Canceling At The Last Minute?

Old Lao and Gong Gong didn't have to worry, though. Nie Chang was completely preoccupied with his date anyway. Of course, it wasn't enough to just prepare the places they wanted to go. He needed to prepare himself, too! He had to make the best impression, after all. Thus, the rest of this day and the whole next day were spent on finding the perfect outfit, doing his hair and looking for a nice aftershave that was a little more unique so that Su Yan would always think of this first date of theirs when he smelled it.

Meanwhile, Su Yan was incredibly bored. He finally had time to write but … his System hadn't issued a new task yet. There was still the basic task of meeting the explorer and that crazy special task of pairing up people.

Su Yan didn't pay much heed to the latter. He was sure it was just a test to see who would make it past the difficulties in the beginning. Thus, he just used it when some people came into the store to browse around.

Surprisingly, there were quite a lot. He especially noticed that a lot of young women were swinging by these two days. Were women nowadays interested in computers and stuff? Maybe he should ask his 'sage' Nie Chang to teach him a bit. After all, wouldn't he be humiliated if he ever found a girlfriend and she knew more about technology than he did?

In the end, he didn't ask. Nie Chang seemed incredibly busy. Busy enough that Su Yan couldn't help but be a little worried. When Nie Chang closed the shop Friday evening he waited for him outside, pacing up and down while grimacing. He was really hyped up about going out tomorrow but … he also didn't want to be a problem for Nie Chang.

"Finished. Let's go." Nie Chang came over and naturally looped an arm around Su Yan's shoulder. Going to work together and bringing him home every day was really wonderful. By now, Su Yan wasn't finding anything strange about walking so closely. When they finally became a couple he shouldn't be shy about displaying how close they were in public. Mn, it was always good to be prepared early.

Su Yan took a measuring look at Nie Chang's face before looking away again. He repeated that process until Nie Chang couldn't help but grow restless.

"Is something wrong with my face?" He hadn't gone to get his new haircut yet and just arranged everything but he had already started to make sure that his skin was up to par when they went out. After all, who knew what would happen on their date? He couldn't risk that he got the chance to kiss the one he loved but everything Su Yan would think of would be something like 'Ugh. His skin's so rough! He'd better take care of that before he gets a girlfriend!' No, that couldn't happen!

"No, I was just thinking that you seem kind of busy these days?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you've been running around a lot the last two days and made a bunch of phone calls. You see I really look forward to our outing tomorrow but … if it's too much for you and you have work to do, then I would understand that you'd do that first. You've got to set priorities, don't you? So, it would totally be alright to postpone the outing."

"What?" Nie Chang stopped. "You … You're not getting cold feet, are you?"

"Cold feet?" Su Yan was puzzled. "Why would I get cold feet?"

Nie Chang grimaced. Yeah, indeed. Why would he? "Never mind. I'm not that busy. There were some things I wanted to take care of so that I'll be able to concentrate on you completely tomorrow. But it's nice that you're worried about me." He smiled at him.

Su Yan grinned. "Of course, I am! I have to take good care of my boss, after all."

"Your boss, mn?" Nie Chang raised his brows. He was starting to question if it had really been such a good idea to have Su Yan work for him. They spent more time with each other now but who knew if that heartless guy wouldn't use this chance to separate from him emotionally?

Su Yan seemed to pick up on Nie Chang's mood this time. "Eh, you're not mad, are you?" He stopped walking and pulled at Nie Chang's sleeve.

Nie Chang repressed a sigh. "Why would I be?"

"Mn … I'm not too sure about that but you just looked like it right now. Come on, don't be like that!" He gripped the front of Nie Chang's shirt and lightly pulled at it. "You are my boss now, after all. But it's not going to change that we're friends. You don't have to worry about that."

"Really?" Nie Chang looked down at the hands that were still gripping his shirt. Somehow, he already felt reconciled.

"Of course! How can you even ask that? We've been best friends for so long!"

Nie Chang smiled at this. So, his friend also thought of him as a very important per—

"Why would we want to change anything about that?" Su Yan really seemed puzzled by that.

Nie Chang's lips twitched. Alright. Maybe he wasn't that important to him. He shouldn't have gotten his hopes up. "Indeed. Why would we?", he could only repeat wryly. "Come on now. We better go home. Tomorrow will be a long day."

"Eh? So you've planned a lot, haven't you? What did you choose?"

Su Yan's curious gaze cheered Nie Chang up. He smiled at him and bent down, looking into his eyes intently. "I won't tell you!", he said slowly, enunciating every word.

Su Yan gaped. This … This terrible guy! Ugh! He'd pay him back!

Nie Chang had already retreated and continued on, pulling Su Yan along. He chuckled. Tomorrow. You'll see tomorrow, anyway. What's the rush in finding out? Just let me savor this anticipation a while longer.

Maybe … Just maybe we'll be a bit more than best friends in 24 hours.