Descending from the Skies

Chapter 5 The Date

After parking his car in the garage, Fang Hao headed upstairs. Perhaps due to the sudden shift from night to day shift, he was a bit out of sorts, and he wasn't even particularly hungry. His home was in a residential community near the airport. The salary of an air traffic controller is generally not high, but it's a public sector job with decent benefits like housing and social insurance.

He tidied up a bit and planned to go for a night run to clear his mind. He had been on the track and field team since high school and college, and he had been at it for over a decade now; it was a hobby of his. He ran ten kilometers every day without fail, and if he was training for a race to set a new personal record, he would devise an even stricter training regimen. However, since his schedule became more packed after transferring to Daxing, and it was hard to rest well after night shifts, he rarely ran more than fifteen kilometers during the day anymore.

After changing into his running shoes, his phone pinged with a message. Fang Hao glanced at it sideways. The name read Gu Chun, asking him, "Fang Hao, are you working this weekend? Would you like to come over for a drink at my place?"

He was impressed that Gu Chun had written his name correctly, a testament to his scholarly precision, and he mentally gave him a thumbs up.

He had met Gu Chun a week ago at an l***q bar. Gu Chun seemed to be a securities analyst, a high-flying white-collar worker with a pleasant demeanor. While he wasn't particularly smitten, he found Gu Chun's manners and appearance quite agreeable. He recalled that he had been a bit tipsy that night, followed Gu Chun back to his spacious apartment in the financial district, had a few more drinks, and spent the night together. The experience was much like his first impression of Gu Chun—neither good nor bad—but the politeness and the fact that he was allowed to take the lead made it a pleasant experience, so he wasn't opposed to a repeat.

Then he remembered, after making love, he lay on Gu Chun's Simmons bed, sweating and smoking a post-coital cigarette.

Gu Chun asked him, "Are you a student?" Then, as if startled, he suddenly sat up and asked, "A university student?"

Fang Hao told him, "I'm twenty-nine this year." His youthful appearance, coupled with a hairstyle not much longer than a buzz cut, made many people disbelieve his age.

Gu Chun: "So, where do you live?"

Fang Hao replied, "In the Daxing area." He didn't know if Gu Chun was trying to categorize him based on his answer, but he didn't care much. After all, it was just a casual encounter, not an attempt to build a professional network.

Gu Chun asked again, "What do you do for a living?"

Fang Hao answered truthfully, "I'm an air traffic controller, managing air traffic. That's why I live near Daxing Airport."

It was a niche profession, and Gu Chun clearly hadn't heard of it before: "So, it's similar to a traffic police officer?"

Fang Hao smiled and said, "More or less."

Comparing air traffic control to traffic police seemed somewhat demeaning. Directing aircraft was three-dimensional, involving not only direction and position but also speed and altitude, along with the size and characteristics of each aircraft. Each air traffic controller's mind was like a rapidly searching engine, with extensive experience making this engine precise and efficient.

However, Fang Hao didn't feel the need to glorify his profession. High pressure and low pay were already the industry norm. The sense of achievement after managing high traffic volume and the relief after averting a crisis were things most people couldn't understand. The joys and sorrows were known only to him.

He didn't think Gu Chun would refuse to see him because of his job, and indeed, a week later, he received a message. He closed his eyes, contemplating whether to go. It would take about an hour to drive from his place to Gu Chun's. This was actually a good yardstick; Fang Hao always told himself that those willing to drive an hour for a date were genuinely interested.

But perhaps sensing his hesitation, Gu Chun quickly followed up with another message: "How about I come to your place this time?"

After a while, another message came: "Let's have dinner together?"

Fang Hao now had no reason to refuse.

Gu Chun was a bit like his ex, Lu Jiawei, both white-collar workers with stable lives and incomes, even their silhouettes were similar. He had been single for two years since breaking up with Lu Jiawei, which ended cleanly because Lu Jiawei had cheated. However, the conversations after the breakup kept haunting him. Lu Jiawei preferred to take risks by cheating and bringing people home even when he had a key, rather than being honest and breaking up with him. This was something Fang Hao had a hard time accepting. Emotionally and logically, he couldn't understand it. Although it was Lu Jiawei who had pursued him at first, and he hadn't fallen in love with him at first sight, over time Fang Hao grew fond of his company and invested a lot in the relationship. Until one day, after working two night shifts, he drove for over an hour to surprise Lu Jiawei at his home, only to find him entangled with a young, handsome guy in the living room.

Lu Jiawei, a lawyer at a major international law firm, was eloquent and didn't seem flustered even when caught. They later found an opportunity to sit down and talk, and Lu Jiawei came prepared, confessing to Fang Hao: "Our life is too monotonous, I've wanted to end it for a long time, but I didn't know how to tell you because every time your mood is very negative, you collapse when things are out of control, I don't know how you would react, so I kept delaying. But I'm increasingly tired of myself and tired of seeing you, I don't know what's going on. That's why I haven't wanted to meet you much these past few months..."

Fang Hao coldly thought that Lu Jiawei was emotionally manipulating him, turning a 200% wrong action into his own fault. He had asked him out to talk, hoping to put a period to the relationship and make it easier for himself to accept, but he didn't expect such a flimsy excuse. At that time, he still had feelings for Lu Jiawei, so he felt distressed and unbearably wronged.

From beginning to end, Fang Hao didn't know what he had done or what he had done wrong that made Lu Jiawei annoyed at the sight of him. But he had always been unable to argue with the other party, so he had to leave in a hurry.

Since then, he had been single for two years. During this time, he didn't deliberately seek romance. He would go to bars and relax with friends, and if he met someone he liked, he would go on a date, like he did with Gu Chun a week ago. Most of the time, he would drink a little, read books, plan long runs in his Daxing apartment, occasionally watch movies remotely with his brother Fang Shengjie, and then silently continue his two-point life between the airport and home. Perhaps he was just a boring person, and Lu Jiawei was always right.