Move-In Day (Zixuan) [COMPLETED]

Yanli instinctively wrapped her arms around Zixuan's neck when he caught her. She too noticed their position and tried to fight off her blush, unsuccessfully. "I'm fine, thanks for catching me. The last thing I needed was hearing my mom's voice tell me I should have just asked you to put the things away in the tall cabinets," she laughed at herself.

She knew he was tall and he certainly looked solid, but in this single afternoon, she'd seen Zixuan in a very different light. He seemed more uncertain and fragile than she'd thought when she'd only know him from afar, which wasn't a bad thing. So she was pleasantly surprised at how steady he was and how he hadn't even taken a second to think about it before jumping to her rescue.

She realized that maybe she was staring too long, and certainly lingering in his arm too long. "Thank you, I'm fine now."

Yanli was tempted to lean back against Zixuan's hand. She knew he was keeping it there to help her balance, and if she let herself hope, maybe for another reason. So by leaning back into his hand, she could pretend she still needed his help, but she could never be so manipulative.

"Um, I just need these last two things up in that cabinet," she said pointing to cupcake and cake tins. "The second shelf on the left please."

"That's the kitchen then. I'll start putting your clothes away in the closet and maybe in an hour or so I'll make some sort of snack to keep us going?" she offered.

"Thank you," Yanli said, approving of his placement of the tins.

"Yeah, so long as we can still sit on the couch or find a spot on the floor to sit I'm fine. Let me know if you need help moving anything" she said as she went to the closet.

In the closet she opened up Zixuan's boxes and carefully started hanging clothes. He did seem to have a lot more professional looking clothes than she'd expected but she was very impressed. They all looked so clean and crisp. She found herself smiling and humming to herself as she hung them up.

She could practically hear her brothers teasing her about being "delightfully domestic," but she didn't care. She enjoyed seeing different sides of Zixuan. She found a lilac blazer and couldn't help but try it on. It absolutely drowned her, but it also smelled like him. She took it off quickly before she could get caught being a weirdo and hung it up.

She opened a second box and closed it right away, "boxers," she muttered to herself. She wasn't averse to dealing with undergarments. She did laundry at home all the time which meant her brother's, father's, and mother's clothes, but she wanted to respect Zixuan's privacy.

Yanli had been so engrossed in hanging things that she hadn't even hear Zixuan moving things. "You moved all that? That had to be heavy, you should have asked for my help."

She frowned, "now I feel guilty about not helping." She placed her hand on one of the dressers, "this one is yours, I didn't put anything in it yet because I knew we'd be moving it." She patted one of the boxes, "I think this is a box for you to sort."

She went into the corner to budge the dresser out of it. She helped Zixuan move the dresser to his room, completely forgetting about the special drawer her mother had packed her. She assumed it was in the dresser she'd chosen, she was wrong.

Yanli sighed but accepted that he'd moved the things himself without much trouble. She watched him take his boxes and didn't want to intrude on his space so just sort of stood in the closet for a minute trying to figure out what to do next.

She rushed over when she heard Zixuan mention her mother, "what did she do now?" she asked at the doorway to Zixuan's room. She saw him standing there with his eyes closed and the drawer open. Her eyes opened wide at the medley of skimpy lingerie and several shreds of cloth she couldn't identify. "I'm so sorry about her. I really thought this was in my dresser, I'm sorry."

She dropped to her knees in front of the drawer and scooped everything up into her arms, pausing for a second and putting the things back down. "Could you go wait in the living room for a second," she asked. When she'd scooped up the clothes, she'd felt things beneath them. Bottle shaped and other shapes as well. She was going to kill her mother.

Yanli was happy Zixuan had just listened to her without complaint. She moved the lingerie aside and whined, it was exactly what she'd thought. She pulled out her phone and took a picture, sending the photo first to her mother asking "why would you give me these?" and then to her brothers.

Yes, she was embarrassed for her brothers to see but she also figured they could help her put pressure on their mom to stop doing things like this. The text she sent them included the picture and "do you see what mom put in my new apartment, what is she trying to do?! Help me with her."

She wrapped everything in the lingerie and carefully carried it through the bathroom and to the closet. She deposited everything in the bottom drawer of her own dresser, figuring she'd find a way to deal with everything later. She peeked her head out of the bedroom door since it was closer to the living room where Zixuan was, "it's safe now, I think. Who knows what else she's done. I apologize again."

"With my mother, you're not wrong. There's probably more," Yanli said. "Do you want to check the desk and file cabinet and I'll check the bathroom?"

She started heading towards the bathroom, "could you imagine us donating that desk to your job and there being.... things in it?" she could help but laugh incredulously at the situation. "I know the kitchen is clean. I've been through it already, but in general, my mom knows better than to touch my kitchen."