Chapter 221 218. The Exam
“Yo—aren’t you two the golden couple of our class?”
Before they even entered the classroom, Chen Junjie—who was smoking in the corridor—swaggered over with a sleazy grin and provoked them.
“Hey, you two aren’t actually together, are you? I’ve never even heard you try to deny it.”
“I don’t even know how many times I’ve explained it,” An Han rolled her eyes at him. “And every time you treat it like an excuse. Aren’t you afraid of getting caught smoking in the teaching building?”
“Afraid of what?” Chen Junjie laughed. “Hey, Su Peng, want one?”
Su Peng instinctively reached out to take it, but then caught sight of An Han’s expression out of the corner of his eye. His hand froze in midair.
Chen Junjie cheerfully stuffed the cigarette into his hand and took out a lighter.
“There’s still more than ten minutes before the exam. Let’s have a smoke and chat.”
He leaned closer and added, “Later, let’s sit closer. Let me copy your answers, how about it?”
Just as he was about to light the cigarette for Su Peng, An Han cut in coldly,
“Since when were you two brothers?”
“Hey! Brotherhood isn’t something you say out loud,” Chen Junjie protested. “I keep it in my heart, okay?”
Then he offered a cigarette to An Han as well. “Want one?”
“Forget it.”
“It’s not like you don’t know how to smoke.”
An Han couldn’t be bothered to deal with him and turned straight into the classroom.
“Big brother, about the answers—”
Before Chen Junjie could finish, Su Peng put the cigarette down and followed An Han into the classroom.
Did she get angry?
Feeling uneasy, he sat down beside her, only to have An Han kick his calf under the desk in annoyance.
She is angry!
Su Peng jolted and immediately began thinking about how to apologize sincerely. Meanwhile, An Han narrowed her eyes slightly, expressionless, and lay down on the desk.
Honestly, Su Peng’s overly cautious, worried look was kind of cute.
And it showed that he really cared about her.
Feeling playful, she complained softly, her tone tinged with irritation.
“I told you before not to smoke…”
“Junjie handed it to me,” Su Peng hurriedly explained. “I took it without thinking. I didn’t smoke it—I left it on the windowsill.”
“Sigh…”
An Han’s sigh made Su Peng’s heart tremble.
“My fault, my fault. Next time, no matter who offers me a cigarette, I won’t take it.”
“I’m not even anyone important to you. Why listen to me?”
“I just think smoking is bad anyway.”
He put on a righteous front to dodge the issue. Seeing the corner of An Han’s lips lift slightly, he finally let out a breath of relief.
But An Han still kicked him under the desk.
“Move over. You’re not allowed to sit together during exams.”
“Oh. Right.”
Only then did Su Peng react, awkwardly moving farther away from her.
According to exam rules, there had to be one empty seat between them to prevent cheating. Even though proctors were often lax and cheating was hard to stop completely, the formalities still had to be followed.
An Han continued lying on the desk, not sleepy at all, smiling as she looked at Su Peng.
Being cared about really feels nice.
With some distance between them, she could also focus on the exam instead of blushing uncontrollably because he was too close.
Before long, the teacher arrived with the test papers.
The previously noisy classroom instantly quieted down. Hiding behind the person in front of her, An Han whispered to Su Peng,
“If I run into questions I can’t do, you have to show me.”
“You’re copying too?”
“Just looking!”
Although Su Peng had tutored An Han during the past week or two, most of those sessions ended hastily, just like the first time.
Whenever the two of them were alone in the same room, things tended to develop in… not very healthy directions.
……
“Finally over! Next we hand in assignments, then there’s another written exam this afternoon. We can go home Wednesday afternoon!”
After leaving the classroom, An Han stretched lazily, clearly in a great mood. Smiling, she said to Su Peng,
“I booked a ticket for Wednesday evening. I’ll head straight out once the exams are done.”
“So fast? No farewell gathering in your dorm at night?”
“My mom insists I go back early. I shouldn’t have told her the vacation dates.”
Walking along the corridor with the crowd, her steps light at first, An Han’s smile gradually faded.
With the holidays approaching, she should have been in a good mood. But the thought of being separated from Su Peng for a whole month made her feel a little down.
Pull yourself together!
She suddenly slapped her cheeks with both hands.
You’re a man, after all! Feeling sad over separating from another man—what kind of nonsense is that?
When An Han looked up, she noticed that Su Peng beside her also seemed a bit low-spirited.
But Su Peng quickly smiled.
“Don’t forget to use skincare products during winter break. Look how dry your face is.”
“I know.”
“Keep warm too. Don’t come back with chilblains on your hands, swollen like radishes.”
“I’m not stupid.”
Their conversation was overheard by a passing classmate, who curiously glanced at them. Instead of being surprised, the classmate’s eyes carried the look people give to a lovey-dovey couple.
An Han quickly shot Su Peng a glare and explained to the classmate,
“We’re not that kind of relationship.”
“I know. Everyone knows,” the classmate replied with a knowing smile.
The rumor that these two were dating was practically common knowledge.
In everyone’s eyes, this was a relationship between two men. There had been private gossip, but since both of them were well-liked in class—and visually looked like a boy and a girl—it didn’t feel off-putting.
In fact, the handsome-guy-and-trap romance had even awakened a few girls in the class to their love for boys’ love stories.
“It’s impossible to explain,” An Han complained, holding her head as she watched the classmate walk away. “The more I explain, the more annoying it gets. This is all because you and Kexin talked nonsense!”
Complaints aside, being mistaken as Su Peng’s partner actually made her secretly happy.
“If I told Kexin I liked you, wouldn’t that be the same as saying I’m gay?” Su Peng argued confidently. “Who knew she’d take it seriously?”
“Heh.”
An Han didn’t believe him at all. He definitely did it on purpose.
The second “exam” was just submitting an assignment. Through the class monitor, An Kexin, the assignments were copied onto the teacher’s USB drive. After everyone checked that their work was complete and signed in, they were free to leave.
An Han entered the classroom, signed in first, and walked out again—all in ten minutes.
“It’s only a little past ten,” she said, checking the time. “There’s nothing to do until the written exam at two in the afternoon.”
She stood at the end of the corridor, resting her arms on the railing and looking down at the large lawn below.
Before long, Su Peng finished signing in and came over to her side.
The sound of his footsteps was so familiar that she didn’t even turn around.
“Want to go back and play duo queue later?”
“I was thinking of going somewhere to look around…”
“There’s nothing to see, and I don’t need to buy anything.”
Actually, just wandering around together wouldn’t be bad.
Some of An Han’s straight-guy thinking really gave Su Peng a headache.
“Alright then. Duo queue is fine too.”
He could only smile bitterly.
Just look at Chen Junjie and Wang Sheng, who had just started dating—coming back to the dorm late every night, sometimes not even returning at all. Aside from classes, they were always with their girlfriends.
And him?
Why was he always just duo-queuing with An Han?
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Transition chapter. Tomorrow, the story enters the winter vacation arc.
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