Chapter 59 – Too Hard to Soothe, Big Idiot, Very Annoying
The black pants were a lost cause. Chen Jing Shen fetched a pair of his own shorts; Yu Fan tugged at the loose waistband and felt an urge to yank them over Chen Jing Shen’s head.
Chen Jing Shen was in the shower, so no chance of that. Yu Fan sprawled on Chen Jing Shen’s bed with one leg crossed over the other, his head still on the pillow from earlier, lounging like a warlord who had just taken a hill.
His body was here, but his soul was still back in the last ten minutes. His mind was full of Chen Jing Shen’s voice, hands, and taste.
The window was cracked. That raw, restless scent was slowly thinning in the room.
At last the AC got some traction. Yu Fan’s brain was cooling at a crawl. He did not feel like moving; his eyes drifted lazily around.
The wardrobe door was ajar. Every shirt hanging inside looked freshly pressed.
Yu Fan suddenly remembered how wrinkled Chen Jing Shen’s white T-shirt had gotten when he stood up just now. All from Yu Fan’s grip.
Yu Fan’s fingers curled, a spark skittering through him, and his gaze jumped away to the trash can and the used tissues inside.
F***. He popped a piece of gum and pushed himself over to the desk, deciding to find a distraction.
【-: ?】
【-: You @ me 32 times in one night, you sick?】
Two messages in and their usually dead little group chat exploded.
【Wang Lu’an: Holy Sh***! Yu Fan you didn’t even answer my DMs! Are you actually dating?! @-】
【Zuo Kuan: I heard you even know how to coax someone??? @-】
【-: @Zhu Xu?】
【Zhu Xu: Heh… heh heh… hehehe. Let me explain. I was in the middle of a team fight, and I messaged late. They asked what I was doing and, like, I had to be honest, right?】
【Wang Lu’an: What’s that supposed to mean? We’re all brothers. You’ll introduce us eventually anyway.】
【Zuo Kuan: Exactly. But you still coaxing her now? Your girlfriend sounds f***ing high maintenance.】
【Zhang Xianjing: Watch your mouths. His girlfriend might be with him right now.】
Zuo Kuan immediately retracted his last message.
【Zuo Kuan: So who is your girlfriend anyway?】
Yu Fan sat cross-legged, slouched in the chair, and typed lazily.
【-: No one. We broke up. Don’t ask.】
A forest of question marks sprouted.
【Zhu Xu: What happened? You couldn’t coax her over?】
【Zuo Kuan: So when did you even start dating?】
【Wang Lu’an: F***, why??】
【-: Too hard to coax. Big idiot. Very annoying. Not doing it anymore.】
When Chen Jing Shen stepped out of the bathroom, his phone pinged. Wang Lu’an had @’d him in the group, asking if he knew who Yu Fan’s girlfriend was.
He opened the chat, skimmed, and found the line Yu Fan had posted.
Chen Jing Shen replied, “Don’t know,” then walked over to the boy hunched over the chair typing and said, “Yu Fan.”
At the sound of his name, Yu Fan instinctively remembered the stupid thing Chen Jing Shen had said last time after calling him. His ears tingled. His expression chilled. He kept typing without looking up.
【Wang Lu’an: …So who is it? What grade? Which class? I’m going to check her out on Monday.】
【Zhu Xu: Might be in your class.】
【Wang Lu’an: No way. Aside from Zhang Xianjing and Ke Ting, no girl in our class has ever said more than ten words to Yu Fan.】
【Zuo Kuan: No Sh***. Obviously she’s pretty. Otherwise how would Yu Fan date her??】
【-: Very ugly. Clingy. Makes scenes. I was blind.】
【Zhu Xu: Huh? That’s not nice to say about an ex…】
【Zuo Kuan: F***, you’re such a jerk.】
【s: T-T】
【Zhang Xianjing: ?】
【Wang Lu’an: ?】
“… ”
Yu Fan’s fingers froze mid-insult. He could not take it anymore. He looked up at the person planted in front of him. “Chen Jing Shen, who said you could in the group—”
Chen Jing Shen tugged off the towel, bent down, and kissed him.
Yu Fan’s voice vanished on contact. He sat stunned for a couple seconds, then rasped, “What the f***… are you doing?”
“Coaxing you,” Chen Jing Shen said. “Can we not break up.”
“…”
Coax my a**. Weren’t you pretty full of yourself just now?
Yu Fan wanted to kick him out, but then his gaze slid to the faintly neat row of red marks along Chen Jing Shen’s neck.
He had lost control at the end and bitten him.
So the leg he had lifted settled back down. Dryly, he asked, “Does your neck hurt?”
“It hurts,” said Chen Jing Shen.
“Serves you right.” Yu Fan’s face stayed blank. He glanced around. “Where are the band-aids you took out earlier?”
“Drawer.”
Yu Fan pulled the desk drawer open. As he grabbed a band-aid, he idly took in how tidy it was inside. Everything was sorted, easy to see at a glance.
His gaze snagged on a black notebook in the back.
Old, nothing special. What caught his eye was the strip of paper jammed inside that stuck out halfway, like a rectangular note. He could vaguely see two characters.
What was that?
Yu Fan squinted for a long moment and still could not make it out. The handwriting was uglier than his.
“What is it?” Chen Jing Shen hung the towel on the balcony and came back.
“Nothing.” Yu Fan had no taste for poking into other people’s privacy. He shut the drawer and tore open the band-aid. “Get over here. I’m slapping this on, then I’m heading out.”
The entryway dipped down a step. There were flowers on the shoe cabinet, the kind Yu Fan could not name, giving off a faint fragrance.
He bent to put on his shoes, tugged at the waistband again, and frowned. “Chen Jingshen, your shorts are too big.”
Following his gaze, Chen Jing Shen’s eyes dropped to Yu Fan’s waist, and the earlier scene flashed uninvited across his mind. His eyes flickered. “You could actually not go back.”
“Shut up.”
“Then does what you said today still count?” he asked. “The movie tomorrow.”
Yu Fan paused. He had promised in the middle of the fight.
“It counts.” He hesitated. “I’m buying the tickets this time.”
“Okay,” said Chen Jing Shen.
Shoes on, Yu Fan rubbed the bridge of his nose and said, “I won’t be late.”
Chen Jing Shen had been half-leaning against the wall. At that, he blinked and could not help tipping his face closer.
Just as he was about to touch, a piercing “beep—” sounded at the door. Both of them froze.
Yu Fan’s mind went blank. He pushed Chen Jing Shen’s face away on reflex.
The door swung open. Ji Lianyi stepped in sideways, instructing the driver behind her, “Leave the luggage here. Pick me up tomorrow night at nine for the airport. Do not be late. And…”
She turned as she spoke. When she saw, her voice stalled for several seconds. “Jingshen? Why are you standing here? And this is… Yu Fan?”
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