Nobody Needs To Know Our Secrets (Original)

7. Liu Jian - Adventures of Mystic Monkey in Crystalland

When Zhao Sheng carelessly let me put down my number on his phone, I spotted the gay dating app, but I didn't think much about it. It was his home screen wallpaper that grabbed my attention, which showed a cursed image of a close-up anime guy. It was just big daunting eyes staring right through your soul. 

Amused and fueled by curiosity, I tried finding the source of the image. It wasn't as easy as I thought. I had to describe the appearance of the anime guy to a bonafide otaku at work, only to find out that the guy wasn't from an anime, he was a Vtuber. To cut this long story short, after watching that Vtuber make Deez nuts jokes for 15 minutes, I have a 'small' hunch that Zhao Sheng may be one of them. 

It wasn't a bad thing. In some way, I understand why Zhao Sheng would like something like those ridiculous jokes. Perhaps he just wants to feel 'childish' in a world where it forces you to quickly leave your innocence. I also crave something 'childish' like my love for the cartoon series, Adventures of Mystic Monkey in Crystalland.

When Zhao Sheng said, "When I said new friends, I think I've found them."  

His eyes told me that he wasn't serious, and he didn't really expect much from the two of us. If we said no to being friends with him, he would probably laugh it off and continue with his normal life. 

I didn't have a solid reason for saying no to his friend request, and Zhao Sheng just wanted to have a good time. Knowing that I grinned at him,  "Friends? Sure, why not? But why do you want to be friends with this guy?" I pointed at Zhou Mu, who looked a bit perplexed at Zhao Sheng's words. After what this guy did, you wanna be friends with him? 

Zhao Sheng waved his hand, "It's fine, it's fine. As I said, I'm fickle. I don't hold grudges. So, what do you say, Zhou Mu? Wanna be friends with me?" 

Zhou Mu narrowed his eyes then rubbed his forehead, "I can't understand you...If you want to be friends with me, you can't be friends with him."

The guy craned his neck to face in my direction, looking at me with a small frown. I sneered at him, "If you don't like me, just say it out loud. Stop acting like a little girl, and let's duke it out." 

"So, it's a 'no' then? Zhou Mu?" Zhao Sheng interrupted us before the heat even started. "I'm not asking to be serious friends. I just want someone who would shoot the shit with me in my remaining time in high school. Besides, the best part of being friends with us is that you don't have to act like Mr.Perfect."  

"...Forget what I said. You asked the wrong person, Zhao Sheng." With that, Zhou Mu stood up and left.

I watched as Zhao Sheng's smile made a flop before he sighed in regret. "Ah, what a shame. I should've known I'm pressing on the gas on a broken car from the very beginning. It won't go, and it might even explode." 

"There you go again speaking in riddles." I smiled at him. I got up to throw away my mountain of burger wrapper trash when I saw a flash of panic on his face. Then, when he quickly realized I was just going to throw away my trash, he returned to normal. 

"You thought I was gonna ditch you too?" I laughed. 

"Yeah, that would be top 10 anime betrayals right there." He bitterly looked at me. 

I think I had too many burgers because at the moment I wanted to rub his soft hair again. After throwing away my trash, I came back with a huge grin on my face startling Zhao Sheng. 

"What?" Zhao Sheng raised his eyebrow at me. 

"I invited to the Mystic Monkey movie, but you probably will have no idea what's it about if you don't have any background knowledge. So, let's go have a Mystic Monkey marathon. Zhao Sheng, you said you wanted to shoot shit, so we're gonna shoot the real shit."