My Online Date is My Roommate - Chapter 21

After happily closing his bed curtains, Jiang Mingbo sat in deep thought. He was pondering how to reply in a way that would dazzle his “boyfriend” without being outdone. No matter what, he couldn’t let himself be bested. He searched his mind but couldn’t come up with a line more nauseatingly sweet than the one he’d received. In a contest of being “extra,” he refused to lose to an idiot like Fei Wenxu. He knit his brows, staring at the words on his screen.

Suddenly, another message popped up.

Fish: [Why aren’t you saying anything? Did you fall asleep?]

Jiang Mingbo’s brows furrowed even tighter.

Little Fish: [mua~] Little Fish: [Kiss.jpg]

Fei Wenxu paused. He didn’t quite understand the intent behind this message, but unlike the playful kissing emojis Little Fish had sent before, their relationship was now “official.” He pressed his lips together tightly.

Fish: [What’s wrong?]

Jiang Mingbo’s eyes glittered with mischief in the light of his phone screen.

Little Fish: [Nothing. Is it wrong for me to kiss my boyfriend?] Little Fish: [MuahMuah.jpg]

The moment he hit send, Jiang Mingbo turned his head and almost gagged. The mere thought of actually kissing Fei Wenxu’s face made him feel sick to his stomach.

While he was shivering with goosebumps, Fei Wenxu separated only by a thin bed curtain, was having a completely different experience. He watched the screen fill with floating red hearts and let out a smile.

Fish: [Received. Kiss back.] Fish: [Kiss.jpg]

A dull thud suddenly echoed through the dark, quiet dorm. Jiang Mingbo had been so shocked his hand slipped, sending his phone plummeting directly onto the bridge of his nose. Tears welled up instantly from the pain. He gritted his teeth, suppressing a groan. Luckily, it was late enough that everyone was asleep, and Fei Wenxu was wearing headphones; no one noticed his blunder.

Clutching his nose, Jiang Mingbo stared at the “kisses” on the screen in disbelief. Who would have thought that a “cool guy” like Fei Wenxu would suddenly send such sappy messages? He sniffed hard, forcing his tears back.

Little Fish: [Love you.jpg] Little Fish: [I’m going to sleep now. See you tomorrow!]

If he didn’t end the conversation now, Jiang Mingbo was afraid he’d faint from the sheer cringe. He sent the message and immediately exited the game. He didn’t want to say another word…

Fish: [See you tomorrow. Good night.]

Fei Wenxu signed off considerately. He felt that he might truly be falling for Little Fish. Staring at the back-and-forth of nauseating dialogue, he realized that a month or two ago, he would have found this meaningless. Now, however, it made his heart race. It wasn’t that he hadn’t met cute girls before, but he had never acted this… stupidly. He smiled and turned off his phone. Perhaps this was what being in love felt like?

Because he had successfully “hooked” Fei Wenxu, Jiang Mingbo was in a great mood. He tossed his phone aside and slept until nearly eleven the next morning.

When he woke up, Tan Rui was still lounging in bed. Tan Rui was wearing headphones but spoke up the moment he heard Jiang Mingbo move. “Bo, you up?”

“Mmh, I’m up,” Jiang Mingbo replied. He glanced at Tan Rui, whose headphones were pulled tight over his ears. “How is your hearing so sharp while wearing those?”

Tan Rui pulled the headset down. “They’re broken. My new ones are still in the mail. I just feel like something’s missing if I don’t wear them.”

Jiang Mingbo rolled his eyes. “You’re weird.”

Tan Rui sat up. “What are we eating?”

“I’m going to the cafeteria,” Jiang Mingbo said. “I don’t want takeout today.”

Tan Rui’s eyes lit up. “Then my lunch depends on you!”

Yu Xuan slowly reached a hand out from behind his own bed curtain. “Bring me a portion too.”

Jiang Mingbo nodded. He pulled back his curtain and noticed that Fei Wenxu’s bed was empty, and he wasn’t at his desk either. He must have gone out long ago.

He was curious, but he didn’t want to show that he was paying too much attention to Fei Wenxu. He pretended to be casual. “How can you guys be so lazy? You should learn from ‘Fish’ more.”

Tan Rui rolled over. “Weekends are for rotting in the dorm. I can’t compare to Fish; he left at eight this morning. He’s not human!”

Jiang Mingbo changed his clothes and hopped down from his bed, feeling irritable. Sometimes he couldn’t understand himself; he clearly loathed Fei Wenxu, yet he was constantly curious about him. Hearing Tan Rui’s admiration only made him more annoyed. After a few dismissive remarks, he went to the balcony to wash up.

He narrowed his eyes and opened his secondary WeChat account. Sure enough, there were several messages from Fei Wenxu sent around seven in the morning.

Fish: [Good morning] Fish: [The weather is nice today. I’m going to the gym. Reply when you wake up.]

Jiang Mingbo stopped brushing his teeth. The guy was at the gym before eight? He stared blankly at his reflection in the mirror, then felt a sudden surge of unexplained annoyance. He tugged at his T-shirt and struck a few poses in the mirror. He had no belly fat, though his abs weren’t exactly defined. He couldn’t be that much worse than Fei Wenxu, right?

He fell into deep thought, his toothbrush hanging from his mouth. He didn’t hear the dorm door open.

When Fei Wenxu walked onto the balcony to wash his hands, he came face-to-face with Jiang Mingbo, who was still lifting the bottom of his shirt. Jiang Mingbo froze, his face turning beet-red as he let go of the fabric. He gave Fei Wenxu a fierce glare.

Fei Wenxu found it amusing. He had seen the pale, clean skin of the other man’s waist and abdomen. Why is a grown man so pale and clean? He let out his signature smirk one tinged with slight contempt and turned to the faucet.

Jiang Mingbo scrambled to hide his phone and frantically fixed his shirt. Talk about bad luck. Running into that prick first thing in the morning was embarrassing enough, but doing it while posing like that was just stupid!

Fei Wenxu seemed to be in a good mood. Despite seeing Jiang Mingbo’s red ears, he didn’t say anything sarcastic. He washed and dried his hands in silence, then walked back into the dorm.

Little Fish hadn’t replied yet. She was probably still sleeping off the late night they spent “chopping trees” in-game. He opened his gallery and found a photo he’d taken while eating at a restaurant. Having started his first online relationship, Fei Wenxu had actually looked up “things to share with your online partner.” At the top of the list was sharing meals. Even though he found it a bit bizarre, he still recorded what he was eating.

Fish: [Today’s lunch] Fish: [Image]

The phone in Jiang Mingbo’s pocket buzzed twice. He finished washing his face and dried it with a towel. His eyes followed Fei Wenxu as the latter packed his things, changed his shoes, and left again.

Once the door locked, Jiang Mingbo finally exhaled. He reflected on his behavior with regret and vowed never to lose face in front of that idiot again.

He pulled out his phone and looked at Fei Wenxu’s profile picture. The more he looked, the more it annoyed him. He opened the chat and saw a photo of an exquisitely plated meal. He curled his lip. Who are you trying to impress?

Jiang Mingbo typed back with a hint of malicious sarcasm.

Little Fish: [That looks so fancy. I’ve never had that before.]

Fei Wenxu replied almost instantly.

Fish: [I’ll take you there next time. The food is pretty good.]

Jiang Mingbo rolled his eyes. Who wants to eat with you? I’d lose my appetite just looking at you.

Despite his thoughts, he sent several happy emojis.

Little Fish: [Wow, I’m looking forward to it!] Little Fish: [Are you back at the dorm after the gym?]

Fish: [Yeah] Fish: [Correct. And you? Just woke up?]

Jiang Mingbo walked into the cafeteria and put his phone away to order. He didn’t care much for food; his cafeteria diet was an unchanging rotation of the same few dishes. It was so repetitive that Tan Rui used to wail whenever he saw his tray: “Bo, let’s change it up for once!”

He ordered three dishes and habitually asked the lady behind the counter for an extra scoop of rice. After paying, he found a quiet corner to sit down.

The phone buzzed again. He bit his chopsticks and pulled it out.

Fish: [Where are you?] Fish: [What are you having for lunch?]

Jiang Mingbo scanned the table. All the cafeteria tables looked the same; he wouldn’t be caught. He snapped a photo.

Little Fish: [Image] Little Fish: [I’ve been up for a while! I’m eating now~ The cafeteria food is actually pretty good today.]

Fei Wenxu didn’t go to the cafeteria often and didn’t know what the tables looked like, but the photo still made him pause. It was a standard meal three dishes and a soup but Fei Wenxu stared in confusion at the mountain of rice. Do girls really eat this much?

Fish: [Are you eating alone?]

Jiang Mingbo raised an eyebrow. Checking up on me?

Little Fish: [Yeah, my roommates all ordered takeout, so I had to come to the cafeteria by myself.]

Jiang Mingbo was intentionally crafting a persona of someone without many close friends. This would make it easier to dump Fei Wenxu later without him being able to ask around. Plus, a lonely “Little Fish” without even a lunch buddy would surely make Fei Wenxu feel sorry for her!

His phone buzzed again. Jiang Mingbo took one look and wanted to reach through the screen to pummel Fei Wenxu.

Fish: [You can finish all that rice by yourself?] Fish: [Shocked.jpg]

Jiang Mingbo looked down at the overflowing tray of rice. Dammit, a slip-up. He always asked for an extra scoop out of habit. He blinked and decided to play the “offended” card.

Little Fish: [Angry.jpg] Little Fish: [What do you mean by that? Can girls not eat that much? Who made a rule that girls have to eat less?]

Jiang Mingbo fired off three angry questions in a row, giving Fei Wenxu no time to explain. After sending them, he peeked at two slim girls eating nearby. One meat dish, one veggie, and a tiny ball of rice. Jiang Mingbo winced. Crap, girls really don’t eat as much as I do…

Visualizing the girl’s embarrassed anger on the other end, Fei Wenxu found it rather cute. He didn’t think it was a bad thing; he was just curious, as most girls he knew were constantly dieting.

Fish: [I didn’t mean it like that.]

Little Fish: [Save it. Apologize to me!]

Fei Wenxu obediently apologized: [I’m sorry, I was being stereotypical.]

He felt she was even cuter now. He opened Little Fish’s “Moments” (social feed) and saved her photos one by one. Looking closely, he noticed that while she was slim, she appeared quite tall; a larger appetite made sense.

He returned to the chat and looked at the food photo again. He wanted to study her tastes so he could continue coaxing her.

Tan Rui popped up behind him. “Fish, can I borrow your spare headphones? Mine haven’t arrived yet.”

Fei Wenxu discreetly moved his phone away and gave a generous smile, opening his drawer. “Sure, which ones do you want?”

Tan Rui waved his hand. “Bro, I’ll take whatever you give me!!”

Then, he glanced at the photo on Fei Wenxu’s screen. Tan Rui shook his head. “Whoa, that food combo takes me back to when I used to eat at the cafeteria with Bo.”

Fei Wenxu froze. He looked up at Tan Rui with an unreadable expression. “What?”

Tan Rui laughed and pointed at the photo. “Fish, you don’t go to the cafeteria so you wouldn’t know. Freshman year, Bo and I went there every day. He ate that exact same set meal every single day. I got sick of just looking at it, but he never did. He still goes to that same window every day.”

Fei Wenxu stared at the photo. A strange sense of cognitive dissonance washed over him, but the thought was fleeting. He handed over the headphones. “Here.”

Tan Rui grinned. “Thanks, Fish!”

Fei Wenxu straightened up as another message arrived from Little Fish.

Little Fish: [Hmph, I’ll reluctantly forgive you this time.] Little Fish: [GenerousPerson.jpg]

The strange thought from before vanished. Fei Wenxu typed back.

Fish: [Thank you for your generosity, Little Fish.] Fish: [When can you get online?]

Jiang Mingbo had planned to wait until evening, but he couldn’t resist Fei Wenxu’s inquiry. He smiled triumphantly: [I can get on as soon as I get back from lunch.]

Fish: [Okay, I’ll wait for you.]

The two continued to chat about nothing in particular. Whenever Jiang Mingbo didn’t know how to respond, he threw out emojis and searched online forums for answers. Before he knew it, they had been chatting for twenty minutes. After finishing his meal, he realized he had sent a long string of messages to Fei Wenxu. Feeling both disgusted and baffled, he quickly cut it off.

Little Fish: [I’m done eating!]

Fish: [Okay, waiting for you in-game.]

Jiang Mingbo packed up some food for his “starving” roommates as requested. He opened the dorm door and found Fei Wenxu already sitting at his desk with headphones on, his screen showing the game interface.

Jiang Mingbo entered with a straight face and gave the food to Tan Rui and Yu Xuan.

Tan Rui yelled, “Thanks, Bo! I was about to die of hunger.” He opened his lunchbox, got some oil on his fingers, and got up to wash his hands.

Jiang Mingbo was currently rinsing his mouth on the balcony. He saw Tan Rui coming out and quickly finished up.

Tan Rui started chatting. “Bo, what did you have for lunch?”

“The usual meal set,” Jiang Mingbo said casually. “What else?”

Tan Rui shook his head. “Tsk, tsk. I knew it. I just told Fish how you’ve been eating that for two years without getting sick of it. Sure enough, you had it again today…”

Jiang Mingbo didn’t hear the rest of what Tan Rui said. His head was buzzing. Tan Rui just told Fei Wenxu about my favorite meal set?

He felt paranoid. There was no way Fei Wenxu would link Little Fish to him just because of one comment from Tan Rui. Still, Jiang Yi looked over nervously. He saw Fei Wenxu wearing his headphones, staring calmly at his computer screen. His heart, which had jumped into his throat, finally settled back down.

He glared at Tan Rui. “You talk too much.”

Tan Rui laughed and sat back down to eat.

Jiang Mingbo took a long breath, pushed his worries aside, and climbed into his bed with his phone.

Little Fish: [I’m not back at the dorm yet. Wait five more minutes!]

Fei Wenxu replied almost instantly: [No rush. Stay safe.]

Jiang Mingbo turned off his screen and clutched his chest, warning himself: Never make such a stupid mistake again.