CH 25

Yao Jin took a step down, her gaze now level with Jin Siming who was standing below and slowly got closer. 

“But from your expression, it doesn’t seem as if nothing happened.” 

Jin Siming felt more apprehensive the closer Yao Jin got and subconsciously took a few steps back as she lowered her head to avoid the other party’s fixed gaze. She hurriedly tried to organize her thoughts. 

“This, no, I-I mean what else could’ve happened….” 

As Yao Jin took a step forward, she took a step back. Before she knew it, she found her back pushed against a hard wall with no more space left to retreat. 

Originally Yao Jin had just wanted to get closer to study the expressions on the other party’’s face. Yet, for some reason, she has grown sensitive to the pheromones on the other party’s body and the faint scent that accidentally escaped the suppressant sticker made her want to get closer and closer without stopping. 

As Jin Siming leaned against the wall, she raised her head and was faced with Yao Jin’s own pretty face close to hers. Her long and narrow eyes were covered with an indescribable gleam and the upturned ends of her eyes looked particularly playful under this dim lighting. 

Her heartbeat suddenly sped up and the air around her seemed to slowly grow heated. 

Her rational mind kept shouting at her to push Yao Jin away, but the more Yao Jin leaned in the more chaotic her mind grew until her mind went BOOM! and her mind became a tangled mess of strings, making her lose her ability to think. 

If a student passed by now and looked from behind, they would see Yao Jin with one hand on the wall and pressing Jin Siming against the wall in a standard kabedon stance. 

Suddenly, the voice-activated lights in the stairwell went out and the light dimmed to black. Jin Siming recovered then and pushed Yao Jin away based on reflexes. 

Being suddenly pushed caused Yao Jin’s feet on the steps to slip and her center of gravity grew unstable as she started to fall backwards on the stairs. 

With a muffled shout, the voice-activated lights came back on. 

Yao Jin laid on the stairs due to the sudden push, but now she was no longer under that confusing spell. 

She raised her head and glanced at Jin Siming, and then sat up on the steps. She hugged her legs against her, both arms around her legs as she buried her face between her knees.

“Ding-ding-ding….” 

At that moment, the bell for the start of the first evening period sounded. 

Jin Siming felt a little panic in her heart seeing Yao Jin, who was pushed down by her, not getting up and hugging her legs while sitting on the steps in an aggrieved manner. 

“Hey, you…hurry and get up.” 

Yao Jin still sat there curled up and unmoving. 

The beginning of the teacher’s lecture from the classroom could be heard from the stairwell. For a good student like Jin Siming who has never been late and follows every rule, skipping class was a huge infraction in her mind. Every second she stood here made her more and more uncomfortable. 

“It’s time for class. If you don’t get up, then I’m going back to the classroom first!”

After accidentally pushing Yao Jin down, she still felt a little guilty. If it wasn’t for this, she might have rushed into the classroom long ago.

“….It hurts to be pushed down, yet not only do you not apologize you also don’t help the person you pushed back up.” 

With Yao Jin’s head still buried in her knees, her voice came out delicate and muffled. Yet, it sounded loud and clear to Jin Siming’s ears. 

Jin Siming took a deep breath in and out. Then she stood in front of Yao Jin and awkwardly stretched out a hand, “…..Who forced you to get so close to me?! It was an instinctive reaction on my part. You….give me your hand, I’ll pull you up.” 

Yao Jin raised her head to look at her hand but didn’t move to touch it, “I couldn’t help but want to get closer to you. Would you believe me if I also said it was out of instinct?” 

Jin Siming swallowed and suddenly thought about the internet search she did the other day. Her heart skipped a beat twice. 

She deliberately changed the subject, “The first self-study session is on math and 5 minutes have already passed since it started. Are you going to sit here for the entire session?” 

Yao Jin sighed quietly, “Don’t worry, the teacher who teaches math is never there for the first evening session. She has other things to attend to.” 

“And how do you know that?” 

“She told me during our afternoon tea.” 

“….”

As expected, when one’s social circle is wide the range of information they receive is also wide. 

But even if there is no teacher present, Jin Siming never misses a class. She began having thoughts of ignoring Yao Jin and directly leaving her here. 

Yet just as she was about to leave she inadvertently glanced down and saw Yao Jin’s slender and exposed legs. The fair and tender skin on those legs now bear marks of small wounds due to the fall just now. Fortunately, they were only a few tiny scraps and didn’t look too serious. However, due to the dust on the stairs it made the wounds look worse than they were and magnified the sorry state Yao Jin is in. 

Jin Siming bit her lower lip and battled with her conscience for a while, but then finally she took off her jacket and threw it lightly onto Yao Jin.

“The stairs are really dirty. You should get up quickly.” 

After saying so she turned and walked away. 

“Sure enough, it was you.” 

Jin Siming had only taken a few steps when she stopped in her tracks in shock at Yao Jin’s faint words. 

She turned around only to see Yao Jin had lifted the tip of her jacket to her nose and was sniffing it lightly. 

Instantly blood surged to her face and she flushed heavily. 

“Do you know what pheromone dependency is?” 

Yao Jin asked as she stood up, holding her jacket while looking straight at her. 

“Huh? This, well…n-no, I don’t know.” 

Jin Siming turned around hurriedly and stumbled twice as she ran back to the classroom in a panic. 

Seeing her leave in such a panic, Yao Jin finally understood.

Back at her desk, Jin Siming picked up her water bottle and took two sips while patting her chest. She was trying to calm her beating heart. 

She didn’t understand how Yao Jin found out so quickly. Is it because she can smell her own pheromones on her body? 

Forget it! Even if there is a pheromone dependency it’s not her fault! It was Yao Jin who bit her after all. And she hasn’t even asked Yao Jin to compensate her for the emotional distress she caused! 

She nonchalantly opened her workbook and after doing two questions she quickly grew bored. So she glanced sideways at the unusually quiet Su Xiaohang. 

This rascal was huddled against the wall next to her desk, sneakily looking at something under her desk with a bent head. 

She narrowed her eyes and quietly leaned over to take a look. After seeing that the other party was just peeking at the magazine, she let out a disappointed dough. 

Su Xiaohang, who was engrossed in reading the magazine, was startled when she heard the sound. Then she pouted and patted her arm in a disgruntled manner, “What are you doing?! Sneaking around and scaring me like that!” 

“You’re the one who’s clearly sneaking around! Aren’t you just reading a magazine? Why are you being so sneaky? And here I thought you were reading something amazing.” 

Su Xiaohang shared the magazine with her like she was presenting a priceless gift, “This is from Jian Xin. She said that her Wei-Wei did a photoshoot for this magazine and she’s on the front cover as well, so she bought a few extra copies to help boost sales. I think they took some really good shots. You want to take a look at them together?” 

Su Xiaohang placed the magazine in front of her and Jin Siming glanced down. 

The picture on the front could be considered ok. The style wasn’t anything bold or imaginative, but the model on the front is quite in line with the public’s aesthetic tastes. The model’s name is Wei Zichi, which should be the new female Alpha idol that Jian Xin  is currently obsessed about. Wearing a white suit, one could see a bit of a heroic aura in her sharp face. The entire ensemble was alright, but the lower buttons of her suit were unbuttoned to reveal her abs and that made Jin Siming feel a little uncomfortable. 

She pushed the magazine away and said perfunctorily, “En, it’s alright. You can read it by yourself.” 

“Tsk, when did you get so indifferent? You used to drool and scream over magazine pictures of female Alphas, especially when looking at their abs. Why is your reaction so bland this time?” 

“Really?” Jin Siming rubbed her chin, “I guess my taste in aesthetics wasn’t very good before.” 

Su Xiaoahng rolled her eyes and took out another magazine, “Then take a look at the cover of this one.”  

On the cover of this second magazine is a woman wearing a cheongsam, her hair in big waves and her lips painted cherry red. The cheongsam gave off a gentle feeling, but at the same time looked hot and sexy when worn on her curvy figure. The side where a slit was open up to her thigh was especially sexy as it revealed a beautiful set of long legs. 

This made Jin Siming inexplicably think of Yao Jin’s slender legs from earlier. They looked beautiful no matter if they were in a small black skirt from this morning or in light-colored shorts later in the afternoon. They could even be on par with the legs on the cover. 

Su Xiaohang let out a loud realization at seeing Jin Siming stare at the cover of the second magazine much longer than the first, “I get it now! It’s not that your tastes have changed, but that since your gender has changed your orientation has as well!” 

Jin Siming frowned and looked at her with a baffled look, “What nonsense are you saying?” 

Su Xiaoahgn pointed at the caption on each cover and said, “The main difference between the two covers is that one is an Alpha, while the second is an Omega. Not only that, they also carry suggestive sexual elements of their respective genders. Moreover, Ming-bao, your eyes were shining when you were staring at the Omega on the second magazine! Woo! Congratulations! I was worried I would have to find you another Alpha for you to fall in love with, but now I can be at ease~” 

Jin Siming: “????” 

While Su Xiaohang continued to jabber next to her, Jin Siming just thought that Su Xiaohang was making a big fuss over nothing. Can one draw conclusions just from looking at the cover of a magazine? So she decided not to take her friend’s words to heart. 

After the first session of self-study, Yao Jin returned to class still holding Jin Siming’s jacket. 

She didn’t plan on returning Jin Siming’s jacket right now and placed the jacket on her lap when she sat down. 

One reason she did this was because her shorts were dirtied from the fall just now and she wanted to cover up her wounds. The other reason was because…she was addicted to the scent of the pheromones on the jacket even if the scent was rather faint. 

“Jin-Jin, where did you go for the first self-study period? Why did you only come back now? When Guo-Guo returned by coat earlier she said that you had returned first.” 

Chen Mianmina leaned over to ask with a worried look on her face. 

Yao Jin smiled and said a few light words. 

If one looks closely, they will find that her smile does not reach her eyes and in fact there was a bit of coldness in her gaze. 

After dinner, Chen Minamina had taken the initiative to invite her on a walk around the track and she agreed without thinking too much. Later, Chen minamina took her to the old track field where they “ran into” a few girls playing basketball including two of their friends. Later, Chen Minamian left because she needed to go to the bathroom and left Yao Jin by herself. However, Chen Mianmian never returned. 

In fact, not long after Chen Mianmian left Yao Jin already realized what was happening. These kinds of things have happened plenty before. A friend of a friend wanted to “get to know her better” sp they deliberately led her here to create a “chance encounter” for their friend to get closer to the target of their affection. 

Yao Jin loathed this type of behavior because she felt her trust was being betrayed by her friends, but she never brought these things up because she was afraid of confrontation with her friend that could lead to unpleasant situations. 

However, those who have betrayed her will also be gradually alienated by her. She knew very well why the people around her approached her, and the friendship maintained by material things was the lowest in her heart.

But this time she should thank Chen Mianmian. If it wasn’t for her, she might not have met Jin Siming on the track field. 

Sitting in the basketball hoop was also suggested by the group of girls as they said that this would give her the best viewing angle of their game. Yao Jin refused at first, but relented in the face of peer pressure. She could only let them place her up there. She then unexpectedly saw Jin Siming. In reality, at that height she could jump down herself but she wanted to take the opportunity to confirm something so she had called Jin Siming over to come and catch her. 

Fortunately, the answer was exactly what she had expected.