SMS CHAPTER 12

When it came to bickering, Yan Chengfeng had never lost to anyone over the years.

But in that instant, Zhen Ning’s question truly stumped him.

In every other matter, Yan Chengfeng could put on a tough front or deceive himself, but when it came to how he felt about playing the game, his emotions were always pure and straightforward.

On this point, he could never lie to himself.

A blast? Hell yeah!

That last match had been insane—far more than just a blast. The perfect synergy in the dragon pit had been so exhilarating that even his bones seemed to tingle with delight.

No support player could resist a play like that, and no one who played as Sunflower could remain unaffected by the heart-pounding rush of a Flash to pick up the seed.

The pathetic thing was that the person he had achieved that perfect synergy with was Zhen Ning.

And deep down, only Yan Chengfeng himself knew—through all these years, it had always been Zhen Ning.

“You two… aren’t leaving yet?” Tao Luo poked her head into the lounge.

Seeing the tense standoff between the two and sensing the oppressive atmosphere, she seemed to understand something. She scratched her head and said awkwardly, “Uh, Li Feng asked me to tell you guys to get on the bus. If there’s something to discuss, maybe do it later? You’re the only two left.”

When Zhen Ning boarded the bus, he saw Yan Chengfeng sitting in the back row, his face expressionless. Tao Luo was already fast asleep in the middle seats, while Xu Minghe and Xu Hao were chatting, surrounded by staff members.

Zhen Ning picked a random seat near the front, gazing quietly out the window. Eventually, fatigue crept in, and he closed his eyes.

The bus was bumpy and dim inside, and the journey was silent all the way.

Some unknown amount of time passed before Zhen Ning groggily opened his eyes. They had already arrived at the base. The cabin was dark and still.

Zhen Ning exhaled softly.

Feeling sleepy and easily fatigued were changes in his energy and stamina that he had long grown accustomed to.

As he slowly stood and stepped into the narrow aisle to leave, a sudden force gripped his left wrist—

Zhen Ning’s pupils contracted. “…!”

The next second, his wrist was yanked forward, pulling him into a firm, warm chest that carried the faint scent of white tea.

A deep voice murmured near his ear, “Yeah. It was a blast.”

It was Yan Chengfeng.

Zhen Ning had known, even before getting on the bus, that Yan Chengfeng wouldn’t let this go so easily.

But he had assumed Yan Chengfeng would wait until they were back at the base to settle the score. To his surprise, Yan Chengfeng never even got off the bus.

Not only had he stayed behind, but after everyone else had left, he had chosen the seat directly behind Zhen Ning, lying in wait in the dark for him to wake up.

Zhen Ning’s breathing faltered for a moment. He tried to make his voice sound calm. “…What?”

“Before we got on the bus, didn’t you ask me if tonight’s game was a blast?”

The young alpha’s warm breath brushed against Zhen Ning’s ear. “I’ve been thinking about it the whole way, so I waited for you to wake up so I could tell you personally.”

“Yeah,” Yan Chengfeng repeated, “It was a blast.”

Zhen Ning’s body stiffened.

Though the air remained crisp with spring’s chill, the confined space of the bus and their close proximity made each shared breath feel stiflingly warm.

Yan Chengfeng yanked Zhen Ning’s arm again, forcing him to turn and face him.

At last, they stood face to face, staring at each other in the dim light. Through the faint glow of the streetlights outside the window, Zhen Ning saw Yan Chengfeng smile.

“But no matter how thrilling it was,” Yan Chengfeng said, “Zhen Ning, what’s the point of it all?”

“This was your first professional match. To outsiders, you pulled off a perfect save and helped the team clinch match point. A pretty perfect start to your pro career.”

He added, “But Zhen Ning, do you know how my first match went after you left?”

“My debut was nothing like your glorious performance today,” he said. “It was in the secondary league. Back then, Lei Tao wasn’t around, and the one who replaced you was an alpha from the youth training team—a guy I’d never spoken to before, who spent all his time chasing messy relationships instead of practicing.”

“Because it was my first match, and because the two of us had never played together—while our opponents were an experienced duo who had been playing together for who knows how long—not even five minutes into the lane phase, their AD took us both down in a double kill.”

Yan Chengfeng’s smile widened. “Can you imagine? Their jungler didn’t even show up, and we still got wiped out in lane. In the secondary league, no less.”

Zhen Ning’s eyelashes trembled.

“I knew I wasn’t worse than them.”

Yan Chengfeng exhaled. “I knew I once had an AD who understood me. We played countless strategies together, so perfectly in sync we didn’t even need words to know what the other would do next—”

“But Zhen Ning,” he asked, “where were you back then?”

Zhen Ning’s body tensed even further.

“That’s why I’m telling you this: no matter how thrilling it was to play today’s match with you…” Yan Chengfeng stared down at him coldly. “Every single second spent with you only reminds me of how pathetic and laughable I was back then.”

Yan Chengfeng was furious.

As a young, hot-headed alpha, he had never been good at controlling his emotions when angry.

And now, as he spoke of their shared past, the hurt and frustration on his face were unmistakable. His pheromones seeped uncontrollably through the suppressant patch on his skin, slowly spreading through the bus’s air.

In three years, Yan Chengfeng had undoubtedly grown into an exceptional alpha. His pheromones were as overbearing and intense as his temper—so overpowering that Zhen Ning found it nearly impossible to breathe. The glands at the back of his neck throbbed faintly with a burning ache.

“…If that’s the case.” Zhen Ning closed his eyes, turned his head slightly, and took a deep breath before saying, “From now on, I’ll stay away from you as much as I can, so you won’t have to see me.”

As if he had just heard the funniest thing in the world, Yan Chengfeng let out an incredulous laugh.

“Stay away from me?”

He asked, “Why? Why is it that you can leave whenever you want, come back whenever you feel like it, and then think that just by ‘staying away,’ you can pretend like nothing ever happened?”

“Do you even remember what you told me before you left?”

Yan Chengfeng pressed on aggressively. “Didn’t you say playing professionally had no future? That you were going to the U.S. to study? Then why did you start grinding ranked games on the NA server after that? And why did you abandon those ‘unlimited opportunities’ in America just to come back here?”

Zhen Ning’s expression remained calm.

But upon closer look, his complexion was unnaturally pale. He seemed as delicate and cold as a snowflake, on the verge of melting away.

“…Those were my choices. At the time, I chose the path I thought was best for myself. I pursued it without hesitation.”

After a long silence, Yan Chengfeng finally heard Zhen Ning say calmly, “And now, as long as I don’t regret it, that’s enough. It has nothing to do with you.”

His words “I don’t regret it” and “It has nothing to do with you” were like gasoline poured onto an open flame, igniting Yan Chengfeng’s fury to its peak.

“Nothing to do with me.” Yan Chengfeng repeated, turning the words over in his mouth.

A moment later, he let out a bitter laugh, then nodded. “Fine. Say whatever you want. I don’t care anymore.”

“But I just realized why you’ve been so desperate to keep your distance from me.”

His gaze turned icy cold in an instant. “It’s because you left me behind, went off to America in all your glory, and now you’re back at KYM—but as an omega.”

“And when you face me, how do you really feel?” He tilted his chin slightly upward.

Yan Chengfeng wasn’t thinking clearly when he said those words.

He thought that bringing up their current gender differences would embarrass or anger Zhen Ning.

After all, he was so consumed by his own fury that he didn’t care whether what he said made sense or not. All he wanted was to provoke Zhen Ning in return.

But what Yan Chengfeng failed to realize was that, with his question, the topic had shifted from their personal grievances to something entirely different—something even suggestive on a physiological level.

And the more he spoke, the more reckless he became.

“So when you smell my pheromones now, how does it make you feel?”

Yan Chengfeng leaned in closer to Zhen Ning’s ear and asked, enunciating each word, “Anxiety? Fear? Or… an uncontrollable hunger?”

I’m truly despicable. Yan Chengfeng thought in a daze.

The friend he had cherished in his youth, the one he thought he’d share every future match with, win trophies alongside, and play beside until the very end—

The one he had once believed would be his only and best friend.

How had they ended up like this?

But how did Zhen Ning treat you back then? When he abandoned you, did he ever truly consider you a friend?

Yan Chengfeng thought numbly, So if I’m a little cruel to him now… does it even matter?

Then, he heard Zhen Ning’s voice. “You’re right.”

Yan Chengfeng: “…What?”

“Fear, anxiety, or any other physiological reaction.”

Zhen Ning blinked and said lightly, “These are my feelings at this moment. I won’t deny it—because I am indeed an omega.”

“But Yan Chengfeng, that day, when you already knew I was an omega, you still chose to release your pheromones.”

Zhen Ning continued, “After I suggested keeping my distance, you forced me to sit next to you instead. What was your purpose?”

Yan Chengfeng hadn’t expected such a direct question from this angle.

He stared into Zhen Ning’s eyes, his voice turning hoarse. “What do you mean by that?”

“What I mean is—doesn’t that count as your own uncontrollable hunger?” Zhen Ning said calmly, “Could it be that, when you saw an omega, you couldn’t help but put your peacock feathers on display—a primal mating instinct in an alpha’s nature?”

“Yan Chengfeng, since your differentiation, you haven’t marked an omega yet, have you?”

Yan Chengfeng froze.

The moment he realized what Zhen Ning was implying, blood rushed to his head. His throat burned, his face heating up uncontrollably.

“Y-you’re insane…”

His panic made his voice tremble, and he resorted to harsh words to mask his flustered state. “I released my pheromones in the training room on purpose just to disgust you. You know how much I hate you now, don’t you?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed as he hurriedly added, “Making you sit next to me was only because I didn’t want you to get everything your way. That’s the only reason. I just wanted to gross you out—don’t tell me you actually think I’d have any other kind of interest in you?”

Zhen Ning turned his face away.

His gaze quietly drifted past Yan Chengfeng’s shoulder, looking out the bus window. After a brief pause, he asked, “Is that so?”

Yan Chengfeng: “Of course—”

“What about the fried rice without chili?”

The next second, Zhen Ning turned back, locking eyes with him. His voice was soft but unwavering as he interrupted, “Was that also just to disgust me?”