Time flies, and soon, the semester reaches its end.
When final exams come close, Chen Xingze starts getting busy, because if his lackadaisical attitude persists, he reckons he’s going to fail them. Wu Xingzhi and Chen He are openminded parents and don’t pressure him academically, but that doesn’t mean failing his first high school finals is okay by them.
Thus, Chen Xingze busies himself with studying and goes to the library for revision every time there’s a free period at school.
Tense pre-exam stress descends upon their entire class—with the exception of Lu Hao, who is perpetually relaxed because he doesn’t bear the same academic pressure as the rest of them. Chen Xingze assumed Lu Hao would go off and play ball like he used to, but surprisingly, after he himself stopped going to the ball courts, Lu Hao stopped going as well, choosing to accompany him in the library instead.
“You’re not even here to study, so what are you gonna do here?”
“Not much…”
Lu Hao is seated in the chair next to Chen Xingze with his chin resting on the table like a large dog, aimlessly drawing circles.
“Go play ball, didn’t you say your entire body feels wrong every day that you don’t play?” says Chen Xingze.
“I don’t wanna, it’s boring.”
Chen Xingze turns back to the open book on his table. He’s in the middle of memorising the differences between Na2CO3 and NaHCO3 and it’s making his brain hurt. “Screw chemistry. Who invented such a sadistic subject?”
Lu Hao lifts his head. “You thirsty?”
Chen Xingze doesn’t hear him. “Sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate…” He’s too busy memorising chemical formulas.
With a nod, Lu Hao gets up and leaves.
Five minutes later, he returns with a bag of soda water. Chen Xingze stares at him blankly. “What’s this?”
“Didn’t you want to drink soda?”
“…..”
These situations occur almost daily.
Every time Lu Hao goes to the library, he brings so many snacks and drinks and even freshly sliced fruits, splayed all across the table. You’d think he was on a picnic.
“Don’t bring so much stuff, what if the librarian sees?” No matter how many times Chen Xingze warns him though, it never works. Lu Hao usually listens to him, but when he gets stubborn, he’s like a cow that refuses to turn around.
Eventually, Chen Xingze gives up. This prompts Lu Hao to go one step further—one day, he shows up with a chemistry notebook rather than a bunch of snacks. When Chen Xingze catches sight of the name scrawled across the notebook, he combusts on the spot.
“Where did you go?”
“Why don’t you revise with these notes.”
“I said, where did you go?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“To borrow these notes from You Xiaolin, obviously.”
Chen Xingze’s head splits open. “Who asked you to go to him!” Heads of students sitting around them turn at his sudden shout, Chen Xingze drags Lu Hao out of the revision room and into the middle of the hallway outside.
It’s cold in the hall, the windows frosted over with ice. The kind of place where passionate young people get into fights over the most nonsensical things.
“Who asked you to go to him? How many times do I have to explain it to you for you to understand?”
Lu Hao stares at Chen Xingze calmly, no longer nervous in the face of his wrath. “Why can’t I borrow his notes?” he asks placidly. “Don’t you want to study for chemistry?”
Lu Hao’s logic makes absolutely no sense to Chen Xingze. “So what, if I want to study, other people have to feel obligated to lend me their notes?”
“Aren’t you two friends?”
“We’re not!” Chen Xingze shoves Lu Hao, but then yanks him up close. “He is the one I like.” He stares at Lu Hao intensely, filled with the desire to crack open his dense head and stuff it with this concept. “Do you get what a crush is? I want to help him but I don’t want to be helped by him!”
Lu Hao finally wrestles free from his gaze.
“I like him, but I don’t want to bother him. I just want to watch him from afar! You should know that, so why do you have to cause trouble for me?”
Lu Hao clenches his teeth in frustration, but then turns and looks Chen Xingze right in the eye. He says, almost deliberately, “So what?”
“What?”
Lu Hao shrugs Chen Xingze’s hands off his shoulders. “I already borrowed it, so what’re you gonna do about it? Beat me up?” Lu Hao, being taller than Chen Xingze, has the advantage when it comes to a stare-off. “I’m warning you though, if you decide to beat me up over this, I’m gonna hit you back.”
“What the hell is your problem?” Chen Xingze’s eye twitches.
Lu Hao just returns his glare.
Chen Xingze, boiling with rage, has half a mind to charge at him with a fist, but manages to resist in the end. Instead, he whirls around and stalks off towards the study room.
“Where are you going?” Lu Hao asks.
“To return the notes.”
He only makes it a few steps when he hears Lu Hao call out angrily, “There’s no need!”
Chen Xingze ignores him.
“I didn’t borrow it, he gave it to me himself!”
He turns around.
Lu Hao isn’t done: “I ran into him outside and he asked me why you weren’t there. I said you were studying chemistry in the library so he told me to give you his notes!”
Startled, Chen Xingze blinks.
This pisses Lu Hao off even more. “Happy now?” he says scathingly. “Are flowers blooming in your heart ‘cause you know he’s thinking of you now?”
“Yes,” Chen Xingze says honestly, nodding.
“Fuck you!” Lu Hao says.
Lu Hao, still seething, stops coming to the library. Chen Xingze goes looking for him once, but doesn’t succeed.
In truth, Chen Xingze feels somewhat perturbed. He has no idea why Lu Hao always starts things with him when it comes to You Xiaolin. However, before he can make things right with him, final exams begin. You Xiaolin’s notes are like a godsend; for the first time, Chen Xingze manages to nab high scores in chemistry, although he just barely scrapes by in all his other classes.
But that’s no matter. His standards are low, as long as he passes, it’s all good.
On the last day of exams, Chen Xingze comes to school with a bag. After the last exam, when everyone in class starts talking about their plans for the holidays, he goes to Lu Hao with the bag in hand.
Lu Hao is chatting with a group of boys, his chair tilted at an angle, two legs sticking straight out.
Walking up behind him, Chen Xingze asks, “What’re you all discussing?”
Lu Hao, who was in the middle of talking, falls silent immediately and presses his lips together in one tight line.
Student One asks, “Chen Xingze, what’re you doing over the holidays?”
“I’m going to a winter music camp.”
Student Two: “What’s that?”
“It’s a programme where a bunch of music students get together and hang out.”
“Sounds fun,” says Student One.
“Fun my ass. My mum forced me to go, I wanted to play ball.”
Lu Hao still hasn’t said anything from his stool, so finally, Chen Xingze stares down at him. “What are you doing?”
Lu Hao ignores him and doesn’t respond, his arms folded behind his head stubbornly.
Student One, sensing the tension in the atmosphere, remarks, “Did you guys fight?”
“Yeah,” says Chen Xingze. “But as you see, I’m here to admit my wrongdoing.”
There’s a silent hmph from Lu Hao.
“Yikes,” Student Two says, “looks like that’s not working. You came for nothing.”
Chen Xingze stares down at Lu Hao’s tense face in amusement. “Is he right? Did I come for nothing?”
For the first time in their relationship, it’s Chen Xingze doing the groveling, so Lu Hao sets himself high up and doesn’t respond.
Chen Xingze places the bag in front of Lu Hao. “It’s an apology gift, take a look and see if you like it.”
Student One opens the bag for Lu Hao; in it is a pair of limited edition basketball shoes. “Holy shit!” the student exclaims. His shout draws the attention of all the other boys in the vicinity, until even Lu Hao’s eyes drift unconsciously towards the shoes.
“Still so composed?” Chen Xingze asks. The second he speaks, Lu Hao jerks his head away from the shoes again.
Student One: “He’s still ignoring you? What the hell did you even do to him?”
How the heck should I know…
Chen Xingze switches gears. “Oi,” he says, “if you still plan on ignoring me, I’m gonna have to come up with something else to break this stalemate. You’d better not regret it later.”
Lu Hao’s mouth stays as shut as a chaste martyr.
Chen Xingze smirks and nods. “Alright then.” And then he suddenly grabs the back of Lu Hao’s seat and pushes down.
The suddenly loss of balance forces Lu Hao’s body backwards; at the same time, Chen Xingze bends at the waist. Their heads, one tilted upwards and the other facing downwards, fall together and their lips crash into each other.
One second…
Two seconds.
Two seconds of silence, and then the surrounding bystanders burst into hooting and hollering.
“Serves you right!”
“Hahaha! Karma got you, Lu Hao!”
Despite the cacophony around him, Lu Hao shows no reaction.
“Oh no, he’s been kissed stupid. Chen Xingze, you’ve really done it now!”
Chen Xingze stands in front of Lu Hao and gives him a slight scratch over the jaw with an index finger. The action seems to awaken Lu Hao, who raises his head and fixes his eyeballs on the other boy.
Amidst the laughter and whooping of the their classmates, Chen Xingze bends down again and says in Lu Hao’s ear, “…A dense, straight boy like you dares give me this act?” His voice, filled with seduction and the distinct hoarseness of youth, paints Lu Hao’s stubborn Statue of David face into a brilliant red.
The sight is immensely satisfying for Chen Xingze.
After two seconds, Lu Hao’s eyes turn as red as his face.
Just as Chen Xingze is considering sparing Lu Hao and giving him an out, Lu Hao leaps up from his chair and charges out of the classroom—except after two steps he whips around and grabs the basketball shoes meant for him from Student One’s hands, and then he makes off again.
Student One cackles. “Not stupid yet!”
Chen Xingze leans against the desk behind him and laughs as well. Soon, he falls into conversation with someone nearby.
He writes the incident off as a simple prank, a joke between friends. It’s not something he takes seriously or to heart. The experience with You Xiaolin cemented in his consciousness a simple fact: that a straight man would never fall for a gay one.
But he’s still young and understands too little of the world. He doesn’t know that the world is filled with people who are so very different. People with different experiences, different upbringings. People who see love and obsession and emotions differently. So many people, so different.
sigh…
thanks for the chapter <3
Oh no…
oh dear… (/ω＼)
It was their firs Kiss… How could Lu Hao take it as a joke? Impossible. Chen Xingze can be really rude sometimes.
Thanks for the chapter!