FLME Ch93

Chapter 093 – Childhood Friends IF Route: (3)

Afterwards, Xie Heyu got an earful from Xie Jialin.

It turned out that after Xie Heyu finished the phone call with Yu Wen, he left straight from the mall. When Xie Jialin turned around, his son was gone, and he was so startled he nearly called the police.

Xie Heyu said nothing, gripping the phone tightly without retorting, though his expression didn’t seem to show much regret.

Xie Jialin asked him what was so urgent that he had to rush back.

During this phone call, Yu Wen was right next to him. His phone was on speaker mode, resting on the coffee table. Yu Wen, feeling a little guilty, kept clutching the fabric on his knee.

Xie Heyu didn’t even glance at him as he calmly replied, “I left my homework at home. I can’t rest until it’s finished.”

Xie Jialin: “……”

The next day, all of Xie Heyu’s relatives knew that he was so immersed in his studies that he had gone a little overboard.

Xie Jialin called Yu Wen privately, sounding like a concerned father. He sincerely asked Yu Wen to get Xie Heyu to be more outgoing, to play more, to daydream less, and to be a little more reckless.

As someone who knew the truth, Yu Wen had to side with Xie Heyu and stick to the story. Looking back, Yu Wen realized that his skill in lying through his teeth probably started developing from this point.

He was given the task of playing the role of the “big brother” as best as he could.

On the way home from school, they passed by the riverbank. The summer breeze from the river felt cool. Yu Wen was riding his bike, chatting away as he scolded, “Little kids shouldn’t lie. Lying is wrong, we should be honest…”

The breeze ruffled Xie Heyu’s bangs, exposing his indifferent expression. He turned his head slightly and asked, “In your eyes, am I still a little kid in first year?”

Yu Wen said, “You’re younger than me, so of course, compared to me, you’re still a little kid.”

Xie Heyu let out a very faint scoff, neither warm nor cold.

Yu Wen was about to speak when suddenly, Xie Heyu’s fingers pinched the back of his neck, slipping under the collar of his shirt. Yu Wen instinctively shrank his neck, causing the bike to swerve erratically. He quickly scrambled to say, “Don’t pinch, don’t pinch! It tickles…”

Xie Heyu: “Who’s the little kid?”

Yu Wen couldn’t help but laugh, his hand reflexively grabbing at Xie Heyu’s wrist to stop him from pinching. He still had the upper hand, though, keeping the bike steady with one hand.

“I—I’m the little kid! Hahaha…” Yu Wen admitted, laughing uncontrollably. He was the most ticklish person.

Xie Heyu didn’t loosen his grip. Yu Wen reached for the slender wrist pinching his neck, trying to pry open the firm fingers. “So, why did you rush back? You made me lie for you…”

The river reflected the soft hues of the setting sun, and the streetlights had already turned on, casting long shadows along the road, like two tails following behind the bike.

Xie Heyu didn’t respond.

A long silence followed.

Later on, Yu Wen would sometimes wonder why such an ordinary birthday was worth Xie Heyu rushing back so far, just to give him a fleeting moment of romance with a sparkler that lasted only a minute.

Did the sparkler really matter?

Instinctively, Yu Wen felt it didn’t.

But he couldn’t fully understand the deeper meaning behind it.

It was like he knew that the phrase “Yu Wen’s birthday” wasn’t really about the “birthday” at all, but about Yu Wen.

But when he tried to think deeper, there was no clearer answer.

There were faint threads beginning to surface, linking various small details together. Beneath the surface, these threads twisted and intertwined, lying still, waiting for the moment they would burst free.

—

In Yu Wen’s memory, he and Xie Heyu rarely argued.

Xie Heyu had an unusual level of composure. Whether in his behavior or his way of thinking, he seemed cold, but people’s assessments of him always mentioned how good-tempered he was.

Of course, Yu Wen didn’t agree with this. He believed the reason they didn’t fight was purely because of his generosity.

He could pretend with Xie Heyu.

At first glance, there was nothing about Xie Heyu’s appearance that hinted at his childish and petty side.

Yu Wen was the only one who had witnessed this darker side of him.

And yet, he had no one to share his grievances with.

A few years ago, Yu Wen loved inviting his friends over to his house. As everyone knew, he had a lot of friends—enough to form several football teams. On the other hand, Xie Heyu didn’t like making friends, which was fine. But what annoyed Yu Wen was that, not only did Xie Heyu avoid making friends, he also tried to interfere with Yu Wen’s social activities.

The first time Yu Wen brought friends home was probably during the summer. A group of about ten little kids stormed in, creating noise that rivaled the cicadas in the trees.

Xie Heyu stood in the yard, watching the noisy bunch of little troublemakers without batting an eye.

Yu Wen got his friends settled and went out to invite Xie Heyu, only to find him motionless, standing there like a statue. His dark, intense eyes made the hot day feel suddenly cold.

Yu Wen said, “Xie Heyu, come play with us? Mom made mung bean drinks and little cakes. We’re having a party!”

Xie Heyu didn’t move. He waited until Yu Wen asked two or three more times before he slowly walked to the wooden fence and said, “How long are we playing? I haven’t finished my homework.”

Yu Wen waved him over and whispered in his ear, “Mom said we can only play until six, but it’s okay—she’s working late. We can play until eight or nine, hehe.”

Xie Heyu looked at him, his gaze unwavering.

They played all day. Xie Heyu didn’t seem to fit in, sitting stiffly at the edge of the sofa, his dark eyes occasionally following Yu Wen’s movements.

But when everyone went to the fridge to grab ice cream, Xie Heyu surprisingly stepped forward, pushing his way to the front. Grabbing the fridge door with authority, he asked everyone what flavor they wanted and carefully placed the ice creams in specific spots, as if he were the one in charge of the household.

He looked as though he were the head of the house.

The most surprising part was that he actually knew what he was doing.

After getting the ice creams, Xie Heyu turned to Yu Wen and said, “It’s five o’clock.”

Yu Wen, licking his ice cream with sugar syrup dripping down his chin, absentmindedly responded, “Oh.”

The two of them exchanged a look, but Yu Wen didn’t seem to grasp what Xie Heyu meant.

An hour later, Xie Heyu reported again, “It’s six o’clock.”

Yu Wen, seeing his serious expression, suddenly realized, “You still have homework to finish, right? You should go home. I won’t keep you.”

“……”

Xie Heyu climbed over the fence to go back. After returning home, he called Yu Wen’s mother on the landline without hesitation, as though he had made up his mind.

“Hello? Auntie, it’s Xiao Xie. Yu Wen’s still playing…”

That day’s fun was promptly ended. Yu Wen’s mother called and scolded him.

Yu Wen wasn’t dumb. He managed to get the truth from his mother through a casual conversation. He learned that the traitor who’d betrayed him was none other than Xie Heyu.

After the first incident, Yu Wen was determined to not invite Xie Heyu again. He carried a little resentment in his heart and, in front of Xie Heyu, he closed the door firmly.

But Xie Heyu didn’t leave. He stood by the fence, peering through the large living room windows, watching them inside.

He stood there, alone, his gaze filled with what Yu Wen could only describe as a kind of yearning. Yu Wen felt an overwhelming guilt, wondering if he had gone too far.

He held his breath, not wanting to speak to Xie Heyu. However, his observant friends noticed his attitude and, without asking, decided to call Xie Heyu in.

One friend went outside to talk to Xie Heyu for a moment, then returned, saying he was going home.

Another friend did the same—went out, had a brief conversation, and then grabbed his bag to leave.

They were like small bosses, falling one by one, each of them going out to “escort” Xie Heyu back.

Later, Yu Wen found out that Xie Heyu had said to each of them: “Did you finish your homework?”

After starting high school, Yu Wen still invited classmates over, but by then, Xie Heyu didn’t act so obviously anymore.

Instead, he would appear at just the right moment, making his presence known in the most subtle way possible.

Only then did Yu Wen fully understand—those “troublesome” actions of Xie Heyu, the complaints, the interruptions, all stemmed from a subtle sense of competition between their friendship.

It was petty, but that’s exactly how it was.

Yu Wen felt that if he told anyone about this, no one would believe him. Xie Heyu? The reliable, mature teenager who was two years younger but emotionally older than him by at least ten years? The term “childish” never applied to him.

Any rare petty behavior? It was all directed at Yu Wen. As the saying goes, “The darkest sides of us are always reserved for the ones closest to us.”

After coming to terms with everything, the first thing Yu Wen did was forgive Xie Heyu. He considered himself a magnanimous person, unlike the petty ones; the second thing he did was to tease Xie Heyu in front of him.

It was a weekend when Xie Heyu went out for his extracurricular class. As soon as Yu Wen saw him leave, he rushed downstairs, hopped on his bike, and chased after him.

“Xie Heyu, Xie Heyu——”

Hearing his voice, Xie Heyu quickly slammed on the brakes, one leg hitting the ground. As he turned to look, Yu Wen skidded to a stop on his bike and shot toward him like a little firecracker.

Xie Heyu’s pupils dilated. Instinctively, he raised his hand, but the force of the impact was too great. Both of them, along with the bike, collided into a tangled mess, and there was no time to regain balance.

Fortunately, it was winter, and they were wearing thick clothes. Falling wasn’t a big deal. Yu Wen rolled a couple of times in Xie Heyu’s arms, then sat up carefree, grinning and saying, “I got it! I know everything! You’re jealous, right? You mess up my gatherings because you’re jealous!”

Xie Heyu twitched his eyebrow. He had heard this line countless times, to the point his ears were practically callused from it. “I’m not jealous of your friends.”

They both stood up, and Xie Heyu pulled a wet wipe from his bag to clean the dust off Yu Wen’s sleeve.

“Nonono…” This time, Yu Wen dismissed him with confidence. “It’s not that you’re jealous I have friends; it’s that you’re jealous my friends get to hang out with me! In the end, you just don’t want to share me with anyone, right?”

“…”

Xie Heyu stayed silent for a moment. Yu Wen could see his hesitation in his eyes.

“…Are you out of your mind?” Xie Heyu replied, dryly.

It seemed like he was too lazy to entertain Yu Wen anymore, so he straightened his bike and started walking forward. Yu Wen, like a little bee, circled around him, chattering non-stop, “Don’t run away! Just admit it…”

When his mouth got dry, Yu Wen stopped to take a breath and asked, “What extracurricular class are you going to?”

Xie Heyu said he didn’t know.

Yu Wen widened his eyes. “You don’t even know what class you’re going to?”

Xie Heyu glanced at him.

“It was painting, but now I want to go for fitness.”

Yu Wen asked, “Why do you want to go for fitness?”

Xie Heyu: “In case someone throws themselves at me again, I’ll be able to catch them.”

Before their final year of high school, the biggest disagreement between Yu Wen and Xie Heyu was about these small, insignificant things.

But the biggest cold war between them occurred on the eve of their high school graduation—it was completely one-sided on Xie Heyu’s part.

He didn’t speak to Yu Wen for a full forty-eight hours.

If he had been a little more subtle, Yu Wen probably wouldn’t have realized they were at odds until they had already made up.

The cause of the cold war seemed to be a love letter.

For such a small thing, Xie Heyu used the trump card that he had only employed back in the days when they were little kids.

He called Yu Wen’s mom to complain.

When Yu Wen received the phone call from his mom, he felt more wronged than Dou E (a historical figure famous for unjust suffering).

“I didn’t receive any love letter! Who! Who’s spreading rumors about me!”

Without hesitation, Yu Wen’s mom sold out Xie Heyu.