During an evening class in their first year of college, the teacher was lecturing with the help of a PowerPoint presentation when a student sitting not far from the podium quietly took out his phone.
[Orange]: Let me tell you, I feel like a protected animal right now. Everyone’s gathered around to observe me. This year’s freshmen are really something. I heard them just now—they’ve started digging into my everyday outfits. They’ve gotten as far as my shoes now.
[Cicada]: What’s our No. 1 heartthrob from No. 1 High School afraid of? Your looks can hold their own.
[Orange]: Orange crying.jpg
[Cicada]: Stop messaging me. Pay attention in class. I absolutely must get full marks for my participation grade.
[Cicada]: If only you’d known this would happen, you should’ve thought of it sooner. All those classes you skipped will have to be paid back eventually.
[Cicada]: All these classmates are watching us go back and forth. If you’d known this day would come, you should’ve come yourself from the beginning.
[Orange]: Stop talking about it. When the teacher called roll just now, I almost got burned through by all those gazes. Fairy frowning.jpg
[Cicada]: It’s fine. I was like that before, too.
In the classroom, Xiao Yan put down his phone. Blending in among a group of first-year students, he diligently took notes, occasionally paying attention to the activity around him.
“Is he Luo Zhiyu’s boyfriend? Is he? Is he?”
“Yes! Seeing him in person is even better than hearing about him. He’s really handsome. I heard he’s a sophomore in the School of Economics and Management. He also came to wait for Luo Zhiyu every day during military training.”
“Which one of them pursued the other? I’m really curious. Neither of them seems like the type to make the first move. Luo Zhiyu feels a little arrogant, while his boyfriend seems kind of aloof.”
“I pursued him.” Xiao Yan stopped writing and turned around, joining the conversation. “I made the first move.”
The students chatting in the back row: “…”
Military training had just ended. The new freshmen had taken off their training uniforms and gradually become familiar with the school. They had also discovered the campus forum used by their upperclassmen, so a flood of new posts had appeared over the past few days.
[I’m so jealous! Is this some new way of showing off your relationship?]
1L: Our school scheduled a general education class for our department in the evening. By the time it ends, it’s already past nine, and I really don’t feel like going. But U University has a strict academic atmosphere, and this teacher is especially strict, so there’s no way to skip class. Then there’s L from our class. His boyfriend comes over to attend class for him. Sometimes he even helps him get participation points, and he takes notes especially seriously. Where do you find such a good boyfriend?
2L: Who’s L? Luo Zhiyu from Fine Arts, Class 1, obviously. I knew who you meant as soon as you said it. Don’t accuse them of showing off their relationship. As a sophomore in the School of Economics and Management, let me tell you something. Last year, when Xiao Yan was busy with student affairs, he often had Luo Zhiyu, who was still a senior in high school, come over and attend classes for him. The result? Luo Zhiyu was so outstanding that the teacher remembered him. You get it now, right? They’re not showing off their relationship. They’re fixing the mess after their little scheme backfired.
3L: Pfft, got it. So now Xiao Yan has to attend classes himself. There are so many people in a general education class, yet the teacher still remembered him. That’s genuinely impressive. I heard from someone who graduated from No. 1 High School in the city that we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Those two have pulled off all kinds of outrageous stunts.
4L: I’m in Fine Arts, too. I just saw Luo Zhiyu lurking suspiciously outside the classroom. He’s probably waiting for his boyfriend to finish class. Those two really do love stirring up trouble.
5L: What boyfriend? Didn’t the previous post say they were already registered? They could just call each other husbands now.
“Big brother, what are you looking at?” Luo Zhiyu asked. “Why are you in such a good mood? Don’t hide it. I saw you smiling.”
“Call me that once?” Xiao Yan handed his phone over to Luo Zhiyu, showing him the school forum. The screen happened to be displaying that particular reply. “I want to hear it.”
The early autumn night sky was clear. The university was located in the suburbs, still some distance from the dazzling neon lights of the city, so the outlines of the constellations could be faintly made out.
On another night just like this one, back in high school, Xiao Yan had used a box of takeaway octopus balls to coax Luo Zhiyu, who was in the classroom downstairs, onto the rooftop of No. 1 High School’s teaching building. The boy in his school uniform had smiled, and the stars filling the sky had all seemed to lose their brilliance.
And from now on, they would spend countless starry nights together.
“Call you what?” Luo Zhiyu scrolled through several replies from their schoolmates. “I don’t know how. Why don’t you teach me?”
“No problem. We don’t have classes tomorrow, so I’ll teach you tomorrow night.” Xiao Yan was eager to give it a try. “I even took a nap during class just now, so I’m not sleepy at all.”
Luo Zhiyu: “…”
That wasn’t what he meant by teaching him!
As for their habit of taking turns attending classes for each other, Luo Zhiyu had come up with what he considered a perfectly reasonable explanation for their confusing behavior.
“Even though we help each other attend classes, neither of us has a low participation grade.”
U University’s teaching buildings were in the south, while the dormitories were in the north. When the evening class dismissal bell rang, most students headed toward the dormitory area. The two of them moved against the flow of people, walking toward the school gates.
“Did you pay attention in class tonight?” Luo Zhiyu was more concerned about his participation grade. “Did Student Xiao Yan actively answer questions and take care of Student Luo Zhiyu’s participation grade at the same time?”
“I did. I listened attentively, answered questions actively, and organized the notes. On top of that, I joined your classmates’ conversation and helped boost your popularity with the class.”
Luo Zhiyu: “?”
No wonder he’d received several messages from his classmates just now. They hadn’t merely complimented him; they’d also praised Xiao Yan to the skies from all sorts of different angles.
The university campus was much more spacious than No. 1 High School. Bright lights illuminated the wide roads of the new campus, completely different from the dim paths at No. 1 High School that were covered with fallen plane tree leaves at night. From time to time, students rode past them on bicycles, the breeze they brought brushing past Luo Zhiyu.
“Big brother.”
Luo Zhiyu slowed down a couple of steps, then reached from behind and wrapped his arms around Xiao Yan’s neck. This was a habit he’d had ever since his little delinquent days. Every now and then, he would want to rub against Xiao Yan and get a little of that orange-scented pheromone.
Their extremely high pheromone compatibility now gave him a perfectly legitimate reason to do such things.
“You’re calling me so sweetly. What are you plotting?” Xiao Yan stopped and let him hug him.
“Have you noticed that you’ve never given me a ride on your bicycle?” Seeing other people riding bicycles had suddenly given Luo Zhiyu an idea. “Last time, I was watching a drama with my older sister. All the boyfriends in those school romances rode bicycles to pick up their girlfriends.”
Since No. 1 High School was a boarding school, even when they went home, they took cars. Neither of them had ever had the chance to ride bicycles.
“…I’ll buy one tomorrow.” Xiao Yan reached back, supported him, and carried him on his back. After taking two steps forward, he continued, “The day after tomorrow, I’ll ride you around campus.”
“You give me whatever I ask for?” Luo Zhiyu pinched Xiao Yan’s cheek. “Orange is so good to me, huh?”
Back when they were in their first year of high school, Luo Zhiyu had missed a step and stumbled on a path. A certain someone, who had been desperately trying to clear his name, had carried him on his back just like this, taking the longest possible route to bring him to the infirmary.
“Orange is especially good. You can discover even more good things about me.” Xiao Yan put Luo Zhiyu down. “Then what do I get to ask for? Will you give me whatever I want?”
“What do you think?” Luo Zhiyu tossed out a sentence, then took off running, leaving both the question and Xiao Yan behind him. “If you can catch me, I’ll give you whatever you want.”
Xiao Yan adjusted his backpack and chased after him.
Just like their first meeting many years ago, just like their playful antics around campus, just like the countless times they’d chased each other along roadsides and around street corners.
No matter how many times it happened, he could always catch him.
Because someone was waiting for him.