Chapter 1: 1 – their chanced start

Burrowing his frost-veiled face into the collar of his jacket was a youth who stood beside the fence of the school’s court. Despite this, when he breathed, a cloudy mist would spill from the gap between his dry lips and the cloth, dispersing into the bleak night.

“Hey, over here! Pass it!”

“Tch, behind you, idiot!”

Before the dark-haired youth was a group of rowdy students, dripping with sweat and the all familiar scent of juvenile hormones, playing an intense practice match of ball. 

He didn’t personally know any of the boys currently twisting their ankles and jumping about. He had merely stopped for a moment to watch, on the way back to his dorm after he had received a package from the main office.

It was the eve of the new year, and as it was winter's final stretch, his casual attire didn’t do much to appease the chills left on his skin by the its remnant breeze—plainly dressed in a red uniform jacket, a pair of white sneakers with ankle-length socks, and a thin black tee paired with equally as dark shorts.

So unless he wanted to truly turn into a human-sized popsicle, with the echoes of the students’ cries, he pushed himself off the fence, already yearning for his warm bed. But before he could fully pivot on his heels, the shouts of the boys, seemingly in his direction, braked his feet.

“Ey, Jun-geGege/ge - elder brother. It isn’t necessarily used for a biologically-related brother. It is used as an endearment for a person who feels as close as a brother to you, or even towards a lover. It is also used to address a senior.! You’re back!”

“About time, senior! We’re just getting warmed up.”

The boys momentarily paused their game and jogged towards him. Feeling a stare on his nape, the youth turned his head and met a pair of translucent eyes—irises grey as smoke yet brighter than stars, belonging to a teen some centimetres taller than himself.

The youth was stunned for a moment, however, hearing a sound akin to sniffling, he glanced behind the tall juvenile. His eyes caught sight of a female student metres away partially hidden by a tree, furiously wiping at her porcelain cheeks with an arm. 

Looking at her petite figure and dainty fingers, and then observing the lean yet broad frame of the boy before himself, it was easy to guess what had happened. Furthermore, the boy didn’t seem to be concerned in the very least. Rather, he had a reserved yet almost haughty expression, almost like he had long grown numb towards such a heart-breaking display.

The youth narrowed his eyes, thinking, ‘A typical failed omega to alpha confession.’

‘Jun-ge’, without averting his gaze, nodded his head, greeting those so-called juniors of his. Then the corners of his mouth twitched as he parted them to ask, “And who’s this?”

A refined, burgundy-haired teen went “hm?” and replied, “He’s probably the substitute player Duyi sent in his stead. Said his older brother was coming back today, so he went with his family to pick him up from the airport.”

“Oh?” 

Surnamed Jun lowered his eyes slightly and observed the youth’s casual but sporty enough attire, and although it was obvious at first glance he had nothing to do with being a substitute—judging by the paper bag his hand languidly held—he felt rather mischievous tonight.

So disregarding the youth’s blatant unenthused arch of an eyebrow, ‘Jun-ge’ took the package from his hand and placed it on the bench beside them, saying, “One quick round? The guard might come soon.”

The youth, “...” All the more reason for me to decline.

Perhaps it was how the air seemed to grow taut—as though he felt the need to teach this haughty alpha a lesson, or maybe it was the oblivious yet eager stares of the boys behind, but the youth soon found himself to be shrugging off his jacket. 

With a careless parabola, the jacket drew an arc midair before it similarly slumped onto the bench. It landed next to another boy’s uniform, of whom the youth couldn’t discern, but he noticed how their sleeves overlapped each other’s. 

He didn’t seem to care about how coincidental it was as he determinedly stalked off and towards the court, saying curtly, “Hurry up.”

A junior hastily grabbed the basketball, stood in the middle of the court and, seeing as the group had naturally split themselves equally, he raised his hand and was ready to kick-off the game when he paused momentarily.

“Hey, what’s wrong? We don’t have all night, xuediJunior or younger male schoolmate.!”

At that anxious call, the said xuedi broke out of his stupor. It wasn’t his fault that, in the past year of his pitiful high school life, he had never seen these particular two students meet each other face-to-face. 

In the whole of Beijing’s No. 131 High School, it was no secret that the school grassHottest guy in school. title belonged to an outwardly charming but inwardly heartless alpha, and that the school’s unobtainable kaolin flowerA lonely flower atop a mountain, a person who is hard to move and reach emotionally. was a cool but face-paralysed omega. 

By right, these two didn’t know each other, but many melon-eatingBasically onlookers seeking drama. students wanted to see them interact at least once to fulfil their silly melodrama cravings. Unfortunately for them, the two never had the chance simply because their classrooms were in different teaching blocks—some even bestowed upon them the titles: A of the west and O of the east.

However, the school had undergone renovations during the long December holiday and was now one massive building, foregoing the unnecessary gap in its middle. The same melon-eating students were excited for one alpha and one omega to meet during their third senior year, and flooding the school forum were their prayers to the heavens that they’d be in the same class.

Mayhaps it was the xuedi’s lucky day to have got a preemptive experience, or maybe it wasn’t—judging by the scalp-numbing tension diminishing the oxygen. Nevertheless, he brushed aside his uncomfortable premonition, muttered a quick “sorry!”, and threw the basketball high up into the air.

Soon, the xuedi scampered off the court, afraid of getting caught in the crossfire as the rowdiness of the students bursted once more.

Taking advantage of his towering disposition, surnamed Jun blocked the opposing team’s pass and snatched the ball. With a steady curve of his foot, he turned and jumped, flicking his wrist towards the net.

Just when the ball was about to accurately fall in, it grazed against fair fingertips and rebounded. 

Surprised, Jun Sheng took his gaze off the ball—having by now been saved by the burgundy-haired teen—and glanced at the culprit. It was the same youth he had lightly provoked, earlier.

Inexplicably, he felt a pleasant rush of annoyance, tinged with a hint of excitement. He grinned suavely and, without hesitation, he immediately took hold of the ball during the next round. 

His distinct knuckles caught the light as his hand moved up and down in a steady manner, dribbling the ball with ease. Running towards his team’s net, his way was once again blocked by the youth, whose black hair seemed even softer as it was swept by the wind.

Jun Sheng raised an elegant brow, “Targeting me, huh?”

“No,” the youth hummed. “Don’t be too full of yourself.” 

Then, swift on his feet, the youth snagged the ball mid-dribble, caught it and was about to make a three-pointer when unexpectedly, the xuedi went—”Stop, stop playing! The guard on night patrol is coming!”

Although the court was free for all to use, it was currently still the year-end holiday, so the school facilities weren’t exactly available. Plus with the clock cutting close to curfew, it was a no-brainer that the students would be reprimanded heavily for making a ruckus at night.

Panicking, a student bumped into the youth, causing him to fall towards Jun Sheng halfway through his jump. Despite this, the ball skillfully left his hands, sank into the net, bounced against and rolled across the floor.

However, the youth didn’t have the privilege to celebrate his one point as a pair of strong hands caught him by the waist. His forehead knocked against the alpha’s briefly, and as they were both already unsteady on their feet, they unceremoniously slapped the floor.

Immediately, a subtle scent of musky vetiver assaulted the youth’s nose, and before he could comprehend it further, a teasing laugh made itself a home in his ears.

“Now you’re really targeting me, throwing yourself into my arms.”

“...” Who wants to be in your arms?

With an unimpressed stare, the youth calmly got up from the cushion of an alpha, extended an arm and said, “My bad.”

“It’s fine, it wasn’t really your fault,” Jun Sheng shook his head, reaching for that inviting palm. However, before his fingers could grasp it for support, it vanished. He watched as the youth retracted his hand before they could touch and instead used it to straighten his dishevelled shirt. 

Then, with a careless flourish, the youth explained, “Oh. You were taking so long, so I thought my help was redundant.”

Jun Sheng, having only hesitated for a split second, felt slightly wronged, “...”

“You rascals, get off the court now! See if I find your homeroom teachers to deduct your points even before the school year starts!” Heading towards their direction, the patrol guard continued to spit out a mumble of profanities, something along the lines of how his salary wasn’t equated to his efforts.

Not wanting to be implicated for something as dumb as this and, ignoring the alpha’s helpless look, the youth turned on his heels, hastily grabbed his belongings from the bench and brisked off.

You are reading story This Red Thread of Ours at novel35.com

Jun Sheng, with an amused curl of his lips, hurriedly got up as well, managing to avoid the guard’s stern hand from grabbing the back of his collar by a hair’s breadth.

 

 

 

 

“Lin-ge, you’re back!”

Upon hearing the dorm room’s door unlock, a beta with dark teal hair tipped his head back, but because he was lying on the bed with his feet propped against the wall, he looked quite comical.

“Damnit, don’t take your eyes off the game, Yunyun!” 

By the foot of the bed—furiously tapping on his phone, seeming as if he’d break his fingers at any moment—was an omega. His easy-going face twisted at the blunt prompt of ‘game over’ spilling from his phone’s speaker.

“Fuck, my bad. Another round, Shao-ge?”

“In five minutes, my hands need a break—”

“...” Looking so comfortable, is this your room?

Speechless, the black-haired youth shrugged his jacket off, stepped over the omega sprawled out on the floor, and uncaringly dumped it into the dorm’s integral washing machine—built small enough for convenience.

At that, Xiao Yun flipped over on the bed to look at him. “Lin-ge, didn’t you just wash your uniform yesterday?”

The beta was twisting and turning on his bed like he owned it, but Ying Lin had already long grown immune. Ever since he helped the said happy-go-lucky beta move his roadblock of packages last year, he was already somewhat prepared to be pestered by him.

“Mm, it got dirty.” After that curt explanation, Ying Lin walked over to Qin Shaoqing and kicked him half-heartedly, saying, “Sit properly.”

The dorm room itself wasn’t too big, just decently sized for a single student to occupy. So with the omega hogging up most of the floor space, Ying Lin wouldn’t be able to comfortably sit on the edge of his bed unless he treated Qin Shaoqing’s stomach as a footrest.

“Yes boss, whatever you say boss.” Like a robot on command, Qin Shaoqing carelessly rolled over to his side, stubbed his pinky toe against a table leg in the process, and through a short hiss, he reluctantly sat up. “Fuck, hurts like hell.”

“One of the top ten pains us mortals fear,” Xiao Yun unhelpfully shared. He watched as his Lin-ge left a brown paper bag on the desk and asked, “Your meds have already run out?”

As a beta, his biological constitution naturally had a harder time detecting pheromones compared to alphas and omegas. He knew his Lin-ge was an omega and often saw him taking pills, and had assumed they were suppressants of some sorts—and his guess wasn’t too far off the mark, actually.

Not until an occurrence at last year’s sports day did he truly learn their purpose. He had thought Ying Lin was merely sweating because of the sweltering weather, but when he unexpectedly doubled over and heaved with difficulty, only then did Xiao Yun realise that it wasn’t so simple.

Before the scene caused a big commotion, Qin Shaoqing—who had just finished his 200 metre run—saw what had happened on the way back and rushed over, uncaring of his sore calves.

Xiao Yun vividly remembered how his Shao-ge had clutched his shoulders, looked into his eyes and said very clearly, ‘Yunyun, get Ying Lin’s bag from the stands. We’ll wait for you inside the stadium, on the first floor, by the stairs.’

Those stern words had trickled into his ears in slow motion, even so, his legs had already complied. He didn’t know how fast he had actually ran, but when he finally found them with his Lin-ge’s bag in hand, he felt like he hadn’t been fast enough.

The inside of the stadium had been eerily quiet, and the loud cheers of their fellow schoolmates from outside did nothing to calm Xiao Yun’s anxious pulse. That had been his first sports meet since transferring, and if asked, he’d say the most memorable part of that day wouldn’t be his gold medal, nor how his class had won the relay—but the pure agony on his Lin-ge’s face as he grimaced through the pain.

Despite sweating bullets, Ying Lin had beckoned him closer, saying through bated breath, ‘Don’t make that face, I’m fine. My medication is already working.’

‘...Medication?’

‘Mn. My pheromones are abnormally sensitive.’

Ying Lin had been careless that day, he had only taken medicine to stabilise his pheromones’ fluctuations, thinking that his heat was still a week away. So when it had unexpectedly occured, his body—surrounded by energetic alphas whose pheromones ran wild after their events—experienced a negative backlash.

The black-haired youth hadn’t described how terrible it felt, but looking at his faint but reassuring smile, Xiao Yun was awash with a motley of emotions—most notably stunned by how strong his Lin-ge was trying to be.

“Don’t think too much. I just left the bag at home last week, so Yu-jie sent it over.”

The snapping of fingers by his eyes broke Xiao Yun out of his stupor. He looked up and met dark eyes, belonging to the omega he had seen trembling against the pallid stadium wall. His shivers looked as though they were caused by a light breeze, but he could tell that was merely a brave front.

Xiao Yun had cried that afternoon, overwhelmed by a sudden gush of relief, and even then his Lin-ge was the one to soothe his back instead.

“Lin-ge…” Xiao Yun sniffled, tossing his phone aside with a careless snap of his wrist. “Can this humble one get a hug?”

“...” Ying Lin flicked his forehead with an exasperated click of his tongue, “No. Who asked you to get all sad by yourself?”

Qin Shaoqing dragged his body up the bed and slung an arm around the teary-eyed beta. “Our little fool, come, dad will give you a hug.”

Xiao Yun elbowed him in the ribs, grumbling, “I suddenly feel better now, no thank you.”

“...” Qin Shaoqing, having his generosity be so bluntly rejected, could only hug the little fool himself. As if he had remembered something, the dull look in his eyes cleared. “Right, boss! You weren’t around last week so you don’t know, but someone moved in next door. But they did it so quickly and covertly, no one managed to catch a glimpse of his hair!”

The room opposite of Ying Lin’s had been vacant ever since the spring of his second year. The previous occupant, a sunny beta boy, had moved out and transferred schools. There was nothing wrong with the room itself, it was standard just like any other, yet the new students later on were either assigned above, below, next, but never into it.

Henceforth, it had earned a reputation amongst the boys of No. 131 High, who fondly named it the room full of invisible neighbours—typical of silly youths who wanted to scare themselves. 

Mayhaps the so-called invisible neighbours of that room were fed up with such bullshit, thus they had moved out, allowing a student to occupy it after one whole-going on-two years.

Ying Lin arched his brow, “You sure know a lot for someone who doesn’t even live in the dorms.”

“What can I say?” Qin Shaoqing shrugged, and with a bright grin, he winked. “I live rent free in either of your rooms.”

“...scram.”