Social Outcast

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Edited by: Planetes

Song Yuanxun’s and Fang Zhaomu’s overseas romance, if they started counting it from the day Fang Zhaomu asked Song Yuanxun to change, to the day Fang Zhaomu returned home, was a total of fifty-six days.

Fang Zhaomu’s flight leaving C City was at 6.30pm. Song Yuanxun still had some things to deal with at school, and needed at least a couple more weeks before he could return.

The night before, Song Yuanxun had went to Fang Zhaomu’s place. The two of them packed Fang Zhaomu’s luggage until two in the morning, and in the mean time, Song Yuanxun even went home to take his own bigger luggage for Fang Zhaomu to store his things.

Firstly, Fang Zhaomu liked to procrastinate, always putting it off and did not pack his luggage. He even remembered the wrong date for his flight, and only became aware after a reminder from Song Yuanxun. Next, after coming to C City, Fang Zhaomu had bought many many things that Song Yuanxun referred to as junk. When placed in his little place, they were all piled up neatly, but when packing them up, there seemed to be no limit to them.

At the start, Fang Zhaomu was very stubborn, refusing to let Song Yuanxun help him. Song Yuanxun sat on Fang Zhaomu’s bed and watched him pack for half an hour.

Fang Zhaomu arranged everything in his luggage row by row. When his luggage was half-filled, Song Yuanxun pointed at the wardrobe. “Mumu, are you bringing your clothes back?”

“I am.” Standing up, Fang Zhaomu fanned himself with his hand.

His shirt was rather short today. With his arm raised, his waist was revealed, and on it were all marks left by Song Yuanxun.

Fang Zhaomu rested for a while, and noticed that Song Yuanxun’s eyes were a little dangerous. Looking down, he immediately put his arm down and adjusted his shirt. “Why did you ask?”

Song Yuanxun suddenly stood up. Fang Zhaomu was afraid that he would do something funny, and took a step back, stammering, “I’m only about 10% done.”

“Half your luggage is already full,” Song Yuanxun crouched down and picked up a box Fang Zhaomu had packed. Opening it, he asked Fang Zhaomu, “Such a small pendant, can’t you throw the box away?”

“No, I can’t.” Fang Zhaomu was a little obsessive. Every item had to be stored in their original packaging.

Song Yuanxun shook his head. “Just leave all these behind, I’ll help you mail them back.”

Fang Zhaomu thought that made sense, and so accepted Song Yuanxun’s help. He again took out everything he had packed within the last half an hour.

“There’s so many,” Fang Zhaomu looked at all the items in his room that had barely been moved, and a despair welled up within him. He finally started to reflect that he did put off his packing too late. Looking at the time, it was two in the afternoon, and a little helpless, he turned to look at Song Yuanxun. “What should I do?”

Song Yuanxun rolled up his sleeves. “I’ll help you.”

Reality showed that although Song Yuanxun was full of theoretical knowledge, but he was weak in practice, and only made a further mess out of things.

Fang Zhaomu had only bought too many miscellaneous things that could not fit in his luggage, and he did have the ability to pack his luggage. As for Song Yuanxun, he couldn’t even fold the clothes.

Fang Zhaomu looked at the clothes Song Yuanxun folded for him, and became even more anxious. “Ah, don’t touch it anymore. It’s better that Young Master Song remain sitting there quietly instead.”

He then kissed him, kissing away the unhappiness on Song Yuanxun’s face.

Stumbling about, the two of them cleared out the room and compressed everything within two 32-inch luggages. As for the rest, they would be mailed to Fang Zhaomu by Song Yuanxun. Making two trips up and down, they packed everything into Song Yuanxun’s car and left for Song Yuanxun’s place.

Packing up was very exhausting. At 11am the next day, Fang Zhaomu was woken up by Song Yuanxun. The two of them went out for a meal, and Song Yuanxun would have to send Fang Zhaomu off after that.

At the airport, the two of them hugged. Song Yuanxun held Fang Zhaomu’s hand, and Fang Zhaomu also did not want to ask him to let go. However, after a few seconds, Song Yuanxun still let him go.

He kissed Fang Zhaomu on his forehead. “Wait for me obediently.”

“Mn.” Fang Zhaomu looked at Song Yuanxun. “I know.”

Before he could start missing him even more, Fang Zhaomu turned and left.

Boarding the plane that would send him home, Fang Zhaomu felt that this exchange was like a dream, it lasted for a long time, but not enough.

He matured, his temper improved, and muddle-headedly decided his future. From twenty-one years of age to his twenty-second birthday, many things had happened, but it also felt like nothing had changed.

Fang Zhaomu’s family had all came to the airport to pick him up. He sat in the back seat with his sister, and his sister animatedly asked him many questions. Fang Zhaomu kept thinking about how Song Yuanxun asked him to wait for him obediently, and ended up taking a long time to reply her questions.

If Fang Zhaomu was asked about the project he did in T University, he could talk all day about it. However, if he was asked about his life in C City, he did not know where to start. It felt like he could not talk about the unhappy matters, nor could he talked about the happy things. Other than that, there was nothing else he could talk about.

Back at school, Fang Zhaomu was busier than he expected.

After he completed his application, he was dragged to work on a project by his professor, who called it “letting him adapt to the environment”. He was a native of A City. There were only three subway stops between his house and the school, and the laboratory of his future tutor was right at the subway exit. Fang Zhaomu was used to staying alone, and did not want to stay in a dormitory. As such, he commuted back and forth everyday, leaving early and coming home late, his life slowly getting back to normal.

Song Yuanxun was also busy. With the time difference, they had no time to chat with each other.

One Sunday afternoon in late May, Fang Zhaoling would be going back to school later. It happened that their parents were both on a business trip, and Fang Zhaomu was not going to the lab, so she forced Fang Zhaomu to bring her out for lunch and then send her to school.

The siblings went to the new restaurant near Fang Zhaoling’s school. As they were waiting to be seated, Fang Zhaomu suddenly received a text from Song Yuanxun.

“Are you at school?” Song Yuanxun suddenly asked.

Fang Zhaomu glanced at his sister who was sitting next to him. “I’m having lunch outside.”

“With your friends?”

“My sister.”

A minute later, Song Yuanxun texted. “Send me your location.”

Fang Zhaomu’s heart jumped, nearly dropping his phone. He told his sister that he was going to make a call, walking to somewhere less crowded before calling Song Yuanxun.

Song Yuanxun answered very quickly, and Fang Zhaomu heard Song Yuanxun’s voice as well as the airport announcement in the background. His heart that was originally calm now heated up, and he asked Song Yuanxun, “You’re back?”

“Mn,” Song Yuanxun said. “I’m back.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Fang Zhaomu grumbled. “I could have gone to pick you up.”

“I’m doing a sudden spot check,” Song Yuanxun replied. “I’m checking to see if you’ve been obedient.”

“—?Ge, it’s our turn!” Fang Zhaoling walked over to look for Fang Zhaomu and called out to him.

Fang Zhaomu hurriedly told Song Yuanxun that he had to go, then hung up and sent him his location.

The server led them to a four-seater booth, and as he removed the extra cutlery sets he was stopped by Fang Zhaomu and asked to leave a set behind. Fang Zhaoling was surprised, and had an expression that was eagerly looking forward to gossip. “Ge, have you found a girlfriend who’s coming to supervise you?”

“A friend is coming, a classmate from the lab in T University.”

“A guy or girl?” Fang Zhaoling interrogated.

“A guy.”

Fang Zhaoling was first disappointed, then asked, “Is he handsome?”

Fang Zhaomu thought about it, then admitted, “Mn.”

“Why didn’t you say that you had a very handsome classmate!” Fang Zhaoling slapped the table.

Song Yuanxun arrived faster than Fang Zhaomu expected. The dishes had yet to come, but the server was already leading him over.

At first, Fang Zhaoling was still telling Fang Zhaomu about her school life. Upon seeing Song Yuanxun, she suddenly fell silent. Fang Zhaomu turned and looked, Song Yuanxun was standing about half a metre away from him and was watching him.

Song Yuanxun was dressed more casually then when he was in school, wearing a T-shirt, pants and sneakers. It was similar to how he dressed at home, and he looked less assertive than usual.

Their eyes met, and Fang Zhaomu felt as though his heart was constricting. Only then did he realised he really did miss him a little, and might be no less than how much Song Yuanxun had missed him.

Song Yuanxun nodded at Fang Zhaoling, then sat down next to Fang Zhaomu. He picked up their list of order and took a look. Fang Zhaomu told me, “Lingling and I had only ordered a few dishes, if there’s not enough, just order some more.”

Song Yuanxun did not stand on ceremony, and asked for the menu from the server. Fang Zhaomu leaned over and looked, then he remembered he had not made any introductions, and told his sister, “This is Song Yuanxun, my classmate.”

Hearing Fang Zhaomu’s introduction, Song Yuanxun looked away from the menu and turned his head towards Fang Zhaomu. A little guilty, Fang Zhaomu added another label onto Song Yuanxun, “He’s the one I’m closest to.”

“You’ve never mentioned it before.” Fang Zhaoling reproached Fang Zhaomu.

Song Yuanxun suddenly cut in, asking Fang Zhaoling, “He’s never mentioned it all?”

Fang Zhaoling told Song Yuanxun, “Fang Zhaomu refuses to say anything about his exchange. He always talks to me about some protein I don’t understand instead, how stingy.”

Fang Zhaomu wanted to speak, but his hand that was under the table got caught by Song Yuanxun.

Song Yuanxun’s palm was very warm, but he did not use a lot of strength. He only gently loosened Fang Zhaomu’s fisted hand and intertwined their fingers together.

“He is very stingy,” Song Yuanxun echoed Fang Zhaoling. “The air ticket on the 4th of May was only 70 dollars cheaper than the one on the 9th, but he insisted on leaving on the 4th.”

Fang Zhaomu wanted to clarify and asked when did Song Yuanxun become someone who beared grudges. It was his tutor who asked him to come back quickly if he had nothing else, and it was not him being stingy. However, his hand was held by Song Yuanxun, and his heart was beating ridiculously fast, so he could not speak even with his mouth open. He only wanted to quickly find an empty room, and kiss and hug Song Yuanxun without any other considerations.