Zhu Zeran’s face was tense, in full patriarch mode. “You like him, so you just throw yourself at him? You skip school and run all the way here, and you even do it during his susceptible period. What were you thinking? Huh?”

“I!”

Zhu Zeran gave him no chance, rattling on like a machine gun. “You’re only eighteen, and you’re a Beta. You don’t even know when someone puts their pheromones on you. Do you even know what ‘like’ is? Besides, you like him, but does he like you?”

This question made Zhu Zhixi blush beet red.

Who knew that in the next second, Fu Rangyi would speak up in a deep voice, “I like him too.”

Now it was the Zhu brothers’ turn to stare at each other, wide-eyed.

The two of them really do look alike. Fu Rangyi’s gaze shifted between their faces as he thought.

“No…” Zhu Zeran laughed out of anger. “Like? Give me a break!” He leaned over the table. “We’re both SAs. I won’t say any hypocritical words. The number of AB pairs that make it to the end can be counted on one hand, let alone with an SA. If you’re just looking to play around, for the sake of us growing up together, don’t play with my little brother.”

Zhu Zhixi was still dazed, not having recovered from the unexpected confession. But hearing this, he subconsciously wanted to defend the person he liked. “He’s not that kind of person!”

“You shut up!” Zhu Zeran looked at Fu Rangyi again. “You’re the only son of the Huo family. They’ve been looking for a marriage partner for you for a long time. Sure, you say you like him now, but what about later? When you’ve had your fun, you’ll just walk away, then listen to your parents’ arrangements and find an O who can bear your children to marry, leaving my stupid little brother heartbroken, right?”

Zhu Zhixi was so angry he wanted to leave but was blocked in the booth by Zhu Zeran, almost fainting on the spot.

To their surprise, Fu Rangyi stood up first. “Wait for me for five minutes.”

“Huh?” Zhu Zhixi was stunned.

“What ‘huh’? Just stay put,” Zhu Zeran said, pulling him back down.

Watching Fu Rangyi’s retreating back as he left the coffee shop, Zhu Zhixi felt a little dejected. Seeing Zhu Zeran, he wanted to strangle him. “Are you my jinx! I was all ready to confess to him today. He was the one who was worried I wouldn’t have a good place to stay and took a taxi here specially for me! Don’t you know what kind of person he is?”

Zhu Zeran snorted coldly. “I’m telling you, if he were a stranger, I wouldn’t be this angry! I treated him like a brother, and he treats me like his future brother-in-law, eyeing my little brother without making a sound? What are his intentions? What is he planning? This kid is really, making me so mad…”

“You’re the one making me mad!”

Zhu Zeran tutted. “You shut up, your shouting is making my brains leak out!”

“You shut up!”

Five minutes later, Fu Rangyi returned. He placed his phone on the table, sat down, took a deep breath, and said to the two of them, “I just went to call our parents.”

Zhu Zhixi and Zhu Zeran were both stunned.

Fu Rangyi’s eyes were lowered, his tone sincere. “We are not dating secretly. In fact, to this day, we have not officially dated for even one day. If it weren’t for this accident, I probably wouldn’t have confessed so unpreparedly.”

“Although this is very sudden, my liking him is not sudden at all. It started a long time ago. But I can assure you, I have never done anything inappropriate, let alone things like getting a room and sleeping with him.”

Zhu Zeran listened, leaning back on the sofa, his arms crossed as he stared at him.

“Zeran, I understand your concerns. That’s why I just told them that if I am to marry in the future, my partner will only be Zhu Zhixi. There are no other possibilities.”

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi’s hand trembled, almost knocking over the coffee cup in front of him.

Zhu Zeran didn’t speak for a long time, just stared at Fu Rangyi.

A minute later, he laughed. “Then I misunderstood you. I’m really sorry.”

“That doesn’t sound like an apology at all…” Zhu Zhixi muttered under his breath.

Zhu Zeran wanted to scold him again but held back in the end. He just said to Fu Rangyi in a warning tone, “You should have told me about this from the beginning. Then we wouldn’t have had this whole scene. But then again, if I didn’t make a scene, who knows how long you two would have kept this a secret.”

After speaking, he stood up. “You two are in love with each other. I can’t be bothered to be the bad guy. But Fu Rangyi, if you dare to bully him, we’re not friends anymore.”

Fu Rangyi also stood up. “Don’t worry, I won’t.”

He paused, then added, “As for marriage, I was just expressing my own wishes. If Zhu Zhixi doesn’t want to, he can call it off at any time. He is free.”

Hearing this, Zhu Zhixi’s gaze softened. He quietly looked at Fu Rangyi without speaking. This silence continued until he was separated from his nemesis, followed Fu Rangyi into the elevator, and arrived at the corresponding floor.

Everything that had just happened felt like a strange, absurd dream. Fu Rangyi now looked as if nothing had happened. He used the card to open the room for him, inserted the card to turn on the power, but didn’t move from his spot.

Zhu Zhixi turned his head and saw his pursed lips. His gaze fell to his hand hanging by his side. His fingers were nervously clenching and unclenching.

“Aren’t you coming in?” he asked softly.

Fu Rangyi looked up and nodded. “It’s getting late, I have to go back to the work site. I’ll order you some food later. You eat and rest for a while. Just now… things were a bit sudden. Wait until you’ve calmed down, then think…”

Before he could finish, a warm hand reached out and took his. Soft fingers moved clumsily, finally fitting into the gaps between his fingers, lacing them tightly.

Zhu Zhixi also leaned very close, his face half-lowered. If he just lowered his head a little, the edge of the bite guard would touch the rose-colored mark.

“You can’t even stay for a minute?” Zhu Zhixi looked up and called his childhood name in a very soft tone, “Brother Nian Nian, just for a little while, please?”

Fu Rangyi couldn’t refuse. Many times, he felt it was because Zhu Zhixi was too smart, too good at manipulating people’s hearts, that he couldn’t resist even with all his might. But at this moment, he was sure. Zhu Zhixi didn’t need to use any tricks at all. Just by standing in front of him, he was already completely helpless.

In the end, he still stepped past the room’s door, came in, stood in the entryway, and watched as Zhu Zhixi let go of his hand, then raised his own hand, touched his thin coat, and finally took out a beautifully packaged gift box from his bag and opened it.

“This is what I knitted for you. It’s not knitted well, you’re not allowed to dislike it,” he said, taking out a long, soft, hand-knitted scarf from inside, walked over, and put it on for him.

“It’s cold today, and you’re not wearing enough,” he said, tying a loose knot and looking up at Fu Rangyi. Meeting his moist gaze, Fu Rangyi’s heart began to race belatedly, and his sharp teeth ached. He sensed a sweet dizziness approaching, but it didn’t come from the attraction of pheromones.

In the next second, Zhu Zhixi stood on his tiptoes, and his soft lips landed on the cold bite guard.

“This is the final step.” The tiptoed feet landed gently. Zhu Zhixi’s ears were red, but he still looked at him. “Did I learn it right, Teacher Fu?”

As he spoke, he moved closer, almost leaning into his arms, and even boldly wrapped his arms around Fu Rangyi’s neck. His eyes observed his reaction, and finally, his fingers lightly tapped his gland.

Fu Rangyi wanted to dodge. “Wait…”

“Take this off,” Zhu Zhixi said, looking at him and rubbing the tip of his nose against his. “I’ve already made a reservation for your first love. Give me your first kiss too, please?”

The bracelet emitted a weak electric current, and Fu Rangyi’s phone also vibrated. It was a message from Li Qiao.

Zhu Zhixi started to act spoiled. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Then I don’t want to marry you anymore.”

After saying that, he turned to leave, but as expected, his arm was grabbed. With a click, Fu Rangyi took off the bite guard with one hand. He turned around and stood in front of the unobstructed Fu Rangyi, but his posture had changed.

“Now you come and kiss me,” Zhu Zhixi said.

Fu Rangyi was stunned for a second, then moved closer, lowered his head, carefully cupped Zhu Zhixi’s face, and gently planted a kiss on his lips. In a daze, a faint electric current seemed to pass through them, briefly paralyzing both their minds, piercing through restraint and self-control. At the critical point where their breathing became heavy, Fu Rangyi released his hands and separated.

However, Zhu Zhixi hooked his neck and kissed him more deeply. His breathing was chaotic as he murmured Fu Rangyi’s name as if chanting a spell, easily breaking the ambiguous balance that had been maintained for more than a decade.

“I like you…” Between intermittent kisses, Zhu Zhixi continued to say indistinctly, “I like you so much…”

Fu Rangyi’s arms held him tighter and tighter, finally almost instinctively trapping Zhu Zhixi between the wall and his own body. In the narrow space, his knee pushed between his legs, pinning Zhu Zhixi so he had nowhere to escape, only able to pant passively.

But Fu Rangyi’s rationality returned first. He panted heavily, wiped Zhu Zhixi’s moist lower lip, pecked it a few more times gently, held him, and stroked his back, softly saying he liked him many times to help him catch his breath.

Zhu Zhixi leaned on his shoulder and whispered, “Kissing is so tiring.” After a while, he spread his arms again and childishly whined, “Carry me to the bed to rest.”

These were definitely seductions. Fu Rangyi only thought this silently in his heart, not saying it out loud. But he did as he was told.

Lying on the bed, Zhu Zhixi snuggled into his arms, touching his face and arms intermittently, his fingers finally pressing on his chest, playing with it like a toy. Fu Rangyi was enduring it with great difficulty. He simply caught his hand and laced their fingers together.

Zhu Zhixi’s gaze fell on their clasped hands, and he suddenly asked, “As expected, you’re the badder one. I just wanted to reserve your first love, but you went straight to my parents to reserve a marriage. Honestly.”

Fu Rangyi was a little stunned, then smiled. “If we have to be technical, you were the first one to mention marriage.”

“When did I…”

“During pretend-play in kindergarten,” Fu Rangyi said.

Zhu Zhixi’s eyes widened. “That doesn’t count! You said it yourself, it was pretend-play!”

Fu Rangyi smiled, stroked his hair, and said softly, “Then it doesn’t count. But I have a very strange feeling. Sometimes when I look at you, I feel like I can see what you’ll be like several years from now, living with me. We have a small home, you travel around often, and I wait for you to come back home. We eat together, sleep together. I feel like that is my life.”

“Isn’t that just being married?” Zhu Zhixi muttered under his breath.

Fu Rangyi nodded. “Maybe I long for that kind of life too much, so some unrealistic fantasies pop up.”

Zhu Zhixi was silent for a long time. Finally, he leaned over again and lightly touched Fu Rangyi’s lips.

“This isn’t unrealistic,” he said. “Whether it was pretend-play, or borrowing pheromones, or being my coming-of-age dance partner, I only ever chose you.”

After speaking, Zhu Zhixi looked at Fu Rangyi. “From the moment you appeared, from when we were still little kids, you have always been the highest priority in my life.”

Fu Rangyi’s heart trembled, and a faint mist even fogged up his glasses. But in the next second, Zhu Zhixi’s tone changed.

“So marry me!” Zhu Zhixi said with a grin. “I’ll be good to you, I’ll give you all the delicious food and fun things.”

“Is this your proposal?”

“Mhm-hmm,” Zhu Zhixi nodded. “But you have to listen to me. If you make me unhappy, I’ll make you an ex-husband.”

Fu Rangyi laughed. “I haven’t even made it to boyfriend, and I’m already going straight to ex-husband.”

“I’m forcing this sale today. Are you agreeing or not?”

“I agree,” Fu Rangyi said, kissing his eyelid. “What can I do? I’m helpless against you.”

That night, Zhu Zhixi waited in the room until 9:50 PM, finally waiting for his first love and fiancé. But they didn’t dare to do anything, just held each other nervously and apprehensively as they slept. One was afraid of squashing the other, the other was afraid of not being able to control himself during his susceptible period. In the end, neither could sleep. Their closed eyelids trembled, but neither dared to open them, afraid of scaring the other.

That was the first time Zhu Zhixi knew that a person’s heartbeat could be so heavy, so loud.

As dawn broke, he had a dream. He dreamt that he had come to a coffee shop and was meeting a strange Alpha. This was practically cheating! Zhu Zhixi wished he could shout “stop” in his dream.

However, another person interrupted this terrible transgression first. He turned his head and saw it was Fu Rangyi, sitting diagonally opposite.

He was still compellingly handsome, the smile at the corner of his mouth slightly mocking, as he said, “You’ve got the wrong person. That’s table 6, not 9.”

-Childhood Friends IF Line End-