Work Text:
“Surprise!”
Wang Yibo’s eyes widened when he stepped foot off the airplane and saw the world’s most beautiful human being smiling at him. “Zhan-ge? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?” He automatically began smiling too, wanting to pull Xiao Zhan into a hug but aware of his entourage piling out behind him into the VIP tunnel.
Xiao Zhan laughed. “Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?” He didn’t reach for Wang Yibo either, waving and greeting each member of his team by name as Wang Yibo exchanged nods with Xiao Zhan’s bodyguard who had clearly accompanied him here.
“Are you transferring here or something?” Wang Yibo asked once they’d both done their greetings and the entire group began heading out of the VIP tunnel. “Aren’t you filming in Hengdian?”
Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes. “Wow, I can’t even surprise my boyfriend without him being so suspicious?” he said. “I worked it out with the filming schedule to take a couple of days off.”
Wang Yibo raised both eyebrows at Xiao Zhan. “You? Xiao Zhan? The Xiao-laoshi who’s so professional and serious that he doesn’t ever trouble others?”
Xiao Zhan’s ears went a little red and he shoved him. “You’re so annoying, Wang Yibo,” he said. “See if I ever try to surprise you again.”
Wang Yibo grinned, reaching out to catch his wrist, wrestling him until he caught Xiao Zhan by the hand and twined their fingers together. “So what are you visiting me for?” he asked. “You missed me already? It’s only been a week.”
Between the two of them, it was usually Wang Yibo who would sometimes impulse visit Xiao Zhan when there was a gap in his schedule or they were in close enough cities that a short visit didn't disrupt his own schedule. He used to do it more often when they'd first started dating and weren't so busy. Once their schedules grew increasingly packed and far more eyes were on them, it got much more difficult and they'd fought a few times when he insisted on visiting Xiao Zhan. So it was doubly a surprise that Xiao Zhan had scheduled time off to come see him despite it having been only around a week since they last saw each other.
“It’s not cause I missed you,” Xiao Zhan said, going a deeper shade of red. Even after three years of dating, he was really too easy to embarrass and too cute.
“I missed you,” Wang Yibo said. “I miss Zhan-ge if I don’t see you for an hour.”
Xiao Zhan faked gagging. “We’ve been dating for so long now, why are you still like this?”
“If you don’t want me to be like this, stop being so cute,” Wang Yibo said, holding on tighter when Xiao Zhan tried to pull his wrist away.
“You are so gross!” Xiao Zhan accused, struggling harder. “Honestly, you really completely gave up on your cool guy persona.”
“Worth it for—”
“All our teams are ignoring us, Yibo,” Xiao Zhan hissed.
Indeed, instead of surrounding them in protection as was the usual, both teams had moved on ahead, chatting with each other familiarly and completely ignoring the two of them.
“So what? I see my guys more than I see you,” Wang Yibo said with a shrug, but stopped harassing Xiao Zhan as they caught up to the others. “But really, why are you here?”
Xiao Zhan sighed. “You’re filming Street Dance again tomorrow, aren’t you? I thought it would be fun to come support you… like last year…” He nudged Wang Yibo’s arm with his own, and if there weren’t technically in public, Wang Yibo would want to reach for his hand again.
Last year at the time he started filming Street Dance of China 3, Xiao Zhan was still in the thick of his PR nightmare. He’d only been cast in a couple of government-sponsored shows so secretive that his name wasn’t dropped until right before airing, and most of Xiao Zhan’s time was taken up by conference calls with various teams and lawyers. So with so much spare time, he’d spent a good chunk of it running around with Wang Yibo, tagging along on his trips to Shanghai for Street Dance of China 3 or visiting him in Changsha for Day Day Up. As it had been hard watching Xiao Zhan go through so much difficulty in his career through no fault of his own, Wang Yibo couldn’t deny that it was a silver lining he really enjoyed to have Xiao Zhan around so much.
“You had that much fun?” Wang Yibo asked, grinning at him.
“I liked watching you have fun,” Xiao Zhan said, smiling back at them as they reached the car and ducked into the same black van. He waved goodbye at his bodyguard and Wang Yibo raised an eyebrow.
“He’s not coming?”
“Your bodyguards are here. I gave him the day off,” Xiao Zhan said.
“Wow,” Wang Yibo said, nudging Xiao Zhan to the back of the van so they could share a bench. “Since when are my bodyguards your bodyguards?”
“Ask Lele any day who he’s in charge of protecting,” Xiao Zhan said.
Wang Yibo grinned and leaned in to kiss him in the privacy of the back of the van, and was happy to feel Xiao Zhan melt against him, obviously in a cuddly mood. Even before they started dating, Wang Yibo was the only one that Xiao Zhan ever complained to or whined to or demanded things from like he was pushing Wang Yibo to see exactly how much he could get away with. Wang Yibo, naturally, let Xiao Zhan get away with everything no matter how troublesome sometimes whether it was making his assistant stand in line for hours for a reservation to a restaurant or mashing up iced drinks for him by hand or telling his personal bodyguard that his priority was taking care of Xiao Zhan regardless of who was paying him. Despite spending more time apart than together, Xiao Zhan was still dating him after three years and had flown all the way from Hengdian to Shanghai just to support him, so Wang Yibo counted it as a successful strategy.
“So how long can you stay for?” Wang Yibo asked after a few light kisses, mindful that they weren’t exactly alone and had to work with the people sitting up front for years still. He put an arm along the back of the van bench, and was happy to see Xiao Zhan settle naturally into the position, leaning into Wang Yibo.
“Two nights,” Xiao Zhan said, taking Wang Yibo’s hand that was around his shoulder to play with his fingers. “I fly out on the third morning.”
Wang Yibo sighed and pouted.
Xiao Zhan laughed. “What? Not enough? It’s not that bad—how many times have we only had a few hours in the airport?”
“But compared to last year…” Wang Yibo said.
Xiao Zhan smiled. “Compared to last year, you have a lot more experience,” he said gently. “And a lot more support. Pretty sure the PDs love you, Mr. Up-For-Anything.”
Although Wang Yibo came off as cold on the first meeting—not the friendliest or best at small talk—in the end, he was the only captain who was down to try any type of challenge thrown at him.
“You’re the only support I care about,” Wang Yibo said.
“You’ll do great,” Xiao Zhan said, leaning back to smile at him. “A lot of dancers didn’t know you last year. Now you’re tied with some of the most experienced, skilled dancers who appeared on that show. They’ll at least recognize you as the one Bouboo is friends with.”
“He’s a skill level all his own,” Wang Yibo said, but couldn’t help grinning, already excited at the thought of learning from Bouboo again. “A lot of other good guys are coming this year—GOGO BROTHERS, Hilty&Bosch, some of Bouboo’s dancer friends from France too…” This year, Wang Yibo was actually more excited than last year primarily on account of the dancers they’d contracted. Ever since Street Dance of China 3 had exploded in popularity, far overtaking Seasons 1 & 2, the producers had already begun plotting out Season 4, and as the international dancers—in part due to Wang Yibo’s own enthusiasm for Bouboo—they’d gone and gathered a bunch of internationally known dancers from various different countries to participate. It meant a lot more of Wang Yibo’s dancer idols were going to be there, and a lot more opportunities to learn from them.
“You don’t regret signing on now, huh,” Xiao Zhan teased.
“Weren’t you the one who was worried about it?” Wang Yibo said.
Originally, though Wang Yibo had been happy that his team had won the third season in the end, even for someone as competitive as Wang Yibo, those last few episodes of filming had gotten increasingly stressful. Along with his already packed schedule, he’d considered whether or not to join another season of the variety show. He knew that he was a viewer-puller for the producers—despite the popularity of the other captains, Wang Yibo’s current popularity continued to surpass them. Yuehua also wanted him to go as it was a safe bet—if he attended that show, it would certainly do well and be good for both his own popularity and the show’s popularity. Wang Yibo had originally wanted to try more new things while he had so many open doors. Xiao Zhan had been forced to take a more unconventional path last year, accepting more government-sanctioned projects so the antis would be forced to take a step back, deciding to try out theatre acting, so on and so forth. Wang Yibo didn’t want the same career path as Xiao Zhan, but he also wanted to challenge himself. Everyone in the industry knew that popularity came and went—he wouldn’t always have this many open doors so he wanted to try as many new things now while he could.
But in the end, between the pressure of his company and the allure of meeting internationally-renowned dancers that Wang Yibo had followed since childhood, he’d agreed to return to the show.
Xiao Zhan, who was usually pretty supportive of Wang Yibo’s projects, though, had actually been a little concerned when Wang Yibo first told him.
“You’re really going to return?” Xiao Zhan had asked as they lounged on the couch, both too lazy to get up to do the dishes and on their cellphones.
“Yeah,” Wang Yibo said, holding his phone out to show Xiao Zhan the confirmation he just got from his manager. “I didn’t like all of it, but it was still fun and I got to dance a lot,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of international stars this time around, I heard.”
Xiao Zhan pursed his lips. “But aren’t you worried?” he asked.
“About what?” Wang Yibo asked, looking over at him.
Xiao Zhan sighed and leaned back into Wang Yibo’s space. “I just mean you won once already,” he said. “Don’t you remember their scripting last year?”
Last year, Wang Yibo had been the youngest captain and less well-known by the older demographic of competitors. At the time, though he’d achieved explosive popularity in 2019 with The Untamed, his popularity and skill had still been in question whether it was here to stay or not. For the other three captains, they were well-established in the entertainment industry already. Zhong Hanliang, as a last minute addition and a veteran had to be respected, and so Wang Yibo had been assigned to lose the first showcase.
“Yeah, but everyone knows me now,” Wang Yibo said. “I’ve already won once too—I think a few of my previous teammates are planning to participate again so I don’t think I’d be the least popular captain.”
Xiao Zhan snorted. “I’m not talking about that—I’m saying the producers,” he said. “Think about it—they always go for a narrative. You started with a redemption arc—”
“You are such a nerd,” Wang Yibo said.
Xiao Zhan shoved him. “You don’t hear me complaining about your neanderthal ways—”
“You just yelled at me this morning for drinking milk straight from the bottle,” Wang Yibo said.
“Because it’s disgusting and unsanitary—even a neanderthal would know better,” Xiao Zhan said.
“I was finishing off the bottle,” Wang Yibo argued. “That’s less dishes to do.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not disgusting.” Xiao Zhan smacked him. “Anyway, I just mean they probably won’t want you to win again,” he said. “So don’t get too discouraged if it doesn’t happen.”
“I won’t, I won’t,” Wang Yibo said. “Anyway, they tried to get me to lose last year and I still won. I think Bouboo would still choose me.”
Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes but he was smiling. “Sometimes I don’t know if I admire your confidence or if you’re just super annoying.”
“It’s called persistence and hard work,” Wang Yibo said and grinned. “It got me you, didn’t it?”
Xiao Zhan made a face at him. “So super annoying, it is.”
“Super annoying?” Wang Yibo said, reaching over to grab him as Xiao Zhan tried to wriggle out of his grasp. “Who’s super annoying?”
Xiao Zhan squealed as Wang Yibo pounced.
As the first few filmings were relatively relaxed, Wang Yibo wasn’t overly concerned about any weird script the producers might have come up with. They’d been told that the program was going to change quite a bit this year from the usual format, but either way, the real competition wouldn’t begin for another few filmings yet so now was the time to meet some more dancers and play.
In fact, Wang Yibo’s biggest concern was that no one had better come looking for him in his dressing room and had even posted his bodyguard outside to keep a look out. After a short discussion in which his manager took Xiao Zhan’s side—honestly, Wang Yibo didn’t know what black magic Xiao Zhan had worked on their teams that even though Wang Yibo was the one who sent the most amount of red envelopes, they always unfailingly took Xiao Zhan’s side in things—they’d reassured them both that Wang Yibo’s security was super tight and then smuggled Xiao Zhan in as a makeup artist in disguise.
“You know for someone who bans me from visiting you on set, you sure are a hypocrite,” Wang Yibo commented, once the door shut and they unmasked themselves.
Xiao Zhan’s eyes sparkled with mischief the way they did anytime he got away with something he wasn’t supposed to. “That’s because you don’t get permission from anyone,” he said. “I asked you nicely.”
“Our managers—not me,” Wang Yibo pointed out.
“Exactly,” Wang Yibo’s manager said.
“Hey, don’t forget I’m the one paying you,” Wang Yibo said to his manager.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he pays you,” Xiao Zhan said cheerily.
“And that’s why we’re on his side,” Wang Yibo’s manager said with a grin and clapped Wang Yibo on the shoulder. “All right, start getting ready. I need to get a video feed connected for Xiao-laoshi.”
“It’s fine if it’s too troublesome,” Xiao Zhan said.
“It should be fine. They’ll have video and sound hooked up anyway, but it might depend on the internet connection here,” Wang Yibo’s manager said.
“Whatever works. I don’t want to trouble anyone too much,” Xiao Zhan said with a sweet smile.
“Thanks, Xiao-laoshi,” Wang Yibo’s manager said.
Wang Yibo sighed. “Suck up,” he said.
Xiao Zhan bared his teeth at him. “It’s called being considerate,” he said.
“It’s called my whole team spoils you,” Wang Yibo answered as his stylist handed him the outfit of the day and pushed him behind the privacy screen in the back end of the room to change. “This outfit is awesome,” he said as he came back out. “The design world really lost a big talent when Zhan-ge debuted.”
Xiao Zhan laughed. “I just designed your cute little baby panther mascot—”
“Do you have to say it like that?” Wang Yibo sighed. “It’s cool!”
“Cute baby panther,” Xiao Zhan said, eyes sparkling. “The clothes design was all your team.”
“Xiao-laoshi is too modest. Even the Little Prince Scarf was your idea,” his stylist said as Xiao Zhan reached forward to adjust the black scarf around Wang Yibo’s neck.
“I look cool, right?” Wang Yibo demanded.
“Cool, cool, so cool,” Xiao Zhan said dismissively as he continued to adjust Wang Yibo’s outfit like he was his personal stylist. In fact, Wang Yibo had liked the little panther mascot that Xiao Zhan designed for him so much last year that he’d asked if they could make a real outfit based on it. While it wasn’t an exact copy of the outfit, they’d done a pretty decent job, and apart from his motorcycle suit that was entirely designed by Xiao Zhan, it was his favorite outfit.
“Want a go at his makeup, Xiao-laoshi?” Wang Yibo’s stylist asked.
Xiao Zhan laughed and waved his hands. “I don’t know how to apply makeup.”
“Give it a try,” the stylist said, putting his makeup bag into Xiao Zhan’s hands.
“Yeah, Xiao-laoshi’s an artist. It’s pretty similar, right?” Wang Yibo’s assistant chimed in.
“Yeah, how hard could it be?” Wang Yibo said.
Xiao Zhan laughed. “Oh? You dare let me do your makeup?”
“Of course,” Wang Yibo said, dropping into the styling chair in front of the dresser and spreading open his arms. “Make me look cool.”
Xiao Zhan raised an eyebrow, that mischievous smile sliding back onto his face as he reached for something in the bag. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Lao Wang,” he said.
“Wow, Xiao-laoshi is personally applying my makeup,” Wang Yibo said loudly.
“Shush you, do you want other people to come in?” Xiao Zhan flicked him on the chin and then tilted it up to begin drawing. His fingers were smooth and warm, gentle on his face, and the more he drew, the more Xiao Zhan grinned.
After a moment, Wang Yibo’s stylist couldn’t resist the curiosity, coming over to take a look before he coughed.
“What is it? What did he draw?” Wang Yibo asked.
His assistant, drinking from a bottle of water, took one look and choked before bursting out into laughter as his stylist pounded him on the back. “Wow, very handsome,” his assistant said, sending a thumb’s up.
“What? What do I look like?” Wang Yibo asked as Xiao Zhan started laughing too.
Wang Yibo pushed him aside to look at the mirror dresser only to see that Xiao Zhan had shaded in two huge eyebrows on him.
Wang Yibo snorted. “Really? This is how you want me to go out there?”
“You look cool. You know in manhua, handsome guys all have thick eyebrows,” Xiao Zhan said. “Your favorite Zoro’s got thick eyebrows.”
Wang Yibo raised one enormous eyebrow, and Xiao Zhan burst out laughing so hard he began to tear up. So Wang Yibo raised the other enormous eyebrow.
Xiao Zhan wheezed.
Wang Yibo began waggling his eyebrows as much as he could until Xiao Zhan was gasping for breath, holding onto Wang Yibo for balance. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry Lao Wang,” he wheezed. “I’ll wipe it off for you.”
“No wait, we need to take photos!” Wang Yibo’s assistant said, and before Wang Yibo knew it, he was having blackmail photos snapped.
“Wait, wait, one more,” Xiao Zhan requested when Wang Yibo reached for the makeup wipes. “I have to send this to Ayi.”
“No,” Wang Yibo said.
“Please?” Xiao Zhan pouted—entirely unconvincing when he was still red from laughing so hard. “Aww, so cute,” he teased when Wang Yibo let him snap photos. “I’m going to set this as our chat background.”
“Just you watch out tonight,” Wang Yibo said.
“You’ve set so many photos of me, it’s only fair,” Xiao Zhan said.
“It’s an empty threat. They have their first competitions tomorrow so Yibo probably won’t get back until very late,” Wang Yibo’s assistant said.
“Whose side are you on?” Wang Yibo said.
“Xiao-laoshi,” his assistant answered without missing a beat.
Xiao Zhan beamed and took another photo even Wang Yibo began to wipe off the ridiculous eyebrows. “You really have to work late though? It’s only the first day.”
“Go back to the hotel to sleep first after we’re done filming,” Wang Yibo said. “Or earlier if you get tired.”
Xiao Zhan pouted. “But I want to eat with you. It’s tradition.”
Last year, for the first few filmings, Xiao Zhan had been with Wang Yibo and ordered food to the hotel to eat with WAng Yibo when he got back after long hours spent on site. Looking back now, it had been tiring but Wang Yibo had never been as happy as when he knew Xiao Zhan was waiting for him when he got off work with hot food.
Wang Yibo honestly didn’t know what he’d done in his past life to get Xiao Zhan as he wrapped a hand around Xiao Zhan’s waist. “Zhan-ge loves me so much.”
Xiao Zhan shoved him and made a face. “Why are you like this?”
“Because Zhan-ge loves didi so much,” Wang Yibo said, grinning from ear-to-ear as Xiao Zhan began shoving him. “The theme this year is Battle for Peace,” he said. “You can’t abuse me.”
“Abuse? I’ll show you abuse—”
They dissolved into mock-wrestling as Wang Yibo caught Xiao Zhan’s wrists, laughing as Xiao Zhan tried—not very hard—to escape his grip.
In the end, Wang Yibo was in an even more excited mood than usual when he finally made his way out of his dressing room with instructions to his assistants and bodyguards to stay put and protect Xiao Zhan.
“Work hard! We’re cheering for you,” Xiao Zhan said as Wang Yibo got up to leave.
“With Zhan-ge here, I’ll definitely do great,” Wang Yibo said, sneaking a quick kiss and ignoring all the groans from his staff, casually flipping them off before he left.
So long story short, Wang Yibo had completely forgotten about Xiao Zhan’s warning to him until he saw the script.
“All right, so then Henry says—”
“Uh… Yibo, you’ve already won once so go easy on me…” Henry Lau read out loud the short script that Producer Wang had handed the four of them upon walking in.
“Okay, and as you’re saying that, reach for the cilantro,” Producer Wang instructed. “And once Henry reaches for it, Yibo, you fight him off and say ‘Not the cilantro.’”
The chubby PD from last year looked very proud of himself as he grinned at Wang Yibo. “It’ll be funny. All your fans know how much you like it,” he said.
Apparently, Street Dance of China Season 3 had made so much money last year that the budget for Season 4 had gone through the roof and the elaborate set showed. It seemed the PD wanted to film an entire short film for the intro. Wang Yibo had been selected to start off the sequence by a short dance-fight with some masked people, and receive a “challenge” plaque. He’d meet with Han Geng upon entering an “inn” where all the competitors performed a short sequence, and then the two would meet with Zhang Yixing and Henry Lau would show up last.
“And after that, we’ll go into the performances which we’ll cut in later,” the PD continued cheerfully. “Then the internationals show up and you guys welcome them because it’s a Battle for Peace. Got it? So review the script—we’ll do the first take in a few minutes. Let me go check on the internationals.” He rushed off to give the international dancers their instructions in English to be doubly translated by anyone who wasn’t good enough at English to understand it.
Han Geng looked mildly amused the way he always did and reached over to pat Wang Yibo on the back. “Looks like you’re the main villain this year.”
That confirmed Wang Yibo’s suspicions after he’d skimmed the script. If Xiao Zhan hadn’t warned him earlier, he probably wouldn’t have noticed but now Han Geng was confirming it too.
“Huh? Yibo?” Henry Lau looked surprised on Wang Yibo’s other side. “But you’re a team captain. Don’t they usually pick a dancer for that?”
“Usually,” Han Geng said. “They still might have something in mind, but Yibo’s the only one whose team won so far,” he said. “Looks like they want us to challenge you for the championship.”
Last year, Bouboo had been made out to be the undefeatable dancer—that final boss that the dancers would have to defeat if they wanted the championship for the “narrative,” as Xiao Zhan called it. Naturally, a show called Street Dance of China would never let a non-Chinese person win, and as Wang Yibo had suspected, they had rigged things so that Bouboo was doomed to lose before the finals when they pitted his team of children backup dancers against Yang Kai’s team of adults so that Wang Yibo couldn’t have two teammates advancing to the final dance battle, and that the one from Wang Yibo’s team was more likely to lose though Yang Kai’s endurance had ended up surprising everyone including Wang Yibo. But this year, there were other talented internationals here, so apparently, they’d decided to make Wang Yibo the big boss this time around. He was the youngest and least friendly of the group, and had already taken a win last year so, thinking about it, if they wanted a so-called bad guy, then he was the obvious pick.
“It won’t be that bad. It’s Battle for Peace this year, isn’t it?” Zhang Yixing said.
“Well, we’ll see what the producer has planned,” Han Geng said, rolling his shoulders and smiled. “Don’t worry, Yibo. They can’t take it too far.”
Wang Yibo didn’t entirely know how to respond so he just nodded and stayed silent.
“Is this…” Henry looked around them. “Is this normal?” he asked. “The uh, big boss and everything.”
“That part’s normal, but not sure about the format. Looks like they’re making some changes,” Han Geng said. “But it’s still fun.”
“Yeah, Yibo’s not as quiet and intimidating as you think,” Zhang Yixing said, grinning at Wang Yibo.
“Are you really that into cilantro?” Henry whispered as the PD came back.
Zhang Yixing and Han Geng both burst out laughing.
Wang Yibo’s ears turned red and he gestured to the cilantro with both hands. “Please help yourself,” he said.
Henry Lau laughed and clapped him on the shoulder.
The PD came back just then. “So ready for a first run?” he said. “Let’s start from the beginning with Han Geng and Yibo.”
It was a pretty easy and short script and they got through the whole thing in just a few takes, and then they all took a short break for outfit changes.
“Who’s right?” Xiao Zhan demanded as soon as Wang Yibo walked into the dressing room. “I told you they had a script for you! I told you so!”
“Who’s being annoying now?” Wang Yibo said after making sure the door was shut tight behind him. His stylist and assistant had both left—one to pick up Wang Yibo’s new change of clothes and the other to bring Xiao Zhan some water.
“How dare you call me annoying when I’m right ,” Xiao Zhan said. “They’re making you the big boss!”
“Well, there’s nothing I can do,” Wang Yibo said. “They probably can’t take it too far, right? I mean, the dancers in my alley will still have a good chance.”
At least in the beginning last year, he’d lost but won back a few towels so things hadn’t been too uneven. After they’d formed teams, each team had taken turns losing very badly one round so that by the time of the semi-finals, the numbers had basically evened out.
Himself aside, he didn’t want his team to feel like they’d been singled out.
He heard a sigh and then Xiao Zhan’s slim fingers were combing through his hair. “It’ll be alright,” he said. “They want a narrative but thanks to our Yibo’s popularity, they won’t dare to go too far or fans might protest. We have international guests this time too—they won’t want to offend anyone. They’ll probably just rig things so that everyone’s fairly even up to the end.” He sighed. “I just don’t like seeing them pick on our family’s Yibo because you’re so talented and cool.”
Wang Yibo felt a little relieved hearing him say that. “Then it’s fine I have always wanted to play a villain. Guess I’m getting the chance before you.”
“As yourself though,” Xiao Zhan said but when Wang Yibo looked up at him, he was smiling.
“I’ll definitely win again,” Wang Yibo said. “I have Zhan-ge’s support. My best good luck charm.”
“Don’t jinx it,” Xao Zhan said, smacking his hand over Wang Yibo’s mouth.
“Uh…” Wang Yibo’s stylist returned just then and held out Wang Yibo’s outfit. “I’ll wait outside.”
“We’re not—” Xiao Zhan protested but the stylist had already slammed the door behind him.
Wang Yibo laughed. “Look what you did.”
“What I did?” Xiao Zhan demanded and made a shooing motion at him. “Hurry and go get changed.”
“So eager to see me naked?” Wang Yibo said, grabbing the clothes and going for the privacy screen.
Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes. “Pervert,” he said. “The dancers this year really are pretty good, right?” he asked.
“A lot of the internationals, yeah,” Wang Yibo said as he changed. “I’ve been following some of them since I started learning how to street dance so it’s pretty cool to see them in real life.”
“Another good opportunity for you to learn and collaborate?” Xiao Zhan commented.
“Any of them you want to meet?” Wang Yibo asked.
“I can’t dance like you do,” Xiao Zhan said. “It’s hard enough for me to learn and memorize moves as is.”
“I don’t know, I’d say you’re pretty good at partner dances” Wang Yibo said, straightening his shirt to walk back out and smirk at Xiao Zhan. “Your straddle is pretty sexy.”
Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes at him. “You don’t even like ballroom,” he said.
“Yeah, I like the bedroom,” Wang Yibo said in English getting a shove but also snort of laughter from Xiao Zhan.
Honestly, Xiao Zhan was so easy to make laugh and Wang Yibo loved it. “Go, go, go—if you’re going to be a bad guy, see how good a team you can make,” he said.
“Kiss for good luck?” Wang Yibo waggled his eyebrows.
“You’re only getting the team members, you’re not even competing today so don’t pretend,” Xiao Zhan shoved him again.
“Kiss then?” Wang Yibo said, looking extra pitiful.
“This is why people call you a pig,” Xiao Zhan said and as Wang Yibo glared at him, leaned in for a quick kiss. “Now go,” he said. “Hurry it up. I’m getting hungry.”
“Ah right, it’s getting late—what do you want to eat?”
“I can wait until you’re done,” Xiao Zhan said.
“What was that bakery you liked last time? The French one?” Wang Yibo said.
“Stop, Yibo, I can’t gain more weight. My fans are going to start calling me fat—”
Wang Yibo opened the door, startling the bodyguards, assistant, and stylist all hanging out in the hallway. “Get Zhan-ge ten breads from that bakery he liked last time,” Wang Yibo said.
“No!” Xiao Zhan protested.
“Also go to whatever’s a popular restaurant here and buy dinner for my contestants—there’ll be 25 of them once we’re done with selections,” Wang Yibo said.
“Get some variety—the foreigners especially might not be used to our food,” Xiao Zhan said.
“Good point,” Wang Yibo said. “And get extra portions for yourselves and Xiao Zhan.”
“Yibo, and I was just helping you!”
“And I’m showing appreciation,” Wang Yibo said, grinning at him. “Get food for him and those little pastries he likes.”
“Got it, boss,” Wang Yibo’s assistant said.
“Make sure he eats,” Wang Yibo ordered.
“Wang Yibo, are you a domineering CEO?” Xiao Zhan complained.
“If he starts yawning, take him back to the hotel first,” Wang Yibo continued.
“Tyrant!”
Wang Yibo turned to grin at Xiao Zhan. “I’m supposed to play the big bad boss, aren’t I?” he said and then wiped the grin off his face to narrow his eyes at his team. “Make sure he’s taken care of.”
“Yes boss!”
They were about to start selections next as Wang Yibo strode back out to the set. Bouboo had already said he wanted to introduce Wang Yibo to some of the dancers he’d brought over from France and Wang Yibo was going to see some of his old teammates from last season. Xiao Zhan had come all the way from Hengdian just to support him. Wang Yibo didn’t know exactly what the producers had planned for him, but he had the support and he wasn’t going to lose. This was going to be a battle for peace.