Chapter 37

With his eyes covered, his other senses were unusually sharp.

Pei Ran heard the rustle of the night breeze through the leaves, and Yan Zhun's heartbeat.

Only after the door next door slid shut and the curtains were drawn tight did the hand over his eyes move away, leaving the warmth of the young man's palm on his eyelids.

"He's young. He can't keep his mouth shut." After a moment of silence, Yan Zhun suddenly spoke.

Pei Ran's head was still tilted slightly back, at the same angle as when they had kissed. He hadn't quite come back to his senses. "Hm?"

"You have to tell him clearly before he knows to keep it secret." Yan Zhun lowered his eyes and asked, "Should we keep it secret?"

Yan Zhun had a beautiful jawline. Pei Ran looked at it for a few seconds before looking up into his eyes and saying seriously, "If you want to keep it secret, we will."

They sounded as though they were reciting tongue twisters. Yan Zhun smiled silently, his voice a little low as it mingled with the night. "I don't. I never have."

Lin Xuhuan was still clutching his bath towel tightly when he went inside.

Assaulter was sitting on the sofa in his room, scrolling through Weibo. He looked up and asked, "Who were you talking to just now... are there fans outside? Why are you gripping your towel so tight?"

Their base's address wasn't a secret. Fans of the team often came to check in outside.

Lin Xuhuan strode over and sat on the sofa. "Quick, slap me."

Smack. A crisp sound.

Without even changing his expression, Assaulter slapped him across the face.

It didn't hurt, but Lin Xuhuan was still stunned. "Fuck, you actually fucking hit me?!"

"We're brothers. Of course I'll do a little thing like that for you," Assaulter said. "What happened?"

Lin Xuhuan had been at TZG since before his fifteenth birthday. Every player and coach at TZG, including his bro, was family to him.

Like someone who had stumbled upon his eldest brother's romance, he nervously told his second brother what had happened.

Assaulter was stunned too.

After a long while, Assaulter raised his palm. "Let me slap you again. I don't think you're awake enough yet."

"Go on," Lin Xuhuan said. "See if I don't hit you back this time."

Assaulter wore a complicated expression. "Are you sure you saw clearly?"

Lin Xuhuan felt insulted. "Fuck you, my dynamic vision is number one in the world! And they were just standing there, not moving at all!!!"

"..."

They stared at each other in silence for a while, then lit cigarettes at the same time in tacit agreement.

Assaulter said, "How do I put it... I don't know why, but if it's Pei Ran, I'm actually not that surprised."

"Me neither." Lin Xuhuan paused. "But my bro really likes guys? Was it kind of inappropriate for me to sit beside him shirtless playing games at the base every day?"

Assaulter stood and patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. Zhun probably never even saw you as human."

With that, he slipped on his slippers and dashed out before Lin Xuhuan could react.

With all that noise, it would have been hard not to hear them next door.

The lights were off in Yan Zhun's room. Hearing Lin Xuhuan's shouts and curses, he frowned and opened his eyes, instinctively reaching out to cover the ears of the person beside him.

Pei Ran was asleep on his side. He slept quietly, without moving about or any bad habits. Even with Lin Xuhuan shouting so loudly, his eyelashes only fluttered, his breathing even.

Yan Zhun used his other hand to pick up his phone and quickly typed a line.

[Zhunle: If you're going to fight, do it downstairs.]

[Lin Xuhuan: We're done, bro. I'll tape myself to the bed right now.]

Yan Zhun couldn't be bothered bantering with him. Just as he was about to put his phone away, another message arrived.

[Lin Xuhuan: So, uh... bro, I couldn't help telling that idiot what happened. Is that okay? Should I go silence him? Can we talk about this?]

[Zhunle: Up to you.]

Yan Zhun had still underestimated Lin Xuhuan's ability to spread the word.

Early the next morning, he quietly got out of bed, washed up, and went out for a run. As he headed downstairs, several TZG members who had just pulled an all-nighter were eating noodles around the dining table.

The coach had been lecturing them about staying up all night during competition season. When he saw Yan Zhun coming downstairs, he fell silent too.

"Up so early?" the coach asked with a light cough.

Yan Zhun bent to tie his shoes. "Yeah."

Their faces were full of expressions as they tossed out questions like "Sleep well?" and "Was the heating warm enough?" When Assaulter asked, "Our practice didn't disturb you, did it, bro?" Yan Zhun finally frowned.

"All right, stop talking. Finish eating and go upstairs to sleep." The coach took a sip of milk and looked back at Yan Zhun. "Going for a morning run?"

Yan Zhun answered in the affirmative and had just opened the base's door.

"Hey, wait." The coach stopped him again. "Well... do you need the bed in your room replaced?"

Yan Zhun: "?"

The others were practically losing their minds trying not to laugh. The coach pressed his lips together, but the corners were lifted too. "I don't mean anything by it. That bed's only 1.8 meters wide. I'm worried you two are cramped. If it's uncomfortable, I'll have someone replace it this afternoon."

Yan Zhun looked at Lin Xuhuan. "..."

They all thought Yan Zhun was going to scold Lin Xuhuan coldly. Lin Xuhuan thought so too; he had even lowered his head, hoping to play deaf and dumb.

Instead, Yan Zhun paused for two seconds, then took his earphones from his pocket and put just one in. "No need. There's enough room."

During his morning run, Yan Zhun received a call from home.

He stopped beside the bridge and waited for his breathing to settle a little before answering. "Mom."

"Zhun," his mother asked, "have you moved out of school?"

After all, the person he had fallen out with was his roommate. After they returned home from the hospital that time, his mother had told Yan Zhun to change dorm rooms or move off campus.

"I have."

"Good. Where did you rent a place?"

Yan Zhun looked out over the river. Only after a moment did he say, "I moved to the base."

The other end of the line went quiet. It took his mother quite a while to understand where "the base" was.

Yan Zhun thought she would express confusion or incomprehension. Instead, after a long wait, all he heard her ask was, "Are you settling in?"

Yan Zhun tightened his grip on his phone. "Yeah."

"Good. Since you've moved in, you should pay some rent, however much, and try not to trouble people." His mother paused at the end. "Make sure you eat on time and take good care of yourself."

Pei Ran was already awake when Yan Zhun returned to the base. The moment he opened the door, he saw Pei Ran coming out of the bathroom, carrying the minty scent of having washed up. Since he hadn't changed sleeping positions, the hair on one side of his head had been pressed into a slight curl. In his oversized T-shirt, he looked languid all over.

"You're awake?" Yan Zhun asked.

"Mm." Pei Ran looked up at the sweat on his forehead, his voice a little sleepy. "Went running?"

"For a bit." Yan Zhun wanted to smooth his hair down, but only after raising his hand did he remember his palms were sweaty, and he lowered it again. "I'll take a shower. Wait for me."

When Yan Zhun came out of the bathroom, Pei Ran was sitting in his chair, on the phone.

"Teacher Yun... yes, it's been a long time." Pei Ran's eyes were lowered as he spoke, making him look just as he had in class. "I'm doing well. How about you?... The class group chat? I check it sometimes, but sometimes I see it late, after everyone's finished talking, so I haven't said much."

Hearing "Teacher Yun," Yan Zhun raised an eyebrow. Without a word, he walked over to stand in front of Pei Ran and pressed his sticking-up hair down.

Yun was an uncommon surname. He remembered that the homeroom teacher Pei Ran had switched to in his second year of high school had that surname.

If he remembered correctly, it was also this teacher who, despite pressure from all sides, had "secured" two major demerits for the student who had accidentally injured Luo Qingshan. The incident had caused quite a stir back then, and people in the other classes had known about it too.

Pei Ran let Yan Zhun fiddle with his hair without pulling away.

Only after talking for nearly ten minutes did Pei Ran hang up.

"Hungry?" Yan Zhun asked.

"A little," Pei Ran said.

"The housekeeper's gone home," Yan Zhun said. "I'll cook for you. There are noodles and dumplings in the fridge. What do you want?"

"Whatever you're having," Pei Ran said.

For some reason, that simple sentence made Yan Zhun feel good. He said, "Okay. Your boyfriend will give you an extra serving-an extra fried egg."

Yan Zhun had only just turned around when Pei Ran caught his hand.

"On the seventh of next month, I'm going to my high school class reunion," Pei Ran said.

A high school class reunion.

That meant teachers, classmates, and Luo Qingshan.

Yan Zhun lowered his eyes. After a long while, he said, "Okay."

Then he asked, "Where?"

"I don't know. I haven't had time to read the group messages yet. My teacher said it's a local hot spring hotel," Pei Ran said. "It's pretty far, so we might stay overnight."

Yan Zhun gave a muffled "Mm," his emotions unreadable.

Pei Ran waited quietly for a while, but Yan Zhun said nothing else. He briefly pressed his lips together and asked, "Are you busy?"

Yan Zhun froze for a moment. "What?"

"I'm booking my own room, not sharing with my classmates." Pei Ran paused. "...I asked. We can bring partners. Of course, if you're busy, I can go by myself."

On the day of the reunion, the sky was overcast, and it looked as though rain could fall at any moment.

The organizer was their former class president. They were meeting outside their old school, with two rented buses to take them there together.

The reunion had been arranged at short notice because their former homeroom teacher was about to retire and move to another province, so most people were coming. More than twenty people had gathered outside the school gates before the appointed time.

As soon as Luo Qingshan arrived, an old classmate stopped him to chat. He forced the corners of his mouth up and gave a couple of responses, then looked up and began scanning those present.

His old classmate thought he was looking for the people he had fought back then and hurriedly said, "Don't worry. We didn't invite those idiots."

None of them had stayed in touch after graduation with the three boys who had led the bullying in class, and naturally no one had invited them this time.

"That's good," Luo Qingshan said. "Where's our teacher?"

"The class president was worried it would rain, so he had him and his wife wait on the bus." His old classmate glanced behind him. "Pei Ran didn't come with you?"

"No." Luo Qingshan paused, taking out his phone a little awkwardly. "How about I call and ask him..."

"I just called." The class president came up behind them. "He said he'll be here soon."

Whoosh-

Rain poured down. Everyone froze for a moment, then raised their backpacks to shelter from the rain and ran toward the buses.

"It's raining pretty hard. Let's wait on the bus."

"...You go ahead." Luo Qingshan opened his umbrella. "I'll wait for Pei Ran at the stop. I'm worried he didn't bring an umbrella."

"No need, right?" the class president said. "He's coming with his partner. Your umbrella won't fit three people."

Luo Qingshan stopped in his tracks. "What partner? Whose partner?"

"Pei Ran's," the class president said. "He specifically messaged me privately about it, and booked a separate room too."

He had just finished speaking when someone beside them suddenly called out, "Pei Ran's here!"

Luo Qingshan turned back blankly.

Through the curtain of rain, Pei Ran and Yan Zhun walked side by side beneath one umbrella. The gray umbrella was held a little low, hiding their eyes and making their expressions impossible to see. All anyone could tell was that the two beneath it stood very close.

Only one of them was carrying a bag.

Their luggage was packed together.