I Treat You as a Brother

55 – Do You Hear The Beating of His Heart

Translator: tamago

Editor: Yin

Fang Mo made a long mental preparation before pushing open the door.

He wore a skirt a few times during the rehearsals before, but this was only the second time he wore one to complete the look. The weather was getting colder, and the air conditioning was on in the venue, so his bare legs felt chilly. Most of the other girls who needed to wear short skirts wore stockings specifically for this reason. Fang Mo didn’t have them, and he wasn’t willing to wear them even if he did, so he could only bite the bullet and endure it.

The many physical discomforts made his mentality more sensitive.

Everyone who saw him said he looked good. He looked at himself in the mirror and thought it didn’t look too bad either. The delicate makeup perfectly modified his face. His eyes looked bigger, his eyelashes seemed to flutter, his lips were painted in a glossy jelly color, and his cheeks were brushed a soft, sweet red.

By just looking at his face, he completely looked like a girl, and a very beautiful girl at that.

Xu Xiran only looked at his figure last time, and said he didn’t like it and that it looked too rough.

Fang Mo was unhappy, but he still had a small hope in his heart. When he stood in front of Xu Xiran in person, would this otaku think a little differently?

~

As soon as he opened the door, he directly faced Xu Xiran, which was completely out of Fang Mo’s expectations.

Today’s competition was held in a large-scale anime, manga, and games expo, exclusively occupying the entire venue. The performance stage and the backstage lounge of the participating teams were all temporary structures. There were many participating teams, the backstage was messy, and people in strange costumes were running around everywhere.

Among them, in a glance, Fang Mo recognized the casually-dressed man.

Xu Xiran was talking to Zou Shun. When he realized Fang Mo’s gaze, he quickly looked up and around.

The two pairs of eyes quietly collided in the air.

After Xu Xiran stared at his face for a few seconds, he scanned his entire body downwards.

Fang Mo was too nervous to move, and straightened his back as if he was accepting an inspection. With his hands behind his back, he secretly rubbed them together.

Soon, he realized that this action was not appropriate as it would make the fabric on his chest look too tight.

His frame was slightly larger than usual. After wearing the fake breasts, the size of his clothes became slightly smaller. Beibei promised to bring nipple covers for him, but because there were too many trivial matters in the club, she accidentally forgot.

With such a pose, some parts looked a little too racy for the eye.

Fang Mo’s heart pounded, and he slowly adjusted his standing posture, becoming hunched with his chest in his arms.

At the same time, Xu Xiran looked away. There was no expression on his face, and he looked normal and didn’t even seem to recognize Fang Mo at all.

Zou Shun opened his mouth and said something to him. Fang Mo was far away, and from being surrounded by noise, he couldn’t hear them clearly.

Xu Xiran shook his head while answering, his expression still calm.

Fang Mo stood there for a few seconds, suddenly feeling very ashamed. He regretted this more than ever and wished he could immediately disappear from here. He felt that all of this was very bad, and he also felt that Xu Xiran had become a little annoying.

It was so hard to like this person. Everything felt meaningless. He wanted to give up.

At this moment, the voice of another person in the club suddenly came from behind.

“Xu Xiran! Why are you spacing out? Come and help me!”

Xu Xiran turned his head when he heard those words, responded calmly, and walked in Fang Mo’s direction with a calm face.

Then, he mixed up his left foot and right foot on the flat ground, waved his hands around, and staggered forward for a while. After finally stabilizing his figure, he had already rushed to Fang Mo’s side. As soon as he raised his head, he met Fang Mo’s eyes again.

The air froze for half a second.

Fang Mo opened his lips slightly, and just as he was about to speak, the voice behind him called again.

“What are you doing? Come here!”

“Ah? Oh!” Xu Xiran responded loudly with an unnatural volume, then hurriedly turned around, trying to go around Fang Mo.

There was suddenly a muffled “boom” sound.

Not knowing what he was thinking, Xu Xiran bumped his head against the door frame.

The temporary plank wall trembled, and the people nearby looked back.

It looked like it hurt. But Xu Xiran didn’t stop at all, rushed in clutching his forehead.

Fang Mo was inevitably worried and blurted out: “Are you okay?”

Xu Xiran stopped when he heard this and turned around. After the two looked at each other for a few more seconds, Xu Xiran’s Adam’s apple rolled, and then showed him an extremely silly smile, and quickly shook his head.

Before Fang Mo could say anything more, he ran to the side of the classmate who called him just now, squatted down, and helped them organize the props that would be used on stage later.

Fang Mo looked at his back with the eyes of a fool, question marks all over his head. After hesitating for a moment, he tiptoed over.

He stood behind Xu Xiran, raised his leg, and lightly kicked his butt. Xu Xiran turned around immediately and soon turned pale with shock.

“Put that down, put your legs down,” he gestured with his hand up, “Your skirt is so short, you’ll expose everything!”

Fang Mo lowered his head, reached out his hands without saying a word, pinched the two corners of his skirt, and slowly lifted it up towards Xu Xiran.

Xu Xiran was stiff and dumbstruck, until Fang Mo showed a white and bare thigh and a pair of dark sports shorts.

“I’m wearing this,” he said to Xu Xiran.

After Xu Xiran was stunned for a few seconds, he cursed a monosyllabic cuss word, turned around, and looked away from him.

“Don’t… don’t get in the way here, it will affect our work,” he said.

Just as Fang Mo was about to say something, someone came in carrying a large prop. Staying any longer would really hinder other people from making preparations, so Fang Mo had no choice but to first go back.

~

It was the first time in his life that he had participated in such an event, so he was somewhat excited and curious.

The competition would officially start in the afternoon, and the two foreign aids Fang Mo and Zou Shun didn’t need to help with the preparations, so they went to the other venues to look around when they had nothing else to do.

“What were you two talking about just now?” Fang Mo asked Zou Shun.

Zou Shun looked exasperated: “I asked him how he thought you looked.”

Fang Mo was nervous: “How did he answer?”

“He said, ‘Ah? What did you say? I couldn’t hear.'” Zou Shun spread his hands.

Fang Mo felt bitter.

Xu Xiran’s series of behaviors were too weird. It didn’t seem like it was possible to say that he had no feelings for his attire. But to say he liked it, it didn’t seem to be the case.

“Does he think it’s strange that I’m doing this, and that he’s too embarrassed to say so?” Fang Mo asked Zou Shun.

“No,” Zou Shun smiled so hard that his face looked distorted, “I think he seems like a fool who had just fallen in love.”

“……”

Before Fang Mo could ruminate, a boy holding a camera suddenly appeared in front of them.

“Excuse me, can I take a picture?”

~

After that, Fang Mo and Zou Shun were stuck in this location for at least twenty minutes.

He had carefully studied several of Xiaoyao’s signature moves these days, and at this moment, surrounded by various cameras and mobile phone cameras, he performed them one by one and received countless infatuated compliments.

It felt a little shameful, but it was indeed very interesting.

Zou Shun was much more relaxed than him. Compared with his character, everyone’s enthusiasm for Xiaoyao was 10,000 times higher. After discovering that Fang Mo was actually a boy, instead of dispersing, the crowd got thicker and thicker.

Strange requests began to be made to him.

“Excuse me, can you squeeze your chest with your arm?”

A chubby boy wearing glasses spoke and was afraid that Fang Mo would not understand, so he demonstrated it himself. He rested his two chubby arms on his slightly bent knees and protruded out his butt.

Fang Mo felt a little uncomfortable. He looked down at his fake breasts and shook his head: “No, they will move out of place.”

The man refused to let go, and asked again: “Then can you lift up your skirt a little?”

Then gestured again.

He did this to Xu Xiran not long ago. At that time, he had some ulterior motives, and was deliberately trying to tease him to see him flustered. But Fang Mo was not very happy to do this in front of others, even if he had nothing to lose.

“We’re all boys, so what’s there to be embarrassed about,” the man said again, “Just make a gesture, you don’t need to actually lift it up.”

Fang Mo frowned slightly, looked at the man’s slightly round face and shiny nose, and began to feel uncomfortable.

He was also an otaku. Compared with the people in front of him, Xu Xiran was not only way above them, but was also full of purity. He was not of the same species as those in front of him at all.

If Xu Xiran asked to watch, Fang Mo would be more than happy to put on an appearance of acting reluctant to perform for him.

He pursed his lips and said nothing, and many people around him began to make a ruckus.

Fang Mo felt that this was pointless and wanted to run away. Just as his face sank, he suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind.

“Excuse me, can you please let me through? Let me get through.”

It was Xu Xiran. Fang Mo hurriedly turned his head, and Xu Xiran, who finally squeezed into the crowd, grabbed his wrist.

“Sorry, we’re busy,” Xu Xiran glared at the fat man just now as he spoke, and then pulled Fang Mo out, “You can all go now.”

~

The onlookers gave way one after another, and Fang Mo was dragged by Xu Xiran all the way to the corner of the venue.

There were a few people who were tired from shopping nearby and were sitting on the ground to rest. Although he was wearing sports shorts, it was still a bit embarrassing to be seen underneath the skirt when people looked up. Fang Mo quickly reached out and pressed down his skirt. Xu Xiran didn’t know whether it was intentional or a coincidence, but he stood between Fang Mo and them, perfectly blocking the sight of those people from probing.

“What’s wrong?” He asked Xu Xiran.

With hours to go before the show started, it shouldn’t be a hindrance to stroll around at this moment.

“Why are you walking around dressed like that?” Xu Xiran didn’t look at him when he spoke, “Isn’t that weird?”

Fang Mo only felt baffled: “Wouldn’t it not be weird at all?”

There were people dressed in all shapes and forms at the venue. In comparison, Fang Mo’s appearance could be classified into the everyday outfit category.

“Then… then running around here all alone, what if you get lost?” Xu Xiran said again, “There are so many people in the venue that the signal is poor and you can’t even get a call through.”

“I’m not alone, there’s Zou…” Fang Mo subconsciously glanced back and was stunned, “Where’s Zou Shun?!”

“He was with you?” Xu Xiran asked.

Fang Mo was at a loss: “He was just here!”

After he said this, he quickly took out his phone. Then, what Xu Xiran said was immediately confirmed. The signal here was so bad that he couldn’t make any calls.

“What should we do?” He asked Xu Xiran, “Should we split up and look for him?”

Xu Xiran thought for a while, then rejected his suggestion: “I’ll take you back first. You sit backstage and don’t run around. I’ll go and find him.”

Zou Shun was an adult and this was not a dangerous area, so even if he got lost, he could just ask how to get back to the backstage.

Fang Mo was not too worried so he nodded.

When the two walked back together, people came up to ask Fang Mo whether it was convenient to take pictures. Fang Mo hadn’t even had time to speak when he was blocked by Xu Xiran.

“Sorry, we’re in a hurry, now’s not the time.”

Halfway there, Xu Xiran took off his coat without warning and forced it into his arms.

“Cover up, what kind of appearance is this?” He said.

While he spoke, he still couldn’t look at him directly.

“What’s wrong with this?” Fang Mo was upset, “This look isn’t that indecent!”

Xu Xiran’s expression was tangled, he quickly glanced at his chest then turned his head away: “Isn’t this considered indecent?”

Fang Mo finally came back to his senses.

He didn’t wear pasties, so the nipples from the fake breasts were a bit obvious through the thin top.

Realizing this, his face immediately turned red.

“Put it on,” Xu Xiran asked him in a pleading tone, “It’s too…”

Fang Mo looked down at the coat that Xu Xiran stuffed into his arms, and suddenly had some other thoughts in his mind. He secretly took a deep breath, then moved to Xu Xiran’s side in small steps, raised his hand, put his arms around his arm, and leaned hard on him.

“Hehe,” he said in a low voice while looking at Xu Xiran’s face as he stiffened instantly, “How about you let a good brother give you some benefits?”

After being dazed for two seconds, Xu Xiran withdrew his hand violently like an electric shock, and took several steps back, with his expression even looking a little terrified.

“…What are you doing!” Fang Mo frowned, “You really can’t give any face?”

Xu Xiran lowered his head, raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the backstage: “Go back by yourself, I’ll… I’ll go find Zou Shun.”

After he said this, he turned around and walked forward quickly. Once he took two steps, he came back at a faster speed.

“Put on your coat!” He lowered his voice and emphasized to Fang Mo seriously.

Author’s note:

Who wouldn’t be a fool in the moment of falling in love?

The original plan was to write the birthday plot on the day of Xu Xiran’s birthday, but I didn’t catch up with it.

[Tomorrow, I will take you into the inner world of the (former) straight man]

tamago: hehehe xxr we see you

Yin: This chap makes me embarrassed but I can’t stop laughing!!! (・・;)ゞ(ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*: ･ﾟ(Wait till I remember my dummy password then I can reply to you guys (〃＞＿＜;〃))