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“It's pride month, Pantalone. You know what that means.”
“Do you want us to do like??? Gay accounting??? What?” Said Pantalone.
Zhongli stared listlessly out his office window. Gay accounting– what a beautiful, but impossible dream. If only the boy he'd met once, at the college library while he was getting his MBA, was around. Perhaps then the finance department of which he was CFO would finally be able to wholeheartedly sponsor the local pride parade. Alas, it was just another ordinary Monday in corporate America.
“If only he were here…”
“Wait, you mean that guy you went to college with?” Pantalone asked.
Zhongli nodded. Pantalone was a reliable employee, though he occasionally took time off with no notice while mumbling something about Crumbl. At any rate, he had heard Zhongli’s tale of woe before.
In truth, he was in love. He'd only seen the man in question a handful of times, but something about his ginger hair and spirited demeanor had bewitched him completely. He didn't know his name, so he couldn't look him up, but even after graduating and rising to his current position he had never forgotten him.
“Is this him?”
Zhongli blinked. Pantalone was showing him a picture on his phone.
It was him. Him, that passing stranger, revived from nostalgic pools of memory. The picture was sharper than his worn recollections of stolen glances, and his lost love was reborn in vivid color in his mind.
His mouth went dry. He looked beautiful, a smile on his face kissed by freckles, his eyes as blue as a dream, and a Starbucks grande strawberry acai refresher with water no lemonade yes strawberry inclusions in his hand.
Zhongli nodded, unable to speak.
“Ok, cool, one question– can you be his fake boyfriend?”
His… fake boyfriend?
“He's got it in his head that he needs a fake boyfriend,” Pantalone explained. “Something about wanting to show his coworker that it's fine if he dates his ex. I don't know the details, but I can give you his number.”
“Please,” Zhongli said immediately. “And– could I get his name?”
“He goes by Childe,” Pantalone said, scrolling through his contacts. “With an e.”
Childe– what a beautiful, wonderful, enigmatic name it was.
~
He held his phone carefully, his hands not quite trembling. Zhongli had never done anything like before, though he supposed this situation could be considered somewhat strange.
To actually have that man's number– incredible. He would have never suspected it would end up like this, back then.
It had been just like any other day. Zhongli was at the library, finishing some assignments, when he walked in. Something about him was electric, like an eel, and he swore he lit up the room.
He'd been carrying a large stack of books in multiple subjects, but stumbled and dropped several. Sensing and opportunity, he'd dashed over and helped him pick them up.
He smiled. He smiled back. It was warm, wonderful, and then a blonde behind him had said something mean and he'd dashed off after her. He had a girlfriend, then– heartbreaking for several reasons.
Still, he'd never managed to give up his crush. That probably made him, as Pantalone had told him many times, an idiot, but he cannot change his own nature. And an opportunity had fallen into his lap, hadn't it?
He gathered his courage, and sent a message.
“Hello. Pantalone told me you wanted a fake boyfriend,” his text thread, already labeled with Childe's name, read.
He waited eagerly yet nervously for a response. Fortunately for his nerves, Childe soon started typing a reply.
“Yes I am! Are you free Friday?”
~
Technically, Zhongli was not free today, but he took the day off and pretended like doing so wasn't on a whim. Pantalone was also taking the day off, but they were out of tax season so it was probably fine if he left the department a little short staffed.
Childe had asked to meet at his place. Zhongli pulled into the parking lot of his apartment, and stared up at the building like Romeo waiting for Juliet.
“Hey!” Said Childe, bounding down the stairs, and young memory was at once eclipsed by the sublime present. He hadn't noticed until now that there was a certain gloom about him in college that was now most wonderfully absent.
“Hello,” Zhongli greeted.
Childe looked at him for a moment, like he was trying to place his face, but then shook off the deja vu and smiled. That was alright, Zhongli didn't need him to recognize him. After all, he doubted Childe remembered the encounter at all. He was alright with that.
“My car's over here. Don't worry, I'll drive,” he said, leading them to a grey Subaru Impreza.
Childe had thought they ought to go somewhere they could take pictures, to make it seem like it was a real date. He'd suggested a nearby park where they could walk down to the lake, and Zhongli was in the mood to agree to anything he said, so that was where they were headed.
As they got in the car, Zhongli realized that he did not know what to say. He was, of course, captivated by him, but it would be strange to dive into that so soon.
“So,” he said. “What sort of things do you like?”
“Trying to get to know me? Wow, Zhongli, this almost feels like a real date.”
“Can two friends not exchange such questions?”
Childe laughed. It sounded pretty. He was really quite pretty, now that Zhongli could get a good look at him, though there seemed to be a certain strength in his frame. Zhongli endeavored not to think about that right now while they were alone together.
“You're right. You're Pantalone's boss, so you already know I like theater.”
He vaguely recalled that Pantalone went by that nickname because of a character he'd played once in a troupe he'd formed with some of his friends. That must be how he knew Childe.
“And I like close combat– oh, it looks like someone’s texting me. Do you mind telling me what it is?”
Zhongli picked up his phone while Childe continued to drive.
“It's from someone named Dottore. He says he'll– give you a shoutout in his next YouTube video if you buy the new Taylor Swift song on iTunes?”
Childe thought about this for a moment, then nodded.
“Yeah, go ahead and open the iTunes store and buy it.”
What a good friend he was– Zhongli was thoroughly charmed, though of course he was already.
Zhongli bought the song, and their conversation lapsed into silence as he let it play. He thought it was quite nice. It was about– growing apart from someone, then reconnecting, and loving them all the same.
He looked at Childe from the corner of his eye. His fingers tapped out the rhythm on the steering wheel, almost as if he was lost in thought.
~
The park was quite nice, and a touch larger than Zhongli expected– he had never been here before. He and Childe lapsed into comfortable conversation about their lives, and hobbies, and nothing at all. Before he knew it, they were at the lakefront.
It was quite pretty, and perhaps because it was a weekday not too crowded. Still, Zhongli found he couldn't keep his eyes on the water.
Childe, he found, was looking back at him, a serious look in his eye.
“Listen,” he said. “Sorry if this is weird, but I've been thinking– have we met somewhere before?”
Zhongli realized at once that it did actually mean a lot to him if Childe remembered that brief meeting.
“In college,” he admitted. “I didn't think you would remember.”
“You helped me with my books, right?” He asked, and if Zhongli thought he was smiling before he was wrong, because the one on his face now was so bright it eclipsed the sun. “I'm sorry, I don't think I ever thanked you.”
“You're thanking me now, right?”
“Yes,” he said. “This has been a fruitful date, hasn't it?”
~
“Ah,” said Childe as they pulled back into the parking lot at his apartment. “We forgot to take any pictures.”
“That's alright,” said Zhongli. “If you're free, perhaps we could go out again another time?”
“... I would like that,” Childe admitted. “If you wouldn't mind.”
“I’d love to,” he answered.