Give Me A Hug

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 : Symptoms

Inside the bathroom.

Xie Jiaran lowered his head, supporting the sink's edge with one hand while covering his face with the right hand, which still had a sense of touch, then released it after a few seconds.
He turned on the faucet and splashed his face repeatedly with cold water.

The itch beneath the skin's surface eased considerably the moment he clasped Liang Sunian's palm. Unfortunately, it was only a brief moment.

After the separation, his body, having experienced a hint of sweetness but unable to find further solace, began to protest vigorously, feeling more than twice as uncomfortable. He breathed out heavily and raised his head, his face dripping with moisture.

He gazed at the young man in the mirror.

Undoubtedly he has a striking appearance, with features so refined that they lacked any hint of aggression. The pupils were a clean, pure black, paired with beautiful double eyelids and slightly drooping eye corners. It should have been a very well-behaved look, however, because of the unyielding coldness between the eyebrows, it was diluted to almost nothing. Even the depths of the eyes were covered with a layer of coldness.

—— If he were to smile, he would look extremely attractive.

This is everyone's first instinctive impression of him. But it's a pity that no one has ever been able to confirm it. Similar to how nobody knew that, besides having severe mysophobia, he also struggled with an incurable skin hunger syndrome. No one was aware that, even though he resisted contact with others, he couldn't suppress his inner longing for close physical contact.

Two entirely contradictory symptoms coexisted in his body, epitomizing an irreconcilable contradiction.

Fortunately, these two aren't evenly matched, with the finicky mysophobia being slightly superior. Compared to his desire for intimate contact, he can't stand any unhindered physical contact with strangers. So much so that whenever the distressing skin hunger syndrome flares up, he can only awkwardly resort to using sleep to numb himself.

Thankfully, the symptoms aren't too severe, and there's ample capacity to handle it.

However, this long-standing balance was ruthlessly disrupted after Liang Sunian moved into his dormitory.

Their dormitory has always been a mixed dormitory. Apart from him in the department of fine arts, the other three include two from the department of architecture and one from the foreign languages department.

Later, the student from the foreign language department took a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons. Liang Sunian from the same year in the department of political science and law moved in as a replacement.

At that time, Xie Jiaran still didn't realize the seriousness of the situation.

Until Liang Sunian, who was still unfamiliar with his quirks, casually draped his arm over his shoulder. It was only after he was unusually stunned for a full two seconds, before pushing him away that things started moving towards an uncontrollable direction.

The fussy and unpleasant mysophobia proved to be ineffective on Liang Sunian. Like a sudden intrusion into his life, Liang Sunian seemed to be everywhere he looked, and surprisingly didn't evoke any feelings of aversion or resistance in him.

Similar to how every young man who had just left the court seemed to radiate vitality, yet he felt an extreme aversion towards the group he encountered on the road, longing for nothing more than to keep his distance. As for Liang Sunian, he wanted to get closer and even closer to him, preferably to snuggle up and rub against him to ease the discomfort.