"And I'd choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I'd find you & I'd choose you.".
- The Chaos of Stars
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cover pic's fan art credit to th...
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Next Monday, students who were to participate in the leadership camp were required to be present at school before 8.00AM. A bus was arranged to pick them up from there and drop them at the airport.
Weizhou opted to have JingYu drop him at the school instead of his parents. Mr.Chang was more than happy to let Jingyu borrow his car to drop Weizhou off. At around 7.30 JingYu picked Weizhou up from his house.
During the drive, neither of them really uttered a word; they only exchanged a few glances. Within less than ten minutes they arrived at their destination. They noticed that most of the students had already arrived. Liang and Kim noticed their car from a distance.
JingYu and Weizhou got off, drawing the attention of several students who were preparing to enter the bus.
"What's that senior doing here?" One girl asked.
"Um he's Weizhou's boyfriend." Answered her friend.
"Huh? How come my boyfriend didn't think of coming to see me off!" The first girl complained.
"At least you have a boyfriend!" Her friend responded enviously.
*****
JingYu helped Weizhou take out his luggage. "Is that everything?" He asked.
"Yeah."
JingYu checked his watch. "10 minutes more."
Until this point, the two have been avoiding discussing the topic of being apart for a week. But now that their time apart was so close to starting, both of their hearts were heavy.
"Yeah.." Weizhou said inching closer, as they stood face to face.
JingYu slowly reached out and intertwined their fingers. "Be safe."
Weizhou nodded. "Don't work too hard."
JingYu chuckled. "I'll try not to."
"It's the summer vacation! Go out and have some fun with your friends." Weizhou ordered playfully.
"I'll have my fun when you get back." JingYu smiled warmly.
They stared at each other, committing every little detail into their memory.
"We're leaving at 8.00AM sharp, so everyone be on your seats by then." Announced a teacher.
"Guess that's my cue." Weizhou sighed.
Hesitant to let his hands ago, JingYu slightly pulled him in.
Weizhou inhaled sharply. "Kiss me." He whispered.
As if he was waiting for Weizhou to utter those words, JingYu tenderly kissed his waiting lips. Weizhou kissed back, needing to remember the feeling to last an entire week.
"Oh no they didn't!" Kim muttered from the inside of the bus. He was seated by a window, with Liang next to him. He stole a glance at Liang to see that his focus was elsewhere, but his clenching jaw sort of made it evident that he also had seen the little PDA. Liang quickly wore his headset to avoid any questions from Kim.
In less than three minutes, Weizhou entered the bus and took one of the vacant seats. Kim shifted to slightly wave at him while Liang kept his eyes closed, engrossed in the music he was listening to.
********
By the time the plane landed in Shenzhen, everyone was somewhat exhausted. Kim had struck up a conversation with Weizhou to break the ice and thereafter he felt comfortable sticking with Kim and Liang. He texted JingYu to inform him that they safely landed.
The camp was taking place at Shenzhen University and accommodation for the participants was provided in the campus' hostel. Apart from the students from their school, there were participants from several other schools. One room could accommodate three students. Weizhou had no objections when he was placed with his two travel partners.
They were required to leave the phones in their rooms during the camp's activities that were scheduled to go on from 9.00AM till 6.00PM every day, with an hour long lunch break. Monday however was an exception as it was close to 12 noon when the participants arrived at the destination.
The introductory event started at 2.30PM and went on till 5.00PM, followed by an interactive session to allow the participants to properly get to know each other. This proved to be extremely exciting as they got to casually interact with other students who had similar interests and aspirations but were from different backgrounds. Weizhou was delighted to meet several students whose aim was to get into Peking just like him. By the time they finished dinner and returned to their rooms, it was close to 10.00PM.
Weizhou immediately fished out his phone from his bag to find two missed calls from JingYu. He called him back while entering the room's balcony. However there was no answer. He tried twice more but it didn't get picked up. With a gloomy expression Weizhou went for a shower. Kim and Liang had chosen to use the bunk bed, letting Weizhou take the normal bed. All three ended up giving into the exhaustion they felt after the eventful day they had.
******
Next morning around 6.00AM a ringing sound made Weizhou almost jump up, bringing his blissful sleep to an abrupt end. It turned out to be his own phone and he guiltily realized that the sound had woken up his two roommates as well.
"Um..Sorry.." He said quickly making his way out to the balcony.
If it was someone else, he would have declined the call, but it was JingYu.
"Hello.." Weizhou's voice was raspy cause of just having woken up.
"Zhouzhou, sorry I missed your calls last night. I had fallen asleep as soon as I hit the bed. I was so exhausted."
Hearing JingYu's voice made Weizhou yearn to be near him. "It's okay JingYu. But I told you not to work too hard."
"Hmm...how are you baby?"
"Not bad. Had a great first day yesterday! It was actually better than I expected. Things can only go downhill from here."
JingYu giggled. "Not sure whether you're being optimistic or pessimistic."
Weizhou smiled. "I'm not sure either."
They listened to each other's breathing for a moment.
"Are you on the bed?" JingYu asked softly.
"Hm...no I wish. I have roomies, so I came to the balcony."
They both sighed in frustration. They had, had phone sex a couple of times in the previous week, but this week was going to be the toughest week for their relationship so far.
"I better go take a cold shower." JingYu chuckled.
"No don't you dare! Just...think of that night...how I pleased you. Imagine me doing it again right now." His own voice was laced with a hint of arousal.
JingYu exhaled sharply.
"As for me.., I better hang up and take a cold shower before someone overhears anything or sees me like this." Weizhou said.
