Chu Yang had just returned to the dormitory when her three roommates looked at her eagerly, waiting to gossip. Chu Yang asked, "What's up?"
"I just saw a boy dropping you off on a little lamb scooter," said Qian Xin.
Chu Yang nodded. "Yeah, so?"
Zhou Caicai's eyes lit up. "Is he your boyfriend?"
Jin Yang retorted, "Definitely not. That's Chi Yan from the nearby school. Chu Yang must have gone to eat with him today since he helped her with something."
Chu Yang didn't argue. "That's right. So what? He did help me out a bit so I treated him to a meal."
Zhou Caicai asked, "Nothing else happened between you two?"
Chu Yang thought for a moment. "What else could there be?"
Zhou Caicai tapped her fingers together suggestively. "Oh, you know..."
Chu Yang gave her a look. "You're imagining things." However, she recalled Chi Yan inviting her to a ball game and added, "Oh right, Chi Yan invited us to go watch his school's ball game next week. Do you guys want to go?"
The three girls nodded eagerly. "Let's go, let's go! Hot guys! Who wouldn't want to go? It's a chance to flirt with cute boys!"
"Yeah! We definitely have to go and chat up those hotties!"
"Great then, he'll bring the tickets by tomorrow," said Chu Yang as she gathered her toiletries to shower.
Zhou Caicai asked, "So...will you be treating Chi Yan to another meal tomorrow then? Since he got you ball game tickets and all."
Chu Yang hesitated. They really had been eating out too often. "We'll see," she replied simply before hitting the showers.
Just then, a girl from next door popped in. "Hey, has anyone in your dorm lost anything?"
"No, why do you ask?"
The girl pointed at their clothes hanging on the balcony. "I'm talking about those things. They're definitely all still there?"
Jin Yang shook her head in confusion. "Yeah, nothing missing. What's up?"
The visitor explained, "Apparently multiple dorms are reporting missing bras and panties that they had hung out to dry. At first people figured they must've blown away in the wind and didn't think much of it. But when we started chatting, a bunch of us realized items were stolen from our laundry! Can you believe it - our school has some perverted panty thief!"
The three roommates reacted in shock. "No way! There's really some creep stealing girl's underwear here? Did you report it to the dorm manager? She should check the surveillance footage," suggested Jin Yang.
"Yeah, it's already been reported and they're investigating. No incidents on the higher floors yet, just the lower level dorms."
Zhou Caicai asked incredulously, "But how? We're on the third floor. That's so high up!"
"The creep probably used a stick or grabber tool or something. I don't really know the details, just wanted you guys to be aware. It's not a huge deal to have some underwear stolen, just feels super disgusting and violating," said the visitor with a shudder.
Qian Xin already looked nauseated. "Ugggh, gross!"
Chu Yang had just finished her shower and caught the tail end of the conversation. "What's going on?" she asked.
Jin Yang quickly filled her in on the dorm's panty thief. Chu Yang took a glance at their balcony clothesline. "Let's hang our delicates downstairs from now on instead of on the balcony. We can buy a drying rack tomorrow too."
The other girls readily agreed that was a good idea.
"Yeah, our dorm should pick up a drying rack as well and do the same," added the visitor.
That night as they got ready for bed, the underwear thief was still the hot gossip topic.
"Who do you think the nasty perv is? There's no way it could be one of those boys from the dorm across ours right?? This is supposed to be a prestigious institution of higher learning! I can't believe there are students that disgusting here," said Qian Xin.
"Morals and education level are separate things. There are messed up people everywhere in this world," Zhou Caicai chimed in. "Get this - back in my hometown, everyone thought this guy was a standup dude, always helping out neighbors in need. Turns out he was actually an escaped fugitive! You honestly never know."
Jin Yang added, "I hope campus security catches the creep soon. Probably isn't even a student, could be some rando off the streets. Our school security isn't that tight."
"Good point, definitely could be some outsider," Zhou Caicai agreed. "In any case, we're on the third floor so should be fine. Let's just get some rest and hopefully they'll have caught him by tomorrow!"
"Ugh just the thought of that creep makes me want to hurl. Please catch him quick!"
The next day, the girls from next door popped in again. "So get this - apparently underwear's been stolen from another dorm building too!"
"Are you freaking kidding me?? What a complete psycho!"
"When will they finally arrest this perv?"
"They need to call the cops asap!"
"Seriously!"
As they headed to class, the boys had caught wind of the situation too. "Hey, we heard you girls got some sicko panty snatcher over there?"
The girls unanimously made disgusted faces. "Eww..."
"It better not be one of you guys!" someone accused.
The boy held up his hands defensively. "Don't look at me! That's nasty, man. Any dude who does something that messed up makes the rest of us men look bad!"
Qian Xin gave him a thumbs up. "Good answer!" They continued dissecting the scandal all the way to class.
That afternoon when Chi Yan arrived to pick up Chu Yang, he overheard the girls outside her dorm gossiping. After she came downstairs and handed him the tickets, he asked about the dorm pervert he'd heard about.
As Chu Yang passed him an apple instead of offering to treat him to dinner, she replied, "Yeah, some creep stealing underwear. Super gross."
Chi Yan pocketed the apple and hesitated before asking carefully, "Has it...affected your dorm at all?"
Chu Yang shook her head. "We're fine on the third floor." She didn't bother using her powers to predict when the thief might show up or get caught either. The dorm manager had assured it would resolved within two days.
Hearing Chu Yang's dorm was safe, Chi Yan felt relieved. "Okay, I better head back. See you next week!"
"See ya!" Chu Yang returned upstairs and distributed the tickets to her eager roommates.
Jin Yang immediately started rifling through her closet. "I need to pick out an outfit for the game right now!"
"Oooh good idea, me too!" exclaimed Zhou Caicai.
As the girls obsessed over what to wear, Chu Yang understood their excitement over eye candy, even if she found it a bit silly herself. Crushes were par for the course at their age after all.
Two hours later though, Jin Yang sighed in defeat. "On second thought, I have nothing to wear. Let's go shopping one of these days to pick up some new clothes!"
Qian Xin's hand shot up in agreement. "Yeah, great idea! How about the day after tomorrow? We're free in the afternoon."
Everyone concurred on the shopping date. Chu Yang eyed the piles of clothes her roommates had tossed around and thought to herself wryly, So this is what they consider having nothing to wear...
Still, she didn't object and had to admit her own wardrobe was pretty sparse, wearing the same few outfits on rotation.
When Chi Yan got back to his dorm room, his buddies Wei Feng and Yuan Zhi asked curiously, "You're back so early? No dinner today?"
Chi Yan pulled out the apple Chu Yang had given him. "Nope, just dropped off the tickets and came right back." She hadn't mentioned getting food either, probably because of that underwear thief business going down in the girls' dorms.
Seeing the lone apple, Wei Feng consoled, "Well the apple's still a nice gesture at least."
Chi Yan didn't actually feel too bothered about it as he put the fruit away. "Yeah, seems they've got some dorm pervert stealing girls' panties over there."
Wei Feng and Yuan Zhi reacted in surprise. "Whoa, what? Stealing underwear to do what with though? Wear them?? Is the dude that broke he can't afford his own clothes?" Wei Feng scratched his head in confusion.
Yuan Zhi stroked his chin thoughtfully. "I assume it was a certain type of intimate clothing?"
Chi Yan nodded. "Presumably."
