Chapter 1
Falling for youWaking up, the first thing Chengcheng does in the morning after washing up is to read his notes. These notes are not notes from class however, nor are they study notes. It’s notes of his yesterdays. You could call it a diary in fact. Why he does this everyday without fail is because he’s diagnosed with short term memory loss, call it anterograde amnesia if you must. It has been 4 years since he started keeping a diary of important things that happened each day. Chengcheng was not that diligent to keep a whole detailed account of his day according to the hours, so just important things that he needed to take note of.
What happened 4 years ago was that he got into an accident. Fortunately, he still remembers who he is, his family, and his friends. He also still remembers memories before the accident happened. The only unfortunate thing was that he could not make new memories after the accident. Whatever happened today, he’d forget about it the next day. However, this did not drag down the happy cheerful boy Chengcheng is. He has a loving family and a group of supporting friends, why would he let this crush him. Hence, he continued on with his life writing his memories on paper so he could read through them. If ever he got lazy to write for a day, he’d just ask one of his friends what happened yesterday.
Everyone still hopes that he would recover, he himself wishes that too. Lately there have been some instances where he could vaguely remember what happened a few days ago. That got everyone celebrating because at least there was some progress. Even if it was just an itsy bitsy step. Back to the present day, Chengcheng was going through his notes while eating breakfast. He let out a small chuckle after reading a line.
“Stole Quanzhe’s snack, he’s sulking. Remember to buy a replacement before going to school”
He shook his head in amusement, also because he didn't even bother to write which snack was he supposed to buy. Guess he’ll have to just buy some random snack, Quanzhe wouldn’t mind as long as it’s a snack. He thought to himself. He then continued to read through until he reached the last line. Bolded. Highlighted. Underlined. Written in red. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets. He hurriedly finished up his food and got up, yelling a good bye and an I love you to his parents and sister as he rushed out the door and into the car waiting out front.
“Young master, it seems you have forgotten that you have a test today”
“I JUST FOUND OUT. HURRY GET IN AND DRIVE. I BARELY HAVE TIME LEFT TO STUDY”
Fan Chengcheng. He is the definition of last minute studying. Since there is really no use for him to study weeks beforehand, he studies on the day itself. Usually when there's a test the next day or its exams week, he'd wake up early and go to school early to study before class. So this was why he had set up an alarm earlier than usual today, and him being him slammed the snooze button in favour of getting more sleep. He should have known. On the way to school, the boy sat at the back with now his class notes open to start reading through what would be tested. Luckily it was only for one class.
“I think. I'm gonna fail that test”
Chengcheng slumped his body over Quanzhe’s back. The latter tried to shrug him off as he was still sulking over his precious snack that the former stole. Chengcheng continued to mull over how he left a few questions blank cause he doesn't remember.
“Good for you then.” He huffed.
“Awww come on zhe, dont be mad at me anymore. Hmm? Hmmm? I'll buy you snacks later after school. You can pick whatever you want” Chengcheng ended with a sing song tone, trying to entice the other out from sulking.
And it seems to be working, seeing how the other started to soften up and face Chengcheng. He holds up his pinky finger, gesturing the other to do the same. So Chengcheng does indeed, he locked their pinkies together to seal the promise and both boys started smiling and laughing.
Just then Quanzhe’s homeroom teacher stepped in with another boy in tow right behind him. The teacher cleared his throat to catch everyone's attention. That was also Chengcheng’s cue to go back to his own classroom. Quanzhe tried to shoo the other away, but Chengcheng was curious about the boy that went in behind the teacher.
Chengcheng whispered a soft ‘he’s cute’ to his friend. Quanzhe just looked at him before shooing the other back to his class. Chengcheng quietly tried to leave the room through the back door, not wanting to catch the teacher’s attention, and he managed to leave successfully.
“Girls and boys, may I have your attention please. Today we have a new transfer student, treat him nicely alright? You may introduce yourself young man.”
While the boy stepped out to introduce himself, he noticed a familiar face, smiling and waving happily at him. He smiled back and proceeded to confidently introduce himself.
“Hello everyone, I'm huang minghao but you can call me justin. I came from wenzhou. So yea I'm quite smart if you haven't guessed.” He ended with a smirk.
“Alright Mr smart guy. I see you and Mr Chen seem to know each other, so why don't you sit beside him. Go ahead off you go. That is all for now i shall take my leave. Mr Chen I trust him to your care.”
It was lunch time, the boys had all gathered around on their usual table. The eldest Zhengting and Wenjun were the first to reach the table, followed by Xinchun and Zeren. Quanzhe had linked arms with Chengcheng, after picking the other up from his class, as they walked to the cafeteria.
“Oh look, isn’t that the girl Cheng called cute yesterday?”
The boy turned to where Zhengting pointed to. He tilted his head and furrowed his brows.
“Did i really? I mean. She's not bad but she looks okay i guess?”
The rest of the boys collectively let out a heavy sigh. “What about today, who’s today’s cutie. Wait nevermind don’t answer that”. This left the boy confused with their response, and it must have been apparent on his face as Zhengting just waved his hand, cueing someone else to explain, before slumping his top half down on the table. Zeren rolled his eyes before patting Chengcheng’s back.
“It’s because, every time you call someone cute, the next day you’re like whomst? Since when?” Zeren turned back to face the rest. “You know what let’s just stop this, we’ve been asking for years and it’s still the same.” The rest nodded in agreement.
What they didn’t know, including Chengcheng himself, is that the one that caught his eye today, won’t be another one time thing. Later on when Chengcheng writes down his day in his notes, he doesn’t bother writing about the new pretty boy today. It’s a given since he never did take note of all the previous people he called cute before.
Other than the first time he called Justin cute, there were five other days where he thought the boy looked cute. None of the others knew that Chengheng called the same person cute for five times straight as each time he did, he was with only one of them at a time.
The second time Chengcheng called Justin cute was when he was with Xinchun. Xinchun had dragged Chengcheng during lunchtime after eating, the older saying that he needed to buy some supplies at the school’s bookshop.
“Gege, why did you have to drag me. Why not Quanzhe or Zeren or someone else.” He whined at the older. “I could have had another round of that chicken they had today.”
Xinchun just smacked the younger’s arm. “Just follow quietly and maybe we could make it back fast enough for you to have a second round.” And so Chengcheng did, he even started to tug Xinchun to walk faster. All for his beloved chicken.
Once they had reached the bookshop, Chengcheng quickly let go of Xinchun and hurriedly ushered the older in. He also yelled a grab your stuff and go. While Xinchun was grabbing whatever he needed, Chengcheng saw pretty boy again. Though he didn’t know it was the second time he saw him. He thought the boy looked cute, and so to not look creepy, he tried to steal glances at the other as much as he could. His entire focus was on the pretty boy, he didn’t notice Xinchun was already done and standing beside him, waiting for the younger to notice.
Xinchun cleared his throat to catch Chengcheng’s attention. That didn’t work. He looked to where the younger was staring at, what he saw was two boys picking out notebooks. He recognised the taller one but the other seemed like a new face. “Cheng” he pinched the boy’s arm. This earned a yelp from the younger, which then caught the attention of the cute boy and his friend. Chengcheng smiled sheepishly at them and quickly dragged Xinchun out back to the cafeteria.
“Gege what the ”
“You didn’t notice I was standing beside you for a good few minutes. So i did what i had to do.” Xinchun rolled his eyes. “What were you so focused on anyways?”
“A cute boy” Chengcheng confessed softly.
Xinchun shook his head and sighed. “Of course, which one was it? The taller one or the new face?”
“I think it was the new face?” Chengcheng scrunched up his forehead. “I didn’t notice the height difference.”
“That’s cause you were too focused on the other boy” Xinchun clicked his tongue. “Let’s just hurry back. I don’t think you’d be getting that second round though, you spent way much more time staring at your cutie of the day”
The third time Chengcheng called Justin cute was when he was with Wenjun. The older was picking up Chengcheng from basketball practice.
Chengcheng just finished his basketball practice and was waiting for Wenjun. The older was supposed to bring him along to where the group was meeting up to hang out. He has a driver yes, but it was much safer if Wenjun was with him in the car to direct the driver on where to go.
Usually, after the basketball practice is over, the court would be open to other students who wants to use the court to play basketball. Chengcheng was sitting at the benches, still waiting, when a group of students went over to the right side of the court. Since he had nothing to do, he watched them play. Apparently they only played on one side of the court. He then turned to the other side of the court. There were two other students playing basketball as well, one of them slightly shorter than the other.
Chengcheng focused on watching the two students instead of the larger group, especially on the shorter one. He noticed that he played quite well, and an added bonus was that he looked cute too. So why not. Besides, it’s not creepy to watch people play anyways. Chengcheng had focused on the cute boy a bit too much, he didn’t notice Wenjun was already sitting beside him. Wenjun had called out the younger’s name a few times already, but still nothing. He then shifted to look for what had caught Chengcheng’s attention, enough to make him dead to the world.
Wenjun saw the two boys playing, he noticed that the slightly shorter one was pretty good at playing basketball. Maybe that’s what caught Chengcheng’s attention. But since they had to go and meet up with the rest, Wenjun did what he had to do to bring Chengcheng back to earth. He lifted up his hands and covered both Chengcheng’s eyes.
“HOLY FU-” Wenjun covered the younger’s mouth instead. “Shhh”
Chengcheng turned to face the culprit, mumbling out a shocked gege through the older’s hands. Wenjun just shook his head and stood up, retrieving his hands back. He motioned for the younger to do the same. Chengcheng stood up and looked out to the court once again and saw a few of them looking at where he and Wenjun are at, including pretty boy and his friend. They must have heard him scream awhile ago. He gave a shy bow before quickly dragging out Wenjun to the gate.
“What was that for?”
Wenjun shrugged his shoulders. “Your body was there but your mind was not. Plus you were too focused on those two boys playing out there, so i figured if i block your view...then”
“Not my fault the cute guy could play well.”
The older nodded. “Yea, the shorter one did play well, you should ask him if he wants to join your club or something”
Chengcheng’s driver then came into view, he ushered the teens to the car before getting in as well to drive them to their destination.
The fourth time Chengcheng called Justin cute was when he was with Zhengting. They were at the cafeteria waiting in line to buy food.
It was lunch time. Zhengting and unfortunately for Chengcheng, were let out few minutes later from their respective classes. The others already had bought their own food and were eating at their normal table. Except for Quanzhe, he was also let out late but Zhengting told him to sit at the table, “Gege will buy your food for you”. Zhengting really babies Quanzhe alot.
Chengcheng would have whined at Zhengting to buy his food too but his attention was on something else at the moment, better yet someone else. It was pretty boy, along with his friend Linong again, but he didn’t know that. To Chengcheng its the first time he’s seen the cute boy. Said cute boy was a few people in front of him and Zhengting in the line. He looked at what the pretty boy was putting on his plate and thought if he should grab the same thing too.
He didn’t realise it was already his turn to grab a plate as his focus, not surprisingly, is entirely on the cute boy. This however, earned him a smack on the back of his head from none other than Zhengting himself.
“What are you looking at, please get your plate and move baobei.”
Chengcheng rubbed the back of his head, pouting at the older. He whined.
“Who told you to let your brain fly while were in a line. There are people behind us too you know. So you brought that to yourself.” Zhengting scolded again.
“I didn’t mean to, i was just looking at the cute boy.”
Once he said that, he looked over to where the boy was at. The cute boy had already gone to the counter to pay, but glanced over to where Chengcheng and and Zhengting were standing at. Chengcheng wondered if he saw what had happened, he gave a sheepish smile to the cute boy when they locked eyes.
“Which cute boy? Also Cheng help me grab another plate for Zhezhe.”
Chengcheng quickly turned away from pretty boy, grabbing the plate not wanting another smack to the head from the older. “That cute boy, the one that just finished paying”
Zhengting looked over and saw a boy still there waiting for his friend to finish paying. He saw the boy looking at Chengcheng before locking eyes with him. He must have saw me smacking his head, Zhengting thought. He then gave a sweet smile to the boy before turning to fill his plate.
Justin had seen the smack the taller boy got from the senior. He was curious if everything was alright, but seeing as the older smiled at him, maybe it was a normal thing and that the two were friends. However, he did notice that the taller looked familiar. Oh well. He shrugged off his thoughts as Linong walked over when he was done paying.
The fifth time Chengcheng called Justin cute was when he was with Zeren. Chengcheng had stopped by the practice rooms to pick up the older from dance club.
Just like when Wenjun picked him up from basketball practice, this time Chengcheng was about to pick up Zeren from their school’s dance club. Apparently, Chengcheng came over a bit too early. The club wasn’t done yet, but there was no rule saying he can’t come in and wait for the elder instead of sitting outside. So he quietly went in, not wanting to disturb the club, and sat on the ground a little further away from the door just in case someone else were to open it.
Once settled and seated, Chengcheng scanned the group of students dancing. He was trying to look for Zeren, to show that he’s here waiting for the elder. However, while he was scanning through the group, his eyes were stuck on this one boy. The way the boy danced, he might not be as good as his gege but the boy can dance well indeed. That and also the fact that the boy looked pretty cute. He decides to watch pretty boy dance until the club gets dismissed, his plan on finding Zeren long forgotten.
What Chengcheng didn’t know was that Zeren already saw him, and he also noticed how the younger was focused on the new boy, Justin. Zeren shook his head. Must be his cutie of the day, he thought. He’ll ask Chengcheng later. For now, he needs to figure out this dance step first.
A while later, the club was finally over. Some of them were laying down on the floor catching their breaths, some went off to down their water bottles, others went off to go where ever they had to be. Zeren had sneaked behind, well not really sneak, he just walked to where Chengcheng is at without being noticed because the younger’s attention was fully on Justin, who was downing his bottle that his taller friend has passed him. The bottle looking very much like that Nongfu Spring Vitamin Water ads Zeren’s been seeing. He then slumped his entire body on Chengcheng’s back.
“Stop ogling, you’re being creepy. Let’s go Cheng”
Chengcheng fell forward and let out a loud oof. Flustered, the boy sat back up straight and glanced at pretty boy. Apparently pretty boy was looking at them, and so Chengcheng smiled sheepishly again, he doesn’t know how many times the other has seen it already, and quickly stood up, grabbed Zeren’s bag and tugged on the elder’s arm out the door.
“Was that your cutie of the day?”
“Cutie of the what?”
“Oh right you don’t know, never mind. But you found him cute right?”
Confused, Chengcheng furrowed his brows. What does his gege mean. “Which one?”
“The one that looked at you weirdly when you fell forward”
“WAIT HE LOOKED AT ME WEIRDLY? Great, just great. Thanks alot gege. But yes, that’s the one”
Zeren just started cackling at the younger. “Yes, very weirdly”
The sixth time Chengcheng called Justin cute was when he and his whole group of friends were at Mcdonalds eating lunch. It was a weekend and they decided to hang out at Mcdonalds. Sadly for everyone, they each had to pay their own meals. In Zhengting’s words, “I will not pay for everyone’s meals again for the nth time, please! Stop. Making. Me. Go. Broke”. And so they did, at least it was Mcdonalds. Except for Quanzhe, he got a free meal from Zhengting just because he’s his baby.
The boys were all busy talking about stuff, school, parents, jokes and so on. The whole group were one of the noisy bunch at the fast food place. Chengcheng was actively taking part in the conversations going on, until someone caught his eye. Two boys looking close to his age just entered. Chengcheng’s eyes did not leave them as they walked past the group to reach the counter. His eyes were focused on them, especially the shorter one, he looked really good.
“Cheng. Chengcheng. Fan Chengcheng are you listening?” Zhengting tried to grab the younger’s attention.
Wenjun, who was sitting right next to Chengcheng, having had experience, did what he did before. He lifted up a hand to cover both Chengcheng’s eyes.
“OH MY FU-” Zhengting smacked the top of the younger’s head before he got to finish.
“What did i say about cursing Fan Chengcheng, and pay attention. What are you looking at anyways.
Chengcheng nursed the top of his head and pouted at the eldest. “I was looking at that cute boy.” Chengcheng looked back at the pretty boy, only to find that him and his friend had take-away bags in their arms and were walking past them to the door. Looks like he won’t be seeing pretty boy no more.
“What cute boy, where?”
“The one that’s just about to walk out the door, the one carrying the drinks.”
All of the five turned to face the door, and all recognizing the boy who was carrying the drinks. Variations of that’s the second time you called him cute this week was heard at the table. Once that left their mouths, they looked at each other in confusion.
“What do you mean second, you weren’t even there when he called him cute the first time.”
“You mean you weren’t there when he called Justin cute, he was with me.”
“HOLD UP” Zhengting pointed at the second eldest. “One by one, you will tell us when you heard Chengcheng call that boy cute, starting with you Wenjun.”
“He called him cute when I picked him up from basketball practice, boy couldn’t tear his eyes away from him that I had to cover his eyes like a while ago to get his attention.”
“He was ogling at Justin when he came to pick me up from dance club yesterday. He called him cute”
“He called him cute when Justin first transferred to our school, he is in my class. Cheng saw him when the teacher brought Justin in. Then he went to his own class.”
“That day when I dragged Chengcheng to the bookshop during lunch, that boy was there too and it was hard to take Cheng’s attention away from him. Yes he did call him cute.”
Zhengting took a deep breath before telling his part. “It was when we were out late for lunch, we were in line for food and this boy was not paying attention to the line. He was focused on the cute boy he said”
Everyone fell silent for a while, digesting this brand new information. It wasn’t really a first that Chengcheng would call the same person cute multiple days in a row, except that the longest was three days in a row and nothing more. But this, this was already apparently the sixth time in a row.
Xinchun spoke up. “And why did we only find out about this now?”
“Didn’t Zeren say that day that we should drop it, that’s why we stopped asking?”
“HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW. DON’T BLAME ME”
In the midst of this, Chengcheng finally spoke up. “YOU MEAN ITS BEEN 6 TIMES I’VE SAID HE’S CUTE?” The rest nodded.
“I never even wrote about the times I called him cute on my diary.”
“That’s because you think they’re not that important, you’d call someone else cute the next day usually.”
“Well, it looks like its important now, seeing how its been six times. Chengcheng you better write this down on your diary. We need to see how you think of him again on another day.”
“Oh no worries, I will.”
That night before bed, Chengcheng wrote on a sticky note.
“Important!! You apparently called the same boy cute 6 separate days. Find that cute boy. This is an actual crush!”
He bolded and underlined find that cute boy. Then he stuck the sticky note on the cover of his diary so that it would be the first thing he sees in the morning.
When Chengcheng woke up today, he saw the sticky note just as he was about to start reading through his diary. As he read through the note, his thoughts are just, whomst the is this cute boy i have to find? Really Cheng? Not even a name or a photo so I’d know who to look for? Should I ask the others? Maybe they know. He rolled back to bed and grabbed his phone, opening up the group chat to ask the others. But before that he took a pic of the sticky note.
Adamnnn : Guys, who is this im supposed to look for?
Adamnnn : Is this real?
Adamnnn : Yall aren’t joking with me right?
Adamnnn : Is this a prank?
Adamnnn : [attached 1 image]
IAmNotYourMom : OH MY GOD
IAmNotYourMom : YOU ACTUALLY DID WRITE IT DOWN
IAmNotYourMom : OMG
IAmNotYourMom : SORRY BAOBEI, I DON’T KNOW THE BOY’S NAME OR CONTACT
IAmNotYourMom : BUT YES THAT’S REAL
SharkBoy : cant help either, i don’t know the boy’s name.
IAmNotYourMom : Where’s the others, Zeren? Quanzhe? You know him right?
MinionsBaobei : I dont know your cute boy’s name either.
MinionsBaobei : I called him new face. But you don’t remember that
DingDongYeeHaw : i just woke up
DingDongYeeHaw : what’s happening
SharkBoy : Cheng is looking for the lohl
DingDongYeeHaw : is that supposed to be the love of his life????
Adamnnn :GUYS FOCUS.
Adamnnn : WHO IS HE
Adamnnn : HOW DO I FIND HIM
MinionsBaobei : OH SO NOW YOU TELL US TO FOCUS
MinionsBaobei : you couldn’t even notice us whenever you boy is around.
IAmNotYourMom : ASDFGHKJL HE DOESN’T REMEMBER THAT CHUN LSKDJS
SharkBoy : yea
SharkBoy : completely hard to get your attention off the boy
Adamnnn :I’M SORRY FOR NOT PAYING ATTENTION
Adamnnn :BUT PLEASE
Adamnnn :THE MATTER AT HAND
DingDongYeeHaw : oh right yea
DingDongYeeHaw : his name is justin
DingDongYeeHaw : as for contact…
DingDongYeeHaw : hold up let me see if he’s in the dance club gc yet
BabyHamster : good morning!! ^-^
IAmNotYourMom : good morning baobei!!
SharkBoy : morning zhezhe
MinionsBaobei : good morning baby hamster!!
DingDongYeeHaw : MORNING BABY ZHEZHE
Adamnnn :i..
Adamnnn :good morning zhe
Adamnnn : but guys
Adamnnn : help?
BabyHamster : oh! Justin’s contact. Let me see
BabyHamster : i might have him in the class gc
DingDongYeeHaw : i have his contact but he’s not answering
BabyHamster : oh?? Let me try asking linong then ^-^
Adamnnn :THANK YOU ZHEZHE!
Adamnnn : I LOVE YOU
Adamnnn : I'll buy you more snacks, you name it
IAmNotYourMom : HEY
SharkBoy : HEY
MinionsBaobei : HEY
DingDongYeeHaw : HEY
Adamnnn : what,
Adamnnn : zhezhe is getting me closer to this justin you speak of
In another chat.
BabyHamster :Good morning! ^-^
SunshineNong : Good morning to you too! :)
SunshineNong : What’s up?
BabyHamster : oh, uhm
BabyHamster : if it’s not a bother
BabyHamster : can i ask where is justin?
SunshineNong : justin?
SunshineNong : he’s with me now, why?
BabyHamster : oh! That’s great!
BabyHamster : just needed to ask for a friend. Hehe ^^;
BabyHamster : can i ask where are you at now?
BabyHamster : my friend just really needs to meet justin.
BabyHamster : is it okay? ^^;;
SunshineNong : oh, yea sure why not.
SunshineNong : we’re on our way to the arcade actually
SunshineNong : maybe meet us there? :D
BabyHamster :sounds great! I’ll tell him
BabyHamster: thank you nongnong! ^_^
SunshineNong: no problem zhezhe! :D
a/n: it was 3:42 am when i was writing the gc convo part and thinking of gc names so excuse me for that. Please and thank you.
Also comments are appreciated uwu. Tell me what you think of it.
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