Besides the birthday wishes sent by Ms. Miller, there were also dozens of people in the Blackwater Street group chat, lining up one by one, each sending a “Happy Birthday”, filling the screen.

[Aunt May]: On this day of your eighteenth birthday, you came into this world. I hope you can do what you want to do, go where you want to go, and be happy every day!

[Ray Jones]: xy, Boss Young, congrats on getting another year older hahaha.

There were too many messages, and Ethan Young was still replying to them one by one when he heard Henry Howard call him “Old Young”.

Ethan Young finished typing “thank you”, hit send, and looked up to see Henry Howard pulling out a gift box from who knows where. The box was tied with a few ribbons, not very big, about half a foot tall.

“What’s this?”

“A present,” Henry Howard said, “a birthday present.”

Ethan Young put his phone aside and took the gift box.

Wanda and the others crowded over to watch, especially Wanda, who, as the ‘Ethan Young Birthday Party’ planning committee chief, knew all about Henry Howard’s gift selection process: “Bro Henry spent ages picking it out, barely ate or slept, put in a ton of effort. He said it’s a mysterious gift and wouldn’t let us see it.”

Ethan Young hadn’t thought much of it at first, but hearing Wanda hype it up like this, he got a little curious.

He untied the ribbons, removed the decorative wrapping paper, and inside was just a simple cardboard box.

With everyone watching expectantly, Ethan Young opened the box. When he saw what was inside, he was speechless for a long time: “”

Wanda didn’t have a good angle and leaned in closer: “What is it, what is it?”

He got halfway through his sentence and stopped dead.

“Take it out and look,” Henry Howard said confidently, clearly very pleased with his choice, “the switch is on the back of the base, it’s got rainbow lights, super cool.”

Only this idiot would use the words “super cool” to describe this thing.

Ethan Young took two deep breaths before he had the courage to keep looking at this “super cool” gift—

A crystal lamp, shaped like a very tacky big heart, with a photo of the two of them printed on the crystal heart—the one they took sitting on the stairs before the school anniversary performance.

Around the edge was a ring of 1980s-style patterns, and a few lines of ridiculously cheesy, non-mainstream font: Little one, fate brought us together. As time goes by, we’ll never part. Happy birthday.

Laser-engraved, visually overwhelming.

It looked just like a memorial photo. Especially when the “super cool” rainbow lights switched to white, the black-and-white photo glowed with a bleak light.

Even more unbelievable, this thing could actually play music—a very old-school song, “Three Hundred and Sixty-Five Blessings”, started blaring out.

“My heart hides every day~”

“More than one thousand four hundred thoughts~”

Ethan Young’s temple throbbed hard, stunned by this utterly tasteless gift, not knowing what to say.

He felt that today, he was either going to kick Henry Howard off the rooftop, or jump off himself.

“Bro,” Ethan Young held the crystal lamp and finally said, very slowly, “I really have to thank you.”

Wanda sat back down in a daze, muttering to himself, “Terrifying, after all that, this is what he picked? Is this the legendary straight-guy aesthetic?”

Liam Harris muttered quietly, “More like idiot aesthetic.”

Henry Howard was completely oblivious.

It wasn’t easy to buy a gift while living on campus. He’d skipped class a few times to go out, but the shops around school didn’t have anything special, so in the end he had to look online.

When he saw this crystal lamp, he felt something stir inside.

The seller’s cover page had a big slogan: This time, he was really moved! He really cried!

Ethan Young did feel like crying.

But definitely not for the reason Henry Howard thought.

“Really, thank you,” Ethan Young decided to offer up his last bit of patience, “you have a very unique taste.”

Henry Howard smiled, “As long as you like it.”

Wanda buried his face in his hands, unable to bear watching this gift-giving scene.

By the end of the drinking, everyone had forgotten there were classes early the next morning.

Wanda knew he couldn’t hold his liquor, so he stopped while he was still a little sober.

But Liam Harris, who was usually quiet, got more talkative than anyone after drinking, stood up and ran to the wall to shout nonsense, and no one could stop him.

“Damn, that’s wild,” Wanda finally managed to catch him, hooked his arm around Liam Harris’s shoulders and pushed open the door to head downstairs, “I’ll take him back first—”

People gradually started leaving.

Henry Howard got up and bent down to stuff the leftover things on the rooftop into a trash bag.

Ethan Young watched Henry Howard busying about, then looked down at the empty beer cans at his feet, trying to count how many he’d had, but his head was spinning and he couldn’t keep track.

Henry Howard finished cleaning up the rooftop, and as he was leaving, he pulled a new lock out of his pocket.

Ethan Young steadied himself against the wall and took a few steps down, then looked back at him. After breaking the lock, this guy still remembered to buy a new one and lock the rooftop door again: “You really think things through.”

Henry Howard said, “For the safety of the other students.”

At one in the morning, everyone went back to their dorms. Henry Howard opened the door, about to say “good night”, when he turned around and the kid walked straight into his arms: “Where are you going?”

Ethan Young had lost control tonight, drinking about seven or eight cans. He hadn’t felt it while drinking, but after a while, the alcohol hit him.

He felt a little hot.

He blinked, only then realizing he’d followed Henry Howard and ended up at the dorm room door without noticing.

Ethan Young raised his hand to rub his temples, just about to say “wrong room”, when Henry Howard grabbed his wrist and pulled him inside.

After drinking, Ethan Young looked unusually obedient, his sharp features softened, and when he looked at Henry Howard, his eyes seemed a little misty.

“Close your eyes,” Henry Howard was almost unable to control himself under that gaze, “be good, close your eyes.”

Ethan Young leaned back against the door and closed his eyes.

Henry Howard kissed down along Ethan Young’s gaze, still holding his wrist tightly, almost painfully, their breaths gradually mingling, intense and lingering, until Ethan Young struggled a bit and called out to him in a hoarse, broken voice: “Gege.”

Henry Howard cursed under his breath, paused, and finally let go of Ethan Young’s wrist, thinking he wanted to leave.

But Ethan Young didn’t open the door. Instead, he slowly unzipped his school jacket.

When Wanda had come knocking to ask him to wander the dorm building, he hadn’t thought much and just thrown on a jacket. Now, taking it off, he was still wearing the thin t-shirt he slept in.

Ethan Young tossed the jacket on the floor, moved closer, grabbed Henry Howard by the collar, and pushed him onto the bed.

Ethan Young was burning up all over, but his mind was surprisingly clear. He opened his mouth and said two words: “Do it?”

“Stop messing around, you’re drunk.”

“I’m not drunk.”

As he spoke, Ethan Young practically straddled Henry Howard’s lap, grinding back a little, whether on purpose or not, and said again, “Do it, ge.”

The dorm room was dim.

By the faint light coming in from the window, you could just make out the messy bedding on the bed, half of it trailing onto the floor.

Henry Howard’s hand gripped Ethan Young’s waist.

The boy’s bare back was tensed in a beautiful arc, shoulder blades jutting out above, Ethan Young’s head lowered, half his face buried in the pillow, only letting out a couple of low whimpers when it hurt.

Suppressed, almost like begging for mercy.

“Fuck,” Ethan Young gripped the sheets, knuckles white, and finally managed a full sentence, “Slow the fuck down.”

Henry Howard also let out a hoarse “fuck”.

Their movements were rough, the bed creaking with ambiguous sounds.

Clumsy and impatient.

Colliding and entwined again and again.

------------

93. Chapter Ninety-Three

Ethan Young was woken up by a burst of noisy static.

At six in the morning, Mad Dog was already on the broadcast, shouting in a dramatic tone: “Morning is when we’re most energetic, you absolutely can’t be lazy, everyone perk up and get ready to face a new day and new challenges.”

“Classmates, I believe you’re all ready!”

Before Mad Dog even finished his second sentence, the hallway was already lively: “Ready my ass!”

“This is torture for the flowers of our nation—!”

“Bro, don’t stop me, I’m going up to cut the wires, I swear I’m taking this damn broadcast apart today, it’s either it or me, I can’t live like this anymore.”