Chapter 1

After everything that happened earlier, Timothy Snow lay on the ground, absolutely deflated.

His phone was also on the floor. It vibrated, and a message popped up on the screen.

[Tim, take a few days off and come over here. Whenever my friends encounter something like this, they take time off to clear their minds.]

Timothy had drunk too much, so he was still asleep. He missed out on the notification.

The screen was flooded with messages when he woke up the next afternoon and picked up his phone from the floor. The most recent one was from his classmate, Xander Harmony.

[Xander: Timothy, are you dead? It's the first day of college. We had robotics first thing on Monday morning! How dare you not come? You can try apologizing to the professor via email; there might still be hope for you.]

Timothy clutched his head, which felt like it was about to split. He called Xander.

"Hello…" Timothy felt as if his throat was on fire. "I had some personal matters, so I didn't go in the morning."

Xander said, "You should see a doctor and get a sick note to give to the professor."

Timothy asked, "Did they cover anything important in class? Send me the password to access the course materials; I'll download them later."

"There are no course materials," Xander said.

He sounded like he was complaining. "This professor is quite demanding of us. He doesn't upload course materials, so you must attend the class. He also requires us to attend all of his classes simply as a qualifier to take the final exam.

"To top it all off, the final exam is a verbal exam where students are tested individually. I'll send you photos of today's notes, but I might not have caught everything."

Timothy rubbed his temples and said, "Why are Germans so complicated?"

Xander paused and said, "No, Professor White looks American. You know what, come to think of it, I don't know his nationality for sure. However, from his accent, he sounds American."

Timothy said, "Alright."

He did not care for the professor's background, so he hung up and contacted his family doctor for a sick note. Then, he took a shower to remove the stench of alcohol from his body and made himself a cup of coffee.

The coffee machine needed 12 seconds to warm up.

Twelve seconds was enough for him to remember who had bought the coffee machine at home. He had a flashback of a memory.

"Timothy, can you stop drinking so much coffee? Every time you can't sleep, you come and bother me. I have an experiment to do early tomorrow morning."

Leonardo Salt held down Timothy, who sprawled on him.

"You were the one who bought the coffee machine." Timothy reached into Leonardo's pants and pinched him.

Leonardo cursed, "Damn it. Do you have some self-control?"

Timothy grabbed a condom from the nightstand and threw it at Leonardo's face, saying, "Let's do it."

Leonardo surrendered. "Okay, fine."

The coffee was ready. He snapped out of his reminiscence.

Timothy took the coffee to his desk and opened his laptop to look for the professor's email on the school's website. After emailing the professor, he went on to reply to other messages.

[Timothy: Nothing serious.]

[Timothy: I'm okay now.]

[Timothy: Don't worry.]

[Timothy: I'm fine.]

After replying to several similar messages, he saw Leonardo's.

[Leonardo: Forgive me this time, please? Let's not break up.]

Timothy instinctively reached for the ashtray on the left side of his desk, dragged it over, and then picked up the lighter and cigarette pack. The white and green pack had a warning about how it would damage his lungs printed on it. A horrifying image of damaged lungs glared at him.

To hell with the warning.

Timothy pulled a cigarette from the pack, lit it, and took a deep drag.

If Leonardo were there, he would snatch the cigarette from his hand and say, "Timothy, your lungs are also mine. Please don't ruin them, alright?"

Aside from the lungs, the cigarette box also warned that smoking would harm one's reproductive health. Leonardo would have threatened him. "If you get erectile dysfunction, I'll find someone else."

Timothy finished the cigarette angrily and thought, 'Damn it, I don't even have erectile dysfunction. Why did you still go find someone else?'

He crushed the cigarette butt, picked up his phone, typed a few words into the message field, then deleted them, and finally replied.

[Timothy: You cheated for a whole year, not just once.]

After sending the message, Timothy still felt it was not real. They had been together for many years, from high school to university, coming out to their families and then studying abroad together. All their friends thought they were a model couple. The way they broke things off was just unimaginable to everyone.

The phone vibrated again, and Timothy thought it was Leonardo's reply, but it was a video call from Zachary Jagger.

Timothy answered, saying, "Zachary."

Seeing Timothy's bloodshot eyes, Zachary asked, "Tim, have you been drinking? Or crying?"

Timothy said, "Not crying. Just didn't sleep well."

Zachary said, "Did you get your sick leave? Come over to my place to have some fun."

Timothy said, "What? Are you inviting me to some dodgy place? I'm not into that."

Zachary said, "Who are you still saving yourself for? Come to me; I'll get a few guys to accompany you; each one will be better-looking than Leonardo Salt."

"Cut it out." Timothy glanced at his email. Professor White had not replied yet.

"Even if you have ten Leonardo Salts there, I don't have time to visit. I have a hard class this semester."

Zachary said, "Then I'll come visit you."

Timothy asked, "When did you become so good to me?"

"Tim, just let me come over. My mom keeps nagging me to visit you; she's been on my case three or four times." Zachary sounded frustrated.

"You know my mom. She's afraid you'll break up with Leonardo and then find a woman to marry and have kids. If that happens, my dad will give you the company."

"Zachary Jagger, how can you be so naive?" Timothy chuckled. "Why do you tell me everything?"

"I'm just shooting straight," Zachary said nonchalantly. "Who would want to manage the company? I'd rather you make the money and I spend it. If I had to manage the company, I'd probably starve our entire family. Anyway, I've got my friend to book the flight. I'm hanging up now."

At nine in the evening, when the doorbell rang, Timothy habitually picked up the intercom and said, "Hello."

Zachary spoke into the door intercom, "What's with the formality? It's me."

Timothy said, "You really came."

Zachary said, "Open the door."

Timothy pressed the button.

Zachary arrived with only a little luggage. He had just a backpack with a few pairs of underwear stuffed inside. He took a shower, found a clean T-shirt of Timothy's, then rummaged through the fridge for an opened bottle of whiskey.

He pulled out two glasses, filled them with ice, and filled them with golden liquid. He took a sip himself and immediately complained, "Tim, what kind of crappy whiskey is this? I should've brought you some."

Timothy said, "If it's crappy whiskey, don't drink it."

Zachary pouted. "Okay, fine, we're different. You're so stubborn. You haven't used a penny from home since you came out of the closet. Now, look at where you are. Was Leonardo worth it?" He picked up the glasses of whiskey and sat by the window. "Come on, let's talk."

Timothy's place was in a suburban area. It had a garden outside. The landlord's wife had taken great care of it. One could sit by the window at night and see the stars and hear insects chirping.

Zachary could not appreciate that place and complained about the mosquitoes.

Timothy closed the window and sat across from Zachary, taking a sip from his glass of whiskey. "What should we talk about?"

Zachary said, "Why are you pretending to be strong? You can drink, cry, curse Leonardo."

Timothy said, "It's not that bad."

Zachary said, "Try drinking a bit more."

After Timothy finished the glass of whiskey and sat in a daze, he suddenly said, "Leonardo is a dog."

Zachary, already expecting that, clinked his empty glass with Timothy's, almost as if giving a toast, and agreed. "That's right. He's a dog."

Timothy had a few more drinks and got a bit tipsy. He pulled at his collar to look at his body underneath his clothes and asked, "Is it because I've gained weight? Or is there something wrong with my personality? Leonardo used to say I have a bad temper."

Zachary said, "Tim, honestly, you've always had a bad temper. It's not anything new. So, I believe that this has nothing to do with your temper. Since you're born with this temper, don't waste your time thinking about how to change it."

Timothy said, "It must be the weight."

Zachary said, "Come on, give me your phone."

Timothy asked, "What for?"

Zachary replied, "It's not like I'll run away with your lousy old phone. Give it to me."

Timothy handed his phone to him.

Zachary took the phone and snapped a picture of Timothy drinking by the window. Only his silhouette could be seen—the dim night light illuminated him. He wore a white shirt and jeans and sat on the wooden stool with a glass of whiskey.

Zachary downloaded a dating app for the LGBTQ community called Distance and created an account using the photo.

Name: Frost

Personal Attributes: 0.5

Age: 24

Height: 182 cm

Weight: 70 kg

Occupation: Student

Relationship Status: Single

"Wait and see," Zachary said, shaking the phone. "Let's see how many messages you get tonight."

Timothy was confused. "What's going on?"

The phone buzzed. Zachary looked down and said, "Wow, that was quick. Someone 151 kilometers away swiped on you and sent a message asking which city you're in. Should I reply?"

Timothy leaned over to look at the screen. "Are you trying to get me a fuck buddy?"

Zachary said, "I'm proving that you're not unattractive. Don't think it's all your fault when someone cheats. You're shifting the responsibility from the person who deserves it.

"Look, you've got three more swipes. One of them is pretty close—just 18 kilometers away."

Timothy said, "Why are these people swiping so quickly? They can't even see my face clearly."

"On this kind of app, swipes are just invitations to chat; it's not something to take seriously. For example, see this."

Zachary tapped a few times on the screen. "This is the match interface. You can see the person's profile picture, attributes, etc., and then choose whether to swipe on this person. If you like the person, you do a super swipe."

Timothy looked at the match interface and said, "No."

Zachary pressed a button, and the next person's photo and info immediately appeared on the screen.

Timothy said, "No."

Zachary continued, showing the next profile.

Timothy said, "No."

Another profile.

"No."

Then, another.

"No."

Zachary could not stand it anymore. "This isn't how you play the game. You sound like a broken record. My hand is just performing the same motion over and over again."

Timothy said, "I genuinely don't feel anything."

Zachary flipped to a photo of a guy who resembled Leonardo and said, "What about this one? No?"

Timothy looked at the photo for a long time, then checked the person's information and said, "This one is only 7 kilometers away. Same city—what if we run into each other in real life?"

Zachary said, "You don't like someone close by? You can set a distance range. Let me think. What about 150 to 300 kilometers?

"That way, they should be in the same country but not your state. You're still within reasonable reach of each other, but if it doesn't work out, the chance of running into each other by accident is slim."

Timothy replied, "Okay."

Then he realized something and said, "Hey, why are you finding me dates? I'm not planning to—"

"Who said I'm finding you dates? I'm helping you rebuild your confidence and forget about Leonardo Salt." Zachary held the phone screen up to Timothy. "Come on. Choose a partner."

Timothy tapped on several more profiles, not wanting to continue. "It's pointless."

Zachary said, "Look at 20 more. Pick one out of the next 20."

Timothy said, "Stop torturing me."

Zachary said, "No way. Hurry up. Otherwise, I'll bring someone to your place."

Zachary was the type of person who would do anything, so Timothy had no choice but to continue swiping through profiles one by one. He said no to all of them. Zachary reminded him in a threatening tone, "You're almost at 20."

He got ready to press no on the next one when the picture popped up, and he stopped.

It was a photo of a man in a black suit. His right hand was on the steering wheel, and his left hand was adjusting his gray tie. The picture was taken from the passenger seat, showing only part of his chin, neck, and the suit-clad shoulder, chest, and arm.

The man's exact appearance was unclear, but he had an appealing aura.

The hand adjusting the tie was also long, and the man seemed well-built.

Timothy checked that person's profile.

Name: Mr. C****

Personal Attributes: 1

Age: 36

Height: 187 cm

Weight: 75 kg

Relationship Status: Single

Current Distance: 287 km

His name was censored for privacy and would only be revealed after both parties matched.

Zachary grinned and said, "Do you like this one? His body seems pretty fit."

He saw the age and remarked, "Isn't he a bit old?"

Timothy said, "Older is better—he may be too tired to cheat."

"Then swipe on him."

Zachary feared Timothy might change his mind, so he quickly did it. He did not just swipe on him, but he did a Super Swipe.

Timothy said, "Hey! You should've just swiped normally. Why super swipe for him?"

Zachary said, "You've looked at over a hundred people, and this is the only one you've deliberated on. Isn't super swiping the right thing to do?"

Timothy said, "Tsk, tsk. You are too observant."

Zachary said, "Don't underestimate me. I'm known to be sharp."

Timothy said, "Fine. I'm going to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. Don't mess around with my phone."

Zachary said, "Don't worry. I'll send a photo to my mom with your phone, so she knows I'm here to see you. That should stop her from nagging me."

Timothy nodded and went to the bathroom. He had just brushed his teeth for a while and had foam in his mouth when he heard Zachary shout from outside, "Tim, the algorithm is working. You're a perfect match!"

Timothy could not hear him clearly, so he turned off his electric toothbrush and asked, "What?"

Zachary held up the phone proudly. He said, "Perfect Match for you and Mr. C, 287 kilometers apart. He also did a Super Swipe on you!"