The afternoon sun was still blazing intensely. Yu Silin tilted his head up to look at Xu Jiaheng, squinting against the glare of the light. He shuffled a bit closer to Xu Jiaheng, letting the other boy block the light for him before he shook his head and said, “I didn’t forget.”
Hearing this, Xu Jiaheng glanced down at the arm Yu Silin had wrapped around his, implying: if you didn’t forget, why are you still holding on?
Pretending not to understand what he meant, Yu Silin let go, handed one of the ice cream bars over, and said sweetly, “Have some ice cream, Jiaheng-ge.”
Xu Jiaheng lowered his gaze, looking at the slight hint of a guilty conscience in Yu Silin’s eyes. After a moment, he took the ice cream and turned to walk toward the living room.
Yu Silin followed closely at Xu Jiaheng’s heels. However, when they reached the entrance of the living room, Xu Jiaheng walked straight through the door without a sideways glance, while Yu Silin stopped in his tracks, biting into his ice cream and freeing up both hands to thoroughly pet and rub the sleepy cats and dogs.
If the ice cream hadn’t been so cold that it made his teeth chatter, he definitely would have played with them for another five minutes.
Pinching the ice cream stick between his fingers, Yu Silin entered the living room with a grimace. Glancing around and finding no sign of Xu Jiaheng, he bit into his ice cream bite by bite and slowly headed upstairs. By the time he reached the bedroom door, the ice cream bar had been eaten completely clean.
When unwrapping the ice cream packaging, water droplets had gotten on his hands, and since he had just petted the cats and dogs, stray cat and dog hairs were firmly stuck all over his hands. Pressing down the doorknob with his elbow to push the door open, he kept his palms facing outward and held his hands up as he walked into the bathroom.
Xu Jiaheng was an absolute neat freak. If Yu Silin dared to enter his bedroom with a handful of dog and cat fur, Xu Jiaheng would definitely lecture him again.
Muttering softly to himself as he washed his hands, and feeling bold enough since Xu Jiaheng couldn’t hear him, Yu Silin grumbled and scolded Xu Jiaheng from top to bottom before finally returning to the bedroom.
Seeing that Xu Jiaheng was holding a clean set of clothes, he consciously stepped aside to let Xu Jiaheng enter the bedroom. The guy had a mild case of cleanliness OCD; every time he finished bathing the cats and dogs, he would take a shower himself afterward.
Yu Silin wandered around Xu Jiaheng’s bedroom for a bit, not daring to lie on Xu Jiaheng’s bed or sit on the sofa, before reluctantly heading home to take a shower.
Monday, early morning.
With his schoolbag on his back, Yu Silin walked toward the subway station alongside Xu Jiaheng, a train of cats and dogs trailing closely behind them.
Neighbors coming and going in the alley had long grown accustomed to this scene: the king of cats and the king of dogs were always followed by a whole train of furry subordinates.
The two bipedal human parties involved had also grown used to this scene. That trailing squad of fluff simply couldn’t bear to part with them, or so a certain bipedal human participant liked to think.
The squad of five dogs and four cats was even more accustomed to it. Their mission was to protect these two bipeds, even though a certain biped didn’t really need it.
They escorted the two bipeds all the way to the mouth of the alley. One biped would pause to pat their heads and smooth down their fur, while the other biped stood with one hand in his pocket, watching them with a cold expression.
Only after watching the two bipeds step inside a square iron box would the animals scatter to play on their own.
By evening, they would gather beneath the camphor tree at the head of the alley, waiting for the two bipeds to return home. That same cute biped would pet them again, while the other one watched with a cold eye.
Yu Silin bade farewell to the string of cats and dogs, followed Xu Jiaheng into the subway station, and used an alcohol wipe that Xu Jiaheng had shoved at him to wipe his hands.
This was Xu Jiaheng’s lifestyle habit, not his own. But he was willing to accommodate Xu Jiaheng, because all the cat food and dog food for the pets was bought with money Xu Jiaheng earned ^o^
Yu Silin was a second-year high school student, while Xu Jiaheng was a third-year student. Their classrooms were on different floors in two adjacent buildings. When they reached the bottom of the teaching building, they parted ways to head to their respective floors.
Yu Silin trudged up the stairs with his head down. When he abruptly lifted his gaze, he saw two people walking ahead of him holding hands, and their backs looked very familiar to him.
“Chen Heyan?” Yu Silin blurted out suddenly.
The two people in front were startled, letting go of each other’s hands as fast as if they had been electrocuted. One of them turned around, and seeing that it was Yu Silin, demanded fiercely, “What are you doing?”
Curious, Yu Silin looked back and forth between the two of them. “What are you guys doing?”
Chen Heyan was speechless for a moment. “One Alpha, one Omega, what do you think holding hands means?”
Yu Silin dawned in realization. “You guys are dating?”
Chen Heyan hooked his arm around Ran Ming’s shoulder. “What else?”
“Oh.” Yu Silin acknowledged, feeling a twinge of curiosity inside. What did it feel like to date? But seeing that Ran Ming looked a bit embarrassed, he thoughtfully refrained from asking further.
Praising himself for being so considerate, Yu Silin headed upstairs and entered his classroom. He and Ran Ming had only been placed in the same class at the start of this semester and happened to become desk mates, so their relationship was fairly familiar.
He watched as Chen Heyan escorted Ran Ming to the classroom door and even saw Chen Heyan shove something into Ran Ming’s hand, causing him to look twice in fascination.
Xu Jiaheng occasionally stuffed things into his hands like that too.
What on earth did dating actually feel like?
Turning sixteen soon, Yu Silin was a complete relationship novice. He had only ever seen other people date and had never been in a relationship himself, so he couldn’t grasp the feeling at all.
When Ran Ming returned to his seat, Yu Silin glanced outside; Chen Heyan had already left.
“Here, have a piece of candy.” Ran Ming placed two fruit candies in front of Yu Silin.
“Thanks.” Yu Silin didn’t stand on ceremony. He unwrapped one, it tasted great, and kept the other to take home so he could ask Xu Jiaheng to buy him the exact same brand.
“Do you know Chen Heyan?” Ran Ming asked.
“Yeah, we’re neighbors. His house is right next door to my brother’s house,” Yu Silin said.
“Xu Jiaheng?” Ran Ming asked.
Yu Silin was surprised. “You know Xu Jiaheng?”
Ran Ming replied, “I saw him a few times when I was looking for Chen Heyan.” He looked curious. “Is Xu Jiaheng your older brother?”
Yu Silin nodded. “Yup, he’s one year older than me.”
Ran Ming: “Chen Heyan is also one year older than you.”
“Oh, that’s just because Xu Jiaheng doesn’t let me call him older brother,” Yu Silin said.
“Huh?”
Yu Silin scratched his head. “I don’t know why either. When I was little, I called everyone older than me older brother, but later on Xu Jiaheng wouldn’t let me call him that anymore. When I asked him why, he said there was no reason, he just forbade it.”
“Huh?”
Seeing Ran Ming’s dazed expression, Yu Silin asked, perplexed, “What’s wrong?”
Ran Ming shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just that you wouldn’t expect Xu Jiaheng to be so…” Possessive and scheming. But he kept that second half to himself.
“What about Xu Jiaheng?” Yu Silin pressed.
Ran Ming chuckled and said mysteriously, “I’ll tell you another time.”
Yu Silin: “…”
The conversation ended there. Even though Yu Silin was extremely curious about what dating felt like and how people got into relationships in the first place, he figured his relationship with Ran Ming wasn’t close enough yet to ask such private questions.
Since asking Ran Ming wasn’t ideal, Yu Silin brought the question up with Xu Jiaheng right after school dismissed in the afternoon.
Xu Jiaheng glanced sideways at him. “Go ask Chen Heyan.”
Yu Silin retorted without missing a beat, “I’m not that close with him.”
Xu Jiaheng: “…”
There was a bit of distance between Number Two High School and the subway station. Yu Silin strolled slowly alongside Xu Jiaheng, fished the candy out of his pocket, and shoved it into Xu Jiaheng’s hand.
Xu Jiaheng lowered his gaze to look at it, and just as he was about to shove it back to him, he heard Yu Silin say, “I’m not giving it to you to eat. This candy tastes good, make sure you buy some.”
Xu Jiaheng raised a hand and gave Yu Silin a light smack on the head, expressionless, “Eating candy rots your teeth.”
“I’m not scared, I’m already grown up, I’m not afraid of toothaches,” Yu Silin said with an exceptionally defiant tone, changing the subject with lightning speed. “Tell me, what does dating actually feel like?”
“Want to date?” Xu Jiaheng tucked the candy into his pocket, turning his head to glance at Yu Silin. The boy happened to be looking over too, his eyes bright yet a bit lost. “I don’t know.”
“Chen Heyan is dating, Wei Zijing has dated before, and my first-year desk mate dated too, he was head-over-heels in love with his girlfriend,” Yu Silin mused thoughtfully. “I’m just kind of curious about what dating is actually like.”
“If you want to date, why not just try it out?” Xu Jiaheng said indifferently, sounding as if he were just tossing out a casual remark.
“That makes sense!” Yu Silin instantly felt enlightened, though he quickly grew confused again. “But I don’t know who I should date.”
Xu Jiaheng: “Who do you want to date?”
Stepping onto the escalator behind Xu Jiaheng, Yu Silin tugged on the hem of Xu Jiaheng’s jacket and pondered for a long moment before saying, “I should look for an Alpha to date. He has to be good-looking, his pheromones need to smell nice, and he has to like stray animals.”
Xu Jiaheng listened without responding to that comment.
Yu Silin didn’t mind. Following Xu Jiaheng as he made a couple of turns and walked down the stairs, he thought for a moment and added, “He also has to be rich! That part is really important!”
“Why?” Xu Jiaheng found a seat and pulled Yu Silin down to sit with him.
“Because he has to be rich enough to support Little Flower, Little Huang, and Little Cow-cat,” Yu Silin said quite matter-of-factly. “My mom cut my allowance in half again, it’s definitely not enough to keep them fed.”
“After I date him, I won’t be able to spend your money anymore. I can’t afford to raise all those cats and dogs entirely by myself, so I have to find an Alpha who is rich and willing to spend money on stray animals.”
Xu Jiaheng let out a cold snort. “You’ve thought this through pretty thoroughly.”
He had even factored in how he wouldn’t be able to spend his money anymore once he found a boyfriend.
Since Yu Silin was a bit dense, he naturally didn’t catch the sarcasm in Xu Jiaheng’s tone and considered himself genuinely thoughtful.
He had accounted for both Xu Jiaheng and the pets; there couldn’t possibly be anyone more considerate than him.
“Ge, aren’t you curious about what dating feels like?” Yu Silin tilted his head to look at Xu Jiaheng.
“Not curious,” Xu Jiaheng said.
Yu Silin pouted, shaking his head and echoing Xu Jiaheng with an ironic tone, “Not curious.”