TAM 5

Mo Yao did not expect that Si Yuan would return earlier than usual that night.

The milk tea was still on Si Yuan’s desk. While Mo Yao showered in the bathroom, he thought about whether he should leave a note under the cup to tell Si Yuan that it was from Li Yahan. But when he finished showering and opened the door, he ran right into Si Yuan coming in from outside.

Mo Yao wore a sleeveless shirt and shorts. His skin was still cool with water, and he froze when he saw Si Yuan.

Si Yuan did not look at him. He went straight to his desk, threw his key onto it, and noticed the milk tea.

From the moment Si Yuan entered, Chen Xinyong kept his head down, pretending not to see him.

Si Yuan stood there and tapped the paper cup lightly with his finger, then turned to look at Mo Yao.

Mo Yao could not help speaking. “Li Yahan bought it for you.”

Si Yuan said, “Who?”

Mo Yao frowned and walked toward his bed. “You don’t recognize her?”

“I know.” That was all Si Yuan said.

Mo Yao sat down at his bedside, grabbed the towel still hanging around his neck, and began to dry his hair. His hair had grown long lately because he had been too lazy to get a haircut. The towel rubbed through the messy strands pressed flat on his head.

Si Yuan picked up the paper bag from his desk and walked toward Mo Yao.

Chen Xinyong still kept his head down, but his eyes rolled up as far as they could, and his fingers stopped moving on his phone screen.

Mo Yao stopped moving too. A sudden tension ran through him. He did not know what Si Yuan meant to do. Was he about to throw the drink in his face?

Si Yuan stopped in front of him, set the milk tea down on Mo Yao’s desk, and said, “You drink it.”

Chen Xinyong’s eyes darted quickly between the two of them.

Mo Yao stared blankly at Si Yuan. “Huh? Why?”

Si Yuan had already turned back to his own desk. He opened the cabinet beside it and searched through the clothes inside. His tone was calm and matter-of-fact. “I don’t drink sweet stuff.”

Mo Yao looked at the milk tea on his desk and stared for a few seconds before replying, “I don’t want it either.”

Si Yuan said nothing. He took out clean clothes and went into the bathroom.

Mo Yao looked confused. He turned to Chen Xinyong. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Chen Xinyong immediately said, “How would I know?”

Then the sound of a key turning came from the door. Zhang Ziyu pushed it open and said loudly, “Hello, comrades, I’m back.”

Neither Mo Yao nor Chen Xinyong responded.

Zhang Ziyu seemed cheerful. He swung his arm to close the door and began talking about his date that night. He said they went to a popular restaurant that had a long line, and he described it with great enthusiasm. He added that another girl from his girlfriend’s class had gone with them.

At the end, he suddenly pointed at Mo Yao. “Want me to introduce her to you?”

“What do you mean?” Mo Yao asked. He had been waiting for Si Yuan to come out of the bathroom and had not paid attention to what Zhang Ziyu was saying.

Before Zhang Ziyu could answer, Chen Xinyong protested, “Why introduce her to him and not to me?”

That question made Zhang Ziyu pause. He thought for a moment, then found an excuse. “I just think she’d suit him better. I’ll introduce someone to you next time.”

Chen Xinyong stood up beside his bed. “Didn’t you just say she was pretty? So pretty ones go to Mo Yao, is that it?”

Zhang Ziyu said, “No, I’ll introduce a pretty one to you next time too.”

The bathroom door opened. Mo Yao suddenly stood up and said, “Then give this one to him.” After saying that, he picked up the milk tea from his desk, walked to Si Yuan’s side, and planned to give it back to him face to face once he came out.

But Si Yuan still did not come out.

Mo Yao thought he looked a little foolish. He set the milk tea down and walked to the bathroom door.

Although it was already September, the southern weather still felt like midsummer. The air inside the bathroom was damp and cool. Si Yuan had probably just rinsed himself with cold water.

When Mo Yao reached the door, Si Yuan had just put on a short-sleeved shirt and lifted his head to look at him.

“The milk tea is yours. Someone else bought it for you. I’m not drinking it.” Mo Yao thought it was ridiculous to make a fuss over such a small thing, but it was not just any milk tea. It carried a girl’s feelings, and it was not something that could be handled casually.

Si Yuan raised his hand and brushed back his damp hair. He lowered his head and walked past Mo Yao. Water droplets scattered onto Mo Yao’s face. “Then give it back to her,” he said.

Mo Yao could barely hold back his anger. His expression turned cold. “You give it back yourself. What’s it got to do with me?”

Si Yuan walked to his desk and did not even looked at the cup. “I wasn’t the one who took it.”

The milk tea had been received by Mo Yao for him, without his permission.

Si Yuan climbed onto his bed quickly, holding onto the ladder.

Mo Yao followed him, resting one hand beside the ladder. “If you don’t want it, throw it away.”

Si Yuan sat on the bed with his long legs slightly bent. The mosquito net was still open. He reached to take off his pants and looked down at Mo Yao while saying, “Don’t waste food.” Then he lifted his hand and threw the pants over the ladder, covering Mo Yao’s hand.

Mo Yao drew his hand back, turned around and sat on his own bed. He picked up his phone and stayed quiet.

Chen Xinyong and Zhang Ziyu had already stopped arguing. They stood aside and had watched everything. They exchanged several looks.

Si Yuan lowered the mosquito net.

Chen Xinyong gave a long hum and said, “Doesn’t he know what respect means?”

Zhang Ziyu said nothing. He grabbed two pieces of clothing and went to the bathroom.

The dormitory fell into silence. That kind of silence appeared often when Si Yuan was around. Arguments rarely happened, because Si Yuan never argued with them. He simply refused to speak.

Mo Yao sent a message to Li Yahan: “Sorry, Si Yuan said he doesn’t drink sweet things.”

It took a long time before she replied: “It’s fine. Sorry for the trouble. I should be the one feeling bad. If he won’t drink it, just throw it away or give it to someone else.”

Her message did not even have an emoji, yet Mo Yao could almost picture her looking sad. He wanted to type something to comfort her but felt that anything he said would be unnecessary. He put the phone down.

Zhang Ziyu came out of the bathroom after his shower. He walked over to Chen Xinyong’s bed and spoke to him in a low voice.

Mo Yao lay back on his bed and looked up. He heard rustling sounds from the upper bunk, like pages turning.

He turned over, got up, and walked to Si Yuan’s desk. He picked up the milk tea bag, opened the dormitory door, and walked out. He went to the stairway and threw it into the large trash bin on that floor.

The lights went off. The four of them lay on their own beds. None of them seemed to immediately fall asleep.

Mo Yao lay on his side, his right arm bent under his head as a pillow. Now that things had passed, his mood slowly calmed down.

On the opposite upper bunk, Zhang Ziyu turned again and again, probably still caught up in the excitement from his date that evening. He could not stay still and started talking to fill the quiet.

At first, Chen Xinyong answered him. After a while, Mo Yao joined in with a few words. Only Si Yuan was silent.

Wu Jingyan had asked Mo Yao if he had fought with Si Yuan. The rumor was false, but his relationship with Si Yuan really was bad. It was not only him. All three of them had a bad relationship with Si Yuan.

Some conflicts grew slowly. When you disliked someone, even their smallest action seemed loud. The best way for them to exist was not to exist at all.

But rather than saying the three of them isolated Si Yuan, it would be more accurate to say that Si Yuan isolated himself from them. Since the beginning of their first year, when the four of them moved into this dorm, Si Yuan had rarely talked to them. He left early and came back late. Unless there was class, it was almost impossible to see him.

Mo Yao came from a well-off family. He was good-looking and smart. He had grown up spoiled and never bothered to please anyone. Chen Xinyong had a strong and sensitive sense of pride. If anyone treated him coolly, he would think they looked down on him and would never approach them again. Zhang Ziyu went with the flow and grew closer to the other two. Over time, their occasional silence turned into a rule of not speaking unless necessary.

By the second semester of freshman year, although Mo Yao had earned higher grades, the scholarship rules made him lose a large sum to Si Yuan. From then on, Mo Yao developed resentment toward him.

After that, Chen Xinyong and Zhang Ziyu exaggerated the story, and it became the source of the rumor that Mo Yao and Si Yuan had fought in the dorm.