It was from Lin Zhen. "It's not labour to me. It's magic." She paused. Yu Xia didn't try to fill the silence. "I didn't realise you thought of it that way."
Yu Xia swallowed a growing something back. One day, she would identify it. Today would not be that day. "I… didn't."
Lin Zhen hummed, and it was such an achingly familiar sound. Strangers trickled in and out of her restaurant. A lone customer came by with the ring of a bell into Lin Zhen's noodle shop. Lin Zhen left Yu Xia by the edge of the counter to attend to the customer.
"Yu Xia," Lin Zhen called out, suddenly. Yu Xia blinked, turning to look at Lin Zhen. She had changed so little over the years. New lines marked her face, but her smile was just as sweet, her eyes just as soft. She tilted her head towards the kitchen at the back. "Come with me?"
Yu Xia wasn't sure why she did it, but she followed. It was muscle memory, she thought.
"Here," Lin Zhen said, steering Yu Xia towards the stove. "I hope you still remember how to cook?"
Yu Xia laughed, but it was slightly uneasy. It had been a long time since she'd made their noodles. She didn't like the taste of failure, of defeat, and even worse, the taste of what could have been. "Of course not. But, really, Lin Zhen, you're my rival business here. I don't think you should be letting me take the reins."
Lin Zhen swatted Yu Xia's shoulder lightly, and Yu Xia looked at her to see another poorly suppressed smile. Yu Xia was starting to think that she wasn't actually trying to suppress them. "Silly. We're not rivals. I'm not nearly large enough for that. Besides, who said you're taking the reins?"
Yu Xia blinked.
It was as though she'd been sent back in time, and they moved like it, too, moving around the small kitchen with practised ease, with ease that came from years of living and breathing and cooking in the same space, never so much as stumbling into each other. When Lin Zhen extended her hand, Yu Xia was already half-way there to giving her the ingredient in question. When Yu Xia lifted the wok, Lin Zhen already had a bowl at the ready. It was only at the garnishing that they tripped up, colliding awkwardly to separate stops. They used to alternate with this, Yu Xia one day, Lin Zhen the other. It had been so long. Neither of them knew how to finish the little routine they'd never forgotten.
In the end, Lin Zhen nudged Yu Xia. Yu Xia tried to pretend her hand wasn't shaking when she dusted the noodles with one last sprinkle of the powdered flower. It smelled heavenly. It smelled like what could have been.
Lin Zhen smiled. "Still labour?"
Yu Xia cleared out the thing in her throat, ignoring the burn of her eyes. "No," she admitted.