Your Distance

It was already past 9 in the evening when Song Xin left that day. Ting Shuang opened Distance and took a look at his current distance from Cycle: 4.8 kilometres.

He smiled at that number for a while, and sent him a message: You reached home early.

Ten minutes later, Cycle replied: Just got home.

Ting Shuang thought over it and declared: I’m not checking up on you(1). I’m just worried for you.

Cycle: What is there to worry about?

Ting Shuang began talking nonsense: You see, Germany’s refugee problems are quite serious…

Cycle: So?

Ting Shuang: I’m worried you might get raped.

Cycle: Worry about yourself first.

Worry about yourself first.

That was essentially a voice message. Ting Shuang could vividly imagine Bai Changyi’s tone as he said those words.

It made his heart itch.

Ting Shuang held back for a while, but not for long, replying: How about… we have a voice call?

Bai Changyi called him directly. Ting Shuang cleared his throat and answered immediately. But  after picking up, he suddenly didn’t know what to say. So he asked a useless question, “Can you hear me…”

Bai Changyi said, “Mm.”

“Well…” Ting Shuang searched for a conversation topic, “What are you doing?”

Bai Changyi said, “Watching the news.”

“What news?”

“Spiegel. [1]”

“About what?”

“About sports. The Premier League, Chelsea versus Burnley.”

“You watch football? Do you remember when Germany was eliminated by South Korea during last year’s World Cup? At that time, I and… ” Ting Shuang paused, “… Well, my ex-boyfriend used to watch football in a bar, but with the match ending like that, the Germans around us were all extremely angry. On the way home we were so scared we’d be beaten up by some German that we almost wrote “I’m not Korean” on our faces.”

Ting Shuang originally intended to make a joke, but didn’t expect that Liang Zhengxuan would be in all the stories he told. He realised that when he talked about the past, he mentioned his ex boyfriend all too easily if he wasn’t being careful. It would be better to talk about the past less in the future.

Bai Changyi laughed, as if he didn’t mind.

Ting Shuang hurriedly changed the topic: “Then… How did your dinner go? “

Bai Changyi said, “It was fine. I had dinner with my former professor.”

“Oh, professor…” Ting Shuang suddenly recalled the huge hickey he’d left on Bai Changyi’s neck.

If he had known he was going to meet a professor, he wouldn’t have messed around like that…

Bai Changyi said, “After retiring, he moved to Spain and rarely comes back.”

Ting Shuang felt a little jittery, “He’s retired, meaning he must be pretty old… He didn’t say anything, right…”

“Say anything about what?”

Ting Shuang stammered, “about… Your neck. “

Bai Changyi said, “He didn’t say anything.”

Ting Shuang let out a sigh of relief, “That’s good…”

Before he finished letting out that sigh, he heard the second half of Bai Changyi’s sentence, “He just asked if I knew that wearing turtleneck sweaters has been a trend recently.”

After that, the great Professor Bai wore turtlenecks for a week.

It was said that it was because that was the trend. Yep.

Friday.

Ting Shuang cleaned himself up before going out in the morning; he took a shower, shaved, styled his hair, and specially wore a low waisted, tight black underwear in his jeans. He was waiting for when his morning classes ended, and he could go out on a date with Bai Changyi in the afternoon.

Unexpectedly, at noon, Bai Changyi told him that he wasn’t free.

The biggest drawback of being Professor Bai was that he had no time.

Aside from seeing him in class, Ting Shuang could only talk with Bai Changyi using Distance in the evening to wish him good night.

Ting Shuang typed: When will you be free…

Cycle: Tomorrow.

Tomorrow?

Ting Shuang replied: What time tomorrow?

Cycle: In the morning.

Ting Shuang: Tomorrow’s Saturday.

Cycle: I know.

You know?

Ting Shuang was a little upset.

He said things like “Mm, I’ve remembered it,” and Ting Shuang clearly said that he had to work at the cafe on Saturday mornings. And in a blink of an eye, Bai Changyi forgot.

He was a professor, and his memory was worse than a fish’s.

Ting Shuang shoved his phone into his pocket and rode his bike home.

At eleven o’clock in the evening, Ting Shuang pretended to be indifferent (in an attempt to convince himself that it was his real feelings), and casually glanced at his phone.

There weren’t any new messages.

He stared at Cycle‘s profile picture, silently complaining, I’ve taken the initiative to say good night to you so many times, can’t you be the one to do so just once? Even if it’s just this once?

After silently complaining, he thought it was too unreasonable. Saying good night was just a small formality. Why should he care about it? He should go to bed.

Just as he was about to turn on his phone’s do not disturb mode, a new message appeared on the screen.

[Distance] Cycle: Good night.

Ting Shuang sprang out of bed, hugging his phone.

What formality?

Hell, this was called a routine.

Routine, understand?

Ting Shuang drifted in happiness for a long time, before replying in a very reserved manner: Mmhm, good night.

After sending that message, he warned himself; Ting Shuang, control your hands. That’s it, that’s enough, don’t send any more cat or dog stickers. Maintain the dignity a man should have.

Before falling asleep, he thought… It was fine if Bai Changyi forgot about his Saturday job. Professors were busy. At the most, he’d repeat it again next time.

When he got up the next day, Ting Shuang was in a brilliant mood.

When he walked out of the bedroom, the sun was shining in through the windows, bringing with it the swaying shadows of the plants in the garden, and splaying out across the wooden floor of the living room. He opened the window, took two deep breaths, and then played Guo Ding’s “Qi Mei Di”(2) on his phone. He hummed while dancing to the rhythm.

He danced while washing up in front of the mirror.

He danced while pouring coffee.

He danced while packing up his things, getting ready to go to the cafe.

The cafe where he worked was not far from the city center. It was called Freesia [2], and there was a toy museum across it.

Ting Shuang locked his bicycle, and went in to greet his colleague Stephie, and then went to the staff lounge to change into his uniform for work: black trousers, white shirt, and a light brown apron.

At nine o’clock, the cafe opened for business.

Stephie was responsible for making coffee and taking out the snacks. Ting Shuang was responsible for taking orders, and also making coffee.

There was a glass jar in front of the counter, in which there were some coins. Customers could drop their change into the jar, which counted as tips that Ting Shuang and Stephie would divide equally amongst the two of them.

Ting Shuang took orders for a customer, then turned back to make an affogato.

Stephie, while making the previous customer’s matcha latte, said to Ting Shuang in a low voice, “Oh, the 4.99 euros affogato.”

Ting Shuang smiled, knowing that she was complaining about how that customer would not put even the 1 cent change into the tip jar.

Stephie served the freshly prepared matcha latte to a customer, excitedly saying to Ting Shuang as she turned around, “Oh my god, a cutie just came in.”

“Cutie?” Ting Shuang served the affogato to the customer and looked towards the door—

Trackpants, a grey turtleneck thin sweater, rimless glasses, a thin spectacle chain.

Their eyes met, and Bai Changyi’s lips curved up slightly.

A hint of surprise flashed through Ting Shuang’s eyes, and the corner of his lips tilted up uncontrollably.

Bai Changyi didn’t forget that he had work.

Stephie looked at Bai Changyi, then at Ting Shuang, feeling as if there were some kind of fireworks going off between their exchanged gazes. She smacked Ting Shuang and said, “Hey, young man, don’t forget that you’re working.”

Ting Shuang moved his gaze away and said, “Cough, shouldn’t we smile at our customers?”

Stephie scoffed, “Oh, of course, only if it doesn’t include suggestive ones.”

Ting Shuang thus tried to look more serious.

When Bai Changyi walked up to the counter, Ting Shuang deliberately used the standard tone of a waiter, “Good morning. What would you like to have? “

Bai Changyi glanced at the menu and said, “Espresso.”

Ting Shuang tapped on the order machine several times and asked, “Would you like to have anything else to eat?”

Bai Changyi said, “No, thank you.”

Ting Shuang said, “Then, it’ll be a total of 2.99 euros, thank you.”

Bai Changyi paid the money, then put the change into the tip jar.

When Ting Shuang finished making the coffee and passed it to Bai Changyi, he couldn’t help but say, “It seems like it’s your first time here… May I ask how you got to know about Freesia?”

Bai Changyi looked at Ting Shuang, his tone conveying a deep meaning, “My date didn’t tell me the address for the date. I could only search around. Fortunately, there was only one cafe 4.0km away from my house. I’ll wait for him here today. “

Ting Shuang tried to stop the corner of his lips from tilting up again, nodded in a pretentious manner and said, “I see. Have a great day.”

Bai Changyi curved his lips and said, “You too.”

Then he took his coffee and found a seat only two meters away from the counter. He sat facing the counter, reading a newspaper while drinking his coffee.

When there were no customers, Ting Shuang stared at Bai Changyi, who was reading the newspaper, and couldn’t help saying to Stephie in a low voice, “Can I give him a little something? I’ll pay.”

Stephie also stared at Bai Changyi and said, “Ting, I support you. He has been alone all this time, probably ditched by his date. How pitiful. You can grasp this chance to get his mobile phone number. What do you want to give him? Black forest cake? Tiramisu? Or strawberry cheesecake?”

Ting Shuang said, “I want to give him…”

Everything.

Stephie said, “what?”

Ting Shuang said, “Cough, what I mean is, I don’t know what he likes to eat. He may not like desserts…  Ah, he seems to have finished his coffee. “

With that, Ting Shuang made another cup of espresso and served it to Bai Changyi.

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Bai Changyi raised his eyes.

Ting Shuang bent at the waist to set down his coffee and said, “It feels like you’ve been waiting for your date for a long time… This is for you. “

Bai Changyi’s eyes fell on Ting Shuang’s waist line, which was clearly delineated by the apron strap. After a while, he turned his gaze to the espresso, his voice low, “I hope this is a cup of low caffeine coffee.”

Ting Shuang asked, “Why?”

Bai Changyi raised his eyes to look at Ting Shuang, “Because I don’t want to become even more excited.”