PIANO

Piano: Italian dynamic marking for "soft"; keyboard instrument in which sounds are created by hammers striking strings when the corresponding keys are pressed.

◇ 

Yang Liu let out a tired sigh when a child spilled a bottle of milk on the floor of the convenience store. The child's mother scolded her child and apologized to Yang Liu, and Yang Liu could only nod expressionlessly.

After the mother and child walked to the cashier, Yang Liu headed for the storage room. The guy in jet-black hair came out of the room with a bucket filled with water in his left hand and a mop in his right.

Now, Yang Liu was able to adapt to his workplace. He could do the tasks he needed to do without having to wait for instructions from Manager Huang or Zhou Yongliang.

Ah, Zhou Yongliang... Yang Liu almost forgot about the weird student's existence.

The pale-skinned boy painstakingly dipped the mop in the water, squeezed it out, and immediately used the tool to clean up the mess that the little demon had made earlier.

Yang Liu concentrated on cleaning the pink milky mark, but his focus was a little distracted as he felt he was being watched. The tall, slender man snorted irritably before he straightened his body and glowered in one direction. To be precise, at the cash register.

"Your gaze bothers me! Can't you stop?"

Zhou Yongliang, who had been standing by and staring at Yang Liu, now straightened up and smiled broadly. "You can really feel my gaze, huh? How cool!"

Yang Liu rolled his eyes and continued to do his work. It didn't take long before he finished cleaning the floor and returned the equipment to its original place. As soon as he exited the storage room, Zhou Yongliang blocked his steps, just like a while ago. It felt like a déjà vu.

"Do you have a piano at home?" The brown-haired guy asked him out of the blue.

Yang Liu could guess where his question would head to. "I hope your pick-up line is more creative this time," he replied lazily.

Zhou Yongliang frowned at the reply. "It's not a pick-up line."

The response was unexpected, and Yang Liu was a bit surprised. He glanced at the shorter guy and asked, "If it's not a pick-up line, then what?"

"I want to play the piano, but there is no piano at school. Our school only has a keyboard, but I love playing the piano more. The sensation of playing the keyboard and the piano is different."

The explanation was a bit weird that Yang Liu subconsciously lifted one of his thick eyebrows. "So what if I have a piano at home?" He then asked.

Zhou Yongliang's round eyes suddenly brightened. The twinkle in those eyes stunned Yang Liu a little. He had never seen such bright and sparkling eyes before. He was jealous of the innocence.

"Of course, I want to play at your house if you have a piano! I aspire to be a famous pianist, in case you want to know."

Zhou Yongliang's happy squeal broke Yang Liu's reverie. He tried to control his expression and walked past Zhou Yongliang. "I will not allow you," he said coldly.

Zhou Yongliang did not give up. The cute boy trotted behind Yang Liu. "So, you do have a piano at home?" He asked excitedly. "Let me come visit sometime, okay? We can have a duet!"

Yang Liu suddenly stopped walking, causing Zhou Yongliang's forehead to hit his hard back. "Duet?" He asked innocently. "Why do you want to have a duet with me?"

Zhou Yongliang briefly rubbed his forehead which hurt a little, but then he smiled and replied, "Because I like your playing. You are the number 1 keyboardist in school, aren't you? I'm sure you are that good at playing the piano too."

Yang Liu did not respond. Instead, he continued to stare at Zhou Yongliang, who was still smiling broadly at him. 'Did this boy's lips not feel stiff when he kept smiling like that for a long time?' He thought.

Several minutes passed, and Yang Liu finally left Zhou Yongliang. The tall young man returned to his work, ignoring Zhou Yongliang, who was still persistently begging him to be allowed to visit his home.

He was checking the expired date of the items in the store. He tried to ignore the brown-haired boy's gaze who was still fixating on him.

"Oi, Yang Liu!" The owner of the name rolled his eyes when his ears caught the same voice over and over again. "Didn't you ride your motorbike to work? I don't see your motorbike anywhere."

Once again Yang Liu let out a tired sigh. "I took the subway," he lazily answered. He silently prayed in his heart for Zhou Yongliang to leave him alone.

But, God seemed to ignore his pray as he heard the shorter guy spoke once again. "Ah, that makes sense," he said. "The distance between Haidian and Tongzhou is so far, anyway."

Yang Liu rolled his eyes, but he did not utter any words to reply. His legs moved to another shelf to do the same thing as he did before.

'Why don't we have any customers at this time?' Yang Liu grumbled in his heart. It was better to service a customer than to hear Zhou Yongliang's nonsense.

"But, if you really took the subway to get here, how come I have never seen you at the station?" The round-eyed boy asked again.

Yang Liu's hands stopped moving. Of course, the shorter boy had never seen him at the station. He lied, anyway. He never took a subway to get here.

But, Yang Liu chose to ignore the question and started moving his hands again.

A customer suddenly came in, and Zhou Yongliang greeted him with a friendly tone. The customer was an old man, and he was talking to the brown-haired guy at the cash register. It seemed that he was a regular customer in the store. The customer bought a cigarette and left the store after paying.

"He is my landlord," Zhou Yongliang suddenly explained without anyone asking for an explanation. "He is my late grandfather's old friend. He is so kind to let me rent one of his houses in this district at a cheap price. His wife passed away a month ago, so he's a bit lonely now."

Yang Liu was still silent. He didn't understand why the new student in his class suddenly told him all of that information. That was not even important for him.

"Oh, I haven't told you that I live near this store, have I? It only takes thirty minutes to go to my rented house on foot." 

The black-hair guy frowned at the additional explanation. Walking for thirty minutes was quite tiring for humans. Moreover, that human had many activities from morning until night.

The store's glass door was opened again from the outside. Yang Liu thought it was another customer, but it turned out to be his other co-workers who would take over his shift tonight. Oh, it was already 10 pm. His shift was over now.

After breathing a sigh of relief, Yang Liu then walked to the staff room. Zhou Yongliang tailed behind him, but he ignored him like a plague. He then took off his uniform and slung his backpack. He was ready to go home tonight.

But, when he was about to walk to the staff room's door, Zhou Yongliang who was standing behind him suddenly called his name and said, "Be careful on your way home, Yang Liu. It's late already. If you meet with troubles, don't hesitate to call the police."

Yang Liu was a bit stunned after hearing the sweet words coming from his classmate's thin lips. There were not many people who sincerely cared about him in this world, so he was a bit touched by the brown-haired guy's caring words.

But, he then brushed off the feeling by shaking his head. He peered at the boy behind him and replied, "I'm not a kid." And he continued walking out of the staff room.

The narrow street in front of the convenience store was quite empty when he walked out of the store. He then continued walking to the narrow alley to teleport to his apartment.

But, he suddenly stopped walking when he sensed something was not right. Without turning his back, he knew that someone was tailing him. He then decided to change the direction of his walking. He was heading to the subway station now.