CH 39

Huo Ran felt that Kou Chen’s temper was usually pretty good, but he was the type of person that got scary when mad. He had never seen this kind of Kou Chen.

A sulking Kou Chen. 

Like he’d gone from a husky back to the old rumoured king of fighting.

Very cold.

Kou Xiao and Old Yang took them to eat Sichuan hotpot, and they drank some alcohol too. Kou Chen should’ve been talking the most, but he was quiet the whole time, like he was eating ice cubes.

Huo Ran searched for something to say. 

“Pass me the beef, thanks.”

“I’ll take the sauce if you don’t want it?”

But it was probably a bit stiff, seeing as they weren’t really words to make someone feel better. If he were in Kou Chen’s place, it probably wouldn’t have made him feel better either.

And so he could only give up.

After all, because he was such a ‘little cutie’, his parents, teachers, friends, and classmates, always spoiled him growing up.

After they ate, Kou Xiao ordered some barbeque for them to take back and share. Kou Chen still hadn’t said a word.

Kou Chen went with Old Yang to get their car, leaving Huo ran and Kou Xiao to wait for them. 

“Ignore him,” Kou Xiao said. “He’s always been like this, acting weird when he gets upset. He’s sensitive as hell, no wonder he doesn’t have many friends.”

“It’s just… I don’t know why he’s so upset.” Huo Ran said.

“He’s upset because you made him feel awkward not letting him see your phone,” Kou Xiao laughed and said. “He doesn’t know how to come back from it.”

“…I explained it to him,” Huo Ran frowned, “He ignored me.” 

“Talk to him some more and it’ll be fine,” Kou Xiao said. “Actually, it’s because my dad always said that boys didn’t need to be coddled. Now that he’s older, he wants something to make up for it, but like my dad, he’s stubborn.”

“But I have a temper too.” Huo Ran clicked his tongue.

“That’s why I said to just ignore him. He’ll be fine in a bit.” Kou Xiao patted his shoulder. “Don’t tell him I said that, or else he’ll get mad at me.”

“Mhm.” Huo Ran nodded. 

The car drove over, and Shuaishuai, who had stayed in a nearby pet store for the whole meal, poked his head out the window happily.

He leapt onto Huo Ran as soon as he opened the door.

“Get in, get in.” Huo Ran pushed him back into the seat. Getting in himself, he saw that Kou Chen was sitting in the passenger seat, looking as calm as a spaceship co-pilot. 

Kou Xiao started when she opened the door too, and then she smacked him: “Get out, that’s my seat!”

“You sit in the back.” Kou Chen held onto the handle above the door.

“I’m not squeezing in with that dumb dog of yours. Hurry up, get out.” Kou Xiao said.

“No.” Kou Chen refused. 

“Forget it,” Huo Ran opened the car door, “I’ll get a ride back.”

“Kou Chen!” Kou Xiao yelled.

When Kou Chen turned around, Huo Ran had already gotten out.

“Ah,” Kou Chen crawled directly into the back seat and followed him out the car, “Huo Ran.” 

Huo Ran ignored him and kept walking forward, when something warm and wet and rough touched his hand. He jerked his arm back, and saw that Shuaishuai had also gotten out of the car.

He looked down and patted Shuaishuai on the head, and he immediately started circling his legs, rubbing his head on them. Then he laid down on the ground and rolled around on the ground as he panted.

“It’s dirty!” Huo Ran tried to pull him up, “Get up, good dog.”

Shuaishuai ignored him and kept rolling around as he looked at him. 

Huo Ran turned around and saw that Kou Chen was signaling Shuaishuai from beside him.

Kou Chen immediately stopped when he turned, but he couldn’t take his hand back in time. He froze for a second before reaching up to scratch his head.

“Make him get up.” Huo Ran glared at Kou Chen. “The ground is dirty!”

“If you get another ride back he won’t get up.” Kou Chen said. 

“…Then am I supposed to walk back? Neither of you want to sit in the back…” Huo Ran thought he was being really unreasonable.

“I will,” Kou Chen said. “I’ll sit in the back.”

Huo Ran looked at him without saying anything.

“Ktlr lr pera tbk P jw, pera… lucbgf wf.” Bbe Jtfc ibbxfv jkjs jcv mifjgfv tlr atgbja jkxkjgvis. 

“Uglcmfrr Jtfc.” Leb Ejc rjlv.

“P’ii tla sbe.” Bbe Jtfc lwwfvljafis aegcfv yjmx ab rajgf ja tlw, “Vjs atja jujlc?”

“P vlvc’a ifa sbe ibbx ja ws qtbcf, cba yfmjerf bo ws qglnjms bg ktjafnfg, P vbc’a gfjiis tjnf jcsatlcu ab tlvf,” Leb Ejc atbeuta tf ralii rtbeiv fzqijlc, “Pa’r wbrais yfmjerf la lcnbinfr rbwfbcf firf.”

“I got it,” Kou Chen waved him off impatiently, “Am I such an unreasonable person?” 

“Are you not?” Huo Ran felt that he had guts, asking that.

“Shuaishuai.” Kou Chen didn’t say anything else, and he snapped his fingers. Shuaishuai jumped up from the ground and stood beside him. He pointed at Huo Ran, “Go, get Ranran-gege in the car.”

“Wha…” Before Huo Ran could ask, Shuaishuai took the corner of his jacket in his mouth and dragged him towards the car.

Alaskans are indeed suited for pulling sleds. They were strong. The first tug made Huo Ran stumble forwards. 

“Go with him,” Kou Chen held the door open, “Or else he’ll rip your jacket.”

Huo Ran quickly got in the car, and Shuaishuai hopped in to sit beside him. Kou Chen got in on the other side and pushed Shuaishuai off the seat before sitting next to Huo Ran.

“How did you train him?” Halfway back, Huo Ran couldn’t help but ask. “Don’t they all say they’re dumb? But he’s not.”

“I don’t know about other dogs, but Shuaishuai really is pretty dumb.” Kou Chen hadn’t said anything the whole way, looking forward stubbornly like he didn’t know how to start the conversation. Now that he spoke, Kou Chen immediately leaned on him and rubbed Shuaishuai’s head between his hands. “Do you know how old this dummy is?” 

“Hm?” Huo Ran was curious.

“Eight years old. I trained him for eight years.” Kou Chen raised eight fingers in front of him. “Eight years I tell you. Apart from paw, sit, up, down, and stuff other dogs learn in three months, all he knows is to roll around and drag people into cars. If it were an eight year old Border Collie, it would be flying planes now with how much effort I spent training.”

Huo Ran looked at Shuaishuai, who was happily enjoying Kou Chen’s petting with a tongue sticking out, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“But he’s still quite handsome, isn’t he?” Kou Chen said. 

“Yeah.” Huo Ran nodded, and then he looked at him, “Are you talking about yourself or the dog?”

“…The dog.” Kou Chen said.

“Yeah.” Huo Ran nodded.

“Then what about me?” Kou Chen asked. 

In front of them, Old Yang started laughing.

“Handsome.” Huo Ran sighed.

Back at the dorms, Kou Chen’s room was full of people. They took up the two bottom bunks playing cards. 

Kou Chen put the barbeque down on the table: “Food, anyone?”

“Yeah!” Everyone replied at once.

Huo Ran scanned the room, before turning back to his own dorm room.

Kou Chen glanced around as well. Hu Yi and Jiang Lei, plus the three in his dorm, and some other people. No Xu Zhifan. 

“Xu Zhifan didn’t come?” He sat down beside Xu Chuan and asked.

“Nope,” Xu Chuan nodded, “He’s gaming in his own room.”

“Oh.” Kou Chen nodded and laid down beside him.

Huo Ran didn’t come back after that. All the way until lights out and everyone left, he didn’t see Huo Ran again.

The ‘private’ thing he didn’t let him see probably had something to do with Xu Zhifan.

Kou Chen washed up and laid back down in his bed, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

It’s not like he didn’t have his own secrets, but it was nothing that needed to be kept so secretly like this. Although he told Huo Ran to not tell anything else about the stuff from when he was little, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal if anyone else knew. 

There was no way Huo Ran would tell anyone. Just like how he was protecting Xu Zhifan’s privacy, Huo Ran would absolutely keep his little secrets too. But after all, he didn’t see anything. All he did see was Huo Ran hiding his phone from him so he didn’t see Xu Zhifan’s little secret.

Kou Chen suddenly felt a little bitter.

Huo Ran and Xu Zhifan were both his friends, and Huo Ran was even one that would block a knife for him. But the two of them had some secret they didn’t want him to know.

Tsk. 

“Chuan-ge.” He turned over and leaned over his bed to look at Xu Chuan below him.

“Hm?” Xu Chuan opened his eyes and startled upon seeing him, “Fuck, what are you doing?”

“Do you have secrets?” Kou Chen asked.

“Let me see,” Xu Chuan thought about it for a while, “I don’t think so.” 

“If I had a secret and I told you, would you keep it for me? You can’t let anyone know, the really secretive kind of thing, would you?” Kou Chen asked.

Xu Chuan didn’t answer him right away. He sat up and looked around the room. Everyone else were already asleep.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?” Xu Chuan asked quietly. “Tell me anything, I swear I’ll keep it a secret for you.”

“Nothing happened,” Kou Chen said. “I was just asking.” 

“Really?” Xu Chuan asked.

“Really.” Kou Chen smiled and turned back around.

Xu Chuan was silent for a moment before he kicked his bed: “Let me know if there is anything, don’t bottle it up. What do you think friends are for?”

“What are they for?” Kou Chen asked. 

“They’re to order around,” Xu Chuan. “To keep secrets, to take care of things. All of that stuff.”

Kou Chen smiled: “Got it.”

The normal track and field events were two days long, and then after that there were two days for the basketball tournament. But the next day, they woke up and saw that the field was enveloped in fog. 

“I just got the notice, it’s going to be foggy for the next few days. The basketball tournament will be postponed, the gymnasium can’t fit that many people.” Old Yuan said with a hand on his chest. “The solo events today are all cancelled, and they want to get the team events done before the fog gets worse.”

“The team events are…” The sports representative flipped through the schedule. “Relay, and the three-legged race will be moved indoors.”

“Good, good.” Jiang Lei said.

“Are you gonna carry me the whole way?” Wei Chaoren said. 

“Save me some face, will you? Lu Huan’s gonna be cheering me on!” Jiang Lei said.

“Get first place while carrying me the whole way, How’s that for showing off?” Wei Chaoren said.

“I am,” Jiang Lei said, “Half a head shorter than you, and skinnier. You want me to carry you? Why don’t you be the one showing off?!”

Wei Chaoren laughed: “Weak.” 

Kou Chen was a bit unhappy about the basketball tournament being postponed. He quite liked team events. He really liked the feeling of everyone trying their hardest. Good thing there was still relay.

Relay was divided into boys and girls for each year. Although they had a lot of girls in their class, they weren’t as good as Humanities 4. But the boys were pretty good, so Old Yuan and the whole class had high hopes for them.

Huo Ran goes first, and Kou Chen last. In Between them are Wei Chaoren and athlete Luo Feiyu. They had a good chance to win. 

“Luo Feiyu, you can go second?” Wei Chaoren asked. “You’re a bit better at sprinting, and we should put the stronger ones in front, so Kou Chen can catch up if we fall behind.”

“Okay,” Luo Feiyu nodded. “Make sure to pass the baton properly, only let go when I have a good grip on it.”

“Okay.” Huo Ran nodded.

“Why am I not going second?” Kou Chen whispered in his ear. 

“So you can catch up in case we fall behind.” Huo Ran whispered back. He glanced at him, “I wanted to ask at breakfast, did you not sleep last night?”

“What?” Kou Chen was surprised, “Do I have dark circles?”

“No, you just don’t look that well, like you stayed up all night.” Huo Ran said.

“Oh,” Kou Chen rubbed his face. “Chaoren was snoring last night, loud as hell.” 

“I was snoring?” Wei Chaoren was shocked, “Chuan-ge, was I snoring? Isn’t Guo Zijian the one that snores every night?”

Xu Chuan laughed without saying anything.

“Then it was Guo Zijian.” Kou Chen said.

“Damn.” Wei Chaoren sighed. 

Kou Chen looked around again: “Where’s Xu Zhifan?”

“Went home this morning,” Huo Ran said. “Something happened at home.”

“What happened?” Xu Chuan asked. “Does he need help?”

“It’s probably not a big deal.” Huo Ran said. 

Because it was a team event, and pretty much the end of Sports Day, everyone’s sense of camaraderie had awoken and they wanted to join in on the fun. Before the relay races even started, people were crowded on both sides of the track with the banners for their respective classes.

Under Wu Xiaochen’s leadership, the Humanities 1 girls tried their hardest and got fourth place. Tang Wei almost twisted her ankle and was sitting there about to cry.

Everyone went to comfort her. 

“Fourth place is great.” Kou Chen pulled her up and supported her, “Don’t cry, you got fourth out of twelve classes.”

“Exactly.” Everyone nodded.

“I could’ve been faster,” Tang Wei sniffled, “I stumbled… and then I couldn’t run as fast…”

“Are you hurt?” Huo Ran asked. 

“No, good thing I’m not, or else we couldn’t even have gotten fourth.” Tang Wei was still sniffling.

Hearing her sad whimpers, Huo Ran suddenly felt the urge to laugh, so he immediately turned and tried to hold it in.

“Hey, don’t be sad. You weren’t the only one running, we did it together. And you have to look at it this way, we didn’t get fourth place because we messed up, we got fourth place because we tried our best. Got it?” Wu Xiaochen said. “You should be happy.”

If it isn’t Old Yuan’s class monitor, Huo Ran respected her. 

“Mhm.” Tang Wei nodded.

“And you achieved something huge today.” Li Yiyi said.

“What?” Tang Wei looked at her.

Li Yiyi nodded at her arm: “You got to touch the man of your dreams.” 

Tang Wei startled and looked down.

Kou Chen startled too and let go, backing up a few steps.

“Oh my god,” Tang Wei’s sniffles were immediately gone. “Kou Chen helped me up, oh my god I’ve been revived.”

“…Holy shit,” Kou Chen turned around, “Hurry, let’s go.” 

There was a lot of attention on the Humanities 1 boys’ relay. It was always more common for the sciences to have a couple of dark horses, but this time there were two in the humanities. Not only were they athletic, they were handsome as well…

“Not just dark! Horses as well!” Wu Xiaochen said. “How cool.”

“What the hell?” Tang Wei said. “Are there dark donkeys in other classes? They’re dark, but they’re donkeys.” 

Huo Ran was originally a little nervous, but their conversation made him want to laugh.

But as he headed over to the starting line, he started feeling nervous again. He turned and saw Kou Chen heading over to his spot.

“Kou Chen.” He called.

“Hm?” Kou Chen stopped and walked over. 

“…Good luck.” Huo Ran said.

Kou Chen was silent for a few seconds, before he smiled: “Are you nervous?”

“A little.” Huo Ran replied truthfully.

“Don’t worry.” Kou Chen raised an eyebrow. “If we really do fall behind I promise I’ll catch up.” 

Huo Ran raised his hand. Kou Chen’s words were very appropriate for the moment, and it calmed him down.

Kou Chen clapped his hand: “Good luck, Ranran.”

Solo events wouldn’t make Huo Ran feel like this at all. As the pistol sounded and he shot forwards, he forgot everything. All he cared about was sprinting towards Luo Feiyu. 

The wind roared in his ears, and everyone was cheering loudly. As he approached Luo Feiyu, he realized that he was in first place.

“Go!” He smacked the baton in Luo Feiyu’s palm.

Luo Feiyu grabbed the baton and sprinted off.

“Go Humanities 1! Go Humanities 1!” Huo Ran shouted along with everyone else. 

Luo Feiyu was pretty fast, but the guy from Sciences 8 ran like he was being chased by a knife. He passed the baton at pretty much the same time as Luo Feiyu, and Huo Ran’s palms immediately started sweating.

Wei Chaoren was decently fit, but he was like a jack of all trades, master of none. If he fell behind now, it would be hard for Kou Chen to catch up.

Huo Ran could no longer hear what everyone else was shouting. His eyes followed Wei Chaoren. He was in a pretty good condition today, and he passed the baton third, not that far after the others.

Kou Chen grabbed the baton, and Huo Ran felt like the cheers even made the slowly thickening fog thin again. 

“Go Kou Chen! Go Humanities 1!” Huo Ran yelled.

He didn’t really participate in Sports Day last year, and he’d never experienced such an exhilarating moment.

But right now, right here, he felt that this could be the most unforgettable moment of his high school years. He jumped up and down as he yelled and cheered for his teammates. He watched Kou Chen cross the finish line amidst all the cheers and hugged the random person beside him before running over.

Kou Chen panted as he smiled and opened his arms. He jumped into his embrace and was followed by everyone else in their class surrounding them in the middle. 

“What did I say! You have me!” Kou Chen yelled by his ear. “I did what I promised!”

“Amazing.” Huo Ran patted his back with a smile.