When Chen Yue returned to the classroom and made his way to his desk, he was caught off guard seeing Lu Xingci squatting underneath his own table.

Chen Yue, “……” 

Chen Yue looked at the squatting Lu Xingci and Duan Jiayan who was sitting in Lu Xingci’s seat. He hesitated for a second, “Both of you, what is the meaning of this?”

Lu Xingci said calmly, “We’re looking for a thrill.”

Seeing the weird look on Chen Yue’s face, Lu Xingci added, “There’s no special meaning to this, don’t overthink it.”

Chen Yue, “……” 

Duan Jiayan noticed Chen Yue’s expression was getting distorted and glared at Lu Xingci who was still spewing nonsense and said, “You, get up.”

Lu Xingci, “I can get up now?”

Duan Jiayan looked around the room and nodded, “There are enough people here now.”

Lu Xingci stood up slowly. Duan Jiayan realised that he was still sitting in his seat and got up too, returning to his own seat.

After returning to his seat for 10 minutes, Duan Jiayan felt a sharp stinging pain on his body. He looked down and saw the allergy marks on his chest had not completely gone away.

The moment he left Lu Xingci, the red marks got a little more noticeable again.

He thought about it before turning to Chen Yue, “Can we swap places?”

Chen Yue looked at one of them, before looking at the other, the corner of his mouth showing hints of a smile, “Lu-gou and you are already at the stage where you can’t even sit away from one another in class?” 

Duan Jiayan, “……”

Lu Xingci did not say anything, Duan Jiayan looked at Chen Yue’s playful demeanour and explained, “I have a stress disorder. Lu Xingci and I have a really high compatibility so it’ll help my disorder if we sit together.”

Chen Yue gave an ‘ah’, a look of comprehension coming over his face, “The illness that omegas have no way of treating, you’re referring to that stress disorder?”

Duan Jiayan, “It’s exactly that stress disorder.” 

Chen Yue tactfully said, “Actually, if you tell me that you’re looking for him to discuss some questions, I’d believe you too.”

What he meant to say is, “You don’t have to come up with such an elaborate lie to trick me.”

Lu Xingci listened in amusement before cutting in, “There are indeed some questions we need to discuss.”

As he spoke, he lightly kicked Chen Yue’s chair, the meaning behind his actions were very obvious, “You move over there.” 

Chen Yue snickered, “I’ll move over there so that I don’t disturb your discussion.”

Duan Jiayan, “……”

Duan Jiayan coughed and reached up to undo the buttons on his shirt.

Chen Yue saw him unbuttoning the third button on his shirt and asked in bafflement “What on earth are you doing?” 

Duan Jiayan, “You don’t believe that I have a stress disorder right? I’ll let you see where my allergy is acting up.”

Lu Xingci was originally watching both of them talk with interest, feeling that a flustered Duan Jiayan who was struggling to think of what to say was still pretty adorable.

After hearing what Duan Jiayan said though, the emotions in his eyes cooled a little, “Chen Yue.”

Chen Yue was startled by Lu Xingci’s exclamation, “I’m not looking! Don’t let me see! We’ll swap places right now!” 

Duan Jiayan did not bother with him, still fiddling with his shirt as he pulled it down and pointed to his collarbone, “You see this right here? It’s a red rash.”

How did Chen Yue dare to look? He shut his eyes and said, “I saw it, I saw it! Quickly put your shirt back on.”

Duan Jiayan, “What are you doing shutting your eyes? Do your eyeballs grow on your eyelids?”

Chen Yue, “Yes yes yes, my eyeballs grew on my eyelids. Come, let’s swap places.” 

Duan Jiayan saw him standing up and felt that it was useless to harp on his stress disorder any longer. He took a textbook from under his desk and sat beside Lu Xingci.

This was the scene that greeted Song Yi when he came back. For a moment he could not understand where he was supposed to sit.

At this moment, Chen Yue waved at him, “Hi, my new deskmate.”

Vbcu Tl, “…….” 

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Duan Jiayan looked at Lu Xingci who was a metre away from him. He could still feel the stinging pain on his body and was a little disgruntled. 

Chen Yue and Lu Xingci’s tables were not pushed together, the two tables had a distance of approximately 10 centimetres between them. Duan Jiayan just placed his foot on the horizontal bar underneath his table and pushed the two tables together.

Lu Xingci, noticing movement happening beside him, turned to look at Duan Jiayan.

Duan Jiayan thought he had disturbed him and said quietly, “Listen to class, don’t look at me.”

After he said that, Duan Jiayan moved his chair a little closer. It wasn’t till both of their chairs were almost touching did he stop. 

Lu Xingci asked, “Hurts?”

Duan Jiayan nodded.

Lu Xingci, “Then move over a little more.”

Duan Jiayan, “Any more and my arm will be on your desk already.” 

Lu Xingci, “That’s fine, come here.”

Chen Yue who was sitting in front overheard the exchange and could not help shaking his head, “An omega deskmate and an alpha deskmate, why is the difference in treatment so big?”

Song Yi asked curiously, “What’s different?”

Chen Yue gave an ‘ah’ and said, “If I were to put my arm on his table, he might cut it off for me.” 

Song Yi, “……”

Duan Jiayan placed his arm on Lu Xingci’s table.

At such a close distance, he was surrounded by alpha pheromones. Despite that, Duan Jiayan’s reaction previously was too strong and his body still felt uncomfortable.

Duan Jiayan studied Lu Xingci for a while and learned that the boy was not one to take many notes. The few times he did, he’ll use his right hand. His lefthand does not move much. 

Duan Jiayan nudged him a little, “Can we hold hands? It still hurts.”

Due to how close they were, Lu Xingci’s beautiful eyelashes could be seen clearly. His voice when speaking was very soft, and his eyes carried hints of concern.

Lu Xingci looked at him for a while, studying Duan Jiayan’s mannerism before saying softly, “If we get caught by the teacher, that won’t be good.”

“We can secretly hold hands under the table, the teacher won’t be able to see it.” As if afraid that he’ll be rejected, Duan Jiayan tried to get into his good books and added, “It’ll be thrilling.” 

Lu Xingci nodded, “Then let’s hold hands.”

Duan Jiayan saw that he was convinced and was very satisfied.

Lu Xingci saw that the other was thinking of ways to humour him and was also very satisfied.

Lu Xingci reached out his hand and just as Duan Jiayan was about to hold onto it, their chemistry teacher on the podium who had enough of their actions said, “Lu Xingci, Duan Jiayan, what is going on with you two? I’ve watched the both of you monkey around for a whole lesson now!” 

The moment the two masters’ names were called out, the whole class’ gaze turned to look at the last row.

It was not clear who, but someone blurted out what they thought in their heart, “This distance is too amazing.”

Soon after the classroom was filled with quiet chatter.

“Lu-ge finally managed to successfully chase the other?” 

“He’s caught him, he’s caught him. Look at that distance, the two of them might as well be sitting on the same chair.”

“Heck, they dare to play such games during class?”

Zhou Xingchen was originally dozing off when he heard the ringing of various chatter in his ear and could vaguely tell that something big was happening.

He turned back. 

And looked for three seconds.

Zhou Xingchen could not help asking, “The thread on the forum is going to be pushed back up isn’t it?”

Zhou Xingchen’s deskmate fiddled around with his phone and answered, “Yes, I already see it on the homepage— Wow, who is this brave fellow? To be able to sneak a photo in this kind of circumstances.”

Zhou Xingchen, “……” 

After seeing the pair still not moving despite being called out, the chemistry teacher aggressively banged on the blackboard, “Still not separating? The two of you want to be stuck together, is that it?! Even siamese twins aren’t as close to one another as the two of you, you might as well hug each other for the whole lesson!”

Duan Jiayan came to his senses following the laughter from his classmates.

Even though he was not paying attention in class, he typically would not cause trouble during lessons. Instances like this where he’s singled out in class really do not happen often.

He lowered his head somewhat in embarrassment and quietly shifted his seat back. 

As he shifted back, he caught Lu Xingci’s gaze. The latter’s eyes were curved into a smile, his mood seemingly pretty good as if he was not just scolded.

Duan Jiayan could not really understand him.

Before school was over, the literary committee and a few other male students brought their uniforms in and handed them out in order.

Tomorrow will be the day of Yi Zhong’s school festival and their class will be singing on stage. For this performance, they have been practising for the past half a month. Aside from that one time he left to find Jiang Qinian, Duan Jiayan has always stayed behind to practice along with the others. 

Zhao Minjun has even ordered uniforms for them to wear.

The girls will be wearing white shirts and plaid skirts, along with a bow

While the boys will be wearing white shirts and black pants, along with a tie.

Duan Jiayan usually would not wear such formal outfits. After he received his uniform, he proceeded to hang it on the back of his chair. 

As he was turning around, Lu Xingci studied his nape, “The temporary mark on you seems to be incomplete.”

“Huh?”

“Back then, when someone knocked on the door, you started resisting hence my pheromones did not have enough time to penetrate fully,” Lu Xingci said with hooded eyes. “Take care of yourself for the next few days, if anything happens just look for me.”

Chen Yue had already made his way out of the classroom. Realising that Lu Xingci was still not out yet, knocked on the door of the classroom, “Leaving yet?” 

Lu Xingci gave an affirmative reply, reached out to take his bag and left the classroom.

As they were making their way down the stairs, Chen Yue asked casually, “What were you two talking about just now?”

“Nothing.”

“Fine, the secrets between the both of you, I won’t hear it,” Chen Yue could not resist teasing him. “I’ll say, you really care for that guy huh?” 

“I think so too,” Lu Xingci smirked and answered calmly. “I do get concerned for my deskmate.”

Even though Chen Yue had no idea why the conversation turned in that direction, he still retorted, “Bullshit, I spent a whole painful year under your torture—”

“My deskmate.” Realising Chen Yue did not understand him, Lu Xingci added. “You are my former deskmate.”

Chen Yue, “……” 

That night, Duan Jiayan did not have a good night’s sleep.

He initially thought the prolonged contact with Lu Xingci in the day would be enough to tide him over even if they were not together at night. He thought that even if the temporary mark was not complete, that it would be sufficient to alleviate his stress disorder.

But as luck would have it, after the lights in the dorm went out, Duan Jiayan could only feel a stinging pain coming from his skin. Even though it was not anything serious, it was enough to prevent him from falling into a deep sleep.

In the morning, Duan Jiayan was immediately woken up by the pain. 

He took a look at the time, it was only around six o’clock. Duan Jiayan frowned, wanting to go back to sleep. However, after shutting his eyes, the pain on his body only got more obvious.

He never thought that his stress disorder would be able to affect his sleep to such a degree.

This was one of the few rare moments when Duan Jiayan got upset with himself.

Isn’t it just a little bit of pain? 

So what if it hurts?

Can’t you bear with it?

……

When Song Yi woke up, he was given a scare by Duan Jiayan. 

He saw Duan Jiayan curled up on his bed, who knows how long he was in that position.

Song Yi hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong? Not feeling well?”

Duan Jiayan saw that Song Yi was awake and checked the time once again.

It was already past 7. 

Lu Xingci should be awake now.

He told Song Yi that he was fine and motioned for him to go freshen up first.

He hesitated for a moment before taking his phone and making a call.

Lu Xingci had just left his washroom when he heard the sound of his phone ringing. 

Not many people would call him at this hour. He took his phone, saw who it was calling him and answered.

The person on the other side of the phone was very quiet.

He could only occasionally hear the sound of faint breathing. The sound was both light and soft, burying into his ear through the phone.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Xingci took the initiative to ask, after waiting a long while for the other person to talk first. 

After hearing his question, the other person replied, “You’re awake?”

“I’ve been awake for a while now, just finished freshening up.” Lu Xingci went along with his line of conversation. “You’re awake too?”

He heard Duan Jiayan hem and haw, “I did not sleep well last night……”

Lu Xingci could more or less guess what Duan Jiayan was saying, and was just waiting for the other to say it explicitly. 

Duan Jiayan raised his head with much difficulty. He was initially going to mention his stress disorder, but the moment the word was about to leave his mouth, it miraculously changed, “I did not sleep well… I… that… I smelled a lot of alpha scents. Now I know just how many alphas are staying in this dorm. Last night I seemed to have become just like Shen Nong smelling a hundred herbs, I smelled all their various scents.

As he spoke, Duan Jiayan realised that his excuse sounded a little too indirect.

But he really was too embarrassed.

After all, it’s still early in the morning. Such a call is really troubling the other party too much. Especially since even though he just got Lu Xingci to help him with a temporary mark yesterday, he’s once again looking for his help today. 

If it were him, if there was a person looking for his help so often, he just might get annoyed.

Duan Jiayan noticed the other person was not talking. Not understanding what the other was thinking, he could only thicken his skin and continue talking, “Actually there’s a guy with pheromones that smell like a hotpot. I got so hungry in the middle of the night.”

Hearing him say that, Lu Xingci finally gave a soft chuckle, “So the reason you called me is to tell me that you’re hungry?”

Duan Jiayan rubbed the tip of his nose, “No.” 

He can blabber on easily about nonsense but the moment things get serious, he starts hemming and hawing again.

Duan Jiayan seemed to be pretty embarrassed. After realising this, Lu Xingci smiled and patiently asked again, “Then what’s wrong?”

Duan Jiayan took a deep breath, “You previously said that if anything happens, I can look for you.”

He added softly, “It hurts……” 

Even though he knew why the other called him, his heart still felt like it was gently scratched after hearing Duan Jiayan say that he needed him.

Lu Xingci’s grip on his phone unconsciously tightened a little, “Then wait for me in your dorm.”

“……”

“I’ll come over,” He paused before continuing. “And finish up the mark.” 

The author has something to say: You’ve been waiting, ge go right ahead.