Chapter 31 Something is Different

Chapter 31 Something is Different
When Warren Gale walked back into the dorm room, his roommates were all clustered around Gary Blacker, loudly watching him play his PSP. The noise level was comparable to a chaotic fish market.
Warren’s mood was completely unaffected. He was sweating from the basketball game, so his first order of business was pulling a clean set of clothes from his locker to take a shower.
Gary caught sight of him out of the corner of his eye. Coincidentally, Gary was having a terrible game, so he practically shoved the PSP into his roommate’s hands and chased Warren out onto the balcony.
"Why did you go play basketball again?" Gary followed him closely, his face a mask of deep suspicion. "I thought you said you were going to the classroom to study."
After dinner, Gary had aggressively invited Warren to play video games, but Warren had rejected him.
Gary had demanded to know what on earth could be more important than gaming on a perfectly good Saturday night.
Warren had calmly replied that he was going to the classroom to listen to English audio tapes and review a few practice exams.
Gary had basically short-circuited at that answer. They had parted ways in front of the academic building—Gary heading to the dorms, and Warren heading upstairs to voluntarily listen to foreigners speak gibberish.
"I just suddenly felt like playing." Warren pulled his dry towel off the clothesline. "I finished that English test you were stuck on, by the way. Left the essay blank, though."
The truth was, Warren hadn't stayed in the classroom for very long at all.
He couldn't focus. He couldn't keep his eyes on his pen, and the words in his textbook refused to register. Not knowing what else to do, he had pulled a random test paper from Gary’s desk and filled it out. It only took him about half an hour.
Julie Carven never showed up.
He figured she must have just gone back to her dorm.
The moment he realized that, all of his motivation evaporated. He grabbed the basketball sitting under his chair, left the classroom, and joined a pickup game with some guys he didn't know.
Gary was instantly hit with a massive wave of gratitude over the finished homework, but his inherent paranoia kicked back in a second later. "Why are you being so nice? What's the scheme? Do you need to borrow money?"
Warren shot him a sideways glance and ignored him.
"You almost tricked me." Gary reached his hand over the balcony railing, feeling the chill in the night air. "If you catch another cold, you're going to be absolutely miserable."
"I won't."
Miss Bell was ruthlessly efficient. She had forced the school administration to send someone to fix the dorm water heaters two days ago. Whether it would break down again was a mystery, but for now, they had an abundant supply of hot water.
Warren stepped into the bathroom. Thinking about the actual reason he had caught that cold, the faint trace of a good mood lingered in his chest. Completely out of character for him, he reached out and knocked his knuckles against the open bathroom door, clearing his throat.
Once he had all six of his roommates looking at him, he drawled lazily, "Who used my shampoo?"
Honestly, if they ran a fingerprint test on the bottle, all six of them would be going to jail.
That was just the reality of living in a boys' dorm. What's yours is mine, and what's mine is mine. When they showered, they just grabbed whatever bottle was closest.
But Warren washed his hair the most frequently, since he played basketball every day. He always left his shampoo out on the shelf. Less than two months into the semester, the massive bottle was completely empty.
"Warren, you—"
"I confess for a lighter sentence! I also want to report that Zhu Cong used your body wash!"
"Oh, you're reporting me?! Open your damn eyes! Are those not Warren's tissues sitting on your desk?!"
"Warren gifted those to me! Are you jealous that Warren spoils me?!"
"I'm going to throw up."
Warren completely lost his patience for their idiotic, elementary-school bickering. He shut the bathroom door. As the hot water washed away the sweat, he felt incredibly relaxed. It was almost as if his mind had finally returned to its usual, completely untroubled state.
Gary leaned against the balcony wall, rubbing his chin.
Why do I feel like this guy is acting slightly... giddy today? Did he really have that much fun playing basketball?

When Julie got back to her dorm, she didn't immediately rush to wash up. She was genuinely worried her muscles would be screaming tomorrow. Without needing Warren’s reminder, she was already doing some light stretching.
When Tania walked into the room, she initially thought Julie was doing morning calisthenics. The other girls were just minding their own business. Honestly, after everything Julie had done recently, nothing she did could surprise them anymore.
Out of pure courtesy, Tania asked, "What are you doing?"
"Stretching..." Julie winced in pain. "I shot some hoops with a basketball on my way back. Here's a hot tip for you guys: always stretch before and after exercising!"
"Basketball??"
All the girls in the room immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at her.
"I ran into Warren playing by the courts, so I borrowed his ball to practice my shooting." Julie sighed dramatically, clutching her chest. "It's a tragedy no one recorded it. You guys would have been obsessed with me. I honestly think I'm a prodigy. Warren even gave me his official seal of approval."
Lara Rohl looked Julie’s slender frame up and down. She hopped down from the top bunk, squeezed Julie's pathetic bicep, and rolled her eyes. "Warren is a very polite liar."
"Speaking of Warren, he really does love playing basketball," Tania mused, her eyes drifting away as she watched Julie and Lara laugh. She fell deep into thought.
Just an hour ago, a girl from another class, Sally Hoch, had casually dropped by their dorm to chat. Amidst the gossip, Sally had sneakily asked Tania if Warren Gale was "close" with any girls in their class.
For some inexplicable reason, the very first person that popped into Tania's head was Julie Carven.
But a second later, Tania felt ridiculous for even thinking it. Their interactions were completely normal. It was just basic classmate behavior.
More importantly, Tania wasn't stupid. She knew exactly what it meant when a girl asked if a boy and a girl were "close." It was high-school code for: Are they secretly dating?
This was not something to be taken lightly. Without hard evidence, it was nothing but baseless slander and toxic rumors!
Julie was her best friend. Tania absolutely refused to let her get dragged into completely fabricated drama. So, she had immediately shut Sally down, telling her firmly that she had never seen anything like that, and if she hadn't seen it, it didn't exist.
"Tania? What's wrong? You zoned out." Julie, having lost her physical duel with Lara terribly, was looking for backup. Seeing Tania staring into space with an incredibly complex expression—like she was trying to solve an impossible calculus problem—Julie called out to her.
Tania snapped back to reality, her thoughts clearing.
Yeah. I don't know anything, and I haven't seen anything.
So why am I overthinking this?
She decisively threw the entire issue out of her mind and happily joined the fray, turning it into a two-on-one pillow fight.
—
Morning study hall.
Beth Meier was half-asleep at her desk when a faint crunch crunch crunch sound hit her ears. Like a shark detecting blood in the water, her eyes snapped open and immediately locked onto Julie, who was reciting vocabulary words while sneakily eating cookies.
"Eating in secret, Julie?" Beth whispered darkly.
"..." Julie was exasperated. "Weren't you just asleep?"
"Hand it over as tribute!" Beth demanded, shamelessly holding her hand out.
Julie reluctantly handed over a small, individually wrapped pack of cookies. The transfer was highly illegal, requiring them to stay hidden from the teacher pacing the podium, and from Dan Butler sitting right behind them.
"What are these?" Beth inspected the package. "Japanese?"
"Yep."
Beth tore open the jagged edge and inhaled the cookies like a vacuum cleaner. One small pack wasn't nearly enough. She held her hand out again. "More? I'm starving."
Julie slapped her palm away. "That's it! I only had two packs!"
And both of those packs had come from Warren.
When she had walked out of the dorm building that morning, she had run into him. After exchanging good mornings, he had already taken a few steps away before suddenly stopping, turning around, and pulling the two small packs of cookies out of his pocket, casually asking if she wanted them.
Neither of them had brought up the awkward encounter outside the bathroom.
But considering the cookies, she guessed whatever had put him in a bad mood was over. He was back to his normal self.
For the sake of the snacks, she officially decided she would not murder his company's prized money tree in the future.
The energy in the classroom today was electric. Because of the schedule adjustments, they hadn't been allowed to go home last weekend. Now, Saturday was finally here. But the collective joy had nothing to do with Julie. Starting today, her weekends belonged to the tutoring center.
After getting the details about the center from Warren, she had called her parents to pitch the idea. Even though Mrs. Carven strongly suspected her daughter was only doing this because she had a crush on some boy there, they had ultimately agreed and paid for a few trial classes.
Right before the final bell rang for the day, Julie went over to Warren’s desk to lock in their plans for lunch on Sunday.
Gary was hyped. "I'm straight-up skipping breakfast tomorrow! I am arriving with a completely empty stomach!"
Julie couldn't help but laugh. "No way. You have to eat breakfast. You are merely Warren's emotional support eater."
Warren spun his pen between his fingers. "Are you going to tutoring today? Taking the bus?"
"No," she shook her head. "My dad is picking me up today."
Warren gave a low "Mm." The pen he was spinning slipped and dropped onto his desk. He picked it up, stopped fidgeting with it, and flipped his test paper over, seriously reviewing his mistakes. But as Julie chatted with Gary and Tania, he would occasionally glance up, quietly listening to the conversation without saying a word.
After school, Warren stuck to his usual routine. He met up with Hugh Nixon at the mall, grabbed a quick dinner, and headed to their favorite internet cafe. It was exactly like every other Saturday.
But as he walked out of the subway station and headed down the street toward his apartment complex, something felt wrong.
He gradually slowed his pace, glancing over his shoulder.
There was nothing overtly suspicious. Just a few guys roughly his age walking a few meters behind him. At a quick glance, they didn't look like gang members or thugs. He was just about to turn back around when he completely froze.
A tall guy had just stepped out from behind the group.
A guy in a black windbreaker. A guy Warren had coincidentally seen twice before.
Ryan Acker had excellent eyesight. He had originally planned to just use the excuse of "I didn't know" to avoid this entirely, but the exact second their eyes met, Ryan knew for a fact that Warren Gale recognized him. He absolutely knew who Ryan was.
A surge of hot, violent anger rushed to Ryan's head. What pissed him off even more was that, even after recognizing him, and seeing that Ryan had five guys with him, this kid didn't even try to run.
If that isn't a direct challenge, what the hell is?!
"Stay calm!" Seeing Ryan suddenly surge forward, Dion Faust panicked, grabbing Ryan's arm. Dion's eyelid was twitching furiously. He desperately tried to remind Ryan of the plan: Talk first. Use reason. No violence unless absolutely necessary. Who knows, maybe this guy is just a massive coward!
One of Dion's friends behind them muttered nervously, "Brother Yue hates the word 'calm'..."
According to their highly unreliable psychological profiling, Julie Carven had probably used that exact word when she dumped him, giving Ryan permanent PTSD.
Ryan Acker was hot-headed, impulsive, and significantly taller than the 5'7" Dion. "Say that word to me one more time! I dare you!"
Dion used every ounce of his strength to hold Ryan back. "Do you want to win Julie Carven back or not?!"
Those exact words carried through the cool night air, landing perfectly in Warren Gale's ears.
His indifferent expression shattered, replaced by a fleeting second of absolute shock.
While Dion was still desperately trying to talk Ryan down, the friend behind them started buzzing like a panicked mosquito. "He's coming... he's walking right toward us... are we fighting or what?!"
Dion was furious. We are civilized people! What do you mean 'are we fighting'?! Why are you throwing gas on the fire?!
But a second later, a cold, remarkably steady voice cut through the tension.
"Win her back? What exactly does that mean?"