Social Outcast

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Edited by: Silvi

Song Yuanxun sent Zhao Han to the airport security checkpoint gate. When he returned to his car, his phone suddenly buzzed with a notification alert.

“Mu has matched with you.”

Song Yuanxun picked up his phone and realised that the notification came from an app that he had never seen before. Opening the app, he only saw a selfie occupying more than half ?of the screen.

The chin of the person could be seen in the selfie and he was dressed in a black T-shirt. The collar of the T-shirt was neither loose nor tight, and it covered up half a delicate looking collarbone. Under the T-shirt, the chest looked very flat. Just by looking at the photo, it was a bit difficult to tell the gender of the person.

Song Yuanxun scrolled down, and under the photo was the person’s basic information. This person was called Mu, a male, Asian, 21 years old. Following that was a section detailing the instructions on how the app worked. Sliding to the right would mean that he accepted this match, and if he slid to the left, the match would be rejected.

When Song Yuanxun saw that, he immediately understood. Zhao Han had installed a dating app for him.

The words on the screen flashed, as though urging Song Yuanxun to come to a decision.

Song Yuanxun had wanted to slide his thumb to the left, first rejecting the match with this Mu person then uninstalling the app. However, as he looked at the photo on the screen, somehow his thumb paused and went the opposite way of what he wanted. The cool colour of the app then changed to a warm tone, and accompanying the change in colour was a short snippet of the beating of a heart and an announcement showing that Song Yuanxun and Mu had matched successfully.

Mu seemed to be waiting for Song Yuanxun to accept the match. When the announcement showed, he immediately sent a message to Song Yuanxun, and it was a voice message.

Song Yuanxun looked at the screen. He did not open the voice message. Then a call from Zhao Han, the mastermind came in. Song Yuanxun accepted the call and Zhao Han’s jubilant voice could be heard. “Have you seen my farewell gift yet?”

“What did you install on my phone?” Song Yuanxun asked Zhao Han, and a trace of anger could be detected despite the calm tone.

“It’s just the app that I mentioned to you,” Zhao Han was not frightened by him. He clicked his tongue, “Did you forget what we were talking about yesterday?”

If Song Yuanxun’s friends had to be ranked according to their unreliability, with the most unreliable ones at the top, Zhao Han would be so far ahead of them that all that could be seen of him was dust.

Song Yuanxun searched his memories and recalled that Zhao Han did seem to have talked to him about some nonsensical matters last night.

Zhao Han had dropped by C City yesterday and crashed at Song Yuanxun’s place. While drinking Song Yuanxun’s beer and smoking Song Yuanxun’s cigarettes, he displayed an attitude that was worthy of a beating, asking Song Yuanxun, “Ah Xun, your mom doesn’t dare to ask you, so she always runs to me. Now I also want to know, are you fucking gay or not?”

Song Yuanxun was on the computer analysing the results of his experiment that he had recorded in the day. Hearing the word “gay”, he was reminded of that girly person in the lab. He instantly shuddered and glared coldy at Zhao Han, retorting, “Do you want to sleep on the bench tonight?”

“No no,” Zhao Han saw that Song Yuanxun even switched off his computer, standing up and walking towards him, looking as though he was ready to fight. He immediately raised his hands in surrender, “I’m just asking only. This is all because Auntie kept asking me about it. Why are you reacting this way?”

“What gay or not gay, it’s disgusting.” Song Yuanxun replied expressionlessly.

Hearing that, Zhao Han was slightly taken aback. He said slowly, “Your view isn’t quite right.”

Song Yuanxun opened the refrigerator and poured himself a glass of beer. Leaning slightly against the wall, he looked at Zhao Han who was on the sofa and gave a one-word reply. “Oh.”

He then quickly followed it with a question. “Is it not disgusting?”

Zhao Han sat up. He glanced at Song Yuanxun, drinking his beer. “Hey, do you know there’s a saying about how homophobic people are actually just hiding deep in the closet?”

Seeing that Song Yuanxun remained silent, he continued, “I think that it makes quite a lot of sense. What do you think?”

“Zhao Han,” Song Yuanxun ignored his question, and only replied coldly. “I’ll reply your previous question. I’m not gay.”

The conversation ended there, at least, it did so in Song Yuanxun’s memory. Hence, Song Yuanxun was unable to confirm exactly what Zhao Han was referring to when he said, “What we were talking about yesterday?”

“This app’s pretty good,” Zhao Han said. “I didn’t register an account with your actual identity. Don’t worry and have fun with it. Let go of your control and nature.”

“I’ll uninstall it straight away. If you touch my phone again, don’t blame me for being rude.”

Song Yuanxun hung up after saying that. He was about to delete the app, but Mu then happen to send another message. Reflexively, he played the message, and Mu’s voice drifted out from his phone.

“How are you? I’m Mu.”

“Hi?”

The person’s tone was breezy, his voice was gentle, and Song Yuanxun recognised it.

Before Song Yuanxun could react, the person sent another message. “Andrew, why didn’t you say anything after accepting the match?”

That person’s voice was nearly the same as usual, with an innate indolence, but also sounded somewhat mysterious, different from what Song Yuanxun was used to.

Fang Zhaomu… was using this app too? How long had he been using it? How many matches had he made?

Song Yuanxun stared at the screen as though possessed. He moved his thumbs and replied the sissy from the lab that he abhorred, “What did you say?”