What?! The Gamemaster And The Top Player Are Dating?!

[Li Ling: Go to sleep.]

Zhihao blankly stared at the message for a solid minute. He was tired from playing all night. When he looked at the time he found it to be so late that if he were to go to sleep now, he would only wake up the next day, in the middle of the night. 

It was currently two in the afternoon and although Zhihao was tired, he wasn't feeling sleepy. He turned on his phone for just a few minutes to check through all the notifications that had accumulated. Coincidentally, he received a message from Li Ling, who had already guessed that he hadn't gone to sleep yet. He didn't know how to respond to the message so he had to stare at it for more than a minute or two before he finally decided what he wanted to do with it.

[Zhihao: I was gonna sleep.]

[Li Ling: Then why are you still up?]

[Zhihao: Going to..] 

[Zhihao: Past tense]

[Li Ling: You should take care of your health]

[Li Ling: Staying up so late isn't good for your health]

[Zhihao: Don't you have work today?]

[Li Ling: I'm at work]

[Zhihao: Are you slacking off at work to scold me?]

[Li Ling: Am I not allowed to?]

[Zhihao:...]

[Li Ling: I turned on my phone for a minute.]

[Li Ling: I'm gonna go back to work soon]

[Li Ling: You should go sleep.]

[Zhihao: But I don't feel like sleeping.]

[Li Ling: Why?]

[Zhihao: I don't know.]

[Zhihao: I just wanted to talk to you for a while.]

Li Ling looked at the last message that Zhihao had sent for a solid minute before his cheeks flushed and he finally decided to clear his thoughts and answer. 

[Li Ling: Do you want me to talk to you till you sleep?]

[Zhihao: Huh?]

[Li Ling: Wait.]

[Zhihao: ??]

Zhihao waited for a minute and got no reply. It showed that Li Ling had read his message, but hadn't replied. He gave him a minute, but when he still did not get a reply, he thought of sending one more text, but halfway typing out the message he was about to send, his phone started to vibrate as a call came through for him. He looked at the caller ID only to find that it was the man whom he was texting. 

Zhihao immediately picked up the call and all he could hear was silence. 

"Hello" 

Zhihao heard Li Ling chuckle on the other side, "Why aren't you going to sleep?" 

"Not tired." 

It was a short reply but it was enough. 

"You should go to sleep. Kids who stay up late don't gain height." 

Zhihao chuckled as he heard this, "I'm not a kid." 

"You sure?" 

"You want me to prove it?"

"How will you prove it?" Li Ling snickered on the other side. 

Zhihao was silent for a minute before he responded, "Forget it." 

Li Ling broke out laughing as he leaned back on his chair, "Why don't you try to sleep? I'll be on the call till you fall asleep." 

"Aren't you supposed to be at work?" 

"I have some free time." 

"But you said that you were going to get back to work." 

"I said I have time," Li Ling chuckled, "I'm keeping you company. Show a little gratitude, will ya?" 

Zhihao couldn't help but smile as he heard this, "Then thank you for treating me as someone important." 

"Of course you are important." 

Zhihao was silent. His face heated up as he heard this and his thoughts started to go for a ride once again. At times like this, he would get the strong feeling that he was the person Li Ling was talking about when he said he had a crush on an oblivious friend.

"You really are..." Zhihao wasn't able to complete that sentence as he no longer had the strength to talk about that once again. 

It was a topic that they had talked about before and although Zhihao still didn't get the answer to the question that gnawed at his heart, he wasn't looking forward to continuing the whole conversation once again. He was afraid that if he was to pick up that topic, he would say something that he wasn't supposed to. He was afraid of looking ridiculous. 

"You don't believe me?" Li Ling beamed, "I'm telling you the truth." 

"..." 

"A-Zhi is the most important person to me." 

Zhihao laughed as he heard the delighted voice of the man, "Am I now?" 

"You want me to prove it to you?" 

"And how would you do that?" 

"I can." 

"How?" 

Zhihao couldn't see Li Ling but he could somehow sense that the man was smiling as he answered, "It's a secret." 

"What if I ask you to prove it to me? Would it still be a secret?" 

"Depends. Are you asking me to prove it to you?" 

Zhihao would be lying if he said that he wasn't a bit curious when he heard this, but when he thought about it a bit more, he felt like the man was trying to trick him so he decided to gulp down his curiosity and answered, "On second thoughts, let's just say that I believe you. I don't need proof." 

"You sure?" Li Ling chuckled.

"Unless you want to prove it yourself." 

"Hmm," Li Ling hummed, "I think I would love to prove it to you but not right now." 

"What's that? You want to pick a good date to prove how important I am to you?" 

"Pick a date? I would like that." 

"Why do I have the feeling that we aren't talking about the same topic."

Li Ling broke out laughing as he heard this and after a minute he decided to respond, "And I have a feeling that you aren't even trying to go to sleep." 

"What do you mean? I'm trying my best to sleep but you aren't letting me." 

"So you're just going to blame it on me?" 

"Am I wrong?" Zhihao felt like the exhaustion that he had felt was magically going away as he talked to the man and in the end, he wasn't lying when he said that he wasn't able to sleep because of Li Ling. 

"If you are going to blame me, I'm ending the call." Li Ling sounded a bit serious but was joking at the same time which made it difficult for Zhihao to decided what he was going to say next. 

"You are going to hang up on me? I would be sad if you do that." 

Li Ling suddenly felt like this man was being a bit too sweet today and it made Li Ling somehow feel giddy. Suddenly he had a thought: Should they make this a ritual? Talking on the phone before going to sleep? If they were to do that every day before going to sleep, Li Ling was sure that he wouldn't really be getting any sleep but he wasn't too worried about his lack of sleep so he would love it if that were to happen. 

Talking to Zhihao casually like this was nice and it made him feel so happy that he would forget all his worries. It was like free therapy for him and he loved it.

"I'm not hanging up. I would not want Mastermo to cry because of me." 

"Who said I'm going to cry?" 

"Didn't you just say that you would be sad without me?" 

"You are imagining stuff. When did I ever say such stuff?" 

"Liar. You just said so." 

"Do you have proof?" 

"I should've recorded this call." Li Ling chuckled and his voice was like a sweet melody that somehow calmed Zhihao down. 

The sleepiness that Zhihao had pushed away finally started coming back to him as he lied down on his bed with his phone held up to his ear. 

"When are you going to work?" 

"I'm already at work." 

"You know what I mean." 

"Why do you want me to go? I can just talk to you while working." 

"You can?" 

"I can try," Li Ling knew that it was possible for him to work while Zhihao was on the phone. If something like that were to happen, he was sure that Zhihao would hear something that he wasn't supposed to hear. Zhihao had no idea that Li Ling was working at Omelas, the company that created T.I.A.D. 

Zhihao didn't even know what Li Ling's job was and it wasn't because he didn't ask or because he wasn't interested to know. It was simply because every time the topic had been brought up, Li Ling would try his best to push it away and would avoid going into the details. It was rather easy to distract Zhihao so it wasn't too difficult for Li Ling to avoid the topic. 

"I would feel bad if I'm disturbing you while you are working." 

Li Ling chuckled as he heard this. It was ridiculous for him to hear Zhihao saying something like that. There was no way in hell that Zhihao would be able to disturb Li Ling by simply talking to him. If anything, Zhihao was brightening his dull work-life by talking with him on the phone.