Chapter 99: [ABO Side Story 1]

The first time Ning Yixiao saw Su Hui was on the final day of freshman registration.

It was raining heavily that day, and the campus was shrouded in a hazy mist. As a volunteer for the Computer Science department, Ning Yixiao had just finished helping a group of first-year students when the rain suddenly intensified, forcing him to seek temporary shelter at the nearest registration desk—the one for the Finance department.

Long, continuous lines of rain fell from the edges of the canopy. The sky was gloomy, and the cumulonimbus clouds lingered.

The Finance department had only one student left in charge of registration. The student seemed to recognize Ning Yixiao and stared at him for a moment. Noticing this, Ning Yixiao turned his head and offered a polite smile. The two began to chat.

“I know who you are, you’re Ning Yixiao, right?” The student was an Omega, and a shy smile appeared on his face. “I saw you play in the school basketball tournament. You’re amazing.”

Ning Yixiao was the type of person who was good at socializing but didn’t particularly enjoy it, so he just offered a few superficial pleasantries.

He was an Alpha, but he had grown up in poverty. Before his secondary gender presentation at the age of fourteen, he had never been to a hospital for a check-up. If the school hadn’t arranged a mandatory physical exam during high school, Ning Yixiao wouldn’t even have known that he belonged to the highest grade and purity of Alphas.

On the day he received the report, Ning Yixiao stared at the data in a daze. He remembered clearly that in the hallway, there was a happy family of three. The parents were comforting their child, telling him that no matter what gender or grade he presented as, it didn’t matter; he would always be their most precious treasure.

Ning Yixiao had listened silently, lowered his head, folded the report a few times, and put it in his pocket, thinking about how to convince the owner of a small restaurant by the school gate to hire an underage worker.

“There shouldn’t be many Omegas in your class, right?”

The student’s words pulled Ning Yixiao’s thoughts back from his memories. He nodded. “There are relatively few.”

Due to his unpleasant childhood, Ning Yixiao was not like other Alphas; he did not have a natural attraction to Omegas. In fact, he felt a psychological and physiological repulsion toward Omega pheromones. This repulsion was indiscriminate; smelling them made him feel agitated and uneasy—much like a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Thus, he had never truly gotten close to any Omega.

However, he disguised it well, trying his best not to let it affect necessary social interactions. Socializing was something someone like him could not avoid, and it was often something to be utilized.

“Then your dorms should be easier to assign,” the student smiled, stretched, and looked down to check the list. “There’s only one person left to register. This one…”

He looked closely. “Why isn’t the gender written down? Is he a Beta?”

As he spoke, Ning Yixiao suddenly heard footsteps splashing in the puddles and looked outside.

Through the curtain of rain, he saw a light blue umbrella. It covered most of the person’s face, revealing only a very fair collarbone and neck. A smog-blue top hung loosely on his frame; his arms were slender and fair, his jeans were rolled up, and his brand-new white canvas shoes were wet.

“Excuse me, is this the Finance department registration desk? I’m a new student reporting in.”

His voice was pleasant, carrying a slight pant from running to catch up.

As he stepped inside and moved the umbrella, a pair of watery, shimmering eyes were revealed. A strand of wet hair stuck to his cheek like a smear of dark paint, making the canvas of his skin look as white as snow.

At that exact moment, a bolt of thunder crashed, masking the sound of Ning Yixiao’s heart, which had been thrown into disarray.

It felt as if something had grabbed him by instinct.

The newcomer seemed to misunderstand, thinking Ning Yixiao was the one in charge of registration, so he looked up at him. “Do I register now? My name is Su Hui.”

Ning Yixiao collected his thoughts. Feeling unnatural, he lowered his head slightly and pointed to the student sitting at the table. “Register over there.”

“Oh, thank you.” Su Hui offered a soft smile. He walked to the desk and leaned over to sign the paper.

Ning Yixiao couldn’t help but stare at the fair, luminous skin of his nape. He noticed, quite belatedly, that there was almost no pheromone scent on this person at all.

“Are you a Beta?” the registering student asked curiously.

Su Hui smiled. “I suppose so.”

“Suppose?”

Su Hui’s voice was light and gentle. “The doctor said I haven’t shown signs of secondary gender presentation yet, and it’s possible I won’t at all.”

“You’re eighteen and still haven’t presented? Then you might really be a Beta.”

He smiled. “Everyone says that.”

The student watched him finish signing. “That’s it.”

“Mm, may I borrow your pen again?” Su Hui fumbled around for a moment and pulled out a tissue.

Before leaving, Su Hui opened his umbrella again. Some droplets splashed out, and he turned to look at Ning Yixiao, who was standing to the side, and spoke without warning.

“Senior, would you like to walk together? You probably don’t have an umbrella.”

Ning Yixiao was stunned, but a few seconds later, he followed his impulses and accepted Su Hui’s invitation.

The umbrella wasn’t large, so they had to squeeze together, and the distance between them suddenly became very close. Ning Yixiao was much taller, so he offered to hold the umbrella, subconsciously tilting the canopy toward Su Hui, leaving his own shoulder exposed to the rain.

“How did you know I wasn’t a freshman?”

Hearing the question, Su Hui glanced at him, his eyes filled with amusement. “Aren’t you still wearing the volunteer badge?”

Ning Yixiao looked down and finally realized why. It seemed he really wasn’t at his best today.

Neither of them spoke much; it was quiet enough to hear only the sound of rain hitting the umbrella.

“Which dorm were you assigned to? I’ll walk you there.”

Su Hui shook his head. “None yet.” He paused, seeming to contemplate how to explain. “My… my dorm is a bit difficult to assign.”

Ning Yixiao didn’t understand. If he was a Beta, he should be the easiest to house. Unlike Alphas and Omegas, who had to be separated, a Beta could live with anyone. But since the other didn’t explain further, Ning Yixiao didn’t press the matter.

“Senior, where are you going? I’ll walk you there,” Su Hui asked, looking at him.

“I’m going to the reading room,” Ning Yixiao casually named a place far away, acting on pure instinct.

“The reading room…” Su Hui smiled childishly. “Then lead the way. I don’t know how to get there.”

“Mm, I’ll show you the way, too.”

As they walked, Ning Yixiao introduced the various campus buildings: “This is the general teaching building, for self-study. That one is the science building…”

Su Hui kept his eyes on him the entire time.

“Further ahead is the gymnasium.”

Suddenly, Su Hui spoke up and pointed to the corner of Ning Yixiao’s eye. “You have a mole here.”

The abrupt change of subject disrupted Ning Yixiao’s rhythm. He paused for a moment, and his footsteps halted.

What a strange person.

Later, Ning Yixiao realized that even though he had chosen the longest route, time didn’t seem to stretch out. Instead, just like the rain that day, it flowed by with extreme speed.

The steps in front of the reading room were covered in water. The two walked up together, and Ning Yixiao returned the umbrella. “Thank you. I’ll head in now.”

Just as he turned around, Su Hui called out to him.

“Senior, would you like my contact information?”

He handed over a soft tissue dampened by the rain, with his number written on it.

In that instant, a great gust of wind whipped up around them—strong enough to flip over all the various umbrellas that had been opened to dry on the steps—and the rain slanted in.

“You were looking at me for a long time just now.” Su Hui looked at him, his eyes as clear as the sea.

This wet, rainy first encounter left a hazy shadow in Ning Yixiao’s heart.

His heart felt a flutter for the first time. Even in the gaps between his part-time jobs and late at night before falling asleep, he would think of that moment. He would subconsciously pick up that tissue, sniffing for a scent, but there was nothing there except for the fragrance of the tissue itself, and the ink of the phone number had already been blurred by the rain.

These strange symptoms had nothing to do with pheromones; the other person possessed none.

Assuming that since they were in different departments, their paths would not cross again, he returned to his life of constantly rushing between academics and part-time work, until his counselor called him into the office.

“Yixiao, your freshman roommate dropped out due to illness, so you’re living alone in the dorm now, right?”

Ning Yixiao nodded.

“Here is the thing: there’s an extra freshman from the Finance department. Because he arrived late, there are no vacancies left in their dorms. You know how it is—moving people around between different genders is complicated—so they suggested mixed-department housing. Since you have an empty bed, I’m arranging for him to move in with you.”

Hearing the words “Finance department,” Ning Yixiao’s heart skipped a beat, though his expression remained unchanged.

“Is it a Beta? Is his name… Su Hui?”

“How did you know?” The counselor was surprised. “You know him?”

“I met him when I was volunteering for freshman registration.”

The counselor laughed. “Oh, I see. Then I suppose you don’t need me to introduce you. He was just here; I gave him the keycard, so he should be heading over with his luggage by now.”

He patted Ning Yixiao on the shoulder. “You’re the senior, take good care of your junior.”

Back in the classroom, Ning Yixiao failed to maintain his usual focus during the professional lecture. After class, he declined his classmates’ invitation for lunch and went straight back to the dorm.

That dormitory building housed mostly Alphas and a few Betas, and the mixture of pheromones usually gave him a headache. Ning Yixiao hurried back to his room and unlocked the door, only to find Su Hui standing by the bed, lifting his arms to take off his shirt.

Halfway off, his narrow, thin waist was blindingly white. Su Hui turned his head, locking eyes with the intruder, his expression slightly bewildered.

Ning Yixiao instinctively wanted to back out, though he didn’t know why. But Su Hui seemed to have zero gender consciousness; he finished pulling off his shirt, shook out his hair, put on a loose silk pajama top, and turned around.

“Senior, why aren’t you coming in?”

“I…” Ning Yixiao finally remembered that this person would be his roommate from now on. He walked into his own room, yet it felt as if he were stepping into a strange, unfamiliar domain.

“I didn’t expect us to become roommates.” Su Hui sat by the window across from him, a childish smile on his face. “I thought I wouldn’t have a chance to see you again.”

Ning Yixiao wanted to explain why he hadn’t contacted him, but Su Hui didn’t seem to bring it up, busy as he was with his things, so he kept quiet.

“Need help?” Ning Yixiao asked.

Su Hui shook his head. “Almost done.” He glanced at Ning Yixiao’s desk and wardrobe, which were organized to an exaggerated degree, with clothes arranged by color from dark to light.

He laughed and teased, “Do you have obsessive-compulsive disorder?”

“A little.”

“But I’m not very good at tidying up. My things are often messy. I hope it won’t annoy you.” Su Hui was very honest.

Ning Yixiao did find it hard to endure, but he showed exceptional generosity toward him. “It’s fine.”

Su Hui closed his wardrobe and suddenly walked toward him, stopping at a distance of only ten centimeters.

He leaned in to sniff him like a little cat, then looked up at Ning Yixiao, his eyes showing a touch of disappointment.

“I really can’t smell it.”

He muttered to himself, stepped back, and sat down on the edge of his bed. “Senior, what does your pheromone smell like?”

Ning Yixiao was silent for a moment, trying to recall the description from his report. “Siberian fir, with a hint of sea salt.”

Su Hui tried to imagine it. “Fir and sea salt… it sounds like a place with both snow-capped mountains and the sea.” His eyes suddenly lit up. “It’s very similar to a place I really want to visit.”

“Where?” Ning Yixiao asked.

“Iceland,” Su Hui said with a smile. “One end of the street there leads to the sea, and the other to the mountains.”

It was the first time someone had described his pheromones in such a way, pulling him into that icy, snow-covered world he had never visited, all in a single sentence.

And this strange person couldn’t even smell his pheromones at all.

What he didn’t know was that that same night, Su Hui went alone to the fragrance counter at the mall, comparing fir and sea salt scents, trying to mix and match them in his mind to simulate Ning Yixiao’s pheromones.

But it never felt quite right.

In the past, he never felt there was anything wrong with being a Beta. He wasn’t affected by pheromones, didn’t have to endure volatile cycles, and could interact with people as he pleased. After all, he already had bipolar disorder; adding another layer of constraint seemed like even more trouble.

This was the first time he felt frustrated for being a Beta.

If only I could perceive Ning Yixiao’s pheromones.

The day of freshman registration wasn’t actually the first time Su Hui saw Ning Yixiao. The true first encounter had been one-sided—during the summer after his college entrance exams. On the hottest day, Su Hui had suddenly decided to leave this world, but he hadn’t yet seen the university he was supposed to attend in the future, so he went on a whim to take one last look.

He sat at the university gate, feeling dejected as he watched the people passing by. All the figures were blurry, flickering in black and white, devoid of life.

Suddenly, a figure broke into his chaotic field of vision: it was in color.

A faint, sea-like blue.

He was like a fish full of vitality, swimming into the silent, dead sea of Su Hui’s life, leaving behind ripples that would not fade.

The “end” button he was about to press became a “pause” button.

The coincidences between them were frequent. There were so many that it gradually felt like the guidance of fate, as if an invisible hand was pushing them together.

Su Hui believed in such mystical things as destiny, finding them fascinating, like a vortex one could not escape.

After becoming roommates, their interaction was confined to a small room, but it couldn’t be called frequent. Ning Yixiao was busy with many things, often leaving early and returning late, rarely in the dorm. Because of his manic phase, Su Hui often couldn’t endure being alone in the room and would wander the campus roads late at night.

Several times, when Ning Yixiao rode his bike back, he found Su Hui circling around alone and, feeling it was strange, would stop to ask what he was doing.

“Me? I’m playing.”

“Playing what?”

Su Hui smiled like a child. “Playing with myself.”

He couldn’t sleep when he was anxious, but he didn’t want to go out after Ning Yixiao had fallen asleep for fear of waking him. So, occasionally, he would quietly get out of bed, barefoot to avoid the sound of slippers, walking back and forth on the tiles like an uneasy cat trapped in a small glass cabinet.

Su Hui didn’t know that Ning Yixiao was often not actually asleep.

He saw this strange side of him, but he never called it out.

Later, Su Hui began to suspect it, because occasionally, when he couldn’t sleep, Ning Yixiao would suddenly sit up, scaring Su Hui into immediately returning to his bed, not daring to make a sound.

“I’m feeling a bit restless,” Ning Yixiao would say, rubbing his eyes and turning his face. “You’re not asleep either, right? Want to have some cold drinks?”

He used ways that seemed flawless to accompany Su Hui through the difficult nights of his manic phase.

The distance between the two slowly closed. They would leave together in the morning, have lunch together at noon, and occasionally pull all-nighters studying in the library.

Su Hui even figured out the path Ning Yixiao took to get back to the dorm after his night shift, often circling there to pretend it was a chance encounter, while in reality, he was waiting for him to come home.

Su Hui never liked to watch where he was walking; he was either looking down or staring at Ning Yixiao, often nearly bumping into things. When Ning Yixiao got anxious, he would grab his arm and pull him back to safety.

It was in these moments that his pheromones would linger on Su Hui for a brief while.

Not long after, some dorms nearby proposed a mixer, inviting some Omegas from their department. Ning Yixiao didn’t want to go, but he couldn’t easily refuse, so he had to agree.

Su Hui had a desperate need for an outlet during his manic phase; sometimes he would even chat with complete strangers in the cafeteria. So, when the senior Alpha next door invited him, he agreed immediately.

He was the only Beta at the entire party, yet he somehow sat right in the middle, surrounded by others.

Ning Yixiao sat diagonally across from him, watching him chat warmly with the others at the table. A female Omega who arrived late brought a package she had just received—a large box of cherries.

“My mom sent them, everyone have some.”

“Wow, perfect for dessert!”

“Thank you! So sweet!”

Su Hui noticed that Ning Yixiao didn’t eat a single cherry.

After the party, the others wanted to head out for a second round, but Ning Yixiao, uncharacteristically, refused directly: “I’m heading back.”

Seeing him leave, Su Hui—who had already accepted the invitation to go sing karaoke—followed him out anyway.

“Hey, Xiao Hui, why are you leaving? Didn’t we agree to go together?”

“I’m not going anymore, I’m feeling a bit unwell.” Su Hui waved at them with a smile and hurried to catch up with Ning Yixiao, who was walking alone.

“Wait for me.” He tried hard to close the distance, finally walking side-by-side with Ning Yixiao.

Ning Yixiao had no expression and said nothing.

During dinner, many people had interacted with Su Hui. He possessed a face that easily gave people fantasies; men and women, Alphas and Omegas alike, were easily attracted to him.

And because he was a Beta, it didn’t seem strange even when there were intimate gestures. Over the course of the meal, countless Alphas had put their arms around his shoulders, and even Omegas had leaned in, grabbing his arm under the guise of looking at his eyelashes.

So, at this very moment, Su Hui was covered in the pheromones of many people.

And he was completely unaware of it.

“What’s wrong?” Su Hui sensed Ning Yixiao’s excessive coldness and tilted his head to look at him. “Why do you seem a bit unhappy?”

Ning Yixiao twitched the corner of his mouth. “I’m not.”

A bicycle passed by them from behind. Su Hui, preoccupied with Ning Yixiao’s mood, didn’t notice, so Ning Yixiao grabbed his arm directly, pulling him to his left side.

“Watch where you’re going,” he said in a low voice, suppressing something.

Su Hui nodded dully. “Mm…”

The atmosphere was too awkward, so he tried to find some topics. “Ning Yixiao, do you not like cherries? You didn’t eat any.”

Ning Yixiao nodded.

“Do you want to eat them?” He took them out of his pocket. “I’ll give them all to you.”

Su Hui took them, and his fingertips brushed Ning Yixiao’s fingers—they were very cold.

Whenever Ning Yixiao thought of the taste of cherries, he felt nauseated, remembering those childhood memories that made him want to vomit.

He never wanted to return to that place, to be bullied and yet unable to fight back.

Suddenly, his arm was tugged gently, and Ning Yixiao was dragged out of his painful memories.

“I’ll show you a skill.”

Su Hui looked like he wanted to make him happy. “Look.”

He took the stem off a cherry, put it into his mouth, pursed his lips, and a moment later, stuck out his tongue.

Resting on the tip of his tongue was a knotted cherry stem, looking like a heart pierced by Cupid’s arrow.

“Isn’t that impressive?”

Ning Yixiao froze.

He suddenly didn’t want anyone else to see this moment, yet deep in his brain, a flamboyant fantasy began to sprout.

A desire unrelated to pheromones.

It was the first time he had felt the urge to mark someone.

But this was the one person who could not be marked.

On the way back to the dorm, he had excerpted those rotting childhood fragments involving cherries and poured them out to Su Hui. He had originally intended to force himself to be sober, but instead, he sank deeper.

Because Su Hui looked like he was about to cry.

Ning Yixiao desperately wanted to say, Don’t make that expression in front of others, but he didn’t say it.

After all, he couldn’t even control whose pheromones lingered on Su Hui.

There were far too many things beyond Ning Yixiao’s control. These frustrations gradually molded him into someone with a high tendency for control—someone who wanted to keep things clean, orderly, and everything within expectations.

And yet, Su Hui was the most uncontrollable variable of all.

For many days afterward, Su Hui would go home and not eat lunch with Ning Yixiao. But every night when Ning Yixiao returned to the dorm, he would find a bouquet of fresh flowers on his desk, along with a cherry-flavored dessert, different each time.

“Does your family run a dessert shop?”