I'm Definitely Not Secretly in Love With Him

(Highlight: The blurb is in first-person from the pursuing lead's perspective, while the main text is in third-person from the pursued lead's perspective. This is a story focused on the pursued lead.)

My name is Zheng Junkan, the heartthrob of Ningnan High and the boss of Sheng'an Road. I gave myself the first title; I earned the second with my fists.

My deskmate is Ye Xizhao, the top student in Ningnan. He has delicate features and a prim, well-behaved personality. In front of teachers, he's always polite and refined. In reality, the moment someone gets on his nerves, he takes off his glasses and goes off on their whole family. No, wait, my whole family.

They say his admirers line up all the way from Class One to Class Eight, but he still doesn't have as many as I do.

On the first day of sophomore year, our homeroom teacher assigned us to sit together. I strongly suspect she was getting revenge because I slipped a dead cockroach into her textbook last semester. We'd just gotten into a fight before school started, and we both wanted to kill each other.

But I soon noticed something interesting. It seemed, quite possibly, that he had a crush on his older neighbor.

Of course, he wasn't his actual brother. Everyone knew he was adopted.

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On the basketball court, I taunted him about it. He got furious, punched me on the bridge of my nose, and told me to shut up. I was about to hit back, but then I saw the corners of his eyes were red. I decided to let it go. I mean, I can't help pitying the weak.

One day later, I threw the gift he'd bought for his brother into the water. Instead of beating me up like usual, he only said coolly, "So what if you threw it away? It's not like he cared about it anyway."

For some reason, it felt like a needle had pricked my heart.

To sabotage his crush, I waited until he wasn't paying attention and bit his neck.

He blushed and called me crazy, but I was secretly pleased with myself, thinking his brother would be furious when he saw it. I knew his brother liked Ye Xizhao too, otherwise he wouldn't have forbidden him from dating girls at school.

After that day, he stopped talking about his brother.

After school, he stood by the back door with his head lowered, as if he were waiting for someone.

I'd never seen him look so dejected. I couldn't help walking over and putting an arm around his shoulder. "Ye Xizhao, if you got dumped, get over it. I'll have your back from now on."

He looked at me as if I were an idiot.

Many years later, I pulled him into my arms as usual. "Lawyer Ye, you only lost one case. Don't be upset. I'll always have your back."

This time, he smiled at me.

* The pursued lead: A mix of arrogance and insecurity; acts sweet and obedient in public, rebellious in private.

* The pursuing lead: Arrogant and conceited; short-tempered, narcissistic, and prone to imagining things.

(The pursued lead has no crush on anyone; the pursuing lead loves making things up in his head.)

Theme: Get in, I'll take you for a ride.