The weather forecast had been bad for the whole week, today they forecasted a storm. The sky was covered in pitch black clouds and the wind was so strong that one had to fear to be blown away – but this was only what one felt, not what was actually happening. Thunder and lightings could already be heard and seen, only the rain was still missing – not that Ye Xiu cared about such things. To him today was just another night shift in the Internet Café without many costumers or to be more specific without any costumers. Due to the storm warning people left the Internet Café even before the afternoon shift ended. Ye Xiu wondered, why his boss didn't close the Internet Café for today. Who would be so stupid and suicidal to go out on the streets now? Yet Ye Xiu still had to go through with his night shift and he didn't mind too much, since he could play Glory – at last as long as the power was on. A few days ago the Internet Café suffered a blackout, the whole city did, because of a storm. Playing Glory during a blackout was, unfortunately, impossible. So far everything was fine. At the moment he was running a dungeon. The lights around him were all out, because Chen Guo though it would be a waste to have the lights on, when no one was around besides Ye Xiu, who didn't care about it. He wasn't completely without light. First of all there was the faint light from the monitor and secondly he had the dim light of the lamp at the reception desk. In case a costumer would come, Ye Xiu could easily push the light switch on.

Without any kind of hesitation, Ye Xiu lit up a cigarette and leant back in the chair after ending his dungeon run. Nostalgia hit him, when his eyes wondered around and lingered a little bit too long on the Internet Café's entrance. Across the road, a few steps away was his past. His past as professional gamer – his former team. Before that he had played Glory like he did now. It's been quite some time since he had entered the game for the first time. Thinking back it appeared even farther away than it actually was. It felt like something that had happen in another lifetime. Maybe one could even consider it another lifetime. Back than he had been nothing but a little runaway without any goals besides playing games – no ambitions for the future. Now he was a retired pro player that tried to make his way back to the top – his future was set on Glory.
A soft laugh left his mouth, when he thought about his fifteen year old self that didn't care much about Glory, since to him back then it was just another game. And nowadays he was so absorbed in it that he was sure that even after another ten years he wouldn't get sick of it.
Ye Xiu's eyes returned to the monitor in from of him. Lord Grim was simply standing outside of the dungeon – maybe he should move Lord Grim away. Killing other players out of fun and steal whatever they had dropped was nothing unusual. Losing the Myriad Manifestation Umbrella was the last thing Ye Xiu wanted to happen.
He adjusted his sit, grabbed the mouse and placed his fingers on the keyboard. An automatic movement. However, when he grabbed the mouse he heard a soft clink. Something had fallen on the desk. Confused Ye Xiu look to the right. He had forgotten to put away his cigarettes and the lighter. The lighter had been placed on top of the cigarette packet and had fallen of when Ye Xiu's hands had moved the packet, when grabbing the mouse. He should be more careful. With Chen Guo's hate for smoking, who knew what she would do, when something happened to the reception desk because of a lighter – one that existed to light cigarettes?

To his right was also a little plate with a cupcake on it. It was a simple black cupcake, probably one with chocolate. In the middle of it was a single lit candle. Mucheng had brought it, while he had been asleep. She also left a card with birthday wishes. It was a bit strange to celebrate his birthday without her. Ever since he had run away from home, she was always at his side on this day. Not that they did anything special, yet now that she wasn't here it felt as if something was missing. She loved to celebrate his birthday and surprise him with whatever self-made party-cracker she had available. He always suffered a lot, but seeing her smile made him forget about it.
Today they couldn't celebrate together, since both of them had to work. She had a match, while he had to work in the night shift at Happy Internet Café. Due to his work schedule he had to work in the morning and went to bed, when the morning shift had taken over and Chen Guo had woken up. After eight hours of sleep Ye Xiu had woken up again – it was still his birthday. When he then came down the stairs to get on a computer, Chen Guo had stopped him and had dragged him to the resting area, where she had prepared a meal to celebrate his birthday. Nothing big or special, yet Ye Xiu couldn't have asked for more. It was already nice enough of her to do that for him. A simple "Happy birthday" would have been more than enough. He hadn't had a "birthday party" in years. Maybe because he lost more and more friends over the years or maybe because he got too old for birthday parties or maybe because those who cared lived too far away for a party. There were many reasons. In the end, it didn't bother him too much. Ye Xiu had never been a party person to begin with. As nice as Chen Guo was, she had even offered him to take the day of, so he could go home. However, going home was not an option for him. Going home… That reminded him that he wasn't the only one, whose birthday was today.

Originally Ye Xiu had planned not to use QQ today, to avoid the masses of birthday wishes – especially those from Huang Shaotian, who couldn't keep it simple –, but this plan was now forgotten. After logging in, Ye Xiu found what he had feared. Masses on masses of messages. To shorten things, he simply posted a "thank you" in the pro player group chat. Answering everyone individually would be too much of a hassle. At this time none of the pro players was available, so he hadn't had to fear any more messages from them. In a second step, Ye Xiu looked at the message he got from his twin brother Ye Qiu – the first, who had sent him well wishes. Looking at the time stamp, it seemed as if that guy had stayed awake until the clock had hit midnight to be the first to send his greetings. Under the birthday wish, Ye Qiu also asked, whether Ye Xiu would finally come home, like he always did. This was kind of childish, wasn't it? Yet it also was somewhat heartwarming. Ye Qiu was the first to send his well wishes, while Ye Xiu was the last. Also it was always Ye Qiu that asked, whether the other one would come home on this day, while said other one, would always ignore this question. Sometimes they were really complete opposites of each other.
With a side glance to his cupcake, Ye Xiu wondered, whether Ye Qiu had gotten a cake today or a party. How had his brother celebrated his birthday the last few years, especially the years shortly after Ye Xiu had run away from home? It must have been quite lonely, but he must have gotten more presents than usual, right?

Say…
Do you remember our seventh birthday?
Well, I do.
It was a warm day. We were sitting in the garden, eating a watermelon. It was our first time eating one and we didn't know, what to do with its cores. At first we had tried to eat them, but they tasted horrible and then mother said we would grow a melon tree inside our stomach, when we eat them. We must have looked quite shocked. If I remember correctly, you almost started to cry. In retrospect, we were quite stupid, believing such an obvious lie.
In the end, we still ate more of the watermelon. Since we didn't want to eat the cores anymore, to avoid growing a tree inside of us, we pulled them out beforehand. It was such an exhausting thing to do and annoying. The watermelon was full of whole afterwards and we didn't want to eat it anymore. I even complaint about it to mother. She had only laughed about it. I think, she enjoyed our suffering.
Out of spite, I took a big bite from another, not yet "wholed" piece of watermelon and spat out the cores. Mother wasn't happy with my behavior – it wasn't appropriated doing thing like this. But when have I ever cared about what is appropriated and what isn't? Sometimes I really wonder, why this family is even still keeping up with me. Are you sure father hasn't disowned me already? Does he even remember that he had two sons? Maybe they have forgotten about me…

Anyway, after spitting out the cores, the two of us decided to make it into a competition. It was the first and the last time, you've won against me. You should have seen that big smile on your face. You seemed extremely proud of it. Well, it was something to be proud of. Winning against me isn't an easy task.
Little Dot also tried to snatch a few bites, but you were so worried that he might eat the cores that you kept him far, far away until we finished eating.
Afterwards we were running through the garden barefoot – chasing Little Dot, Little Dot chasing us. It was a great day. In the evening we were so tired that we didn't even care much about our gifts and the cake anymore. It was the first and last time, we opened our gifts and ate the cake the next day.
I've gotten a new game – one I had been waiting for years – and you got that movie, you weren't allowed to watch, when it was aired in the cinema. Do you still have that movie? Do you still watch it? A shop close to my work had an advertisement poster hanging in the window. Seems like that movie gets a remake that will be out at the end of this year. This time you can watch it in the cinema – as long as you don't have to work without rest… Don't work too much! You're not that young anymore! Both of us aren't.

Speaking about not being young anymore: Are you still afraid of storms? As far as I remember there was a storm that night on our seventh birthday. It was a really wild and loud one, similar to the one going on right now. You were so afraid of the storm that you, together with Little Dot, came to my room and slipped into my bed. I made fun of you – called you a chicken. That was mean of me. Honestly, I was afraid back then too. But how could I say that to you at that moment? And how could I admit it later, after mocking you?
By the way there is no need to be afraid of storms – there never was. As long as you stay inside nothing will happen to you. Nothing had ever happen to us, right? And for every other storm that may come your way… It will end. Every storm will come to an end – some sooner, some later. I know that you can overcome them.
See… At the moment I am also overcoming a storm. Not alone, but together with a strange bunch of teammates and friends. You're not alone as well.

…

…

I hope, you had a great birthday, despite the bad weather and my absence.

…

Ye Xiu leant back in his chair once more after typing down his thoughts. He didn't send the message. Once again his eyes shifted towards the candle on the cupcake. In an automatic move, Ye Xiu stubbed out his cigarette. When blowing out the birthday candle one had to make a wish, right? Mucheng always reminded him. Unfortunately, many of his wishes, no matter how simple they may have been, hadn't come true. Still, he gave it another try. In a strangely gentle way Ye Xiu blew out the candle. Maybe this wish would come true.
What had he wished for on his seventh birthday? Had this wish come true? And what had Ye Qiu wished for?
He should ask the other one, so he returned to his computer again. A heavy storm was already raging outside. It sounded as if the end of the world was near.
While adding his question to his message, he wondered whether he should delete a few parts. Why should he suddenly admit that he had been scared by the storm so many years ago? Ye Qiu would probably only use that information against him! Ye Xiu would definitely tease his younger twin with it!

With a soft smile Ye Xiu edited his text. Besides the noise of the storm outside, only the clicking of the keyboard could be heard, which sounded unnaturally loud inside the empty Internet Café. However, Ye Xiu didn't pay it any attention. Soon the clock would hit midnight and then his birthday was over. Yesterday had been a normal day. Today was a normal day. Tomorrow would be a normal day as well. Yet today, despite being a normal day, felt different from the day before and tomorrow. He wanted to get this message to his brother before the clock hit midnight or else it was meaningless. Unfortunately, right before he was able to send his message the door of the Internet Café was pushed open. Surprised by the sudden interruption, Ye Xiu pushed the light switch, so he could see, who had entered – and for the potential costumer to see, where they were. Who the hell was so suicidal to get outside during such a storm? Was that person stupid? Not even Steamed Bun would go out with a huge storm going on.
Under normal circumstances Ye Xiu wouldn't bother standing up from his chair, just to greet a costumer. However, given the current circumstances he did exactly that. What he saw surprised him even more than the fact that someone was so insane to wander around outside right now.
In front of the reception desk stood a man, who had the same face as Ye Xiu. It was obvious that they were related – they were twins. The person wandering through the storm and now standing in front of Ye Xiu was Ye Qiu. His clothes were wet and his hair were a mess, but besides that he looked fine. He even smiled.
"It's been a while", he greeted Ye Xiu.
"Yeah."
Silently Ye Qiu placed a small package on the reception desk – it was warp in red paper. A birthday present.
To Ye Xiu's embarrassment, he hadn't had anything prepared for his twin, but to his defense: How should he have known that said twin was coming over today?
As silently as Ye Qiu had placed the small red package on the reception desk, Ye Xiu put the black chocolate cupcake on it and lit the candle.

"Happy birthday."