Chapter 10- Be Careful of Your Choice in Reading Materials

Related to Episode 17 of Love O2O

A/N: The dialogue in this chapter comes from the series... the internal monologue of our protagonist is all me.

Something smelled nice. Hao Mei smiled in his half-asleep state and rubbed his cheek against the blanket under his head. The bed beneath him was firmer than his new one at home- in fact, he could swear he felt the slats of the base- but for all that he was surprisingly comfortable and actually felt ready to wake. He stretched, yawning as he asked "Where is this?"

Something pushed his leg back over and he bolted upright; the last traces of sleep dissipating as he realised that he really wasn't at home.

"The restaurant." In a chair at his feet, KO had obviously been napping and Mei wondered why he hadn't just put him in a taxi home.

"How come I'm sleeping here?" He looked around, noted the set up of the bed and the supply of bedding. "You live here?"

KO looked straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact. "When I don't have to open up shop, I live here."

"I'm sorry for sleeping on your bed."

"It's alright."

Tugging at the blanket he'd been sleeping in, Hao Mei suddenly pulled it up for a closer look. "Isn't this my blanket?"

"The last time you ate here, you said you were going to throw it away. I thought it was still okay, so I saved it." Nothing in KO's impersonation of a stone statue gave hint to any underlying meaning but Mei felt warmth spread throughout his body. For some reason, he liked the idea that KO was using the blanket he'd slept under for years. He fiddled with the blanket, tracing one of the stars to try and distract himself.

"It is still quite nice." Argh Hao Mei! What are you saying? He berated himself for resorting to inanities, blaming his fatigue for his lack of conversational ability. Rather, he wanted to blame his fatigue but it had mysteriously disappeared after such a short nap.

"Did you put some drugs in my food?" Eyebrows raised, KO finally looked directly at Mei, who felt the need to elaborate. "I've been feeling really tired lately. But now, I feel full of energy. Just like returning to the city and replenishing my health. tell me, did you add some medicine?" When KO just glared at him, Mei laughed. "Forget it. I'm just joking with you. Don't take it seriously."

He hid a smile from his friend. KO was too upright to hide something in his food; if he wanted him to take medicine he'd have given it to him and then stared menacingly until it was taken. It was just fun to tease him and with every small smile that he managed to finagle out of his friend, the more Mei decided to make that his mission; getting KO to smile openly at him.

"Is work tiring?"

"Do you get tired from cooking all day?" Mei gave himself a mental smack; again with the inane comments. "Let me put it this way. Sitting in front of a computer and coding all day is definitely twice as tiring as cooking all day. My brain is so tired, it's almost numb. My shoulders are sore all day. My spine is going to develop problems soon." As he moaned, Hao Mei was forced to acknowledge that he wasn't completely exaggerating. At the very least he wouldn't say no to a massage... but that thought led to a thought KO's hands on his shoulders and he almost touched his cheek with the hint of a memory... Thank goodness for KO paying attention to their conversation and not Mei's internal monologue.

"You can quit?"

Okay, maybe he hadn't made that much attention to Mei if he thought he could just quit over something as insignificant as tiredness. "No way. This is the career my buddies and I have joined together in. If I leave now, that would be disloyal."

"They're making you do everything?"

Mei was shocked. Was that really how it seemed? He knew he liked to whine but the thought that his whining could have been taken in such away made the alcohol in his stomach start fizzing. "That's not true! The work our Laosan does is two times as much as mine. Actually, if I think about it that way, mine is considered more balanced."

"Your... Laosan?"

"Yes. The one who came to eat last time. He's quite good-looking. The one on my right was his girlfriend."

"I didn't notice."

Didn't notice? How could he not notice Xiao Nai and the department beauty? On their own they were beautiful but together they should have rendered him speechless. It was why Mei never told Xiao Nai about his modelling job- it felt too much like playing with one's axe out the front of the house of Lu Ban. (A/N: showing off one's slight skill in front of an expert)

"Of course." Mei laughed. "He must have been hidden by my brilliance."

"Hmm."

A heavy silence filled the air as Hao Mei's mouth went dry and his heart thrummed in his ears.

"Did you just say 'Hmm'?"

The ever implacable KO simply nodded. "Hmm."

Mei's chest felt tight and he could swear that his face was flushing like a teenage girl. What kind of a script was this that a grown man could feel giddy over what was essentially a sound; not even a word! Nothing in KO's demeanour suggested any deeper meaning and Mei felt his heart clench. Maybe he was no better than a teenage girl with a one-sided crush. So quick to search for hidden meaning.

"A faithful friend is hard to find. Thank you, KO. The Hulk is now full of energy. I'm going to go back to slave away at the codes. Thank you for letting me sleep here. Bye bye."

He didn't wait for a reply, darting away before the situation became any more awkward. In the taxi on his way home, he continued berating his overactive imagination. Imagine if KO had been able to discern his thoughts? What would he do then? No, better to stop reacting and start thinking. Or just stop thinking altogether. His mind went to the half finished novel, by Yun Guo Shi Fei, waiting beside his bed. Definitely time to change his choice of reading material. A good night's sleep, in his own bed, and then he could drown himself in code tomorrow and stop overthinking a good friendship.