t
“Oi, goddess! I’m serious!” Shi Yitong shouted as he pushed her arm away. “Why would I keep that thing?!”
Su Xiaoyun was stunned by his move, while Shi Yitong also didn’t know why he did that. The atmosphere in the room suddenly became awkward.
“Yeah, right. Whatever.” Her tone of voice contained anger. She stood up. “I’m off to sleep. See you tomorrow.”
“Hey, Su Xiao…” Shi Yitong stood up instantly, but before he could finish his sentence, she had already walked out of the room. With a huge bang, she slammed the door in his face.
“She’s mad.” I looked at Shi Yitong in surprise and lightly hit his arm. “Hey, what’s wrong with you? Why did you suddenly…”
Shi Yitong lowered his head and sat back on the bed, frustrated. “I didn’t mean to do that! I didn’t mean to push her hand away; I don’t know why I did that!”
“She was just joking, why did you act like that?” I thought he was acting a little strange. “You’re not that type of person.”
“No, Gu Yu,” Shi Yitong agitatedly grabbed his hair and answered. “Hearing goddess Su make this kind of joke about me makes me feel really uncomfortable.”
I was stunned for a moment since I didn’t understand what Shi Yitong meant. “A joke like that… do you mean about the flower Zhu Xuan gave to you?”
Shi Yitong nodded, he remained silent for a few seconds before talking again. “Because, when she joked about that, it made me feel like she doesn’t care at all about me.”
I was surprised since I discovered for the first time that Shi Yitong, a thoughtless person, had a sensitive side. He actually cared about those details.
“You do like Su Xiaoyun, don’t you?” I asked.
“Of course, I do. I’ve loved her since the first time I saw her. Don’t you already know?” Obviously, he was a little annoyed about my question since I already knew the answer.
“So, have you ever told her?” I asked.
“Of course I did. I said more than once that I like goddess Su the most.”
“Not like that!” I patted his shoulder. “I’m asking, have you ever seriously confessed to her?”
“…No,” Shi Yitong said dejectedly. “She would probably think I’m joking anyway.”
“You see, you never asked her, so how could you know how she feels about you?” I pushed him a bit. “Overthinking here by yourself is not going to help. Su Xiaoyun certainly sees you as one of her friends right now, so it’s pretty normal if she makes a joke like this.”
Shi Yitong nodded as if he thought my words made sense, though he still looked lifeless.
“If you really want to date her, you can’t say it in a roundabout way. You have to ask her directly,” I tried to talk some sense into him. “She won’t take you seriously if you hold such a vague attitude.”
“It’s not as easy as you say.” Shi Yitong turned around in low spirits. He pointed at himself with his thumb. “Gu Yu, if you were Su Xiaoyun, would you like me?”
“Um…” I stared at him for a few seconds and decided to tell him the truth. “No, I wouldn’t.”
“See! You dislike me even though you’re my best buddy!” Shi Yitong groaned. He picked up a pillow and began to hit me.
“Alright, alright! Stop it!” I laughed out while trying to dodge his pillow attacks. After some struggles, I finally took the pillow from him. “Come on; I’m not Su Xiaoyun, how should I know? Maybe she’s foolish enough to like you!”
“What do you mean by that? You managed to make fun out of the both of us in one sentence; you’re really talented!” Shi Yitong grabbed the pillow and hit me again.
“Alright, alright, I’m gonna shut up, okay?” I put two fingers at the corner of my mouth like I was zipping my mouth
Shi Yitong suddenly became frustrated, and he buried his whole face in the pillow. “Gu Yu, what do you think of that boy, Zhu Xuan? Does he really like me?”
My stomach sunk a little after hearing his question, but I asked him as naturally as I could. “What? Do you have something against gay people?”
“Huh? No!” Shi Yitong was confused and shook his head. “No, I don’t. But it felt so weird, and I don’t know what to do if it happened to me. I just met him, why did he give me a flower? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Maybe he thinks you are handsome and full of charisma, so he can’t help falling for you.” I chuckled and approached him.
“Piss off, stop acting like you’re high.” Shi Yitong threw the pillow back on me and stopped me from getting closer.
I caught the pillow, fell on the bed and kept laughing.
“Oi, but Gu Yu,” Shi Yitong suddenly asked me again. “When are you gonna get a girlfriend?”
I almost choked on my saliva after hearing his question, I coughed. “What?”
“A girlfriend! I’m asking you, when do you plan to get a girlfriend?”
“Why on earth do you want to know?!” I rolled my eyes. “We’re only freshmen; it’s too early for us.”
“Why? We need to find a girlfriend because we’re freshmen.” Shi Yitong said as if it was the right thing to do. “Do you know, I don’t even know the name of all our classmates, and yet all three of my roommates already have a girlfriend? The one in your dorm, Zhou Lang, doesn’t he have a girlfriend?”
“They have nothing to do with me.” I was a little displeased and replied, “I need to work hard. Studying makes me happy.”
“Studying my ass. You sound like you love studying. Yeah, you love studying so much that you were caught sleeping in class all the time!”
“That’s because Wen Jiubo…” I blurted out. However, I stopped before finishing it.
Damn it, why did I talk about Wen Jiubo? This has nothing to do with him!
However, if it weren’t for Wen Jiubo, who called me to go to his house and asked me to deal with his clients’ requests in the middle of the night from time to time, I wouldn’t always fall asleep during class!If I could quit worrying about his clients, I wouldn’t always forget to submit my assignments and wouldn’t have to go to the dorm to get them. If…
If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have wasted my weekend coming here to investigate Bai Ze!
“But Gu Yu… seriously, I want to ask you a question.” Shi Yitong hesitantly looked at me.
“Hm? What?” I pulled my mind back to our conversation. “What’s your question?”
“Well… do you like girls or boys?” Shi Yitong grabbed his hair, looking a little embarrassed. “I’ve been curious about it for a long time. I was just too afraid to ask since it’s private.”
I sighed and patted his hand. “What are you afraid of? Aren’t we brothers? We’ve been through so many dangerous situations, so don’t be.”
Shi Yitong immediately smirked. “Oh, then that’s great. So… do you…? ”
“En…” I purposefully dragged my words, “I don’t know either.”
“You don’t know?”
“I have never fallen in love, how would I know?” I shrugged.”Everything is possible. I think it should depend on the person, if he or she is the right one.”
“Really?” Shi Yitong narrowed his eyes filled with doubt. “Gu Yu, you call me your brother, so don’t lie to me. Are you sure you have never fallen in love with anyone?”
I was a little confused; I looked at him. “Why are you asking like this?”
“Bro, I admit that I sometimes overlook details and don’t know much about such things. However, it doesn’t mean that I’m blind,” Shi Yitong shrugged his shoulders and said. “For the past two days, even though you haven’t said anything, you looked unhappy, like a little puppy who lost his toy. Su Xiaoyun and I knew that something happened, but we couldn’t ask you since you didn’t seem open to discussion.”
“Um, I…”
I never expected that these two friends of mine had such keen eyes for details. I immediately felt naked to their eyes.
However…what relationship do Wen Jiubo, and I have?
I didn’t know him, and I didn’t know his true identity and his past. I was even baffled by his gentleness.
But, I couldn’t help approaching him even though I knew this was not right.
To me, his gentleness was like a heating stove in a cold winter. I knew I would get burned if I went too close, but I couldn’t help getting close to him, close enough for my fingers to be burned.
I didn’t know if this kind of attachment was affection or not. And how I could explain it to my friends?
“I’m fine,” I said and grinned at Shi Yitong to show I was sorry. I scratched my head. “I’m sorry for worrying you guys, but I’m fine, really. The only concern I have now is the essay due next week.”
“Ay, you’re…” Shi Yitong looked at me and sighed. “Why can’t you be honest with me? I told you about goddess Su, and this is how you react? Since you don’t want to tell me, I won’t make you. But, promise me that you’ll enjoy this weekend with us, okay? Stop worrying about whatever it is in your mind, all right?”
I patted my chest while smiling at him. “Do I look upset to you now? It is you who is distressed about your goddess Su!”
“You’re shameless! I shouldn’t worry about you in the first place!” Shi Yitong threw a pillow at me.
“Hey! Stop it! Be careful about the pillow. I don’t want to pay for it! We need to sleep now!”