Ethan Young watched for a while, resting his elbow on the car window, and casually complained, "No one's even looking at you."

Henry Howard scratched his head a few more times and said, "A handsome guy's self-discipline."

Self-discipline, huh.

After all, it was too dark in the car, and Henry Howard had been scratching for a while without noticing there was still a tuft of hair sticking up on top of his head.

Ethan Young reached out and touched it, his fingertips lightly threading through the other’s hair, then, like petting a cat, he smoothed it down twice. Henry Howard's hair had grown a bit longer lately; Ethan Young remembered that when he first met him, his hair was really short, probably prickly to the touch.

""

Henry Howard was stunned for a moment. Coming back to his senses, he realized the camera he’d used to check his hair was still on, so he called out, "Lao Xie."

Ethan Young looked up, "Huh?"

Henry Howard pressed the shutter at the two blurry shadows.

The photo was clearly still, but you could see the shaking bus, the lights streaming in from outside the window, and the faint outlines of two figures, one in front and one behind.

"A group photo," Henry Howard said after taking it, setting the photo—which looked especially artsy and, anyway, no one else would understand it—as his wallpaper. "To commemorate."

The bus wasn’t even announcing stops anymore, just circling around the neighborhood again and again, finally stopping at some unknown street corner, slowly pulling up and opening the front door.

No one got on.

The driver turned around and shouted downstairs, "No one? If there’s no one, I’m leaving, this is the last trip—"

Henry Howard finished setting up, heard the voice, looked outside, and saw that little grocery store by the bus stop. It looked a bit familiar.

Ethan Young looked over as well.

"I think I’ve been here before," Henry Howard put away his phone and got up to sit in the back row, sitting next to the kid and saying word by word, "Jianjianxing Grocery. Isn’t there an internet café nearby? I don’t think I’m wrong."

This neighborhood was a bit of a distance from Heishui Street. The bus had been winding around for ages but hadn’t actually gone that far, just circling here.

There really was an internet café, right behind the grocery store.

Ethan Young asked, "When did you come here?"

"During summer break, I think," Henry Howard said. "A friend asked me out, so I came over. It was boring at home." He couldn’t even remember where they’d gone, just wandered around.

Half an hour on the bus wasn’t long at all; a few words and the time passed.

Before getting off at the stop, Henry Howard still wanted to ride a couple more loops.

"Dude, this is the last bus," Ethan Young pushed his boyfriend off the bus, "What are you thinking?"

Henry Howard blocked the door and said, "I just want to spend a bit more time with you."

This time Ethan Young didn’t kick him, but the driver couldn’t help wanting to. The driver sat in the seat, waving his hand to shoo them, "Are you two getting off or not? Why are you dawdling?"

Ethan Young: ""

Henry Howard: ""

After getting off and turning the corner, there was the bus station. Ethan Young had to transfer to Route 3, Henry Howard took the Songting line, the two of them heading in opposite directions. After paying, Ethan Young habitually walked to the very back.

There were only a few minutes left before departure, and the bus engine was rumbling nonstop.

At this hour, there were only a few buses left at the station, but people were still trickling in through the entrance.

Ethan Young leaned against the window and looked outside for a while, just in time to see a certain idiot jump down from the Songting line bus next door, skipping the steps and leaping straight from the top.

Then this person came in through the back door, walked through the rows of seats, and stood in front of him.

Ethan Young hadn’t even finished saying "What are you doing up here" when he saw Henry Howard lower his head and, with a bit of aggression, kissed him—a kiss completely different from the one before, this time a bit urgent.

Clumsy and inexperienced, with an uncontrollable impulse, recklessly drawing closer.

Henry Howard moved quickly. Not only did Ethan Young not react in time, but no one else on the bus knew what this boy had rushed up to do. They just saw the two of them together for a few seconds, then the boy who’d just gotten on straightened up and got off through the back door.

"I was looking for someone, not taking the bus, sorry." Henry Howard greeted the driver before getting off, then turned back to Ethan Young and said, "This time I’m really leaving."

"Hurry up and get lost, you."

The words sounded harsh, but after the bus had gone a few stops, Ethan Young raised his hand and touched the tip of his ear, finding it was still burning.

The weekend passed quickly. Amid the wails of "don’t want to go to school and face exam results" in the Class Three group chat, Sunday was almost over.

Ethan Young finished packing up, glanced at the class group before going to bed.

[Luke Carter]: Why did two days go by so fast, I didn’t even get to properly enjoy my last two days on earth.

[Wanda]: And our teachers are so dedicated, they even took the test papers home to grade. Did you see what Old Tang posted? He said the results will be out on Monday. Haozi, have you decided where you want to be buried after you die? I want to be scattered into the sea, facing the ocean, with spring flowers blooming.

[Luke Carter]: I prefer burial, dust to dust, earth to earth.

[Quinn Shaw]: Are you guys crazy? It’s just a midterm.

[vlong一abc]: It’s never too late to study. One failure doesn’t mean anything, what matters is correcting your attitude toward learning.

[Logan Wright]: Class rep, you changed your script again?

After a while, Henry Howard popped up and said a couple of things.

[Henry Howard]: What’s the rush.

[Henry Howard]: I feel like these two days went by so slowly.

[Logan Wright]:

[Wanda]: That’s not like you, Bro Henry.

[Luke Carter]: Bro Henry, are you tired of living?

Their Bro Henry not only looked tired of living, but also, out of character, arrived at the classroom early the next day.

"You’re early today," Luke Carter had to get up early for duty, facing the harsh reality of life, "So early it’s weird."

Henry Howard looked up, smiled, and said, "You make it sound like I’m late every day."

Luke Carter was shocked, wanting to say "Aren’t you?" but in the end said nothing, just shook his head and went to wash the rag in the bathroom.

Before coming in, Ethan Young stopped by the breakfast shop outside school for a cup of soy milk. When he paid, he saw Mad Dog and Old Tang sitting inside eating. Holding his things, he felt awkward just leaving, so he said, "Manager Jensen, Mr. Thompson."

Old Tang nodded at him, swallowed his food, and waved him over, "You’re just having soy milk? Is that enough? Sit down and have a couple of buns."

"No, I—"

"No what, come here." Mad Dog dragged over a plastic stool, fully embodying the phrase "abuse of power." "Otherwise you’re not allowed in school."

Ethan Young took a meat bun and sat down, listening to Manager Jensen complain about the school cafeteria food: "That meat bun, three bites and you still can’t find any meat."

Old Tang nodded, "The first time I ate it, I thought it just didn’t have any filling."

Manager Jensen added, "And it doesn’t taste very good either."

Ethan Young: ""

Manager Jensen was actually pretty easy to talk to as long as he wasn’t at school, even if they were just separated by a street.

Not quite like the Broadcaster Jensen from the school radio, and not like the Mad Dog who gave students headaches.

Just ordinary.

So ordinary it seemed like it was only because of the burden on his shoulders, and the word "teacher," that he became strong.

When Ethan Young got to the classroom, most people had already arrived. Wanda came running back from the teachers’ office, all excited: "Good news, the test papers aren’t graded yet! Not! Graded! Yet! We get to live another day, brothers!"

Luke Carter threw down the rag and stood on the podium, hugging Wanda enthusiastically: "Good brother, let’s have a good meal at lunch today. If we die, we’ll die in style."

"What’s with you guys," Ethan Young came in through the back door, sat down, and said, "All this talk about dying."

Henry Howard had been watching the fun all morning, finally seeing his deskmate arrive: "Midterms, you know. They’re even writing wills. Like, ‘If I get beaten to death by my mom, I won’t remember anything,’ something like that."

The scene of classmates writing wills in the morning was so ridiculous that Ethan Young felt eating buns with Manager Jensen wasn’t so bad after all.

Speaking of eating, Ethan Young remembered something else important.

So Henry Howard heard his boyfriend, who’d been on his mind all weekend, say the second thing to him within a minute of meeting: "Did you eat your walnuts?"

Wanda's news wasn’t entirely accurate. He’d only heard that some classes’ test papers weren’t graded yet, but Class Three wasn’t among them.

So when William Warren walked in carrying a stack of test papers, the whole class fell silent.