There are scant few things that can persuade a boy to come to homeroom early and behave. For Chongyun, it was not his grades (they were well above average, to the teacher's chagrin), nor was it socialization (he could do far more of that on the basketball court or in the lunchroom than in homeroom).

Xingqiu slunk into his seat scarcely a few minutes before the bell rang. Chongyun waved absentmindedly, and Xingqiu scoffed at him, fingers running through his shoulder-length navy-blue hair.

"What are you doing, Yun?" he asked, crossing his arms.

Chongyun finally looked over at him and seemed to wake up. "What? I wasn't doing anything!" he protested.

Xingqiu raised an eyebrow at him and said, "Chongyun, you have to be the worst liar I know, and I'm in theatre. You were staring at her again."

Chongyun's already pale skin blanched even whiter. "Yeah, no. I wasn't looking at Hu –," he quieted down because a couple of kids shot him an irritated look, "Tao."

Xingqiu rolled his eyes. "Un. Be. Leavable." Each word was punctuated with a head shake. "Didn't even have to say her name and you already knew exactly who I mean."

Chongyun groaned. "That obvious?"

"So frigging obvious, I can't even believe she hasn't caught on."

True to Xingqiu's words, their new teacher's assistant Hu Tao was currently busy discussing the lesson plan with their teacher. Mr. Lapis, or "Rex" as his wife, Principal Ningguang Lapis, called him, was pointing out the various criticisms he had for her teaching style. Hu Tao looked a bit stricken from all of his critiques, but then Mr. Lapis patted her shoulder reassuringly, and she smiled.

Chongyun heard one of his classmates, Keqing, mutter, "Must be so hard for her, working for her father. Geez, wonder how she even got the job," she said sarcastically.

Xingqiu muttered, in retaliation, "Wonder how you got into this school."

Chongyun elbowed Xingqiu. "Cut it out; I don't want people fighting."

Xingqiu turned his attention back to Chongyun. "Ah, Yun, how long have I known you to know that was exactly what you were about to say?" he said with a lazy smirk.

Chonyun scowled and turned his attention back toward the TA who he had been watching since he arrived. As she passed, handing back the paper he had written, she grinned. "Good job, Chongyun!" His head followed as she went on, watching the skirt-clad girl – no, woman , he amended – saunter past.

Xingqiu met him with an incredulous look. "You really are whipped. Says your name and you're," he whistled an ascending note and his hand mimed a rocket taking off.

"Shut up, Xingqiu," he grumbled back.

Mr. Lapis rapped his knuckles on the ancient-looking blackboard. "Quiet down, historians," his deep and melodic voice rumbled. "If you'll read the top of your papers, I think you'll quickly see that some of you don't seem to hold our social contract in high esteem. Some of you have decided to use something Dr. Carver called 'ChatGPT' to write your report, and I assure you, I can tell. The rest of you who actually put work in…your grades should reflect your effort and mastery of the work I set out for you."

Chongyun and Xingqiu flipped their papers over, and Xingqiu pumped his fist. Meanwhile, Chongyun stared at his paper in abject horror.

"C+."

His lamentation was drowned out by Mr. Lapis's voice, droning on about the Battle of Manassas for what Chongyun thought must have been the fifth time. He also did not want to comment that nobody really called it Manassas anymore (the South had lost the war after all), so he just opened his notebook and scribbled notes. Xingqiu, in opposition, was leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head, and he almost looked bored. Chongyun wondered how he was passing APUSH without even trying.

Soon, Chongyun rested his chin in his palm, fixing his eyes on Hu Tao again, who was dutifully listening to her father teach. XIngqiu nudged him to whisper, "Yun, you should go after her if you like her so much."

"WHAT?" he hissed, surprised his best friend was suggesting that. "She's a college student and I'm…almost a college student."

"So freaking what?" Xingqiu asked. "You think she's hot, you're basically the same age." At Chongyun's incredulous look, he said, "You turn 18 in a few months. It's not like this is creepy."

Chongyun jumped as Mr. Lapis cleared his throat right behind him. "Mister Chongyun," he said with disappointment. "I'd appreciate you saving the stimulating conversation until after my class."

Xingqiu snickered as Rex Lapis left his side, and Mr. Lapis gave him a steely gaze. "You, too, Mister Xingqiu."

After that, the two were relegated to their own minds, and both minds were certainly whirring at the speed of thought.

A tinkling sound made Chongyun look up from his grease-saturated pizza. He had guessed correctly; it was Xingqiu's earrings clinking against one another, a sound he felt uniquely qualified to recognize.

"Yo, Qiu," he said through a mouthful of food, and Xingqiu sat down across from him with a tray of steamed vegetables. Chongyun found it remarkable that a school with steamed vegetables on the menu would also serve such a wretched facsimile of pizza, but wonders rarely ceased at Liyue High School.

"So. What's the plan gonna be?" Xingqiu asked, and Chongyun groaned.

"I don't know!" he lamented. "How do I ask a pretty girl out and make her like me!"

"Hey, hey, back it up. Thirteen steps ahead, my friend," Xingqiu said with a hand held up to stop him. "You need to talk to her first."

"I thought I talked to her every day in class," Chongyun said.

"Sweet, innocent Chongyun, you're missing what I'm saying. You need to actually talk to her and ask to spend some time with her. You say like, five words to her every morning about your assignments and that's it."

Chongyun dabbed at his pizza with a napkin, soaking it fully before taking another bite. "How do I go about that?"

"That, my friend, is what we call 'talking,'" Xingqiu said, exasperated. "There's no set formula. You compliment her, tell her something you like about her that's not creepy or stalkerish – for example, her hair. Or her smile. Or even her voice."

Chongyun bemoaned his awkwardness around girls and said, "Qiu, I play pickup basketball; I don't know the first thing about this. You make it sound easy, but I don't even know what words to use."

Xingqiu pondered this, and his conspiratorial grin returned as he said, "Yun, why don't you go ahead and practice on me, then?"

Chongyun bit his pizza and almost choked. "Excuse me?" he coughed.

"Just practice. Pretend I'm Hu Tao and compliment me."

Chongyun pursed his lips, clearly considering this. "Well," he began but then paused so long that Xingqiu thought he was finished speaking. "I guess it can't hurt."

"Alright. I'm Hu Tao, and you're Chongyun. You approach, heart in your hand, and offer your best gifts to the lovely lady in front of you," Xingqiu directed like a theatre kid.

"Stop teasing me," Chongyun groaned, head in his hands. "You're going to embarrass me."

"I joke, I joke," the bluenet laughed and brushed his hair behind his ears. "Now, stop stalling or we'll run out of time. You gotta talk to her after classes, or you'll chicken out forever."

"I won't," Chongyun said, even though he knew his best friend was dead on. "Fine. Um," he paused and Xingqiu snapped his fingers.

"Aaaand she walked away. Quicker."

"Hu Tao, I…really enjoy seeing you in class," Chongyun started.

Xingqiu raised an eyebrow and nodded, urging him to continue.

"And the way you wear your hair is really…cool," he added.

"She walked away again," Xingqiu said. "Creativity, my guy."

"Your hair looks cute today," he continued, "especially with how it shines. What kind of shampoo do you use?"

"Cut, cut, cut. Don't ask what kind of shampoo she uses, Yun. You sound like you're trying to get too deep too fast. Hmmm," Xingqiu thought. "Make her feel appreciated for what she does for Mr. Lapis," he suggested.

Chongyun looked down at his tray, and Xingqiu said, "And go."

Chongyun raised his head and said, "Hu Tao, I…I like how you did your hair today. It really complements the rest of your face, especially around the…the eyes." His light blue eyes met Xingqiu's watery blue ones.

Xingqiu's heart started to pick up pace, and he shifted his eyes, discomfort setting in. "G-good, okay, good. You're…you're getting it."

"Too much?" Chongyun asked, and Xingqiu shook his head.

"No, that was… romantic. Good job, Yun."

Chongyun grinned and rocked back and forth on his bench seat. "Good, I just need to meet up with her after class and turn on the old Chongyun Charm."

"That's…not a thing, Yun."

Chongyun finished his pizza and was about to ask Xingqiu how he recommended he go about talking to Hu Tao, but the bell rang before they had solidified the final details.

"Well, I gotta go to Advanced Drama," Xingqiu told Chongyun, who was tearing at his frost-tipped hair with nervousness. "Hey, don't be so stressed; I'm sure you'll be fine. She smiles at you all the time."

"As if that means anything, Qiu," he said, sure he was sweating up a storm.

"Just freaking talk to her!" Xingqiu said a little too loudly, and they both sheepishly laughed when the rest of the shuffling masses of students gave them a dirty glare.

"I'll let you know later how it goes, 'kay?"

Xingqiu waved to his friend as he walked away, and then covered his mouth, the tingly feeling in his gut starting to come back.

"Hello, Xingqiu!"

He jumped as a demure and serene Junior walked up behind him, arms crossed behind her back, hands clasped in perfect poise.

"Oh, hey, Yun Jin! Walk with me?" he asked her, and she nodded.

"By all means. I meant to talk with you about the script," she said as the two ambled off toward Madame Ping's drama classroom.

Xingqiu was slightly panicked. Usually, Chongyun would blow up his phone and annoy him about one of his "gut feelings" he tended to get, but today his phone was eerily silent. He suspected it may have something to do with Hu Tao. No, scratch that, he was dead certain it had everything to do with Hu Tao.

When he pulled into his driveway after play practice, he mussed his long blue hair and groaned. "Why did I tell you to do it today? We could have worked on this and had you ask her next week or something," he muttered to himself.

He pushed open the front door and saw his mother sitting on the posh davenport in their parlor. She was on a FaceTime call, and from the short buzzed black hair, he knew it was Xingchen.

"Chen!" He called out, and his mother turned the phone's screen to face him.

"Hey, hey, hey, little guy!" Xingchen called. "You ever gonna cut that rat nest?"

"Are you ever going to stop looking like a butch lesbian?" he shot back, and the two laughed.

"Xingqiu!" his mother cried, horrified, and Xingchen wiped a tear from his eye, laughing almost uncontrollably.

"God, you never run out of those do you?"

"Nah, I think of new ones every day," Xingqiu teased. "So. When does your tour come to an end?"

Xingchen looked like he was doing mental math. "Well, I have a year of service, but they're moving my posting soon, so I might be closer, might be further. 'Less I get shot, I won't be stateside until next summer. Rather not be shot."

Xingqiu nodded absently, and both his mother and Xingchen could tell he was wiped.

"Go on, kiddo," his mother said softly. "We can talk at dinner. Just make sure you get your homework done."

"What homework?" he asked cheekily, wearily smiling, and she smiled back.

"I'm trusting you to not let your grades drop, okay?" She said.

"Mooooom," Xingchen said, "give the kid some slack. When was he ever the underachiever?"

"You're right," she said, "as usual. Okay, take a breather, Xingqiu. Love you, kid."

"Love you, bro!" Xingchen said, and Xingqiu turned to go.

"Love you too, both of you," he said absentmindedly. He picked up his backpack off the floor and slung it over his back again to take it to his room.

As he ascended the stairs, a strange energy seemed to hum around him. It was a familiar energy, one he felt often.

"Yun?"

He opened the door to his room and found Chongyun sitting on his bed. His head was hung low, hair draping over his face, and the aura Xingqiu felt from him was dejected.

Normally, he would grouse at his friend about sitting on his bed. Xincheng's bed was right next to Xinqiu's, after all, and they were identical in basically every way, except for the covers. Xingqiu figured this was a bad time to tell him to get off, so he just sat at the foot of the bed and sighed.

"How did you get in here?" he asked finally. Chongyun did not use words, but instead gestured toward the open window and the tree branch protruding through it. "Ah, my favorite sandbearer tree. I hope you didn't kill it on the way up."

Chongyun grunted noncommittally and Xingqiu scrambled to find words that would cheer him up.

"I think your yang is off, my friend," Xingqiu finally said, trying to lighten the mood.

Chongyun raised his head to meet his look and Xingqiu's heart dropped. Chongyun's eyes were red and slightly misted, which was a lot of emotion for him to show anyone. Though Chongyun was a talker, he was not known for his emotional openness.

"How bad could it have been?" Xingqiu asked, unsure how his best friend's potential date had gone.

Chongyun grunted and said, "Not any better than I should have expected. She's right, I guess."

"Right about what?" Xingqiu prompted, and Chongyun sighed. "Just start at the beginning, my guy."

"So I came outside after classes, and she met up with some of her college friends near the basketball court so they could go back to her school. I guess she gets driven here and back by her roommate, Xiangling," Chongyun explained.

"Is Xiangling friendly at least?" Xingqiu asked.

"Oh, extremely. She seems a little shy, and she carried a stuffed bear with her even when she was talking to Hu Tao."

Xingqiu snorted. "That's…interesting," he surmised. "Got a cutesy name like Teddy?"

"Guoba, actually," Chongyun corrected him, talking as if this was a totally normal occurrence.

"Like the food?" Xingqiu laughed again.

Chongyun nodded. "Like the food. Apparently, Xiangling is a culinary student at Morax University."

"Takes all kinds of people to make the world work," Xingqiu said.

"Yeah," Chongyun agreed, heart really not in his voice. "But then HE came out of the car."

Xingqiu's ears perked up. "He? There's a 'he' in this now?"

"Xiao," Chongyun replied. The way he said the name, it sounded like a vile weed or a venomous snake. "Dark, quiet, handsome —"

"Tall?" Xingqiu asked him, chin in his palm.

"Actually, no."

"Continue," Xingqiu said.

"Xiao didn't say much. He just came out and stood next to Hu Tao, and I waved to them all." Chongyun licked his lips, feeling suddenly dry. "Sorry, anyway. He asked her, 'Who's this?' And do you know what she told him?"

Xingqiu ran through a million possibilities and said, "I take it she didn't flatter you in front of this boy."

Chongyun smacked his forehead with his hand. "No, no, no! Ugh!" He dropped his hand to his side. "She says, and I quote!" His voice was rising in pitch and intensity, unusual for the usually subdued Chongyun. "'Oh, he's just some kid from my dad's class!'" He flopped back on the bed and groaned. "It's my worst nightmare. She's already dating a handsome guy, who's everything I couldn't dream to be, and to her I'm 'just some kid.'" He covered his face with his hand. "It's over for me. I should just go become a hermit like Mrs. Cloud," he lamented.

"No, no," Xingqiu shook his head as he thought about the reclusive home economics teacher who he was almost certain had an arsenal in her basement and a flamethrower in her car. She was an odd one, and Xingqiu did not know what to make of her. "I'm sure she just meant that you're just a student and she worded it wrong," he reassured Chongyun.

"A kid," he spat vehemently. "She thinks I'm not grown up enough to even think about outside of a professional setting. And she humiliated me in front of her boyfriend and roommate. I'm an idiot."

Xingqiu stood up and moved next to Chongyun, who sat up, and he slung his arm around Chongyun's shoulder, causing his own earrings to clink.

"Hey, cheer up, Yun. At least it's over and you know," he comforted.

Chongyun shook his head. "It's not over, yet. I need to prove to Hu Tao that I'm not just 'some kid'. I'm grown up and I can love her like she deserves. Better than Xiao can."

Xingqiu felt a strange pang tear through his heart. He felt for his heartbroken best friend. He hated when Chongyun suffered such setbacks, and he had always attempted to mitigate those failures so Chongyun could keep his smile.

That charming smile.

"Too bad you don't have a girlfriend or even a really close girl friend who could make you look more mature," Xingqiu chuckled. "Stoke some jealousy, if there's any sort of emotional connection there, and prove to Hu Tao that you're a man who can care for a woman," he teased.

Chongyun seemed deep in thought, so Xingqiu expected the conversation to be over, and jumped up. Chongyun caught his arm.

"Maybe I do have a way to make it all work out," Chongyun mused.

"Huh?" Xingqiu said, not sure he heard him right. "You have a plan?"

Chongyun shrugged. "Half a plan. What if you were to pretend to be my 'girlfriend' and make Hu Tao think I'm mature enough to have a relationship?"

Xingqiu's mouth gaped. "Are you kidding me? That's the worst idea you've ever had."

Chongyun shook his head. "Look, you look feminine enough to pass as a girl. If you just show up in a baggy sweatshirt and we make your hair longer and lighter," he said, stepping around Xingqiu to appraise his figure, "we could make you look just girly enough to fool her. Then we can stage a breakup or something and she'll be hooked, right?"

"Yun, I don't think that's gonna work," he started, but Chongyun cut him off.

"Come on, Qiu, I need this. I've never been more into a girl that I am for Hu Tao, and I want this to work out," Chongyun begged.

Xingqiu shook his head. "Yun, she knows what I look like! I'm in her freaking class!"

"She doesn't know you that well; she barely seems to acknowledge you," Chongyun fired back.

Xingqiu crossed his arms. "Yun, I really don't think —"

"Don't you want me to be happy?" Chongyun asked him point blank, and Xingqiu's next words died on his tongue. Screw him; him and the way he makes me just do whatever he asks. It's not fair, it's not fair, it's not…

"Fine. I'll pretend one time," Xingqiu relented, holding up one finger. "Once and once only. Then you make it look convincing when we break up," Xingqiu argued.

"More than once!" Chongyun protested. "It's gotta be more than once or she'll never believe it."

Xingqiu sighed. "Fine. Maximum of three times. But I think you're going to owe me a couple favors for each time I do this for you. At least three per time I do YOU this favor," he negotiated.

Chongyun hooted and cheered before hugging Xingqiu super tight. "Yessss, it's all coming together! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much!" he said, pointing finger guns at Xingqiu. "You're the man."

Xingqiu wanted to cheer, but he had a feeling this was a disaster waiting to happen. I couldn't possibly pass as a girl anyway, right? he thought. Surely not. He was bound to be found out soon enough.

"Let's make a game plan," Xingqiu prompted. "How are we going to pull this off?"

As they talked, the pit in his stomach lessened, but it remained in a smaller form nonetheless.

At least this gets me closer to Yun. It can't be that bad…can it?