I Treat You as a Brother

63 – Approximating as Being Kissed

Translator: tamago

Editor: Yin

The two girls who were talking were standing diagonally in front of Fang Mo, so he could only see their backs.

Fang Mo moved to the left, then moved to the right, trying to see their faces, but failed. In the end, he was glared at a few times because he kept moving in the crowd. Just as he was about to give up, he heard the first girl speak again.

“But I heard he has a boyfriend!”

Fang Mo’s ears perked up again.

Then, he finally heard another girl’s voice.

“That’s not true. I’ve asked before, and he said it was just his friends joking around.”

“That’s good, then do you want to try? Today’s your chance!”

Fang Mo squeezed his way to the front row, then quickly turned his head to take a look.

The girl who was interested in Xu Xiran was petite, not particularly pretty, but very delicate. The most important thing was that she looked skinny but her key parts were very impressive.

Just then, there was cheering all around.

Fang Mo quickly turned his attention back to the court. It turned out that after two minutes into the game, the first goal had finally been scored. 

It was indeed Xu Xiran who took the lead.

After excitedly scanning the audience area, he smiled and waved at Fang Mo’s position, and then threw himself into the game again.

Unexpectedly missing his brilliant performance, Fang Mo felt some regret, and just as he was about to persuade himself to focus on the game more seriously, the two girls spoke again.

“Look, look, he is waving at you!”

The other didn’t say anything. Fang Mo glanced again and found that her face was blushing.

“That’s promising,” the girl in front encouraged her, “He’s keeping an eye on you!”

Fang Mo was speechless.

Just when he was hesitating on whether to break their unrealistic delusion, the whistle sounded, along with an exclamation from the sidelines. This time, Fang Mo clearly saw that an opponent made a foul. He didn’t have a deep understanding of the specific rules of basketball and only knew that after the referee said a few words, Xu Xiran took the ball and stood on the free throw line.

Fang Mo wanted to cheer him on but was worried that his shouting would distract him, so he clenched his hands nervously and prayed for him in his heart.

At this moment, the delicate-looking girl next to him raised her hands around her mouth and loudly shouted: “Let’s go!!!1“

Xu Xiran didn’t look back. He looked down at the ball in his hand, took a deep breath, then raised his head to look at the basket not far away, and slowly raised his arms. With a seemingly light throw, the basketball quickly made a curve in the air and steadily fell into the basket.

Cheers erupted all around.

Fang Mo’s little heart skipped a beat. What’s going on? Suddenly looking so handsome and making people feel flustered. After getting along with him for so long, he had long been used to the appearance of this fool always being carefree with an empty brain. But at this moment, Fang Mo had rekindled the heart-fluttering feeling from when they had first met.

Xu Xiran made both shots, then clenched his fists in joy and jumped, letting out a “yeah!”. Immediately after, he turned his head to look at Fang Mo’s location.

He was smiling with his eyes bright, showing two rows of big white teeth. From running around a lot, his hair was a bit disheveled by the wind, and his cheeks were wet with sweat.

Fang Mo could almost hear his voice.

Xu Xiran was asking him, aren’t I handsome? Aren’t I amazing?

Fang Mo smiled along with him, then raised his hands to his waist, and secretly gave him two thumbs up. After he and Xu Xiran briefly looked at each other for two seconds, he turned around with a full smile and threw himself back into the game again.

It seemed like this seemingly unreliable guy wasn’t just blowing his own trumpet before. He did have some skills, and he must have practiced a lot. It was no wonder that although he was an otaku, his figure was still quite impressive when his clothes were off.

When the mood was good, the two people next to him started again.

“He must’ve heard your cheering! He’s even smiling at you, did you see that?”

Fucking hell, who gave you the right to assume that? Do these two people have bad eyesight and need to squint? Fang Mo rolled his eyes.

On the court, Xu Xiran was still dripping with sweat, running back and forth and giving his all. This type of intramural competition was all about participation, and the skill level of the teams varied. Their opponents had an average height of less than 175 centimeters, and they were being completely crushed and beaten without much competition. The nearly two-meter-tall school team player was not interested in abuse, and his attitude was clearly lax. Xu Xiran, on the other hand, was extremely devoted and was undoubtedly the most serious one in the entire court.

Boys who were focused were the cutest. The more Fang Mo watched, the more he liked him, and felt that even the sweat on Xu Xiran’s forehead seemed to be glistening.

He had shattered his illusions a hundred times, yet for the one hundred and first time, he found himself falling in love again.

“He’s really quite handsome, isn’t he.”

There was another voice beside him that left him speechless.

Fang Mo finally couldn’t take it anymore. He very deliberately cleared his throat, then turned his head.

“Are you two Xu Xiran’s classmates?” he friendlily asked with a smile on his face.

The two girls turned their heads to the side, and soon their expressions changed. Before, when Fang Mo had deliberately distanced himself from them a bit, the two of them obviously didn’t notice such a handsome guy standing beside them.

For a handsome guy to initiate a conversation with them, it was only natural for them to be surprised and flustered.

The girl with short hair and red phoenix eyes, who kept encouraging her friend, looked quite put together and came to her senses first. She smiled at Fang Mo: “Yeah, you know him?”

“Mn, I’m his friend,” Fang Mo nodded, “You may have heard of me.”

Those words were extremely narcissistic and indeed, they elicited a subtle reaction from the two girls.

Fang Mo showed a hearty smile at them: “There’s a rumor that Xu Xiran has a boyfriend, haven’t you heard?”

It would be awkward for anyone to be caught gossiping in front of the person involved. The two girls immediately blushed.

“May I ask,” the delicate girl who was interested in Xu Xiran asked cautiously, “Is that rumor really true?”

The short-haired girl immediately bumped her body lightly with her arm: “Ahya, he must have been joking around with you, it must be fake! Really, you.”

The delicate girl didn’t make a sound, and her eyes fell on Fang Mo’s face, with a serious and nervous expression

Fang Mo shrugged, and asked half-jokingly: “What do you think, do we look like it?”

“…He said you two were not,” the girl said quietly.

Fang Mo nodded, and smiled at her again: “Okay then we’re not.”

~

With him standing by, the two girls no longer dared to whisper like no one else was there.

By the second half, the opposing team had completely lost their fighting spirit, and the scene became less interesting to look at. Fang Mo watched the time and planned to go to Xu Xiran to congratulate him immediately after the game was over. He was thinking about how to compliment and make his sweetheart happier when he suddenly realized that he had miscalculated.

In a typical plot of an idol drama, when the male protagonist has just finished the game, even if the female protagonist does not have a towel, she at least brings a bottle of water when she goes to find him so that she can flash some PDA in the eyes of all her rivals.

But now his hands were empty.

Fortunately, there was a vending machine less than ten meters away from the basketball court. Fang Mo immediately squeezed out of the crowd and ran over.

Unfortunately, things were as unpredictable as the weather, and bottled water and sports drinks in the vending machine were sold out, with only fruit juice, coffee, and carbonated drinks left. It took about two or three minutes to run to the nearest convenience store, and he calculated that there seemed to be enough time. Since he was already out, Fang Mo didn’t hesitate for too long and quickly set off.

Unexpectedly, the convenience store was surprisingly busy, and there was a long line in front of the cash register. Fang Mo had some regrets, but he couldn’t arrive here in vain, so he could only bite the bullet and wait. When he finally made his way back to the sidelines, the game was already over.

Xu Xiran’s class won by a landslide, and the team members were waiting for the results of the rest of the games to determine tomorrow’s opponents.

In addition to the team members, he was also surrounded by many classmates in their class. But Fang Mo saw the person he was looking for at a glance.

Xu Xiran was tilting his head, drinking water from a bottle. And in front of him stood the delicate-looking girl.

Fang Mo cursed inwardly, fuck, I miscalculated!

~

Xu Xiran was depressed to death.

Before playing today, he had a plan and discussed it with the tall teammate of the school basketball team, asking if he could do him a favor.

He told him that the girl he liked was coming to the game today, so he wanted to perform well and asked if he could pass to him more. That older brother was very generous, readily agreed, and truly assisted him on the court, and the effect was extraordinary.

Xu Xiran himself was also very upbeat, and everyone performed very well. The power of love was miraculous, and when he thought of Fang Mo on the sidelines, his small universe exploded infinitely with countless brilliant performances.

As he was flushed with success, when he turned around, he found that Fang Mo was not looking at him at all.

This guy, with a smile on his face, was happily chatting with the two girls beside him, and turned a blind eye to him, who was sweating and working hard trying to do his best on the court.

This kind of heartbreak was a devastating blow to his morale.

Fortunately, their opponents’ willpower had already been completely defeated, and they still made it through the second half without any danger. When the game finally ended, Xu Xiran wanted to catch Fang Mo, but when he looked around, he found that he had disappeared.

In order to perform well in front of Fang Mo, he trained hard on Sunday in order to finally regain back his touch. Performing with such effort today, he thought that the hard work would finally pay off, but he didn’t expect Fang Mo to be dismissive of it.

The teammates and classmates around were all celebrating, but Xu Xiran, the most outstanding player today, only felt extremely depressed. Not long ago, he thought he was handsome as hell, but now he felt like a fool, like a particularly pitiful and bullied kind of fool.

A classmate brought him water, and he said thank you, unscrewed the bottle cap, and poured it into his mouth, not paying attention to who the other party was.

After drinking more than half of the bottle in one breath, he lowered his head and saw that the person who he was still complaining about in his mind, was standing not far in front, holding a bottle of sports drink in his hand.

The two looked at each other for two seconds, and Fang Mo awkwardly moved to him.

“Where did you go just now!” Xu Xiran asked immediately.

Fang Mo raised the bottle in his hand: “To buy this.”

After the air was quiet for a moment, he put down the bottle and then moved his gaze to the third person present.

“Did I come at a bad time?” he said.

It was only then that Xu Xiran realized that the one who came to bring him water was one of the two girls who had a good chat with Fang Mo from before.

Fang Mo’s words were ambiguous, and the girl was a little embarrassed, blushed and smiled at them, and then quickly ran away.

Xu Xiran was immediately alert. They were chatting so well a moment ago, and now the girl was even blushing at Fang Mo. What did that mean?

This guy Fang Mo could attract the bees and the butterflies anytime and anywhere, which made a person too uneasy.

Although the girl was Xu Xiran’s classmate, the two of them had little interaction in the past and didn’t talk much, so they weren’t that familiar with each other. In his impression, she was quite a quiet girl, and he didn’t know if Fang Mo liked this type.

He probably didn’t, right?

Just as he was thinking, Fang Mo suddenly said, “Are you close with that girl?”

Xu Xiran immediately became nervous.

What’s going on? Why is he so concerned about that? That’s true, since this girl was quiet and introverted, she probably wouldn’t strike up a conversation with an unfamiliar man. So, was it Fang Mo who took the initiative to chat with her just now?

Alarm bells rang in Xu Xiran’s heart.

“Why are you ignoring me?” Fang Mo asked again.

After hesitating for a short while, he even urged him.

Xu Xiran felt uncomfortable inside, and turned his eyes away from him: “Not really, we’re not too close, I can’t remember her name, and I don’t have her contact information.”

The implication was, don’t ask me, I don’t have it.

When Fang Mo heard those words, he nodded, then reached out his hand to pat him on the back, and changed the subject: “Look at you, all full of sweat. Quick, wipe it all off before putting on some clothes. Don’t get sick again.”

He didn’t feel it before, but after stopping for a while, his skin indeed felt damp and chilly. Afraid of seeing Fang Mo make fun of him if he got sick again, he hurriedly asked someone to borrow a tissue and recklessly wiped it around his face and body a few times.

Fang Mo quickly laughed, and raised his hand towards him: “It’s not a towel. Wiping like that will definitely tear it up. Look, you’ve got bits of tissue stuck to your face.”

As he spoke, he carefully helped him remove the scraps of paper sticking to his cheeks one by one. Fang Mo’s fingertips briefly touched his eyebrows, the tip of his nose, his cheeks, and the corners of his lips, leaving behind a faint sensation of touch that lasted for a long time.

Xu Xiran froze. Looking at Fang Mo’s face so close, he didn’t dare to move.

Fang Mo helped him clean up the rest of the scraps on his face, and smiled at him: “Done, now you’re handsome again.”

Xu Xiran asked in a low voice: “Was I handsome on the court?”

Fang Mo nodded and gave him a thumbs up: “You were badass! The best out of everyone!”

After he finished speaking, as if to cover up something, he unscrewed the cap of the bottle of sports drink in his hand, raised his head, and took a sip.

Xu Xiran watched his Adam’s apple move and felt a sudden stirring in his heart.

“…Did you buy this for me?” he said.

Fang Mo put down the bottle: “But you already have one, so I bought it for nothing.”

Xu Xiran drank the remaining half of the bottle in one breath, and then showed the empty bottle to Fang Mo: “It’s not enough.”

Fang Mo felt a little silly. He looked at the sports drink that he had already taken a sip from in his hand: “Why didn’t you say so earlier? I’ve already drank some.”

“What does that matter,” Xu Xiran said, “I… I don’t mind.”

He spoke nervously, and Fang Mo seemed to also be a little confused.

“I sweated a lot so I’m very thirsty.” Xu Xiran added.

Fang Mo pursed his lips and handed over the open bottle. When Xu Xiran took it, he didn’t dare to look at him and turned slightly to avoid his sight, and then put it to his mouth.

The mouth of the bottle was moist, and he secretly licked it, tasting a faint peach sweetness mixed with the light flavor of the sports drink.

His whole stomach was already filled with water. But in order to rationalize his behavior, Xu Xiran still bit the bullet and downed half the bottle.

“Still thirsty?” Fang Mo asked.

Xu Xiran couldn’t take another gulp, so he quickly shook his head.

Fang Mo reached out his hand to him: “Then give it back to me.”

Seeing that Xu Xiran was still in a daze, he added, “I’m thirsty too!”

After taking back the bottle with only half left, Fang Mo, who claimed to be thirsty, didn’t drink it right away, but carefully tightened the cap of the bottle and held it in his hand.

At this moment, a huge figure suddenly appeared behind Xu Xiran.

“Did I do well today?” His teammate, who was nearly two meters tall, put his shoulders on his shoulders and asked with a smile, “The girl you said you liked, was she the one who brought you water just now?”

The Chinese cheer jiayou, literally meaning add oil