Gege ai ni! {MDZS Chatfic}

28｜Wen Ning's birthday

【Wednesday, April 11】

"SURPRISE! Happy Birthday!"

Colorful party streamers rained down upon the now 20-year-old man whose eyes widened when he stepped into the room. The lights switched on, revealing everyone from behind the shadows and they all started clapping and cheering. Someone blew a plastic party horn and Wen Ning began to clap too, grinning from ear to ear.

"He sure looks surprised. What are the odds that he actually forgot and isn't faking it?" Song Zichen whispered to Xingchen who elbowed him in response, still clapping with enthusiasm.

"He's probably just surprised. He definitely didn't forget, I listened to him on the phone for an hour last night about how excited he was for us to do this," Huaisang leaned over, fiddling with his party horn before obnoxiously blowing into it at Jiang Cheng who was standing in front of him.

Jiang Cheng turned around with a miffed expression and whacked the plastic thing out of his hand before moving to Wen Ning who was all smiles as he opened his birthday presents. Nie Huaisang picked up the fallen object and shrugged, wiping it and putting it back onto his lips, and walked away to find his next victim. Xue Yang's eyes followed him for a moment, mentally judging him.

After checking with Wen Ning, who was extremely appreciative of every single gift (and Jiang Cheng noticed that every present was actually pretty good- well, nobody pulled the used birthday candle prank on Wen Ning at least), he headed to the kitchen to find an apple or something to eat since they won't take out the cake till much later. There, immediately after taking a bite out of an apple, he saw the kitchen's patio door open, and in walked Lan Xichen and the piece of apple fell from his mouth.

Lan Xichen saw him and he smiled, "Oh, hello, Wanyin."

Jiang Cheng quickly wiped the corner of his mouth with his arm and placed his hands behind the counter, "H-hey! Oh- I mean- hi, Xichen-ge."

Lan Xichen thought it was adorable how Jiang Cheng furiously rubbed the corner of his mouth with his arm before casually leaning back at the kitchen counter, acting as if he wasn't surprised at all to see him. He smiled and explained anyway, "Wen Qing invited me."

"Oh..." Jiang Cheng nodded, an awkward smile plastered over his face. Internally, he was freaking out; yes, he wanted to talk to Lan Xichen and get his confession straight, but not now!! What if he was totally wrong about it? He's not about to cry over it during his best friend's birthday. Give him some time! At least after Wen Ning's party is over and maybe after one or two more consecutive days. So he kept his mouth shut and only opened it when Lan Xichen politely asked where everyone was.

Lan Xichen wanted to talk to Wanyin more but he felt like their vibes were out of sorts, different from before. It made him sad, was it because he had hinted his feelings for Wanyin to Wanyin and he caught on? And now, Wanyin didn't know what to do and so could only pretend that he was oblivious to not make things awkward.

Part of Lan Xichen wanted to tell him that it was okay and that it was fine that he doesn't like him back. ... Except it's not really fine and he can't deal with the rejection- at least not now and not at someone's birthday party. Give him one or two consecutive days and he'll make sure to talk to Jiang Cheng and sort this out. He hopes at the very least that their relationship will go back to normal and without these awkward and stiff exchanges.