Back in the present, Xu Jinli crossed his arms and smirked. “Don’t stare at me like that, Ah Zhen. You’re making me blush.”

“I wasn’t staring.”

“You were basically counting the ridges of my spine like it’s part of your next sculpture. Which I fully support, by the way. If you want me to pose nude...”

“No.”

“Coward.”

At the moment, they were sitting face to face inside the department's cafeteria. It wasn't that there weren't any fancier cafes around the campus, but Xu Jinli simply liked the atmosphere here. He liked being surrounded by people, liked their lively conversations, and the buzz that always accompanied public spaces. However, it was yet another one of the many things they didn't have in common. Li Zhen disliked noise, feeling that even his thoughts themselves were struggling to form under the constant attack of too many stimuli.

But now, it was slightly more bearable than usual...

...And Xu Jinli was right. He had been staring.

It was something he always did, back then, too.

Watching Xu Jinli. 

The curves in his motions looked like calligraphy, with sharp lines and careful turns, his whole body behaving like a brushstroke. Even under the unforgiving, artificial lighting, his skin still managed to capture the scattered rays of sunshine and reflect them back to his eyes, giving them an unusual reddish tint. After teasing him, the conversation drowned in silence once more, as Xu Jinli lowered his head to stir sugar in his coffee, gently licking the plastic spoon once he was done. And yet, a split second later, his mood transitioned once more, and his face lit up like he'd just remembered a question he was dying to ask.

"Are you still talking with that bastard?" Xu Jinli asked, his tone deceptively casual, though his perfectly round lips curled ever so slightly at the corners. The sunlight behind him gave his silhouette a halo-like sheen, although the glint in his eye was anything but saintly.

Li Zhen’s expression didn’t change, but his fingers brushed against the edge of the table, only once. 

"We broke up. Four years ago."

For a moment, Xu Jinli didn’t react. Then, very softly, he smiled. A real one this time, not one of those waxy, crowd-pleasing things he gave his students like complimentary napkins in a restaurant.

“Thank the Heavens,” he sighed, his shoulders dropping with the grace of someone finally released from a decade-long curse. “Honestly, that’s the best thing I’ve heard all semester. I might even grade my puppies with actual mercy next time.” That charming smile stayed on his lips, but his gaze drifted, just for a second, toward the window before snapping back into its usual mischief.

“Please don’t,” Li Zhen deadpanned. “They need to learn that life outside university isn't easy." 

Xu Jinli cackled. He then lifted the paper cup to take a sip, acting like it was made out of expensive porcelain instead, before he continued with a tilt of his head: “You’re crueler than I remember, Ah Zhen.”

“You remember wrong. I’ve always been like this.”

“You used to be something,” Xu Jinli said, lazily straightening his legs under the table, his calf gently grazing Li Zhen like the tail of a spoiled cat. “Back then.”

Li Zhen stared at him for a long time, not at all reacting to his little movements.

“You did too," he finally answered, his voice barely a whisper and easily lost among all the noise. Though he wasn’t sure if that was still true, or just something he wanted to believe.

Sometimes, silence was just as telling as words, but this time around, before awkwardness descended between the two of them once more, a flurry of jingles and metals hitting each other surrounded them, as Shen Yan basically manifested out of thin air, right next to their table.

"Little Xu!" she gasped, clearly out of breath after hurrying over. "Here you are! I've been looking for you all over the department!"

"Your Majesty, please sit down!" Xu Jinli quickly sat up and offered her his seat, moving next to Li Zhen. "What can this humble one help you with?"

"Oh." Shen Yan daintily patted her sweaty neck, taking a deep breath. "Nothing really, just one of your children saying you didn't look so good in the morning."

Right...

As if!

Right after her class ended, Yoyo left the studio in a panic, running all the way to her office. In between the girl's trembling words and her excitable movements, Shen Yan managed to piece together what had happened, hurrying over to diffuse whatever fire might have erupted. And yet, things looked... suspiciously calm?!

"Ah?" Xu Jinli asked back, confusion evident in his voice. "But I never felt better, really."

In front of them, Teacher Shen was watching the stale air form between their silhouettes with rapt attention, her sharp gaze fixed on Xu Jinli's elbow as it was touching Li Zhen's arm. When he sat down next to him, the younger man didn't even flinch, not at all disturbed by the sudden contact. Maybe everything is just a misunderstanding, she thought quietly.

But then again, that works wonders for me.

Back to her usual calm, Shen Yan's body relaxed in the chair. That morning, she was wearing a faux fur coat, right in the middle of still-warm September, making all the passing students drown in sweat just looking at her. However, her body felt as heavy as usual, and, coupled with the previous anxiety that consumed all of her remaining strength, she could only be grateful that nothing bad happened.

"That's good..." she finally said, her lips letting out a sigh of relief. Then, pretending she was completely out of the loop, she casually asked: "And who is this handsome young man?"

"This handsome young man, ah..." Xu Jinli quickly entered his newly assigned role, answering with a wicked grin on his face. "It's my ex-boyfriend."

"..."

"That's not true." Li Zhen answered, just as expressionless as ever.

"Current one?"

"Wrong again."

"Then... future boyfriend?"

This time around, Li Zhen just stared at him as Xu Jinly started laughing, his smile so unfiltered, so childishly satisfied, it bordered on giddy. "Just joking, ah," he continued, practically purring as sweet words left his mouth. "This is Li Zhen, Li Minghua's oldest son."

Well... Too bad no one was in the mood to appreciate his performance.

“Oh my!” Shen Yan gasped, fanning herself and rolling her eyes. “Children grow up so fast these days...” Then she side-eyed him with a look that clearly said: “Xu Jinli, don’t make me regret hiring you!” With every passing second, looking at the stupid grin on his face, she felt a vein twitch in the back of her head, her patience thinning like varnish on a cracked piece of wood. Too exasperated to continue pretending, Shen Yan resumed bluntly: "Right, Little Li. Surprise! I already knew that. Let me extend a warm welcome to the Young Master, yada yada, now, let's talk real business."

"I don't care who's whose what, but I want the two of you to always stay where I can see you!"

"Your Majesty, what are you trying to say?" Xu Jinli turned towards her and asked, his eyebrows lifting in an elegant arc.

"Nothing much, just threatening you," Shen Yan's voice came sweetly as she slammed her oversized bag on the table with a thud. "The two of you attract too much attention to be left unsupervised. And speaking of attracting attention..." Reaching this point, her gaunt hand reached inside the bag, yanking out a bright red folder.

"The annual gala," she declared, slapping it down between them like a tarot card that foretold doom. "We're going with a new concept this year, the whole package. Cross-department collaborations. Big industry names. Visual arts and drama. See where I'm going?"

"...You want us to work together?" Xu Jinly asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Bingo!"

"No way!" Both men answered at the same time.

Shen Yan blinked innocently. And yet, her words were anything but. “Too bad, the Dean already signed off on it. Little Xu, you’re choreographing the narrative performance. Young Master Li, you’re designing the visual installation that goes with it, live, on stage.”

There was a brief moment of silence, so intense that even the buzzing cafeteria seemed to fall quiet. Then, Xu Jinli leaned forward, smiling with the kind of grin that would make even a grown man contemplate the life choices that brought him in front of that face. “So, what you’re saying is… If I accept, I get to direct Ah Zhen?”

“No,” Li Zhen said immediately.

“Yes,” Shen Yan replied, completely ignoring him. “He’s under your artistic supervision.”

Well, well, well... Forget about his initial refusal, now Xu Jinli looked like what he was handed was not work, but a winning lottery ticket.

As for Li Zhen, he looked like someone had just asked him to perform emergency surgery on himself, using only Xu Jinli's plastic spoon.

“I’m not doing this,” he said.

“Sweetie, you were already doing it the moment you came back here," Shen Yan replied, rising to her feet like a queen leaving her throne. “And don’t forget to come and sign the participation paperwork by Friday. Otherwise, I’ll just forge your signature. It won't be the first time, anyway."

She turned, paused, and added: “Oh, and Little Xu?”

“Yes, Your Majesty?”

“No mourning outfits on stage this time. The Dean is still traumatised.”

And just like that, she swept away in a flourish of faux fur and bureaucracy, leaving behind one very smug Omega and one very emotionally exhausted Alpha.

Xu Jinli turned to Li Zhen with stars in his eyes.

“I think this might be fun!" 

In front of him, the empty paper cup only had some dark dregs left at the bottom, and a slightly chewed edge corner, still showing faint traces of Xu Jinli's shiny chapstick.

Li Zhen stared inside like it held all the answers he needed... Like his whole universe was contained between those round, coffee-stained walls.

God help him.