Just Once

Xi Jin gripped her wrist with one hand and undid the buttons of his shirt with the other.

One.

Two.

His solid chest came into view.

He pressed down on her again, his scorching chest against her trembling skin.

His breath was full of desire.

Nan Xingyu did not know whether she was scared or nervous. Her whole body kept trembling.

Tears welled in her eyes.

When they reached the final step, things did not go smoothly.

Both of them were inexperienced.

Same.

Xi Jin's breathing grew heavier, and a fine sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Nan Xingyu's brows were tightly knitted.

She could not stop her tears from falling, sliding down her cheeks and into the pillow.

Nan Xingyu pushed at him, unwilling to try again.

Seeing her cry so hard, Xi Jin stopped. He lowered his head and kissed the tears from her face, his voice softening a little.

"Be good. Just once."

There was always a first time.

Rather than drag things out and make it hurt more for her, he might as well...

Steel his heart.

"!!"

Nan Xingyu's breath caught.

Uncontrollable sobs spilled from her throat.

Her mind went blank.

Xi Jin covered her mouth to keep her cries from carrying outside.

He looked at her trembling form, a perverse smile pulling at his lips, and kept his voice very low.

"Be good. Keep it down. My dad's next door."

Nan Xingyu's tears flowed even harder.

But all she could let out were muffled whimpers.

She had been afraid of Xi Jin since she was little.

Afraid of his tricks, afraid of how overbearing he was.

But after that day, somehow,

she began to dare to throw little tantrums at him, talk back to him, and slap him when he tried to force her.

It was as if the pain and intimacy of that night

had broken through the hazy boundary between them.

Nan Xingyu woke from her dream.

It was already the next morning.

She opened her eyes and looked at Xi Jin lying beside her.

His lashes were lowered and his breathing steady. Asleep, he was at his least threatening and most natural.

He seemed to sense her "escape" and instinctively tightened his arm.

Nan Xingyu was forced against him.

The tip of her nose pressed against his chest.

She knew he was awake.

She tried to move back.

The hand around her waist tightened again.

His irritated, sleep-rough voice came from above her. "Move again."

As he spoke, a leg wrapped around her too.

Nan Xingyu, bound by the "octopus": "..."

Xi Jin liked holding her while he slept.

Sometimes, half-asleep in the middle of the night, he would find no one in his arms and reach out with his eyes closed, feeling for her.

Whatever he caught, he would pull into his arms.

Just like a baby looking for a pacifier.

Once, when he reached for her, she pushed her pillow over to him.

Xi Jin woke up and looked at the "person" in his arms.

Then he taught her a lesson.

Of course, it was the kind of lesson you were thinking of.

She never dared do it again after that.

Remembering it made Nan Xingyu angry.

She often found herself inexplicably burning with nameless fury over things that had happened long ago.

She glanced at Xi Jin, who had fallen asleep again.

A sneak attack.

"Ugh..."

The man above her doubled over with a low, muffled groan.

While he was "gravely wounded," Nan Xingyu immediately broke free of his loosened embrace, threw back the covers, and jumped out of bed.

"I have to go to class!"

"..."

Xi Jin was instantly wide awake, his brows tightly furrowed. Holding the spot where she had struck him so brutally, he watched helplessly as the culprit escaped into the bathroom.

Sometimes Nan Xingyu was exasperated with herself too.

She knew full well that if she provoked him, he would strike back and take revenge.

But she was just that hardheaded.

Knowing full well there was a tiger on the mountain, she insisted on heading straight up that very mountain.

She trudged into the classroom, looking like a soulless zombie.

"Xingyu, what's been up with you lately?"

Lin Piaopiao looked at her listless face. "You've started going home a lot again. What game is so important you have to go home to play it?"

Nan Xingyu slumped over her desk, looking as though she had nothing left to live for. "I don't want to play anymore."

Lin Piaopiao laughed. "You look like a male ghost has been sucking out your yang energy. Games are fun, but you have to take care of yourself too."

Nan Xingyu's heart was full of bitterness.

The "male ghost" at her home had an insatiable appetite.

That afternoon, as class was nearing its end, the alarm she had set went off.

She quickly silenced her phone and gave the teacher looking over from the lectern an apologetic look.

The teacher adjusted their glasses and continued lecturing on jurisprudence.

Nan Xingyu picked up her book to hide behind it and used her other hand to send Xi Jin a message.

Before she left the apartment, Xi Jin had pulled the covers over himself and gone to sleep after having his fun.

He said he was going to sleep all day.

Damn his granny's bear.

He came to class whenever he felt like it, then slept all day after "eating his fill," without caring in the least whether she lived or died.

He even made her act as his human alarm clock and wake him up.

What a tormenting big bad egg.

She got no response to her message.

She worried he had not seen it.

When he slept like the dead, he really was no different from being dead.

Once, she had drawn on his face with lipstick and laughed so hard she doubled over, but he had not reacted at all.

Nan Xingyu slipped out on the pretext of going to the bathroom.

She hurried to call him.

He had a dinner engagement that evening.

The phone rang for quite a while before a lazy voice, hoarse from sleep, came through the receiver.

"Baby, did you miss your big brother?"

The rustling of the covers came through the line.

Apparently, he was still in bed.

He really could sleep.

Nan Xingyu walked along the corridor. "Didn't you ask me to wake you up at four?"

"Since when were you so obedient?"

His tone was flat, giving no hint of whether he was pleased or angry.

Nan Xingyu, however, felt an invisible pressure and said sheepishly,

"I've always been obedient."

"I asked you to elope with me. Why didn't you agree?"

"..."

Nan Xingyu was at a loss for words. "Stop joking. I'm still in class, and I've finished my mission of waking you up."

"Nan Xingyu."

"Hmm?"

He paused, his voice gradually growing clearer. "Do you really want me to go on a date with someone else tonight?"

"..."

The line fell silent.

Nan Xingyu could not see his expression, and she did not know whether she was being oversensitive, but why did he sound a little sad when he said that?

"Couldn't you use a little scheming to make me miss tonight's dinner engagement?"

Xi Jin asked again.

There seemed to be a note of grievance in his voice.

"It's just a meal. It's no big deal, is it?"

Nan Xingyu regretted it a little as soon as she said it, her voice growing quieter with the last few words.

He gave a low laugh, his breath reaching her eardrum through the line and making her heart inexplicably skip a beat.

He was definitely unhappy.

"What if she and I eat in bed?"

"..."

Nan Xingyu deliberately played dumb. "You're a clean freak. You wouldn't do that. Besides, there's a table."

"Keep pretending."

"...What?"

"You don't understand?"

"What?"

"How did I eat you last night?"

"..."

Nan Xingyu shivered for no apparent reason.

The ice had melted and mixed together, and then he had...