After Getting Stuck with My Obsessive Junior

Ning Du, a gifted painter from a top art academy, shot to fame online after entering a competition, claiming the top prize with his distinctive style and dazzling use of light and shadow. He is a hugely popular art blogger with millions of followers and is widely recognized as a genius painter.

Handsome, kind, and academically gifted, Ning Du is every teacher's favorite student.

Then one day, his advisor invited him to discuss an upcoming exhibition. The moment he arrived, the advisor excitedly introduced this year's newest prodigy from the academy: an eighteen-year-old world champion in oil painting.

Xie Qingji.

No one knew that Ning Du and Xie Qingji had once studied in the same studio.

The gloomy boy with downcast eyes was always alone, the quietest student in class. The only thing that stood out was his exquisite, dreamlike oil painting.

The longest thing Ning Du ever said to him was a polite farewell at graduation: "I'll see you at the art academy, junior."

Back then, Ning Du had smiled brightly. The red mole at the corner of his eye shone like a drop of blood, his confidence and radiance like the most dazzling midsummer dream, leaving countless young men and women breathless in the fearless days of their youth.

·

Xie Qingji was a celebrated prodigy at Xicheng Academy of Fine Arts. At just eighteen, he had won a world-class oil painting award. Talented and brilliant, yet cold and gloomy, he had driven countless admirers away with his aloof nature.

He had a little secret: he had a crush on Ning Du, his senior at the academy.

Though he seemed gloomy and proud, in private he obsessively collected everything related to his senior.

The water bottle Ning Du had finished, the tissue he had thrown away, the dried-up brush pen he had used...

He was like a disturbing, clingy creature, jealous, possessive, dark, and terrifying.

His longing for Ning Du reached from the material to the emotional, to every part of him. He treasured everything connected to Ning Du, and was insanely jealous of everyone who spoke to his senior.

Late at night, he listened to recordings of Ning Du's voice over and over, arranged his collected items around his room, and imagined the two of them living together in bliss. He used secretly taken photos to fantasize about kissing and cuddling with his senior.

He became his senior's one and only admirer.

From a hidden corner, Xie Qingji lowered his head to look at the surreptitious photo. His senior was as dazzling as ever, his casual glance seeming gentle and sweet.

As if he were looking at him.

As if he had even made a little heart with his fingers and given him a playful wink.

Xie Qingji: !!!

·

Ning Du had a new junior, a year below him. He was calm and reserved, and blushed easily.

He was always pretending not to watch Ning Du, and whenever Ning Du spoke to someone else, he would gaze at him with wounded eyes. He loved taking photos of him and collecting little things Ning Du had used...

When someone warned Ning Du, he smiled brightly, his dazzling smile enough to make anyone's heart flutter.

"I see. Well, that's quite something."

At a dinner party that night, he laughed freely among the crowd. After several rounds of games, a friend who loved stirring up trouble announced with a teasing grin, "Number seven, pick anyone here and kiss them."

Number seven, Ning Du, calmly sipped his drink. His gaze fell on the tipsy flush around the junior's eyes, while everyone else watched in anticipation.

Then Ning Du turned and leaned against his gloomy, aloof junior, their heads resting together like swans. He whispered to him intimately.

"Junior, help me out?"

·

The student union was putting together a promotional feature, and Ning Du, the art academy's star alumnus, had been selected as an outstanding graduate. They needed an atmospheric photo.

Ning Du was absorbed in his painting. He casually nudged Xie Qingji beside him with his drawing board. "Junior, they want a photo from you."

The student union: ???

Xie Qingji said nothing. Ning Du chuckled and murmured, "Mysterious passerby, how about you contribute something from that whole wall of your collection? Hmm?"

"I really can't spare the time to take one myself."

Xie Qingji: ...!

Theme: Everyone loves me, and I love everyone.