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Wen Kexing is a fifteen minute walk away from his house when the heavens break and rain starts pouring out of nowhere.
“Are you kidding me,” he states, more than a little annoyed at this predicament. His backpack is waterproof, thankfully, but his denim jacket doesn’t have the same luck.
After some pleading, Luo-yi had helped iron the wrinkles out of this jacket for him yesterday so he could show it off to his A-Xu this morning. He’d approached him before classes, leaning against his locker and waxing poetic about how the artificial flickering lights of the hallway truly illuminated his beauty. He’d scored a split-second smile out of it and a rough Flatterer. Cool jacket, by the way before A-Xu was scowling at him again.
But now that good luck was being washed out by the rain, who didn’t think to give him a warning on his weather app, maybe—
“Lao Wen, stop mourning your expensive jacket and get off my front lawn!”
Wen Kexing very nearly falls headfirst into the wet grass, but manages to catch his balance to avoid making a fool out of himself. He whips around towards the voice, his favourite sound in the world, and spots Zhou Zishu standing on his front porch with his arms crossed.
Ah. Of course. He takes this longer, triple the length route back to his house every single day after school without fail, in the off chance of potentially crossing paths with his A-Xu. Fate has played its hand well, leading him here in front of his crush’s house while he looks like a wet rat.
This is great! His day is going swimmingly!
Wen Kexing clears his throat and turns to face Zhou Zishu fully, smoothing his hair into something more presentable. He smiles brightly and calls out in reply.
“Mourning? What mourning? Though the wind and rain looks dark, and the rooster crows without ceasing, I have seen a fine gentleman, so how should I not rejoice?”[1]
“You’re speaking nonsense poetry again,” is Zhou Zishu’s automatic, classic response. Wen Kexing’s grin gets wider. “Is the rain getting to your head and making you even crazier?”
“A-Xu!” he gasps. The rain is coming down harder as they’re bantering, and he might be shivering a bit, but he’d withstand even the strongest snowstorm for his A-Xu. “I’m not crazy, how could you say that!”
“You’re a lunatic,” Zhou Zishu deadpans. His eyebrows furrow, glancing at how drenched he is, and after a moment of deliberation he asks: “Lunatic Wen, are you going to come inside?”
As if Wen Kexing had planned on going anywhere else.
~*~
“Nice house,” Wen Kexing remarks instantly upon walking in. He’s officially been inside for less than five seconds and is already picturing signing a joint lease. Their signatures would look beautiful next to each other in red and blue ink, he can feel it in his soul. “Is it just you who lives here?”
Zhou Zishu’s answer is gruff. “Yes. Don’t get mud and rain on my rug and floor, or you’re wiping it yourself.”
Wen Kexing is briefly offended that he’d even consider him doing that. “I wouldn’t dare!”
“Glad we’re in agreement then,” Zhou Zishu says. “I’ve only just arrived home for around ten minutes before I saw you outside, so I wasn’t able to get changed into my home clothes. I’m going to go do that and get you some towels. Once you’re dry, you can leave when the rain stops.”
Wen Kexing beams. “A-Xu, how considerate of you! All of this traveller’s sorrow is fading away, for what better place to rest than this?”[2]
Zhou Zishu rolls his eyes but says nothing, used to his dramatics. He leaves him there to shake off some of the rain and heads upstairs to do as he said he would. Wen Kexing is content to peel off the jacket and lay it on the coat rack, as well as remove his shoes and place them on the rubber mat next to Zhou Zishu’s own sneakers. His backpack joins them.
With more peace of mind, he thinks about what to do next. He needs to text Luo-yi and let her know he’ll be home later than scheduled, so he fishes his phone out of his pocket to do so.
Luo-yi 👑
How did Zishu like the jacket?
9:17 AM
A-Xu said it looked cool!!! Thank you for taking the time and ironing it 😭😭😭❤️
9:23 AM
It was no problem at all, A-Xing 💕 I’m glad he liked it! Enjoy the rest of your day at school, don’t cause too much trouble 😘
9:25 AM
I will!!!
9:25 AM
Luo-yi!!! It’s raining!! I’ll be home after it stops, I promise! I’m staying at A-Xu’s house in the meantime, can you believe it??!
4:16 PM
❗️ Message not delivered ❗️
Oh, right. He forgot he’s used up his data for the month— over the weekend, Gu Xiang had gone on her first date with that Cao Weining boy (who really didn’t deserve her, in his humble opinion), and he’d demanded minutely updates even though he was busy with his own errands.
(No, he was not stalking Zhou Zishu again, he was actually grocery shopping.
…and wishing his future boyfriend was doing it with him, but those were semantics.)
90% of Gu Xiang’s “updates” were Ge, leave me alone, and plenty of 🖕🖕🖕 emojis, as well as one Cao da-ge thinks there’s a family emergency because I’m texting so much and I had to explain to him that no, it’s just my idiot clingy brother, so thanks a lot, ge.
Wen Kexing had just smiled.
Then he’d read the text again and frowned at the new address of “Cao da-ge” as opposed to her typical “stupid idiot boy”, but he knew when to cut his losses.
Point is, his little sister and her new boyfriend are the reason he’s out of data. He doesn’t regret it, obviously. Still, that means instead of continuing on into the house and exploring and taking in where his crush lives, he’s standing here in the front foyer opening Settings and scrolling through the Wifi networks, hoping one of them is free and available. Ugh.
Halfway down the unfortunately very closed and private list is a network called Siji-Home, which he assumes is Zhou Zishu’s, considering how it has full bars. He’s also pretty sure he heard something about him coming from a place called Siji Manor, before him and some of the other people living there moved out to this town.
(He doesn’t know a lot about Zhou Zishu with how tight-lipped he is about his past, especially to strangers, but he would like to.)
He taps on Siji-Home anyway, not hoping for much. Honestly, he’s lucky enough to be invited in at all. He is not going to blow it by asking for the Wifi password too and adding to the burden of the love of his life’s bills, or whatever. He’s a gentleman! A philanthropist, if you will!
Enter Password, the screen prompts. A forbidden sort of thrill passes through him, then— what if he manages to guess it? His A-Xu would be none the wiser!
FourSeasons, he tests, trying it in uppercase and lowercase. Incorrect password for network “Siji-Home” pops up on both attempts, so that’s not it. WenKexingBeMyBf, ILYWenKexing, LaoWenPleaseMarryMe, and MyZhijiWKX all yield the same result.
One more guess and I’ll give up, he vows. He won’t play this game any longer, for his beloved’s sake. With a few delicate taps, he types in LaoWen<3, and—
The password loads and goes through, the blue checkmark appearing next to the Wifi symbol in all its glory, showing that he’s connected.
Wen Kexing drops his phone and screams.
Apparently, this reaction has the power to summon Zhou Zishu, who takes the stairs two at a time and rushes into the foyer. He’s brandishing a cool-looking sword in defense and has changed into a clean plain t-shirt and shorts, showing off lean limbs earned from athletics.
Wen Kexing can’t even appreciate them because his name is his crush’s Wifi password.
Zhou Zishu’s eyes scan the room quickly, then they glance over at him to check for any injuries. Some other version of Wen Kexing that is not freaking out would have made a flirtatious remark about his A-Xu checking him out, but this version is too stunned to breathe a single word.
Confirming that there’s no threat or danger, Zhou Zishu sheathes the sword, then tosses it so it drops in the container by the shoe rack that also holds his umbrella. Which, holy shit, he just has a sword. He needs to ask about that later when he’s not dying.
Zhou Zishu gives him an exasperated look, as is customary of their relationship. “No robbery or murder, nothing’s on fire, and you’re unharmed. What the fuck were you screaming for?”
“Um,” Wen Kexing says. He’s usually a lot more eloquent than this, but he does not have the upper hand as of current. “Aha, A-Xu, thanks for coming to my rescue there! Like you said, nothing’s wrong, I just thought I saw a spider—”
“Bullshit. You’re not afraid of spiders,” Zhou Zishu replies, calling his bluff immediately. Why is that so hot? No! He needs to focus. “You trapped one and put it on that poor freshman’s desk just for saying good morning to your sister that one time.”
Wen Kexing can’t help himself. “You remember that?” he blurts.
Zhou Zishu scoffs. “It’s kind of hard not to when we had to sit through a week of anti-bullying lectures and ‘positivity promoting’ activities afterwards.”
At the mention of that thrilling week, which Wen Kexing could honestly credit part of their development in their dynamic to, some of the tension in his shoulders eases.
“A-Xu, admit it!” he pouts. “It wasn’t that bad! The chalk mural activity was fun!”
Zhou Zishu, who has been witness to many of his pouts, remains unfazed by its effects. “You drew our initials in hearts everywhere and I had to keep cleaning them out.”
“How else can I immortalize our love if not in art on the walls of a public institution?”
“You are so weird,” Zhou Zishu says, and Wen Kexing preens.
Then his phone, the traitor, chooses that moment to buzz from the floor with an incoming text, likely meaning his text has gone through and it’s a reply from Luo-yi.
He watches, frozen, as Zhou Zishu picks up the phone to hand it back to him. He glances at the screen, noticing the notifications rolling in and the symbol at the corner.
“Really, Lao Wen? How the hell did you connect to my Wifi? I’m going to have to pay extra for that bandwidth, you know.”
“Um,” Wen Kexing says. He snatches the phone from him and coughs, stuffing it in his pocket. “Magic?”
Zhou Zishu’s eyes narrow. Realization dawns on his face, and he goes a slight shade paler. “You guessed the password.”
“What?” Wen Kexing laughs nervously. “Don’t be silly. It just connected when I walked in. I don’t know what your password is. How could I have guessed it? Don’t make false accusations, A-Xu, it tarnishes my reputation!”
“You’ve always been a terrible liar,” Zhou Zishu replies, pursing his lips. He shrugs, scowling, a self-defense mechanism. “Well, the cat’s out of the bag. Are you going to make fun of me now? You’re my Wifi password. What about it?”
“A-Xu, I’m not going to make fun of you,” Wen Kexing says, appalled. That would be hypocritical of me. “I just… didn’t know you thought so highly of me.”
“Who thinks highly of you?” he retorts. “I think you’re annoying and a stalker. No one can guess that someone as creepy as you would be my password, so it’s good security.”
Wen Kexing smiles. Now who’s the terrible liar? “You’re the one who lets me keep stalking you, so does it really count as stalking? I would rather call it… friendly following. I know, my dear friend, you will ask me: how can this be so? Why, a distant heart will tend towards like places.”[3]
“Friendly following? More infuriating nonsense is what I’m hearing,” Zhou Zishu says. “This isn’t a big deal, anyway. Your phone password is probably worse. Something gross or super flowery.”
Wen Kexing has no shame, at this point. All the cards are laid on the table. “It’s AXu123.”
He’d wanted to put his birthday for the numbers, but his A-Xu’s internet presence was nonexistent and his asking around had come up fruitless, so 123 was a placeholder.
“Oh,” Zhou Zishu says faintly. He seems… relieved, instead of disgusted. “That makes sense.”
Wen Kexing takes that as a good sign and moves a step closer, bumping their shoulders together playfully. “I just can’t believe you’ve liked me all this time, A-Xu, and I’m finding out because of your Wifi password! What was it that did it for you? My good looks, my cool jacket, my flirtatious charms?”
“None of the above,” he says flatly. “I told you that you’re the most annoying person I’ve ever met. It just turns out that I like that.”
Wen Kexing beams, utterly delighted. “I like you too! I like you so much, you know that?”
“Lao Wen, be serious.” Zhou Zishu has heard this same spiel time and time again, but he can’t… What is there to like about him? What does Wen Kexing see in him?
“A-Xu, I’m completely serious with my affections, I swear to you,” Wen Kexing vows, a hand over his heart. “I have loved no one else but you since I first saw you. You’re beautiful, kind, witty, and your sense of humour is incomparable. You are incomparable. No one comes close. What do I need to do to prove it?”
Zhou Zishu blinks, lips parting, his eyes suddenly wet. He hates this man, this impossible person, so much that he might just love him. Heavens above, he can’t stand him. He wants to not stand him forever.
Zhou Zishu makes up his mind and grabs him by the lapels of his collared shirt, fisting the fabric. “Wen Kexing, has anyone ever told you to just shut up?”
Wen Kexing thinks of his sister beating up the last person who tried that in her vicinity and smiles between fanged teeth. “Yes, and it didn’t end well for him.”
Zhou Zishu mutters something that sounds like this won’t end well for me either and kisses him.
Like instinct, Wen Kexing immediately kisses him back. For the amount of times he has imagined this in daydreams— and that is a lot of times— it can’t compare in the slightest to the real thing. Zhou Zishu fits to him like a storm does to the sky, and he wants to drown in him, oxygen be damned.
He clings, and with his fingers through his hair, he tugs, the bravest thing he’s ever done. His A-Xu makes a raw, throaty noise at that, which Wen Kexing swallows greedily.
They kiss for a long time, until they’re both dizzy, until Zhou Zishu regains enough sense to pull apart. He doesn’t stray far though, resting his forehead against Wen Kexing’s, the two of them simply taking each other in.
“A-Xu,” Wen Kexing breathes shakily, overcome with want. “A-Xu. A-Xu.”
Zhou Zishu brushes his thumb over his cheekbone, laughing softly. “Don’t you get tired of calling me so much?”
Wen Kexing leans into his touch. “Having someone’s name to call— having your name to call— could never be tiring.”
“Is that so?” Zhou Zishu replies, amused. “Lao Wen,” he tests, pressing a kiss to the side of his jaw. “Lao Wen,” he hums, one on the corner of his mouth. Wen Kexing shivers. “Lao Wen,” he sings, planting butterfly kisses across the skin of his throat.
Wen Kexing is half out of his mind. “Hmm? A-Xu, what is it?”
Then Zhou Zishu grins and shoves him backwards, throwing a bunched up towel from his pocket at him. It’s a miracle that he doesn’t fall over. “You’re still wet is what.”
“So cruel to this wife of yours, A-Xu!” Wen Kexing moans, but he catches the towel, unwrapping it and starting to dry himself off. “Haven’t you learned that it’s considered improper to tease young maidens?”
“You are not my—” Zhou Zishu pauses. “Hm. Does this mean you agree to do all the cooking from now on?”
“A-Xu!” Wen Kexing whines. “We are living in progressive times! You cannot expect me to—”
Zhou Zishu raises an eyebrow and does a little smirk. Wen Kexing folds like a house of cards.
“Fine,” he groans. “Yes, I’ll do all the cooking. Whatever my pushy husband wants, this dutiful wife will fulfill his desires.”
“Okay, wait, just because you’re my wife, that doesn’t make me your—”
Wen Kexing interrupts him with a quiet: “Would you prefer the term boyfriend?”
Zhou Zishu can’t tell if he’s heard him correctly. “Boyfriend,” he repeats.
“That’s what I said,” Wen Kexing shrugs. He gets on one knee, holding out the half-wet towel towards him with a solemn expression. “A-Xu, won’t you do me the honour of being my boyfriend?”
Zhou Zishu is going to kill him. Or kiss him. “You’re so— yes. Good lord, Wen Kexing. What am I going to do with you?”
Wen Kexing stands up, placing the towel in his hands like it’s an actual ring, then steals a kiss from him like this is an actual proposal. “Whatever you want.”
“You’ll regret saying that.”
“I could never regret anything when it comes to you.”
Zhou Zishu bites the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling. Me too. “The rain’s stopped, Lao Wen. That’s your cue to leave.”
“Throwing me out, are you?” Wen Kexing says, but he grabs his jacket and backpack without protest. He’ll have plenty of time to stay in this house later.
“Text me,” he adds, slipping on his shoes. “You know my number, don’t you, A-Xu?”
Zhou Zishu nods, fond exasperation in his tone. “You’ve given it to me and recited it to my face over a hundred times, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t.”
“Good,” Wen Kexing replies, pleased. “Will you grant this traveller a kiss for the road?”
Zhou Zishu shakes his head but does as asked, hooking an arm around his waist to draw him close. The kiss is long and tangible and a promise most of all, and Wen Kexing melts in it.
“Now go and get out of my sight,” he murmurs, breathless.
Wen Kexing, ever the obliging wife, goes and gets out of his sight.
~*~
Marginally less soaked after being kicked out of his boyfriend’s house, Wen Kexing heads home with a skip in his step.
A-Xu, his boyfriend. He can say that now!
Stepping into the house and entering the dining room welcomes him with the sight of Gu Xiang and Luo-yi sitting on opposite ends of the dining table, tossing fresh roasted nuts in each other’s mouths. Judging from the nuts littering the tiles around his sister’s feet and the few stray ones by his aunt’s chair, Gu Xiang is losing this game of catch horribly.
Luo-yi smiles when she spots him. “A-Xing, you’re finally back.”
Gu Xiang jumps at a flying walnut and snaps it between her teeth in victory. After swallowing, she asks: “How was your date with Zishu-ge?”
“Perfect,” he says instantly, because time with A-Xu can be nothing else, then: “…A-Xiang, how did you know it was a date?”
Gu Xiang chomps on another nut. “Why else do you think I agreed to your embarrassing terms and ruined my date by texting you and wasted both of our data plans for the month?”
“Because you love your brother and I am the most important presence in your life?”
“No,” she huffs, “Well yes, but no, ge, I did it so you’d have no choice but to get your shit together and stop pining.”
“You—” Wen Kexing considers taking the bowl of nuts away from her and eating them all as a temporary form of revenge, but Luo-yi might actually ground him for it, and he won’t get to see A-Xu, so he doesn’t. “You couldn’t have known his Wifi password.”
Gu Xiang is entirely unfazed by his line of questioning, like she expected and prepared for this. He’s so going to hide her kungfu uniform so she’s late for her class this weekend, even if he had gotten a boyfriend out of her meddling.
“Chengling told me,” she shrugs.
“Chengling?” he echoes. “The Zhang family’s youngest kid that A-Xu tutors on the weekends?”
“Yeah, we’re friends,” she says. She pauses. “Kind of. I think he’s scared of me.”
“With a face and fist as fierce as yours, who wouldn’t be?”
Luo-yi watches them bicker in amusement and holds up her hands placatingly. “Kids, behave.”
“Sorry, Luo-yi,” they chorus, like they’re both in elementary school again. The second Luo-yi isn’t looking, they both stick their tongues out at each other, and she pretends she doesn’t notice.
“I’m happy for you, A-Xing,” Luo-yi says warmly. “Invite Zishu over one day for dinner, will you?”
Wen Kexing grins at the thought of his favourite people all together. Getting his A-Xu to agree to interacting with so many is another story, but he’s sure he can get him to come around. “I will!”
His phone vibrates in his pocket, and he reaches for it immediately, knowing exactly who it is. “Ah, that should be a text from my beloved! I’m going upstairs, call me down when dinner’s ready!”
~*~
Unknown Number
I changed my Wifi password.
5:15 PM
Noooo! A-Xu, why would you do that?? Your old one was the best!!
5:16 PM
Don’t make such claims when you don’t know what the new one is yet.
5:17 PM
[Distressed cat sticker] Tell me!!
5:17 PM
[Screenshot_0803.jpeg: Open to Zhou Zishu’s Settings app. In the box where you input the Wifi password, the text reads: ChenglingIsMyFavourite<3 ]
5:18 PM
WHAT
WHAT
WHAT
5:18 PM
A-XU!!! CHANGE IT BACK RIGHT NOW
5:18 PM
A-XU!!!!!!!!!! :( :( :(
5:18 PM
[Wailing cat sticker]
5:19 PM
[Wailing cat sticker]
5:19 PM
[Wailing cat sticker]
5:19 PM
[Meme of sad dog with its paws together that says 求你回来: please come back!!]
5:20 PM
❗️ The message is successfully sent but rejected by the receiver ❗️