At first, Chu Yi didn't have much of a concept of what a "kiss" was. His only memory was pressing his soft lips against Yan Hang's, the gentle sensation, without even imagining beyond that. Just that level of contact was already enough to excite his nerves.

And now, with Yan Hang's wet tongue exploring inside his mouth, it would probably be enough to completely frazzle his nerves. Once the nerves are fried, things can get out of hand. A completely inexperienced person on the verge of a nervous breakdown can easily lose control.

Chu Yi actually had no idea what he should be doing or what he was doing. He was just acting on instinct. When Yan Hang's tongue grazed past, the soft sensation made Chu Yi breath hastily. He chased after it without thinking, blocking its path, demanding payment for passage.

Yan Hang fought back fiercely. Their lips and tongues battled. The side effect of such a battle was that it fanned the flames of passion. Chu Yi felt like the fire had caused his courage to swell by more than double. He grabbed Yan Hang's shirt around his waist and pulled it up, sticking his hand inside.

He had always wanted to feel Yan Hang's sexy waist dimples but never found the chance. Now without thinking he wrapped his hands around Yan Hang from behind, right on those dimples, and rubbed fiercely twice. Then led by his severed nerves, he slid his hands down into Yan Hang's pants.

This was becoming serious. Yan Hang grabbed his hand. Their lip and tongue battle paused as Yan Hang panted into his ear, as if wanting to say something, like "We're in the damn bathroom!" But ultimately Yan Hang said nothing.

He kicked open the door of the next stall over and pushed Chu Yi inside. This was Chu Yi's first time in the bathroom of a high-class KTV, and especially the stall inside. He only felt it was much cleaner and tidier than his home, and it smelled of perfume...and then he had no other observations about the stall.

All of his vision, hearing, taste, touch, everything was focused completely on Yan Hang. As his hands slid over Yan Hang's skin he could feel the firmness and warmth, hear the sound of skin rubbing on skin, hear the heavy breathing by his ear, and the wetness between their lips.

Ever since Yan Hang had caught him feeling himself up on the sofa last time, he hadn't dared try again. Now he realized, as long as the mood was right, experience didn't matter at all. The instincts for naughtiness were embedded in his genes and would guide him forward.

Chu Yi grabbed Yan Hang's shoulders and turned him forcibly halfway around to face the wall, then held him tightly from behind. Yan Hang put out his hands against the wall to brace himself. This was the exact posture, the one Chu Yi really liked but had only seen once and not dared look more.

He nibbled Yan Hang's neck and reached down below with his hand. Yan Hang let out a low moan, unclear if it was from pain of the bite or pleasure of his hand. The nice thing about high class bathroom stalls was the music. It could just barely drown out the sounds of two people conducting their sneaky business inside.

As Yan Hang threw the tissue into the toilet, Chu Yi still felt somewhat dizzy, like his severed nerves hadn't fully reconnected. "Come here," Yan Hang said softly against the wall, grabbing his waistband and tugging.

"No," Chu Yi also said softly.

"No your mom's dog fur!" Yan Hang pulled harder. Chu Yi didn't make a sound, just held firmly onto his own waistband and looked at him stubbornly.

Yan Hang laughed. "What, is that a protest or..." Just then they heard the bathroom door open and Chu Yi instantly snapped out of his daze, breaking out into a cold sweat and standing stiff.

Yan Hang put a finger to his lips. Chu Yi didn't need the reminder. Right now he didn't even dare breathe loudly, let alone make any other sound.

Fortunately the person who came in didn't stay long. He hummed a song, took a quick piss, and left. Chu Yi felt he handled it calmly, even noticing that the guy didn't wash his hands...

"Let's go," Yan Hang said softly, opening the stall door and slipping out. Chu Yi hitched up his pants, hearing the sound of running water as Yan Hang went to wash his hands before following him out.

Although he didn't intend to let Yan Hang get him off, getting scared soft like this was still annoying. He went to stand next to Yan Hang and washed his hands together with him.

"Scared soft huh?" Yan Hang asked.

Chu Yi didn't say anything.

"What's wrong?" Yan Hang tilted his head and flicked some water onto his face, "Are you waiting for me to praise you?"

"Praise for what?" Chu Yi was taken aback.

"You jerked off pretty well," Yan Hang said.

This sentence was spoken in a normal voice, which scared Chu Yi so much that he quickly looked around, only relaxing after confirming that all the stall doors were open: "You're welcome."

Yan Hang laughed for a while, then dried his hands and patted Chu Yi's head: "Silly dog."

"Do I look," Chu Yi turned off the faucet, "nor-normal?"

Yan Hang looked him up and down: "Very normal, can't tell at all that you just..."

"Okay!" Chu Yi interrupted him, "As long as it's normal, it's fine."

"How about me?" Yan Hang asked.

"You're so good at pretending," Chu Yi sighed, "Of course you look normal."

"Let's go, birthday boy," Yan Hang put his arm around his shoulder, "time to sing."

As they walked out of the bathroom and back into the hallway, hearing the singing from various rooms - some like pig slaughter, some quite melodious - Chu Yi gradually calmed down, feeling like he was back in reality.

The scene after his mom's phone call was like a steamy commercial suddenly inserted into a cheesy TV drama.

It made him somewhat reluctant to return to the cheesy drama.

"It's your birthday today," Yan Hang said in his ear, "don't think about anything else."

"Mm." Chu Yi nodded.

"About your dad," Yan Hang said, "Cui Yi will look into it, and if there's anything that needs to be dealt with, he'll handle it. Don't worry."

"Mm." Chu Yi nodded.

"Happy birthday, little baby," Yan Hang said.

"Not little," Chu Yi said.

"Happy birthday, baby," Yan Hang said again, laughing.

The people in the private room were immersed in their own singing, not minding that they had taken much longer than a normal phone call.

"Come on, come on," Li Ziqiang saw them enter and immediately cut off the song Hu Biao was singing, "let's sing a birthday song first."

"Okay." Wu Xu went over and queued up the birthday song.

Then the group sang "Happy Birthday" again at the top of their lungs, as if they hadn't been able to shout freely earlier at the restaurant and hadn't sung to their satisfaction.

Chu Yi didn't know if it was because of what happened in the bathroom or if Yan Hang's comfort had taken effect, but as he watched everyone shouting "Happy Birthday" to him together, the unpleasantness in his heart gradually subsided.

He had never imagined that one day he would celebrate his birthday like this, with classmates, eating, singing, having late-night snacks, just like a normal high school student.

After the birthday song, they continued with their individual performances.

Yan Hang ordered some more snacks and drinks, and the coffee table was full.

Chu Yi took out his phone and took pictures of everyone in the room and the items on the coffee table, then put them in an album along with the photos he had taken earlier at the restaurant.

The album was called "Dog's Birthday."

He wanted to take a photo with Yan Hang, but felt it would be a bit silly to hold up his phone for a selfie right now. If Zhou Chunyang wasn't there, he wouldn't have cared.

Zhou Chunyang could spot any little gesture between him and Yan Hang, which would make him feel embarrassed.

"Should I queue a song for you?" Yan Hang leaned close to his ear and asked, "Counting Ducks."

Chu Yi turned to look at him: "No."

"Why not?" Yan Hang smiled.

"It would be, laugh-laughably funny," Chu Yi said.

"So what if it's funny," Yan Hang clicked his tongue, "What, does a little dog like you have an idol's image to maintain?"

"Not just an or-ordinary dog," Chu Yi said, "At least I'm, a potato."

After saying this, they both burst into laughter, giggling for a while.

His phone buzzed, and Chu Yi looked down to see that Zhou Chunyang had sent him a message. He quickly glanced over at Zhou Chunyang.

Zhou Chunyang was holding a drink, sipping it while waving his phone at him.

Chu Yi opened the message.

Zhou Chunyang had sent a photo, showing him and Yan Hang facing each other, laughing with their eyes crinkled up, completely oblivious to others around them.

"Nice shot," Yan Hang looked at the photo and gave Zhou Chunyang a thumbs up, "Send it to me."

Chu Yi sent the photo to Yan Hang, then stared at his phone for a while.

It really was quite good. Probably to avoid capturing the people and messy surroundings, Zhou Chunyang had only framed them from the chest up. The whole picture just showed the two of them, their faces bathed in the warm, ambiguous light of the KTV.

"Who queued 'Counting Ducks'?" Gao Xiaoyang called out.

"...I did." Chu Yi sighed.