Xu Yan's biggest mistake wasn't leaving a one-star review on his favorite campus BL novel. It was waking up inside it.

And of course he didn't land the lead role, or even the villain — he got stuck as Xu Yan, the background character who shared his name, got exactly one description ["plain, forgettable"], and died three paragraphs later after wandering into the wrong scene at the wrong time.

So, his survival plan was to  Stay away from the protagonists. Don't touch the plot. Watch every scandal unfold from a safe distance with a milk tea in hand and zero personal involvement.

It was working great —  until Lu Yichen, the villain the whole campus was terrified of, sat down next to him in the middle of a very public breakup and asked, without even looking up, "Think there'll be another slap?"

After that, in every confection seen,every cheating scandal, every messy love triangle two of them had font row seat. 

Xu Yan told himself he was just there for the drama. That he only liked Lu Yichen's face the way you like a nice view.
He was wrong.

Xu Yan had always believed in probability. Running into the same person twice on a campus this size wasn't supposed to be easy. After this morning, he figured he and Lu Yichen would go back to being strangers who occasionally nodded at each other in passing.


He was starting to think probability didn't apply to him anymore.The lunch bell rang and the hallways emptied fast. Xu Yan drifted with the crowd, scrolling the forum with one hand. This morning's breakup post had already hit the top of the board — the OP had added an update: the cheating boyfriend spotted apologizing outside the girls' dorm.


98L: if apologizing worked, breakups wouldn't exist


"There's a sequel," he mumbled. "I should've stayed longer."


A guy walking past gave him a look. Xu Yan shut his mouth.


The cafeteria was packed — very line long, every table full. He finally landed on braised pork with rice, staring at it for too long before sighing.


The auntie behind the counter raised an eyebrow. "You want it or not?"


Tray in hand, he circled the room twice before spotting a single empty chair by the window.


"Excuse me — is anyone sitting here?"


The answer came too fast. He looked up.It was Lu Yichen.


"If you keep standing there," Lu Yichen said, "your food's going to get cold."


Xu Yan sat down. They ate in silence for a minute — not awkward, just quiet, the cafeteria roaring around their little corner.


"You stared at that pork for a long time," Lu Yichen said.


"You were in front of me in line. You looked conflicted."


"It looked good. It also looked like a nap sentence."


That was it. Conversation over. It didn't feel over.Then a group burst through the doors, loud enough to turn heads.


"Outside Student Affairs — someone's crying!"


Xu Yan's chopsticks stopped halfway to his mouth. He took another bite of rice instead, very deliberately not caring.[...][Crying?]


Lu Yichen watched him not care for a solid ten seconds."So," he said. "Finished eating ?"


Lu Yichen stood, set his chopsticks down neatly. "Let's go."


Xu Yan's brain stalled completely.Then he stood up so fast his chair screeched across the tile. "Wait — I have to return my tray."


He did.Xu Yan practically jogged to the return counter. The auntie collecting trays looked at him twice.


"...Maybe." He handed over the tray. "I think I just made a friend."


Outside, Lu Yichen was already leaning under a tree, hands in his pockets, like waiting cost him nothing. When Xu Yan jogged up, he just turned and started walking. No explanation given. None needed.Two girls near the entrance watched them go.


The first girl already had her phone out. "The forum's about to get interesting."


Chapter 6 - Chapter 6: Another Coincidence?