Not only was the contrast in bone structure stark, even their skin tones were worlds apart.
Ye Wenyu’s hand in Yan Chen’s looked like a flawless piece of jade…fragile and beautiful, as if it would break with a squeeze, yet it made people want to hold it carefully and admire it again and again.
Yan Chen braced one hand against the edge of the pool, normally a relaxed, effortless motion, but now it looked like it was slowed down to 0.8 speed.
Once he got out of the pool, he quickly let go of Ye Wenyu’s hand and picked up a bottle of mineral water beside him with no label on it.
Out of the corner of his eye, the boy stood quietly next to him, still wearing a light-colored shirt, his whole figure appearing clear and pristine against the backdrop of the pool’s crystal-blue water, carrying a sense of youthful purity.
Further down, the hand hanging by his side was wet like his. The knuckles were slightly red, fingers gently curled, and the light blue veins beneath the thin skin seemed to shimmer with a moist glow.
The sensation of skin-to-skin contact still lingered in his palm–slender, thin, and inexplicably obedient.
Yan Chen unscrewed the cap and tilted his head back, his Adam’s apple, covered in beads of water, moved up and down. As if parched for a long time, he drank more than half the bottle in a few gulps.
A whistle blew, and the second group of students got in position for training.
Yan Chen placed the water back and turned to Ye Wenyu, and said in a low voice, “Come with me.”
Ye Wenyu was confused. “Where to?”
“Didn’t you have something to talk to me about?” Yan Chen bent down to grab a dry towel. “It’s too noisy here, let’s talk in the locker room.”
Their training had already been going on for a while, and anyone who needed to change clothes had already done so. The locker room was quiet and empty.
Ye Wenyu followed Yan Chen inside, their footsteps echoing in the silence.
Yan Chen’s locker was further in, where the light from the entrance couldn’t reach fully. Without the lights on, the view was a bit dim.
When Yan Chen stopped, Ye Wenyu also came to a halt.
As he was still thinking about how to phrase things, the locker creaked open, and Yan Chen spoke first. “You’re here to talk about changing the class schedule, right?”
Apparently, someone had already given him a heads-up, so there was no need for Ye Wenyu to explain from scratch.
Relieved, he nodded and said yes.
Yan Chen: “How many people?”
Ye Wenyu blinked. “What?”
Yan Chen looked over with the same calm tone. “How many from your class are attending this session?”
Ye Wenyu counted silently in his head. “Around twelve.”
Yan Chen didn’t respond immediately. The half-damp towel hung over his shoulder, and his fingers tapped idly as if deep in thought.
He stood in the shadows, his toned muscles clearly outlined. With his tall, upright build, Ye Wenyu, who was close to 1.8 meters tall, still found himself almost entirely overshadowed by him.
The silent pressure was so intense that Ye Wenyu couldn’t help but take a step back to put some space between them.
“Will having too many people affect your training?” Ye Wenyu asked. “If it’s really inconvenient, we…”
Yan Chen cut him off. “It’s fine.”
Ye Wenyu’s unfinished sentence was lightly blocked off just like that.
Honestly, he hadn’t expected the other party to agree so easily, he didn’t even have to persuade him much.
Yan Chen rummaged through his locker with one hand. “From now on, your class can use the four lanes on the right side when you come in.”
The pool only had eight lanes in total, and Yan Chen had just given them half without hesitation. His easy going manner left Ye Wenyu speechless, unsure whether to accept or decline.
“Three lanes are enough,” he compromised. “We won’t need that many.”
Yan Chen didn’t insist, replying casually. At the same time, he finally found what he was looking for and handed it to Ye Wenyu.
Ye Wenyu stared at the black T-shirt suddenly held out to him. “?”
Yan Chen’s voice echoed clearly in the empty room. “I just got your shirt wet. If you don’t mind, you can wear mine for now.”
Ye Wenyu subconsciously looked down at his own shirt.
In fact, it was just a few splashes of water, hardly enough to call it soaked.
But just as he was about to decline, something made him pause, and he swallowed the words “no need” that had reached the tip of his tongue.
If you borrow something, you have to return it. Returning it means there will be a next meeting.
He raised his hand and took the shirt. “Sorry for the trouble.”
“No trouble,” Yan Chen replied, eyes lazily lowered, his gaze quietly falling on Ye Wenyu.
The boy wasn’t short, but still half a head shorter than him. Probably because of his naturally smaller frame and slender figure, he looked like he wore a size down from Yan Chen.
As he took off his shirt, a thin layer of muscle was revealed…not weak, just lean. Even in the dim lighting, his skin was dazzlingly white. His shoulders weren’t broad, but his waist was slimmer than most boys’.
At least slimmer than the ones in his(Yan Chen) class.
And just above the front left of his waist, there was a mole the size of a grain of rice.
The color wasn’t dark, but on his cold, fair skin, it was incredibly distinct, giving off a subtle kind of beauty that easily caught attention.
The next second, it was covered by the falling hem of the shirt.
Even though they were both men, Ye Wenyu still wasn’t used to changing clothes in front of someone else, so he changed quickly.
The T-shirt hung loose and baggy on him, the shoulder seams drooping below his shoulders, the whole thing looking oversized, even the neckline was cut low.
Yan Chen tilted his head slightly, his eyes falling to the edge of the sleeve.
Ye Wenyu was wearing his clothes, his light pink elbows hidden in the black fabric, almost completely swallowed by it, creating an extreme kind of beauty in his eyes.
He had guessed right, black really did suit him.
“My name is Yan Chen.” His strange desire for appreciation was fully satisfied. He pulled down the towel and held it in his hand, his gaze returning to Ye Wenyu. “I don’t know if you remember, but we’ve met twice.”
At those words, Ye Wenyu’s lashes trembled slightly.
Ye Wenyu thought, ‘how could I not remember?’
The supermarket, the library, and even earlier, although only he remembered … their very first encounter under the shade by the South Gate sports field.
From thinking about it constantly to savoring it repeatedly, every time left a deep impression on him.
But at this moment, he didn’t offer any unnecessary correction, only politely gave his own name in return: “I’m Ye Wenyu.”
Yan Chen nodded and took the shirt Ye Wenyu had changed out of from his hands, the motion so natural it left Ye Wenyu no time to react: “Just leave it here, I’ll wash it and return it to you.”
“Then how should I return the clothes to you?” Ye Wenyu asked, and quickly added, “This isn’t my class.”
But then he suddenly thought of something and frowned.
He added: “Whenever it’s convenient for you. You can bring it to the classroom, and I’ll come find you.”
Yan Chen tossed the clothes into his locker, closed the door, then turned around: “But this is a training uniform. I might need it before next Wednesday.”
Their PE class was once a week. If he needed it before next Wednesday, that meant Ye Wenyu couldn’t ask a classmate attending that P.E class to return it for him.
Likewise, the other party couldn’t either.
Ye Wenyu relaxed his brows but refused: “No need.”
The air froze for a split second.
Just as Yan Chen lowered his gaze with an unreadable expression, Ye Wenyu calmly followed up, “Tell me whenever you’re free. I’ll come find you.”
–
“So your ‘cousin’ just arranged a next meeting with the girl like that?”
In the dormitory, Chi Dongting, who had just come out of the bathroom, was drying his hair while following up on Ye Wenyu’s “cousin” and his progress in pursuing the girl.
“It’s so weird.” He was a bit puzzled. “They didn’t exchange contact information?”
Ye Wenyu was now able to calmly accept the setting of his “cousin pursuing a girl”: “Maybe the other person didn’t bring a phone or just didn’t think of it at the time.”
Chi Dongting: “She didn’t think of it, but your cousin didn’t either? Even if you don’t have a phone, you can remember a WeChat ID, idiot!”
Of course Ye Wenyu had thought of that.
He was just afraid Yan Chen would realize a simpler way to return the shirt. Not exchanging contact information was equivalent to cutting off any chance for Yan Cheng to change his mind.
Besides, to him, a single more meeting was far more valuable than adding a friend only to have no topic to talk about, eventually sinking into the contact list and never speaking again.
“It’s fine, it’s not a big problem.”
Chi Dongting muttered to himself, “He can just ask for the contact info next time when returning the clothes. But why does your cousin insist on going to find him instead of letting him come find your cousin?”
Ye Wenyu suddenly went silent.
But Chi Dongting was annoyingly curious about this sort of thing: “Wenyu, hurry up and tell me, why? Is there some deeper meaning behind it?”
Ye Wenyu: “…He didn’t want to trouble the girl to make a trip.”
“I don’t believe that.” Chi Dongting instantly voiced his doubt. “If it was such a simple reason, you would’ve just said it earlier.”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
He really didn’t say it earlier because that ordinary reason hadn’t even occurred to him at the time.
Chi Dongting: “There must be another reason! Come on, Wenyu, just tell me already~ Ah~~ If you don’t, I’m going to scratch myself to death!”
Ye Wenyu couldn’t take his nagging and had to confess: “Because when you’re not the one taking initiative, it’s really easy to forget about something.”
Chi Dongting: “?”
Chi Dongting: “Huh? What do you mean?”
Chi Dongting: “…Fuck! I got it!”
He suddenly got excited and widened his eyes: “You mean, since your cousin is the one taking initiative now, and the girl is the passive one, she might forget to bring the clothes at the agreed time, and not be able to return them, which would naturally create another chance for them to meet again?!”
His little scheme having been laid bare, Ye Wenyu pursed his lips in slight embarrassment: “Something like that.”
“Fuck!” Chi Dongting couldn’t stop cursing. “Your cousin is so awesome! Freaking brilliant! I’ll never call him an idiot again! This is pure talent!”
Ye Wenyu was speechless.
He wasn’t some genius. Thinking all that through already used up every brain cell he had in that one moment.
Chi Dongting sighed dramatically: “At this rate, we won’t have to worry too much. Your cousin is definitely going to get what he wants soon!”
Ye Wenyu also silently breathed a sigh of relief.
From his understanding, Chi Dongting saying that meant he wouldn’t poke his nose into his “cousin’s” affairs anymore, or at least not as frequently.
Chi Dongting finished drying his hair, happily hung the towel out on the balcony, and returned to the dorm with the same cheerful mood. He walked over to Ye Wenyu’s side and patted the newly-won trophy on his bookshelf.
Just as he was about to head back to his own bed, his eyes casually swept over Ye Wenyu and suddenly caught on something he hadn’t noticed before…
“Hey, Wenyu.” He tugged Ye Wenyu’s sleeve. “Whose shirt are you wearing? It’s so big, it doesn’t even cover your collarbones.”
