The Next morning, Wang Li woke up with a stuffy nose and headache as well as a small fever. He Felt as if he was being constricted alive from being tucked in so tightly and roughly thrashed his limbs about. Once he could move freely in bed, Wang Li rolled onto his side to look at the room, there was one set of bunk beds and a small sink with a mirror above it as well as an armchair. The room was small but cosy, Wang Li had woken up a little startled since he didn't recognize where he was but now that he remembered what had happened yesterday, he got up to find Kong Da.

He tiredly stood up from the bed but his legs were in agony from all his squatting and sitting in the cold, The groggy boy lifted his arms up as he loudly groaned out while stretching, Kong Da's sweatshirt fell to sit a little passed his bum and the baggy sleeves slid down his skinny arms. After his loud stretch, he shook his legs a little and went to walk out of the room to look for Kong Da but a tired and raspy voice scared him before he reached the door.

"Get back in bed."

Wang Li turned around, once he noticed it was the man he was about to go searching for he calmed down and stood on the bottom bunk, Kong Da was lying on the small bed. He had one arm over his eyes so didn't notice Wang Li staring at him. Wang Li quietly got down and noticed Kong Da's feet were hanging off the edge of the bed, he had the sudden urge to tickle them. Wang Li stood on his tippy toes to see that Kong Da still had his arm over his eyes and walked to the end of the bed. He slowly reached out and lightly tickled the bottom of the large foot. Kong Da jerked his foot out before pulling his feet into the blankets. Wang Li giggled childishly and made his way back to the bed since his head was really hurting too much.

Kong Da got out of bed without using the ladder and simply stepped onto the edge of the bottom bunk, Wang Li had only seen Kong Da in shorts once and his view wasn't the greatest since they were both sitting. Thanks to the warmer weather, Kong Da was wearing a black pair of exercise shorts and a grey tank top, giving Wang Li a nice show of his toned arms and legs as well as the two sleeves he had on his arms. Both sleeves were made up of many tattoos in the black traditional style. Wang Li was too fixated on Kong Da's body and didn't notice that he was taking medicine from a plastic bag until the box was waved in his face impatiently.

"I'll bring you water and breakfast."

The now shy boy hummed dumbly as he watched Kong Da walk out of the room, when the room was left to himself, Wang Li reached down to his pants. He had a reaction from simply watching his crush walk around! Wang Li didn't want to risk rubbing one out in case he was caught by Kong Da and waited patiently in bed. Once Kong Da returned. he was handed a small bowl of congee and water before his phone was placed on the bed.

"I forgot I had this, it keeps ringing."

The time the two were together in the room didn't last long and Kong Da left the room again to eat his own breakfast. Wang Li quickly took his medicine and a few mouthfuls of congee before unlocking his phone. Most of the calls were from his soul mate Xu Chen but there were a couple from his Dad too. Wang Li quickly called in case there was an emergency but his Dad had only called him because his parents had another fight.

"I'll be back home after the weekend, Dad."

"Okay, have fun. Love you."

He could hear how sad his Dad was and felt a little guilty not returning home with Xu Chen. Wang Li didn't have time to think about his Dad before Xu Chen called him again.

"Why did you ignore my calls?"

"It's a long story ChenChen."

Wang Li's voice was nasally and congested from his cold and Xu Chen's anger subsided instantly.

"Why are you sick?"

A long sigh left Wang Li's body before he started to eat his congee, going over the fiasco that had happened the day before while he ate. By the time their call had ended Wang Li's voice had become raspier and his nose had gone from blocked to continuously running. Kong Da walked back into the room and grabbed a change of clothes as well as the empty bowl. He only needed to take a small glance at Wang Li to see how sick he was, with the back of his hand he felt Wang Li's forehead and was relieved.

"The fever isn't bad, stay in bed today, message me if you need something."

"I don't have your number."

Wang Li had to stop himself from giggling happily while Kong Da put his number into Wang Li's phone and called his own. The phone was handed back then Kong Da left without saying anything else, leaving Wang Li alone. After the long call Wang Li couldn't keep his eyes open much longer and pulled the hood over his head, Kong Da's scent was still prominent in the material and he snuggled in closer before falling into a light sleep.

. . . . . .

The day passed slowly and JieJie knocked on the door lightly before opening it and walked in holding another bowl of congee. Wang Li felt much better now after sleeping most of the day and took some more medicine while he got out of bed, telling jieJie he would eat in the dining area after a quick shower. JieJie left and Wang Li grabbed a change of clothes as well as his towel before he made his way to the shared showers for men. Thankfully everything was close by so Wang Li could find his way without help, his shower didn't take long and he returned to the cabin, stuffing his dirty clothes and Kong Da's sweatshirt into a plastic bag. Wang Li was about to leave when Kong Da came back into the room.

"You should be in bed."

"Most of the cold has gone now."

Kong Da was holding the bowl of Congee JieJie had come in with and handed it to Wang Li.

"Bed, now."

Wang Li eyed Kong Da up and down before taking the bowl and made his way back to his bed. Kong Da removed his shoes and sat on the small armchair in the corner of the room, taking out his phone. Wang Li didn't bother with wrapping the blankets around him and ate the plain congee before trying to start a conversation with Kong Da.

"How tall are you Da Ge?"

"192 cm."

Wang Li almost choked on his congee. So tall~

"Wa~ You're 14 centimeters taller than me, how did you become so tall?"

"Genetics."

"Is your Mother tall?"

"Un, she's probably the same height as you."

Both felt this conversation wasn't going anywhere and Wang Li finished his congee in silence, he was about to try a different topic when Kong Da's face showed an angry expression, he even swore under his breath. Wang Li placed the empty bowl on the ground. Not long after, Wang Li received a message and checked his phone. Xu Chen had sent him a picture and he also became angry, though he voiced his anger louder than Kong Da.

"They stole my tattoo!"

Wang Li turned his phone to show Kong Da but he didn't look, only stating that he saw. Wang Li had heard about tattoo stealing when he was researching tattoo artists and had even heard about condemned artists who had agreed to steal other artists' works. Wang Li never thought that someone would steal his tattoo, especially since the woman on his chest was his Grandma. Even if it was a young picture of her, it didn't make sense to him.

"Why would they do that?"

Kong Da looked over at Wang Li to see him staring at the phone screen sadly, he didn't know that there was a specific meaning to Wang Li's tattoo and had thought that the image given to him was just a muse. After seeing how upset Wang Li was, he put his phone away and tried to comfort the sad boy.

"It's quite common in the tattoo community for people to steal tattoos, usually the people stealing them don't respect the art form and only enjoy tattoos for the aesthetic."

These words weren't exactly comforting and Wang Li put his phone down as he buried himself in the blankets, not wanting to look at the man that had his Grandma's face on his body. Kong Da suddenly felt a little out of place now.

"Is the woman in your tattoo someone special?"

Wang Li removed the blankets from his face and looked at Kong Da while speaking.

"My Grandma. She raised me until I was ten because my parents were fighting a lot. Nobody knew but she had a tattoo in the same style. It was a portrait of a young girl too. I asked her who the girl was and she told me it was someone special to her and to not tell anyone about it."

Wang Li felt his eyes fill with tears as he spoke about his Grandma.

"She died a couple years ago and when her body was being dressed, the worker asked my parents about the tattoo. My Dad didn't care since Grandma raised him to never be prejudiced about people and what they look like, but my Mum was so disgusted and even gossiped about it to her friends."

"My Grandma was kind to everyone, even my Mum. I wanted to scream at my Mum when I heard what she was saying but my Dad held me back and we ended up not saying anything."

Wang Li's voice had returned to being raspy and his nose was congested again as tears streamed down his eyes. He had never spoken about his Grandma ever since she had died and now he felt like a weight had been lifted after speaking. Kong Da didn't interrupt and quietly knelt down hesitantly then rubbed Wang Li's soft hair. The sick youth closed his eyes and placed his hands over Kong Da's so they wouldn't be pulled away. Kong Da's voice was softer when he talked next.

"Do you want me to add something to it? We won't post it online."

Wang Li opened his eyes and stared at the man in front of him, Wang Li's eyes were red and a little puffy now, he nodded and finally let go of the large hand on his head. Kong Da stood up and picked up the dirty bowl. Wang Li was still sick even if he tried to deny it and the crying had tired him out, Kong Da hadn't left the room and soft snores could be heard.

. . . . . .

The next day, Wang Li's cold had completely gone away and he left the cabin to have breakfast with everyone. Kong Da had come in after washing up and sat down beside Wang Li, Fang Mei and BingBing poked each other while they whispered to one another after seeing this.

The campsite wasn't busy yet since University was still in the exam period so there were only two other groups in the dining area. Wang Li had spent the whole day in the cabin apart from his shower so he hadn't seen the other campers. One group stuck to themselves and left as soon as the meal was done, the second group were a trio of two Chinese men and one White man in their late thirties. The men chatted away happily with Suo Su and JieJie as they were around the same age. The other four didn't pay attention to their conversation but whenever Wang Li happened to glance over, he noticed the white man always met his eyes, the gaze wouldn't last long before he would slowly turn back to his friends.

Wang Li didn't think much of it and left the table with Fang Mei, BingBing and Kong Da, they decided to look at the small petting zoo the campsite had. The small petting zoo wasn't outstanding but it still excited Wang Li, he quickly took his phone out to take a short video to send to Xu Chen. The first animal he filmed was a black shetland pony.

"Horse~~"

Wang Li quickly moved to the next pen.

"Pig~ Oink"

In the last pen, Kong Da was petting the animal.

"Llama~"

"Alpaca"

"Alpaca~"

He quickly stopped the video and sent it before placing the phone away and petted the Alpaca too. The fur was soft and thick, Wang Li pushed his hand firmly against it and his hand disappeared in the fur. Fang Mei and BingBing were busy trying to feed the pig but were still keeping a close eye on Wang Li and Kong Da, they couldn't stop from making guesses about how close the two were now.

After some time, the old man that owned the camp came over with feed and showed surprise at the two men petting the alpaca. Once all the animals' food bowls had been filled he came over to stand beside Wang Li.

"Alpaca's don't like to be petted usually, I'm surprised she hasn't run away from you two."

A few minutes passed then Wang Li and Kong Da had became bored because there were only three animals and they walked around the small camp site. Suo Su and JieJie had finally finished talking with the group of three and walked over to them.

"The men we were talking to told us about a small trek, want to join?"

Wang Li agreed quickly while Kong Da didn't respond but followed along anyway, Fang Mei and BingBing walked at the end of the group still whispering to each other secretly. The trek was mostly flat since there weren't any nearby hills but it was still a pleasant view as at the end of the walk, was a large stream. Suo Su sat down on a large rock and pulled JieJie onto his lap while Fang Mei and BingBing took pictures of the water and trees. Wang Li continued to follow behind Kong Da after looking at JieJie and Suo Su.

"Is JieJie dating Suo Su?"

"They're married."

Huh? This information was a big surprise to Wang Li and he turned to look back at the couple. He had always thought that they suited each other and wondered why he hadn't figured this out earlier. He then watched Fang Mei take pictures of BingBing, after looking at the two couples, Wang Li turned to look at Kong Da but he had continued walking along the stream, meaning Wang Li had to run to catch up. The rocks under his feet made it hard to run and once he was a couple meters away Wang Li rolled his ankle, making him fall to the ground.

Kong Da turned around when he heard Wang Li cry out and walked back to help him up. Wang Li's ankle was hurting slightly but it wasn't injured. Once he was standing properly Suo Su made monkey noises at Kong Da since they were turning back now.

"Can you walk?"

Wang Li put pressure on his foot but it buckled under only a little weight and he almost fell again.

"I only rolled it, after a few minutes it should be fine."

Kong Da squatted in front of Wang Li wordlessly and waited for Wang Li to position himself onto his back but nothing happened, he looked back and gave Wang Li a look to hurry him up. Wang Li's heart was beating fast and he almost threw himself onto his idol's back but instead made sure to get on carefully. Kong Da stood up easily and told Wang Li to hold on before making his way back to their group. As soon as Fang Mei saw the two men,  she squealed happily. BingBing was smiling widely too and gave two big thumbs up to Wang Li before walking ahead.

Because the trek was mostly flat it wasn't too tiring for Kong Da, Wang Li however, was struggling because he could feel the hard muscles underneath him and the firm grip on his legs from Kong Da's large hands. Luckily he was behind everyone so his red cheeks weren't seen but he kept having to focus on his breathing to make sure he didn't have another reaction.

Halfway through Wang Li felt that his little brother was waking up and swiftly pushed himself off of the strong back reluctantly. He had pushed his body too hard though and fell back onto his butt and hands before he quickly stood back up, acting as if everything was normal. Kong Da looked at him a little confused since he knew Wang Li hadn't fallen from his back.

"What are you doing?"

Wang Li shook his ankle stating it was fine now and began walking as if his pants weren't tented in the front. He was especially thankful now for always wearing baggy shirts that covered his crotch, otherwise he didn't know how he would face Kong Da. The two slowly walked beside each other for the remainder of the trek and Wang Li talked about university, thankfully the topic helped deflate his issue.

"Did you go to University Da Ge?"

"No, I quit school when I was 16."

Wang Li couldn't hide his surprise. His eyes bulging out of his head.

"Really? Is that when you started tattooing?"

They had made it back to the campsite now and the other two couples had gone elsewhere. Kong Da walked to a wooden bench to sit, Wang Li walked over too and sat down to listen to Kong Da.

"I started tattooing when I was 13, I got my first tattoo at the same age."

"You got a tattoo at thirteen?! What did your parents say"

This new information was exciting for Wang Li, he turned his body and sat cross legged on the bench so he could face Kong Da while he told his story.

Kong Da first talked about how at thirteen, the people he hung out with weren't the greatest, one of the boys had learnt how to make a makeshift tattoo machine with an old Walkman and sewing needle, the ink was plain Indian ink from the art class. His group of friends all piled into the disabled toilet cubicle and took turns tattooing each other during their lunch break, thankfully no teachers were told and everyone got away with it.

He had known Suo Su ever since he was little since they were neighbours in the same apartment building, and when the school day finished, Kong Da knocked on Suo Su's door to brag about the stupid shit he had done at school. Suo Su at the time was 23 and had been tattooing for 5 years, when he saw the black blob Kong Da was proudly showing off, he laughed in his face. Suo Su instantly told him to come to his shop where he was working at the time and he would fix it.

Without any hesitation Kong Da agreed and after two months he went to Suo Su's shop. Even though he was interested in tattooing, Kong Da had never been inside a proper tattoo studio and was instantly amazed at the different styles and colours. Suo Su took him into a back room since he was 13 and it was heavily criticized back then even if you were of a legal age; if some official walked by to see a kid getting inked, the shop would have gone under instantly.

Kong Da had expected Suo Su to pick a picture and start doing his thing, but instead he drew a small bat on his wrist and handed the machine to Kong Da. Luckily for him the tattoo was done on his left wrist since he was right handed, throughout the whole process Suo Su didn't touch the machine, he only held the skin taught and told Kong Da if he was going too deep or not deep enough. Once the outline was done Suo Su showed him how to change the needles then the process started again. Suo Su held his wrist skin as he told Kong Da where to colour in fully and where to fade the black out.

The bat was only small but the whole process lasted over two hours, by the end of it Kong Da was begging Suo Su to teach him how to tattoo and after the constant hounding he finally agreed. Everyday after school and on weekends, Kong Da went to the studio, for the first few months he wasn't allowed to touch any tattoo machines and was instructed to only draw. Once his drawings had become refined enough, Suo Su picked one and told him to tattoo it onto his leg. The design he had chosen was a Chinese style opera mask. Like before, there was no stencil, only a pen to draw the design onto the skin.

Kong Da was excited to be finally tattooing and focused hard to ensure it was the best, Chinese masks have heavy lines and an abundance of colours with little shading; after four hours, the tattoo was finally done. Suo Su stood in front of the studio mirror and honestly complimented Kong Da on his work. He honestly hadn't expected it to come out so good and even showed it off to the other artists in the studio. After that, Kong Da began working at the studio as an artist and once he turned 16 he dropped out of school. The same time he quit school he also moved into a new apartment with Suo Su.

"What about your parents?"

Kong Da eyes looked distant as he summarised his relationship with his parents quickly.

"Dad wasn't around much then officially left when I was 9, Mum was pretty much the same and left when I was around 14."

Wang Li reached out and squeezed Kong Da's hand, he knew what it was like to feel like your parents didn't want or love you, though his Dad was incredibly close to him, his Mum felt like a cold stranger. Kong Da didn't push away Wang Li's hand but also didn't hold it.

"Can I see the tattoo?"

The hand he was holding was Kong Da's left hand so he had to let go, Kong Da pulled back his sleeve and turned his arm, showing Wang Li the small bat. The outline had still kept up and looked neat but in the center of the body had slight scarring. Kong Da picked up Wang Li's hand and rubbed his finger against the scar.

"The first tattoo was done too deep so the ink didn't stay, it scarred the skin too."

"What is the tattoo underneath it?"

"Hehe, A crown."

Wang Li laughed and looked down at the small bat while he continued rubbing the textured skin. He kept rubbing even as he talked.

"How old are you Da Ge?"

"28, you?"

"20."

Kong Da looked away and seemed a little sad. Wang Li pulled Kong Da's sleeve back more and pointed to a hyena head tattoo.

"Da Ge, tell me about this one."

Kong Da looked at what tattoo Wang Li was referring to and burst out laughing, after his laughter he told Wang Li about the hyena being Suo Su. Since he had known Suo Su most of his life he was more like a brother/father and considered him family. Like Wang Li had noticed, Suo Su was always laughing even when he probably shouldn't, he had always been like this. The hyena was the next tattoo after the bat but Suo Su had refused at first since he thought hyenas were ugly, he also thought the fact that Kong Da was getting a tattoo to resemble him was too cheesy. It took two years of convincing and Suo Su only agreed after he had moved in with Kong Da, he had only agreed because the stupid kid wouldn't stop talking about it.

Wang Li sat beside Kong Da and laughed at the stories being told of Kong Da living with Suo Su and tattoos; when the handsome man finished talking about one tattoo, Wang Li would point to another and listen as he was told about the artist or the idea behind the tattoo. They talked so much that they forgot about lunch.