Chapter Text
The new boy working at the coffee shop has two of the most beautiful sleeves of arm tattoos Xie Lian had ever seen. He also has an excessive amount of enamel pins running up and down his uniform, but Xie Lian is more distracted by how the man had somehow cut the sleeves off without provoking the rage of Black Water Cafe’s manager. Not that he’s complaining.
Then again, Xie Lian doesn’t think he’s ever seen the manager of the cafe get mad. He Xuan, some grad student with a passion for coffee and too much time on his hands, doesn’t react to anything at all, except sometimes to raise an eyebrow at She Quingxuan’s antics, which Xie Lian thinks could make anyone react. But other than Shi Quingxuan dragging Xie Lian into elaborate schemes every time they get coffee together, everything at Black Water Cafe has been completely and totally fine. At least, until the tattoo man started working there.
Xie Lian always orders the same thing every time, and the man, whose name tag is completely unreadable, always acts like he’s never heard it before. And when the man calls his name, he always repeats it in the same sweet lilt that Xie Lian gets the feeling has some kind of secret meaning that he can’t exactly place.
And maybe it wouldn’t be that weird, but nobody really notices Xie Lian. He gets average grades, speaks an average amount in class, and wears the same four outfits he thrifted two years ago. And yet the man calls out Xie Lian’s name for the order himself and waits by the counter until Xie Lian grabs it every day without fail, even if the line is out the door and the girl in the front is tapping her feet trying to get him to hurry up already. In truth, Xie Lian is more confused than anything else. And when their hands brush as the man hands the coffee over, Xie Lian feels like there’s some deeper connection that passes through their fingertips, a feeling that he has no name for.
And then there are the tattoos. They’re just so distracting . Xie Lian is supposed to be finishing his junior thesis when he comes into the cafe to study, but how can he when he’s stuck starting at the butterflies that run up and down the man’s arms or the brush strokes that form swirly, hypnotic patterns that might be a poor attempt at calligraphy. Xie Lian always gets stuck on those. He thinks they must mean something but he’s not sure if they’re calligraphy either. I mean, who writes like that?
But the best part of the man's tattoo sleeve, in Xie Lian's opinion, is the flowers.
Xie Lian’s had a garden for most of his life. It was what got him into photography in the first place. He took pictures of his parents with the thousands of flowers of all different colors in the family garden. And when he moved away at seventeen, he kept those photos to remember them by.
That was right before everything fell apart.
Xie Lian had always been a perfect student, but when his parents publicly blamed him for the fall of their business, Xianle Media, he was forced to change schools and take a gap year to work. He'd work for anything, finding odd jobs as a janitor or a pizza delivery guy. Finally, after two hard years, he’d earned enough to go back to school. He switched his major to photography and started following what he was actually interested in and not a business degree like what everyone expected him to do since birth. He had loved photography ever since taking those flower photos, and his thesis project, which he’s supposed to be working on instead of thinking about this stupid barista’s tattoos , was all about incorporating new photos with the ones he’d taken as a kid on his old Sony.
But the weird thing about this man’s tattoos is that each and every flower is one of the ones Xie Lian had in his garden. Xie Lian would know; he’d been working on this damn project for the past three weeks now. He thinks it must be a coincidence, but all the same, every time Xie Lian glances at the man's arms, he gets lost in a sea of familiarity.
One day, Xie Lian decides he’s had enough. Maybe if he just talks to the guy, the air will clear and Xie Lian will stop thinking about him constantly. Xie Lian thinks he must have met him before, or else why would the man stop and wait and smile at him and totally brush his hand on purpose every time he gets his order? But on the other hand, Xie Lian thinks if he had met someone who looked like this before, there was no way he wouldn’t remember. I mean, despite Xie Lian’s lack of relationship history, he has eyes– and this mysterious man is drop-dead gorgeous. And Xie Lian never really considered himself the biggest fan of tattoos, but they really are mesmerizing. They add to the man’s natural beauty, instead of distracting from it. His skin is flawless, but the tattoos that cut through him give the perfect canvas a personality. It’s like he's painted all his hopes and desires over it in red and black.
Xie Lian totally hasn’t been thinking about the barista’s skin instead of his capstone project for the past week.
So next time he’s in the coffee shop, and he’s with Feng Xin, who’s arguing with Mu Qing about their group project (the professor of their class must have had a sick sense of humor to pair those two together), he makes up his mind that he’s going to break the ice. Maybe if he gets to know the man, he’ll lose all that mysteriousness and stop being a distracting presence.
“Can I get a name for your order?” the man asks for the thousandth time. Xie Lian thinks he’s smirking.
And instead of saying ‘Xie Lian’, he replies, “I know you know it already,” with a huff. “So why do you keep asking?”
The man doesn’t look surprised, he just laughs. “There are a lot of customers here, you know. I don’t memorize all their names,”
“Yeah, but I’m here three times a week,”
“Maybe I have a bad memory,” the man suggests like he too is trying to come up with possible explanations for the puzzling phenomenon.
Xie Lian wants to argue that the man waits for him at the counter every day too, but he’s scared to bring it up. Maybe the man does that for a lot of people? Maybe Xie Lian is just reading too much into things.
“Bad memory. Sure .” Xie Lian says. “And how should I address you? I tell you my name three times a week and I’ve never even heard yours! Names are powerful, you know,”
The man smirks. The way he looks at Xie Lian, so casually handsome, should be a crime.“Call me San Lang,” he replies.
Xie Lian grows flustered by the familiar name. “I don’t even know you,”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure your friends back there can tell you my other name,” he says, cocking his head at Feng Qin and Mu Qing.
Xie Lian had been too mesmerized to realize that the two behind him had stopped bickering for once and were standing stock-still, staring between Xie Lian and San Lang as if they had just sprouted a second head.
San Lang had moved on to the next customer, and Feng Qin had dragged Xie Lian, who was busy watching San Lang’s tattooed arm as he handed him the receipt, away from the counter.
“What the hell was that?!" Mu Qing says sternly.
“What?” Xie Lian asks, confused.
“You’re kidding me. Hua Cheng? What are you doing talking to that guy!!”
“Hua Cheng? Is that his name?”
“You don't know about him??" Mu Qing exclaims, exasperated.
"Yes, that man is Hua Cheng. Street name: Crimson Rain. Not sure what he's doing working as a barista," Feng Xin says. Mu Qing shivers.
“ Street name ?!” Xie Lian exclaims. “What is this, a rap battle? The mafia?”
“Probably,” Mu Qing says. “He gets into underground fights all the time and he has a cult following. Sounds pretty mafia to me,”
“He got 33 students expelled.” Feng Xin adds.
“He almost got me expelled,” Mu Qing says with a grunt.
“What? Why?!”
“Nobody knows. Some of them, he’d start fights with. But somehow, the deans would always trace the blame for the whole thing on the other student.” Feng Xin said.
Mu Qing continued, “With other people, nobody saw it coming. He’d post some incriminating data on an anonymous Twitter account, and they’d be packing their bags the next day,”
“Wow,” Xie Lian replies because that sounds nothing like the barista.
“He’s in the martial arts club, too. He does underground fights all the time— that’s where he got “crimson rain” from. 'cause he makes everyone bleed. Even I refuse to play him,”
“Yeah… and don’t even think about getting on his bad side. He’d literally end your whole life,”
Hmm. Martial Arts. Xie Lian had been good at that, at one point.
Xie Lian was about to open his mouth to ask more questions about the mysterious man, but their conversation was cut short as Hua Cheng’s voice rang across the coffee shop: “One coffee for the unnamed gege!”
A shiver goes down Xie Lian’s neck at the apparently fearsome man using such a casual term, but as Xie Lian approaches the counter, Hua Cheng doesn’t seem as scary and all-powerful as Feng Xin and Mu Qing are making it seem.
“ Gege ? Really?” Xie Lian asks. But there’s no doubt Hua Cheng is talking about him- he’s staring right at him, waiting at the bar just as usual. Hua Cheng just shrugs with a smile. He doesn’t look dangerous. Would someone dangerous have butterfly and flower tattoos running up and down his arms?
Xie Lian walks up to the bar and takes the coffee. “How do you know I’m older than you anyway?” he asks.
“Call it intuition,” the man grins.
Xie Lian smiles at that, which causes Feng Xin to start making gagging noises and Mu Qing to stop bickering with him once more to forcefully drag Xie Lian from the counter. As he is dragged out of the cafe, Xie Lian turns to look behind him one last time, making eye contact one final time with Hua Cheng. And he almost stops in his tracks.
Because Xie Lian could have sworn Hua Cheng just winked at him.
—---
The next time Xie Lian walks in, he has a plan. So when Hua Cheng asks “Can I get a name for the order?” Xie Lian says “Seriously? Again ?”
"What is it gege?"
"You know my name!"
But when Hua Cheng continues to pretend he doesn’t know what Xie Lian is talking about, Xie Lian narrows his head, frustrated, and blurts out the first thing that comes to his mind– “Hua Lian,”
Then, he promptly blushes as red as the word he just said because he just used Hua Cheng’s name as his own and he was probably about to get vaporized. Or worse; expelled.
But Hua Cheng just freezes for a moment, blinks at him, and types out the name to print the label (From the quality of the nametag and the labels, Xie Lian is starting to suspect Hua Cheng really can’t write after all. Maybe they could work on that…)
Wait.
They?????
Xie Lian doesn’t even know this guy!
“One coffee for Hua-gege!” Hua Cheng calls out two minutes later.
Xie Lian rolls his eyes and grabs the drink from Hua Cheng, who looks like he’s about to burst out laughing. Before facing more humiliation, Xie Lian rushes out the door.
Then, a plan starts to form in his mind. He wonders how far he can push this. So next time he comes into the shop, he says, “ Taizai Danxia” without hesitation and waits to be laughed at. Or maybe, expelled. But he’s not too worried about that– he was pushed out of his school before, and that turned out fine.
But Hua Cheng just smirks and says “Yes, Your Highness,” giving a short bow like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Five minutes later, he calls out “One order for His Highness the Crown Prince!”
“San Lang ,” Xie Lian says, exasperated, as he grabs the drink from Hua Cheng’s hand.
Hua Cheng raises an eyebrow. “So you know my real name, but you still use… that one,”
“I-I can change if you want!” Xie Lian said, remembering how bad it might be to get on this guy’s bad side. Xie Lian does not want to be expelled. “Hua cheng is nice too,”
“Gege can call me whatever he wants,”
Xie Lian doesn’t know how to respond to that, so he rushes out the door, coffee still in hand. It’s only when he reaches his class that he realizes; Hua Chang has drawn flowers on his cup. They’re tiger lilies, the same flowers Hua Cheng has on his wrist. Not that Xie Lian had memorized the location of Hua Cheng’s tattoos, or anything, but when you’re awkwardly brushing fingers with someone three times a week, you start to notice their wrists.
Hua Cheng does have nice wrists.
Xie Lian’s mind stops in his tracks.
Was he even listening to himself? What was he saying?? He was supposed to be focused on a lecture about the golden ratio he’d heard a thousand times, but here he was, thinking about his hot barista’s wrists.
And then he thinks about Hua Cheng’s smirk, and Crimson Rain himself calling Xie Lian your highness . Suddenly Xie Lian finds himself blushing again.
And that is when Xie Lian realizes he is officially and totally screwed.
—-
The next week, Xie Lian tries to avoid Hua Cheng. He really does! He starts going to the other cafe on campus, Heavenly Coffee, but " Heavenly" is a strong word for their lackluster espresso. Plus, Jun Wu, the thirty-something man who owns the place, keeps trying to bribe Xie Lian into submitting a job application for some reason.
Freelance work and a junior thesis are enough already, thank you very much! Xie Lian does not need a second job on top of all of that. So when he politely declines, and Jun Wu responds by literally running after him as he’s taking his honey latte to go, Xie Lian decides he can take it no longer. Almost begrudgingly, he returns the next day to Black Water Cafe.
He’s buzzing with nerves this time. He still doesn’t understand why Hua Cheng is treating him the way that he is. Plus, Xie Lian usually never cares about the opinions of others. But for some reason, Xie Lian’s mind has decided that he wants Hua Cheng to like him.
It might be because if Hua Cheng doesn’t like Xie Lian, he might find himself kidnapped by the Crimson Rain mafia or something. But Xie Lian tries not to think too much about that. The Hua Cheng who works at Black Water Cafe is just too far from the Hua Cheng Feng Xin and Mu Qing described that Xie Lian has a hard time believing the two are the same person.
When he walks in, Hua Cheng is at the counter as usual, and Xie Lian thinks he might have seen his ears perk up and his eyes shift towards the door as Xie Lian walks in. Then Xie Lian thinks it was probably the delusion talking.
This time, there’s nobody in line, but when he reaches the counter and Hua Cheng asks for his order, he finds himself at a loss for words.
“I… um…”
“Ah. I see. It has sunk in now, my identity?”
“You-
“Is gege scared about what I might do to him?” Hua Cheng asks with a smile that Xie Lian is trying to decide is malicious or not. “Gege shouldn’t worry. I only hurt people who deserve it.”
Xie Lian doesn’t know how to respond to that.
“And who deserves it?”
“Gege would be surprised at what blasphemy the kind of people who frequent our school get up to. Not everyone is as pure at heart as you, Your Highness,”
“Really?”
“Yes. There are cheaters, people who bribe their way into good grades, and people who take advantage of the innocent. I can’t stand that,” Hua Cheng says with conviction.
Xie Lian can’t help but think of the parallels to his own philosophy. He wants to help those who need it. Hua Cheng wants to hurt those who deserve it. On one hand, they are worlds apart. On the other hand, they really are two sides of the same coin.
Hua Cheng continues, “Just look at your friends who were arguing before. Those two useless pieces of trash wouldn’t get anywhere if they didn’t have the way already paved for them. Not to mention the fact that they are supposedly friends, but can’t stand the sight of each other. They wouldn’t know an ethics sutra if it hit them in the forehead,”
“Ethics sutra?” Xie Lian questions. “Are you a philosophy major or something?”
Hua Cheng nods. “Gege is so perceptive. I’m a double major with art,”
“Ah. That explains things,” Xie Lian’s eyes drift towards Hua Cheng’s tattoos again.
“You like them?” Hua Cheng smirks, noticing where Xie Lian's eyes have gone.
“O-of course,“ Xie Lian manages to stammer out, then turns his face away, suddenly wishing he were anywhere but here.
Then he recalls the image of a panting Jun Wu running after him and realizes that maybe this is fine after all. “Who wouldn’t?”
“Any ones in particular?” Hua Cheng wiggles his eyebrows.
“Uhh… I don’t know?” Xie Lian questions. Then he catches on. “Wait. San Lang!! You just want more compliments, huh?” he crosses his arms.
Hua Cheng giggles, and as he does, the silver enamel pins on his shirt glitter and tinkle. “Gege really is very perceptive,”
Hua Cheng doesn’t ask for his name this time, just calls out “Your Highness!” and Xie Lian can do nothing but come get his drink.
He looks at the cup as he walks out, and gasps.
(888)888-8888
And who has a number like that , anyway?! This Hua Cheng really is lucky!