Xingyun Oneshots

104 - A thousand drafts preceding my declaration (that I love you)

It wasn't really a secret to anyone that Chongyun was a little more open with Xingqiu.

At least, that's what was implied - no one had to be told it to know that as best friends, Chongyun would feel a little more comfortable letting down a few walls and being a little more emotional with Xingqiu than other people.

Xingqiu knew that Chongyun was a little more genuine with him, or as much as he could be, anyways, regarding his condition. But it wasn't quite enough to decipher the burning question of whether or not Chongyun quite liked him back or not.

Xingqiu wouldn't lie (at least not to himself, if anyone else asked, he'd easily deny it) that he had a crush on him, and had for some time (a few years, but who's counting?), and he'd tried time and time again to discreetly draw an answer out of Chongyun but to no avail.

He'd never give up until he got a firm answer though, he told himself, and Xingqiu was not one to quit before he got what he wanted, and so his quest for knowledge never quite ended until he did.

One day, a blistering hot day, Chongyun had informed him he didn't want to wander outside for fear of the heat, and instead he'd invited Xingqiu into his house and let him sit in his room while he went to grab refreshments and popsicles.

Xingqiu had only been in Chongyun's room a few times, and he always noticed that his room was much, much cleaner than his own. Xingqiu had a tendency to throw things around while he was thinking and neglect to pick them up (until he was nagged by his brother to do so), but it seemed that Chongyun kept his room spotless and organized, something he found very charming indeed.

While Chongyun's down the hall in the kitchen away from him, Xingqiu hops off the bed and starts to wander around, growing a little restless since he'd already finished his book.

He goes to his desk, wondering if Chongyun himself had any novels he could read. They were friends after all, so he didn't see a problem with taking a look, but when he goes to open one of the drawers, he's met with a reasonably sized shoe box square in the middle of the large drawer with Xingqiu's name written in his neat, blue cursive.

He'd be lying if he said he wasn't getting even an itch of curiosity, and it did have his name on it, so he slowly lifts off the cover and finds that it's chock full of all manner of letters, all varying in size and color and some that seemed to even far newer than others.

Now extremely curious, he pulls the first one out of the box, a tiny pink envelope that's unsealed and also has his name printed on it, and flips it over to open it and gently slide a note out of it, smoothing it out on his desk to read it.

Dear Xingqiu,

I think you're really pretty. Even prettier than some of the girls we know. Is that weird? Is pretty a compliment you give to a boy? I don't even know if you like to be called pretty or not, but when I think about your looks in general, I always think 'Xingqiu looks really pretty.'

Maybe I'll ask you someday if you like it.

- Chongyun

Xingqiu would definitely feel a little more envious of his handwriting if he wasn't already feeling the sudden spike of heat crawling up his neck.

Chongyun thinks he's pretty?

And not just pretty by the sound of it.

Very pretty. Even prettier than some of the girls they know.

He flushed and tries to put his thoughts about whether or not these are from a crush point of view or not and think more about why he has a whole box of these in the first place, and also if the rest are the same as this one.