He Zhao had been staring down at the steps beneath him. His mind had been running wild, but when he heard this he glanced sharply up.
Xie Yu had not reacted strongly.
Before He Zhao could respond, Xie Yu forcibly shoved the sweet into his mouth.
He Zhao froze.
Then the fruity taste reached him.
It was sweet.
His little friend had licked it.
And his little friend had called him 'ge.'
All other thoughts in He Zhao's mind suddenly screeched to a stop and only one thing remained: ...he's playing dirty.
Xie Yu had never imagined that 'Question King' had nearly given up on himself for such a reason. Even after repeating a year, He Zhao hadn't been able to put down his worries and had landed himself at a bottom-of-the-barrel high school and kept scoring last in the year at that.
A top student, who in the eyes of everyone had a bright and limitless future, had now fallen below the passing grade.
He had fallen very far.
Even though Xie Yu had known He Zhao for a long time, the only time he had really seen He Zhao get angry was during the incident with Xu Xia and Goody-two-shoes Yang.
"That's why you beat people up in your first year, too?" Xie Yu leaned back on his hands and asked.
Xie Yu didn't pay attention to gossip and had no idea who the Big Bro in the next building was. But He Zhao's exploits had spread through the entire school and it was difficult to avoid it completely.
Xie Yu had become the Big Bro of the West Building due to 'cheating on the high school exams' on top of fighting.
He Zhao, on the other hand, hadn't.
Unlike Xie Yu, when He Zhao entered high school, he had maintained a low profile for a while. He had attended class for two months without incident. Then, after the mid-term tests, an event had made his name spread like wildfire.
He hit a teacher.
Like Xie Yu, he had made his name by fighting, but what He Zhao had done was much more serious than Xie Yu knocking four people unconscious outside of school.
"About that..."
"Someone in our class had bought exam answers, and he thought I gave that person the idea." He Zhao bit into the sweet. Unwilling to even mention the teacher's name, he had said 'he' instead. Then He Zhao continued, "He seems to have thought highly of me. Buying answers, my ass... if I really had, would I really have scored ten points?"
Now that He Zhao thought about it, he had been too hot-tempered at that time. He could have just laughed it off. He hadn't really needed to kick the table and then argue back. The argument had grown more and more heated until He Zhao couldn't hold himself back any longer and threw a punch.
He had hit quite hard and nearly landed the teacher in the hospital.
That day, He Zhao didn't leave school after class was dismissed. He sat in a bathroom stall and smoked half a pack of cigarettes. While the smell of smoke circulated around him, he kept asking himself, What the hell am I doing?
He Zhao now stopped. Noticing that the 'second-to-last-in-the-year' sitting next to him had not yet said a word, he changed the topic. "What about you?"
"I..." Xie Yu said calmly. "I'm too outstanding. I want to give other people a chance, too."
"......" He Zhao choked. He lifted a hand and tousled Xie Yu's hair. "Be more serious, will you?"
