“To make it up to you, how about I treat you to a meal?” Chi Zhan said calmly.
“No need…” Ding Hao started to refuse, but when he saw Chi Zhan’s composed expression, he faltered. Scratching his head awkwardly, he muttered, “Uh… alright, I guess—if it’s not too much trouble.”
If a little mishap could earn him a free meal, it didn’t seem like such a bad deal.
Once Ding Hao left, Xiao Xing stared daggers at Chi Zhan, seething with a mix of anger and frustration.
“Why did you offer to treat him, ge?”
“Wasn’t it because of you?” Chi Zhan replied, adjusting the creases on his shirt sleeve with practiced ease. “You can’t go around hitting people for no reason—you’ll get written up.”
“Then why did you let someone like that get close to you just now? Don’t tell me you like him?” Xiao Xing practically spat the words through gritted teeth. “That utterly average nobody—what’s so good about him?”
“I never said I liked him,” Chi Zhan answered flatly. He reached for the bandages and bottled water again, clearly intending to leave, but Xiao Xing stepped in his way.
Chi Zhan moved left—Xiao Xing blocked him. He moved right—Xiao Xing followed.
The hallway was already narrow, and someone behind them was about to complain when a heavy wave of pheromones suddenly descended, making it impossible to speak.
Even the Betas in the room felt the oppressive shift and quickly cleared out of the lounge.
The once-crowded room fell into abrupt silence.
Chi Zhan frowned faintly.
“Is there something else?”
“Why did you let him get close?” Xiao Xing took a step forward, closing the distance far more intimately than Ding Hao ever had. His voice dropped to a dark murmur. “You’re not leaving until you give me a straight answer.”
So furious, he didn’t even bother with “ge” anymore.
At this point, pushing further would be reckless.
Chi Zhan paused, then said coolly, “I just wanted him to check if there was any scent of pheromones on me.”
“What… pheromones?”
Xiao Xing narrowed his eyes. One hand clamped down on Chi Zhan’s shoulder, the other slid around his waist to prevent escape. He dipped his head, nosing along Chi Zhan’s neck like a curious, oversized pup.
His silvery hair was a mess of soft tufts, lazily styled and sticking up here and there. As he moved, the strands occasionally brushed Chi Zhan’s chin, tickling faintly.
“There’s definitely a faint, annoying scent… but it doesn’t seem to be coming from your neck.”
Xiao Xing’s voice was low and intimate, his nose brushing against Chi Zhan’s skin as he slowly traced the trail of pheromones.
Someone entered the lounge, caught sight of their clearly suggestive posture, and dropped their water bottle in shock before fleeing in panic.
“That’s enough.”
Chi Zhan pushed him away, but the next second, his wrist was caught—not with force, but with persistence. Xiao Xing stepped in again, and Chi Zhan’s back bumped into the cold surface of a storage locker.
Following the subtle trail, Xiao Xing pressed closer, finally pinpointing the strongest source of the scent.
Chi Zhan’s lips.
There it was—the faint trace of an unfamiliar Alpha’s pheromones. The scent was barely there, clearly meant to be concealed, but for a top-grade Alpha like Xiao Xing, it was easy enough to detect.
“Ge,” Xiao Xing said with a curl of his lips, though his eyes held no warmth. “Who kissed you?”
***
It was obvious—Xiao Xing was furious.
He’d been strange from the start. From the first time they met during the exercise, he’d shown an unusual level of interest. Before that, Chi Zhan had never even noticed someone like him in his vicinity. But ever since the exercise ended, he’d been spotting the guy hanging around nearby more and more often.
Was he being followed?
Chi Zhan didn’t think he was particularly worth stalking—unless Xiao Xing had some other motive.
It was also clear Xiao Xing was hiding things from him. He dodged every question about their connection, refusing to explain, acting like he knew something he wasn’t saying. Chi Zhan had chosen to let it slide for now.
But having this guy tail him like some clingy shadow wasn’t a sustainable situation.
Chi Zhan decided it was time to deal with him once and for all.
“This has nothing to do with you.” He raised a hand and shoved Chu Xingxiao’s face aside with calm disdain. “Are you a stalker or something?”
“Me?” Chu Xingxiao blinked, thrown off for a moment. Then he protested, “I was just on my way to train! Saw you by coincidence! Is that really how you see me?”
“Aren’t you?” Chi Zhan shot back. “You should be grateful I’m not an Omega—otherwise, you’d already be sitting in a cell right now.”
“……”
He’d come in fuming, fully ready to launch into a dramatic complaint—ideally one that might earn him a kiss. But Chi Zhan flipped the whole situation on its head, and now the moment to get angry had passed. Chi Zhan, long-legged and composed, was already walking off toward the training field.
“You’re not going anywhere until you answer me,” Xiao Xing growled, tightening his grip on Chi Zhan’s wrist.
Chi Zhan didn’t bother resisting. He turned and stared at him for a moment. “If I answer, you’ll let go, right?”
“…Yeah.” Chu Xingxiao muttered, reluctant but cornered.
Leaning back against the locker, Chi Zhan rubbed his wrist and said bluntly, “Yeah, I was kissed. By my boyfriend.”
He stared at Chu Xingxiao, voice clipped. “So stop bothering me.”
With that, he walked out of the lounge.
Sure enough, within three seconds, Xiao Xing came charging after him.
“Boyfriend?! No way. Who is it?!”
“Not telling you.”
Chi Zhan tossed the words over his shoulder, leaving behind a stunned and speechless Chu Xingxiao as he strode toward the training grounds.
Chu Xingxiao didn’t follow.
Through a glass pane, Chi Zhan could still see him standing there, face dark with fury.
Good. Let him be angry.
Even if Chu Xingxiao hadn’t spelled it out, Chi Zhan wasn’t blind. Of course he’d noticed the guy liked him—though the way he showed it was absurdly childish. Like the kind of elementary school boy who tugs on a girl’s pigtails to get her attention.
Since he refused to say it, Chi Zhan had no reason to reject him outright. Not that it would’ve made a difference with someone this stubborn.
What he needed now… was someone else to redirect that obsessive energy.
Who would make the perfect scapegoat?
Naturally, it would be someone from his own dormitory. Someone who, for reasons unknown, had taken a strange interest in him—and already caused a ripple in his life.
