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Part 3
Page 18
The warehouse door slammed open and shut.
"There you are," Wenlong said, looking up from the
desk. "You were 'sposed to be back for duty half an hour ago."
"Got held up," Shujuan mumbled, tossing her backpack
onto what was, if one stretched the definition of the word slightly, the
office couch. Then she slumped down in it herself, let her head hang over
the arm of one side to take an interest in the water stains of the ceiling.
"At least pretend you'll do work when you're desking,"
Wensley sighed, starting to pack up his materials. "We couldn't even have
the office open all week, what for needing the extra runner on hand. The
paperwork's completely backed up now; it'll take a few Tuesdays straight
through to catch up and just get to the usual backlogged."
"I'll make it up."
"You can't do it very well from the couch."
Shujuan growled, rolling her eyes. "I'll move as
soon as you get out of here. Is it so much of an issue? Just gimme
a few minutes. God."
Wenlong hesitated in zipping up his old school backpack
and peered sideways at her. "You okay, Shujuan?"
No, I'm not fucking okay. I have a boyfriend. What
part of that sounds okay?
Yeah, she'd be sure to tell him that one.
"Nnh," she replied instead.
The older boy took the long route around the desk
and approached the sofa. It wasn't true concern so much as puzzlement.
Clumsy troubleshooting. "Really all right?" he asked.
"Yes, really all right. You're not my mom."
"Yeah, that'd be kinda messy..."
"Uhgh."
"...What's wrong? Really."
Eyes still on ceiling. "...Wensley?"
"Yeah, Shu-rin?"
"You an' Jian. You guys... love each other, right?"
Wenlong tilted his head to one side and considered
this. "No," he said finally, after internal deliberation. "Don't think
so. Why?"
"But you're like seeing each other and everything,"
Shujuan persisted, denying her face the permission to turn red.
Her friend shrugged. "It's not really something
for people like us, is it? Love and all. That stuff's more for rich kids
than anyone down here, don't you think?"
"Right. Stupid question."
Wensley leaned over her, to get a better look at
her face. Confused, "That's kinda weird, coming from you. Is this all Kougaiji
or something again?"
Hazel eyes. Why'd she always think they were green?
Probably the glasses that hid it. Or that she couldn't keep his gaze at
times like these.
"Not really," she said honestly, glancing away even
as she said it. "I dunno. Maybe. A bit. Not all."
Wenlong hmmed in careful thought.
The thing with Cao Wenlong was that you could nearly
talk
to him, now and then. She could, anyway. She knew Jianmin never had any
problems of communication with his boyfriend but Shujuan would be hard
pressed to have a heart-to-heart with a clone, much less an outside individual.
Kougaiji was some surface level of conversation in a best case scenario.
But Wensley, occasionally, was just slightly intelligent and serious
enough to get at the core of something and really, really be helpful to
talk to.
"...Could it be," Wenlong said, eyes lighting up
with surprise, "Shu-rin is 'a girl in trouble'?"
Now was not one of those times.
"NO!" Shujuan roared, arms going reflexively over
her stomach at the same time she kneed him in the gut and sent him sprawling.
"Oh. Okay," Wenlong said weakly, from near the floor.
She sprang up on the sofa, face beet red, trying
to curl in on herself. "Where the shit d'you get your dumbfuck ideas?!"
she demanded, horrified.
"I only thought--"
"Well, stop thinking!"
"But--"
"Stop now!"
The door clattered. "Wensley, I forgot my notepad--"
Guonan stopped, coming upon the rather more-typical-than-it-should-have-been
scene of Shujuan mauling Wenlong on the floor. Faced with two choices of
action in such a situation, Guonan opted for the latter course and joined
in.
Unfortunately, Shu-rin had been dedicated to beating
up the older boy on her own, and resisted this effort of cutting in on
her catharsis. One could imagine the situation akin to two dogs descending
on a piece of prey at the same time, one turning to snipe at the other
upon finding its territory invaded. Guonan was quickly on the retreat,
interspersed with wailing about how evil Shujuan was underneath and how
he wished she really had bled to death and on and on and...
"GO, you stupid monkey!" Shujuan ordered finally,
all but literally kicking him toward the door. "Come back again before
sundown and your ass is DEAD."
"Mahh, mahh, don't be so
hard on him. One day he'll be taller than you."
"I'll do without the commentary, thanks,"
she snapped back at Wenlong.
He blinked up at her from the floor. "Huh?"
"Don't act dumb. No stupid remarks outta you. Not
today."
"But I didn't say anything..."
Shujuan glared expectantly at Guonan, over by the
entrance. But she found a similarly baffled look.
"He didn't," Guonan told her, slightly alarmed.
"He really didn't. What?"
The blonde shook her head. "Just go. Both of you.
Now."
As it happened, both boys were quite eager to obey,
after that episode. She watched their exit and fixed an accusing look on
the door long after it had slammed shut the last time. And scowled, stalking
off to see to the desk.
And she actually got a good twenty minutes in sorting
receipts before she was watching the ceiling again.
Why did it matter, Wen? 'Cause there was only ever
one other person stupid enough to say that.
Idiots. Everyone. Really.
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