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ziyi once again wakes up to an empty bedroom and an almost empty dorm house. it isn’t anything serious, just that his roommate is ever so famous with an overloaded work schedule. ziyi sometimes ponders how could someone push themselves so hard and still run on 3 hours maximum of sleep. not that xukun seemed to mind, the boy was seriously in love with his fans and his work.
just like his zhengting.
ah, speaking of zhengting. it’s been a while since he’s seen his boyfriend come home. ziyi finishes cleaning up in the ensuite bathroom (perks of rooming with the leader) and heads back into the shard room to make his bed. zhengting is also a busy idol like xukun. in fact, all of the yuehua kids are, but zhengting worked twice as hard as a full time leader to his members. he was always coming in and out of the dorm with chengcheng and justin, and sometimes by himself to meet with the yuehua executives to discuss about nex7 plans.
while his zhengting is working hard, he was here doing nothing, waiting for iqiyi to debut them. ziyi is thankful enough to have one of his closest friends zhangjing by his side but he’s rarely ever seen by himself nowadays. even xiao gui is starting to warm up to linong despite a clash of their interests and personalities. xiao gui likes hiphop, nongnong prefers ballad. that didn’t matter though as xiao gui is great with everyone. he even got nongnong to play games with him when they had a day off from training.
but zhengting… ziyi misses everything about him. he remembers seeing him for the first time on the set of idol producer 9 months ago. there he was standing tall with his team, carrying the name of the biggest entertainment company of china. he remembers how everyone expressed their shock and intimidation that time, and ziyi can’t say he didn’t do the same. it wasn’t his company name, nor his sleek black uniform suit. it was his face and his aura. it was the most beautiful ziyi has ever seen. it’s as if he was enamored by the rare beauty of an angel. his angel.
cheesy as it sounds, ziyi has been watching him like a faithful dog waiting for its master to play with him while he goes to interact with other humans. it was when xukun (that little snake) decided to play a prank on him after finding ziyi spaced out while practicing for ppap. he was caught distracted by a laughing zhengting as he played around with yanchen and zhou rui.
frustrated by his lack of ‘cutesy’, ziyi buries his face in his palms, sighing out a great frustration. he hears the other members playing around in the background and one particular zhu zhengting performing a ‘3-set aegyo’ to the others. ziyi tried his hardest to look away but he was completely captivated by the boy’s profile. xukun was watching everything from the side and whisked the beauty away from the two only to place him in front of ziyi.
“hey ting ah, ziyi is also having trouble acting cute we should help him out!” ziyi was taken aback at the sudden appearance of the angel he’s been crushing on for the past month. he could see the surprise on zhengting’s face as well but brushed it away with a smile and explained to him carefully what to do.
“so i learned this in korea. even the boys there are amazing at acting cute! they call it ‘3-set aegyo’. i’ll show you how it goes.” the boy proceeds to exhibit his 3-set aegyo and even encouraged him to do the same.
“a-aingg…?” ziyi gives it a go but he was so sure his face displayed something absolutely horrific that xukun fell on the floor laughing. even zhengting went red in the face. “i give up.”
ziyi chuckles at the memory. it was like yesterday since the first time they interacted. ziyi misses the way zhengting likes to get his way with basically anyone by acting cute. ziyi also misses the way zhengting’s whole face scrunches up at the sound of something he doesn’t like. how he makes himself small when he curls up in embarrassment. how he wakes up extra early and stays up extra late to take care of the kids. how he makes ziyi feel all things at once just by being there.
zhengting pouts in exasperation. he plops down next to ziyi on his hotel bed who had his headphones on. ziyi instantly turns his music off and pokes his arm once to show he has his full attention. “i’ll never escape the cute concept.” is what he says, crossing his arms with a huff.
ziyi smiles knowingly to himself. the two have been through this before but zhengting seemed to mind it a lot and ziyi swears to always be there for his angel everytime. “what happened?”.
zhengting kicks the blanket pooling around his feet like a kid throwing a tantrum. “justin! justin is what happened!” he tells ziyi what happened in the lobby of the hotel when he took the kids to get ice cream and he got teased instead. unbeknownst to zhengting, ziyi has been grinning widely like a fool the whole time he’s been telling his story. ziyi secretly loves it when zhengting always comes up to him to complain about being cute while being cute in the process. ziyi waits a few minutes until the boy’s vented everything out and was ready to be comforted.
“c’mere.”
zhengting finally looks at ziyi and inspects his stupid grinning face. without a word, he dives into his man’s chest and takes in his scent. he feels ziyi’s arms wrap around his waist protectively and ziyi burying his face into his hair. they stay like that for a second and suddenly, all of zhengting’s frustrations are washed away.
ziyi can still feel the outline of zhengting’s body. he remembers his narrow shoulders and how firm his abs are. he remembers running his fingers through his fluffy hair, his soft hands, and his milky legs. he also knows exactly where his body dips—
ziyi snaps out of his trance when he hears a clunking sound coming from the kitchen. who would be cooking at this time? actually, who else would even be up this early as him? ziyi turns his phone off and decides to investigate the source of the sound. he goes to the kitchen nonchalantly and expects to find zhangjing rummaging through last night’s leftovers, but instead finds a familiar figure moving around in a pineapple apron.
for a second, ziyi’s heart skips a beat. then he feels his heart pick up the pace as he carefully approaches the figure with light steps. it’s been two weeks, 16 whole days of not seeing his angel properly. anticipation is in his eyes as he waits impatiently for his love to turn around and let ziyi see his face.
“baby…?”
zhengting almost drops the spatula he’s holding at the surprise of hearing a voice sneak up to him out of nowhere. he turns around and ziyi doesn’t give it a second to engulf him in a tight embrace. “wha—ziyi?”
“zhengting, baby.” ziyi is finally released of his tension as he breathes in the familiar scent of zhu zhengting.
zhengting tries to wriggle out the big baby’s tight hold at first, but he couldn’t do much with his slim frame. he opts out for his hair instead and decides between tugging on it or patting him on the head. in the end, he just stays still and waits for ziyi to get over his clinginess.
ziyi finally lets go of zhengting but not completely with his hands still resting on zhengting’s hips. zhengting scrunches his face and inspects ziyi’s face closely, before bursting out in a cute fit of giggles. ziyi reminded him so much of a dog, like his haohao from back home. zhengting puts the spatula down on the kitchen island and locks his fingers behind ziyi’s neck. his giggles slowed down to a gentle smile gracing his face and ziyi wanted nothing more than to kiss him right there and then.
they stare at each other for the longest time and the shame is starting creep up to ziyi. to save himself from embarrassment, he breaks the silence.
“uh so… where are the kids?”
zhengting doesn’t break their eye contact when he replies, “in the room. they’re sleeping. they’ve been working so hard.”
“and you?”
zhengting falters for a moment. “i’m okay.”
the two fall back in silence one again. not that they both mind though, they’re completely okay with just basking in each other’s presence after so long of not being around each other. “i missed you.”
ziyi did not expect zhengting to say it first, but it wasn’t like he doubted it anyway. he just wanted to beat him to it. “i love you.”
the sudden outburst of courage makes zhengting flush in embarrassment, but as much as he loves ziyi back he wasn’t going to humiliate himself now. so he pulls his giant boyfriend down to crash their lips together and taste him after two weeks.
ziyi responds fast and instinctively as he initiates the rhythm. in between the kiss he hears zhengting whisper back to him, “i love you too.”.