Chapter Text
I’m Qiao Annan, sixteen years old. I’ve never even been in love myself, yet I’ve already developed a brand-new romance problem.
And with our week-long school trip starting tomorrow, the timing couldn’t be better. Messages were already flying past on my phone, and the group chat had only been renamed yesterday:
【Class 3 Marriage Registration Office】*
Me: [AAAAAA LIVE REPORT!!! MY SHIP IS SHARING DRINKS!!!]
Jian Tian: [OMG,AN INDIRECT KISS! HAVE THEY FINALLY FIGURED IT OUT?!]
Me: [NOPE. They definitely think this is just two bros being casual with each other. They have absolutely NO IDEA how ridiculously intimate this is.;_;]
Meng Xiaoxing: [Sigh… Waiting for those two to realize their feelings on their own is hopeless. I just asked the Class Five monitor, and apparently their sleeper berths won’t even be together tomorrow. This is a blatant attack on our matchmaking operation. ◡ ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ ┻━┻]
Bai Yiyan: [Relax. We can always pull a few strings. How hard can switching a couple of sleeper berths be?]
And the culprits responsible for sending our entire group chat into a frenzy were sitting right across from me. Yes. I had developed a brand-new, unusually sweet problem. As a BL shipper with five years of experience, I SWEAR on my shipping radar:
The two boys sitting across from me are definitely gay.
At that very moment, Mu Tiancheng had gotten so absorbed in his homework that he’d picked up the wrong milk tea. He was drinking Xia Siming’s. And he hadn’t even noticed. But I was absolutely sure Xia Siming had! Under normal circumstances, shouldn’t a straight guy’s first reaction be, “Dude, that’s mine,” followed immediately by snatching the cup back?
But not only did he make no attempt to stop him, he was still smiling brightly as he reached for the milk tea Mu Tiancheng had just drunk from, put the same straw between his lips, and took a sip as if nothing had happened…………
The milk tea Mu Tiancheng had ordered was still sitting beside him, its seal completely untouched. It wasn’t until he had finished an entire page of English homework that Mu Tiancheng finally realized what had happened and stopped writing. “…Did I just drink yours?”
“It’s fine.” Xia Siming’s eyes curved into a smile as he pointed toward the untouched cup beside them. “Yours hasn’t even been opened yet.”
Only then did Mu Tiancheng pierce the seal on his own drink and take a sip. A moment later, however, he frowned. “I think yours tastes a little better.”
At those words, the smile at the corners of Xia Siming’s mouth instantly deepened. Without missing a beat, he nudged his own cup back toward Mu Tiancheng. “Then you can have mine if you want.”
…Yes. That is my brand-new, sweet problem. HELP!!! I knew both of these guys separately in middle school. They had absolutely nothing to do with each other back then! And now, after some twist of fate landed them both in Class Five at the start of high school, it had only been a little over a month and they were already like THIS!!! And yet, neither of them seemed to have the slightest concept of romance. One of them filed every single boundary-crossing moment under “bros don’t sweat the small stuff,” while the other simply assumed he couldn’t be bothered to care. Worst of all, they both seemed to genuinely believe that everything about this was completely normal…
Watching two people who are obviously heading straight toward each other while remaining about as romantically aware as a pair of wooden planks, my four fellow BL shippers and I finally reached the end of our patience. So we decided that tomorrow’s school trip to Xiamen would mark the launch of our ultimate matchmaking campaign, codenamed:
GET THEM MARRIED ON THE SPOT.
Come on, it’s Xiamen! One of the most beautiful cities in China! An entire week away from school, sunshine, beaches, ocean waves… every single one of those is standard romance anime material!
My beloved ship, your glorious future awaits.
And our little squad? We’ll be your most dedicated wingwomen.
✦ ✦ ✦
Such was the Grand Plan running through Qiao Annan’s mind on the day before the trip.
With one final tap, Qiao Annan encrypted the lengthy document she’d titled Shipping Memo, slipped her phone into her pocket, took a deep breath, and quietly clenched her fist.
By now, the milk tea shop had grown noticeably dimmer. Outside the window, rush-hour traffic crawled through the evening streets of Yicheng. Across the table, Xia Siming picked up the jacket draped over the back of his chair and stood up, looking toward Mu Tiancheng, who was still wearing one earbud and gazing absentmindedly out the window.
“Let’s go.”
She was just about to remind Xia Siming that the jacket wasn’t his when she saw him smile gently and simply drape it very thoughtfully over Mu Tiancheng’s arm.
Mu Tiancheng didn’t even look back. He simply hooked the jacket into the crook of his arm in one smooth, practiced motion.
Right. Fine. Keep quietly flirting by treating each other’s belongings like shared property.
The happiness of a BL shipper really was that simple. Qiao Annan covered her mouth, trying not to let her grin escape.
There were fewer than twenty-four hours left before the train to Xiamen departed. Qiao Annan and the other members of the “Marriage Registration Office” had already finalized their plan. Starting tomorrow, they would create the opportunities, Xiamen would provide the atmosphere, and Xia Siming and Mu Tiancheng only needed to follow the script and fall in love.
She was absolutely confident. After all, neither of the two boys had realized their feelings yet. In this matchmaking operation, victory seemed firmly in her hands.
At least, that was what she thought before the trip.