Echoes

[The Story of a Sickly Beauty and a Bad Dog]

The Jiang family took in a sickly "mute". He was so frail he looked as if a gust of wind could knock him over, yet he had a delicate, handsome face.

Jiang Wang hated people who were so weak and meek.

But the very next day, they became desk mates. Jiang Wang found him even more annoying and said coldly, "Stay away from me from now on. Don't talk to me unless you have to."

Su Yu nodded to show he understood.

Jiang Wang had always been domineering and arrogant. He smoked, got into fights, and was bad news through and through. Anyone passing by him instinctively held their breath and kept quiet.

Once, someone even saw Su Yu drink a huge glass of water because Jiang Wang found his coughing annoying. He held it in until his ears turned red, and didn't cough once for the rest of the class.

Everyone thought Su Yu was pitiful. He hardly spoke, and he was bullied like this, too.

So whenever Jiang Wang was away, his classmates would secretly help Su Yu.

That is, until one day, a boy slipped a love letter into Su Yu's schoolbag.

The next class, Jiang Wang tore the letter to shreds and threw it into the trash.

That evening, both Jiang Wang and Su Yu skipped study hall.

In an abandoned classroom, Su Yu sat on a desk, quietly watching the restless person across from him.

"Su Yu, you haven't spoken to me all day!" Jiang Wang snapped. "Don't tell me you actually like him?"

Su Yu looked at the half-closed door and said nothing.

His reaction only made Jiang Wang more irritated. Gripping Su Yu's chin, he turned his face around and forced him to meet his eyes.

The grip was uncomfortable, so Su Yu kicked Jiang Wang. "Let go."

His voice was hoarse, but its lovely timbre was unmistakable.

Jiang Wang looked at the dusty shoe print on his chest. His gaze darkened, but he still stepped back with a sullen face.

They kept their distance, yet Jiang Wang stared fixedly at Su Yu, like a vicious dog on a leash that could lunge at any moment.

A few minutes later, when Su Yu's expression had softened, Jiang Wang finally dared to approach. He pulled him into his arms and slowly tightened his hold.

It was clearly a restraining embrace, yet it seemed as if he were placing the leash around his own neck into Su Yu's hands.

"Say one more thing to me, and I'll be all better."

Su Yu pushed him.

Jiang Wang's arms stiffened around him.

The next second, Su Yu spoke.

"Lock the door, then hug me."

Please add my upcoming novel, Don't Call Me Baby, to your reading list. Here's the blurb:

[An adorably fake little crybaby bottom x a scheming big dog top]

Lu Anran was known as an untouchable beauty: clever, aloof, and unsmiling, with not a single friend. Even when his roommate Cheng Qi spoke to him, Lu Anran could come up with the words "We're not close."

Cheng Qi couldn't stand a phony like him and never treated him kindly.

That is, until Cheng Qi lost a game and was forced to call Lu Anran "baby."

He pulled open Lu Anran's bed curtains. "Ba, "

The second syllable had barely escaped his lips when he saw Lu Anran sneaking cake with cream smeared around his mouth.

Inside the curtains, which were usually drawn shut, hung a whole collection of adorable plush toys.

Cheng Qi's brain froze. The word that came out was, "Baby?!"

Lu Anran: "?"

He guarded his cake warily.

After that, Cheng Qi noticed all sorts of strange things about Lu Anran.

The next morning, Lu Anran's eyes were red and swollen. He calmly explained, "I stayed up all night studying."

Cheng Qi: Who was sobbing across from my bed last night, begging the heroine not to die?

When someone argued with him, Lu Anran coolly watched them throw a tantrum. "You're a ridiculous clown. You're not worth my time."

At three in the morning, a two-thousand-word post reporting the other person appeared on the school forum.

When Cheng Qi cornered Lu Anran against a wall, leaving him nowhere to go, and Lu Anran could only scold him with red ears, calling him a bad dog and telling him to get lost, Cheng Qi thought: I'm done for.

Theme: Everyone deserves to be loved.