Xie Lian's artistic side| Colors of the Heart ~ Hualian AU

Chapter XXII

"Does Gege has any preferences for lunch?" Hua Cheng released his weight on the driver's seat and turned the engine on, while Xie Lian closed his door and put his seatbelt on.

"I trust San Lang will choose wisely" Xie Lian smiled but his heart trembled. Just like a dancer cannot only dance when they are feeling light, an actor must deliver no matter how their internal state is. The first day of the complete rehearsal went fine, but it was as if Xie Lian had to manually hold his soul into place. He was dreading telling San Lang about Jun Wu's creepy deeds.

"I'm heading for a quick slice of pizza then, if Gege is fine."

"Oh San Lang, why do you make my heart hurt even more..." is what Xie Lian thought, being reminded of one of the first times they went out just the two of them, and they had Italian food. San Lang always treated him to the best. But instead, he only said "Sure, sure, we must go back real quickly."

They sat in silence for a moment while driving around the streets. Hua Cheng was borderlining anxiety, but he stayed quiet and waited for Xie Lian to bring up another subject. After a while, Hua Cheng heard Xie Lian preparing to speak and braced himself.

"I talked to the stylist and she said I made her life easier by cutting my hair."

Not what Hua Cheng was expecting, still it was a start. He let out a small laugh and even wanted to add something, anything, make a funny remark, but he lost the timing.

Right then, Xie Lian sighed. "I know you are waiting for me to speak up."

Hua Cheng was caught for being too obvious and readily added, "I am patiently waiting for Gege to be ready to tell me anything he feels I must know."

Xie Lian's heart melted a little more. "There is something. Oh, but we're already here. Let's talk while eating then."

Hua Cheng quietly let the air out of his lungs. How come they arrived so fast?

They took the food and sat on a nearby park bench to eat it. The air was fresh and the day was sunny.

"It feels so nice outside! I never get enough sun as I'm supposed to..." Xie Lian commented, feeling the heat on his skin and getting comfortable on the bench. He then looked at Hua Cheng, who was almost reflecting the sunlight, biting his slice of pizza with his eyes closed from the intense brightness, and laughed. And sighed again. The air came out sorrowfully. "San Lang, I'll say it straight away. You see, the thing is, Jun Wu, that guy from the graduation day, he somehow managed to get a shooting of us and is threatening to make this video public. I... I wanted to let you know since it involves you and may affect your career."

Hua Cheng chewed hard on his pizza because the dough became suddenly very hard to swallow. He managed to let out, "Being seen with Gege would only improve my public image."

Xie Lian coughed twice. "Perhaps this time people would be seeing a bit too much." His voice was trembling now.

"Hm?"

"It's a shooting from the day we... well... when I first looked at both of your eyes." Xie Lian felt the warmth spreading through his cheeks and could not look at San Lang.

Silence. Hua Cheng was silent for a long time, what gave Xie Lian time to return to his normal cheek temperature and finish his slice of pizza. He noticed San Lang's pizza remained only half eaten though.

Finally, Hua Cheng cleaned his throat. "Gege, if you could give me his contact information, I can try to reason with him. Rest assured that, by now, any controversy that erupted would only benefit the advertising of our play."

"Puqi said the same thing. But, San Lang, I actually think it would be best if we just left this alone and slowed down a little bit. At least this week. Or maybe..."