Hey Kids,
Mengyao
"Hey, aren't you... um, that guy? They are not very happy with you," says the girl in the black hat sitting one stool away from Mengyao at a mostly empty bar away from the city. She has been eyeing him for an hour and is now finally drunk enough to say something. Still she is considerate enough to not say his name out loud and Meng really appreciates that.
"You're not going to tell on me, are you?" Meng says just for conversation since he knows that if she would have wanted to call the press she would have done so hours ago.
"Nah, no point. Are you planning on going back "home" anytime soon?" Meng can hear the quotation marks in her voice.
He thinks about telling her it's not any of her damn business because really, who is she? But he is too drunk and tired and whatever. He shrugs.
"I got a room at the hotel on the next street."
"I see," she says nodding.
They stay quiet for a while. Meng fixes his eyes on the empty glasses before him and then looks around the bar. The only people besides him and the girl are the bartender, a woman with blotchy eyes and a mess of a hair sitting alone on a table and a group of grim looking men gathered around another table in the far corner. When he turns around intending to ask the girl what even is she doing there, he finds her giving him an amused and knowing look.
"What?" he asks annoyed.
She giggles revealing dimples. “Nothing.”
“Do you want a picture?”
“No!” she snaps back looking offended.
“Okay, yeah, I’m not my brother.”
“I wouldn’t want a picture if it were your brother either,” she says rolling her eyes but smiling.
“Lin?”
She laughs and shakes her head.
Meng smiles. “Okay, just checking. I’ve met girls and thought I was totally getting laid and then it turns out they just want me to pass on their love letters to my sister.”
She snorts. “Well, contrary to what you and your siblings may think not everything revolves around you,” she says as she gets out a sparkly pink wallet and leaves money on the bar.
“Yeah, you can tell that to my brother,” Meng tells her feeling suddenly defensive but she’s getting up and doesn’t listen. She’s wearing a blue skirt with a white satin top and just couldn’t look more out of place. “You are leaving?”
Meng stands up too.
“Yeah,” she answers sounding very bored.
“Okay. Me too,” he says getting money out of his pocket and putting it on the bar too. After a moment of following her he adds, “Do you want to go somewhere else? With me?”
The girl stops at the door and turns around to face him and laughs.
“Like to your hotel room?” she says when she’s done laughing.
“Yes?” Meng answers, shameless.
She just looks at him for a while. “Okay.”
She walks out the door and Meng follows her.
“But I’m not going to fuck you,” the girl says after a few moments of walking in silence. “We can talk. I’m a good listener and you could use it. You look like a sad lost puppy.” She speaks matter-of-factly.
Mengyao looks at her and opens his mouth to speak but doesn’t really know what to say. She is really pretty with her big brown eyes and dimples. He is only taking her back to his hotel because she asked him to. Kind of. He wasn’t thinking about sex. He wasn’t thinking at all. It was natural instinct, but then again, his natural instinct is sex. Maybe he just didn’t want to be left alone. But isn’t that exactly what he wanted? Fuck. Maybe he could in fact use a good listener. But he could also use a good fuck. More than a talk even.
He then realizes that they have stopped walking, the hotel just around the corner, and she is looking at him expectantly. He’s too drunk for this.
“I’m too drunk for this,” he says.
“What? Like, for what?! To talk?” She calls back.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. The hotel is just around the corner.” Meng starts walking again and the girl follows and he remembers the question he had been meaning to ask and also the fact that he doesn’t know her name.
“What’s your name?”
“Jiao.”
“Jiao,” Meng repeats. “What where you doing in that seedy-ass bar anyway?”
He sees her tense up. “Waiting for someone who didn’t show up.”
“Who? Why there?”
They stop at the hotel’s front door. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But you said we could talk.”
“Yeah, and I also said that you could use it and that I was a good listener,” she smiles defiantly. “Let’s go inside, I’m cold.”
Meng is starting to get very annoyed and all for something that isn’t even going to end up in sex, but all the same he sighs and says “Fine.”
*
Once Jiao is done looking around the room and deciding that it is shit she throws herself onto the bed next to Meng.
“So, Your Royal Highness, why do you do it?”
“Do what?” he asks as he turns towards her.
“Everything! Going out and getting drunk where everyone can see you and take pictures and picking up girls that will most definitely sell a story after you never call them again. Getting naked in a hotel balcony! With a girl. And a guy. Like who does that? No one. Not normal people that nobody cares about, why would you? You that have hordes of photographers and reporters following you around all the fucking time. You love to put up a show,” she takes a deep breath. “Why do you do it?”
By the time she’s done, Meng is looking at the ceiling and feeling seriously ill. Things never go this far with girls. Usually he shuts them up with kisses before they start talking and asking questions like these. It is his least favorite topic of conversation and he’s really not up to discussing it drunk with a total stranger. For all he knows she could be an undercover reporter.
“Well why does anyone fucking care about what I do?”
Jiao rolls her eyes at him. “Oh, come on! Don’t give me that. Of course people will care you are the fucking king’s son!”
“Yes, whatever but I’m not Bolin. People can get on his jock instead. He’s the one who will be king, not me.”
“Mmm, so it’s about your brother then.” It’s not a question. “I am pretty sure people are on his jock enough. Do you want to be king?”
Meng lets out an exasperated growl. What is he even doing talking to this girl?
"No. I do not want to be king. He can be king alright, I don't give a shit." Meng says in a leisurely tone and after a moment adds, "I just want to be left the fuck alone."
Jiao keeps quiet after that and Meng is very grateful. He starts drifting away a little and thinks about just falling asleep like this when Jiao is on top of him. And kissing him.
He responds immediately. Kissing back, one hand on her hair and the other on the side of her pretty face. She pulls away for air after a moment and starts rubbing down against him.
“I thought you weren’t going to fuck me,” Meng says holding back a triumphant smirk but he doesn’t do a very good job because Jiao notices and slaps his cheek wiping the smirk off.
“I changed my mind.”
And then she is kissing him again and yeah, with this he can deal.
*
Meng wakes up around noon with a hangover from hell and Jiao is nowhere to be found. There’s only a note on the bedside table that says ‘Go home!’ in a barely legible scribble. He turns it around to see if there’s a number where he can call but there isn’t. He sighs and calls reception instead to ask for an aspirin and thinks about doing what the note says and the thought alone makes his head throb even harder. He hasn’t seen or talked to his parents or his siblings since the naked balcony incident.
'They are not very happy with you', Jiao had said last night. It must have been all over the news.
Following that thought he turns on the TV hoping to get a glimpse of what might be waiting for him at home. He first catches a ridiculous report on “the fight for Princess Lucasta’s hand”, a thing that the press has been enjoying way too much. They play a montage of the two miserable-looking suitors set to the song <i>Two Princes</i> and for a second Meng feels truly awful for them and then remembers that none of them has a brother and are probably their parents sole interest, the center of their universe, so they really don’t need Meng’s pity.
He changes to the news channel and sees that his parents have released an extremely passive aggressive comment on the balcony issue and how it affects the more pressing matter of their dumb fucking Inter-Kingdom Peace Convocation that is happening next week. Of course. There is always a more pressing matter.
The Convocation is all they have cared about for the past year. Meng wouldn’t care about it but he is expected to be part of it and all he wants to do is jump off a fucking cliff.
"You're not going to tell on me, are you?" Meng says just for conversation since he knows that if she would have wanted to call the press she would have done so hours ago.
"Nah, no point. Are you planning on going back "home" anytime soon?" Meng can hear the quotation marks in her voice.
He thinks about telling her it's not any of her damn business because really, who is she? But he is too drunk and tired and whatever. He shrugs.
"I got a room at the hotel on the next street."
"I see," she says nodding.
They stay quiet for a while. Meng fixes his eyes on the empty glasses before him and then looks around the bar. The only people besides him and the girl are the bartender, a woman with blotchy eyes and a mess of a hair sitting alone on a table and a group of grim looking men gathered around another table in the far corner. When he turns around intending to ask the girl what even is she doing there, he finds her giving him an amused and knowing look.
"What?" he asks annoyed.
She giggles revealing dimples. “Nothing.”
“Do you want a picture?”
“No!” she snaps back looking offended.
“Okay, yeah, I’m not my brother.”
“I wouldn’t want a picture if it were your brother either,” she says rolling her eyes but smiling.
“Lin?”
She laughs and shakes her head.
Meng smiles. “Okay, just checking. I’ve met girls and thought I was totally getting laid and then it turns out they just want me to pass on their love letters to my sister.”
She snorts. “Well, contrary to what you and your siblings may think not everything revolves around you,” she says as she gets out a sparkly pink wallet and leaves money on the bar.
“Yeah, you can tell that to my brother,” Meng tells her feeling suddenly defensive but she’s getting up and doesn’t listen. She’s wearing a blue skirt with a white satin top and just couldn’t look more out of place. “You are leaving?”
Meng stands up too.
“Yeah,” she answers sounding very bored.
“Okay. Me too,” he says getting money out of his pocket and putting it on the bar too. After a moment of following her he adds, “Do you want to go somewhere else? With me?”
The girl stops at the door and turns around to face him and laughs.
“Like to your hotel room?” she says when she’s done laughing.
“Yes?” Meng answers, shameless.
She just looks at him for a while. “Okay.”
She walks out the door and Meng follows her.
“But I’m not going to fuck you,” the girl says after a few moments of walking in silence. “We can talk. I’m a good listener and you could use it. You look like a sad lost puppy.” She speaks matter-of-factly.
Mengyao looks at her and opens his mouth to speak but doesn’t really know what to say. She is really pretty with her big brown eyes and dimples. He is only taking her back to his hotel because she asked him to. Kind of. He wasn’t thinking about sex. He wasn’t thinking at all. It was natural instinct, but then again, his natural instinct is sex. Maybe he just didn’t want to be left alone. But isn’t that exactly what he wanted? Fuck. Maybe he could in fact use a good listener. But he could also use a good fuck. More than a talk even.
He then realizes that they have stopped walking, the hotel just around the corner, and she is looking at him expectantly. He’s too drunk for this.
“I’m too drunk for this,” he says.
“What? Like, for what?! To talk?” She calls back.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. The hotel is just around the corner.” Meng starts walking again and the girl follows and he remembers the question he had been meaning to ask and also the fact that he doesn’t know her name.
“What’s your name?”
“Jiao.”
“Jiao,” Meng repeats. “What where you doing in that seedy-ass bar anyway?”
He sees her tense up. “Waiting for someone who didn’t show up.”
“Who? Why there?”
They stop at the hotel’s front door. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“But you said we could talk.”
“Yeah, and I also said that you could use it and that I was a good listener,” she smiles defiantly. “Let’s go inside, I’m cold.”
Meng is starting to get very annoyed and all for something that isn’t even going to end up in sex, but all the same he sighs and says “Fine.”
*
Once Jiao is done looking around the room and deciding that it is shit she throws herself onto the bed next to Meng.
“So, Your Royal Highness, why do you do it?”
“Do what?” he asks as he turns towards her.
“Everything! Going out and getting drunk where everyone can see you and take pictures and picking up girls that will most definitely sell a story after you never call them again. Getting naked in a hotel balcony! With a girl. And a guy. Like who does that? No one. Not normal people that nobody cares about, why would you? You that have hordes of photographers and reporters following you around all the fucking time. You love to put up a show,” she takes a deep breath. “Why do you do it?”
By the time she’s done, Meng is looking at the ceiling and feeling seriously ill. Things never go this far with girls. Usually he shuts them up with kisses before they start talking and asking questions like these. It is his least favorite topic of conversation and he’s really not up to discussing it drunk with a total stranger. For all he knows she could be an undercover reporter.
“Well why does anyone fucking care about what I do?”
Jiao rolls her eyes at him. “Oh, come on! Don’t give me that. Of course people will care you are the fucking king’s son!”
“Yes, whatever but I’m not Bolin. People can get on his jock instead. He’s the one who will be king, not me.”
“Mmm, so it’s about your brother then.” It’s not a question. “I am pretty sure people are on his jock enough. Do you want to be king?”
Meng lets out an exasperated growl. What is he even doing talking to this girl?
"No. I do not want to be king. He can be king alright, I don't give a shit." Meng says in a leisurely tone and after a moment adds, "I just want to be left the fuck alone."
Jiao keeps quiet after that and Meng is very grateful. He starts drifting away a little and thinks about just falling asleep like this when Jiao is on top of him. And kissing him.
He responds immediately. Kissing back, one hand on her hair and the other on the side of her pretty face. She pulls away for air after a moment and starts rubbing down against him.
“I thought you weren’t going to fuck me,” Meng says holding back a triumphant smirk but he doesn’t do a very good job because Jiao notices and slaps his cheek wiping the smirk off.
“I changed my mind.”
And then she is kissing him again and yeah, with this he can deal.
*
Meng wakes up around noon with a hangover from hell and Jiao is nowhere to be found. There’s only a note on the bedside table that says ‘Go home!’ in a barely legible scribble. He turns it around to see if there’s a number where he can call but there isn’t. He sighs and calls reception instead to ask for an aspirin and thinks about doing what the note says and the thought alone makes his head throb even harder. He hasn’t seen or talked to his parents or his siblings since the naked balcony incident.
'They are not very happy with you', Jiao had said last night. It must have been all over the news.
Following that thought he turns on the TV hoping to get a glimpse of what might be waiting for him at home. He first catches a ridiculous report on “the fight for Princess Lucasta’s hand”, a thing that the press has been enjoying way too much. They play a montage of the two miserable-looking suitors set to the song <i>Two Princes</i> and for a second Meng feels truly awful for them and then remembers that none of them has a brother and are probably their parents sole interest, the center of their universe, so they really don’t need Meng’s pity.
He changes to the news channel and sees that his parents have released an extremely passive aggressive comment on the balcony issue and how it affects the more pressing matter of their dumb fucking Inter-Kingdom Peace Convocation that is happening next week. Of course. There is always a more pressing matter.
The Convocation is all they have cared about for the past year. Meng wouldn’t care about it but he is expected to be part of it and all he wants to do is jump off a fucking cliff.