Work Text:
“You’ve won.”
That was all Chi Cheng could say. He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t ask questions. He didn’t even try to hide how broken he sounded. Because he was. That simple sentence held everything, his anger, his grief, his disbelief. Not just that he’d lost, but how he’d lost. What Wu Suowei had taken from him wasn’t pride or reputation or even love. It was the quiet, dangerous hope he’d let himself feel again. The belief that maybe this time, it was real.
"You’ve won."
Because if this had all been a game, then Wu Suowei had played it perfectly. Better than anyone else ever had. He had made Chi Cheng fall. Not just for his touch, or his voice, or his eyes, but for the idea of them. For the warmth they shared when the world felt too cold. For the laughter they stole in dim rooms. For the moments Chi Cheng had told himself, this is different. He’s different.
This boy, this cruel, beautiful boy had torn Chi Cheng open and filled every aching part of him, slowly and completely. Chi Cheng had given him everything, everything he didn’t even know he still had.
And now?
Wu Suowei stood there, unreadable. Untouched.
Chi Cheng’s voice cracked as he spoke again, softer this time:
“I didn’t care about the past,”
Chi Cheng wasn’t angry anymore.He was shocked and couldn’t understand how the person he loved turned out to be capable of such deliberate hurt. His eyes searched Wu Suowei’s face for any sign of regret.
He saw nothing of the sort.
Chi Cheng continued, chest heaving with the weight of it all.
“I didn’t care why you came into my life. I didn’t care about Yueyue. I didn’t care that you wanted revenge. I just... I just needed to know....”
His voice fell to a whisper.
“Were you ever sincere with me?”
He paused. The world held its breath with him.
“I’m willing to let bygones be bygones,” he said, and it wasn’t a plea. It was an offering. A final one.
Because even now, even after everything, some part of him still wanted to believe. Still hoped that at least once, Wu Suowei had looked at him and felt something real.
But Wu Suowei didn’t hesitate.
“No.”
Just one word.
“I never loved you.”
There was no flinch. No pause. No remorse. It wasn’t just a knife, it was the twist. Chi Cheng stopped breathing. The words echoed in his head louder than they were spoken, bouncing off every memory, every touch, every moment that had once made him smile.
I never loved you.
He stared at Wu Suowei, waiting. Waiting for a laugh. For a crack in the mask. For the truth to slip out....I didn’t mean that; I was just scared. Please don’t go.
But there was nothing.
No softness.
No mercy.
There was just the unbearable silence between two people who had once laid bare their bodies, their thoughts, their souls, and now stood like strangers. Maybe it had always been one-sided. Maybe Wu Suowei had never felt anything at all. Maybe Chi Cheng was nothing more than a successful step in a revenge plan. A means to humiliate Yueyue. A pawn who mistook the game for love.
Chi Cheng blinked back the sting in his eyes, then took a shaky breath.
“Fine then.”
The final nail in the coffin.
“We’re done.”
A beat.
“May we never see each other again.”
Chi Cheng turned. Not because he was ready, but because staying would destroy what little was left of him. His legs moved, but his heart stayed there, bleeding on the floor. Waiting for someone who would never come after him. Maybe the joke was on him.
After six years of silence, heartbreak, and walls built high enough to keep the world out, he had finally let someone in.
He thought Wu Suowei was different, honest. sincere in a way that no one else had been. He thought he’d found something that could last. Someone who could touch the places he didn’t show anyone else. But maybe you never really know someone. Not when their love was a lie. Not when their smile was strategy. And not when they win, by breaking you so completely, there's nothing left to fight for.
After all, Wu Suowei had admitted that he had stayed in contact with Yueyue. And worse, he still had feelings for her. Feelings strong enough to consider getting back together.
Was that why Chi Cheng had seen them together that day?
Everything twisted inside him.
What did it all mean? For him? For them? Chi Cheng didn’t even know who “they” were anymore. And what was the point of Wu Suowei bringing up what had happened between Chengyu and Wang Shou? As if digging up that history would somehow help. All that did was give Chi Cheng more clarity about his feelings for Wu Suowei. Now more than ever, Chi Cheng knew that he loved Wu Suowei, not anyone else.
Did Wu Suowei believe he was doing him a favor? Helping him reconcile with an ex he’d long stopped loving? While Wu Suowei himself was making plans to run back into Yueyue’s arms? How could Wu Suowei possibly think that would make Chi Cheng feel anything but worse?
Didn’t he know? Didn’t he understand that there was no one else for Chi Cheng?
He didn’t want Wang Shou. He wanted Wu Suowei.
Only him.
Even now, even with the lies and the betrayal and the cruelty, his heart still reached for Wu Suowei like it had nowhere else to go. It felt like a curse. To want someone who didn’t want you back. To still ache for someone who had admitted to never loving him.
Chi Cheng had been through a lot. He’d hurt before. He’d been left before. But this? This was different. This wasn’t just heartbreak. To be discarded by the one person he’d let in, Chi Cheng felt like fate was being too cruel.
Maybe he wasn’t meant to be loved the way he loved others.
Maybe some hearts were made to be broken again, and again, and again.