𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐋𝐘 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆

chapter 3

the alarm clock rang and birds were gathering on the tree right outside xiao's room window. loud, melodic chirps could be heard from outside. xiao groaned and looked at his phone. it was 630am, school starts at 8am. it was normal for him to wake up early though, as he needed to send his sister to elementary school first.

ding

a notification popped up on his phone. he opened the chat.

————————————————————
venti :)

good morning xiao!

are you awake?

want to walk to school together?

good morning.

sure. meet @ my house.

lets send my sister to school first
read

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xiao got out of bed, and brushed his teeth. he wore his outfit for the day and ate his breakfast. qiqi was already patiently waiting for xiao at the front door. it was 7am and xiao rushed while wearing his white shoes and venti was seen walking towards xiao's house.

"xiao!!" venti cheerfully chirped, "good morning!"

"you seem to be happy today, thats good. lets go" xiao laughed.

on the way to school after dropping qiqi off as usual, chongyun, xingqiu and xiangling approached them. "hey fellas! since when did you guys get so close? are you dating? gosh" xiangling said sheepishly, with one arm resting on xiao's shoulder. "no.. of course not, we're just friends. "

"oh..." venti drowned in his own thoughts. "guess yesterday didnt mean anything. it was probably just a friendly outing, not leaning towards the romance side at all. i was just overthinking. of course he doesnt like me! we just started being friends yesterday.. haha" venti's mood changed quickly from happy, to disappointed.

the 5 of them walked to class together.

a few weeks passed. one day in school,

during break time, xiao opened his locker and gasped. "guys.. come here" he called his friends over. "yo.. someone gave you a love letter xiao." chongyun and xingqiu gasped. who could it be ?

"well.. looking at the handwriting its definitely a girl." chongyun said. "lets list out the girls in our class.. well,, hmmm theres.. ganyu, xiangling but definitely not her, fischl, barbara, amber, noelle, sucrose, lumine, xinyan, keqing ..yeah."

"we'll just have to monitor what they do when they see xiao i guess, its pretty obvious when a girl crushes on a guy." xingqiu suggested. "thats right." xiangling and chongyun agreed.

but soon, they didnt have to go through all that work. the culprit showed herself.

"xiao,, i had a crush on you for a really long time and.. i.. i know you probably might not like me back and all, but i just wanted to give it a shot. xiao.,would you want to be my boyfriend?" ganyu shoots her shot when xiao and her were alone at the teachers room as their teacher, ms lisa, assigned them to grab some books for her.

"w-wait what.." xiao's face turned red. he didnt expect the popular girl in his class to have a crush on him. "im sorry but i actually lik—" xiao's thoughts then interrupted his speech.

"do i?.. am i really gonna turn down ganyu,, the popular girl ????? just because i like that nerd who scores perfect As and hung out with me yesterday.. i mean we had fun, but still..he probably doesnt even like me back hah. im just overthinking."

little did xiao know, venti thought the same. the both of them were questioning theirselves as it was "quite unusual" for themselves to be liking another man as they never been through it before even though they had seen many gay couples in school ( xingyun!!!! ) but both derived at the same answer, "im probably overthinking, he doesnt like me back."

xiao didnt have any feelings for ganyu, not one bit, but decided to accept her request as he thought maybe it would help him forget about liking venti, and would be easier for him to move on from venti.

however, it soon started to become a disaster. xiao hated every part of his and ganyu's relationship.