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“It's not good enough,” Shen Jiu tightens his grip on his robes. He received his graded paper, and there at the edge shined a bright red 95%.
How utterly pathetic. He let himself get too comfortable. It's the end of a school year, the last set of exams, so when he received the date for an essay, he didn't think much of it.
But now…95… he cannot let anyone see this.
“Bruh, don't you dare complain,” well, no one besides his self proclaimed friend, Shang Qinghua. “Do you know what I would do for 95,” he whines, “I got 56!”
Shang Qinghua hopelessly sinks to the bench. It was currently a lunch break, and the two of them sat under some trees. “My parents will ground me,” he mutters, but Shen Jiu doesn't take him seriously.
“Well it's not like you prepared for anything,” he scoffs, “the result mirrors discipline.” That's something Shen Jiu believed wholeheartedly.
Some people were lucky enough to be born intelligent, never having to worry about exams, or understanding the material.
Shen Jiu despises them.
Against those lucky few, he has to try his hardest just to keep up. It takes a whole different sacrifice to excel.
And he HAS to excel.
Because if he stopped just for once, all his hard work, all his accomplishments would perish to nothing.
And then there were the likes of Shang Qinghua…
“Well what can I say? I'm working on this new fanfiction, and I must say, it's juicy,” he grins. Shen Jiu gives him a judging look. “Spare me the details.”
“And people love it,” he clasps his hands. “Perhaps this is my path in life,” he muses, “I'll become an author.”
Shen Jiu rolls his eyes. “Nice way to say you'll be stuck in your parents house forever…”
Shang Qinghua gives him a scorn. “Yeah? Well what do you want? For all your talk, you're more lost than me. And don't you deny it!”
Shen Jiu wanted to retort. To find a witty remark and emerge victorious in this conversation, but what did he truly want?
It's not like there's anything he truly sees himself in. “Well–”
*Thud*
“Ouch–the hell?!” His thoughts were interrupted by flying football which hit him at the back of his head. He turns to see the culprit.
“I swear I'm going to smash this ball of yours if you won't be careful, you jerks,” he yells, but then falters.
“...you,” his eyes narrow. There, in front of him stands the captain of the football team. The man he despises from the depths of his heart.
“Oh…Shen Jiu. Didn't see you here,” Liu Qingge approaches him. “Can you return it,” he points at the ball in his hands.
Shen Jiu is furious. The audacity! “What about an apology, huh? Stupid brute,” he hisses. With one sweep of his hand, he throws the ball square to Lou Qingge's face.
“Ouch–you bastard,” groans Lou Qingge.
“And next time, watch where you're kicking,” he huffs, before standing up from the bench, giving Shang Qinghua one look. “Let's go.”
As they scurry away from the field, Shen Jiu looks even more arrogant, the pure disdain searing teom his very being. “A-Jiu…” Shang Qinghua mumbles, but he is cut.
“Don't you dare utter a word. Can he be even more unbearable” he grits his teeth. “Stupid Liu Qingge. And to have such an audacity with such a low grades is shameless in itself.”
“Well why don't you just quit the cheerleading team? Whenever you're done with the practice, all I hear is your complaints,” Shang Qinghua didn't understand. Of course he didn't.
“Have you seen the bonus credit for being a cheerleading captain,” Shen Jiu scoffs. “It's a great advantage to have on university applications. And if it means to bear some sweaty brutes for a few hours a week, then I'll do it,” he looks back.
“You wouldn't understand,” Shang Qinghua wanted to kick him for his belittling tone.
Shen Jiu didn't know what he wanted. But he knew he would do anything to have all the possibilities. To show everyone once and for all that he is exceptional. Special.
He didn't have social skills to be a class president as Yue Qingyuan, nor physical abilities to be a great athlete as Liu Qingge, which he still feels bitter about. But with his grades, he has at least a bit of an upper hand.
Still, it isn't enough. Nothing ever is.
So when he saw how much bonus credit so many great universities give for sports, he dived in to find something that would be possible for him. And he found it.
From the beginning of his Junior year, he became part of the cheerleading squad, and quickly rose to become a captain. He was assertive, authoritative, and he pushed his team members to a limit. They didn't appreciate it as much as their coach, but he didn't care for the opinions of those inferior.
“Well…” Shang Qinghua pats his shoulder. “The break is about to end. Good luck with the practice, bro. Try not to let that jerk get to you,” he sends him a smile and hurries to a class.
Shen Jiu sighs. “Right…practise,” he can't believe it was today.
The last class went quickly by. The bell rang, announcing the end of the lesson, and so many of his classmates left with smiles on their faces, ready to go home.
Shen Jiu didn't have that privilege.
Putting his hair into a high ponytail, he changes into his training fitted clothes. He moves to the training ground, where already some cheerleaders stood their ground.
“...is this all of you today?” He sighs in disbelief. There were five of them. What a bunch of slackers!
“It seems so. Perhaps we could train less since there's so little of us,” one of the girls says, but Shen Jiu shushes her. “Not a chance.”
He looks at the track around the field. Lets have 5 rounds of cardio first, then we'll move to stretching,” his words were accompanied by sighs of despair, but none of them dared to differ.
Shen Jiu started to run ahead, as a lead example.
“On your right–” a bunch of football players ran by his side. He feels the headache incoming. How is this fair that the football and cheerleading team had practiced at the same time? Whoever set it up has no idea of what they are doing!
On a normal day Shen Jiu ignores them. But today he had no patience. When that jerk Liu Qingge ran beside him, he accepted the challenge.
He speeds up a bit, jogging in front to get to the front of football players, to show that he's more capable, even better at running ahead.
He looks over at Liu Qingge, who frowns at him. “What are you doing?” He asks incredulously. “What it seems like I'm doing,” Shen Jiu scoffs. “You all stink, use a deodorant,” he sneeres, “I'm going to run ahead.”
And with a swish of his ponytail to Liu Qingge's face, he looks ahead with a satisfied smirk and runs to leave them in his shadow.
Liu Qingge stares at him in disbelief. What is his problem? Is this meant to be a challenge? Well then, he accepts.
Shen Jiu’s satisfaction is interrupted by breathing beside him. He looks over and sighs. Why the hell is he there?!
He tries to speed up to get rid of him, but Liu Qingge follows, as if he's trying to be always one step ahead.
“Tch,” Shen Jiu scoffs, “so this is how you want to play it?” His breath gets heavier, but he can't lose. “You're childish,” he hisses at him.
“Really? Then stop doing this,” Liu Qingge mutters. “Never.”
They basically run full speed ahead, leaving all their team members behind. At the end of the seventh round, they collapsed on the ground.
“Heh…I won,” breathes Liu Qingge with a satisfied smirk. “It was never a competition, you–you degenerate,” wheezes Shen Jiu.
“Grow up,” he scoffs as he staggers up, leaving him on the ground. He would say the same thing if he was the one who won, but well, he didn't.
With trembling steps he approaches his team members, who were already waiting for him. “Weren't we meant to do only 5 rounds?”
“Yea, what was that all about?”
He avoids their gaze. “Slight miscalculation. Whatever, let's just continue,” he had a far too thin face to admit to his loss of cool.
It was always like this with Liu Qingge. No matter how composed he tried to be, he always found a way to get under his skin.
“Let's start with some stretching,” he sighs and got into a position.
First arms, then legs, head, then a few gymnastic and yoga moves to keep them flexible. Whenever he sees someone lacking, he barks at them to immediately get back into the position. “You! Back straight!”
All while trying to ignore the other warm-up that takes place at the opposite side of the field. He finds the tactics of football players barbaric and unrefined.
“Now let's work on the choreography routine,” he says. “Tomorrow is the game. Tell everyone who didn't attend today that because of them we have morning practise, and if they won't attend, they'll be dealing with me.”
A chain of sighs and complaints spread through the air but he didn't mind. It was just a consequence of their actions.
The practice went smoothly. As a captain, Shen Jiu had the most difficult yet impressive parts. There were splits, back handsprings, even a flyer transition trjough the air.
He has to be aware of every portion of his body. The way his hips move, what to do with his hands, even where he's looking with his eyes.
The part that he hates the most is when he's thrown into the air and caught. He has trust issues and even after dozens of times he still reels as if he'll be left to fall.
The sun slowly makes its way down the hill, when he finally announces the end. “Lets wrap it up for today,” those words were a song for their ears.
As Shen Jiu wraps up his stuff, he makes his way to the nearest bus stop.
What he didn't see was Liu Qingge approaching one of the cheerleaders. “Mingyan, let's go,” he helps carry her stuff.
“Qingge, what was all that with Shen Jiu?” She pokes at him. “Huh–” he scoffs. “Just ignore it. He's like a damn…I don't know, but he's unbelievable. How do you stand him?”
She just shrugs. “He's not that bad. Sure, a bit difficult, but it's a nice change from the previous captain. I finally see some improvement in myself.” She pats her arms.
“I don't get him,” he sighs, “he always tries to push himself everywhere, as if to prove something. And then he's all prickly and mean,” he waves his hand with annoyance.
“And I'm not even talking about all the games since he joined,” he groans. Liu Mingyan raises her eyebrow. “Why so?”
“It's just…he's a distraction! How can I pay attention when he's there, doing whatever you're doing,” he waves his hand in exasperation. “If he has such an effect on the other team, perhaps we finally stood a chance.”
They wait for a bus. “Does gege pay a lot of attention to Shen Jiu?” She smirks.
Liu Qingge's face flush. “Not–not in that way! It's just that he's everywhere. And he's so, so annoying,” he looks away from her, to the incoming bus.
“Let's just go.”
…
Shen Jiu was determined. He worked hard on setting up the choreography, and even harder on forcing his way with it.
Now there was finally the day of the game. He dislikes the whole football part, but he enjoys the astonishment of the audience.
“Bro…don't be so uptight, chill out,” Shang Qinghua taps him on his shoulder. “For the last time– don't call me your bro,” he huffs.
“You have that game today, huh? It wouldn't kill you to smile once in a while. After all, where's that cheer in cheerleading?”
Shen Jiu snaps his head at him. “Shut up finally.”
Shang Qinghua raises his hands in a sign of agreement. “Fine, fine. No need to be so stuck up, damn…”
But Shen Jiu was. He couldn't help but feel nervous. Shang Winghua sees it, so he tries to redirect the conversation.
“You know, the Junior Ball is about to roll in. Last week of school, huh. Survived another year,” he smiles.
Shen Jiu looks up. “Your point?”
“Do you have someone to go with?” He asks. “...are you seriously asking?” Shen Jiu huffs. “I'm not going! Why would I? I don't support such frivolities…” and he didn't have anyone to go with anyways.
“Oh come on, we can go together,” Shang Qinghua utters.
“...over my dead body.”
“You're no fun,” he pouts.
Shen Jiu had other things occupying his mind now. The lessons went by, and he was faced with the game.
He is already dressed in that pretty matching outfit, but revealing for his taste, but he learnt to swallow his pride.
“Alright. Now don't you dare slip up. We trained hard for this,” he walks around the cheerleaders. “Some more than other, but if we make a mistake it will befall us all.”
They have that defeated smile on their face, as they've heard similar prep talk thousand times before.
The game starts and they've stood their ground. They started with a high energy introduction, to set the choreography into an energetic mood. There were some gymnastic passages, lots of symmetry to appeal, and in the middle of it was Shen Jiu.
Truth be told, he didn't care as much about the publicum as to catch the attention of one player.
He wanted Liu Qingge to see him. Despite hating his whole being, he wanted him to see and to stop by his vision. To smirk and leave him utterly defenceless. He didn't know why, he just had this soaring desire to be validated, to be admired even by such a brute.
He follows him with his eyes, his face nothing but a cold calm mask. He wants Kiu Qingge to turn as see.
And after a while, he truly did. Lou Qingge is in the middle of the field when he turns to get hair out of his face, only to see Shen Jiu's eyes following him.
“Ah–” he stumbles over his own feet and falls. Shen Jiu smirks at that. He wants more.
The choreography reached its peak along with the game. Lou Wingge along with his team were close to the cheerleaders.
Shen Jiu could see the sweat on their face, as they were ready to score. He is about to score as well. The choreography reached its peak, and Shen Jiu was thrown into the air.
However, at the same time Liu Qingge kicks the ball and they score. A wave of excitement and applause rise through the air, and even the cheerleaders that were supposed to catch Shen Jiu were caught up by the moment.
He sees it. He sees how the formation is disrupted, and he is about to fall right to the ground.
“Ah–” he groans, buckling to feel the bludgeoning pain of the ground, when he suddenly feels he fell into someone's arms.
“Gotcha,” Shen Jiu looks up, only to gaze eye to eye with Liu Qingge.
“That could have been nasty,” he grins. Shen Jiu's face flushes. He could feel the strength of his arms, and the heat radiating from his body.
“Get–get off me,” he pushes away, falling to the ground, “let's, let's just get back to the game,” he tries to school his expression and looks away.
“And you–” he points to one of the cheerleaders. “This is a mistake that could land me in a hospital. Get your head back in the game!”
The rest of it went smoothly. No more falls or embarrassing moments. Still, Shen Jiu couldn't look at Liu Qingge till the end of the game.
…
“Bro, that was crazy,” Shang Qinghua exclaims. “For a second I thought you'd be dead.”
“Don't be dramatic,” Shen Jiu sighs in embarrassment. “Still, the way he caught you was quite romantic,” he grins.
“Ouch– don't hit me bro, I'm just saying,” he whines as Shen Jiu smacks him for that comment.
Shang Qinghua is an enemies to lovers enjoyer. He consumes it, he writes it, he loves it. And currently he sees a very possible dynamic with his best friend
“Well, if you're going to be so violent, I'll go to my other friend,” he whispers, and Shen Jiu just waves.
“With my pleasure,” he rolls his eyes. As if Qinghua had any other friends…
Yet when Shang Qinghua stands up and leaves, he can only stare. “...damn. He really left,” before shrugging and getting back to his studies.
Shang Qinghua was heading to the one person he knows will hear him out. The only person that can match him freak and his fanfiction streak.
“Mingyan, hear me out,” he slides down to her at a cafeteria. She was currently eating a muffin while reading some book, hut upon his arrival she closed it.
“Qinghua, just the person I wanted to see. Hear me out–”
“No wait, me first. I need your help. I've found such a potential in this couple. It has drama, tension, heat…just you wait, I need your help.”
Liu Mingyan's eyes widens. “No way, I also have one. It has to do with my brother,” she stops herself, “but let's hear you out first, then.”
Shang Qinghua takes a deep breath. “You know my pal, Shen Jiu? Your cheerleading captain,” she nods her head. “Yea, yea,” her eyes almost gleaming.
“Have you seen the way he fell into the arms of that football player, Liu Qingge– wait…Liu, Liu!” He holds his head. “Don't tell me THAT is your brother!”
“Yea, yea he is,” she laughs. “So you're thinking what I'm thinking? That Shen Jiu and Liu Qingge are literally meant to be?”
“Well I don't know about that, but what I know is that Shen Jiu is like obsessed with your brother. He can't stand him, but I think there's something underneath…” he grins and they share a knowing smirk.
“Qingge is also enamoured. Always talking about him,” she clasps her hands. “So what's the plan? They are both too proud to make a first move, but from all I see and hear, there surely is something.”
Shang Qinghua thinks. “Hmmm…well. The Junior Ball is next week. A-Jiu said he isn't planning on attending, but I bet it would change if Liu Qingge asks him.”
Liu Mingyan thinks. “But the problem is, that my brother doesn't seem like one asking. He's far too stuck up,” she sighs.
For a while they just sit in silence. “Ughh…why is it so difficult,” Shang Qinghua sunks.
“Wait–I think I've got it,” Liu Mingyan beams. “Hear me out, what if we give them fake letters of the other one asking, so they'll meet and go together,” she points out.
“Genius,” Shang Qinghua exclaims. “Let's get to it.”
The school ended and the only people around were part of some clubs. The two of them stay in the cafeteria, scribbling ideas and coming up with possible letters.
“Listen, this is one from my collection,” Liu Mingyan clears her throat.
“Your beauty outshined even the most chiseled statues.
For no marble form could ever capture the radiance you possessed.
In the chill of your words, my heart supposed to broke
But beneath the surface, my soul found rest.
I don't mind any cruel words you spoke.
For in your teasing, I saw your best,
In your prickly words, my heart confessed.”
Shang Qinghua sat stunned. “Well…doesn't that seem way too fancy for Liu Qingge, though?”
“You're right, we have to dumb it down,” she scratches it. For a while she just stares at the blank papers before scribbling something down.
“What about this? Roses are red, violets are blue, flowers are pretty, but way less than you…” she looks up, “better?”
“Yea, that's more like it.”
They continue to write, until they're both equally tired and satisfied. “Hehe, now the fun part,” they gleamed with mischievous energy.
They sneaked into their locker hall, and pushed the letters into their locker. Tomorrow they'll find it. “But remember, we have to keep them separated so they don't confront each other about it,” Liu Mingyan reminds.
And thus started the most difficult days of their life. When the two of them found the letters, they went crazy.
“Wha–can you believe this?!” Shen Jiu scoffs and slides over the letter he received from ‘Liu Qingge’. Shang Qinghua fakes amazement. “Damn, bro, that's some deep stuff.”
He acts very inconspicuously.
“Well? Will you go?” he leans over. Come on, say it…
“As if,” he turns away. “What a joke.”
Shang Qinghua felt betrayed. “But…why?” He tries to act nonchalant, but it doesn't work. Shen Jiu gives him a dirty look.
“Why should I go? What a nonsense…” he scrambles the paper and puts it in his pocket.
Shang Qinghua contacts Liu Mingyan. “Our plan is failing, he doesn't want to go,” he whines. She meets him with the same defeated look. “Same here. Liu Qingge won't go…”
The two of them sigh. Well, we can't win everything.
Perhaps they truly hate each other way too much.
…
The evening of the Junior Prom arrives. The gym was transformed into a dancing parquet, with smiling laughing teens, first loves, and friends enjoying the atmosphere.
Shen Jiu didn't know why he came. He knew the letter was one big joke, and that Liu Qingge would have never written such an abomination.
Still, he found himself wearing his fanciest blouse, his hair neatly done, and his palms slightly trembling. “Calm down, you idiot…” he mumbles. He hates himself for acting like this.
He stands there, before the entrance unable to go inside.
“...hey,” Shen Jiu turns around to be met with Liu Qingge's gaze. His hair wasn't as messy as before, and he wore a nice suit.
“Hey,” Shen Jiu scoffs, “I suppose you got one of those fake letters as well,” he looks away, far too embarrassed.
Liu Qingge clears his throat. “Yea…it was something,” he grins. Shen Jiu rolls his eyes. “Well? Why are you here then? Do you have a date?”
Liu Qingge looks hesitant. “Not really. Though, I hoped I could find one,” he pulls out a rose from behind his back.
Shen Jiu stares at it, before carefully taking it. His cheeks were redder than the petals. With an awkward move, he takes Liu Qingge's arm.
“I see…well, consider yourself lucky.”
Liu Qingge's face became red. He flinches a bit upon the touch, before trying to calm down. “Shall we?”
Hand in hand they stepped towards the entrance, hoping their blush would be hidden by the lighting. Perhaps there truly is a small line between heating hatred and desire.