Shen Wei fell in love with Yunlan the moment he laid his eyes on him.
Yunlan is his inspiration. His passion. His love.
“Are you coming out with us?” Yunlan asks after they finish the shoot, even though he knows Shen Wei is going to say no.
Shen Wei never joins them for post-shoot hijinks, never really stays for longer than he has to be there.
Shen Wei looks up from where he’s crouched down, packing his equipment. “It’s really not my scene,” he tells Yunlan. And then, “I don’t drink.”
“Oh,” Yunlan says, surprised. They’ve done countless of shoots together, but Yunlan still knows so little about Shen Wei. “I never knew.”
“You never asked,” Shen Wei says, and although his tone is gentle, although Yunlan knows Shen Wei doesn’t mean to, Yunlan feels admonished.
“Come out for dinner with me, then,” Yunlan says, and knows he sounds a tad too desperate when he hears Zhu Hong snort from a couple of paces away where Wang Zheng is working on helping her remove her makeup. No matter. Once this shoot is over, God knows when he’ll be able to cross paths with Shen Wei again. The last time he missed his shot, he had to wait eight months for the next opportunity to come around. “Just you and me. No drinks involved.”
Shen Wei smiles. It’s one of those polite smiles that you give someone you don’t know very well when you’re brushing them off, and it makes Yunlan’s chest tighten to have it directed at himself.
“And let you miss out on the post-job celebrations?” Shen Wei asks mildly, shaking his head, turning his attention back to packing his camera stand. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine-”
“You don’t like me all that much, do you?” Yunlan blurts out, hurt.
Shen Wei startles at that, turns back to look at Yunlan. “Excuse me?”
“You’re always looking at me through the camera, but you don’t see me,” Yunlan manages to get out. “I’ve been so obvious! Everyone knows how I feel about you! But you don’t see it, you don’t see me!”
Shen Wei’s lips part in what looks to Yunlan to be incredulity. “Yunlan, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that I like you,” Yunlan tells him. “I like you, and I wish you’d like me back. I’m saying that I want to take you out to dinner and then walk you back home and kiss you outside your front door. I’m saying I want you to be my boyfriend, do you get it now? Do you see it now?”
Shen Wei stands up, takes one large stride towards Yunlan, and kisses him.
I understand. You found paradise in America, you had a good trade, you made a good living. The police protected you and there were courts of law. You didn’t need a friend like me. But, now you come to me, and you say: “Don Corleone, do you support this ship/kink?” But you don’t ask with respect. You don’t offer friendship. You don’t even think to call me Godfather. Instead, you come into my house on the day my daughter is to be married, and you ask me to get involved in your discourse.
Yunlan’s father is a businessman, he wants his son to be a next ceo but Yunlan only wants to make art. So he studies art. His father let’s him, with one condition. He will marry with Shen Wei.
Shen Wei is a strong willed man. He is determined to make this marriage work.
Ooooh I absolutely love the idea of this. But listen, what if Yun Lan and Shen Wei’s families have been rivals since they’re young? Yun Lan did not know of this but Shen Wei has always been in love with the Zhao’s family heir. So when Yun Lan’s father puts forth a business proposal to join both families together, Shen Wei jumps at the chance with a condition that he lets Yun Lan to pursue his Bachelor Degree in Fine Arts.
The terms and conditions of the arranged marriage are drawn and signed behind closed doors so not even Yun Lan is privy to its dealings. Not that he even cares. He can’t believe that his father has sold him off like a prized cow to a man 10 years his senior! The absurdity of it makes Yun Lan wants to laugh and get stupidly drunk. Stupid Shen Wei. Who does this man think he is? Galloping into his life and trying to take over everything? He hates him already and he’s supposed to marry this guy? Oh damn it to hell.
Zhao Yunlan really tries to be upset about the whole situation -he acts out during the wedding reception, gets too drunk and too rowdy, avoids Shen Wei like the plague every chance he can- and to hate Shen Wei for agreeing to this whole farce of a marriage to begin with. He really does!
But Shen Wei… Shen Wei is not what Yunlan’d expected him to be.
Shen Wei is nice and sweet and takes care of Yunlan, never expecting Yunlan to reciprocate. He makes Yunlan food, and buys Yunlan random art supplies because he just happened to see them. He’s respectful of Yunlan’s personal boundaries, and respects his choice to continue studying art. That one time Yunlan came home drunk after a night out with Da Qing and Lin Jing, Shen Wei’d carried Yunlan to his room, tucked him into bed, and left a glass of water and an advil on the bedside table for Yunlan!
It’s almost inevitable that Yunlan develops a crush on his own husband, really. What was the universe expecting?
Recently, Yunlan’s taken to sketching Shen Wei in his free time. It’s really not his fault, he swears. He still hates Shen Wei on principal, he promises. It’s just… Shen Wei has a really beautiful face, and Yunlan is an artist. Surely, surely he has to try to record the beauty of Shen Wei’s features for posterity, right?
And if he occasionally dreams about being able to tenderly kiss Shen Wei’s eyelids and see for himself just how long Shen Wei’s eyelashes are up close, about skimming his lips over the curve of Shen Wei’s cheekbones, about being able to nip gently at Shen Wei’s lips… That’s just for him, and no-one else, to know.
Shen Wei finds one of Yunlan’s sketches that he’s accidentally left out on the coffee table one day, and Yunlan almost dies of mortification.
He feels…off-kilter now when he’s with Shen Wei; most days he feels like he’s just balancing on the edge of either blurting out his very embarrassing crush to Shen Wei, or dying because he can’t tell Shen Wei about his very embarrassing crush on him.
“You’ve been drawing me?” Shen Wei asks, surprised.
Yunlan can feel his cheeks heat. “I was just getting some practice in,” he mumbles.
“It’s very well-drawn,” Shen Wei says kindly, flashing Yunlan one of those small, soft smiles that Yunlan keeps trying and failing to successfully draw.
Yunlan perks up at the praise, and forgets to be embarrassed about how his crush on Shen Wei must be so obvious to the latter now. “You really think so?” he asks.
Shen Wei nods. “May I keep this?” he asks Yunlan.
“Oh, of course! But this isn’t even the best one. I’ve got a couple of others, if you want to choose a better piece,” Yunlan blurts out, and then freezes and averts his eyes, because why would he say that. “I just mean- You’re very easy to draw, so I’ve been- Not that your features aren’t distinct and delicate or anything, I just mean-” Yunlan wants the ground to open up and swallow him alive, honestly. “I just think you’re beautiful,” he says in a rush, miserably.
“Yunlan,” Shen Wei says, gently tipping Yunlan’s chin up. The look in Shen Wei’s eyes is so fond that Yunlan thinks he forgets how to breath. “Zhao Yunlan, I think you’re beautiful too.”
please make sure that wherever you’re at in life, you don’t treat it like a transitory period. don’t waste your college years wishing to already be graduated & have a job. don’t waste your single years wishing for someone to be in love with. if/when those things come, they will come in due time and they will be good. but there is nothing like looking back and feeling empty because you wasted literal years ignoring what you had because you were hoping for something better. while it’s important to better yourself and reach for your goals, don’t neglect the present because that’s where you are now and it’s your now that determines your future.
sarahyyy 