History3: Make Our Days Count (Miracle)

Peer Pressure

Xiang Hao Ting has been strange since Thursday last week fter their basketball game. Not that his best friend acting odd out of nowhere is anything new. He’s always been prone to bursts of ideas, sometimes good, most times bad for the faculty’s blood pressure. But Bo Xiang could always read him and see his plans from a mile away. What’s happened since Hao Ting caught a ball to the face however? He hadn’t seen coming at all.

Granted Hao Ting participating in class and taking down notes again was a surprise, it wasn’t that out of the ordinary since he'd studied for midterms three weeks prior. What really came as a shock is his sudden interest in the top student Yu Xi Gu. There had been no hint that he knew the guy. No matter what Xia De said, they haven't spoken to each other before. Bo Xiang would have known.

Something happened between the basketball game and the the clinic and he is going to find out what. Hao Ting kept shrugging off their questions and telling them to wait. But for how long? He always had his nose buried in his study notes and has been volunteering to help teachers with errands in between lectures. It didn't look like he's going to be doing any explaining anytime soon.

It was so weird to see him being respectful to the teachers. Seeing their reactions had been hilarious and half the time he thought maybe this is a game Hao Ting is playing. But he'd denied their speculations vehemently, told them in no uncertain terms that he intends to maintain his second rank until graduation. It was weirder still to hear him talk with such conviction. His eyes had been blazing, even a little teary. Bo Xiang couldn't shake off the feeling that he somehow matured overnight and was no longer the same boy who he shared his childhood with.

It's lunch break and Hao Ting is off helping the pregnant Mrs. Liu in carrying her History slides back to the faculty room. He and Gao Chun are waiting for the twins to bring Yu Xi Gu to the rooftop. Not for any nefarious purposes. They just want to hear what the A-lister has to say about the rumor mill involving him and their brother since Hao Ting hasn't been forthcoming with answers. 

Or at least that’s what he told the others. Frankly, he just wants to take a closer look at this guy who managed to capture Hao Ting’s interest and give him a couple reasons to stay the hell away from his best friend.

Coming to terms that Xiang Hao Ting will never look at him more than a brother due to him being straight was not easy. But he was getting used to the inevitably of a one-sided crush. Then he saw those sickeningly sweet pictures of Hao Ting with another boy and it took all of his self-control not to storm into Yu Xi Gu's homeroom and demand he stop stealing his man.

“Do you really believe A’Hao is into guys?” Gao Chun asks beside him.

“How should I know?” Bo Xiang answers grumpily as he continues to draw shapes in the sky. He’s been trying not to think about Hao Ting liking boys and missing the chance to confess before he was snatched away. The thought gets more upsetting every time.

“A’Hao looks really happy in this one.” Bo Xiang glances down Gao Chun’s phone screen then looks back up at the clouds. It’s the pictures of Hao Ting and Yu Xi Gu circulating around campus that had nearly thrown him into a hissy fit. They apparently had breakfast at the cafeteria. There’s a picture of them holding hands and a short video of their “couple” bike ride when they arrived at school early in the day.

Bo Xiang’s teeth grind. The idea of another boy on Ge’s bike and holding onto Hao Ting is beginning to piss him off all over again.

He forces his shoulders to relax, take a couple grounding breaths. He turns to Gao Chun, considering, then nudges him. He’d been too chicken to ask this question out of the blue. It’s a topic that he’s always felt like he couldn’t be honest with his brothers about, afraid of what their reaction might be. But with Hao Ting’s sexual preference suddenly in question, he finds it a lot easier to breach the subject.