They got dressed and performed the wedding ceremony in their quaint little shack.
Because they were getting married without an officiator, or even their parents to bless them, they have skipped several steps of the Six Ettiquettes.
But they still bowed three times. Kowtowing to the heavens, their parents which was represented by Qing Daitong's letters..... and then to each other.
They cut a piece of their hair, and placed it in bags, which they tied to themselves. Wei Wangyi's hair going to Ren Jidian, and Ren Jidian's going to Wei Wangyi.
They had a tea ceremony, and a small banquet of fresh fruit and wild hare meat.
After having their meal and talking about random things to let it digest.....
Ren Jidian offered his hand.
"May I dance with you..... my beloved husband?"
Wei Wangyi's cheeks flushed the color of his robes.
There was no sash due to Zau Ting ripping it apart. So, he went to take the scissor they used to cut his hair...
And cut a piece of fabric from his robes.
"You must be blindfolded first, I will take you to the perfect spot to dance." Wei Wangyi said. "Would that be alright, my beloved husband?"
Ren Jidian grinned, kissing his wrist once he was blindfolded.
"Of course. I trust you would not let me fall and humiliate myself?"
Wei Wangyi chuckled. "Yes, yes. But there's no one else besides me to humiliate yourself with... And I will never humiliate you."
The scholar laughed as his hands were taken and guided by Wei Wangyi. "Oh, but you love to tease me."
"That, I could not deny. Haha!"
Eventually, they reached a clearing. Ren Jidian could tell with how there was no more trees that stubbed his toe or almost trip him up.
Wei Wangyi took off the sash.....
"I saw this accidentally while you were going out to fetch some water from the waterfall." His newlywed husband smiled. "You can hear the water from here, right?"
"Yes..... But I can't see it anywhere. I can only hear a distant gushing sound." He smiled. "These fireflies....."
In this clearing, they were surrounded by little tiny glowing lights. It reminded him of a memory as distant as the waterfall...
This memory served as like background music as Wei Wangyi started to surround him with the sash and started to dance.
His feet still moved to the rhythm without the music. He swished the sash all over, and Ren Jidian followed suit.
He let himself move as he wanted, Wei Wangyi's hands touching and brushing against him then releasing again.....
They move closer, they move far apart. They just let their bodies move as it will, holding onto his hips that swayed gracefully like a flamingo's.
The twinkling fireflies seemed to dance with them, and Ren Jidian closed his eyes.....
He let that steady background music take over, getting lost in the memory as he danced.
It was their prom night.
He was alone that time, acting in defiance against all the Alphas that asked him out. He tried to ask some fellow Yins, even just to dance as friends, but none of them wanted to risk it.
Nobody wanted to risk being seen as 'homosexual'.
Someone who goes for the same subgender.
And so, this homosexual Ren Jidian just went to drink punch, walking out of the gymnasium.
The outside of the school was decorated by fairy lights. They were scattered around, and it was dark enough to hide the strings and make you think they were floating lights.
Like fireflies.
Ren Jidian had always liked watching animal photography a lot. Besides skating, ti was his secret hobby to take pictures of nature.
Nobody knew about this, not even Wei Sizhi.
He wondered where that handsome devil went. He's probably off to dance with some gorgeous Alpha.....
He was 19 this time, and it had been 5 years since he realized his crush on his best friend. This was his last day of high school.
He'll soon be in college for 4 years, taking whatever degree his father chose for him. Whatever his career counsellor suggested.
Because he really had no certainty for his life. It felt hopeless, dreaming of a good life when you were already doomed with a bad one.
But surrounded by the pretty lights, he decided to forget about that for a moment and just appreciate the beauty of now.
That's what he usually does. He's not one to have much regrets about the past, though he did wished he admitted his feelings to Wei Sizhi sooner, when the emotion was just a mild crush.
After all, a crush may disappear, right? Once Wei Sizhi rejected him while he's just having that crush, he'll easily get over it.
But 5 years had passed. It's no longer childish infatuation.
It's pretty shameful to hold on to a hopeless affection for so long.
But he did not care. He pretended to dance with Wei Sizhi, all alone with these glowing lights around him.
He then heard laughter behind him.
"Are you practicing? Or are you dancing with a ghost?"
He immediately faltered. "O-Oh.... Yeah, I'm practicing."
(Actually, I'm dancing with a ghost of you.)
An imaginary Wei Sizhi. One that he can never dance with.
But now.... They were in the perfect place, the perfect time, and doing the perfect dance.
His hands were now around him. The actual him, his warmth present, his smile present.
Surrounded by real fireflies, not artificially lights that he just imagined as one.
"You do not know how much I waited to dance with you...." He whispered to his beloved's ear. "How much I yearned for it..... I should have asked you sooner."
That prom night... They could have danced together if only he wasn't too afraid to ask.
If only he had not assumed too much about Wei Sizhi.
But that's in the past, this was now. All that pining in secret, all that lonely dancing in the dark....
It was now all worth it.
Wei Wangyi nodded, as if deep down, he knew. Or at least, that's what Ren Jidian wanted to believe.
"You can ask me and I can dance forever and ever with you." Wei Wangyi kissed him.
The wait really was worth it.