Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My roommate secretly kissed me, and when I caught him, I was so terrified that I fled to my childhood best friend’s house in the middle of the night.
I never expected my best friend to have designs on me, too.
Later, the two of them backed me into a corner and made me choose between them.
But I’m definitely straight.
The moment I stepped out of the bathroom, Adrian Sterling handed me a glass of warm milk.
I took it and put on an exaggeratedly sweet voice. “Thanks for the milk, big brother. You’re such a nice guy.”
I laid on the words big brother so heavily that the final syllable seemed to twist back and forth dozens of times.
Even I felt a shiver of embarrassment after saying it.
Adrian, however, acted as though nothing had happened. His dark eyes held the faintest trace of amusement.
Jake Carter pushed aside his curtain and stuck his head out from his bunk, mimicking me. “What about mine? Adrian, big brother?”
I slapped him without even turning around. “Drink, drink, drink. Have you finished the group project yet?”
Muttering curses, Jake ducked back behind his curtain. He didn’t open it again until Adrian went to take a shower.
“What kind of love potion did you give Adrian?” he whispered, raising his eyebrows at me. “The campus academic star himself lowered his dignity to heat milk for you. Is he secretly in love with you?”
I gave a derisive snort. “What? Wanting me is only natural. If he’s in love with me, that just means he has excellent taste.”
That was what I said, anyway. Deep down, I knew Adrian probably didn’t mean anything by it.
He made me warm milk because I slept badly. I was always getting up in the night, tossing and turning until morning. Adrian was a light sleeper, and I had no idea how many times he’d been jolted awake by me in a single night.
Jake ignored my shameless self-admiration and fixed his eyes on the glass in my hand instead. Putting on the same syrupy voice, he begged me for ages to let him taste the milk the Campus Academic Star had prepared himself. Maybe, he said, some of Adrian’s brilliance would rub off on him and help him scrape through the exams in a few days.
I finally gave in and told him to wash the glass when he was done.
As he rinsed it, he told me that Mason Reed had a club event that night and wouldn’t be coming back. There was no need to leave the door unlocked for him.
When he finished, he yawned and frowned in confusion.
“Why am I getting sleepy so fast today?”
Adrian Sterling took nearly an hour to shower. By the time he came out, Jake Carter was already asleep.
Chapter 2
I lay in bed thinking about the basketball game coming up in a few days, so absorbed in my thoughts that I didn’t even notice when Adrian turned off the lights and climbed into bed. Maybe it was because I hadn’t had any warm milk. I wasn’t sleepy in the slightest. I don’t know how long passed before I finally started to feel drowsy, but then I heard a rustling sound from the bed beside me. Assuming Adrian had gotten up to use the bathroom, I ignored it.
The next second, my bed shifted, and my lips met something warm.
My mind went completely blank.
When I realized what was happening, I shoved the person on top of me away.
It was Adrian Sterling!
Moonlight filtered through the trees, broken into mottled shadows across his face.
His lips were bright red, like crushed berries, and his eyes were unfocused, glazed with a thin sheen of moisture.
“Did you just fucking kiss me?” I demanded, unable to believe it. The corner of my mouth stung where he’d bitten me.
Rare panic flashed across Adrian’s face. He opened his mouth as if to explain, but for a long moment, he couldn’t get a single word out.
I shoved him away, irritated, grabbed my jacket and phone, and turned to leave.
I ignored Adrian’s attempts to stop me and explain.
Jake was sleeping like the dead. All that noise hadn’t woken him. As I pulled the door shut, I could even hear him snoring.
Once I left the dorm, I realized I might have acted on impulse. I should have thrown Adrian Sterling out instead of running off into the night myself. But going back now would be awkward, so after turning it over in my mind, I called my childhood best friend, Ethan Hayes.
The line was filled with noise, and it took him forever to answer.
“What’s up? Calling me in the middle of the night? Did somebody give you trouble?” Ethan had spent years drinking and smoking, and his voice was rough and hoarse, with a strange kind of sex appeal.
I’d intended to ask if I could stay with him, but after hearing that unbearably smug voice, I couldn’t get the words out.
When I stayed silent for too long, Ethan seemed to realize something was wrong. His voice turned threatening.
“Give me ten minutes. Wait for me by the back gate. If I get there and you’re not waiting, you won’t like what happens next.”
“…You asshole.”
I checked the time. It was almost two-thirty in the morning.
Hugging my jacket around me, I took a long route around the building until I found the back gate. Then I climbed the wall and swung myself over.
A perfect landing.
I was seriously awesome.
I was just looking for somewhere to hide while I waited for Ethan when Adrian’s cautious voice came from behind me.
“Ye, I can explain.”
Chapter 3
He called out a few more times. When he realized I had no intention of answering, he must have worried about attracting the attention of everyone else. A barrage of WeChat messages immediately followed.
“I’m sorry, Ye. Will you come back?”
“You don’t want to see me, so I’ll leave. But can you at least go back to the dorm? It’s too late. I don’t feel comfortable leaving you out there alone.”
“Please, Ye.”
“…”
I muted Adrian’s messages.
A moment later, Ethan’s car arrived.
“What happened, you poor thing? Why do you look so miserable?”
I said nothing. How was I supposed to explain that my roommate had kissed me in the middle of the night? He’d probably never let me hear the end of it.
Ethan reached over and ruffled my hair. I slapped his hand away.
The reek of alcohol hit me, and I leaned away in disgust.
“Were you drinking and driving?”
He grabbed his collar and sniffed it. “I didn’t drink. I was at a place where someone spilled alcohol all over my clothes. If you hadn’t called, I would’ve broken the idiot’s hand.”
I snorted. “Strong stuff.”
Seeing someone familiar eased the knot of frustration in my chest.
But as I got into the car, Ethan spotted Adrian behind the iron gate. His brow furrowed. He turned to look at me, and the smile vanished from his face, replaced by something dark and hostile.
“Your friend?”
“I don’t know him.”
I looked up just in time to meet Adrian’s pleading gaze.
“Is that so?” Ethan let out a soft laugh, but the two words sounded forced, as if he’d squeezed them out through his throat.
Then he caught my chin. His cold, brooding eyes lingered on my lips.
“I thought he was your friend.”
Before I could pull his hand away, he released me on his own. He started the car and drove off, raising one middle finger at Adrian as we left.
“…”
Adrian had transferred into our dorm later than the rest of us. Since he was always coming and going by himself, I’d assumed he didn’t like talking to people and hadn’t dared approach him much.
It wasn’t until he spoke to me first that I realized he was simply reserved.
He was a little nearsighted and had trouble recognizing faces. Somehow, people had twisted that into rumors that he was aloof and disliked interacting with others.
But him sneaking a kiss while I was asleep?
That was something I never would have expected.
I liked making suggestive jokes online, sure, but this was the first time I’d ever found myself in a situation like this.
I didn’t tell Ethan Hayes the truth. I only said I’d had a falling-out with my roommate and asked if I could stay with him for a while.
Fortunately, tomorrow was Saturday. I wouldn’t have to go back and face Adrian Sterling, or I might have died of embarrassment.
Ethan lived in a detached villa. The moment he opened the door, a white blur launched itself at me.
It was his cat. I caught it midair without missing a beat.
The corner of Ethan’s mouth lifted. “Impressive.”