[Wei Yong] Looking for Lilia

"So," I don't know how many hours flew by, the glare of the sun's reflection on the hood of the car filled the entire line of sight, Victor said suddenly, "We are friends now, aren't we?"

Yuuri glanced at him, the hamburger was almost digested in his stomach, he was hungry, dizzy and sleepy, he had to put his hands on his forehead to try to stay awake, he let out a "huh".

"Forget it." He said cautiously, he was too hungry, and at this moment he fell into a level where he couldn't seriously weigh the pros and cons, which made him feel very bad - getting along with Victor requires more energy than getting along with ordinary people He should have known this earlier, he shouldn't have refused to go to the restaurant for something to eat at the rest stop just now.But he also knew very well in his heart that if someone had told him about his current situation a few hours ago, he would still have chosen to get in the car without looking back——Victor’s forced smile really made him feel like a knife was twisting his heart, he was very sad. It's hard to imagine myself sitting in the dining room and munching on junk food happily in the face of such a situation, not to mention the old feelings are still vivid in my mind, when I was a boy and Victor was sitting in the living room fighting with French fries, Fisting to decide who gets to eat the last slice of pizza seems like it happened yesterday, and the last thing he needs right now is resignation and regret.

And so there is now—he thought drowsily, sitting in the car, blue-faced, stomach churning.What the hell.

"Aren't you feeling well?" Victor asked, and Yuuri gave him a look, his eyes fixed on the road without showing a trace of furtive glances at Yuuri.But he just knew—his carefulness—oh...

The dull pain somewhere in Yuuri's heart that's been there until now widens.

"It's okay." He shook his head and said, curled up in the seat, "just motion sickness."

"It'll be there soon," Victor said, "bear with me."

Where to go, when to endure?Yuuri wanted to ask, but he couldn't muster the energy.

"What were you trying to tell me just now?" he asked.

Victor gave him a blank look, frowning slightly—"Oh!" He suddenly remembered, "I mean, our 'deal' won't take effect until we find Lilia, right?"

"If you don't want to find her anymore," Yuuri said, "or you 'already' know we can't find her..."

"I didn't say that," Victor interrupted, sounding a little annoyed at his mistrust, "I'll let you see her—that's for sure."

"Okay then." Yuuri said, "Yeah...sorry, I said the wrong thing." He's more than just wrong, he's been talking nonsense since the trip, everything that he didn't even dare to think about in the past is covered by him After talking all the time, he was happy for a while, but felt awkward afterwards, maybe he should think for two more seconds before opening his mouth.

To continue like this until Lilia was found—at least two weeks, he optimistically assumed—would be terrible.

"And then?" Yuuri asked, "I'll never interrupt you." He held up his hands in a gesture of reassurance.Victor glanced at him, a smile on his lips.Yuuri used to love that smile, and it meant Viktor had another funny bad idea, but now, seeing that smile gave him a headache—if there was any way they could get through this time without talking, Then fulfill the promise and go their separate ways.

"I mean," Victor said, "we were still friends until then? Otherwise you'd just be stuck in a car with your professor, and that would be boring."

Yuuri finds he'd rather be bored than hear Viktor's light-hearted jokes and subconsciously want to laugh along with them.

"What you said makes sense." He couldn't help cooperating, "Let's do it like this."

"In that case," said Victor, "I thought we could have some simple communication between friends?"

"Of course," Yuuri replied, "but I don't…"

"Then let's start with the current situation!" Victor interrupted him quickly, as if he was afraid that he would go back on his word, and hurriedly spit out the lines he had prepared, "Let's start with making friends!— - What happened to that boy Phichit?"

"...Whoa," Yuuri said sarcastically, imitating his tone, "what can you do to be more prominent? What happened to Phichit?"

He looked at Victor and frowned, but Victor suddenly became extremely focused on the road conditions, and no one spoke for maybe a full minute.Yuuri waits, and Viktor wonders what to think.

Maybe he wasn't going to say it.Yuuri is relieved, because whatever Viktor really thinks about Phichit, he has a hunch that he doesn't think he'll like those opinions.Not to say is good.He thought, the last thing these two cherries need now is more gunpowder.

"Well," he said frantically, looking for something to say, "how is Makachin doing?"

"It's not bad," Victor said, "I changed it to a nutritional cream—hope it can improve its osteoporosis." He seemed to be enduring something, and finally, he couldn't hold back anymore, "That Phichit," he said , the topic returned to the original place, "He also graduated from Hasezu High School, right? Did you know each other in high school?"

"Of course I do," Yuuri said, "He's my best friend." After hearing what he said, Victor's expression didn't change, he was still staring at the road, the corners of his mouth tightened.

"I don't know him," Victor said, trying to smile. "How could that be?"

"You were off to college when he moved to town," Yuuri says. "He's new here, but he fits in pretty quickly."

"Uh, uh." Victor said absently, "So, how did you meet?"

Yuuri felt like a newcomer being questioned by relatives at a wedding rehearsal dinner, "It's kind of embarrassing to say," he said, "I repeated a grade, so I couldn't keep up with a lot of homework, there was a biology paper that needed some data, and he just happened to Raised a lot of hamsters, so I just..." He suspected that Victor was not interested in this topic, although Victor didn't say anything, didn't show any impatience, but he just knew-the question that Victor really wanted to know was far away Far from throwing it out yet.

"Hmm." Sure enough, Victor said casually, "So——what's his plan?"

Yuuri was stunned for a moment: "What kind of plan?" What kind of plan could Phichit have against him?They come from similar backgrounds, are both male, and Victor sounds like the father of a very beautiful daughter, which is really confusing. "What can Phichit intend? To me?"

Victor gave a vague "hmm" twice.

"He was your high school friend," Victor said, "and then he was your college friend and roommate. Isn't that normal?"

"This..." Yuuri cried out dumbfounded, him?and Phichit?He had a feeling of thunder, "What nonsense are you talking about? According to that, you and I knew each other before, and now you are my university teacher - isn't this normal? What are you trying to do?"

He thought Victor would immediately smile and say, "What can I do! I'm your caretaker." But he was silent for a moment, then smiled wryly.He replied softly, "That's why I'm worried."

Yuuri got stuck, the countermeasure he had already thought up suddenly lost the chance to appear on the stage, at first he felt the blood in his body was bubbling, his heart was numb, and he even had the illusion that his eyes were black , and then he realized that he had misunderstood - Victor's "attempt" towards him was of course the so-called compensation - he came to this school to compensate Yuuri, and even, he may have chosen to compensate Yuuri I took this major because it was the only subject Yuuri was good at besides dancing.Before this day, all of this was a matter of tacit understanding between the two of them. He avoided the fact that Victor gave up his bright future for him, and Victor didn't mention it. Maybe it was because the separation was suddenly approaching. Give them the opportunity and the courage to face it.

"I don't need it." Yuuri heard himself say stiffly, "I don't need you to worry about me."

"You don't need to say it again," Victor said, "I already know it very well."

He drove quietly for a while longer.

"I just can't help worrying," he says again, and Yuuri thinks he's getting worse, and Viktor obviously agrees, so he keeps his mouth shut again, looking discouraged.

The atmosphere in the carriage returned to awkward silence.

"So," Yuuri said, pretending the incident had been peacefully put behind him, "my turn? How's your friendship going?"

"Well," Victor said, "nothing to complain about." His Adam's apple twitched as he said it.This reminds Yuuri again of the existence of his yet-to-be-confirmed predecessor.

"Speaking of which," he said with mock ease, trying to get them back into a position where they could be sarcastic with each other, "you can't find another friend to hang out with? The stripper, Klaas, what happened to him?"

"Striptease is just a hobby for Chris," Victor said, "He's actually a musical director—I guess he's on vacation in Cuba right now, or Spain, where there's a lot of sunshine and you don't get cold from stripping naked .”

Talking about his friends, he gets very talkative, which makes Yuuri wonder if he talks about himself like that in front of others, or is he just a burden on Viktor's shoulders that he prefers not to talk about?

"He's so funny." Yuuri said insincerely, "So what about that, Geol or something..."

"Oh, Goga?" Victor said, "He's broken up again, that's really unfortunate, I think it's better not to bother him." He glanced at Yuuri with a smile, as if his mood suddenly brightened , "How do you know him? I thought you students never pay attention to graduate students in the School of Philosophy."

"I..." He couldn't let him admit it, when those girls excitedly chatted about Victor-related gossip at the party, even though he didn't want to hear it, he still stuck every word into his ears, "My relationship with Phichit My friend Guanghong is from the Department of Philosophy." He finally said, and Victor's brows slowly wrinkled again, although he was still smiling.

"'You and Phichit,' huh?" he said. "That's a pretty intimate way of saying it."

"..." The reason why he said that is because Guanghong used to live in the same apartment with them, and he met Phichit and Yuuri when they were visiting together. Before that, he never thought there would be any problem with saying that, but until now.

The topic of friends obviously needs to be stopped here.Yuuri noticed it keenly.He brought up another topic.

"Okay." He said bluntly, "Since we have exchanged recent information, can you kindly tell me where you plan to find Lilia Baranovskaya? Do you have a plan, yes Bar?"

"Glad you asked," Victor said, snapping his fingers as their car pulled into a large gas rest station. "Get out of the car and eat."

He sounded like he was avoiding Yuuri's question, but then he motioned for Yuuri to open the glove box in front of the passenger seat and find a map from it to bring.

"It took a lot of work," he said. "It's the biggest meal, and I can actually eat a calf now—with cheese, of course."

Yuuri wishes he was half as confident as he was, because so far—he discovers to his despair—they've been fooling around.