Thank you J for the Ko-fi. Here are your chapters. (1/2)—
There were two classmates in this row who hadn’t left, busy packing their things. As they packed, they couldn’t help but glance over at them.
From the others’ perspective, it was impossible to discern their lip movements, only their general postures—Class Monitor Yu propping himself on the desk with a confrontational stance. Class Monitor Yun looked irritated with a cold expression.
“Are the monitors of Class 1 and Class 2 clashing again?”
“Didn’t they have issues since high school…?”
“But since the start of the school year, they had a basketball game during military training, fought in the alley, and got reprimanded by Teacher Gao, and then they seemed to have calmed down and were getting along fine. So, are they going to fight today?”
Someone mentioned, recalling an important detail: “They’re also roommates. Can you imagine what dorm room 608 is like every day?”
“…”
Yun Ci had no idea what they were discussing.
To be precise, he couldn’t hear any sound at all now.
His mind was filled with the phrase, “Let me chase you.”
…
“You.”
Yun Ci almost couldn’t speak: “You stayed up all night last night.”
He squeezed out each word through gritted teeth, “…And you came up with this after staying up all night?”
Yu Xun shamelessly admitted: “I stayed up all night in Liu Zi’s dorm, and finally decided that instead of becoming complete enemies, I might as well try to see if we can be together. After all, the outcome won’t be worse.”
“……”
What a shameless, desperate idea.
Yun Ci wanted to look away, no longer wanting to make eye contact with him: “What kind of logic is that?”
“Did I say anything wrong?” Yu Xun didn’t let him evade, almost leaning in closer, “Can you still treat me as an enemy like before after last night?”
The answer was obvious to both.
He couldn’t.
The distance between them would only grow, turning them into “stranger” roommates who share a room but have no interactions throughout the year.
When they reach their sophomore year, he would find a way to move out.
There would be no more interaction between them.
Yu Xun continued, “Since you’re not homophobic and you don’t dislike me.”
Yun Ci wished he could go back to the dinner table last night and reorganize his words for Liu Sheng.
He was so frustrated, wanting to escape. Ignoring his true feelings, he contradicted his previous statements and said, “Who said I’m not homophobic?”
Starting today.
He is; he’s extremely homophobic.
He’s the most homophobic person in the world.
Yu Xun took out his phone from his pocket, opened Liu Sheng’s contact, and his finger hovered over the dial button: “Come on, tell him yourself.”
“…Damn.”
Yun Ci’s prepared excuses got stuck in his throat, falling silent.
No longer avoiding, Yu Xun, who had unexpectedly revealed his secret crush, gradually returned to his usual self, even more so than before, and it could be said that he was more abnormal.
Yu Xun put his phone back in his coat pocket, keeping his hand inside, his fingers tense.
He straightened up and continued, “If we try, maybe we can be together. If we don’t, you’ll likely never speak to me again.”
For some reason, the first thing that came to Yun Ci’s mind was a distant memory.
In their first year of high school, he stayed up late preparing for exams, printed out the report cards, and went to Class 7 to issue a challenge.
Time passed, and the high school classroom had now turned into a university classroom.
This time, it was Yu Xun blocking his way.
…
Why did he provoke this person in the first place.
*
Noon. Nanyang University Cafeteria.
Li Yan was waiting for him to eat: “Why are you so late? Didn’t your class end earlier?”
Zhou Wenyu, one of his dining companions, also sat down with his tray: “Yeah, by the way, where are you sleeping tonight? Still in our dorm…is it that serious this time?”
By “serious,” he meant the fight with Yu Xun.
Yun Ci responded with a casual “hmm” and said, “I’ll see later.”
This time, it was very serious. Although it probably wasn’t the kind of “serious” they were thinking of.
In any case, he hadn’t decided whether to sleep in Li Yan’s dorm tonight.
Because Luo Sifang had sent him a bunch of messages.
[Neither of you came back this morning. Aren’t you bringing your books to class?]
[Should I bring your books over?]
[Are you guys coming back to the dorm tonight?]
Luo Sifang’s messages had been coming in all morning.
The last one: [I’m sorry, bro, it’s all my fault for assuming. I thought your relationship might improve a bit…]
“I’m not staying with you guys,” Yun Ci said, taking a bite of his food. Under the bombardment of Luo Sifang’s messages, he made a difficult decision, “I’ll sleep in our dorm.”
Besides, he could avoid it for a night or two, but could he avoid Yu Xun for the whole year by not returning to the dorm?
Deep down, there was a bit of stubborn competitiveness and pride…if he ran away, it would be too cowardly.
Yun Ci finished his meal and returned to the dormitory from the cafeteria.
He stood at the door of dorm room 608 with one hand in his pocket, adjusted his facial expression, and pushed the door open with as much calm and indifference as possible. He tried to maintain a certain demeanor as he walked in. To his surprise, he saw Luo Sifang sitting at the central table, and Yu Xun had arrived earlier and was sitting across from him.
This setup was exactly like when Gao Pingyang summoned them.
Luo Sifang glanced at him and said, just like Gao Pingyang, “You’re here? Sit down.”
“… …”
Yun Ci: “What’s this about?”
Yu Xun responded with an “oh” and looked at him too: “He said he wants to talk to us.”
The word “talk” now made Yun Ci’s scalp tingle: “I wasn’t asking you.”
Yu Xun said indifferently, “Yeah, I couldn’t help wanting to sit closer to you.”
Yun Ci barely maintained his expression and sat as far away from Yu Xun as possible.
Luo Sifang held a piece of paper in his hand. He was afraid he’d forget his lines, so he had drafted a script during the morning, planning to read it out loud to mediate the dormitory dispute: “Ahem, because the relationship between two roommates in our dormitory is not quite…” Not quite good.
Before he finished speaking, he saw one of the roommates with a strained relationship move to sit next to the other, very close.
Luo Sifang: “?”
How was this different from what he had to read from his script?
The legs of Yun Ci’s chair made a scraping sound on the floor.
He moved aside. Yu Xun also moved over.
Yun Ci continued to move, and Yu Xun followed closely.
Yun Ci couldn’t move any further; if he moved any more, he’d be out of dorm room 608. His expression cracked a bit, “Are you sick?”
Yu Xun, instead of getting angry at being scolded, smiled, his brows raising slightly, “If wanting to sit next to you is a sickness, then consider me sick.”
“…”
Yun Ci was speechless.
Luo Sifang eagerly asked, “Why do you insist on sitting next to him?”
Yu Xun answered cheerfully, “Because I’m—”
Yun Ci abruptly stood up, the chair legs scraping loudly. Afraid of hearing Yu Xun say, “I’m chasing him,” he quickly cut in, “Because he’s provoking me.”
Yu Xun: “We’re—”
Yun Ci: “We’re planning where to fight next time.”
“Afraid you’d hear,” Yun Ci said with a straight face, making it sound quite convincing, “And spread it around; we don’t want to be called to the counselor’s office to write a self-criticism.”
Luo Sifang: “…”
After a long pause, Luo Sifang helplessly said, “Oh.”
He thought despairingly that his meddling had indeed made their relationship worse.
Yun Ci, mainly to interrupt Yu Xun, didn’t intend to increase Luo Sifang’s guilt. After sitting down, he added, “Just kidding.”
He supplemented, “There’s nothing between us, no need to talk.”
Luo Sifang was skeptical, “Then why didn’t you both come back last night?”
Yun Ci paused for a moment, and in those few brief seconds, he mentally apologized to Li Yan, “My nephew had a high fever at midnight and called for his uncle.”
Luo Sifang: “…”
“Li Yan, high fever?”
“Yeah.”
Luo Sifang turned to the other person and said, “And you, Yu-ge?”
Yu Xun casually said, “Liu Zi also had a high fever.”
As soon as he finished speaking, there was another scraping sound from the chair legs.
Yun Ci lowered his voice, gritting his teeth, “Can’t you come up with a different excuse?”
Yu Xun replied, “They’re all made up, doesn’t make a difference.”
Luo Sifang didn’t overthink it and accepted the reason, “With the recent temperature drop, it’s easy to get a fever. Didn’t you have a fever recently, Yu-ge? Maybe there’s some kind of flu going around.”
After saying that, Luo Sifang looked at his script, unsure if he should continue. He felt the relationship between these two didn’t seem very hostile, but it wasn’t exactly harmonious either; the atmosphere was strangely indescribable.
Although they were strange before, this strangeness now was subtly different.
However, since both Yun Ci and Yu Xun had returned and explained why they were absent last night, Luo Sifang didn’t say much more.
After that, the dorm returned to its usual quietness, with everyone occupying a corner of the long table, studying, catching up on assignments, playing games, or scrolling through their phones.
In the afternoon, when Yu Xun wasn’t in the dorm, Yun Ci let out a sigh of relief, but it wasn’t long before his relief was short-lived.
Because his phone vibrated.
He opened the message list, seeing a red number next to the black avatar.
Black avatar: [Went to the store, back by evening.]
Yun Ci wanted to ignore it.
He picked up his book, but after a while, put it down again.
yc: [You don’t need to tell me.]
The highly similar black and white avatars appeared side by side in the same chat box.
yx: [Chasing you]
yx: [This is reporting]
Yun Ci: “…”
The legal provisions he had just memorized instantly vanished, leaving only the phrase “reporting” looping in his mind.
A few minutes later, Yu Xun even sent a photo.
Yun Ci opened it, seeing a familiar storefront and East Gate Street. In the corner of the photo, a tuft of curly hair could be seen squatting and opening the store door. This must be Liu Zi.
The feeling was strange.
Not just the feeling of “being pursued,” but the sudden change in their relationship.
In reality, his relationship with the curly-haired Liu Zi was so bad they’d almost draw swords when they met, and Liu Zi always gave him side glances. But now, he appeared in Yu Xun’s private reporting messages.
yc: [No one wants to see this]
Yun Ci’s fingers hovered over the phone screen, the last part of the sentence “send again and I’ll block you” still unfinished when he received an instant reply: [I think so too.]
yx: [This photo shouldn’t be taken this way.]
yx: [The angle is wrong, the composition is off. Since you requested it, I’ll send another one.]
He requested?
Who requested???
He said he didn’t want to see it, not that he wanted a different one.
Yun Ci didn’t know why he impulsively opened the message; he forgot that sometimes he couldn’t win against Yu Xun’s insane logic.
Just before he intended to exit the chat, Yu Xun sent another photo.
yx: [/photo]
This time it was a selfie.
Probably taken with a specific angle in mind, or maybe this person’s face didn’t need any angles for a good photo. The camera was positioned above, capturing half of his face, the scarf just removed, even showing a bit of his collarbone. The eyes in the photo seemed to be looking directly at him through the screen, with the street in the background.
Moments later, the phone vibrated again.
yx: [Is this report okay?]
Poor Yun Ci, Yu Xun is ruining his studies haha!