Work Text:
… Yeah, he’s definitely acting weird.
With more exams coming up, and with them getting more important each time, Jian and Zhengxi actually have to study in their rest periods now instead of goofing off. They sit at Jian’s desk, with Zhengxi turning his chair around to share the space. Their feet kick each other with every movement due to the small size of the table.
It’s usually pretty boring, just going through textbooks and helping each other out here and there; and really, they’re doing it together so how could it be that bad but…
Jian’s eyebrow raises upon seeing Zhengxi’s stiffness.
His face is dusted red, and Jian keeps hearing high pitched giggles that are worsening the colour.
As subtle as he can, so hardly subtle at all, he turns his head to the sound and sees two girls from his class. One is ginger with short hair, and one is blonde with long hair. They whip their heads around when they notice him looking, so something is definitely up.
Zhengxi’s eyes narrow as he realises Jian is giving a conspicuous stare. “What?” He scratches his cheek, as if attempting to hide his flustered state.
When Jian’s eyes narrow even further and he crosses his arms, Zhengxi goes to ask ‘what’ again, but the teacher comes in and he begrudgingly turns back around to face the front.
Then their proper break comes, and they go to a more secluded bench and get to eating. Zhengxi’s eye tics as he notices Jian staring at him again.
“What?!” He asks, poking the boy in the forehead to make him stop.
Jian stands and crosses his arms, leaning into Zhan’s personal space. “You like a girl in our class, don’t you?!” He accuses, standing straight once again. “You just won’t tell me because you think I’m jealous right? I don’t care!” He exclaims, flapping his hand about.
The left side of Zhengxi’s mouth raises in disgust. “What are you talking about?”
“Those girls were giggling earlier and you kept blushing, it’s so obvious.” Jian explains, and Zhengxi’s jaw clenches.
“It’s not like that.” Zhengxi says, his ears turning red, and Jian’s mouth drops at the sight.
“What else could it be? You’re blushing right now.”
Zhengxi sighs and puts his face in his hand, and despite all he’s said about not being the jealous type, Jian’s heart flutters in a sickening way.
“You can’t laugh.” Xixi says after a minute of consideration.
“Hm?”
“Promise you won’t.” He says again, and looks up through his fingers.
“… I won’t laugh.” Jian swears, and sits down at the sudden seriousness. His head tilts in curiosity.
“A while back, something embarrassing happened…” Zhengxi begins, “It was after you… you know… and I heard them talking about some guy with really pale skin, and thin lips and stuff, so I thought they were talking about you. Then they said “even though he’s all smiley he’s a pervert inside”.” He continued, and Jian’s brows furrowed in confusion more and more by the word.
“I went over and told them to shut up because you’re not like that… But they were talking about a gay porn actor and tried to give me this book-“ Zhengxi stops for a second as he sees Jian purse his lips suddenly, “And the cover was really inappropriate and they said the actor looks like you, now they think I’m into gay porn and an actor that looks like you.” His eyes close, and he covers his face again.
Jian tries to hold it in, but a large exhale leaves his nose, turning into a giggle, then a cackle, and he covers his mouth while apologising.
Zhengxi can only sigh at the, albeit expected, broken promise.