Behind the Smile |Wangxian|

영

Lan Zhan looked down at his phone, a frown on his face. He kept staring at the list of his recent calls, until the screen went black due to no activity. As it went black, Lan Zhan caught his displeased reflection. Fair skin, golden eyes, stoic expression, and long black hair tied up in a neat bun to keep the front strands out of his face, while the rest of it flowed down elegantly, accompanied by a white ribbon.

A plate was placed in front of him and Lan Zhan, recoiled, placing his phone down and glancing up to see his older brother staring at him with worry, "Still nothing?"

Lan Zhan shook his head solemnly, "No one's heard anything. All summer...it's strange..."

"Do you think he moved out of the area?"

Lan Zhan had thought about it. But he came to the conclusion that it was not the case, "Jiang Cheng and Sister Jiang would know. O-or Huaisang, maybe Zixuan! I don't know..."

"Didi," Lan Xichen looked at him softly, "Eat. You all agreed to meet on campus early, correct? Perhaps, he'll meet you there,"

Lan Zhan nodded, beginning to eat at the food his brother had placed in front of him. The room went back into a comfortable silence until Lan Zhan had finished. He stood up, taking the plate and placing it in the sink, before grabbing his phone and bag.

Nodding a goodbye to his brother, Lan Zhan walked out of his house and past the plain front yard they owned, and then onto the sidewalk. He didn't need to walk much, because as he was about to start, a black pickup truck pulled up in front of him. Lan Zhan couldn't help but smile slightly as the window rolled down and Jiang Yanli's gentle smile greeted him, "Lan Zhan! I knew you'd walk! Go on, climb up with A-Cheng and the others,"

Lan Zhan nodded, walking to the cargo bed. The group sitting there had already opened up the cargo bed's door for him, Jiang Cheng extending a hand out towards the golden eyed boy. Lan Zhan took it gratefully, using it to support himself into the space as Nie Huaisang closed up the door again. After getting seated, Luo Qingyang knocked on the side of the truck, "We're all set love birds!"

And the truck pulled away from the front of Lan Zhan's house and drove away, leaving the days of summer vacation behind. Lan Zhan leaned back comfortably, looking at Nie Huaisang, who broke the silence, "Lan-xiong, why didn't you call us up that you'd need a lift?"

"I didn't think I would need one,"

"Would you like us to set you down then?" Jiang Cheng smirked at him and Lan Zhan shook his head fondly, but then frowned.

MianMian, or Luo Qingyang, caught it in a second, "What's wrong?"

Lan Zhan glanced at Jiang Cheng, "Wei Ying..."

He took note of the way Jiang Cheng's whole expression dropped, eyes looking away with sadness. Lan Zhan kept going, "Has...has Wei Ying...contacted you? Or your sister? o-or your parents?"

"No. He hasn't contacted me, or A-Jie, or mom, or dad..." Jiang Cheng shook his head, fingers curling into fists, "but...I checked his Instagram after getting a notification. He uploaded a photo of a school bag..."

"He uploaded on Instagram?!?!" Nie Huaisang gaped.

The other three in the cargo bed scrambled with their phones, pulling up the social media app and going to their friend's old page. As Jiang Cheng had just told them, there was a new update. Lan Zhan checked when the post had been posted, confirming it was around the time he had been eating. And since his phone was usually on silent, he hadn't got any notification.

"So at least he isn't dead," MianMian grinned.

"Don't say that," Lan Zhan stared at her, shutting off his phone again.