"Everybody knows that."

Pei Ming let out a tiny but audible cough.

Shen Qingqiu could die of embarrassment right now.

Shen Qingqiu covered his face with both hands. What to do now?? Shen Qingqiu didn't know whether to be more upset about the fact that he is in his pajamas right now or the fact that his pajamas got dirty. The latter meant he can't go straight back into bed and scream into his pillow. Which sucks.

Ugh, whatever. The longer he stays on the floor, crouched over with his hands over his face, the weirder and stupider it's going to get. Shen Qingqiu lowered his hands from his face.

He looked up and see nothing but the field and the sun peeking out through the horizon. A tumbleweed rolled by.

"..."

The group of students was already directed into the school by Lan Xichen. Apparently, the students were more fascinated by the huge white and blue building than three boys rolling about in the grass.

Xie Lian had snapped out of it and was more or less awake. He offered a hand to Shen Qingqiu. As Shen Qingqiu took it, he had a mental image of three criminals who escaped from prison in their single-colored pajamas. Shen Qingqiu cringed as Xie Lian pulled him up. Thank god they weren't wearing striped pajamas.

"Are you alright, Shen Yuan?" Xie Lian asked, patting some of the dust off Shen Qingqiu's shoulder.

"...I'm good."

"Oh, that's good," Xie Lian smiled briefly. Then he turned around and groaned, "Ugh, that was soo embarrassing." Xie Lian buried his face in his hands. "Why did you guys have to bring me along..." Xie Lian's voice was muffled by his hands.

"Hey, we are besties now, aren't we?" Shi Qingxuan exclaimed, "We got to go through some embarrassing moments together!"

"By some do you mean all the time," Shen Qingqiu muttered under his breath.

"Now, now, Shen-xiong, look at the bright side! Look, the sunrise is so pretty today!" Shi Qingxuan wrapped one arm around Shen Qingqiu's shoulders and swept over the horizon with his other.

"..."

Shen Qingqiu looked at Shi Qingxuan.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Uh-" Shi Qingxuan squatted down and checked the watch on Shen Qingqiu's wrist. "It's 6:54 am!"

"Then I'm going back to sleep," Shen Qingqiu declared.

"I'm right behind you on that one," Xie Lian said. And then the boy yawned, rubbing an eye with his fist. "I need some more sleep too."

The three boys headed back to the dormitory.

。。。

。。。

。。。

And of course, they overslept.

They were supposed to head down to the gym at 11. It was 11:30.

There were five classes from various schools coming over to Qingfeng. One of them being MengDie. After getting shown around the whole school by the members of the student council, all five classes were dumped into the huge gym for the student's penfriend to come to fetch them.

"I can't believe Shi Qingxuan didn't wake us up!" Shen Qingqiu griped as Xie Lian and himself rushed down the hallway.

"Well, at least, Qingxuan did leave us some breakfast," Xie Lian said as he took a bite of a tea sandwich.

Earlier, Shen Qingqiu woke up with a start. He scrambled out of his bed and grabbed his watch on the nightstand. He looked at the time.

Gasp.

"We are late!" Shen Qingqiu practically screamed at Xie Lian who was peacefully sleeping on his bottom bunk bed. Shen Qingqiu whacked Xie Lian with one of Xie Lian's own pillows.

The two boys found a single, lonely tea sandwich on a plate. Shen Qingqiu wasn't in the mood to eat, so Xie Lian gladly took it.

And thus, that is how they were running down the hallway towards the gym.

Now if this was a manhua, you would have seen a poster that said "No running" taped on the wall.

They reached the doors of the gym as Xie Lian crammed the last bite of the sandwich into his mouth.

Shen Qingqiu pushed the doors open.

Shen Qingqiu half expected to see a Luo Binghe crouched in the corner of a completely deserted gym (aside from Xie Lian's pen friend who's just a person-shaped blob in Shen Qingqiu's imagination) drawing circles on the floor with a stick, a gloomy cloud above his head. With an upset expression that Shen Qingqiu always sees when he happens to pass by that alleyway and sees Luo Binghe staring at Xiao Jiu. Abandoned puppy face. No wonder Xiao Jiu always makes such an annoyed face when Luo Binghe comes.

But to Shen Qingqiu's surprise, there were way more people in the gym than he expected. (contrary to what he had in his mind.)

Wow.

There are still so many kids here that haven't got picked up by their penfriend. To Shen Qingqiu, this is similar to the leftover toddlers in the daycare center whose parents had to pick them up very late due to work. This means that Shen Qingqiu had to stay in the daycare center super late also. Every time a kid pulled on his hair, it was another ounce of encouragement for him to use one of Shi Qingxuan's free haircut coupons to cut his hair short. But sometimes the nasty kids were making him think that it's even better to just shave off all his hair altogether.

Shen Qingqiu pushed through the crowd and scanned the mob of students.

Dear god.

Who the hell said that the students from Qingfeng are all punctual??? Shen Qingqiu could confirm at least half of the students haven't come to pick up their pen pal yet.

How is he supposed to find Luo Binghe in this mess? Telepathy??

Shen Qingqiu muttered some not-so-nice words under his breath. He accidentally hit someone. Hard. And accidentally step on their feet.

Oof. "Sorry, excuse me," Shen Qingqiu said as he spotted something ahead of him in the mass of students. Was that Luo Binghe??

"Oh, it's okay," said a familiar voice.

Shen Qingqiu paused. He turned to look at the person he had bumped into.

The person saw his face and their mouth form an "o".

"S-Shen Yuan?" Luo Binghe asked, pleasantly surprised.

Well, that's easier. Shen Qingqiu found him.

"Wow, Shen Yuan! What a coincidence you are here!" Luo Binghe exclaimed.

Shen Qingqiu: "..." wait-

"Are you from Qingfeng? Or are you also here from a different school? You know, I've been wanting to hang out with you, but I haven't seen you since that day when it rained. Wow, you are here now! I should have asked for your number before so we could have stayed in touch," Luo Binghe rambled on as Shen Qingqiu stared at him blankly.

"Well, so what school are you from? Maybe we can hang out sometime! I'm from MengDie High School. I'm waiting for my penfriend, Shen Qingqiu, but he isn't here yet I think. I texted him but he didn't answer. Hopefully, he'll text me back soon," Luo Binghe smiled at Shen Qingqiu.

At that moment Shen Qingqiu became aware of two things.

One, he had accidentally left his phone in the dorm.

And two, this was not any easier.

。。。

。。。

。。。

"Gege!"

Within the crowd, a hand reached out and grabbed Xie Lian's wrist, pulling him out. Xie Lian looked up.

There was Hua Cheng, in a red shirt with his sleeves pushed up and jeans. Hua Cheng beamed at Xie Lian.

"Ah, there you are, San Lang. I just got here, how did you find me so fast?" Xie Lian grinned back.

Hua Cheng smiled widely at Xie Lian.

He said, "Gege, it's telepathy."

Thank you for reading!

('▽')/✨

Comments and votes will be (highly) appreciated! As usual!

Word Count: 1387