To My Youth [BL]

[24] Next To You (1/2)

𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.

"Why are the floors so dirty?" he groaned in pain. "Are people running through caves and mountains to get to school?"

With the students waiting for the evening study classes to start, Gu Xiao aggressively swept Class A's floor.

After cleaning the floors and wiping the chalk marking on the blackboard, he slumped down on his seat and buried his head in his arms. Sleeping again.

Before evening study, he still had time, so it wouldn't hurt to take a quick nap. Recalling back to what he said to Lan Yuning about chasing after one's dreams, this was something Gu Xiao had only realised a year ago. That no matter how much he pleased others and made them proud, no matter how much praise they gave him, he despised every moment of it. Though it appeared Lan Yuning was still stuck in this loop.

He remembered the time he first had a proper conversation with Lan Yuning—if it could even be called a conversation—when they were cleaning this classroom.

He used to find silence so discomforting because there was nothing to distract him from his asphyxiating thoughts that were like violence to his head.

Now, it was strangely different.

There was something else distracting him. A certain person. He wondered what Lan Yuning did with his drawing of him. Or even the note he wrote to him during the night he got hit by his father. Did he throw it? Just remembering the face of shock when he handed that drawing to him prompted a laughter to escape his lips. 

"Student President... I miss him already," Gu Xiao uttered.

The orange hues of the sky washed the classroom in warm tints, overlapping the floors with the shadows of the furniture and trees.

With his eyes sunken and all energy escaping his body, he ultimately fell into complete relaxation.

Half his face was exposed to the cool air while the other half sunk in his elbows.

Perhaps ten minutes had passed, but he wasn't fully absorbed in sleep. He could still distinguish the footsteps of students and the voices of teachers.

Amongst those chatters and noises, the door to Class A slid open, and light footsteps walked in.

Gu Xiao didn't bother lifting his eyelids to see who it was and continued trying to get a good nap.

The person who entered the classroom paused near the front cupboard, though he was probably just preparing their materials for the next class.

The light footsteps gradually made their way towards him and stayed for a while.

The screech of the chair being shifted back from the desk right in front of him sounded, and the classmate sat down.

The silence returned, but it wasn't unsettling; instead, it was comforting. Suddenly, he felt these fingertips softly stroke past his hair within the quiet classroom, brushing it away from his cheek and behind his ears.

The touch wasn't harsh. It was as though this gentle brush could instantly alleviate all the stress and troubles.

Gu Xiao wasn't sure if he should lift his eyelids or stay still. It was strange. He was confused about who would do this.

The hand withdrew itself, but the warmth still lingered on him. The comfort brought upon the way they played with his hair stirred his desires that with each moment of contact, his shoulders kept tensing and then relaxing.