Senior, Please Don't Be So Smug

After starting college, Xie Jingli has three secrets that must never come to light:

First, his teachers and classmates must never learn that he is actually emotionally cold, and that the sunny, warmhearted image he presents to everyone is all an act.

Second, his parents must never find out that he lives off campus.

Third, nobody must ever discover that he works online as a chat companion, where he lets his true self run wild.

But recently, he discovered that his new online chat partner is actually Jing Ying, a junior in the same university student union publicity department!

Jing Ying is usually quiet and taciturn, and inexplicably cold toward Xie Jingli. Many people say Jing Ying dislikes him.

But this new online chat partner is a hopeless romantic who spends ages talking about his secret crush... and that person seems to be Xie Jingli!

"Do you like me?" Xie Jingli asked, half jokingly, to test the waters.

"What are you talking about?" Jing Ying gave him a cold look. "Why would you think that?" Then he turned and walked away.

Online chat. Hopeless Romantic: "Teacher!! Today my senior confessed to me!!"

Xie Jingli: "...Huh?"

Hopeless Romantic: "He asked if I like him! Does that mean he likes me too??"

Hopeless Romantic: "Hehe (^▽^ )"

This kid really is two completely different people online and offline.

Worried about being exposed, Xie Jingli wants to quit his chat companion job, but Jing Ying is observant, so an abrupt refusal might make him suspicious. Xie Jingli quickly comes up with a great plan: teach Jing Ying how to pursue him online, while indulging and teasing him in person. Once Jing Ying confesses, Xie Jingli will... dump him!

After all, Jing Ying has no idea that the person online is Xie Jingli.

Besides, everyone who has confessed to Xie Jingli in the past disappeared without a trace after he turned them down. Once Jing Ying gets dumped, he definitely won't keep pestering him.

Who knew that teasing Jing Ying wouldn't go smoothly? Several times, Xie Jingli nearly broke character and lost his gentle, patient persona.

What's more, seeing usually composed Jing Ying online, cooing "Big Brother" over and over, made Xie Jingli increasingly curious about him. Before long, he was even... starting to fall for him?

The first time they played Truth or Dare, Jing Ying finally admitted he liked someone, but wouldn't say who.

The second time they played Truth or Dare, Xie Jingli casually asked, "What's the person you like like?" Inwardly, he was eager to hear how Jing Ying would describe him.

Jing Ying: "He's very full of himself."

Xie Jingli: "?"

Jing Ying: "Sometimes, I wish he wouldn't be so smug."

Xie Jingli: "...Shouldn't you be talking about the good things about the person you like?"

Jing Ying: "You asked what he's like."

...Fine, fine.

Xie Jingli was very unhappy. Just then, Jing Ying added, "But..."

"He's really easy to read," Jing Ying said softly. "I quite like that about him."

Two innocent college boys who are both very good at putting on an act. Hopeless romantic x sweet on the outside, scheming underneath.

A seemingly aloof but possessive junior seme x a sunny-acting, actually cold and proud senior uke

Younger seme, one-on-one romance with a clear romantic focus, first love for both, identities exposed from the start, happy ending, and a little face-slapping before they fall for each other.

The seme's point of view is very limited early on, but the uke learns what the seme is thinking through their online chats.

Coming Soon

If you're interested, please add my upcoming novel, "An Immortal Wants to Confess in the Underworld," to your collection.

(Cold-faced, tsundere, immortal seme x an underworld civil servant uke who plays the fool to catch the tiger)

Recently, two strange things have happened in the Underworld:

First, the number of souls whose lifespans aren't over, yet who have "accidentally" or "deliberately" wandered into the Underworld, has surged.

Second, the automatic soul-dispatch System has broken down at just the wrong time.

The underworld messenger Qian Liu is assigned a thankless task by his superiors: escort "lost" souls all the way to the boundary between the two worlds, making sure they return safely to the human world.

Qian Liu assumes this task must be a hundred times safer than hunting evil spirits, until one day he rushes to the target soul's side, only for the other man to pull out a pistol and aim its cold barrel at him. "I came here to confess to someone."

The man's name is Qing Chuan. Qian Liu kindly offers to help him find the person, but ends up listening to him complain all the way about how backward and boring the Underworld is. Along the way, they run into evil spirits and vengeful ghosts, and Qing Chuan follows him into the Black Forest, the Underworld Capital, and all sorts of other places...

One chain subdues an evil spirit! ...The other chain keeps hold of Qing Chuan. Qian Liu uses his "brute" strength to finally send the man back to the human world. But some time later, when he's dispatched there on another assignment, he sees Qing Chuan again.

Qian Liu assumes Qing Chuan can't see him and brazenly eavesdrops on a great deal of information. Just as he's about to float away, Qing Chuan suddenly appears beside his ear and whispers, "What are you doing here?"

After learning that Qing Chuan is an immortal who never ages or dies and whose injuries heal on their own, and hearing the story of him and his beloved from one of his students, Qian Liu begins to understand why he is so determined to go to the Underworld.

For mortals with limited lifespans, reaching the end of their lives means reuniting with their beloved. But how long must an immortal with an endless lifespan go on before reaching the end?

Qian Liu becomes a little more gentle with Qing Chuan. Of course, it's not only because Qing Chuan is devoted to his beloved, but also because...

Qian Liu: "This is so good! Is the food in the human world always this delicious??"

On a work trip to the human world, he can use public funds to take human form! Then he can eat human food! He buries his head and devours the food Qing Chuan has made. By chance, he looks up and notices Qing Chuan has been watching him, and as he watches, his eyes seem to grow a little red...?!

Qian Liu: "What's wrong? Am I eating too messily??"

Qing Chuan covers his eyes with one hand. "It's nothing... I just thought of..."

He doesn't finish.

A few minutes later, Qing Chuan's expression turns cold again. "I just thought the Underworld should hurry up and hire a good chef to develop its food industry."

Qian Liu: "...?? Do you feel physically uncomfortable if you don't get in a dig at the Underworld!"

So what if he's immortal? So what if he can cook delicious food? His devotion is for someone else! All in all, he's still an annoying guy!

Later, Qian Liu's colleagues quietly gossip among themselves:

"Communicating with the human world or staying there for a long time takes a lot of 'po.' Buying po costs a lot of underworld currency, or else you have to consume the lifespans of living human souls. I heard Qian Liu has used up his work allowance, and his new application hasn't finished processing. How has he been staying in the human world for so long?"

"Did he use his own underworld currency to buy po? Does he even have that much money?"

"Did he break the rules and consume lifespans without permission? Does his underworld god know?"

"Or did someone willingly let him consume theirs? If the living soul is found to have consented, then it's not prohibited."

"Living souls in the human world all want to live forever. Who would willingly give up some of their lifespan!"

Meanwhile, in a bed in the human world...

"That's too much... I can't take any more..."

Qian Liu's originally semi-transparent soul gradually becomes corporeal, his pale skin turning faintly red. He trembles as he tries to get up, but Qing Chuan pulls him back into his arms. "Stay a little longer."

Bonus scene:

Qian Liu takes the form of a little bird in the human world while out on a mission, and plays a prank on Qing Chuan.

But just as his beak pecks Qing Chuan's face, he turns back into his humanoid soul form because he isn't used to it.

Qian Liu: "..."

Qing Chuan: "..."

Qian Liu quickly pulls his lips away from Qing Chuan's face and greets him as if nothing happened. "Hi, there." He forces a smile. "I'm back in the human world again."

Theme: Face your imperfections and accept your true self.