The most recent call in the phone log was from after 11 p.m. last night.
Yan Chen didn’t forget things when he drank. One glance at the call log was enough to bring back all related memories.
The empty beer bottles all over the floor, the roughhousing games among the boys, the unfortunate punishment he drew by bad luck… and after lights-out when he returned to the dorm, that phone call driven by a sudden impulse.
Actually, it shouldn’t have been just a phone call. If the lights hadn’t been out and the doors locked, he probably would’ve already been downstairs at Ye Wenyu’s dorm building.
That instinctive impulse was just the sudden urge to see him. He really wanted to see him.
But there was no way around it. With the door locked and unable to leave, he had to settle for the next best thing…downgrade from seeing Ye Wenyu in person to just hearing his voice and talking to him.
Thinking back, it was a bit annoying. Interrupting someone’s sleep for no reason, just to say some pointless nonsense or repeat one thing over and over.
Fortunately, Wenyu had a good temper and didn’t think he was annoying. He even had the patience to go along with him and gently coax him. It felt like at that moment, no matter what request he made, Wenyu would agree without hesitation.
He was clearly the one doing the coaxing, but he was still still so well-behaved it made his heart itch.
What a shame there was no recording.
“Yan ge, the sink’s open for you.”
Yang Liang wiped the water droplets from his face and came in from the balcony shaking his hands: “Do you want to use it now or go eat with us and wash up after?”
“Now.” Yan Chen moved his fingers and exited the call log screen: “You guys go eat, no need to wait for me.”
Yang Liang had also suffered “punishment” before, so he understood Yan Chen’s urge to wash “it” off immediately to feel better: “Alright, then we’re off. If you want anything, send us a message and we’ll bring it back.”
“Oh, right.” Dong Xi took out a small glass bottle from the drawer: “They gave me this last night, saying it’ll make it easier to wash off, and told me I must not give it to you until today.”
Yan Chen took the bottle, waited until Yang Liang and Dong Xi left, then put down his phone and got up to go to the balcony.
There were two canteens near the sports department dormitory. One had delicious vegetable soup, the other good hot and sour noodles. The one thing they had in common was that it was lunchtime now, and both were packed.
Dong Xi and Yang Liang were seriously debating which one to go to when someone came into their peripheral vision. Looking up, they saw Ye Wenyu walking straight toward them.
“Hey, Wenyu, good morning!”
Still some distance away, Yang Liang raised his arm high and greeted him enthusiastically, “Do you want to go get breakfast together?”
Ye Wenyu, who had already finished a whole morning of classes and had lunch before coming over, politely replied with a greeting, “No thanks, I’ve already eaten.”
Yang Liang sighed, “Ah, what a pity.”
Dong Xi: “Wenyu, you came to see Yan ge?”
Ye Wenyu nodded. “Is he in the dorm?”
Yang Liang: “Yeah, just give him a cal…”
“Calling won’t work.” Dong Xi quickly cut Yang Liang off, and said with a calm expression, “Yan ge is still sleeping, he probably won’t be able to pick up.”
Yang Liang turned his head, a question mark practically hovering over his scalp. “?”
Dong Xi ignored him and pulled out his campus card and handed it to Ye Wenyu. “508. Wenyu, go on up yourself. While you’re at it, urge Yan ge to get up and get ready. We’ll bring back food in a bit.”
Ye Wenyu took the card. “Okay, thank you.”
Dong Xi: “No problem, as it should be. Go ahead.”
After Ye Wenyu walked off, Yang Liang nudged Dong Xi with his elbow. “Are you a kid or what? How can you lie to Wenyu about something like that?”
Dong Xi looked him up and down.
Yang Liang leaned his head back. “What’s with that look?”
“The look I give to a big smarty-pants.”
Dong Xi chuckled. “Believe it or not, you’ll see in a while who’s really being childish.”
Yang Liang: “Oh.”
Then he said, “So you gave your campus card to Wenyu, how are you going to pay for your own food?”
Dong Xi: “Of course I’ll…”
Yang Liang interrupted, “I only have thirty yuan on my card, and we still have to get food for Yan ge. The recharge station doesn’t open until two.”
Dong Xi: “…”
Dong Xi: “Why didn’t you say that earlier?”
Yang Liang: “Who told you to hand it over so fast, I didn’t even have time to react!”
…
The fifth floor was a bit high. By the time he climbed to the third floor, Ye Wenyu’s pace had already slowed down. The bag he was carrying swayed gently, inside it was the gift he had bought for Yan Chen using a local shopping app.
A pair of swim trunks.
He didn’t know much about these things, had no idea if there were “professional” or “non-professional” kinds, so he just picked the most expensive ones he could find, thinking that at least wouldn’t go wrong.
501 was closest to the stairs, and 508 was at the end of the hallway.
He counted the dorm numbers as he walked over, stopping in front of 508. Just as he was about to knock, he noticed the door wasn’t fully closed, just loosely shut. The wind blew the gap wider and narrower intermittently.
‘Perfect,’ he thought. Since Yan Chen was the only one inside and he was still sleeping, getting woken by knocking would be very annoying. He knew that from personal experience.
Do not do unto others what you do not want done unto you. So he naturally gave up on the idea of knocking and instead grasped the handle and gently pushed the door open.
The balcony door wasn’t fully closed either. A gust of wind came through the hallway, lifting the hair on his forehead.
At the same time, the scene inside the dorm came into view without warning, stunning him into place.
Yan Chen was not asleep. He was standing by the sink area and directly facing the doorway from the balcony.
The light was brightest there, and he was casually leaning back against the edge of the counter with his head lowered, gripping the black hem of his shirt in his teeth and exposing the full outline of his abs and half his chest.
One hand held a small glass bottle filled with clear liquid, and the other was wiping something over his abdomen.
Hearing the sound of the door, he lifted his eyelids and glanced over. The color of his lips contrasted starkly with the black fabric, flirting on the edge of desire, and the visual blow struck even harder to Ye Wenyu.
With a buzz, Ye Wenyu’s mind went blank and he couldn’t hear a thing.
The image froze and he stared blankly at the person across from him who was also looking right back, until the moment that the other party relaxed his jaw and let the shirt fall, looking like he was about to speak…
“Bang!”
He closed the door with his backhand, and the heart-racing scene was instantly cut off from view.
He stood rooted at the door, staring at the door panel with wide eyes. He swallowed hard, and his breathing and heartbeat resumed, stumbling into an erratic rhythm.
He was so flustered he didn’t even notice the approaching footsteps on the other side of the door.
Until the door was opened from the inside again.
Startled, the person outside looked up at the one in front of him with wide eyes, like a rabbit uncovered in the grass.
Yan Chen, who was unaware of how he had scared him, paused for a moment and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Ye Wenyu also knew he’d overreacted, but subconscious reactions couldn’t be helped. He could only try his best to look calm.
Ye Wenyu: “The wind on the fifth floor is too strong. The climb tired me out.”
Ye Wenyu: “…”
Ye Wenyu: “I mean, the fifth floor is just too high.”
“True.” Yan Chen clearly saw the flicker in his eyes, but considerately didn’t expose him. “I thought you were just coaxing me when you said you’d come today.”
“I promised you, so I came.”
Ye Wenyu tightened his grip, then remembered something and handed over the bag. “Your gift.”
Yan Chen took the bag and stepped back to let him in. “Come inside.”
The interior layout of the foreign affairs dorm was different from the sports dorm, but Ye Wenyu had no attention to spare for that at the moment.
He stared at Yan Chen as he opened the bag and pulled out the swimming trunks. Half his mind was still stuck on that visual blow, the other half reached peak anxiety the moment he saw Yan Chen’s slightly raised eyebrow.
“I’m not good at picking this kind of thing.” He frowned. “Is it the wrong size? Or… you don’t like it?”
“No, I just didn’t expect it. I’ve never worn this style before.” Yan Chen put the swimming trunks and the bag into the closet.
‘…Swimming trunks have styles? Aren’t they just one big opening and two small ones?’
Ye Wenyu didn’t quite get it, but compared to another curiosity, this one felt negligible.
He glanced at the small glass bottle Yan Chen had left on the desk and, as Yan Chen turned around, softly asked, “Just now… what were you doing?”
“Rubbing off a sticker tattoo,” Yan Chen told him bluntly. “It was punishment for losing a game last night.”
Ye Wenyu only knew he owed some drinks; he didn’t know he also lost a game. “Can it be removed?”
Yan Chen: “It’s a bit difficult.”
The tattoo was stuck to his abdomen. Normally, if it couldn’t be removed immediately, it was fine and he could just wait for it to fall off on its own. Clothes would cover it anyway, so no one would see.
But the problem was, Yan Chen had to swim. Once training started, everyone would see it.
The scene from when he had just pushed the door open was still vivid in Ye Wenyu’s mind. He glanced again at the little glass bottle and, as if possessed, looked up and asked Yan Chen, “Do you want me to help you?”
Two minutes later, Ye Wenyu and Yan Chen were standing together on the balcony where the light was best.
Yan Chen freed up his hands, no longer needing to hold the shirt in his mouth, and lifted the hem with his hands to make it easier for Ye Wenyu.
The feeling of regret flashed by.
For a moment, he even regretted offering to help. He wanted to stuff the bottle back in Yan Chen’s hands and tell him to hold the shirt in his mouth and do it himself.
But the moment the thought appeared, Ye Wenyu, whose ears were turning red, forcefully shoved it deep into the back of his mind.
With fingertips dipped in alcohol, he bent down and finally saw that the sticker tattoo on Yan Chen’s abs was actually a pink Peppa Pig.
The childish cartoon pattern printed on a fully mature body had an abrupt and contradictory kind of cuteness.
It also made the muscular outline beneath the sticker even more impossible to ignore.
The improper thoughts he had just suppressed started to rise again.
Ye Wenyu closed his eyes and wished Yan Chen would just take off his shirt completely instead of teasingly covering half and revealing half, provoking people. That way he wouldn’t keep catching glimpses of the black fabric and feel that restless stirring in his chest.
The abs were surprisingly soft to the touch. He absentmindedly dabbed alcohol on the skin little by little, when he heard Yan Chen’s voice above his head: “Why did you suddenly want to give me a gift?”
For some reason, Ye Wenyu was unable to say anything about the purpose of his visit.
“I just wanted to.” He gave a completely unreasonable answer.
Yan Chen: “You just wanted to?”
Ye Wenyu: “Yeah.”
Yan Chen: “Then can I return the favor?”
‘Return the favor?’
Ye Wenyu subconsciously looked up, and when his gaze met Yan Chen’s eyes and lips, he froze again. As if something had burned him, he quickly shifted his gaze away.
“No need,” he muttered, his voice low. “You don’t need to.”
He really shouldn’t have looked again. That one glance ruined everything.
Unable to suppress his scattered thoughts, his greed and impulse surged together. He panicked, doing his best to push all those improper thoughts away.
His hand movements became chaotic and erratic. His palm and fingertips rubbed against the skin with uncertain pressure, and his pinky accidentally grazed just above the v-line.
Heaven thunder met earth fire, setting off a prairie blaze.
In the next second, his wrist was suddenly gripped tight.
Ye Wenyu let his brain go blank for three seconds, then looked up and met the dark look in Yan Chen’s eyes.
“I’ll do it myself,” Yan Chen said.
Yan Chen’s dark pupils were hidden under long lashes. He let go of Ye Wenyu’s wrist, and his voice was hoarser than before.
But Ye Wenyu was overwhelmed with his own thoughts and didn’t notice anything wrong.
“Okay,” he heard himself say.
Then he handed the bottle of alcohol back to Yan Chen, casually came up with an excuse, and stumbled out of Room 508.
The one left behind didn’t continue with what he’d been doing.
The air rushing from the balcony to the doorway slammed into the door, and the dorm fell quiet again, but the air still seemed to carry the scent of another person.
“Clack!” The glass bottle was placed to the side. Yan Chen braced himself on the edge of the sink, exhaled deeply, then stood upright and walked straight into the bathroom.
——-
“Wenyu?”
Chi Dongting walked in after rinsing a cup outside and was surprised to see Ye Wenyu back. “Didn’t you say you had something to do? Why are you back so soon?”
Ye Wenyu gave an unclear, meaningless syllable in response, then pulled out a chair and sat down in a daze.
“What’s up with you?” Chi Dongting glanced back at him while looking for a cup lid, “Did things not go well?”
“I don’t know.”
Ye Wenyu lay face-down on the desk, face buried in the crook of his arm, his voice muffled and heavy, just like his current congested and confused state of mind: “I don’t know either…”
His mind was muddled into the night, and so were his dreams.
He returned to that bright midday. As the shadow of the ginkgo tree swayed across the railing, Yan Chen suddenly picked him up and sat him on the sink counter.
The surface was wet. Yan Chen wrapped his arms around his waist and kissed him hard. Forced to lean back, his hands fumbled and accidentally turned on the faucet. Water gushed out, splashing and soaking his back.
The water was cold, but he didn’t feel cold at all.
Yan Chen pressed in, biting and exploring his lips inch by inch. Their lips tangled, and he clung tightly to Yan Chen’s shoulders, his entire body flushed hot…
He opened his eyes gasping for breath, and the pitch-black room his retinas had not yet adjusted to tore the dream and reality apart cruelly.
Chi Dongting had drunk too much water during the day and got up in the middle of the night to pee. Seeing that Ye Wenyu’s bed curtain wasn’t closed, he peeked inside.
“Wenyu?!”
His voice practically had an exclamation mark in it. “Why are you sitting there not sleeping in the middle of the night? Are you sleepwalking?”
Ye Wenyu didn’t respond, still processing the huge emotional gap in a daze. His eyes, blank and unfocused, landed somewhere aimlessly.
He seemed to finally understand why the idea of Yan Chen having a girlfriend made him so uncomfortable.
If Yan Chen had a girlfriend, he would no longer have any chance to get close to him like this.
Whether it was simple admiration, a closer touch, or something even more excessive… like a kiss with intertwined breaths.
It turned out it wasn’t just a fleeting illusion, nor a momentary impulse. The understanding of his desires had become unmistakably clear at this moment.
He had really pushed things this far…he really wanted to kiss him.
He wanted to so badly it clawed at his heart, so badly he even felt jealous of that shirt being held in his mouth.
It was over.
As the sound of the balcony door being quietly closed, he collapsed back and lay down, pulling the blanket over his head to completely cover himself.
The original plan to confess had died along with it.
Admiring could be done, touching was still within what could be allowed…but what about kissing?
Yan Chen may be easy to talk to, but how could it be to that extent?
