My straight roommate is so good

“Whoa! Senior, what are you doing? You scared me…”

A sudden voice interrupted Ling Jianshu’s thoughts.

He shifted his gaze from his phone and glanced at the source of the voice.

The startled boy was Pei Nian, a freshman in Software Engineering.

He had a baby face with a pair of little fangs that made his smile especially endearing.

Recently, during the club recruitment period, the senior girls from the guitar club, street dance club, painting club, and photography club all tried desperately to get him to join their respective clubs.

He wasn’t interested in any of those but became half-obsessed with watching his senior, Ling Jianshu, practicing boxing.

In a moment of impulsiveness, despite his small and frail stature, he joined the boxing club.

Pei Nian and Ling Jianshu shared the same coach, so he would constantly call him “Senior” all day long.

At first, Ling Jianshu didn’t like being called that and tried to stop him many times, but when it didn’t work, he eventually just let him be.

Pei Nian walked over and sat down next to him.

Ling Jianshu gave him a glance and said calmly, “What did I do?”

Pei Nian replied, “You were smiling!”

“…?”

Ling Jianshu was about to say, “I wasn’t smiling.”

But at that moment, the phone screen went dark.

The black, square glass reflected his handsome face and the smile he hadn’t yet managed to hide.

He stared at his reflection for a moment, and the words that were about to come out of his mouth were swallowed back down.

He shifted his gaze from the phone, suppressed the upward curve of his lips, and chose different words: “What, I can’t smile?”

“No, no,” Pei Nian waved his hands, “It’s not that you can’t smile. It’s just that you sitting here alone, grinning at your phone screen, looks kind of creepy.”

Ling Jianshu glanced at him and said indifferently, “No one’s forcing you to look.”

“Right, right, my bad, I won’t say anything more.”

Pei Nian deftly changed the subject, but after a moment of silence, he couldn’t resist asking, “But Senior, what were you looking at just now that made you so happy?”

This time, Ling Jianshu really didn’t plan to indulge his talkative junior.

Not only did he directly ignore his question, but he also called out toward the training area, “Coach, Pei Nian’s here.”

Pei Nian: “?”

The coach heard and looked over, shouting at him, “If you’re here, then get to training! What are you dawdling for?!”

“I’m coming right away!” Pei Nian responded, standing up from the bench and whining to Ling Jianshu, “Senior, how could you betray your junior like this? Boo hoo hoo…”

Terrible acting.

Ling Jianshu was unmoved and coldly said, “If you don’t get over there, the coach will start yelling again.”

Sure enough, in the next second, the coach bellowed, “Pei Nian!!”

“Coming, coming!!”

He didn’t dare waste any more time and quickly ran off to train.

Finally, some peace and quiet.

Ling Jianshu sighed in relief, unlocked his phone, and switched back to the forum, his actions carrying a hint of impatience.

Time for rest was limited, and he didn’t want to waste any, so he eagerly continued reading the post.

Although he was straight, he had a particularly sharp mind.

After reading through about ten comments, he completely understood what “Lawsuit CP” meant and fully grasped the theme of the post.

It wasn’t about praising their looks; it was spreading rumors about him and Qiao Song.

He thought about it for a moment and suddenly felt he understood everything.

No wonder Qiao Song had been trying so hard to stop him from seeing the post.

Qiao Song knew he was homophobic and must have been worried that he’d feel uncomfortable seeing such a post.

He remembered that morning in the dorm when Qiao Song had asked him if he cared about what others thought of him.

At the time, he had replied that he didn’t.

He wasn’t lying; he genuinely didn’t care.

In the past, no matter what others said about him, he couldn’t be bothered to explain. After all, the truth was the truth, and rumors couldn’t change that.

But this time, the situation seemed different.

He didn’t need to lie to himself; he admitted that he cared about Qiao Song’s feelings.

He knew Qiao Song was also homophobic.

A homophobic boy, trying to protect him from being disturbed, silently endured those rumors about being gay—what must he be feeling inside?

He didn’t dare think too deeply about it because the more he thought, the worse he felt.

He wasn’t someone who easily acted on impulse, but this time, he found it hard to control the irritation bubbling up inside.

He really wanted to angrily respond to the people in that thread.

He wanted to clarify the truth.

He wanted to stand up for Qiao Song.

He was always a man of action.

Since he had the thought, of course, he was going to act on it.

He opened the comment box and typed out a few words, but before he could send it, he received a WeChat message from Qiao Song.

Qiao Song: [Shu brother, you didn’t check the forum, right?]

Ling Jianshu: “…”

It seemed Qiao Song really didn’t want him to see those posts.

He stared at his message for a long time, and in the end, he couldn’t bring himself to disregard his good intentions.

Ling Jianshu: [No, I’ve been training.]

After sending that reply, he went back to the forum, deleted the draft in the comment box word by word, and exited the forum.

Qiao Song quickly responded: [Good, then you focus on your training. I won’t bother you anymore.]

Ling Jianshu didn’t feel bothered at all.

But he didn’t continue with that topic and instead asked him: [Are you done practicing the piano?]

Qiao Song: [Not yet, I should be done by around six.]

Ling Jianshu: [Got it.]

Not far away, the coach had just finished assigning tasks to Pei Nian and called out to Ling Jianshu, “Your fifteen minutes are up; get back to training!”

He replied and returned to the training area.

As he put on his boxing gloves, he wasn’t thinking about the upcoming training session but rather—

He’d be done by five, and before picking up Qiao Song, he’d have just enough time to take a shower.

After exchanging messages with Ling Jianshu, Qiao Song finally felt a bit more at ease.

He set his phone aside, forced himself to calm down, and focused on practicing the piano.

Hours flew by.

When he felt his fingers aching and looked up at the time, it was already 6:30 in the evening.

As he walked out of the art building, he was surprised to immediately spot Ling Jianshu.

The soft rays of the setting sun bathed every corner of Lan University in a warm glow.

Standing amidst this light and shadow, Ling Jianshu seemed to blend into a warm, orange-hued painting.

As the universally acknowledged campus prince of Lan University, he was always strikingly handsome, even in a simple black T-shirt that accentuated his broad shoulders and slim waist, making him look like he was posing for a fashion shoot.

It was dinnertime, and there were people coming and going near the art building.

There was never a shortage of people sneaking glances at Ling Jianshu, and many were even openly staring.

It seemed he was long accustomed to this kind of attention, so he didn’t mind and had no intention of paying it any heed.

He leaned against the railing on the opposite side of the street, his head down as he played with his phone. His posture was a bit lazy, but his unsmiling, handsome face radiated an aura that said, “Keep your distance.”

He looked quite unapproachable.

Fortunately, Qiao Song didn’t plan to approach him.

He didn’t know why he had come to the art building again.

Maybe he was waiting for him, or maybe not.

But that didn’t matter; what mattered was that he didn’t want to appear together with him in front of the CP fans.

He decided to avoid him.

But just then, Ling Jianshu seemed to sense his presence and looked over toward the art building.

The moment their eyes met, the boy who had been maintaining a serious, difficult-to-approach expression naturally smiled at him.

Qiao Song’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat.

Instinctively, he quickly averted his gaze, pretending to look at his phone, though in his nervousness, he even forgot to unlock the screen.

Not far away, Ling Jianshu’s smile faded as he frowned slightly.

He took large strides toward him, ignoring the stares of others, grabbed Qiao Song’s slender wrist, and asked in a low voice, “What are you hiding from?”