The sun had gone down and the city lights were starting to blink on like fireflies waking up from a nap when Wenhao stood up from the floor and stretched his arms above his head and his back made a popping sound that made Shen Wei cringe.
"Weiwei," Wenhao said with a grin that Shen Wei had learned to fear because that grin always meant trouble. "Get your shoes. We're going shopping."
Shen Wei looked up from his homework which he had been trying to do for the past hour but Wenhao kept talking and asking questions and making noises so he had finished nothing. "It's seven o'clock at night. The mall is far. I have homework. You have homework. We both have homework."
"Homework is for people who don't have emergency shopping situations," Wenhao said and he was already pulling Shen Wei's shoes out from under the bed and throwing them at him.
Shen Wei caught one shoe and the other hit him in the chest and fell into his lap. "What emergency. What shopping. What are you talking about."
Wenhao put his hands on his hips and looked down at Shen Wei like he was explaining something to a very slow child. "Weiwei. Your shirts have holes. Your pants are too short. Your shoes are older than me. We are going to the mall and we are buying you new clothes and you are not going to argue.
Shen Wei opened his mouth to argue but Wenhao grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet and Shen Wei stumbled and almost fell and Wenhao caught him by the elbow and steadied him.
"You're so dramatic," Wenhao said. "Just put your shoes on. It's shopping. People like shopping. Shopping is fun. You put things in a cart and then you pay for them and then you own them. It's magic."
Shen Wei sighed because he knew that sound. The sigh of someone who had already lost the argument but was going to pretend to win by agreeing slowly.
The bodyguards were waiting in the alley like they always were and they opened the car doors and Wenhao climbed in first and Shen Wei climbed in second and the car pulled away from the curb and headed toward the brightest part of the city.
The mall was huge and shiny and full of lights and mirrors and people carrying bags and eating ice cream and laughing and Shen Wei felt small and plain and out of place like a pigeon that had wandered into a room full of peacocks.
Wenhao grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the doors and the cold air from the air conditioner hit their faces and Shen Wei shivered.
"First stop," Wenhao announced loudly because he liked hearing his voice echo off the marble floors. "Shirts. You need shirts. Good shirts. Shirts without holes. Shirts that don't look like they survived a war."
They walked into a store that was so bright and so white that Shen Wei had to squint and the clothes on the racks looked expensive and soft and nothing like anything he had ever worn before.
Wenhao started grabbing shirts off the racks and throwing them at Shen Wei and Shen Wei caught them clumsily and the pile in his arms grew taller and taller until he couldn't see over the top.
"Wenhao," Shen Wei said from behind a mountain of fabric. "This is too many. I don't need this many. I have shirts at home."
"Your shirts at home have holes," Wenhao said without looking up from a rack of sweaters. "These shirts do not have holes. Therefore you need these shirts. Math."
Shen Wei dumped the pile onto a bench and looked at the price tags and his eyes went so wide that his glasses almost fell off his face. "Wenhao. This shirt costs more than my rent."
he picked up a soft blue sweater and held it against Shen Wei's chest. "This color is good on you. It makes your skin look less like a ghost and more like a person who goes outside sometimes."
Shen Wei looked down at the blue sweater and then at Wenhao's face and Wenhao was smiling and his eyes were bright and he looked happy in a way that made Shen Wei's chest feel warm.
"Fine," Shen Wei said quietly. "One shirt. Not twenty. One."
Wenhao laughed and grabbed four more shirts and threw them into Shen Wei's arms. "We'll negotiate later. Now we try things on. Go to the dressing room. Put this on. And this. And this. And this. I want to see everything."
Shen Wei carried the pile of clothes into the dressing room and closed the curtain and he stood there for a moment looking at himself in the mirror and he looked tired and messy and small and he wondered if new clothes could actually change anything.
He stepped out of the dressing room and Wenhao was sitting on a small couch with his legs crossed and his phone in his hand and when he looked up his mouth fell open and his phone almost slipped out of his fingers.
"Weiwei," Wenhao said and his voice was different. Softer. "You look... So handsome"
Shen Wei looked down at himself and turned a little to see the sweater from different angles. "It's just a sweater."
"It's not just a sweater," Wenhao said and he stood up and walked around Shen Wei in a circle like he was inspecting a piece of art. "It's the right sweater. On the right person. At the right time. This is your sweater now. We're buying it. I'm not giving you a choice."
Shen Wei laughed and went back into the dressing room and tried on more clothes and each time he came out Wenhao made a comment.
Shen Wei tried on jeans and pants and shorts and jackets and coats and hats and even a pair of sunglasses that made Wenhao laugh so hard he had to sit down.
"You look like a spy," Wenhao said while wiping tears from his eyes. "A spy who is trying very hard to be cool but is actually very nervous."
Shen Wei put the sunglasses back and laughed too and for a while he forgot about all of his problems he just felt like a normal person trying on normal clothes with a friend who made him feel seen.
After two hours they had bags and bags of clothes and Shen Wei kept saying this is too much and Wenhao kept saying shut up Weiwei and the bodyguards carried everything to the car.
Wenhao told Shen Wei to wait by the entrance because he forgot something and he ran back into the mall with his heart beating fast and his hands a little sweaty.
He went to a store at the far end of the second floor. A store with soft lighting and mannequins wearing beautiful things. A store he had looked at from across the hallway three times before he finally walked in.
The saleswoman smiled at him and asked if he needed help and Wenhao said no thank you and he walked through the racks and his fingers touched the fabrics and everything was so soft and so pretty and so not for someone like him.
But he wanted. He wanted so badly.
He found a rack near the back of the store with skirts on sale and he looked at them and his heart was pounding so loud that he was sure the saleswoman could hear it.
He picked up a black skirt. Simple. Not too long. Not too short. Soft fabric that would feel nice against his skin. No one would know. He could hide it at the bottom of his wardrobe at Shen Wei's apartment. His father would never find it. The servants would never find it. It would be his secret. His pretty secret.
He carried the skirt to the counter and the saleswoman scanned it and put it in a small black bag and Wenhao paid with his card and his hands were shaking but his face was calm.
He walked out of the store and through the mall and down the escalator and out to the entrance where Shen Wei was waiting with worried eyes.
"What took you so long," Shen Wei asked. "I thought you got lost."
Wenhao held up the small black bag and smiled. "Just something I needed. Nothing important."
Shen Wei looked at the bag and then at Wenhao's face and something in Wenhao's expression made Shen Wei decide not to ask any questions.
They got in the car and drove back to the apartment and the city lights passed by the windows and Wenhao held the small black bag in his lap and he didn't let go of it the whole way home.