Chapter 34- The Talk. Take Two. Kind of.

By the time Hao Mei realised that they had, once again, left work in the middle of the day, it was too late to go back in. The damage had been done and even though Mei had sent Xiao Nai a text apologising he couldn't help feeling guilty. He wasn't meaning to take advantage of the fact that his boss was also one of his closest friends... it just kept turning out that way. It's not my fault!!! He sighed and buried his face in his hands. Why did he get the feeling he'd been thinking that a lot lately?

All night, his phone had received a near constant influx of texts. Initially they had just been from Yu Ban Shan and Qui Yong Hou, touching base and making sure he hadn't killed KO, and vice versa. It appeared as though getting no response from Hao Mei had given them the green light to share the story with the rest of the office; his phone had vibrated non stop with messages from everyone in the office until he'd finally gotten tired of it all and turned the damn thing off. Of course, that hadn't stopped anyone and all the messages had been there waiting for him this morning. To make matters worse, the messages had encouraged KO in his teasing.

From the moment Hao Mei had dragged himself up the stairs and into the office, KO had been not-so-subtly pushing his agenda. Everyone in the office thought it was a great joke and their teasing and ribbing kept egging KO on.

When he turned his computer on and discovered that his password had been changed; "Marry me." (One word, no capitals and he noted that there was no question mark at the end- arrogant bastard.)

When he asked KO to send him the updated patch so he could adjust the coding; "Say "yes" first."

When he got up to get a drink and asked the rest of the programming team if anyone needed anything; "a marriage licence."

He slumped forward in his seat, hiding his face in folded arms. Diagonally opposite him, KO lounged back in his computer chair, barely restrained humour making his eyes dance despite the lack of expression on his face. Around Mei, hemming him in from all sides, were Yu Ban Shan, Qui Yong Hou, Wang Wei, and Li Qiang... all pestering him about when he was going to take responsibility and set a date!!!!

The ding from the elevator was like a life line and Mei bolted towards the doors- Laosan and Saosan would save him!

"Laosan, you're finally here! As soon as he got here, KO started harassing me!"

Bei Wei Wei's eyes sparkled. "How is he harassing you?"

She cleared her threat and tried again, lowering her voice so she didn't sound quite as excited. "Hao Mei, how is he harassing you? Tell us all the details. Don't leave anything out."

Xiao Nai pinched her side and she flinched slightly, gave him a dirty look and then continued. "We'll definitely uphold justice for you."

The by-play hadn't gone unnoticed by Mei but he wasn't going to say anything when he finally had someone on his side.

"He insists that I log on to that old game and pair up with him."

"How can he do that? That's absurd." Wei Wei shook her head at KO's actions but laughter was starting to creep back in to her voice.

"Exactly." Mei just knew that Saosan would support him. "He said that he was ridiculed before so he insists that I make up for it."

He could help pouting at the injustice of his situation. All he could complain about to everyone was KO's insistence on marrying him in the game- he couldn't fully explain that he'd initially thought it was a real proposal, or that KO was enforcing a celibate life until he agreed. All he could do was grumble about the game... so he did. "So many people have come and gone from the game- what's the point of doing that now?"

Wei Wei abruptly changed her tune. "KO is right too. You were the one who toyed with his feelings back then. You have to take responsibility for it."

Mei gaped. What just happened? He turned to Xiao Nai.

"Laosan, you have to stand up for me!"

"This is good." Rather than acting outraged on Hao Mei's behalf (if he was honest, he didn't actually expect outrage from Xiao Nai but at least a token amount of shock would have been nice) Xiao Nai smiled and nodded his head. "I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep KO here after a year. Now I don't have to worry anymore."

The traitorous couple exchanged smiles while Mei stared at them both in horror. What was this? A conspiracy with laosan at the helm? "Laosan, you're so heartless. You want to marry me off?"

"I'll give you a bonus."

"I'll sell myself for 1000 yuan." Mei threw the figure out there- it was the extra he needed to buy the leather jacket he wanted, so it was worth a try. To his surprise, Xiao Nai nodded.

"Yes!" He celebrated for a moment before realising that he'd just inadvertently agreed to marry KO in the game. Admitting defeat, he ran to lean against KO's desk.

"KO, let's pair up later. I'll treat you to dinner tonight."

Wang Wei shook his finger at the fickle Mei. "Hao Mei, you have no integrity at all."

Mei shooed him off. "Get back to work."

As the others wandered off to their own desks, he looked down at KO. "Okay? Happy now?"

"1000 yuan?"

"What?"

"You had to be paid to marry me in a game?"

"Call it lao po ben." Mei scowled at the other man who was currently refusing to make eye contact. "And yes. I had to be paid to marry you in a game." (A/N: lao po ben = the amount of money a man needs to be able to marry.)

"Then I don't..." KO's response was lost as You Ban Shan called out to Mei.

"Sissy Mei, I want to be treated to dinner too. If you really can't afford it, you can just give me wedding candy."

"Go away." Mei folded his arms and glared at his eldest brother. He loved the guy, but right now he wished he could take a page from laosan's playbook and tie Ban Shan to a pillar so he could stab him a thousand times with a blunt knife.

"We'll have a programming team meeting later." Xiao Nai's announcement distracted Ban Shan, who soon turned his attention to teasing Wei Wei, leaving Hao Mei and KO alone. In silence.

A silence that continued throughout the programming meeting. Hao Mei was his usual, chatty self but he didn't make an effort to draw KO in to the discussion and KO simply reverted back to his best impression of a terracotta warrior. When the meeting finished, Xiao Nai called Mei in to his office.

"What's going on?"

"What?" Mei feigned a deep interest in the cactus blooming on Xiao Nai's desk.

"You and KO. What happened?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?" Xiao Nai pushed Mei onto the couch, leaving him to sit and think while he grabbed them a drink of tea. "Nothing looks an awful lot like something."

"It's nothing. Stupid. Nothing." Mei took the cup and smiled when he noticed that Xiao Nai had given him the cup with the Y Xiao Nai He avatar, keeping the red clad jia for himself. Not even willing to share her in cup form? He hid his smile behind a sip of tea.

"Stupid, huh?" Xiao Nai sat in silence next to Hao Mei for a moment. Just as Mei was about to start fidgeting, he spoke up again. "The in-game marriage."

"What about it?"

"What did he do?"

"What? Nothing." Mei looked in to his tea as if he could sink into it and avoid laosan's eagle eyes.

"He did something. Otherwise the two of you would have come in this morning joking about taking yesterday off to elope." Xiao Nai put a hand on Mei's shoulder. "So, what happened? Why were you balking?"

Mei sighed. "Marry me..."

"Huh?"

"That's what he said. "Marry me..." then just looked at me until I started to think he meant it. But he didn't." He leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. Damn it was embarrassing to be saying this to laosan, but at the same time he was relieved he had someone to talk to about it.

"What were you both doing when he asked?" Xiao Nai rubbed the back of his neck.

"Huh? Nothing."

"Nothing?" Xiao Nai smiled wryly. "Okay, you don't have to tell me... but I want you to look at me like you were looking at KO when he said it."

Mei squirmed.

"Come on. Just pretend."

"Fine. Hang on." Eyes closed, he tried to remember exactly how he was feeling at that time and let

it show on his face. For once, his modelling experience came in handy. When he opened his eyes and looked at Xiao Nai, it wasn't his laosan he saw, but KO.

"Mei..." Rubbing a hand over his face, Xiao Nai sighed and shook his head. "No wonder..."

"No wonder what?"

Rather than explain further, Xiao Nai simply patted him on the shoulder. "I think it's safe to say- when you looked at him like that... anything he said was what he really meant."

"Huh?"

"He was clumsy, and obviously didn't handle it well... but Mei, if Wei Wei looked at me the way you looked at KO... I'd have our wedding date set already." Collecting the cups, he put them on the bench before heading back to his desk. "Think about it, Mei... but make sure he asks you properly next time. You deserve that, at least."

Feeling slightly bemused and thinking he'd been taken by surprise, Mei nodded acquiescence and headed back to his own desk and the work piling up. How had Xiao Nai understood so clearly when he hadn't even explained properly? It wasn't that he objected to pairing up in the game... it was that for the brief moment he'd thought KO had truly proposed, he'd been willing to throw caution to the wind and jump off whatever cliff they were teetering on. Crashing back to reality had been painful and refusing to pair up in the game had become the only way he could express his frustration. He sighed and opened the program on his computer. There was a lot of work to do before he could head home- he had to make up for yesterday's disappearance.

Opposite him, KO watched Mei's thoughts flicker across his face. He was just about to approach the younger man when a message scrolled across his screen.

Laoda: <You idiot.>

KO: <What?>

Laoda: <"Marry me....?">

KO: <huh?>

Laoda: <"... in the game...">

KO: <oh.>

He sank his head on to his hands. All of a sudden, Mei's reaction made sense. He hadn't been able to understand why his cheery, good humoured Mei had been so stubborn about rejecting him... but the inflection that Xiao Nai had given the pause... it was starting to make sense.

Laoda: <fix this.>

KO: <yes Boss.>

He looked up, making eye contact with the man through the glass windows of his office. Both nodded at each other in complete agreement. The situation needed fixing.

Grabbing his phone, KO quickly sent Mei a text.

Text message to: E-Mei

<We still need to have that talk.>

Text message from: E-Mei

<I'm not shouting dinner.>

Text message to: E-Mei

<My shout.>

A throat cleared and KO looked up, making eye contact with Mei. The younger man nodded abruptly before turning his attention back to his computer. KO sighed. Looked like it was going to take a bit to get back in to Hao Mei's good graces... he better take him somewhere good for dinner.