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It’s not unusual to find Zhang Hao and Kuanjui tangled up together on the floor. More often than not, it’s because Kuanjui, with his long, willowy limbs, tugs Hao down to the practice room floor and Hao doesn’t really have it in him to ever say no to Kuanjui.
“Ah, Kuanjui,” Hao complains, “my limbs can’t take this assault! My bones are too fragile for this!”
Kuanjui grins, sly and sharp. “Not my fault you’re growing old.”
“We’re the same age!” Hao protests. “The fuck is wrong with you, limbs are not meant to be contorted to this shape.”
Said shape is Kuanjui doing a full splits and Hao miserably failing to achieve the angle Kuanjui can drop himself into without breaking a sweat.
“You’ve seen me do worse,” Kuanjui accuses.
“Oh, I meant me,” Hao dismisses, throwing himself onto the floor in defeat. “You’re made of rubber and elastic. I meant regular limbs. You’re going to be a hit when you debut.”
Kuanjui laughs that bright laugh of his, the one that has Hao’s heart skipping along in his chest.
And then, “do you think we’re going to debut, Haohao?” he asks, quiet. For once, his attempts to fold himself into smaller and smaller shapes matches the uncertain nature he displays about debuting. “Do you think we have a chance?”
“Are you asking if we should give up?” Hao asks carefully.
Kuanjui shrugs. “Maybe.”
Hao considers it. They could cut their losses now and go back home—Kuanjui to Taiwan with his tail between his legs, and Hao to Fujian without having lost much at all except time and the cradle holding these dreams of his.
But—
“We’ve come this far,” he says. “Why not keep reaching for the stars? There’s no reason either of us couldn’t beat the odds.” He thinks of Shen Xiaoting, of how close she’d come to claiming her rightful place.
Kuanjui sighs, and then smiles. “True enough,” he concedes. “Stubborn to the core, aren’t ya, Haohao?”
“I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t have my tenacity,” Hao replies. He imagines a world where the stage awaits them every week, a world where Kuanjui and he can become matching sprites in white, and allows himself to smile, to bask in Kuanjui’s warm loveliness.