After Watching Him 37 Times, He Pinned Me Down

Microfiction Extra No. 29

When Su Xiao ducked behind a tree for the thirty-seventh time, phone clenched in hand, the sizzling sound of eggs frying on the griddle suddenly stopped.

Chen Yang turned around with a spatula in hand. His orange work jacket hung on the stall railing, revealing a white T-shirt darkened with sweat. He grinned like a mischievous boy. "Handsome, how many times have you walked past now? Keep circling around and my egg burgers will go cold."

Su Xiao's face flushed hot. He stiffened his neck and stammered, "W-Who's circling around? I just like the food here."

In his mind, though, he counted every knuckle on the hand gripping the spatula. The calluses on Chen Yang's fingertips had softened since the days he carried steel bars at the construction site, but somehow that only made Su Xiao's heart itch more.

What he didn't know was that Chen Yang had long since memorized his preferences and turned them into stall rules: extra honey sauce on his double-egg burger, twice the hawthorn bits in his ice jelly, and even the days he wanted something savory instead, all written down in the little notebook with curled edges at the stall. Just as Chen Yang didn't know that Su Xiao had more than thirty secretly taken photos in his phone gallery, all of Chen Yang in his work clothes, lifting things, wiping away sweat, and even squatting on the ground to eat a steamed bun.

Then one day, Chen Yang's stall was forty minutes late to open. Su Xiao stood at the empty street corner, staring at the seventeen missed calls on his phone, his fingers trembling so badly he could barely hold it.

"Sorry, I had to pick up a few things on the way." Chen Yang ran over, fresh-ground sesame powder still clinging to his apron. "I saved you..."

"Saved what?" Su Xiao's voice tightened, betraying a hurt he hadn't even noticed himself. "You started this stall because you wanted nobody telling you what to do, didn't you? Now you wait around for me to nag you every day. What's the point?"

Chen Yang suddenly fell silent. He just looked at Su Xiao, amusement spilling from his eyes, so warm it made him flustered.

Under that gaze, Su Xiao grew uneasy and blurted out, "I just... missed you, okay?"

Before the words had even left his mouth, a force redolent of cooking smoke pressed him against the side of the grill. When Chen Yang's lips met his, they carried the fragrance of freshly toasted sesame. He nipped the corner of Su Xiao's lips and spoke in a low, almost pleading voice. "Silly. I closed up early on purpose today, just to tell you..."

"I never opened this stall for the sake of freedom."

"I did it so I could keep you, always hiding behind that tree to sneak a look at me, right under my nose."

It turned out this hunt had been mutual from the start: from the extra spoonful of sugar he secretly added to the sauce, to the photo he set as his lock screen.

#MutualSecretCrush #BothAreHunters #HappyEnding#

Theme: Love goes both ways