Aiden could not stop grinning. He reached for a shrimp dumpling to devour when Hui Ye spoke first with a question. “Are you excited to go back?”
He froze in place, chopsticks nearly crushing the shrimp dumpling he picked up. “Yeah, sure. I am. It’ll be fine. Everything will be fine. She’ll stop nagging me about it eventually.” He shoved the dumpling into his mouth and chewed slowly.
His brother leaned back with his eyebrow raised. “I was asking about whether you were excited to start college.”
“Oh.” He stared down at his plate. “You think I’ll make friends there?”
Hui Ye blinked. “Of course. Making friends is easy.”
“Well, if it’s anything like the academy, no, it’s not. It’s all just a game of survival,” Aiden scoffed. He stabbed another shrimp dumpling and dropped it on his plate.
“Use what I taught you. You’ll make friends in no time.”
He swirled the soy sauce with his chopstick. “You mean those lessons about reading people?”
“Yes. They’re not just skills to protect your life.”
What if it doesn’t work that way?Aiden thought, swirling the soy sauce harder.Observe their behavior. Look at their eyes. Eyes don’t hide emotions the way body language can. Listen to the inflections in their voice. Do they lean forward? If they do, they like to lead. Do they lean backward? If they do, they like to insinuate.Like an instruction manual, he repeated the lessons back.
“I’m just scared I’m going to go there, and everything that Yin Mei says is going to come true. That I don’t belong. That I can’t be normal like everyone else. That my place is with Infinite and with the family.” He pulled the shrimp dumpling into pieces with his chopsticks. “Because what am I going to do if she’s right?”
The waitress suddenly entered, and both brothers stopped their conversation and smiled pleasantly. Aiden feigned his gasps at the last three dishes placed on the table and observed the food aloud until she left them alone.
His smile dropped from his face. His hands shook underneath the table. Finally, he looked up into his brother’s eyes. “What if I don’t find my place?”
Hui Ye sighed. He leaned over and squeezed Aiden’s shoulder. “This is going to be yourfirstyear. Relax.”
“But—”
“And for the record, youwillfind other people to belong to.” Hui Ye dropped a shumai, a pork bun, and the last soup dumpling onto his plate. “Have I ever lied to you?”
Aiden shook his head, staring at the food.
“So, believe me when I say you’re okay. Attend those organization fairs. You’ll find a club, and you’ll make a bunch of friends there. I have no doubt about it.”
Aiden slowly nodded. He brought the soup dumpling to his mouth and gently sucked out the soup before eating the dumpling whole. Smooth warmth filled his body.
He looked at his brother’s empty plate.Always thinking of me first.He dropped a rice noodle onto his brother’s plate.
Hui Ye smiled, and the silence wrapped around them like a cozy blanket. The two gorged on the food before them.
• • •
Aiden stumbled into his brother’s apartment, holding his stomach and gasping for air.
With a groan, Hui Ye tossed his keys on the table. “Did you really have to laugh the entire ride back? Wang Xing was getting annoyed.”
“Wang Xing was two seconds away from getting fired for insubordination,” Aiden wheezed, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Should I be concerned that you screamed ateveryjump scare?”
“I just had my guard down.” Aiden watched Hui Ye’s face. Hui Ye rolled his eyes dramatically, but his embarrassment for not only screaming, but screaming so loudly that Aiden had to plug his ears with his own fingers to drown out the noise, still announced itself to the world through red-tipped ears.
“If people start demanding answers, or if you’re trying to tell a lie, go cold. Act like you don’t care, act like you’ve been through this, and act like everything’s a joke,” Aiden repeated his brother’s lessons verbatim with a grin. “Exactlylike how you’re acting right now. Since I’m not demanding anything of you, that means you’re lying.” He followed his grumbly brother into the bedroom.
A shimmer of sparkles reflected in Aiden’s eyes, and he stepped back in surprise. He stared at a lime green dress with a V-neck plunge laid out on his brother’s bed, decked in beads with fringes decorating the ends of the short skirt. Like everything Hui Ye owned, Aiden wouldn’t be surprised if it was custom made.
A custom-made dress for a woman.
He stared at the dress a few seconds longer.
