Below the Twenty-Seventh Floor

[Content Warnings]

1. Two male leads are both reborn and retain their memories, but pretend not to know each other.

2. ABO setting with pheromones.

4. Includes depictions of severe depression and self-harm tendencies.

5. Includes mild depictions of unhealthy dependency.

6. The romance develops slowly, with an emphasis on emotional healing.

This is a school story I wrote before, but I'm completely rewriting this version.

I'm not taking sides or favoring either character. I just love this setup: a scheming, sweet-talking top x a tsundere, short-tempered bottom.

You can skip the parallel-world chapters. They don't affect the main story!

The timeline says two days because I finished editing it in my notes a while ago, but kept putting off posting it. So I'm just pasting in the edited version.

Hope you all enjoy reading!

=^_^=

[Reborn, we pretend not to know each other, only to fall again amid racing hearts and old scars.]

In the late autumn of his second year of high school, Lin Xu leaped from the twenty-seventh floor, leaving Gu Huaisheng with one final sentence: "If there's a next life, don't come looking for me."

Violet pheromones ran wild in the snowy night, while the scent of cedar silently shattered at the funeral.

Neither of them found a peaceful end.

Until time turned back, and they returned to the age of seventeen.

Gu Huaisheng awoke with all his memories intact and the ability to read minds, the sound of the wind rushing past Lin Xu as he fell still echoing in his ears.

Lin Xu awoke in pain to discover that he had become unable to die. In his reflection, imaginary cherry blossoms bloomed from the scars on his left hand.

And Shen Mo, the friend who had always quietly protected him, remembered only the funeral, forgetting how his own story had ended.

In this life, all three tacitly donned their disguises. They passed each other in the classroom corridors, their eyes as cold as if they had just met.

Gu Huaisheng watched Lin Xu hide a utility knife in his sleeve, and heard the numb count in his mind: "I didn't die today, either."

Lin Xu sensed Gu Huaisheng's gaze following him like a shadow, yet turned and fled whenever he drew near.

Shen Mo clenched his fists and stood between them, afraid history would repeat itself.

But in the darkness of the art studio, the pheromones of violets and cherry blossoms spiraled out of control and intertwined.

Cherry trees blossoming out of season formed deep blue crystals in the courtyard of the old house.

Promises buried beneath scars, betrayals, and love left unspoken

would ultimately weave a new cage between a heart whose thoughts could be read and a body that could not die.

"Lin Xu, this time I won't let you fall alone."

"Gu Huaisheng, you can read everyone's heart. Why can't you understand that... I hate you only because I still love you?"

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