Leansei looked at Seleigh, who looked breathtakingly pretty in her elegant gown, but when he glanced back at the stage, he froze. Xerchin was looking at him the entire time while singing and strumming his guitar. Leansei quickly looked away.
On the other side of the room, Seleigh looked at Xerchin intently.
"It's Seleigh."
"Gosh, she looks so pretty!"
"I know, right??"
"Did she come to support her fiancé?"
Seleigh gave a warm smile as she glanced at Xerchin dashing in the center of the stage. His voice was angelic, pulling everyone in. Her smile froze when she realized that Xerchin never glanced at her side; his look was fixed at the center of the gym. She followed his line of sight, and that was when her smile dropped seeing Leansei looking back at Xerchin. She glanced back and forth between them, freezing when she met Leansei's eyes. They looked at each other for a few seconds longer. Her look then passed Leansei, landing on Xeilin, who was now looking back at her.
Xeilin nudged Leansei, who was completely lost in his thoughts while maintaining intense eye contact with Seleigh. "Hey, I'm pretty sure Xerchin meant it was you," Xeilin said, his voice dropping into a comforting, reassuring tone.
Revin nodded in firm agreement, a small smile touching his lips. "Yeah, he was looking at your exact row the entire time," Revin added with an equally reassuring tone.
Leansei forced his rigid shoulders to drop, giving them both a faint, bittersweet smile. "I suppose..." he murmured, his low voice barely carrying over the ambient noise of the crowd.
A massive, roaring round of applause and ecstatic cheers exploded through the auditorium the exact second Xerchin finished his musical set. Before stepping away from the microphone stand, he cast a sharp glance straight toward Leansei and executed a deliberate wink—causing a cluster of nearby girls to scream in a giddy frenzy, entirely under the illusion that the romantic gesture was explicitly meant for them. Leansei quickly glanced away toward the floorboards, a sudden wave of heat rushing to his face as his cheeks flushed.
Beidhen strode confidently onto the center stage, adjusting the strap of his acoustic guitar. "Hey—" he started, but he was cut violently short as the crowd of female students immediately erupted into loud cheers. Beidhen raised his hand to calm them, a rare, charismatic grin cutting across his features. "Woah, okay—This is officially our—my final live set of the evening. My younger brother just delivered a remarkably good speech earlier, but mine isn't going to be a single bit different from his parameters." He paused mid-sentence, his jaw clenching as he fixed his gaze entirely on Revin.
Across the room, Revin froze dead in his tracks, his breath locking in his throat as he intently maintained unbroken eye contact with the delinquent.
"The only operational difference between my brother's speech and my own set is the specific person we are dedicating the person to, and the actual content of the song," Beidhen announced, his voice echoing clearly through the sound system. He kept his eyes pinned to the caped boy. "This song is explicitly for you, my sanctuary."
The surrounding girls looked at each other with thoroughly confused expressions, unable to map out the target of his words, but the mystery didn't stop Beidhen from passionately strumming his guitar strings.
"Wait..." Xeilin halted his notes, his brow furrowing into a hard crease. Leansei glanced at his face. "Isn't that melody... isn't that your unfinished song, Revin?"
Leansei turned his head to look at Revin with a startled expression, but Revin didn't register his voice. His focus and pupils were entirely, unmovingly locked on Beidhen, who was now singing with absolute, breathtaking passion. His vocal execution was incredibly good, vibrating with an intense layer of raw emotion.
' I genuinely hope Beidhen and Revin are going to be okay, ' Leansei thought, a wave of quiet sympathy softening his chest. ' Last night... back at the lanes... they looked so thoroughly stressed and distressed. '
"I made a strict deal with him a week ago," Revin spoke suddenly, his voice soft but clear, never once breaking his gaze from the stage. "I told him that if he was successfully able to move my heart by finishing my own incomplete song... I would finally grant him his official answer." He paused for a brief second, a genuine, beautiful curve forming onto his lips. "He is an absolute, unbelievable jerk."
Leansei and Xeilin exchanged a look of pure, profound relief. Revin's overall vibe and internal emotions these past few days had been completely off, drifting dangerous off track due to his family's corporate crisis. Seeing a real smile finally blooming across his features enlivened their spirits; it had been remarkably hard for the boy to find a single reason to smile lately.
The track hit its final note, and Xeilin immediately began executing the technical lighting directives on the console. Leansei subtly glanced back toward the VIP tables where Seleigh had been standing earlier, but her space was completely vacant; she was no longer there. Leansei gripped the fabric of his trousers tightly, a familiar ache settling over his ribs.
' She likely left the floor to meet him backstage, ' Leansei reasoned bitterly. ' After all... he is her fiancé. '
"Wow! Absolute, pure wow!" the host announced lively, stepping back under the spotlight. "They did not fail for a single second to live up to everyone's massive expectations tonight, did they? The Vcheroi brothers and our previous performers are truly something extraordinary! But Vcherian students, we have officially reached our final live performer of the showcase, and I know for a fact that most of you have been waiting all evening for this specific live band—" Host paused as an explosive cheer rippled through the bleachers. "Let's not delay the schedule any further—Let's welcome, The Xin's Band!! Please give them a massive round of applause!!!"
The auditorium erupted into a flurry of heavy clapping and shouting as the musicians claimed the stage.
Revin and Leansei quickly glanced at Xeilin, who was entirely buried under his work, his fingers rapidly manipulating his walkie-talkie inputs. The two boys swapped a silent, knowing look, their minds communicating with absolute precision. Moving in a synchronized flash, Leansei reached over and snatched the walkie-talkie straight out of Xeilin's hand, while Revin firmly, securely grabbed the president's arm to lock him to the chair.
"What on earth are you two—" Xeilin started to gasp out in panic.
He was cut violently short as the first electric guitar chords thundered through the sound system. Rell stood center-stage under the lights, a sharp, thoroughly mischievous smirk playing on his handsome face. Before the lead vocalist could even draw a breath to sing the opening verse, Rell locked his eyes directly onto Xeilin's flustered face and clearly mouthed a single phrase across the distance: "It's explicitly for you."
Rell whirled around, his long fingers aggressively strumming the frets of his electric guitar to initiate the powerful performance. Xeilin immediately snapped his head away to stare at the opposite way, a furious, burning flush of dark crimson spreading rapidly across his cheeks as he blushed.
The final live musical block concluded beautifully, transitioning the event into the final milestone of the acquaintance party: the grand slow masquerade dance. Rows of wealthy students began guiding their dates onto the polished center court floor, dancing gracefully under the dim, romantic ambient lighting. Felina and Delia walked over to the technical center to check in with the staff.
"The entire event will officially conclude in exactly twenty minutes," Xeilin announced to the present council officers, his voice smooth and professional. "Immediately after the closing bell, we will execute our final cleanup operation."
"The campus janitor and maintenance crews already confirmed they are entirely willing to extend an extra hand to help us clear the heavy decorations," Felina supplied, reviewing her files. "They mentioned the gymnasium needs to be perfectly clear for tomorrow's mandatory athletic practice blocks."
"Alright. Thank you so much for every single ounce of hard work you guys poured into the floor tonight," Leansei said, offering them a warm nod of gratitude. The officers nodded compliance. Leansei shifted his weight, turning to look at the president. "Hey, Xei... mind if I excuse myself to take a brief, few minutes' break?"
"There are zero worries, Kean. Go straight ahead," Xeilin replied reassuringly.
"Thanks, Xei. I'll ensure I'm back at the desk shortly," Leansei said.
He turned on his heel, exiting the noisy, crowded gymnasium through the side exit doors to escape the suffocating volume. He stepped into the dim, isolated hallway, leaning his heavy back flat against the concrete wall to steady his rattling nerves. But as he exhaled, a shadow shifted in his peripheral vision, and a figure walked smoothly into his personal space.
Leansei froze dead in his tracks, his breath locking in his throat.
Standing directly in front of him under the dim corridor lights was a highly familiar person. She possessed a gorgeous complexion, her hair perfectly styled alongside an arrangement of fine silver accessories that caught the light, her slender frame clad in an exceptionally elegant, high-class designer gown. It was Seleigh, her face looking entirely innocent and calm.
Leansei immediately looked down at his shoes, his throat tightening as his mind short-circuited. He couldn't gather a single coherent word to speak to her; a suffocating layer of guilt and intense embarrassment paralyzed his vocal cords.
Sensing his panic, Seleigh broke the heavy silence between them instead, her voice soft and beautifully serene. "I believe I haven't had the pleasure of formally introducing my line to you yet. My name is Seleigh. Seleigh Roshie, the—"
"The fiancée of Xerchin," Leansei interrupted unconsciously, the words escaping his lips before his brain could catch them. Realizing his blunder, he frantically scrambled to play it cool, a nervous flush touching his jaw. "I... I merely overheard the family registry details during the formal dinner meeting."
Seleigh checked her movements, freezing for a brief second, before a sweet, entirely unmalicious smile broke across her lips. She took two slow, graceful steps forward to close the distance. "I suppose... you must be Kean?" Leansei offered a stiff, highly disciplined nod. "He has actually talked a remarkable amount about your life to me, you know," she murmured softly.
Leansei's gray eyes widened behind his lenses, his mind spinning into a confused loop. ' He... he talked about me a lot?? Explicitly to her?? But... whatever I have done, and whatever I continue to do with him behind closed doors is wrong. Even if Xerchin explained his reasons to me... this whole situation is unfair to her existence. '
"Look, Seleigh... I desperately want to say that I am s—" Leansei started to plead, his voice cracking.
"No," she interrupted firmly, her tone leaving zero room for an apology. She lowered her head, staring down at the ground, a lingering, sweet smile painted on her lips though a clear layer of pain darkled her eyes. "I am the one who should be saying I'm sorry."
Leansei halted his words, looking at her with an absolute, pure scowl of confusion. ' Why on earth is his high-society fiancée apologizing to my face, when I am supposedly the one apologizing. '
"I am explicitly the single person who put his life into this trapped situation in the first place," she added, her voice thick with absolute sincerity and raw, underlying pain. "You see... I know for a fact that you already recognize that a man like Xerchin is not very hard to love at all. The very first day I met his presence during our early school years, it just clicked; he perfectly filled the void in my world. But... the cold truth is that I was the only person who felt those intense feelings. Driven entirely by the legal advantages, my own selfishness, and pure corporate greed..." She paused, her fingers tightening aggressively until she held her hands like a vice. "I saw a massive opportunity to bind his destiny to mine through my father, and I took it. The exact second Xerchin discovered the parameters of my manipulation... he began treating my presence with an ice-cold distance entirely different from before. I suppose... I regretted my choices at some point."
Seleigh slowly lifted her head, her beautiful eyes glistening with a layer of unshed tears as she looked straight into his gray pupils.
' Why do I possess absolutely zero jealousy toward her right now? ' Leansei thought, a profound wave of sympathy softening his ribs. ' Instead... all I can physically feel for her is pure pity. '
"But I recognized from the very foundation of the contract that he was strictly fulfilling his filial duties for his father's sake—that is explicitly the single reason why he refused to argue against the legality of the arrangement," she continued, her voice cracking slightly under the weight of the confession. "But I foolishly thought that the forced marriage could be the only available way to at least mend his heart, desperately hoping he would eventually reciprocate what I felt for his soul. But I was entirely wrong. His heart was already occupied... he already has you."
Leansei stared at her, his eyes filled with a heavy, defensive guilt. "I..."
"You don't have to feel bad for my status at all, nor do you ever need to voice an apology to me, Kean... I have already fully accepted the factual reality that a person can never force another human being to love them against their will," she stated smoothly, stepping a pace closer to his side. "Whatever parameters existed between me and Xerchin in the past have officially been dissolved, leaving nothing but an ordinary, clean friendship behind—I can confidently assure you of that truth. I am not the petty, malicious person you see in high-society rumors. So please, promise me you won't get awkward or tense around my presence anymore, and I genuinely hope we can find a way to get along together."
On cue, she gracefully extended her manicured hand across the space, offering a formal peace offering.
Leansei looked at her fingers, a genuine, beautiful smile breaking across his treated lips. He offered a firm nod of absolute acceptance, reaching out to securely take her hand to seal the pact. "I shall happily look forward to our new friendship then, Seleigh."
Seleigh smiled warmly back at him, but the peace was cut short as her phone suddenly vibrated aggressively inside her designer clutch. She reviewed the screen. "I think my timeline dictates I have to leave the university right now."
"Oh, yeah. A famous celebrity and high-fashion model like you must possess an exceptionally packed schedule, makes me remember my friend." Leansei noted cheerfully, his mind automatically drifting to recall Perial's chaotic lifestyle.
"Thank you for giving me your time," Seleigh said softly, starting to walk past him. She stopped midway, however, and cast a final, lingering glance over her shoulder. "I'll try my absolute best to convince my father to end the corporate contract, though I know I have no real control over it. I'm honestly more concerned about whether Mr. Xin will be able to accept it as well." She paused, a shadow crossing her features. "I have known Mr. Xin for a long time; he is not a man you should ever cross." She said this before leaving Leansei completely perplexed and weighed down by her warning. He watched her figure glide away toward the front exit until the shadows swallowed her gown.
His feet began to walk unconsciously, deep in thought as he navigated the narrow maze of the inner campus paths. He stopped right at the middle of the garden, closing his eyes tightly to feel the biting, cold breeze against his face. The gentle, rhythmic rustling of the wind slicing through the manicured bushes and towering trees, combined with the far-away, muffled echo of the slow masquerade dance music, anchored him to the grass.
' Sorry, Kean... in reality, I'm no different from Seleigh, ' Leansei's mind wailed in a sudden, suffocating wave of guilt. ' I've become entirely too greedy as well, and deeply selfish as to owning your physical body, ruthlessly making decisions for your life, and most importantly... '
Leansei slowly opened his eyes, a sudden warmth cutting through the chill as he felt a presence looking at him from behind—a presence that felt completely warm and safe.
Xerchin was standing there under the moonlight. He had discarded his formal performance blazer, looking absolutely dashing in his black trousers and crisp white shirt, his hair styled perfectly. He kept his hands casually shoved into his pockets, looking down at Leansei with pure, unshielded sincerity and warmth. Their eyes locked across the grass, the intense eye contact lingering for several long seconds.
' ...and most importantly, I have completely fallen for him, ' Leansei thought, his chest tightening as his gray pupils clouded with worry. ' And it terrifies me to my very soul... the mere thought of losing him. Because the clock is ticking, and I am forced to leave this body eventually. 'Leansei clenched his fingers tightly into the fabric of his suit trousers, trying to ground his erratic breathing.
"What exactly are you doing out here?" he asked, his voice breaking the prolonged quiet between them.
"I'm just getting some fresh air," Xerchin said softly, his deep baritone grounding the space. He took a slow step forward. "Are you truly okay? You look deeply, intensely bothered by something."
Leansei let out a long, heavy sigh into the night air. ' An absolute mountain of things has happened today. Tyvan cornering me about the necklace, Felean's hidden hatreds, and Seleigh warning me about Xerchin's terrifying father. I honestly don't even know what I'm supposed to feel anymore. '
Leansei flinched subtly when he felt Xerchin's large hand reach out, gently, delicately catching his fingers as if Leansei were a fragile piece of porcelain that could shatter under the slightest pressure. A sudden wave of panic hit Leansei's chest, and his eyes frantically scanned the surrounding garden hedges to verify if they were hidden from view.
"Xerchin... we are currently standing in a public—" He was cut violently short the exact microsecond he lifted his chin to look up. Xerchin was staring directly into his face, his light blue eyes completely softened with a deep, protective worry.
"You have me completely now. You can tell me absolutely anything," Xerchin whispered, his voice dropping into that soft, anchoring frequency that never failed to scramble Leansei's defenses. "You don't ever have to go through these battles entirely alone again."
Leansei halted his movements, completely mesmerized by the sheer tenderness of the athlete's voice. He stood frozen as Xerchin shifted his weight, his long fingers smoothly sliding across his palm to intertwine their hands together. Without breaking eye contact for a single fraction of a second, Xerchin slowly brought their joined hands up to his reddish lips, pressing a soft, lingering peck of a kiss against Leansei's back hand while staring straight into his soul.
"Who exactly do you like the most?" Leansei asked softly, the words blurting out of his mouth completely unconsciously. It was a raw, dangerous query that he had fully intended to keep locked deep within his own thoughts. "The version of me before... or the version of me standing right here in front of you now?"
Xerchin froze dead in his tracks, his hands locking as a thoroughly confused, perplexed expression crossed his handsome features. "What on earth kind of question is that? I genuinely don't understand the logic of what you're asking." Leansei let out a long, ragged breath, his heart rate dropping into a heavy, crestfallen rhythm as he sharply snapped his head away to look at the dark night sky.
"Right? It is a very nonsensical, ridiculous question," Leansei muttered bitterly, forcing a faint, highly artificial chuckle past his lips to play it cool. "Just forget I ever dropped the phrase—"
"I like you infinitely better right now," Xerchin interrupted firmly, his tone perfectly steady, resolute, and unyielding. Leansei slowly, delicately turned his face back around, his gray pupils searching the athlete's face.
"You're remarkably feisty now," Xerchin explained softly, a gentle smile lifting his lips as his thumbs rubbed against Leansei's skin. "You possess the strength to defend your own boundaries now. You possess the absolute courage to say a definitive 'no' to the things and the expectations that do not apply to your heart anymore."
Leansei felt a sudden, breathtaking wave of joy fill his entire chest, a genuine smile breaking beautifully across his features. "Do you truly, honestly mean those words?"
"Definitely." Xerchin affirmed, his blue eyes clear under the starlight. "But tell me... why exactly do you constantly ask these kinds of cryptic questions tonight?" Leansei lowered his chin, his gaze drifting away from the athlete to stare blankly back up at the vast expanse of the dark, star-filled skies.
"What if..." Leansei whispered, his voice cracking slightly with a layer of hidden heartbreak. "What if the factual reality is that I am absolutely not Kean at all? And what if... what if the timeline dictates that I will have to completely disappear from this world and leave your side forever?" He paused, taking a shaky breath before dropping the final, terrifying query. "Would you even manage to notice the shift? When we look entirely, exactly the same on the outside? Who exactly did your heart truly fall for... the before me, or the after me?"
Xerchin stared down at Leansei's profile, a sudden, suffocating wave of confusion darkling his features. He stood perfectly motionless, entirely unable to gather a single word or formulate an executive answer to the boy's words. It didn't feel like a standard, playful piece of campus small talk dropped out of the blue. The raw, devastating sadness vibrating in Leansei's voice felt entirely too real, striking a terrifying chord behind his ribs.
' Why on earth... why does his voice make it feel like he is preparing to pack up and leave my life forever? ' Xerchin thought frantically, his grip tightening around Leansei's fingers as a sudden dread locked over his soul.
Leansei instantly realized the sheer depth of what had just escaped his mouth. Panic flared behind his ribs, and he forced a sudden, highly artificial fake laugh past his lips to break the heavy gravity of the moment. "What on earth is wrong with me today? Please just forget I ever said that—it's just born out of my extreme physical exhaustion from managing the technical booths, I guess."
Xerchin didn't say a word to validate the excuse. Instead, he moved with a smooth, unyielding authority, placing his long index finger directly beneath Leansei's chin, tilting his head up to force him to look back into his face.
"I would know with absolute certainty if the soul standing right in front of me wasn't you," Xerchin stated flatly, his baritone voice carrying a deep, chilling resonance under the trees. He slowly lifted their intertwined fingers, flattening Leansei's bare hand directly against the center of his own chest cavity. Beneath the fabric of his shirt, his heart was executing a sequence of rising, incredibly heavy and rapid thumps. "I can prove it by this exact rhythm." He paused for a brief second, his fingers tightening to squeeze Lean's hand against his skin.
"I may not possess the perfect vocabulary to say exactly when or how I fell in love with your presence... but I swear to you right now, I will do absolutely whatever it takes to figure out the universe's metrics just to give you the exact answer you want." Xerchin's light brown eyes glowed beautifully, reflecting a brilliant, mercurial blue tint under the shifting pale moonlight. They stood perfectly frozen, looking each other intently in the eyes, the profound devotion between them filling the air.
Leansei felt the heat rushing straight to his cheeks. Moving with a shy, clumsy haste—yet keeping his muscles gentle so he wouldn't accidentally break the warm contact of their joined fingers—he slightly pushed against Xerchin's broad torso. "You've become uniquely cheesy tonight, huh?" he muttered softly, his voice cracking in shyness.
Xerchin smiled beautifully down at him, a rare, melodic chuckle escaping his throat. "It's certainly not like you don't thoroughly enjoy it, Mooncalf."
"I absolutely do not like it at all!" Leansei countered rapidly.
"I highly, profoundly doubt the truth of that statement."
"Tssssch," Leansei grumbled, aggressively biting his lower lip to stop a massive, genuine smile from breaking across his face.
Xerchin abruptly halted his teasing. Staring down at the boy's flushed features, he seemed entirely paralyzed by how breathtakingly beautiful Leansei appeared under the canopy of the garden. His grip tightened around their intertwined hands, ensuring the fingers remained locked without applying enough rough force to cause a red bruise or whiten Lean's skin. Moving on pure, unshielded instinct, he firmly yanked Leansei forward into his chest.
Leansei's gray pupils dilated in pure, startled shock, his other hand automatically rising to press flat against Xerchin's chest to stabilize his balance. Before he could voice a protest, Xerchin's free arm slid smoothly around his slender waist, yanking his frame into a close, suffocatingly intimate embrace.
Leansei immediately shot his head around, his eyes scanning the surrounding hedges in panic. "What exactly do you think you're doing right now?! Someone from the high-society crowd could easily spot our positions at this point!"
"My eyes see absolutely no one in the world but you," Xerchin whispered softly against his ear.
Leansei stared up at him in pure shock, his vocal cords locking. But the defensive panic slowly, beautifully softened until it vanished entirely; it was as if he had been completely hypnotized by the sheer proximity, the warmth of the athlete's hands, the closeness of his torso, and the striking intensity of those light blue-tinted eyes. In that frozen beat, the entire university district seemed to dissolve, leaving the two of them as the single remaining souls on the earth.
Behind the trees, the far-away echo of the slow masquerade music suddenly loudened, the rich instrumental notes carrying clearly over the lawn.
"May I officially have the honor of this dance with you, Mooncalf?" Xerchin asked.
Leansei offered a slow, breathless nod of compliance. Xerchin shifted his weight, his boots gliding across the grass as he began to move, swaying Leansei's frame through the dark with a fluid, effortless grace, as if the choreography had been meticulously rehearsed for weeks. They were dancing in the very middle of the public garden, surrounded by the shifting waves of the cold midnight breeze and the soft swaying of the bushes and trees. The nearby slow dance music filtering through the gym doors turned the entire scene into an absolute masterpiece of perfection.
Xerchin let Leansei execute a smooth, elegant spin across the turf, before his hand snapped back to securely catch his waist yet again, pulling his body tightly against his chest the exact fraction of a second the track hit its final note.
BOOM!
Then came the split-second delay—a tense, breathless pause that locked the universe in place—before the sky split open with a second, massive boom that vibrated deep inside their chest cavities. A colossal crimson sphere blossomed beautifully across the darkness, expanding outward in a sequence of perfect, symmetrical rings of fire. As the red light began to sag and stretch against the dark, it melted into a slow, weeping waterfall of glittering gold dust, crackling softly like dry autumn leaves catching a breeze.
Leansei opened his mouth in absolute, child-like awe, his gray eyes glinting brilliantly under the fireworks display. Xerchin didn't look at the horizon at all; his light blue eyes remained pinned entirely to Leansei's radiant face under the moonlight.
Moving on pure, unadulterated adoration, Xerchin raised his large hand, cradling Leansei's cheek to gently make him look up and meet his gaze. He looked down into his face with an intense, unyielding focus—tracking across his gray eyes, the line of his nose, and those soft, pinkish lips—before slowly, deliberately leaning his torso down.
Leansei's heart rate skyrocketed into a frantic rhythm. He gradually closed his eyes, his palm rising to softly rest over Xerchin's hand against his cheekbone to anchor the contact.
Xerchin tilted his chin, and a few short seconds later, his lips pressed completely flat against Leansei's. The contact was a profound, overwhelming mixture of pure warmth, deep-seated longing, and unshielded love. Xerchin began to move his mouth with a slow, agonizing passion, and Leansei smoothly responded to the rhythm of the touch, his defenses crumbling for good. They were kissing passionately in the middle of the dark lawn, the sensory explosion of the fireworks framing the embrace until they finally ran out of breath.
Breaking the physical contact, they rested their foreheads flat against each other, a pair of genuine, beautiful curves forming onto their lips as the final echoes of the fireworks display died out across the skyline.
"You are an absolute naughty bastard," Leansei teased softly, a low chuckle escaping his lips. They immediately laughed together, the heavy tension of the high-society gala completely forgotten.
"I explicitly learned every single one of those parameters from your own actions, Mooncalf," Xerchin bickered back smoothly, his blue eyes crinkling with amusement.
"Well, you still possess a lot of lessons to learn."
Xerchin let out a quiet smile, swiftly leaning forward to press another brief, sweet peck of a kiss directly onto his treated lips. "Then, if that's the case... we are going to have to execute a lot of mandatory practice sessions."
Leansei's face burned a bright, breathless shade of crimson, and he immediately slapped Xerchin's hand—which had moved down to gently hold the back of his neck. The playful defense made Xerchin laugh out loud, his deep voice echoing through the trees.
Ahem.
The two boys abruptly froze dead in their tracks as a loud, theatrical cough cut through the air from the edge of the path. They had been entirely too consumed by each other's presence to notice anyone approaching.
Panicking behind his teeth, Leansei gathered every single ounce of his remaining physical strength, aggressively pushing Xerchin away to break the distance. The sudden, violent surge of strength caught the athlete off guard, causing him to stumble back across the grass, but his fast athletic reflexes saved his balance before his frame could hit the dirt.
Shyly and with absolute, frantic awkwardness, they both rapidly smoothed down the wrinkled lapels of their formal suits. Leansei's cheeks were flushed a deep, burning shade of crimson, while Xerchin's ears had turned as vibrantly red as a smashed tomato, looking completely red-handed as they turned their heads to face the intrusion. Standing a few feet away on the stone pavement, watching their flustered profiles with a sequence of knowing, highly amused looks, were Beidhen, Corshe, and Revin.
"So this is where you've been." Beidhen crooned mockingly, stepping out from behind Revin's shoulder.
"Yeah. Actively executing a disgusting display of lovey-dovey romance right the public garden parameters," Corshe added cheerfully, his eyes twinkling behind his round eyeglasses.
"Seriously, get an actual private room, you two," Revin stated dryly, crossing his arms over his chest.
Leansei sheepishly scratched the back of his neck, desperately looking at the grass to avoid their eyes. "Have... have you guys been actively searching the campus lines looking for our presence?"
"We don't," Beidhen laughed, adjusting his charcoal blazer.
"But Xeilin does." Revin added.
"Honestly, bro... I had zero clue you actually possessed that much raw guts," Beidhen added, throwing his older brother a highly teasing, playful smirk.
"Shut your mouth right now," Xerchin commanded coldly, his unbothered poker mask snapping back into place in a fraction of a second.
"Then... I guess we should probably head straight back to the gym hall now," Leansei stammered out in pure shyness. Without waiting for a single word of reply, he walked with rapid, silent steps right past the three people to escape the pressure. The friends quickly fell into step behind his heels, while further back in the row, Xerchin let out a hidden, quiet chuckle, slowly shaking his head in absolute amusement before following the group.
"Why on earth did the three of you even come down to the garden together anyway? You easily could have just placed a digital call or sent a text to my private line," Leansei asked softly as they navigated the dark concrete paths.
"I was originally assigned to come find your station alone, Kean," Revin explained, his voice dropping into a quieter register. "But I accidentally ran into Corshe along the way, so he stubbornly insisted on joining the transit line—and as for that other arrogant jerk beside him, I have absolutely zero clue why his presence insisted on trailing our steps." He shot a sharp, defensive glance backward at Beidhen, who was currently locked in a serious, quiet discussion with Xerchin far behind their row.
Leansei slowly shook his head, a genuine smile touching his lips. "Is the acquaintance party officially over inside?"
"Yeah, the event was just finalized a few minutes ago," Revin nod.
"Wait... have we genuinely been standing out here for that long of a duration?!" Leansei gasped, his eyes widening.
Corshe offered a firm, enthusiastic nod of agreement. "You guys were entirely out of bounds, Gawin."
Leansei continued happily chattering and gossiping with his close friends as they approached the campus borders, the vibrant warmth of their circle easing his mind. But his voice died cleanly in his throat, his footsteps slowing down to a heavy crawl. Standing a distance away near the edge of the dark university parking loop was Felean.
Leansei's gray pupils narrowed behind his lenses as his protective radar flared. His twin was pacing frantically back and forth against the asphalt, his charcoal gray suit wrinkled, his styled hair completely messy. He looked entirely, visibly uneasy, his fingers shaking violently as he continuously dialed a number on his phone, desperately trying to call someone in the dark. Leansei furrowed his eyebrows into a hard scowl, a sudden, cold layer of dread tightening over his chest as his mother's warning echoed behind his eyes. Something was profoundly, dangerously wrong with Kean's brother tonight.