Do I Look Green to You? Part 2

He opened it to read. There were only five lines of words. After reading, he was a bit stunned. "That's it?"

Zhuang Fanxin said, "That's it."

"You..." Gu Zhuoyan stuffed the card back. "This counts as a love letter? Can you stop exaggerating?"

Zhuang Fanxin craned his neck. "Why doesn't it count? Isn't this what a love letter is like?"

Gu Zhuoyan took out his workbook, blushing and embarrassed. He thought it would be so romantic, like he was about to watch "The Bridges of Madison County," but it turned out to be the textbook lesson "The Zhaozhou Bridge."

Zhuang Fanxin lost a lot of face. "Read it again."

"What's there to read?" Gu Zhuoyan said casually as he wrote down an equation. "I thought it would be the kind Yu Yao writes."

The tip of his pen poked the paper. Realizing he'd said the wrong thing, Gu Zhuoyan turned to look at Zhuang Fanxin, only to see him staring blankly, like the calm before a storm.

"What did he write?"

"I never even read them."

"Bullshit." Zhuang Fanxin said the curse word with immense grievance.

Gu Zhuoyan said, "I really didn't read them. It was only after it was exposed and spread around that I learned a line or two." It was the two lines that had spread the most wildly. "Want... want to caress every inch of my body... Fuck, I can't say it."

Zhuang Fanxin's vision went black, and his blood pressure shot up. What guy could stand his partner being the subject of such explicit rumors with someone else! No wonder Gu Shibo and Xue Manzi sent Gu Zhuoyan away. If he were Gu Zhuoyan's dad, he'd want to launch Gu Zhuoyan directly to the moon!

Back in the third row, Zhuang Fanxin touched the top of his head and asked Qi Nan, "Do I look green to you?"

Qi Nan said, "I don't know if you're green, but I'll be pink in three days."

During the New Year's Day holiday, there was an anime convention in Rong City. Qi Nan was going to cosplay as the main character from The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. to attend. "Are you going? There will be a lot of girls. Maybe you can get out of being single."

Zhuang Fanxin said resentfully, "I'm going!"

Over the mention of Yu Yao's love letters, Zhuang Fanxin belatedly started a fight, initiating the cold war he was rather good at. But he was very unhappy. He sensed that he had become petty and his possessiveness had swelled immensely, yet he couldn't control it.

He didn't want to do anything drastic. He had probably been spoiled by Gu Zhuoyan, wanting to hear sweet words, wanting a vulgar confirmation of his status. But Gu Zhuoyan neither clung to him nor coaxed him. Before the holiday, he didn't even ask if he wanted to go on a date. On New Year's Eve, he clutched his phone until past one in the morning, only to wake up to nothing.

Qi Nan, with a head of pink hair, waited at the entrance to the convention. He wore green sunglasses and a matching top and bottom, with a pair of antennae on his head. He took two selfies and posted them to his social media feed.

His phone rang. Qi Nan answered, "You're fifteen minutes late!"

"Sorry, sorry," Zhuang Fanxin said, out of breath. "I'm almost there. Which entrance are you at?"

"Entrance B. Look for Saiki K."

Qi Nan froze, phone in hand. He took off his sunglasses and looked across the street. "Holy shit, I see someone in a fencing suit crossing the street, wearing a helmet and carrying a foil! And he's fucking talking on the phone!"

Zhuang Fanxin said, "I see you."

"Damn, he's waving at me!" Qi Nan got excited.

Zhuang Fanxin ran across the street to Entrance B and took off his mask, leaving "Saiki K." dumbfounded. He didn't have a special costume, but after leaving the house, he remembered his fencing suit and went back home to change.

The convention was incredibly lively. Zhuang Fanxin's all-white outfit was very cool, and people kept asking to take photos with him. Since he was wearing a helmet and his face wasn't showing anyway, he got into it and even performed some freestyle foil moves.

The two deskmates, tired from walking around, were eating ice cream when Qi Nan exclaimed, "It's Death Dream God!"

It was a character from a game they played. Zhuang Fanxin said, "It's a new year, control your little hands from spending money on the game."

Qi Nan wasn't listening. "Gu Zhuoyan chose Death Dream God, right? Did he quit? I haven't seen him online in a long time."

Zhuang Fanxin licked his ice cream in a daze, wondering what Gu Zhuoyan was doing. He reflected on himself, had he been too unreasonable?

Probably. What was the point of clinging to something that had already been laid bare and clarified?

A basketball team passed by, cosplaying characters from Kuroko's Basketball. Qi Nan ran off to take a picture with Aomine Daiki. Zhuang Fanxin saw a booth selling figurines and figured Gu Zhuoyan would like them. Should he buy one to make up with Gu Zhuoyan?

He walked up to the booth and was in the middle of choosing when someone tapped him.

Zhuang Fanxin turned around. "Little sister?!"

Gu Baoyan was cosplaying as Princess Jasmine. "Brother Xiao Zhuang, Happy New Year's Day."

Zhuang Fanxin couldn't help but look around. "Who brought you here?"

Gu Baoyan pointed at a display sign not far away. "My brother brought me."

Before he even saw him, Zhuang Fanxin started walking, blindly taking a few steps forward. Then he saw Gu Zhuoyan, dressed in a solid black tailcoat, standing tall and straight in the crowd.

"Whose letter is this?" In the hustle and bustle, a boy picked up a letter. "Whose letter? It's for Zhuang Fanxin!"

"Is there anyone named Zhuang Fanxin?"

"I am..." Zhuang Fanxin raised his hand blankly.

The boy handed him the letter. His name was indeed written on the envelope. He subconsciously looked towards Gu Zhuoyan, then nervously pulled out the letter paper inside.

The first line read, "Zhuang Fanxin, Happy New Year's Day."

The message he had waited for last night was now on the paper, in Gu Zhuoyan's neat and forceful handwriting.

It was densely filled with words. The writing, growing in intensity, revealed its true nature. When Zhuang Fanxin read the last paragraph, his wrist could barely hold its weight.

...I'm always thinking of you, thinking of you day and night. I think of you when I'm happy, because you bring me joy. I think of you when I'm in pain, because I'm in pain for you. I despicably trace your image, attempting to get closer to you, to demand from you, to be with you. I want to squeeze your hand until it turns red, to roam over your chest. There isn't a moment I don't long to mess up your hair, to bite your lips. Like an unrepentant bastard, all I can do is fantasize endlessly, to hold you, to leave you breathless, unable to bear it, and restless, all for me.

This is the taste of the torment I endure every second I think of you.

Zhuang Fanxin felt slightly dizzy. People were passing by, people were looking at him. He stood rooted to the spot, clutching the paper, stunned. This was Gu Zhuoyan's love letter to him, naked and passionate, like a ladleful of scalding oil being poured over him.

He no longer needed to be jealous of anyone. This public panic, this shame that he couldn't cast aside or swallow, belonged to Gu Zhuoyan and him.

Zhuang Fanxin looked up. Gu Zhuoyan was standing in front of him.

His eyes burned. He covered his face with his helmet and cried.