Chapter Text
Everything started because of a bet, a joke you could even called it. Mo Ran was in his sophomore year at Sisheng university, freshly 19 and feeling invincible. He was taking one of his major mandatory physics courses when he had met Chu Wanning a graduate student in charge of the TA position, who was also the current subject of the bet.
Everyone always talked about how strict, cold and harsh was the TA and everyone always wondered if he was always like this. The students were not fond of Chu Wanning and they often speculated about the TA’s secondary sex because someone as proper as him couldn’t be more than a beta. Mo Ran was skeptical, he hadn’t been in close contact with the TA besides one time when he inhaled a soft and sweet smell of Haitang flowers, which made him doubt about Chu Wanning’s secondary sex.
The bet was simple, sleep with the TA and find out if he was an alpha, beta or omega. Really, no one could fault Mo Ran for accepting it. He had always found Chu Wanning attractive and having 3200 Yuan for sleeping with the TA was not a problem for Mo Ran.
Xue Meng and Shi Mei were against it, they thought it was a bad idea. Xue Meng was even aquatinted with Chu Wanning due to the TA being one of his uncle’s protégées, but Mo Ran didn’t care and easily dismissed their efforts of containing him. He was determinate to win the bet.
It was after a month that Mo Ran realized that taking Chu Wanning to bed was not going to be easy. The TA was strictly professional and he never allowed Mo Ran to stay in the Professor’s office for more than Chu Wanning’s designated tutoring hours. Every time Mo Ran lightly suggested for them to do anything outside university, he was harshly dismissed in a rather aloof manner. Mo Ran was frustrated but he was not going to give up easily, he could also be as stubborn as the TA.
So, he tried harder. He basically forced Chu Wanning to accept him as a constant presence in the TA’s life and even if he had still kept Mo Ran at an arm’s length, they slowly started becoming friends. He practically spent all is free time with the TA and Mo Ran was delightfully surprised to find out that Chu Wanning wasn´t as bad as his reputation preceded him.
Chu Wanning was grumpy and borderline antisocial but he was vastly talented and extremely hard working, so much that he had trouble taking care of himself. Mo Ran had never met someone with such poor self-preservation skills. The TA was almost unable to take care of himself. He could fall sleep anywhere and forget to eat for days. Mo Ran couldn’t comprehend why, but seeing Chu Wanning struggling with day to day chores as simple as having healthy breakfast made him want to take care of him. So he did in any way the TA let him.
At first was simply insisting in eating together at the university cafeteria, making sure that Chu Wanning had at least eaten lunch. In those outings he discovered how much of a picky eater was the TA, he always ate dishes mild or plain in spice, preferring also vegetables or tofu before meat. What he seemed to enjoy the most though were sweets, he could eat cake after cake and never have enough. After one particular day when the TA had to stay working and skip some meals, Mo Ran started bring him homemade lunches to the Professor’s office. At the beginning Chu Wanning was embarrassed and didn’t want to accept the food but after some persuasion (mostly with his favorite dishes) he grumpily accepted every meal Mo Ran made, saying softy thank you every single time.
Contrary to popular believe (and also Chu Wanning’s) Mo Ran was not that much of moron. He understood that he felt attraction towards the TA, he could even call it a liking. In the other hand, Mo Ran couldn’t determine what Chu Wanning felt towards him, sometimes the TA barely could stand him but with how red his ears became every time Mo Ran teased him, Mo Ran was sure there was something else there besides friendship.
He had almost forgotten about the bet, his classmates reminded him of it from time to time but he had told them to not worry, he was slowly getting there. Slowly but surely he was going to take Chu Wanning and sleep with him.
Even so, their relationship didn’t change until after the second semester of his sophomore year started, when Chu Wanning stopped being his TA.
When Mo Ran came back to university after the break, Chu Wanning started inviting him to eat outside the campus or insisting in going to walks with him, it almost felt as if they were dating. It was in one of this outings, after teasing Chu Wanning until the other went bright red, that he stole a kiss and seeing that he didn’t resist, Mo Ran deepened the kiss.
After that, things just fell into their right place.
Mo Ran was not surprised when he discovered that Chu Wanning was an omega. The sweet smell of Haitang flowers was an early indicator after all.
He never told anyone what he had found, his classmates had already forgotten about the bet and frankly, Mo Ran didn’t even care about it anymore. So, he kept the secret; Mo Ran didn’t want to share with anyone all the things he discovered about Chu Wanning, being so close to the older made him feel powerful and special.
Sex with Chu Wanning was – to put it lightly – out of this world. The TA had been a virgin when they did it for the first time and that had awakened something so deep inside Mo Ran that he almost went feral. They used to do it almost every day and for Mo Ran’s delight, Chu Wanning was up to pretty much anything. He had never enjoyed having sex so much before he had done it with Chu Wanning.
Everything came crushing down almost at the end of Mo Ran’s junior year.
Mo Ran was falsely accused of filtering the answers of one of the final exams of that physics class Chu Wanning was the TA. The reason for accusing him was a surveillance video where he was the only one entering and exiting the Professors office a few days before the answers were leaked. He had some friends who we’re taking the class and he had also had encounters with the disciplinary comity before, so pretty much all the possibilities signaled to Mo Ran.
He had called and called Chu Wanning, he had tried to get in contact with the TA but every call was rejected. He had a suspicion that the TA didn’t want to have anything to do with him, that he didn’t want to help him; because if there’s something that Chu Wanning valued more than anything in the world, it was his own reputation. Mo Ran concluded that the TA didn’t want to be associated with him anymore.
He still tried to get in contact with the TA but after a few days of no responses, he just gave up.
Weeks later the real culprits came around and Mo Ran was cleared from all charges. The same day he was declared innocent, Chu Wanning contacted him again.
Mo Ran didn’t remember exactly what really happened during their confrontation. Chu Wanning was being his usual self barely talking. The younger didn’t even let the TA explain where he was or why he didn’t contact him. Mo Ran was furious, yelling to the older, that probably Chu Wanning himself was the one that falsely accusing Mo Ran.
He left. He didn’t want anything to do with Chu Wanning anymore.
A few days before summer break started, Chu Wanning contacted him once again, almost begging Mo ran to listen to him. Mo Ran only agreed because he wanted to tell the older the truth about how their relationship started. He wanted to hurt Chu Wanning as much as the other had hurt him.
He did just that.
Chu Wanning looked tired and thinner than before. The TA had deep circles under his eyes, he even looked sad and resigned.
Mo Ran didn’t care about any explanation. Before Chu Wanning could even open his mouth, Mo Ran had revealed everything.
He told the older about the bet, about how it was almost a joke, how much he was going to laugh at him after he revels to the others how much of a bitch omega he was. He yelled about how cruel and cold the TA was. He gloated about how Chu Wanning could possibly believe that Mo Ran could even like someone like him. He was panting when he finished yelling, and just then he looked at the older.
Mo Ran had never seen Chu Wanning looking like this. He was still somehow with a blank expression in his fave; he was still looking cold. However, there was something in the way the other was recoiling his hands to his chest, almost as if he was trying to protect himself. Chu Wanning eyes looked hurt, Mo Ran had never seen that look in those eyes before.
Mo Ran felt good when he saw how much he had hurt the other. He smirked harshly at Chu Wanning before leaving the TA alone.
It was halfway through summer break when Mo Ran learnt the truth. He was visiting his uncle department in Sisheng city when he told him it was Chu Wanning the one who had proved Mo Ran’s innocence.
For a short while he couldn’t believe it. If that was the truth, then why didn’t Chu Wanning defend himself? Mo Ran soon realized that his ex TA had always hated confrontations and that also in a day to day basis, the older was really bad at wording his feelings.
All through summer, guilt was slowly eating him out. He had tried to contact Chu Wanning several times but he didn’t get any response. Mo Ran realized the older probably had him blocked and really, he did deserve that. He didn’t let that pull him down though, he still had next semester to apologize to Chu Wanning and Mo Ran was going to earn that forgiveness even if it was the last thing he could do.
Senior year soon began but Chu Wanning was nowhere to be seen. Mo Ran went to the Professor’s office and asked about the TA whereabouts, his ex-physics Professor told him that after completing his master’s degree, Chu Wanning had accepted a job in some company in another far away city.
Mo Ran left the office feeling completely shattered, he had completely screwed up and there was no way for him to fix the problem anymore.
Chu Wanning had left and he was never coming back.