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Phu doesn’t try to go back for a week. Two weeks, almost. Long enough to wait out whatever prank Cir’s trying to pull, or whatever he temporarily fell sick with, or maybe it’s amnesia, except when people in webnovels get amnesia they’re normally all squinting and stumbling around, and Cir seemed like he knew exactly where he wanted to be so that doesn’t seem right, but there has to be some reason, doesn’t there, why he would- do something like that?
The point is, Phu wanted to give Cir space after the trip, and also during the trip, and on the way back from the trip, so that Cir could realize what a strange thing he’d said and decide Phu wasn’t very interesting. Surely it wouldn’t take very long; Cir had never noticed Phu before and there was no reason for him to keep it up, now that they weren’t being shoved together by the school-van-seating gods. Surely Phu could go right back to being peaceably ignored from a distance and not looked at.
Except that when Phu finally slips a bag of snacks on Cir’s door half an hour earlier than usual, he can’t just run off. Cir might throw them out, or worse, Cir might smile when he took them and Phu would miss it. So Phu takes refuge in his usual hiding place and waits for the rustle.
“Wow, it’s been so long, I thought I’d never get one of these again,” Cir says. It’s good that Cir’s happy; bad, maybe, that he noticed. That he’s been waiting? “So long that I’m not really hungry, actually. I already had breakfast. Maybe I should just throw it out?”
Cir’s done that before. He used to do it all the time, but now Phu feels- worried, thinking about it. He wouldn’t want to see Cir toss it and walk off, but he has to witness it, but also he can’t let Cir know he’s there.
“You wanna keep spinning your wheels or are you ready to say hello?” Cir says. He’s much closer now. Phu doesn’t know when he got that close. Maybe he can teleport.
“Um?” Phu manages.
“Was I not supposed to notice? It’s been two weeks since you looked in my direction without jumping out of your skin. Come in and we can have an actual conversation.”
Cir’s not blocking Phu’s path, or grabbing Phu by the arm or anything. Phu could run away right now if he wanted. He could tell his friends how brave he was and maybe next week he could try to sit in the cafeteria when he knows Cir doesn’t have class. He could take it slow.
“You don’t have to come in, and I don’t have to drink this,” Cir says. “But if you do, you get to watch.”
That sounds- it’s just in Phu’s imagination, right. He’s just reading things wrong like usual. But he’s never going to get a chance like that again. He’s got to follow Cir into the room, into… into Cir’s apartment. The place where Cir hangs out after class. Where he sleeps.
“So I was thinking about how to talk without you running off again,” Cir says as Phu’s taking off his sneakers. “Since you don’t want to look at me. And a little birdie told me you like taking photos.”
Phu’s hands freeze on the laces. “Not- not very often,” he says. “I wasn’t, like-”
“Hey, chill,” Cir says. His legs make their way over to Phu. “I’m not mad. Did I say I was mad?”
“...No,” Phu says.
“You make shit up in your head and you get all tangled up about it. Why don’t you ask me what I think?”
He’s standing right in front of Phu. He says he’s not mad. “P’Cir, what do you. What do you think, about. About me, being like-?”
“I think it’s kind of cute,” Cir says. Phu’s so shocked to hear it that he looks up, sure he’s misheard, but Cir’s just- smiling. Like he did on the trip. Like he did right before- stuff happened.
This is very bad.
“But you feel bad about it,” Cir says. His hand comes up and before Phu can jump or lean into it like a cat, he pats Phu’s shoulder once, twice, and saunters across the room to a couch. He’s still holding the snacks. “So I thought, if you like taking pictures, let’s do that. Get you used to being in the same room as me.”
“W-What?”
Cir makes a little go-on gesture. “You’ve got your phone, right? Take some photos, you can make me do poses or whatever.”
It’s too good to be true. “You don’t have to humor me,” Phu says.
“I’m not. C’mon.” Cir throws up a lazy peace sign. “Tell me how you want me.”
Phu’s lucky he has facial recognition on his phone. He couldn’t possibly type a passcode in right now; he can barely open his camera app. “Um, I think- can you just open your drink?”
Cir’s shirt isn’t too small or anything, it’s not shrink-wrapped over his belly, but it’s tight on his biceps as he twists the cap open. Phu doesn’t take any photos of it. Probably it wouldn’t be legal to. Cir twirls the cap between his fingers with a teasing, now-what? sort of look.
Because there’s a next thing. Because Phu has to take a picture at some point. “Can you… take a drink, now?” Phu says. That’s the logical next step.
But when Cir holds the bottle up and takes one sip, he just freezes there. As if- he wants Phu to think about things it resembles. About meanings. Phu feels a little bit faint.
“So refreshing,” Cir says, smacking his lips. “Hey, you’re looking a little pale, you want some? Can’t have my photographer passing out on me.”
Phu looks at Cir. Phu looks at the bottle Cir is holding out to him. The bottle that has just been on Cir’s lips. “I- couldn’t possibly,” Phu says, “I don’t want to-to impose, when I already, and you don’t share food with anyone-”
“Who says I don’t? It’s like, one of the things you do. You see someone around, you want to get closer, you share something.”
Want to get closer, Phu’s brain echoes numbly. One of the things you do. “P’Cir,” he says, slowly, “you already drank from it.”
“Cute, you getting worked up over an indirect kiss like we haven’t already-”
“P’Cir!” Phu says, despairingly, and lays a hand over Cir’s mouth just to stop him talking about things, but- now they’re so close together. Cir raises an eyebrow meaningfully. His breath is tickling Phu’s hand.
So there’s really nothing for Phu to do but take the drink. To take what Cir’s told him is coming down the road sometime down the line, when Phu is ready for it.