Su Ran had taken many pictures of Su Han in the past, portraits, side profiles. The super handsome kinds.
Su Ran’s hands itched as she looked at the pictures in her album but she finally stopped herself and only posted one with Su Han from afar.
In the picture, Su Han stood next to the bus stop and leaned on the sign. The light was dim at night and, as she was standing a little distance away from him, the look on Su Han’s face was not clear. At the very minimum, one would not be able to tell that resentful look on hi mat all.
Even though it was a little bit blurry but this picture was still very artistic. Besides, as far as Su Ran was concerned, her son was just as handsome in this photo as he was in any other ones.
Su Ran clicked on [Post] and that was that!
When Su Ran looked up, she noticed that Su Han was sitting in front of the dinner table playing on his cellphone instead of eating dinner.
“Why haven’t you started?”
“Why did you send this one?”
The mother and son talked over each other.
Su Ran: Huh?
So this whole time, he was looking at her friend’s circle?
“Hoho, what do you think? Your mom’s aesthetic is good, right? I didn’t post any ugly pictures of yours, right?” said Su Ran as she raised her brows as Su Han. She assumed that he was monitoring her friend’s circle to make sure that she didn’t share any goofy photos of his.
“I have no ugly photos,” said Su Han in a low voice.
“Besides, I think your aesthetic is average,” said Su Han very honestly.
Really, this woman’s aesthetic was problematic. She had taken so many pictures and this was the one she decided to post?
On top of that, a collage of nine photos, why was him the middle one surrounded by all the other ugly greyish green milk tea photos taken from all sorts of angles?
“Is it? I thought it is fine.” It’d clearly illustrate the point that her son had bought her milk tea.
Su Han: Hoho, whatever float your boat.
“Then how come you didn’t post the one that you had been editing forever?” asked Su Han again after a little while as he looked straight at Su Ran.
Shouldn’t the both of them be surrounded by milk tea?
“That one? No way. That my only, limited edition one,” said Su Han very seriously.
“Oh,” replied Su Han nonchalantly after hearing her explanation.
Except that…
Was she mistaken? Why was it that she seemed to have capture a slight disappointment on her son’s face?
Suddenly, Su Han’s phone vibrated.
Seeing the alert informing him that Su Ran had sent him a message via WeChat, Su Han was baffled.
“What are you doing?”
“I just sent you the picture that I have edited. I’ve spent a lot of time editing it. You better save it nicely.”
Hearing Su Ran’s word, Su Han paused and said, “What a hassle.”
Then, immediately after, he said in a low voice, “I will.”
His voice sounded like it came from the deep part of his throat. Had the two of them not be so closed to each other, Su Ran would not have heard that at all.
“Let’s have dinner then,” said Su Ran as she smiled happily.
***
It was the familiar chow fun with its familiar taste from the place downstairs again.
They have ordered from this place a few other times afterward. That’s when Su Ran realized that Su Han didn’t eat slowly because the box was too full the first time they have ordered this.
But that Su Han had slowed down intentionally to wait for her.
By now, Su Han would no longer slow down to wait for Su Ran. Instead, he’d finish his share at his normal speed before he pull out his cellphone and study his vocabularies or browse through some group chats while sitting across from her.
Then, when Su Ran had finally finished eating and before she had recollected herself, he’d quickly pick up the to-go boxes from the dinner table.
By the time Su Han had finished eating and looked up at Su Ran, he noticed that Su Ran was eating even slower than normal today.
Her chopsticks in midair and her cellphone sitting next to the to-go box, she was looking at the message that she had just posted to her friend’s circle and clicking in and out of it repeatedly.
“What do you keep refreshing?” Su Han finally couldn’t help but asked.
Don’t you get tired from doing that?
“I want to see how many liked this message and how many had commented on my post,” said Su Ran, completely ignoring the stunned speechless look on her son and continued doing what made her happy.
“I have 23 likes already!”
“Oh.”
“A few of the parents commented on it too!”
“Oh.” Please stop telling me. I don’t want to know.
Not noticing the contempt look on Su Han, Su Ran happily read every message under the photo and relied to each and every single one of them.
Zhao Jiaming’s mother: Is that your Su Han in the photo?
Su reply: Yeah.
Wang Lucheng’s mother: That’s a good picture that you took, Mother Su Han.
Su reply: Thank you.
Li Yang’s mother: Did you two go somewhere fun? You just got home?
Su reply: No, I had to work overtime today and Xiao Han came and picked me up.
About ten or so messages later, Su Ran saw a new one that just popped up.
As she had labeled this one differently, this particular comment stood out like a sore thumb amidst all the “XX’s mothers”.
Second piano customer – Lu: That’s your son in the photo?
___