Him and the Walking Red Flag

The gloomy, handsome, pretty, affection-starved, obsessive, broken bad boy who gives himself decorative knife cuts × the cheerful, dashing, gentle, indulgent, sweet-on-the-outside-but-dark-within golden retriever guy and mother hen

Li Huai is handsome, aloof, beautiful, and gloomy... a walking red flag.

The young man has a supermodel's physique: broad shoulders, a narrow waist, lean muscles, pale skin, a beauty mark beneath the corner of his eye, cool black hair, and finely sculpted, strikingly handsome features. He is breathtaking, like the moon.

A University's most infamous ill-tempered, coldly handsome guy. His greatest hits include... splashing iced Americano in the face of an upperclassman who wouldn't stop pestering him, smashing a phone belonging to someone who was secretly photographing him and kicking them, and emotionlessly tossing a breakfast someone gave him into the trash.

With an indifferent look, he tells anyone who asks for his WeChat, "Get lost."

"Do you think you're good enough?"

He is an utterly awful, arrogant, conceited man who thinks nothing of anyone, yet remains impossible to reach.

Everyone is taken in by his face. But after pursuing him relentlessly, they can't stand his willful, arrogant attitude and his orders. They run from his nasty, capricious nature, cursing him as they go: "What a temper!"

"You're a psycho. No one could put up with you."

No one can stand his vicious, muddy malice, either.

He'll hold a lollipop between his lips, run his tongue over it, and, with his handsome face expressionless, order his pursuer to go buy him porridge halfway across town. He'll spitefully ruin the luxury gifts they gave him to win his favor. He'll narrow his eyes, his black hair and eyes quiet and desolate, then speak in a hoarse voice: "So annoying. Stop chasing me. Go die."

Everyone thinks he's willful, arrogant, and sour-faced... that he'll never be able to love anyone, and will only ever have people fawning after him, right?

But only Qian Guan Zhen knows the truth:

He is a gloomy, cold-blooded madman, but also a clingy lover who expresses his love in an embarrassingly passionate, utterly dependent way. Soft, gentle, and needy, his eyes fill with fine threads of affection as he rubs against him again and again, saying,

"I love you so much, Zhen-ge. I love you so much..."

Purring like a kitten.

...It's just that he needs a little too much emotional reassurance.

That's what Qian Guan Zhen thinks.

Qian Guan Zhen is A University's other campus heartthrob, a handsome, masculine guy with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He is cheerful and outgoing, with amber eyes that sparkle in the sunlight, deep, slightly drooping puppy eyes, and a handsome face with striking, open features.

At 193 centimeters tall, he cuts an imposing figure. Sensual veins wind across his forearms and long hands, but when he smiles, his canines show, his deep-set puppy eyes curve into a gentle shape, and he looks warm and accepting. His low, husky voice is rich and magnetic, as if it could illuminate every gloomy corner in the world.

He has a natural, unassuming sex appeal. Evenly toned muscles show beneath his honey-colored skin, and when he smiles, his amber eyes look like sunlight filtering through leaves.

Even wearing a cheap T-shirt from the supermarket, he shines in a crowd.

Someone so earnest, passionate, cheerful, and dazzling should have nothing to do with a rich young master like Li Huai, who is known for his cold and haughty manner.

But they are lovers.

That's right, lovers.

Qian Guan Zhen fell in love with Li Huai at first sight. After pursuing him tirelessly, he finally won his beauty's heart.

Everyone says that once they start dating, that lunatic Li Huai will make life even more miserable. He'll order you around, then torment you to satisfy his nasty, arrogant whims.

But the truth is the complete opposite of what they say.

Li Huai is an extremely clingy little cat. His eyes droop as he gazes at Qian Guan Zhen with glistening, dependent eyes. His low, indifferent voice lifts when he speaks to him. The man who is cold and arrogant toward everyone else is tender as water with him, clinging to him and begging for kisses.

Qian Guan Zhen's heart nearly melts.

But... something is a little off.

His handsome, breathtakingly beautiful, cool and captivating lover seems to be... a walking red flag.

He needs a thousand points of love. The threshold for a normal person is ten, but he needs so, so, so, so, so much more... an almost suffocating amount of love that could crush someone. He demands the most intense emotional reassurance, and keeps escalating how much affection he takes.

He is a twisted, affection-starved, clingy, insecure madman whose emotions can switch in an instant:

[Why did you take so long to reply? One minute? Are you cheating? Who are you with? Do you not love me anymore?]

[Three seconds.]

[Answer me, answer me, answer me, answer me...]

[We're breaking up. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. Go die. I'll die too.]

[Why did your voice go up just now? Are you yelling at me? Don't you like me anymore? Why are you being mean to me? Don't you love me?]

[You think I'm a psycho too, don't you?]

[Zhen-ge, are you going to leave me too?]

[I want to die.]

[I want to die.]

[Love me forever.]

[I hate you.]

[I'll go die.]

[Delete everyone from your contacts. I hate seeing them. Why did she message you? Do you like her?!]

[Do you love me or not? Do you love me or not? Do you love me or not?]

[We're breaking up. Go die.]

Every day, he goes through Qian Guan Zhen's phone countless times and deletes all his contacts. He picks fights over trivial things to demand affection, obsessive and mad. The slightest mistaken impression that Qian Guan Zhen no longer loves him sends him into hysterics. He keeps demanding to know if Qian Guan Zhen has stopped loving him, and even threatens to hurt himself or kill himself, leaving blood everywhere.

That beautiful face can be blank and hysterical all at once. With tears and blood covering it, he demands, "Do you love me?" He cries in a sick, broken way, desperately demanding affection, and curses Qian Guan Zhen viciously, wishing him dead too... so beautiful.

All Qian Guan Zhen can do is soothe him every moment of every day, saying again and again, gently and firmly, "I love you."

That's what it's like to love an intensely controlling, affection-starved, drama-prone walking red flag.

One moment, he's all tender affection; the next, insecurity turns him into a madman.

Replying a minute late, raising your voice by half a note, not keeping your eyes on him the whole time, or saying "I love you" once or twice less that day... all become proof that you don't love him. Then come sharp arguments and accusations, with no room for explanations.

Li Huai's pathological dependence grows worse, while Qian Guan Zhen gets better and better at comforting him.

He knows when to soothe him with tender words, when to hold him firmly and bring him under control, and when to use his body to make Li Huai forget all his fears.

He learned all this through practical experience, paid for with countless sleepless nights and a body covered in scars.

Of course, at first Qian Guan Zhen had never been in a relationship and didn't know what to do. He kept explaining helplessly, "I didn't. I didn't. I love you." They spent the whole night explaining, arguing, and finally collapsing from exhaustion, holding each other and crying.

He even snatched the knife from Li Huai's hand and slashed his own wrist, eyes bloodshot, his voice hoarse as he said, "I love you so much, I'd die for you."

Li Huai just stared at him, dazed. All his sharp edges and hatred vanished, and he became a clingy little cat, kissing him again and again, his tongue brushing over the man's Adam's apple as he said, "I love you, Zhen-ge. I love you so much."

"I'd die for you too, Zhen-ge. Shall we both die together?"

Clingy, passionate, tender, his eyes damp and red... a madman through and through.

No one understands their relationship.

Li Huai is a universally acknowledged lunatic: unhinged, gloomy, obsessive, bursting with possessiveness, like an emotional black hole. He treats everyone around him coldly and demands affection to the extreme.

Qian Guan Zhen, meanwhile, is known for being gentle, sunny, and cheerful, with extraordinary patience and tenderness. He seems capable of bearing all of Li Huai's madness and brokenness. He knows exactly how to soothe him, and before long, his crazy lover is clingy and affectionate again.

But why does he keep patiently putting up with that unreasonable lunatic?

Doesn't he get tired, fed up, or exhausted?

How can he endure such a crazy relationship? He's always gentle, always sunny, always free of gloom...

Oh. Then he must be a lunatic too.

1. The gloomy, cool bad boy gong really does hurt himself, carving decorative cuts into his skin. If no one keeps an eye on him, he'll jump off a building and kill himself. Every day, he thinks that if he isn't loved, he'll die. He's a bipolar, cruel, arrogant cat who is desperately starved for affection.

2. Cat gong, dog shou. The gong is 188 centimeters tall. There's a big build and height difference.

3. This is a highly unhealthy relationship. If you see something like this in real life, run. But I love reading about this kind of thing: delicious, thrilling, sick, gloomy, and crazy love.

4. The gong is the ultimate cold-faced, cute, walking red flag. One second he's hysterically interrogating the shou, the next he's clinging to him and calling him Zhen-ge, saying he loves him again and again. The shou isn't exactly a sunny, cheerful boy either, though that's how he appears on the surface.

5. The shou is a tolerant, gentle, patient, tall and muscular mother hen who slowly heals and saves the gong. They're together from the start, and the story is about a clingy, gloomy little couple's daily life, with very little plot. Both are each other's first.

Theme: DD