Three Good Lucks - A Short Story (JUNZHE AU FF)

Three, is to live with you forever (2/3)

"Stall him!" Zhe Han abandoned his station and grabbed his graphic tablet instead before running towards their printing room at the back of the office.

"Or we can just say sorry," another friend suggested, still stifling his laugh from Zhe Han's antics but Zhe Han was already gone by then.

Xia Yu walked towards the door and greeted the client he met for the first time, inviting him into the somewhat cluttered office. Normally, when a client was scheduled to come, they would naturally clean and tidied up the space but since everyone forgot, it was what it was.

The man was tall, smartly dressed in maroon suit and pants, his black brogue shiny. After introducing him to the small member of the company, Xia Yu let him converse with the others while he went to make a cup of coffee. From where the make-shift pantry was, Xia Yu was able to join in on the conversation easily. He planned to explain the situation and really apologize for delaying the draft.

"I'm sorry I'm early. I was just excited." The man spoke, still standing in front of the four desks in the middle of the office.

Fuck. He's excited? Xia Yu almost dropped the mug in his hand.

"He's dead!" he blurted out.

The client tilted his head, his brows knitted together. "My condolences, but who?"

"The graphic designer responsible for your project," his other friend helped to lie.

It was quiet. Too quiet. The three of them there expected the cool looking guy to ask some more or maybe take his leave out of sympathy but no, the man just stood there, staring at Xia Yu with a complicated look.

Unlike the three, he was wearing a black mask, but still, the micro flitter of his lashes almost accentuated his glassy eyes.

"Da--" the man's throat bobbed, "Mr. Zhang Zhe Han is dead? H.. How?" Slowly, his long finger slid under the loop on his ear, taking the covering on his face off and gripped it in his hand. In the three pair of eyes, his movement was scalded, leaden with shock and something else incomprehensible.

The three young men looked at each other, their faces saying 'U-turn! U-turn!', mostly directed to the man holding the coffee.

"Uhh.."

"I'm sorry I'm late! I--" Zhe Han puffed his chest up and down, imitating an after-run, when the fact was, he did not even take five steps from the room he was in. "Gong Jun?"

Gong Jun turned, his mouth slightly ajar. Drawing in a long breath, his glance shifted from Zhe Han to Xia Yu, "Forget the coffee, give me water."

Hastily, Xia Yu handed him a bottle of mineral water of which he gulped all of it in one go.

While the man was distracted, Zhe Han who was perplexed at the man's hardened mien, mouthed at his friends, 'Is he mad?'

'Why, come, out, we, told, him, you, dead.' The 'dead' part was simply gestured with a finger slice to the neck.

What the fuck? Are my friends all idiots? It's my idea, but still..

"April fools!" Xia Yu suddenly yelled out after Gong Jun put down the now empty bottle.

"It's already May, you clod." Zhe Han shouted in response, his gaze once again met Gong Jun's.

He really doesn't seem okay, he thought.

He walked closer to the man, with every step he took, his heart walked four times faster. "You okay?"

"Da ge..." The feathery voice almost went unheard. Almost.

"You two know each other already?"

Zhe Han, who still did not believe that the man he waited for the whole month was finally in front of him, was taken aback by the question. Why? He was not sure. Deflecting with an awkward laugh, he pointed to a frosted glass divider just beside their office's door, "Let's talk business in the meeting room, shall we?"