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“I can’t remember!”
Lan Yuan had lost count from the number of times he heard the same confession. No matter what question he asked Jingyi, the answer was the same.
“Is there anything you can remember?” Lan Yuan sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. His night was meant to be peaceful and undisturbed, the exact thing he needed after a long day of work. No matter how strongly he would put his life on the line for his childhood friend, sometimes a lack of sleep pushed certain buttons.
“Well I arrived at the party early.” Jingyi recounted his story with a long hum. “And I still had my bag then.”
Lan Yuan nodded with his phone pinched between his head and shoulder. He recalled the previous night and how Jingyi had run into his kitchen with a water bottle filled with something questionable. He didn’t spend much time explaining himself before taking off further into the house, leaving Lan Yuan to finish the setup for a party he didn’t ask for.
“I know I put it somewhere to keep it safe since it had my wallet and things, but apparently it was such a safe spot that even I can’t remember!” Jingyi groaned, choosing to do so directly into the phone.
Lan Yuan held the phone away from his ear as he gave another sigh. If he could find his headphones in the mess that was left, he could save his neck and keep Jingyi at a reasonable volume. He barely found his work laptop that morning through a mysterious pile of chip bags that ended up in his office.
“Don’t worry, A-Yi. I’ll find it.” Lan Yuan reassured, knowing it would eventually turn up. He couldn’t exactly blame the man for being on edge about the situation. Going through life without ID, credit cards, and even something like his sunglasses, would make regular life more stressful. “I don't think anyone who showed up last night would’ve taken it, and if they did, I have my cameras.”
A sudden burst of excitement shot out from the other side of the phone. “I almost forgot your home is full of cameras!” Jingyi gasped. “You could see me from yesterday and where I put my bag, and if anyone took it!”
“A-Yi my home isn’t full of cameras.” Lan Yuan corrected with a chuckle. “It’s just a few spots for security. I just think it’s safer when living alone.”
“But do you have one in the bathroom?”
Lan Yuan huffed out a heavier sigh. “No A-Yi, I do not. They’re set up to look at windows and doors. I don’t think someone is going to come up from the toilet.”
“But what if they do! I’ve seen movies like that!”
Lan Yuan shivered at the thought of whatever horror movie Jingyi had likely watched to fuel the idea. “Well they don’t in my house.” Lan Yuan made a mental note not to think of the same thing right before going to bed. “I’ll look at the footage from last night and see if the cameras picked anything up. I’ll call when I know more.”
“You’re the best, Yuan-ge!” Jingyi’s gratitude shot out and without either of them needing to exchange another word, the call ended.
The infectious liveliness gave Lan Yuan a moment to forget the surrounding mess. Glasses that needed to be cleaned, trash that needed to be taken out, and his mind demanded he clean before he could sleep. Next time, he’d forgo volunteering his house for any celebration.
But the clean up would have to wait.
Trading his laptops around, Lan Yuan connected his personal laptop to his home connections to start the process. Jingyi was asking a lot of him to sift through hours of video footage on multiple cameras, but he had hope. If he found where Jingyi put his bag in the beginning of the party, he could just watch one camera until the recorded next day.
Lan Yuan cracked open a can of green tea and got to work. His recording program was relatively simple, though getting lost in the mapping was just as simple. He clicked through a few different cameras until he found the kitchen, and wound back to find himself during the set up.
Like perfect clockwork, Jingyi showed on the screen for a few seconds. His back was to the camera while his arm gestured wildly, and then he ran out of the room. Lan Yuan leaned closer in his chair, focusing his eyes to the screen. A quick click through the cameras on the same time stamp and he found Jingyi down the hall carrying the missing bag in question.
Lan Yuan raised an eyebrow as he watched Jingyi dive into his bedroom and clicked through to change cameras again. He flicked the metal tab on his drink and his lips pulled a frown as he watched his childhood friend crash face first onto his bed.
It was odd watching every action of someone who acted as if they were alone. Though at the time, Jingyi was in the room alone. He probably didn’t expect someone to watch back everything he did. Lan Yuan almost felt a bit guilty. His friend did nothing wrong, and was doing nothing wrong in the footage that played out before him, but he had to watch everything he did.
After a brief moment of laying nearly motionless on Lan Yuan’s bed, Jingyi shot up and shuffled his bag strap off his shoulder. Lan Yuan could virtually pick out every single pixel as his face inched towards the screen. He watched the bag get swung, and eventually, it found a place under the bed frame.
Lan Yuan’s fingers clacked the spacebar to pause the video as he got up from his office chair. Under his bed wasn’t a place he had searched. He had to commend Jingyi on the idea. It was a safe space, in a room Lan Yuan had put as off limits during the party. With luck, it would still be there.
Though luck wasn’t on Lan Yuan’s side. The space under his bed was completely empty, and so it was right back to his laptop.
He settled back into his chair and took a sip of his canned tea. There was a new mystery afoot. He had to find who moved the bag, or worse, who took the bag. Lan Yuan enlarged the camera recording to fill his entire screen, and hit play.
For a while, only the clock on the screen moved. Lan Yuan didn’t dare skip ahead, afraid to miss a moment, but he did increase the play speed. His fingers instinctively reached for a button when he saw another body in the room, but stopped the moment he recognized his own face.
Lan Yuan remembered that moment. It was just an hour into the party and someone had spilled their drink on him. Only carbonated water, but enough of it that it was smarter to change than try to air dry for hours.
Lan Yuan watched himself leave and was soon back to watching his empty room. The camera had the perfect angle from its place on his dresser. It pointed towards the window for its main purpose in safety, but also caught key points of the room like his bed that sat beside the window, along with his nightstand and the edge of his closet. Anybody moving in and out of the room would show, he just had to wait.
Moving further into the night with the camera’s digital clock nearing midnight, Lan Yuan began to convince himself that he just needed to check under his bed again. He knew the party didn’t go on for much longer. Either he needed to check his eyes, or he was reaching the climax of the mystery.
The light turning on in his bedroom proved the latter.
Sitting back up, Lan Yuan was back to nearly entering the screen itself as he watched closely. When the screen hadn’t changed for a few minutes, the decision was made to unmute the camera’s volume, and that’s when the groaning started.
It was a sound of pain, but nothing extremely serious. It was the familiar sound of drinking pains, and it came from a well known voice.
When the sound of the bedroom door shutting came through, the unknowing actor of Jin Ling came on screen. The man stumbled into the room with a hand in his hair. The scene helped with answering a previous question he had that night, on where Jin Ling disappeared to nearing the party’s wrap up.
Lan Yuan watched carefully as he kept the aluminum can close to his lips. If Jin Ling was the one who took the bag, it would be easy to ask him about it, but the general curiosity of what he was doing in Lan Yuan’s bedroom was a new question he wanted an answer for.
Jin Ling stopped at the edge of his bed when his legs hit it. Even with his back to the camera, his movements could be picked out. He took a moment to look down on the bed and picked up Lan Yuan’s previously discarded shirt. Lan Yuan rolled his bottom lip as his interest was growing. What exactly was Jin Ling doing?
The answer he had been waiting for came in the form of Jin Ling throwing himself onto his bed. Apparently the habit was shared amongst his friends. Jin Ling’s body turned, again facing away from the camera, but by his arms, Lan Yuan knew he was still holding his damp shirt.
It was bizarre, and even more odd that Lan Yuan was watching every move he did. He felt the need to apologize for intruding while at the same time he wished he had found Jin Ling during the moment to rub his back and check in on him, and maybe sneak a glance at his flushed cheeks; they were always adorably puffed when he was drinking.
He had given Jin Ling the offer of his guest room that night, not wanting the man to drive home after his drinking, but he insisted on taking a cab home instead. Lan Yuan still had to reach out to Jin Ling about picking up his car that was still parked on his street, but that thought was quickly forgotten when he saw movement again.
Jin Ling shuffled on his bed. His legs moved first, and then his arms and hands seemed to be busy. He could just about make out the sound of fabric rubbing together, and then Jin Ling turned to land his face directly in Lan Yuan’s pillow.
It was then that Lan Yuan noticed something was off, or rather, Jin Ling’s pants seemed to be sliding off of him. Jin Ling’s legs squirmed around, shuffling himself nearly out of them entirely, but gave up when they slid down to his knees.
Jin Ling had done strange things while drunk in the past, but it usually consisted of ranting about movies he loved from his childhood or carrying things around he shouldn’t; like a spatula or a vase. He hadn’t experienced Jin Ling removing clothes before. It was something Lan Yuan thought he should look away from for the sake of decency, but he had to watch for the lost bag, so his eyes stayed glued. It was a sane enough reason to stick to.
It was possible that Jin Ling had picked up Jingyi’s drunken behaviors of wanting to fall asleep in places and was trying to make himself comfortable. Maybe the drunk Jin Ling had thought he found the guest bedroom and actually did want to take up the offer at the time. It was all innocent thinking, until the camera echoed a moan.
Lan Yuan’s shoulders tensed. He had to have misheard the sound. Jin Ling's legs shuffled against the bedding, and turned his front forwards the camera. It was at that moment Lan Yuan knew he couldn’t come up with any other excuses.
The very obvious shaped outline of Jin Ling’s hand in his underwear was hard to miss.
Lan Yuan had to look away. He couldn’t on a clean conscious watch his friend fondle himself on his bed. The exact same bed Lan Yuan had slept in that night without knowing. Half of Jin Ling’s face was pressed into his pillow, covering part of his wide open mouth.
The panting made Lan Yuan shiver. It was so audible and wet, as if Jin Ling was drooling and breathing at the same time. His half lidded eyes nearly locked with the camera, and Lan Yuan knew he had to look away, but his eyes were hard focused on the screen. He couldn’t break away, not when he watched Jin Ling’s free hand grab the discarded shirt.
The damp fabric was forced to his face and the clear, deep, inhale permeated the speakers.
Lan Yuan didn’t know when he finished off his can of tea, but his lips kept trying for more as he took in the sight. Jin Ling on his bed, sniffing his shirt, and pleasuring himself. Lan Yuan knew he shouldn’t be looking, but….
He should have skipped ahead to save his friend some dignity. Not to mention find what happened to the lost bag as it was his entire purpose for watching the recording back.
Instead the footage was running at normal speed, and the volume was turned up.
Jin Ling rubbed his face with the shirt and the sound that followed resonated inside Lan Yuan’s skull.
“A-Yuan…”
Lan Yuan’s mouth was dry. He misheard, it was the only plausible reason. So he jumped back a few seconds in the recording and listened again.
“A-Yuan…”
His ears weren’t working, he had a lack of sleep. He had to hear it again.
The result was still the same. His name, on Jin Ling’s moan. His hungry moans.
He replayed it again.
Jin Ling was on his bed, smelling his things, and masturbating to the thought of him. If Lan Yuan wasn’t already sitting down he would have passed out. It was too much at once.
So he replayed the sound again.
It was so light, yet dark and desiring. Years of manners and rules told him to feel ashamed for listening so intently, but he couldn’t help licking his dry lips and undoing the top button of his shirt.
He finally let the recording go on, and more soon greeted his ears. More moans, more breathy calls of his name, along with a terribly enticing; “Gege…”
Jin Ling turned onto his front to rub his hips against the bed. His movements were sloppy, but hypnotic. His hips would lift just enough for him to dip back down and drag across the bedding. One of his legs had come free of his pants entirely, while his underwear slipped halfway down, lining the middle of his cheeks.
“More, A-Yuan…”
The sound was replayed.
“More-”
Lan Yuan could see Jin Ling’s dick pop out of his underwear.
“Gege please-”
Lan Yuan’s fingers paused above his keyboard, poised to replay the sounds, but stopped when he saw where Jin Ling’s other hand was going. The hand that was holding his shirt was moving down to his erection. All he could do was watch as it was pushed under Jin Ling’s body, and the man rapidly hump into it.
Lan Yuan refused to look away. He had to watch how Jin Ling used his things as he jerked off, and how he called his name in every single moan.
“Come, come…” It was surprising to hear his own voice. The words just slipped out, just like how his hand slid into his pants.
Jin Ling’s humping became frustrated quickly. There was something that wasn’t going how he wanted it to. His facial features scrunched in his dissatisfaction. He was processing on how to solve his issue while Lan Yuan turned his volume to max.
Then without warning, his head lifted, and he stole the pillow out from under him. Lan Yuan almost forgot to breathe the moment he saw Jin Ling lift up to place the pillow under his hips, and lay his shirt on top, making a stack of layers which Jin Ling vocally showed his enjoyment in.
Lan Yuan’s head had used that pillow. His face was on it that previous night. It was surreal to see how Jin Ling, only two hours prior to when he went to bed, used it in such a way.
Lan Yuan’s pants were undone in his next heavy breath. There was nothing left that could hold him back. If he didn’t stroke himself in time with Jin Ling’s moans, it felt more wrong than watching the indecency.
If only Lan Yuan that night had checked his room when he lost track of Jin Ling. If only he stumbled on the scene live. He could have offered Jin Ling the real thing.
The unanswered question of what Jin Ling would have actually done hung in the air with Lan Yuan’s gasp. The more Jin Ling’s thrusts grew desperate, the more Lan Yuan persistently tried to match him. He needed to get to the same place the erotic display was already at. If he didn’t come at the same time as Jin Ling, something in his mind would snap.
Spitting on his palms provided an ease to the hard friction to keep him going. Any shame Lan Yuan had, left the moment Jin Ling called his name. He’d give anything to crawl through the screen and join in. It lit everything in his mind on fire.
Jin Ling’s head turned to press his face into the bed and Lan Yuan cursed. He needed to see and hear the precise moment that Jin Ling came. It was torture to only have the muffled noises to go by. It was essential to have Jin Ling howling his name.
So he skipped back the last few minutes.
The same movements, the same words, and Lan Yuan increased his pace.
Soon he was back to the same moment of losing sight of Jin Ling’s face, and he repeated the process. Lan Yuan didn’t want it to end. He didn’t want to end his moment with a Jin Ling stuck in time, but eventually, his body won the battle.
Lan Yuan struggled to catch it all in his hands as he came. Biting into his lip helped keep him steady, along with a rhythm of heavy pants. The recording was finally allowed to play farther than what Lan Yuan had allowed it, and just as instincts predicted, Jin Ling had his finish.
Through a clearer picture, crisper sounds, and a face to face view, Lan Yuan would have called it perfection. The fog in his brain wished for more as he sat slouched in his chair, but Jin Ling seemed to find his senses quicker. It was likely because of the difference in situations. Lan Yuan had the luxury of recouping, while Jin Ling faced the reality of shooting a load all over Lan Yuan’s bed and clothes.
As if the past Jin Ling predicted Lan Yuan’s thought of looking for his stained clothes, the shirt was grabbed as the man jumped up from the bed. Lan Yuan laughed as he watched the panic and the frantic removal of his pillow case. Soon Jin Ling stood in the middle of the room, holding two soiled objects with his pants still down.
Lan Yuan kept a close eye on the next quick movements, especially the one that involved Jin Ling looking at the bottom of the bed.
At the bag.
Jin Ling had found Jingyi’s bag and it instantly became a part of his plan. He stuffed the pillow case and shirt inside, not even taking a moment to check what was in the bag. The next step of Jin Ling’s plan was fixing his clothes along with his hair before darting out of the room.
Lan Yuan reached across his desk for a tissue box to clean himself up as he waited for Jin Ling’s return. He didn’t have to stay in anticipation long, Jin Ling was already bursting back into the room once Lan Yuan had his hands clean. Jin Ling went into action putting on a new pillow case and zipping up the bag with his defiled evidence.
It made Lan Yuan’s heart warm to think that Jin Ling knew where he kept his clean sheets and that he thought about him enough to change it out. He smiled at the screen, following the last few movements of Jin Ling smuggling the bag out and even turning off the room lights. He was so considerate.
It almost made Lan Yuan second guess his decision when he skipped back the last few minutes again. His hands naturally gravitated to his dick, and he started his own repetition of the process. He could call Jingyi later, he had no need to rush.
But the world decided to ruin his night by letting his phone ring. He was already halfway through the arousing recording, it would be cruel to himself to stop. He would have kept going if it weren’t for his caller ID convincing him to.
“Jin Ling?” Lan Yuan tried not to gasp as he answered the phone. He was a bit out of breath and surprised by the coincidence, but he couldn’t let the other know.
“Hey, are you okay?” Jin Ling’s voice flipped to uncharacteristic concern as he caught on to something being off already.
“Everything’s fine!” Lan Yuan laughed, covering for himself. “I was just doing a few things around the house.”
A mumbled curse made its way over the phone as Jin Ling took time to pause. “You’re cleaning up after the party, aren’t you?”
Lan Yuan happily accepted the excuse and hummed in confirmation.
“You shouldn’t have to do that all by yourself.” Jin Ling sighed. The sound of his tongue squelching in his mouth as he collected his thoughts sounded too similar to when he spoke with thirsty delirium in the recording. It made Lan Yuan’s skin itch, and reminded him of his exposed erection as they spoke.
“Listen,” Jin Ling started, already having Lan Yuan’s eager attention. “I was going to come by to pick up my car, but I’ll stay for a bit to help, alright? Even if it’s just sorting recycling or something, I can’t have you doing it all by yourself.”
Lan Yuan’s mind sped ahead at the proposed offer. Stopping himself from giving countless endorsements about the offer was more than difficult. The idea of having Jin Ling in his house that very night was more than pleasing.
“Thank you, A-Ling.” Lan Yuan hoped he made the other shiver as he said his name. “There is a lot to do, so maybe it might be a good idea to stay overnight.” He would come close to begging if he had less self control. It was only manageable to be held back by a wandering hand that picked back up the job of stroking himself.
The act was all sorts of wrong, that he knew, but he had Jin Ling’s voice right in his ear and his enticing actions fresh in his mind. He just had to be quiet.
“There’s really that much left?” Jin Ling groaned. He gave a breathy huff, and Lan Yuan used it as more motivation. “I’ll bring an overnight bag just in case then.”
A light turned on inside Lan Yuan’s head as the sudden remembrance hit him. “Oh, a bag.” He mumbled, trying to keep his breathing normal. “Speaking of bags, did you happen to see Jingyi’s bag last night?”
The suspense was thick. Lan Yuan desperately wanted to hear what kind of excuse Jin Ling would come up with, or if he’d blurt out the truth entirely. The few seconds of silence was already enough to make his toes curl.
“Yeah I saw it.” Jin Ling answered quietly. “Actually, there’s a bit of a story with that.”
Holding back a laugh became an extremely difficult task. Lan Yuan knew there was much more than just a story to the bag.
“I had a bit too much to drink last night and I ended up taking it home thinking it was mine.”
What a straight faced lie. Jin Ling didn’t even stutter as he gave it. He was practically shameless. Maybe he was just as bold as Lan Yuan who couldn’t stop touching himself. The thought of Jin Ling doing the same thing made Lan Yuan’s brain go feral.
“Oh, that’s alright.” Lan Yuan chuckled, his eyes already drifting back to his computer screen. “Bring it with you, and when you get here... I’ll show you another story.”