The Accidental Poke and the Quiet Connection

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival today. Waking early, An Ran found his WeChat flooded with group-sent holiday greetings from several friends.

‘Sending H a holiday greeting wouldn’t seem too sudden, would it?’

An Ran hesitated for a long moment, gazing at H’s plain white profile picture, intending to tap it and browse their Moments.

However, a slight mis-tap led him to accidentally ‘poke’ them instead.

!!!

An Ran, startled, immediately retracted the message.

In that fleeting moment, he was profoundly grateful for WeChat’s updated recall function.

Yet, before he could even revel in his relief for two seconds, a message from H arrived.

[H: ?]

Since a ‘poke’ retraction left no trace, An Ran feigned ignorance, mirroring H’s single question mark.

[H: Poke?]

An Ran choked.

‘If I claim it was a slip of the hand, would H believe me?’

‘But the ‘poke’ function required opening the chat window.’

‘Why would I open their conversation for no reason?’

‘How could I possibly explain that?’

‘That would only make it sound stranger.’

An Ran took a deep breath, his face a mask of conflicted emotions, and sent a message:

–Happy Mid-Autumn Festival.

‘That seemed a bit stiff,’ he thought.

An Ran then rummaged through his favorites and sent a cute emoji.

[H: You too.]

An Ran gazed at the two terse words, his lips pressing together slightly before a smile spread across his face.

From H arranging automatic feeders for the school’s stray cats to leaving him a message just now solving a math problem, An Ran had always felt that H was a person with a cold exterior but a warm heart, perhaps simply unaccustomed to expressing it.

‘In reality, they must be easy to get along with and possess a kind nature.’

An Ran tentatively sent a message:

–Did you eat mooncakes today? What flavor?

****

Upon receiving this message, Gong He stared at his phone keyboard, hesitating for a long time, unsure how to reply.

Ever since that night An Ran got drunk and he brought him back to the dorm, An Ran seemed to be avoiding him even more intensely.

No matter when he was in the dorm, he never caught sight of An Ran, seeing only that tightly closed door.

However, he hadn’t truly taken such a trivial matter to heart.

After all, a roommate who loved cleanliness, kept the dorm spotless, wasn’t nosy, and kept to himself was practically the ideal perfect roommate.

The other party’s timid and introverted nature was etched in his mind.

Yet, by a stroke of serendipity, he had added the other party on WeChat, and the impression he got from them didn’t seem to align with that image.

‘They seemed a bit *too* lively?’

****

An Ran watched the status bar above H’s name continuously display ‘Typing…’, growing curious.

‘Was his question too difficult to answer, or had it caused H some trouble?’

‘He considered retracting it, but the time limit for retraction had already passed.’

Much later, H finally replied to his message.

[H: I’ve had them, red bean paste flavor.]

Now it was An Ran’s turn to be stumped.

‘Should he reply, or not?’

‘It would be too impolite not to reply, wouldn’t it?’

‘But if he did reply, would H find him annoying?’

An Ran’s brows furrowed into a ‘川’ shape (TL Note: A Chinese character resembling three parallel vertical lines, often used to describe a worried or puzzled expression).

After careful deliberation, he sent H an adorable ‘begging for attention’ emoji.

This effectively ended the conversation.

An Ran felt quite satisfied.

He had assumed their chat would once again fall dormant, yet to his surprise, his cousin arrived the next day with a stack of math worksheets.

An Ran dared not open his eyes, hoping it was merely a hallucination.

‘His math really was terrible!!!’

‘Was he really going to have to take the problems to H?!’

An Ran attempted to solve the problems himself.

A while later.

‘Well, perhaps it wasn’t entirely out of the question.’

He opened H’s chat window and sent them photos of the problems.

[AR: You there?]

[AR: Help.]

[AR: Pretty please QAQ]

Ten minutes later, H sent the answers once more.

[AR: You’re such a good person!!!]

[AR: Let me say thank you, because you’ve warmed all four seasons.jpg]

[AR: Puppy with a rose.jpg]

[H: .]

And so, they spent the entire holiday in this pattern of questions and answers.

On the day the holiday ended and he was about to leave his uncle’s house, An Ran habitually opened H’s chat window.

He then suddenly remembered that his cousin had returned to school that morning, meaning no one would be bringing him worksheets to ask math questions today, and thus, he had no reason to chat with H.

An Ran felt a pang of sadness, his heart feeling as though a small piece had been chipped away.

Perhaps it was because he didn’t have many friends; in his WeChat chat history, apart from H and Fu Zao, the remaining messages were all from uninteresting official accounts.

‘It turned out, he yearned for friends.’

An Ran put on his Bluetooth headphones, turned off his phone screen, and quietly watched the scenery outside the window.

‘H goes to the same university as him, how nice.’

No new messages arrived on WeChat even after An Ran got off the car, and this melancholic (TL Note: ’emo’ is a common slang term, particularly among younger generations, referring to a state of emotional sensitivity or melancholy) mood persisted until evening.

Fu Zao:

–Why the unhappy face?

An Ran pursed his lips slightly.

‘Is it that obvious?’

Fu Zao chuckled.

–You look like a forlorn puppy right now.

–What, heartbroken?

An Ran gravely corrected him.

–Not a boyfriend, but a new friend I’ve met.

Fu Zao:

–What?! You’ve got another dog behind my back?

–No, An Ran said, flushing with embarrassment.

–The new friend is the owner of the automatic feeder in our school garden, remember? I added them on WeChat.

Fu Zao paused, surprised.

–You managed to chat your way into a relationship?

–Not really, An Ran replied, the gloom in his heart spreading as he explained morosely.

–It’s just that I posted on Moments that day about a math problem I couldn’t solve, and they sent the answer in my comments section.

–Later, when my cousin brought me worksheets, I simply asked them to help me check the problems, and little by little, we became familiar with each other.

Fu Zao blinked, then teased.

–Aren’t they from our school? If you want to get to know them, you could always ask them out.

An Ran quickly shook his head.

–No.

Fu Zao:

–Why not?

An Ran hesitated for a moment, then quickly relaxed, offering a faint smile.

–I never considered developing any other kind of relationship with them.

–There’s nothing wrong with being purely online friends.

‘He wouldn’t possibly develop feelings for an online acquaintance he’d never met in person and had only chatted with for a few days, not in such a short time.’

“It was simply that during his stay at his uncle’s house, whenever his cousin asked for help with worksheets, he would habitually turn to H for assistance with difficult problems, leading to a quick dependence on H.

Of course, this wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Yet, his feelings for H were merely simple admiration.

‘There were no other implications.’

‘Perhaps there was some fondness, but it wasn’t enough to be called love.’

Moreover, for An Ran, he had never even considered knowing H’s true identity; he hadn’t been curious about who H was from the very beginning.

‘To him, H’s identity didn’t matter.’

‘He simply regarded them as an online friend.’

H was incredibly patient with him, even explaining how to solve problems via voice messages when they were busy.

‘They must be a very good and kind person.’

‘Though their personality seemed a bit cold and difficult to approach, H had, in fact, diligently answered every one of his questions.’

‘He had even thought that after these days of interaction, he and H had at least progressed from strangers to casual online friends.’

‘He hadn’t expected that after the holiday ended, they would revert to square one.’

Fu Zao:

–Why does the personality of this person you’re describing sound so familiar?

An Ran’s expression shifted slightly.

–Hm?

Fu Zao:

–Gong He?

An Ran’s face changed instantly, and he jumped in alarm.

–Impossible.

A flicker of surprise crossed Fu Zao’s eyes, and he smiled meaningfully.

–I just mentioned it, why such a strong reaction?

An Ran’s mouth hung open, speechless for a long moment.

‘He had instinctively denied the possibility of H being Gong He, immediately categorizing it as an impossible option.’

‘Gong He frowned every time he saw him, his expression of disdain utterly obvious, and he was always so fierce and difficult to get along with.’

‘How could such a person possibly be the patient H?’

Fu Zao let out a wry chuckle.

–Is that so? I actually think Gong He treats you quite well.

[An Ran: ???]

Fu Zao began to analyze seriously for him.

–Think about it: when you had a fever, it was Gong He who carried you to the infirmary.

–He didn’t even care about other people’s stares or the nasty things they might say behind his back to slander him.

–And last time, when you were drunk, Gong He also carried you back to the dorm; he didn’t refuse then either.

An Ran swallowed with difficulty, then said with a hopeful look in his eyes.

–Because we’re roommates.

–If something like that happened to Gong He, I would do the same.

Fu Zao:

–But if it weren’t you, if it were someone else, I don’t think Gong He would necessarily step in to help.

An Ran’s face stiffened.

–Why?

–Hmm, Fu Zao mused, finding it hard to explain.

After a moment of hesitation, he said,