Music to my ears - Zhuo Zhi

Chapter 44 - The Talk

Hands clasped tightly under his chin and elbows propped on the area right above his knees, Zhuo Zhi stared out blankly in front of him. He was NOT having this talk with Jiale, not if he could help it.

Zhuo Zhi internally cursed himself. Why did he just have to be a good friend and stop for Jiale? Why couldn't have he just walked away the moment he saw Jiale?

Zhuo Zhi's eyes slowly slid toward the door, feeling a strong urge to escape. Was it too late to leave? Maybe he could still make a run for it, and worry about avoiding Jiale tomorrow.

"Zhuo Zhi. Zhuo Zhi! Are you even listening to me?"

Jiale's frustrated tone snapped Zhuo Zhi out of his gloomy, miserable thoughts.

After a brief moment of contemplating, Zhuo Zhi's gaze flitted up at Jiale, who was pacing around, humoring Jiale by finally acknowledging his presence.

"Yes," Zhuo Zhi simply replied, before returning his gaze to the door. This was a lie and both Zhuo Zhi and Jiale knew it. Zhuo Zhi had tuned Jiale out the moment Jiale had said he wanted to talk about Zhihao and Zhuo Zhi's feelings for her.

Zhuo Zhi's eyebrow twitched. How did Jiale of all people find out anyway? It's not like he was being too obvious, right?

"Right, I'm going to just restart from the beginning, then, every time you don't listen until you do."

If Jiale noticed, then Zhuo Zhi couldn't imagine who else noticed too.  Qiao Chen had already confronted him about this in front of Siyang, so that made two. And now Jiale...

"And before you even think about it, don't try to deny your feelings because I know you have them."

Zhuo Zhi didn't doubt for a second that Jiale would spill the secret with Dachi, if he hadn't done so already, probably wailing about how he didn't want his future nieces and nephews to look like Zhuo Zhi.

"Zhuo Zhi, are you listening?"

Although it was already quite a far-fetched and most certainly made up scenario, Zhuo Zhi lowered his eyebrows in mild irritation. He was beginning to feel offended by his wild thoughts.

I'm not that ugly, I know I'm not.. Right? While Zhuo Zhi knew that he wasn't (subjectively - in his opinion) the most attractive man, he was still rather confident in his appearance.

Normally. His rapidly spiraling thoughts were beginning to make him feel a tiny bit insecure. Wait, what if Zhihao has a type?

Jiale finally sat down in the seat next to Zhuo Zhi's looking directly at him. "Zhuo Zhi, I swear to god if you're not listening again."

What if I'm not her type? Wait what even is her type? Zhuo Zhi's mind suddenly popped up with more questions. And worst of all, Does she even find me attractive?

"Zhuo Zhi!" Jiale exasperatedly snapped his fingers in the man's face multiple times, effectively bringing Zhuo Zhi back to reality.

Oops.

"Sorry, you were saying?" Zhuo Zhi absentmindedly asked, making Jiale groan and throw his hands up in the air.

"Look, I don't want to do this anymore than you do, but I'm doing it because I have to." Jiale heavily exhaled before continuing. "I'm going to restart this conversation and if you tune me out one more time I will throw a rock at you. So, please, try not to make this anymore difficult than it already is."

Zhuo Zhi let out a sigh but uncrossed his hands and leaned back into his seat, defeated. He couldn't let Jiale damage his face, even if it was apparently ugly.