“What the hell? What do you mean?” Jing Ximing was startled and pulled their desks apart, leaving a narrow gap between them. “What are you thinking about?”
“Come back here. I’m not interested in you, so what are you afraid of?” Luo Zhiyu tapped the desk with his fingers, propped his chin on his right hand, and gazed toward the ceiling at the front of the classroom. “I’m thinking about how important pheromones really are to us.”
The Qingming Festival had passed, and the weather was beginning to warm up. Students were eagerly changing into lighter spring clothes. Luo Zhiyu had taken off his sweater a week ago. Beneath his red-and-white school uniform, he wore only a thin white knitted shirt. Since there was no teacher in their classroom for tonight’s evening self-study session, he had even taken off his uniform jacket and draped it over the windowsill to his right.
“Have you fallen for some omega sweetheart? Is that why you’re so troubled? Isn’t your whole persona at No. 1 High School supposed to be that of a cold, aloof academic genius who doesn’t date?” Jing Ximing hesitantly moved their desks back together. “Pheromones are important, but they’re not everything, right? Relationships between alphas and omegas shouldn’t rely too heavily on pheromones. That’s what the teachers say, too.”
“It’s not some sweetheart.” Luo Zhiyu shook his head, then stared pensively at the English exam paper on his desk. “Study.”
Jing Ximing: “?”
Since that night by the lake, Xiao Yan’s temporary mark on him had faded considerably. Their two temporary markings had become a secret buried deep in both their hearts. They no longer needed frequent contact to counteract the effects of the temporary mark, yet Luo Zhiyu still liked wandering upstairs. Every so often, he would show up outside Xiao Yan’s classroom, making his presence known until he had gotten to know practically everyone in Class 3 of Grade 11.
What did that even mean?
I don’t like anyone else, and I never will.
Xiao Yan’s words suddenly rang clearly in Luo Zhiyu’s ears.
Then… was Luo Zhiyu someone else, too?
————
Halfway through evening self-study, Xiao Yan went downstairs to refill his water bottle, as was his habit. On his way, he passed the corridor outside Luo Zhiyu’s classroom.
Luo Zhiyu wasn’t there. Only his school uniform jacket lay on the windowsill, and an untouched exam paper was spread across his desk.
“Where’s Luo Zhiyu?” Xiao Yan knocked on the windowsill and asked Luo Zhiyu’s deskmate. “He hasn’t replied to my messages, so I came down to check on him.”
“I don’t know. He seems to be in a bad mood. He’s been deep in thought, and he went out as soon as class ended.” Jing Ximing shook his head. “He also asked me some weird questions.”
Xiao Yan: “…” Was he really angry? That didn’t make sense.
“Do you know why he’s in a bad mood?” Xiao Yan leaned against the windowsill and probed Luo Zhiyu’s deskmate for information.
“I know a little.” Jing Ximing sat by the window, deciding to share his shocking discovery with Xiao Yan. “Based on my analysis, he might have fallen for some adorable little omega.”
Xiao Yan: “???”
Luo Zhiyu was very popular among the omega students. There were plenty of cute omegas around him. But Luo Zhiyu spent most of his time outside class and sleep hanging out with Xiao Yan. When would he have time to fall for someone else?
That didn’t make sense.
“What exactly did he say?” Xiao Yan was just about to ask when someone began jumping from three steps away and launched himself at Xiao Yan’s back.
“Brother Yan!”
Xiao Yan knew it was Luo Zhiyu without even turning around. He let Luo Zhiyu pounce on him, the boy wrapping both arms around his neck. Xiao Yan felt the slight weight of Luo Zhiyu leaning against his back.
“Where did you go? Evening self-study has only been out for fifteen minutes. How did you manage to disappear already?”
“I went to find Little Spicy Strips to get this semester’s student council work materials.” Luo Zhiyu was still holding several work forms he had just collected.
Xiao Yan reached up and, through the thin knitted shirt, caught both of Luo Zhiyu’s wrists to stop him from clinging and bouncing around.
At least the moment Luo Zhiyu saw him, his mood was good. The sense of dejection he had carried when leaving the upstairs classroom had completely vanished.
“Are you this happy to see me come downstairs?” Xiao Yan tested the thickness of Luo Zhiyu’s knitted shirt.
Normally, given Luo Zhiyu’s personality, he would certainly have retorted to a remark like that. Today, however, he fell unusually silent for half a second before softly answering beside Xiao Yan’s ear, “Mm. Happy.”
He leaned close to Xiao Yan’s ear so that only the two of them could hear him. As he spoke, his cheek brushed lightly against Xiao Yan’s neck.
“Put your uniform jacket on properly.” The little rascal was taking advantage of the situation. Whether intentionally or not, Luo Zhiyu was standing far too close. Xiao Yan could even feel his breath against his ear, while that faint, sweet peach scent wound around him once more.
This was different from Luo Zhiyu’s usual unintentional little gestures. Today, it felt as though he was testing Xiao Yan.
Without revealing his thoughts, Xiao Yan gently pushed Luo Zhiyu away and picked up the jacket from the windowsill, tossing it into his hands.
“Hurry up.”
On the side Xiao Yan couldn’t see, Luo Zhiyu’s lips curved slightly, a fleeting gleam passing through his eyes.
“What’s the matter? Are they going to inspect us later?” Luo Zhiyu put his jacket back on. “Lots of people aren’t wearing theirs.”
“No,” Xiao Yan said. “I’m worried you’ll get cold.”
Luo Zhiyu had just dashed back from the other end of the corridor. He wasn’t exactly cold, but since Xiao Yan had told him to put his jacket on, he obediently zipped it up to the regulation height.
It seemed that somewhere along the way, he had begun to trust Xiao Yan unconditionally at times.
This had nothing to do with temporary marking or pheromones. It had everything to do with Xiao Yan. Luo Zhiyu seemed to feel an almost blind sense of closeness toward him.
“Wait for me after school?” The bell rang for the end of evening self-study, and Xiao Yan patted Luo Zhiyu on the shoulder as he asked.
“Oh, sure.” They had often arranged to leave together lately, so Luo Zhiyu hesitated for only a moment before answering. “I’ll wait for you outside your classroom.”
Xiao Yan went back upstairs, and Luo Zhiyu returned to his seat.
“So, are you keeping your aloof academic genius persona or not?” Jing Ximing was still hung up on their earlier conversation. “Are you going to pursue your little omega sweetheart?”
“That doesn’t affect anything.” Luo Zhiyu stopped halfway through his sentence when he realized something was wrong. “Huh? Who said I liked an omega?”
Jing Ximing: “?”
The workload in the second half of the school year was heavy, and the teachers in Class 3 upstairs were increasingly prone to running overtime. Whenever Luo Zhiyu went to find Xiao Yan, he often encountered their teacher dragging out the lesson. The boy with his schoolbag on his back would end up pacing around outside the door of Class 3 of Grade 11 several times.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: Hey, I’m not angry. You don’t need to come downstairs specially to find me.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: You know I can’t stay mad at you for more than three days.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: I may have a weird temper, but I treat you pretty well, don’t I?
OrangeOrange: Fine. Then I’ll keep bullying you next time.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: I’m going to beat you up.
Tonight, Class 3 of Grade 11 had an extra English exam review lesson during evening self-study. Xiao Yan kept scribbling on his scratch paper until he finally caught Fan Yue’s attention.
“Where are you getting all this scratch work from during English class?” Fan Yue snatched the paper from his deskmate. “Pheromone A, pheromone B, pheromones?”
“What do you think?” Xiao Yan countered.
“Luo Zhiliǎo downstairs?” Fan Yue was shocked. “I thought you two were already… And here I’ve been going out of my way to cover for you every day, thinking I was doing you a favor!”
“Luo Zhiyu,” Xiao Yan corrected him.
“Fine, fine. Only you get to call him that. You’re so possessive.” They were both alphas, and Fan Yue felt he could understand Xiao Yan’s feelings for Luo Zhiyu. “So are you two doing things backward? Getting together first, then pursuing each other afterward?”
“Not exactly…”
The more he liked someone, the more careful he became. Xiao Yan had even grown attached to the way things were now. He was afraid of frightening Luo Zhiyu away, afraid of losing the fragile closeness they currently shared.
Many families raised children predicted to be alphas with the principle that if they wanted something, they should take it. This aspect of Xiao Yan’s personality wasn’t particularly obvious, but both he and the people around him knew that if he fell deeply enough for someone, he would inevitably want to seize that person—even imprison them—and make them his own.
But when he actually met someone he loved, it turned out that simply “taking” them wasn’t enough to solve everything.
He wavered between reaching out to capture a star and letting it go, afraid that the star would lose its original radiance.
Except the star seemed to be… willingly falling from grace.
“Anyway, you’ve already decided not to let pheromones dictate things, so just treat Luo Zhiyu a little better,” Fan Yue said, lowering his head to correct a mistake on his exam paper. He couldn’t be bothered to meddle in the affairs of those two anymore.
“Stop looking for opportunities to bully him all the time. Though Luo Zhiyu doesn’t seem to mind. Your families might not get along very well, but your upbringings are actually pretty similar, and your personalities aren’t that different either.”
“Fine.” Xiao Yan crossed out the words pheromones on the paper with his pen.
As class was nearing its end, another figure in a red-and-white school uniform appeared outside the door of Class 3 of Grade 11.
Standing in the blind spot of their teacher’s line of sight, Luo Zhiyu sent Xiao Yan a message.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: How much longer?
OrangeOrange: Just finishing the essay. Almost done.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: Oh my god, bro, I’m sleepy.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: Why did I even come to wait for you? Your class always ends so late.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: Give me one good reason why I have to come wait for you after class. Otherwise, I’m not doing this next time.
ZhiliaˇoZhiliǎo: Yawning.jpg
Xiao Yan’s instincts seemed to be right. Today, Luo Zhiyu really did seem to be testing something.
Xiao Yan’s fingers flew across the keyboard. He typed out two messages, then deleted them. When he looked up, he saw that Luo Zhiyu had changed positions and was now chatting with a young omega girl from Class 4 of Grade 11.
The two seemed to be discussing something amusing. Luo Zhiyu’s lips curved from time to time, and the girl’s laughter carried all the way over to where Xiao Yan sat.
For no apparent reason, Xiao Yan suddenly remembered what Luo Zhiyu’s deskmate had said that evening.
The pen in his hand snapped with a sharp crack.
“Hey! Why are you getting so aggressive?” Fan Yue was startled by his deskmate. He looked up and immediately spotted Luo Zhiyu chatting with someone outside the classroom of Class 4. “They’re just talking.”
With Xiao Yan’s domineering personality, wouldn’t Luo Zhiyu be bullied to death in the future? Of course, Luo Zhiyu wasn’t exactly an obedient little angel either. Fan Yue still remembered all too clearly the time he had been accidentally struck by that broom.
“He told Jing Ximing today that he’d fallen for some adorable little omega.” The English teacher was using Xiao Yan’s essay as a model for the class. Xiao Yan had already packed his schoolbag and was just waiting for the bell so he could make a quick getaway.
For some reason, Fan Yue suddenly found himself understanding Jing Ximing’s feelings very well.
“…Are you sure those were his exact words? Why do I feel like something’s off?”
He felt as though he had heard something similar before. It sounded familiar, almost eerily so.
Tired of waiting for Xiao Yan, Luo Zhiyu had casually grabbed an omega senior he knew to chat with. The two of them exchanged their opinions on Yan Zihan’s painfully complicated love life.
“Yan Zihan just loves making things difficult for himself,” the omega senior chatting with Luo Zhiyu said. “He even complained about the other guy’s pheromones, but in the end, they still got back together.”
“So in the end, he didn’t care about the pheromones after all…”
They were halfway through their conversation when someone placed a hand on Luo Zhiyu’s shoulder. The person seemed to be in a bit of a mood and used quite a lot of force, pressing down hard enough to make Luo Zhiyu uncomfortable.
“Class is over?” Luo Zhiyu waved goodbye to the senior. “Then let’s go.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Yan wrapped an arm around him, half forcing him toward the staircase.
The lights in the stairwell were dim. Every student who had just finished class was in a hurry to return to the dormitories, and no one paid any attention to the two of them.
Although the temporary mark had faded, it was still there. Luo Zhiyu remained sensitive to Xiao Yan’s orange-scented pheromones. Other people might not be able to detect them now, but Luo Zhiyu could.
Xiao Yan was walking quite fast. Luo Zhiyu wasn’t paying attention and caught his foot on something, nearly falling. Xiao Yan caught him in time.
“Are you in your rut again?” Luo Zhiyu rubbed his sore shoulder. “Why are you being so aggressive?”