A Certain Someone ( The On1y One ) Chapter 083 – Marked

Nobody Knew They Were Together, but Everybody Was a Witness to the Way They Belonged to Each Other.

The stage for the cultural festival was in Fuzhong’s grand hall. Afternoon onwards, the year one classes all went to rehearse. The block in front saw a constant stream of people entering and leaving hurriedly. The year twos were much more composed in comparison — at the very least, they obediently finished the self-study classes in the afternoon.

Sheng Wang finished all his papers before the lesson ended, and sent Jiang Tian a message on the dot.
You Say That Again: your boyfriend is coming to check up on you
Ok: ?
Ok: I’m in the classroom
You Say That Again: who’s talking about that
You Say That Again: you done with the papers for today and tomorrow yet

There would be a holiday after the cultural festival, it could also be vaguely considered as the year two’s last hurrah before their finals. However, some teachers were also rather “hurrah” when they assigned homework, and gave them to the students like it was free.
Sheng Wang wanted to go out tomorrow, so he urged the person upstairs to hurry up and finish his homework. Unexpectedly, Jiang Tian soon sent a picture of his desk: there were a total of three papers, and they were all completed.

Okay: Old He and Jing-jie didn’t give out any papers, there’s only this much for the two days
You Say That Again: fuck! I wanna go back to Class A

Sheng Wang was rather shaken as he packed the 10 papers he completed. Just as he was ready to go upstairs to find the person who rattled him for dinner, the music teacher entered the classroom.
He clapped at the entrance to the classroom, saying, “C’mon, pack your things up. We’ll be heading to the hall.”
“This early?”
“It isn’t early anymore. The festival starts at 7pm, and it’s already 5.30pm now,” the music teacher said, “hurry, we’re leaving.”
“We haven’t had our dinner yet.”
“Where’s the class monitor? Also, the culture rep, go to the mart to buy some stuff to tide over for the time being. Your performance is relatively in front, you can slowly eat after you’re done performing.”

Sheng Wang tsked. He could only take his phone out again, and send a message to Jiang Tian, telling him that he would have to go to the cafeteria on his own.

There was an entire row of resting rooms in the backstage of the grand hall. Due to the limited numbers, they basically had to be shared by two classes. The door for Sheng Wang’s room was pasted with “Class A, B”, but nobody from Class A was to be found.
“Teacher, this is so unfair—” quite a few people grumbled at the music teacher while knocking on their mineral water bottles, “Why do Class A people get to have dinner but we have to come this early?”
“Is this your first time here? Hasn’t the people of Class A always been like this: they are too lazy to even stroll to the resting room unless the show is about to start soon. It’s not like there’s an award for participating in the cultural festival!”

The music teacher gave the talking boy a smack. “Quit having a mouth. Change your clothes and get over here for makeup! There aren’t many people in Class A, so I told them they could take their time. Even if they are here, they will just be waiting around doing nothing.”

The table next to the dressing table was filled with a pile of unopened packages of clothes, all white shirts and black long pants. Simple and convenient.

Sheng Wang went over and looked through it. He immediately turned to ask, “Do we just take what we want?”
“No, it’s already labelled with names. Didn’t we estimate everyone’s sizing before? Don’t take the wrong one.” The music teacher said, “There are also some from Class A, please read carefully before you take the clothes.”
“Class A is wearing the same thing as us? Teacher, you sure are good at saving yourself trouble.”

Sheng Wang originally thought that the names would be pasted onto the package, if not places where they would be out of sight like the collar or the cuff. Never did he expect that this music teacher was quite the treasure too — she got people to print the names on the back of the shirt, in graffiti font even. From the front, they look prim and proper, and once they turn around they are eye-grabbingly extra.
With the opening of the package, the resting room was filled with yells of “what the hell”.

Sheng Wang dug through to find his shirt, and recalled the “Super A” from the sports festival last time. He couldn’t help but to send a picture over to Jiang Tian for him to gander.
You Say That Again: this teacher is quite the work
You Say That Again: I suspect he’s Gao Tianyang’s relative, he’s extra in the exact way as Old Gao
OK: Suits your taste very well
OK: Weren’t you rather enthusiastic about wearing it last time?
You Say That Again: ???
You Say That Again: hello get the situation straight I was just trying to make you wear it
You Say That Again: oh yeah hold on

He found Jiang Tian’s piece, and sent a picture over.
You Say That Again: see, you are not escaping this too. happy yet?
Ok: ……
OK: Help me set that on fire
Ok: I’m not wearing that

Sheng Wang cracked up when he thought of Jiang Tian’s cold and reluctant face.

Just as his laughter stopped, the door to the resting room was opened. Two waves of people entered, one after another. The first two were the monitor of Class B and the culture rep who went to buy dinner, carrying four giant plastic bags in their hands. They were filled with bread and biscuits.
A crowd swarmed them, yelling and were ready to fight each other for food. The second wave of people thus entered too.

Everyone stilled, and instantly hollered, “Have we seen a ghost? You Class A people are so early for once?!”

Class A arrived unprecedentedly early — with those who were helping out along with the actual performers, there were around 7-8 people. Jiang Tian came in at the very last, white earpiece stuffed in his ear, his left hand swiping on his phone, his right hand holding a takeaway box from the cafeteria. The aroma of food wafted out.
He entered with his head lowered, and raised the plastic bag with food at Sheng Wang, saying, “Dinner.”

The group of people holding the bread and biscuits instantly lost it, and questioned the class monitor, “Why didn’t we get hot food? Why didn’t you guys go to the cafeteria?”
“Dream on, the cafeteria has queues!” the class monitor said, exasperated.

Gao Tianyang was familiar with anyone and everyone, he shook the crosstalk script in his hand as he cut in, “No, queueing isn’t the issue. The key thing you’re missing is an older brother.”
Sheng Wang kicked the back of Gao Tianyang’s knees with neither too little or too much strength, and jokingly scolded, “Scram, you envious?”

“Not envious, Sheng-ge, you have to treasure this time now; treatment like this will have to go to someone else in the future eventually. Right, Tian-ge?” Gao Tianyang pulled over a chair to sit down before Sheng Wang, winking at Jiang Tian as he sprawled over the back of the hair.
Jiang Tian settled the food next to Sheng Wang’s hand, and frowned. “What are you going on about?”

“Tsk—“ Gao Tianyang looked up in dissatisfaction. While other people weren’t paying attention, he lowered his voice as he reminded, “The one who’s chatting with you, the one who’s insanely pretty. Isn’t she definitely the girlfriend to be?”
Sheng Wang: “……”
Jiang Tian glanced at a certain someone fleetingly, and tossed the unopened package of clothes to the side. He replied with an “Mn”. A moment later, he added on, “Remove the words ‘to be’.”
Gao Tianyang: “???”

A simple line from Jiang Tian nearly caused his childhood friend to go insane from holding everything in. If it weren’t for the presence of a teacher, Gao Tianyang could sit him down to find out the full juice to the end of time itself.

The bunch of people from Class B were munching on their dry rations. Yang Jing and Beckon Money got Little Chili to come help put on makeup for the girls. The music teacher was in charge of grabbing the boys to put on foundation, causing a giant ruckus.

Gao Tianyang avoided the stampede of people running about, and shifted his chair nearer to Sheng Wang again, attempting to recruit an ally. “Ay, Sheng-ge, have you heard? Tian-ge has a girlfriend now.”

Little Chili was helping Yang Jing hold the makeup brush, upon hearing that her head whipped around. She was first thoroughly shocked, and then hurriedly kicked his chair.
Gao Tianyang nearly fell onto the floor. He steadied himself and turned to ask, “Why did you kick me?”
Little Chili motioned at Yang Jing and the rest with her eyes, hissing a few words through clenched teeth, “You think your voice is dainty soft?”
Gao Tianyang’s shrank, and obediently kept his mouth shut.

After this, Little Chili became part of the same crew who was going insane from holding everything in. Her eyes were already huge, and after they widened they became even more obvious. She kept peeking at Jiang Tian, appearing like she honestly couldn’t believe it no matter what. Later, when she met Sheng Wang’s eyes, she then hurriedly withdrew her gaze; her face reddened and she no longer did anything else.

Yang Jing was putting on makeup for Carp. She chatted all around as she applied the eyeshadow, she even asked Jiang Tian, “I heard you learned the guitar in short order?”
“Mn.”
“How did it go?”

Jiang Tian still did not speak; Sheng Wang stilled first. He threw a winter jujube into his mouth, thinking, now, that’s a good question……With the pretense of wanting to teach Jiang Tian the guitar, they stayed in school for a week. They practised and practised until he was well-versed in all sorts of things…except for the guitar.

This age was an ardent and restless one. A taste would leave one wanting more — once some things were done, it was hard to go back. The bunk beds in dorms weren’t wide enough, with the pulling of the bed curtain, it was like they found a holy ground, cut off from the rest of the world. It was narrow, it was cramped, but it filled them with a strong sense of security. They kissed and touched each other within those curtains, doing the private things lovers do.

Seventeen-eighteen years old boys were fitted with a roaring furnace in their bodies; Sheng Wang was fine on a normal basis, but he would easily sweat during these occasions. He always thought his Ge wouldn’t sweat, his icy self seemed to not fear heat at all. Only in those few days then he found out that he was no different from him.

When Jiang Tian went to take the glass of water — beads gathered by the corner of his forehead, long pants on his waist — the lines of his shoulders and his neck formed a curvature pleasing to the eyes, both similar and completely opposite of the way he was in the day, a kind of sexiness that was hard to put into words.

As long as he saw this side of him, Sheng Wang could never recall the guitar sitting in the corner of the room.

He was a total failure of a “teacher” in this regard, and neither was the “student” diligent at all. The only fortunate thing was that the other person was honestly quite smart, even with the bare minimum effort put in, he seriously did manage to learn to play “Childhood”.

As Jiang Tian answered Yang Jing, Sheng Wang heard a cry from his side the moment he came back to himself, and next something splashed onto his shirt. He looked down, and a line of ink droplets dotted the lower left half of his shirt, all the way to the helm.

“……Sorry!” The class monitor held a pen in his hand, his expression already at a loss. “I was just changing the script meant for the crossover later, the pen wasn’t working, so I shook it a couple of times.”

The teacher released the face of the boy in his hands, and strided over. He straightened the corner of Sheng Wang’s shirt before shaking his head. “This can’t do, it’s too obvious already. You’re standing front row in the centre, how can the face of the class wear dirty clothes?”

The class monitor, feeling like he just got in trouble, took a piece of wet tissue and clumsily attempted to wipe.
“Eh wait, no—” the music teacher did not manage to catch him, and with a wipe of the wet tissue, the ink droplet was smudged even further.
Sheng Wang: “……Class monitor, I recommend you to start running for your life now.”

The music teacher glared as he turned around, the class monitor already ran to the entrance in a panic. Now that these things already happened, there was no point in losing his temper — he had to deal with the clothes first and foremost.

“How about you take off the shirt and wear only the white t-shirt inside?” Yang Jing suggested.
“It’s a choir though, it’s too unsightly to not have a uniformed look, a little blemish ruins everything too.” The music teacher said, “How about you switch with someone in the back row?”

“I’ll give mine to you.” Jiang Tian passed his unopened package to Sheng Wang.
The music teacher was stumped. “What will you wear if you give yours to him?”
“Anything, it’s not like we are a group item,” Jiang Tian said.

Carp added on, “It’s just the two of us for our item, the colours just have to be similar enough. Right, teacher?”
“That will do,” the music teacher said.

Sheng Wang soon changed into his clothes, the back was written with “Jiang Tian” in giant characters. The front was indeed a patch of snow white, nothing was visibly wrong.
“Be a little more careful when you leave the stage later, face the audience with your side at the very most. People behind him — don’t stray too far either, help to cover him.” The music teacher briefed, “Otherwise, it’s a little embarrassing for him when he’s wearing someone else’s name.”

Next to him, Yang Jing exposed him. “You’re thinking too much, no way he’s getting embarrassed.”
Sheng Wang laughed.

Certainly, he did know that that wasn’t what Yang Jing meant. However, to him, wearing a shirt with Jiang Tian’s name gave the illusion that they were openly out as a couple in public for some inexplicable reason.

Someone knocked on the door to the room. The teacher in charge of the event came over and reminded, “There are still 15 minutes left until Class B’s item begins, be prepared. After Class B will be Class A, the crosstalk comes first, and then the guitar and singing accompaniment next.”

The teacher in charge left, and the air in the room began to be filled with tension. The people initially laughing and joking around all stopped; some went to the toilet, some went out for air, and there were even some who went to the side of the stage to watch for a bit.

Carp got nervous easily. Yang Jing finished putting on her makeup, and she dragged Little Chili out straight after that. Most people in Class B had already put on makeup; the boys even wore a simple foundation. Yang Jing surveyed around with a makeup brush in hand, and reached her claws out to Sheng Wang.

“You’re the face of the class, right? Come here, this teacher will help you put on handsome makeup!” She beckoned him.
“No, no need, thank you,” Sheng Wang avoided her, “I’m fine like this.”
“Other people already put it on, why aren’t you fitting in?”
Sheng Wang tugged Jiang Tian over, using him as a shield. “Teacher, if you insist on putting on more makeup for fun, please use him. I’ll wear it if he does.”
Before Yang Jing could open her mouth, Jiang Tian immediately said “no way”.

In the end, it was the music teacher who put a stop to Yang Jing’s mischievous streak. “They don’t need foundation with the skin tone of theirs, my powders can turn them darker, believe it.”
Yang Jing looked at the pink foundation in her hand, and seriously did not find a comeback to that for the time being. She could only put the brush down.

Sheng Wang, hanging on Jiang Tian’s shoulder, let out a sigh of relief. However, he saw Yang Jing briefly ponder, picked around her makeup box, and dug out a tube of lipstick instead.
“It’s fine if they don’t put on foundation, but the lipstick must be used, otherwise they don’t look lively on stage.” Yang Jing said, from the bottom of her heart, “The stage lighting can make people look like they are on their deathbed.”
The music teacher did not stop her this time round — he even enthusiastically tacked on, “That’s true.”

Sheng Wang faced off against Yang Jing for a few seconds, and fled on the spot. However, Jiang Tian — that bastard — literally pulled him back, disrupting his escape attempt. The boys from Class B who already had stuff put on their face were unwilling to spare him too, with the mindset of going down on this ship together, the masses rose to attack him, and presented him to the hands of Yang Jing.

“Boys with this skin tone will look good with this colour, no worries.” Yang Jing spoke the words of the devil and applied a layer on him without any room for further negotiation. Sheng Wang had never tried something like this before, and it felt weird to him. His hand rose to wipe it away on instinct, but he was forcibly stopped by Jing-jie. “Don’t recklessly wipe it, your mouth will smudge if you do.”
“……”
Sheng Wang wanted to eat someone.

After Yang Jing was done laying hands on one, she set her eyes on the other.
Jiang Tian’s reaction was ridiculously fast — he was already at the door basically the moment she turned her head, and disappeared outside with the blink of an eye. Sheng Wang stilled for one second, and instantly chased after him. “Don’t you dare run, why did you have zero qualms setting me up just now!”

Light and noise gathered on the first floor of the grand hall, people were milling about both in front and behind the stage. Jiang Tian turned at the end of the corridor, and ran up to the second floor. Sheng Wang followed after.
The two boys chasing after each other were tall with lengthy legs, they went upstairs three steps at a time, and with a few turns they were already at the fourth floor.

There were still those who went to the toilet on the second floor, the lights weren’t even on for the third and fourth. It was nothing but darkness all around; the noise and the bustle were beneath their feet, separated by thick walls. It seemed a little stuffy.
The staircase on the fourth floor led to the rooftop, Sheng Wang felt a little cold when he ran here. Jiang Tian happened to reduce his speed too. Without a second word, he hooked an arm around Jiang Tian’s neck, pulling him down such that he had to bend over. He scolded laughingly, “Still gonna set me up?! Anymore, and we will both take a swan dive off the roof.”
Jiang Tian just let him vaguely choke him, catching his breath with his hand propped on his knee. A laugh rumbled from his throat as he said, “No need to go that far.”

“Bullshit, it’s ‘no need to go that far’ when it comes to you. When didn’t you say ‘no need’ when I was held down by Jing-jie?” Sheng Wang settled nearly his entire weight on his body, and took the chance to catch his breath too.

He hung there for a while, and suddenly realised that he got a giant patch of dust on his palm. Therefore, he released Jiang Tian’s neck. “Goddamnit, did they not wipe the stairs railing for a year straight or.”
“The bathroom is at the side,” Jiang Tian raised his chin in that direction, “go wash your hands.”

The moonlight cascaded down by the stairs to the rooftop, both luminous and clear. Jiang Tian straightened up, and went to find a clean railing to lean on as he waited for him.
Sheng Wang was done washing his hands and left the bathroom. He walked towards him while shaking off the remaining water droplets, “Either way, it is important for everyone to be equal. Now that I’ve put on lipstick, you gotta too. Otherwise, we’re never moving past this.”

Jiang Tian watched him walk to his side, and asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yep, think about what you’re gonna have to do,” Sheng Wang said.

The two stood off jokingly, and Jiang Tian finally gave in. He nodded, and then leaned in, pulling Sheng Wang close to him with a hand on his chin. Yang Jing’s lipstick was slightly sticky, and when their lips separated, they remained a little stuck to each other.

Jiang Tian backed away a little, and said, “I’ve put it on now.”
“You’re seriously……”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Sheng Wang’s eyes crescented, and bit him once more.

Little Chili never expected that by accompanying Carp to the rooftop and relieve her pre-show stress with some fresh air, she would end up witnessing a sight like this.
The corner of the stairs wasn’t in complete darkness beneath the moonlight, the outline of everything was suggestive as they were half covered in light, half covered in darkness. The boy her heart once quickened for was quietly kissing another boy.

Only when the two went downstairs, then she came back to herself from the state of nothing but blank in her brain, and walked out from the toilet on the other side, behind the wall.

It was already very close to the time Class B had to go on stage. Carp came down from the rooftop, and stopped when she saw the state Chili was in. “Chili? What happened? What rattled you so badly in the toilet?”
It was at this moment then Chili truly realised the implications behind what she just saw.

“Are you okay?” Carp was getting more worried by the second.
Chili only found her voice after Carp grabbed her elbow and shook it a few times. She opened her mouth, but pressed her lips shut again. A while later, she shook her head. “It’s nothing……I j—just remembered something.”

“What is it? Is it urgent?”
“It’s fine.” Chili shook her head again. “Everything’s fine.”

*
Class B’s performance was nothing special, actually. It was merely an item that saved both time and trouble. They roughly divided the class up into voice-parts, the girls in the front row all holding a lamp, and barely made it pass as a uniformed and heartwarming performance. Still, when they left the stage they received a thunderous round of applause and whistling nonetheless. Sheng Wang internally said, they sure are giving us a lot of face.

The classes that performed were not allowed to go to the back stage, there would be a teacher sent to guide them off the stage and take a seat among the audience.
Sheng Wang wanted to slip away, but did not manage to succeed. He could only sit down with everyone else on the seats Class B was assigned to. He borrowed a tissue from the classmate next to him, and cleaned the remnants of colour on his lips thoroughly. Tugging at the slip-knot around his neck with his fingers, he took off the standardised tie.

Just as he was taking the tie off, a few girls from other classes who sat in the front row turned around. “You’re especially hot tonight.”
Sheng Wang was stunned. “You mean that’s possible even with this song?”
“Who cares about the song, it’s all about the face!” A girl was both shrewish and direct, her face looked up at him while she leaned forwards on the back of the chair, asking, “You mind getting into a relationship?”
“……”
Sheng Wang politely smiled. “Sorry, I’m already in one.”

The girl turned back in disappointment, but Shi Yu — who was next to him — nearly got whiplash from how fast he turned. “What did you just say?”
Sheng Wang leaned back on the chair, rolled the (now loosened) tie into a ball, and gave it to the culture rep who was in charge of giving out and keeping everything. “Why are you ears so sharp at this particular moment?”
“Are you for real?” Shi Yu asked, sounding like he could not believe his ears.
“What do you think?” Sheng Wang said.

Shi Yu mumbled under his breath by himself for a while, and figured that he was probably trying to reject her with a more tactful excuse. Sheng Wang did not further elaborate either — he pointed at the stage, indicating for him to just watch the show.

The mucking around lately gave him the illusion that he could do whatever he wanted and get away with it — as to sometimes, even though he knew what was the wisest answer to give, he still could not resist letting a little detail leak out here and there.
His heart was restless; he wanted to tell everyone, in all sorts of ambiguous words, that he had someone he liked especially much, so much that he did not want to let the other person stay in the darkness.

Waves and waves of laughter could be heard below the stage, coming in and out like the tides. Sheng Wang came back to himself in the hubbub, and then discovered that Gao Tianyang’s and Song Sirui’s crosstalk item was already nearing its end.
The lighting gradually dimmed the moment they exited the stage, the final bit disappearing by the upper right corner of the curtains. The hall was silent for a while, and the din began once more as the lights were switched on again.

The spotlight appeared like a pillar of light sent from the heavens, and Jiang Tian stood in the centre of one of them.
Barely suppressed cries rang out from the audience, but none of it overpowered the buzz of whispers over here in Class B. Sheng Wang did not manage to catch whatever they said clearly. His eyes were fixed on the person on the stage — the person was wearing his shirt, the white shirt that was accidentally stained by ink.

Only, that line of ink droplets could no longer be seen. Jiang Tian had tucked in that half of the shirt into his long pants, leaving the other half hanging out. The fabric loosely dangled by his hips, forming a few geometrically shaped wrinkles. He appeared cold and aloof, but at the same time, giving off the hints of the unbridled and unrestrained energy unique to older boys.

His pupils appeared rather pale from the spotlight, his eyes slightly glistened as he looked up. His gaze swept around the audience, and found where Sheng Wang was. His eyes briefly landed on him before they were lowered once more, beginning to test out the sound of the guitar.
Jiang Tian plucked a couple of strings, lowered his hands, and motioned to Carp who was next to him.

The guitar began to play its wooden timbre, neither too quickly nor too slowly. At one point, Sheng Wang felt that this is a magical instrument, like a pluck of the guitar strings brings to mind the youthful days, when the sun was dazzling to the eyes; or the way the youth sprinted on the track, demarcated by lines; or, the way it was always a little nostalgic for some inexplicable reason.

It was such that even though he clearly was in the said age group, at a certain moment, he wanted to use “that year” to describe this scene.

That year, on the stage, the person he liked played a song on the guitar. When he turned and exited the stage, his back was printed with his name.
The applause beneath was thunderous and unceasing; the grandest of blessings bestowed upon them.

Nobody knew they were together, but everybody was a witness to the way they belonged to each other.

TO BE CONTINUED.