Chapter 72: 73

After disproving the rumour that the basketball tournament was just a place for the Sciences classes to play, all of Humanities 1, not just the players walked with a swagger, like they could make a basketball appear out of thin air for a game at any time.

Huo Ran played many school and class tournaments and he had no shortage of wins under his belt, but it was rare for him to feel so excited after one. 

None of them wanted to leave the court yet, they wanted to play some more after everyone else left.

“I’ll go buy some drinks, I want something sweet.” Huo Ran said. “Do you guys want any?”

“Yeah!” Everyone nodded.

“I’ll go with you.” Kou Chen put his jacket back on and zipped it up all the way, but he was still in shorts, so the anklet was clearly visible. He didn’t fix his rumpled hair either. 

Huo Ran was about to nod when Gao Jie came over: “You’re pretty laid-back at practice, I never expected you to be so good.”

“I’m not really.” Kou Chen smiled lightly.

“Join us?” Gao Jie pointed nearby. Apart from the Sciences 1 players, their next opponent, Sciences 8 were also there.

“Sure.” Kou Chen glanced at Huo Ran.

“I’ll join you after I get drinks.” Huo Ran said. “Have fun.”

The group went over noisily, and Huo Ran put his jacket on, skipping to the store.

He was in a pretty good mood.

He normally wouldn’t play with an opponent before the match like this, even if it was just shooting a couple hoops. If the other ended up doing really well, then it would affect their mood for the next game. 

But forget all that for today, he was in a good mood.

Not many people were in the store at the moment, most of the students were still by the basketball courts.

Huo Ran washed his hands in the sink by the door. He just got a handful of sweat touching Kou Chen’s head. 

He washed his hands, flicked them, and walked into the store as he wiped them on his pants.

“Mister, can I get a bag?” Huo Ran yelled. “I want thirty drinks, all cold.”

“One bag won’t be enough.” The owner laughed.

“Two bags then.” Huo Ran stood by the fridge. “All take them all, how many are there?” 

“Okay, let me count, are you treating everyone?” The owner asked.

“Dunno if it counts as me treating everyone.” Huo Ran handed over Kou Chen’s card. “Use this.”

The owner got two plastic bags and started putting the drinks in. Huo Ran went over to the snack aisle, wanting to get the girls something to eat.

As he turned the corner, he paused. 

Lin Wuyu was in the middle of putting snacks in a bag. The latiao section was completely empty.

“Getting snacks for your class?” Lin Wuyu asked.

“Yeah.” Huo Ran stared at the bag in his hand. “You got all the latiao?”

“Yeah, I…” Lin Wuyu peeked in the bag. Half of the space was taken by latiao. 

“Damn, so many?” Huo Ran quickly reached into the bag and took two handfuls of latiao. “I’ll take these.”

“Sure.” Lin Wuyu looked towards the door. “You’re by yourself?”

“Huh?” Huo Ran glanced at them. “Yeah, they’re all still playing.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you alone.” Lin Wuyu smiled, and continued to pick out snacks, taking half of the soy eggs too. 

“Really?” Huo Ran suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Lin Wuyu probably meant that he was always with Kou Chen. They even went to the bathroom together eight out of ten times.

He didn’t care about it much. If it were another person saying it, he wouldn’t be feeling like this either.

But it was Lin Wuyu.

The Lin Wuyu that stood on the rooftop and said: “I’m attracted to men” in front of the whole school. 

Now that was a little…

And when Lin Wuyu glanced down at his ankle, that feeling intensified.

Strong enough to make Huo Ran start to feel nervous.

“This…” Huo Ran looked down at the anklet, “It was a… birthday present.” 

He regretted it right after he said it.

Lin Wuyu started laughing.

“No… I… just, I’m not, I…” Huo Ran shut himself up. It was weird no matter how he tried to say it, so he decided to just keep quiet.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Okay.” Lin Wuyu nodded, and left with his big bag of snacks. 

Huo Ran stood by the shelves for a bit before slowly heading towards the counter. He put the latiao down, grabbed a bag, and then shoved some random snacks in.

The two big bags of drinks were pretty scary. They were insanely heavy. The snacks were okay, it looked like a big bag, but it wasn’t heavy.

Huo Ran went back to the basketball courts with the three bags. 

It’s fine.

Lin Wuyu said, ‘It’s fine’.

What does that mean?

That it was a misunderstanding? Or that it was fine that he wanted to draw a line? 

Huo Ran thought that he didn’t mind those things at all, but the first thing he did was deny it.

That made him a little panicked.

He didn’t even see Kou Chen coming towards him. He startled when Kou Chen took one of the bags from him, leaping to the side with an arm out.

“What’s wrong?” Kou Chen also startled because of his reaction. 

“How come you’re here? Aren’t you playing with them?” Huo Ran cleared his throat.

“You were gone for a while, I reckoned the stuff was heavy, so I came.” Kou Chen leaned over again, about to take the other bag. “Why did you buy so much stuff?”

His action was a bit sudden, and Huo Ran stepped back.

Kou Chen paused, and stared at him. 

A couple seconds later, he yelled: “What?!”

“I can carry these.” Huo Ran immediately explained.

“Take it then.” Kou Chen gave the bag back and turned to leave. “Damn, what were you doing? You’re acting weird, it’s affecting my mood.”

Huo Ran didn’t say anything, following Kou Chen with the three bags. 

Actually, Kou Chen always moved a lot. There was no warning for his movements, including when he kissed his face randomly.

But he never tried to dodge him.

He suddenly felt a bit apologetic.

When Kou Chen suddenly turned around again, Huo Ran didn’t wake for him to say anything, he just handed the bag over. 

“I…” Kou Chen started, and then cried, “I’m not fucking asking for a bag!”

“You’re already holding it anyways.” Huo Ran walked forwards.

“Are you okay?” Kou chen followed. “You were fine earlier, and now it’s like you got poisoned in the store or something.”

“No, I guess I’m just tired.” Huo Ran rolled his shoulder. 

“Yeah right.” Kou Chen said. “You’re always running another five kilometres after me after you’ve already done it yourself. Tired from just forty minutes of basketball? Not even the girls would get tired, why don’t you faint while you’re at it?”

“Why are you talking so much?” Huo Ran turned to him.

“I do talk more than you.” Kou Chen tsked, and gave up on asking. He swung his arm and walked in front of him.

Huo Ran sighed. 

Looking at his back, Huo Ran wondered if he was being too sensitive.

When they were nearly there, he quickened his pace and reached out to pinch the back of Kou Chen’s neck.

“Hey!” Kou Chen yelled. 

“Fuck! What are you yelling for? Am I killing you?” Huo Ran startled. It was supposed to be a teasing pinch to make him feel better and it felt awkward to begin with, and after Kou Chen’s yell, he immediately wanted to slap him.

“Feels good!” Kou chen yelled again.

Huo Ran was speechless.

“Go on, keep massaging your Uncle Kou!” Kou Chen pointed at his own shoulder. “Neck, shoulders, massage it all!” 

“Fuck off!” Huo Ran said.

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There were still a lot of people on the courts. Pretty much all of Humanities 1 were there, their class did win after all, and they won so beautifully. All of them were squeezed under the basket, no matter if they knew how to play or not. And then there were people from other classes who felt their own urge to play after that match.

No wonder Kou Chen went to find him. They couldn’t even play properly, all they could do was shoot some hoops. 

“Good thing you bought a lot.” Kou Chen said. “Or else there wouldn’t be enough.”

“I emptied out the fridge.” Huo Ran put the bags down. “Just in case of this.”

“Wow!” Tang Wei ran over. “So much! Are we having a picnic? There’s a bunch of latiao and soy eggs and stuff over there too!”

“Huh?” Huo Ran was confused. 

“Lin Wuyu brought them.” Kou Chen said. “You didn’t run into him?”

“Oh, I did.” Huo Ran just realized. Lin Wuyu was buying snacks for their class, he did say he was gonna treat them if they win.

“A pretty nice guy he is.” Kou Chen opened a drink and handed it to Huo Ran.

“Yeah.” Huo Ran nodded. 

“Come sit.” Kou Chen sat on the stands and patted the spot next to him.

Huo Ran sat down.

“You hurt my feelings earlier.” Kou Chen said.

“Huh?” Huo Ran quickly turned to him. “When?” 

“When you dodged me.” Kou Chen said.

“…It wasn’t on purpose, I was just startled.” Huo Ran said. “No way, just that hurt your feelings? They’re too close to the edge, you should move them in a little more.”

Kou Chen laughed and looked at him: “You’re brutal. Didn’t yell at me enough today?”

“It’s the truth.” Huo Ran said. 

“I hate when people do that to me. If they avoid me once then I wouldn’t want to lean in again.” Kou Chen said. “Hurts my pride.”

“Really?” Huo Ran quickly thought back to how many times he’d dodged Kou Chen before.

“I can relax it for you.” Kou Chen said. “Let’s say ten times.”

“…Damn.” Huo Ran laughed. 

“I’m serious.” Kou Chen narrowed his eyes. “I bet you were keeping something from me. But I’m not gonna force you, just don’t avoid me like I have a contagious disease or something.”

“I’m not.” Huo Ran scooched closer to him and nudged his arm.

To be honest, sometimes Kou Chen’s heart was big enough to fit three meals plus a midnight snack, and sometimes he was so sensitive he could feel an ant fart.

  

There was still some time before dinner, so the courts were still crowded. Even if they weren’t playing basketball, they were sitting or standing around to chat.

Kou Chen quite liked this feeling. All the students that he either knew or didn’t, they were all laughing and talking amongst each other. There were also people trying to show off their basketball tricks for their girls.

It was a lot better than his old school.

At his old school, nobody would miss such a good opportunity to cause trouble by settling old grudges and starting new ones. 

But now, it felt really nice to sit here and drink with Huo Ran in silence.

A couple of first year girls were standing on the other side of the stands looking over at them. Kou Chen was very familiar with those gazes.

He would usually just glance at them out of the corner of his eyes. 

But those girls stood there for a while, and then they walked over.

They stopped in front of Huo Ran, and then one of them called his name softly: “Huo Ran.”

Huo Ran was obviously spacing out staring at a rock on the ground so he didn’t hear them.

“Hey.” Kou Chen nudged him. 

“Hm?’ Huo Ran turned to him, and then he saw the girl in front of him. “Huh?”

“I’m a first year, from Class 5. I was cheering for you earlier.” The girl was a little shy, so her voice was quiet.

Kou Chen immediately realized what she was trying to do. He was about to remind the girl and ask her name, and if she was nervous.

But he didn’t say anything. He turned to the side, and watched Jiang Lei and Wei Chaoren face off against each other. 

She was confessing to Huo Ran, so he won’t say anything. Why should he help her?

“Thanks.” Huo Ran said.

Thanks my ass. Are you gonna thank every single person that cheered for you?

Kou Chen took a sip of his drink, hurry up and confess so you can leave! 

“Just, you were really cool when you played, really worthy of being the captain of the school team.” The girl said.

That’s right, he’s great at yelling at people too, did you hear?

“Thanks.” Huo Ran smiled.

Kou Chen sighed inwardly. It wasn’t like Huo Ran had poor language skills, so how come all he says is ‘thanks’ when he’s talking to a girl? 

The girl paused, probably not knowing how to keep the conversation going, but she didn’t give up. She kept going and said: “Are the finals tomorrow?”

“Yup.” Huo Ran nodded.

Why don’t you say ‘thanks’ again?

Kou Chen took a sip of his drink. 

“Then my friends and I will cheer for you guys again.” The girl said with a smile.

Say thanks!

“Thanks.” Huo Ran said.

Kou Chen was originally feeling agitated for some reason, but now he almost laughed out loud. He quickly held the cold drink against his face, trying to suppress the urge. 

No matter how agitated he was, he would embarrass the girl for sure if he laughed.

“Um,” The girl took her phone out, “Can I… Can I take a selfie with you?”

What? Selfie?

“What?” Huo Ran was confused too. 

“I want to post it and say it’s the captain of our school basketball team.” The girl was honest. “My classmates are gonna be so jealous.”

“Oh.” Huo Ran turned to Kou Chen. He’d probably never had this happen to him before, and he wanted to get his input.

But Kou Chen ignored him. He turned his back to Huo Ran and waved at Xu Chuan.

You’re on your own, Captain. 

“Okay then.” Huo Ran said.

Fuck, you’re the captain of the school team, are you gonna take pictures with people just like that? What kind of captain are you?

The girl happily sat down next to Huo Ran, even leaning onto him a little.

Huo Ran leaned away in Kou Chen’s direction. 

Kou Chen arched his back and nudged him away.

Huo Ran probably glared at him, but he couldn’t see.

What followed was the click, click, click of the girl taking a bunch of pictures. Kou Chen was about to turn around when she said: “Um… Kou Chen.”

Kou Chen turned, probably looking agitated. The girl startled and froze for two seconds before she said quietly: “I’m sorry, can you move over a little?” 

“Yeah!” Kou Chen replied loudly, and then left.

“Thank you.” The girl said.

No problem, not at all. It’s what I should do.

  

The others were having fun at the hoops, so Kou Chen went and stole a rebound, and then he turned to make the shot.

“Damn, your accuracy.” Wei Chaoren said. “Huo Ran said to pass the ball to you when we can because you have good accuracy, and I thought he was just biased.”

Kou Chen tsked.

When he saw Huo Ran heading their way, he threw the ball to Jiang Lei and left in the direction of the haunted building. 

“Kou Chen!” Huo Ran followed him. “Did you eat fucking chicken shit?!”

Kou Chen was agitated, but he almost laughed at his words, having to grit his teeth to suppress it. He ignored him, and continued forwards.

Near the haunted building, Huo Ran caught up and grabbed his arm: “What are you doing? Do you want to get beat up?”

“Huo Ran.” Kou Chen turned around. 

“Yeah?” Huo Ran nodded.

Kou Chen got his phone out: “Can I take a selfie with you?”

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