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Growing up, maybe Mo Ran was never considered smart, no duh there. He’s always been called a dumb dog ( courtesy of Xue Meng, that stupid peacock ), a moron, an absolute bufoon, maybe even a himbo ( whatever the hell this means ) by the girls on his school campus. But, Mo Ran wasn’t a complete idiot!
Even he would know what he saw on his roommate’s screen. In his… messy might be an understatement here, in his hazard-of-a-room on Chu Wanning’s little ancient PC ( No seriously, how the hell does Google even boot up on that thing ), with flashing lights that could make even the most obnoxious little young master blind from its rays, displaying [YOU ARE A WINNER] on the half-cracked screen.
Right after Mo Ran had gotten his ass beaten in Ap** L**nds by his one and only nemesis/rival/literal demonspawn, user @Yuheng_5, he had ran into Wanning’s room after hearing the VERY loud thump and exhale ( Curse those thin walls ). Usually, Wanning rarely ever made any noise, he rarely even went outside of his room for anything other than going to his own job or to raid the fridge most days when Mo Ran wasn’t home to NOT ogle at this sexy god, he wasn’t a complete creep alright? Who knows what his definitely-not-extremely-hot-and-vulnerable MILF of a room-mate had gotten himself into now, thought Mo-Ron.
That same room-mate who thought doing laundry was just soaking his clothes in water and leaving them outside on their balcony to dry, and without even using the drying rack which Mo Ran had spent $56 on and spent one very long shift to even obtain enough pocket change for. That same room-mate who tried to cook dinner once, only for himself of course, and ended up nearly burning down the entire apartment complex, which was also very difficult to explain to their landlord and other tenants, thank you very much Wanning. And, that very same room-mate who never even considered putting his extremely dangerous inventions and honestly, they should be considered weapons, away before passing out on his bed whenever Mo Ran wasn’t home to force-feed him actual nutrients that weren’t energy bars or coffee and clean up his room himself ( Wanning should hire him to be his maid, he wouldn’t mind doing some hot cosplay fantas–Alright, focus on the topic at hand Mo Ran!).
With all that said, the one thing that Mo Ran expected to see in the room, and he’d already calculated his beautiful bastard of a room-mate getting broken into from ninjas in the walls and having to become Prince Charming to fight off said-burglars with his own dirty worn-out slippers, was not Chu Wanning slapping his danger-of-a-bed in a “Victory Celebration” in Wanning-nese, which Mo Ran had mastered through 5 years of living with him, and seeing that decrepit screen, which mirrored his own [ You Died ] window. Neverminding how Wanning’s room was still messy, ( He swore he reminded Wanning to clean it 2 whole weeks ago!!! ) Mo Ran was still in shock. This was his rival here!!!
The same bastard who, during Mo Ran’s first ever official team-match competition, had knocked him out using a goddamn-pistol, no scope, ( The disrespect here! ) before finally taking the kill with his bare fists. The same bastard who had once danced on top of his corpse while dodging every single shot 3 other players were firing at them. The bastard who would always rudely head-shot him whenever they saw his username pop up in-game. This was the same little man ( Okay, maybe Chu Wanning wasn’t little, he stood at a pretty respectable 181cms ) who had confused sugar with salt and ended up hugging the toilet bowl for an hour with Mo Ran on the side, gently stroking his back and making sure he didn’t completely empty his guts and intestines. Mo Ran swore this man, or woman before finding out the identity of said-person, had a tracker on him or was stream-sniping! Turns out, the bastard was in the room, right next to him. Quite literally under his dog nose.
“Can I help you?” Chu Wanning said, confusion and impatience visible on his face.
.. Mo Ran could visually see his cat-in-room-mate’s-clothing cat ears flatten down. Like an idiot, he stood there before he could finally comprehend human language.
He quickly closed the door before spouting out, “Sorry! Wrong door!” ( Yeah like that was realistic considering how fast he had ran into the room after hearing the little “Thump! Thump!” coming from the other room ) and sauntering back into his own room. User @TaxianJun had ran into a problem..
Nevermind logging back into the game like the sad little loser he was, his PC had already turned off after all, consulting his fans on stream was an even worse idea, in case the sneaky bastard Yuheng would watch. And Mo Ran swore that man was always watching, or maybe er– hearing him through their paper-thin walls! His only choice, and the most obvious one, was to flop down on the bed like a dead fish and fall asleep. He’d worry about it later, maybe even forget about it hopefully. Either way, this was a problem for a well-rested and in-the-future Mo Ran to handle, not in-distress, awake at 4AM, and running on 5 cans of Bang! Energy Mo Ran.
__
12:34 PM
With his dumb alarm of True Love by Jun feat. Schanita blasting ( Don’t judge him, the song is actually quite good ), Mo Ran woke up with a grunt and a thud onto his floor, which was caused by him falling off his bed. Alright, maybe he won’t be well-rested, just in-the-future, or well technically-in-the-present, Mo Ran. The topic of his room-mate was still on his mind, fresher than ever. He couldn’t help it alright! If any one else had a literal God for a room-mate they’d be in distress too. Sympathize a little with this poor husky (´；д ；`)!!
Well, he wouldn’t have time to worry about it too much for the time being, thanks to his luck, or lack of, he still had afternoon classes to worry more about, well it wasn’t like he was even passing the damn class in the first place, attendance credit is still important, kids. With his head peeking out the door frame to check if his room-mate was still home and his casual outfit of literally just the nearest hoodie and the same black sweatpants he wears every night to sleep, Mo Ran made sure to water his plants before locking the door and heading out.
Yawning as he made his way towards campus, it was only a 5 minute walk, God-bless no fees on public transportation or the need to care about whoever poor soul he’d run over if he even had the money to own a car. Mo Ran grabbed a meatbun as he made his way through the streets and into the university buildings for sciences, waving to whatever student said “Hello Mo Ran. Would you like your dick held Mo Ran?”
His answer would’ve been No, thank you very much, he had a hot room-mate on his mind. Maybe try next life-time? if he had even less shame than the already nonexistent bar and even less sleep than was even possible in that one Russian experiment ( God, it’ll haunt his dreams, curse his dumb Tw*tch chat for even linking the damn documentary ).
Mo Ran had been drifting through all of his dumb computer science classes, with only Wanning on his mind, even his peacock of a cousin and Shi Mei noticed.
“What’s up with you all day? You’ve been more zombie than usual,” Xue Meng asked as they walked along the cafeteria walls towards their usual tables.
“...”
“Alright. Sheesh. No need to give me the silent treatment. Was it the loss during yesterday's tournament? The other guy was really good, you can’t blame his ski–”
With a bang, Mo Ran dropped his bags onto the poor table. Even Xue Meng and Shi Mei were shocked. The two gave each other a glance before initiating operation Comfort-Dumb-Dog.
A hand gently rubbed his back, soothing Mo Ran slowly as Shi Mei spoke, “Come on Mo Ran. You still did pretty well. There’s always next matches.”
Mo Ran wasn’t upset at his loss!!! It was to be expected with a player like @Yuheng_5, he was upset at his room-mate being the other player!
Quickly telling a lie about how he had accidentally broken one of his planters, the topic soon moved on from his devastating loss onto.. Wanning.
“Oh yeah, did you guys see on We*bo? Chu Laoshi finally updated his profile!” Xue Meng exclaimed.
Wanning was the type of man who rarely even used social media, Mo Ran would bet his extremely expensive keyboard that the man hasn’t ever even watched cute cat videos online! Chu Laoshi who has never even seen the comfort of a little white kitten, playing around and drinking milk, he’s never seen how cats groom themselves clean or how they blink slowly to show their love!
Updating his profile was a once-in-a-year thing for Chu Wanning. What was it updated to? The picture showed very clearly on Xue Meng’s overly-bright phone ( Come on you peacock! Turn down the brightness for all the gamers here!! ), from the profile picture of a bunch of constellations Mo Ran hadn’t bothered to memorize the names of was turned into a picture of a fat yellow cat ( Goodbye expensive keyboard ). Along with that! Along with that, there was even a post! His last one was 5 whole months ago and was just an informational slideshow on why people should wash their hands regularly reshared from another account.
Up on the screen, was an actual picture of Chu Wanning’s hands holding a pastry from a shop. There was no caption, but Mo Ran could very clearly tell that those were his room-mates hands!! In those hands was a custard bun, whipped cream and chocolate drizzle at the top and even with steam which told everyone that this was freshly made. Mo Ran could excuse the unhealthy amounts of sugar loaded on that abomination, but in the corner of the picture showed the shop logo. Shisheng Peak Bakery, Mo Ran’s workplace, and owned by Xue Meng’s father. It was common knowledge between all frequenters of the general area of the bakery that Wanning was a regular. Terrorizing only Mo Ran with his sugar infected pastry and drink orders.
“Isn’t that the new promotional item at Sir Xue’s?” Shi Mei asked while sipping his cup of espresso.
“Yeah, Dad only made it yesterday. Chu Laoshi was probably asked by him to take a picture,” Xue Meng responded before pulling back his phone and putting it away.
“Knowing Chu Laoshi, he was bribed instead of asked. Who knows how many coupons Uncle Xue gave him,” Mo Ran said with a snicker.
–
Finally, after a few more hours of who knows what actually fully-conscious college students do, Mo Ran trudged back home, phone in hand and a bag of groceries in the other. Even if Chu Wanning was his number one rival, he still has to feed this man, lest he starts to eat the burnt crumbs of whatever rice dish he attempts to cook up.
Mo Ran opened the door to their apartment with a click, settling down all his bags onto the counter, tumbling over the random junk on the floor that Wanning still forgot to clean up, and into his room. The sounds of rustling and banging along with the smell of smoke filled the kitchen and permeated through the rooms. Alright.. Wanning was cooking. He’d have to pray to the Gods that it was edible, or if he knew Mo Ran was home and had made food enough for the both of them.
After his quick shower, Mo Ran tiredly walked into their living room, falling onto the couch with a dull thump and closed eyes. Footsteps could be heard, lightly tapping towards the corpse-er, man. A light clunk could be heard, obviously a plate with food on it, being placed onto their small coffee table. Mo Ran could feel the couch dip down with the weight of another person, along with that familiar deep voice, hoarse with weariness.
“I made dinner, if you don’t want to eat it then throw it out”
Finally opening his eyes and looking down, it was Chu Wanning’s wonton soup on the table. Picking up the spoon that Wanning had also placed down for him, Mo Ran muttered out a thanks and began to eat with the man sitting next to him, sipping only a cup of coffee.
He should be the adult here, ignoring the fact that Chu Wanning was indeed his senior by ten whole years, Mo Ran should still handle this like the mature adult he was. He shouldn’t get this upset over a silly game with an even sillier rivalry between a player who couldn’t even understand basic internet slang and played on a shitty half-broken laptop. It was all a coincidence afterall, but Mo Ran’s heart couldn’t take this difference. @Yuheng_5 was always so cold to him! Mo Ran had always tried to be kind and friendly to all players, but the high and lofty immortal Yuheng had broken this rule. After every match, he would end up trending with a clip of him yelling after his defeat. There was no way Chu Wanning couldn’t hear.
Sneaking a glance over to his side, Wanning sat straight, still sipping at his cup and switching through the channel on their little television. His side profile was breath-taking, high nose, puffy cheeks, and pouty lips. His eyes were creased, the way they’d always frown whenever he was paying close attention to something.
… He seriously couldn’t tell if Wanning knew that he was hot or just extremely oblivious. How could this man, with the absolute perfect waist that Mo Ran would murder to just hold and press down on. Chu Wanning would gasp under him, eyes full of tears and half a pout on his lips–No more of these thoughts Mo Ran! His room-mate was right there, not knowing about Mo Ran and Xiao Ran’s internal fight.
It was too late at night for these types of thoughts. He still needed to get up early tomorrow and do all of the house chores that Wanning couldn’t handle ( Which was all of them aside from cooking ). Swiftly finishing his meal, he went over to the kitchen to place the cutlery down for later, and went back into his room. Literally passing out on his bed. He could push this back another day or so. He’d soon talk about this and Wanning’s whole gamer profile soon. He swears this time!