Jiang Wei didn't make it back to class until the last five minutes of the first afternoon period.
"What are we covering?" Jiang Wei asked as he sat down.
"You were at the convenience store for half an hour. Why didn't you just wait and come back next period?" Tang Zihe pointed to a blank test paper on the desk. "Congratulations, you missed the quiz."
"Huh?" Jiang Wei flipped through the paper. He wouldn't even be able to finish one question in the remaining minutes, so he decisively gave up. "Whatever. A zero is a zero."
After class ended, the sharp-eyed Shen Yannan was the first to notice the large, white, medicinal-looking patch stuck to the back of Jiang Wei’s neck.
"You..." Shen Yannan weighed his words carefully, his gaze shifting from Jiang Wei to Tang Zihe. "Did you two... do *it*?"
"Do what?" Jiang Wei didn't catch on at first, then clicked his tongue. "Don't make it sound so scandalous, okay?"
Shen Yannan looked at Tang Zihe with a hint of pity. "So it was just 'good brothers' helping each other out?"
He placed a heavy emphasis on the words "good brothers."
Jiang Wei: "..." *It sounds weird, but I guess it’s technically not wrong.*
"Hey, Jiang Wei, is your stomach feeling any better?" Ding Banfan hopped over to them as soon as the bell rang, clapping a hand on Jiang Wei’s shoulder.
"Much better, thanks," Jiang Wei said, looking up with a smile.
"Oh, no prob—" Ding Banfan didn't finish his sentence before he sensed something was off. He stared intently for two seconds, as if confirming that the thing on the back of the boy's neck definitely wasn't a medicinal plaster. "What is that? A scent-blocking patch? Why are you covering your gland?"
He leaned in to take a sniff, but Jiang Wei swatted him away with a palm.
"It’s milk-scented."
Xia Shan, ever the lover of a good commotion, joined in as expected. "What milk scent? Let me see!"
Jiang Wei: "..."
Five seconds later.
Xia Shan stared at Jiang Wei in pure horror. If his combat stats weren't so low, no one doubted he would have grabbed Jiang Wei by the collar and shaken him while screaming: *This is an Omega scent patch! It is, isn't it?!*
"Keep your voice down!" Jiang Wei muffled Xia Shan’s mouth, trying to mend the fold after the sheep had already bolted. "Do you want the whole school to know?!"
"I suggest you prepare yourself; the whole school knowing isn't far off," Shen Yannan said while scrolling through his phone. "‘Shocking: An Alpha senior at No. 4 High wears an Omega scent patch to class. Is this a distortion of human nature or a total moral collapse...’"
"Shut up, I’m already terrified." Jiang Wei slumped onto his desk, beginning to deeply suspect he had fallen into a trap of poor friendship choices from the very start.
"So what is actually going on?!" Xia Shan clutched his head, unable to accept the reality before him. "Why on earth would you, an Alpha, be wearing an Omega scent patch?!"
*He didn't even call me 'Brother Jiang' this time...* Jiang Wei thought distractedly. *Looks like another one who’s genuinely traumatized...*
Everyone was waiting for Jiang Wei to provide an explanation. Only Shen Yannan’s attention was completely diverted—he thought the milk scent actually smelled quite nice and considered trying it himself in the future.
Jiang Wei felt that any explanation would be problematic, so he threw the question back at them. "Why do you think an Alpha would wear one of these?"
Fortunately, Xia Shan was simple-minded—or perhaps just a bit dim—and actually took the bait.
"Did your neck get slashed by a knife...?"
Tang Zihe: "???"
Shen Yannan: "???"
Ding Banfan: "???"
Jiang Wei: "..." *A scent patch wouldn't fix that! That’s a question of whether the person is even still alive!*
"It’s not that gruesome," Jiang Wei said, his eyes darting around as a sudden stroke of genius hit him. He blurted out, "Actually, it’s just a little... romantic quirk of my boyfriend’s."
Shen Yannan: "!!!"
Xia Shan: "??!"
Ding Banfan: "...?!"
"Wait, wait, wait! I only took a nap at noon! How did so many things happen while I was asleep?!" Xia Shan held his forehead as if trying to keep his world-view from spilling out of his brain. "Brother Jiang, when did you get a boyfriend? Is he an Alpha or an Omega? He must be an Omega, right? Is he from our school? Our grade?"
"You wait a second too..." Jiang Wei muffled Xia Shan’s mouth again, grumbling internally. *How does this guy’s mouth work like a machine gun? I can’t even stop him.*
Shen Yannan’s phone chimed at an inopportune moment.
Lu Zisheng: [What are you doing?]
Shen Yannan glanced around to ensure no teachers were nearby before quickly typing back: [Watching a drama unfold.]
Lu Zisheng: [?]
"So, Brother Jiang, that tattoo on your back wasn't done with a friend, but with your boyfriend?" Xia Shan counted the days on his fingers. "Then you must have been dating since before the semester started?"
"Yes..." This time, it was Jiang Wei holding his forehead. As the saying goes, one lie requires countless more to cover it up, and he was now drowning in them. His brain had short-circuited, and he’d just rolled with Xia Shan’s assumption. Now, he had accidentally invented a bratty, high-maintenance boyfriend in the honeymoon phase of a relationship. It was a nightmare.
He would have preferred the knife wound to the neck.
"Your boyfriend is an Omega from our school?" Ding Banfan was also getting interested. "Why haven't you shown him off? Aside from Tang Zihe, we never see you hanging out with anyone else. Doesn't he get jealous?"
Xia Shan was so terrified by this remark that his liver and gallbladder nearly split; his whole body shuddered.
*Banxian, you really don't know how to read a room! Can't you see the atmospheric pressure around Brother Tang has dropped several degrees?!*
*If you keep talking, you’re going to die! You’re absolutely going to die!*
Based on the tragic image he had constructed in his mind—of Tang Zihe suffering from unrequited love while having to sit there and listen to his crush brag about a boyfriend—Xia Shan was firmly convinced his judgment was correct. He hurried to pull Ding Banfan over to his side, telling him to talk less.
"Jealous? Probably not. Besides, you guys have seen him," Jiang Wei said, dropping a cryptic hint at the crucial moment. "Without even realizing it."
Xia Shan looked shocked. "Huh? I only know two Omegas..."
And those two... there was no way it could be either of them...
"Who knows? Maybe you just bumped into him." Jiang Wei made it sound quite convincing.
Xia Shan wanted to ask more, but the school bell rang, showing no mercy. He had to turn back around as Mr. Shi walked into the classroom right on the final chime.
However, just because the others had finally quieted down didn't mean Jiang Wei’s disaster was over.
If anything, the disaster was just beginning.
Tang Zihe’s voice rang out coolly beside him. "Boyfriend?"
"A cute, sweet-tempered, non-jealous but slightly bratty Omega boyfriend from the same school? And the two of you went to get tattoos together over the break?"
Jiang Wei swallowed hard, lowering his voice with a dry laugh. "You know it’s fake."
"In a moment, the whole school is going to know you have a boyfriend."
"So what? As long as you know it’s fake, isn't that enough?"
Tang Zihe pursed his lips, suddenly losing the desire to speak to this person who clearly didn't understand the situation at all.
*What’s the use of only me knowing it’s fake?*
When Mr. Shi’s physics class finally ended, Jiang Wei realized the hallway was packed with people.
"What’s going on out there?"
Shen Yannan was working on the worksheet Mr. Shi had just handed out, not even looking up as he replied, "You don't know? They’re here to see you."
"Congratulations. You’re famous on the school forum again."
Jiang Wei: "???"
"Oh my god, he really is wearing an Omega scent patch on his neck! I thought it was a rumor!"
"My mind is blown. Things have taken a very strange turn!"
"I am witnessing the greatest crisis in the history of our school’s CP threads."
"Am I the only one who cares about when the Great God got a boyfriend? Who is it? Has my love ended before it even began?"
"Not only has my love ended, my youth is over too."
"The Great God was everyone’s Great God just a second ago! Which little vixen moved so fast?!"
...
"Did you guess it would turn out like this?" Jiang Wei looked at Tang Zihe, who was nonchalantly solving problems beside him.
Tang Zihe glanced at him, his expression basically saying, "Take a guess."
*Guess my ass.*
The mess was growing larger and larger, becoming completely uncontrollable.
"I’m telling you, don't even think about staying out of this." Jiang Wei glared fiercely at Tang Zihe. "You’re the one who started this whole thing."
*If you hadn't bitten such a deep mark into my neck, none of this would be happening.*
The thought of those teeth marks made Jiang Wei involuntarily recall the sensation of Tang Zihe’s breath against his nape.
The tips of his ears turned red again.
*Tang Zihe should change his name to Tang Zigou.*
"...Fine," Tang Zihe sighed. "So, do you want to tell them it’s all fake and you’re still single, or tell them you don't actually have a cute Omega boyfriend, just an Alpha friend who helped you out in a pinch but has no official status?"
Both of those options sounded incredibly bizarre...
"Who said I was going to tell them anything? I’m going to use action." Jiang Wei pulled the box of scent patches from his pocket and slammed it onto the desk. "We need to look at this from another angle."
Tang Zihe: "?"
"If I’m not the only Alpha with an Omega patch on his gland, I won't be so conspicuous."
Tang Zihe: "..."
*The logic is sound, but the idea is truly deranged...*
"The one who started this mess has to take responsibility for it." Jiang Wei pulled a patch out and held it in his hand, ignoring Tang Zihe’s look of utter refusal. "Are you doing it yourself, or should I do it for you?"
