With his vital point gripped in the Alpha’s palm, the pheromones floating in the air were thick with possessiveness. Every cell in his body screamed danger.
He Siheng’s instinct told him that if Tan Jing had a rage meter above his head, it would definitely be at 100% right now.
But the next moment, the jealous Alpha suddenly leaned toward him. The man who had been so dominant just seconds ago suddenly showed weakness, burying his face in He Siheng’s neck.
“Really don’t want it?” Hot breath sprayed against his neck, and the guy’s voice was low and slow. “Little Heng-gege.”
The soft, mushy term of endearment wormed into his ears, making even his eardrums itch.
He Siheng’s skin from his neck to his ear roots instantly turned red, numbness spreading wildly to his fingertips.
His mind went blank for a moment, losing all ability to think. He unconsciously clenched his fingers. “Try… trying it is fine.”
He didn’t even realize what he was saying.
It wasn’t until a muffled laugh came from beside his ear that He Siheng snapped back to reality and reacted. “You’re not mad?”
Tan Jing rubbed his cheek against He Siheng’s neck, his voice unable to hide the amusement. “I am mad.”
“…”
He Siheng speechlessly pushed him away. “Are you mad or just taking advantage of the moment?”
If he’d stayed dazed just a bit longer, he probably would’ve ended up in Tan Jing’s bed soon, with his lips swollen for another two days.
He Siheng felt his self-control was getting worse and worse; he kept getting led around by Tan Jing. “Who gets mad and hugs and gropes at the same time? You were clearly seducing me.”
Tan Jing blinked innocently. “You’re my boyfriend. If I don’t seduce you, who should I seduce?”
He was getting righteous about it now.
The warm palm enveloped his fingertips again, and Tan Jing toyed with his slender fingers absentmindedly. “Don’t like me calling you gege?”
He Siheng’s intention to pull his hand back and talk business faded away. He just let Tan Jing play with his fingers ambiguously like that.
He coughed lightly, avoiding the shameful question to admit, and awkwardly changed the subject. “What Wang Yizhou said earlier, I can explain.”
“Hm?”
“That Omega I asked him about, Little Strawberry, is the one who confessed to you a while back.”
Tan Jing’s fiddling with his fingers stopped.
He Siheng gritted his teeth, endured the shame, and explained everything. “I actually used a burner account to join your fan support group. At first, I wanted to scout your intel… but for some reason, he figured out who I was, so that’s why I wanted to find him.”
It wasn’t just his deadly in-group title, but also his chats with Little Strawberry about Tan Jing. If anyone else found out, it would be enough to make him die of social embarrassment and emigrate to Mars.
If others found out, he could tough it out and deny it, but that wouldn’t work on Tan Jing. He knew very well how smart Tan Jing was and how well he understood him—he couldn’t fool him.
Better to confess first than let Tan Jing hear it from someone else. That way, he could avoid details like the Jingle Cat title or liking how well-endowed and skilled he was.
After spilling it all in one breath, He Siheng slumped his shoulders in self-abandonment, head lowered. “Laugh if you want.”
He’d prepared himself to be laughed at when he said this, but unexpectedly, Tan Jing’s teasing didn’t come.
The air stayed quiet for a good while. He Siheng heard a hint of hesitation in the guy’s voice beside him.
“If… you found that person, what were you going to do?”
“Do what?” He Siheng found the question odd. “Seal his lips, of course. But now that I’ve told you everything I should and shouldn’t, it doesn’t matter if I find him or not.”
Hearing that he’d dropped the idea of tracking the person down, Tan Jing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The Little Strawberry identity had already served its purpose. A few days before school started, he’d quit the fan support group and deleted the account from his phone, never logging in again. His plan was to vanish quietly, and the reason was perfect—confession rejected, so he logged off.
He just hadn’t expected He Siheng to catch some slip-up and suddenly realize he’d been exposed as Little Strawberry, leading him to track down Wang Yizhou.
Luckily, the person he asked was the dim-witted Wang Yizhou, and it had backfired into Tan Jing finding out anyway.
Tan Jing suddenly hesitated. One day, the truth would come out. If he confessed everything now…
“But this whole thing still pisses me off no matter how I think about it. Feels like he played me,” He Siheng suddenly changed tack, his tone indignant. “Which friend of yours is this Little Strawberry? Can you tell me secretly so I can beat him up?”
“…”
Tan Jing was silent for a few seconds. Just getting beaten up… seemed acceptable.
Tan Jing asked, “If you beat him up, will you feel better?”
He Siheng didn’t hesitate. “No.”
Tan Jing: “…”
Better to go home and delete the account.
He Siheng naturally didn’t go to Wang Yizhou’s mixer. Meeting new friends was one thing, but going there to date as a non-single person would be deceiving people.
Good thing he hadn’t gone. Rumor had it that Wang Yizhou suddenly entered his Susceptible Period while singing karaoke. The Alphas and Omegas on site panicked, gave him an Omega suppressant—which backfired spectacularly—and his pheromones went out of control, affecting all the other Omegas there. One by one, they got carted off to the hospital in ambulances.
Wang Yizhou got roasted hard by Song Lin for two days over it.
“Serves you right. Who told you not to invite me? Look at you capsizing like that.” Song Lin was still gloating.
Wang Yizhou felt embarrassed too. He’d specially set up this mixer without telling Tan Jing or Song Lin. First, because Tan Jing’s charm was way too much and would’ve stolen the show. Second, because Song Lin would’ve mocked him for being desperate. So he’d kept it from both and secretly invited He Siheng, who hadn’t given him any face and refused to come no matter what.
Wang Yizhou vented his embarrassment at He Siheng. “Heng Bro! Why didn’t you come? If you’d been there, I wouldn’t have made such a fool of myself.”
He Siheng inexplicably took the blame. “What, could I have suppressed your susceptibility period?”
Wang Yizhou: “You’re not differentiated yet, so my pheromones don’t affect you. With you holding down the fort, those idiots wouldn’t have panicked and injected me with an Omega suppressant.”
Song Lin gave him a subtle look. This idiot—sneaking off to a mixer behind his back was one thing, but thinking of dragging He Siheng along too. If He Siheng had gone, who knew who’d be holding down the fort. An S-Rank Alpha’s pheromones suppressing him would’ve hurt like hell.
Speak of the devil. A low voice suddenly came from behind Wang Yizhou. “He was with me last weekend.”
Hearing Tan Jing say that, He Siheng immediately overexplained like there was no silver here—three hundred taels. “We were together studying!”
Wang Yizhou looked like he’d been scared to death by top students. “You two are already first and second in the grade—how are you still grinding? Makes me too embarrassed to play. No way, I’m joining you guys this week too, wuwuwu—”
Before he finished, Song Lin manually muted him.
Song Lin quickly covered his mouth and dragged him away. “I suddenly need to use the bathroom. Wang Yizhou, come with me!”
Wang Yizhou got yanked away, confused, protesting incoherently. “Mmmph mmmph! (Are you a girl? Needing company to pee!)”
