Swimming? I Just Went Through Life and Death

[Airheaded, land-loving duck bottom x aloof on the outside, warm-hearted and fiercely protective top]

Chi Tao is a land-loving duck. To be clear, this isn't a teasing term for someone who can't swim, although he really can't swim...

Chi Tao belongs to the land-loving duck clan. He is an actual duck!

Dreaming of improving his species' natural abilities, Chi Tao takes the meager funds raised by his whole village and knocks on the door of a swimming school.

-

As an international-level athlete, Hang Mingfan has won several prestigious medals at a young age. Thanks to his striking looks and prominent family, his fans call him "the aristocrat of the pool."

Just after finishing a competition, he agrees to fill in as a swimming coach at a friend's request. Once the news gets out, the school is packed, and lesson fees more than double.

He's a little embarrassed, but he deserves the praise. After all, his students improve quickly under his guidance... except for one boy with soft hair, a pretty face, and a habit of going "quack" whenever he gets startled.

...Hang Mingfan has been watching him for three days, and he hasn't even gotten in the water yet!

Watching the boy crouch with his head bowed at the edge of the pool, extend one slender ankle, then snatch it back as if shocked, Hang Mingfan gets annoyed by his attitude, as though he sees the pool as a fearsome flood. Hang Mingfan has wanted to swim for as long as he can remember. He walks up behind the boy and finally snaps: "Do you actually want to learn how to swim or not?"

"Quack?" Chi Tao turns around in alarm.

From then on, the hopeless student who could ruin the school's reputation becomes Hang Mingfan's "special project." He even gives Chi Tao extra lessons every now and then after class.

But the more he teaches, the more despairing he gets. Not because Chi Tao doesn't try, but because he tries too hard!

After extra lessons stretch until eight in the evening, Chi Tao lies listlessly at the edge of the pool, having swallowed a bellyful of water. Gazing up at Hang Mingfan as he presses down on the water for him, he casually says, "Your back is so beautiful. I really want to bite it."

Looking into Chi Tao's star-bright eyes and at his shallow dimples when he smiles, Hang Mingfan suddenly blushes. Maybe it's all right if he never learns to swim.

But the day after Hang Mingfan thinks Chi Tao has confessed to him, Chi Tao never comes back to the swimming school.

-

Chi Tao is out of money.

When he chose the swimming school, he had just enough money to cover a full course, but after only two days, the unscrupulous owner called him in and announced a price increase.

At that rate, his money wouldn't even last half a month, so Chi Tao can only study harder. Unfortunately, when you can't learn, you just can't learn.

His money runs out, too. Following what he has seen others do, Chi Tao prints out a resume and tries to find a job. But with "duck" listed as his ethnicity, he is of course rejected time and again. Just as he's about to end up sleeping on the street, Chi Tao crouches dejectedly by the roadside, where Hang Mingfan, returning home after drinks with a friend, spots him at once.

In the resentful tone of a wronged lover, Hang Mingfan demands to know why he stopped coming to class. Chi Tao tilts his head adorably. "Once I work hard and earn some money, I'll be able to come take your lessons again, Teacher."

Hang Mingfan's anger disappears all at once. "Then what are you doing now?"

Since he doesn't have a job, he can only tell the truth. "I'm being an ambitious duck, working hard every day."

He can't learn to swim, fine, but now he's trying to learn by working as a duck? Hang Mingfan nearly faints. Unable to stand it any longer, he pins Chi Tao against the wall and brushes his fingertips over the lips he has long been thinking about. Through gritted teeth, he says:

"If you're going to be a duck, come home with me."

Theme: Love life