He Kept Me as His First Love's Stand-In, but I Saved Him First novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: The First Time

At nine on Saturday night, Hanjing knocked on the shop door.

Zhe opened it.

He had washed and put on a clean shirt, the blue one with the soft collar.

His hair was still damp at the ends.

He had also, in the last hour, rearranged the room upstairs three times.

"You knocked," he said.

"I wasn't sure if I should."

"It's a door. You can walk through it."

"I know. I've been practicing." Hanjing's voice was very dry. "I've said it to the mirror all afternoon."

They stood on the step looking at each other.

Behind Zhe, the shop was dark, and the pianos stood in their rows.

Qiu had gone to his sister's in Xiaoshan for the night, with elaborate unconcern and a sack of oranges.

"Come up," Zhe said.

The room over the shop was small, with a sloped ceiling and one window onto the road.

There was a low bed with a blue quilt, a lamp with a paper shade, and a tuning fork on the sill.

Hanjing stopped inside the door and took it in.

"It's very tidy," he said.

"I tidied."

"You tidied for me."

"Yes, and then I untidied it, so it wouldn't look like I had."

Zhe pressed his hands over his face.

"I have never done this. I don't know what I'm doing."

Hanjing crossed the room and took his wrists, and drew the hands down.

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