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The wrap party for The Untamed was a weird mix of joy and sadness. The show had been the biggest or first experience for many of the actors and the months of filming as a close knit family had finally come to an end. Wang Yibo wondered if he would have another filming experience quite like this. His eyes landed on a giggly Xiao Zhan, who obviously had a little too much to drink, and revised his thoughts - he definitely would not have another experience like this.
Beside him, Liu Haikuan groaned, “Yibo ah, can you stop looking at A-Zhan like he hangs the stars in the sky? It’s embarrassing.”
Zhu Zanjin laughed as he smacked the other man on the arm, “Aren’t you used to it by now? It’s no different from when we were on set.”
“It’s precisely because he’s always doing it! I don’t need the dog food piled on on our last day together.” the man continued to grouse.
Yibo rolled his eyes at the actor who played his brother but kept silent. He continued sipping on the glass of beer in his hand as he went back to staring at his co-star - and possibly soulmate. What they weren’t were boyfriends. They had both been open about their feelings towards each other and there was making out involved, but they have not talked about their relationship beyond the filming. He had been in the industry long enough to know that there were many actors who fall into relationships with their co-stars while filming and just as easily fall out once filming was done.
He did not think that his Zhan-ge was the same, but he did not KNOW - they had not talked about it. And it was driving him a little crazy and anxious. Yibo knew what he wanted, he wanted something long-term with the other man. Others may feel that he was too young to know what he wanted in the future, but Yibo had always been one to know his mind and he was sure that he wanted Xiao Zhan in his life for a long long time. Now, he just needed the other man to know and acknowledge it too.
“What are you doing drinking alone here? You should be with your leading man!” a slightly inebriated Xuan Lu as she slumped against his chair.
Yibo shifted so the older actor could share his seat. He shrugged, “He looks like he’s enjoying himself without me.”
Xuan Lu giggled and pinched his cheek, “the two of you are so adorable. He’s drinking because he’s sad over you, you’re drinking because you’re pining over him. Why don’t you just drink and be happy together!”
“Shi-jiiiiiieeee, why are you being so mean to Yibo? The subject of their conversation had wandered over and started pulling on Xuan Lu’s hand that was still attached to Yibo’s cheek.
The sight of Xiao Zhan’s little pout made Yibo smile a little. He could never get over how a man six years his senior could be this adorable. And when he pouted, Yibo could never say “no” to him, nor could anyone else for that matter. He could see Xuan Lu melt into a bigger pool of goo at the other man’s syrupy tone.
“Awww how could I ever be mean to our little bobo?!”
The sight of two of his seniors trying to out-tease each other in their drunkenness really tickled him and Yibo started laughing out loud. Which led to the other two looking at him in affront, not knowing why he was laughing, but offended nonetheless. Seeing their twin disgruntled faces caused him to laugh even harder.
Then, Xuan Lu sighed and patted Yibo’s face, “I should go and let you two talk.”
As she said that, she stood up and held Xiao Zhan’s face in both her hands, saying nothing, but he seemed to get the message. He grimaced, but nodded, agreeing to what she was silently saying.
Instead of getting his own chair, Xiao Zhan chose to occupy the space that Xuan Lu had vacated. Despite what Xuan Lu said, neither said anything and Yibo caught more than one person take a second look at their two gangly leads sharing one small chair. But he supposed that they had behaved worse in their time filming that nobody really did more than do a quick take.
Minutes passed, yet Xiao Zhan did not seem inclined to say or do anything except lean against Wang Yibo. Finally, unable to take the tension anymore, Wang Yibo said in a soft voice, “Ge, the past couple of months filming with you has been great. But,”
He paused when he felt the body next to his tense up further with every word. He wanted to stop, worried that what he was going to say next would cause the other man to avoid him from then on. But Wang Yibo had not come this far by censoring his words, so he pressed on.
“I want more. I want to continue seeing you when we get back to Beijing. I know some people might treat a relationship while filming as a fling, but it always has been more than that to me. So, tell me now if we’re on the same page.
If you don’t want anything else beyond this, tell me too and I’ll never bring it up again. We can still be friends, can’t we?”
As he talked, Yibo could feel the tension slowly leaving Xiao Zhan’s body and he wasn’t sure whether to take that as a good sign or not as the other man kept his silence.
An excruciating eternity later, Xiao Zhan slowly turned towards Wang Yibo, making the other man put his arm around him to prevent them both from falling off the chair.
“Wang Yibo, I’m really in awe of you. How you’re so brave and open with your feelings. Here I was, working on my liquid courage and there you go saying all this just like that.” Xiao Zhan finally turned to look at Wang Yibo and there was a smile on his face. In that moment, Wang Yibo felt the weight lift off his shoulders and he could finally breathe.
“How could I not want more? When this has been the best four months of my life?”
Wang Yibo could feel his face split into the widest smile and the other man’s answering smile was blinding as well.
“But of course, first and foremost, we’ll always be friends,” Xiao Zhan teased.
The other man could not resist, “You mean, BOYfriends, right, Zhan-ge?”
Xiao Zhan rolled his eyes, “That’s enough, gouzaizai.”
Not a moment later, Xuan Lu appeared. “Now that you’ve both gotten that out of the way, you two need to go cut some cake!” Saying that, she dragged the two men to the huge cake that had been prepared for the party.
Xiao Zhan picked up the long knife that they were supposed to cut the cake with and in his drunken exuberance, waved it around a little too wildly. Wang Yibo caught hold of his hand and guided it to pose just above the cake. He looked over at the other man and thought -
I would protect this man for the rest of my life.