My Childhood Friend is Secretly in Love with Me - Chapter 9

You Are Not Gay?

After Ding Wenxiao left the Beijing Physical Education University, there was still some time before the dormitory curfew. Zuo Yi sat alone on a bench downstairs, aimlessly scrolling through his phone.

This was already his 98th, 99th, 100th, and 101st time exiting and re-entering WeChat. He had not received any new friend requests, nor were there any text messages from unknown numbers. He began to wonder if his phone was broken and if he should take it for repair after training tomorrow.

“Fuck! Who the hell is sitting here acting like a ghost?”

Li Zihao walked up to the bench and was so startled he nearly catapulted ten meters away.

Zuo Yi tucked his phone back into his pocket and glanced at the drama queen with an indescribable look. “It is your Lord Yi. Look at how dramatic you are.”

Once Li Zihao realized who it was, he let out a “Che” sound. “This is called being vivid. What do you know?”

Zuo Yi stood up, patted his shoulder, and teased, “You should not have come to the PE University. You should have gone to the Acting Department with Sister Xiao. Your future would definitely be limitless.”

“Screw you. Do not be bitter. I am in a good mood today, so I will not trade insults with you.” Li Zihao bobbed his head happily as he walked up the stairs.

Zuo Yi slapped him on the butt and asked, “Did you win five million?”

“Young man, you need to expand your horizons. Aim for a bigger goal. I would not even look twice at five million.” Li Zihao intentionally swayed his hips at the second floor landing, acting coy and arrogant.

“Wow, your ego is so big it nearly blew the roof off this dormitory.”

The two of them joked around as they returned to the dorm, washed up, and turned out the lights. Zuo Yi spent several more hours refreshing WeChat, but there was still no new friend notification. It looked like he was headed for another night of insomnia.

A sudden burst of giggling came from the bunk diagonally above him. Oh, so someone else was still awake.

Zuo Yi poked his head out and called softly, “Brother Hao?”

Li Zihao responded in a whisper, “What?”

Receiving the signal, Zuo Yi flipped out of bed and climbed onto Li Zihao’s top bunk in a flash.

Li Zihao, squeezed against the wall, said in horror, “Holy crap, brother! It is a dark and windy night, and there are other people in the dorm. You, you, you, do not do anything reckless!”

“I cannot sleep. Talk to me.” Zuo Yi lay on his side, arms crossed, maintaining a safe distance from Li Zihao.

Li Zihao kicked him. “You brat, you scared me twice in one night. If I go limp from the fright, believe it or not, I will chop yours off too.”

Zuo Yi swatted his leg away. “Stop joking. Tell me about Sister Guan Guan. Based on your accents, you both are locals from Jingxi, right?”

“Yeah. Guan and I have been neighbors since we were kids. We were in the same class throughout elementary, middle, and high school. Our families have been close since the previous generation,” Li Zihao answered seriously.

Zuo Yi was puzzled. “If you were always in the same class, why is she a year ahead of you in college?”

“I repeated a year just to be closer to her,” Li Zihao recalled. “Back then, Guan Guan already had one foot in Jingxi University, but I failed the college entrance exam and could barely get into a second tier school. The schools suitable for me were all out of province. If I had gone, I would have been separated from her. You do not know how I chose to repeat a year without a second thought. No one could convince me otherwise. My dad did not expect me to get into a top tier university. He said it was enough as long as I could go to college. He had it all planned out; if I could not get in, he would send me abroad to study business management.”

“And then you came to Beijing PE University for Sister Guan Guan. Even though it is not the same school, the gates are only four kilometers apart.”

Zuo Yi could not help but feel moved. Their obsession with coming to Beijing was so similar. But he was here to pursue love. Li Zihao, a gay man, could not possibly be here for love with Sister Guan Guan.

Turns out a gay man’s devotion to friendship can reach this level, Zuo Yi thought to himself, deeply admiring Li Zihao’s sacrifice. As the moonlight hit half of Li Zihao’s face, Zuo Yi saw it as a holy glow.

“Four kilometers is still quite far. I want to say goodbye to the positive distance between us soon,” Li Zihao said to himself.

Saying goodbye to positive distance? That would mean a negative distance.

Zuo Yi realized something was wrong. He studied Li Zihao in the dark for a long time. Could it be that he even desired his best friend’s body? Within three seconds, the holy glow he saw around Li Zihao vanished, replaced by the perceived lecherousness of a beast’s fantasies.

“Brother Hao, if Qi Yan finds out about this thought of yours, I guarantee he will beat you to death,” Zuo Yi coughed lightly, giving a seemingly casual reminder.

Li Zihao was stunned. “What right does that Qi kid have to beat me regarding my business with Guan Guan?”

Zuo Yi thought, He is her boyfriend. If he does not beat you, who should?

“As Sister Guan Guan’s boyfriend, why would he not have the right? You are using the ‘gay bestie’ title as a cover to desire her body. That is pretty scummy.”

“…”

“Zuo Yi! What kind of sleepwalking bullshit are you talking about in the middle of the night?” Li Zihao was furious and slapped Zuo Yi’s thigh.

What was this about using a “gay bestie” title to desire her body? What the hell was he talking about?

Li Zihao kept talking in a low, rapid voice, giving Zuo Yi no chance to speak. “Since when is Guan Guan dating Qi Yan? Did Qi Yan say it himself? Also, since when am I fucking gay? What ‘gay title’? Zuo Yi, explain yourself clearly!”

Zuo Yi was shocked. This was a huge misunderstanding. “You are not gay?”

“Who told you I was?” Li Zihao rolled his eyes and retorted.

“On the first day in the dorm, did you not ask everyone if they discriminated against homosexuals? I thought you were one. Wait, so you like Sister Guan Guan?”

Zuo Yi finally caught on.

“Are you brainless, kid? If I did not like her, why would I repeat a year?” Li Zihao became more upset as he spoke, nearly squeezing out a few tears. “It is impossible. Guan Guan said she would wait for me. How could she be dating that Qi kid? She never mentioned it to me.”

“Actually, it was you who reminded me before that their relationship was unusual. Sigh! Do not be too sad. My childhood friend is just that excellent. Who would not fall for him?” Zuo Yi exhaled a heavy sigh. Even he was addicted to liking Qi Yan.

Li Zihao’s composure broke. It felt like ten thousand geese were screaming in his heart. “Fuck, it is true!”

Ji Yuxin, in the opposite bed, finally could not take it anymore. He sat straight up and protested gloomily, “What are you two chatting about so excitedly in the middle of the night? You woke me up!”

The two of them immediately shut up. Zuo Yi crept back to his bottom bunk and tossed and turned. Great, now there was another heartbroken, sleepless person tonight.

The next day, neither Zuo Yi nor Li Zihao had the energy for their 8:00 AM class. They called their counselor to ask for leave, using the same excuse: they had the flu and had infected each other.

Zuo Yi thought to himself that “infecting each other” was technically true, but it was not the flu; it was a heartbreak!

In the afternoon, Zuo Yi dragged his heavy body to training. He could skip class, but physical training could not stop. He still had that much discipline. By the time he finished, it was already dark. Outside the training hall, someone was waiting with a slumped back, looking like a stray dog. Zuo Yi walked closer and saw it was the newly heartbroken “stray dog,” Li Zihao.

“Why are you here?” Zuo Yi asked weakly.

Li Zihao hung his head. “It is a lonely night. Where should I put my heart?”

Zuo Yi understood. He was feeling empty and lonely and wanted to vent. “Where do you want to go? Just say it. I will go with you.”

Li Zihao’s eyes lit up. He had to admit, Zuo Yi always knew exactly what he was thinking. “Let’s go to a bar for a drink.”

“Let’s go. We do not have classes tomorrow anyway, since it is Saturday.” Zuo Yi wanted a drink too. He had wanted to use alcohol to drown his sorrows for a long time.

The two brothers in misery headed to a bar. This was Zuo Yi’s second time at SKYBAR. This time, they did not book a booth. Instead, they sat at the bar and let the bartender mix various cocktails. Some cocktails were perfectly sweet and sour and went down very easily. Zuo Yi treated them like juice, downing them glass after glass.

Feeling the buzz, Zuo Yi remembered a classic line. He raised his cocktail to Li Zihao’s eyes. “Brother Hao, tonight we gather here. I hope that our future lives together will.”

Li Zihao interrupted slurringly, “Rot and stink.”

“No, no, no! It is glow and shine!” Zuo Yi giggled and downed a full glass of Zombie in one go.

“Fine! Then let us glow and shine together in the future!” Li Zihao also downed a glass of Negroni.

The two of them drank comfortably and obliviously in the bar. Feeling that cocktails were not enough, they opened a bottle of XO and started drinking it neat, completely unaware that danger was approaching.

As Li Zihao drank, he suddenly felt a chill down his back. He said to Zuo Yi, who was leaning his head against the bar, “Zuo Yi, did you just feel a gust of cold wind behind us?”

Zuo Yi laughed and said slurringly, “You drank too much, Brother Hao. That is just the bar’s air conditioning.”

“No, really, I have goosebumps,” Li Zihao explained.

Zuo Yi waved his hand and stopped responding because he had completely passed out drunk.

As it turned out, Li Zihao’s feeling was correct. Guan Guan had been staring at his back for ten minutes. The fire in her eyes was enough to burn the entire SKYBAR to the ground.

Seeing that one had already collapsed, Guan Guan stepped forward and grabbed Li Zihao by the ear from behind, looking like a fierce demon in the night. “You have grown bold, have you not? Coming here without telling me?”

“Ow, ow, ow!” The pain sobered Li Zihao right up. He turned around and saw it was Guan Guan. Only then did he remember that Guan Guan had a performance today.

Guan Guan owned 30% of this bar. She used to go on stage every weekend to play a few sets to warm up the crowd. She had not performed much recently, so Li Zihao had forgotten about it.

Forty minutes later, Guan Guan and Li Zihao were at the bar entrance, supporting the unconscious Zuo Yi as they finally waited for Qi Yan.

“Sorry, he got your childhood friend brother drunk,” Guan Guan explained first.

Qi Yan looked deeply at Li Zihao. Li Zihao got angry just seeing Qi Yan and rolled his eyes. Guan Guan gave him a hard pinch on the back, making him gasp in pain.

“Sorry for the trouble. I will take him back first. You two should go back and rest early too.” Qi Yan expressionlessly took over the heavy body of Zuo Yi and hailed a taxi to leave the noisy environment.

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