Chapter 4: 4 – bad premonitions

Amidst the spine-tingling tension in the classroom, some diligent melon-eaters were already spreading the gossip and confirming the rumours on the school forum.

[Main post: Fellow sisters, please enlighten this one of the class of our school’s hotties, I sincerely offer a kowtow of gratitude in advance.

1L: Sister, it’s not even the new term yet and you’re this desperate?

2L: +1 upstairs, we should be warming up with our studies already!

320L: ? Can’t find the school grass anywhere today, which class is he in? Don’t tell me he transferred, ba?

321L: Someone saw him walk to the sixth floor earlier, rest assured classmate! Eh, but didn’t they also say another hot guy was on that floor too?

330L: UPDATE, LIVE UPDATE, IT’S OFFICIAL! Our school’s grass and kaolin flower are in class 3.1, and they even know each other…sisters, be prepared for an inside scoop of how our alleged heartless A bullied our indifferent O to tears!

331L: Wth? Class 3.1 is smack in the middle of the new building. It’s like the school underwent renovations just so that these two great masters could meet!]

Unaware of the very obviously exaggerated story brewing in the depths of the students’ crooked minds, Jun Sheng scoffed lightly. “Classmate, what did I do to offend you? You eagerly jumped into my arms of your own accord.”

At that, many ears perked up, as pointed as foxes’.

“...” Ying Lin pushed against his desk and his chair scratched the floor as he stood. He had to raise his head slightly to meet Jun Sheng’s gaze, but the other’s height didn’t intimidate him in the slightest. “Don’t spout nonsense, it was an accident.”

“Mn, that was indeed accidental but…” Leaning closer, Jun Sheng raised a hand to drag down the zipper of Ying Lin’s uniform jacket.

“You—!”

With an unreadable look in his eyes, Jun Sheng whispered, “Taking my jacket…was this an accident too?”

“Yours?” Ying Lin knitted his brows. He looked down and tugged the front of the jacket forwards to read its name tag. 

He hadn’t noticed it before because he had carelessly grabbed it from the clothesline outside his window, but the scribble on its stitched cloth certainly wasn’t his own name.

“Ah, no wonder I thought you looked off today, boss!” Qin Shaoqing slapped a fist onto a palm. He strode over from his group of beta pals and poked his shoulder, saying, “This jacket is twice your usual size!”

Ying Lin, “...” Fuck.

Hadn’t he been comfortably nuzzling into the jacket this whole time? Thank god it only smelt of his detergent, and not of the alpha’s pheromones—or else he didn’t know what he’d do if he had to run out of class before it even began. 

Not forgetting the amount of bullshit that would circulate around the school’s forums by lunch. He stomped on his urge to curse aloud.

Smiling triumphantly, Jun Sheng played with the jacket’s zipper, pulling it up and down. “Believe me now, little thief? I should be the one holding a grudge against you, but I’m quite generous already.”

Ying Lin gritted his teeth, lightly smacked the scumbag’s itchy hand away and shrugged the jacket off, “...Sorry.” He folded it neatly and handed it over, muttering earnestly, “It’s my fault this time.”

At that moment, a gust of wind squeezed past the ajar window and swept their fringes awry, bringing with it a wintry afternote.

Jun Sheng glanced at Ying Lin’s exposed forearms and saw how the youth had just managed to suppress an imperceptible shiver. He frowned, grabbed and flapped the jacket loose, and threw it over his shoulders. “Never mind, take it. I’m wearing a spare, so it’s fine.”

Several gasps going “my god” and “holy shit” bounced off the classroom’s four walls.

As though he had felt that his explanation was too ambiguous, he added, “You can return it to me after school.”

Ying Lin shook his head, “I’ll wash it first before returning it.”

“No need—” Jun Sheng paused, thinking that his response seemed quite weird, he hastily cleared his throat. “Alright, thanks.”

Qin Shaoqing peeked at his boss, then at how the so-called scum alpha watched the other casually hold onto the jacket, and finally back at Ying Lin. ‘That was unexpectedly…peaceful? I thought they’d clash more.’

He pursed his lips, suggesting, “Boss, I have my gym jacket with me—”

But before his words could finish, the thuds of heavy soles heading towards and into the classroom, followed by the hasty salutes of his classmates, caused him to similarly swirl around on his feet. “Good morning, teacher!”

“Our homeroom teacher’s Old Cai? Nice, less homework!”

“Ah, Old Cai…you aren’t actually substituting for a different teacher, right?”

‘Old Cai’, properly known as Huo Cai, clicked his tongue. “You students are so active in the morning to speculate nonsense, eh? Why don’t I give you a pop quiz to freshen up your muddled brains?”

“Mercy, teacher! We’re in the wrong!”

“Shit, I forgot everything from last year already,” Yi Zan muttered under his breath. But his brazen words were caught by the old man’s ears all the same.

Although they lovingly called him an old vegetable as a word play of his name, they wouldn’t ever forget that this particular teacher was actually very strict at heart, not at all a merciful plate of greens.

So with a pointed stare, Old Cai looked Yi Zan in the eyes and said, “Dear student, please do the honours of taking up the role of class monitor again this year, yeah? We know you can do it, after all, with how diligently you cram your studies at the last minute, taking care of the class is easier in comparison.”

“Hah, it’d be easy to hide from Yi Zan. He’d be too lazy to collect our homework!”

“It’s about time he changed his ways,” Qi Yu giggled.

Yi Zan resignedly said, “Then make Koi the class assistant, Old Cai!”

“Koi? Ah…” Huo Cai immediately knew who he was talking about. In the last two years, the students very fondly nicknamed a certain girl after a certain auspicious fish to one: bring their class good luck, and two: because she simply liked the fish very much. He glanced at Qi Yu, nodding, “Then I’ll count on you as well, our promising Koi.”

“...Okay, teacher,” Qi Yu complied. However, the moment he shifted his attention elsewhere, her eyes were on the verge of spitting venom onto a certain procrastinator’s covered face.

Old Cai scanned the classroom, but his gaze abruptly came to a halt at the sight of two familiar but equally as unfamiliar faces. 

He was used to seeing them separately in different classes for the past two years, so when he finally saw the two in the same room, furthermore standing side-by-side, he couldn’t help his blank expression.

Then the fog in his eyes cleared at a belated realisation, and excitedly, he called, “Ying Lin, Jun Sheng, you both were actually friends? Perfect, why not become deskmates? It’s your final year, so help pull each other up, yeah?”

He almost gave himself a pat on the back for his insightful suggestion. It was no secret that throughout the whole senior school, there were two particular top students who never once dropped from ranks 1st and 2nd respectively. Except, the student hogging the glory would always change between the both of them, simply because of two certain fickle subjects.

In their weak areas, both would do horribly on exams. Compared to the outstanding grades of their other subjects, one bad performance in economics and the other in english were like two unsightly stains on an expensive shirt. The teachers, no matter how much they tried, couldn’t even bleach those stains out.

Old Cai nodded happily. “Ying Lin, help Jun Sheng with his economics, and Jun Sheng will help you with your english, a fair and equal exchange. Plus you both are similar in age, perhaps it’ll do you good compared to us old teachers who can’t keep up with your brainwaves.”

Ying Lin gave Jun Sheng a sidelong glance, the words within his half-lidded eyes obvious: me, with this alpha bastard?

Jun Sheng similarly stared at him with a complicated expression, thinking, ‘This moody guy and I for 365 days?’

Looking at both their equally constipated faces, Huo Cai asked, “Hm? Feeling awkward with joy? Then hurry up and sit down.”

At that, both couldn’t help but share a speechless look. After which, with the drastic teacher’s urgings, they both surrendered and plopped down onto their curtly arranged seats.

And as Old Cai quickly arranged the seating plans of their classmates—in accordance to the same logic of course—Ying Lin decisively ignored the avid heat by his side and glanced out the window instead, looking at nothing in particular.

But a knock, light and slightly ticklish against his knee, made him look askance at the culprit. “What?”

Jun Sheng smiled suavely, saying, “Nothing, just admiring my new deskmate.”

“...” Were all alphas this roguish nowadays?

Before he could snark back, Jun Sheng continued, “Wear the jacket properly. We don’t want rumours of how I made my deskmate sick on our first day, mm?”

In actuality, he could care less about the gossip of others. But inexplicably, he didn’t want Ying Lin to feel awkward about what had happened, who then also might forgo the jacket after assuming he would be uncomfortable with him actually wearing it.

Seeing as he was unmoving, Jun Sheng curled his lips. “What? Need me to help you?”

Provoked, Ying Lin simply shot him a glare in reply, wordlessly shrugged the jacket on once more, and buried his face into his arms to catch up on some sleep.

Catching on the fair fingertips that peeked out from the jacket’s cuff, Jun Sheng pursed his lips, feeling an unknown emotion froth up in his chest. He tore his gaze away when the scrapping of the chair before himself sounded and looked up.

A familiar burgundy-haired teen waved, saying with a slight accent, “Looks like we’ll be partial deskmates again this year, Jun Sheng.”

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

“I almost thought you were in a different class, Laurel.” 

Laurel smiled helplessly. “It’s not my fault you were so preoccupied earlier, I couldn’t find the chance to catch your attention.” Then he glanced at a new face heading towards them, who stopped by him and pulled out the chair next to his. “You are…”

The newcomer had a clean and refreshing visage with a pair of bright eyes, offsetting his dark teal hair. With a friendly smile, he replied, “Xiao Yun, a beta. Let’s get along well this year, yeah?”

Receiving their nods, Xiao Yun then turned to look at a certain slumped lump on the desk behind him. Akin to a peppy corgi, he grinned, “Lin-ge, I finally get to sit near you for once!”

Ying Lin simply gave a muffled hum in reply and his whole body basically exuded the words ‘sleepy, don’t talk’ all over.

Amused, Jun Sheng asked, “‘Lin-ge?’ Are you a year younger too?”

Although he knew he wasn’t actually prompted, Ying Lin’s eyelid nevertheless twitched when the alpha called his name so…intimately.

Xiao Yun nodded. “Yep, I took the entrance exam but they said I could straightaway skip to year two. You as well?”

“Somewhat similar.” Jun Sheng explained, “Transferred back from the states halfway through second year of middle school. They allowed me to jump to year three.”

Hearing his words, Ying Lin narrowed his eyes, but as his face was hidden from view, no one saw his thoughtful expression. He looked back on the alpha’s scoundrel-like behaviour and inwardly sighed, ‘Kids and their arrogance these days.’

It was barely the start of the new term, yet those ‘exciting’ events the past few days depleted him of his energy. He wasn’t used to having physical contact with others, for one he wasn’t too fond of it, but maybe it was fortunate that others viewed him in a distant light, causing them to stay in their lanes.

So when he had chanced upon a particular idiot—not once, but twice—and also got entangled with the said idiot, he somehow got a very, very bad feeling. 

As though he wouldn’t be able to finish his last year of high school with his sanity intact.

Outside, the sunlight dimmed as the clouds overhead blocked its glare, turning the hour even more languid and slightly dreary.

“Alright, enough talking!” Huo Cai knocked a marker against the whiteboard, effectively catching the students’ attention. “Right, let me explain what you'd expect in your final year. This year, your syllabus according to the Cambridge IGCSEs hasn’t been changed. By right, your year three is equivalent to a British school’s year eleven, however, in the past two years we have condensed the most important points of your studies. So you will mainly have to brush up on the basics and attempt many past papers, understand?”

The class collectively went, “Got it, Old Cai!”

Nodding, Huo Cai continued, “Of course us teachers will be with you throughout your journey. You will be sitting for the October-November examinations, and though it may seem far, I expect you all to responsibly manage your studies. As usual, I’ll be supervising your evening self-studies, so if you have any questions, I’ll always be here.”

The clock hanging above the whiteboard ticked, and at 8.30 sharp, the bells outside rang, denoting that homeroom was over.

“Oh right, before I take my leave…” Huo Cai dug through his bag, and pulling out a stack of papers, he slapped it onto Yi Zan’s desk. “Thank you in advance for helping me distribute these timetables, class monitor.”

“...It’s nothing too hard, teacher. No problem!” 

As Yi Zan picked up the brick of papers and distributed them with quick feet, Huo Cai gave a fatherly smile, exchanged brief pleasantries with the incoming maths teacher, and left his kids.

“Good morning, teacher Fan!”

“Sister Fan, you’re as beautiful as ever!”

Laughing merrily, Fan Jie clapped her hands. “Alright class, settle down! We’ll start with some algebra today, just to ease your brains back into the groove.”

The class immediately turned serious and the students, although dreading, tacitly brought their books out from under their desks and grabbed their pens. Some even pulled out their thick-rimmed glasses whilst others furiously rubbed their eyes a few times to jolt themselves awake.

Jun Sheng similarly brought out his notebook and slid his new deskmate a sideways glance.

At the back of his mind, he heard Fan Jie discuss an important note regarding their syllabus—a helpful exam tip, perhaps—yet Jun Sheng wasn’t able to catch it in time. 

Not when the cloud covers finally broke, and as the seemingly mundane twilight of the forenoon splattered across his deskmate, he felt his breath stutter in his throat.

There was a moment of unreality where time seemed to turn liquid, flowing as slow and thick as syrup. In the space between two heartbeats, Jun Sheng traced the molten gold which traversed the smooth planes of Ying Lin’s cheekbones, the bridge of his nose and the bow of his lips.

“Okay, moving onto question four…” Fan Jie announced, tapping the podium.

Then Jun Sheng blinked and his daydream came to an abrupt curtain call as Ying Lin shifted and bowed his head to write in his notebook; the traffic of time sped through its highway once more.

He lowered his eyes and frowned, suddenly very aware of his pulse thudding wildly in his ears. Thinking it must’ve been his lack of sleep last night, he shrugged that momentary feeling off and earnestly listened to the teacher’s words.

Just like that, the first class of year 3.1 and the rest of their morning sessions idly went by.

 

 

 

 

At midnoon, the bells once more trembled and the students quickly dispersed from their classrooms, eager to appease their hollow stomachs. Outside, the hallway was filled with the bustle of colourful laughter and the childish jests between friends. 

Similarly, the online school forum had, at one point in time, exploded, causing the website to timeout for a whole five minutes before it went back up again. 

As usual with daring youths who were bored to death during their lessons, they would sneakily hide their phones between their thick textbooks or under their desks, playing their games and even spamming their friends with memes.

So it wasn’t odd for the school forum to have been active, what was however, was the fact that it actually crashed, simply because of an unremarkable yet equally as astounding post.

Laurel, who was mindlessly scrolling through the various imaginative comments, failed to stifle the rise of his lips, threw his head back and laughed unabashedly. 

Unwrapping a sandwich, Jun Sheng looked at him strangely. “What’s so funny?”

At that, Laurel took a sip of water with a sly smile. Then he handed his phone over, saying, “See it for yourself.”

[Main post #trending: Brothers and sisters, today I’ve committed a good deed by sacrificing myself for your tea-hungry minds! Thus I present to you—kaolin flower wearing the school grass’ jacket.png! My phone almost got confiscated because of this!!! Not even a jpg, but a png! Enjoy my fellow melon-eaters~

1L: WTH, he’s actually wearing Jun-ge’s jacket?

2L: Upstairs, you aren’t blind, I too see Jun-ge’s name!

3L: God, sisters, our aloof flower looks so cute in that oversized jacket!

4L: No no, more importantly, our heartless A actually gave someone his uniform?!

1039L: AAAA, I can’t believe we’re actually getting content about these two. My xuemeiJunior or younger female schoolmate. in their class confirmed it too! She heard the handsome A say that our Ying-ge willingly fell into his arms!

1040L: ??? No recording, no proof. Don’t tarnish our kaolin flower’s image like that!!

1041L: Brother, how was my xuemei supposed to know that that would happen??

2010L: Aren’t we ignoring the elephant in the room? First, the both of them actually knew one another? Second, they’re close enough to lend each other’s clothes? Third, they’re officially deskmates too? What is this, some sort of high school love story?

2011L: Upstairs, it’s like this. A few nights ago, one xuedi of mine was using the basketball court with his friends, then he said the grass provoked the flower, thus they had a match!

2012L: So it’s like that…eh, then what’s with the jacket? Accidental, ba?

2013L: That…my xuedi can’t say…

2014L: Something smells fishy…

2015L: +1]

Jun Sheng, who was originally uninterested, suddenly felt his food go down the wrong windpipe. He coughed and patted his chest, clicking his tongue, “Those students get so creative outside of class. It’s just a jacket, what’s the fuss about?”

Looking at his unamused expression, Laurel sighed. “Right, I forgot you never cared about these silly hearsays. But Jun Sheng, you do know your reputation, yeah?”

“They made me the school grass themselves…but that isn’t what you’re hinting at, right?”

“Mhm, you forgot a few titles: heartless alpha, steel-minded A, alpha of the crooked path.”

Jun Sheng, “...” So colourful?

You can find story with these keywords: This Red Thread of Ours, Read This Red Thread of Ours, This Red Thread of Ours novel, This Red Thread of Ours book, This Red Thread of Ours story, This Red Thread of Ours full, This Red Thread of Ours Latest Chapter