I had no idea what went on in Yan Dong’s head most of the time, but I really didn’t feel like overthinking it either.
In the end, I just nodded and agreed, packed up my things, and followed him to the living room.
“Hey Lin, you ever played Honor of Kings?”
“Yeah, but I’m not that good.”
“Good enough. I’ll play marksman, you play support and just stick with me.”
“Alright.”
The game’s loading sound suddenly rang out in the quiet living room.
Yan Dong sat back comfortably, cross-legged on the leather sofa, the expensive material creasing slightly around his knees.
Compared to him leaning back with his phone held up, totally relaxed, I walked to the other end of the sofa and instinctively sat upright.
I glanced over at the bronze hands of the clock on the wall.
It was exactly 2:30 PM now, which meant I only had to hold out for another hour and a half before I could head out to do deliveries.
“Don’t forget to grab marksman for me first.”
“Okay.”
“Pick any soft support and just stick with me.”
“Mhm.”
“Ignore the rest of the team. Just lie back and wait to win.”
I didn’t play this game much, but I understood the basics.
With this internet-addicted teen guiding me, as long as I didn’t screw up too badly, it should be fine.
Things went pretty much how I expected.
He managed to carry us to victory in every match. I just needed to coast along.
When the four-win streak announcement popped up, the bronze hand of the clock had just passed 3:30.
On the fifth game’s loading screen, Yan Dong, who had been lounging cross-legged, suddenly hunched forward.
His messy bangs fell over his eyes.
“You still kept the hair tie,” he said, his Adam’s apple moving with a swallow, voice so soft it sounded like he was talking to himself.
“What?”
“I thought you would’ve thrown away the hair tie I gave you.”
The hair tie he was talking about was the jasmine one he casually tied in my hair during lunch the day before yesterday.
It was a delicate jasmine-shaped accessory.
The reason I kept wearing it was simple: if I threw it away, I’d have to spend money to get another one.
After all, it’s not like Yan Dong and I had some blood feud or anything.
Even if I didn’t like him that much, there was no point in getting petty over a hair tie.
“You said if I dared to throw it away, you’d toss me into the moat to feed the fish. Plus, there’s no reason to throw it out, so I kept it.”
“Oh.”
Yan Dong replied absently and didn’t push the topic any further.
The two of us returned to silence, each focused on our phones.
Only the two cups of jasmine tea on the coffee table quietly released their gentle aroma.
So weird.
Why did he suddenly bring up the hair tie?
Come to think of it, he was oddly cheerful this morning at the hospital too.
Could it be…
No, probably not?
It must’ve just been a coincidence.
It’s hard to imagine someone as heartless as him actually caring about whether I kept a hair tie.
Just as I was lost in thought, Yan Dong unexpectedly spoke up again, and the moment he did, I almost lost it all over again.
“Hey, Lin Yunxia, about that call yesterday afternoon…”
“Stop. Don’t bring that up. It was way too embarrassing, I don’t want to think about it.”
“Alright, then I’ll pretend it never happened.”
“Good.”
“And about that hair clip…”
His eyes lowered slightly.
After a moment of hesitation, he finally said, “I admit I had a bit of an attitude.”
“Mm, I’m used to it.”
“Then…”
I wasn’t someone who liked to hold grudges, especially not over humiliating messes I didn’t even want to remember.
All I wanted now was to shove the whole thing into the garbage heap of history.
As for being mad at him later, that was entirely his fault.
If he’d said one decent sentence back then, I wouldn’t have kept fighting with him until now.
So if Yan Dong was ready to back down, I naturally wasn’t going to keep dragging it out.
And that hair clip that actually meant a lot to me?
Even if I gave it back, he probably wouldn’t remember to refund me anyway.
“The enemy jungler’s coming.”
I lowered my voice to warn Yan Dong beside me.
Out of the corner of my eye, I accidentally caught a glimpse of the bare stretch of collarbone exposed beneath his shirt.
Maybe it was because too much had happened over the past couple of days, but I instinctively looked away like I was hiding something.
Thankfully, Yan Dong didn’t notice anything strange.
He just suddenly straightened up and stared intently at his phone screen.
“You really think you can gank me? Watch me wreck you…”
His long fingers darted across the screen in a blur, but within two minutes, he leaned back with a groan, head hitting the cushion.
“Fuck! Ambushed.”
The dim screen reflected the fine sweat along his brow, and his Adam’s apple bobbed with a hard swallow.
Even though he’d misplayed and gotten killed, he actually looked more relaxed.
He even kept talking with me, casually bringing up the stuff that happened at the hospital earlier.
“At the hospital today, I…”
He hesitated slightly, the sound in his throat like snowmelt warmed by sunlight, clear, with a hint of softness.
“Actually, my mom was hospitalized a lot before she passed. I went too many times as a kid… I ended up kinda traumatized.”
“Mm.”
My finger hovered over the screen for a second before firmly pressing the recall button.
The scent of disinfectant from the exam room door seemed to rise up again, mixing with the never-fading cedar on him, it gave me a sudden, inexplicable headache.
I really didn’t want to know anything about Yan Dong’s past.
In fact, not just Yan Dong, since I was young, I’d always kept a respectful distance from everyone I met. It’s just that, compared to how I treated Yan Dong, I was more polite and courteous to others.
But after becoming a girl, my brain started paying attention to these things against my will, like every pore had become a vent for emotions I couldn’t contain.
The only comfort was that sometimes strands of hair would fall and act as a screen, shielding the flicker in my eyes.
“Were you crying back then? I think I heard you choke up a little.”
Back then?
Crying?
He was probably talking about when I was holding the phone.
My eyes slowly lowered, and before I realized it, a heavy, sticky melancholy had crept into my previously calm voice.
“No, I just suddenly remembered something upsetting.”
So much for thinking I’d kept it together just now, turns out Yan Dong had heard it anyway.
“Was it about your parents?”
His question made my fingers pause slightly.
Only when a strand of hair fell to cover the teardrop mole beneath my right eye did my fingertips mechanically resume sliding across the overheated phone screen.
“Young Master’s talking a lot today. The doctor said you’re supposed to be resting your voice after the extraction.”
He suddenly grabbed a nearby pillow and lazily tossed it at me.
“It’s not like I’m gonna tell anyone. Just treat it like talking to yourself.”
“Talking… to myself.”
…