Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A quiet radio hummed in the background, hidden behind the counter from the rest of the customers, mostly there to distract the workers on duty from the repetitive songs being looped day in and day out on the main speakers. Today, an interview was being broadcast, and Jinshi let himself tune into the slightly grainy static as it played. Truthfully, he had already watched this particular interview a few days prior, but it happened to be on a subject that interested him, so he didn’t go to change it to anything else. 

Everyone had heard of Maomao. Unless one had quite literally been sitting under a rock, the swiftly up and coming movie star had been on the tips of everyone's tongues since her first major debut a couple of years prior. Newspapers, billboards, magazines - they all battled to have the woman’s face adorning their front pages, their products, their articles. Jinshi, along with everyone else, could see her talent, and she was quick to monopolise the media of the world at only age 17. By now, she must have been at least 20, with him being hardly more than a year older than she was. An impressive feat for someone so young that Jinshi could reasonably admit he was a little jealous of as he dried countertops with a well-used rag.

While Jinshi was no die-hard fan of hers, per se, he could respect how well the young woman had done for herself, and her brutal honesty she held often during interviews. She was clear to identify herself as a trusted activist; an advocate for the people around her who didn't have the voice she had to speak up for themselves. She was one of the few celebrities of the current times to use their large platforms for good - who was Jinshi to deny that her character was honest to a fault, and greatly respectable? Should that version of her only be a persona, a front to gain the populace's support, he would probably never know regardless. Maomao was still setting an incredible example for the rest of her colleagues, and after she came to stardom, political advocacy from celebrities had become a much more open discussion. Perhaps it was her stubbornness, as people claimed, or maybe that she was simply just loud and confrontational by nature - Jinshi never cared too much to look into it any further. If she was doing something good, who was he to actively search for reasons to dislike her? It seemed silly to him. 

Even if it were all fake, if there was a positive impact then he had no need to complain. And evidently, she had fulfilled that role well.

Jinshi respected that, and nothing more. Or, that’s what he told himself, but he still watched each of the movies she starred in upon the day of their releases to cinemas. An 'enthusiastic addition to his studies' is what he called it; studying his final year of screenwriting and film directory in university had to play some kind of role in this, surely. She was simply a very talented actress, and someone he could find himself looking up to.

That was what he told himself, up until the door to the tea room opened with a chime of bells, and his eyes met with the very same woman his mind had been distracted by only a few minutes prior.

Maomao barely had any form of a disguise covering her - a few freckles that were most likely usually hidden on camera, a little makeup smudged here and there to distort her facial contours, and her hair tied up in a slightly messy braid - but no one else seemed to recognise the woman at all. He doubted it was out of some unspoken respect people suddenly gained for celebrities. No, the people around them simply couldn’t identify her, somehow.

She approached the counter like a ghost - silent in her movements and her presence barely noticed - ordered a ginger tea and a slice of cake with a quiet voice and little fanfare, and after paying, made her way to sit on one of the window seats overlooking the carefully maintained garden that his mother upkept. It was early autumn, and with the sky still warm and clear, the garden was open for visitors to enjoy, but she seemed content watching out from behind the glass.

Meanwhile, Jinshi was anything but content.

I definitely made a fool of myself, Jinshi sighed disappointedly after the queues had all cleared out and he was wiping down the counters for what felt like the millionth time that day. He must have pulled some kind of face that alluded to his recognition, because Maomao’s eyes had twitched ever so slightly upon his thinly disguised shock. Maybe he had sounded too nervous, his voice having raised ever so slightly due to his lack of preparedness, or maybe it was when he stumbled over his typical customer service lines. Maybe, mortifyingly, she recognised the sound of her own voice through the interview that was still playing with its crackling quality. Still, he tried to treat her as he would any other customer, as it seemed obvious she wasn't trying to get caught out in public, no matter how poor her disguise seemed to him.

Maomao sat in the same chair for hours, only coming to the counter once more between that time to ask for another ginger tea. She spoke quietly but politely, her face remaining passive and not betraying any sense of an emotion, but it didn’t come across as hollow or demeaning as it may have from someone else. At her seat, she resumed furiously typing something into a laptop almost without pause, besides when she took a sip of her drink or cracked her overworked fingers, making frustrated huffs every now and then. Otherwise, though, she remained silent. 

Jinshi was merely thankful she hadn’t sounded angry, or made him feel any more pathetic about his screw up. 

Occasionally, throughout the remainder of his shift, Jinshi caught the soft sunlight gleaming off her hair, and he was met with a satisfied expression resting on her face as she took a slow sip of her tea, much like that of a content cat. He almost slapped himself when their eyes met each other momentarily as he cleaned the table to her right. In his defence, she had to turn her head to even look at him. He only needed to glance upwards with his eyes. He uttered an apology all the same.

Only when it started becoming dark outside did she check her phone once before leaving, writing a small note before she left just as silently as she had stayed.

Thank you for not making a scene. A repayment for that kindness, if you will.

In front of the note sat 400 yuan, tucked into the handle of the empty teacup as though it were spare pocket change. While not being large in the grand scheme of things, there were only so many things his student-budgeting self could afford. Having an extra 400 yuan for later was never going to be something he would complain about.

As for the note, well… It found a nice place to sit inside his wallet, next to a photo of him and his niece, Lingli. He definitely wasn't cherishing it or anything, it would just be such a waste to throw away a note written by such a popular public figure. That’s all.

Chapter Text

”Now, wait a minute, Gyokuyou!” Jinshi scolded at his phone, where a loud, teasing giggle could be heard, only slightly muffled by what must have been her pulling the phone away from her ear momentarily. “I can’t just casually drive up to the back of a movie premier without being asked questions or looking like a creep! They’ll have me on a suspicious persons list within minutes! How exactly are you planning on getting me close enough to actually pick you up?!”

”Oh, Jinshi, Jinshi… you act like you couldn’t easily flash the security guards a smile and claim to be a model or something,” his sister-in-law laughed far too comfortably at his predicament, as though she had a way home if he found himself escorted away from the premise - which she didn’t! “They’d let you park there with no issue.”

"Now isn't the time for jokes!"

Gyokuyou had been enjoying a movie premier as a guest for one of her friends; some actor or actress that he hadn’t really asked for details on. Knowing her, she had connections to everyone in one way or another, always on friendly coffee dates with old college friends that she hadn’t seen in years, or off celebrating her old roommate’s wedding on some tropical island, or something of the like. Either way, her initial ride home had gotten an awful sickness all of a sudden and had to stay at home, so she called him for help. He was not her first contact, either, so it really was looking dire for her if Jinshi were to conveniently forget to deal with such a hassle.

He was not that cruel, though, and did genuinely enjoy his friendship with his brother’s wife. It would be in poor taste to leave her stranded on such a cold night.

”Stop your worrying, I’ll tell them your license plate and they’ll watch out for you. I can hear your brain conjuring up all the possible and impossible worst-case scenarios from the other side of the phone,” Gyokuyou huffed, finally relenting from her teasing - apparently there was a limit even for her on how much winding up she could do before his reactions became boring. “Better yet… Get here as early as you can! There’s another 2 hours left, and I’m sure it would be the perfect opportunity to gather some connections.”

”I’m not sure where you think I’d be able to stay besides in the back corner of the hall, near the fire exits waiting for you,” he scoffed, but his hands still reached for his car keys on the other end of the table. “Let them know I’m coming then - I’m not walking you back to the car if it’s parked a mile away.”

”Thank you, my most benevolent brother! I’ll be waiting!”

 ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°

“Connections, my ass,” Jinshi mumbled as he waited for Gyokuyou to be finished with her never-ending chatter with her friends. She was running far past the time they had agreed to leave at, but seemingly couldn't bring herself to part from the current conversation of who-knows-what gossip. So after hours of hugging the walls of the main hall, Jinshi had retreated from where the guests mingled to one of the side corridors that were kept open to the outside for ventilation. As cold as it was, it was far nicer than the stuffy hall full of loud voices and laughter.

He had obtained a single business card over the course of the three hours he had been standing around for - one for a start up short-film production team that wanted to see his works for a future project. He must have done something to sell himself well if they were willing to give some random student a try. That, or they were getting desperate to find at least one competent director before they had to pack it up early.

Even so, Jinshi had wandered to the quiet area of the building to do some light research on their previous productions. The long corridor was lined to the side with cardboard boxes and various stacks of storage containers, and was mostly dark due to the only working light strip being at the far end of the corridor, near the main halls. Even then, it was old and dimmed, and the damp smell in the air didn’t evade his notice either. He realised belatedly that he probably looked incredibly suspicious with how he lurked in the shadows, but he was only doing so out of the convenience of his car being within his line of sight.

His eyes flickered back to his phone, noting the time. Almost midnight, and he was still waiting around with a morning shift tomorrow… He really needed to hurry Gyokuyou along if he wanted any rest. It was hard enough falling asleep when he started getting ready for bed at 8pm.

Just as he was about to give in and enter the loud hall once again, shouting came into earshot, and not from the direction he was expecting. Then, what sounded like a crowd of running footsteps. 

As he stepped closer to the open fire exit to take note of what was happening, a smaller figure crashed into him out of nowhere, sending the both of them toppling back into the corridor. He found himself taking most of the fall for them both, but was much faster in reacting when he heard the sounds of voices getting closer. Looking down, he saw a young woman covering her face with her arms - probably why she hadn’t noticed him until far too late - as she scrambled to untangle herself and stand back up, but it wasn’t quick enough.

”Miss Maomao, please! We barely got a glimpse of you on the carpet, we just need some photos!” a voice called out, soon to come around the corner and find who they had been looking for - Maomao - who seemed very unwilling to participate in their proposed arrangement. 

From what Jinshi had come to realise, was that despite her job, Maomao never seemed too overly pleased with public appearances. Especially when they weren't on her terms.

Hoping the young lady wouldn’t think of him too poorly for his scatter-brained idea, he scooped Maomao up into his arms quickly and sat her down beside a tall stack of boxes, blocking her mostly from view, and kicking a tall trolley of items to roll in front of her. She didn’t seem to protest, whether that was out of some kind of exhausted admission of defeat, or whether she could understand that he was trying to help her, he couldn’t be quite sure. All he heard was an abrupt exhale leaving her mouth before she shuffled as close as she could to the boxes he set her down on.

“Sorry,” he whispered quietly, hoping the woman could hear him and understood what he meant.

Leaning against the opposite wall as casually as he could for the few seconds he had left before he would have to confront the small army of paparazzi, he pulled out his phone once more, looking like nothing more than a bored guest waiting to leave. Sure enough, moments later, a small rush of people gathered by the corner of the building, just within his line of sight, seeming to have lost the person they were chasing. 

“Gah, she was just here! I was only given this job tonight for the purpose of getting some good coverage of her, what am I meant to report back now?!” One woman wailed, already seeing her demotion hovering before her eyes.

“She couldn’t have actually gotten that far, she's only a tiny little thing,” another spoke up. A man this time, lugging around a heavy camera close to his shoulder that surely was at risk of being dropped and broken with all the running they had evidently been doing. Then, his attention turned travelled elsewhere. “Hey, you!”

Most of the group now turned their attention to where Jinshi stood quietly, his eyes glancing up from his phone as though confused. “Me?”

”Where’s Maomao? We’ve been trying to capture some footage of her all evening! She came this way,” the man demanded unkindly, as though he was the reason that the young lady disliked their blatant harassment. “Don’t tell me you missed her, bloody-” the rest of whatever string of insults he used was muffled by a gloved hand being shoved in his mouth by another reporter - one with a slightly more pleasant attitude, if it counted for anything.

“Someone ran further down that way, through the cars. Maybe over the road? I didn’t see who it was, though,” Jinshi shrugged off, hoping they would be thrown off course with his lie. He tried to act unaffected by the strange man’s temper, but really he was just awfully curious as to what he had tried to say. 

A few of the people gathered began nodding and sprinted down in the direction he had given them, but a small handful remained in place - some out of exhaustion, and some untrusting of his answer.

”Hey, pretty boy, the cast members aren’t allowed back here without security present,” a new voice chimed in - a gruff looking man who hardly seemed to fit in with the rest of the appropriately-groomed photographers and reporters of the group. “Shouldn’t you be by the main entrance with the rest of your lot?”

A look of confusion passed visibly across Jinshi’s face.

”Oh! We can take you back to the rest of the cast, and maybe Maomao will have returned by then and I can interview her!” The woman from before - a reporter, clearly - exclaimed excitedly, as though she had stumbled upon a second chance.

”I think you’re confused… I’m not part of the cast,” Jinshi tried to explain, hopefully not crushing the woman’s hopes of avoiding demotion. “I’m waiting to take one of the priority guests home, that’s all. Sorry.”

Once again, the people before him looked awfully skeptical of his story, despite this one being entirely true! However, with a few small murmurings of ‘Oh, I see,’ or ‘Such a shame, what a waste,’ the small crowd dispersed, finally leaving him alone once more.

Almost alone, at least.

After a few moments of watching them walk away, beginning to chat among themselves and hardly paying him an ounce of attention anymore, he walked calmly back inside the building, and rolled the trolley out of the silent young lady’s way so she could easily make her escape once more. Maomao looked up at him with an unreadable expression, but he turned away from her gaze too quickly to dissect it any further.

”They’re gone, but you may want to avoid the main halls for a little while,” Jinshi spoke softly, not wanting his voice to be overheard by some sharp-eared hawk of a reporter. “Sorry about… that.”

He turned to walk away, not wanting to dig himself into a deeper hole should she have already assumed he was a weirdo that physically picks up young women like a complete creep upon first bumping into them. Instead, though, he was met with resistance, something tugging on the sleeve of his coat.

”Hold on, I recognise you.”

Jinshi’s head turned towards her, unable to place the tone in her voice. Maomao stood from where she had been sitting uncomfortably on top of a plastic storage box, brushing off her long, dark blue dress and sleeves, and smoothing out her hair that had been very slightly messed with by the wind outside. She walked to stand closer to Jinshi, peering at him with, again, an unreadable expression - this one slightly different, though he wouldn’t be able to place just how it was different.

“You work at a tea room, don’t you? I saw you there only a month ago or so,” she continued, her voice sounding calm, which he took as a good sign.

”Yes, I do,” Jinshi smiled in response, not entirely sure where this conversation was going, but hoping that it wouldn’t go quite so embarrassingly as their last one. 

“Your ginger teas, they were very fresh. The ginger must have been of a good quality,” she recalled, her voice sounding passionate about what she was saying. Jinshi could almost swear her lips crinkled up into a small smile, but maybe he was deluding himself. Yes, he was definitely just seeing what he wanted to see.  “It was very nice. And, thank you for helping me.”

With that, she bowed her head politely to him, and walked past him to hide further inside the twisting corridors of the city hall.

All thoughts on where Gyokuyou was had long since left the forefront of his mind.

Chapter Text

Studying was never something that bothered Jinshi. Call him masochistic, and maybe you'd be right, but the hours of drowning himself in workload and flashcards of figures and terms before an exam, the sleepless nights and the stress of an essay all piling up on him the longer he procrastinated… he put himself through it almost willingly every time. That is not to say he didn’t study throughout the year before finals arrived - he was a good student, thank you very much - but nothing in his mind could quite compare to the feeling of accomplishment after he had sufficiently drained himself until he was bordering on dangerous exhaustion. The night of finally resting after an anticipated exam…

What he did not enjoy was studying with other people. Tutoring them, that was fine, but he had sadly found himself tricked into a studying session alongside some friends of his under the guise of helping Basen with some subject matter.

And they did not. Stop. Talking.

There weren’t any exams for them coming up for another few weeks, so he wasn’t stressed by any real study time being wasted, but being stuck in a small corner of the university’s library, in a group of 7 other guys he mostly didn’t know besides Basen (and maybe Lihaku by extension), while they were making so much noise, Jinshi felt beyond irritated. And embarrassed. They had been asked twice already to keep the noise down, and he could only cover his face in shame as he sat as far from the group as possible while not outright walking away. Would it be rude to leave after only an hour? He wasn’t entirely sure he could sit through this much longer. He couldn’t focus on studying, neither did he at all want to be a part of their conversations.

”Hey, Jinshi, is it true you work in a coffee shop?”

Ah, great. Now they’ve noticed I'm here, too.

”A tea room, yes,” he replied, a smile on his face that probably reflected the passive aggression in his tone, but he was in no mood to play around with acting polite. “Why do you ask?”

”You got any cute girls who go there? Seems like the kinda place they’d gather,” Random Guy #1 continued. Jinshi wasn’t going to pretend he cared enough to remember the name of the third guy with a scraggly beard and unibrow that sat within the group. Let alone the first or second.

Someone made a snickering comment to someone else about tea rooms being pretentious and 'too feminine' for him to be seen in, and maybe a comment about Jinshi alongside it, but he ignored it. What kinds of friend groups had Basen been dragged into while at the gym? He would have to talk to him about that later.

”I suppose so,” Jinshi answered, after deeming any actual response to probably be taken by them as negligible. but You could find cute girls anywhere, but he wasn't sure what their idea of a ‘cute girl’ consisted of, if he was honest. Nor did he really want to help them.

A little part of his mind travelled to a certain one-time customer that he had yet to see again since the incident at the movie premier a month ago, but he quickly shoved that to the side. Objectively, she was cute. That was probably part of what gained her so much success, and he was hardly the first or last person to find her cute.

There were other cute girls that visited the tea room, too. Probably. Jinshi just couldn’t seem to recall any at that moment.

”Not much of a talker are you, eh? Alright, pretty boy.” It also wasn't the first, or going to be the last, time he had been called that as a light insult. It didn’t bother him much, though. It was just an easy jab at him because he looked weak and scrawny. At least he looked like he had good hygienic practices; there were others sitting beside him that he wanted to question on that front.

But, well, now he couldn’t leave, because that would be letting Mr. Receding Hairline win.

 ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°

By the time he did leave the library, after slowly shuffling his bag and his books further and further away from the rest of the group for the good portion of 2 hours, it was beyond dark outside. It was the middle of winter, and while there was no rain or anything dramatic like snow filling the air, the moon and stars had all been blocked out by thick clouds. The only light came from the buildings and lamps lining the streets, and even then, Jinshi could hardly see the ground in front of his own feet.

His shared apartment was still a 20 minute drive from the university campus, and considering the lack of parking that didn’t cost half his salary, he had taken the bus into the city that day. The only issue was that, given how late it was now, there were much fewer buses running at this hour. It was absolutely unreasonable to consider walking home, so that left the hour-long wait until the next bus hopefully didn’t skip the bus stop. Just great.

His feet lead him to the station, which wasn’t the first bus stop he could have chosen to wait at, but it would save him a few yuan along with having a small convenience shop that was still open should he need to buy another drink or snack. As he began approaching the station closer, he noticed a rather large number of people loitering near the front gates of it.

Jinshi sat down at a bench only a little ways off from the station, not wanting to sit in such a crowded area for the better half of the next hour. He didn’t mean to be listening in to anyone’s conversations, but he had forgotten to bring any headphones with him and was forced to either sit with his own thoughts for far too long, or distract himself with other noise. Any sounds or conversations to listen into were more than welcome to him.

”I need to be picked up, the trains were all held up down the line by a small landslide and they won’t have it running for the next few hours,” a soft, toneless voice spoke beside him, into a phone that the woman held with both hands to her ear. “Yes, the east station. How long will that take? …Alright.”

The young woman on the phone dropped her hands into her lap with a sigh. He could only see it out of his peripheral vision, though, as his eyes were staring down the street opposite, watching as someone struggled to lift a heavy suitcase out of their abnormally large car. As such, Jinshi didn’t notice the young woman’s head turning to look at him.

”Hey, you.”

Jinshi glanced to the side, not actually expecting to be met with eyes on him. He looked around more out of curiosity and nosiness, not realising that it was indeed him being called at.

He also didn’t expect to have run into Maomao, yet again.

”Are you following me?” She asked bluntly.

”Oh- no! No, I didn’t even notice you here!” Jinshi suddenly panicked, probably resembling a startled animal with how he felt the hairs on his arms jolt in sudden alertness. She had a point though, he was beginning to look like some kind of talented stalker, finding ways to intercept her paths not often enough to be ignored, but with weird accuracy in the strangest of places. God, she totally thought he was a creep now! 

“Once is by chance, twice is a coincidence, but three times? That’s the start of a pattern…” Maomao responded, almost cryptically. “No one else seems to recognise me, so how come you do?”

Crap, how am I to get out of a line of questioning? 

“I’m not… sure? If I am to be blunt, I don’t know how you haven’t been recognised sooner,” Jinshi carefully responded, keeping his voice low as he could while still being loud enough for her to hear. He grabbed hold of his bag, which he was very tired of lugging around on his poor shoulder, and made to stand up. “Sorry, I can just find somewhere else to sit if I’m concerning you-“

”No, stay there, please,” she cut him off, taking a hold on her own bag and swinging it over her shoulder. Great, now I’ve scared her into moving far away from me herself. That makes me feel more guilty than upset! And that's possibly worse!

Against his expectations, though, she walked closer to him, sitting down beside him and making herself comfortable as she used her coat like a blanket over her legs. She was wearing a thick knitted jumper over her arms, but covering her legs was what he could only assume to be a long skirt with relatively no resistance against the cold. He almost offered his own coat, it being much longer than hers and would keep her warmer, but he was trying to escape creep allegations here, not grant any further attention towards it.

His face must have displayed his shock openly, because Maomao levelled a questioning glare at him, almost provoking him to try asking why she moved closer to him, and see where that’ll land him. “What?”

”Nothing, nothing...”

“It’s dark outside already, and if I’m honest, I really don’t want to be sitting by myself in the cold and potentially have myself recognised. Or worse,” she didn't mince her words.

A thought visibly crossed her mind, though her expression left very little given away as to what that thought was. She paused for a moment though, before giving Jinshi a glance with a disgruntled look. It didn't feel aimed at him, though. Or maybe that was just his wishful thinking.

 “I don’t actually believe you're some weirdo," Maomao admitted bluntly, after a moment too long of a near awkward silence. "I’ve been told I have a strange sense of humour to adapt to. It is funny I somehow keep running into you though. Sorry.”

So, that was a… joke? 

“Oh, that’s okay. Um, I have an hour until my bus gets here anyway,” Jinshi begins to speak, not really sure where he was planning on going with that line of thought, but it was meant to be going somewhere initially, he was sure of it. 

The momentary silence dragged out far sooner than it felt like it should have, and so Jinshi found himself furthering the conversation. “The trains are down, then?”

”Yeah, a landslide somewhere outside the city or something. Everything had to be stopped because of it, the whole line.”

“That’s annoying.” She didn’t seem like much of a talker, but that was okay. Jinshi decided to leave their conversation there, hoping it wouldn’t come off as rude, but he was too drained from his conversations earlier in the day to hold up any more than that.

Instead, he opened his phone, scrolling through his messages and finding ones from both Basen and Lihaku, both reading along the same lines:

”Sorry, I didn’t realise those guys would be such assholes towards you.”

Jinshi found himself huffing out laughter despite how annoyed his interactions with that group had left him earlier. From what it sounded like, given the other notifications from a group chat he had been added to and never opened, Basen had called them out on their behaviour, and the three of them (Basen, Lihaku, and of course, Jinshi) had promptly been kicked from the group chat.

Well, he couldn’t even pretend to be disappointed. He’d reply to them later.

”Say, the tea room you work at, do you sell jasmine tea?” Maomao asked, speaking so softly it was almost as though she were thinking out loud rather than actually talking to him.

It took Jinshi a moment to respond properly, not quite prepared for more talking, and maybe his voice came out a little soft too. “Yes, we do. A variety of jasmine teas, actually.”

She gave a content hum in response. This was the first time Jinshi had heard her with a tone in her voice that was anything besides the calm and controlled cadence she was careful to keep up, and it sounded lovely to his ears. “Jasmine tea is very good for inflammation and blood flow. Your workplace had a very good quality collection of ingredients, from what I saw and tasted.”

”The owner, she's very particular about who she buys from,” he laughed fondly. “You sound like you know more about them than I do, though. Do you have an interest in herbal remedies?” Jinshi asked, genuinely intrigued.

”Not as a main method of curing disease, but I think it’s important to use a variety of natural remedies as upkeep at the very least; prevention, if you will,” she answered eagerly, as though she had been awaiting this conversation for a lifetime. Even her usual monotonous voice had changed to one that sounded of smiles.

If it almost infectiously brought a wider smile to Jinshi’s own face, then no one else was paying attention anyway. 

“I agree, though I usually just leave it up to my sister to pick out what she thinks I need,” he hummed in response, not wanting the conversation to trail off as the other had - especially when Maomao looked so happy about it. "Do you collect any specifically?"

“I have a variety of dried herbs at home, but my favourite of them are the poisonous ones. I’ve been trying my whole life to gain at least some level of immunity to every natural poison; it’s the only thing on my bucket list." She suddenly stopped, as though she had misspoken. "Sorry, I get easily carried away with this subject.”

”No, no, it’s an interesting subject! It sounds like you have quite the goal to complete,” he smiled, but was quietly wondering if she just admitted to enjoying poisoning herself. Surely he heard that wrong, right? “Are you close to achieving it?”

”Well, no… I was forced to stop while filming, because they kept finding…” whatever she said under her breath to finish that sentence was spoken too quietly to be made out, but Jinshi decided maybe it was best not to know. “Anyway, I was actually trying to bring these home to continue running my experiments, because I have time off now.” 

Excitedly, she reached into her bag and pulled out several roots and herbs; some dried, while others remained fresh. Honestly, it looked as though she had just left the house to dig up someone's garden. A glance into her bag and it became clear that the bag’s only purpose was to carry around these plants, with different fabric compartments separating out bundles of this and that - he was surprised she managed to fit her phone into there, all things considered.

”These,” she proudly continued, holding out a small, clear container, “Are datura seeds. Also known as moonflowers, thornapple, jimsonweed - they have many names. They’re a part of the nightshade family, and the entire plant is poisonous in varying amounts! The seed pods are actually the most poisonous part, alongside the flowers it produces, but I’m not planning on eating these.”

”That's… good to hear. What are you planning on using them for, then?” Is this even legal? Should I bother asking?

“I want to cultivate my own datura bush for my garden. They flower into these beautiful trumpets, and I am going to grow them right next to my patch of heartbreak grass,” she sighed dreamily as she envisioned what Jinshi could only assume to be the highest concentration of potentially deadly plants within the country by the sounds of it - her garden. “But seriously, even I don't want to be eating these - not yet at least, and not without a lot more research.”

The conversation didn’t end there. Maomao proceeded to talk his ear off about datura plants alone for another 20 minutes, then another poisonous plant he had already forgotten the complex name of for another 10, all the while swinging her feet as though this were the happiest she had felt in her life. Jinshi wouldn’t be surprised if no one else had ever let her ramble on quite so long as this, but still, he found it rather endearing. 

He couldn’t bring himself to stop her, not once. In fact, as a fluttering feeling started rising in his chest, Jinshi realised it might just be a little bit too late for him. Every smile she gave, brought on by his engagement and lines of questioning regarding the conversation, he could feel his cheeks heat up further and further. It was already over for him, and nothing had even truly begun. They were still strangers to each other, and that fact sat in his chest a little uncomfortably.

Which level of parasocial is this, exactly?

She continued, describing all the different side effects of each plant she mentioned, and how those symptoms would come about, including dosages and methods of taking them safely, then moved onto talking about the environments they enjoyed in the wild, and how to cultivate them effectively and produce the maximum yield. So on, so forth.

At some point during the conversation, he noticed her shivering despite her warm attire, and so offered his coat to keep the cold at bay, but she declined it politely. 

“But then you would be cold,” she had pointed out, though frankly he didn't care much for the cold when he could see her rubbing her hands together in her sleeves. It didn’t seem to cross her mind much further, though, as she simply sprung into facts about her next favourite herb.

”How come you didn’t pursue biology as a degree?” Jinshi finally asked, genuinely confused considering her passion behind it. Botanical biology seemed like it should have been the career path she took in life, so it was only natural to wonder why acting ended up as her career.

Maomao’s face soured at his words, and for a moment, Jinshi was worried he had said something offensive by mistake. She interrupted his frantic backtracking though with a response.

”I did take biology, up until it became time to prepare for university, and then my… Eugh. My biological father - let's call him ‘the old fart’ - he had to get his hands in and meddle, as always,” she scoffed bitterly. “I don’t hate acting, I’m good at it - I always had to be, growing up - and it gives me a certain amount of power that I don't necessarily dislike being able to use in certain instances. But it wasn’t my original choice, let’s say.”

It was funny how Maomao became really chatty after being given the opportunity to talk about poisons. He hoped no one else would find this out about her and use it against her, and he also secretly hoped that he could remain one of the few who had seen her smile so contently and excitedly over the subject.

“If you could switch career paths now, would you?”

“No, no I wouldn’t,” she answered honestly, but a sigh still escaped her mouth. “Anyway, I still don’t know anything about you, Mr. Stalker.”

”I’m still a stalker, even now? I would have thought that after all this talking, I could at least be promoted to ‘kind stranger’ status,” Jinshi huffed in response, feeling himself smile much more genuinely than he was used to putting on in front of others. “There’s not much to me, though, not compared to your story. I’m a student at the university down the road, I work in my mother's tea room, and… that’s actually all I can really think of.”

”The tea room is family run?” she asked, genuinely interested. Of course she would be, she seems to enjoy her herbs.

”Mhm, though there are a few workers there that are more like family friends - we don’t have a huge family, there aren't many kids.”

She nodded before continuing to ask, ”What degree are you doing?”

Honestly, Jinshi almost felt a bit embarrassed admitting to an already internationally famous actress, who was younger than him, that he was still studying to become a screenwriter. He wasn’t ashamed of it, it just suddenly hit him quite how far apart they were, despite having a conversation on the cold bench of a train station as though it were nothing. A bit of a sobering feeling.

”Uh, Film Directory and Screenwriting,” he finally replied, though the pregnant pause in the conversation did nothing to soothe his embarrassment. “I’m in my final year right now.”

”Oh, really? Is that why you were at the premier?” 

”No - well, a little. I was meant to be just picking up my sister-in-law because my brother had some virus, and she got me a chance to talk to a few people,” he smiled. “I’m not a fan of loud spaces though, that's why I was hiding around the back, waiting for her to finish talking with people.”

”Yeah, I get it. Crowds aren’t my thing either, in case that much wasn’t obvious,” she admitted. “It’s lucky you were loitering in the back hallways, for me at least anyway. I wasn’t sure how I was meant to keep outrunning them in a dress that was ever-so-slightly too long for my legs.”

Jinshi laughed at that, far more easily than he usually found himself laughing along. It no longer felt forced, he realised. “Well then, I’m glad I could act as a cushion for your fall.”

”Haha, don’t tease me about that,” she huffed, a sarcastic lilt in her tone. Her phone screen lit up, a message from someone. She checked it briefly, then set her phone back down, “My driver is just down the road, he’ll be here in a moment.”

”I guess you’ll be free from the cold before me after all, then.”

”Yeah, I guess so. Oh, I still don’t know your name,” she asked suddenly. “You know mine, but I don’t know yours yet. That feels unfair.”

Truthfully, he felt like giving his name might give him too much hope that anything were to come out of these chance meetings. For that reason, his brain decided to try and redirect.

”Is this for the police report about a stalker? To know which name to write down?” he joked, watching as her expression curled up into the faintest smile once more. 

“You catch on quick,” she easily bounced back in turn as she gathered her coat in her arms. It almost felt like they were starting to sync up more fluidly with their shared quips. “If you’re not careful, you’ll remain in my memories as only ‘Mr. Stalker’, so make up your mind.”

Something about the atmosphere shifted ever so slightly in that moment. Whether it was the cold creeping up on him, or maybe just the friendliness of the banter flowing so easily, like a chemical reaction in the air between them. Either way, he suddenly felt confident. Stupidly confident.

”I’d be honoured to remain in your memories at all,” Jinshi laughed honestly, before continuing before his mind could stop him. “Is this a bad time to ask you if you’d be open to a dinner date?” 

He expected nothing but rejection, but still, their conversation for the past hour had left its mark on him, and he would only kick himself later if he didn’t at least ask. Another unreadable expression flashed only for a moment across Maomao’s face, before a small closed-mouth smile appeared.

”A very bad time - I’ll be writing the restraining order as soon as my hands defrost,” she laughed, shaking her cold hands that she had been periodically rubbing together throughout the evening. “I don’t date, really, it's too much of a security risk. You can never know who’s getting close to you so they can leak your deepest secrets on some creepy tumblr blog post.”

”People do that?!” he found himself exclaiming a little too loudly, genuinely surprised. Considering he had never had much of an internet presence outside of research, apparently he wasn't aware of the weirder parts of stan culture. Not as much as he thought he was, at least. “Huh, your reaction makes sense then, I would also be skeptical of dating if that was a possibility. I hope nothing like that ever happens to you, then, if you ever decide to try dating.”

Something about what he said, or maybe how he said it, must have triggered some kind of thought in Maomao’s head, because as a car slowed to a halt before them, she turned to him one last time.

”If we do meet again, for whatever reason, I’ll consider the offer. Maybe. If it was serious.”

And then, she was gone.

Chapter Text

Maomao’s POV:

“You know, if you don’t start looking for someone soon, that old man of yours is only going to get more jittery,” Gyokuyou warned as she brushed through Maomao’s hair carefully, playing with the soft strands between her fingertips. “I’ve heard from some of his close colleagues that he’s already been trying to convince some other project managers and directors to matchmake their sons with you.”

”When is he going to learn to quit trying while he’s ahead?” the young woman huffed with annoyance. 

“I don’t think he could ever quit when it comes to you, Maomao. He wants you to be happy, in his own clingy way. He sees you with no partner and he starts to worry that you're lonely.”

Maomao had been dealing with the issue that was Kan Lakan for the past 3 years. Ever since she had become an adult, and her biological father had been given the chance at becoming reacquainted with her (only because her adoptive father pleaded her to give the man a chance, and she couldn't say no to him), he had been trying to bridge the gap that had long since formed far too deep between them. His attempts were entirely in vain.

And yet, her losing a stupid bet to him had kept her tied to the large-scale projects he worked on day after day, regardless of how little interest she showed in accepting him as her father.

”He should have stopped pushing when I agreed to uphold my side of the deal we made. If he gave me room to breathe after that, I might have been a little more open to at least talking to him from time to time,” Maomao complained, picking at her chipped fingernails - the result of her smacking her hand down on a table in frustration only a few minutes prior. “I don’t need him interfering with my life any further, and I don’t need to be stuck in a loveless relationship at my age. Maybe if I get to 40 and there’s still no one, I’ll consider it.”

”And I will be here to make sure that never happens!” Gyokuyou chimed in once more, twisting Maomao’s hair into a loose braid that ran down her shoulder. “If you can’t find a date yourself to get him off your back, I could always work my magic and find you a match - an actually good one, at that. Go on a date or two, have it reported back to him somehow, and he’ll leave you alone for a little while at least. I’ll just do the matchmaking for you!”

”Are you implying I can’t find a date? Who is to say I’m not just avoiding the hassle of it?” Maomao asked, turning her head to look her friend in the eyes before Gyokuyou reached to find a nail file, stealing Maomao’s hands too.

”Have you, then?”

Maomao’s momentary silence was enough of an answer on its own. Her thoughts had drifted throughout the later part of the conversation to that man she kept running into, the one she still didn’t know the name of. She couldn’t tell how much of their conversation had been a joke - they had been chucking light banter back and forth for what must have been up to an hour in the freezing cold that night, and yet, at the very end, when he asked her if she was open to a date… Well, unless they were to meet again, she would never know if that had just been another joke or not. Three times was rare enough, and she wasn’t about to go and seek him out at his place of work after she had said… that.

”If we do meet again, for whatever reason, I’ll consider the offer. Maybe. If it was serious.”

He seemed nice - a genuinely involved conversation partner, at the very least. And openly helpful from what she had seen. That was all.

“Maomao! Don’t tell me you’ve been hiding someone from me?!” Gyokuyou scolded, but her face was beaming. “When did my little cat become so secretive, hm?”

”It’s not like that,” she begins, trying not to sound too exasperated. Gyokuyou was going to bleed her dry for information now. “There’s this guy that I just keep running into. Three times now, and not just passing by, we’ve interacted at least vaguely every single time.” 

The other woman gave her a look that kindly threatened her to keep going, almost goading Maomao to stop and see what she did next. “He listened to me talk about herbs and poisons for like half an hour, in the middle of the night, while it was nearly freezing outside, and he still hasn’t given me his name.”

”Oooh, Maomao has a crush! And he sounds like he’d be a good match for you, too, if he was able to keep you entertained for so long.”

”No, not like that, I said!” she levelled the woman with a glare. “It just feels like an odd coincidence to happen three times, and he asked me if I would like to go on a date the last time we spoke, but I turned him down. Besides, I don’t know how much of what he asked was just a continuation of the jokes we had been sharing.”

Gyokuyou began filing her nails for her as she spoke, smoothing them down with the reverence and care she always seemed to treat Maomao with, like she was taking care of a little sister, or maybe a daughter. “Give me the whole story, all three of the meetings, please!”

”Must I?”

”Don’t forget, I have all night and all morning to squeeze the details out of you,” Gyokuyou grinned, almost evilly, as she patted on one of her many fluffy pillows for Maomao to get comfortable on. “Ah, this sleepover was such a good idea!”

Jinshi’s POV:

“Now, now, what has Jinshi looking so exhausted these days, hm?” Gyokuyou asked as she played with the rim of her tea cup, sitting opposite the man in question after the tea room had closed. “I can hear those cogs in your brain turning away, so don’t try and hide whatever’s on your mind.”

Her questioning would have sounded to anyone else like it was voiced out of concern, but Jinshi wasn’t so naïve anymore. He could recognise the way her lips ticked up imperceptibly like she knew she was pushing the right buttons. She was needling out information. Worst of all, he wasn't entirely sure what she was getting at, nor how much she knew.

“I have no idea what you mean.”

”Oh, is that so? Then why have you been drying the same saucer for the better part of 5 minutes while your eyes drift to the horizon like you're searching for answers?” 

She already has her hooks in me! “It’s a nice evening, is all. And the light breeze looks lovely winding through the-“

”Poetry doesn’t suit you, let’s hold it there,” she interrupted, looking unimpressed. “Jinshi, I care about you, and I want to help if something is on your mind!”

She spoke so honestly, and Jinshi was never quite sure how she was able to lie so well, but there was surely an ulterior motive behind her deciding to pester him after his shift. She had even gone so far as waiting for him for the past hour - she would not have done that without reason. 

“Or, someone…”

Now just how does she know that?! What kind of- no, never mind. Of course she had connections. Someone must have been paying far too much attention to him again and ran to Gyokuyou with gossip. He would rather not like to know if it was out of concern or if it were just one of the people who seemed to… follow him around, for some reason. Again. He couldn’t actually tell if they were sent out by Gyokuyou as some kind of practical joke or if she just cornered them afterwards and made them spill - either option was equally as uncomfortable.

”Gyokuyou,” he drawled slowly, putting on the brightest smile he could muster without it overshadowing his clear annoyance. “Just who do you have following me around this time?”

”No one! I just overheard a few things here and there, and seeing you today I had to confirm it! So, who is this mysterious person that has you so caught up?”

“It’s not like that,” he tried, but the woman’s grin only seemed to increase tenfold as he spoke. “If anything, I’m more worried I’ve come off as a total creep with just… unfortunate timing. Repeatedly.”

”Unfortunate timing?” Gyokuyou asked, before taking a sip of her tea with a satisfied gleam dancing in her eyes.

“That is what I said.”

The silence quickly became suffocating as Gyokuyou looked at him expectantly. Well, she could wait there as long as she wanted, he was finished with this conversation. He did not need some nosy sister-in-law getting all into his business! And where is my brother to drag her home?!

She tilted her head to the side, much like a curious fox, continuing to look at him for more answers. Her vibrant red hair couldn’t save her at all from the comparison. And then, pulling out her secret weapon, she ever so slightly raised an eyebrow at him - as though she had begun to wonder what on earth could have happened for him to supposedly end up with such a poor reputation with this mystery girl. She was judging him, unfairly at that, and that was something he would take no more of.

”Fine, you win,” he huffed. “I keep running into Maomao somehow, the actress, and her current status of fame after than new movie isn’t helping me not look like some crazy fanboy trying to stalk her down. And every time I think I couldn’t feel more embarrassed by it, she appears again and I look even worse! It’s all coincidence, I swear, but it's getting to a point I don't think I have any real excuse if it is to happen again! And I really, really don't want that to be her impression of me, but I also do want to meet her again, but would that make me look even worse? Of course it would! And I just-”

“Wooow, you’ve met Maomao? You must tell me all about it!” Gyokuyou exclaimed, cutting him off from his ramblings before he even got to the main event of it all. Her voice was bright, but something about her expression still tipped Jinshi off that he was being teased, maybe even slightly being made fun of.

Still, it was now clear she wasn’t going to leave before knowing everything that happened, and frankly, Jinshi needed to tell someone about this sooner or later before it drove him insane. Gyokuyou probably had his brother waiting for her somewhere nearby - she just seemed to have everyone wrapped around her finger, no matter how out-of-convenience their marriage had been.

With a deep sigh, he cracked a small smile. As much as her pestering and teasing annoyed him, Gyokuyou was still a nice friend to have. “Alright, let me get a snack first, though.”

Chapter Text

“How much did you pay Gyokuyou for this?”

That was what a neutral voice asked, snapping Jinshi from his thoughts. Turning his head, he noticed how big of a mistake it was to give his sister-in-law the benefit of the doubt and fill her in on his gossip.

Standing next to him, wearing a soft pink dress, a small frown, and freckles that he now realised had to be fake (he had spent far too much time staring at one particular freckle on this person's nose the last time they had spoken that now had seemingly vanished into thin air) was the young woman he had been trying to take his mind off for weeks now.

What on earth has Gyokuyou done… And why is Maomao on a first name basis with her?

But let’s backtrack just a little - to find out how he ended up here.

Ever since Jinshi had confided in Gyokuyou his worries surrounding his increasingly frequent run-ins with Maomao - and maybe gone on a little, tiny teeny ramble about how much fun he had the last time they spoke - his sister-in-law had been absolutely ecstatic about something. Not that she would tell him what it was that caused her nails to bounce joyfully off the counter with pronounced clacks. Another few weeks later, she came to him with the brilliant idea of setting him up on a blind date with one of her friends, as an effort to distract him from thinking about Maomao constantly. Not that he was! He definitely didn’t find his thoughts wandering every now and again to whether or not she was enjoying her garden the moment the weather turned nicely, or remembering their conversations every time he had to catch a bus back home in the dark.

No, he didn’t do that!

Jinshi had turned down Gyokuyou‘s offer at first, finding it not only silly, but also way too expensive for his current budget. He was by no means poor, but that didn’t mean he had the money to throw around in nice restaurants paying for some random lady’s meal while he was still a budgeting student! Besides, he wasn’t actually looking for a relationship, and he wasn’t planning on considering it any further than that for at least the remainder of the semester. Searching could wait until he had his degree.

Still, it was Gyokuyou’s biggest talent to squeeze the answers she wanted out of people, and he was no exception. It took three more weeks and numerous visits from his brother and her to finally needle an exhausted, “Fine, I’ll do it,” out of him. Even then, he planned to just make it through the date, act polite and as interested as he could out of kindness, and then reject anything further if it were to get that far. One evening gone, but after that he would be free from the hassle. 

Another week passed by, and he found himself parking near a nice, high-end restaurant, brushing imaginary dust off his dress shirt as he gave the name of his reservation to the wait staff. He claimed it's ‘his’ reservation, but he only agreed to attend if Gyokuyou was to foot at least the reservation fee. Yes, it was that kind of fancy restaurant. His wallet already felt lighter just stepping into the building.

Arriving early so as to not immediately make a bad impression, he found himself being led to a private dining room with a balcony. Gyokuyou failed to inform him about that part, but he filed it to the side for later. She wouldn’t spend so long convincing him to meet this person if she knew them to be someone who would make him uncomfortable. At the end of the day, at least he wasn’t the one paying out of pocket for the slightly too ostentatious room.

Being early-spring, the weather was still fairly unpredictable, but that evening it seemed to be playing nice; almost clear skies with a nice view of the sunset. The only issue was that the air was still a little on the chilly side, but that didn’t deter Jinshi’s curiosity as he stepped out onto the balcony, if just to take in the wider view. His thoughts and worries were all quickly swallowed by the sight of the gentle breeze meandering through the trees of the park parallel to the building. The flora were slowly beginning to bloom, and his mind was focused on trailing his eyes across each of the scatteringly flowering bushes and trees.

Because of this, he did not hear the door to the room open behind him once more, nor the quiet voice wishing another presence a lovely evening. He also missed the quiet footsteps walking up behind him, and the amused huff of laughter that was quickly hidden with a suspicious gaze.

”How much did you pay Gyokuyou for this?” the footsteps’ owner asked, adopting a blank tone that suited the expression on her face. 

Jinshi couldn’t quite believe his luck - is it great or dreadful at this point? He wanted to meet with this young woman again, at some point, but had that scheming fox really tricked them both into it?

”Hold on, you know my sister-in-law?” he asked, genuinely still confused by the situation, and hoping that was being conveyed on his face as he spoke. “Wait, that’s not the point! I didn’t pay her a single penny!”

“Your… sister-in-law?” A look crossed Maomao’s face that could only be described as deep bemusement. 

Jinshi wiped a tired hand over his eyes as he thought of how to proceed from here - what more was there to do? He knew he should have just kept turning the offer down. Now he had truly made a fool of himself.

Glancing back up, he noticed traces of mirth within the young lady’s expression. “She got me good, I can’t deny it,” she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. Her eyes raised to meet his, before clearing her throat. “This is my fault, I apologise. I had no idea she knew you when she asked me about… it’s a long story.”

Had they spoken about him? And was this before or after Gyokuyou came to him to dig out information… No, she must have come to him afterwards! Jinshi had a feeling that she seemed to know more than she let on - she seemed to know exactly which buttons to press to get just the information she wanted. They both really had been played like a fiddle. 

It almost hurt slightly, in hindsight. He had trusted her with using that information well, not setting him up for failure.

”Do you need a lift home, then?” Jinshi asked, keeping his voice steady and trying not to appear as embarrassed and ashamed as he did. “Or we can wait until someone can pick you up. We can just forget about all of this.”

”Is that what you want?”

At first, Jinshi assumed that she was trying to make a dry joke to ease the tension in the air, but noticed rather quickly that she seemed to be genuinely asking.

She continued, though, before he could get the words out of his tightened throat. “I have nothing going on for the rest of the day, and I wouldn’t… mind getting to know you a little better. Being an in-law of Gyokuyou. And I still don’t know your name - you owe me that much by now, surely?”

“Right, of course,” he replied, mostly just saying filler words to make up for the fact his mind blanked all but the cadence of her voice for the last few seconds. It was that, or standing there like an idiot. “My name is Jinshi. Well, it’s not my legal name, but it’s what everyone else calls me.” Yes, keep rambling on like an idiot then, why don’t you?

Still, Maomao gave a kind nod and a small close-lipped smile. “Well, Jinshi, shall we sit down, then?”

As it turned out, Maomao and Gyokuyou had been friends since their days in school. While they were two years apart in age, they had both been chosen to lead a program together as a school-wide project, and became close. They later found their first part-time jobs together, in a book store where the two of them would work for hours sorting through inventory and reshelving. It was only with Maomao’s acting career taking off that she had left the store, a few years ago, while Gyokuyou followed close behind with her own career success. 

Now, their relationship was more like an older and younger sister, though Maomao claimed sometimes Gyokuyou acted a little more like a mother to her with her doting. That was how they landed on the conversation of how they had ended up in their current situation.

“She was concerned that the monocled freak - my biological father - was only going to increase his attempts at finding me a partner,” Maomao huffed, her tone having melted into a far more casual manner throughout their conversation once more. “So, instead, she told me she would help me if I couldn't find any dates to at least attend, if only to calm him down for a little longer. It sounded a little like she was assuming I couldn't find a date, so I tried to argue against it, and then… well, she harassed me into sharing what I was thinking about, and the only person who had asked me on a date for a little while… I mean, you can guess the rest.”

Maomao didn’t seem embarrassed visually despite what she was saying, but her eyes couldn’t for a moment meet Jinshi’s as she spoke. Honestly, he was grateful, considering he was more than likely sporting a light blush at the idea of Maomao thinking about him after their last conversation.

“She must have come to visit me right after, because I ended up stuck in the same corner as you were with her needling,” Jinshi chuckled, watching with amusement as she scoffed at her friend’s antics too. “That is Gyokuyou for you, though. I knew there was something fishy about her suddenly loitering around at work.”

“Still, sorry for getting you dragged into her scheming, I honestly didn't think it would amount to anything when I mentioned an entirely random guy with no name to her that I’d run into a few times. In no way did I expect her to actually track you down or anything.”

“Ah, it’s no worries; I would have only been sitting at home doing little else if it weren't for me being here. And it's nice talking to you,” he replied, maybe far too honestly, but his nerves had long since taken the reins over his brain, and anything that came out of his mouth was left up to chance. “I was being serious when I asked if you wanted to go on a date, regardless of how it might have sounded. Still, I didn’t and don’t expect anything like that from you. I’d like to be friends, though, if that isn’t too presumptuous.”

“I also was being serious when I told you I’d consider it next time. But, friendship would be a nice place to start.”

Was he hearing this right? Surely not. It almost sounded like an attempt at creating an opening for more than just friendship eventually, but before he could think further on it, Maomao continued.

”I can’t promise any more than friendship, though,” her eyes were serious as she spoke, though they didn’t seem to be pointed at Jinshi necessarily. It seemed more like she was looking back on a previous incident, or maybe reflecting upon something. Her tone as she continued sounded closer to stating an observation, as opposed to her opening up. “I’m not very good with understanding other people. I’m sure I come off as cold and unfriendly at the best of times, and I hardly understand my own thoughts and feelings surrounding other people. I can’t promise it would be any different for you, nor that if it got any further than friendship, it wouldn’t become unbalanced.”

”That’s fine - as I said, I don’t expect anything from you that you wouldn’t be comfortable and willing to give,” he smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "It was just a spur of the moment question to ask you on a date, because I enjoyed your company. I suppose I honestly never quite expected it to get this far."

Maomao didn't quite seem to believe him. Her gaze turned to him, before a cold questioning look shifted onto her face. ”I’m not sure why I am being quite so honest with you about this. Have you put something in my drink?”

”What? No, of course not!”

”I’m kidding,” she smiled, only very slightly, and it didn’t really resemble a smile so much as it did a small uptick in the corner of her lips, but to him it was the biggest smile he reckoned she had given him so far. Besides when she spoke about poisonous plants. That was another thing entirely. “You’re the first person who’s treated me like a normal person in quite a while, outside of my inner circle. I’m still not sure how you recognised me initially - most people tell me I look like another person entirely without makeup on.”

”You know, if I’m honest, I don’t quite know how you’ve gotten away with that for as long as you have,” he frowned, still not quite believing that a few fake freckles and some contour was all it took to throw off seemingly everyone from her trail. He had witnessed it himself, though, throughout several instances now.

”Well, that’s just you being different, I’m afraid,” she shrugged, before their waiter opened the door to their room, bringing in their meal. “I've been told that at best I look like an ugly but viable stunt double when I take off the glamorous makeup.”

“Ugly?!” If this was meant to be Maomao at her ugliest, then Jinshi had no hope for eventually leaving his blooming feelings behind without tearing away half his heart along with it. He was already in too deep.

With that, the conversations between them continued to ebb and flow, focusing on this and that, whatever came to their minds. A few hours passed by the time they left the restaurant and prepared to say their goodbyes, but they still drew on their conversation by slowly walking through the park Jinshi had seen before, waiting for Maomao’s driver to pick her up. The stars were out, but the park was well lit with street lamps and fairy lights scattered through the bushes lining the paths. On such a clear night, the moon did a good enough job of lighting up the areas the street lamps didn’t reach anyway, and the city was still so alive with people that the darkness felt like nothing to be scared of. 

Jinshi spent a fair amount of his time engaged in the stories and facts Maomao was willing to share with him, a lot of which being sharing funny memories she had with Gyokuyou, with him reciprocating in his own fair share of moments he remembered and laughed at in hindsight. He was more than happy to just listen, though. There was something in the way Maomao spoke on things she truly wanted to talk about that was just volumes nicer than forcing her to listen to whatever he would end up prattling on about. Equally, though, Maomao asked her own fair share of questions, engaged in each of his stories.

Their date (hangout?) ended with the same sleek black car pulling up at the end of the street, waiting for her just as it had done the time before.

”Thank you for the evening, I had fun,” she turned to him, her tone genuine.

Despite his best efforts to not sound too desperate, Jinshi replied with a smile, “Yeah, me too. Maybe we could do something like this again some time? As friends, I mean.”

Maomao went quiet for a moment, a contemplative look crossing her eyes for a split second causing Jinshi to momentarily retrace his steps, but after what felt like far too long, she responded. 

“I’d like that, yes.”

Only a few seconds had passed in reality, but Jinshi was swept over with a wave of mental relief. “Can I offer you my number? So you can reach out in your own time.”

”Oh, yeah, sure,” she agreed easily, and Jinshi felt yet another wave of relief pass over him as she took her phone out, opening up her contacts, and offered it to him to put his own details into. “I’ll message you if an opening comes up. My manager has been running me here and there like a dog for weeks now.”

”I hope things settle down for you then, it's good to take breaks when you can,” he chuckled, enjoying her blunt, honest remarks. 

Why he was so worried about whether or not she was putting up with him for the sake of it, he still wasn’t quite sure. Maomao was clearly a no-nonsense kind of person. And yet, he still held so much doubt about himself that he was scared to take up any more of her time should she desperately want to be rid of him already.

 “I won’t take up any more of your evening, then. Have a nice rest!”

”Thank you. Have a good evening, Jinshi.”

With that, she turned and walked to the parked car, while Jinshi began his walk in the opposite direction, making his way back through the park towards his own car, when his phone buzzed. Considering Maomao still probably hadn’t sat down fully, he doubted it was her, so he took out his phone to see who it was.

22:07 Gyokuyou: i haven’t heard any complaints yet, i take it i’ll be receiving a generous gift as a thanks? :)

Gah, like hell she would. 

Chapter Text

Jinshi was beginning to get very annoyed with his sister-in-law’s increasingly common spontaneous nights out. Largely due to the fact that somehow, he seemed to be getting dragged out to come and pick her up more and more because his brother was in and out of the country. He was at home today, but the last Jinshi had heard from him, he was jet lagged and missing his daughter a lot in the time he spent away.

”So, what, you want me to just ditch all the plans I had to come and wait around for you out in the cold? This is the last time! You need to find someone else to pick you up the next time you get last minute seats at a runway show,” his head already hurts thinking about the logistics of it all. “And goodness knows the parking is going to be a nightmare during fashion week.”

He wasn’t about to actually ditch her - in fact, the next time and the time after that, if she were to ask for his help getting a lift back home again, he wouldn’t even consider saying no. That doesn’t mean a little advanced warning wouldn’t be appreciated. Welcome, even. She could deal with him being pissy every time she pulled the rug from under him as payment.

”Like you had plans anyway,” Not the point, Gyokuyou. “Anyway, I didn’t just call to ask for you to drive me there and back! I got you a seat too!” Her laughter could be heard very clearly through the phone, a mixture of amusement at Jinshi’s sudden silence as he contemplated her offer, and also just her natural bubbly way of speaking. 

He suddenly found himself less annoyed with the woman in question. No, actually, instead he was beginning to consider what kind of treat he could get her as a thanks. She had won him over in 6 words - he really needed to start considering his priorities if he was becoming so easy to predict.

Given his chosen career path - fashion went hand in hand with directory and screenwriting, so much so that he had nearly ended up pursuing it instead - Jinshi was absolutely ecstatic when Gyokuyou handed him his very own physical copy of the invitation. It was an invitation as her ‘plus one’, but he could hardly care. Her connections were invaluable to him if it gave him opportunities like this every now and then. She needed to stay on all her high up friends’ good sides, for his sake!

The press queues stretched on for what felt like miles, all desperately hoping to get their perfect shot, and it was only natural that Jinshi felt awfully smug passing them all as though it were nothing, keeping a step behind Gyokuyou as she easily navigated her way through the miscellaneous sea of people pointing this way and that. He wasn’t quite sure how she did it, knowing where to go in such a busy environment, but before too long they were sitting down on seats reserved for their shared last name - Ka.

”How come my brother didn’t join you here?” Jinshi finally asked, sitting down in his front row seat next to hers - just how much of a big shot was this friend that provided her the seats?

”Oh, we both know he would never want to be seen at an event like this,” Gyokuyou laughed easily, smoothing her coat over her lap with her free hands. “I’d much rather extend the offer to someone who would care for it rather than someone who would only sit here bored. Besides, he was overjoyed at getting to spend time with Lingli.”

Lingli, Jinshi’s niece, and the child of two parents who were much more like close friends than anything considered lovers. But neither parent were the romantic type anyway. What started out as a marriage of convenience ended up as a comfortable life between them both, neither choosing to leave when the convenience excuse had long since passed. It wasn’t what Jinshi would choose for himself, per se, but he hadn’t seen his older brother as happy and comfortable in his own two shoes before. And Gyokuyou was family to them all, regardless of any marital status.

”He goes so soft for that child of yours,” Jinshi smiled. “She is going to be spoiled rotten by the time she starts school.”

”She is loved, not spoiled,” she scoffed light-heartedly, no venom to her words. “He told me he wanted to try baking some cookies with her while I’m out. I’m not sure if I’m going to return home to them both in some kind of sugar high, or a flour explosion. God knows that man can’t cook to save his life.”

Jinshi struggled to suppress a loud laugh to that, thinking back on many nights of burnt toast and overcooked eggs when his brother was tasked with looking after him as a kid. “Then, I wish you good luck in advance.”

”Oh, you should be wishing him luck if I come home to a mess,” her eyes gleamed with an unspoken promise of a good scolding, more than enough to terrify Jinshi from ever so much as bringing muddy shoes into her home ever again.

The runway event started soon after their conversation had trailed off into other matters, with Jinshi holding a camera ready to take photos for annotations later, while Gyokuyou multitasked with both a phone camera in her left hand and a notepad sitting on her lap, a pen in her right hand. What kind of mission she was on while being here, he wasn’t quite sure. Maybe she was wanting to write an article? Jinshi knew she did that from time to time. Still, the setup felt a little extreme.

The seated crowd watching were quick to quieten when the music and lights were adjusted for the opening walk, and soon enough, one by one, models began to appear, setting the theme for the collection being displayed. It would be the early premiere for the autumnal collection of the brand, and it seemed that this year’s theme was focused on elegance - brown, burgundy, and purple hues; a noticeable trend in floral elements; quite an emphasis on pearls, hats, and bows. Jinshi could only assume they would gradually get bolder as subsequent walks and outfits were revealed, but he was still enraptured by the atmosphere around him, and took many photos for later analysis regardless.

Despite being in attendance to such a prestigious event, half the crowd seemed unwilling to stay still in their seats after the first few minutes, as if they were waiting for it to be over and done with. Maybe they were only there to support a certain model, or through invitation they felt they couldn’t skip for appearances sake, but it was beginning to get on Jinshi’s nerves how the room was becoming full with just… murmured obnoxious chatter.

Models came and went, eventually the looks became bolder, more stylised, with more elements weaving through the initial theme until it took on further abstract concepts of the original tones. He took furious notes on his phone, switching between his camera and his note taking app, suddenly understanding why Gyokuyou kept physical notes on hand despite the fact she seemed to be barely touching the notepad.

And then, the crowds hushed in an instant.

Jinshi hardly had the time to process all of his senses around him with his head running wild with analyses he wanted to do on certain outfits, but even he noticed the shift in the air as suddenly everyone seemed to pay attention once more.

With no short introduction from a commentator, Maomao took to the runway, a look of concentration stuck firmly on her face. Her hair was pinned elaborately away from her face, highlighting the contours of her jaw, drawing attention to her features that exuded a cold, calculated confidence. Despite her shorter stature, the dark, frosted blue toned outfit adorning her only accentuated what height she did have; despite the lack of an excessively high heel to her shoes, her legs appeared longer than most. 

If he wasn’t mistaken, for a very split second, their eyes met as she began to walk down the runway.

But he must be mistaken, because for a fraction of a second more, it almost appeared as though her eyes softened ever so slightly, her lips barely twitching at the corners. He must be mistaken, because it looked as though she had smiled at him. Her version of a smile, at least - the one he had slowly learnt to understand over the course of conversation, while being invisible to most.

Jinshi was snapped out of his reverie to a jolting jab to his ribcage, courtesy of his lovely sister-in-law, who now looked at him as Maomao passed them with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face. Her expression alone was saying more words than he wanted to hear from her, so grumpily, he ignored her and returned his gaze to Maomao once more - again, ignoring the silent giggling he could somehow hear even through his mind, coming from his right-hand side.

Maomao exited the runway as quickly as she had arrived - far too quickly - leaving behind devastation as a result of sweeping a large majority of the hearts in the room with her. And suddenly, Jinshi understood why no one else had been interested in watching the other models in the room. All he could think about after she had disappeared from view was her.

The rest of the collection displays went by in a blur after that. Jinshi took a few photos here and there, but nothing was standing out to him anymore. Belatedly, he realised that in his shock, he had missed the opportunity to take a photo of Maomao’s outfit - not that it wouldn’t haunt his thoughts for the next few months anyway, but would it be weird to take photos of your newly established acquaintance/friend? People took photos of their friends and associates all the time, it wouldn’t have been deemed creepy… right? Whatever, he had no photo of it anyway, so there was nothing more to think about surrounding it.

After the designer had taken his final bow and exited the runway, alongside his models, Gyokuyou turned to him to speak once again.

”I’m going to see her backstage, if you want to come?”

Does he want to go see her backstage? Yes, of course he does, but that sounds like only pain and misery and embarrassment and a bruised ego if Gyokuyou were to be there too. He really didn’t need his sense of self squashed any further. Besides, Maomao still hadn’t reached out to him after he had given her his phone number. He felt almost uninvited, like that was an invasion of privacy - who knew how much Gyokuyou had informed her of her schemes.

”I’ll get the car, you take your time chatting,” he finally decided, giving her a smile to wave off any suspicions about him overthinking. “It’s still a good mile or two away, so I’ll have the car heated by the time you leave.”

”Aww, really? Running away so quickly?” Gyokuyou’s voice sounded sad, and perhaps a little disappointed, but mostly - to his trained ears - it sounded like trouble.

”If we want to go home tonight, then yes. You know it will be hellish getting out of here if I don’t find a space to wait nearby early enough.”

”Oh fine, do what you want,” she waved him off, clearly perturbed by her plans being foiled. 

Jinshi took his time navigating his way back to the parking lot he had left his car in - he had things on his mind to think about, now. 

He had been more than willing to give Maomao the control of choosing to reach out or not to him when he had offered her his phone number. Sure, it had played on his mind a few times whether he would ever receive a message from her, but ultimately he had placed that decision in her hands to make, and he had never heard anything from her since that point. He wasn’t bitter about it, really - a little (a lot) disheartened - but now he just felt intrusive, showing up in a manner that looked to be intentional from any other person's point of view than his own. And Gyokuyou's, because she knew exactly what she was doing.

He wondered if Gyokuyou had even listened to him that time he spoke to her about how he felt worried he had become some kind of weird stalker in Maomao’s eyes, or the other time more recently when he mentioned being worried about Maomao feeling forced to be polite to him due to his connections with Gyokuyou. It was starting to seem as though she had simply ignored those cries for some kind of understanding, because it felt like her only aim recently had been to make that situation harder for him. 

But then, the real reason why he had run away from Gyokuyou as quickly as he had after the show; he was becoming far too attached to wanting to see Maomao smile. Whether it was aimed at him or someone else entirely, he had somehow deluded himself into believing that she had smiled - even just microscopically - at him, and it still felt like heaven. Even he could see that this line of thinking could only spell a messy end for him. So no, he wasn’t going to go and talk to her after all that, especially not with Gyokuyou there pushing them together like puppets for her twisted idea of entertainment. Was she like this to all her friends? Surely not.

Feeling like a disgruntled child, Jinshi kicked a pebble along the sidewalk as he thought, feeling stupid for wondering why he thought it would be a good idea to try and become Maomao’s friend at all. He was surely only reinforcing time and time again the idea that he was some kind of pathetic creepy fan in her mind.

But the car was within his line of sight, and soon enough he’d be able to go home and scream into a pillow in the peace and quiet of his own room. This is all so childish of me. He clutched his keys with newfound determination, though; if he could survive his sister until she was safely home, then he could curl up into his nice, cosy bed, and maybe have a little cry to himself. 

At least a portion of his excuse to escape had been true - the roads for miles around the event venue were jammed full of vehicles. At one point, Jinshi had ended up stepping out his car in the middle of the two-laned road just to make sure they weren’t stuck in some kind of gridlock traffic jam - they weren’t, some pretentious middle aged man had just decided to park in the middle of the street near the fashion week’s venue. Jinshi had some very specific choice words about that, though that kind of vocabulary would not be appropriate outside of his own head.

It had taken a headache and a few prayers, but after nearly an hour, he was able to text Gyokuyou that he would be passing the venue’s side entrance in just a few minutes, receiving an instant reply in acknowledgment. At least he wouldn’t have to cause even more of a fuss waiting for her and holding up the queue of cars even further. He couldn’t see his sister-in-law within the dense crowds swarming the side entrance, but she was almost certainly somewhere nearby it waiting, so instead he kept his eyes on making sure some stupid money-drunk rich person didn’t just waltz out in front of his moving car, thinking they were above such mortal dangers. Which had already happened, several times. He really didn’t have the funds for a lawyer quite yet.

He had to stop the slow crawl of his car as someone decided to walk blindly out across the road, and conveniently at the same time, he heard a familiar muffled voice drawing closer to the car door.

”Ah, here he is,” Gyokuyou’s muffled voice rang out, a giggle in her voice that sounded far too happy with herself for some reason. The back door opened then, exposing the loud noises of the busy street into his car, ruining his enjoyable silence. “Jinshi, is it alright if you drop Maomao off at mine too?”

He didn’t know his neck could snap around quite so quickly, but that's what it did anyway - and by god was it going to ache later. Looking behind him, his sister was leaning down into the still car’s doorframe, and a rather timid looking Maomao stood close behind her, also giving Gyokuyou a slightly suspecting look. But all too quickly, her eyes met his and she gave him a small wave, her expression only changing to her usual stationary, blank gaze. His mind didn’t miss the fact that she looked ridiculously lovely with soft reds and pinks colouring her eyelids and lips, even though the combination of a full face of glamorous makeup and a dressed down knit jumper and trousers should have looked strange.

”Oh, yeah, sure,” Jinshi answered with some difficulty, his throat feeling like it was working overtime just to form sounds properly. Just as I was going home to escape this mess! “Of course, come in!”

Try as he might to slap a smile over his pitiful expression, he was certain it appeared strained, and the tension was almost palpable in the few moments Gyokuyou disappeared to the other side of the car, letting Maomao step inside first. He wasn’t at all angry at her, though. Gyokuyou, on the other hand, knew what she was doing by now, and he wasn’t finding her games funny anymore.

“Everyone is so pushy out there! I’m glad we made it to the car in one piece,” his sister-in-law chattered as she took her seat, pulling the car door shut as she relaxed finally. “And your sisters, Maomao, I wondered if they would ever let you go!”

”They do have a habit of being a little overbearing,” Maomao responded, Jinshi hearing her voice for the first time that evening, and sending his heart rate far past the healthy margin, he was sure. Focus on the road, Jinshi. “But that’s just older sisters for you, especially when they all gang up on you. Poking and prodding as much as they can out of you, then drowning you in affection.”

Huh, yes, I suppose Gyokuyou is like that too, isn’t she?

“Ah, they only want the best for you, as any older sister would!” Oh is that how she sees this?

Maybe his thoughts were too loud, or maybe Gyokuyou had some weird sixth sense for the exact moment to drag Jinshi into the conversation and out of his own silent commentary: “Anyway, Jinshi, do you want to stay over at mine for dinner? We were going to order something in and relax for the rest of the night, and I’m sure my Xiaoling misses you and wants to see her uncle again.”

”From what you told me earlier, it sounds like Lingli may have aided in a flour explosion in your kitchen. Are you sure you’re not just trying to drag me there to help you clean it up?” Jinshi laughed, ignoring the way he felt unusually insecure of his own voice as he spoke. 

“Well, the more hands, the easier it is to clean,” she chuckled. “But really, you look like you need some downtime. We were just going to put on some old movies and eat junk food.”

”Ah, I’d love to, really, but I do have to go back home to sort a few things out,” he excused, hoping it would be the fastest way out of the conversation. “Some projects to finish before graduation, and their deadlines are all coming up. But maybe another time?”

”Hmm, maybe another time, yes.” Gyokuyou sounded sceptical at best, and down right ignoring his poor attempt at lying at worst. Still, she let the subject go.

The journey to Gyokuyou’s house was only 30 minutes down the road, and yet Jinshi spent so much of that time judging his every slight, minute movement and cringed at every word that left his mouth when he was herded back into the conversation, that it felt like forever. Maomao was the same, in the sense that she only really spoke when spoken to or asked something - something Gyokuyou was very good at indeed. Still, none of them sat in an awkward silence regardless, and the tension in the air did eventually dissipate with some time. 

Pulling up to the street curb outside his brother’s lavish house, he could vaguely see the silhouette of Lingli within the front window of their kitchen, despite the time of night it was. The poor girl was probably waiting for her mother to come home before going to bed - that or his brother had simply spoiled her with a late bedtime.

“This is you guys, then,” Jinshi reminded the pair talking in the back seats, who seemed far too invested and bordering on excited in the conversation they were having about a… poisoning case? He wasn’t going to listen into it any further. “I think you have someone waiting for you, Gyokuyou.”

”Ah! Is that Lingli? She’s still awake after all, the sweetheart,” she chimed up again, taking her seatbelt off before offering one final time for him to stay over for dinner. He once again declined with the same flimsy - and somewhat overexaggerated - excuse, but she gave him a thanks anyway for dropping her off. 

He didn’t expect the light tap on his shoulder, though. “Thank you for letting me join the ride, too.” It was from Maomao this time, and she was leaning forwards ever so slightly as she spoke to him. 

He shifted his body to turn and face her, wiping the surprise off his face with an easy smile - one which would have been much easier if there wasn’t a gossipy sister-in-law grinning in his peripheral vision. 

”It’s no worries, you guys were heading to the same place anyway, so don’t mention it,” he spoke softly, not intentionally, but something in his brain had long since switched off being in her proximity and if he didn’t escape soon he might say something stupid. “Have a nice evening.”

”Mm, have a safe journey home.” 

With that, she got out of her seat and shut the door, Jinshi's brain following the fleeting sound of her muffled footsteps up the gravel path. He felt another hand on his other shoulder; a pat on the back from Gyokuyou, like he had done something worth praising, but this was just more teasing from her.

”Goodnight Jinshi! Don’t wear yourself out too much with projects!” Ah, by the sing-song lilt to her voice, she definitely knew it was a lie.

 ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°

It was far, far later in the night when he received a message from the conniving red head. The notification lit up his screen as he stared aimlessly at the kettle, waiting for the water to boil, as though the action itself was all the stability he had left in his routine for the day. He very nearly ignored it altogether, still miffed by her attempts to seemingly just make him feel uncomfortable in his own skin, but eventually his hand reached across the table and clicked on the notification, mostly out of having nothing else to do. 

01:53 Gyokuyou: here, you were too distracted to take a photo of it at the time :D

Another attachment sent through as he unlocked his phone - 2 photos, taken with a quality far too high for a mobile phone. One was of Maomao in the outfit she debuted on the runway, her face collected and confident, her posture carefully crafted to give the clothes adorning her just the right shapes and edges. The other photo, of him. It must have been taken seconds later, not that he had noticed her turn to do so, as he sat entirely bewitched by the young lady, a faint (and probably growing) flush sitting high on his cheeks as his lips stretched into a smile over the top of the slack-jaw he sported like a bumbling fool.

He nearly threw his phone across the room, before remembering just how expensive it would be to replace.

01:55 Gyokuyou: isn’t she just the cutest??

Jinshi absolutely did not reward her with a response, nor was he planning on later. Regardless, he still swiped his thumb back to the first image, as his thumb hovered over the option to ‘save to camera roll’. He was genuinely intrigued by the outfit that had been clearly tailored for her specifically, and found some of the detailing of it to be something he wished to look into - maybe even incorporate into some of his own project ideas here and there. But it was also her, and at this rate, he felt stupid thinking he ever had a chance of even being acquainted with Maomao. She hadn’t taken the initiative to message him, she hadn’t spoken to him much in the car, and besides a small wave and a thank you, Maomao had barely even looked him in the eyes. And he wouldn’t either, in her position! Jinshi entirely understood the reasons as to why she would have reservations, and it hadn’t been helped once by their frequent enough meetings through coincidence, nor Gyokuyou’s meddling. 

And now, Jinshi felt like he was experiencing some kind of near-parasocial heartbreak. Not quite, but close enough. Even if they had met, had even hung out, he should have restrained himself better with his feelings rather than letting them do their own thing.

The kettle had finished boiling minutes ago, and he scoffed at himself disappointedly as he stood to pour the water over a tea bag - one that was meant to help him settle down before sleeping, but he was only waking himself up as he was left with silence and his own thoughts. Some of the scolding water splashed over the rim of the teacup, onto the counter where his hand was placed, burning him ever so slightly on the edge of his palm. It took the very last of his energy to not just crumple onto the floor, instead bringing his hands to his face as he took a long, drawn out breath.

His thoughts continued to plague him, though, even as he retreated back to his bedside, teacup in hand. He was embarrassed, and maybe ashamed of himself for how he must have come off to someone he had in the past admired so much from a very safe distance. Maomao couldn’t judge him from the other side of a newspaper headline, nor from behind the camera recording yet another interview of the movies she featured in. And that was fine, that was safe. The sudden feeling of being perceived, one that now lingered and clung to his back like a sickeningly sweet smell, was jarring - even more so by someone who he found himself genuinely interested in past what he had previously known.

Those messy feelings were quick to develop, yes. Maybe in part due to the fact he had already somewhat fallen for the idea of her before ever meeting her - not romantically, nowhere close to that quite yet, but he held admiration towards her as a person even so. After meeting her, though, having conversations with her, laughing with her, seeing her as just another human alongside him, that admiration had shifted, and by god did he feel pathetic by how smitten he was.

And how pathetic and weird he must have appeared in turn.

He really didn’t want to think or consider the previous events leading to his even more grossly shattered self-confidence, and drank his tea down like it was some kind of duty the moment it wasn’t too hot to burn his throat - as though the herbal effects of it would knock him out if he hoped hard enough. Instead, his phone lit up again, silently.

Curiosity and a lack of self-preservation got the better of him as he checked the notification.

02:29 Unknown: Hey. Do you want to go on anohter date?

02:29 Unknown: Another*

Well, there was only really one person that lined up with both going on a ‘date’ with, as well as him giving out his number. But this couldn’t actually be Maomao, surely not… Had Gyokuyou broken into her phone? If so, that was really, really messed up, so maybe not.

02:31 Jinshi: Is this Maomao?

02:31 Unknown: That’s right. What, is theresomeone else you were expecting?

02:31 Unknown: I’m joking I’mjokign

02:32 Unknown: You didn’t talk much today, in the car, I wanted to speak but Gyokuyuo was teasing me.

02:32 Jinshi: Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt you guys :’) I wasn’t trying to be too quiet or ignore you at all

Jinshi felt vaguely like he was overcompensating as he sent the last message, but almost immediately he could see the typing bubble appear once more. 

He was beginning to think less and less that it was Gyokuyou - not enough emoticons and way too many capitalisations for her texting style. Despite the fact Gyokuyou had automatic capitalisation turned on in her phone settings, she still manually ensured that everything she wrote casually contained no such capital letters. Surely by now that would be a somewhat automatic reaction and she would slip up?

02:32 Unknown: You’re so normal and nice to me,and very pretty, I want to see yuo again.

02:32 Unknown: Please.

How was he supposed to respond to that? He didn’t quite take Maomao to be the kind of person to text so informally, let alone make so many spelling mistakes - was she just a quick typer? Maybe he had read her wrong, but she had seemed like much more of a perfectionist than that. But, she thought he was pretty… Was she thinking of someone else?

02:33 Jinshi: I’m starting to think this is Gyokuyou trying to mess with me again… If it is Gyokuyou, please stop doing this

02:33 Unknown: Oh, no she’s asleep! But shehas already tried that twice.

02:33 Unknown: 1 attachment.

Sure enough, opening the photo that was sent through revealed his sister-in-law very drunk and very asleep, looking far too pleased with herself even as her hair tumbled messily over her shoulder and her face pressed up against a mildly uncomfortable sofa cushion. There were a few different bottles clipped just out of frame - all distinctly alcoholic, though. Maybe they were celebrating together? It wasn’t quite like Gyokuyou to get drunk on a random Tuesday, but it wasn’t entirely unheard of.

Still…

02:33 Jinshi: Ah, I see. Are you drunk right now?

02:34 Unknown: No

02:34 Unknown: Maybe, jusy a bit.

02:36 Unknown: I am bored, though. She fell asleep before I did and now I dont know who to talk to, so I’m talking t you now. You are funny Nd a lot better than those other people and so she told me to say hello to you but I thought it would be weird for ages.

Bored? Other people? Whatever that meant, Jinshi wasn’t about to take advantage of some drunk decisions she was making accidentally. She was probably influenced by whatever nonsense Gyokuyou had been filling her head with, by the sounds of it. Maomao didn’t - couldn't - mean what she was saying. Still, his traitorous (and incredibly naïve) heart softened at the fact she still came to talk to him out of all people, and he still felt giddy at the fact Maomao had finally messaged him, even under the influence of alcohol and her gossipy best friend.

02:36 Jinshi: I don’t find it weird. But, do you have any water to drink? It would be wise to hydrate before it gets too late.

02:36 Unknown: I do!

02:37 Unknown: 1 attachment.

The new photo was of what he can only assume is Maomao’s hand, her fingernails painted in a thin but warm red-orange hue - much like balsam - holding an unopened water bottle. 

02:37 Jinshi: I like your nails, very pretty colour :) Make sure you drink enough water.

02:37 Unknown: Thankyou, she paintd them for me, my hands are too messy. 

02:37 Unknown: I’ll drink the water

02:38 Jinshi: I’ll ask my brother to make sure he can find painkillers for the both of you tomorrow morning.

02:38 Jinshi: Are you tired enough to rest yet?

02:38 Unknown: Your brother?

02:38 Unknown: Oh, Yang! I forgot you guys were relatef

02:38 Unknown: Related*

02:39 Unknown: I might fall asleep now, yea

02:39 Jinshi: Alright, drink up the water and go rest.

02:39 Unknown: I still want to talk to you, we didn’t get to erlier in the car

02:39 Jinshi: We can talk in the morning, can’t we? Would you like me to send you a message tomorrow?

02:40 Unknown: Yeah, or I will forget about ut all, please.

02:40 Unknown: Okay I’m so tired nwo, goodnight Jinshi

02:40 Jinshi: Goodnight. Rest well, Maomao :)

He did end up messaging his brother, after watching Maomao’s number’s activity status blink offline, just asking him to make sure there was some water and painkillers out for them before the pair of women woke up and haunted the house with their undoubtedly inevitable hangovers. They had to all hope Lingli was planning on being well behaved, knowing the noisy and curious little girl.

Flicking back onto his message list, he also saved Maomao’s contact - just in case something happened - before he himself went to sleep also.

He never did send a message to the young woman the following morning, though. It would be easiest if she just forgot about it all, rather than him embarrassing her any further about drunkenly messaging him; an intoxicated mistake that for both of their sakes (mostly his heart’s, though) was better not mentioned again.

Chapter Text

She appeared once more alongside the familiar ringing of bells, the same ones that rang out every time the tea shop’s doors opened and shut. Jinshi raised his head from where he was balancing a tray of used plates and cups, and nearly dropped them all back onto the table accidentally as his eyes met her steadily calm face. It betrayed no emotions, and considering Maomao, he honestly wasn’t quite sure if her expression was one of relaxation, happiness, or a quiet kind of anger.

She walked in slowly, once again dressed with her hair tied into a slightly loose braid, fake freckles smattered on her face, and a thin scarf around her neck - far more decorative than practical from an outside perspective, but he assumed it was to give her something to cover her features with should the need arise. The weather was beginning to turn too warm for anything more.

”I’ll be there in a moment,” Jinshi called lightly in Maomao’s general direction, balancing another dirty tray in his arms as he carried them into the back, where one other staff member was working on dishes and restocking. As he shook off his sudden nerves, he returned to the counter. “Alright, how can I help you?”

He thought his smile was friendly enough, but second-guessed himself the moment Maomao responded with the same blank tone she had used before they got to know each other a little better. “I’d like some jasmine tea, please.”

”Alright, is that all?” he asked as he put the order into the register. Vaguely, his mind wandered to the possibility that maybe she was annoyed by the whole situation over a month ago - her drunken exchange with him. He didn’t think he had said anything particularly wrong, but now all he could do was overanalyse every possible message he could have sent her.

”Yes,” Maomao confirmed with a nod, taking out her card to pay. “Does your shift end soon?”

Oh no, does she want to talk? About what? I still can’t get a read on her expression! Or maybe she wanted to spend some time here without him being on duty. Was his presence so off-putting?

“I’ll hand over to the next shift in 20 minutes, is everything okay?”

”I just want to talk to you, if that's alright. Are you free after this? If not I can keep it quick and simple,” she offered, and while there was definitely a noticeable change in the tone of her voice, Jinshi was yet to learn entirely about the micro fluctuations in her expressions enough to place it as any specific emotion. While he understood her smiles, this was a little out of his understanding. But goodness, if he was given the chance would he study them until he could understand the closed off woman before him with a practiced ease.

”I have time! I’ll come find you after I finish hand over with my co-worker, if that’s okay?”

”Mhm, thanks.” With that, she left to sit at the same table she had last time - by the window, overlooking the garden. The sky was no longer bright outside, but the sun ducked in and out from behind clouds as it grew closer and closer to reaching the horizon. It was the middle of spring - the nights still felt like they began a little too early and were a little too cold, but the days were growing longer. And with them, the seasons shifted. New arrangements of flowers had been planted and tended to by his grandmother, blooming beautifully as they reached their greatest potential over the next few days.

When he had finished preparing the jasmine tea and took it over to Maomao, they didn’t exchange many words. Only a small thanks accompanied by an off handed observation of the aromatic herbs growing by the windowsill, filling the shop with an earthy aroma.

The rest of his shift crawled along agonisingly slowly; despite the fact he was on his 6th hour that day, the last 20 minutes felt as though they had dragged on for twice as long as the other hours combined. Of course, he spent the majority of that time thinking, overthinking, and then spiralling into nonsense theories about the reason Maomao had shown up out of nowhere, now of all times. Each of those ideas ended with him going home miserable, or just crying on the side of the road - how pathetic. 

Jinshi shoved them all to the back of his mind in his final few minutes on shift, as he collected her used teacup and saucer.

”Was it alright? The tea, I mean,” he asked Maomao, watching as her eyes drifted towards him and away from the setting sun.

”It was. High quality and a gently sweet taste. Though I prefer mine over-steeped, personally.”

He kept this in mind after taking the kitchenware away, making two final drinks as his co-worker waved to him that she was opening up her register, and he was free to leave whenever. One of lemon balm, sweetened ever so slightly, just the way he liked it, and one of a now carefully over-steeped jasmine tea - both in takeaway cups to avoid bothering his co-workers with any more washing.

The only thing left to do was see what Maomao wished to speak about, and hopefully not make an even bigger fool of himself in the process. Jinshi approached her once more with uncertainty in his steps, but didn’t let it stop him. He wanted this over and done with, whatever it was, before he dashed away embarrassingly as his head was screaming at him to do. 

Maomao noticed him approaching and stood from her seat, holding her bag against her shoulder securely, almost as though she herself was bracing for… something. Jinshi offered her the jasmine tea he had made for her, and she took it gratefully as she guided him to take a walk with her, claiming the fresh air was nice outside at that moment. He was grateful for this - any longer inside and he may have passed out at some point.

Despite his nerves, Jinshi was the first to prompt towards the due conversation. They had already walked for a long, silent 5 minutes before he gained the courage, but that wasn’t important. 

”Is everything alright?” 

A second more of silence. “You never sent me a message the following morning. I was waiting for one.”

Her tone was serious sounding, but Jinshi couldn’t help the quiet little laugh that left his lips, mostly anxiousness rather than any real joy. Glancing ever so briefly to his left, where she walked at an equal pace to him, he could see Maomao’s lips tick up ever so slightly, just in the very corners.

“I didn’t think you’d actually want to be reminded of that conversation,” he admitted, shaking his head in disbelief. Was she just trying to put him on edge? It didn’t seem to be intended unkindly, whatever her aim was. “I assumed you would have given anyone such attention in your state, I was just the first number to come up. I hope the hangover wasn’t too bad, though?”

”It was alright for me, Gyokuyou barely moved until mid-afternoon,” she scoffed, but there was a fondness evident in her tone. “I meant what I said, though. In those messages. I was hoping you’d initiate another conversation so I wouldn’t have to willingly return to those sets of messages myself. It's embarrassing enough waking up to the phone open on a random article from falling asleep before turning it off, let alone with Gyokuyou scrolling through the messages I sent you.”

She brought the takeaway cup of tea to her lips, taking a slow sip before she breathed out a pleased sigh. Jinshi pretended it didn't cause dangerous movements in his chest, but Maomao continued speaking before he could get the chance to let something stupid leave his mouth.

“I would like to go on another date with you. I’m not… amazingly well versed in dating practices, but I know that I enjoy having you around. I like having conversations with you, you’re kind, you’re a little too humble for your own good but that's fine, you don’t act all fake and overly-friendly and you seem to have honest intentions. You’ve helped me several times now with no ulterior motive. You’ve become someone I have caught myself thinking of far too frequently, like you were some complicated poison I've been trying to figure out, and I would like to become closer to you. I can’t promise that I’ll ever feel quite the same fiery passion people enjoy relating romantic attraction to - I don’t think I’ll ever feel that for anyone, it’s not quite programmed into me - but I know I feel something, something I haven’t felt before, and I would like to see where that goes.”

Her explanations were so… clinical, almost, like a dissection of her thoughts, and yet Jinshi froze in his steps as his brain caught up to what was being said. Also, did she just compare me to poison?? Maomao looked back at him with a confused frown lining her features, analysing his face as though it would show her some kind of answer, but eventually she took a few steps back to stand face to face with him. The trees lining the mostly empty path felt like they held their breaths alongside Jinshi.

”Well, I say all this, but I really can’t tell how you feel on the matter,” Maomao continued further, not a trace of nerves in her voice, after taking another sip of tea. “I do hope I haven’t scared you off with this proposition, I tried to follow the steps Gyokuyou gave me for this, but in case you can’t tell, it’s not something I do often. Or ever.”

It took Jinshi a long moment of further silence, thinking, processing, lagging behind on what was being told to him. All this time he thought he had been making her uncomfortable, all the time spent being overly conscious of his own actions, thinking he was being creepy. He threw his head back in laughter, a loud exhale as everything seemed to align far too well for him - not that he could ever complain. He would never do such a thing!

”You know, I never thought I’d hear those words leave your lips. For so long I thought- never mind. Of course I like you, Maomao. I’m absolutely captivated by you; I admire how passionate you are when you talk about your garden, or herbs; I adore your sense of humour, very dry but very you, and I’ve come to love seeing your smile so much that I thought I was a fool.”

”You are a fool, don’t start getting too ahead of yourself,” Maomao shot back, easing the tension from his bones in only a few words and a small tilt of her head, a content smile adorning her face as she looked at her own hands. “Gyokuyou had you wrapped around her little finger with her teasing. Though, I guess I was no better.”

 His hands that were previously shaking started to still, and he took a deep breath before he continued.

”Do you want to go on the date now? We can find something nice to do, if you’re interested,” he offered as he smiled, truly smiled - he hadn’t thought his mouth could stretch into such a wide grin. 

“I would, yes. I have a place in mind,” Maomao nodded as she silently held out her arm. Belatedly, Jinshi realised she was offering him her hand, and took it gently with as much grace as he could muster. Which wasn't much. “You’re shaking so much I’m worried you may stumble.”

”Ah, is that the only reason you offered your hand, Maomao?” The street was empty, but Jinshi still spoke with a low, quiet voice. “And here I thought you were being romantic.”

What were they to do if someone did recognise her, exactly? They hadn’t yet, but surely not everyone was thrown off by a few freckles and lack of her usual on-stage makeup. 

”Yeah, yeah, pick whichever one suits your mood better,” she huffed, but she didn’t let go of his hand even as she led him further down the street. If anything, her own smile grew bigger and relaxed further, like she was finally feeling some kind of tension drain from her. She took another long sip of her tea before she spoke again, a content hum once more leaving her lips. “And if I ever stumble across some kind of tumblr blog about how awkwardly I dealt with this whole interaction, I’m chasing you down with Gyokuyou on my side, family or not.”

”I thought you had stopped thinking so little of me!” Like he would ever let himself fumble this dream she had graced him with - whether they ended up just as friends or something more with time, he couldn’t ask for more. Jinshi’s lucky stars must have all aligned for this very evening to have happened at all. “I won’t let what you fear come to pass, never ever. I’m more worried that someone will eventually recognise you, and my presence will start rumours or hurt your reputation.”

”You really think anyone is paying attention to me when you’re standing right next to me?” Maomao laughed.

”Hm? What do you mean?”

”Like, your face.”

That caused him to pause. He quickly retracted his hand that wasn't holding tea and used it to shield his face. Confused and concerned, he asked, "Huh?! What’s wrong with my face? Have I got something on it??” 

Maomao gave him a look of confusion, then a wave of surprise crossed her expression. “Wow, she wasn’t overexaggerating… Nothing is wrong with your face, forget I said anything.”

”Wait, you can’t just leave it at that!”

”Jinshi, don’t make me say it…” But the look on his face must have been so ridiculously pathetic, like a kicked puppy, that even Maomao in all her infamously stubborn glory took a tired sigh. “You’re incredibly pretty. I don’t think anyone in their right minds would even glance my way when you’re within the vicinity. You’re aware you attract a small crowd everywhere you go, right?”

Jinshi stood still, frozen once more.

”Oh my god, you aren’t aware, are you?” she giggled, bringing a hand to her own face as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Such a clueless bachelor. Anyway, come on, pretty boy - I still want to show you something. Don’t keep your date waiting.”

”I thought they were all just making fun of me…” he mumbled quietly, mostly to himself, as Maomao started walking down the road once again, silently waiting for him to catch up. Then, continuing with a louder voice, “Hey, wait up! …Can I hold your hand again??”