I'm Complicated Too

He Li'an seemed willing to keep him hanging, asking with a half-smile, "What do you think?"

Yu An: "..."

He was taking back his assessment that He Li'an was "too kind"!

There was obvious amusement in He Li'an's eyes, as though he wanted to tease him.

Correction: it wasn't as though.

He was plainly teasing him!

If he was in the mood to tease him, then he definitely wasn't angry.

But Yu An was a little angry.

He puffed up his cheeks and held the menu upright, blocking his view. "I want to order!"

"Yu An?" He Li'an leaned around the side of the menu to look at him.

Yu An shifted the menu to block his view again and said seriously, "Senior He, please don't interrupt me while I'm ordering."

Before, he had called him senior so affectionately. Now he had added his surname.

Was he angry?

He Li'an rather wanted to see what he looked like when he was angry, so he rather inelegantly leaned around the other side to look at him.

When Yu An noticed, he shifted the menu again to hide himself.

After several rounds of this back and forth, Yu An laid the menu flat on the table and glared at him with bright, clear eyes. "He Li'an, you're so childish!"

This time, he had even called him by his full name.

But what could he do? He found it even more interesting to watch the kid get angry.

He Li'an cleared his throat and spoke with a composed expression. "I'm three years older than you."

"That's not that much older," Yu An muttered, lowering his head to continue flipping through the menu.

They were all dishes he had never eaten before.

They were all dishes whose ingredients he couldn't identify.

Yu An gradually grew anxious, flipping through the menu faster and faster.

He Li'an noticed something was off and reached across the table to catch his hand. "Yu An."

Yu An froze for a moment, then slowly calmed down. "I can't choose."

He Li'an did not understand what he meant, but Yu An was clearly not in a state to be questioned too much.

"I'll do it." He took the menu, quickly made his choices, and called the waiter over to order.

After hearing him name several dishes, Yu An could not help speaking up. "Why didn't you order the set meal?"

"Hm?" Yu An had suddenly interrupted him, and He Li'an did not understand what he meant.

Yu An said, "The dishes you ordered are all included in the second set meal on the third page, and the set meal is more affordable."

There were not many dishes, and he had a good memory. After looking through the menu several times, he had memorized everything.

He Li'an flipped to the third page. When he saw the second set meal, he gave Yu An an exceedingly subtle look.

Thinking he had not found it, Yu An got up and leaned over the table, pointing at the set meal. "This one, the Endless Romance for Two Set Meal."

He Li'an caught the scent of his perfume again and quietly shifted his body backward.

Yu An happened to look up at that moment and, by sheer coincidence, saw the movement.

"Why are you moving away?" he asked He Li'an in confusion.

He Li'an silently moved his upper body back into place. He did not look at Yu An, and his voice was soft. "I wasn't."

Yu An blinked in confusion.

He suddenly began to question whether changing his target had been the right choice.

Ever since entering this restaurant, he had found He Li'an rather hard to read.

The waiter beside them asked softly, "Will you be ordering this set meal?"

"Mhm." Yu An nodded and sat back down.

He tried to use the time while waiting for the food to observe He Li'an.

But He Li'an simply would not look at him.

So he had no choice but to play with his phone.

He had never had friends before, nor did he ever post on Moments.

Today, he had added Song Yuechi at school and discovered a little red dot on Moments.

When he tapped into it, it was full of posts Song Yuechi had made.

The picture on the newest post showed a large group of people raising their glasses together over a big table covered in food.

It looked very lively.

He casually gave it a like.

The post below was a video of people drinking and singing in what looked like a private club room. He tapped play, and deafening music mixed with screams burst from his phone without warning. He jumped in fright and hurriedly backed out.

Instinctively, he looked to see He Li'an's reaction.

He Li'an, who had deliberately avoided looking at him the whole time, now frowned slightly and asked in a low voice, "What were you looking at just now?"

Yu An said, "Song Yuechi's Moments."

A trace of confusion flashed through He Li'an's eyes, as though he were trying to remember who Song Yuechi was.

"The classmate we happened to run into at the school cafeteria at noon," Yu An explained. He did not think he was being too unkind; even at a time like this, he had not forgotten to help Song Yuechi cover his lie.

"The guy who dyed his hair yellow?"

"Mhm."

He Li'an's brows drew together even more tightly. "Are you two close?"

Yu An hesitated, then nodded.

Compared with everyone else, he and the foolish Song Yuechi were close.

Song Yuechi himself had said they were friends.

Though it had been rash, Yu An did not dislike it.

He Li'an's expression turned completely serious, as though he had encountered a difficult problem.

Only after a moment did he carefully say, "From the perspective of an upperclassman, I wouldn't really recommend that you have too much contact with Song Yuechi outside of school."

Yu An asked, "Why?"

He Li'an patiently explained, "People are very complicated. Dealing with people who are too complicated makes it easy to get hurt."

Yu An understood.

He Li'an meant that Song Yuechi was complicated and that he should stay away from him.

But...

"I'm complicated too," he said. He felt that he was far more complicated than Song Yuechi.

He could tell what Song Yuechi wanted to do at a glance.

But He Li'an definitely could not tell that he was planning to marry him.

Yu An's gaze was too clean, and his expression too serious. Instead, he looked purely innocent.

He Li'an laughed. "Tell me, how are you complicated?"

"..." Yu An choked. "I'm not telling."

The smile in He Li'an's eyes deepened.

Yu An felt that he was laughing at him and pressed his lips together unhappily.

At that moment, the waiter pushed over a serving cart. "Hello, excuse me. Your set meal is ready."

The main dish had been arranged into the shape of a heart and looked beautiful.

Yu An said, "Wow."

After serving the dishes, the waiter smiled and left.

Yu An thought of something and said to He Li'an, "Wait a second."

He took a photo of the main dish, then picked up his glass of water and raised it toward He Li'an. "Senior, cheers."

"Plain water?" He Li'an's tone was skeptical, but his hand obediently picked up his glass anyway.

Yu An nodded heavily. "Mhm."

Drinks were harmful to the body.

He never drank them.

When they clinked glasses, He Li'an saw that Yu An was taking another picture, so he cooperatively held the pose.

After taking the photo, Yu An eagerly posted on Moments:

[Yu An]: Cheers. [Peace sign]

--[Photo] [Photo]

After posting it, he checked Moments every three seconds.

He Li'an quietly used the serving chopsticks to put food on his plate. "Eat."

Yu An glanced at the reddish-brown chunk of meat, his brows furrowing so hard they nearly stood upright.

Seeing him look as though he were facing a formidable enemy, He Li'an set down his chopsticks too. "Why aren't you eating?"

His own tastes were not heavy, but Yu An's eating habits seemed a little too bland even to him.

Other than oil and salt, Yu An did not eat any extra seasonings.

It was too healthy, almost abnormal.