The training schedule was tight, with many programs in the cultural performance, leaving little time for each to rehearse.
Yun Ci rarely got to step away from his studies, finally having something in his mind other than studying and his relationship.
Li Yan and Liu Zi were like clockwork, showing up in the hallway for every dance class.
Whenever Liu Zi showed a mocking expression, Li Yan would shout into the dance studio: “Uncle! Your stiff limbs are the most attention-grabbing in the room, way more than that flashy guy next to you.”
“This is the calmness of a master, you need to be confident—!”
Liu Zi was immediately unhappy: “Who are you calling flashy? These graceful dance moves, do you even understand?”
“….”
During a break, Yun Ci went to find Li Yan: “Can you stop shouting?”
Li Yan: “I’m helping you.”
Yun Ci: “It’s a bit embarrassing.”
Li Yan then asked: “What about that introverted guy?”
Yun Ci didn’t react immediately: “What introverted guy?”
Li Yan revealed his ulterior motive for being there every day: “Your boyfriend. You’ve been busy with rehearsals lately, why hasn’t he come to see you?”
“…” Yun Ci thought to himself, you just called him flashy, “He’s also rehearsing for a program.”
Li Yan: “Oh? He’s performing too?”
Yun Ci leaned against the classroom’s rear window: “Yeah, dancing.”
After all, there were several dance programs, not just theirs.
Li Yan didn’t notice anything, casually remarked: “I didn’t expect someone so introverted to dance.”
Yun Ci hinted: “He’s… quite good at it.”
Li Yan: “Really good?”
Yun Ci: “Sort of, he’s graceful.”
“….”
Graceful.
Li Yan couldn’t help but think of the praise Liu Zi had given Yu Xun earlier.
The next second, he shook this terrible thought out of his mind.
Yu Xun graceful? His adorable, introverted uncle-in-law was the real graceful one.
After dance class, Yun Ci and Li Yan went to the cafeteria to eat.
During their meal, Yun Ci’s phone kept buzzing.
Black Avatar: [Why does Li Yan come every day?]
Black Avatar: [Doesn’t he know?]
Black Avatar: [Someone with a boyfriend should eat with their boyfriend.]
Black Avatar: [No self-awareness?]
While eating, Yun Ci split his attention to reply to Yu Xun’s messages.
Because he was so familiar with him, he could imagine Yu Xun’s expression and tone just by looking at these lines.
yc: [Tell Liu Zi not to come tomorrow.]
yc: [Without Liu Zi, Li Yan probably won’t stay long.]
If not for arguing,
Who could stand being outside the dance studio for so long?
Yu Xun replied instantly: [Okay.]
[I’ll have him work overtime at the shop.]
The next day, the hallway was quiet, but an unexpected event occurred.
Before class, the senior rushed over: “We’re short two people for our program. Two students got sick and dropped out. What do we do? Without two people, we can’t form the formation, we can’t go on stage.”
“This program is your responsibility,” someone said, “what can you do?”
Someone else suggested: “Ask the dance department?”
Senior: “The entire dance department has programs, no one available.”
The senior anxiously scanned the group: “Do you know any dance talents hidden in other departments, or anyone familiar with our dance?”
Someone raised a hand: “Actually, there are two.”
“?”
“Those two who watch our rehearsals from the hallway every day, are they familiar enough?”
Ten minutes later.
Liu Zi and Li Yan were called into the dance studio, both looking around in confusion: “Us? On stage?”
Liu Zi tried to calm the senior: “Look, just because we watch doesn’t mean we can dance.”
Li Yan wanted to agree but stubbornly kept quiet since Liu Zi spoke.
The senior calmly said: “Doesn’t matter, our program is already doomed anyway.”
Liu Zi: “…”
Li Yan: “…”
Thus, the two leaders of the support group joined the dance team.
The program started to get ridiculous.
Yun Ci and Yu Xun sat in a corner, seemingly not close, but actually constantly making small gestures.
Yun Ci casually said: “This program is really doomed.”
Yu Xun reached out and brushed aside a stray hair from Yun Ci’s cheek: “Li Yan is that bad at dancing?”
Yun Ci recalled Li Yan’s dancing: “Last place in the health exercise.”
Yu Xun also remembered Liu Zi’s dancing: “Second to last in the health exercise.”
Then he added, “But that’s not the point.”
That’s not the point?
Yu Xun hinted: “…Food.”
“Can’t eat together.”
The more he thought about it, the more it annoyed him. He even considered scrapping his plan and publicly announcing their relationship right there.
Yun Ci noticed that Yu Xun was usually laid-back and unbothered about most things, but got easily irritated over matters like this.
So he said: “We don’t necessarily have to eat in the cafeteria.”
“?”
“If you want to eat together,” Yun Ci continued, “let’s go back to the dorm at noon.”
So just after Li Yan digested the news of participating in the program, he was abandoned by Yun Ci: “Wait, you’re not eating in the cafeteria? Packing food to go is such a hassle.”
Yun Ci: “Got something to do.”
Li Yan: “?”
Yun Ci casually replied, “Talking to my partner, it’s inconvenient in the cafeteria.”
At noon, the dormitory was empty; everyone was in the cafeteria. This half-hour became Yun Ci and Yu Xun’s private time.
It was called a date, but it was no different from their usual routine.
They would exchange dishes from each other’s lunch boxes, chat a bit, and then each watch videos on their phones.
Yun Ci was very driven during this time.
He had turned himself from a very stiff piece of wood into a slightly stiff piece of wood.
Even when eating and watching videos, he watched recordings from the dance studio, wanting to see what moves he hadn’t done well.
When the video ended for the first time, the screen froze.
Yun Ci was tearing open a vinegar packet and had no hands free, so Yu Xun naturally helped him adjust the progress bar, but didn’t get it right.
Instead of replaying, the video switched to another one in the history: “Thirty Days to Six-Pack Abs.”
Yun Ci’s hand, pouring the vinegar, stiffened: “…”
Yu Xun directly asked, “Why are you watching this?”
“I didn’t,” Yun Ci pretended to be calm, “Who would watch this kind of thing?”
Yu Xun “oh”ed.
He exited the video and checked the “play count”: “Played over a dozen times, and you tell me you didn’t watch it?”
“…”
Yu Xun continued, “Practicing secretly behind my back, huh.”
In the past, practicing secretly behind his back wouldn’t have been a big deal; Yu Xun wouldn’t have had a chance to see his phone.
But now the distance between them was so intimate that anything they did would be discovered.
Yun Ci cursed in his heart and pursed his lips, “It’s normal for men to work on their abs.”
“Normal,” Yu Xun put down his chopsticks, stopped eating, and his gaze lowered, “So, how’s our Xiao Ci doing after ten days of practice? Let me see?”
As he spoke, his hand also reached down.
“…”
In the end, this meal took a different turn halfway through.
–
They had one last rehearsal before the art performance.
The auditorium was much larger than it was in high school, and once the lights went down, the audience’s phone lights formed a sea of stars.
The female host, dressed in a gown and holding a microphone, announced, “The first performance is a classical music piece by the music department—”
Yun Ci and his group were third and went backstage to wait.
Liu Zi wore his white shirt with a roguish air, crossing his legs and saying, “I can’t appreciate classical music, but these college art performances are way grander than in high school.”
Yun Ci spent his waiting time with his head down, replying to messages.
Yan Yue occasionally sent him messages about professional industry trends or various employment guides and asked if he had participated in any events recently.
He casually replied.
yc: [Dance performance.]
Yan Yue was probably free today, quickly sending back a long string of messages.
Yun Ci glanced through it, catching one line: [I’ve said all I needed to, about that game competition last time…]
He read as he replied, then another message notification sounded.
This time it was from Yu Xun.
yx: [Nervous?]
You could hear the sounds from the stage outside in the waiting room; the program was already on the second act: “Please welcome the second performance by the drama department— ‘Romeo and Juliet.'”
Yun Ci glanced up.
Yu Xun was sitting next to Liu Zi, leaning back in his chair, his white shirt unbuttoned at the top, revealing half a collarbone. He looked down, still casual and indifferent.
He wasn’t really nervous, but he still replied with two words.
yc: [A bit]
Yu Xun responded instantly.
yx: [Go to the fitting room]
yc: [To change clothes?]
yx: [To kiss.]
[…]
Yun Ci wasn’t nervous to begin with, but seeing these two words, the corners of his lips slightly curved up.
They were up next.
One can’t expect to perform exceptionally well on stage. Their group danced as poorly as they did in rehearsals.
A chaotic group dance, everyone dancing their own way.
Especially Li Yan and Liu Zi, who couldn’t figure out their positions and had sloppy moves.
Compared to the stage, the audience was more interesting.
Yun Ci had just barely finished the first part when suddenly a giant light lit up in a row of seats, followed by a large sign lighting up: “Ci-ge is awesome! Yan-ge is not bad either!”
Immediately, another row of seats raised a huge sign: “Born stage kings, Yu Xun & Liu Zhi.”
The signs kept getting raised higher, neither side willing to concede.
“…”
The senior in charge, sitting in the front row, quietly covered his face with the program sheet.
Yun Ci, though still a bit stiff, had practiced enough to make no mistakes until the final move.
He and Yu Xun stood at the front, with many girls in the audience shouting.
Hearing the reaction, the senior slowly lowered the program sheet from his face.
…
At the curtain call, all the lights went out.
Yu Xun, at some point, deliberately switched positions to stand beside him, and in front of thousands of people in the dark, took his hand.
Yun Ci’s mind was full of “I hope I didn’t mess up.”
But when Yu Xun took his hand, his mind suddenly went blank for a moment.
Unexpectedly, in front of so many people.
When their fingers interlocked, it seemed they could hear each other’s heartbeat.
Though it lasted only a few seconds.
After the performance, they had to go down the side stairs and run back to the waiting room.
A total of a dozen people, noisily rushed through the dark corridor. Li Yan wanted to turn back to find Yun Ci but couldn’t in the pushing crowd.
Yun Ci and Yu Xun, hand in hand, like eloping, ran through the corridor and slipped into an empty fire escape near the stage.
“No one’s here,” Yu Xun stopped.
Both of them were a bit out of breath from running.
Yun Ci, hands on his knees, broke out in a cold sweat, not expecting Yu Xun to suddenly change course.
Yu Xun released his hand: “Want to kiss?”
He added, “On stage just now, I wanted to kiss you.”
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Li Yan and Liu Zi were planning to have a fight.
As Li Yan walked through the corridor, someone pushed him. He turned around and saw it was that curly-haired guy with a ponytail: “Can’t you walk properly?” He started settling the score, “You bumped into me on stage too.”
Liu Zi wanted to say, “Who the hell deliberately bumped into you? I just forgot the moves,” but that sounded stupid, so he said, “I did bump into you on purpose. What are you going to do about it?”
Li Yan: “What am I going to do? I’ve disliked you for a long time.”
Liu Zi: “Fine, let’s find a secluded spot. Today, I’ll show you what the West High Boxing King is all about.”
They cursed each other as they slipped away from the main group.
Li Yan glanced around and noticed a hidden fire escape. They moved in that direction: “Who’s afraid of who? My fists aren’t for show either.”
They had just pushed open the fire escape door and saw two familiar figures in a corner—both wearing white shirts, tall with long legs, and coincidentally similar dark jeans.
These two were.
Standing very close.
“No wonder it’s them,” Li Yan cracked his knuckles. His brief surprise quickly turned into understanding, “I didn’t expect them to be here fighting too.”
Liu Zi nodded: “Since they’ve already started the fight, let’s make it a two-on-two…”
However, before Liu Zi could finish his sentence.
In the next second.
The two figures standing close moved—the one with slightly longer hair, a delicate face, and slightly taller, pressed the other boy against the wall.
The posture didn’t look like a fight. Although forceful, it was very intimate.
Then, Yu Xun lowered his head and kissed skillfully.
Li Yan, who was warming up for the fight: “…”
Liu Zi, who had just rolled up his sleeves: “…………”
Hahhahahahhaaha a bombshell to these two!