The real young master thought he was hated by everyone

“Well, well, Mo Mo, you actually have a boyfriend and you didn’t even tell us!”

As soon as they returned to their room, Wei Zhuowei immediately locked the door with a dramatic flourish, blocking the door with his body, adopting the stance of someone ready to make a confession, urging the truth under pressure.

It seemed like he didn’t notice the unusual silence from Lin Mo after the truth-or-dare game, completely oblivious to the tension. “Do you know how desperate I was when I tried to get the news earlier?”

“…”

Lin Mo didn’t answer his question. Instead, he sat down at the edge of the bed, biting his lip, silent.

Li Heng gently tugged at Wei Zhuowei’s sleeve and slowly spoke, “Awei, I know you’re excited because someone in our dorm has found love and you can’t wait to be treated to a meal, but you don’t have to rush it so much.”

“Even if Mo Mo is going to treat us to a meal, that’ll probably be next week, right?”

As he spoke, Li Heng desperately signaled with his eyes, hoping Wei Zhuowei would get the hint and give Lin Mo some time to process before speaking up.

Lin Mo clearly had some reservations, which was why he hadn’t yet shared the good news with them.

Wei Zhuowei finally seemed to realize that the atmosphere in the room wasn’t right. He instinctively reached up to tap his head, but halfway through, he realized it wasn’t the right time and stopped himself awkwardly.

After a long pause, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything, so he looked to Li Heng for help.

Li Heng didn’t know what to do either. He hadn’t fully recovered from the surprise of the earlier truth-or-dare game.

He had always assumed that if Lin Mo were in a relationship, he would have told them about it—it was just a matter of time.

Maybe it would have been at dinner or before bed, with a casual yet somewhat cautious tone, like “Oh, by the way, I’m in a relationship.”

But it wasn’t like this.

Both Li Heng and Wei Zhuowei had already guessed based on all the little signs before, so they weren’t surprised. But for Lin Mo?

He wasn’t ready to share it yet.

Li Heng almost wanted to blame the person who asked the question, wondering why they had to ask about love and not something else, like embarrassing moments or hypothetical questions.

He knew this was an unfair feeling, a misplaced frustration, but Lin Mo really did seem upset.

“…Mo Mo, we’re just happy for you,” he hesitated before adding, “Love is your own business, you’re not obligated to tell us. Awei was just joking.”

“Yeah, yeah, I was just thinking about the meal,” Wei Zhuowei quickly added, nodding like a chick pecking at food.

He was regretting his words and wishing he could take them back.

Honestly, even though he always called Li Heng “Brother Heng,” Lin Mo was the one who took the best care of them in the dorm.

He brought meals, helped with deliveries, and when he missed messages in the group chat and forgot to turn in assignments, it was Lin Mo who, after noticing, used his own work to revise and re-upload it before the deadline.

“It was my fault. I’m sorry. I’ll treat you all to a meal next week.”

He awkwardly tried to change the subject, almost screaming internally, “How about the barbecue place we passed by last time? Or that seafood buffet that supposedly has free lobster… what about the hairy crabs?”

Was it really just about the meal?

Li Heng didn’t know what to say anymore, trying to speak but failing repeatedly. He gave up trying to come up with the right words.

“…So, are you planning to come alone, or… I mean, are you coming with friends?”

By all logic, they shouldn’t know that Mo Mo was in an online relationship, which is why Li Heng phrased it that way.

As soon as he asked, he wanted to cover his face with his hands, wishing he could summon Xie Sizhi to teach him how to speak and ease the awkward atmosphere.

What kind of question was that?

Someone who isn’t even ready to tell them about their relationship… can they really bring their friends to meet them?

Let alone an online relationship.

“…Well…”

“What’s wrong?” Li Heng unconsciously tensed up, feeling like he was becoming the second version of Wei Zhuowei.

“Uh, I just, I wanted to ask you both something first,” Lin Mo said, pressing his palms together, breathing a bit unevenly.

He didn’t dare look up at his two roommates, his two best friends. “Do you think it’s really weird if a guy doesn’t like girls and instead likes someone of the same gender…?”

He couldn’t be sure if he liked the person he was attracted to, or if he was just like the classmates who used to bully him, calling him strange or saying things like “you’re just a… insert inappropriate slur here”

Because he was skinny, had a higher-pitched voice before his voice changed, and grew up surrounded by several sisters, often unconsciously holding up his pinky when talking…

He felt that his youth and his sexual orientation were both something difficult to speak about.

“Homo? Gay? Bi?” Before his brain could fully process it, Wei Zhuowei had already blurted out a bunch of terms. “Isn’t this totally normal?”

“…Well, if you’re playing a game, especially one with a chat feature, you’ll notice that, well, the world is filled with all kinds of people.”

“Our guild still has a few people who post on forums looking for couples…”

Lin Mo didn’t fully understand some of the things Wei Zhuowei said, but he could tell that, for him, it was completely normal for two guys to be together, and there was nothing shocking about it.

He felt a strange sense of relief, and the tension in his hand loosened, but at the same time, his anxiety grew, fearing that Li Heng might say something with disdain.

Li Heng actually breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn’t expected Lin Mo to be so anxious and conflicted because of his sexual orientation.

While feeling relieved, there was also a bit of discomfort.

“What’s so weird about it?” he asked, trying to organize his thoughts. “When I stayed in Europe during the summer, I met a lot of same-sex couples, and they were all happy. They felt so sweet… Love shouldn’t be limited by gender.”

“Yeah, the idea that being gay is wrong or abnormal is so outdated,” Wei Zhuowei rolled his eyes. “And I think there’s a saying that really makes sense.”

“Homophobia is just deep down the closet.”

He chuckled, “Saying that being gay is weird, well, the person who says that is probably hiding a lot of their own issues too.”

“…You really don’t think it’s disgusting, like, a guy liking another guy?” Lin Mo still couldn’t quite believe it.

“Of course not! As long as no one’s doing surrogacy or tricking girls into being ‘wife’ just to cover up, it’s anyone’s freedom who they’re dating. It’s not immoral, so what’s there to be disgusted about?” Wei Zhuowei, the self-proclaimed expert on these matters, added, “If there was a Haruka Nanase made just for me, I’d totally go for it too.”

Lin Mo was completely lost.

“He means, as long as you think someone is ‘the one’ for you, it doesn’t matter what gender they are,” Li Heng patiently explained, adding that Haruka Nanase was an anime character who was deeply emotional and pure, only caring for one specific person.

After hearing that, Lin Mo looked thoughtful. “Sometimes I think… if it wasn’t for him always encouraging me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything right, I’d be stuck. To me, he is like the Haruka Nanase you’re talking about.”

“But… I think it’s not that he was there for me, it’s that I was born to meet him.” He said.

Li Heng felt a strange sensation, something fleeting that he couldn’t quite grasp, before Lin Mo’s next words caught his attention.

“I… I mean, I like guys, and I just started dating one recently.”

He admitted it.

“Wow.” Li Heng couldn’t help but exclaim, playing along. “…So how did you two meet? Didn’t you say he pursued you?”

Wei Zhuowei was a bit slower to realize why Lin Mo had asked those questions about being gay earlier. He couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly, wanting to send a “What? You called everyone out just for this?” meme to his friend group.

That atmosphere had nearly freaked him out earlier!

“Speaking of which, you probably won’t believe it, but we met through a bottle message.” Lin Mo said.

At first, it was just because he had the habit of writing his thoughts using WeChat’s bottle message feature. One day, he received a message saying, “I really want to eat some candy.”

He didn’t think much of it. The next day, he got another message saying, “I want candy again today.”

It seemed like it was from the same person, but Lin Mo still didn’t reply.

He didn’t normally respond to bottle messages, and he never looked at replies either. Once the message was sent, it was gone.

But on the third day, he received another bottle message.

“No candy for three days, it’s so bad, I feel like my life is at risk.”

It was still the same person.

Lin Mo wasn’t fond of sweets, but he really loved candy.

Amused yet curious, he finally responded.

“Is it really that bad?”

“…And that’s how you two met?” Li Heng couldn’t help but laugh. He never thought that Lin Mo and his boyfriend’s first contact was through a bottle message.

Lin Mo nodded, looking a little embarrassed. “Then he asked me for my contact info… and asked if I had any good candy recommendations.”

“You make your own candy, right? That’s great! One of you makes it, the other eats it—perfect match!” Wei Zhuowei casually remarked.

“Maybe after graduation, you can even open a handmade candy shop together.”

Love based on a shared hobby—how wonderful.

Lin Mo blushed even harder.

The future seemed too far away for him, and he didn’t dare to think about it yet.

“…I did send him the fruit candies I made. He… he got them and told me they were really tasty.”

But he couldn’t stop himself from sharing. “He said they were better than any candy he had ever eaten, even more delicious than all the candy combined. He even asked me if I had any special recipes.”

He didn’t know if his candy had any secret recipe, but the feeling of being liked and cherished made him feel that he might really have some special talent in this area.

“—No wonder every time you put candy on my desk, you only left one piece, then later switched to the regular supermarket White Rabbit candies,” Li Heng suddenly realized. “So it wasn’t that you didn’t have any, you just sent it all away.”

Lin Mo’s face turned even redder, unable to speak.

“…I, I…”

He hesitated, finally speaking up with a slight frown. “I actually haven’t decided if I want to meet him yet. He said he’s coming to S City soon and might stay for a while.”