No swearing!

That seemed to startle Chris, who looked at him and tried to hide his inner thoughts from revealing themselves on his face. 

Had he done or said anything to give himself away that he was attracted to boys?

"Are you gay?" Chris blurted out before he could stop himself. He didn't think any straight guy would directly joke like that. He was the one who usually joked like that. But he doubted he was. 

"What?" He asked, startled. "No. Do I look like one?" 

"Is there a special way gays look?" Chris asked. 

"Certainly not like me. Or... you." 

Chris was tempted to laugh at that. Well, since Sato wasn't gay, that was a lot better. He didn't want to deal with a crazily sexy, annoying gay roommate. 

His sigh of relief made Sky look at him with interest. 

"You aren't homophobic, are you?" 

"What?" 

That was the last question Chris had ever imagined someone would ask him. 

"Was that why you reacted that way to my friend holding your briefs? And... I heard you didn't quite take a liking to Henry."

"Your friends tell on me now?" 

"It was necessary."

Chris rolled his eyes. He didn't see any reason to explain himself. In fact, it was best if they assumed he was both homophobic and straightphobic. 

"I have some assignments to do. I'd rather not waste my time having this conversation with you." 

Chris ignored Sky and went to his table, where he got busy setting up his laptop and finding his study materials. If anyone had told him a year ago that he would be studious in his first year at university instead of partying and engaging in wildness, he would have laughed his ass off. 

He didn't care what Sato was doing behind him. He blocked out every sound with his headphones and was just about to get engrossed in his assignment when he felt the presence beside him. He turned to look and found Sky plugging something into his adapter before handing him a blow dryer. 

"Take off your headphones." Sky's lips read. 

Normally, Chris would have ignored him, but he didn't and took them off. "Are you always this... pushy?" 

"Dry your hair while I talk to you."

"Pardon?" Chris asked in confusion. What kind of psycho was this? Did he tell him he wanted to talk? 

"The rules, remember?" 

"Why are you so fixated on this?" 

"Because I want us to be on the same page."

"That is not going to work."

Sky looked like he was tired of his stubbornness as he stood up and went to stand closely behind Chris before turning on the blow dryer, startling Chris, who swore loudly and stood up. 

"Rule one: no swearing." 

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Chris said, eyeing him. 

"No swearing! And here... dry your hair." He insisted and threw the dryer at him. Chris had no choice but to catch it and just looked at him in frustration. Maybe he should really consider his mother's offer and go live outside the school's accommodation. 

He plopped down on his seat and began to dry his hair while Sky pushed his chair beside Chris and sat down. 

"So... I don't mind you bringing friends over. My friends do stop by often too."

Chris wished the dryer could at least block out his voice, but unfortunately, there was no way he couldn't hear that deep-accented baritone.

"Can we rather not have any friends over? Isn't this space small enough?" Chris complained. 

"Sorry, but I can't just tell them to stop coming over because you do not like it. It's been that way for nearly a year now."

"And your previous roommate was okay with it?"

"I didn't live much with a roommate. That kinda brings me to the second rule. I'd rather you not bring girls over."

Wait a damn minute!

Not that Chris was planning to. But how dare he? 

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Unfortunately, I'm not. It's for your own good." He said with a concerned look that made Chris almost believe he had a good reason for that stupid rule. 

"How is that?" Chris asked. 

"Because many girls are going to approach you on purpose as soon as they find out you are my roommate. That brings us to the third rule: no telling anyone we are roommates. So back to the second rule: I don't want us to have problems because a girl you like happens to be into me or starts flirting with me even in your presence, and you're left heartbroken and join the group of people who hate having me as a roommate and become haters trying to ruin my reputation."

Chris could not help but laugh aloud when he heard that. "Jesus! You are so full of yourself!" 

"It's in the genes. Thank you." Sato said with a smile, as though Chris had meant that as a compliment and not the insult that it obviously was. 

Chris became a lot more confident about having Sky as his roommate. There was no way he was going to get tempted by an annoying narcissist like him. At this rate, he may even hate guys in general. 

Chris stopped drying his hair and turned off the dryer before handing it back to him while asking,

"You aren't worried your girls would be into me instead? I'm quite a catch."

Sky looked amused as he stood up without saying a word and went to drop the dryer on the table before going to get his towel and soap. 

"You should eat. Since you're here on a scholarship, I'll do my best to make sure you spend less. My mum packed that dinner for you. Don't make me throw it away, Chris." 

He said before stepping out of the room with his things. 

Chris just stared blankly at the door before he went to take back the lunchbox.  He picked up his phone to reply to the last message from Wilson and saw another message. 

Wilson: Chris, should I be worried about you? He seems like the kind of guy you easily get drawn to. 

Chris frowned when he read the last message, but he didn't reply immediately.