Childhood Sweethearts Can't Beat the Newcomer

(Scheming, restrained, secretly in love seme x aloof, talented uke | Regret-filled pursuit)

Lin Mu and Zhou Yang had been childhood friends for fifteen years, their lives entwined like the rings of a tree. From clueless little children to bright-eyed teenagers, they shared every moment of growing up together, their understanding of each other deep in their bones. By college, their feelings had developed naturally; all that was missing was an official confession. But they never managed to cross that final line. Just before Zhou Yang could summon the courage, his cousin Lu Xubai, whom he revered like a god, casually offered a “suggestion” that sent him overseas for a year as an exchange student.

When they reunited, the two finally got together, but their happiness was as fleeting as a reflection in a mirror. Zhou Yang's life seemed to be controlled precisely by an invisible hand: he interned at Lu Xubai's company, then kept traveling for projects arranged by Lu Xubai, working without respite and leaving Lin Mu with nothing but weary apologies over the phone and one broken promise after another.

When Lin Mu earned a place in a graduate program thanks to his outstanding grades, that invisible hand intervened again. Under the pretext of “broadening his horizons and learning about the latest developments,” Lu Xubai planned his path to further study in the United States, leaving no room for argument.

At last, the anger he'd suppressed for so long erupted. Lin Mu confronted Lu Xubai, asking whether he'd been deliberately trying to keep them apart all along. The usually inscrutable man admitted it without flinching, his gaze calm but disturbingly possessive. “That's right. I don't think you two are right for each other. You shouldn't be together.”

“You think so? What gives you the right to decide that?!” Lin Mu's fury burned through his reason.

Lu Xubai gazed at him and spoke word by word, like a sentence being passed, or a secret confession that was sixteen years overdue:

“Because I've been in love with you for sixteen years.”