Chapter Text
(ao) yin ; [4:32 AM]
u coming to class tmrw?
li lun (me) ; [4:37 AM]
You mean today?
(ao) yin ; [4:37 AM]
smartass
yes
?
????
.
hello?
li lun (me) ; [4:45 AM]
Sorry
Yeah
Headmistress sent in the Three Week Notice the other day
I’ve no choice
Will be there!
(ao) yin ; [4:46 AM]
FINALLY.
thank you!
ill see u then
gn <3
li lun (me) ; [4:46 AM]
Good… morning.
(ao) yin ; [4:47 AM]
ffs
GOOD NIGHT
go to bed
damn
li lun (me) ; [4:48 AM]
Lol
Bye
--
zhuo yichen wakes to the sound of the door of his dorm room creak open, slowly.
he squints into the dark, waiting. when the door clicks shut, he rasps out confusedly, “ying lei…?” and when he hears a thump of a bag falling to the floor, he rises on his arm, watching aimlessly, “zhuyan.”
he sees the figure closing in near his bed and reach for the light lamp next to him, switching on the dim light.
he frowns at zhuyan, blinking to adjust to the sudden light that floods his vision. the other boy is fully dressed in their school uniform, tie loose in his collar. platinum white hair combed to perfection, some strands amiss on his forehead. black blazer in place. he deadpans, “it’s 4 am, we’ve 4 hours to go.” he looks up to meet zhuyan’s eyes and sees that familiar exhaustion again, sighs, sitting up properly, “your father?”
the other boy pushes back the blankets and sits down, removing his blazer. he begins to fold it, humming in response.
yichen doesn’t push. only, “he allowed you out this early?”
zhuyan huffs out a laugh, sets aside the folded blazer to the bedside table, “it’s nearing exam season; he doesn’t question it when i tell him we’ve extra classes, however early it is. you think he’s the type to?”
yichen sends a curse to the man and lays back down, “i’ve the alarm set.”
he’s done this way too many times. most days he’d offer to talk, but tonight seemed to be one of those days zhuyan didn’t wish for it. and yichen is all too well accustomed with his tells to know with just a look.
so that’s all he says.
he’d set the alarm.
“and you’re telling me this because?” he’s fishing for it, he always fishes for it.
he rolls his eyes, too tired for zhuyan’s antics. it’s 4 am for fuck’s sake. it doesn’t help that he went to bed a little after 1 either, “just lay down.”
“thank you!” he returns cheerfully, laying down and adjusting the blankets around him, sighing, content. he breathes, smile audible in his voice when he says, “this dorm is worth all the money you’re putting into it, genuinely.”
zhuyan always does this. he’ll let yichen know if his father did something specifically terrible in passing, and then. and then he would immediately change the subject by saying something just to say something. to let free the air of what is going on with him.
and yichen? yichen allows him that privilige. that privilege zhuyan doesn’t get too often.
the privilege that comes with being able to choose.
choices.
so he never truly finds it in him to ask zhuyan to speak. to just tell him all he’s holding back, to elaborate. but the other only does that on some days, the rest of the time when he’d barge into yichen’s apartment or sneak into his dorm, he’d mostly stay mum about the details.
yichen really doesn’t want to speak, but he felt obliged to say, “it’s the bed.”
“it’s the entire room.” he kicks a leg.
yichen moves his legs out of the way, resulting in zhuyan’s multiple attempts to fail, “if you kick me, i’ll kick you off the bed.”
“i didn’t kick you, i never kick you in your sleep.” yichen feels zhuyan rise to hover over his head, “matter of fact, you kick me.”
he rolls his eyes again, he didn’t even say anything about zhuyan kicking him in his sleep, he was talking about the idiot kicking him right now. god, he’s really too tired for this right now. “it’s my bed.”
“sure it is.”
zhuyan is entirely too convinced that they own it in half.
which yichen truly doesn’t give two fucks about. take the bed if you must, he’d groused the first time. and in return for his humble generosity, the other only teased him about his ‘posh accent’.
yichen had pettily, very uncharacteristically, taken that as an offense and refused to ever explicitly admit to zhuyan having a share over his bed.
he really doesn’t care.
it’s only that zhuyan, the imbecile who yichen is both fortunate and extremely unfortunate to call his best friend (or whatever the hell it is that they are), just happen to always bring out yichen’s childishness.
“can you two shut up.” ying lei’s sleep-thickened voice echoes from the other side of the room, “it’s barely even five, i can’t handle the both of you right now, i swear to god.”
zhuyan lays back down, hitting his forehead to yichen’s back comfortably, “sorry, shutting right up!”
ying lei huffs, muttering.
yichen pushes up the blanket to his chin, closing his eyes and willing himself to go back to sleep.
“i’ll call you at six,” zhuyan whispers, hooking his leg over yichen’s purposefully, “probably won’t be able to sleep myself so i’ll revise biology in the meantime again. i’ll read up on it.” he pauses, clicks his tongue as if dismissing a thought, “we’ll leave at seven, good?”
yichen hums an affirmation.
“early breakfast and everything.” he pulls himself up to rest his head back on the pillow, sounding more cheerful than he probably is, “by the way?”
“hm?”
a moment of silence, then, “give me your phone, mine’s in the bag.” yichen makes an irritated noise and zhuyan continues, “you can’t really want me to get up and out of this bed for my phone when yours is with you, come on.” he tries again, “please?”
yichen’s more annoyed about having to speak than giving his phone, “it’s under the pillow.”
“lazy ass.” zhuyan comments offhandedly, reaching under yichen’s pillow and taking it out.
yichen has half the mind to smack him for the remark, calling me lazy when you’re the one who refuses to reach over for your own phone? except he doesn’t want to move his arms either. he’s quite comfortable. fortunately for the other.
“fucking biology,” zhuyan mutters to himself distractedly before turning to his side and reading through the file in a low voice, barely audible.
even still, yichen doesn’t mind the details of his revision he hears.
falls asleep to the whisper of it.
--
“darling, you are capable of coming to school in time then?” ao yin says in lieu of a greeting when she sees him, dropping her bag in the seat next to him.
he’s a little relieved to see her.
he hates school. he hates this academy, and god, he hates his parents. he feels immature thinking it, but truly, if someone were to experience what he has to, they’d say he was valid for it.
it’s times like these more than others he’s glad for ao yin. her presence itself made him feel much better than he feels. helps the fact that she knows him more than many others, and still sticks with him, stubborn and unwilling to part.
i happen to just like you the most to care, she’d said once, when her ex-boyfriend broke up with her (who she quite liked a little) after she refused to stop hanging out at lilun’s place, after she refused to alienate lilun for him.
lilun doesn’t quite agree with the sentiment, but he appreciated it.
and she knew she was dear to him in the exact ways she wanted to be, so she didn’t care much for less-than-positive feelings about human relationships.
which worked well for him just fine.
he shakes his head at her and continues to gaze out the window, uninterestedly. “you’re suspiciously early too. you scare me with your diligence, what are you up to?”
she kicks the legs of his desk, “we’ve a biology test this afternoon, i was going to the library to print the necessary materials for us.”
he turns to her, “will this have a fatal blow on my final grade if i were to do terribly on it?” which would result in a less than desirable conversation with his parents? which would likely ruin the next month for him? childishly, he’s almost tempted to do badly on purpose to piss them off. nevermind the consequences he’d face.
“yes. it contributes to our final report, wang laoshi pointed it out the other week to ensure everyone was aware.” she fishes out her phone, “it’s only three lessons, just cover the important bits. i’ll go get the worksheets printed now. and while i have that done, you can get started.”
“i can come with you, you know?” he’s been mindlessly sitting here for 2 hours now, it’d be nice to stroll around. he would’ve left earlier, except he didn’t really fancy walking broodishly among much livelier students by himself.
“unnecessary.” he catches the reader she throws to him, “there you go!”
he tries to not frown, “page number?”
“it’s bookmarked. topics expected for the test are highlighted in yellow, you’ll notice.”
he flips the page and stares, looks up to give her an unimpressed look, “these pages are entirely highlighted.”
she sends him a smile, ingenuine, “exactly. like i said, get started now.”
“you’re terrible.”
“better me than your results, surely?”
“shut up.” he returns, setting the book down, reading over the sub-titles above the paragraphs. he spares a glance at her, then looks up again when he sees her not budging, “are you not going?”
“yeah,” a pause, “i am, of course.” she makes a distracted gesture with her hand, “there’s time.” and then, “i’m going.”
“xiao yin.” he knows she’s on that damned gossip column.
“i’m on the forum,” she makes a confused noise, “one sec…?”
“that gossip column.” he hates it.
“yes.” she loves it.
“who’s it about now?” he doesn’t care one bit who it’s about, long as it isn’t him.
she makes an understanding noise. then looks up and asks him to repeat what he said, tells him she didn’t hear. and when he does, she answers, her eyes back on the screen, “that transfer kid from beijing, he’s back to school. everyone’s raving about it on the front page.”
he tries to think back, frowns. “which transfer kid?”
she switches off her phone and pockets it, “the new one in our class, with that absurdly bright white head?”
he doesn’t think he knows any bright white head. “when did he join the class?”
she makes a noise of exclamation, clicking her fingers, “it was out of nowhere, everyone was taken aback by it. early jan, right after the winter break.”
right. “i haven’t been to class much since, i don’t know.” he shrugs, leans back in his seat, “so why is it a big deal that he’s attending classes again?”
she sits at the edge of her worktable, “well, he was present throughout the first week, and the second. but sometime around two or three weeks ago, he suddenly just stopped coming, it was around when the school festival was in season too, so everyone noticed his abrupt absence. of course they did, and by everyone, i mean the entire grade. he isn’t a small presence in the class, or our division. we assumed something happened but none of the teachers bought it up and there began to be a running rumour that he got into a fight with some of the delinquents from the neighbouring school.”
lilun looks at her questioningly, “a fight?”
she shakes her head, “impossible honestly. he’s what we all call the perfect student. outgoing, intelligent, witty. all that fun jazz. he has the eyes that yells that he hates everyone but no one seems to be able to hate him anyway, it’s weird. the fight bit? it’s, well. it’s only a rumour, no one saw it. there was an anonymous post on the forum saying the fight was the reason and we didn’t have a clue why he wasn’t suddenly coming in, so with nothing to go by, everyone just bought the story. imbeciles.”
ao yin opens her bag and pulls out a file, pointing at him with it, “he was already friends with our class president long before he transferred though – you know, that zhuo kid – so you’d think we’d be made aware of why the new student was suddenly out. but when we asked the guy, he claimed he shouldn’t be the one asked, and told us to redirect our questions to the missing kid himself when he returns.”
he never paid attention to zhuo. their class president always gave off the kind of vibes lilun leaned more into staying away from. besides, the guy was probably instructed by one of their teachers to leave lilun alone so he was never bothered by the insistent nagging he sees the boy forced to do to their classmates.
lilun hums to show he was listening, “couldn’t someone have just texted him?” surely their newest school celebrity had means to communicate?
she scrunches her nose, “some did. most only asked, ‘are you doing well?’ to not pry, and he only responded to those with a thumbs-up. some others with more invasive questions were blatantly ignored, some others who asked him outright if he’d fought with the other school were blocked. which? deserved, i’d say! it was a little funny though, that no one got a proper answer, we were all collectively stumped.”
lilun doesn’t get why anyone thinks they’re entitled to the guy’s personal business. why anyone thinks they deserved to know.
he didn’t understand a lot of things.
so this line of inquiry is probably just as useless as all his other.
he makes a show of uselessly flipping through the book, “so is it just a big deal that he’s back because everyone loves him or is it because everyone’s nosy as fuck, and is only curious of his reason of absence?”
she puffs her cheeks, clicking her tongue, “…a little bit of both?”
he’s unimpressed.
the students will probably be disappointed in that case. if the guy didn’t respond to anyone’s texts or answer their questions before, he wasn’t going to do so now, was he? “you too?”
“i don’t like like him. he isn’t my type, you know that. but also, he’s. it’s like.” she makes an impatient motion with her hands, “he has that darling little face, okay, listen.”
“sure.” he agrees, just to placate her rising energy, “where did you say he transferred from again?”
“beijing.” she makes a thoughtful noise, “again, there were rumours.” rumours about him again, isn’t that surprising. “rumours when he first came that his dad was some big-shot and he wanted his son here, attending our private academy for nothing except for the name of it all. another rumour from his old schoolmates that just happened to spread to our schoolmates – and surely by pure happenstance and not because they went and typically dug their rich, spoiled noses in and snuff around with their connections for answers, – that his father used to cause a commotion every few weeks outside their school gate trying to convince the kid to move here.”
his brows rise. the guy’s dad sounds just as bad as lilun’s own, and that’s saying something. “and he just went with it in the end?”
she makes a dismissive gesture with a hand, “not entirely sure about this either but they say it has something to do with the zhuo kid.” unlike lilun who just stayed out of zhuo’s way, ao yin wasn’t really fond of their class monitor at all.
“you sure know a lot of these rumours for someone who doesn’t believe them.” he deadpans, shifting away when she tries to swat at his head.
she hates everyone. the surprise of the fact that she spent her energy on these rumours and getting the latest story despite hating everyone had long worn out for him.
he’d just accepted the fact that she was part of the more curious (nosy. except he won’t categorize her into that group. they were all annoying little bugs, she isn’t) batch of their species.
“it’s the only fun part of being in this school, that damned forum. my dearest form of entertainment, truly.” she narrows her eyes at him, “and don’t play too much, i know for all your uninterest in the matters regarding this school and our peers, you’re sometimes invested in them too.” sucking in a sharp breath when she looks down at her watch, she rolls up the file and turns on her feet, “should get going before you ask me another question and we don’t get these worksheets printed in time.”
he huffs out a laugh, “no more questions, go.”
she doesn’t turn around but lifts up a pointing finger, “and read up on those highlighted paragraphs, don’t slack off.”
he flicks a paper frog at her back, “just go.”
she waves a hand over her head and sidesteps their classmates out the door.
he stares after her, rolling his eyes before turning his attention back to the reader.
he spares a glance to his own watch, 7:41.
that’s more than enough time; he’ll be able to manage reading through the highlighted paragraphs (all the pages, basically) by then.
god forbid he fails. would be the end of the world for his father, bless his heart.
reaching into the pockets of his blazer, he pulls out his glasses.
pushes them back in place on his nose, begins.
--
zhuo yichen wants to slam his head into the nearest wall he can possibly find.
what could have driven him to walk with zhuyan to class, on the day he returned from his extended, abrupt break. said break that was all the school could talk about the entire first week of his absence (he wants to say being filthy rich and attending a private academy caused for all of them to be more lax with their mannerisms and inclined them to forgo tact, but he was filthy rich and attending a private academy too and he doesn’t give two fucks about what everyone else seems to always be caring about).
but truly. what could have driven him.
and more than that, how could he have forgotten.
the whispers, the exclaims when they see him, the furious uncaring typing everyone begins to do when they see him – all begins to (once again, since this isn’t the first time) slowly piss yichen off.
the least they could do? be subtle with it.
but that’s one thing the students who go to GreenWing Academy is incapable of, subtlety.
he’d know.
he’s been a victim to their incompetence with it far too many times to not be aware of it.
he’s a victim of it now.
he sighs, casting an annoyed side glance at zhuyan, who resolutely, with practiced ease, ignores everyone who gawks at the two of them, by scrolling through the biology pdf files on his iPad, attention entirely spent on it.
he knows zhuyan only intently looks down at it without care because he trusts yichen to not let him trip or run into walls or any of their schoolmates, but the taller is really tempted to make happen one of those.
it’s so easy for him. it’s so easy for him, for yichen on the other hand…
just then, when someone purposefully refuses to switch lanes so they run into zhuyan, he moves to the side, pulling zhuyan with him by a hold on his arm, giving the girl a glare.
to which she (and her friends) giggles unapologetically at.
which, again.
another issue he’d like to point out.
no one takes expressed irritation seriously in this school. ever. (except when it’s their teachers, which well, would be weirder if they didn’t take them seriously either. he supposes he should be glad for that much. the bar truly is in hell out here).
he spares a glare at the ceiling and quietly walks to their class, checking his phone to read through their schedule.
he’ll never understand why the school insisted on changing the class schedules every week. it’s so unconventional. to keep them on their toes or to have chances to dock off their merit points, he doesn’t know. and that’s something. since he knows most of what goes on here, seeing that he was part of the student body council.
not this though.
this will remain a mystery unless he becomes a professor at the academy himself.
he wonders if they know themselves.
it’s truly so stupid and –
“zhuyan!” a female voice rings through the hallway, and they stop in their tracks, the smaller whipping around in confusion for the source of the voice, having an expression on his face that clearly says ‘did i hear that wrong?’. it helps a little that it isn’t just them who’d stopped but also just about everyone else walking too, “here, over here!”
it saves them the trouble and embarrassment of turning their necks up everywhere around when a woman comes rushing towards them, smiling wide and waving, long black hair flying wildly behind her.
she’s beautiful, donned in a deep burgundy fit, buttoned velvet blazer cropped and hanging just above her waist with a sleek, loosely worn pencil skirt. a perfect picture of an expensive executive. her high heeled boot clicks loudly in the suddenly silent corridor.
yichen is… taken aback.
“jie!” zhuyan’s face spreads into a smile, and he hastily passes his iPad into yichen’s arms in time to catch the woman who’d ran into his arms, laughing, “my god – what are you doing here – “
the whispers start off again, many exclaiming with surprise. all the students present glances at him in question.
he looks back at them evenly.
he won’t tell them shit.
not that he knows anything to tell them, he doesn’t really know who the woman is.
far as he’s aware, and he’ll kill zhuyan if he’s wrong, but the guy didn’t really date, much less a woman.
he’s still laughing when yichen turns back to him (the taller’s brows rightfully raised in question), holding her in arm’s length, “i can’t believe you, what – “
she beams at him, looking just as excited as she sounds, “sijing and i landed just yesterday, don’t go assuming i’ve been home a while ago and only came to you now, no. we came only yesterday. i made it a mission to see you as soon as possible, so i dragged her all the way here early morning. just like you did when you came to see us upon arriving in LA.” she shakes their hands enthusiastically, then turns to yichen, eyes brightening, “oh! wait –“ she gives zhuyan a look that threaded on inquisitive and knowing, “he’s your – that guy. the best friend, the boyfriend one!”
zhuyan laughs again, beaming. shares a look with yichen, ignoring the faux exasperated eyeroll sent his way when he says, “sure! yes, that's - this is him!”
no, they are not dating.
he doesn’t even blink an eye when someone says it at this point. nor does he make an attempt to correct them.
little he can do when the other party in the supposed relationship encourages the rumour.
so, no. they aren’t dating, it’s only an inside joke (most of the students believed it to be a joke too, since it helped make them feel better and allowed them to entertain thoughts of hopefully getting zhuyan or yichen for themselves).
an inside joke zhuyan’s thrilled about, since it’s just about the only type of ‘scandal’ he’s fine being involved in. and when yichen reminded him that they really weren’t actually dating and that it wouldn’t bode well for zhuyan when he actually finds someone he loved later on and to stop encouraging them, for goodness sake, it’s spreading around! the guy had only replied to the first part of his statement and very seriously said, ‘we might as well be!’
yichen, as he always does when it came to the other, had let it be.
it was truly all the same either way. it causes no problem for either of them or put a risk to their theoretical outside relationships since 1) yichen doesn’t ever plan on dating anyone, zhuyan’s more than enough on his plate (he loves him, he does) 2) zhuyan didn’t favour the idea of a romantic relationship either.
he adjusts the iPad in an arm, reaching a hand out, “zhuo yichen.”
she sends zhuyan an approving look, taking his hand, “i know! it’s lovely to finally meet you. i’ve heard much about you, you’re wonderful.” she leans in closer and zhuyan does the same, anticipating. yichen smiles when she says, “your endurance is so astounding, so appreciated. you’re insane for handling him the way you do.”
zhuyan swats at her arm, narrowing his eyes without heat, “shut up.” he wounds an arm around her shoulders and her smile becomes softer, “come.” he casts a wary glance around them. yichen doesn’t even bother following the action, he knows what he’s going to see, “we’ll carry on as we walk, they hate me around here.”
they don’t. they love him.
and that’s exactly what zhuyan hates.
being gawked at and analyzed for his every move is bound to be irritating for anyone.
it’s always when he walks with zhuyan or when he sees the other celebrity students around the academy that he’s too glad that his older brother was the popular public figure among them, and not him.
if it weren’t for his face (face, that everyone reminds him is flawless and hurles an envious evil eye at every turn), he’d be just as unconnected as all the other quiet students were. no one at the academy had ever thought to correlate his surname to his brother’s or his father’s corporation, and here at this academy, no one bats an eye when they see a valet, a private car, chopper or a driver. which is great. he’d forbade yixuan from ever acknowledging him if he came to school too.
he'd wish for this and everything better for zhuyan, except. the other’s first stroke of unluckiness stemmed from the fact he was an only child, which left him little to no choice (or privacy) in anything.
as they made their way through the corridor, she looks over zhuyan to meet his eyes, “i’m wenxiao, by the way.”
zhuyan shares a look with yichen, “he knows you, he just doesn’t know your name.” then wiggles his fingers twice, “she’s the friend from the states i always tell you about. wen-jie.”
wen jie?
“the one who cried with me at the bus? the one of three i ever bought bakeries for? the one’s apartment i told you i camped in for three weeks during my finals? the one i always call every week, dumbass.”
ah.
wen jie.
zhuyan used to sometimes call her when he was staying over at yichen’s, or talk to him about her or talk about the events that happened when he was living at the states which always included her in some capacity, and he used to do it one too many times over the years that yichen had simply named her ‘states jie’ in his head.
yichen makes a noise in recollection and zhuyan nods along with him perceptively, “yes, that’s her. the woman of my life,” he makes an exaggerated hand motion, coy, “my enchantress.”
wenxiao looks over him to look at yichen again, smiling still (yichen wonders if she ever glared at someone her entire life and what atrocious crime they must have commited to incite it, because they have to have done something terrible to ever get her to glare, he’s sure) “he does that. he has these fifty nicknames for me, it’s for building confidence he says.”
he’s an idiot, yichen doesn’t say.
he hopes wenxiao doesn’t think he disliked her or anything. he has a slight fear of being misunderstood by very few people. he didn’t know wenxiao but she knows zhuyan and zhuyan knew her and they were obviously close, which meant she was one of the very few people he wouldn’t like to misunderstand him. he genuinely just has it hard when with strangers, he needs to work his way around them to ever be entirely comfortable.
“he’s silent like this, you know that. he needs time, he just needs to see you three more times, he’ll work you out by then!” zhuyan tells wenxiao, observant as always. yichen silently thanks him by brushing a hand over his elbow, withdrawing it after a pinch on his arm when zhuyan thinks to add, “it’s one of his more charming qualities.”
zhuyan exclaims as he remembers when they reach their class, motioning for yichen to wait, “wait. where’s jing jie? you said you dragged her here too.”
wenxiao laughs, fond, suddenly looking more affectionate than she already did. “she took one look at the students gathered in crowds everywhere, the place packed, the students talking loudly over each other and gave me one desperate look before sitting at the guest unit downstairs. she’s probably losing her mind there, i’ve been gone for a while.” she twirls a finger towards the ceiling, “took me ages to find you by the way. the uniforms needs to go, the academy needs to embrace modern culture. everyone looked like ants from the third floor.”
“you’re leaving then?” zhuyan asks.
“yes, we’re staying at her flat for now, going downtown to stay with my parents for a while after.” she glances up when the bell rings, face pinching at the volume, “we’ll be in the city for about a week or two i’m thinking? either way. come over after class today if you can, we need to catch up.” she turns to yichen with a smile, genuine, “you too, if you want to.”
yichen inclines his head in agreement just as zhuyan nods, the latter reaches into his bag and passes the batch of cupcakes he acquires every morning before showing up at school, “sijing’s favourite.”
wenxiao made a delighted noise. smiles down at it, wide and eyes crinkling, “we adore you, we do. truly. she’s going to be ecstatic, we were asleep the entire day yesterday and i dragged her here with one cup of cold coffee – way too early for her liking.” she shakes the packet, eyes glowing, “this will appease her. might also convince her to order in for lunch instead of taking a detour to the grocery store and cooking for us by herself.”
zhuyan stretches out an arm and holds her gently when she moves to hug him again, “i’ll see you soon. if not today, then definitely this weekend.” they separate and zhuyan gestures to yichen, “and i’ll drag him with me. we can pretend he’s meeting his in-laws and make a whole concept out of it.”
yichen tries to not kick him, they will not be doing that, what the hell?
three of the students in the first row overhears, and they gasp. yichen is almost disturbed by the dramatics of his school, and he must’ve underestimated the first-benchers, who he assumed were the quiet ones, because they turn around and almost very loudly starts spreading absolute misinformation to the others.
and he doesn’t hear them all that clearly because he’s still lending an ear to wenxiao’s and zhuyan’s conversation (“ – she’d pretend to hate it, really. but she’s more for the drama than i am, i always thought she should dabble in the entertainment industry – “) but he hears half of it either way (“apparently his mother?” “but that can’t be right, she looks barely 25, much less 30.” “yes but, they said in laws?”) and pulls a face, openly staring down the boy sitting in the first bench and the two girls next to him.
they atleast had the conscience to look abashed.
“ – zhuo yichen, please come by when he does?” wenxiao is saying when he returns his focus to the two.
he gives her a polite smile, “i will.”
she bids her goodbyes and with another quick hug, parts ways with zhuyan.
yichen passes the iPad back to him, mutters annoyedly as they step around their classmates to their seats, “they think she’s your mother.”
zhuyan turns to him abruptly, looking horrified for a split second, then he frowns. suddenly laughs, a little loudly and drawing the attention of the other students who weren’t already looking at them, “wow.” he taps a finger to his temple, “that’s. she’d never let me live that down if she were to hear.” he lingers when yichen takes his seat, “funny they’d think that. she looks younger than i do sometimes, especially barefaced.”
yichen looks up at him, “you look younger than you do now when you’ve your black hair and you’re barefaced too.” his gaze drops to zhuyan’s tie, slightly crooked. probably with all the hugs he was doing, “take your seat before she comes, and fix your tie.”
zhuyan, ever unbothered, doesn’t care to notice that everyone’s already seated – though some on their worktables, some turned, yelling and all sorts unorganized (doesn’t make a difference that every single classmate of his were from all sorts of different influental cáifá families, teenagers are all the same everywhere. the local students wouldn’t imagine them to be as disorderly as they were, and yet?), still seated – and he was the only one remaining.
he sets his iPad on his lap and leans sideways on yichen’s table, “cheng-laoshi’s never on time, i’ve nothing to worry about.” he lets out a deep breath, “how well prepared are you for biology again?”
yichen makes use of the little space remaining and sets his Macbook in place, switching it on, “an easy A hopefully, you?”
“the same? i had less than two diagrams to go through before wen-jie came, i’ll have it covered before biology.” he breathes out, placing a hand on his forehead, rubbing absently, “classes didn’t even start yet and i’m already tired?”
he doesn’t voice it but he hopes zhuyan knows yichen blames his lack of sleep on his terrible excuse of a father, “we’ve a free period after lunch, go back to my dorm then. it’s p.e after, so you’ll get a good two hours.”
he doesn’t think he hates anyone in his own life than that despicable man.
zhuyan’s endurance is…
yichen doesn’t think he could do it.
zhuyan hums, “might take up on it if the teachers don’t hound me with coursework upon sight, in which case i’ll be forced to sit here and start on them.”
yichen makes a face. “you might need to cross off the plan now.” the other turns to him, “i hadn’t thought of that, but knowing them, they’ll definitely hound you with coursework upon sight.”
“for fuck’s sake.”
well.
yes.
zhuyan momentarily closes his eyes and yichen pats his thighs pitifully, “if they push on you too much, ying lei and i could probably lend a hand somewhere.”
zhuyan moves his neck back and forth, relieving the kinks in his neck, “taking you up on that now, i’ll burden you with a few.” he looks around the class, then frowns when he sees something at the direction of his own seat, “do we have a new student?”
“who? you?”
“no,” zhuyan flicks back the hair from his eyes with a finger, almost squinting, “there’s a guy sitting next to my empty seat.”
yichen twists around, and maybe it’s because both of them looked at the same time, but the guy looks up just as they did and a girl next to him (ao yin?) looks up then too.
“that’s awkward.” zhuyan comments uselessly, he doesn’t avert his eyes still. “very subtle, dumbass. absolutely no one knows we’re looking.”
it bothers him a little to talk when they’re still looking at them, but ao yin and the guy starts talking too, so. “i know his name, i just.”
“forgot?”
“no, he was on leave for a while. longer than you were actually.” he frowns, trying to remember, “if i remember right, some of the professors did ask me to lay off of him. i don’t think he’s been in attendance ever since the beginning of the second semester.”
“explains why i haven’t seen him,” he replies, “guy’s got killer eyes, i feel almost intimidated.”
yichen is trying to make sense of the nonsensical almost-glare the girl is attempting to pin him with, “do you think ao yin is trying to express something to me?”
zhuyan laughs, light, “she hates you. but that’s completely normal, i heard she hates everyone.” he makes a considering noise, “i’m surprised i’m witnessing her interact with someone without looking like she’d rather eat dirt.” a pause, “are we going to keep staring.”
yichen is running through their class catalogue in his head to his best ability, “well. they’re both of the kind that isn’t swayed by much. we’ll probably be staring for a long time,” he doesn’t feel comfortable either, they have eyes that unsettles him, “i think they came to some sort of agreement.”
zhuyan muses offhandedly, “that he looks at me and she looks at you?” yichen tries to not laugh at that, “you’d be right about that, then.”
“look away in three, this is ridiculous.” yichen says, trying to conceal his mirth. he doesn’t want to laugh at their faces, that’d be rude. zhuyan doesn’t seem to think so, since he’s been laughing and smiling uncaringly, “one, two, three.”
they turn back in unison, and zhuyan lets out a subtle breath, still at the road to another round of laughter, “i am not easily intimidated but hell. they have guts. no one’s ever able to stare at me that long.” he gives yichen a meaningful look, “except you. and wen-jie and pei-jie, i guess? how did they do it.”
yichen tugs at zhuyan’s tie, “fix it.” he returns his attention to his tablet, opening the class file to find the guy’s name. “they say beautiful people have nothing to fear.” he says in response to zhuyan’s rant.
“explains the fearlessness that goes about in us,” zhuyan picks on and leans forward, tilting yichen’s face up with a finger under his chin, voice almost a whisper when he adds, “we have nothing to fear.”
yichen, already distracted from his task at hand, uses the chance to fix zhuyan’s tie, undoing the knot and folding it in carefully, “you’re indirectly proclaiming you’re beautiful, aren’t you?”
“i’m saying we’re beautiful,” he says whimsically, pinching yichen’s cheek once before letting go. he looks over to the side, to the window, “i see her coming.” he gets up, patting yichen’s shoulder in thanks when he looks down at his tie, “my cue to leave.”
yichen stands just as he goes and everyone follows the action, greeting their homeroom teacher.
--
ao yin sends him an ‘i told you so’ look when the new student, zhuyan (which is his name, that what he came to learn mere minutes ago), strides over and smiles at them (and lilun can’t tell if the smile is as ungenuine as he thinks it to be), before folding down on the empty seat between them.
“i haven’t seen you before, hi,” the white head murmurs to lilun, his eyes trained carefully on their teacher.
it’s almost as if the four of them didn’t all just spend a good 3 minutes engaged in a staring contest (as ao yin had called it, he isn’t inclined to deny it). “lilun,” he introduces, only because the other initiated the conversation.
“zhuyan,” he holds out a hand and lilun is tempted to ignore it, but something about the way zhuyan smiled was as though he dared him to do otherwise and so he clasps the other’s waiting hand, “nice grip.” the white head comments impressively, then turns to his right, “and you’re ao yin.”
she doesn’t smile, but her eyes are full of hilarity and it’s all just about the same, “yes, hi.”
zhuyan gives her a smile too (which lilun can confidently say is something placed between real and an absolute fake), then places his iPad on his table and switches his attention to it, expression easily shifting to neutrality.
he supposes this would be an interesting experience.
ao yin shares with him a look from behind the guy that tells him she thinks just about the same.
--
they’re proven right a little too early.
--