The first time they met for work, it was in a quiet corner of the library media lab cold lights overhead, editing monitors blinking, and a charged silence that somehow felt louder than the room.
Jiang Xiao Shuai was already there, headphones on, dragging audio clips into a timeline.
Cheng Yu arrived ten minutes late. Purposefully.
He walked in holding bubble tea and dropped into the chair beside Xiao Shuai without a word. Then he leaned back, sipping noisily.
No reaction.
Cheng Yu frowned. "Are you going to ignore me the whole time or just until the passive-aggression gets stale?"
Xiao Shuai didn't look up. "The more you talk, the more I want to mute this entire project."
Cheng Yu smirked. "Still pretending to be annoyed by me? Or do you just not like attractive people?"
That made Xiao Shuai finally glance over briefly.
"I don't like people who treat charm like currency."
"That's not a no."
"It's not a yes either."
Cheng Yu leaned in, voice dropping playfully. "You sure? You're reacting a lot for someone unaffected."
Xiao Shuai turned, slowly. "Do you flirt with everyone this aggressively, or am I special?"
"Both," Cheng Yu said without missing a beat. "But you're definitely the first person to make it feel like a challenge."
Xiao Shuai stared at him, unimpressed. "You're not as interesting as you think."
Cheng Yu raised an eyebrow. "And yet you're still talking to me."
A tense beat passed between them — eyes locked, air crackling.
Then Xiao Shuai blinked, stood up, and unplugged his headphones.
"I'm moving to another computer."
Cheng Yu chuckled, watching him gather his things. "Sure. Run away. I'll be here, doing all the interviews while you edit in silence and judgment."
"Great," Xiao Shuai muttered. "Stay in your lane."
As he moved across the lab, Cheng Yu muttered under his breath, half to himself:
"God, he's not even my type..."
Then, after a pause:
"...unfortunately."
****
Later that night, Cheng Yu flopped onto the couch in Chi Cheng's apartment, arms sprawled dramatically over his head.
Chi Cheng looked up from his architectural sketches. "You're being dramatic again. What happened?"
"Xiao Shuai," Cheng Yu groaned. "Your boyfriend's best friend? The guy with camera gear and the mouth of a bitter poet? I want to kiss him and strangle him. In that order."
Chi Cheng raised an eyebrow, amused. "You want to kiss someone? You?"
Cheng Yu sighed into a pillow. "He hates me. And that's so unfair. I'm usually very likable."
"You flirt with everything that breathes," Chi said dryly. "Maybe he prefers sincerity."
Cheng Yu scowled at the ceiling. "I was being sincere. That's the problem."
Chi Cheng chuckled. "Then stop performing and just be honest."
Cheng Yu closed his eyes.
Honest? He wasn't sure he even remembered how.
***
Meanwhile, across campus, Jiang Xiao Shuai was alone in his dorm, editing footage with tired eyes and headphones on.
The waveform of Cheng Yu's voice played in the timeline:
"I don't usually flirt with guys who insult me before coffee."
He hovered over the clip, listening again.
Paused.
Played it again.
His fingers rested on the keyboard, unmoving.
Then he sighed, leaned back, and whispered to no one:
"...why did you have to sound like you meant it?"