009. The Senior
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The night was getting late, and the atmosphere in the internet cafe was buzzing with excitement.
The school was still in a blackout, and it was rumored that the power wouldn’t be back until the wee hours of the night. Lin Nan and her friends didn’t want to return to their dorms and suffer through the heat without air conditioning, so they collectively decided to pull an all-nighter.
Lin Nan was already feeling exhausted. These days, she was basically playing games on autopilot, relying on the remnants of her old gaming instincts. However, her hands couldn’t keep up with her reflexes. After losing five matches in a row alongside Chen Yao, she could tell by the not-so-pleasant expression on his face that he was none too happy.
“I’m done,” Lin Nan quickly declined the duo invite, stretching her arms and making excuses for herself. “My gaming skills have been terrible lately. I’m not playing anymore.”
“Yeah.” Chen Yao’s competitive spirit had diminished significantly compared to his middle school days when he could make Lin Nan cry with his trash talk.
But even without that competitive edge, losing several matches in a row would inevitably dampen anyone’s mood.
“How about we order takeout? What do you want?” Lin Nan, feeling guilty for dragging Chen Yao down, handed him her phone. “My treat.”
“No need. I’m not hungry. If I get hungry, I’ll just eat instant noodles.”
After ordering takeout, Lin Nan found herself at a loss. When she didn’t have access to a computer, she was always thinking about gaming, but now that she was in the internet cafe to game, sitting in front of a computer, she didn’t even know what to do anymore.
If it was still early, she might have gone out to wander around, but after finishing a few games, it was already past ten in the evening. The crowd of all-nighters at the cafe was growing, and if she logged off now, she’d probably have no place to sit when she returned.
Xiong Da and Tu Junhui were both glued to their screens, with one obsessed with anime and the other with dramas, while Chen Yao had started his own game. Lin Nan glanced around aimlessly, only to find that she had absolutely no interest in either anime or dramas.
Bored, she started clicking on news articles and short videos, but soon enough, fatigue began to set in. With the racket in the internet cafe, she knew if she tried to lay down and sleep, she’d be woken up at some point, so she decided to get up and freshen up in the bathroom.
This internet cafe was peculiar; the lights in the restroom were dim, giving her the eerie feeling she was entering a horror movie set every time she went in.
After washing her face in the sink, she turned and entered the men’s restroom. But as soon as she pushed the door open and stepped inside, she bumped right into someone.
Lin Nan hurriedly side-stepped to let the person pass. The guy glanced at her and casually remarked, “This is the men’s restroom.”
“…..”
She froze in place, unable to process what just happened for a moment.
The guy noticed she was standing still and turned back to scan her from head to toe before asking awkwardly, “You’re a guy?”
“Do I look like I’m not?” Lin Nan winced at the corner of her mouth.
“It’s just so dark in here,” he chuckled sheepishly. “I glanced and didn’t notice your hair.”
Implying… her face looked feminine?
Lin Nan instinctively touched her face. If it had been in the past, she might have brushed it off, but now she couldn’t stand anyone implying she looked like a girl or saying she was ‘girly’. She couldn’t help but question with a huff, “Can’t you see properly?”
“You’re a piece of work…” The guy couldn’t help but laugh, looking exasperated. “It was dark; I didn’t notice your hair. It was an honest mistake; what’s the big deal?”
“Why do I look like a girl?!” Lin Nan stomped forward in outrage but quickly realized her height barely reached the guy’s chin. Suddenly, her fierce demeanor deflated, and she hurriedly ducked her head to escape. “I don’t have time to deal with you…”
The guy raised an eyebrow, intrigued as he watched Lin Nan scurry into the restroom.
What’s up with this guy? The more he talked, the more he seemed like a girl, especially with that defeated expression as if he were a pouting little wife.
What baffles him even more is that even though he knew she was a guy, every time she made a feminine gesture, it felt completely natural.
He leaned against the wall, casually watching Lin Nan, and teased, “Hey, bro, what’s your name? Which school do you go to?”
“Bro? Big bro? Chest band?”
“Are you annoying?!” Lin Nan finished doing her business, swung the door open, and glared at him. “What’s wrong with you?!”
“Nothing.”
Her puffed-up cheeks reminded him of a cat being teased.
“Lin Nan, from Ocean School.”
“Hey, a fellow student!”
“Ugh…” Lin Nan couldn’t help but roll her eyes at him and turned back towards her seat.
The guy watched as Lin Nan plopped down in the middle of the open area, stood on tiptoe to peek in her direction, and then gleefully rushed over. Lin Nan, who had just sat down, heard the footsteps and looked up just in time to see him right next to her, inhaling deeply and gearing up to unleash her inner salt master.
“Whoa! Chen Yao, you’re at the internet cafe too?”
Lin Nan, who had intended to make a run for it, suddenly froze, pretending as though nothing had happened as she focused intently on the computer.
“Dong An? Your building is out of power too?” Chen Yao looked up at the screen, recognizing the new arrival immediately.
“Yeah, the whole school is out of power—something about circuit maintenance.” Dong An casually sat down next to Chen Yao in an empty spot, chuckling. “Want to team up?”
Chen Yao nodded and turned to Lin Nan to introduce her. “This is the guy who used to play with us—the mid-laner with a mouth like a sewer.”
Lin Nan didn’t even need to recall too hard to remember this senior from their games, and her expression stiffened further: “You mean that senior in his third year, the one you played ball with, whose ID is ‘Left Hand Sours’?”
“Yep, that’s him! Who else would have such a weird name?”
Weird, huh?
Realization hit Dong An as he looked at Lin Nan’s face, surprised. “Wait, that girl support? Hey, I was wondering how a girl could be so good; turns out you’re a guy.”
“Who’s a girl?!” Lin Nan bared her teeth at him. “I’ve explained this to you so many times already!”
“Who told you to type like a girl and keep asking me for a skin for your champion?”
“You’re just as annoying in real life as you are in the game!” Lin Nan was practically steaming, her bl**d pressure rising. “It’s not like I scammed you out of your ‘girl’ after you kept calling me that!”
She pounded her chest like it was a matter of pride: “You calling me ‘girl’ wounded my pride, so is it a problem for me to ask for a skin in return?”
Dong An thought for a moment, and it did seem somewhat reasonable…
“I’ll call the cops and say you scammed me!”
Originally just a stranger, he had now transformed into a regular teammate. Suddenly, Lin Nan braved Dong An’s height, engaging in a back-and-forth banter that rivaled any roasts she’d thrown before.
Stuck between the two, Chen Yao couldn’t take it anymore. Glancing left at Lin Nan, who was practically boiling over, and then right at the effortlessly smug Dong An, he realized that helping either seemed like a bad idea.
So, he could only put on his headphones, trying his best to block out their banter and focus on his game.
In the end, due to Lin Nan’s limited vocabulary and her lack of educational finesse over the years, she was the first to falter in their verbal boxing match. Even so, she shot a ferocious glare at Dong An before taking a deep breath, huffing, and turning away, unwilling to look at him.
“No wonder your ID has ‘cat’ in it; your personality really is like a cat.”
“Get lost!”
