Chapter Text
Wang Kuan, Zhongxin decided, was horribly agitating at times. Not only had he blown his cover, but directly after doing so, decided to follow him around. He did not know the man well, only a couple of weeks, and he had not really interacted with him much either. The only reason he was at this blasted Imperial College was because his brother had decided to put him here. He thought that he would do well, and whilst he was not necessarily wrong, Zhongxin had no interest in becoming an official, or making that his life. He would much rather...not. He did not want to bother with it, and besides, most of the upper class officials were horribly corrupt either way. It was strange to see someone like Wang Kuan, who seemed incredibly upright, want to become one. Perhaps he was one of those poor fellows who thought he could change the system for the better. It was laughable at the very least. Nobody could change the system, the whole system was corrupt.
Barring that, he had too many other connections to really bother too much with wanting to become an official. Despite not particularly trying, he still managed to do fairly well, something that agitated a majority of his peers in the college. He just tried not to talk with them too much, not wanting to deal with the jealous looks, or the mocking ones. It was not a secret that he was the bastard son. As such, his position was much lower than a majority in the college. A college he would much rather not deal with at all, but was instead stuck in because he did not want to horribly disappoint his brother to the ends.
Finding out they were conducting an illegal interrogation on him flew him into a serious rage, but he did not show it. He needed to keep his composure at least a little bit if he wanted to be able to get out of it. Yet, with Wang Kuan following him around like a blasted puppy he was not really able to get anywhere himself. It was annoying, and horribly agitating. Something about him both drew him in, and made him so annoyed at the same time. He could not help but want to stick close to him, wrap an arm around his shoulder and pull him close for whatever horribly annoying omeagen instincts decided that they wanted to do that. So he had taken to trying to ignore him as best as he could, something that was getting harder and harder to do since the man refused to leave him alone.
It was one thing to feel him watching him when he was in class, it was another to have the other wander with him to his brother's house. His layers of masks faulted momentarily when he saw his brother. Fists clenching tightly as he continued to act the careless play. His brother was covered in cuts, and he knew, he knew that it was all because of that blasted general. He kept his anger from his face as he continued to dance about the street.
"Are you okay?" Wang Kuan asked gently, his voice deep, level, and soothing, as it always was, but it was different when he was talking to him, as opposed to near him. Zhongxin was not entirely sure why it seemed so...so different but it was. He was not really all that happy about how different it made him feel either. He ignored him as they walked back to the imperial college, only to find that he had been expelled. Wang Kuan, stupid, effortlessly good Wang Kuan tried to stick up for him, something which confused him horribly.
"You should stop," He said simply, as they walked back out of the imperial college. "And why are you following me? Go away." He hissed eyes flaring with rarely seen anger.
"I will not," Wang Kuan said simply and he could not help but roll his eyes.
"Whatever, do what you want." He knew it was pointless to try and argue with him. They had interacted more in this one day than they had in the past two weeks that they had been roommates.
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He just did not know when to stop, he supposed. Wang Kuan was...agitating. More so than ever before. Had it not been for the stupid Alpha seeing through all of his tricks he would have easily managed to get away with his brother. As such, he could not help but glare at the alpha before turning his look of absolute hatred to Dean Lu. The Dean...the Dean was the one who had separated him from his brother. Had nobody interfered, he could have saved him, they could have left together. He refused to let himself drown in misery, but it was further annoying him when he had to solve some stupid riddle to get through the to the damn office. Really...had he not had enough problems already?
Then he was told that he was not originally supposed to have found the rock entrance. In his opinion, that was the fault of the Dean. Why put an entrance there if you did not expect people to find it? Really. Of course, Wang Kuan just had to be not only in the same sector as him, but they also had to share a dorm. He grit his teeth, ignoring everyone, turning away as he got himself settled. He jumped as he felt a gentle touch on his shoulder and the warm scent of comfort wrap about him. He grit his teeth against the instinct that had him wanting to sink into the scent.
"Are you okay?" Wang Kuan asked again. Zhongxin bit his lip, grit his teeth, and pushed back the tears that wanted to fall, pushing the hand off him slowly, and avoiding direct contact with his skin.
"I am fine," He said with a smile. Wang Kuan just gave him a sad smile.
"No, you are not. You do not have to pretend, you know. I will not judge you for your emotions." Zhongxin just shook his head. He did not want to think of it, he did not want to talk about it, why couldn't the stupid alpha just leave him alone?
"I. Am. Fine." He hissed, eyes flaring jolting away from the comforting scent that had almost his entire body craving it once more. He held strong, though, and pushed himself away.