CH 67

Huo Ran usually practiced with Kou Chen anyways, either one on one or as a team.

Because they pretty much spent all of their waking hours together, they didn’t need to practice their coordination much. 

Because it was going to be a single-elimination tournament, they couldn’t lose any matches, so Huo Ran didn’t object to extra practice when Kou Chen brought it up. He was the captain after all, if their class didn’t get at least third place then he might as well never show his face again.

“Old Yuan said, he’s worried about your temper the most.” Kou Chen said as he dribbled the ball.

Huo Ran stopped at the three point line, Kou Chen passed the ball to him and moved under the basket, then he passed the ball back: “Stop making it sound like Old Yuan said those exact words. When there’s Kou Chen, nobody’s gonna worry about Huo Ran’s temper ‘the most’.”

Kou Chen stood under the basket and easily hooked the ball in. He picked up the ball and spun it on his finger: “Hey now, my temper’s great.” 

“Defense.” Huo Ran turned to run back.

After he took a few steps, the ball bounced up behind him from the left, he caught the ball and brought it past the midcourt line.

One of the team members taking a break at the line suddenly stepped forward to block him, and Huo Ran passed the ball back to Kou Chen, then stepped beside him.

“Captain,” He said. “Who’s playing for your class?”

“Secret.” Huo Ran said as he ran.

“I might as well go play for your team.” He laughed. “I bet our class is gonna get eliminated first, then I can go over to your class.”

Huo Ran glanced back after he watched Kou Chen take the shot. This teammate is Zhang Xiaopang from Humanities 4. He played point guard, and was pretty good. But Humanities 4 was a class of introverts, you pretty much never saw them in any events.

“Tragic,” Huo Ran said. “If your class loses, our cheerleaders can take you in.” 

“What kind of captain are you? That hurts.” Zhang Xiaopang said. “Though… Your class just barely has enough people to start, right?”

“Our class…” Huo Ran thought about it seriously, and then he laughed. “Seriously, we don’t even have any substitutes. Maybe we can get a few short-haired girls to help out.”

“But you two really do work well together.” Zhang Xiaopang looked at Kou Chen. “I doubt any other class has that.”

“It’s not enough.” Kou Chen tossed the ball to Zhang Xiaopang. “Gotta practice more. 

Huo Ran looked at him. Kou Chen looked smug as fuck.

I’m just being humble, so you can praise me some more.

Unfortunately, Zhang Xiaopang was a good kid, and a little dull, so he didn’t get the hint. He only nodded and said: “There’s still a couple more days, good luck guys.”

Kou Chen stared at the back of his head as he left, and said unhappily: “What’s strangling that brain of his? Do you have scissors to cut it off?” 

“What is it?” Huo Ran laughed.

“Fuck, do we need to be wished good luck?” Kou Chen said. “We’re literally made of luck!”

“Didn’t you say we needed more practice yourself?” Huo Ran said.

“That’s because I raise myself to high standards!” Kou Chen glared. 

“Then has tonight met your standards?” Huo Ran asked.

“It’s alright.” Kou Chen raised an eyebrow.

Kou Chen was in a great mood tonight. He took out his anger by dumping soup on someone, and he didn’t get punished for it. He even found out that teachers could actually be so accepting. 

Feeling that even after a whole semester relaxed him.

He happily attended practice when he usually found it extremely boring and only went for Huo Ran’s sake.

He even dragged Huo Ran onto the court for more after practice ended, only stopping when Huo Ran started cursing at him.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Huo Ran glared at him with sweat dripping down his face. “There’s still nurses in the infirmary! Go get some medicine!” 

“Okay,” Kou Chen tossed the ball into the faraway ball cage. “Let’s go then.”

“Clean up!” Huo Ran yelled. “Even the guys who were supposed to do it left! Do it yourself!”

“Alrighty.” Kou Chen ran over and pushed the ball cage into the equipment room.

After putting all the balls away, Huo Ran ran around the court with a mop. 

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“Heard of it, never watched it.” Huo Ran said.

“I’ve watched it, my sister has the DVDs, she loves it, so I watched it with her. I remember…” Kou Chen pointed at the mop, “Ikkyu cleaned the floors every day, he didn’t even have a mop, only a rag.”

“You like mopping floors?” Huo Ran asked. 

“What does that have to do with anything?” Kou Chen paused and looked at Huo Ran. “What’s wrong with you?”

“That’s what you said, you didn’t like basketball, so you never watched Slam Dunk.” Huo Ran rested his cheek on his palm. “By that logic, you like mopping floors, that’s why you watched Ikkyu-san… You can take the mop handle off if you want, run around with your grim reaper up in the air…”

“Huo Ranran!” Kou Chen pointed at him.

Huo Ran laughed, not continuing his sentence. He stared at the basketball hoop off to the side. 

Kou Chen felt that Huo Ran was acting a little strange today. He wasn’t as energetic as usual, but he couldn’t put a finger on what exactly. Huo Ran wasn’t usually as energetic as him anyways.

It was just a feeling.

Right now, he didn’t know if Huo Ran was thinking about something, or if he was tired, or if he was just spacing out.

Mopping the floor was annoying. Whoever’s turn it was to do it after practice always groaned in complaint. He really didn’t consider the fact that he had to clean up when he made Huo Ran practice with him so late.

After finally finishing mopping the floor and putting all the stuff away, he felt tired when all the basketball playing did nothing.

He walked behind Huo Ran and kicked his butt softly: “Let’s go, you didn’t even help at all.”

“I was the one mopping the floor at the beginning.” Huo Ran stood up and picked up his jacket and put it on without looking at him. He spoke as he walked out the gym: “You’re here to help, and seeing you work so hard, I decided to not bother you. Besides, I heard you never even take the trash out in your dorm, so it’s such a rare sight…” 

The zipper of his jacket almost hit Kou Chen in the face, and he stood with his hands blocking it for a long moment before finally following him.

The dorms were about to close when they got back, and the dormitory manager waved and said: “Hurry up! Do you want to watch me lock the door from the outside or the inside?”

They quickly ran over.

As they stepped through the door, someone flashed by them, smelling like barbeque. 

“Who?!” The dorm manager yelled, “No barbeque in the dorms at night! Do you want to sleep or not?”

The person that slipped by was Lin Wuyu, the dorm manager didn’t see, but they did. Because they had a pretty deep impression of him these days.

“Did you see who it was?” The dorm manager asked.

“Nope.” They replied. 

“You wouldn’t tell me anyways.”

“You shouldn’t have asked then.” Kou Chen laughed as he ran up the stairs.

Huo Ran followed him, and in the hallway, Huo Ran whispered: “Fuck, I’m hungry.”

“Hm?” Kou Chen looked at him, and realized that the strange air surrounding Huo Ran had disappeared. Now Huo Ran was just like he always was. 

Hungry?

“I’m gonna go look for Lin Wuyu.” Kou Chen turned back to the stairs.

“Why?” Huo Ran grabbed him.

“To ask him for some barbeque.” Kou Chen said. “He had a huge bag, he probably took the last bit from the cafeteria!” 

“What’s wrong with you?” Huo Ran dragged him towards their rooms. “Are you guys close? You’re gonna go into the third years’ dorms to ask for barbeque?”

“Aren’t you hungry?” Kou Chen said. “You’re so hungry you’re even acting different.”

“What?” Huo Ran turned around.

“Nothing.” Kou Chen tsked. 

Back in the dorms, the rest of the guys were already in bed. Huo Ran took his jacket and pants off quickly and headed to the bathroom with a change of clothes.

“Practice lasted this late?” Xu Zhifan said.

“Kou Chen went mental and dragged me into more practice.” Huo Ran stripped naked and turned the water on. It was late, so he could only take a quick rinse. “It would’ve lasted the whole night if I didn’t yell at him.” 

“Is it next week? The basketball tournament?” Jiang Lei said from outside the door.

“Yup,”Huo Ran said. “You’re going on.”

“What’s in it for me?” Jiang Lei asked.

“You can show off for Lu Huan.” Xu Zhifan answered for Huo Ran. 

“Sure,” Jiang Lei said. “I’ll play. Put me in a cool position, like center or something…”

“It’s just gotta be cool, huh?” Hu Yi said from his bed. “You might have to fight Kou Chen for it.”

“Fuck.” Jiang Lei grumbled.

Huo Ran felt even hungrier after showering. He looked around the dorm to no avail, only Xu Zhifan had a small bag of crunchy fried beans.

He didn’t like it, but he was too hungry to care. He poured the whole bag in his mouth and crunched, the sound vibrating through his head and making him dizzy.

He could hear Kou Chen singing from the other room, meaning he was showering.

Halfway through, the lights turned off, and Kou Chen stopped singing to curse: “Fuck! Am I supposed to shower in the dark?!” 

Laughter sounded from the other dorms.

After lights out, everything became quiet. They all got in bed, and Jiang Lei fell asleep first, muttering something.

Xu Zhifan and Hu Yi were pretty quiet, he could only hear them breathing. 

Normally, it would lull Huo Ran to sleep quickly.

But not today. He tossed and turned but couldn’t fall asleep.

The bedframe creaked.

Huo Ran stopped quickly when Xu Zhifan pounded his own bed from above. 

“Can’t sleep?” Xu Zhifan asked sleepily.

“I can.” Huo Ran said.

“Oh.” Xu Zhifan nodded and then went quiet.

Huo Ran laid in bed for a while. His back was sore, and it was really uncomfortable.

He quietly got out of bed, and left the room after putting on a jacket and grabbing his phone.

There would always be people who couldn’t fall asleep at night. Some messed around in their rooms, and some came out to wander the hallways. The weather was getting warmer, so Huo Ran saw a couple figures in the hallway, whispering quietly.

He leaned against the wall and spaced out with his phone in his hand. 

You could say he was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. You could say he wasn’t tired, but he felt like he could barely open his eyes.

One of the figures in the hallway walked over to him slowly.

Huo Ran glanced over and paused.

“You’re not asleep?” He asked the figure. 

Kou Chen always walked with a bit of arrogance. He didn’t need light to recognize him.

“I’m kinda excited.” Kou Chen whispered. “Can’t sleep.”

“What are you excited over?” Huo Ran said.

“A lot happened today. There was the rooftop confession, and then I talked to Old Yuan, and there’s also the basketball tournament next week.” Kou Chen said. “I can never sleep when I’m thinking about stuff… First time you’re not sleeping either.” 

“How do you know it’s the first time?” Huo Ran said.

“Because I come out here a lot when I can’t sleep.” Kou Chen moved closer and stared at his face. “Are you okay? I feel like you’re keeping something from me?”

“Like what?” Huo Ran said.

“Still hungry?” Kou Chen asked. 

Huo Ran himself could feel his eyes light up. By asking that, Kou Chen obviously meant that he had food.

“Yeah.” Huo Ran answered.

“Damn, you poor thing.” Kou Chen pinched his cheek. From his pocket, he took out two pieces of chocolate and a palm sized paper bag. “Here you go.”

“What’s… this?” Long after Kou Chen’s hand left his face, Huo Ran could still feel his touch. 

He didn’t pinch him that hard, but his ears heated up like he slapped him.

“Beef jerky.” Kou Chen said. “Found it under Chaoren’s pillow.”

“Damn,” Huo Ran held the paper bag. “That’s gotta be Chaoren’s lifeline, didn’t he fight you for it?”

“He did,” Kou Chen said. “Then he cried himself to sleep.” 

Huo Ran laughed, and tried his best to keep quiet: “How could you treat your roommate like that…”

“Give it back then.” Kou Chen reached out.

Huo Ran smacked his hand away and ripped the bag open and put it to his mouth to lick the beef jerky. Then he bit both chocolates without even unwrapping them. He split them in half, and licked each side.

After that, he sighed contentedly, and smiled at Kou Chen. 

Kou Chen stared at him in shock for a while before pointing: “You’re like a dog.”

“Did you eat?” Huo Ran unwrapped one half of the chocolate and ate it, before asking.

“You’re asking that after you licked everything?” Kou Chen said.

“You can…” Huo Ran felt a bit embarrassed. He really went crazy in hunger and forgot to ask Kou Chen out of politeness. “Do you have a knife? You can cut that part off…” 

Before he could finish, Kou Chen took the other half of the chocolate and ate it.

“You ate it?” Huo Ran was shocked.

“Yeah, to piss you off.” Kou Chen laughed in satisfaction as he chewed.

“I licked it!” Huo Ran yelled quietly. 

“So?” Kou Chen raised an eyebrow. “Let me tell you, I’ll even eat food Shuaishuai licked… Nevermind I can’t do that…”

Huo Ran reached out and touched his face.

“Hm?” Kou Chen looked at him with a raised eyebrow, still chewing.

You look pretty handsome like this. 

Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything.

No, pretend I didn’t think anything.

“Nothing,” Huo Ran another half and asked after chewing a few times, “Is this a different brand? It’s sweeter than before.”

“It’s the same, I only buy this one.” Kou Chen said. 

“Oh.” Huo Ran nodded.