In unspoken agreement, Xia Ruyun and Li Feiling had stayed back to dodge the crowd. They waited as the lines filed through the single double doors like tourists at a theme park. Each, though, just scrolled through their phones. The glow of their screens mirrored the tension behind the scenes.
“Excuse me? Could you two leave so I can clean up this table?” A lanky teenager squeaked. His hands shook, one held a cleaning bottle, the other a cloth.
As if seared by fire, both Xia Ruyun and Li Feiling leapt to their feet.
“Of course.”
“Sorry to block you.”
Their footsteps thumped against the carpeted ground as their long strides carried them out of the room. The second they crossed the doors though, they slowed. Walking in lockstep, they each avoided looking at the other. Xia Ruyun looked towards the lobby. Towards the family checking in after a long flight. Li Feiling looked towards the central fountain. Towards the obscene show of wealth the hotel had installed in the center of their atrium.
As they neared the elevator, as the numbers above the doors ticked back down to the ground floor, their steps slowed. They both, by sheer coincidence, realized the surroundings were stunning, and required more examination. Xia Ruyun looked right and... the lobby showed such life. The human experience! Li Feiling looked left and... the atrium showed such opulence. The capitalistic urge of man!
A second later, they both broke the silence, their voices overlapping.
“We should talk.” “Want to go on a walk?”
Another pause.
This time, though, they faced each other. They made eye contact, and in each other’s eyes, they saw a mirror of themselves. In each other, they saw a glimpse of anxiety. They saw the tense eyebrows. They saw the pang of worry. They saw the nervous gulps.
“Let’s go...” Li Feiling swept her eyes around, locking onto a nearby sign. “To the gardens? You have a jacket?”
“I do,” Xia Ruyun slipped it on as she followed behind Li Feiling. Together, they took a side path to the hotel’s gardens. After pushing open a glass door, they stepped on to a gravel path. Knee-high hedges filled the garden in labyrinthine patterns as another fountain gurgled in the center. Amber string lights criss-crossed the area, casting a warm golden glow onto the dark-green leaves.
Li Feiling looked over at Xia Ruyun. Her eyes softened as she watched Xia Ruyun’s eyes light up. As Xia Ruyun exhaled though, a faint white mist appeared, and Li Feiling began to move, her footsteps crunching as she walked.
I hope Xia Ruyun doesn’t get cold out here.
They turned left.
They turned right.
“So... I just wanted to clear the air, I guess,” Xia Ruyun broke the silence. She brushed her hand against a stray shoulder-height branch sticking out of the bushes. “There’s... nothing I should know about? Still friends, yeah?”
“Yeah, for sure, for sure,” Li Feiling answered, not a beat later. Her footsteps though, paused, and her words, then, paused as well. She took a deep breath. “Anything on your side you want to talk about? I... feel like our last conversation was just a little tense.”
“I agree, but, I hope we can just move past it,” Xia Ruyun began walking once more. She fluttered her hand, motioning for Li Feiling to follow. “It’s... natural to not see eye to eye sometimes, and that one was quite minor, anyway. So, I do hope we can just move past it.”
“I’d like that too, for sure,” Li Feiling agreed once more, but as she did, they both fell silent, and this time, they both stopped walking. They stared upwards, searching the sky for stars, as if the glimmer of a star could reignite the rapport they seemed to have lost.
After a few more breaths, Li Feiling cracked her neck. She looked back at Xia Ruyun. “But it seems like, somehow, we’re not moving past it. I just don’t know what to say right now, even though we get along well.”
“I... don’t know either, though I guess that’s a little more expected given our disparity in introverted to extrovertedness.” Xia Ruyun met Li Feiling’s gaze, a flicker of amusement passing through her eyes after the joke.
Li Feiling, as well, cracked a smile, but that flicker, like the rest, flamed out in a second. Instead, Xia Ruyun’s eyebrows slanted as her worry appeared on her face. Li Feiling, feeling her heart clench, frowned.
“I guess maybe, in a way, we were friends of circumstance back on set, we got close, we learned about each other, but maybe we didn’t find our groove beyond work,” Xia Ruyun theorized as her voice quivered for a second.
“Maybe... yeah, I can see how you’re saying that,” Li Feiling let out a slow breath as she turned to admire the garden. “We did kind of... just put aside the deeper conversations we had afterward, and went back to bantering. Linjie helped too, since we could banter off of him.”
“True,” Xia Ruyun stretched her arms as she moved to stand side-by-side with Li Feiling. “... but I’m still willing to be friends with you, I hope you know. I just... open up slowly, sorry.”
“And that’s okay,” Li Feiling chuckled, a flicker of life returning to her eyes. “I’m happy to get to know you slowly. I’m patient. I don’t have much I do these days.”
Xie Ruyun paused, then turned to look at Li Feiling. Her turning stiff like a rusted robot. “... So... So, we both know that’s a lie, right?”
Li Feiling cracked a smile, and a laugh slipped out. “I guess I am quite busy, especially compared to you. But still, for the sake of friendship, I have time. We have so much time still ahead of us anyway. Another whole show!”
“True,” Xia Ruyun crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one foot. “And... I’m happy to get to know you too, and I’ll try to be more open. I don’t want to make this harder than it should be.”
“And I appreciate that,” Li Feiling smiled, her eyes curving into crescents as she faced Xia Ruyun. “I guess this is where we’re trading friendship affirmations now?”
“I guess so,” Xia Ruyun returned Li Feiling’s smile.
“Then,” Li Feiling extended a hand, leaning a little closer. With her face cast in the warm yellow glow of the lights, her eyes seemed to twinkle. “Would this esteemed miss allow my humble self to become friends with you? To have the chance to get to know you once more?”
“I’d be happy, no, honored to,” Xia Ruyun matched Li Feiling’s ostentatiousness with a fake curtsy of her own before taking Li Feiling’s hand. “If you’d be so gracious to offer me the chance.”
As their hands met, their world seemed to freeze, for just a moment. An invisible wall seemed to crack, and, in their eyes, they saw nothing but the other as they stood back upright.
“Shall we walk back?” Li Feiling offered as she noticed Xia Ruyun rubbing her arms for warmth.
“Let’s, yes please,” Xia Ruyun nodded as she hurried along beside Li Feiling. “I totally lost track of the way we came in, do you know the path out?”
“Yes I do, don’t worry, I’ve been to this hotel many times,” Li Feiling chuckled as she motioned out their path. “Every show in N City likes to book this place out because it just feels so rich.”
“Is it that rich though?” Xia Ruyun raised an eyebrow, “I always stayed at the other big hotel on the other side of the city when I was touring.”
“Honestly, I think the amenities in that one are better. It's a more comfortable experience, but you know how people are with their appearances. Pictures and updates you give from this hotel always feel more high-class, and a lot of people like that,” Li Feiling raised her hands. “What can you do, and it's not like this place is bad either, so... feels wrong to complain anyway.”
“Makes sense, makes sense,” Xia Ruyun shut up, focusing on hurrying through the garden. Once they made it through, swung the glass door open, and Xia Ruyun felt a gush of warmth rush out and envelop her body.
A sigh of satisfaction left her mouth as she slipped into the hotel. “Thank you for being willing to talk to me, Feiling.”
“Thank you too, Ruyun,” Li Feiling tilted her head and cracked a smile. Spreading her arms, she asked. “May I hug you?”
“Of course,” Xia Ruyun leaned forward, sinking into Li Feiling’s embrace. “Oh, you’re so warm...”
“You’re so cold, and you were the one with a jacket...” Li Feiling squeezed Xia Ruyun closer, rubbing her back to try and transfer just a little more heat to her.
“Yeah... I don’t know...” Xia Ruyun’s muffled voice answered as she exhaled into the crook of Li Feiling’s neck. Together, they stood there for a minute before going their separate ways back to their room.
““Goodnight.””