To My Youth [BL]

[4] Little Steps to You (1/3)

𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘮𝘣𝘭𝘦.

Gu Xiao had just woken up from his sleep, and he was greeted with Gu Heiyu holding a selfie-stick and talking to herself. She was chatting about her life to her followers, or a topic of some sort that Gu Xiao had no interest in. That was until she came and shoved the phone in his face.

"Yes, this is my brother," she giggled as she responded to someone's comment.

Gu Xiao, whose brain was still half asleep, scratched his head in confusion. Instead of looking at the comments, he was focused on the camera that reflected his face in such high quality.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for school?" he yawned and grabbed her phone, putting his face up close to the camera.

His eyes enlarged, and he immediately started massaging both sides of his face. "Did I gain weight? Why is my face so big?"

"Give me back my phone," she said and snatched her phone back.

Ever since her junior years, Gu Heiyu had always been recording moments of her life. Though it was mainly beauty vlogs and reviews, sometimes she would even do cooking vlogs.

Gu Heiyu ignored Gu Xiao's comments and continued talking to her phone as she applied a thin layer of lip tint to her lips. She started talking about her makeup routine for school and how to achieve a natural look, but all of this simply went through Gu Xiao's head.

Before she reached him again, he hurriedly ran back to his room. Last time when she was doing a makeup vlog, she started powdering his face up for content. Yet, he ended up looking like he went through the five stages of grief since his sensitive eyes kept watering, forcing the mascara and eyeliner to dribble down his eyes.

Not to mention, she had no foundation that was his skin tone, so he also ended up looking like a walking corpse that got punched in both eyes.

✎✎✎

"Wait!" Gu Xiao yelled and dashed past the gate line, where Mr. Shen stood with one hand on his hip and a clipboard on the other.

His eyes narrowed, and the boy prepared his ears for a long lecture.

"Gu Xiao? You again?!"

"Mr. Shen, you look extra handsome today."

"Cut the nonsense. You tell me that every day."

Loud footsteps travelled down the street, and a familiar voice resonated.

"Wait!"

Gu Xiao turned around, and an enormous smile smeared across his face, the corner of his lips reaching from ear to ear.

A student with middle-parted hair and a foolish grin ran down the street, holding a half-eaten packet of chips.

"Zhang Yongyin? Why is it you two again?"

"Did you buy me a packet?" Gu Xiao asked.

"Of course."

Even though Gu Xiao never felt much shame in being late, he still proudly laughed. "Mr. Shen, I'm not the last one today."

Mr. Shen was both disappointed, but not at the same time. In fact, he was surprised that Gu Xiao even showed up at the front gate and not some random wall around the school.

"Last one, not last one. In the end, it's always you two!"

✎✎✎

After a long earful from Mr. Shen and deducting merit points, they finally passed the front gate and headed into the main building.

"What's it like sitting next to the student president?"

Shoving a handful of chips into his mouth, Gu Xiao spoke with slurred syllables. "I don't know. He barely talks."

"If I were ranked last, the one sitting next to the student president would've been me. I don't know how I would survive. At least Song Anwen talks to me and gives me answers. You know, I actually cheated on the last exam. That's why I got 75% instead of 60%."

"You cheated without me? But you know, Student President isn't that bad," Gu Xiao responded.

Although Lan Yuning appeared cold, he still attracted so many people. After all, he had both the money and the brains. He was the son of LS Corporation's president. Sadly, people described his personality as quite cold, whereas Song Anwen was more sociable and friendly. Yet, Gu Xiao never thought Lan Yuning appeared that cold. In truth, he never pondered much about his presence since he was always truanting or sleeping.

With only five more minutes left till the second bell, they entered the classroom filled with the noise and chatter of energetic students.

The sunlight seeping from the window carved out Lan Yuning's frame as he sat silently, completing the last question of the calculations and proofs section to the previous year's mock papers.

It was only after a close examination did Gu Xiao realise how rather desolate Lan Yuning looked. There was a point of simplicity, and what concealed under that barrier of simplicity and freshness laid a depth of something unexplainable.

Gu Xiao walked to his seat with his bag slung on one shoulder while his thumb hooked onto the strap. Tossing his bag behind his seat, he slumped down beside his studying deskmate and scratched his dishevelled hair.

Yet, even with all this noise, Lan Yuning kept his eyes glued to his book and didn't bat an eye at the boy beside him.

Physics never existed in his head. Their physics teacher explained their group presentation where they would all receive different topics to present. She pulled out a cup with twenty-four strands of paper.

"I will put you into groups of four for a small presentation due next week. The student president will hand out the tags randomly, and the number you receive will be your group."

Lan Yuning received the small container and started handing out the tags. Praying and praying, Gu Xiao only hoped he got put in a group with high-achieving students, but not too good-willed people that they would make him do heavy workloads while advocating that it was for his own good.

With Lan Yuning reaching the last table, he placed the container in front of Gu Xiao. He quickly snatched a piece of paper while Lan Yuning simply took the last one and returned the container.

"Make sure to complete pages twenty to fifty-eight for homework. It will be collected tomorrow morning."

Everyone started looking at their group numbers and had already formed their little groups. Gu Xiao looked at his paper that had "two" at the bottom. Instantly, he looked to the front in search of Zhang Yongyin, who also looked at him with a distressing expression.

"What is your number?" he asked his friend.

"I got two!"

Gu Xiao looked at the board to see what topic they were doing. Electromagnetic spectrum analysis: Chernobyl case study.

Gu Xiao asked Lan Yuning. "Hey, hey, Student President, what number did you get?"

"Two."

"Oh, two—"

A smile still pasted on his face, and his lashes fluttered with each blink.

"Two?" Gu Xiao repeated.

"Song Anwen got two as well," Zhang Yongyin said.

The loud voices attracted everyone in Class A, and they all looked at the four with both pities for Lan Yuning and Song Anwen, but were disappointed for the other two.

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A/N: Characters
Gu Xiao (MC)
Gu Heiyu - Gu Xiao's sister
Zhang Yongyin - Gu Xiao's friend
Lan Yuning - Student President
Song Anwen - Lan Yuning's friend