Dyed in Your Color

Taking a Selfie

Of course, that he had something to do was a total lie. Chase was not blind, after all. Setting aside the question of when or how these two met, it was obvious that Lance’s openness and solicitude towards Xian was the exception and not the rule. 

He was like a wild cat that Xian had somehow tamed, but it seriously didn’t seem like he would willingly sheathe his claws for anyone else.

“Too bad,” Lance said to Chase tonelessly.

Chase’s eyelid twitched. 'Cheeky bastard…' 

He watched Lance nod at Xian in farewell and Xian wave back with a smile. As soon as Lance was far enough away, Chase couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“What the hell?” he said, rounding on Xian. “What’s going on?”

Giving his usual careless shrug, Xian started walking in the opposite direction. “Just what it looks like,” he replied. “We’re friends now.”

That was indeed what it looked like to Chase, but he simply could not wrap his mind around how it happened. 

It wasn’t like no one else had ever attempted to befriend Lance before. Chase's own mother had once or twice mentioned how it might be a good idea for them to get close to other students from influential families, especially those from the more powerful ones like the Hill family of the White Mountains. It wasn't that he was being disobedient, but his own pride wouldn't allow him to approach someone who clearly didn't want anyone's company.

It was simply baffling how Xian had succeeded where countless others had failed, especially since his and Lance’s personalities were far too different. 

In the end, no matter how Chase mulled it over in his mind, it still didn’t make any sense to him.

***

Just as they’d agreed, when Xian’s class ended at noon, he went to the campus’ central park to wait for Lance on a bench under the shade. It was getting late into the summer, and soon, the cool autumn wind would be blowing, but for now, the sun at its peak was still quite hot.

He didn’t have to wait long. Not even two minutes had passed before Xian saw Lance approaching from a different building than where he had his class.

There were many others walking on the wide path, but though Lance was wearing a simple light-blue shirt whose hem was tucked inside his white, pristine-looking jeans, his height, looks, and aura really made him stand out.

That path might as well have been a runway with the number of looks and double-takes he was getting.

As to where Lance himself was looking, well… 

He too had spotted Xian while he was still far away, and since then, Lance had been looking right at him as he walked.

'Doesn’t he get self-conscious?' Xian thought. 

For his part, he’d managed to meet that intent stare for only part of the way before he could no longer stand it. Retracting his gaze, he stood up and pretended to dust himself while waiting for Lance to get closer.

But really, he was still looking at him from the corner of his eye.

When he could already hear the crunch of Lance’s footsteps, he finally looked up again and smiled at the approaching man.

“Yo. We haven't exchanged contact infos yet, right?”

Instead of answering with words, Lance looked down, pulled his phone from his back pocket, and handed it to Xian.

Once again, Xian found Lance and his actions to be unbearably cute. Chuckling, he let Lance lead him as they walked while he transferred each of their contact information to the other’s phone.

He couldn’t help but notice in the process that Lance’s phone still had the default background and that there were hardly any apps that weren’t originally installed there.

On the other hand, while Xian himself wasn’t too attached to his own phone, he’d at least changed the theme and the background to show a picture of him and his siblings in funny poses.

“Lance, here,” he said while handing back Lance’s phone. “I added my picture to your Contacts, but you don’t have any picture that I could add to mine. Let’s take a selfie, shall we?”

He didn’t really think about what he was saying before the words came out. It was only after he had gotten his phone ready to take a picture that he remembered just who he was talking to.

He quickly looked up at Lance. “...If that’s okay with you, that is.”

“I’ve never taken one before,” said Lance.

'Yeah, I kind of guessed…'  said Xian in his head.

But he answered out loud, “It's fine. I can take one of the two of us. You can just stand there.”

In response, Lance stopped walking and just stood there. Fortunately, they had reached a more secluded path, and fewer than a handful of others could still be seen some short distance away. This was a good enough spot for them to take a selfie undisturbed.

Holding in his chuckle, Xian stepped closer to Lance until there was almost no space left between them.

“This tiny circle here is the camera,” he said while pointing with the hand that wasn’t holding the phone. “Remember to look there, okay?”

After that, Xian placed the hand he’d been pointing with on top of Lance’s shoulder, the one that was closer to him, and began posing for the photo.

“Lance, are you properly looking?” he asked, not taking his own eyes away from the front camera.

“Mn,” Lance replied.

“Here we go, then. One, two—”

The shutter snapped and the picture processed. Xian saw it as soon as it appeared, and he immediately frowned.

“Lance, you weren’t looking!”

Lance gave the picture a glance, then resumed walking. “It’s fine,” he said.

“It’s not—! You weren’t looking!” Completely agitated, Xian followed him.

He really could not help but lose his cool. Because in the picture, Lance was not looking at the camera. He was looking at Xian.

How could he possibly use that picture for his Contacts?

That one’s destined for his private folder!

“Hey!” he called as he tried to catch up. “Let’s take another one! Hey!!!”