City First High School Campus Forum—
[Is next week Disaster Prevention and Earthquake Safety Week? I just passed by the school entrance and saw people from the student council painting a poster.]
1L: ? RT, it looks pretty good. [Photo]
2L: Look who I found—the two people at the center of the storm.
3L: I’m hyping up Luo Zhiyu from Class 3, Grade 10! Pretty, kind, good grades, and he can draw this well too.
4L: Do you guys have to blindly hype him up like this? Luo Zhiyu causes plenty of trouble. Just ask Xiao Yan and you’ll know.
5L: Does anyone else feel like their relationship has gotten a little better lately?
6L: They’ve already gone for the premarital physical, so what else can they do? Guess they’ll just make do and live together? [Dog-head.jpg]
7L: I already told you, it was just a routine examination! Believe in science, guys. There’s nothing going on between them.
At the blackboard by the school entrance, the two people watched Tang Yuan wail all the way into the distance.
“Pretty fast,” Luo Zhiyu said enviously. “Isn’t there a fall sports meet in November? Have all the guys in your dorm go all-out in the events. I’ll arrange a few big orange cats for them.”
Xiao Yan: “……”
“What are we having for lunch?” After enjoying the spectacle, Luo Zhiyu belatedly realized that both his and Xiao Yan’s lunches were still in Tang Yuan’s hands. “I think I’m getting a little hungry.”
“Want to go get something ourselves?” Xiao Yan asked, seeking his opinion.
“How about we just starve for now?” Luo Zhiyu suggested. “We’re almost done anyway. Let’s go after we finish the painting.”
“Let’s paint.”
Xiao Yan picked up the eraser and wiped Tang Yuan’s name out of the signature section, leaving only his and Luo Zhiyu’s.
Luo Zhiyu climbed halfway up the ladder and added a little more chalkwork while Xiao Yan held the ladder steady. The two hardworking student council members continued their labor.
“I just remembered.” Luo Zhiyu switched to a different color of chalk. “That ‘Green-Haired Turtle’ in your game friends list—isn’t he the PE rep in your class? That alpha?”
After all, the guy had cursed at him while they were gaming. At the very least, he ought to know who he had been cursing at.
“You know him?” Xiao Yan looked up from his phone while ordering takeout.
“Last week I went to the office and had to explain why I was drawing in class, and then I had to stand there as punishment.” Luo Zhiyu recalled the scene. “There was someone getting chewed out. I think it was him.”
“Maybe it was because he’d just finished PE, but when he walked past me, I thought his pheromones smelled really bad.” After saying that, Luo Zhiyu added, “I’m just discussing this objectively. I’m not saying anything against his pheromone scent.”
“Don’t talk nonsense. His scent is blue-cheese flavored, and that stuff is expensive.” Xiao Yan changed the recipient on his phone. “And it’s pretty rare.”
Luo Zhiyu chose to shut up. “…Fine. Pretend I never said anything.”
Compared to that, Xiao Yan’s orange-scented pheromones were really refreshing.
“Um… sorry to bother you.” A second-year student in a blue-and-white uniform stood in front of them. “I’m looking for Luo Zhiyu.”
“That’s me.” Luo Zhiyu raised a hand from where he sat on the tall ladder. “What’s up?”
His uniform jacket was unzipped, red chalk dust had gotten smeared across his cheek, and his hair was slightly tousled by the wind. Sitting on the ladder, he looked down at the person below him. He seemed to be having a pretty enjoyable conversation, with his left leg bent while his right leg, resting on the ladder, swung lightly back and forth.
“C-can you come over here with me for a moment?” The alpha looked up at him, then lowered his head again.
Luo Zhiyu: “?”
“You can just say it here. Is there something you can’t say in front of him?” He meant Xiao Yan. “We’re working, so it’s not very convenient for me to come down.”
“This…”
The second-year alpha hesitated for quite a while. In the end, he swallowed what he had originally wanted to say and raised the paper bag in his hand.
“Have you eaten lunch? The cake from this shop is really good. Do you want some?”
Xiao Yan frowned but said nothing.
“Thanks,” he heard Luo Zhiyu say.
“But I’m afraid you’ll have to excuse me. I don’t like sweets, and my family is pretty strict. They don’t let me casually eat things other people give me.” Luo Zhiyu gave a slight nod, rejecting him quite politely.
The second-year alpha looked a little disappointed.
“You can give it to me.” Xiao Yan leaned against the blackboard and drawled, “I like sweets, and my family isn’t strict.”
The alpha student, who was in the same grade as Xiao Yan, shot him a glare and muttered, “What a scumbag,” before walking away.
Xiao Yan: “？？？”
Luo Zhiyu couldn’t hold it in. The moment the boy had walked a little farther away, he burst out laughing.
“Don’t laugh,” Xiao Yan said. “Until I clear my name and get rid of this scumbag reputation, I’m not letting you off the hook.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask.” Luo Zhiyu held onto the ladder and lightly kicked Xiao Yan’s shoulder with his toe. “Classmate, this whole reputation-destroyed thing doesn’t seem to have anything to do with me, does it?”
“I even acted as your reputation-cleaning tool. Are you a coal briquette? The more you wash it, the blacker it gets?”
“It’s a long story.” Xiao Yan leaned against the blackboard and sighed. “Anyway, it’s all your fault.”
“You’re really dumping this on me without any logic, Xiao Yan…” Luo Zhiyu suddenly called Xiao Yan’s name nervously. “Don’t move.”
Xiao Yan: “?”
Luo Zhiyu jumped down from the ladder and carefully pulled Xiao Yan away from the blackboard. One of the chalk drawings they had finished that morning had been rubbed against by Xiao Yan, leaving a huge patch of chalk dust on his back.
Luo Zhiyu grabbed a broom from the side of the road and chased Xiao Yan all the way to the school entrance, just in time to catch the takeout Xiao Yan had ordered.
Steaming hot takoyaki, from the shop Luo Zhiyu liked very much. The two of them, covered from head to toe in chalk dust of all colors, hid in the bushes and finished their lunch.
“Zhizhi,” Xiao Yan called.
“Zhiyu.” Luo Zhiyu stole the last takoyaki from Xiao Yan’s bowl.
“I’ve discovered something. You’re kind of a hypocrite.” Xiao Yan stood up and gathered the food containers from the ground.
Luo Zhiyu: “? How am I being a hypocrite? Anyone who rubs against my blackboard poster gets beaten up. You’re just the most deserving of a beating.”
Xiao Yan shook his head, apparently in a pretty good mood.
For the entire afternoon, Luo Zhiyu painted while listening to Xiao Yan rap, his head filled with question marks.
“Finally, it’s finished!” Luo Zhiyu stepped back several paces and admired the day’s work. “I think it turned out pretty well. What do you think?”
“Looks good.” Xiao Yan carried the ladder while Luo Zhiyu held the box of chalk and the blackboard eraser.
At the fork in the road near the alpha dormitory area, Luo Zhiyu stopped.
“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”
“Hmm?”
“My new uniform is arriving tonight, and they’ve remade my name tag too. I can finally wear my own uniform.” Luo Zhiyu put the art supplies on the ground and began taking off his uniform jacket. “Thanks for the uniform.”
“Maybe…” Xiao Yan was about to say that Luo Zhiyu could return it later. He was carrying a ladder now and had no free hand to hold the uniform. “Don’t…”
Before he could finish, Luo Zhiyu casually tossed the oversized uniform jacket over.
It landed squarely over Xiao Yan’s head, enveloping him in the scent of peaches.
In the gradually sinking evening sunlight, Luo Zhiyu walked away without a care in the world.
Xiao Yan stood frozen in place, carrying the ladder with both hands and wearing an omega’s freshly scented uniform over his head.
He felt exactly like a pervert.