Don't You Dare Break Up With Your Childhood Friend

* Childhood friends to lovers / rekindled romance / younger top / size difference

* Outwardly reserved but secretly smoldering and scheming top X outwardly aloof but unknowingly alluring, naturally flirtatious beauty of a bottom

Jiang Youyu never imagined that after breaking up with his boyfriend, he'd still have to be friends with him.

He and Duan Huaisheng had been childhood friends for twenty years and lovers for two. If he could do it all over again, he wouldn't let Duan Huaisheng break the unspoken barrier between them.

They silently swallowed their shared secret.

At family gatherings and dinners with friends, Duan Huaisheng played the same old role: the quiet but considerate childhood friend.

He took drinks for Jiang Youyu, tasted his food to check the temperature, and even tied his shoelaces and warmed his hands, just like he used to.

Their childhood friends joked around as they always had.

"Hey, aren't you two a little old to be this lovey-dovey? Don't tell me you've actually been dating behind our backs."

"Honestly, I suspect they really did date. Either way, there's barely any difference."

A little drunk, Jiang Youyu only smiled. "Couples always break up eventually. Wouldn't it be better to stay friends for life?"

Duan Huaisheng's face was expressionless. After a long silence, he took the glass from Jiang Youyu's hand. "Ge, you're drunk. I'll take you home."

The room remained loud and boisterous. Only Jiang Youyu heard the difference in that form of address.

Their misaligned relationship burned from the dinner table to the bed.

Duan Huaisheng stroked the back of Jiang Youyu's neck, lowered his eyes, and murmured,

"You think being friends is better? Ge, then what are we doing right now?"

*

Duan Huaisheng extracted Jiang Youyu's last wisdom tooth. Before he could speak, he got a slurred, barely intelligible breakup.

It was the first time Duan Huaisheng had lost focus in front of a patient, and the first time he'd lost his composure in front of Jiang Youyu.

With a ding, the tooth dropped into the curved tray.

Impacted, stubborn, and hard to pull out.

Just like his feelings for Jiang Youyu all these years: twisted, malformed, almost pathological.

He wasn't just his older brother, and he wasn't just his childhood friend. There was no way he could be merely a friend.

*

It wasn't long before Jiang Youyu realized that even his own shadow held traces of another person.

"Ge."

In the dead of night, Duan Huaisheng called him that again and again, while Jiang Youyu's tears soaked the pillow.

"You can cry now. You know I won't tell anyone."

---Reading Guide---

1. Happy ending, both leads' first and only partners, one-on-one romance, younger top.

2. A story of a couple who don't know how to love, stumbling through love and growing together.

3. Dentist X toy designer. The leads are not blood relatives.

4. Everyday life, sweet and sour, mostly sweet.

Theme: Life isn't over. Face your heart bravely.