Chapter 7 (1/2)

“So…” I swallowed my saliva that tasted like minty toothpaste.

I thought, maybe he brushed my teeth, too? But if that was the case, why did I still taste him in my mouth?

“So did we…?”

My voice became quieter near the end as my face shrunk back into the blanket. Pokerface still had his arm behind him like a pillow while watching me steadily. He shook his head in a peculiar angle.

So that means, no? I let out the breath that I had been holding.

I flexed my muscles down there and surely, it did not feel like they had been split into two, although the entrance felt a bit swollen.

It appeared that he was telling the truth. But how was that possible?

“You fainted.” I fainted.

His expression didn’t change much when he said this but I turned to face the nearby window after quietly processing these two words and slapping myself a hundred times in my head. I knew I shouldn’t have chosen to live in a single house. Just looking at this height, even if I jumped, the most I would get is paralysis—it wasn’t enough.

How should I put my feelings? I was not exactly sure whether my urges to jump were from having gone the whole way or not having gone the whole way. Pokerface was, as expected, a gentleman and wouldn’t take advantage of others. So shouldn’t I feel grateful from the bottom of my heart?

Yet, as soon as I recalled everything from the previous night—people often say that memory is like a scrolling LED sign: a long tale can be told in a few seconds—I wished I didn’t have such a brilliant memory. But for some reason, I could still remember all the details even though I had been the one who was roaring drunk, so he must have remembered it too.

Oh right. I think Pokerface once said he has a bad memory and would forget things too far back in the past. So maybe I can…

Then, I was hoisted up by the waist from the awkward spot I was in to another spot that was even more awkward.

My eyes flickered all over the place as I lay on top of him. He had one hand on my waist as he asked flatly, “Something on your mind?”

Erm, why would he ask that?

Warily, I glimpsed at him, thinking that he couldn’t have seen that I was searching for a way to erase his memory, could he?

“You were very drunk yesterday.”

After a pause, I let out an ‘Ah!’ of realisation. He had meant the drinking.

However, my brain went blank at his question and I couldn’t come up with any good reason. After all, I led an eat-and-sleep kind of lifestyle and was far from needing to escape reality with alcohol.

My eyes flickered some more before falling on the edge of my bedside table. There were many pictures, laid out in a fan shape.

Aren’t those the matchmaker pictures that my relatives forced on me yesterday? I wondered. Why are they here?

I lifted my head to discover that Pokerface was looking at them, too. I mauled it over in my head and reached a conclusion: they must’ve fallen out of my pocket when he took my clothes off yesterday.

What should I say about Pokerface? Normally, he would not even give two s.h.i.+ts if the sky was falling down but he could be meticulous and find your vulnerability without much effort.

If it were any other occasion, say the pictures had fallen out when I was walking and he asked if anything was on my mind after picking it up for me, I would surely say, ‘Oh you know, it’s just the elders trying to get me married. Same old annoying s.h.i.+t.’

But not even I could convince myself with a weak response like this. I couldn’t just act like we were acquaintances who b.u.mped into each other on the streets. He and I, we were completely naked and snuggled together under a blanket. I still remembered very clearly the question last night that had wound itself around my head like a hunting net and kept repeating itself as my gla.s.s got filled and emptied again and again.

I must ask while the going is good.

I moved my gaze back and my senses were coming to attention. Only then did I notice just how cold he was. Could it be that he cooled down because I had hogged the blanket to cover myself?

“The moon cakes you brought yesterday, you said it was…you know…” I stuttered a bit.

I let go of the blanket I had gripped tightly in my hands and clumsily wrapped my arms around him.

“I bought it,” he answered straightforwardly.

I watched him in confusion. “But I thought you said-.”

“The clerk didn’t take the money.”

He sounded so matter-of-fact that I first gaped at him before exclaiming, “Woooow.”

The moment I understood what he had meant, I started to scream profanities in my head.

s...o...b.. That d.a.m.n s...o...b..

I immediately recalled a bet I had made with Fats. The basis was that we garnered a lot of attention from most women—younger ones mostly—who walked past us. Of course, we attracted attention because of the bags and equipment we hauled around, but we also did when we went out for a simple meal. Due to the fact that most of the looks were aimed in my direction, I had thought that the ladies were looking at me. However, Fats was very insistent that they were after Xiaoge, not me, and that it was only because I just so happened to be standing near Xiaoge, so I shouldn’t take credit for someone else’s work.

I refused to believe him, of course, thus I made a bet with him. One time, when we were out buying coach tickets, I walked faster on purpose, leaving Pokerface far behind. He just kept walking with his mind on some other planet and even crashed straight into several ladies along the way. Still, their smiles were plastered to his back, as though his confessions of love were written on it. Consequently, I had to pay for a feast at Louwailou.

Now, this drunk scandal at Full Moon House…

I wished I could have flipped the table last night or at least bit him harder. Although, strictly speaking, he had not lied to me. He had wanted to pay: he bought it. It was just that the clerk didn’t take the money: it was a gift.

“So I suppose the clerk was-.” A young lady or a mature obasan.

Before I could get the rest of the sentence out, he pressed a finger to my lips.

As my eyes followed his finger, I became cross-eyed. In one movement, he pried open my lips and studied them. I couldn’t tell what he was contemplating about. Just as I was about to ask, his fingers crawled up my cheeks like a daddy long leg and pulled. Instantly, the distance between us went from a foot to zero.