WMSR – QT Chapter 18

 

WMSR – QT Chapter 18

By

siofra

Chapter 18

……

Though that trace of inexplicable bizarreness that Song Junchi couldn’t quite put his finger on was faint, it possessed a strange persistence, refusing to fade away with time. Instead, it would weave itself back into his thoughts every now and yet, flaring up to leave Song Junchi’s mind in a state of chaotic turmoil.

Yet Song Junchi never dared to let his imagination wander down certain paths. The ultimate turning point arrived one day when the three of them were walking back to their dorm together, and a male student intercepted them on the path to confess his feelings to Su Yuanhang.

It was an ordinary-looking guy wearing glasses, but he had blocked Su Yuanhang’s path, his face burning bright red as he loudly bared his heart. Under normal circumstances, had Song Junchi witnessed such a scene in the past, he would have inevitably gloated internally, treating Su Yuanhang’s romantic mishap as nothing more than a free show.

Yet on this particular day, that exact scenario struck like a plucked guitar string, suddenly vibrating a hypersensitive nerve deep within Song Junchi’s brain.

Previously, because his blissful world-for-two had been shattered, Song Junchi had frequently witnessed male students cornering Su Yuanhang to confess every few days. But back then, he had always watched with a spectator’s schadenfreude, taking a perverse delight in Su Yuanhang’s recurring bad luck and unwelcome romantic entanglements, never once reading anything deeper into it. If anything, he had secretly looked down on Su Yuanhang for possessing such an unmanly, delicate appearance—which was precisely why he kept drawing the attention of these obsessive geeks.

At this exact moment, however, a long-ignored oversight suddenly clicked into focus in his mind: whenever those male students swarmed forward with their confessions, although Su Yuanhang invariably delivered cold, direct rejections, he had never once displayed any actual anger, annoyance, or genuine shame.

What did that imply?

It implied that Su Yuanhang… did not harbor an aversion to men!

This realization—one that had practically never crossed his mind before—surfaced in Song Junchi’s thoughts for the very first time, sending a jolt of genuine horror straight through him.

Perhaps due to a blind spot born of familiarity—having grown up together, and locked in his memory as a short, slight kid for the longest time—Song Junchi had spent all these years constantly cursing Su Yuanhang as a clingy, troublesome pest without ever entertaining alternative interpretations, let alone viewing him as a genuine rival. In his heart, Su Yuanhang occupied a space closer to a genderless entity.

Yet right at this second, it hit him: Su Yuanhang didn’t reject men, and there was a very high probability that he actually liked men! After all, not every guy could maintain such utter composure when confronted with romantic confessions from members of the same sex.

The moment he arrived at that conclusion within his mind, Song Junchi felt his entire body lock up in frozen disbelief. Almost simultaneously, his memory flashed back to that exact moment he had pushed open their dorm door days ago—that bizarre, deeply unsettling scene that had bothered him ever since.

Su Yuanhang sitting atop Yichen’s bed, clutching Yichen’s blanket to his chest with a smile of absolute, blissful fulfillment.

Song Junchi felt as though he had been nailed to the floorboards, an icy numbness crawling straight down to his fingertips.

If this terrifying hypothesis held true, what on earth had he been doing all these years? How could he have been foolish enough to let someone who didn’t reject men—and likely preferred them—maintain such intimate, uninhibited physical contact with Yichen day in and day out?

The realization struck with the devastating impact of a fatal blow, leaving Song Junchi walking around in a state of total distraction ever since they returned that day, prompting Bai Yichen to repeatedly check in on him out of worry that he had fallen ill.

Su Yuanhang hadn’t paid him nearly as much mind, though watching Song Junchi’s glaringly obvious behavioral anomalies did prompt a brief flash of thoughtful calculation in his dark eyes.

However, Song Junchi was ultimately Song Junchi. After spending two days floating through a mental fog, he pulled himself together. He began pouring massive amounts of covert energy into observing Su Yuanhang—particularly whenever Su Yuanhang interacted with Bai Yichen.

After all, his prior deductions were merely theories; any solid conclusion required hard evidence. Consequently, the atmosphere inside Room 466 gradually morphed into something rather strange. Song Junchi would swear on his life that over the past ten years combined, he hadn’t spent as much time staring directly at Su Yuanhang as he had over these past few days.

Su Yuanhang acted as though entirely oblivious to that intense, predatory gaze, continuing to latch onto Bai Yichen at the slightest opportunity, exactly as he had for the past decade.

Meanwhile, Song Junchi’s expression grew darker day by day under the weight of his ongoing observations, and the frequency with which he couldn’t help snapping at Su Yuanhang multiplied—most commonly erupting whenever Su Yuanhang got a bit too physically clingy with Bai Yichen.

Such abnormalities on Song Junchi’s part couldn’t possibly escape notice—not just by Su Yuanhang, but even Bai Yichen caught on. Factoring in the exact moments Song Junchi chose to launch his sarcastic remarks, Bai Yichen experienced a sudden flash of insight.

Realizing that Song Junchi was starting to burn with jealousy over Little Hang’s physical proximity to him, Bai Yichen found himself caught between a laugh and a sigh. At the same time, he recognized that Little Hang was all grown up now; things were different from when they were kids. It was only natural for Song Junchi to feel a bit possessive. Perhaps… he should carve out more exclusive alone time for the two of them?

Convinced he was playing the ultimate role of a giant human lightbulb, Bai Yichen conjured up an excuse the very next day to slip away. Crafting a pretext to bow out of a pre-arranged three-way outing, he simply sent a text message explaining he had pressing matters to attend to, and retreated to the quiet sanctuary of the library.

The two individuals who had managed to maintain a fragile surface harmony purely because of Bai Yichen’s constant presence fell into a heavy, suffocating silence the moment that text message was read. After glancing over the notification, Song Junchi pocketed his phone, cast a sidelong, sharp look at Su Yuanhang, and stated flatly, “We need to talk.”

Su Yuanhang didn’t look the least bit surprised by Song Junchi’s demand. Giving one last reluctant, lingering look at the message Bai Yichen had sent him, he put away his phone, nodded, and cleanly answered, “Alright.”

Following receipt of Bai Yichen’s text explaining that he couldn’t make it, neither of them bothered bringing up the outing that was supposed to involve them as a trio. Instead, they walked back to their dormitory in a sequential single-file procession.

Stepping inside the room and clicking the door shut immediately forged an airtight, private space. Song Junchi spun around to face Su Yuanhang. Stripping away the civil, polite facade he routinely maintained around Su Yuanhang in front of Bai Yichen, Song Junchi’s physical aura swelled with palpable oppressiveness, his gaze sinking into a dark, piercing stare. Step by step, he closed the distance toward Su Yuanhang. “I think it’s time we cleared the air.”

To Song Junchi’s surprise, the normally introverted and timid-seeming Su Yuanhang displayed zero signs of intimidation or fear in the face of his mounting pressure, merely lifting those striking eyes to give him a cool, detached glance. “What is it that Brother Song wishes to discuss with me?”