What to Do if I Am Noticed by the Straight Guy Next Door?

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After taking a shower, Su Bin couldn’t help but show off. He put on his expensive sweater and rolled around on the bed. The quality of the sweater, worth nearly a thousand yuan, was indeed excellent. Even when wearing it close to his skin, he didn’t feel any discomfort.

Su Bin curled up into a ball with his eyes closed, feeling like he had returned to his childhood when Wang Zai was still around. Little Su Bin used to love hugging Wang Zai’s neck, feeling the warmth emanating from him—it was cozy and comfortable.

Thinking that his roommate wasn’t a vampire and there was no risk of being eaten, and not only did Allen help him buy upscale clothes but also provided a reasonable way to pay off his debt… Ah~ Allen was really a good person! (兀v兀)

Su Bin was not only sentimental but also a particularly forgiving person. At this moment, he had already let go of all the resentment from being played with, scared, and even bitten.

After indulging in his thoughts for a while, Su Bin got up and went online to search for the maintenance methods of high-quality sweaters. While jotting down notes, there was a knock on the door. Su Bin’s first reaction was, “Brother Cheng is looking for me,” because in the past half month of knowing each other, Su Bin hadn’t seen him come upstairs. And Allen would never come to knock on someone else’s door at this time, so it could only be Yang Chengzhe who had something urgent to discuss.

Su Bin wasn’t avoiding Brother Cheng, so he got up and went to open the door. But after opening the door, Su Bin saw that it was Allen standing outside!

Allen gave him a strange look, scanning him up and down. “…”

Realizing that he was only wearing boxer briefs on the bottom half of his body, Su Bin, who looked like he had been caught off guard, jumped up as if his tail was on fire. “Ah, um, wait a moment…” He fumbled for his pajama pants on the bed while speaking incoherently.

“Mm-hmm~” Allen crossed his arms and gazed deeply at the area below Su Bin’s sweater.

After putting on his pants, Su Bin noticed that Allen’s expression was not good. Reflecting on his careless behavior of opening the door wearing only underwear, his face turned hot, and he wished he could dig a hole in the ground. “Do you… have something you need from me?”

“Follow me,” Allen turned towards the stairs with a gloomy expression. “I’ll teach you how to use the coffee machine.”

Su Bin: “Oh…”

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They went downstairs, and Allen explained the functions of the coffee machine to Su Bin with an expressionless face. He also pointed out the locations of coffee beans, fresh cream, the frothing bottle, and milk, with the last three being in Allen’s designated compartment in the refrigerator. He informed Su Bin that he could use his things, and finally reminded him, “It usually takes ten to fifteen minutes to brew. Control the timing yourself. I have a habit of drinking coffee in the morning.”

Su Bin nodded obediently. He could sense Allen’s displeasure and didn’t dare to defy him. “I’ll have everything ready before 8 am tomorrow,” he promised.

Back in his room, Allen’s mind was still filled with the image of Su Bin’s exposed legs just now. But that was fine. What bothered him more was that Su Bin was only wearing that slightly loose new sweater on his upper body, with the red marks on his neck clearly visible… It was dangerously sexy.

However, when he saw himself, Su Bin looked surprised… Did he still want to dress like this to impress someone?

Allen raised an eyebrow, and with a little force, he accidentally tore the sheet beneath him…

Suppressing the annoyance and turmoil in his heart, Allen told himself, “Lance, when dealing with prey, patience is key.”

Calm and composed like a snake, waiting for the right moment to strike a fatal blow…

…But what do my thoughts really represent? Why do I feel an impulse towards him? What do I want to do to him? And then what?

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Allen closed his eyes, his face showing a hint of confusion. He needed to think carefully and thoroughly about these questions.

The next day, Su Bin woke up at 7 o’clock as usual, following the alarm he set for “workdays.” When he opened his eyes, his instinct was to call Chen Xiaotian, but then he remembered that he apparently had to cook breakfast for Allen today. He quickly put down his phone and hurriedly got dressed and washed up, then went downstairs to start boiling the porridge…

Making porridge took the most time, followed by making coffee. Eggs and other things like frying could be done near 8 o’clock.

Today was the first time he “specifically” cooked breakfast for Allen, which was fundamentally different from Su Bin inviting his roommates to share a meal when he cooked. Su Bin was naturally honest and wouldn’t do something to take advantage of others. If he wanted to earn money, he would try his best to repay the other person with something of equal value, striving for balance.

Having only fried eggs as a side dish for the porridge seemed not very sincere, so Su Bin rummaged through his cabinets and found the Lao Gan Ma chili sauce he had bought at the Chinese supermarket before. He also took out some fresh bacon from the refrigerator—how about making Lao Gan Ma fried bacon?

Well, what if Allen doesn’t like Lao Gan Ma? Not everyone loves this stuff… Maybe it’s better to skip it.

Yang Chengzhe came downstairs early and saw Su Bin busy in the kitchen. He was puzzled. “Don’t you have classes today?” Making porridge for breakfast takes a lot of time, and in the past, Su Bin would only do it on weekends or days off. If he had classes early in the morning, he wouldn’t have time for that.

“I do, at 9 o’clock!” Su Bin replied, while using a spatula to remove the fried bacon from the pan. He hadn’t even called Chen Xiaotian this morning because of making breakfast for Allen!

Yang Chengzhe noticed the two plates of bacon on the countertop—one seemed to have Lao Gan Ma, while the other was plain—and he also noticed the coffee machine’s LCD screen, which showed that the coffee would be ready in 5 minutes. He finally pieced things together.

Yang Chengzhe asked Su Bin, “Are you having breakfast with Allen?”

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“Not…,” Su Bin quickly washed the pan, “I made it specifically for Allen.”

“…” Yang Chengzhe’s expression was speechless.

“I owe him money, and he asked me to make him breakfast to offset the debt!” Su Bin said happily, placing the washed pan on the electric stove to dry while preparing to fry eggs.

Yang Chengzhe was at a loss. When did Su Bin owe money to Allen? He didn’t seem poor, so what kind of debt did he have with Allen? And he had to cook to repay the debt?… Using his Mensa-tested IQ of 153, Yang Chengzhe bet that Allen must have tricked this foolish kid again!

“How much money did he promise you for making him breakfast?” Yang Chengzhe asked, squinting his eyes.

“It seems like five yuan,” Su Bin replied, not entirely sure.

“Seems like? You didn’t discuss it properly?” Yang Chengzhe raised an eyebrow.

“He initially mentioned five yuan for dinner. Today’s breakfast was a last-minute decision, so I don’t know,” Su Bin explained.

Yang Chengzhe rubbed his chin. How could Allen, with his financial strength, only offer five yuan? He seemed a bit stingy… Could it be that he had some other ulterior motive? Using money to manipulate Su Bin or something… The lenses on Yang Chengzhe’s nose flashed, and he smiled, “For breakfast, five yuan seems a bit too much, don’t you think?” – Old roommate, let me lend you a helping hand!

“Do you think so too?” Su Bin grinned foolishly. “I was just thinking about it and planning to talk to Allen later. Breakfast shouldn’t be that expensive!”

“…” Oh dear, this innocent child. Why do I feel more and more tempted to tease him? No, stop, stop! My evil thoughts are about to be tempted out… Yang Chengzhe supported his forehead and made some tea and cereal, then took it upstairs to eat.

At exactly 8 o’clock, Allen came downstairs.

While getting ready upstairs, he caught a whiff of the scent of rice. Thinking of Su Bin in the kitchen, diligently preparing congee for him, a smile couldn’t help but curl up at the corners of his mouth.

Su Bin had already neatly arranged breakfast on the table and was standing by the side, studying how to use the milk frother.

Seeing his “employee” coming downstairs, Su Bin greeted him with a cheerful “Good morning” and nervously looked at him, stealing a few glances at the breakfast on the table, like a little slave eagerly waiting for his master’s approval.

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Allen’s smile deepened, especially when he saw the additional dish on the table. He was in an excellent mood.

“Go get another cup and make a double shot of espresso,” Allen took the milk frother from Su Bin’s hand, “Fill this cup with two shots of espresso.”

“Do you want two shots in both of these cups, and then an additional shot in the other cup?” Su Bin confirmed.

“Yes,” Allen nodded.

Su Bin quickly returned with two cups and placed them side by side on the table. He watched as Allen poured the bottled milk, filling the cup with two shots of espresso. The other cup had milk added until it reached 1.5 centimeters from the rim. Then, Allen picked up the milk frother, gently shook it, and pressed the button on the nozzle. Soon, a beautiful white foam floated on top of the coffee.

Allen pushed the cup with frothed milk towards Su Bin. “Here’s yours.”

“Huh?” Su Bin thought Allen wanted him to make another cup of coffee as a demonstration of how to use the milk frother. He didn’t expect Allen to make it for him directly!

Su Bin held the coffee, feeling a bit surprised by the favor, and Allen smiled at him. “Are you planning to stand here and watch me eat?”

“Uh, no…” Su Bin had also “incidentally” made his own breakfast, but today was different. He had to serve his “employer” first and completely forgot about his own meal. So he stood foolishly by the table, waiting for Allen’s feedback.

“Go and get a bowl of congee. Let’s eat together,” Allen said.

“Okay…” Su Bin replied. The employer was so understanding, and he even offered him coffee as a gift. What should he do? He felt a bit moved. Su Bin quickly brought his own congee and side dishes and sat across from Allen.

Allen looked at Su Bin’s food and frowned. “Why does your bacon look so strange? Did you add something to it?”

How do you translate “老干妈” into English? Very dry mama?

“It’s a kind of spicy sauce… Do you want to try it?” Su Bin unconsciously tempted him.

Allen reached out with his fork and picked up a piece of “Lao Gan Ma fried bacon” from Su Bin’s plate. Just like when he first tried the shiitake mushrooms, he examined it carefully for a long time before elegantly taking a bite. “…”

Su Bin asked with an expectant look, “Is it delicious?” (⊙_⊙)

Allen directly moved Su Bin’s plate of bacon over, scooped half of it onto his own plate, and then transferred half of his own regular bacon to Su Bin’s plate. “Half for each of us.”

“…” Su Bin stared at the plates, unsure if this meant Allen liked the bacon. (⊙v⊙)

After eating for a while, Su Bin remembered what Yang Chengzhe had said earlier and carefully broached the subject, “Allen, you mentioned last night that if I made dinner for you, it could offset five yuan. But what I made now is just breakfast, not a proper meal, so I think five yuan is too much…”

In fact, Allen had intended to tell Su Bin that the 5 pounds he calculated wasn’t for the meal, but for the time spent. It took Su Bin about an hour to make dinner, so he would pay him for that hour based on the minimum hourly wage… well, slightly less than the minimum hourly wage.

Allen hadn’t considered it as special treatment for Su Bin. He already had the habit of regularly giving Yang Chengzhe some money for house repairs and cleaning, and he deducted the “salary” he gave Su Bin from that fund. Allen was going to explain to Su Bin that both breakfast and dinner took roughly the same amount of time. For example, this morning, Su Bin had probably been busy since around seven to prepare this breakfast, so there was no need to reduce the payment.

But before he could say anything, Su Bin eagerly made a proposal, “How about we consider breakfast as half of a proper meal, 2.5 pounds? What do you think?” Su Bin thought of how Allen also made him coffee, and a cup of coffee like this would cost around four to five pounds at Starbucks. It made Su Bin feel like cooking was taken for granted, and asking for more money seemed a bit unreasonable.

Unable to help himself, Allen chuckled. This fool… but he didn’t argue and simply replied with a casual “Hmm.”

Su Bin thought, let’s just go with whatever feels right. If the other party had the consciousness of being a servant, he wouldn’t stop him.

When Yang Chengzhe finished his cereal and came downstairs, he saw the scene—the usually silent Allen was now leisurely drinking congee and chatting with Su Bin, who was holding a cup of coffee and drinking with great satisfaction.

Standing on the stairs with an empty bowl, Yang Chengzhe suddenly found himself staring blankly at the falling leaves outside the window. Ah~ Suddenly, he felt a bit lonely~ Should he start thinking about dating someone too?

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