Check this footnote for content warnings for this chapter.1Mentions and discussions of stalking and stalker behavior, as well as mentions of assault.
Song Shihan had known that Zuo Tao’s mind was unpredictable, but he didn’t expect that he would go this far. He was both angry and amused. The child seemed quiet and obedient on the surface, but his thoughts ran deep.
He pinched his forehead. “Anything else you’d like to ask?”
“No, that was all,” Zuo Tao cleared his throat, lowering his head to look at the snacks he was holding, heart beating erratically in his chest. “I was just curious, nothing else.” He realized that his question was a little outrageous, and he pursed his lips and continued, “I’m sorry, Captain.”
Zuo Tao didn’t even dare to look up at Song Shihan, the word “boyfriend” uttered in Song Shihan’s low voice still lingering in his ears. Along with the previous question, the embarrassment soon burned the flush on his cheeks.
It was completely fucked up.
What weird things have I been up to today?
“Nothing else you’re curious about?” Song Shihan watched him, smoothing his still-wet hair behind his head.
Zuo Tao shook his head. “No more.”
Song Shihan nodded. “Then go back to your room and rest.”
Zuo Tao nodded back, but he remembered something before leaving. “Captain, I’ll transfer the money to you, okay?”
Although it was a sweet gesture, he still felt it too embarrassing to accept these things from Song Shihan for free. He had bought snacks of this brand before to bring to Su Yueyao’s house, so he knew that they weren’t cheap.
Song Shihan raised his eyebrows slightly, not responding.
Zuo Tao had already taken his phone out, muttering to himself, “Can I just pay via WeChat?”
Without answering, Song Shihan simply glanced at him and said, “If you don’t like them, just bring them to the training room and share with everyone tomorrow.”
Zuo Tao quickly pulled his hand holding the snacks away. Without thinking further, he simply said, “No.” Quickly realizing that his reaction was a bit much, he said. “I…” he softened his voice. “I like them. I like these snacks the most, really.”
Song Shihan pinched the bridge of nose once more, as if resigning himself to dealing with Zuo Tao. He frowned and said, “If you like them, then leave it. You don’t have to pay me back.”
Zuo Tao wanted to say something else, but Song Shihan reached out and put his hand on his shoulder, turning him gently. “Alright, go to sleep.”
“Wait, I still have something to say!” Grabbing Song Shihan’s wrist, Zuo Tao calmed himself. “Today…” he glanced around his shoulder at Song Shihan. “Sorry for troubling everyone today.”
He almost forgot the most important thing.
Although he knew that Song Shihan said it was just a joke, he still felt he needed to explain and at the same time stabilize his own reputation.
“Captain, you shouldn’t believe everything my classmate said. It’s just that he saw me crying on the stage…” Still feeling like this was quite a difficult topic to discuss, Zuo Tao lowered his voice. “But I really wasn’t angry.”
Zuo Tao ruffled his hair and continued: “And thank you for coming to pick up tonight.”
“En,” Song Shihan hummed, expression calm but a smile lighting his usually indifferent eyes. “It’s nothing. After all, the entirety of Wildfire was mentioned on Weibo by your fans all evening.”
That stunned Zuo Tao, and he felt even more guilty. “I’m sorry, I’ll be more careful when I go out next time.”
Of course he knew about this matter. Not even Jiang Ming’s private account was spared from the disaster. One could only imagine how miserable SOng Shihan’s account must have been.
“No need to apologize,” Song Shihan said, still calm. “Zuo Tao, you should just do what you want.” He lowered his eyes, raising an eyebrow before chuckling. “You were dressed pretty unbecomingly today.”
Zuo Tao’s heart skipped a beat and he was immediately on alert. “I will never dress like that again!”
“Why?” Song Shihan asked, still looking at the hairspray-set style on Zuo Tao’s head. After deliberately styling it this way, he did look brighter than usual, the boy’s sharpness highlighted. He hinted calmly, “I think you like this style, too.”
“Not really,” Zuo Tao answered, insincerely.
Wang Qiu, living in the next room, heard their conversation and opened his door. He yawned as he asked, “What are you guys talking about that you’re still awake so late?” He glanced at the big bag in Zuo Tao’s hand and said, “Hey, where’d you get so much food? Give me some, I’m a little hungry.” He reached out a hand to take the bag.
Zuo Tao instinctively pulled the bag behind his back.
Wang Qiu, having grabbed nothing: ???
“Then I’ll go back to my room to rest,” Zuo Tao said, not daring to stay for a moment longer. He blushed as he turned to the direction of his room. “Good night, captain. Good night, Qiu-ge!”
Wang Qiu stood frozen, dumbfounded. After a moment of silence, he looked at Song Shihan. “Wasn’t that kid willing to share before?”
Only after locking the door to his room did Zuo Tao finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Sitting at his desk, Zuo Tao looked at the marshmallows that was on top of the bag of snacks.
Just like last time, it was also strawberry-flavored.
It was as if he’d stepped into a world of pink marshmallows. Zuo Tao took one out happily, and although reluctant to open it, it was as if he had already tasted its sweetness.
After a while,
Holding the bag of pink marshmallows, he smiled foolishly.
*
The next day.
The first thing Zuo Tao did after waking up was to open his phone to order snacks on the food delivery app. The snacks arrived just as he finished washing up and having breakfast.
There was usually no scheduled training on the weekends, but since the match against FG was tomorrow, everyone was already sitting down on their desks when Zuo Tao walked into the training room, snacks in hand.
He glanced at Song Shihan’s seat out of habit. He had just logged into the game and was adjusting his hero’s talents and skills.
Zuo Tao quickly put the snacks on the table and asked, “Captain, do you want to duo queue?”
Song Shihan didn’t refuse. After wearing his team jacket that was hanging on the back of his chair, he nodded and said, “Okay.”
Zuo Tao turned on his computer before handing the large bag of snacks to Wang Qiu. “Qiu-ge, I didn’t know what kind of snacks you like to eat, so I bought a variety.”
Wang Qiu snorted. “Belated affection is cheaper than grass2遲來的深情比草都賤, meaning some opportunities that are missed out on are forever lost. It’s used usually in the context of “you only know its value when it’s gone”,” he said, but his hands still honestly reached for the bag of snacks. “Why didn’t you give them to me last night when I asked?”
Zuo Tao: “…that was last night.” He thought that he had already established himself as Song Shihan’s solo stan3I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS TERM FOR AGES. I have been out of fandom for so long that I’ve forgotten they were called solo stans, but you get the point; fans that are only a fan of one member of a group and are toxic to all other members and their fans so he simply said, “Those were given to me by the captain.”
“Wow,” Wang Qiu exclaimed, “you guys sure have a good relationship down there on the bottom lane.” He glanced at Song Shihan, sourly saying, “Captain, why haven’t you ever bought me food?”
Song Shihan didn’t look away from his screen and ignored Wang Qiu altogether.
Afraid that Wang Qiu would keep going and say something strange, Zuo Tao hurriedly pointed out, “Didn’t I buy some for you?”
“How shameless of you to make Taozi buy you snacks,” Si Zheng interjected, looking at Wang Qiu with disdain before continuing scrolling in his phone. “…oh my god, something’s happened with GGF. Are stalkers so rampant now?”
“Is it STAR?” Wang Qiu asked, tearing open a chocolate bar before sighing. “I saw his message in the group earlier, warning us to pay closer attention.”
Zuo Tao was confused. “What’s wrong?”
Wang Qiu: “Haven’t you checked the group? A stalker disguised himself as a housekeeping staff and entered the GGF base.”
In addition to the team’s internal group, there was also a large group Wang Qiu had added him into a few days ago. It was filled with members of major teams, both active and retired, where they discussed everything and nothing. There was no saying how these adult men could have so much to say all day long, but the number of unread messages always appeared as 99+.
Zuo Tao disliked the noise of his notifications, so he muted the group as soon as he entered.
“I didn’t see it,” Zuo Tao admitted, taking out his phone as he spoke, intending to read the messages.
Just as Wang Qiu said, STAR was frantically sending messages in the group, each one followed by a series of screaming. Even through the screen, one could feel how distressed his mental state must be at the moment.
【GGF-STAR: Ahhhhhhh! Do you know how scared I am? I’m scared to death right now!!!】
【GGF-STAR: When I opened my eyes, I saw that person hugging me and kissing my face aaaaaaaah】
【GGF-STAR: I’m at the police station right now aaaaaaaaah!】
【GGF-STAR: No, I’m still scared huhuhuhuhu!!!】
【GGF-STAR: This is the first time I’ve ever experienced such a thing in my whole life.】
【GGF-STAR: Brothers, you must be careful. Take care when you accept strange phone calls!!!】
【GGF-STAR: Especially those calls where no one says anything after the call is connected, that was the beginning of this whole fucking nightmare!!!】
As Wildfire’s top gossip, Wang Qiu slid his chair closer to Zuo Tao and excitedly said, “It was STAR’s fan. She sneaked into STAR’s room at eight in the morning under the pretext of cleaning. STAR was still sleeping at the time, and suddenly he was hugged and kissed awake by someone.”
Zuo Tao: …
After imagining the scene, he empathized with STAR for the first time in his life: “He must have been scared to death.”
Si Zheng: “He really must have been. Was it a female fan4“He”, “she”, and “they” sound the same when spoken verbally, so although Wang Qiu specified that it was a “she” in his sentence above, it wasn’t clear to those who were listening, thus the clarification?”
“Yeah,” Wang Qiu answered, nodding. He smacked his lips and said, “Fortunately, STAR was keeping a cat and had installed a camera in his bedroom, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to prove anything at the police station.”
Si Zheng: “I feel like boys aren’t safe these days, either.”
“Indeed.” Wang Qiu sighed. “But STAR is over reacting. He calls for his sisters everyday when he livestreams. A tall tree attracts the wind5樹大招風, an idiom from Journey to the West which means that fame and fortune will attract attention and trouble, he just probably wasn’t expecting someone so ruthless to arrive.”6Please note that non-consensual behavior is non-consensual regardless of how someone acts, dresses, or speaks. There is no excuse for assaulting anyone regardless of sex or gender.
Even so, Zuo Tao felt that STAR was unfortunate. Just as he was about to join in on everyone comforting STAR when an unknown caller suddenly rang.
It wouldn’t have been a big deal under other circumstances, but after just hearing about what happened to STAR, Zuo Tao was stunned when he saw the notification.
Wang Qiu also saw what was on Zuo Tao’s screen. The corners of his mouth twitched slightly. “…it can’t be that much of a coincidence, right?”
Hearing the ringing, everyone looked towards Zuo Tao. Even Song Shihan stopped what he was doing.
Zuo Tao smiled to tell them it was okay. He answered the call and said, “Hello?”
There was no answer from the other end.
Zuo Tao: …
From the TL: Please support the author if/when you can! You can find the raws here
