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The early morning light filtered weakly through the half-closed curtains of Suowei’s chaotic apartment. The relentless whirrrrr of a vacuum cleaner sliced through his sleep like a chainsaw. Suowei groaned, burying his face deeper into the pillow for a few seconds before his irritation finally won.
He shot upright in bed, hair sticking out in every direction, eyes bleary.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” he yelled over the noise.
Chi Cheng, standing in the middle of the living room with the vacuum hose in one hand and a half eaten banana in the other, didn’t even flinch. He had his headphones on, the cord dangling loosely. His sleeves were rolled up, and there was a faint sheen of sweat on his forehead. He casually turned off the vacuum.
“This,” Chi Cheng said, waving the vacuum hose “is called cleaning. You know how to do it?”
Suowei rubbed his eyes aggressively. “No, I don’t know and I don’t even want to know.”
Chi Cheng took a big bite of the banana, chewing thoughtfully as he looked around at the dramatically improved room. “Look, for the first time in forever I don’t have anything to do after 9. So I thought I’d do this.” He gestured at the space with the banana peel. “You should thank me. Your floor hasn’t seen the light of day in months.”
Suowei swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood up on the mattress, trying to get a better view of the room. His eyes widened when they landed on a large, dark grey sofa now sitting proudly in the middle of the living area - neatly positioned where piles of clothes and random junk had been yesterday.
“Where the hell did this sofa come from?” he asked, pointing dramatically.
Chi Cheng smirked, popping the last piece of banana into his mouth. “It’s your sofa.”
“No no,” Suowei said, shaking his head.
“Yes yes,” Chi Cheng replied, mimicking his tone. “The poor thing was hiding under a massive pile of your clothes. And it smelled… interesting.” He wrinkled his nose in exaggerated disgust. “I had to air it out for two hours.”
“Oow,” Suowei muttered, face twisting in embarrassment.
Chi Cheng bent down, picked something up from the coffee table, and tossed it lightly toward the bed. A keychain with multiple keys jingled through the air. Suowei caught it clumsily against his chest.
“And yes,” Chi Cheng added with a smug grin, “I found the keys to your house. Or should I say keys - plural. You really had them buried under three layers of hoodies.”
Suowei stared at the keys in his palm, then back at the now-visible sofa, then at Chi Cheng standing there looking far too pleased with himself.
He sighed deeply, running a hand through his messy hair.
.
.
.
Suowei stood barefoot in the middle of his living room, slowly turning in a circle. His eyes widened in genuine disbelief. The coffee table -which had been buried under empty snack packets, old magazines, and a suspicious layer of dust for months, now gleamed under the morning light. Not a single crumb and the wood shone with a faint polish.
“Damn…” he muttered under his breath.
A satisfied smirk tugged at his lips. He walked over to the newly discovered dark grey sofa and dramatically collapsed onto it, letting out a long sigh of pleasure as he stretched his legs and planted his feet right on the clean coffee table.
Chi Cheng emerged from the kitchen carrying two steaming coffee mugs. He raised an eyebrow at Suowei’s relaxed posture but said nothing about the feet on the table.
“Your coffee,” he said, handing over the mug. “Low fat.”
Suowei took the mug but scrunched his nose. “Huh? I like full fat.”
He still brought the mug to his lips and took a sip anyway, humming in mild approval.
Chi Cheng sat on the other end of the sofa, holding his own mug. After a moment of comfortable silence, he spoke.
“Day 2. It’s your turn to make a wish.”
Suowei’s eyes sparkled with mischief. A slow, extremely scheming smile spread across his face - the kind that promised absolute chaos. He looked far too excited.
Chi Cheng noticed immediately and leaned back, narrowing his eyes.
“Don’t know why… I’m so scared of your wish already.”
Suowei’s grin only grew wider, practically vibrating with excitement now.
Chi Cheng let out a nervous laugh and quickly tried to backtrack. “Kay, listen… let’s just leave all these wishes. It was a bad idea anyway.”
Suowei immediately sat up straighter, pointing an accusing finger. “Why? When it’s my turn, suddenly it was a bad idea?”
Chi Cheng scoffed. “Which of my wishes has even been fulfilled yet?”
Suowei rubbed the back of his neck. “I will get your wish fulfilled. I’ll take time.”
“Come on, tell me,” Chi Cheng pressed, leaning forward eagerly. “Otherwise I’ll die of suspense.”
Suowei jumped up from the sofa with sudden energy. He grabbed a set of small darts from the shelf and stood in front of the large world map pinned crookedly on the wall.
“We’ll go wherever the arrow marks,” he declared dramatically.
He closed his eyes, spun around once for effect, and threw the dart with full force.
Thwack.
The dart landed squarely in a vast blue region of the map.
Chi Cheng walked over, squinting. “Throw it again. It’ll land nowhere useful.”
Suowei stepped closer, examining the exact spot with growing delight. His eyes widened in triumph.
“It’s the Atlantic,” he announced, turning to Chi Cheng with pure joy. “My wish is that we’ll swim in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.”
Chi Cheng froze, mug halfway to his mouth.
“What?” He blinked hard, convinced he had misheard. “Come again?”
“Yes,” Suowei said, beaming.
“That’s dumb!” Chi Cheng burst out. “It’s like -2 degrees out there! I won’t do such crazy things!”
Suowei crossed his arms, pretending to be offended. “Oh, so your wish is beautiful and special and I ‘will not understand’… but my wish is dumb?”
“It is suicide!” Chi Cheng exclaimed, voice rising.
“Really?” Suowei tilted his head, still grinning like a madman.
Chi Cheng stared at him for a long moment, clearly battling internally. Finally, he let out a defeated sigh.
“Fine.”
Suowei punched the air in victory.
Chi Cheng turned away, murmuring under his breath as he walked toward the kitchen, “That’s why God kept me alive for this day…”
.
.
.
The yacht gently rocked in the vast, endless blue of the middle of the Atlantic. The sun hung high, reflecting off the water like shattered diamonds. Suowei was humming loudly, clearly in high spirits.
“Bathing in the sea made me even more saltier ” he sang off key, grabbing a fresh beer bottle from the cooler. He moved toward Chi Cheng with a mischievous grin, pinched his nose hard between two fingers, and burst into loud laughter.
Chi Cheng swatted his hand away, half annoyed, half amused. “You’re such a kid.”
Suowei took a long swig from the bottle and leaned against the railing, staring out at the horizon. The wind ruffled his shiny hair.
“How easy it is… forgetting everything,” Chi Cheng said quietly, almost to himself. “Live like this everyday. Fulfill your every desire as if it’s your last day.”
Suowei looked at him, something soft flickering in his eyes. “But life will always get in the way.”
Then he turned, a sudden idea lighting up his face. He dashed inside the cabin and returned moments later with a pen and a piece of paper, shoving them into Chi Cheng’s hands.
“Write it.”
“What?”
“What you just said - ‘live each day like it’s your last.’”
“Why?”
“Just write it.”
Chi Cheng sighed but complied, scribbling the line in his scribbly handwriting. Suowei snatched the paper, rolled it tightly, and stuffed it into the empty beer bottle. He pushed the cork back in firmly, then closed his eyes, holding the bottle high.
“I wish it reaches someone who has no reason to live,” he whispered dramatically, before hurling the bottle far into the open ocean. It splashed and bobbed away on the waves.
Chi Cheng watched it disappear into the distance. “I wish there is no one like that,” he said softly from behind.
Suowei clapped his hands. “Okay! It’s swimming time. Where’s my swimming bag, Chi Cheng?”
He started rummaging around the deck, tossing towels and cushions aside.
“Yes, it must be somewhere…” Chi Cheng muttered, pretending to search.
“I don’t really see it.”
Chi Cheng scratched the back of his head. “I am so sorry… I forgot that bag.”
“What? No, Chi Cheng!” Suowei stared at him in disbelief.
“I’m so sorry. Let’s just go back.”
Suowei crossed his arms. “One minute. We are not going back anywhere.”
“Hey, how will we swim without the costumes?” Chi Cheng asked.
Without hesitation, Chi Cheng pulled off his shirt and shorts, standing confidently in just his boxers. “Actually, I can swim like this.”
“Shameless!” Suowei exclaimed, eyes wide. “I won’t do it in boxers. I am not shameless like you.”
“I’m shameless?” Chi Cheng raised an eyebrow.
“Of course!”
“Who is till 10 km to see you like that?” Chi Cheng gestured at the empty ocean around them.
Suowei gave him a long, questionable side-eye.
Chi Cheng rolled his eyes. “Look, I have no interest in seeing you like that.”
“Aye, watch it ha!” Suowei pointed a warning finger at him.
“So what do you want to hear? That I am very interested in seeing you like that, but I’ll control myself? ”
Suowei huffed and marched to the front of the yacht, crossing his arms and sulking dramatically.
“That’s why I’m saying let’s go back. Stop your drama.”
Then suddenly, Chi Cheng heard his name.
“Chi Cheng!”
He turned sharply. Suowei was in the water, flailing wildly, his head dipping below the surface.
“Oh shit!” Chi Cheng panicked. He grabbed a plastic cylindrical floater and hurled it toward Suowei, but Suowei “failed” to catch it. Heart racing, Chi Cheng didn’t think twice - he jumped straight into the cold Atlantic.
The moment he hit the water, reality hit harder. Chi Cheng started flapping his arms desperately, sinking fast. He couldn’t swim.
Seeing this, Suowei immediately stopped his act and swam powerfully toward him. He grabbed Chi Cheng’s arm, stabilizing him, then reached for the nearby floater. He pulled it over and they both clung to it, breathing heavily.
“You forgot my bag because you can’t swim?” Suowei asked, half-frustrated, half-scolding.
“If you were not pretending to drown, we wouldn’t be here,” Chi Cheng shot back, coughing.
“So this is my fault?”
“Of course it’s your fault.”
“Yeah, it’s my fault that in today’s day and age you don’t know swimming. I don’t know from which era you are. Stuck with you!”
They floated together while the yacht casually sailed off without them, leaving the two idiots bobbing in the middle of nowhere in the vast Atlantic Ocean.
A long silence stretched between them, broken only by the sound of waves.
Chi Cheng suddenly cleared his throat. “I have to pee.”
“What? Here? Right now? You....you can’t do it here.”
“What do you mean? I can’t hold it anymore.”
“I don’t know, but not in the water! That’s disgusting, Chi Cheng!”
“You go there, swim a little. Till then the wave will take it away.”
“Eww.”
“See, the waves are like that,” Chi Cheng said, pointing toward some distant ripples.
Suowei narrowed his eyes. “Chi Cheng… what is that? Is that a shark?”
“No, it’s not a shark. It’s something like a cloth.”
“Oh, they look like someone’s boxers to me,” Suowei said, starting to laugh.
Chi Cheng glanced down. His face went pale as realization hit - he was completely bare from the waist down. Suowei burst out disgusted and shoved him away, keeping the floater for himself.
“You pervert! I’ve been near you for so long!”
Seeing Chi Cheng struggling and embarrassed, Suowei relented and handed him the floater.
“My boxers…”
“Go and catch them!”
“I told you I don’t know swimming! You please go and catch it.”
“No way, I won’t touch your undies!”
“Please! It will go away. I don’t want to die like this.”
Suowei groaned but swam after the floating boxers, caught them, and tossed them back. Chi Cheng quickly slipped them on while still holding the floater.
“It’s so cold,” Chi Cheng muttered, teeth chattering slightly. “If you don’t mind… we should hug. It’s so cold.”
He threw one arm around Suowei’s shoulders and pulled him closer into a tight embrace, both of them holding onto the cylindrical floater together. Their bodies pressed against each other in the freezing water.
In the distance, the low hum of an engine grew louder. A coast guard boat was speeding toward them, lights flashing.
Chi Cheng sighed against Suowei’s wet hair. “Great. Just great.”
Suowei only chuckled “At least we lived today like it was our last.”