Chapter Text
+1
Shang Qinghua was a writer first and foremost and a disaster of a human being second, so he knew how to create a good setting for a confession scene. There were a couple of things he needed and a few favors he needed to ask, but in the end, he had the perfect spot. It was a perfectly good autumn day, with a golden glow of the sun and the softly falling autumn leaves right outside of the window. The other students had left, leaving only Shang Qinghua and his deskmate in the classroom. It was perfect, everything that Shang Qinghua's romantic little writer heart could wish for.
But now it was time to address the 'disaster of a human being part'
"I," come one Shang Qinghua, you can do this! Just rip off the Band-Aid and say that you like him. Don't give Shen Yuan the satisfaction of being right about him being a coward. Which he totally is, but like this would at least shut the other teen up about it. Three words, I love- no not those words, too early. Don't chase him away by acting too fast. Four words, I like you. No shit, those were three words as well. Get your shit together Shang Qinghua.
While Shang Qinghua was having his internal pep talk, he made the mistake of looking in Mobei-jun's face and all his inner rambling ended like a record scratch.
The quiet look of expectation of his gorgeous face was overwhelming.
Shang Qinghua could feel his heart rate speed up even more and his mouth dry as his nerves suddenly got the better of him. Shang Qinghua let out a strangled squeak before blurting out "I have always admired you, I'm your biggest fan!"
Fuck, not that! Shang Qinghua looked back up and tried to backtrack.
"That is uhm, I love you- your work ethic! I mean, yes exactly that! You're I mean, like, really cool and I love y- I mean y- your eh... work? I uh-"
"I got it," Mobei-jun's deep voice interrupted his ramblings. Shang Qinghua's flushed head shot up to stare open mouthed at the other teenager. Oh. Oh! Oh no! Shang Qinghua almost forgot about this part of the confession! Mobei-jun had to answer! This silence was even worse than his disaster of a confession!
To his utter bafflement, Shang Qinghua saw Mobei-jun reach for his bag. For a weapon? Is the bag itself a weapon? Did he somehow offend Mobei-jun so much with his confession that he was going to be beaten up to a pulp? (Shang Qinghua mercilessly squashed down the thought of Mobei-jun fighting being hot. He would have time to think about that later)
But no, Mobei-jun took out one of those Japanese cardboard squares that Shang Qinghua had only seen in anime and J-drama's before and a sharpie. The squeaking sound of the sharpie on the cardboard echoed in his confused brain. When Shang Qinghua somewhat realized what was going on, Mobei-jun had already finished writing with a flourish and pushed the cardboard in Shang Qinghua's sweaty hands.
"Thank you for your support."
Eh?
Is this... an autograph?
Shang Qinghua looked at the fancy calligraphy in confusion while his brains tried to catch up to what just happened. How did Mobei-jun jump to the conclusion that he wanted his autograph? Sure, he did say that he was his fan but in what world?
"No wait!" his stupid mouth shouted, why couldn't he shut up and take this loss for today? He had been humiliated enough alright! But no, he just had to make it worse. "I meant that I wanted to follow you forever!"
Noooo! That was not what he meant to say! Shang Qinghua felt his shoulders slump in despair when he realized that he would never be able to confess if this disaster continues like this. He would never be able to ask Mobei-jun out on a date, hold his hand, stare at his face without it being weird or spend more time with him.
"Then... do you want to come home with me?"
"Sure," Shang Qinghua muttered in defeat before registering what Mobei-jun asked of him. When it did, Shang Qinghua looked up at the dead serious face in a snap that practically gave him a whiplash. He wasn't sure if that was what made him slightly dizzy or the fact that he felt unable to breathe at the realization.
This- isn't this way too fast of progress? Where were the romantic dates before inviting someone to your home? The hours of getting to know each other and growing their relationship? How did they jump from handing over your signature to asking someone to asking someone to go home with you? Did that mean that Shang Qinghua is going to meet Mobei-jun's parents??? Wait Shang Qinghua did not prepare for this!
Aaah, he should have listened to Shen Yuan and written a full script before trying to confess!!!
1
It was only when they were sitting in the living room of Mobei-jun's apartment when Shang Qinghua's brains booted up again. It was all moving so fast, Shang Qinghua honestly felt like he could see the blue screen of death flickering right in front of his eyes when he tried to remember how he got here. Here being Mobei-jun's apartment. Had he mentioned that he was in Mobei-jun's apartment? Because that is where he was. How did he manage to get this far with such a disaster of a confession?
"Tea," Mobei-jun stated as he put a glass of iced tea in front of Shang Qinghua. Was it weird to serve iced tea on a cool autumn day? If it was Mobei-jun who served it no. Nothing Mobei-jun did would be weird to Shang Qinghua. No, this is fine. Iced tea would be great! Not weird at all!
"Thank you," Shang Qinghua muttered, looking at everything that was not Mobei-jun and avoiding his gaze. Maybe if he pretended to be not awkward, this heavy feeling of awkwardness would go away? Probably not, but Shang Qinghua could hope.
Mobei-jun's apartment was surprisingly sparse, apart from a couple of colorful book covers on his shelves above and around a cluttered desk there were only necessities and essential furniture pieces. It was a small place that was organized in the most efficient way to not waste any space. Even the glass with iced tea was minimal in design, like the light blue coaster it was standing on. As far as he could see, there weren't even pictures on the walls. Not of Mobei-jun, not of his parents, not of- hold on.
"Are your parents home?" Shang Qinghua asked hesitantly, unsure of what he wanted the answer to be.
"Yes, they are," Mobei-jun answered. Shang Qinghua just let out a sigh of relief when Mobei-jun destroyed the false sense of relief with the continuation of his answer, "But they're in their own home, I live alone here."
If Shang Qinghua was drinking his iced tea, it would have gotten stuck in the wrong pipe or he would have spit it out all over the table. Or, seeing how Shang Qinghua felt his jaw drop, it would simply dribble out of his mouth. Luckily for him this wasn't the case. The iced tea was still untouched, and Shang Qinghua looked less like the clown he could have been at this moment.
"It is a good thing that they're not here, but you are," Mobei-jun continued as if Shang Qinghua wasn't making a fool out of himself, "They will not be able to help like you can."
Well... that did not sound important at all, no pressure. This was just his crush admitting that he needed Shang Qinghua's help. That he chose Shang Qinghua's help over his parents' help... Shang Qinghua may be a writer, but his mind went blank when he tried to come up with any possible scenario where Mobei-jun would need his help. But after all the unexpected events of today, anything was possible. If he could be invited to his crush's home after failing a confession and getting a signature, really anything was on the table.
Despite all the internal turmoil in the rubbles of Shang Qinghua's psyche, there was one thing he could say for sure.
"I will do anything!"
"Then fill in the marked areas with black ink." Mobei-jun nodded, gesturing to a stack of paper and a set of brushes with ink.
"Ah yes", Shang Qinghua followed Mobei-jun's instructions obediently, sparing no time to think about it. With his focus on filling in the lines with black ink, the turmoil his mind slowly started to calm down. By the time he refilled the dish with new ink, Shang Qinghua felt like a new man. The inking process almost felt like meditating, or rather what Shang Qinghua imagined meditating felt like. It was surprisingly mind-numbing, huh...
...
It was only after Mobei-jun walked with him to the train station that Shang Qinghua realized that he beta-ed for a manga for five hours long. Sadly, the realization came after Shang Qinghua agreed on beta-ing for Mobei-jun for the foreseeable future.
"Give me your phone," Mobei-jun commanded, waiting patiently as Shang Qinghua scrambled to unlock his phone with trembling fingers. The corners of Mobei-jun's mouth seemed to quirk up when he saw the hamster charm dangling from his phone while Shang Qinghua put in the wrong password for the second time. But Shang Qinghua was too focused on punching in the right password to really see it. By the time he was done and handed over his unlocked phone to Mobei-jun, the other teen was back to his stoic self and acted as if no such thing happened.
Mobei-jun tapped away on Shang Qinghua's phone with no remorse. Shang Qinghua prayed to all the gods whose name he knew that Mobei-jun would not stumble across his PIDW notes or the porn that he had downloaded for references. There was no shame in being a hot-blooded seventeen-year-old boy, but with everything that happened today Shang Qinghua knew that one more hit to his psyche would actually murder him.
To his relief, Mobei-jun was more focused on typing something in his phone than swiping through pictures or reading pages upon pages of fanfiction. When Mobei-jun gave back his phone, the interface that was opened was that of his texting app. It took a little while before Shang Qinghua realized that he was looking at a mostly empty conversation between him and a new contact. A simple ❄ was the only message to his new contact: Mobei-jun ❄.
"I have your number, I will contact you," Mobei-jun said, then turned away and walked back to his apartment complex as if this wasn't the smoothest move that Shang Qinghua had ever seen in real life. With trembling hands Shang Qinghua cradled his phone to his heart and he let out a dreamy sigh.
Mobei-jun was so cool.
2
When he was ready to go back to bed in the safety of his own apartment, Shang Qinghua took the signature that Mobei-jun had given him out of his bag. It was still in perfect condition since Shang Qinghua made sure that it was put between two books to minimize damage during transport. Was it strange that his crush gave him a signature? Yes. But was he going to preserve the signature for as long as he could? Hell yes.
Shang Qinghua traced the strokes of the characters with his fingers. First the character for snow, then the character for flower. Xuehua...
Xuehua? Why would Mobei-jun sign the cardboard with this name rather than his own? And it sounded somewhat familiar too. Shang Qinghua felt like he could almost recall where he heard and saw that name before. He was still puzzled when he flipped over the cardboard square, as if the empty back of the thing had all the answers he needed. He flipped the cardboard again so he could look at the calligraphy. It was pretty nice, although not as nice as Shen Yuaaaaaaaaah!
A screeching noise echoed in Shang Qinghua's head when it all came back to him. Where he had seen and when heard the name before. During one of their beta sessions, Shen Yuan had complained about the inconsistencies of his web novel as always (in his defense, when Shang Qinghua had Shen Yuan's impeccable memory to correct all his mistakes, he didn't really have to keep track of his own plot). It was nothing new until the complaints evolved into how unrealistic the romance was between the newest wife and Zheng Yang. Shen Yuan had thrown a manga volume at his head, told him (read: commanded him) to read it and learn from it.
Shang Qinghua was still internally screaming when he rolled out of bed, ignored the pain when he hit the floor back first and got up to run to his writing desk. There! Right next to his laptop! Shang Qinghua flipped on a desk light to compare the name of Mobei-jun's signature with the name printed on the manga volume in a cheery bubblegum pink font.
An exact match...!!!??!?!?!?!!!
...
Xuehua's most famous and still ongoing series is 'A Love Letter from Chunshan' which tells the heartwarming tale of Luo Mei, also affectionally named Mei-mei in the fandom, and her antics to win over the heart of the male lead. Luo Mei is a beautiful delicate looking girl whose beauty attracts men like milkshake to the yard and yet, she remains faithful to her crush: the elegant Shen Qingqiu who was one year older than Luo Mei. She had followed him to the elite high school of Chunshan and achieved her first step of her ten-steps-to-woo-her-crush plan by asking him to tutor her.
It was a heartwarming romantic comedy of a relentless girl and an oblivious guy falling in love with one another.
And Mobei-jun was the mastermind behind that.
"Bro, are you reading shoujo manga on your shitty phone?"
"Shit!" Shang Qinghua cursed, his heartrate jumping up at the unexpected voice. He belatedly shut down the screen and placed his phone face down before shooting a weak glare at the offending party.
"What are you doing here?"
"We go to the same school, Airplane," Shen Yuan shrugged. "You're reading A Love Letter from Chunshan? I think I recognize that chapter from the third volume, you're that far along?"
"It is good," Shang Qinghua admitted, and written by Mobei-jun his brain helpfully decided to add. He had asked why no one knew about this fact and Mobei-jun simply responded by saying that no one ever believed him when he said that he was a shoujo manga artist, so Shang Qinghua was one of the few people who knew about this fact. Thinking about this fact made his heart race and an uncontrollable grin rose up to his face.
"So you're done with the volume I lent you, right? Can I get that one back? I promised to lend it out to a friend of mine."
"That younger 'friend' of yours?" Shang Qinghua asked suggestively, suddenly more invested in the conversation. He had heard Shen Yuan mention this younger friend before and it never failed to entertain him. Sure enough, there was a small flush of denial on Shen Yuan's face.
"You're in the same year as him, stop making it sound so scandalous, " he complained. "And yes, he is a romantic at heart and asked me for a recommendation."
"A romantic at heart hmm? Sounds promising."
"Speaking of romantic," Shen Yuan said, grabbing the chance to redirect the conversation with both of his desperate hands like the opportunist he was, "How did it go yesterday?"
"Shhhhhh, shut up!" Shang Qinghua whispered harshly, scrambling up his seat to block his friend's mouth. Damn his below average height and Shen Yuan's above average height. He swirled his head around to see if anyone heard it, but the students who decided to stay in the classroom seemed occupied with their own conversations.
"You really should use hand cream, Airplane, your hands are dry," Shen Yuan said when Shang Qinghua freed his mouth, looking satisfied at embarrassing Shang Qinghua more than he embarrassed him. "I'm not cruel, tell me later."
Shang Qinghua didn't acknowledge the demand, they both knew all too well that Shang Qinghua would spill sooner or later. Probably during one of their beta sessions... and knowing the monstrous size of his manuscript and Shen Yuan's reading speed, it would be sooner rather than later. But that is a problem for future Shang Qinghua to deal with. For now, they bickered a bit longer about unrelated topics (no bro, Nissin ramen is better than Indomie ramen, fight me) before Shen Yuan had to leave for his classes.
Shang Qinghua took the chance to stare at the tiny characters on his phone screen in the remaining five minutes before his own class began. Shen Yuan was right about it being the third volume, but the truth was that Shang Qinghua was already caught up with the latest chapter available on his favorite manga site. It was just...
In the fourth chapter of the third volume, Luo Mei's tentative friend Momo was introduced. She was introduced as a rival character who seemed to have a crush on Shen Qingqiu, but Luo Mei quickly found out that she only had eyes on his formerly faceless friend. Through Momo eyes, Luo Mei learned about Hua Jun, the bright and chatty friend with soft cheeks who was often compared to a hamster in the fandom. Something that Xuehua (Mobei-jun!!!) fully embraced in the merch where Hua Jun is often seen with hamsters.
With Luo Mei's encouragement Momo tried to interact with her crush, only for them both to find out that she was fact unable to talk to her crush without saying all the wrong things.
Something Shang Qinghua could full-heartedly sympathize with.
Shang Qinghua was aware that Luo Mei was unbeatable as the fandom's best girl, but to him that title rightfully belonged to Momo.
"Is that?" a deep voice asked. Shang Qinghua's heart just about stopped beating when he heard Mobei-jun so close by. So close in fact, that Shang Qinghua could feel the taller teen exhale next to his head. He turned his head slightly to see Mobei-jun read the page over Shang Qinghua's shoulder. To see his eyes pausing on the first (disastrous!) interaction between the tall, scary faced Momo and the short, soft faced Hua Jun before looking at Shang Qinghua.
"You like Hua Jun?"
"I love Momo," Shang Qinghua managed to squeak out. Mobei-jun turned his head to stare at him with an intensity Shang Qinghua's writer vocabulary couldn't describe. There was a flash that would have looked like vulnerability on any other face, but since it is Mobei-jun he doubted that that was the case. As if determining that Shang Qinghua did not lie about his character preferences, Mobei-jun nodded in satisfaction and walked over to his seat. If it wasn't for Shang Qinghua's fiery cheeks, no one would know something out of the ordinary had happened. But if Mobei-jun looked exceptionally smug for the rest of the day, no one but Shang Qinghua's rapidly beating heart had to know.
3
For as far as unexpected things went in the last 24 hours, Mobei-jun wordlessly handing over a thick envelope when their classes were over and walking away was pretty mild. That didn't mean that Shang Qinghua understood what was going though. When he opened up the envelope in the safety of his own room, he was baffled to see the monthly shoujo manga magazine in his hands way before it hit the shelves.
As the mangaka of A Love Letter from Chunshan, Mobei-jun had access to an early release of the magazine... and for some reason he decided to give his magazine to Shang Qinghua?
Shang Qinghua flipped through the magazine, skipping the new chapters of mangas that he didn't know and went straight to the new chapter of A Love Letter from Chunshan. He might have worked on the latest chapter of A Love Letter from Chunshan, but that didn't prepare him to see his work in the monthly shoujo magazine. It also didn't prepare him to see the author's note on the bottom of the title page.
"Special thanks to my special friend who beta-ed for this chapter. Don't you guys think they did great (❤ ω ❤)?? Ah so neat, I wish I could ink as well as they could~ Expect see more of their work in future chapters so let's cheer for the new member of my team together (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧"
Shang Qinghua closed the magazine and rested his burning forehead on the smooth back of the glossy cover. That was- Shang Qinghua had no words for how cute that was.
When felt recovered enough to Shang Qinghua lift his head from the cover, he saw to his surprise that there was a sticky note stuck to the back of the magazine. The only thing written on the hamster shaped sticky note was a time and today's date and Mobei-jun's address, but that was enough for Shang Qinghua to understand.
He wordlessly grabbed his phone and called his first emergency number.
"Airplane? Why are you calling during club practice? You know that the music club is collaborating with the drama club again, right? We're kind of busy."
"Cucumber-bro, I will confess to Mobei-jun even if I have to die to do it. Please delete my search history if I die in three hours."
"Sure thing, bro- wait, what exactly are you going to do??? Airplane?? Airplane, answer me you fool! I swear to god I'll-"
4
Shang Qinghua had met Mobei-jun at the opening ceremony of their high school career where the taller teen approached him with such a murderous face that Shang Qinghua was worried that he was about to get killed or robbed. And he did indeed take something from Shang Qinghua (if he was the writer that Shen Yuan claimed that he was, he would have said that it was his heart, but he wasn't. What do you mean wife 35 said exactly that Cucumber-bro?!). That day Shang Qinghua went home without the weight of the corsage that every first-year student was given and with the weight of knowing that this beautiful but intimidating boy was in his year.
Shang Qinghua had been a nervous wreck from the very first second of that mostly one-sided interaction, but he managed to get out of it with minimal mental damage.
Except Mobei-jun was in his class and Shang Qingua realized that there was no god in this world. How on earth was he supposed to live a normal life when someone that gorgeous was so nearby and yet untouchable?
Anyway, Shang Qinghua had been admiring Mobei-jun from afar ever since. Or as afar someone could be when their desks were next to one another during class. He was just happy that he managed to keep the admiration to himself! And to Shen Yuan, but he didn't count! Shen Yuan had his own beautiful face to admire in drama club, so it was only fair that he had his own eye candy to admire!
As unbelievable as the fact was, Mobei-jun wasn't as popular as his looks would suggest. Maybe it had something to do about his resting murder face, but Shang Qinghua was all too aware that Mobei-jun was more than just his gorgeous face. And his 180+ meters in height. And his perfect figure. And his abs. And the rest of his general looks that would easily land him a model contract. Which he didn't accept if he ever got the offer, Shang Qinghua checked frequently (bro, it is not stalking if there are no pictures on his Weibo. Please stop looking at me like that). What was he thinking about again?
Oh right, people generally steered away from the icy beauty for some reason. But not Shang Qinghua! And no, it didn't have anything to do with the fact that their assigned seats are right next to each other! It did help that Shang Qinghua had the excuse to stare at his beautiful hands though. (No, Cucumber-bro, it is not weird to admire someone's hand when they're each big enough to choke him, which is something Shang Qinghua would like to explore more in the future)
And now knowing what he knew about Mobei-jun's job and knowing that he would be working with him, Shang Qinghua felt like he would explode if he wouldn't confess anytime soon.
With the gifted magazine clutched to his chest, Shang Qinghua ran the doorbell of Mobei-jun's apartment three hours after reassuring Shen Yuan of his general safety. His heart raced faster as he heard the door being unlocked and he felt lightheaded when it opened. Mobei-jun was as gorgeous as Shang Qinghua had ever seen him.
"I-" Shang Qinghua began hesitantly before gathering the courage he didn't know he had and blurting out, "I'm your biggest fan!"
Wordlessly, Mobei-jun plucked the magazine from Shang Qinghua's weak grip and with an overwhelming feeling of deja-vu, he uncapped a sharpie to sign the magazine.
"Thank you for your support."