After his initial shock, he suddenly realized this girl who had taken over the space was sleeping in Wei Zhen’s bed! Instantly, Chen Yuan felt a surge of anger, his brow knitting tightly.

A dorm room was such a private space. For some random girl to be sleeping so brazenly on his good buddy’s bed, with her clothes and belongings strewn everywhere!

‘Where’s the school’s dorm supervisor?’

‘Aren’t they supposed to have someone on duty even during the break?’

‘How could they just let a girl like this in!’

Warily, as if facing a great enemy, Chen Yuan backed away a few steps. He pulled out his phone, found Wei Zhen’s number, and dialed. After all, he couldn’t just go and physically drag a girl out of bed.

‘I have to tell Wei Zhen about this. This is Zhen’s bed.’

‘Then I’ll have this girl answer the phone and kick her out!’

“RING-RING-RING—”

“RING-RING-RING—”

Half a second after the call connected, a familiar, pleasant ringtone filled the entire dorm room, ringing on and on, seemingly without end.

And the sound was coming from the direction of the bed.

Chen Yuan looked up, and his already malfunctioning brain completely short-circuited.

A rustling sound came from the bed. The “girl” seemed to have been startled awake. First, she pulled her feet back in, then she shifted her body from its side. There was movement within the bed curtains, as if she was fumbling for a phone.

“Hello~?”

A slightly groggy voice came not only from the phone’s earpiece but also from the depths of the bed.

In that instant, Chen Yuan’s mouth fell open in an incredibly exaggerated arc. You could have easily fit a whole egg in there.

‘No way… Bro!?’

Right now, his mind wasn’t just being hit by a tsunami; there was also an earthquake, a mudslide, a hailstorm, and even Mars crashing into Earth.

It felt as if an eon had passed—the time it took for humanity to evolve from Homo erectus to modern man.

Only then did Chen Yuan’s disconnected thoughts finally reboot.

He blinked and coughed softly, trying to alert Wei Zhen.

“What’s up? Yuan, did you call for something?”

Wei Zhen was still lying in bed, filled with the grogginess of someone who didn’t want to get up. His tone, however, had brightened as he asked the question with squinted eyes.

“It’s nothing.”

“Oh… Huh? Why is there an echo on your call? Is there something wrong with my phone?”

Wei Zhen sat up in bed.

The next moment, his gaze fell to the floor below his bunk and met a pair of eyes looking up at him.

Their eyes met.

Wei Zhen’s expression froze completely. The smile vanished from his lips. The atmosphere in the dorm fell deathly silent, so quiet that you could hear the faintest sound of breathing.

No one spoke.

It was terrifyingly quiet.

When Chen Yuan truly looked up and got a clear view of Wei Zhen, he couldn’t bring himself to believe it. Wei Zhen’s face was coated in a thick layer of foundation, his sapphire-blue eyes looked like he was wearing colored contacts, and his already soft-featured face appeared even more delicate and charming, giving him the air of a pretty-boy character from a manga.

He was almost unrecognizable in this getup.

Thankfully, Wei Zhen wasn’t wearing a wig. Otherwise, even if they were face-to-face, Chen Yuan wouldn’t have been able to recognize him.

In reality, Wei Zhen had been out all morning and was exhausted. It was already past two in the afternoon when he returned. He hadn’t had an appetite for lunch, so he’d just bought some fried noodles to eat back at the dorm. Then he’d collapsed onto his bed for a nap without even taking off his makeup, and who would have thought he’d sleep for nearly three hours.

The dorms were completely empty during the break; how could he have possibly imagined Chen Yuan would show up to get his computer?

With his guard completely down, this incredibly awkward scene unfolded.

“…”

“…”

They stared at each other in silence for a long time.

Chen Yuan swallowed hard and explained, completely flustered, “I came to get my computer. Yafeng said he left it on his bed in the dorm, with the blankets, I…”

He watched as Wei Zhen’s cheeks went from a ghastly pale to stark white, then flushed a deep crimson. Finally, even his earlobes became so red they looked ready to drip blood.

With a sharp *SWISH*, he yanked the curtain shut.

A muffled sound, like the squeal of a pig being slaughtered, came from under the blankets, chilling Chen Yuan to the bone.

“AHHHHHHHH—”

…

They were the best of friends, inseparable. They played games together, checked out cute girls together. Sometimes, one of them would be lying peacefully in bed when suddenly a leering face would pop up by the ladder. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” “Let me see!” “Ooh, you smell so good~” After such teasing remarks, the bed frame would start to shake violently, and their laughter would fill the entire dorm with life.

Their other roommates, used to these antics, would just call them a bunch of psychos before jumping into the fray themselves!

Having often been on the receiving end of this kind of torment from Liu Nan and Quan Yafeng, Chen Yuan and Wei Zhen had always just seen it as perfectly normal horseplay between guys.

They even showered together and were constantly shirtless during the summer.

Chen Yuan had never imagined there would come a day when he’d face Wei Zhen and be utterly at a loss for words.

It was as if a thick, impenetrable barrier had instantly sprung up between them, one that even the sharpest sword couldn’t pierce.

Before, Chen Yuan had never thought anything was strange. But now, thinking back calmly, he realized there had been clues all along. For instance, Wei Zhen had always had the most stereotypically feminine personality in the dorm; he was meticulous and organized, and he was by far the neatest.

Whether it was his phone case or other belongings, they all leaned toward a cute, “adorkable” style.

Also, he always came back to the dorm early. One time, Chen Yuan had also returned early and saw him organizing clothes in his suitcase. A quick glance had seemed to reveal… a skirt.

「Landa Charm Street.」

At a perfectly ordinary barbecue stall.

Because it was winter and the university students were on break, business at the stall was a little slow.

Chen Yuan and Wei Zhen sat across from each other. The owner hadn’t brought their food yet. One of them fiddled with his disposable chopsticks while the other toyed with a napkin.

A strange, awkward atmosphere gradually spread between them.

“I think I get it, actually,” Chen Yuan said, taking the initiative to speak, afraid that Wei Zhen was feeling awful. “You don’t have to be awkward. It’s nothing.”

“Mm…”

Wei Zhen had washed his face and changed his clothes.

He looked just like his usual self.

Chen Yuan casually grabbed a napkin and wiped at some small grease spots on the table. The two of them fell silent again for a moment.

Again, he was the one to break the silence. “Is there anything you’re really craving? We haven’t seen each other for half the break. It’s my treat today! Feel free to order more.”

At heart, Chen Yuan was still a simple, considerate guy, terrified of making Wei Zhen feel awkward.

“Let’s get an order of grilled fish, then.”

“You got it!” he agreed without hesitation.

“We can have a few drinks today, have a good time, and forget about all the unpleasantness,” he said to Wei Zhen, trying his best to keep a brilliant smile on his face.

“Yeah… eat a good last meal, so I can be on my way. I don’t want to live anymore, anyway.”

“Yeah! Wait—”

Just as Chen Yuan realized something was wrong, Wei Zhen suddenly buried his face in his hands and started sobbing, which scared the hell out of Chen Yuan.

On the surface, he had seemed so calm.

But in reality, Wei Zhen was on the verge of a total breakdown. He couldn’t stop the flood of emotions from overwhelming the rational defenses in his mind. This was his biggest secret, one he had kept for years, and no one had ever found out. The only person who knew was Li Bing. But Li Bing was a quiet, tight-lipped person. She didn’t care at all about Wei Zhen’s quirk; she only cared about the money she made from her part-time job and had no opinion of him whatsoever. Everyone else, from his classmates to his parents, was completely in the dark.

Wei Zhen had guarded this secret with a sense of peace, enjoying it with the quiet joy of someone secretly clutching a piece of candy. In his daily life, whenever he fantasized about wearing cute little skirts, or when he stared at the cute accessories in the supermarket that only girls would typically like, the novelty and excitement of dressing up, along with the admiring gazes he received, instantly made him feel like he was being crowned.

It made his ordinarily unremarkable self suddenly feel magical.

He knew this quirk was strange and that other people wouldn’t accept it.

He wasn’t afraid of being alienated or shunned; what he truly feared was losing the normal life he had now.

Besides, a grown man liking women’s clothing was, frankly, pretty embarrassing.

And putting on makeup would just get him labeled a “sissy.”

“It’s really nothing. I won’t tell anyone, I swear. Everyone has their own thing, right? I totally get it! After today, I’ll completely forget about what happened in the dorm, you have to believe me…” Chen Yuan was terrified his friend would do something irrational.

The guilt would be too much for him to bear.

So, he moved his small stool next to Wei Zhen and tried to console him in a low voice, gesticulating wildly in his anxiety.

He was so afraid Wei Zhen wouldn’t believe him that he looked like he was about to swear a solemn oath on the spot.

The truth was, Chen Yuan had plenty of his own quirks that were hard to talk about. He understood the feeling well—the mortification if someone were to find out. Even with the ever-understanding Ningning, he couldn’t just bare his soul without any reservations. Was he supposed to admit that he liked being passive in bed? Of course he could never say something so private out loud.

Even though he knew Ningning would never laugh at him, and that she would try her best to understand even if she couldn’t at first…

…he just couldn’t get over his own internal barrier.

“Can we just pretend this never happened?”

“Absolutely. I didn’t see anything. I don’t know anything,” Chen Yuan said, shaking his head frantically.

If it had been Quan Yafeng or Liu Nan who had discovered his secret, Wei Zhen wouldn’t have believed their promises.

But Chen Yuan’s words carried some weight.

Wei Zhen lowered his head, thinking for a moment with a pained expression. “Alright then,” he said. “What’s done is done, anyway.”

He sighed, staring blankly for a moment before grabbing a beer. With a *PSSHT*, he popped the cap and poured it into his glass with a *GLUG GLUG GLUG*. Then, as Chen Yuan watched, he chugged the entire thing.

His Adam’s apple bobbed as the malty beer in the thick glass disappeared at an astonishing rate, leaving behind nothing but a layer of foam.

Wei Zhen panted, then let out a loud burp.

Chen Yuan didn’t know what to say.

“Yuan… I know you have a lot you want to say. If you’re curious, just ask…”

“No, of course not! I actually thought your getup… looked pretty good. I thought it was really novel, really…”

“Sissy? Embarrassing? Shameful?”

“What are you talking about? No way. I’m not that narrow-minded. I sincerely thought you looked very pretty.”

“For real?”

“Of course. I swear.”

“Yuan… you’re a really good person,” Wei Zhen said softly after a long pause. He hesitated for a second before continuing, “You might find this unbelievable, but… I’ve always felt like there’s a girl living inside of me…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep