Chapter Text
“Do you have any plans after class?” Jiahao asked.
Anxin didn’t answer right away but instead stifled a smile. He had been smiling the entire day, and the truth was, he’d been looking forward to the end of class since morning. He had plans with his boyfriend today, so sitting through lectures felt less like torture and more like a countdown.
“Okay, you’re kinda creeping me out, man. Why are you smiling like that?”
Anxin blinked, caught in the act. He hadn’t even realized he’d been grinning at nothing, his chin propped lazily on one hand as the lecture wound down. It's a good thing the professor didn’t notice him spacing out. He wanted this day to be the best.
“Smiling? Me?” he said innocently, fighting the urge to laugh. “I’m just appreciating life. Breathing air. Existing.”
Jiahao squinted at him. “Yeah, no one smiles that hard in the air. Spill it.”
The bell rang and he started packing up. He knew his boyfriend was on his way and Anxin could hardly sit still. He shoved his notebook into his bag with more speed than care, nearly knocking over his water bottle in the process.
“Whoa, what’s the rush?” Xinlong chimed in, slinging his backpack lazily over one shoulder.
“Yeah,” Kaiwen joined in with a grin. “You don’t usually move this fast unless there’s something free involved.”
Anxin zipped his bag, the corners of his mouth twitching upward. “What can I say? I’ve got somewhere important to be.”
Jiahao perked up and put his arms around Anxin’s neck, pulling him close with a laugh. “I knew you’re gonna join us, man!”
They started heading out of the room in a noisy little cluster, shoving and joking the way they always did after class. Anxin let Jiahao keep an arm hooked around his shoulders, but his eyes kept flicking toward the door, scanning the hallway beyond like he was waiting for a signal no one else could see.
Kaiwen noticed. “You’re too quiet, Anxin. Don’t tell me you’re actually ditching us today?”
Anxin cut him off, swatting at Jiahao's arm before he could launch into a full monologue. “Yes. And you three can't stop me. Move or I'll break your neck into two.”
Jiahao snorted. “Damn, he’s serious.”
“Serious and suspicious,” Xinlong added, eyeing Anxin with mock intensity. “You’re hiding something.”
Anxin sighed and gestured to his friends to huddle at the corner in the hallway. They didn’t care about other people looking at them weirdly. God, they did way weirder things than this.
Like that one time they staged a funeral for Jiahao’s broken pen in the middle of the cafeteria—complete with Kaiwen’s crying crocodile tears and Xinlong with a sad tune from his phone. Or when they raced on rolling chairs down the library lobby until the librarian threatened to ban them for life.
And then there was the day they decided to roleplay as lost tourists inside their own campus, asking strangers for directions in broken English. Anxin even faked an American accent so bad the guard asked if he needed medical assistance.
The students couldn’t even complain. Believe it or not, they were part of the basketball team. They were even the reigning champions for this season. Which meant they got away with practically everything.
Anxin liked it that way. It gave him and his friends a free pass to be loud, ridiculous, and unapologetically themselves.
They shuffled closer. Kaiwen pressed his back to the wall like a spy, Xinlong clutched his chest as if he’d been fatally wounded, and Jiahao just stared flatly, as if wondering why he still hung out with them.
“Okay,” Anxin began, lowering his voice in mock seriousness. “I’ll say this once, and you better not laugh.”
“Now I have to laugh,” Kaiwen muttered, earning a sharp elbow to the ribs from Anxin.
Anxin crossed his arms before he cleared his throat. “I’m not ditching you guys for nothing,” he paused, watching their faces lean closer. “I actually have plans with my boyfriend.”
Silence.
There was a deafening silence. Three pairs of eyes bore into him, and for a second, Anxin almost regretted saying it out loud.
Then Kaiwen burst out laughing so loud a passerby actually tripped. “Bro, you? A boyfriend? Don’t make me choke on my own spit!”
Jiahao just raised a brow. “Sure you do.”
Xinlong grinned, shaking his head. “You could’ve just said you don’t wanna hang out, no need to make up stories, dude.”
Anxin groaned, dragging a hand down his face. He knew this would happen. “I knew you idiots wouldn’t believe me.”
“Okay.” Kaiwen grinned, leaning in with fake curiosity. “Let’s say, we actually believe you. When can we meet him?”
“Yeah,” Xinlong jumped in. “Introduce him to us, Xin. We need to test him.”
Jiahao crossed his arms. “I give it two weeks before we find out he’s imaginary.”
Anxin clicked his tongue, a little annoyed. “You guys are unbelievable. He’s not imaginary. He has a name! Sangwon is his name! And—” He trailed off, fumbling for a reason. “He goes to a different school, okay? And he’s busy. Like, really busy. He doesn’t have time to hang out with a bunch of nosy idiots.”
The three of them exchanged looks.
“Convenient,” Jiahao muttered.
Kaiwen leaned back with a smirk. “Excuses. Might as well say he lives in Canada.”
Anxin groaned louder, shoving past them. “You know what? Forget it. I’ll just let you die bitter and single while I live happily ever after.”
“Sure, sure,” Xinlong called after him, still grinning. “Tell your imaginary boyfriend we said hi!”
Kaiwen cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone. “Don’t forget to log out of the dating sim, Xin! I'm worried!”
Their laughter echoed down the hallway, but Anxin didn’t bother turning back. If anything, their disbelief only made the grin pulling at his lips wider. Because, unlike them, he knew the truth.
The campus gates buzzed with students coming and going at late afternoon. Anxin’s steps quickened without him realizing. His eyes darted over the crowd, searching. He then received a text from the love of his life.
from: lover <3
im at the car park
Anxin’s grin stretched so wide it almost hurt. He nearly tripped over a crack in the pavement in his rush to go where his boyfriend was. The parking lot was quieter than the rest of campus. Anxin’s chest thudded when he spotted him leaning against the hood, phone in hand.
For a second, Anxin just froze, memorizing the scene like he’d been waiting his whole week for it. Then he forced his legs to move.
“Sangwon-ie!” he called, breath hitching just a little.
The boy looked up the moment Anxin came close, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Hi, baby.”
Anxin’s own smile broke through, the kind that reached his eyes no matter how much he tried to hide it. “Did you wait long?” His voice came out soft, uneven.
“Not really,” Sangwon said, steady and warm, like even if he had, it would’ve been worth every second.
Meanwhile, at Kaiwen’s house, chaos had its own address.
Kaiwen was lying across the couch like some heartbroken telenovela lead, fanning himself with a throw pillow. Xinlong was on the floor trying to balance a soda can on his forehead, while Jiahao was raiding the fridge like it was his personal right.
“Bro,” Kaiwen groaned loudly. “Our Anxin betrayed us.”
“He said important plans,” Xinlong added, voice muffled because the can slipped and hit his nose.
Jiahao popped open a soda and rolled his eyes. “Please. If he’s not meeting a sugar daddy, then I don’t care.”
Kaiwen gasped, sitting up like he’d just uncovered a scandal. “What if he is?!”
Jiahao pointed his soda at them like a mic. “Okay, but on a serious note, do you guys buy it?”
Kaiwen burst out laughing so hard he fell back onto the couch. “Yeah, right! Our Anxin-ie? Mister ‘I-flirt-for-fun-but-run-away-when-it-gets-serious’? No way.”
Xinlong nodded lazily. “Exactly. I’ll believe it when I see it.”
“Same,” Jiahao agreed, opening another soda just because he could. “Until then, I will call it BS. Probably just an excuse so he wouldn’t hang out with us.”
“Wow,” Kaiwen clutched his chest like he’d been stabbed. “The betrayal runs deep.”
Xinlong flopped onto the couch beside him. “Do you guys think he’s okay?”
Jiahao, still on the floor, raised a brow. “Define okay.”
“You know…” Xinlong gestured vaguely in the air. “What if he’s just losing it? Like, stress finally fried his brain?”
Kaiwen gasped, clutching his head. “Oh my God. What if he’s gone full-on delusional?!”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Jiahao muttered. “Remember when he swore he saw a ghost in the locker room and made us all check? It was literally just a towel.”
Kaiwen snorted, but leaned back, suddenly thoughtful. “But this time it feels different. He’s actually serious.”
“That’s what makes it scarier,” Jiahao whispered like they were in a horror movie. “He really believes it.”
For a moment, the room fell into dramatic silence—like they were discussing a terminal illness instead of their friend’s love life.
Kaiwen suddenly sat up. “Guys, we need to do something.”
Xinlong looked at him flatly. “Like what? Pray?”
“No!” Kaiwen smacked his arm with a pillow. “An intervention!”
Jiahao raised his head from the floor. “You want us to circle him and say, ‘Anxin, we love you, but you need help’?”
“Yes!” Kaiwen’s eyes sparked with determination. “Exactly that. Before it gets worse. What if next week he tells us he’s engaged to his imaginary boyfriend?!”
Jiahao tried to hold in his laugh but failed, snorting into his soda. “Okay, but imagine it. Anxin shows up with thin air beside him, saying, ‘Guys, meet Sangwon!’”
“Bro!” Kaiwen buried his face in his hands. “He even named him! That’s step one of losing your mind.”
Jiahao and Xinlong exchanged a look that said, he’s not entirely wrong.