Chapter Text
A car crash is a traumatic thing, but rarely for the reasons you’d think.
It’s not the brutal collision, the screech of careening wheels on concrete, or the stench of burnt rubber that fazed most people. It may not even be the horrifying crunch of bone or the hot liquid trickling down your forehead that demanded a moment of pause.
For most, it’s the suddenness of the chaos.
Bedlam.
In a single heartbeat, from one thump of your heart to the next, the you who felt safe and secure in your own world was met with a violent reality.
Shen Yuan’s body flew five feet before finally smashing into the road.
He was dead before he hit the ground.
Plink!
Drops of bright red plopped wetly onto the white ceramic. One, then three.
He stared blankly at the dual colors, stark white mixed with a crimson red, uncomprehending in their meaning. A sink - he was looking into a sink. His mouth was burning, aching and throbbing in time with his muffled heartbeat. Something was inside it, pressing roughly into the painful spot.
Thoughts seeped back into his consciousness slowly, like the patient yet steady trickle of an hourglass. He was standing over a sink, unfocused eyes tracing the outline of the fresh blood that had dripped from his mouth onto the clean porcelain. His mouth was bleeding.
He was holding something - a toothbrush - that was pushing carelessly into his bleeding gums. Stiffly, the man took the brush out of his mouth. Blood and spit coated the bristles, with bits of tissue clinging grossly into the crevices. A tongue licked across the affected area, prompting a stinging sensation to run down his canines. The feeling was like a jolt of clarity.
Shen Yuan blinked down at the gore.
What in the Hatsune Miku…?
How did he end up in his bathroom? Why was he brushing his teeth hard enough to bleed? Why couldn’t he remember getting up to brush his teeth? Despite his repertoire of illnesses, lapses of memory were not one of them. Concerned, Shen Yuan straightened up.
The reflection in the sink’s mirror was not his own.
Mousy brown hair where his was a plain black. Green eyes like jade whereas his own was a plain brown. However, oddly the man in the mirror’s face was vaguely similar to his own, following the same guideline of curves and edges, with just a few things different that Shen Yuan couldn’t place his thumb on.
The strange man in the reflection did a double take, nearly swallowing the frothy toothpaste still in his mouth. Coughing, Shen Yuan leaned back down to hastily spit it out. White and red once more, merging and blending like a messed-up kaleidoscope of gross until it slid into the rusted drain.
Glancing back up to make sure it wasn’t just an exhaustion-laced hallucination, Shen Yuan paled even further. Something else was in the mirror now.
A neon blue rectangle, pasted onto the mirror’s mercury surface like some kind of sticker, held words in white, arial font. It looked like a system window in a video game.
[ Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations! Good things must be said three times! ]
The sticker proclaimed.
That…hadn’t been there a moment ago, right? He wasn’t certain - not even sure if he could trust his own perception of things after losing time and seeing himself as someone else in the mirror. Perhaps it had always been on the mirror and he’d simply missed it in lieu of the new look he was sporting. But then, why was there a sticker in his bathroom? He certainly hadn’t placed it there himself.
God, was he finally losing it? Was today the day?
Leaning closer, a trembling hand tried to peel up the blue box sticker. Nothing happened except his nail clacking into the mirror uselessly, leaving a small smudge of blood behind. Must be stuck on there pretty good . He tried to reason with himself.
He went to try again, but shrieked when the sticker… spoke to him.
[ You've been the lucky chosen one to enter into the wonderful world of Devouring You! An omegaverse BL novel that user Shen Yuan described as a ‘steaming pile of trash not even worth wiping with!’ ]
Stumbling back a few steps until his back painfully banged into the towel rack behind him, Shen Yuan quickly looked away from the mirror as if staring too long would lead to disaster. He placed his head in his hands instead, finding safety in the artificial darkness.
“What the fuck is going on?” He whispered, a little afraid of the answer.
A new person in the reflection, a mysterious blue box that could change words like it was… like it was talking to him. The most likely rationale was that he’d finally lost his mind. All those decades of reading nothing but trashy fiction had finally caught up to him. His brain didn’t know the difference between reality and fiction anymore.
You know what? There’s an easy fix to this. He wasn’t crazy, the bathroom was haunted. He just won’t look at the cursed mirror. Taking his face out of the shelter of his fingers, Shen Yuan dutifully faced the shower wall.
Only to find another blue sticker, this time larger, pasted across the tiled shower wall.
[ It’s your lucky day, dear user, as this system has deemed you worthy of improving this trashy story line! Please embrace your new role and enjoy to your heart's content as you strive to make this story’s plot line more palatable! We thank you in advance! ]
Said chosen one pinched his arm, hard , and yelped when it hurt. He placed a hand on the wall to keep his knees from buckling. He’d read web novels about this sort of thing - transmigration - but he didn’t think his brain would actually believe it could happen. Or maybe he ate something bad? Oh god, could this be some elaborate dream he was having while trapped in a coma? He’d read about something like that happening to unconscious people. But then why did it hurt when he pinched himself?
Fuck this! The terrified man twisted around and sprinted out of the bathroom, aimlessly throwing a pink hand towel at the shower stall as he left. Except the situation didn’t improve like he naively thought it would; the apartment he found himself in wasn’t his own. If he wasn’t a realist, he’d actually think he’d been transmigrated. What he actually thought, though, was a mess of clamoring and yelling and the small, horrified voice that told him he was in trouble.
No, this wasn’t happening. Something else was up, something that wasn’t as horrifying as him being stuck in his own body, dreaming in perpetuity, or losing his sanity. What would his family think, when they finally checked in on him? He didn’t want to see his siblings and parents cry. No. Let’s keep to the facts: someone had kidnapped him and placed him in an unknown apartment, changed his appearance, and is now trying to get him to think he lost his mind through some…special effects nonsense. Yeah. That was probably it.
The hysterical man shook his head, barreling aimlessly through the unfamiliar space. He almost tripped over the sofa. “No. No, I'm not playing along with this. Whatever’s going on, whatever unfunny joke is being played, you can screw off! I want to go back to my apartment.”
[ Unfortunately, this is not an option. Please reconsider, dear user, or risk undergoing the punishment protocol. ]
The preternatural neon blue box hovered impossibly in the air.
He gave a particularly unmanly scream when the self-proclaimed system popped up directly in front of his eyes, halting and scrambling backwards to no avail. Unlike before, it didn’t let him look away, stubbornly following Shen Yuan’s darting eyes like it was plastered atop his corneas.
“I-I won’t!” He foolishly stood his ground.
[ Punishment protocol activated! Please wait…]
Nothing happened for a beat, and Shen Yuan almost laughed in relief until a sharp zap like getting shot by a stun gun threw him to the ground. His muscles convulsed.
Everything went black.
Then, distant screaming. Sobbing. Sirens.
Color came back slowly, and only color. Reds and blues and more reds. He couldn’t make out anything, only vague shapes as the world tilted and swayed nauseatingly like a ship in a storm.
Then, pain. Pain like no other. Pain that starched the body and paralyzed the vocal cords, where he could only gasp and heave and flail wildly, hands jerking in vain hope to grasp anything to distract. Agony .
Blood - it must have been - slithered hotly down and pooled beneath his cooling cheek.
He was dying. He was dying. Hewasdyinghewasdying hewasdying -
Then, it stopped. He was back in the room, heaving and drooling mindlessly on the floor of the unfamiliar apartment. Disjointed memories came back to him- a truck, a collision, and then nothing. He woke up here, standing over a bloody sink.
I…I died?
Blankly, the dead man stared up at the unmoving ceiling fan in the living room, covered in a thin layer of dust, the dreaded word echoed uselessly in his head; he couldn’t wrap his mind around the idea. Like everyone else his age, he’d thought his time would end when he was older - nothing to worry about until at least his seventies. Preferably of natural causes.
There was no denying it, though. The memories were coming back: the truck approaching, the agony, the approaching light…
[This system hopes the user will reconsider his role :) ]
It had the nerve to add a smiley face at the end.
Ah…the role…
The taste of copper in his mouth was nauseating.
In bits and spurts he finally lurched himself up off the floor, staring blankly at the glowing window. This… thing sent him back to his own world? Was he still laying there, on the final throes of his dying breath? Did his family know yet?
“What-” He croaked and wet his lips, cracked and dry. “What do I get out of this?” Besides you torturing me.
[ If the missions are completed, user Shen Yuan will be sent back to his old world, healthy and hale! ]
“You’ll revive me?” He could see his family again? This system had such a momentous power?
[Yes.]
“...I’ll do it.” It wasn’t a hard choice.
He pushed the lingering feelings of terror and uncertainty away in favor of the clear goal the demon of a system had assigned him. Life was easier that way, Shen Yuan found.
So. What was this world’s novel called again? Devouring You …? He rolled the name around his tongue, trying to think up the plot of that particular novel. The name offered little in terms of hints to figure out which omegaverse BL it was, and he’d read so many that the plots tended to blur in his head.
“What’s the plot of Devouring You ?”
[ That’s your job, user. You change the plot to what you want to see! ]
The especially unhelpful system said. How was he supposed to change what he didn’t know? A hand anxiously ran through his tangled hair, bangs falling messily over his pale forehead. Shen Yuan shut his eyes closed in suppressed frustration.
Well, what he does know is that it’s supposed to be a Boy’s Love story. Which probably meant - if Shen Yuan had complained about it before - that it was chock full of toxic tropes and cliches. The male lead no doubt was a burning red flag, loose in sanity and morals. He shivered.
“Then, who am I supposed to be? You could tell me that at least.” He dared to add a bit of sass at the end.
[Side character role bound! ]
[ You are the alpha Shen Jiu, a young college student and beloved childhood friend of Xiao Hua, the omega protagonist! ]
Ugh, Shen Yuan scrunched up his nose in mild dismay. He’d forgotten in his panic that it mentioned this world was omegaverse. If this story was like most other omegaverse AUs, then he was grateful that he ended up being an alpha. And thank god he wasn’t the omega protagonist - he wouldn’t wish that fate on anyone.
So he was the childhood friend? The genre-savvy reader inwardly scoffed. He was probably in the role of the secondary love interest; the rival to the male lead. Not the best situation to be in, but if he stayed distant enough in the relationship he could probably remain neutral and out of the male lead’s crosshairs.
“What do you need me to do?” He gritted out, feeling thoroughly taken advantage of.
[Task assigned! Meet up with Xiao Hua.]
As if on cue, a phone that he hadn’t noticed in his pocket earlier buzzed twice. He pulled it out, grateful that his face was enough to unlock it. Briefly, looking down at the phone of a man Shen Yuan had replaced, he wondered what happened to the original Shen Jiu. Then decided he didn’t care - they were all characters in the end.
A message flashed, annoyingly cheerful, from the lock screen.
HuaHua: we still hanging out after class? I got ur notes
Ah, the protagonist of this hellish world.
“System, where is Xiao Hua now?”
The finicky system didn’t deign to respond. He clicked his tongue.
Why did he even have a system if it left more than half of his questions unanswered? The transmigrator grumbled, searching up the closest college and hoping that it was the right one. He’d have to wander aimlessly when he got there, but maybe he could text Xiao Hua and ask where he was.
In spite of Shen Yuan’s vague worries, the world wasn’t all that different from his own. Barring a few random ads selling things like suppressants, collars and scent perfumes, the world was strikingly similar. It still had public transport, still had towering buildings, and they all still spoke the same language. He calmed, comforted by the familiar after having been bombarded with the strange and foreign.
He got on the bus bound for the local college, and immediately realized his erroneous judgement.
In the closed space, conflicting scents clashed and overran one another without any discernible pattern. To Shen Yuan, who had never had that strong a relationship with his sense of smell, this new world of odors was dizzying and overpowering. Some, like one coming specifically from an older gentleman in a tux, attacked his nose with spices that stung the back of his throat, choking him up. Others, like the woman to his right, tempted him with sweet smooth tones of vanilla and something else he couldn’t name.
Now that he focused on it, it was almost too tantalizing. Oddly, it made his teeth ache.
Wanting more of the wonderful smell, he leaned down a bit and sniffed.
Quick as a snake, the woman with the amazing smell twisted her head to snarl at him with ruby red lips, promptly slapping her carefully manicured hand across his cheek. The noise of skin on skin rang out in the small space, startling a few onlookers nearby. Sudden pain arced its way up his cheekbone while heat gathered and pooled uncomfortably in the flesh of his face, reddening the area where her hand had landed.
Stunned, Shen Yuan covered his throbbing cheek and gaped at her. What was that for?!
“Keep your nose to yourself, you knot head!” She spat out with enough vitriol to attract the attention of a few others in the crowd. The delectable scent he’d smelled earlier rapidly soured, sharp and acrid to the nostrils. It was powerful enough for Shen Yuan to need to physically step back from her.
“Honestly. What is the world coming to? Blatantly harassing omegas now…” Someone from afar grumbled under their breath.
Properly shamed, he leaned back and muttered a quiet apology. The woman humphed - obviously not forgiving his unintended transgression - and shuffled farther away from him. Guess smelling people was a taboo here. Noted.
Lesson learned, Shen Yuan kept to himself the rest of the way. Halfway to distract himself, he texted ‘Huahua’ where he was so he could easily find him.
When the bus finally arrived at his stop, Shen Yuan couldn’t leave fast enough.
Meeting at the corner of the campus library and the local Starbucks (guess even omegaverses enjoy their frappuccinos), he sat at a nearby wooden bench and people-watched while he waited.
Crowds of harried, exhausted-looking college students passed to and fro. Some carried backpacks while others came barehanded, either in confidence or absolute defeat to their assigned classes. While he kept an eye on everyone (just in case they might be Xiao Hua), one couple in particular stood out.
There, two men stood. One significantly shorter than the other, pale and delicate hands flapping animatedly around a refined, heart-shaped face as he spoke. Being so far away, Shen Yuan couldn’t tell what was being said, but the petite man had a rosy blush that bloomed cutely over both alabaster cheeks. Big, dewy chocolate eyes darted around frantically, seeing nothing, appearing flustered and uncomfortable. He was beautiful in that fragile, untouchable way some people were. Despite this, Shen Yuan’s eyes couldn’t seem to tear themselves away from the second man.
Strong jaw resting playfully on the daintier man’s shoulder, the taller smiled mischievously with canines that playfully peeked out as he successfully worked the other up. He had a lean and muscular build, Shen Yuan jealously noted. It tapered sharply at the waist, with muscles easily visible in the way his bicep flexed under his skin as it hung off the smaller’s other shoulder. Long black hair like raven feathers drifted down in thick waves to portrait a devastatingly handsome face, feathering out around broad shoulders.
Undoubtedly an alpha, his eyes were unusually (but maybe not for a BL) bright red, like freshly spilled blood on a barren snowscape. Long eyelashes fluttered around them with every blink, sending a foreign, uncomfortable feeling shooting down Shen Yuan’s chest. Absent-mindedly, a hand drifted up to grab at his shirt fabric - directly over his heart.
Suddenly those eyes shot up to meet his own, green colliding into red, pinning him to the spot like a butterfly to corkboard. The crimson that had previously held an amused warmth cooled rapidly, gaining an analytical tinge that froze Shen Yuan’s blood. Keep your eyes to yourself, they possessively demanded from over the curve of a thin shoulder. It felt like being stared down by a beast.
With one look, the uncomfortable feeling that had been building below his ribs dissipated in the span of a nanosecond, replaced with an insane urge to snarl back at the alpha. He swiftly swallowed the sound back down his throat, startled. Wow … Shen Yuan was quickly realizing that the omegaverse trope actually kind of sucked for it’s poor characters. Constantly battling their base instincts, trying to maintain the thin veneer of civility between everyone…it felt like one slip-up could tip the entire scale into primal pandemonium. And that wasn’t even getting into the dubious morals of consent associated with heats and ruts.
Sending a quick apology to all the omegaverse AUs he’s ever seen in fandom spaces, Shen Yuan lurched up off the bench to walk away. He knew better than to argue, even if the possessiveness was unwarranted he grumbled to himself.
Or, he tried to leave.
“Shen Jiu!” Someone called out. He almost missed it, not yet used to his new name, had it not been for the sharp tug at his elbow. He turned, a complaint at the tip of his tongue, and met the doe eyes of the petite man.
“Hey!” They smiled and looked mildly relieved, “Why were you late? I kinda thought you’d ditched me after saying you were going to meet me after class. Wait, what happened to your face?” A pale hand came up to graze lightly over his still-throbbing skin, halting when Shen Yuan flinched back.
[Warning! Warning! OOC!]
The loose puzzle pieces finally fitted themselves together. Ah. This was Xiao Hua, the omega protagonist the system mentioned. Shin Jiu’s childhood friend and current white moonlight. A backpack that he’d missed before hung lazily off one of Xiao Hua’s shoulders.
Shen Yuan pasted a smile on his face, “Sorry, got caught up on the bus. Some crazy lady slapped me.” Not quite true but it’s not like anyone would fact check him.
“What?!” Xiao Hua squawked. Rage filled their eyes, the hot blush on their cheeks now more from anger than any previous embarrassment. “Did you call the police?”
“It’s not that serious…” He took a leap, “...Huahua. The police have better things to do than- ”
“Who’s this?” A rumble, dark and deep like the murky waters in a still pond, interrupted.
Both Shen Yuan and Xiao Hua stiffened. He looked up, once again making eye contact with the handsome bloody-eyed man. Those eyes pierced him and judged, sliced him up and examined every inch of him, before finally deeming him unworthy of his attention. Shen Yuan found himself bristling at the intimidating stare.
Now with context, it took less than a second to recognize that this man was the true romantic love interest. The male lead.
And, the hair on Shen Yuan’s neck suddenly rose, a red flag he’d likely disparaged as a psychopath in his old world. If the story of Devouring You was as Shen Yuan imagined it to be, then this man was not someone to be trifled with. He’d have to tread lightly.
“O-Oh. This is my best friend, Shen Jiu.” A nervous Xiao Hua stuttered, relieving Shen Yuan of intense scrutinization as the man shifted his icy gaze away. Xiao Hua’s quiet tone sounded guilty , as if Shen Jiu and this man were never meant to meet face to face. He idly wondered what the story was between them. A protagonist and their love interest - clearly he’d already missed an important plot beat. He’d have to ask Xiao Hua later.
“Shen Jiu, huh?” The man spoke, spilling Shen Yuan’s fake name off his tongue like he’d just licked something sour.
The distaste was mutual. Toxic red flag tops were a cancer on the BL genre, and have been responsible for many a sleep-deprived rant. If Shen Yuan really was trapped in a typical BL, then this male lead was surely a dangerous, selfish, horny asshole who manipulated people into getting what he wanted. Probably secretly a powerful CEO too or something, he’s calling it now.
The system window opened just to the left of the guy’s face, as if activated by the call of his scripted name in the other’s voice. It’s Ariel font glowed white, flashing just enough to keep Shen Yuan’s attention. Like a giant, floating blue box wasn’t enough to catch his eye.
[ Beginning mission assigned! Xiao Hua is being harassed by an unknown alpha, protect him and ward this guy off! ]
The tantrum Shen Yuan threw in his head was one for the history books.
This system was clearly joking, right? How could someone like Shen Yuan push someone like the novel’s male lead away from his fated omega? Did the system want him to die?
He quietly composed himself.
“...And who are you?” The chronically online reader said with as much ‘ back off’ energy as he could muster. To seal the deal, he lightly closed his hand around Xiao Hua’s shoulder, exactly where Luo Binghe’s own chin had been a minute ago. Unexpectedly, doing so pleased the proprietary, instinctual part of Shen Yuan’s brain. He almost missed the feral curl of the other alpha’s upper lip.
There was a long lapse where Shen Yuan’s words awkwardly hung in the air, the man debating if he wanted to share the answer with him. He could smell a new scent in the air, like firewood smoke and pine needles with a sharp note of copper running through it. It drifted about the air, twisting and snaking around Shen Yuan’s limbs like rope.
“Luo Binghe,” the man finally rasped, straightening up to his full height threateningly, hair slipping distractingly down the guy’s sizable chest like spilled ink. Even at Shen Yuan’s respectable six feet, the other alpha still towered over him with ease. Oh, to be a male lead, Shen Yuan bitterly remarked to himself.
But something else was happening in his mind too. The foreign alpha that had taken up part of Shen Yuan’s biology howled and paced at the unspoken display of dominance. Apparently, it hated that Luo Binghe was attempting to loom over him. A low growl pushed its way up Shen Yuan’s chest and out of his throat before he could stop it. Xiao Hua whipped around to look at him, eyes the size of dinner plates.
From above the omega’s head, Luo Binghe’s placid face cracked slightly. Just enough for Shen Yuan to see shallow amusement in the twitch of his thick brow.
The transmigrator felt indignant that amusement was the emotion Luo Binghe had chosen to feel instead of something more substantial, like anger or fear.
Do I seem like a joke to you? He may not have much desire to play omega keep away with this jerk, but that didn’t mean he wanted to be taken for a clown either. He had some pride.
“Pleasure,” Shen Yuan gritted out. Subtly, he brought his shoulder’s back to look a little broader and more confident.
“Likewise.” Luo Binghe rumbled, unfazed.
They stared, sizing each other up like circling wolves about to pounce. Xiao Hua cleared his throat.
“Um, so me and Shen Jiu have to get going…”
“Say it isn’t so,” Luo Binghe’s eyes softened minutely, becoming warmer as they drifted over to watch Xiao Hua possessively. “I wanted to spend more time with you.”
“M-Maybe next time.”
“Next time, huh? I wouldn’t mind that.” The alpha smirked, tilting his head to the side slyly. Xiao Hua blushed again. Clearly, Shen Yuan was missing some context.
“Stop. You know what I meant.” Xiao Hua dipped his gaze to stare holes into his shoes, not looking at either of them.
“Alright, alright. Just consider my offer, okay?” Shen Yuan’s eyes couldn’t help but watch Luo Binghe’s shifting upper arms as he raised them up to pull his thick hair into a ponytail. Now somewhat tamed - apart from a few rogue strands framing his face - the man’s neck could be seen.
“My answer won’t change.”
“For now, but you’ll change your mind. I’ve been known to be quite stubborn for the things I want.” He vowed with a devious smile. It sent chills down Shen Yuan’s spine. “I’ll see you around, Xiao Hua.” The name was uttered with a seductive purr.
Those bloody-eyes switched to him and narrowed dangerously. The smell of copper intensified, “Shen Jiu .”
“See you around.” Xiao Hua smiled shallowly, clearly uncomfortable, and dragged Shen Yuan away by the elbow again. Right before he swiveled around, Shen Yuan caught Luo Binghe’s crimson gaze darting over to scrutinize the place where Xio Hua held onto him. They looked like they wanted to rip his arm clean off.
He could feel twin holes burning into his back as they left, but when he turned to check Luo Binghe was scrolling on his phone. He rubbed the back of his shoulder, trying to massage the feeling away.
“Sorry about that,” Xiao Hua said, letting go. “I didn’t think he’d approach me in public, especially after…” He trailed off, flushing.
No, don’t stop! This was what Shen Yuan was trying to figure out the whole time! What happened between the two main characters before Shen Jiuwas introduced? “After what?”
The red on Xiao Hua’s cheeks crept down his neck and chest, now rivaling the shade of a ripe tomato. “W-well, you know, uhm…we…maybe…had sex last night?” It sounded more like a question than a confession.
Shen Yuan raised an eyebrow. Wow, this plot moves pretty fast, even for its genre. Or maybe he’s not in the beginning of the story, and more towards the middle? If Xiao Hua wasn’t here he’d ask the system.
But the omega wasn’t done yet, seeing Shen Yuan’s eyebrow and feeling the need to keep talking. “A-And I know it was my first time and all but I was drunk and it felt good so-”
His first time? Drunk??
That scummy bastard.
“Wait.” He interrupted, physically raising a hand as if it could halt the words coming out of Xiao Hua’s mouth. Took a small breath. Continued. “Why does it sound like you're trying to defend his actions to yourself? You’re telling me that asshole back there raped you last night?”
Fucking BL red flags . Even though he’d only known Xiao Hua for a few minutes, no one deserved their first time to be forced by some horny jackass who didn’t know the word ‘no.’
Xiao Hua gasped, then looked around like he’d spat out a blasphemous word in church. “Don’t- It’s not… rape .” He whispered the word, rightfully worried about the implications of using it. “Sure I said no at first but I liked it in the end! And he made a really good breakfast afterwards and-”
“Xiao Hua,” the sound that came out of Shen Yuan’s mouth was more of a growl than a word. “You said no, and he kept going. That’s rape.” He snarled, feeling sick at the poisonous excuses Xiao Hua so freely used. Really, he made breakfast and that makes it okay?
Actually. A thought came to mind.
The guy should still be there right? Shen Yuan went to turn around and confront the slimy alpha - male lead or not he’d taste the consequences of his actions, Shen Yuan being an alpha had to have one perk after all - when Xiao Hua caught his arm, stopping him mid-swivel.
“Please don’t! It’s fine, I promise it’s fine.” He pleaded, sending complicated emotions of frustration and grief rushing through Shen Yuan. How upsetting, that this kind of behavior can be excused even by the victim themselves. This fucking world . “I’m not that upset about it, and I already said I wouldn’t do it again.”
Something clicked in his head. “That’s what Luo Binghe’s offer was about, right? He wanted another go, this time without you drunk out of your mind?”
Xiao Hua didn’t say anything, but his grip tightened. He let out a harsh singular laugh.
“Next time he bothers you - verbal or otherwise - you come to me.” Shen Yuan said, dragging Xiao Hua closer with the hold on his arm to emphasize how serious he was. “Scum like that don’t change, they’ll do anything to get what they want.”
Only the sober nod from Xiao Hua cooled the hellfire boiling inside his chest. Next time he saw that guy, it was on sight .
…Maybe he was a little more invested in this plotline than he intended to be. Somehow, he couldn’t find it in himself to be regretful about this decision.
“B-by the way!” The omega squeaked and abruptly began rummaging around in his backpack, startling Shen Yuan. “I have the class notes you missed from yesterday!”
Probably hoping to change the uncomfortably intense topic, Xiao Hua dragged a large red notebook out of his bag and started flipping through it. Presumably the class notes. As he haphazardly tugged the book out, a small pen fell onto the concrete from his backpack. Shen Yuan picked it up.
“You dro-”
He went to give it back, when a red system message stopped him. Another warning.
[ Warning! Warning! OOC! ]
He froze, quickly moving the pen closer to himself before he could be zapped again. OOC? What was out of character about giving a pen back to his friend? It wasn’t even a nice pen, one of those cheap government pens that offices didn’t care if you accidentally took or not. Maybe Shen Jiu was a klepto?
Sighing noiselessly, he didn’t argue with the weird pop-up and slid it inside his pocket for later. It’s not like now was a good time to argue with an invisible, omniscient entity.
Meanwhile, Xiao Hua hadn’t noticed a thing. Still reviewing the notes scribbled hastily on the notebook. “-but mostly just the ochem formulas. You already know how bad I am at functional groups.” He was saying.
“Thanks,” Shen Yuan smiled disingenuously, taking the notebook that he most certainly would never open again.
A great, heaving breath escaped Shen Yuan as soon as the apartment door shut behind him. So powerful was the sigh that he leaned his weight on the creaking wood of his door, intermittently sliding down until he found himself sitting on the cool tiles making up the entranceway.
In spite of the day being relatively short, it felt like years had passed. So much had happened, and so much information was packed into his exhausted brain until a headache pounded mercilessly behind his eyes.
Luo Binghe … It was clear he was dangerous, even without the alpha designation. Something about those red eyes… like they were privately devising ways to hang and skin him. And that wasn’t even getting into Xiao Hua’s involvement with him. If Shen Yuan wanted to survive the unfolding of the plot, he’d have to make sure he couldn’t be easily killed off screen by the yandere male lead. And he was a yandere; they were a staple of BL, and nothing could convince Shen Yuan that he wasn’t.
Luckily, fate had already given him a significant advantage: Xiao Hua’s favor. He could leverage his close childhood friend title; the love interest didn’t want to ruin his relationship with the omega, and nothing would sour it more than killing Shen Jiu. To make extra sure, he could even leave clues around for Xiao Hua to find if he ever went “missing.”
It wasn’t foolproof, but it was something. It was all he had right now.
Shifting his hips to ease the ache that was starting to pulse down his thigh - tiled floor wasn’t the most suited for sitting- something thin poked him in the hip. He lightly touched the area, feeling a long, thin object in his pocket. Oh, that’s right, he took Xiao Hua’s pen.
He pulled it out, examining the slightly scratched surface, and wondered why he needed it.
“ System , why do I have this?” Shen Yuan called to the empty room.
A blue window promptly appeared before his eyes. Even seeing it a second time, he still couldn’t believe that this was his reality. Things like this usually only happened in books and movies - and yet, here he was, talking to an omniscient system window. If he were a more religious man, he’d even call it God.
[Put the pen where it belongs.]
Shen Yuan paused, rereading the curt sentence. This sentence felt different, like the system had finally dropped the friendly facade. It was the sour note in a song, it’s tune just slightly off from the rest of the harmony.
“…Where does it belong?” He asked cautiously. “I already tried to give it back.”
[The pen goes in the far closet at the corner of the hall.]
“What? Why there?” He muttered.
There was a thoughtful lull. If Shen Yuan didn’t know better, he’d think that the system was considering telling him something. Which would be ridiculous, because it was a system window. What thought could a computer possibly have?
Finally, the same message popped up.
[The pen goes in the far closet at the corner of the hall.]
Green eyes drifted to the aforementioned closet, tracing the chipped lines in the painted wood. Originally innocent and nondescript, a sense of insidiousness emanated from under the white door that was supposed to hold Xiao Hua’s pens.
He staggered upright and off the door. Socked feet cautiously padded over to the closet. Now right in front of it, Shen Yuan hesitated for a moment, then felt ridiculous for being so timid. It’s not like the door was going to bite him - and whatever was behind it was probably something much more mundane than the absurdities he was imagining.
Confidence renewed; he tugged the door open. Flimsy and thin, it’s cheap make disappointed him in the way it had so easily elicited unease in him. He just hoped it wasn’t anything too embarrassing, like a far-too-extensive sex toy collection, or a tall pile of yellow books, or-
He stiffened, pale hand spasming on the door handle as it was swung halfway open.
Oh.
“Fuck . ”
Countless photographs. Most pinned haphazardly to the far closet wall from ceiling to floor. Crushed and bent, layered and crowded against one another to create an overstimulating collage that just barely fit inside the limited space. A few unlucky ones had scattered to the floor, as if the one who put them up had been doing so in a manic state, uncaring of where they fell.
All photographs. Some blurry, some not, but each and every one sharing the same subject.
An unsuspecting omega, Shen Jiu’s close friend, Xiao Hua.
Frantically darting eyes caught upon a small table stashed in the corner of the closet, housing a litany of small trinkets that were carefully displayed in near-ritualistic deference. Pens, erasers, bits of cloth, candy wrappers and used hairbands, there was no pattern between any of the items but it didn’t take a genius to figure out who they all belonged to.
In an instant, it became clear. He hadn’t just been transmigrated into the second male lead - he’d been shoved into the role of the creepy, childhood friend stalker.
Typical BL bullshit, Shen Yuan seethed.