Four Men and a Baby

Whose baby is it anyway?

"Oh? When did you get back?" Muren sees Licheng in the kitchen as he steps out of his room who seems to be busy preparing breakfast.

"About two hours ago." he replies and continues with his porridge.

"I thought you were staying the week."

"Hmm...yeah...it didn't pan out that way." he says, rather coldly.

Muren is grumpy enough already to be woken up this early on a Saturday morning to the sounds of utensils clinking while Licheng worked in the kitchen. And now Licheng's cold attitude was not helping his mood either. He has always been loud in the kitchen and the food always ends up disastrous anyways. So this is not what he wanted to wake up to at 9 am on a weekend.

"What's wrong? Is everything fine back home?" he still asks, suppressing his annoyance.

"Yeah. Fine...everything's fine." Licheng avoids his eyes and turns away clearly not wanting to be questioned further.

So Muren lets him be. He has known his roommate long enough to know that he keeps all his tensions and problems bottled up and only shows his happy-go-lucky face to everyone. At least until he's ready to share. So he doesn't want to press on the subject when Licheng seems to be avoiding it on purpose. He doesn't ask anything more and starts walking towards the restroom but stops in his track as soon as he passes by Licheng's room.

"Is someone else here?" Muren asks him.

"N..no...wh...why do you ask?" Licheng stutters.

"I just thought I smelled a new unfamiliar scent as I walked past your room."

"Ah...it's...it's just my new room spray." Licheng answers instantly.

"No...it doesn't smell like a room spray...it's...it's different. I can't tell what it is exactly."

"Stop sniffing around and get to the shower." Licheng shouts.

That annoys Muren further and he takes a quick step towards his room and opens the door before Licheng can stop him.

"Noooo!" Licheng yells and runs towards him but he is too late.

Muren stands there, at the entrance of his room, shell shocked for a solid minute unable to believe his eyes. He comes to when Licheng pulls him out and shuts the door behind them. "Shhh...you will scare her." he says.

"That's...that's a baby....in your room." Muren manages to speak while still processing what he's just seen. "Why is there a baby in your room?" he raises his voice and Licheng presses his hand over his lips to shut him up.

"You will wake her u..." He is cut off when he hears the baby's cry from inside. "You woke her up." Licheng sighs.

"Who is she? Why do you have a baby in your room?" Muren is still confused.

"I'll explain, but first let me go to her. She's crying." he enters his room and closes the door on Muren.

"Is that a baby crying?"

Muren turns around to find Xingsi and his boyfriend Yongjie standing behind him, obviously woken up by the baby's crying.

"Yes." he replies and walks over to the living room to sit down and think of what just happened.

"Whose baby is it?" Xingsi follows him to the couch.

"I don't know."

"Why is it here?"

"I don't know, okay. I don't know anything. We have to wait for Licheng to come out and explain."

"Hey...why are you taking it out on my boyfriend if the baby's cry is annoying you." Yongjie jumps in to defend his boyfriend.