After My Roommate Dumped His Online Boyfriend on Me - Chapter 1

Having said his piece, my roommate, Ying Chen, walked away.

And left me alone in the café.

The man in the corner sat in a wheelchair. The eager look he’d been directing at me had already cooled.

Fair enough. Ying Chen and I had spent so long arguing in the doorway that anyone watching would have taken it for a rejection.

My phone chimed.

I opened the message. Ying Chen had sent me a username and password.

“You can have my alt account. If you can’t bring yourself to say it to his face, just message him to break up.”

The comments lit up again.

[Our baby is so thoughtful. He’s worried cannon fodder will be too embarrassed to say it, so he even sent over the account.]

[Won’t make a difference. The male lead gets rejected at this point anyway, goes home even gloomier, and his brother, who’s obsessed with him, blames cannon fodder for everything.]

[So cannon fodder really is getting screwed over for nothing.]

[What’s that supposed to mean? Love is a choice on both sides. What’s wrong with our baby not being able to accept the male lead’s disability at first?]

[Besides, cannon fodder agreed to help deceive him. Nobody forced him.]

[OMG, you scared me there~ Could you please switch your brain on when you read? Enough with the mindless babying. If your precious baby hadn’t used someone else’s photos for online dating, would that someone have to reject the guy for him?]

[Boo-hoo, is it a crime for our baby to feel insecure? He wouldn’t have used the photos if cannon fodder’s face hadn’t been so pretty! Blame your fave for not being the male lead’s canonical love interest!]

…

An all-out argument raced across my vision.

Not far away, the man looked lonelier still.

His eyes lowered, his slender back held straight, he was doing his best to preserve the last of his dignity.

As I approached, his grip on the wheelchair’s armrest tightened slightly.

Only then did I get a proper look at him. My breath caught.

Eyes as black as a raven’s feathers, a high, straight nose. Even with the sickly pallor of someone who hadn’t seen the sun in a long time, he was beautiful enough to cut.

My gaze drifted down without permission. Beneath a perfectly fitted shirt, his back was straight and his waist lean.

Further down…

Enough, Mu Shengxia!

I throttled the succession of filthy images in my head and kept reminding myself that the man was in a wheelchair. Have a conscience, would you?

Then I remembered that comment about him being “all about taking care of his partner,” glanced at the wheelchair again, and fought to keep my expression under control.

God help me. Who could resist this?

If you asked me, Ying Chen ought to book an eye exam. His loss. He deserved to miss out.

The man spoke first, as though he’d expected this outcome all along.

He pulled his mouth into a self-mocking smile. “I’m sorry. My condition must be a disappointment. If you want to reject me… that’s all right.”

Another wave of comments swept past.

[Boo-hoo, poor male lead. When will you and our Chen-baby find your way back to each other? Once you have Chen-baby’s love, you won’t be lonely anymore.]

[So does cannon fodder get written out after rejecting him today?]

[Pretty much. Once the male lead gets home, his brother notices something’s wrong.]

…

Amid all that pity, I caught the crucial detail. Frightened out of my wits, I took a big step forward and seized the man’s cool fingers.

“Hi~ I’m Mu Shengxia. We’ve been chatting for so long, and I still don’t know your name.”

“Will you tell me your name, baby?”

He froze.

I thought he was shy. Instead, his eyes narrowed, and the air around him chilled.

His lips parted. Each word landed on my heart like a death notice.

“Baby? You told me that calling someone ‘baby’ was a dealbreaker for you. You’ve never called me that before.”

Excuse me? How was I supposed to know they’d never called each other baby?

Who dates someone without calling him baby?

I’d been single for twenty-something years, literally since birth, and even I knew you were supposed to call your boyfriend baby!

Still holding the male lead’s hand, I was so embarrassed I wanted to dig a hole and escape through it. “Doesn’t calling you baby make us sound a little closer?”

His brows drew together. “You also said that closeness was a dealbreaker. You thought it showed a lack of boundaries.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake!

Ying Chen, are you the god of dealbreakers? Is everything a dealbreaker for you?

I had no words.

The comments exploded too.

[HAHAHAHA, I’m dying. You tried to be clever and screwed yourself, cannon fodder! Even if he gets rejected a thousand times, the male lead only loves our Chen-baby. Give up!]

[Exactly. The male lead remembers every single word our Chen-baby says.]

[It’s unfair, but this really is a nightmare start for cannon fodder. He doesn’t know how they used to talk. One wrong word and the whole thing blows up.]

[Wouldn’t he die even sooner if the male lead found out he was lying?]

[Probably. The younger brother is already that obsessive, and the older one turns into a dark, twisted guy later…]

I gave up all hope.

I felt like a balloon with all the air let out.

Screw it. I shut my eyes. If I had to die, let it be quick. At least I could finally meet the parents I’d never known up in heaven.

“Fang Jindong.”

I hadn’t caught it. My eyes opened instinctively. “What?”

“Hello, Mu Shengxia. I’m Fang Jindong.”

The fingers in my hand curled around mine with exquisite care.

As though he was afraid that a little more pressure might scare me away.

[Uh, WHAT is cannon fodder doing? AAAAAH, what gives him the right to hold the male lead’s hand?]

[Keep your hands off our Chen-baby’s male lead, you wretched cannon fodder!]

[Can cannon fodder date the male lead? Doesn’t that wreck the plot…?]

[Girls, hit report!]

The comments were furious. I, however, saw a chance to survive.

If he hadn’t realized I was a fake online boyfriend, why not keep pretending?

I had their chat account now, after all.

Every extra day I stayed alive was another chance to save myself. Worst case, I could save some money and run. That beat being thrown into international waters to feed the fish.

Gently, I slipped my hand out of Fang Jindong’s.

Before he could react, I moved my fingers down between his and laced our hands together.

The café’s air-conditioning wasn’t quite strong enough. His palm and fingertips were cool. It felt nice.

Fang Jindong looked at me in disbelief, then at our joined hands.

Light returned, little by little, to his dulled eyes.

“You… don’t mind? I didn’t tell you about my condition. That counts as lying to you…”

I felt guilty. Technically, I wasn’t the person he’d lied to.

I was the one really lying to him.

“I was a bit shocked, I guess. As long as you’re a good person, it’s not something I can’t accept.”

My voice dwindled, and I lowered my head.

The comments were flashing past even faster.

I couldn’t make them out properly. All I could see was a screenful of “Your mom’s dead” and a heap of asterisks where the rest couldn’t be displayed.

I had to admit, there was something oddly satisfying about it.

Grrrrrrumble~

Ying Chen had wheedled and tricked me into coming to the café outside our campus gates at lunchtime. I hadn’t eaten a thing.

My stomach kept growling. I couldn’t do anything about it.

Fang Jindong let out a soft laugh.

I sneaked a glance up at him and went stupid on the spot.

He was even prettier when he smiled. Like ice and snow melting.

“Excuse me. Could we have one of your signature Black Forest cakes?”

A signature cake?!

My eyes lit up. Then I realized he’d only ordered one. “Aren’t you having anything?”

Fang Jindong unlocked his phone with one hand and scanned the ordering code on the table.

His other hand still held mine tight.

“I am. Have a look and see what else you’d like. That way you can try both the signature cake and whatever you want.”

Why were my eyes getting all misty?

Fang Jindong really was a good person.