Unintentionally Starting the Rumor Mill

"Heh, Su Yan …" One of his co-workers leaned over, a questioning gaze in her eyes. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure. What's up?" Su Yan slid his phone back into his pocket and turned around. He smiled but then noticed her expression. "Hah? What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing. I was just … Well, we were wondering if you were … you know, thinking about dating?"

"Dating?" Su Yan blinked. How did she get that idea? "No. Well, it's not like we have the time for that anyway. There's no use thinking about it, is there?"

One of the other women couldn't take it anymore. She looked around and stood up when she saw no customers coming over. She hurried to Su Yan's counter and leaned forward next to him. "Ah, come on, Su Yan, don't be like that! We've all seen you checking out the men."

"Yeah!", came the affirmation from the other women.

"Hah? What?" Su Yan couldn't believe what was happening. Shit, this was even more embarrassing than seeing those videos and having to share a bed with Nie Chang afterward! His co-workers thought … he was into that kind of thing?!

"Come on!" The co-worker patted his shoulder. "It's nothing to be embarrassed about. We're not from yesterday. It's alright that you're into men. We support you! Just go for it!"

"Yeah!" Another co-worker ran over and patted him on the back.

Su Yan was stunned. That had never happened before! Why were those women so … touchy today? They'd normally hold their distance because they wouldn't want to be misunderstood. Oh no! This could only mean he had really been labeled as gay!

"You misunderstood! I'm not —"

The rest of his co-workers ran over, too. There really weren't many other people around and most hurried to buy their tickets or board their subway without paying attention to the information counters. They were quite free for now.

Normally, Su Yan liked that time of day. They could just casually chat or do some things of their own. It had been way more hectic during the vacation period but now things had calmed down a bit. He had waited for this but now he really wished they would go back to the busy days of before.

"Ah, Su Yan, don't worry. That's nothing bad. You love who you love. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, yes!"

"Indeed!"

"So, who do you like? I saw you staring at Li Ming from the security team."

"No! I —"

"Ah, come on. Just confess! We're gonna find out anyway."

The ruckus at his counter actually drew exactly that Li Ming from the security guards over. "Is something the matter?"

The girls exchanged glances. Hehe! Target found! "Ah, Li Ming, did you know? Su Yan just confessed that he likes men!"

"I … I didn't!" Su Yan stood up. He might be able to take it if his female co-workers thought like that, after all, they had never shown any interest in him anyway, but he couldn't accept another man thinking of him like that. What if that rumor spread? Would any of them still want to work with him? And what if his boss heard? He'd certainly fire him!

Li Ming took one look at Su Yan and smiled. "Aiya, don't tease him. If he says he isn't gay, then, of course, he isn't. Don't make fun of something like that."

"But it's true!"

"Alright, alright. If you say so. But you still shouldn't tell other people about it. Isn't it great that he admitted it to you? You shouldn't misuse that trust. Now, you better go back to your counters. You wouldn't want the boss to see you like that. There are customers coming over." He nodded vaguely at a group of tourists entering the subway station.

The women grumbled but with a last look at Su Yan and Li Ming that said this wasn't over for long, they went back to their own seats.

"Thanks." Su Yan smiled wryly at Li Min. "It's really not true."

"It's alright." Li Ming patted Su Yan's hand and continued to smile.

Su Yan looked down. This was probably meant to comfort him but somehow he felt even worse being treated like this. He couldn't say that, though. "Mn, thank you. I … should get back to work, too."

"Sure." Li Ming waved at him and also hurried back to his own work.

Su Yan heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, this was over. He'd much rather deal with the strange questions those tourists would ask.

He would never have thought that this problem he ran into because of the Lovely Writing System was far from over. In fact, it had just started and should even get worse.