LVLYA

Chapter 15: Special Friendship

Yue Zhishi had noticed, from a very young age, that Song Yu always tended to say things he couldn't understand.

And he would always try his best to figure out the true meaning behind Song Yu's words no matter how many times it happened. This time, he was fully lost in his thoughts as they looked through the menu to order, and Xia Zhixu, who was sitting across from him, had to call his name several times to catch his attention.

"What?"

Xia Zhixu chuckled. "Do you want something to drink?"

Yue Zhishi shook his head. "I just had a milk tea."

"I see." Xia Zhixu looked down at the menu. "Then I'll have two lemon-lime cokes. This looks pretty good, let's have one portion. And this and ..."

Song Yu stopped him. "Are you here to eat Japanese food or dessert?"

Xia Zhixu held onto the menu and laughed. "Xu Qichen has low blood sugar, so he's really good with sweet things. I've gotten into a habit after eating with him so many times, sorry, sorry."

He then passed the menu to Yue Zhishi. "Le Le, is there something you want to try? The ramen here isn't bad."

"He's allergic to wheat so he can't eat wheat noodles." Song Yu glanced over the menu and, deciding by himself, picked out some items he thought Yue Zhishi wouldn't mind out of the things Yue Zhishi could eat.

"That's so sad." Xia Zhixu counted all the things he could think of that was made of wheat. "Then you can't even drink beer."

"Underage people obviously can't drink." Xu Qichen poured a cup of barley tea and sent it over to Yue Zhishi before he looked at him with a slight smile. "The daifuku doesn't have any wheat in it. It's a glutinous rice flour skin wrapped around some fruit and cream. You might like it."

Yue Zhishi smiled as well. "Yes, I like glutinous rice."

Actually, Yue Zhishi quite liked these two seniors even though they weren't from the same school as him. This might have been their first meeting, but their words, even the way they looked at him, didn't contain any excessive curiosity or intention to probe his moods. Their interactions with him were balanced very delicately, and it let Yue Zhishi feel very comfortable around them.

The server brought over two lemon-lime cokes with a pair of glass cups with ice. Xia Zhixu thanked her, and rather than giving Xu Qichen a glass immediately, he started pouring all the ice in one into the other.

Xu Qichen looked very unsatisfied by his actions, but he only expressed his dissatisfaction by frowning at Xia Zhixu.

"I can leave you a piece?" Xia Zhixu turned his wrist and slid a remaining piece of ice backwards, the glass tinkling as the ice fell back down. "You should drink less cold things since you'll be eating spicy stuff later. It'll be bad if your stomach started hurting."

Xu Qichen didn't respond. After Xia Zhixu finished speaking, he poured the soda into the glasses and then placed the glass with one piece of ice next to Xu Qichen's hand.

Yue Zhishi watched them the entire time, his heart a little puzzled and uncertain. He wasn't even sure why he was puzzled. He had friends, like Jiang Yufan, and he had seen friends interact with each other before too. But there was something different about the two people in front of him.

It felt like there were transparent pieces of silk between them tying them together. Fingers to fingers, mouths to mouths, eyebrows to eyebrows — there was nowhere the silk didn't touch. The strings twined along their bodies so that if one person moved, the other's whole body would move with him.