jl/oyzz, “it’s not the first time i’ve been stood up”
Jin Ling passes by the boy waiting near the café and stops after a few steps to look behind him. No doubt possible, It’s Zizhen, still wearing that stupid dark red leather jacket he’s convinced makes him look cool, even though it’s early winter and he must be freezing. He’s also wearing a nice pair of jeans, and a rather stylish scar that probably isn’t very warm but does look very good on him. Everything about his outfit screams ‘on a date’. Normally Jin Ling would respect that and be on his way, but there’s just something a little off about the situation.
It might be how red Zizhen’s cheeks and ears are, as if he’s been waiting outside far too long. An impression enhanced by the way he hops from one leg to the other, like someone who has been standing for a while, or someone trying to get warm, or both. And in the few seconds that Jin Ling has been watching him, he’s already checked his phone twice, frowning at the screen each time.
It’s rude to interrupt a date, but there’s nothing wrong with checking on a friend waiting for his date, Jin Ling figures.
“Hey, Zizhen!” he shouts, walking toward the other boy who startles and shoots him a surprised look. “It’s been a while.”
“It has,” Zizhen agrees, still fidgeting with his phone but smiling. “How are you, Jin Ling?”
It’s hard not to grin smugly over the fact that, after six months, Zizhen still remembers his name. Jin Ling and him sat together all the time in that stupid class they shared last year, and they chatted a lot. Of course Zizhen wouldn’t have forgotten the reason he survived terminal boredom.
“I’m doing ok. A bit disappointed that you didn’t take professor Lan’s advanced class this year. I keep falling asleep without someone to distract me.”
Zizhen chuckles. “Yeah, sorry. I only took it for extra credits, and I don’t hate myself enough to deal with another year of that. Plus my dad really wanted me to take more business oriented classes this year. I fought to keep the creative writing class, but the rest had to be serious stuff.”
“I know a few people in creative writing,” Jin Ling noted. “Lan Sizhui is my cousin. Kind of? It’s complicated. And my actual cousin is in that class too, but he’s an asshole.”
“I know Sizhui, we get along pretty fine. There’s a lot of assholes in that class though. Which one is your cousin?”
Instantly, Zizhen grimaces and checks his phone again.
“Yeah, I think he’s a bit of an asshole,” he sighs. “We were supposed to meet here for a joint assignment two hours ago. I’ve texted him a few times, but he hasn’t answered. Posted on his instagram though. I thought he’d try to make it here when he’d be done hanging out with his friends, but I guess that was a little too hopeful of me.”
“You’re not dressed for homework,” Jin Ling says before he can stop himself.
He wants to slap himself for that remark, but Zizhen just laughs.
“Yeah, he’s an asshole but he’s kind of cute, I got a little hopeful. Oh, well. It’s fine. It’s not the first time I’ve been stood up. Not the first time I do a group project alone, either. I’ll just warn the teacher that Jin Chan didn’t show up and that’ll be it.”
Jin Ling wrinkles his nose at the idea that anyone might find Jin Chan attractive, in any way. To him, his cousin still looks like the pre-puberty monkey he used to be, and his personality certainly fits with that. Zizhen has shitty tastes, clearly.
Well, that’s something Jin Ling can work with.
“How about I keep you company for a bit?” he offers. “Just to make sure you didn’t catch hypothermia, dressed up like a stupid dandy when it’s bellow zero.”
Zizhen grimaces again, and puts away his phone.
“I don’t know. I really gotta work now…”
“I’ll buy your drink. You were stood up by my relative, it’s only fair.”
“Tempting,” Zizhen concedes. “But still…”
“And you can put pictures of the two of us on your insta,” Jin Ling adds. “Jin Chan can’t stand me, it’ll piss him off that you’re having fun not just without him, but with me.”
“Very tempting. Ok, fine. You pay for drinks, I buy us something to snack on. Deal?”
“Works for me,” Jin Ling agrees, amazed that his stupid idea worked.
If he’d known it would be so easy to get Zizhen on a date, even a fake one, he’d have tried ages ago.
