“Over by Boya Building,” Xu Yuanzhe replied. After returning his tray, he suddenly stopped in place.
“What’s wrong?” The young man turned his head in confusion.
The youth stood in place, swallowing saliva it seemed, then raised a hand to touch his neck and throat area.
“Did you get a fish bone stuck?” Ji Wenyu felt a tight squeeze in his chest and quickly leaned in close.
The youth didn’t answer, his ears quietly turning red.
To check his condition, the young man unconsciously leaned in very close, leaving only a few centimeters between their noses. He flusteredly dug his water bottle out of his schoolbag, unscrewed the cap, and brought it to the other person’s mouth.
“Drink some water and see how it feels.”
Xu Yuanzhe obediently complied, his brow furrowing slightly.
Ji Wenyu asked nervously: “Is there a foreign body sensation?”
Xu Yuanzhe: “Seems like a little bit.”
“Man, if I’d known, we wouldn’t have eaten fish. Or I should have let you eat the boneless part!” The young man started blaming himself. “What do we do, let’s go to the hospital? What about your afternoon class?”
Seeing Xu Yuanzhe stay frozen in place, Ji Wenyu worriedly brought his face right next to the other’s chin: “Does it hurt? No idea if it’s a big bone or a small bone…”
Getting a fish bone stuck showed nothing from the outside. But the young man still closely observed the youth’s smooth neck, even reaching out to touch the guy’s Adam’s apple.
Wanting to help the other person feel where the bone was stuck, the moment Ji Wenyu lifted his head, Xu Yuanzhe happened to lower his.
The youth was taller than him, leaving a height difference of half a head. At this moment, because Ji Wenyu was anxious and leaned in too close, when Xu Yuanzhe leaned down, there was no distance left between them at all.
The youth’s lips brushed past the corner of his mouth with pinpoint accuracy.
The soft sensation transmitted to his brain instantly, and Ji Wenyu crashed completely, his cheeks instantly flushing bright red.
“You—”
Belatedly noticing the hidden smile in Xu Yuanzhe’s eyes, the young man finally recovered his senses.
“Are you doing this on purpose?”
The moment he lowered his head, his peripheral vision swept across the water bottle he had proactively handed to the other person: “Hey, why did you drink from my cup…”
“You handed it to me.” Xu Yuanzhe looked at him leisurely. “I took a sip and it doesn’t feel stuck anymore.”
Only then could Ji Wenyu confirm that he had genuinely been played.
“I just recovered from a cold, aren’t you afraid of catching it?”
“Like you said, you’re all better.” Xu Yuanzhe hooked his lips, taking the lead to walk onward.
“Didn’t you say you were re-courting me? You’re cheating.” Ji Wenyu jogged to keep up with him.
Xu Yuanzhe: “You leaned in on your own, I can’t be blamed.”
Ji Wenyu gritted his teeth at the youth’s back: “You’re cunning, Xu Yuanzhe, how come I never noticed you were this kind of person before!”
“Really?” Hearing him say that, the youth suddenly halted, spun around instantly, and planted a kiss on the young man’s forehead this time.
“Hey you—” His face felt hot enough to hard-boil an egg, and Ji Wenyu felt his whole body heating up.
Xu Yuanzhe’s ears were also dyed a blazing red. He stood in place with a smile, licking his lower lip with the tip of his tongue: “I just found out myself.”
Ji Wenyu glared at him: “Just found out what?”
“Just found out I actually am this kind of person.” The youth let out a low laugh. “Teasing you is really fun, Xiaoyu.”
The two of them walked down the stairs in the stairwell one after the other, parting ways at the canteen entrance.
“I’m off to class then. Are you going to your afternoon class?” Xu Yuanzhe asked.
He raised a hand intending to ruffle the young man’s hair, only to have the sharp-eyed young man dodge it.
“Xu Yuanzhe, we’re not a couple yet, please respect yourself.” The blush on his face hadn’t faded as Ji Wenyu took a step back. “Not going, I’m heading back to the dorm to catch up on sleep.”
“Alright.” Xu Yuanzhe didn’t mind at all, watching him with beaming smiles. “Then go back and rest, message me when you wake up.”
He said he was going back to sleep, but his mind was entirely occupied by that brief kiss that had accidentally brushed past Xu Yuanzhe’s lips earlier. Tossing and turning on his bed back at the dorm, Ji Wenyu couldn’t fall asleep at all, growing increasingly awake instead.
Xu Yuanzhe this scumbag! How could a top student be so good at acting like a scumbag! He, Ji Wenyu, had roamed the pugilistic world for so many years, only to be tricked by someone who looked so stern and unsmiling! Ahhh, saying that out loud was truly humiliating!
Being this cunning, could it be that he’d kissed someone else before? This was his first kiss ever; if Xu Yuanzhe had kissed someone else before, wouldn’t he be getting ripped off!
Goodness, what on earth was he thinking about!
Ji Wenyu lay prone on the bed, burying his face deep into the fluffy pillow until the oxygen grew thin. Ji Wenyu, oh Ji Wenyu, can you not be so pathetic! Wasn’t it just an accidental kiss? What’s the big deal about that!
If not for the mantou, at least fight for your pride; he couldn’t just lose so inexplicably! Since Xu Yuanzhe stole a kiss from him, he’d kiss him back—he had to turn this round around!
Having made up his mind, the young man checked the time; it was about time for the second period anyway. Xu Yuanzhe’s second period in the afternoon was swimming. Since that guy stole a kiss from him, going to observe him swim probably didn’t count as crossing the line, right?
To avoid looking too deliberate when going to watch Xu Yuanzhe’s swimming class, Ji Wenyu purposely didn’t time it right on the dot, arriving a bit later to catch only the second half of the class. Observing an entire session was something only couples did, but waiting around for half a class could easily be brushed off as waiting to grab a meal together.
Although Zijing University’s natatorium was indoor, one side of the wall consisted of glass panes, allowing people outside to look inside the natatorium, and right outside the facility happened to be a coffee shop. Ji Wenyu’s original plan was to find a table near the pool side inside the coffee shop and sneakily watch Xu Yuanzhe—who would only be wearing swim trunks—through the glass.
Unfortunately, his plan fell through.
The coffee shop at the natatorium entrance was packed to capacity, with zero vacant seats left. Forget sitting by the glass wall on the natatorium side, even the windows on the opposite side required sharing a table just to wait for a spot.
The customers sitting in the row along the glass wall clearly had motives beyond just coffee, all of them sneakily watching the people taking class inside. When Ji Wenyu walked past, he vaguely heard some female voices cueing Xu Yuanzhe’s name. He opened the school forum, searched the abbreviation of Xu Yuanzhe’s name, and sure enough, within no time he found a discussion thread about the Artificial Intelligence department’s grade-one male god Xu Yuanzhe, which mentioned that guy attending swimming class every Friday afternoon.
Ignited once again in his competitive spirit, Ji Wenyu decided to go inside to watch Xu Yuanzhe and casually stake his claim.
Buying two cups of lemon tea to go, the young man clutched the bag of drinks and headed straight for the natatorium’s main entrance.
“Classmate, here to swim?” The front desk at the entrance stopped him.
Carrying zero swimming gear and holding only two cups of drinks, Ji Wenyu talked nonsense with his eyes wide open: “Ah, yes.”
“Register over here.” The front desk said.
Registering, collecting a locker key, depositing his outerwear in the locker, picking out a pair of properly sized slippers from the shoe rack, Ji Wenyu rolled up his trouser cuffs and walked into the swimming area carrying the bag of lemon tea.
A few empty lounge chairs sat by the poolside, and he chose one of them to sit down.
Among the group of guys and girls taking class, everyone wore similar black swim trunks and goggles, making finding someone no easy task.
Fortunately, the person Ji Wenyu wanted to find was Xu Yuanzhe—forever the brightest existence in any crowd, even inside the natatorium right now.
Xu Yuanzhe was tall, with fair skin and evenly proportioned muscle distribution. Ji Wenyu didn’t take much effort to lock onto his target.
Xu Yuanzhe had swum a lap back and forth in the pool, utilizing a freestyle stroke with his arms slicing up countless gorgeous splashes, maintaining a speed ranking at the very top of the pool.
As expected of the man he had set his sights on; not only brilliant academically, but equally unmatched in sports. Ji Wenyu nodded in satisfaction, inserted the straw into one of the lemon teas, and sipped while admiring his man’s handsome swimming form.
With about ten minutes left until class ended for the other person, the young man watched the swim lane for a while, feeling that staring with unblinking eyes like this felt somewhat perverted, so he switched to playing on his phone.
Replying to all the messages he hadn’t had time to answer that morning, Ji Wenyu started scrolling through group chats, checking out the repos of the event Shi Zhiyao and the others hosted last night, and answering people in the group who asked why he hadn’t gone playing basketball in so long and when they were hanging out next. Concentrating deeply on his phone, he didn’t even notice when someone stopped right in front of him.
He only suddenly felt water droplets splashing onto his phone screen.
Was the natatorium ceiling leaking?
Puzzled, Ji Wenyu wiped the first droplet off his screen, and a second droplet quickly appeared in its place.
Only then did he lift his head, caught completely off guard as he locked eyes with Xu Yuanzhe’s face leaning down toward him.
“Ah—Xu Yuanzhe, you walk without making a sound, do you want to scare someone to death!” Startled, the young man accidentally knocked over the remaining half-cup of lemon tea on the table.
The drink spilled along the floor, draining down into the pool’s sewer grate.
Xu Yuanzhe held a towel in his hand and was completely dry on the outside, having clearly already dried off with only his hair still dripping wet.
“Weren’t you here to see me, what are you looking at?” The youth said expressionlessly.
“Looking at you, of course.” Ji Wenyu stood up, naturally taking the towel from his hand and draping it over the other’s head. “Your hair is still wet, dry it off. Class over?”
Xu Yuanzhe’s voice sounded muffled through the towel: “You dry it for me.”
The students from the swimming class in the distance had basically all left, so class must have been over.
Catching sight of someone looking over from the coffee shop wall out of the corner of his eye, Ji Wenyu tightened his grip on the towel. Fine, drying it was drying it; wasn’t he here to find Xu Yuanzhe anyway?
Xu Yuanzhe with dripping hair like a giant drenched dog. The young man worked hard to dry his hair, but his gaze involuntarily drifted downward, noticing the youth’s bulging swim trunks.
The black swim trunks soaked in water had grown darker in color, yet they still outlined a distinct, clear silhouette.
His throat tightening, Ji Wenyu cleared his throat and averted his gaze awkwardly.
“What, caught a cold?” Hearing him cough, Xu Yuanzhe looked over with immediate concern, then keenly noticed his wandering gaze.
A subtle emotion flashed through the youth’s eyes as he deliberately took a step forward, closing the distance toward the young man.
A wave of scorching heat washed over him, causing Ji Wenyu to instinctively step backward.
“What are you doing?”
Xu Yuanzhe blinked innocently: “I’m tall, figured you couldn’t reach.”
“Xu Yuanzhe!” Annoyed, the young man puffed up his cheeks like a little squirrel and dropped the towel. “Not drying it! So what if I’m a little shorter than you, stop looking down on people like that!”
“Then I’ll stand straight.” Xu Yuanzhe shoved the towel back into the other’s hands.
To prove himself, Ji Wenyu had no choice but to take it back. Straightening his back and wanting to reach the top of the other person’s head, he involuntarily stepped closer and stood on tiptoe.
His hair got dried alright, but his abdomen accidentally bumped right into the youth’s wet swim trunks.
Being male himself, he naturally knew what that bulge pressing against him signified.
“Pretty much dry, let’s leave it at that, you still need to shower anyway.”
Dropping the towel, the young man fled in defeat this time.