RSK Chapter 12

I was stunned. How did this guy suddenly decide to confess out of nowhere? There wasn’t even a hint of this before. Thinking this, I typed out a message and sent it.

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: Why do you suddenly want to confess?!

[g5d6o4gpu1]: Didn’t you tell me to read those psychology books?

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: Yes, I did.

[g5d6o4gpu1]: But the books said to be confident and bold, not to hold back, so I’ve decided to confess to him.

[g5d6o4gpu1]: Doctor, haven’t you read those books?

Crap, of course, I hadn’t read them myself; I just recommended them because experts did. But I couldn’t break my “senior psychologist” persona, so I bluffed.

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: Of course, I read them before recommending them to you.

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: But I think these things need to progress gradually.

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: Based on what I see on your profile, you and he aren’t very close, right?

[g5d6o4gpu1]: Yeah, I don’t talk much usually, and he doesn’t really pay much attention to me.

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: Exactly. Think about it: if someone you’re not close with suddenly confesses to you, you probably wouldn’t accept it, right? You might even find it off-putting, especially since you are both men!

[g5d6o4gpu1]: Doctor, what should I do then? You’ll help me, right?

What should I do? I needed an answer to that question too. After pondering for a while, I figured the main thing now was to dissuade him from confessing. We could take care of everything else later.

[A City First Hospital Senior Psychologist]: I think you’ll definitely fail if you confess now. Instead of making a futile effort, why not try to communicate more with him first? If you interact more, maybe he’s not like you imagine.

Right!

Maybe Wen Xu is interested in me just because of his fantasies. We barely interact, so he definitely doesn’t know me well. They say distance creates beauty, but doesn’t it fade when the distance closes?

I’ll just show him my worse side in front of him, let all my flaws out, and see if he gets disillusioned!

[g5d6o4gpu1]: Alright, I’ll listen to the doctor.

Wen Xu really took the “doctor’s” advice seriously. Over the next few days, he often came to me under the pretext of discussing homework, and I didn’t refuse. I intentionally acted sloppy, lazy, and dumb in front of him, aiming to disillusion him.

But it wasn’t very effective. When I left my desk messy, he’d clean it up in minutes. And when chatting with Wen Xu under the guise of the psychologist, my laziness and stupidity somehow appeared cute to him?!

…This guy is hopeless!

This Saturday was Gu Yang’s birthday, and we, along with his classmates, celebrated at a marine-themed restaurant near the school. After everyone had their fill, someone suggested continuing the party at a nearby bar. It was the weekend, and no one wanted to head back to the dorms early, so we all agreed.

The bars near the university town were safe and had a good atmosphere, mostly frequented by college students. Once we were seated, Duan Linze quickly ordered some drinks and a fruit platter. Then, seeing students at the next table playing Truth or Dare, one of Gu Yang’s classmates suggested we play too.

I glanced at the other table; a few faces seemed familiar, probably from the same department. But I didn’t think much about it because our game had already started.

At first, everyone was a bit reserved, choosing Truth more often and asking mundane questions. For instance, when the bottle pointed at me, Duan Linze asked, “Ning Ran, do you still have your first kiss?”

What a question. I just lost it recently.

“Nope,” I answered honestly.

Then everyone burst into teasing, and Gu Yang suddenly said excitedly, “What the heck, bro, when did you lose your first kiss? You didn’t even tell me!”

“…” Why would I tell you?

But before I could figure out how to respond to Gu Yang, everyone was distracted by a guy from the next table who walked over and kissed one of Gu Yang’s male classmates.

I was flabbergasted. Is this how gay guys… play now?

Later, the guy from the next table explained that he lost a dare and had to kiss a guy at our table, which is why he did it. He apologized to Gu Yang’s classmate.

Oh, so he’s not gay.

That incident fired everyone up at our table, and we started to play more openly. After a few rounds of wilder dares like drinking from the same cup, kissing cheeks, and feeling abs, the atmosphere became pretty lively.

I was sitting with Gu Yang on my right and the always quiet Wen Xu on my left, who, by some luck, never got the bottle pointed at him. Just as I was thinking about this, fate spun the bottle my way again.

Crap.

Since everyone else was choosing Dare by then, I couldn’t be the odd one out, so I chose Dare too. Then I heard the questioner, slurring his words, say, “Then send Ning Ran to avenge us. Go kiss any guy at the next table!”

“…” This isn’t about revenge; you’ve got something against me, don’t you?

After some thought, I decided to just drink instead of taking on the dare. But Qi Yiming grabbed the bottle faster than I could and loudly goaded, “Ning Ran, hurry up! Don’t think about drinking! Go and avenge us, can’t you take a dare?”

This idiot, I really wanted to punch him!

Before I could snatch the bottle from Qi Yiming, others were already cheering and pushing me toward the next table. Damn, now I’m really done for!

However, in the midst of the chaos, I saw a familiar face sitting on the couch at the next table. That icy expression could only belong to Wen Xu. When did he move there? He was just by my side a moment ago.

Could it be that he came over because I was supposed to kiss a guy from the next table and decided to take one of their places?

“…”

Hey, bro, just because you sit there doesn’t mean I’m going to kiss you.