CH 29

“I don’t wear accessories.” Huo Ran said. “Bracelets get in the way.”

“You were wearing one in your profile picture, its such a bright yellow too.” Kou Chen got out his phone, “Look…” 

“That was a mosquito repellent bracelet.” Huo Ran said.

“Does it work?” Kou Chen asked.

“…It’s useless.” Huo Ran said. “It’s alright in the city I guess, but not in the woods with those big mosquitoes.”

“Then why were you wearing it?” Kou Chen asked again. 

Huo Ran looked at him, not knowing how to answer.

That’s right, he thought it was useless so why did he still wear it? And he would wear one every time he went out in the summer… So why was that?

Huo Ran was deep in thought.

“The only reason you would wear a useless mosquito bracelet,” Kou Chen said. “Is because you think it looks good.”

“Huh?”

“Then it would be an accessory.” Kou Chen pointed at him after coming to that conclusion. “You wear accessories, so I’ll give you a bracelet for your birthday? I promise it’ll be better than a twenty bucks for six pack of mosquito bracelets.”

“It wasn’t twenty bucks for six.” Huo Ran sighed.

“For four?” Kou Chen didn’t back down. 

“It’s the kind that affects a whole area…” Huo Ran gave up halfway through. “Whatever, if it’s twenty bucks then it’s twenty bucks. I don’t wear bracelets.”

“I know, I saw them at the store, they’re like wristbands.” Kou Chen nodded, taking a bite of his food. “Are you sure? It’s a birthday present, who fucking refuses a birthday present?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Huo Ran immediately tried to explain, “I’m not refusing it, I’m just saying I don’t want a bracelet, get me something else.”

“Oh,” Kou Chen stared at him before laughing, “Okay, I got it.” 

Huo Ran sighed: “Hurry up, I wanna sleep before class, I’m tired.”

“Who says that when they’re treating someone?” Kou Chen shoveled food into his mouth.

Huo Ran put his head down on the table and turned to look at him: “Then you can take your time.”

“This is pretty good actually,” Kou Chen said as he ate. “Honestly, some of our cafeteria food isn’t that bad, it just looks kinda ugly.” 

“Mhm.” Huo Ran nodded, looking around the cafeteria. There were quite a few people still eating, and some third years who stayed to study.

Everything happened in the cafeteria, there were people eating, studying, chatting, playing on their phones, waiting for other people to finish eating, confessing…

“Ah, I wonder who that girl is.” Huo Ran wasn’t really interested, but he couldn’t help but think about it because of how mysterious it was.

“Don’t ask around,” Kou Chen said. “It’s personal, got it?” 

“Fuck off.” Huo Ran laughed.

“I just thought about it,” Kou Chen put his chopsticks down, “Maybe the girl doesn’t want me to know who she is.”

“Why?” Huo Ran propped his head up.

“Having a secret crush is fun,” Kou Chen said. “She’s just making herself happy, it has nothing to do with you.” 

“Speaking from experience?” Huo Ran was curious.

“Nah, my sister always did that. Before started dating Old Yang, she had to have had a crush on at least eight people.” Kou Chen said. “So she was just giggling to herself everyday.”

“Ah?”

“He looked at me today.” Kou Chen pitched his voice and started imitating her, “Good thing I washed my hair. Ahhh I sent him an anonymous message today, ahhh his smile is so cute, ahhh who knows if he ate my chocolate or not… ahhh he smiled at another girl, I’m heartbroken…” 

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“Hm,” Kou Chen thought about it, “When you put it that way, it sounds so tragic… I want a relationship!” 

“Good luck.” Huo Ran said.

The topic of relationships was very interesting to high schoolers. As opposed to when they were in middle school, everyone thought of themselves as adults, so they were all excited to take the chance that Old Yuan gave them.

The poster on the blackboard was the result of two days of hard work by some of the girls. It was bright and pink with hearts everywhere, and even little stick figures holding hands. 

The desks were scattered around without order, so everyone could find a comfortable place to sit.

Kou Chen probably got his bones broken by someone in his past life, so comfortable to him meant leaning on someone else.

Right now, he was sitting backwards on a chair and leaning on Huo Ran.

“Do you have waist problems or what?” Huo Ran said exasperatedly, with his back to the wall. 

“Don’t say that,” Kou Chen said. “Anyone else would beat you up, you have fucking waist problems.”

“Then can you sit up and prove it to me?” Huo Ran said.

“Nope.” Kou Chen even put his arms on his knees.

“Why don’t you…” Huo Ran pointed in Xu Chuan’s direction, but saw that all of them had waist problems too. Xu Zhifan, Xu Chuan, and Wei Chaoren were all leaning on each other. Only Jiang Lei and Hu Yi were by themselves, chatting excitedly as they stared at the poster on the board. 

Huo Ran put his arm down.

“I’m not squishing your balls, am I?” Kou Chen said.

“…No.” Huo Ran said.

To contrast the relaxed atmosphere, was the dean who had just walked in ten seconds ago, as he took a seat beside the pink poster.

He had an unfathomable expression on his face as he looked at the class.

It felt quite strange.

Old Yuan probably felt it too, so he looked at the dean: “Why don’t you sit in the back? The students might get nervous looking at you.” 

“Okay,” The dean stood up and walked to the back with his chair. “Don’t mind me, right now I’m just a piece of clothing on someone’s chair.”

“Who would wear such ugly clothes?” Kou Chen said lazily from where he was leaning on Huo Ran.

The class burst out into laughter.

With a chair in his hand, the dean smiled at him in a rare display of restraint. 

“Alright.” Old Yuan clapped his hands. “Our discussion starts now. Don’t be afraid to express your thoughts, but please stay on our topic, such as the one that you like, why you like them, what it feels like to like someone, how that has changed you, or that you don’t have anyone you like. Anything goes.”

“What about a confession?” Xu Zhifan asked.

“Yeah! A confession!” Everyone stirred, “What if someone wants to confess?”

“That’s fine too.” Old Yuan laughed. “But you can only confess, it doesn’t matter if the other accepts or refuses.” 

“Okay—” They agreed, someone even smacking a desk.

“Then let’s get started.” Old Yuan nodded. “Who wants to go first?”

With that, everyone went quiet and looked at each other, whispering.

After a short pause, Wei Chaoren stood up, shaking off Xu Chuan and Xu Zhifan before raising his head. “I’ll go!” 

Everyone started clapping and whispering.

“Thank you, thank you.” Wei Chaoren acted like he just won an award. “Thank you for your support.”

“Hurry up!” Someone laughed.

“In elementary school, I liked a girl.” Wei Chaoren got straight to the point. “There wasn’t a particular reason, I just thought her smile was really cute, and I liked seeing her smile. I think that’s a beautiful thing. I don’t even remember what she looks like anymore, but I still remember the feeling when I saw her smile. It made me really happy.” 

Applause erupted in the classroom.

“Damn,” Kou Chen leaned back onto Huo Ran. “Who would’ve thought? Chaoren has a way with words.”

“It’s not like him.” Huo Ran mused.

“The power of love.” Kou Chen said. 

“That’s why I don’t understand why so many people, like parents and teachers, are so opposed to it. It’s clearly such a wonderful thing that brings you joy.” Wei Chaoren raised his head again. “I’m done.”

“Well said.” Old Yuan gave him a thumbs up.

Wei Chaoren sat down amidst the applause, and Xu Chuan and Xu Zhifan stuck back onto him, expressing their admiration.

“That’s amazing, Chaochao.” Xu Chuan said. 

“That’s amazing, Renren.” Xu Zhifan said.

“You flatter me.” Wei Chaoren wasn’t satisfied yet, and he turned to Kou Chen,

They all gave him their thumbs ups on both hands.

After everyone quieted down, the class monitor stood up. “I feel the same way as Wei Chaoren. It’s a very beautiful thing, but I want to say…”

Huo Ran squeezed Kou Chen with his legs: “What’s her name again?”

“Wu Xiaochen.” Kou Chen said. “No way? You don’t even remember the class monitor’s name?”

“I don’t know any of the girls that weren’t in my old classes…” Huo Ran said. 

“Huo Ran, is your last name actually Liu?” Kou Chen turned to look at him.

Huo Ran laughed and ignored him.

“I want to say, Wei Chaoren said he doesn’t understand why our parents and teachers are all opposed to it,” Wu Xiaochen brushed a strand of hair out of her face, “It’s actually because a lot of us don’t know how to deal with our feelings, and it might negatively impact our lives and education. So in the eyes of our parents and teachers, it’s not a good thing.”

“A very good point as well.” Old Yuan nodded. 

“So you can put it this way too,” Xu Zhifan spoke, waving his hand from where he was glued to Wei Chaoren without standing up. “Probably starting around middle school, most of us hadn’t had the chance to openly approach the ‘I like someone’ topic. It’s like a taboo, you can’t talk about it, and no adult will discuss it with us. All we know is that it’s not allowed, it’s not okay, it’s wrong… All negatives. Nobody tells us what we’re supposed to do when we like a person, what to do about ourselves, what to do with her, and how to deal with our feelings. So naturally, it would be more likely to affect our lives and education… To be honest, it’s because of that mindset that a relationship would be considered rebellious, how curious is that?”

“Agreed!” Kou Chen yelled, clapping his hands.

Everyone else cheered and smacked the desks.

“Zhifan is very right. So that’s why we have to learn about dating as well.” Xu Chuan helped summarize. “To make us write a test without studying, only geniuses can pass, and how many geniuses are there?” 

“That’s right!” Everyone expressed their agreement, nodding their heads.

“Xu Zhifan has surprised me, and Xu Chuan’s summary is very good as well.” Old Yuan smiled as he nodded and clapped. “Well said, I agree with your words as well.”

“Don’t be like that,” Kou Chen laughed, “You say you agree with everyone.”

“Kou Chen.” Old Yuan smiled, suddenly taking a couple steps over. “Do you have anything to add? Let’s hear it, see if I agree.” 

“Me?” Kou Chen froze for a moment, before leaning backwards and waving it off, “I don’t have anything to add, not at all.”

“Come on, Kou Chen!” A girl yelled out.

“My ass.” Kou Chen grumbled.

“Kou Chen, do you have someone you like?” Another girl laughed. 

The girls all started laughing, and the guys started to cheer him on as well.

Huo Ran very much got why the girls were so interested, seeing as Kou Chen was one of those cool, and handsome guys that they didn’t know much about. In many girls’ hearts, he was mysterious and attractive.

But, Huo Ran really wanted to say that if you were willing to peel open his heart layer by layer, you will be surprised to find…

That he’s actually a Husky dog! 

Huo Ran made himself laugh with his own thoughts, and he joined in with the others.

“Not only are you not fucking helping me but you’re laughing?” Kou Chen was shocked, and he turned around.

“I’m not laughing.” Huo Ran felt that it wasn’t very good of him to laugh when Kou Chen was in a difficult spot, so he immediately stilled his face.

“You’re laughing so hard it’s like I’m on a massage chair!” Kou Chen growled. 

At that, Huo Ran couldn’t help it anymore and burst out into laughter.

Sorry, I’ve embarrassed the basketball team.

“Kou Chen! Kou Chen! Kou Chen!” The seriousness that was supposed to come with a class discussion was completely gone, and everyone started to yell.

Normally, nobody had the guts to do this to Kou Chen, but right now was different. 

“Just say something,” Xu Chuan laughed, “It’s fine, even I spoke.”

“You summarized Xu Zhifan, who am I supposed to summarize?” Kou Chen said,

“Yourself.” Jiang Lei patted him on the back, “Come on.”

“Fuck.” Kou Chen was distressed. 

“Don’t be shy, just do it.” Huo Ran squeezed him with his legs happily.

“Just you fucking wait.” Kou Chen glared at him, before clearing his throat.

Everyone immediately quieted down.

“…Don’t be like this,” Kou Chen looked around the room, “Give me some background music.” 

Everyone’s laughter was to great effect.

“I don’t really have anything to say, I’ve never liked anyone apart from my kindergarten teacher,” Kou Chen frowned, thinking about what to say. He’s never had to speak in front of so many people, except for having to read his self-assessments. It felt like his voice wasn’t his, “If I have to say something, I feel like love is natural, so our parents and teachers should stop wasting their time. We won’t like someone just because we have to, so I also won’t stop liking someone just because you say no…”

He paused, feeling like he should summarize his words, but he didn’t know how to.

He subconsciously turned to Huo Ran. 

Huo Ran was smiling as he listened to him, and he froze as he turned.

The two of them stared at each other for a bit, and he could hear the girls start to laugh around him. Their laughter was very obviously different from the laughter before.

Huo Ran stared at him in shock, “What the fuck are you looking at me for?”