Apartment 4F

10: How to protect your bestfriend (by risking your own reputation)

For every action and circumstance, there is a reaction. An opposing force.

A few days after the Halloween party, the campus was suddenly buzzing with gossip about Dylan being gay.

"... Just ignore them," Jia Qi reassured Yue, as they climbed the steps to the cafeteria. "It'll blow over soon once the next big news or scandal hits - besides, it's Dylan. He's still a basketball star, whichever way he or his thing leans..."

Somehow, Yue wasn't so sure. Some of the comments she had heard, or read on Weibo, were beyond ridiculing and borderline malicious.

The timing was also questionable. According to Jia Qi's sources, the girl(s) who started the rumours claimed Dylan had told them he was gay several months ago. But then - why was this blowing up now?

She couldn't help but feel the trigger was the Halloween event, and that would mean she was partially responsible.

Love, or obsession, is often an inexplicable thing. By nature, it is inherently selfish. Some girls probably could not stand to see Dylan behaving so closely with another girl - whether or not they themselves could ever be with him was irrelevant. And so, sparked by jealousy, the rumours spread like wildfire in a dry forest.

As Yue and Jia Qi took their usual seats in the middle of the cafetaria, she could hear whispers and conversations everywhere discussing Dylan, not even caring that she or the basketballers who were close to him were within earshot.

"Oh my god I can't believe he's a faggot..."

"I can't believe you were fantasising about him for half a year, when he was probably fantasising about his basketball teammates..."

The group of girls at a table near theirs dissolved into peals of giggles. From the corner of her eye, Yue could see the basketballers looking down uncomfortably at their food; Dylan, however, was nowhere to be found.

"Oh my god oh my god I just thought of something," one of the girls exclaimed. "Do you think he gets erected when they all change together in the basketball locker room?"

Everyone around them was startled when Yue suddenly stood up and slammed her food tray on the table with a loud bang.

"Shut up," she warned through gritted teeth. "Stop talking about him like that - he's not... like that."

Refusing to back down, one of the girls from the other table also stood up.

"Who are you to tell us to shut up? Is there anything wrong with what we have said? Our friend said he personally told her he is gay when she confessed to him."

"Maybe... he doesn't like your friend, and was just thinking of a polite and creative way to reject her," Jia Qi suggested, nodding at Yue to let her know she had her back.

The other girls sneered. "You are his friend. Of course you will defend him. Then, do you have any proof? How do you know he is NOT gay?"

"I know he's not gay because... because..." Yue's voice trailed off as she glanced sideways at Jia Qi, who seemed to have run out of helpful suggestions and was staring at her blankly.

"... Because..."

She looked in the direction of the basketball table; the basketballers were all looking at her expectantly, hoping she could defend their captain.

Without thinking, she blurted out the first thing that popped into her head.

"Because I've had sex with him."

...

Huh!?

Gasps and murmurs of astonishment rippled through the cafeteria.