In high school, they didn't talk too much in the beginning. John was a sporty boy who was admitted as an art student. He didn't like study at all, either sleeping or painting something in classes. Meanwhile, Eric was a good student. He didn't know how to say pretty words, and communication was never his thing. However, that soft smile he always wore on his cute face won people's hearts.

After a seating rearrangement, they became deskmates. The first words John spoke to him were: "you smell so good."

Eric's grandfather had filled their yard with jasmines, and the little white flowers were in full bloom at that time. It's probably the jasmine's fragrance.

The next day, Eric gave him a small bag of jasmine flowers. John grinned at him and rubbed his hair, "thanks."

John was good at being a deskmate. He knew that Eric didn't want to be disturbed in classes, so he was just quietly doing his old habits, sleeping or drawing something. After class, he would run out and play basketball with the boys. Many girls had a crush on him in their class, and they loved to talk about John's gossips in small groups.

As a bad student, John was still afraid of the class advisor. Sometimes, he would get to school earlier to copy answers for his English assignment. But he rejected all the other offers, only liking to beg his deskmate. "Eric, show me your answers~ Eriiiic~."

Their relationship was just like the one between ordinary deskmates until one day. He met John when he was climbing the stairs that day. Somehow, John's eye suddenly lost their focus when seeing him. John missed a step and fell off, causing a long wound on his knees. The blood startled Eric, and he rushed over to help him up.

When John leaned himself on Eric, he gasped with pain and repeated the exact words, "you smell so good today."

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"I missed a step because I was looking at you." His following words made Eric freeze for a second.

After that, they became much closer. John often invited Eric to watch his basketball games, and everyone started to make jokes about them since John would work very hard when Eric was there. Girls stopped arguing about who would be the person to help John keep his clothes and water bottle because he only allowed Eric to touch his staff.

On the other day, Eric noticed that the boy who hated reading held a book of foreign poems in his hands. His pretty bows twisted into a frown as he tried to figure out the meaning of the words. Eric was amused by his silly but cute look, "are you planning to start your literature career?"

"You told the class rep about this book yesterday. Even he can read it. Why I can't?" John raised his brow with his eyes full of innocent arrogance that only belonged to teenagers.

Eric chuckled, "The class rep likes underground style, so I recommend this one to him. But I don't like it. Jane Zachary is more my style."

Before the middle of June, the blossom of jasmine was going to end. Eric knew that John liked flowers, so he invited him to his grandfather's yard. After more than an hour of walk, they arrived at Eric's home, and the fragrance of jasmine enveloped the two boys at once.

John abruptly hugged Eric and sniffed his neck like a big dog with joy in his eyes. "It's the same smell. I like it a lot."

Somehow, Eric's face blushed.

John suddenly started to focus on study. He refused all the basketball games during class breaks and only drew instead. One day, he left to help the physics teacher carry assignment books. His sketchbook was flipped open by a breeze - it was Eric on every page with all kinds of expressions. His front face, side face, smiling face, cold face, thinking face, and laughing face... His sketches were vivid with a soft touch, which made Eric's heart miss a beat.

In the finals of the second high school year, Eric was the top one in their class, while John was the second. After knowing their grades, John asked him out. They met at the end of an alley, and John held Eric's hand after he threw a book to him. "I remember you like Jane Zachary. I hope you will like this book... and me as well."

In the second year of high school, at the age of seventeen, they decided to be together. Until now, fourteen years had passed.

This year John Chapman was thirty-one, and Eric Cleese was thirty.