Work Text:
Tong Yao is sitting in the dressing room, scrolling through her phone as she waits for her turn to get her makeup done for the photoshoot. She sorta gets why they have to do these, for official rosters and posts and whatnot, but everyone getting their makeup done seems a little fancy. She didn’t realize pro gaming was this classy.
She idly listens to the makeup artist talk to each of the guys as she watches game replays, smiling a little to herself at each of their comments. Her teammates are such guys sometimes.
“Too much foundation,” Sicheng tells him.
“Really? Let me see,” the artist replies. “It’s true!” he gasps.
“I won’t apply concealer,” the artist continues. “Just finishing powder to your face, ok?” he leans down to do so, and clearly can’t help but comment. “Gosh, Cheng, your skin is so smooth.”
“I know,” Cheng replies, voice flat.
“What’s your skincare secret?” the makeup artist asks.
“I’m young,” Cheng replies dryly.
Classic Cheng , Tong Yao thinks, mentally rolling her eyes. But, she can’t help but admit that the makeup artist isn’t wrong, even if Cheng’s retort was rude.
The makeup artist clearly doesn’t know how to reply to that, so he smiles awkwardly and continues his work, finishing quickly before it’s Lu Yue’s turn.
“I’m already gorgeous. I don’t think I need makeup,” he says immediately.
Ugh, of course he thinks he doesn’t need makeup , she scoffs internally. That brat . She might not be a makeup expert, but even she could do his makeup well enough to make him look better.
“That’s not true,” the makeup artist says, and Tong Yao almost bursts out laughing. Looking up, she can see Lao K suppressing a smile as well. He meets her eyes, and there’s a brief second of camaraderie between them that warms her insides a bit. He’s been so cold to her previously, so sharing an inside joke with him feels nice, like she’s finally bonding with the team a bit.
“You’ll look better with makeup,” the artist tells Lu Yue. “Here.” Lu Yue looks unconvinced but the makeup artist does his magic and somehow Lu Yue walks away looking satisfied.
“Why are you trimming my eyebrows?” Tong Yao hears Xiao Pang say, voice worried. “I have very cool eyebrows.”
“They are cool indeed, but they’re different heights,” the makeup artist points out.
Aww, poor guy. He likes his eyebrows, let him keep them , Tong Yao thinks. They give him character anyway.
“Are they?” Pang says, looking closer at his eyebrows.
“They are.” Pang pouts a bit but lets him fix it, and adds a little concealer and foundation before it’s Lao K’s turn.
“Apply a layer of Lipstick Color 502 to my lips,” he says immediately, surprising Tong Yao. She knew he was a bit more knowledgeable about makeup than the others but she didn’t realize he was that good. “Then apply Lipstick Color 303. This way, I’ll look natural and radiant.”
Damn, ok.
The makeup artist doesn’t even argue, immediately changing course to follow Lao K’s instructions. When Lao K is done, Tong Yao looks over at him.
“Lao K, do you know a lot about makeup?” she asks him curiously.
His expression is fairly blank when he turns to look at her, but the corner of his mouth (with the appropriate lipstick colors) turns up ever-so-slightly with her question.
“I know a bit,” he says simply before sitting down, effectively ending the conversation as he opens up his phone. Tong Yao supposes that it could have gone worse, so she turns back to her phone as well.
Next up is Lao Mao, he seems very unsure, asking if he can skip the eyeliner. “It looks strange,” he says.
“Are you sure?” the artist asks.
Lao Mao nods quickly, and the artist sighs, asking Rui to come be the judge. Rui doesn’t even come over, just calls out that eyeliner is a must (which Tong Yao agrees with), and the artist looks back at Lao Mao with an “I told you so” look. Lao Mao groans and shuts his eyes for the artist to work, though he shuts them too tightly so the artist has to tell him to relax.
Tong Yao hears Lao K sigh a bit to himself, clearly also listening in to Lao Mao’s reluctance, and wonders what he would do for Lao Mao’s makeup, since he seems like he knows his stuff.
Finally, it’s her turn, and she sits patiently as he does his work, used to the feel of makeup. “Will you please put more contours on the sides of my face?” she asks. “My face is large,” she explains as he adds a bit more.
“Your face isn’t large, darling,” he says, and she smiles a bit. She’s always been a little self-conscious about her face shape, so that feels nice to hear.
“Really?” He nods, and continues working. “This is the first time I hear someone say that.”
“Your face is just fleshy,” he says, and she gives him a flat look. So, not as nice, ok.
She hears Lao Mao ask Lao K about his eye lines over by the sofas, but she can’t see how the interactions play out. She sits still for a bit longer while he works, but shortly after, Rui asks her if she’s done yet. Someone makes a comment on how troublesome women are, and she holds back a small rant about how men made the beauty standards for women, so they shouldn’t be complaining.
Rui assures her that it’s ok, though, bless him, and reminds them that they’re doing individual photoshoots, so the others leave while the makeup artist continues. “It’s nice to be finally working on a woman’s face for once,” the makeup artist comments, distracting her from the empty room.
“Thank you,” she says, smiling slightly.
The photoshoot is a little all over the place, to say the least, what with Cheng walking in on her changing, her and Lu Yue’s weird duo photos, and then her and Cheng’s photos, Tong Yao is very ready to be done with this.
Thankfully, they are done soon, and Tong Yao decidedly goes to the restroom to change back into her regular clothes this time. Surprisingly, she’s the first one back in the waiting room (take that, boys), so she plops down and fiddles with her phone as she waits.
The next one to come in the room ready to leave is Lao K. “What’s taking everyone so long?” she asks him as he sits down on the sofa across from her.
“They wanted to take some extra pictures. Sibling photos, more combinations. I was done so I came back early.”
“So we might be here a while?”
The dread in her voice must be obvious, because his mouth quirks up again as he nods, looking down to his phone afterwards.
They sit in silence for a while, both of them looking at their phones before Tong Yao tries to break the silence. “Lao K?” He looks up. “Where did you learn so much about makeup?” He looks back down at his phone.
“Friend,” he replies shortly, refusing to elaborate which leads to the room falling into silence again. Well, that didn’t work. Maybe it’s a touchy topic.
“You and Lao Mao’s photos looked good when I took a peek at them,” she tries. No response this time. Ok, he clearly doesn’t want to talk to her then. She lets out a disappointed breath, hoping to maybe get to know the teammate that she knows the least about, but no such luck. She sighs to herself, setting her phone on the table and laying down on the couch, reaching around for a pillow to go under her head. She’s oddly tired, but maybe it’s from all the excitement today.
She doesn’t know how much time passes, but she’s jolted back to reality when she feels a light weight falling on top of her. She keeps her eyes shut despite her racing heartbeat at the sudden movement, but as she waits, she realizes it must be Lao K putting a blanket over her. Which actually feels really nice, since she wore shorts today.
But she can’t help but be a little surprised at the sudden caring action towards her from Lao K. She was pretty sure that he didn’t like her, just in general and especially since she essentially replaced his friend Ming God as midsolo. But…maybe he doesn’t hate her after all. Her new theory is added to when she hears the door open and Xiao Pang’s voice.
“K! I’m done with-”
“Shhh!”
She doesn’t hear, but guesses that Lao K is gesturing to her half-asleep form on the couch, since Pang’s next words are in a whisper.
“She’s asleep?”
“Has been for a bit. They others are still going?”
“You know Lu Yue, he wants all the photos of himself he can get, and Mao wanted some “workout” vibe photos. I think Cheng also is doing photos with Rui and they called Ming God in too for managerial team photos, so it'll still be a while since Ming God still needs to get here. He’s coming in uniform and doing his own makeup though so he'll go straight to the shooting room when he does get here.”
“Jeez,” Lao K mutters. “How long are we even going to be here for?”
“Undetermined,” Xiao Pang says. “I’m going to go get some snacks though, do you want anything?”
“Can you get rice crackers for me and dried mango for Tong Yao?”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be back soon.”
The click of the door indicates Xiao Pang’s departure, and Tong Yao is left to sleepily decipher all of Lao K’s genuinely kind gestures for her. He put a blanket over her in case she got cold (which happens a lot), made sure Xiao Pang didn’t wake her up (even though she was already sorta awake), and asked Xiao Pang to get one of her favorite snacks for her.
Before she can really think about it too much, she drifts off again, waking up again when the door opens loudly. Before the person can speak, there’s another urgent “Shhhhh” from Lao K, and likely another nod towards where she’s laying. “Cheng and Lu Yue still going?” Lao K asks the new person quietly.
“Yeah,” Lao Mao’s voice replies in a hushed whisper. “I’m surprised at how many photos they can pose for and take, for real.”
Lao K sighs. “Yeah, it must be genetic or something. Did Ming God get here?”
“Nope, he’s stuck in traffic so it’ll be a bit longer. And then they have to take the photos so I’m getting comfy,” Lao Mao replies.
“Great,” Lao K says, sarcasm palpable. “Well, Pang should be back with snacks soon, he’s been gone for a while.”
“Great, I could use some food,” Mao says. He starts to say something else, but the soft voices lull Tong Yao back under.
She must remain asleep for once when Pang arrives with the snacks, because the next time she wakes up is to a gentle shake of her shoulder. “Tong Yao,” comes Lao K’s soft voice, once she’s never been on the receiving end of. “Xiao Pang brought food, you should eat.”
“Ungh,” she groans softly.
“Tong Yao, come eat!” Xiao Pang calls.
She rolls around a bit and sits up, the blanket falling down to her lap before peeling her eyes open, expecting bright lights but being met with a semi-dark room. “Lao K turned the lights off,” Xiao Pang explains upon seeing her confused expression.
She looks over at Lao K, who’s now sitting across from her again, seemingly immersed in his phone. She looks back at Pang and gives him a sleepy smile. “Thanks for getting food,” she says, wrapping the blanket around her shoulders as she goes over to the table, which has containers of takeout and snacks scattered all over it.
“Are you tired from the photoshoot?” Xiao Pang asks.
Tong Yao nods. “Apparently. Early mornings don’t help.”
Xiao Pang snorts. “Isn’t that the truth.”
“They’re not so bad,” Lao Mao argues, coming over to sit with them. “Morning workouts are fun.”
“No, they’re not,” the room’s three other occupants say at once. Lao Mao pouts but they dig into the food Pang brought them.
“How long was I asleep?” Tong Yao asks after getting some food in her belly. Xiao Peng and Lao Mao exchange a look before shrugging.
“4 hours,” Lao K says from the couches without looking up.
“That long?” Tong Yao says in surprise.
“Photoshoots take forever with this bunch,” Lao K says dryly. “And Ming God got stuck in traffic after they called him to come take photos with us.”
“Oh,” Tong Yao says.
“We’re not that bad!” Xiao Pang complains.
“You’re sitting here right now and have been for a couple hours so clearly you two aren’t the issue,” Lao K deadpans.
“Good,” Xiao Pang sniffs.
The three of them have all finished their warm food and Tong Yao is stashing her dried mango in her bag when the door opens and the rest of the crew, namely Rui, Ming, Cheng, and Lu Yue enter.
“You guys got food!” Rui exclaims. “That’s good, we’ve been here a lot longer than expected. Sorry about that.”
“It’s ok,” Lao Mao assures. “How did the shoot go?”
“Good,” Ming says. “Sorry about dragging it out as well.”
“It wasn't your fault,” Lao K says quickly.
“Thanks,” Ming says, smiling at him. He looks over at Tong Yao. “I hope you weren’t too bored, I don’t think anyone warned you that our photoshoots take literally all day.”
“I’m ok,” Tong Yao promises him.
“She fell asleep right after I finished up,” Lao K says.
“Smart girl, catching up on sleep,” Rui praises before heading over towards the food with Lu Yue and Ming in tow. Cheng doesn’t move, giving her an unreadable look for an extra minute that makes her cheeks heat up even though she did nothing wrong. Once he’s done with that, he follows them and Xiao Pang and Lao Mao join her and Lao K on the couches to make space for the others at the snack table.
Eventually, they’re all changed and ready to leave (Finally!), and they pile on the bus back to the base. As they’re leaving the building, Tong Yao taps Lao K’s arm to get him to hang back as they leave the building.
“Thanks for letting me sleep.”
“What do you mean?” he says blankly.
She flushes, trying to establish some connection with her teammate. “Xiao Pang says you turned off the lights for me. And I assumed it was you who put the blanket on me. Thank you.”
“Oh.” They walk in silence for a second. “You’re welcome.” Tong Yao looks up quickly, spotting Lao K’s tiny smile before they board the bus and take their seats, her behind him next to Xiao Pang.
As they drive off, Tong Yao can’t help but think that maybe she’s a step closer to breaking him down. She’ll wear him down eventually.