With red eyes and stubble darkening his jaw, Ming Shao looked far more disheveled than he ever had before.
Shen Luo’s gaze fell on the roses in the corner. The roses were a deep red, vibrant and passionate, and had been carefully preserved so they were yet to wilt.
They were in full bloom.
Suddenly, Shen Luo felt at peace.
In the past, Ming Shao owed him many roses, and so the love faded, scattered by the wind.
But roses would bloom again, just like the evergreen tree that had grown lush once more.
Like tumbleweed finally finding an oasis to root in, it spread its leaves and bloomed profusely with crimson roses.
“Hey, want to go see the ocean?” Shen Luo nudged Ming Shao’s arm and blurted out something completely out of the blue.
Ming Shao paused for just two seconds before nodding without hesitation.
Shen Luo drove, cruising on the ring road at two in the morning. Occasionally, other cars passed by. Ming Shao wasn’t very drunk, and the night wind sobered him up quite a bit.
Shen Luo turned his head and asked, “Do you want to rest for a while?”
“Hm?”
The wind was strong, and Ming Shao didn’t hear clearly, so Shen Luo raised his voice.
“Hey—do you need to rest—”
“No—need—” Ming Shao also raised his voice, even cupping his hands around his mouth like a megaphone.
“Really?” Shen Luo chuckled.
Ming Shao had been busy all day and should have been tired. As they reached the main road, Shen Luo regretted his impulsive suggestion to see the sea. Logically, Ming Shao needed rest right now more than anything.
“I really don’t.” Ming Shao replied.
“Okay.”
Forget logic then.
Shen Luo thought he had wanted to do this for a long time.
Music filled the car, the city’s neon lights trailing behind them as the streetlights stretched ahead.
At three in the morning, the car stopped by the sea.
To be honest, the scenery wasn’t great. A gust of sea breeze rushed over, carrying the unique scent of the ocean. Ming Shao’s carefully combed-back hair had long lost its shape, with a few strands falling over his eyes.
With deep-set features, enveloped in the night, Shen Luo suddenly remembered the first time he met Ming Shao.
Having a crush was such a small thing, so small that Shen Luo only remembered the evening breeze brushing past them the day they first met.
It was somewhat nonsensical; a simple “Junior, be careful” had stayed with Shen Luo for many years.
Now, Ming Shao held up his phone to use it as a flashlight, one hand loosely circling Shen Luo to prevent him from slipping.
“Take it slow, be careful.”
The evening breeze from ten years ago seemed to blow into the present.
“Ming Shao, listen.” Shen Luo stopped on a piece of basalt rock.
The waves crashed against the rocks, the sea breeze still blustering.
Ming Shao didn’t respond but stepped up onto the same piece of basalt rock as Shen Luo.
Their proximity closed, and amidst the sounds of the waves and the howling wind, a third sound emerged.
It was the heartbeat.
Belonging to Ming Shao, belonging to Shen Luo.
At the same time, at the same place, in front of the same sea, gradually aligning.
The moon was captured by the ocean, rippling out fine waves in the water.
“I’ve caught the moon,” Shen Luo suddenly said.
“The moon is late,” Ming Shao replied, carefully embracing his beta, saying, “I’m sorry, Luo Luo.”
And, “I love you.”
Ming Shao said, “I love Shen Luo.”
He would no longer disappoint Shen Luo, no longer make him sad. Fishing for the moon alone was too sorrowful; the moon would come to him, plunging into the deep sea.
Their heartbeats began to align at this moment.
“Thump—thump—thump—”
Louder than the waves.
The moonlight plunged, the dawn fell.
“It’s so noisy.” Shen Luo feigned annoyance.
Ming Shao leaned in, one hand at the back of Shen Luo’s neck, tilting his beta’s head slightly.
The sound of the waves crashing gradually became another kind of water sound.
Intimate rolling, a kiss.
Ming Shao held tightly to the one he had regained.
No one knew, he had also caught his own moon.
As the sky began to show the first light of dawn, Shen Luo parked the car in front of a flower shop.
At six, the flower shop opened.
They were the shop’s first customers.
“Hello, what can I help you with?” The shop owner hung a wind chime on the eaves, the morning breeze playing through it, bringing a cascade of joyful sounds.
“I’d like a bunch of roses,” Shen Luo turned to look at Ming Shao and added to the florist:
“For the gentleman beside me.”
(The End)
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