Chapter Text
“That’s the curious part about speaking the truth. No one does believe it.”
-Agatha Christie, The Secret Adversary
Gently poking through the thin aqua curtains, the sunlight from the rising sun infiltrate the poorly lit room. Sunlight landing on a neatly written manuscript placed on top of a stack of thick books, landing on an empty Jerry designed mug that was once filled with coffee beside an empty plate with bread crumbs scattered on it and landing on an open page of a novel that was currently being read. It was quiet, save for the occasional flipping of pages and soft gasps and giggles from the reader.
His phone starts buzzing from its place on the bedside table and he placed the bookmark to the page he regretfully has to read later on after the whole day has passed. Xinchun gingerly places the book on the pillow beside him and stretches his arms and releases a sigh when the satisfying ‘pop’ sound appeared. He picks up the mug and plate and heads out of his room.
Xinchun passes by his dorm mate’s room and taps it as loud as he can using his left foot and only leaves for the kitchen when he heard the shrill ringing of his dorm mate’s alarm. His dorm mate and best friend, Lu Dinghao, has never been a morning person and hates being forced awake (he never understood why Dinghao even decided to take 8 am classes when the man can barely comprehend anything during the early hours of the day). The longest time it took him to get up was almost 30 minutes and Xinchun changed all the clocks in the dorm 20 minutes earlier to get the older moving.
He places the mug and plate in the sink and prepares coffee and a light breakfast for the two of them. It’s been like this for the past 2 years. Xinchun waking up Dinghao and preparing breakfast, taking a nap or clean the dorm a bit, head to class, lunch with Dinghao and Jeffrey and do whatever after the classes. Usually, it’s just him heading over to the library to review or watching random videos on Weibo about book reviews or listening to Dinghao whine about Jeffrey (and vice-versa depending on who comes to him first).
His mother would tell him to go out more and leave his books for once because Xinchun, darling, it’s college! Make memories with your friends, try something different from that routine for once. You haven’t even dated even once!
When Xinchun shared his mother’s worry to his (only) friends, Jeffrey and Dinghao brought him to a party by some popular basketball player and he does not ever want to try and fight his way through a crowd of sweaty and alcohol induced people trying to grind on each other ever again. The memory of being flirted on by someone high on who knows what was placed on their drinks and later on throws up on his shoes after a few seconds still gave him nightmares.
Arms wrap around his waist and he hums in greeting and Dinghao buries his face into Xinchun’s sweater in response. Dinghao’s clingy when he just woke up. He remembers the first time Dinghao clinged on him on the first week of being dorm mate and remembers how he almost kneed the elder because of surprise, it’s funny how easily they slipped into the routine they have now.
“...Chun, the egg is going to burn if you keep looking at it without flipping it.” He mumbles into the sweater, probably smelling the fabric conditioner that they usually use.
“And you’re going to get yelled for being late if you don’t take a shower now.” He comments to hide his embarrassment of almost burning their breakfast. Dinghao huffs and unwraps himself from Xinchun, mumbling about how stupid morning classes are and how stupid he was for signing up under it in the first place. He reminds Dinghao to turn on the water heater before he steps in and Dinghao simply yells something that sounded like a “ thanks ” and “okay” combined.
Anyone from outside would probably think the two of them were together with how “domestic” (the exact word his History 2 seatmate used) they were at home and how clingy they were at each other outside. At first, there was a rumour spreading around their campus gossiping website about them dating and other details that were inappropriate and utterly untrue. He remembers the dirty looks and heavy whispering every time they would pass by the halls and even some professors would ask them.
He doesn’t know how it got cleared up but out of the blue a day before the reviews for their exams, a female from another department came up to their dorm room and apologized for the rumours and rambled on about jealousy and insecurity that’s why she posted it. Xinchun accepted her apology right away and the next day, its as if nothing of it happened and no one was whispering behind their backs for the past weeks. Dinghao said maybe some of the kids pitied them and decided to help out. He doubts it but it’s better not to question. The smell of the almost burning rice gets him out of his memory roll and focuses on the task.
The rest of the morning follows their routine perfectly and before 7am, Dinghao’s out the door with Jeffrey waiting outside the dorm building. Xinchun waves at him and gives a thumbs up before starting on clearing the dishes. His phone rings from the counter and he checks the notification. An email from their level head about an upcoming play and auditions. He deletes the mail after reading the whole thing, it’s not that he isn’t interested-- he’s just scared of trying to apply.
College during their festivals and annual events is like a war field and if you don’t thicken your skin and falters at the slight threat, then you’re down for the count. Xinchun does not want a repeat of what happened way before. He prefers being an onlooker and giving written reviews to his schoolmates rather than standing in front of a lot of people again.
He opens the school website and isn’t surprised to see a post about the play already up and having more than 300+ comments. He looks at the details for Dinghao, the other really likes acting and performing. He remembers how the other cried when someone blackmailed a staff of the play before to switch him out of the play. It’s cruel, Dinghao said through tears, but people are scared of the truth being said at places and people they don’t want to reveal it too. I’ll understand their side. It’s fine, really. He remembers that day Jeffrey was out to watch a basketball game held on the other side of the city and the moment Xinchun texted him about it, Jeffrey drove all the way from the other side to comfort Dinghao and even bought the other’s favorite snacks and sweets.
Why don’t they get together? It’s been 6 years,will they ever get together? He recalls the time he was on the phone with Jeffrey and compared them to Tommy and Tuppence from The Secret Adversary and said that Dinghao fits the character of Tuppence, a young woman that acts quickly whenever she gets an idea and is quite quick on their feet while Jeffrey would be Tommy, Tuppence's partner and is somewhat slow but has a great way of thinking when it comes to different situations and said the two got married in the end. He didn't notice Dinghao and his other friend, Zhangjing, were listening to him because his voice was too loud and was welcomed with a pillow in the face when he entered the living room.
He snickers at the memory of Dinghao's red face and Zhangjing saying "It was kind of obvious you guys liked each other anyway" and scrolls down the post to find something else aside from the date and time of the auditions.
His eyes land on a certain user’s name, Biiiii毕雯珺. One of the top performers of the drama theatre club and someone he has known ever since. He wouldn’t say they were childhood friends or friends at all, maybe distant acquaintances or something bordering strangers and acquaintances. They’ve only talked once during a project they were supposed to do on their first year in high school but got switched partners because they both had high grades on that subject and to help the ones struggling in that field. After that, there were a few small talks here and there and stopped talking completely after graduation. They didn’t have any more interactions after it because of how different they were.
Wenjun was one of the popular kids, Xinchun was a wallflower ever since. They never cross paths because one, Xinchun is afraid of the people around Wenjun, especially the one who looked like he was not afraid to punch him in the face if he said something wrong and the strict looking person who seemed like he was going to scrutinize his every move. Making assumptions and stereotyping aren’t good things at all but he can’t seem to shake off the fear he gets whenever he looks at them or passes by them on the hallways.
Two was because, well, he’s Xinchun and he’s Wenjun. That is simple enough to understand. If this was a food pyramid, he’d be at the bottom and they’re at the top. They’re too different.
His phone rings again and this time it’s a reminder for him to get moving to fix his things and shower. He sets another reminder for himself to make a grocery list since his pay check is coming on Thursday. Xinchun leaves his phone on the counter and heads over to get a change of clothes. He doesn’t see the phone light up in a notification of a new message and doesn’t get to read it later on because it was deleted right after it was sent.
"Why don't we set up Xinchun and Wenjun?" Xinchun almost chokes on the sandwich he took a bite off. Dinghao was going on again about how they should progress with Xinchun hopeless admiration towards the other. He kind of regrets telling it to Jeffrey who told Dinghao who accidentally told his mother and to his surprise his mother didn't even react with disgust as he expected, she just said that she's happy that he finally has feelings towards another person and not towards a book or a fictional character. I've always had feelings for someone, I just never told anyone.
Jeffrey snorts and steals a chip from Dinghao's tray, "Right and then what? Watch Xinchun run away while Mr. Popular's fan girls run after him and torture him out for information on what they were doing alone?" The thought makes Xinchun's whole body shiver in fear at the image.
"Any suggestions then?" He slaps away Jeffrey's hand when he tries to take another chip and Jeffrey huffs, "I don't know, Hao. Maybe let them do things at their own pace?"
"Oh, so you mean not let anything happen at all?"
Xinchun quietly sneaks away from the table to leave Dinghao and Jeffrey alone. The two were having a glaring-staring contest (Dinghao mostly doing the glaring and Jeffrey does the staring) and refused to break eye contact until one of them would admit defeat for whatever they were talking about before arriving at their usual spot behind the bleachers of their indoor gym. He knows Dinghao meant well, after all, Xinchun has been talking about his little admiration for Wenjun ever since they both warmed up to each other almost 2 years ago but he's fine with just watching from afar (though maybe he does welcome the idea of at least being friends)
Sure, I guess you can try and forget about the avoiding him, Xinchun thinks while segregating his trash before placing them in the color coded trash bins, a quick hello when he's passing by your seat during Chemistry won't be weird right?
“That’s recyclable!” Someone beside them hisses and the other one simply drops their trash like they didn’t hear their companion. The third one just shakes his head at them and taps away on his phone, probably contacting their other friend or maybe posting something like “My friends are idiots” because Dinghao does that a lot whenever Xinchun and Jeffrey fight over what movie to watch. “Justin, you’re going to give them a difficult time not putting trash in their proper place!”
Ah, he’s that Huang Minghao that almost burned the chemistry lab from laughing while trying the rainbow fire experiment. Xinchun walks away from the quarrelling tall and intimidatingly popular group and catches a glimpse of a ton of paper stacked up near their feet. If he’s Justin, the one on the phone is probably Zhu Zhengting, I think he was the stylist and the other one is Fan Chengcheng? Yikes, I was standing with the people on top of the food chain. That was terrifying.
It’s not that they were mean because honestly speaking, Xinchun has never interacted with them except for pairings in school work and he doesn’t spend time with them after. He thanks them for the good work, excuses himself and disappears before an offer of “ hey, want to hang out before you go?” comes out of nowhere. Which has happened twice in the span of 2 years of having the same History classes with Zhu Zhengting, he left before the other could even mutter a word or glance in his direction.
It’s just that they have a huge difference in their personality and views and also a threatening large amount of admirers that would bare their fangs at anyone who goes against them (plus the shorter dancer that seems to be always on guard and has a pointed glare at anyone who comes near.) The only person he isn’t scared of totally is Bi Wenjun, their university’s favorite supporting character and probably calmest person he’s ever met.
Xinchun hears a yell and a soccer ball hits the back of his knees. The hit wasn’t that strong, it was actually weaker than he expected and maybe the weakest he’s ever experienced in being hit by flying sport balls but he’s Xinchun and he’s clumsy. He trips over his own foot and he hears footsteps and the devil’s (Dinghao) laughter that resounds throughout the air.
“I’m sorry!” A pale blonde boy squeaks out and helps him up. “I didn’t mean to hit you!”
He dusts his shorts and feels the tips of his ears slowly burning up because of the amount of people staring at them. God, he hated the feeling of being stared at. “I’m fine. Please go on with your game.” Xinchun hopes he gets the underlying the people are staring at us can we end this quick but it seemed that he didn’t because boy tells him to wait and calls over to his friends and asks for a bandage and he feels his face turn a bit warmer than before because that’s Bi Wenjun standing 3 meters away and getting closer.
The intimidating shorter dancer he was thinking of earlier pulls out a box of band aids from his bag and tosses it to the boy who barely catches it. That’s when Xinchun looks down and notices that his knee is scraped and bleeding but it's a small wound and he doesn't know why that's a big issue but he guesses the kid feels bad. He's kind of cute, I guess He watches the boy go on endlessly about wounds and how he should’ve been more careful with kicking the ball since it’s first time playing and Xinchun doesn’t know what to do with the information he gathered.
“Quanzhe, it’s not that big of a wound. Stop sounding like he’s dying and let the poor kid go, his ears are shining bright.”
The pale blonde boy-- who is apparently named Quanzhe, let’s go of his knee and apologizes again for taking too much time to put on a single band aid. He feels someone staring at his face and looks up and his heart almost stopped because Bi Wenjun is looking at him so intensely. Abort the greeting plan, I can't even look at him for more than 5 seconds. He panics when Wenjun opens his mouth and even more panics when he realizes the question is directed at him.
“You look familiar. Have we met before?” Wenjun asks and Xinchun feels the speed of his heartbeat increase by a tenfold.
He aggressively shakes his head, “No, I believe this is the first time we spoke to each other. Thank you for the band aid, I’ll take my leave.”
Xinchun bows and brisk walks away and hits Jeffrey and Dinghao on the shoulder for just watching him go through all that alone. He can feel people still staring at his back and pushes Dinghao and Jeffrey to go walk faster, ignoring their whines about how painful his grip was on them. He hushes both of their nagging about losing his first chance at making a conversation and threatens to clip their mouths in their sleep if they don't lower their voices. It’s better this way if we don’t know each other.
He makes his way inside the left wing of the building, missing the whispers and glances that a certain group had on him the whole time.