A Midnight Stitch

Xu Yi accepted the friend request, casually remarking with a ‘1’.

[1: Baby, did I do something wrong? Why are you suddenly ignoring me?]

As if fearing Xu Yi would delete him again, the other party immediately sent two transfers of 5200.

Xu Yi stared at the transfers, but in his mind, Lu Xingyan’s indifferent face, as he emerged from the restroom, suddenly appeared.

‘Was he transferring the money expressionlessly, perhaps even with annoyance?’

‘Tsk, how annoying.’

Xu Yi detested this feeling of being led by the nose.

In the past, he would have simply accepted money from such a generous fool.

However, Lu Xingyan had, after all, helped him.

Xu Yi was not so utterly without principles.

After a moment of thought, he decided to reply earnestly.

Xu Yi: I am not the person you imagine, nor am I like the photos. So, let’s not waste each other’s time any further.

[1: I don’t care about appearance. I just find your personality very cute. This is the first time I’ve been so interested in someone.]

Xu Yi: It’s just a fleeting novelty. I’m actually very ugly.

[1: Can we meet? If you still want to part ways then, I won’t say another word.]

Xu Yi felt somewhat bewildered by this person’s persistence.

Moreover, if they met, wouldn’t his deception be exposed?

Xu Yi extinguished his screen, focusing on his meal.

He needed to think of a better reply, ideally one that would resolve this troublesome situation quickly.

Xu Yi finished his meal with Li Yuan as if nothing were amiss, then headed to the campus convenience store to buy a loaf of bread for Lu Xingyan, unsure if he had eaten.

When the two returned to the dorm, Xu Yi noticed Lu Xingyan’s bed shaking slightly.

He went to grab his shower essentials, and as he casually unlocked his phone screen, he saw several more messages from Lu Xingyan.

[1: Baby, please give me another chance, okay? I’ll come find you.]

[1: If you’re uncomfortable, you can bring a friend. I absolutely won’t do anything.]

Xu Yi truly didn’t know how to respond. He carried his plate and headed toward the restroom.

“I brought you some bread. It’s on the table,” Xu Yi reminded him as he passed by.

“Thanks.”

Xu Yi paused.

Lu Xingyan’s voice sounded hoarse and tight—something was amiss.

He instinctively glanced through a gap in the curtains.

Lu Xingyan sat cross-legged on his bed, his somewhat damp eyes fixed intently on his phone screen.

His nose was also red, like a pitiful, large wolfdog.

‘Crying… he cried??’

Xu Yi couldn’t recall how he had even entered the restroom.

His mind was in a turmoil.

‘So Lu Xingyan wasn’t indifferent after all; he had bottled it up and come back to cry.’

‘Crying while adding him as a friend and sending transfers.’

‘A headache.’

Leaving aside Lu Xingyan’s sexual orientation, Xu Yi was somewhat fond of this type.

He actually found him a little cute.

This made him feel even more like a heartless cad.

‘Perhaps I should just meet him.’

‘Maybe then he’ll give up.’

Xu Yi quickly showered, and while still in the bathroom, he unblocked Lu Xingyan.

Xu Yi: Alright, let’s meet. Saturday night, Yulin Bar.

He chose a bar in the city center, a bit further from the school.

This would prevent their shared school from being exposed.

Moreover, the bar’s ambiance was quite dim, ensuring the other party wouldn’t get a clear look at his face.

Starfall: Okay.

Lu Xingyan’s messages were clearly no longer as coquettish or playful as before.

Perhaps the sudden cold shoulder had given him a complex, making him fear Xu Yi’s disapproval.

‘Quite pitiful, actually.’

Xu Yi sighed. This weekend, it would all be over.

Lu Xingyan and Li Yuan were both excellent roommates.

This was a type of roommate relationship Xu Yi had never experienced before.

He saw no need to jeopardize this valuable connection for the sake of cheap online sentiment that could be found anywhere.

During his lunch break, Xu Yi specifically searched for ‘straight men’s least favorite female outfits’.

His existing collection of women’s clothing leaned towards the sexy and sweet, precisely for ‘fishing’.

Among the results, exaggerated dark-themed clothing received the most votes, with many straight male netizens stating they absolutely couldn’t accept a girlfriend with smoky eyeshadow and a black leather skirt.

‘This is it.’

It was also a stark contrast to his online persona.

Xu Yi had a natural talent for makeup. He found a few smoky eye tutorials and quickly learned, then preemptively bought the corresponding eyeshadow palette, a black leather skirt, fishnet stockings, an off-the-shoulder loose top, and a pair of small leather boots.

These items were all shipped to his home. After military training on Friday, he would go home.

When the afternoon wake-up bell rang, Li Yuan, who had been sleeping like a log from the exhaustion of military training, woke up refreshed.

Seeing Lu Xingyan and Xu Yi both looking fatigued, he asked curiously, “What were you two up to behind my back?”

Xu Yi instinctively glanced at Lu Xingyan’s face; his eyes still had some bloodshot veins, suggesting he really had shed tears.

Lu Xingyan had also been looking at him, then quickly averted his gaze, seemingly embarrassed.

Xu Yi pursed his lips, then couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle, his shoulders trembling slightly.

“What are you laughing at?” Lu Xingyan glared fiercely at Xu Yi, but his gaze froze the moment it met the other’s crescent-shaped dark eyes.

‘He looks quite handsome when he smiles.’

‘Just like Xu Yi in my dream… no, that was Xiao Yi.’

Lu Xingyan felt like he was utterly lovesick, unable to think rationally anymore.

Xu Yi quickly composed himself, let out a ‘hmph,’ and turned his face away, looking as if he couldn’t be bothered to argue.

‘He looks good even like that.’

Lu Xingyan thought, ‘That face really looks good with any expression.’

“Let’s go, bro! If we’re late, we’ll have to do push-ups. Yan-ge can get off easy, but we can’t!”

Li Yuan urged them while putting on his shoes, his anxious voice finally bringing Lu Xingyan back to his senses.

He felt utterly insane about the strange thoughts that had just popped into his head.

‘How can I still be thinking about this now?’

‘Xiao Yi doesn’t want me anymore.’

To claim deep love after only a few days of acquaintance would indeed be strange.

However, Lu Xingyan simply disliked having a relationship end so ambiguously.

He believed he cared deeply about the other person and didn’t want to become strangers just like that.

‘Xiao Yi is a very cute and interesting girl.’

If they met and she still insisted on cutting ties, he would let go.

After all, clinging would only make him annoying.

‘Xiao Yi clearly liked money, yet she didn’t accept his later transfers.’

‘Her nature must not be bad.’

‘But why did she suddenly become unwilling to maintain this relationship with him?’

The afternoon military training passed rather quickly.

Because the sun was intense, they had more rest periods.

There were also gathering and resting performances in between.

Around four or five o’clock, the military training uniforms arrived.

They queued to collect their clothes before going to eat.

Everyone was exhausted during military training, so after dinner, almost no one wanted to go out. They all retreated to their dorm rooms to relax.

In the evening, Li Yuan shook his phone. “The counselor wants everyone to try them on. If the size is wrong before washing, we can still exchange them.”

Lu Xingyan had just finished showering and saw Xu Yi changing clothes at his seat.

His gaze unexpectedly caught a glimpse of that slender, fair waist.

Lu Xingyan absently thought that the military green clothes surprisingly made his skin look very fair, or perhaps Xu Yi was simply so pale that anything he wore made him look dazzlingly white.

The clothes were already a loose fit, and when Xu Yi stood up, they hung somewhat emptily on him.

Unaware, he walked to the mirror next to the restroom to check if the clothes fit.

Lu Xingyan stood by the balcony door, and only by shifting slightly to the side could Xu Yi squeeze past him.

His shoulder brushed against Lu Xingyan’s chest.

“Watch where you’re going,” Lu Xingyan said, his tone not particularly pleasant.

He had seen that small black mole below the other’s collarbone again.

The collar was very wide, and Lu Xingyan couldn’t help but frown. ‘How could someone wear anything so provocative?’

Xu Yi inexplicably glanced at him, as if unable to comprehend why he was suddenly acting so strangely.

After confirming the clothes fit, Xu Yi changed out of them and went to shower.

Lu Xingyan looked at the messages in the group chat and couldn’t resist asking, “Aren’t you going to exchange the size? The clothes are clearly too big.”

“No, they’re not,” Xu Yi replied, looking back at him, seemingly unconcerned about the matter.

Lu Xingyan said nothing more. When he returned to his bed, he saw Li Yuan sewing his pant legs.

Military training pants were very baggy, and too loose, they tended to drag on the ground.

After Li Yuan finished sewing, he even asked Lu Xingyan if he needed him to do his.

Lu Xingyan suddenly remembered Xu Yi’s loose collar.

‘That collar really should be sewn.’

“Okay,” Lu Xingyan accepted the offer, but then suddenly realized his own clothes fit quite well.

“I’ll sew them later.”

Lu Xingyan went to the balcony, washed and hung his clothes, then returned to his bed.

****

In the early hours of the morning.

Lu Xingyan woke up to use the restroom and suddenly spotted his sewing kit on his desk.

He inexplicably picked it up and walked out to the balcony.

Since their dorm room was generally tidy, everyone’s clothes were usually hung together.

Lu Xingyan easily found Xu Yi’s top.

He closed the balcony door, took it down, and brought it into the restroom. Under the dim yellow light, he folded the back of the collar by about a finger’s width.

As the first stitch went in, Lu Xingyan suddenly sobered.

‘What was he doing?’

‘Secretly sewing someone else’s clothes in the middle of the night.’

Despite his shock, Lu Xingyan’s hands didn’t stop moving for a moment.

Though he had no experience sewing, by imitating Li Yuan’s method of repeatedly threading through the folded part, he actually succeeded.

He pricked his finger a few times midway, but the force wasn’t strong, only drawing a tiny bead of blood.

After finishing, Lu Xingyan stood on the balcony, holding his roommate’s clothes, his gaze blank.

A few seconds later, as if deceiving himself, he hung the clothes back in their original spot.

****

The next morning.

Lu Xingyan was roused by the harsh wake-up bell.

Military training required them to be up at seven, and his abdomen, sore from the previous day’s push-up punishments, felt especially weak.

As he washed up, he recalled having a rather absurd dream.

He had actually sewn Xu Yi’s collar in his dream; it was truly a bit crazy.

Lu Xingyan wiped his face and, turning, saw Xu Yi in his military uniform brushing his teeth beside him.

Xu Yi leaned forward, allowing Lu Xingyan to clearly see the back of his neck.

A patch mark, like a crease.

Exactly like in his dream.

Lu Xingyan’s movements froze.

It wasn’t until Xu Yi finished and left that he splashed water on his face again.

‘Indeed, consecutive nights of dreaming lead to poor sleep; my eyes must be playing tricks on me.’

“Yan-ge, let’s go,” Li Yuan called out.

Lu Xingyan, still somewhat dazed, followed.

It wasn’t until they were queuing for food in the cafeteria, with Lu Xingyan standing behind Xu Yi, that he fully and clearly realized what he had done last night.

The stitches were not close together; they could be cut off with scissors.

‘Tonight, after Xu Yi falls asleep, I’ll sneak back and cut them off.’

Because of this incident, Lu Xingyan was distracted all day, his gaze involuntarily lingering on Xu Yi.

Li Yuan even asked him curiously why he kept looking at Xu Yi.

Finally, evening arrived, and after a day of exhaustion, Lu Xingyan dared not sleep.

He stubbornly stayed awake until midnight, and only when he estimated everyone was tired and asleep did he get up.

When Xu Yi got up to use the restroom, he saw a figure on the balcony.

‘Who was out there in the middle of the night?’

Xu Yi instinctively lightened his footsteps and soon saw clearly.

Lu Xingyan was holding a military training uniform.

Xu Yi glanced at the drying rack; a gap had opened in the spot where his clothes had been.

‘Lu Xingyan, what was he secretly doing with his clothes in the middle of the night?’

Still wondering, he saw Lu Xingyan lift the clothes to his face… as if, he was sniffing them?