As Xun Jin clung to Talon’s neck, the sound of those two voices immediately conjured two faces in his mind hunters.
A chill ran down Xun Jin’s spine; his fangs instantly retracted, and even the crimson tint in his eyes vanished without a trace.
The hand resting on his forehead was lifted away. Xun Jin locked eyes for a split second with Weixin, who was standing right behind Talon, facing him head-on. The next moment, Mann grabbed his upper arm and yanked him up off Talon’s lap.
Talon reacted swiftly. Keeping a tight grip on his shirt, the moment Xun Jin stood up, he quickly draped the garment over his shoulders, wrapping it around his neck like a scarf to conceal the area bearing the bite marks.
Weixin frowned, casting a suspicious glance at Talon before looking down at his clothes.
Neither Talon nor Xun Jin dared to breathe a word, their minds paralyzed by Weixin’s oppressive aura, rendering them incapable of uttering a single syllable of excuse.
“Aren’t you going to put it on?” Weixin said.
As it turned out, Weixin hadn’t noticed the tooth marks on his shoulder and neck.
Talon and Xun Jin exchanged a covert, nervous glance and simultaneously let out a sigh of relief.
Mann pulled Xun Jin toward him. “You’re still looking at him?”
Even someone as famously easygoing as Mann spoke with a severe tone now.
Xun Jin shrank his shoulders and kept quiet.
“What is going on with you two? What were you doing just now?” Mann demanded.
“We…”
“Shut your mouth.” Talon’s attempt to speak was cut short by Weixin.
Weixin shifted his gaze to Xun Jin. “You tell me.”
Xun Jin was pulled back under the sunshade, where three tall boys stood before him, blocking out the majority of the harsh sunlight.
Xun Jin kept his head lowered, his long eyelashes casting small shadows beneath his eyes.
“Speak,” Weixin said coldly.
Looking for a lifeline, Xun Jin cast a pleading look at Talon, only to have it rebuffed the next second by Weixin’s stern glare.
Yet he honestly had no idea how to explain it.
Talon stepped in to smooth things over, clearing his throat first. “Ahem, well, actually… Xiao Jin and I are together now.”
Mann and Weixin fell silent in unison.
Taking advantage of the pause, Xun Jin peeked upward again, only to find both of their expressions looking remarkably heavy and grim.
Mann tried to interpret it from another angle. “I saw you two together, which is why I asked what you were doing—”
“No! I mean, Xiao Jin and I are dating,” Talon hurriedly interrupted Mann to clarify.
Mann: “…”
“Hey, what’s with that look? Are you still my brothers or not?” Making a show of nonchalance, Talon raised both hands and gave Mann and Weixin friendly pats on the back.
“Is this the kind of tactic you use to find boyfriends?”
As soon as Weixin dropped those words, everyone froze, including Xun Jin.
Slowly tilting his head back up, Xun Jin stared at Weixin standing against the light. Weixin didn’t seem to care about getting an answer from Xun Jin and just kept talking.
“First you said you liked me, and now, not even two or three days later, you’ve moved on to someone else.”
“When you told me you liked me, your little boyfriend was right there in the neighboring booth watching, and you hadn’t even broken up with him yet.”
“Are you really that good at seamless transitions? Don’t you know people are saying you’re two-timing multiple people?”
Stunned, Xun Jin stared at Weixin’s non-stop tirade, his mouth slightly parted without a chance to squeeze in a single word.
What on earth was wrong with this guy.
“When you run out of things to say, you just put on this pitiful, innocent expression. You’re really good at portraying yourself as fragile and weak, aren’t you?”
“What is this supposed to mean? Do you think everyone falls for this act of yours?”
Xun Jin frowned. “I didn’t…”
Compared to Weixin, Xun Jin’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzzing.
“Can’t argue back, so you resort to acting spoiled? Is that the only trick you know?”
He was not acting spoiled!
Biting his lower lip, Xun Jin turned the corners of his mouth down while his chin trembled slightly. As he blinked, he slowly raised his eyelids, the shadows beneath his eyes lifting as his eye sockets gradually filled with moisture.
A wave of inexplicable irritation surged through Weixin. Reaching out, he grabbed Xun Jin’s chin and forced it upward.
“Don’t touch me!”
Reacting with sudden intensity, Xun Jin slapped Weixin’s hand away.
The anger in Weixin flared up instantly, but the moment he saw Xun Jin’s fluttering eyelashes and his hands nervously twisting together after lashing out, that burst of anger shifted into an entirely different sensation and plummeted downward.
“Weixin.”
Talon stepped forward to intervene, but Mann held him back, leaving him to watch helplessly as Xun Jin was bullied without being able to talk back.
Particularly when Xun Jin slapped Weixin away Talon had never seen anyone dare to show such disrespect to Weixin, and fearing Weixin might do something irrational to Xun Jin, he shoved Mann away off-guard and hurried forward to shield Xun Jin behind him.
“Weixin, don’t go too far.”
“He’s my boyfriend. Did you even consider my feelings treating him like this?”
Weixin’s gaze darkened. Shoving his hands deep into his pockets, he let out a cold sneer. “Then you tell me, what were you two doing just now?”
Mann stepped up beside him, first glancing at Xun Jin hiding behind Talon before speaking with stern gravity. “You weren’t even wearing your shirt and you were wrapped around each other. If we hadn’t shown up, were you planning on taking off your pants next?”
Talon pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. “It’s not what you guys are thinking.”
Nervously tugging at the hem of Talon’s shirt, Xun Jin was terrified that Talon might spill the secret about him being a vampire.
He still needed to get close to Weixin; he absolutely could not let his identity as a vampire be exposed right now, or else the current Weixin would surely kill him.
“We were actually… on a date.”
Weixin sneered again.
Mann laughed aloud in sheer speechlessness. “Who goes on a date in a bedroom bed and on an empty rooftop?”
“He’s my boyfriend. Isn’t it completely normal for us to go on dates like this? Why do you guys always have to meddle?”
Xun Jin finally reached his breaking point. Tilting his head back, he glared at Weixin and the momentarily speechless Mann. “Being in a relationship is a matter between two people, and I haven’t bothered anyone else. Why are you always trying to disrupt things? What you’re doing is wrong.”
Disrupt things… what you’re doing is wrong…
Weixin and Mann exchanged glances, their complex complexions shifting between shades of green and blue, looking thoroughly wretched.
Right. Without any official standing, what right did they have to interfere?
Hearing this, Talon swelled with triumph. Straightening his posture even further, he reached out to pat the shoulders of the other two men and repeated Xun Jin’s words verbatim.
“Yeah, Xiao Jin and I are dating each other. Stop trying to butt in and ruin things over and over again.”
“Why don’t you guys give us some space and talk about whatever else later? Leave Xiao Jin out of it he doesn’t know anything, why yell at him? Just yell at me instead.”
Weixin shot Talon a sideways glance.
Now he’s playing the protector.
I’m the bad guy here.
Inside the car, Xun Jin glanced back at the school growing smaller and smaller in the distance, a look of worry clouding his face.
“What are you looking at?” Weixin asked flatly.
Straightening up, Xun Jin stared straight ahead.
Weixin looked as though he had more to say, but held back.
Talon had been kicked into the driver’s seat by Mann, leaving Weixin and Mann to sit on either side of Xun Jin in the backseat, making the space feel rather cramped.
Cradling his schoolbag, Xun Jin sat obediently in his seat.
His shorts rode up, revealing a pair of long, white legs with skin so flawless and delicate that pores were invisible. The bandage on his knee looked all the more striking by comparison.
“What happened to your leg?”
Xun Jin heard Weixin’s question, but had zero desire to answer him.
Knowing Weixin would likely find another excuse to lecture him, Xun Jin wasn’t about to hand him that opportunity.
“Take a fall?” Mann raised a hand and gently smoothed down a stray lock of hair sticking up on the crown of Xun Jin’s head.
“Mhm.” Xun Jin gave a small nod.
Weixin glanced at Mann, even Mann’s affectionate gesture suddenly looking irritating to his eyes.
He replies to Mann, but ignores me?
Fine.
Resting his chin on his hand with his elbow propped against the car door, Weixin turned his head to stare out the window, refusing to look at the person beside him.
Looking down at the two men squeezing him from both sides, Xun Jin noticed how they sat with their legs splayed open, pressing tightly against his own legs and forcing him to keep his knees squeezed together. Sitting like this was agonizingly uncomfortable; he felt like he was about to be compressed into a sheet of paper.
He glanced over at Talon and pointed toward the empty front passenger seat. “I want to sit over there.”
Weixin: “Is it really that unbearable to be apart from him even for a second?”
Mann: “Sitting in the front isn’t safe, sit with me.”
Shifting his shoulders slightly, Xun Jin let himself sink helplessly back into the cushions and fell silent.
He had no idea where these hunters were dragging him. Judging by Weixin’s aggressive demeanor, Xun Jin half-suspected he was being taken straight to the hunters’ lair.
If Talon hadn’t promised to take him out to have fun, Xun Jin wouldn’t have gotten into this car in the first place.
He had even skipped his afternoon classes, and he could only pray his teacher wouldn’t notice.
“Who are you thinking about?”
Weixin had already stepped out of the vehicle. Leaning against the car door, he stood outside and looked down at Xun Jin from above.
“I skipped class,” Xun Jin said timidly.
“I had someone excuse your absence.” Weixin sounded deeply impatient. “Get out.”
Xun Jin didn’t move, tightening his grip around his schoolbag.
Frowning, Weixin leaned his upper body inside and reached out a hand toward Xun Jin.
Reacting like a startled rabbit, Xun Jin shuffled hurriedly toward the opposite side, and under Weixin’s increasingly gloomy gaze, he scrambled out through the other car door instead.
“Ha-ha.” Mann laughed unceremoniously.
With a dark expression, Weixin slammed the car door shut with enough force to make Xun Jin jump, nearly causing him to fumble closing his own door.
Talon grabbed Xun Jin’s hand and pulled him behind himself. “I’m telling you guys, why do you insist on tagging along?”
What was supposed to be a romantic two-person outing had now, remarkably, devolved into a party of four.
“It was my idea to come to this place in the first place, so don’t act like we’re just shameless freeloaders. You agreed to it back then, didn’t you?” Mann said.
Xun Jin couldn’t make sense of what they were arguing about; they must have hashed it out while he wasn’t around.
He turned his attention to the flamboyant, oversized archway standing before them. It was shaped like a rainbow or a small bridge, decorated with various cartoon characters across its structure. Above the entrance, brightly colored characters spelling out “Paradise World” caught his eye.
Was this an amusement park?
Why had they brought him here?
Talon and the others were still bickering.
Talon: “I thought you guys were kindly helping your buddy brainstorm, who knew you’d end up tagging along too.”
“Do you know why Weixin and I chose this place? To show Xun Jin what a proper date looks like, so he stops getting led astray by you.”
“Then you guys can at least let us go on our date!”
Xun Jin gave Talon’s hand a gentle shake, instantly pulling Talon’s focus away from Mann. Looking down at Xun Jin, Talon’s gaze softened into something tender.
“Are we here to play?” Xun Jin asked softly.
“Yeah, do you like it?” Talon unconsciously mirrored Xun Jin’s soft tone.
Xun Jin couldn’t say he loved it, nor could he say he hated it, so he simply nodded.
Watching Xun Jin nod rhythmically, Talon’s heart melted into a puddle. A smile broke across his face as he took a few steps toward Xun Jin, closing the distance between them.
“Ha, his mood changes fast.” Mann kept a smile on his face no matter what; even in this situation, he could still manage to grin.
Mann raised his arm, intending to sling it over Weixin’s shoulder, but met empty air. Turning his head, he saw that Weixin was already walking ahead into the park.
He had been the one insisting on bringing Xun Jin out to have fun, yet he was the first to storm off ahead.