The day LCK was eliminated and sent home, TheX set out for Incheon to face the battlefield that belonged solely to them.
Coach Zheng could barely suppress the excitement tugging at the corners of his lips, the smile lifting slightly despite his best efforts. The results produced by the new lineup had turned out even better than he had anticipated. The seed he had quietly planted in his heart was beginning to take root, and even someone usually as steady and composed as him had started to feel nervous. For Yi Xingran, who was about to embark on his first major tournament, he could not help but silently worry for him.
“Don’t rush, and listen to the calls! Play with the same mindset you have during our usual training sessions. And whatever you do, whatever you do, don’t get nervous! Just imagine the audience down there are radishes and cabbages. Don’t let their voices affect you!”
Yi Xingran had both hands tucked into his pockets. Hearing this, he glanced sideways at his coach. “Coach, why do I feel like you’re a lot more nervous than I am?”
Coach Zheng was so exasperated by Yi Xingran’s completely unbothered expression that he could not help lowering his voice. “Stop fooling around.”
Yi Xingran gave a faint laugh. “How about I bring you back a three-to-zero victory, too?”
Coach Zheng had originally wanted to tell him not to get carried away, but the words had barely left his mouth when he reconsidered. Maybe getting carried away a little was fine. The tactic they had settled on in the first place was designed specifically to let him play freely and take risks. If he played too cautiously instead, he might not be able to bring out their advantage at all.
Yi Xingran watched Coach Zheng continue talking nonstop beside him, going over one precaution after another. He was painstakingly thorough, earnestly explaining every little detail, as though he really were treating Yi Xingran like a child who had never once competed in a major tournament.
In reality, Yi Xingran knew most of these rules already. Most of them were things he had gradually figured out himself in his previous life. After suffering enough losses and making enough mistakes, these things naturally became clear.
The constant nagging was admittedly a little annoying, but Yi Xingran still did not interrupt him.
Coach Zheng had talked so much that the corners of his mouth were practically about to foam.
Yi Xingran casually reached up and swept the loose strands of hair from his forehead, then raised an eyebrow with a smile. “Then I’m going to go all out and cause as much trouble as I want~”
Coach Zheng narrowed his eyes at him. “You can take risks, but you still have to stay steady. After all…”
Yi Xingran stretched his arms and tilted his head back. The moment he looked up, he happened to see Pei Du walking over.
Coach Zheng immediately found his savior. “Cross, you still need to keep him in check. When everyone else is getting carried away, you have to be the steady one.”
Yi Xingran tilted his head and asked his coach, “So am I supposed to go wild or not?”
“The most important thing on the field is discipline. Fire, no matter what happens, you have to listen to the shot-caller. Under no circumstances should you get carried away in the heat of the moment and become disconnected from your teammates!”
Pei Du lowered his eyes with an indifferent expression. Yi Xingran was currently swinging his arms around casually, stretching as though he had not a care in the world.
He was already being this reckless, and they had not even stepped onto the field yet.
If no one kept him under control, who knew how far he would take it once the match actually began?
After they got off the plane, Yi Xingran reached into his pocket, intending to find the smoking area. He had barely taken two steps when the hood of his jacket was suddenly yanked backward by an external force. A large hand pressed down on the back of his neck, the vulnerable spot at the nape, forcing his entire body to stop right where he was.
Yi Xingran frowned and turned his head back. Even the cigarette pack he had just taken out was promptly confiscated.
Just as Yi Xingran was about to lose his temper, Pei Du’s cool, indifferent gaze swept down toward him, his voice low and faintly ominous.
“Coach just finished telling you to listen to his instructions, and you’re already planning not to?”
Yi Xingran had always been a fast talker. His mouth was always a step ahead, while his brain scrambled after it. “That’s for when we’re on the field, the coach also told you to keep me in check. Are you supposed to keep me in check even when we’re off the field?”
What on earth was he even saying?
Pei Du grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him back. “Let’s go back to the hotel first. There are fans outside waiting to pick us up. They’ll take pictures.”
Yi Xingran tried twice to get away, but neither attempt succeeded. Looking completely calm and composed, Pei Du slipped the confiscated cigarette pack into his own pocket. “I’m taking the cigarettes too. If you need them later, come find me.”
He was even confiscating them?!
Yi Xingran was dissatisfied. “If I want one, will you actually give it to me?”
Pei Du had taken Yi Xingran’s cigarettes as casually as though they were his own belongings, his expression perfectly calm and showing not the slightest trace of guilt. “Not necessarily.”
“?”
What did he mean by that?!
“You’re making me report to you just to smoke a cigarette? The captain of TheX has way too much authority, doesn’t he?”
Pei Du glanced sideways at him, giving Yi Xingran a brief look before calmly withdrawing his gaze. His voice remained cool and indifferent. “Mm.”
Mm?!
He actually said “mm”?!
What the hell was that “mm” supposed to mean?!
The official hotel designated for the tournament was an all-suite hotel, with two players generally assigned to each room. Yi Xingran spent the entire journey glaring coldly at the person beside him with a dark expression. By the time the rooms had finally been assigned, he looked into the room and saw the ever-present Captain Pei standing there.
The wrinkles in Yi Xingran’s brain seemed to smooth themselves out completely.
“I’m not staying with you!”
Yi Xingran had never been particularly picky about food, clothing, accommodation, or transportation. He had slept everywhere from the sofas of internet cafés to the lobbies of bathhouses. As far as he was concerned, a place was simply somewhere to sleep, and he had never cared much about the conditions.
This was the first time in either of his two lifetimes that he had ever actually voiced an objection like this.
He wanted to find Coach Zheng and ask him to change his room assignment. He had just jumped up from the sofa when he watched Pei Du set down his suitcase, then elegantly and casually pat the pocket of his jacket.
“The hostage is still with me. There’s more than half a pack of ‘little friends’ left. You don’t want them anymore?”
Yi Xingran’s eyes widened. He nearly burst out laughing.
“Bro, are you seriously messing with me?”
Fine, then.
More than a dozen “hostages” were all in that man’s hands.
Yi Xingran rubbed the top of his head, inexplicably finding the way he had described the cigarettes rather amusing.
He swaggered over, stretched out his palm, and collected a single cigarette from Pei Du like someone receiving relief supplies.
“Cheap.”
Pei Du tucked the cigarette pack behind his back. “I’m telling you to smoke less. It’s not like I’m trying to hurt you.”
The blue-and-white cigarette spun lazily between Yi Xingran’s fingers. The pink-haired young man casually pulled open the balcony door and walked outside. “I know. You just hate the smell of cigarettes, don’t you? I’ll go outside and smoke away both the firsthand and secondhand smoke before I come back. I guarantee you won’t be able to smell a thing.”
“…….What about your lungs?”
Yi Xingran stepped over the suitcase he had left right in the middle of the path. Finding it somewhat in the way, he even lifted his foot and kicked it toward the wall. He had barely walked past it when, all of a sudden…
“Bang!”
Both pairs of eyes turned toward the source of the sound at the exact same time, and for one brief moment, the air inside the room seemed to freeze completely.
Yi Xingran bit down on the unlit cigarette between his lips and blinked twice, his eyes widening in bewilderment. Then, for no apparent reason, he raised a hand and rubbed the back of his head.
His suitcase……. had exploded.
Quite literally exploded.
The clothes that had been crammed inside until the suitcase was practically bursting at the seams had been blasted out in complete disarray. Small personal belongings were scattered all over the floor, and a pair of little underwear that had been trapped beneath everything else was hanging halfway out over the edge of the suitcase.
The torn-open gap was holding onto that little pair of underwear as if it could neither spit it out nor swallow it, while the remaining contents inside crowded together and pushed it farther outward. It looked almost as though the suitcase had grown a tongue, leaving it dangling there in a thoroughly lifeless manner.
Yi Xingran himself looked just as half-dead.
Every single clasp on the suitcase had popped open.
He scratched his head and stared at it accusingly. “Bro, did this thing get airsick?”
Pei Du remained silent for a long while. Only then did he slowly lift his eyes. Even his gaze looked somewhat half-dead.
“Why didn’t you just stuff yourself inside it while you were at it?”
Yi Xingran looked even more astonished. “Big brother, that’s called dumping a corpse!”
Pei Du drew in a deep breath.
He looked as though he was about to have an episode.
Yi Xingran immediately took advantage of the moment and leaned over with that head of pink hair, staring fixedly at Pei Du without blinking, as though he were trying to find a flower growing somewhere on the man’s face.
Was this scene a little too stimulating for him?
He remembered that Pei Du seemed to have some kind of obsessive cleanliness issue or whatever it was called. Some sort of condition, wasn’t it?
Pei Du’s expression remained as cold and indifferent as ever. The only thing betraying any emotion was the steady rise and fall of his chest.
Yi Xingran was nothing if not considerate.
“Captain, stop looking at it. Be careful you don’t pass out just from looking at this. Leave it here for now. I’ll come back and clean it up later, okay?”
Pei Du watched the swaying figure leave with one hand casually tucked into his pocket. His brows pressed together, and he could not help closing his eyes for a moment.
It wasn’t as though he had never seen how this person packed his things before!
Yi Xingran stood by the balcony for a while, letting the smell disperse. When he came back, his snail-spirited captain had a grave expression and a resolute look in his eyes. His long, slender fingers were nimble and precise as he meticulously folded Yi Xingran’s little underwear.
“I told you I’d clean it up later.”
Pei Du did not even raise his head.
Yi Xingran sauntered over in his usual unhurried manner. “Huh? You’re folding the socks too? They’re all clean. Can’t you just shove them over to the side and be done with it……”
Seeing Pei Du’s gaze grow colder and colder, Yi Xingran gradually lowered his voice.
There was no way for him to get a hand in anyway, so he simply sat beside the sofa and watched the man.
Pei Du’s movements as he organized everything looked leisurely and unhurried, but his hands were actually moving quite quickly. Before long, he had turned the messy piles of clothing into neat stacks, sorting them into different sections and arranging everything properly inside the suitcase.
Yi Xingran slapped his thigh. “If I ever get a girlfriend in the future, I’m finding someone like you. So virtuous and domestic!”
Pei Du turned his head expressionlessly. Yi Xingran was staring at those deft, skillful hands with undisguised admiration, thinking to himself that it was no wonder those foremen and coworkers from his old days had always gone on and on about how much they dreamed of getting married. If wives were all like the Snail Girl, then even he would want one.
“What about you? Captain, what kind of person do you want to find?”
“How old are you?”
“We’re both men. What’s there to be unable to discuss? Before I joined the youth training program, the guys I hung around with were all…”
Yi Xingran suddenly stopped.
The fact that he had once mixed around in society was probably something this upright gentleman would never understand.
“You’ve chased girls before?”
“No, not really. Yueying was still too young, so how would I have had the time to think about that? I’d have to wait until she finished her studies first, wouldn’t I? It wouldn’t be right to interfere with a good girl’s life.”
Pei Du did not say anything else.
Yi Xingran wandered around for a while before edging back over to him again. “Hey, you still haven’t answered me. Haven’t you ever thought about what kind of person you’d want to find in the future?”
Pei Du turned his head slightly and raised a hand, pointing toward the suitcase on the floor. “My only requirement for him is that he doesn’t make a mess of these.”
Yi Xingran furrowed his brows. “Bro, I’ve discovered that you really aren’t suitable for being someone’s friend.”
Pei Du looked at that pink-haired head as its owner seriously pondered the matter. He could not help lifting his eyes, his gaze lowering toward him.
After finishing his contemplation, Yi Xingran solemnly arrived at a conclusion. “If a brother is too damn impressive, it’s easy for him to affect your chances of finding a girlfriend. What if anyone who gets too close to you ends up having their girlfriend stolen by you?”
Heh.
Pei Du withdrew his gaze and casually pushed away the leg that had somehow ended up brushing against his side. “Stop getting horny.”
Yi Xingran raised an eyebrow. “We’re both men. What are you hiding from? It’s not like I’m dirty.”
He lifted the collar of his shirt and lowered his head to sniff it, muttering that there wasn’t much of a cigarette smell at all. Was this guy’s nose seriously that sensitive? Was he really that bothered by it?
People always said that four- or five-year-old boys were at the age when even cats found them annoying and dogs disliked them, and eighteen- or nineteen-year-old Yi Xingran was no less troublesome.
The more upright and proper Pei Du sat, the more Yi Xingran could not sit still. He kept edging closer and closer, and after kicking off his shoe, he climbed onto the sofa and twisted around to step across, his knee and leg pressing directly against Pei Du’s.
“What are you afraid of? Afraid that if we keep talking about this tonight, you won’t be able to sleep?”
The warmth of their bodies transferred through the contact. As that faint shade of pink hair drew closer, an extremely light scent of mint and tobacco mixed with the clean, crisp fragrance of soap drifted into his nose.
For the first time ever, Pei Du did not find the smell unpleasant.
“Bro, you smell really good.” Yi Xingran wrinkled the tip of his nose, following the scent as he moved closer and closer to the other man, his nose almost brushing against Pei Du’s collar. “No way. We’re only traveling somewhere. Did you really put on perfume for this?”
Pei Du leaned back slightly, his back pressing against the sofa.
There was nowhere left for him to retreat.
In his line of sight, that faint pink head was buried against his chest, moving back and forth as its owner searched for the source of the scent. A small section of ear and the exposed side of his neck were startlingly white, almost dazzling beneath the room’s light.
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Fleurveil
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Fire the hole!Chapter 2 · Dude, I’m here to save youChapter 3 · Plaster HeadChapter 4 · I’m well behaved, I don’t talk muchChapter 5 · It’s what Cross needsChapter 6 · What are you barking like a dog?Chapter 7 · “Ah! It’s so… so damn cold~”Chapter 8 · What are you looking at, you pervert!Chapter 9 · The cat I bought for free got dirty.Chapter 10 · Oh no! I forgot to switch to a smaller account!Chapter 11 · It’s my turn to performChapter 12 · Insults? That’s slander! This is slander!Chapter 13 · He’s a very nice personChapter 14 · Hunting TimeChapter 15 · A straight man sells himselfChapter 16 · The number one person who doesn’t eat stressChapter 17 · He is so vividChapter 18 · War! War! War! Kill! Kill!Chapter 19 Part 1 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?Chapter 19 Part 2 · What’s wrong with guys rubbing against each other?