How to Hook Fan Jin

Fan Jin only saw it the next morning, and he was a little bewildered.

He thought for a while before replying, "I told you, I'm not a good person."

Shan Ye slept until noon. He reached for his phone with his eyes half-closed and saw Fan Jin's message. He immediately shot upright. "Fan Jin... I didn't mean you were a bad person."

It took a while for Fan Jin to reply. "Then what did you mean?"

"It's just... I missed you." Shan Ye tossed his phone aside after sending it, feeling a little embarrassed. He couldn't exactly tell Fan Jin that he'd missed him last night and felt it was unfair that he was the only one feeling that way... which was why he'd said that.

Shan Ye got up to wash and brush his teeth, checking his phone every so often to see if Fan Jin had replied. Sure enough, whenever he brought up things like this, Fan Jin deliberately avoided the subject.

No! I have to find a way to make Fan Jin come to me first.

What was the fun in always being the only one making an effort?

He spat out a mouthful of toothpaste foam and decided to act a little cooler toward Fan Jin, to bait the hook.

Shan Ye spent the entire afternoon in his room preparing lessons. He kept his eyes on his computer screen, his phone facedown on the desk. Yet his gaze kept straying to WeChat on his desktop, checking for messages.

Well, look at you, Fan Jin. If I don't message you, you don't message me either.

Besides, the message he'd sent at noon still hadn't received a reply.

Shan Ye was genuinely getting annoyed.

He tossed his phone onto the bed, wandered around the living room, and poured himself a glass of plain water.

Bland and tasteless, just like his mood.

He called Tan Yi'an and asked him out for drinks that evening.

Tan Yi'an sounded enthusiastic. "Sure! Where did you disappear to over the break? I haven't seen you around."

"I'll tell you when we meet."

Shan Ye drove to the quiet bar they'd agreed on and arrived before Tan Yi'an.

He ordered a bottle of whiskey, planning to get completely wasted that night.

By the time Tan Yi'an arrived, Shan Ye had drunk more than half the bottle, and his cheeks were flushed.

Tan Yi'an's eyes widened. He picked up the half-empty bottle and inspected it. "Did you... get dumped?"

"Dumped? I'm not even dating him yet." Shan Ye's voice was soft and nasal, his tone unhappy.

"Then what's wrong? Did he turn you down when you confessed?" Tan Yi'an ventured.

Shan Ye propped his chin on his hand, his gaze vacant, and shook his head. "He's never given me an answer. To tell you the truth, he was in Osmanthus City when I went there this time."

"You went together?"

"No," Shan Ye said blankly. "Osmanthus City is his hometown. He went back with his grandmother."

Tan Yi'an was puzzled. "Then after spending several days together, you should've gotten closer, right? Why... are you still like this?" He looked Shan Ye up and down.

Shan Ye frowned and gritted his teeth. "He keeps dodging my feelings. Whenever I bring it up, he avoids it. He won't even reply to my messages."

He unlocked his phone. It opened straight to his chat with Fan Jin, and he held it up in Tan Yi'an's face.

"Look. I sent that at noon, and he still hasn't replied."

Tan Yi'an leaned back a little before he could see it clearly. "Isn't that a reply right there?"

"What reply-" Shan Ye pulled his phone back and immediately spotted the message.

Fan Jin: "Busy today?"

Shan Ye sobered up halfway, muttering, "When did he send that? How did I miss it?"

Tan Yi'an rolled his eyes. "One message is all it takes to make you happy again. You deserve to feel miserable." His words were vicious. "You're not going to go crawling back right away, are you? Saying something like, 'No, not busy at all! You finally replied!'"

Tan Yi'an deliberately put on a mocking tone.

Shan Ye's fingertip hovered over the screen. That was exactly what he'd been fucking planning to say.

"Then how should I reply?"

Tan Yi'an declared with absolute conviction, "Don't!"

Shan Ye frowned. "If I don't reply, I really won't have a chance. Even getting an 'Mm' out of Fan Jin is already him doing me a favor."

Tan Yi'an laughed in exasperation. "Fuck, how did I never notice you had such potential to be a doormat?"

"If this is how you pursue someone, all you'll get is strung along. Understand?"

Shan Ye stared at him, barely blinking. He really didn't have much experience with romance. More precisely, he had none.

"...Then what do you think I should do? Stop pursuing him?"

At some point, Tan Yi'an had put a cigarette between his lips. He said casually, "Don't stop. Just play it cool."

"How far have you two gotten?"

Shan Ye answered honestly, "...We hugged."

"He didn't refuse?" Tan Yi'an raised an eyebrow.

"No. He didn't push me away." The corners of Shan Ye's mouth lifted.

Tan Yi'an said, "Then you've got a chance. That means he's interested in you, but he doesn't want to admit it."

Shan Ye grew anxious. He suddenly stood up and braced his hands on the table, his expression utterly serious. "Then how do I make him admit it?"

Tan Yi'an crooked a finger and offered him a strategy. "Here's what you do..."

Fan Jin sat propped against the headboard, looking at his silent phone. Shan Ye still hadn't replied.

Was he very busy?

His life had always been painfully simple, a pool of stagnant water. He sat against the headboard reading, but after two pages, he couldn't go on. Even the current affairs news he used to enjoy no longer held his interest.

Shan Ye had slipped into his life just like that, without a sound, stirring faint ripples in his tranquil heart.

"What are you doing..." he murmured, holding his phone.

Close to midnight, Fan Jin's phone chimed.

He immediately picked it up to check. Shan Ye had replied, "Not busy."

Two words.

He replied, "Why did you take so long to answer?"

Fan Jin waited two or three minutes before another message arrived. "You don't like replying either, do you? So I stopped messaging."

He knitted his brows. "It's not that I don't like replying."

This time, Shan Ye answered quickly. "But you didn't reply."

Fan Jin froze. He scrolled back to the message Shan Ye had sent at noon. He had indeed seen it and deliberately left it unanswered.

Was Shan Ye angry?

Because I didn't reply.

He had to admit that Shan Ye was already beginning to affect his emotions. Every word Shan Ye said, everything he did-Fan Jin noticed it all and turned it over in his mind.

But he knew his own limits. There was a world of difference between him and Shan Ye, a university lecturer. Shan Ye was beyond his reach. He wasn't worthy of him, either, and couldn't give him a happy, stable relationship.

He had thought about this no fewer than a hundred times.

He wasn't worthy of Shan Ye.

A veteran with nothing more than a high school education, running a coffee shop that barely kept him fed. Shan Ye was a university lecturer from a good family, with good looks and a good personality. He should have found someone just as respectable, someone of a similar background, and settled into a steady life.

He liked me? Shan Ye was probably just caught up in the moment.

Fan Jin stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and stared blankly at the thin trail of smoke rising from it. He couldn't help thinking that Shan Ye was only acting on a passing whim. Once the novelty wore off, Shan Ye would discover that the person he'd fallen for was nothing but a taciturn bore-uninteresting, unromantic, with nothing to offer.

That was the kind of person he was. He didn't know how to say sweet things or make someone happy. He didn't even know how to treat someone well. No one had taught him any of that growing up. What he'd seen was his father smashing bottles when he was drunk, his mother crying in a corner. What was love? He didn't know. He only knew that the man's blood ran through his veins, and he was probably just as rotten deep down.

After being pushed away a few times, Shan Ye would leave.

Everyone did.

No one would ever truly like him.

Fan Jin leaned against the headboard with a hand resting on his forehead. Yet his mind was filled with Shan Ye's voice. Shan Ye had said he had everything he needed except him. He'd said he liked him.

Every word had sounded utterly sincere.

But what if?

What if Shan Ye wasn't just acting on a passing whim?