"Huh?"
"What?"
"Wait what did you just say?" Zhihao pointed a finger at Zhuo Zhi.
"I don't know, what did I say?"
The two stared at each other but Zhihao refused to back down. It didn't matter if Zhuo Zhi was going to play dumb, she was going to pry those words back out of him if she had to.
"No I heard you, say it again!"
"Say what??"
"You and I both know what you said, just say it!"
"If you already know what I said then why would you make me say it again??" Zhuo Zhi exclaimed.
"Maybe because I want to hear you say it again!!" Zhihao matched his volume.
She suddenly became too aware of how loud the two were being, especially for being in a rowdy cafeteria at a high school full of high spirited teenagers.
"Well I don't wanna!" Zhuo Zhi stubbornly crossed his arms and turned his face away.
"Okay fine, fine." Zhihao sighed and slowly smoothed her the wisps of hair down. She inhaled deeply before changing tactics.
"Did you mean it?"
"Mean what?" Zhuo Zhi struggled to ignore how close in proximity Zhihao was to him, how prominent her smell was, how fast his heartbeat was racing. This was a mistake. He shouldn't have said anything. He shouldn't have said anything and now Zhihao would hate her forever and-
"Did you mean what you said?" Zhihao's voice cut through his thoughts which were ironically all filled with her.
Reluctantly, Zhuo Zhi met Zhihao's gaze, which flitted between his eyes as if searching for something. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and dropped her gaze before jerking his head in a singular, stiff nod.
"Yes."
Zhihao uttered a soft "oh."
Zhuo Zhi's response was simple, yet it was all she had wanted to hear. She visibly relaxed and sat back into her seat, allowing Zhuo Zhi to finally breathe normally again.
He likes me... Zhuo Zhi likes me.
Suddenly the realization hit Zhihao like a train. Helikesmehelikesmehelikesmehelikesmehelikesmehelikesmehe-
"Sorry," Zhuo Zhi apologized in a tight voice, making Zhihao's head snap up in alarm.
"What are you sorry for? I like you too!" She blurted out, in a rush to stop Zhuo Zhi's thoughts before another big misunderstanding could unfold and cause them to have a lack of miscommunication for 5+ chapters.
"Oh." Zhuo Zhi looked positively dumbfounded. "Really?"
Zhihao vigorously nodded her head in response. "Of course I do!"
"Oh."
"I just had to pause for a moment to process the idea that you like me too."
Too. Zhuo Zhi had never heard such a sweeter word in his life than too. Too, too, too. It very well had just become his favorite word in the whole wide world.
Zhihao smiled shyly at him, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to hear that you like me too everyday."
Zhuo Zhi fought back the impulse to grab his chest at Zhihao's words. Today was going to be the end of him, he just knew it. And that was absolutely a-okay with him. He could get a dozen eggs thrown at him, ruining his favorite shirt in the process, and he wouldn't be able to care less. Even if Jiale was to talk his ear off for an hour or two, and then more, Zhuo Zhi was fine with it. In fact, he was more than fine with it.
Realizing that Zhihao was probably expecting a response, Zhuo Zhi blinked back into reality. As expected, the girl was looking down, quietly fidgeting with her fingers in her lap.
A smile slowly crept up Zhuo Zhi's face, and without a second thought, he grabbed Zhihao's hand and pulled it into his own lap.
"Me too, dummy."
For the rest of lunch the two had big, goofy grins pasted on their faces as their clammy hands stayed clasped together.
And even though Zhuo Zhi was right handed, he didn't mind using his left hand instead to hold his chopsticks every once and a while.
~~~
Because the cafeteria probably wasn't the best place to confess, the pair decided it was best to have a full conversation about it after school, once Zhuo Zhi was done with tennis practice.
So, Zhuo Zhi painstakingly returned each ball lobbed at him, forcing himself to smile and nod every time Siyang muttered something in his ear.
He probably could've been cooler about it, but patience wasn't his strong suit. At least, not when it came to Zhihao. It was difficult, forcing himself to sit through practice when he had better places to be.
The long wait was definitely worth it, though, when Siyang finally deemed the team's practice satisfactory and let them go.
Once he finished packing his things up and said his goodbyes to the team as naturally as possible, Zhuo Zhi made a beeline to the nearby boba shop where he and Zhihao had agreed to meet.
The bell on the door made a ding as he entered, and he didn't miss the way Zhihao's eyes lit up when she spotted him.
"Zhuo Zhi!" She excitedly waved at him from her table in the back, clearly still giddy from earlier.
Zhuo Zhi himself, though physically worn out from practice, was in high spirits too as he made his way to Zhihao. He happily took the seat next to her, ignoring her hands outstretched to offer the seat across from her.
Zhihao snorted at this. Real smooth, I see you,
"I already ordered you a drink, I think it was lychee milk tea last time?" She gently nudged the drink toward the man before taking a sip of her own matching one to hide her nerves.
Zhuo Zhi took the drink gratefully, though without some complaint. Not that he truly minded it of course, because Zhihao buying him boba would give him an excuse to buy her one some other time.
Zhuo Zhi made a mental note to ask the girl out on a boba date later.
Zhihao waited for the man to take a few sips of his boba before speaking up again.
"Sooo."
A smile spread across Zhuo Zhi's face as he matched Zhihao's posture, propping his chin on a palm.
"Sooooo," he repeated, dragging out his sentence.
"Sup?"
Zhuo Zhi burst into laughter at the unexpected line.
"You're so uncool," he said lamely through fits of giggles.
Filled with relief that their conversation was flowing easily, Zhihao allowed herself to relax and pouted.
"Not true, I'm so cool!"
"Nuh uh," Zhuo Zhi shook his head, though the quirk of his lips said otherwise. "Definitely not."
Zhihao rolled her eyes but yielded. "Okay fine, agree to disagree. So how was practice?"
Zhuo Zhi paused, biting his lip. "It was alright but uh, I think Siyang may have noticed that there's something going on about.. uh you and me."
Zhihao cocked her head. "What do you mean?"
"Well I mean.. I was a bit grumpy today because I really wanted practice to end faster, and I think he may have picked up on that," Zhuo Zhi explained.
"It hasn't even been a few hours, how did you already manage to blow our cover?" Zhihao laughed.
Zhuo Zhi crossed his arms and furrowed his brows. "I was excited," he said petulantly.
Zhihao's heart throbbed. Too cute.
Zhihao hid a smile as she soothingly patted Zhuo Zhi's arm. "It's okay, I doubt really anyone else noticed."
Zhuo Zhi bit his lip again. About that..
"Um yeah speaking of that I'm pretty sure there's a bet going on with the team about us," he spat out the words as fast as he could before he could regret them.
"What?" Zhihao did a double take, turning her whole body to face him properly. "What do you mean? How many people are in on the bet?"
Zhuo Zhi nervously chuckled. "I mean I don't know much about it but I'd say just a few people.."
"Who are those people, are Jiale and Dachi included? Please tell me they're not," Zhihao panicked. She did NOT need her two brothers knowing and/or meddling with her love life. Whatsoever. She would never hear the end of it.
Zhuo Zhi played with his straw's wrapper on the table before answering.
"Welllll.. If it makes you feel better, I kind of already got Jiale's and Dachi's approval to uh like you. Of course the talks were kind of against my will and way too long for comfort if you ask me," he muttered the last part under breath.
Zhihao blinked, getting whiplash from these abrupt bouts of information.
"Dude. What?"
Zhuo Zhi dismissively waved a hand in the air. "Long story, I'll tell you some other time." Long night too, he added on in his head.
Zhihao raised a brow but dropped it, seeing how Zhuo Zhi genuinely looked a bit ill thinking about it.
She would have to have a talk with Jiale and Dachi about these talks though, it would seem... she was not looking forward to that.
"Well then.. how long do you think the bet's been going then?" She reluctantly returned to the previous topic.
Zhuo Zhi scratched his head. "I do recall that Qiao Chen started acting weird about you around me a while back, so I'd say then? I suspect a couple of months at least."
Zhihao stared at Zhuo Zhi, her mouth agape.
"Qiao Chen? How did Qiao Chen notice? He notices nothing!"
Zhuo Zhi shrugged. "Like I'd know."
Zhihao twiddled with her half-empty drink. "Huh. So we're the last ones to notice then."
"I guess so."
"Wow."
"You know if I'm being honest," Zhuo Zhi began, making Zhihao look up. "I had this whole thing planned out where I would woo you and stuff and be cool to make you say yes to a date with me, but then you just had to ruin it by forcing me to confess."
Zhihao snorted. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. You can still do all that if you want to, I don't mind."
"If only you gave me just one more week for it to be perfect..."
Zhihao patted the sulking man on the back in attempt to console him.
"By the way, this doesn't count as a date just because you ruined my plan," Zhuo Zhi frowned at Zhihao, pointing the pointy end of his straw at her.
"Okay okay, whatever you say," Zhihao comfortingly rubbed circles on the man's back before pulling her hand back. "Hey just wondering, do you know who's winning the bet on us so far?"
Zhuo Zhi thought about it for a moment. "Mm my best guess would be A-Yan, he probably calculated everything
Zhihao nodded. "Makes sense, that seems about right."
"Mhm."
"It would be a great shame if we were to mess up the bet by not telling anyone," Zhihao slyly peeked over at Zhuo Zhi.
"It truly would be."
The two met each other's gaze with smirks pasted on their faces.
"But we wouldn't do that, would we?" Zhihao asked, gently pushing her boba cup.
Zhuo Zhi shook his head. "Surely not, what horrible people we would be."
The two glanced at each other and simultaneously snorted.
"We're definitely doing that."
Zhuo Zhi nodded in absolute agreement. "For sure."
Content, Zhihao sighed and leaned forward on the table to rest her cheek on her arms.
"I'm so happy right now," she stated, softly closing her eyes.
"Why's that?" Zhuo Zhi asked, though he already suspected the answer.
Zhihao lifted her head just slightly to give Zhuo Zhi a pointed look.
"What?" Zhuo Zhi raised a brow, amusement clearly showing through his smile. "Do I have something on my face?
"Nothing," Zhihao flipped her head so Zhuo Zhi couldn't see her face. "You know, you have a really nice smile. I like it," she murmured quietly.
Oh.
Zhuo Zhi's fingers self-consciously flew to his lips, his heart panging just a bit.
He hadn't thought it was possible to fall for Zhihao anymore than he already had, but clearly, he had been proven wrong, by none other than Zhihao herself.
Only Zhihao could prove him wrong so easily, it seemed.
Not that he was complaining.
~~~
A/N: sorry y'all I really wasn't trying to leave you guys on a cliffhanger like that, I realized that bc I was impulsive af and wrote that last line of that last chap on a whim, I created many plotholes, so it took me a while to fix em as best as I could in my planning. Made quite a few major changes in my planning of future chaps bc my impulsive decision threw quite a few wrenches into the original storyline lmao. Still have some fixing to go through tho
And then after that and break when school started, all of my teachers decided to give me 3 giant projects plus ofc really long assignments right before exam week, had 3 back to back presentations that went along w the projects as well to do
And then I had ero auditions where I literally got so stressed and panicked that I failed miserably and played absolutely nothing like I practiced 3+ hours nearly everyday for for perfection for months. So anyway, did not in fact make it into ero and felt like an absolute failure bc my life revolved around that dang audition for forever and then I listened to emo music for like a week 😃😃😃 is all good now tho bc had a heart to heart w my lovely mama and sobbed my heart out and stuff
I love my mama
I'm actually so mad at myself tho bc I genuinely poured my heart and soul into my practice for so frickin long to get it just perfect that even my teacher and the most talented violinist in the class approved of me... just to mess up so bad bc my performance anxiety is an actual pizza shyte
Gah.
Anyway so glad exam week started this week bc I get senior exemptions and get a whole week AND a day of break. Which I am very much appreciative of
Also y'all what tf does it mean. If a guy (the guy) sends u a TikTok about being delulu and falling in love w someone and like building a whole azz life w them in their head bc??? Literally panicked asf and asked like three of my friends on help on what it means bc bro???? Tell me I'm not delulu 💀💀💀💀💀
And then I sent him a post on Insta about like when u get really excited talking about common interests w ppl right after bc that's literally us but then it somehow turned into both of us apologizing bc I'm bad at talking to him in person (it's the nerves I swear he actually makes me so nervous) and he's bad at talking at night (hes one of those gts at 10-11pm ish ppl I'm one of those gts at 2-3am ppl). Gah
And then yesterday i went to a park downtown w a couple of my friends including him where we just hung out, went down a buncha slides, there was this giant wooden red cardinal thing where you could climb it was so cool. And then we all played tag, ping pong, hula hoops, sat at a fire, got some ice cream, nerded out together a bit about quicksilver from xmen. Very nice indeed. Finally found a deal breaker from him tho, he likes those salty ice creams??? Like he likes salted caramel, chocolate, etc. and also pineapple pizza. Heartbreak 💔💔💔
Okay finally done talking, srsly srsly sry for the long wait y'all. Decided not to drag it out any longer and tried to make it super duper cute (honestly had me cringing from the overly sweet scenes at some points ME WHEN???), I hope that's enough for ur forgiveness :')
I hope i wrote it from the perspective of two awkward teens in the middle of their lovey dovey and good friends staged so it's a mix of both, but I really have no experience. Its all just how I'd imagine life would go like if two good friends liked each other 💀
Projection ahaha
Transitions between scenes aren't really as smooth as I'd like, def not my best work here ngl lmfao but hey at least we finally got to the confession?
- Apple <3