“Are you fucking planning to stay naked like this until you drop dead? I thought you were pretty cocky out on the court the other day, how come you’re such a coward today, letting them strip you bare without uttering a single peep?” Qi Shun stood before him with a dark, brooding face.
Fei Qinan raised his head, his gaze hazy as he recognized who had come. He ignored the question and turned his head away.
“Oh? Suddenly growing a spine with me, are you? Tsk tsk..! Looks like that’s why Lin Hao and his gang lost interest in playing with you once they saw you like this, huh?” Qi Shun stood cross-armed, mocking him.
“Are you going to join them and keep playing?”
The question instantly made Qi Shun fly into a rage. He strode forward, yanked Fei Qinan to his feet, grabbed him by his slender chin, and glared at him viciously. “You think I wouldn’t dare play with you?”
“Hah! How do you want to play? Just like them? Oh, my apologies, I don’t have any clothes left on. Why don’t you just skin me alive? Though this flesh and blood is a bit battered, if you just take a knife and slice…”
“FUCK! Are you genuinely a monster, or just out of your damn mind?” Qi Shun shoved him aside violently, glanced down once more at the stark-naked Fei Qinan, and began cursing aloud to himself.
“Damn it, I must have owed you in a past life. What an eyesore of a guy!! FUCK!!”
Muttering under his breath, he began peeling off his own clothes, tossing his shoes aside a moment later.
“What are you staring at? It’s too damn hot, I don’t want to wear this much, got a problem with it?” Clad in only a white short-sleeved T-shirt and boxer shorts, Qi Shun turned and stalked off without looking back.
Walking barefoot along the uneven path, every few steps brought a sharp, bruising pinch to his soles. Irritated, he lifted his feet to pat them off before continuing on, only to step on another jagged pebble shortly after. Amidst a steady stream of curses and exasperated huffs, he hopped and skipped his way out of sight.
Watching the barefoot figure stride off into the distance, the corners of Fei Qinan’s mouth unexpectedly twitched upward into a faint curve.
This man seemed even more abnormal than he was.
The next day, Qi Shun did not come to class. The third day, still no sign of him.
A week later, the moment Fei Qinan stepped into the classroom, he spotted that familiar, slumped figure buried in sleep.
He lightened his footsteps, walked over to his desk, and sat down without greeting Qi Shun. As usual, he studied, while Qi Shun slept; he did his homework, while Qi Shun continued to sleep; he ate his lunch, while his companion remained fast asleep.
When afternoon classes ended, the classroom was once again left with just the two of them, one lost in a daze, the other buried in slumber.
As the school clock struck seven, Qi Shun slowly stirred and sat up.
Perhaps his arm had gone slightly numb from the pressure, as he shook it out, then glanced at Fei Qinan, who was staring blankly out the window. “Is the scenery outside really that good? You never go home after school and just sit here spacing out, is your brain fried too?”
“I didn’t know you were coming today, so I didn’t bring your school uniform. Though, it seems you don’t need one anyway.” The brand-new school uniform Qi Shun wore was living proof that school rules were nothing more than a blank sheet of paper to him.
When he had gone to the dean’s office to request a replacement uniform, the teachers had chewed him out furiously, lecturing him on how he had managed to ruin his uniform mere moments after entering the school and possessed zero respect for school insignia.
“Did I ask you about the uniform?” Qi Shun was so infuriated by the non-sequitur he nearly coughed up blood.
“I just didn’t want to go home so early,” Fei Qinan replied, picking up his school bag and preparing to leave.
“What? Afraid the tiger at home is going to devour you?” Qi Shun wasn’t blind or stupid; how long of a beating would it take for a person’s body to accumulate scars that layered new wounds over old ones, permanently branded into their skin?
“It’s fine. I’m used to it.”
Outside, rain had begun to fall at some point. Without an umbrella, Fei Qinan walked unhurriedly and alone down the school’s shaded path, completely unbothered by the rain soaking him through.
At that moment, the roar of a heavy motorcycle echoed from behind. It rocketed past him, sending up a spray of water that made him pause in his tracks.
The motorcycle roared as it made a U-turn and pulled back around. Beneath the helmet, the face was Qi Shun’s.
“Are you coming with me or not?” Five words snapped from his lips.
The rain was growing heavier. Fei Qinan stared into his eyes for a moment before nodding unexpectedly. Right there, in the drizzle of an early autumn rain, he climbed onto Qi Shun’s motorcycle, setting off a lifelong entanglement that would bind them together forever…