5

The next day

​At the sound of his alarm Yang Qiu opened his eyes. Oh… It's my birthday today… 

He sat up and realized he was still hugging the teddy bear. The events from the day before flooded his head, creating a smile on his face.

Suddenly he felt energized, getting ready quickly and heading out the door in record time.

​As he approached the restaurant, he slowed down his pace. 

Just as Yang Qiu was passing the door, Chen Xia came bursting out with his clothes and hair still messy. 

​As he watched the chaotic figure rush toward him, Yang Qiu couldn't help but let out a little laugh, stifling the rest as well as he could. 

"GEGE!" Chen Xia enthusiastically ran across the streettowards Yang Qiu. 

Yang Qiu's eyes lit up and began to wave at Chen Xia, but realized Chen Xia didn't seem to be slowing down.

Chen Xia suddenly jumped into Yang Qiu's arms, clasping him tightly in a hug.

"Woah!" Yang Qiu was pushed back a few steps.

"Happy birthday Gege!" Chen Xia lifted his head to look at Yang Qiu.

Caught off guard, Yang Qiu froze for a moment. As he recovered his senses, he felt a warmth spread throughout his chest. 

"Thank you, Chen Xia!" 

"Hehe." Chen Xia grabbed onto Yang Qiu's arm and together they walked along the road heading towards school.

​After class the boys went back to the restaurant. Chen Xia pulled Yang Qiu to his room and took out his toy box. 

​"Since it's your birthday, you should choose what we play with today! Or if you reaaaly can't choose, I can choose for you, hehe." Chen Xia motioned for Yang Qiu to sit next to him.

"You can choose." Yang Qiu sat down onto the round carpet. 

"Hmm…. Well then, let's play with dinosaurs!" Chen Xiapulled out a couple of dinosaur figures from his toy box.

"You choose which dinosaur you like the most!" Chen Xia expectantly held out the figures towards Yang Qiu.

Yang Qiu looked at the dinosaurs in Chen Xia's handsand picked up one of them that had a small and stout body covered in green spots. 

"These are really cool, Chen Xia!"

"I know, right? These were presents mom and dad got me for my birthday last year… maybe from now on we can celebrate our birthdays together. That would be so much fun! That is if you want to, of course." Chen Xia realized he still needed to consider Yang Qiu's opinion.

"That does sound fun…" Yang Qiu felt a sense of excitement at the prospect of being able to celebrate his birthday with Chen Xia again in the future. 

"Hehe let's do it then! Starting now, we will celebrate all our birthdays together." Chen Xia then happily started moving the dinosaur figures around the carpet. Seeing that Chen Xia had already begun to play, Yang Qiu didn't replyand joined Chen Xia in clashing the figures together.

​At dinnertime the boys entered the dining room and saw that the table was full of colorful, steaming dishes. There was a small bowl of noodles in front of each chair, as well as a plate of pork belly, a bowl of egg drop soup, and a large assortment of other vegetables and meats.

"Woah! There's so much food!" Chen Xia was ecstatic.

Slightly shocked at the sheer amount of food on the table, Yang Qiu sat down nervously and looked across the table in time to see Chen Xia's parents walk in.

"Happy Birthday, Yang Qiu! We prepared a couple extra dishes. It's not much, but we still felt like you should have something special for this day." Mr. and Mrs. Chen looked at each other as they walked in. I hope he doesn't mind that we are doing so much in place of his parents…

"This is too much… Thank you so much." Yang Qiu felt extremely moved.

"Don't worry about that! Since Xiaxia's birthday is so soon, we thought it would be nice if you boys could celebrate together. We cooked a lot for the both of you!" Mr. Chen was happy to show off his handiwork.

Hearing this, Chen Xia looked over at Yang Qiu meaningfully. 

"Gege! It seems like our parents want us to celebrate together too!" Chen Xia whispered.

"Dig in, boys! Eat before the food gets cold!" Mrs. Chen chimed in. 

When they were nearly done eating, Chen Xia suddenly stood up. "I need to go to the bathroom. I'll be back soon!" And so, he promptly left the room half walking and half running; a rather funny sight to see.

Yang Qiu held back a giggle.

Just then, Mr. Chen stood up as well. 

"Oh wait, I think I might have forgotten to turn off the stove. Let me go and check." Mr. Chen left the roomhurriedly as well.

Worried, Yang Qiu frowned and looked towards the door. 

"Don't worry honey, I'm sure he's just being paranoid." Chen Xia's mom had a hint of a smile in her eyes as she tried to comfort Yang Qiu. 

"I'll go check on him though. Sorry to leave you alone here… I'm sure Chen Xia will be back soon. As long as he hasn't fallen into the toilet, that is!" Mrs. Chen looked Yang Qiu with a smile.

Yang Qiu let out a laugh. Chen Xia is so clumsy, it wouldn't be hard to believe if he really did fall in the toilet, haha.

"You should do what you need to do, don't worry about me," Yang Qiu said.

"Haha thank you Yang Qiu, I'll be back in a second." 

Once Mrs. Chen left, Yang Qiu sat alone in the dining room.

Suddenly, a feeling of loneliness washed over him. How odd, they all just left. Are they sick of me? Have I been too burdensome lately? I really have been coming over often… Chen Xia was acting so welcoming that I forgot how odd it is to spend so much time at a friend's house…

Just as Yang Qiu started to get anxious, the light in the room suddenly went out, leaving Yang Qiu in darkness.

Scared, Yang Qiu sat still, but was extremely nervous inside. 

Seconds later, he saw an orange glow in the corner of his eye, and looking over he saw a cake with a candle that was giving off the glow. Behind the small flame was Chen Xia's face that was glowing in the orange light.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Yang Qiu… happy birthday to you!" 

Chen Xia slowly walked over as he sang and placed the cake in front of Yang Qiu carefully. 

"Gege, let's make birthday wishes together!"

Chen Xia sat back down next to Yang Qiu, clasped his hands together, and closed his eyes. Yang Qiu similarly put his hands together and closed his eyes. After a moment, Chen Xia began to count.

"1… 2… 3…" The two boys opened their eyes and blew out the candles together.

As the candle went out, the light in the dining room came back. Looking over, Yang Qiu saw Chen Xia's parents standing in the doorway with warm smiles on their faces.

"Happy birthday, Yang Qiu! And happy early birthday,son." Mr. Chen congratulated.

"Thanks, dad!"

"Thank you, Mr. Chen!"

Feeling the sincerity and warmth given to him by the Chen family, Yang Qiu's previous anxiety began melting away too. The relief was enough to make his eyes tear up a little.

"Thank you so much… for everything. The cake is so pretty..." Yang Qiu choked up a little.

"I was so scared I was going to drop it, haha! Wait… gege! Don't cry! It's your birthday, you shouldn't be crying!"Chen Xia started rambling, flustered at the sight of Yang Qiu's tears.

Yang Qiu turned his head away to wipe his tears.

"I'm not sad… actually I'm so happy that tears came out," he mumbled. 

Chen Xia's parents laughed, walking towards the emotional boys. 

"Come boys, let's cut up the cake! I bet you're excited to try it!" Mrs. Chen said enthusiastically.

"Yes! I want cake!" Chen Xia had chosen his own favorite type of cake, so he was excited.

As they enjoyed the cake together, Yang Qiu couldn't stop the corners of his lips from curving into a smile. This is the best birthday I've ever had!

​After they had finished eating, Yang Qiu went to get his backpack to get ready to leave. 

After he got all of his belongings, he went to look for Chen Xia. He couldn't find him anywhere though, so he went to Chen Xia's parents instead to thank them and say goodbye. 

Yang Qiu walked into the kitchen where Mr. and Mrs. Chen were washing the dishes together.

​"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Chen… thank you so, so much for today. This was the best birthday I have ever had…"

"No need to thank us! Xiaxia's birthday is soon too, it was just like moving his celebration forward and including you as well! Having the two of you celebrate together is something we love to see as well!" Mrs. Chen smiled as she remembered the sight of the two boys eating cake together. 

"Yes, don't be so courteous! It should be the two of us thanking you for being such a great friend for Xiaxia." Mr. Chen also felt the relationship between the two boys was very endearing.

"Chen Xia is easy to be friends with, so there is no need to give me so much credit…" Yang Qiu was slightly embarrassed at all the praise. "By the way… do you know where he is?"

​"Oh? Is he not here? Hmm…" Mrs. Chen thought for a moment. "Ah, he must be hiding in his closet. Usually when he disappears, he is hiding in his closet. That's his secret spot that he goes to when he is upset, though I'm not sure what happened to make him unhappy..." Mrs. Chen frowned. He was so happy just a few minutes ago! What happened? "Here. I will take you to find him."

Yang Qiu followed Mrs. Chen back upstairs to Chen Xia's room. She knocked on the door. 

When she got no response, she slowly opened the door and walked in. She went over to the closet and knocked on the closed door. 

"Xiaxia… are you there? Yang Qiu is here to say goodbye!"

"Hmph."

"What's wrong? You were having so much fun togetherjust a little while ago…" Mrs. Chen's voice carried a worried tone. "Yang Qiu is here right now. Will you come out and say goodbye?"

After a moment, a sniffling sound appeared coming from inside the closet.

Then after another moment, Chen Xia began to cry. Mrs. Chen opened up the closet door gently and pulled Chen Xia into a hug. 

"What's wrong?"

"I-I don't w-want Gege t-to go! Can't he s-stay the night?" Chen Xia managed to say through a series of sobs and hiccups. 

Still standing outside the doorway, Yang Qiu felt like the situation was a bit awkward and flushed a little. 

"Well…" Mrs. Chen looked over at Yang Qiu. "Yang Qiu, do you want to sleep over tonight? It is getting late anyway…"

"Um… If that's ok with you and Mr. Chen…" Yang Qiu didn't want to see Chen Xia cry. Plus, this would be his first ever sleepover, and it was on his birthday too! He himself wanted to stay over as well. 

"But of course we would be willing to let you stay." Mrs. Chen was quite relieved that she would not need to spend the night coaxing and comforting her son. Chen Xia immediately stopped crying and looked up. 

​"You'll really stay?" He sniffed and looked at Yang Qiu with an expectant look in his swollen eyes.

​"Mhm." Yang Qiu was getting more excited each second.

"Well then, boys, you can play for a little longer. But after that, go get washed up and get ready for bed, okay?"Mrs. Chen let go of Chen Xia and motioned for Yang Qiu to come inside the room.

"Yes mom!"

"Thank you, Mrs. Chen!"

"Of course! You boys have fun." Mrs. Chen smiled and left the room.

​Once they were alone in the room, Chen Xia felt quite a bit of embarrassment.

"Sorry for crying, even though it's your birthday,Gege." Chen Xia looked down with his eyes and nose still red from crying.

"That's okay! I cried earlier too, remember?" Yang Qiu tried his best to comfort Chen Xia.

"…Can I hug you?" Chen Xia asked while sniffling and wiping his eyes.

"… Of course."

They hugged for a while as Chen Xia buried his face in Yang Qiu's shoulder. His eyes are swollen…

"Thank you Gege, I'm so glad you're staying today!" Chen Xia turned his face up and looked at Yang Qiu while still clasping tightly onto him. 

"I'm excited too." Yang Qiu smiled bashfully.