61 THE DESPERATE DOG (1/2)

Several calls and text messages later, Cheng Jian finally showed up at the outdoor restaurant Xuan Chaya had asked to meet him. Xuan Chaya waved him over to his table.

\”Hi,\” Cheng Jian said with a small, polite smile as he sat down. His ears were a crimson red. Perhaps from excitement, perhaps from anxiety. Whatever it was, it gave Xuan Chaya a sense of relief. He wasn't the only one who felt strange after all.

\”Hi,\” Xuan Chaya replied.

\”Did you wait long?\” Cheng Jian asked. He had felt a sense of security when Lan Haiyang had asked him that same question before. It just felt right to ask.

\”It's okay,\” Xuan Chaya smiled and shook his head politely. \”I didn't mind the wait one bit. Moreover, my dad always says, 'In desperation, a dog will leap over a wall.'\”

Cheng Jian smiled at Xuan Chaya's proverb. As he didn't know how to mince words, he asked outright, \”So, you're a desperate dog?\”

Xuan Chaya nodded. \”Basically.\” He lifted his hand and gestured for a waitress.

The waitress approached their table swiftly and took both of their orders.

Cheng Jian glanced at Xuan Chaya curiously. The last person he met who spoke in proverbs was his mother. \”Did you grow up in China? I'm surprised that someone who looks so... 'Foreign' can speak and type Chinese fluently. You're even speaking proverbs.\”

Xuan Chaya smiled and scratched his left ear. \”Actually, I grew up in America. But my dad didn't fail to instill Chinese values and cultures in him.\”

Xuan Chaya stopped to nod at the waitress who had brought their meals to the table. He continued, \”He got me a mandarin teacher when I was little and up until today, I don't think he has spoken up to ten English words to me.\”

\”That's cool. Your dad is an admirable person. Once some people leave China, they almost always forget where they come from.\”

Xuan Chaya shook his head. \”Not my father. My mum... She's American, but she spent some time in China. College and work. She's very fluent in Chinese as well. It made things a lot easier, I guess.\”

Cheng Jian pointed his chopsticks at Xuan Chaya. \”I'm guessing you got your beautiful eyes from her.\”

Xuan Chaya nodded and scratched his left ear from embarrassment. A lot of girls had told him he had beautiful eyes before. And those were all girls who were either sleeping with him or wanted to sleep with him. His brain had learnt to associate the compliment with flirting. While Cheng Jian didn't have a single lascivious look on his face, the compliment still made it feel like he had been flirting. Being raised by a woman who was actively pro-LGBT, Xuan Chaya didn't have a single homophobic bone in his body; hence, any feelings of disgust were far away from his mind. Instead, what he felt was flattery.

However, when Xuan Chaya blushed, only the tips of his fingernails turned red. He would forever be grateful for that as it had saved him a lot of embarrassment in the past. \”Yes, I got my eyes from her.\” He replied.

They both ate in silence.

As the silence started to become a bit uncomfortable and awkward, Xuan Chaya spoke. \”I wish you'd let me pick you up from work like I said I wanted to.\”

Cheno Jian chuckled. \”Then... You'd have caught me smelling like popcorn. I didn't want you to catch me like that the first time we met.\”

Xuan Chaya paused. The words Cheng Jian said, they all seemed like flirtatious words. But this person still didn't look like someone who was flirting. In case he was, Xuan Chaya couldn't help thinking it would be embarrassing if he didn't flirt back. With a smile, he said, \”I love popcorn.\”

\”I don't.\” Cheng Jian said bluntly.

The blunt reply stunned Xuan Chaya. Maybe Cheng Jian wasn't flirting with him afterall. Also, he'd never met anyone who didn't like popcorn. \”You don't?\”

\”No.\” Cheng Jian said. \”The good news is that even I find it strange that I don't.\”

Xuan Chaya chuckled. \”Why?\”

Cheng Jian shrugged. \”Because everyone likes popcorn.\”

Xuan Chaya nodded in agreement.

\”I do eat it,\” Cheng Jian said. \”But I can never eat a lot of it. So, I never spend my money on it.\”

\”I see.\”

\”Yes,\” Cheng Jian continued. \”Unless when I was little. My mum loved it so, if I had extra money on my way back from school, I always bought her some.\”

Xuan Chaya smiled at that. He always loved it when people took care of their mother.

\”Oh God!\” Cheng Jian cried.

Xuan Chaya looked at him and saw his eyes were fixed on his chopsticks. He had picked up some food from his bowl and the limb of a cockroach was entangled in it.

\”God, is that...?\” He raised his hands to call the waiter but Cheng Jian stopped him.

\”These people work so hard for their living,\” Cheng Jian said. \”Don't make things difficult for them. Just settle the bill so we can go.\”

Xuan Chaya gave him a small smile. He liked reasonable people and Cheng Jian seemed to be one of those. He called the waitress' attention, settled the bill and walked away from the restaurant with Cheng Jian beside him.

\”I completely lost my appetite after that.\” Cheng Jian chuckled.

\”I'm sorry I took you to such a place.\” Xuan Chaya scratched his left ear.

\”Why are you sorry? You didn't know that would happen.\”

\”It's just that I could have taken you to a better restaurant. But I thought that since you've been indoors working all day, you might enjoy eating outside. With the fresh air and what not.\”