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Sizhui lowers his violin bow with a sigh and looks around. Outside the small open-air practice gazebo, all around him are trees and a single dirt path that leads back to the camp cabins. Sizhui carefully wipes dust off his violin and tucks it neatly in its case before putting away his music and fold-up music stand.
There’s a pep in his step as he heads back to the cabins. Jingyi almost certainly hadn’t been practicing, which means he should be in the common area by their cabin. They still have time before dinner; maybe they can go to the lake for a swim.
As soon as he steps out of the trees, Sizhui searches the campground for Jingyi. His feet carry him toward his cabin, but he doesn’t look where he’s going. In his second sweep of the campground, he finds Jingyi at one of the wooden picnic tables side-by-side with a small girl with badly-done eyeliner and long, blonde hair pulled into a ponytail.
There’s suddenly a bitter taste at the back of Sizhui’s mouth, and he feels a sharp twisting sensation in his stomach. The smile temporarily slides from his face, and he turns to look at his cabin. He tells himself forcefully that he’s being absurd; Jingyi is his friend and has the right to be friends with whomever he wants. It doesn’t help.
Sizhui’s gaze goes back to Jingyi as it always seems to. He can’t see what Jingyi and the girl are looking at, but he’s more focused on their heads being only inches apart. Before Sizhui can look away again, Jingyi surreptitiously checks his phone, which he’s not supposed to have, and looks up suddenly, gaze searching the campground until it snags on Sizhui.
A brilliant smile appears on Jingyi’s face, and it banishes Sizhui’s bitter jealousy almost entirely. Jingyi motions for Sizhui to join him, and Sizhui only hesitates for a moment. He should put his violin away before dirt somehow works its way into the case, but he goes to Jingyi instead. Like always.
He drops down on the picnic table bench next to Jingyi, intentionally not looking at the girl on his other side.
“Gena was showing me how to make friendship bracelets,” Jingyi says before Sizhui’s butt hits the wood. His eyes are bright with excitement, and Sizhui feels confusion draw his brows together a fraction before he forces his face to relax into a smile.
Now that he’s at the table, he can see that one of the boxes of craft supplies left on the table for the campers is full of colored string and cord. In front of Gena is an admittedly skillfully woven rainbow bracelet.
Sizhui looks back at Jingyi, not entirely sure how he should respond. There’s a suddenly shy expression on Jingyi’s face that only confuses Sizhui more. Jingyi is a lot of things, but shy isn’t usually one of them. Jingyi’s hands are in motion, as they often are when he’s anxious, and Sizhui catches sight of a flash of white as Jingyi twists something between his fingers.
“I made this for you,” Jingyi blurts out, shoving the object in his hands into Sizhui’s. “It’s your favorite color.”
Sizhui looks down to see a braided bracelet made of white and blue string in his hand. Suddenly he feels a lump in his throat. Before he can say anything, Gena nudges Jingyi with her knee, pushing him toward Sizhui on the bench.
“Because you’re my best friend,” Jingyi adds, and a hint of pink appears on his high cheekbones.
Sizhui doesn’t have words; if he did, they would be stuck behind the lump in his throat.
The anxiety in Jingyi’s grey eyes gets worse with each moment of silence, but Sizhui can’t find words.
“If…” Jingyi starts, with something like panic on his face, and reaches to take the bracelet back.
“No,” Sizhui says and jerks his hand back so that he’s holding the bracelet against his chest. “I want to keep it.”
Jingyi’s expression immediately shifts to his familiar, brilliant smile, and it’s like looking at the sun. Sizhui can’t help but grin back at him, the awkward moments melting away.
“Would you tie it on for me?”