A Bit of Warmth

There were piles of books and papers on the coffee table and an opened laptop propped on the sofa when Wen Rui walked into the living room. It looked like Zhou Ye was working on an assignment and the image of this CEO sitting on the floor hugging a cushion while he typed away was…

…disturbingly cute.

Wen Rui coughed. "You're…not going to be in your study?" Was the study reserved for actual business only or what?

Zhou Ye look at his impromptu work setup. "Change of environment," he said, not meeting Wen Rui's eyes.

Wen Rui kept forgetting that Zhou Ye was young too. That, like Wen Rui, he had just turned 21 this year. It was natural, right? To get fidgety and restless after too many hours cooped up in the same place working on fulfilling responsibilities. And Zhou Ye had more obligations on his shoulders than anyone Wen Rui knew.

He looked down. It wasn't chilly enough outside to turn on the underfloor heating but the marble tiles were very cold. He rubbed his feet together and decided he would go take a hot shower and hide in bed for the rest of the day with his script—

"Put these on."

Wen Rui stared at Zhou Ye as he stepped out of his house slippers. They looked warm and plush, were of a good make.

"No, it's fine," Wen Rui tried to protest but Zhou Ye was already walking out of the room. "Hey—"

He cut himself off when he heard the noise of a cabinet opening and closing, echoing in the hallway leading up to the entrance. That was the shoe rack. When Zhou Ye came back in a moment later, he was carrying another pair of house slippers, sky blue as compared to the deep navy ones that Wen Rui had shuffled a step closer to.

"If you don't want to use mine, remember to use yours." He set down the brand new pair next to Wen Rui's feet.

Inexplicably, Wen Rui felt his eyes burn.

"…thanks," he mumbled, slipping his feet in and trying not to show how emotional he was feeling this morning. The sky blue pair was identical to Zhou Ye's except for its colour and maybe it was also a bit fluffier because it hadn't been used before.

And a size smaller, like it had been prepared for him. Wen Rui knew himself. He knew that he hadn't been the one to purchase matching house slippers. He was used to having his needs taken care of, not the other way around.

…damn it. Who knew Zhou Ye could be so conscientious? If he were a girl, Wen Rui would have found such kindness irresistible.

If only. But Zhou Ye was not only a boy, he was a boy that was taller than Wen Rui, broader than Wen Rui, and for all intents and purposes, looked manlier than Wen Rui.

…such was life.

"Thanks," Wen Rui said again because the atmosphere was getting awkward and Zhou Ye was still standing there watching him with that quiet, intense gaze of his. Once upon a time, this would have riled Wen Rui up but for some strange reason, it just left him flustered now.

"Well, I'm going to head back to my room now," Wen Rui said, fingers tightening in the fabric of his trousers as he tried to shake off some of the nerves that he couldn't explain. "I'll, um, see you around? Sorry for bothering."

"Have you eaten?"

Wen Rui startled. "N-no," he blurted out before he could stop himself, cringing inwardly when he heard himself stutter. Since when did their interaction become so odd? He couldn't bring himself to look at Zhou Ye, which was why he didn't notice that Zhou Ye too was avoiding looking at him.

"What would you like for lunch?"

Wen Rui hadn't forgotten how awkward the last meal he had with Zhou Ye had been. But Zhou Ye had been nice to him recently, even though Wen Rui hadn't even apologised for throwing his temper at Zhou Ye last weekend. Why had he ever thought that Zhou Ye was grumpy? He was so much more patient than Wen Rui…

"I'm okay with anything," Wen Rui said, not wanting to make things difficult for Zhou Ye, who was probably going to call in food. Since Zhou Ye was the rightful owner of this house and Wen Rui was just crashing, he didn't want to get in the way. "I'll eat whatever you order."

Zhou Ye made a soft assenting noise. He sat back down on the plush grey carpet on the floor and put on a pair of silver-rimmed glasses that looked very, very good on him. It made him look less aggressive and more refined, more like the student everyone tended to forget that he was.

Wen Rui took that as his sign to stop intruding and hightailed it out of the living room. He also made a mental note to get more cardio into his regime because his heart was racing way too quickly for just one flight of stairs.

The script for the drama had been sent to his inbox a long time ago but Wen Rui also found a dog-eared printed copy of it chucked inside his bedside drawer. There were highlights and scribbles all over it, interpretations of Chen Wen's characterisation that his older self had painstakingly annotated within the margins.

This told Wen Rui that no matter what the media or the gossip around him said, 21-year-old Wen Rui had been serious about his work. He wasn't completely beyond redemption like Wen Rui had previously believed. Even if it were just out of spite or to try and seek his neglectful father's attention, the older Wen Rui had put in the effort where it had counted.

His spirits rose. If older him could do it, younger him, who had more energy and had taken fewer knocks in life, could do it too.

He spent the morning reading through the script that he had completely forgotten. Working was a good distraction and he soon put all thoughts of his low mood from the confrontation with Lu Xiamei earlier out of his mind.

At first glance, this drama was the usual run-of-the-mill high school romance. It had a couple of dog-blood scenes but nothing that stood out as overwhelming in general. Chen Wen, the ML that Wen Rui would be acting as was almost too perfect. Whether this was because it was a teenage romance novel adaptation, Wen Rui didn't know, but no one was this flawless in real life, not even Zhou Ye.

He frowned and mused over the role a bit more. It would be very easy to just portray Chen Wen like the script said he was—handsome, charming, friendly, and doting on the FL. But this would come across as very one-dimensional. Wen Rui wasn't sure if this was because of the script or if the original author had created such a flat ML.

In contrast, the FL had much more colour to her. Despite the classic poor girl meets rich boy trope, Bai Juli wasn't like the standard female archetype in this situation. She had the same laudatory traits like a strong personality and determination. But she also suffered secretly from depression because of all the bullying at school and her troubling family life. This was mentioned in the script but the harsh gritty realities of being a student in a high-pressure environment seemed to be glossed over. The main focus of the drama was completely on the romance between the two main characters and Wen Rui wasn't sure whether this was because the author had intended for it to be this way.

The novel seemed like it had the potential to be more than just any old schoolroom slice of life story. Wen Rui decided to purchase it and see whether Chen Wen's role had been altered in the script or not.

He was just done creating an account on the reading app when there was a knock from outside. It was perfunctory, just two quick sounds and then silence.

It suited Zhou Ye's efficiency, he decided, putting his work aside as he clambered off the bed to open the door.

"Lunch is ready."

Wen Rui blinked. He hadn't heard the doorbell earlier on, was it because he was so distracted? Or had the delivery man called Zhou Ye directly? The apartment was so big that he wasn't surprised he didn't hear the main door opening.

d

"Okay, give me a sec." He bounded back in and grabbed a sweater to throw on. He had stripped down to a tank top before burrowing under the blankets but he remembered how cold it was outside.

He threw it on and rushed out so that he wouldn't keep Zhou Ye waiting. But in his haste, he'd picked a large, oversized one that had a neckline big enough to slip off one shoulder.

"Sorry, let's go. What did you order—" A large hand reached out and tugged the sweater back up to cover Wen Rui's collarbones. The back of Zhou Ye's knuckles brushed against Wen Rui's skin, leaving a burning sensation behind.

Wen Rui forgot the rest of his sentence.