Chapter 4: Senior’s Certainty

Chapter 4 Senior's Certainty

Café

The clear spring sunlight streamed through the window glass, bringing a layer of cozy warmth to the shop.

There were few customers in the morning. Pang Qiu, resting his head on his paws, lay on the counter, fast asleep to the sound of piano music.

Fei Yu stood beside him, wiping a glass while humming a cheerful tune.

He had the afternoon off today, so he could go find Song Ji.

Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling. The glass door of the café chimed crisply, signaling more customers entering.

"Coming!"

Fei Yu put the clean glass back on the counter and turned to walk toward the door.

"Welcome to Spring Café..." He looked up with a smile, but when he saw who it was, his smile widened instantly, and his eyes lit up with surprise. "Song Ji, it's you!"

The young man had fair skin and striking features. When he smiled, his whole face lit up, bright and energetic, just like the dazzling peach blossoms blooming outside the window.

"Fei Yu." Song Ji swallowed awkwardly and gave a stiff nod.

Fei Yu's eyes crinkled happily as he was about to speak, but his peripheral vision suddenly caught three pairs of curious eyes.

He quickly recovered and greeted them with his signature smile: "Hello, welcome to Spring Café."

Wen Jia was the first to recover, blinking at the handsome boy in front of her. "Hi."

After introductions, Fei Yu learned that they were Song Ji's companions and also members of A University's Cat Association.

The cats at A University were all sleek, healthy, and full of energy—clearly well cared for.

Fei Yu already liked the Cat Association, and upon hearing that they were working on a major project related to the cats, he eagerly offered, "I'll find you a quiet spot to sit."

The four of them sat down and ordered their coffee, then Fei Yu hurried back to the counter to act as the best support.

Once Fei Yu left, Wen Jia and the others could no longer contain their curiosity. Their gazes snapped to Song Ji.

Facing three pairs of eager eyes, Song Ji said coolly, "A friend I met while feeding the cats."

The three nodded as if they understood. "Oh, I see."

They didn't believe a word of it.

Come on, Song Ji—the big shot—couldn't even remember all the Cat Association members—there was no way he made friends just by feeding cats.

They held back their gossipy curiosity and opened their laptops to deal with the remaining issues.

Suddenly, a fat tabby cat appeared out of nowhere, leaped onto the glass table in front of them, and hit the table with a thud.

"Pang Qiu, long time no see!"

Jiang Qi's face lit up and scooped up the fat cat into her arms, rubbing him all over. She cooed in an exaggerated cutesy voice, "Remember me, baby? Good baby, sweet baby, let me pet you, okay?"

Pang Qiu lay in her arms, docilely showing his belly, and let out a sweet, ingratiating meow.

"So cute." The cat's cuteness tactics were too strong. Wen Jia and Da Lin were also captivated, exclaiming in unison.

Song Ji remained unmoved. He glanced at them a couple of times, then looked away.

His gaze wandered lazily around the shop, and finally, as if there was nothing else to see, it drifted back to the busy figure behind the counter.

The young man was bending over, his slender back slightly arched, rummaging through a cabinet behind the coffee machine.

His white uniform gathered fabric at his waist, but the apron strings held it tight, cinching his waistline even narrower.

It seemed he couldn't find what he needed, so he had to bend lower. As he moved, the fabric behind him suddenly tensed, outlining a soft curve.

Song Ji's breath caught, and his heart pounded twice. He hurriedly lowered his eyes, his lashes casting a gray shadow.

His expression carried an indescribable fluster. He picked up the glass of lemon water and took a hurried sip, his Adam's apple bobbing, the tips of his ears turning red.

Fortunately, the other three weren't paying him any attention.

Da Lin pulled out his phone and frantically took photos of the cat. Wen Jia couldn't help reaching out to pet the cat's head, sighing about how soft he was.

Jiang Qi, overwhelmed by the orange cat's affection, felt her heart melt.

She kissed Pang Qiu's round head, pulled out some freeze-dried treats from her bag, and fed the kitten.

While he snacked, she lifted his white paws, pressed them against her lips, and gave them several kisses, positively glowing from all that cat snuggling.

"Oh baby, so cute, I love you baby, hehehe, the paw pads are so soft and great to sniff, hehehe."

After she was done kissing on him, Pang Qiu jumped back onto the glass table and moved to a different spot.

Ahem, he hadn't come all this way just for snacks.

He raised his head and studied the handsome young man next to him, who had his head down.

So this was the human Fei Yu had picked, Song Ji?

Hmm... let him take a closer look.

The cat's gaze was direct and unashamed. Song Ji looked up to meet it, and saw the orange cat's round pupils narrow into thin slits, his expression serious as he stared at him.

Locking eyes with those vertical pupils, Song Ji froze for a moment, then instinctively tensed his back, as if being inspected.

The air grew still for a moment.

Wen Jia and the others, seeing this sudden standoff between the man and the cat, were also baffled.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. Here's your coffee."

Fei Yu came over smiling with a tray. When he saw Senior Pang Qiu perched on the glass table, staring at Song Ji, and the young man under his gaze looking strangely tense, staring back firmly, he quickly explained with an awkward smile, "This is our shop owner's cat, Pang Qiu. He's very gentle—he won't bite."

Pang Qiu looked the young man up and down for a while, then calmly looked away, pretending nothing had happened as he lowered his head to lick his fur.

Yep, Song Ji was definitely gay. The Catfolk's plan was solid now.

Jiang Qi took the opportunity to pull the fat cat into her arms and said dryly, "Yeah, yeah, Pang Qiu is very well-behaved. He's probably just curious about you since it's his first time seeing you, Senior Song, haha."

Pang Qiu pretended nothing had happened, lying belly-up on Jiang Qi's lap with all four paws in the air, meowing ingratiatingly without any shame.

After petting the kitten, the members of the Cat Association continued to focus on the project.

With Song Ji on board, the four of them made quick progress and soon finalized the last program.

Song Ji's gaze was steady, the laptop screen cast a cold white light on his face. 'The last step...'

Bang—

A loud bang interrupted him.

Song Ji's brows drew together, and he looked toward the sound.

Something was going on in the middle of the hall; a few guests jumped up in a panic, glass decorations were shattered all over the floor.

'Sorry, I-I didn't mean to! I'll pay for it.'

The guest's face turned bright red as he kept apologizing to the waiter who came over when he heard the noise.

'It's fine, I'll clean it up.' Fei Yu smiled reassuringly at him and swept the big pieces of glass into the dustpan.

A few leftover shards happened to fall into a crack between the floorboards. Fei Yu tried sweeping them out a few times but couldn't get them.

Worried about hurting other guests, he just crouched down, grabbed the edge of the glass with his fingers, and pulled the whole thing out.

Accidentally, the glass edge grazed his finger, and bright red blood beaded up on his fingertip.

It didn't hurt much. Fei Yu blinked calmly, stuck the injured finger in his mouth, gave it a gentle suck, and the bleeding stopped right away.

'Ah, you're hurt!' the guest said in a worried voice. 'Does anyone have a band-aid?'

A commotion started in the café, and Fei Yu's colleague came over upon hearing it.

Fei Yu was about to wave his hand and say it was nothing when a familiar voice suddenly spoke in his ear.

'Are you okay?'

Fei Yu turned around and saw Song Ji, who had come over without Fei Yu even noticing.

The tall young man crouched beside him, staring at Fei Yu's injured finger, his handsome brows furrowed. 'Let me see it, okay?'

Fei Yu's finger curled back a little; for some reason he felt a bit sheepish. He slowly held out his hand and said softly, 'It's just a little cut.'

Song Ji didn't look any less worried; he carefully looked over Fei Yu's right hand.

A long, thin cut had appeared on the soft white fingertip; the bleeding had stopped, forming a thin dark red line that looked even more jarring against the surrounding fair skin.

Song Ji's heart clenched. He frowned and said, 'You should disinfect that cut, or it might get infected.'

He looked at Fei Yu. 'Do you have a moment now?'

'Ah...?'

Fei Yu's brain short-circuited; he looked a bit dazed.

He looked at his cut finger, then at Song Ji's tense face, and for a second didn't know what to say.

It was just a scratch—this kind of tiny injury would be gone by tomorrow, no need to fuss at all.

Look, Senior Pang Qiu was still sleeping in Jiang Qi's arms, not even opening his eyes.

But the way Song Ji was acting... it was like he'd been seriously hurt.

Were humans really that fragile?

'But I still have work...' Fei Yu licked his lips, had a flash of inspiration, and came up with the perfect excuse to get out of it.

Song Ji didn't speak; his lips were pressed into a thin line.

'It's really fine.' Fei Yu took the band-aid his colleague handed him, quickly tore open the package and applied it.

Then he showed the bandaged finger to Song Ji, smiling nonchalantly.

'See? I don't feel any pain now. I'll disinfect it after my shift.'

The slender, delicate finger wrapped in a heart-patterned band-aid swayed lightly in front of him. Song Ji's brow twitched almost imperceptibly. After a moment, he said softly, 'Okay.'

Time passed quickly. After handling the last issues, the Cat Association members left the café and prepared to get lunch.

As they left, Wen Jia suddenly asked Song Ji, 'Song Ji, do you want to come to the cafeteria with us?'

Song Ji seemed to be thinking about something, his cold brows lowered. He declined, 'No, I have something to do. You go ahead.'

With that, he quickly walked off in the other direction.

The three watched his back disappear around the corner and said in unison, 'He definitely has something going on.'

No kidding—judging from how nervous Song Ji looked when Fei Yu got hurt, the two couldn't possibly just be ordinary friends.

Jiang Qi's eyes sparkled with gossipy excitement.

The aloof campus heartthrob and the cute shop assistant... oh ho, gotta say, it's actually a pretty good ship.

*

After a busy morning, it was finally lunch break.

Fei Yu wrapped the glass shards with several layers of transparent tape, then put them in a used cardboard box, sealed it, and wrote 'Fragile' on it in crooked characters before safely throwing it into the trash.

The seniors from Cat Village had said that strays in the human world sometimes rummage through trash for food.

Sharp trash, if not handled carefully, could hurt them; Fei Yu always kept this in mind.

He washed his hands, hummed an out-of-tune pop song, and prepared to go to the convenience store for lunch.

Just as he reached the arched bridge on the commercial street, a familiar tall figure appeared on the opposite side.

Song Ji, who should have left, had returned and was walking toward him, carrying a bag of something.

Fei Yu was startled, and a glimmer of surprise lit up his eyes. 'Song Ji, why are you back? Did you forget something?'

Song Ji's Adam's apple moved subtly. He heard himself say, 'I brought you some medicine.'

Author's note:

----------------------

Unrestricted paragraph comments are open. Welcome, dear readers, to come and play. If you like it, please add it to your favorites~