A week passed quickly with both of them unexpectedly busy with school and social gatherings that they barely had time together other than their evening gaming sessions. They even had to postpone their Monday plans as Wen Xi had to stay behind in school for some extra credit work.

Despite not spending a lot of physical time together, they spent every free moment on their phones, keeping up the habit of voice messaging each other.

Wen Xi only realized that he had gotten used to this abnormal way of communicating when Jun Yingzhe commented on it one day during lunch, asking why he was not sending a text message like a normal person.

He had tried stopping and sending text messages instead of a voice message, to receive a distressed video call from Gu Qingfeng putting on his best pitiful face asking if he did anything wrong and if Wen Xi was angry with him.

Succumbing to the charms of his good-looking boyfriend’s face, Wen Xi gave in and took a few discreet screenshots of the other’s adorable puppy-eyed expressions, and continued with the voice messages. He had not thought to ask why the other was so fixated on voice messages, chalking it up to typical Gu Qingfeng behaviour.

It was only during some party quests with their guild members that Wen Xi started to pick up on a certain peculiarity.

Being unrivaled in shamelessness, his boyfriend always had something to say—which made it extra conspicuous when Gu Qingfeng lapsed into random silences.

When it happened the first few times, Wen Xi thought that Gu Qingfeng had learnt some humility and was shy when receiving praise. But the odd part was that he seemed to happily bask in it when it came from the other players, only turning quiet when it came from Wen Xi.

Not all praise from him prompted such a response, which made Wen Xi extra curious to find out what the trigger was and what exactly was up with Gu Qingfeng during the silences. He had a nagging suspicion on the cause, and decided to test the waters when they finally met up on Friday evening.

Gu Qingfeng had suggested meeting up and staying over at the apartment, with no qualms in putting forth his suggestive proposal now that they were officially going out.

Standing in front of the gate with his duffel bag of clothes and his laptop, Wen Xi suddenly felt a little nervous meeting face to face for the first time in a week since their last… explosive physical encounter. They had blushingly cleaned up and ordered dinner in before going back to their own dorms that day.

He had done some additional secret research back in his dorms after class whenever Jun Yingzhe was out, and now standing in front of the gate he could not help but picture the positions that the men in the videos were in, with Gu Qingfeng’s face superimposed on the man’s face looking at him from above—imagining Gu Qingfeng’s sizeable self going in and out and in and… He slapped himself back to his senses and took a deep calming breath. They had not talked about taking things further, only discussing cooking and playing the game together over the weekend, as well as potentially catching a movie the next day.

Before Wen Xi could raise his hand to press the intercom, Gu Qingfeng came bounding around the corner, opening the gate and taking Wen Xi’s bag from him. His handsome boyfriend was dressed casually in a long sleeved light grey sweatshirt and matching sweatpants, with the cute sage green apron he had used the last time tied around his trim waist. His hair was attractively tousled and slightly damp, showing that he had probably just taken a shower. 

“What are you doing standing out here in the cold, silly? If I hadn’t seen you walking up through the window, how long would you have stood here?” Gu Qingfeng chided as he reached up to ruffle his hair, checking that the coast was clear before kissing the other on the cheek.

“Hey!” Wen Xi reflexively covered his cheek, his eyes darting around to check if anyone had noticed.

“Don’t worry, no one’s around,” Gu Qingfeng reassured as he put an arm around the other and herded him to the lift. “Besides, you’ve already taken advantage of me the last time, what are you afraid of?”

“The neighbours—”

“—even my mother has already acknowledged you as a son-in-law, what does it matter what they think?”

Wen Xi could not find the words to refute, he was so used to keeping his orientation under wraps that it felt wrong to be so open about it. “…you also took advantage of me,” he mumbled after a moment.

Gu Qingfeng laughed out loud at his adorable boyfriend and leaned in to whisper as the lift doors closed, “Who was the one who grabbed who first?” causing the fine hairs on the back of Wen Xi’s neck to stand. “But I liked it very much~”

Wen Xi rubbed the back of his neck as he glared at the back of his cheeky boyfriend head as he exited the lift. He felt even more determined to find out what was it that could cause this shameless guy to go quiet.

“Welcome back~” Gu Qingfeng said with a flourish as he opened the door. “Feels like we’re living together right—”

As the door closed behind him, Wen Xi pulled the slightly shorter man close and covered the other’s mouth with his own, languidly tasting and teasing the other with his tongue. It had been far too long since they had touched each other.

Gu Qingfeng groaned softly as he gently put down the bag, freeing his hand so that he could use it to touch the warm, lithe body in front of him.

They wrestled for control in the hallway, their kiss gradually growing more heated until a loud growl from Wen Xi’s stomach interrupted Gu Qingfeng’s hand that was casually sneaking downwards.

Regretfully, Gu Qingfeng separated from Wen Xi as he patted the other’s stomach. “We can continue later. Let’s feed you first,” he said as he picked up the bag, put on the room slippers and went in the house.

Wen Xi sheepishly rubbed his stomach as he followed the other into the house. He must have been too hungry—he had grabbed a quick lunch that afternoon, choosing to spend the time finishing his schoolwork so that he would have more time to spend with Gu Qingfeng over the weekend.