Lu Hao goes to shower. It’s warm in the room; he comes out half-naked. Chen Xingze, busy tidying things up, turns around to this magnificent figure and jumps in shock.
“Say… you mind watching yourself?”
“Watch what?” says Lu Hao innocently. Chen Xingze stares at him. Finally, he relents and laughs. “Do you get turned on at the sight of me? Didn’t you say you were into delicate types?”
Which is certainly true, but there’s no difference between a piece of bread and a bun to a starving man.
Chen Xingze’s crush on You Xiaolin had always been innocent; he’s never been this up close to a naked boy’s body before. It’s larger than he expected, but Lu Hao’s figure is still a wonderful specimen. Two tiny, cute tan nipples dot his chest, soft and gentle-looking. He has the sudden urge to yank off the towel Lu Hao has wrapped around his waist, to unveil the lower half for himself.
Before his imagination can continue though, he cuts his own thoughts short.
No, absolutely not. Because Lu Hao is straight. This is a dead end.
“Hurry up and put on some damn clothes!” he screeches.
Lu Hao digs through his bag, retrieves and puts on a tee with three-quarter sleeves and a pair of loose gym shorts. Then he hops onto the bed. “What should we do?” He’s too exhilarated to calm down.
Chen Xingze shoots a look at the clock; it’s nearly midnight. “Aren’t you tired?”
“Nope.” It’s like Lu Hao is wagging an invisible tail.
Chen Xingze goes next door to borrow a deck of cards, they play Catch the Tortoise. However, Lu Hao, being a person whose brain is disproportionate to the size of his limbs, is more suited for athletic activities. After losing five or six rounds in a row, he gets angry and refuses to play anymore.
“Why do I always lose?!” He collapses backwards onto the bed in a huff.
Chen Xingze cleans up the cards and says, “Let’s sleep. I still have class tomorrow.”
“I suppose.”
Lu Hao burrows himself under the duvet, Chen Xingze goes to shut off the lights. Eyes unaccustomed to the sudden darkness, he crashes into Lu Hao’s travel bag on the way back to bed and cries out in pain.
“Did you pack a freaking rock?!”
“It’s a water bottle, geez. You just weren’t careful enough.” Lu Hao sits up in bed. A second later, he has Chen Xingze’s hand in his. “The bed’s over here, man.”
The two of them lie in bed parallel to each other. It suddenly occurs to Chen Xingze that he forgot to inform the hotel to provide an extra duvet. With the two of them sharing a single duvet as they are, his stomach churns with so much anxiety that he almost feels like vomiting.
The darkness enveloping them seems to magnify all his senses. Lu Hao’s breathing—one breath, two breaths—enter his ear canal with so much clarity. He’s too terrified to move; down below, there’s already a tent pitched at his crotch. He expends all his mental energy towards calming himself down, but to no avail.
“Are you asleep?” Lu Hao suddenly asks, making him twitch, nearly losing control altogether.
“…No.” His voice comes out falteringly.
“Me neither, I can’t sleep at all.”
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.
He feels Lu Hao twist his body, coming towards him. No, no, no, no, no… don’t come too close!
But Lu Hao scoots over anyways. “Hey, tell me, what’s it like liking someone of the same sex?”
Chen Xingze has half a mind to tell him to feel his nether regions and go, That’s what it’s like. “It’s like when you like a girl.”
“Oh.”
Meanwhile, Chen Xingze is praying ceaselessly in his head to the Buddha, Amituofo, please keep great scourges and savage beasts from me.
“But why do I feel like I don’t like girls as much as I like you?”
“…You’re just mistaken.”
“I know my own feelings though.”
“Anyway, it just doesn’t work like that.”
After a moment of silence, Lu Hao asks, “Are there people who used to like girls, but then are into boys?”
Chen Xingze decides that Lu Hao is a terrifying creature—everything that comes out of the boy’s mouth tests the limits of his control. “How do you mean?”
“Nothing, I was just asking.”
“I don’t think so.”
“But how do you know? There are so many people in the world, I think they are such people.”
“There aren’t.”
“There are.”
“Nope.”
“Just because You Xiaolin isn’t like that doesn’t mean that no one is.”
The name instantly disperses half the heat accumulated in Chen Xingze’s body. He turns in Lu Hao’s direction. The room is dark, but somehow, he knows they’re looking right at each other.
“I’m not allowed to bring him up, right?” Lu Hao says, staring at him. “Don’t freak out at me today, I’m in a good mood right now.”
It’s not as if Chen Xingze was going to get mad to begin with, and now he can’t help the snort that escapes him. “Who’s freaking out?”
“Who the hell knows, you always freak out when his name is mentioned.” Lu Hao shrinks away in the opposite direction, but Chen Xingze grabs him by the shoulder and pulls him back, prompting him to ask, “What?”
“Nothing. What, are you a chaste girl that can’t be touched or something?”
Beneath the blankets, Lu Hao kicks him. “You’re the girl.”
Laughing, Chen Xingze lets go of him. A second later, Lu Hao is the one grabbing hold of his wrist. This time, he’s the one who asks, “What?”
“Nothing much,” says Lu Hao, “are you trying to be a chaste girl or something?” When he notices that Chen Xingze doesn’t shy away from him, he decides to go all in and wraps his arms around him.
“…Oi.”
“I’m not doing anything, just hugging you.” Chen Xingze can detect the nervousness in Lu Hao’s voice. In fact, he can even feel his shoulders shaking. The other boy adds, “I wanted to come a few days earlier, but I had to visit relatives for New Year’s and got busy. I wanted to come alone, but my mum wasn’t having it.”
“What’d you come here for? I have class in the mornings, if you’re here, I have to waste time taking care of you too.”
“I don’t need you to take care of me.”
“Alright then, don’t come bothering me tomorrow.”
“Christ, Chen Xingze, you’re savage!” Lu Hao shoves him aside roughly, but Chen Xingze just pulls him over forcefully, and this time it’s Chen Xingze who has his arms wrapped around Lu Hao in an embrace.
Even though Lu Hao is taller than him, in this moment, his heart, his feelings, his gratitude all expand the enormity of his embrace into something bigger. In his arms, Lu Hao squirms and fidgets. After a beat, Chen Xingze asks him, “Do you find this awkward?”
Immediately, Lu Hao stops moving. “…No, not at all. It’s fine, it’s all good.”
It’s Chen Xingze’s first time hugging a boy. Lu Hao’s freshly-cleansed body emits a distinctly refreshing scent. The latter falls asleep like that; Chen Xingze doesn’t move his numb, aching arm from beneath him until he’s sure that Lu Hao’s breathing has evened out.
Past two a.m. and he still can’t sleep. He’s going to end up nodding off in the middle of class tomorrow, but it doesn’t matter, because to him, the most valuable day of this winter camp has already concluded.
Right then, he suddenly remembers something and grabs his phone, typing out a quick message.
In a motel several thousand kilometres away, Mi Sheng is wide awake as well, freezing and, in his own opinion, falling ill from the cold, if the pain coming from the depths of his esophagus is any indication.
Chen Xingze’s text comes in.
— I’m sorry, something came up out of the blue so I forgot to thank you. I hope you and your boyfriend can keep on being so happy.
The corner of Mi Sheng’s mouth quirks up into a wry smile. “Ha… little ghost.” His head is splitting open, feeling heavy and sluggish. From the dingy window of his room, he catches a glimpse of the elusive night sky, usually obscured from sight in the city. Stars litter the vast, serene chasm, full of mystery and beauty, and so far away.
__
Lu Hao stays with Chen Xingze until the conclusion of the winter camp, and he even manages to sneak into their final performance. Due to the formal nature of the event, everyone is dressed in business attire. Chen Xingze is wearing a suit his mother had specially ordered for the occasion; he’d thought it too excessive at first, but now he’s infinitely grateful for his mother’s intelligent decision. Especially since Lu Hao’s there.
As expected, Lu Hao is shell-shocked by this look of his. “Whoa! You look handsome.”
Faking nonchalance, Chen Xingze replies, “Really?”
“Really! I’ve never even worn a suit before, all my clothes are athletic.”
“…It’s not really that comfortable anyway, it’s super tight.” Chen Xingze tugs at his collar.
The performing order is decided. For some reason, their group performs brilliantly and receives plenty of applause—probably because all three of them are floating in amorous pink bubbles of love.
Many parents show up for the recital with the exception of Chen Xingze’s mother, who has a New Year’s performance of her own to attend. But Lu Hao’s mother Zhao Shan is there, along with the item Lu Hao tasked her with bringing.
“Hurry, hurry! Where’s the thing?” Lu Hao charges over to his mother’s car and taps the glass window before she even gets the chance to park properly. “How come you’re so late? It’s almost over!”
Zhao Shan ignores him and takes her time reaching towards the back seat. She returns with a bouquet of flowers, which she opens the door and hands to her son. “Look at how frantic you are. How could I dare be late?”
Lu Hao runs back to the concert area with the bouquet just in time for the closing notes of the performance. Afterwards, all the music camp students are called onstage to take a photo with the teachers.
Chen Xingze immediately catches sight of the bouquet Lu Hao’s long arm extends over the crowd of people.
“Those flowers are so pretty, your friend is so nice,” Folk Girl observes enviously from beside him. In this short span of time, Lu Hao had made himself a familiar figure amongst the entire music camp cohort. Chen Xingze can’t help the slight pride that blooms in his chest at Folk Girl’s words.
After the pictures are taken, he goes off looking for Lu Hao, who hands him the flowers.
“Congrats!” Lu Hao exclaims. “Your piano is so nice.”
“I bet you fell asleep and didn’t actually listen.”
“… In the beginning I was a little tired, but it was fine after you showed up.”
Chen Xingze lopes an arm around Lu Hao’s neck with the bouquet in his other arm. “Look at you, acting like a flatterer at such a young age. Are you just saying whatever pleases others?”
They descend into a ball of jokes and laughter until Lu Hao catches sight of something from the corner of his eye. “Mum! Over here!” he shouts with an arm raised high.
Taken by surprise, Chen Xingze quickly lets go of Lu Hao. A well-dressed woman approaches them with a smile on her face. Lu Hao’s mother looks average, but has a strong aura about her. Lu Hao had once told him that she was the powerful hand behind his family’s rise. Each step that brings her closer to them makes sweat bead along his skin, as if she’s going to pull out a Green Dragon Crescent Blade from her clothes and stab him right then and there.
Of course, this crazy assumption doesn’t come to pass.
Instead, Lu Hao’s mum smiles and says, “It’s quite lively here.”
“You’re late,” Lu Hao grumbles. “You missed the whole concert!”
“I was busy, you know. I came in the middle of a meeting to bring you the flowers, what more do you want?” Sweat pools at the centre of Chen Xingze’s palms when she turns to him and adds, “You have no idea, he kept pushing me to come here faster. I practically had to fly over. A phone call every five minutes reminding me to check if the flowers got squashed, don’t you think he’s an idiot?” Zhao Shan is just snarking at her son as per usual, but thanks to the ghosts in Chen Xingze’s closet, everything that comes out of her mouth sounds antagonistic.
“Ah… I-I’m sure he didn’t.”
“I can’t believe you’re defending him.”
Meanwhile, Lu Hao’s face turns red as a tomato. “Why are you blabbing so much nonsense?” he hollers.
“Nonsense, my ass.” Zhao Shan doesn’t stop teasing her son until the veins look like they’re about to burst on his face, and then she goes to retrieve her car. “Chen Xingze, why don’t you leave with us?”
“Huh? That’s okay, I’ll just take the bus.”
“Forget the bus, you’ll have to wait so long.” Lu Hao shoves him into the car.
On the journey back home, Zhao Shan persists with her teasing at Lu Hao’s expense, probably in an effort to draw Chen Xingze out of his silence. The atmosphere is lightened by tales of Lu Hao’s embarrassing childhood escapades, and eventually, Chen Xingze starts relaxing, realising that he’s overthinking everything.
I hope Chen Xingze gets together with Lu Hao!
I like Zhao Shan!
thanks for the chapter! <3
Awww. These pure boys.
Lu Hao’s mom is so nice!
Thanks for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter! ❤