Renewed Camaraderie

For a split second, Wen Rui thought that it was a mirage. How many years had it been since he'd last seen Nacht's username light up in his friend's list?

Even after Nacht had ignored all his PMs asking where he'd disappeared to, Wen Rui had still waited, coming on every night at the same hour they'd previously agreed on. It would even have hurt less if Nacht had PMed him to explain why he wasn't playing anymore. Wen Rui understood that maybe, to Nacht, he was nothing more than an online friend. But he'd truly considered Nacht to be one of his closest buddies, even counting his real-life acquaintances.

Guess it didn't matter to Nacht though.

With shaking hands, he clicked open Nacht's profile. This shadowmaster's equipment was still the same, outdated from many seasons ago. Wen Rui had memorised it by now, it was the best set of PvP gear back when they'd worked together to get it. But now it wasn't worth anything because of all the new updates.

But right at the top, in the bar that showed 'last logged on' status, it read: few seconds ago.

Wen Rui hadn't imagined it. Nacht had been there, just a hair's breadth away. If only Wen Rui hadn't spent so much time scrolling through Weibo, he might have caught hold of him.

His lungs felt heavy. A part of him resented Nacht for just disappearing like that. He'd been a big part of Wen Rui's formative years, Wen Rui had prioritised him over even Xu Mushen, refusing to stay back after junior high to play ball with his friends so that he could log on at their agreed time.

But a part of him just wanted Nacht back. He opened their private chat and stared at the empty box for a long, dazed while. They used to spend hours chatting over the in-game voice system so it wasn't like they would have a lot of chat records anyway. But even if they had, the system would have refreshed it by now.

Chewing on his lower lip, Wen Rui tried to decide what to say. There was no guarantee that Nacht was ever going to see his messages. Wen Rui couldn't even be certain that whoever had been online just a minute ago wasn't a hacker that had fled when he saw the account's friend log on.

But he wanted to try his luck anyway. What was the worst that could come out of it? He couldn't be more disappointed than he already was.

Lui: Hey

Lui: If you're back, PM me?

Lui: I'm still waiting

Wen Rui hit sent for that last PM and regretted it instantaneously. It sounded too clingy, like he'd spent all this time thinking about Nacht instead of moving on with life. The truth was, if it hadn't been for that spur of the moment decision to check out the updates of Elysium, he hadn't thought about Nacht in a long time.

But now that he was back in the game, the nostalgia was overwhelming. Wen Rui figured it could be because he was still trying to cling on to something old and familiar to him.

Oh well. What was done was done, the game didn't have a recall function for PMs.

The guild chat and his other PMs were already blowing up but he didn't feel the urge to play anymore. Mathias and the rest could wait for another day. Even if the PvP arena was now a vastly different game altogether, it didn't feel right for Wen Rui to use his priest to partner anyone else's shadowmaster. There were some things that had a sense of formality and this was one of them to him.

Perhaps he could use one of his alts but Lui was going to go into retirement unless that specific person replied his goddamned messages.

Swivelling his chair away from the screen, he ignored all the people trying to talk to him and pulled up his WeChat app. Xu Mushen's last text was recent, asking him if everything was okay. This left a warm, fuzzy feeling in Wen Rui's heart. No matter how far they'd drifted apart in the years he couldn't remember, he could still count on Xu Mushen to care.

Wen Rui twiddled his thumbs for a brief while before deciding to tell Xu Mushen about Nacht. It felt awkward broaching the subject like they were still two best friends in class who could chat idly about anything under the sun. But he wanted to tell someone and the only other person he could think of who might give him the time of the day was Zhou Ye.

Yep. Zhou Ye, of all people, was second on the list of 'friends to talk trash with'. Zhou Ye had proven that despite his impatient scowl, he was more at least not unwilling to listen to Wen Rui. But he didn't have any context about Nacht and Wen Rui didn't feel like explaining the whole sob story once again.

Wen Rui: I saw Nacht online

He factored in Xu Mushen's enviable life as a university student and assumed he wouldn't see Wen Rui's messages until much later. But to his surprise, he had barely switched apps to a MOBA that he was about to play to kill time when the notification with Xu Mushen's reply came.

Xu Mushen: ? Your gaming friend from 84 years ago?

Wen Rui's brows knitted together. He'd saved Xu Mushen's contact under such a serious name? How badly had they fallen out? Quickly, he changed it back to Old Tree, which made fun of the characters in Xu Mushen's name, before replying.

Wen Rui: He wasn't just my gaming friend, he was practically my gaming soulmate!!!

Old Tree: …yes, I recall, congrats on piecing the broken mirror back together (1), when's the wedding?

Wen Rui rolled his eyes. Xu Mushen hadn't stopped teasing him about this since he'd first heard about how close Wen Rui had become to this random shadowmaster he'd met on a raid once. When he'd been younger and stupider, Wen Rui had gone out of his way to defend his sexuality in a shrill, agitated voice. Straight boys could act gay with other straight boys without backlash, everyone knew that it was a display of confidence. Xu Mushen used to scoff and insist that Wen Rui was being overly defensive. Wen Rui used to retort with a politer version of 'fuck off' by tagging on the word 'please' in front of it.

But now, he didn't care anymore. He was just happy that Xu Mushen was still willing to joke around with him.

Wen Rui: Bit hard to say, I still have a case of runaway bride on my hands

He explained the situation, feeling a bit ridiculous at how immature he sounded. But he couldn't help feeling excited about potentially having an old friend back. This was possibly the one positive thing that had happened to him after the amnesia.

Okay, fine. One of two. It was nice to not have so much bad blood with Zhou Ye anymore.

[Good boy.]

The words sprung unbidden in his mind again. Wen Rui steadfastedly tried to ignore them. This, he wasn't going to share with Xu Mushen because something told him he wouldn't get away with just light teasing if he did.

Before he could redirect his brain towards more useful thoughts, his phone buzzed in his hands. Xu Mushen had given up waiting for a reply and had called. This was a habit he used to have in the past too, had always complained that it was because Wen Rui was too wishy-washy and took forever to come to the point. Wen Rui's counter argument for that was that he'd been taught about the importance of choosing his words wisely.

Although lately, he wasn't practising what he'd preached.

"Come out for dinner?" Xu Mushen said without preamble.

Wen Rui gaped for a bit. This was out of the blue and he'd already eaten. He patted his stomach and hesitated. If he wasn't in the entertainment industry, he would agree to seconds immediately. But he'd already had a whole meal before this and every kilogram he gained would look like ten on the camera.

"Um…"

Xu Mushen thought that he was hesitating about the going out into public now that he was a celebrity. "Haidilao on Yongshou Road. I should still be able to get the table that's tucked away in a corner, no one will notice you if you sit with your back towards them."

It sounded like Xu Mushen wanted to meet him. Wen Rui suddenly realised this wasn't about eating, it was about Xu Mushen's coldness towards him thawing and the chance to redeem a friendship.

"Okay," he said, cheering up. "Give me twenty minutes to get there."

"Perfect. Then you can tell me all about how to apply to be an honorary member of the YeWen fan club."

"…?!"