5 THE GOOD-FOR-NOTHING (1/2)

Hungry and exhausted from work, Xuan Tianmei opened the door to the two-bedroom flat she shared with her twin brother, Xuan Tianyi.

Xuan Tianmei was immediately confronted with the sight of Xuan Tianyi leaning against their worn-out beige sofa, watching TV. She guessed — not wrongly — that he had been at home all day and hadn't done anything at all. Silently, she prayed that he had had the sense to prepare something for dinner, or at least gone out to buy takeouts.

Xuan Tianyi lifted his head from the TV and watched her tired figure walk lazily towards him. ”Ah, Mei Mei. Are you back?”

Without giving him a reply, she eyed him warily and slumped into the armchair adjacent to where he sat.

”How was work?” Tianyi asked. Guilt, starting to worm its way into his mind, he added, ”You look tired.”

”Did you cook anything?” she asked, although the answer was now apparent to her.

”There was nothing to cook,” he said.

Xuan Tianmei frowned slightly and glared at him. ”So, you haven't had dinner?”

Xuan Tianyi shook his head while muttering a no.

”You,” Xuan Tianmei pointed at him accusingly. She then continued, ”If you don't make something for me to eat because you're lazy, that's okay. But what are you starving yourself for, what time is it now?”

Xuan Tianyi frowned. She was more upset because he hadn't eaten rather than because she'd come home to meet an empty table.

”If there's nothing to cook, why don't you just buy takeouts?” she asked, still nagging him.

Xuan Tianyi's frown deepened. ”I don't have any money on me.”

Xuan Tianmei sighed. Her voice softening, she asked, ”Why didn't you just ask me?”

”Asking you for money all the time, isn't that embarrassing?” Xuan Tianyi pouted.

”How's it embarrassing? I'm your jie. If I don't take care of you, who will?” she asked with a faint smile.

She didn't mind that he was jobless, she didn't mind giving him money, she just wished he got off the couch sometimes. It was frustrating to return home from work at 8 or 9 pm and see the glass you left on the coffee table in a hurry still sitting there when someone had been at home all day.

”Whose jie are you? I'm your ge,” Xuan Tianyi asked, frowning.

Although they had been told many times in the past that Xuan Tianmei was fifteen minutes older than Xuan Tianyi, and although Xuan Tianmei's actions had always seemed a lot more mature, Xuan Tianyi still refused to accept that Xuan Tianmei was older than she was.

He was jobless, and she took care of him and his needs a lot more than he did her, but he was a man while she was a woman. It only made sense to him that she acknowledged him as the elder.

Xuan Tianmei — who was happy whenever the topic of seniority was brought up — smiled.

She was the elder, she knew it and was sure he knew it in his heart as well.

Having the right to be referred to as the elder always gave Xuan Tianmei a sense of superiority and fulfillment. Most especially since she knew it was one of the things Xuan Tianyi — try as much as he might — couldn't take away from her. She had sacrificed her childhood and teen for him anyways. She was now sacrificing her youth for him. Don't talk about how she ceased being the most beautiful person in the room once he walked in.

”Okay, okay, fine, you're the elder,” feeling that's what the older one should do, she conceded. ”Let's go get something to eat.”

As she got her purse, Xuan Tianyi started to hurry to his bedroom.

”Where are you going?” she asked.

”To Comb my hair,” he said, pointing to the direction of his bedroom.

”Your hair is fine, just run your hand through it a bit,” she urged him, hunger and fatigue irritating her.

Xuan Tianyi shook his head adamantly. ”That won't do. What if I run into someone at the canteen?”

”Aren't you ridiculous, who can you run into at the canteen?” she asked. Like she suddenly recalled her brother's reputation, she added, ”That you haven't fucked yet.”

Xuan Tianyi smirked, and said, ”You can never tell.”

With that, he dashed into his bedroom.

***

Thirty minutes into dinner, Xuan Tianmei sat alone at a table for two in a canteen not very far from hers and Xuan Tianyi's apartment, chewing on the end of her chopsticks. Her gaze, trapped at the table opposite her where her twin brother Xuan Tianyi was sitting with his arms around the shoulders of a strange man.

She still couldn't fathom How Xuan Tianyi, who was sitting in front of her had disappeared to the table opposite her.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared eerily at her brother whose lips were so close to the stranger's ears, it almost looked like he was nibbling on them.

As Xuan Tianyi retracted his arm, he and his stranger turned around to look at her, and she instantly noticed that the stranger's face had become red from blushing.

She gave them a small smile, and they turned back around. At this point, Xuan Tianmei had to admit that her brother was a demigod. A promiscuous little demigod. He flirted with a guy wherever he found himself and in her memory, no one had ever turned him down. If he wasn't a god, there was no explaining how else he did it.

***