Early the next morning.

Xu Xing opened his eyes. The corners were tinged with red, a sign of a restless night.

He turned his head and saw Lu Che lying on his side facing him, sleeping peacefully. His handsome face slightly sunk into the pillow, messy strands of hair adding a lazy charm. His breathing was long and steady, as warm and serene as a slow-motion close-up of a movie’s male lead waking up in the morning.

Xu Xing stared at Lu Che’s face. His deep, well-defined features were perfect, but Xu Xing’s gaze, as if beyond his control, drifted to those thin lips.

For some reason, a line from a book he had read popped into Xu Xing’s mind: “Those lips were beautiful, as if made for a kiss”—

Now, whenever Xu Xing looked at his lips, he thought of his kiss.

“…”

Suddenly, a surge of irritation swept over Xu Xing.

He kicked out at Lu Che, hoping to provoke his notorious morning grumpiness, so that Xu Xing could have a justified reason to start a fight.

Lu Che, kicked without warning, furrowed his brow slightly and heard Xu Xing snapping at him, “What are you still sleeping for? It’s time to get up!”

Lu Che opened his sleepy eyes, squinting a bit, and blinked at Xu Xing, whose face lay on the pillow just inches away.

Their eyes met, and they were no more than half an arm’s length apart.

Xu Xing waited for Lu Che to lose his temper, but instead, after Lu Che opened his eyes, his brow relaxed, a faint smile tugged at his lips as he said, “Good morning, my dear class president~”

Lu Che’s voice was low and slightly hoarse, dragging lazily, incredibly sexy.

Xu Xing: “…”

Where the hell was that grumpiness he was counting on?

The two lay there facing each other, silent.

Xu Xing was momentarily speechless, while Lu Che gazed at him affectionately.

Feeling self-conscious, Xu Xing averted his eyes, sat up, and irritably scratched the back of his head before getting out of bed.

On Sunday morning, Xu Xing buried himself in a sea of homework, barely speaking to Lu Che.

Around nine o’clock, Xu Xing finished a physics test paper. Just as he put down his pen and stretched, he heard Lu Che call him from behind.

“Class president.”

Xu Xing turned around, annoyed, “What?”

Lu Che was packing last night’s dirty clothes into a bag, stuffing it into his backpack. He looked up at Xu Xing and said, “I’m heading back to school now.”

Xu Xing, with his left arm hanging over the back of his chair, turned to look at Lu Che. He didn’t know what to say, so he just muttered, “Oh.”

Lu Che picked up his light backpack, his handsome face carrying a slight smile. He walked over to Xu Xing, leaned down, and hugged him. Whispering near Xu Xing’s ear, he said, “Something important is leaving. Do you want to stop it?”

Xu Xing glared at him, “Get lost.”

Lu Che chuckled softly, gave Xu Xing a light hug, and quickly let go.

Xu Xing followed him out to the living room. When Xu Xing’s parents saw that Lu Che was leaving, they repeatedly insisted he stay for lunch, offering to drive them both back to school later. Lu Che politely declined, saying a classmate had an urgent matter.

Xu Xing, however, frowned slightly, sliding his feet into his slippers as he walked Lu Che to the elevator. Hands in his pockets, he stared at the elevator display and said sullenly, “You’re not going off to fight again, are you? You’re too old for that.”

Lu Che turned to look at Xu Xing, smiling as he promised, “No fighting. I just didn’t want to impose on your family by eating so many meals. You know, being thrifty means making things last.”

“…”

Xu Xing wanted to say there was no need for that, but he didn’t want to appear as if he were asking Lu Che to stay, so he kept quiet.

After seeing Lu Che off, Xu Xing returned to his room to continue his homework.

When he came across a problem about finding the cosine between two vectors, Xu Xing instinctively set the vectors as l and c. The moment he put pen to paper, his brows furrowed tightly. Annoyed, he crossed out the letters and replaced them with n and m.

By evening.

After dinner and a shower, Xu Xing was driven back to school by his father for the evening study session.

When Xu Xing walked into Class 7’s classroom, his instinct was to avoid looking at Lu Che. But as soon as he entered, his attention was caught by something new—a red string appeared between Fu Dai and Xiong Huan, symbolizing their connection.

Xu Xing was surprised and puzzled. Judging by previous appearances of the red string, this likely meant there would be some emotional development between them. Was Xiong Huan finally going to accept Fu Dai?

Xu Xing returned to his seat and put down his bag. From behind him, someone stretched out a hand to hook his pinky.

Seeing the bandage on Lu Che’s left hand, Xu Xing held back the urge to shake him off, frowning as he turned and asked, “What do you want?”

Lu Che tugged on Xu Xing’s pinky, smiling, “Class president, I have something to confess, but promise you won’t get mad.”

“…”

Xu Xing’s first thought was about the kiss from last night, followed by the suspicion that Lu Che had gone off to fight again that afternoon. He felt a bit anxious but forced himself to act impatient. “Just say it already.”

Lu Che blinked and asked, “Don’t you feel like something’s missing?”

Xu Xing frowned, “Missing what?”

Lu Che pulled something out from under the desk, holding it in front of Xu Xing with a mischievous grin. “Looks like this little notebook wasn’t that important after all. I took it with me, and you didn’t even notice, class president~”

“…”

Xu Xing snatched the biology notebook from Lu Che’s hand, angrily shouting, “Get lost!”

Lu Che laughed like a child, not letting go of Xu Xing’s hand, and said innocently, “I told you this morning, ‘Something important is leaving.’ I even asked if you wanted to stop it. Don’t tell me you thought I was talking about myself?”

“…”

Xu Xing, no longer concerned about Lu Che’s injured hand, shook him off hard, irritated, “Don’t touch me!”

He turned around and sat back at his desk, his mood growing worse—his ears burned, and all he could think about was the smug smile on Lu Che’s lips.

This week, on Thursday and Friday, there would be the monthly exams. The pre-exam tension had settled in, and even Wang Zicong was cramming furiously. Xu Xing ignored Lu Che for the rest of the evening study session, and he didn’t have any free time to focus on the red string between Fu Dai and Xiong Huan.

The next day.

Monday morning, the class gathered at the field for the flag-raising ceremony. Many of the girls held sheets of paper with key points for memorizing classical Chinese poetry, trying to recite as much as they could in the last few moments.

Xu Xing stood at the back of the line, listening to the class advisor’s instructions. As soon as the advisor left, Lu Che’s voice came from behind him, “Class president, you’re still interested in girls, huh?”

Lu Che’s tone was suddenly sarcastic and teasing. Xu Xing frowned and turned around, only to see Lu Che looking at him with a pitiful expression.

“…”

Xu Xing was confused. He hadn’t spoken to Lu Che in just one evening, and already Lu Che had come up with a new trick to catch his attention?

Xu Xing snapped, “What’s with you this early in the morning?”

Lu Che responded, “I’ve met Ke Di’s friend. Want her WeChat ID?”

Xu Xing furrowed his brow. “What the heck?”

He glanced at Lu Che’s phone screen and saw something unexpected—Lu Che had liked a post from Ke Di’s Weibo account: “Don’t miss out, everyone! Join in the matchmaking game—like if you’re interested in this stunning beauty! She says she wants to be in a relationship! [laughing emojis]”

Xu Xing: “…”

Lu Che: “This is your Weibo, right? I mean, it’s one thing for us not to follow each other, but to join a matchmaking post? That’s really hurtful. I’m upset, and now I’m gonna throw a tantrum.”

Lu Che spoke in such a pitiful tone that he practically oozed with grievance.

Xu Xing recalled that Saturday afternoon, when he had been waiting for his dad at the school gate and happened to scroll past that post by Ke Di. It was also around the same time he overheard people talking about Lu Che getting injured. That must’ve been when he accidentally liked the post.

Feeling completely exasperated, Xu Xing explained, “I didn’t mean to! It was an accident—I didn’t even open the picture!”

But Lu Che wasn’t about to let it go. “I checked Ke Di’s phone last night—he posted that picture Thursday night, and you still saw it Saturday afternoon? And what were you thinking about when you ‘accidentally’ liked it?”

Xu Xing: “I was…”

Thinking about this idiot in front of me.

Worrying if he was seriously hurt.

Xu Xing clammed up, his thoughts replaying the simple truth of the moment: after hearing people mention Lu Che, his mind naturally went to him; and when he heard that Lu Che and the others were injured, he naturally wondered how bad it was. But saying all that out loud felt… awkward.

He gave up trying to explain. “Ugh, whatever. I don’t like her. Believe it or not.”

Lu Che leaned in and teased, “Fine, if you don’t like her, then who do you like?”

Resting his chin on Xu Xing’s shoulder, Lu Che whispered, “Come on, just tell me quietly—I swear I won’t tell anyone.”

In an instant, Lu Che’s attitude shifted from inquisitive to his usual teasingly sweet demeanor.

Xu Xing: “Get lost.”

Lu Che chuckled. “Oh, how can you give me a nickname like that so casually?”

Xu Xing: “…”

Lu Che: “Alright, as long as you’re happy, you can call me whatever you want.”

Xu Xing, completely helpless against Lu Che’s shamelessness, shrugged him off and warned, “It’s exam week. Don’t bother me. I get test anxiety and feel like punching someone when I’m annoyed.”

Lu Che responded playfully, “Okay, okay. I’ll leave you alone. But can I just give you a little hug? No bothering, I promise.”

Xu Xing rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything or try to shake him off.

For the next two days, Lu Che kept his word and didn’t disturb Xu Xing.

Sometimes, when Xu Xing walked to the front of the classroom to get water or went to the restroom, he’d catch sight of Lu Che quietly studying. The test-prep days flew by, and soon enough, it was time for the end-of-week exams.

The whole school took the exams simultaneously, with some students scratching their heads in frustration, some daydreaming, and others sleeping on their desks. Of course, a few were brimming with confidence.

After two hectic days of testing, Saturday arrived. The freshmen and sophomores accompanied the senior students for additional classes, and after today, the whole school would welcome a long holiday for the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day.

On Saturday morning, during physics class, the homeroom teacher walked in with a stack of papers. A boy in the front row joked, “Teacher, when will the test rankings be out? I’m hoping to have Lu Che’s profile pic as my reward for my epic online dating debut this holiday!”

His brazen comment sparked a round of boos and laughter from the class.

Ke Di mocked the boy mercilessly, “Haha, you’re so naive!”

“Switch to Lu Che’s profile pic, and your current girlfriend might be looking for a new boyfriend already. :)”

The teacher chuckled and interrupted them. “The test papers aren’t fully graded yet, but I can share some good news—our class physics rep got a perfect score!”