Ethan Young wanted to take a nap at noon. He had just closed his eyes for a short while when he opened them again, his gaze sweeping over the front row, past the back of Logan Wright's head, and landing on the corridor outside the window. He muttered softly, "Will this ever end?"

There were always a few girls lingering around the entrance of Class Three, but now it wasn't just a few—almost a whole squad would show up between every class.

A few days ago, some bold ones even held up their phones to secretly take pictures. Ethan Young went out directly and told them to delete the photos, not showing any mercy even through the window: "Delete them."

The girls were so scared their phones almost fell to the ground.

"What is it," Henry Howard was doodling with his pen on the paper, stopped halfway through his calculations, turned his head to look at him, and reached over to tap on Ethan Young's desk, "Too noisy?"

Ethan Young thought to himself that this idiot probably still hadn't realized that half of the girls outside the window were actually there to see him.

Ethan Young blinked as he lay on the desk. "What problem are you working on?"

Henry Howard pushed his own draft paper over, then remembered that Ethan Young probably couldn't understand it, so he explained, "It's that after-class extension problem Old Wu gave us this morning. I was bored, so I took a look at it."

Although Class Three was a science class, judging from the results of every exam, the teaching focus was still on the basics—get all the basic points you can before worrying about the hard problems.

Ethan Young leaned over, recalled the problem, and could barely make sense of what Henry Howard had scribbled on the paper.

"But I think this—" Henry Howard was about to say that his approach had some issues and there should be a simpler method, when someone came in from the back door, making a racket, footsteps getting closer, so he changed the subject, "This skill, the damage isn't very high, but it's good for teamwork. Operation is important, you should practice your movement more."

Ethan Young: ""

The two classmates walked by, chatting and laughing, and accidentally bumped into the corner of the desk as they passed, not noticing at all that the two big shots in the back row were seriously discussing games. "Sorry, Bro Henry."

Henry Howard looked unfazed. "No problem."

After they left, Ethan Young couldn't help but laugh, half his face buried in his arm, laughing harder and harder. "Are you crazy?"

"Had enough?" Henry Howard said. "Isn't it a bit much to mock your boyfriend like this?"

Henry Howard's ability to hide his true strength was almost ingrained in his bones after all these years.

Plus, he had hung out with Jay Ray and the others for a while, so he knew better than anyone how underachievers muddled through class every day.

Sometimes Ethan Young would forget that the person sitting next to him was a "problem king" who could come up with three solutions to a final question in under ten minutes.

After saying that, Henry Howard himself felt that his smooth performance just now was really something, so he lowered his head and smiled, reaching for the draft paper he had just handed over. But as soon as his hand touched the paper, Ethan Young pressed it down.

Ethan Young was still in the same position, only his eyes showing, but the laughter was gone from them. He pressed his five fingers on the messy draft paper and asked, "So when can I stop mocking my boyfriend?"

Henry Howard was stunned for a moment, then realized what Ethan Young meant.

"What are you thinking," Henry Howard smiled. "I've thought about it—if I suddenly shot up to first in the grade, not just Old Tang, even the class rep would probably faint on the spot."

Ethan Young let go.

Henry Howard took the draft paper back, folded it a couple of times, and stuffed it into his math book.

After pretending for so long, from the start of high school until now, it wasn't easy to shake off this role all at once.

Most people would probably think he'd lost his mind, and it would be hard to explain. They might even drag him to the hospital for a checkup: Maybe something's wrong with this kid.

Listening to all this, Ethan Young thought it was just like something Henry Howard would do.

He'd even mapped out a whole inspirational comeback plan for himself, down to the detail of moving up twenty places in the final exam.

"I'd rather just keep you company during punishments," Henry Howard looked into Ethan Young's eyes and said, "And I'm afraid you'll get bored playing games alone. Now that I think about it, twenty places is too much—let's just make it two."

As he spoke, Henry Howard slashed a zero off his plan, cutting it down to a single digit.

Ethan Young gave him a light kick, laughing, "Two places? How many years will it take you to move up?"

Henry Howard had said it so naturally that Ethan Young momentarily forgot that every time they were punished to stand, it was because this guy had dragged him into it.

Who was really keeping who company?

Suddenly, Henry Howard called him again, "Old Young."

Ethan Young glanced at him.

"Do you remember that dumb game I used to play?"

Ethan Young said, "You've played more than one dumb game."

""

Henry Howard was choked for a moment, then said, "Doing things your own way for someone doesn't necessarily mean it's what they want." Although sometimes love is about giving everything you can think of.

Stubborn and one-sided.

Ethan Young leaned back and said nothing.

The lunch break was almost over, and someone in the front row started banging on the desk: "Hey—is next period PE? Is it our beloved PE class?"

With finals coming up, most of the PE classes had been taken over by other teachers, so no one had much hope. But today, it seemed no teacher had said they were taking over, so hope was rekindled: "PE rep, do we still have our PE class?"

Usually, Logan Wright was especially sensitive to the words "PE," but today, after being called twice, he finally looked up: "Still alive, still alive."

"Speaking of PE class, it's always a drama," Wanda got excited, sitting with his legs crossed. "Originally, the English teacher had taken our PE class, but Old Tang went to fight for it, and the two of them almost had a shouting match in the office. In the end, Old Tang won, but after getting it back, he still let us have PE. The English teacher was almost furious."

The battle was intense, and Wanda had specially dragged them over to listen.

Ethan Young wasn't interested: "Go on, I'm not seeing you off."

Wanda: "It was really exciting. You have no idea how domineering Old Tang can be."

"Let's go," in the end, it was Henry Howard who pulled him up. "Let's go listen."

As they reached the door, they heard the English teacher shouting, "I haven't finished this unit yet, and I have to go over these exercises with them today!"

Old Tang: "The kids need exercise. Physical health is the foundation for academic success."

""

There were five or six classes on the field. After running two laps, they could do whatever they wanted.

The PE teacher, with a toothpick in his mouth, squatted at the finish line waiting for them, stopwatch in hand, nothing better to do: "If you need equipment, go to the PE rep."

After saying that, the PE teacher paused and added, "Xavier Stone, that English vocabulary booklet is sticking out of your pocket. Can you show me some respect? How about this—come over later and play two rounds of badminton with me."

Everyone laughed at that.

Henry Howard laughed too, leaning in to whisper to Ethan Young, "The class rep is just not human."

After they were dismissed, only Xavier Stone looked miserable, while everyone else was so happy they could fly, especially Logan Wright, who, after borrowing equipment for everyone, dragged Luke Carter and the others to the basketball court.

Logan Wright walked along, saying, "There's an extra ball here, anyone want it?"

There weren't many people on the court, so it looked pretty empty. Ethan Young was rarely in the mood, so he rolled up his sleeves and gestured to Logan Wright, "Throw it over."

Logan Wright was a bit surprised, took two steps forward, and tossed the ball over.

Henry Howard happened to be walking by from the snack shop with a bottle of water, took a couple of sips, the cap still off. Seeing Ethan Young dribbling, he smirked, "Hey kid, want to play a few rounds?"

As he spoke, Henry Howard put the cap back on and tossed the bottle aside.

The two of them played offense and defense, not following any rules, for a few rounds.

Every move Ethan Young made was crisp and sharp—dribbling past, dunking from the free-throw line, all clean and smooth. It was a thrill to watch.

In the end, both of them took off their jackets. Henry Howard was only wearing a thin sweater underneath. Halfway through, he stopped catching the ball, and instead, half on purpose, half not, put his arm around Ethan Young's waist and leaned in to say something.

Then Ethan Young threw the ball back at him.

Logan Wright was warming up on the side, thinking these two were just too much to watch.

Halfway through stretching, he vaguely heard some girls not far away shouting, "Those two are such a good match, oh my god."

"The bracelets, did you see? They're really matching."

""

Wanda nudged Logan Wright with his elbow, "Are you in or not?"

Logan Wright turned to ask Luke Carter, "You in, Haozi?"