To the Moon and Back

9. Hua Cheng feels observed

Maybe it was Hua Cheng's impression, but things seemed different after that night. Xie Lian seemed to be avoiding him, possibly embarrassed. Hua Cheng understood: after all he mustn't be used to open up and talk about his feelings like he did. These past days he hardly ever saw Xie Lian at all.

Well, hardly ever seeing him wasn't quite right: sometimes Hua Cheng would have that sensation of being observed, and sure enough, it was Xie Lian, showing up from out of nowhere, giving Hua Cheng side glances and bad excuses to be there. Like in the mornings, when he left the shower: Xie Lian coincidentally left his room at the same time.

And almost every day when Hua Cheng was in the kitchen cooking breakfast, Xie Lian would come in, mumbling something like 'I forgot my coffee' – which in itself was strange, Xie Lian loved his first coffee before start working. Hua Cheng could see his reflexion on the kitchen's metallic surfaces, his lingering looks at him, nervously licking his lips.

If he was honest to himself, he wondered if Gege was just checking him out, actually attracted to him, but he didn't want to get to any conclusions just yet. He knew Xie Lian had issues and probably didn't get attached to others easily, he wasn't this straight forward.

Till one day, when he was almost finishing his workout, he noticed one of the cameras' blinking red light – The Moon Station of course had cameras everywhere, but there was no need for them to be on all the time. Somebody must have enabled this one at the gym, and it was on. Somebody as in...

"Gege?", he asked on the communicator, "You there? Can you see me on the CCTV?"

Xie Lian replied, "What? What CCTV? No I'm, I'm checking on the forecast for solar storms... actually really busy here". It was definitely him!

'Gege, you're such a perv', Hua Cheng thought, and went on, "If you want to start your workout you can come you know, no need to wait till I finish – "

"I don't", he replied, "I'm checking the forecast".

'I just gave you a way out and you're going to stick to this lame excuse?', he thought, almost bursting into laughter at the thought of Xie Lian watching him on the CCTV, then being caught red-handed.

"Alright", he said, "I'm finishing anyway...", and took off his sweaty t-shirt teasingly just in front of the camera, and, making a bundle of it, wiped his sweaty chest and abs sexily. Pricking up his ears, he heard a little gasp, and that sensation of being right was satisfying in more ways than one!

He still decided to do a last test, and be very, very observant. On the evening of the following day, not long after Xie Lian went to his bedroom – they had another awkward dinner – he called him on the communicator.

"Gege, are you already asleep?"

"What happened? Is everything alright?", Xie Lian replied. Did he really live in a state of emergency like that, or was he kind of doing a 'smoke screen'?

"I'm just outside your bedroom door", Hua Cheng replied.

Xie Lian opened the door just enough to show his face – being as discouraging as possible really.

"Are you any good with hair? I wondered if you could...", Hua Cheng asked, playing with his overgrown hair around his neck and ears, noticing Xie Lian's eyes fixed on his fingers.

"I'm not", he replied, "You never met the guys who were here before, Feng Xin and Mu Qing: they had military cuts because I just suck at cutting hair". He seemed honest enough. He smiled, adding, "Mu Qing cut mine, and because it's longer, it grows slower..."

"Alright", Hua Cheng nodded, ready for his next move, and waving a haircutter around, said, "I'll just go military style again then".

"No!", Xie Lian blurted out, "I mean, you got such a nice hair, it's a shame to shave it off".

Hua Cheng shrugged helplessly, and then Xie Lian opened his door, "Come in, I'll see what I can do".

Controlling himself not to smile smugly, Hua Cheng walked in his mostly dark room – only a bedside lamp was on, with Xie Lian's bed cover pushed to a side and an ebook on it. Xie Lian turned on the lights, and got a stool from somewhere, placing it in front of the room's big mirror.

"Take a sit", he said, opening a drawer and fishing a fine comb and some scissors.

Hua Cheng got close, and took his shirt off, his sharp hearing registering Xie Lian's breath hitch, and, smiling, sat on the stool as instructed. Xie Lian stood behind him, looking down, all his reactions observed on the mirror. He blinked slowly, looking at Hua Cheng's very black hair, his broad muscular shoulders, his unblemished white skin.

He passed his fingers through Hua Cheng's hair, combing it down around his neck, with fast breathing, saying with a soft voice, "You got, hum, such nice hair San Lang".

Xie Lian was lost in thoughts, and, seeming to snap out of it, he combed Hua Cheng's hair, then with the cutter he trimmed off chunks from the sides and the back, blowing lightly or brushing off with his hands any cut offs on Hua Cheng's shoulders. He looked focused enough, only clearly blushing madly – who knows what was going through his mind!

Gently fixing Hua Cheng' head in any position he needed, he carefully trimmed around his ears and with the cutter he evened out at the nape. He obviously did his best but still looked doubtful, with his hot brushing hands lingering on Hua Cheng's neck and shoulders – his face beyond red...

Hua Cheng grabbed his hand and said, looking at the mirror, "Thanks a lot Gege, this hair was really tickling me at the ears". And gave him a bright smile, more than satisfied with the experiment he had just conducted. Xie Lian mumbled he was welcome, so he went back to his own bedroom.

Feeling his just-cut hair at the back while looking at himself on his own big mirror, Hua Cheng smiled: Gege liked him, which was good, because he liked him too! Now he just had to play a little game of cat and mouse...

What was your favourite Stalker Xie Lian moment? 😂

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