Sunday morning has Yixing waking up to a loud ringing that he belatedly realized is his cellphone with Lu Han’s smiling face showing up. With a roll of his eyes, the author gingerly presses the green button to answer.

“What do you want?” He asks without even greeting the director properly first.

“Hey, where’s my bright and sunny Yixing?” Lu Han replies and the author grunts with his eyes still closed, his hangover slowly making its presence known to him.

“It’s too early to be bright and sunny.” He groans in reply, pressing his forearm against his eyes to keep what little light coming from his curtained window to seep through his eyelids.

“Well,” Lu Han elongates the word and the playfulness is unwelcome to Yixing’s current sleepy state, “if you must know, it’s already quarter to twelve.” The information makes Yixing’s eyebrows furrow because even during the weekends he’s usually up and about by nine in the morning. “What time did you even get home last night?”

He thinks for a minute, recalling the night before then he replies: “I think around two.”

“Way past your bed time.” He can hear Lu Han chuckle from the other line along with rustling of papers and the tell-tale sign of a pen being uncapped.

“You didn’t answer my first and only question, Han.” He reminds his best friend when he hears nothing more for a few seconds except for more rustling.

“Oh,” Lu Han hums as if he forgot what he was actually calling the younger about, “I was wondering what time you’ll be going to the set tomorrow. If you, maybe, need a ride or something?” Yixing thinks of the start of filming the following day and he knows that the call time is at 6:30 AM but since he’s not part of the cast, there’s no need for him to be there so early.

“I would want you to take a look at the set if it’s to your liking but I don’t want to force you to be there so early either.” Lu Han adds, speaking a bit louder when he thought his best friend had fallen back to sleep.

“I’ll talk to Shixun later.” Yixing replies afterwards, remembering that his nephew needed a few things at school. “I think he needs to go to uni tomorrow for enrollment information and stuff. I’ll let you know once I’ve talked to him.” Lu Han hums in agreement and notes to not pick Yixing up so early.

“Anyway, I trust that the set design will be as what I’ve imagined it.” Yixing recalls coordinating the designs with Lu Han but the director was the one who relayed the design to the person in charge. “Who’s in charge for that again?”

“Some kid named Chen. He was suggested by the COO and I’ve looked up his works.” Lu Han pauses for a while, “I think he’s good. We can always chop him off if you don’t like what he’s done.” He laughs a little and Yixing snorts because of his best friend’s suggestion that the director never seems to pass up on when he sees work that is not up to his standards.

“Stop chopping people off, they need to keep their jobs.” Yixing says jokingly but adds with a hint of seriousness: “Think of the families who won’t have food on their tables if you keep that up.”

“I get it,” Yixing can imagine Lu Han with a stern face when he answers, “but I won’t allow less than satisfactory results for this. I want everything to be perfect for this movie.” He knows he’s not just doing it because they’re best friends but because they’re being backed up by a huge company and that only means more pressure for Lu Han to give nothing but the best outcome. Knowing Lu Han, his perfectionist side would probably reign supreme over his sympathy for others with regards to this certain project.

“I’ll keep you in check, then.” Lu Han just hums and before Yixing can end the call he remembers to say something.

“Hey, don’t be absent tomorrow. Everyone’s expecting you to be there for the first day. Doesn’t matter what time you come.” Yixing is stretching his body by now, getting his body used to the awake stage of his day already.

“Especially Wu Yifan.” Lu Han adds and at the mention of the actor’s name, Yixing tenses.

“Shut up. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Before Lu Han can even for his reaction, he ends the call. He turns around and lies on his stomach, face smothered in his pillow before grumbling how stupid Lu Han is.

***

“Yixing!” Zitao is the first person to notice his arrival. He then sees the young location manager looking at the person standing beside him with his mouth slightly agape.

“Ah!” The author realizes that the younger must be surprised that he brought someone with him especially when he didn’t give him any heads up so he proceeds to introduce the boy beside him. “Zitao this is my nephew Shixun. I hope you don’t mind that I brought him along.”

Zitao shakes his head, more to come back to reality than to answer Yixing.

“Oh no, no. It’s okay, of course.” Yixing stands idly for a while then he pushes Shixun to greet Zitao. The boy shyly bows at the manager before retreating slightly behind his uncle.

“Ummm…” Zitao shifts in his feet before realizing that Yixing is still looking at him. “Oh, ah, the set is this way.” He leads them to a path surrounded by trees and behind those are trucks that they used to bring in their equipment.

“You still got here early.” Lu Han greets when he sees his best friend walking to where he is talking with his assistant directors about the scenes that they’ll be shooting for the day. The director checked his watch to see that it’s only a little bit past nine o’clock.

“Hi Shixun!” Lu Han adds when he notices the tall boy following the author like a lost puppy with his stoic expression looking around the set with concealed awe. The boy looks to his direction and claps his hand in greeting when he reaches Lu Han; having met the director for a couple of times whenever his uncle brought the older with him he didn’t need to be so formal towards him.

“Yeah but we’ll leave around noon.” Yixing finally replies when he reaches Lu Han, greeting the assistant directors a good morning afterwards. Looking around he sees only the crew in their casual clothes. He was half-expecting the other cast members walking around the set in their costumes. Lu Han hums at the given information before finishing up with his assistant directors.

“Xun, you can walk around, your uncle and I just need to talk a little bit in private.” The teenager nodded and set off to a part of the set where most of the crew is in the last stages of setting up to film. Lu Han pulls him to the dressing room where he was assuming most of the cast would be but the place is deserted as well.

Lu Han sees his expression and answers the question he didn’t even ask.

“They’re outside.” He says, walking to the rack of clothes meant for Yifan. “Wu Yifan’s fanclub sent two trucks of food and drinks for everyone. They’re all celebrating over there.” Yixing nods in understanding; he should have expected that.

“Anyway,” the director diverts his attention back to him, “will you be fine?” Lu Han asks Yixing, motioning to the colorful robes on the clothes rack beside him; the meaning of his question slowly sinking in on Yixing.

“I’ll be fine, Han.” He finally answers with a resolute expression. “I’ve outgrown that phase.” His best friend still looks wary and unconvinced so he makes a show of touching the silken sheets of fine fabrics with a smile on his face. Even though he knows that seeing the clothes this way and not around someone else’s body has never been a problem to him, he argues that what Lu Han doesn’t know won’t kill him.

“If you say so.” Lu Han sighs in defeat before quickly pulling him back outside to give him a tour around the rest of the place where they’ll be doing most of their filming.

They find Shixun at one of the houses constructed for their set and they pull him in to Lu Han’s mini tour as well. Once they find Zitao, Lu Han also invited him to join them but only because the younger knows more about the place and that would save him more time and saliva. Yixing doesn’t even realize when Shixun and Zitao have started walking ahead of them, talking from time to time but he’s glad his nephew has found a friend whose age is not so far from his.

He sees Zitao smile at something Shixun said and then he realized that maybe he didn’t find just a friend.

***

Kyungsoo fumbles for his cellphone when it vibrates inside the front pocket of his jacket. He’s put it on vibrate mode right when he stepped on set because he doesn’t want to be the cause of a shot to be taken again. His eyes bulge out and become wider than they already are when he sees who’s calling.

Kim Jongin.

Ever since he’s given his number to his boss he’s been waiting for a message from him and he was slightly disappointed that when he did, it was a copy of his scheduled interviews. Not that Kyungsoo minds but he was hoping that the producer’s personality reflected on his messages, instead they were clear cut texts about work. The scriptwriter has scolded himself many times afterwards; telling himself that it was just normal that Jongin was being professional in messages because he can’t expect him to cross that employer-employee boundary so fast to send him messages with emoticons. 

“H-hello?” The scriptwriter answers and he’s sure his voice is trembling judging by how he stuttered his greeting out.

“Kyungsoo?” The deep voice calling out his name turns his knees into jelly once again. “Are you on set already?”

“Ah yes, sir.” Kyungsoo hears his boss grunt at the other end, showing disapproval for his answer. “I mean, Jongin.”

“Okay.” He can hear more than see the smile on his boss’ face when he answered; sounding pleased that Kyungsoo addressed him by his name as he’s asked him to. “Media will be there, I’m sure you’re aware. They’ll be asking me questions so I need you to stay beside me.”

“O-okay.” Kyungsoo’s never really been one to be in front, that’s why he’s always just writing and giving dialogue to people; never one to say them in front of a huge crowd. But he’s just going to translate for his boss, that’s all, the attention will still be solely on Jongin and not him so he tries to soothe himself with that thought.

“Alright! I’ll see you in a while.” Jongin promptly hangs up and Kyungsoo starts pacing.

Kyungsoo waits for Jongin in the makeshift parking lot that they’ve created beside the set which is really just flattened land with grass and weed uprooted before being covered by gravel and pebbles.

He opens the door to Jongin’s car even though he knows the producer probably has body guards to do that for him and he’s pretty sure his boss will scold him for that again. He was surprised that there was no such thing as Jongin is absorbed in whatever it was he was reading; a folder in his hand while the other holds his coffee cup.

After two steps, Jongin finally puts the folder down then looks around and notices Kyungsoo.

“There you are. I thought I’d have to call you again.” Kyungsoo walks forward to stand slightly behind his boss, a hand extended to let him know the direction to the entrance. Jongin just looks at him and inspects him before he moves closer to straighten Kyungsoo’s tie after putting the folder he was previously holding onto the scriptwriter’s extended hand. The scriptwriter’s eyes bulge out yet again and he stays frozen in place as Jongin invades his personal space. He only unfreezes and lets out a shuddered breath when Jongin finally walks to the entrance.

They’ve gathered all of the reporters to one of the dressing rooms that they’ve built on set to formally start. Kyungsoo stayed closely beside Jongin, swiftly translating every question and his boss’ answer as well. He looked at Jongin and admired how professional he is when it comes to work; very far from his usual playful side that he’s gotten used to over the past week.

Jongin proceeded to show the clothes that they had custom-made for the actors before going out to show the media around their set. There was a glint in Jongin’s eyes that Kyungsoo noticed while he was talking about the movie, like it’s his most-prized possession. He would understand, seeing how his company gave so much just to make everything perfect for the film.

***

“The media’s here.” Lu Han groans when he sees the Executive Producer step into the set followed by a dozen people holding microphones in their hands and cameramen following closely behind. The director knows they’ve gone around and seen parts of the set that they’ve decided will be alright for the public to see. They’ve also interview Yifan and the other cast earlier in the day, so now they’re here to see them in action.

He thanks the heavens that media day is one day only because he doesn’t like his work being closely watched by other people when they’re supposed to wait for the finished product in the cinemas instead. Kyungsoo comes up to him and asks if he will allow the media to capture him working on Yifan’s next scene.

“It’s not like I have a choice, right?” He didn’t want to sound rude especially when the sentence is being projected to Kyungsoo who is nothing but innocent. “I mean, they’re already here.” He waves a hand to the group of media from different broadcasting stations waiting along the edges of their set.

He motions for the crew to take their positions so they can start with their next scene. Yifan stands in the middle as well where Lu Han has asked for him to take his place earlier, behind him stands another rookie actor Li Wenhan who will play the young nobleman’s henchman.

The clapper stands in front of the camera and waits for Lu Han’s cue. The whole set falls silent when the director starts with the infamous three words: “Lights, camera, action!”

The chatter of the crowd made up of the dozen extras they’ve casted for the film fills the area before the focus falls on Yifan. Lu Han can hear the clicks of cameras and when he sees a flash caught in the scene, his voice bellows: “Cut!”

“Is the author here as well?” He hears one of the reporters ask, obviously not sensing the atmosphere that was just cast upon them like a heavy veil just with one word from Lu Han.

However, Jongin answers after Kyungsoo translates the question for him. But before he does so, he looks around for show and even if he spots Yixing in one of the tents he says: “No, he’s not.”

“Can we have an interview with the director then?” Another reporter asks, clearly aware that Lu Han is not the type who gives interviews. Jongin himself knows this as he’s never seen any clip of the director giving interviews in the past.

“If possible Mr. Kim,” Lu Han uses the megaphone to relay his message to the producer without having to stand up from his seat, “please take this someplace else we need to get to work now. I think they’ve seen enough of our set.” Jongin nods when Kyungsoo translates the director’s request. He ushers the reporters away from the set to a different location to conclude their little set tour.

Lu Han subtly sinks in his seat once the media has left. It only takes him a few seconds to recover because he doesn’t want the bad mood brought about by the invasion of the media to their set to ruin the first day of their filming which he’s sure will eventually carry on to the next few days.

“Mr. Kim,” a reporter directs his microphone closer to Jongin as if to get the producer’s attention, “why did you decide to back this up when there are rarely any big budget movies taking up this kind of theme?”

“My point exactly, homouality has been a huge topic in the Western world lately and I think it is time for us Asians to take our own step, no matter how little. I know there have been independent low budget films with homoual themes but I’m sure none of them has shown it in this kind of setting. Before the Western influences seeped through the Chinese culture, to be in a relationship between a man and another man was not a problem so I want people to know that and how these influences changed a culture.”

Jongin’s answer made Kyungsoo’s ears perk up. He’s never really had the chance to ask anyone why their company was so determined to get the author to say yes. He just realized how ground-breaking this would be and the prestige that it would give to their company once it finds success.

“How were you able to make the author allow you to turn his novel into a movie?” Another reporter tries to get Jongin’s attention, “We’ve heard that many have tried but they all failed.”

“He had one condition and our company was the only one who dared to fulfill it.” He answers with a chuckle and Kyungsoo realizes that he has slowly relaxed throughout the media day. 

“And what would that be?” The curious reporter eggs him for an answer with a playful smile.

“He wanted to be able to choose the cast and crew.”

“Isn’t that risky?” The reporter looked borderline appalled with the information. “We were looking at the line-up of cast and we only know two or three people who have been successful in their career.”

“I trust his decision. I’m sure he won’t choose those people just to make a hilarity out of his novel. And regarding the actors’ success, I don’t think that is something you can measure based only on who has the most popularity and awards.” That answer kind of shut the reporter up a little bit, looking embarrassed for having added that line.

“But I do hope that this movie will push them forward and make them well-known for their raw talent. I’ve seen some of their past works and in my opinion they deserve to play their given roles. Please look forward to their performances in the movie.”

Jongin immediately concluded it, looking more exhausted than anything, and thanked the media for their enthusiasm and interest in A Diamond with a Flaw.

***

“Hi Yixing!” Minseok greets him when he sees the author in one of the tents. The author looked pale for some reason but he gave the manager a weak smile in return.

“And you are?” He asked the boy standing beside Yixing who was fanning the author despite the chilly weather.

“Shixun.” The boy bows to him and he lights up when he realizes who it is. He’s been surrounded by Chinese people lately that the comfort of knowing another Korean just instantly makes his heart happy.

“Oh, oh, hello! I’m Minseok.” He greeted back but this time in Korean, hoping the boy would understand him. The boy’s eyes grow a bit wider before he gives his own greetings in their native tongue. Minseok’s eyes flit back to where Yixing is now leaning against a tree.

The manager eyes him in horror as he asks if he’s feeling alright, noticing the author’s usually pink lips slowly lose the color in them. The author puts a hand up in a dismissive gesture, muttering back that he’s fine.

“Uncle, maybe we should go.” He hears Shixun say as the boy lands a hand on his uncle’s arm, more to support the man than anything else because the author looks like he’s about to pass out.

Yixing then looks up, his eyes land on Yifan who’s shooting his scene from afar; a simple blue robe around his body looking more royal than it should with its simple structure. He vaguely hears Lu Han call cut before the actor’s eyes are meeting his. There was nothing unusual with the way the actor made eye contact with him but for some unknown reason what was triggered by earlier encounters with the cast in their robes, which Yixing tried so hard to suppress, jumped up to him and his eyes start losing focus and his breathing starts becoming shallow and rapid.

He reaches a hand out to place on Shixun’s shoulder to keep him from falling, slumping forward as his head starts aching and keeping his eyes open made him dizzy. In the background, he can hear Minseok call for a medic. With his eyes closed, he can even hear Lu Han’s voice rushing towards him asking for a paper bag on the way.

“Breathe, Xing. Breathe.” He can feel Lu Han standing close, his voice calm yet commanding. He doesn’t dare open his eyes in fears of seeing everything swirling around. Someone s a bag to Lu Han and he immediately puts it over his best friend’s nose and mouth.

Yixing shakily puts a hand up as if to push Lu Han away so he can go back and do what he’s supposed to do. The director was about to protest when he saw Minseok arrive with a medic and Shixun reassuring him that he’ll take care of his uncle.

Everything seemed to have stop. Yixing can’t hear anything else beyond his ragged breathing and he knew that all eyes are on him. Lu Han lets go of the bag when Shixun took a hold of it and backs up when the medic directs Yixing to a wheelchair. The director watches as his friend goes farther to the direction of the dressing rooms, accompanied by Shixun and Minseok.

He has only witnessed this happen twice in the past and even that is always never enough to keep him prepared for what might happen. It takes him a while to get his bearings back, instructing everyone to get back to their positions. He sees Yifan reading his script, standing in the same spot where he was the moment Lu Han said cut but the rest of the cast have gravitated towards the tents where Yixing was earlier; out of worry, out of shock or plainly out of curiosity as to what happened. But Yifan doesn’t seem fazed by it all and somehow Lu Han thanks his cold personality for it.

***

Yifan just finished his last scene for the day and the sun has already gone to be replaced by the moon. Exhausted as he was, he trudged to where his seat was; a tent away from where Yixing was that morning.

The actor can still remember the look on Yixing’s face the first time they bumped into each other that morning. He didn’t look well; he noticed beads of sweat on the author’s forehead which surprised him because he himself is cool even beneath the layers of clothing he has to wear for his role. He didn’t give it much thought and moved on with the rest of the day, shooting his scenes and memorizing his lines when he had a break.

It was all going fine, until Yixing started hyperventilating.

As much as he wanted to run up and see what he can do, he stood frozen in his spot because he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t understand either why it mattered to him what ever happened to the author. So he stayed there, eyes darting back and forth to see what was happening to Yixing. He let out a breath he didn’t even know he was holding when he saw Minseok walk back with the medic and a wheelchair.

He didn’t see any signs of Yixing the whole day and because of that there is still worry lodged in him and he wouldn’t admit that it’s in his heart.

Yifan spots the director as he walks back to the dressing room to get changed and go home. He hesitates for a moment but when he sees Lu Han walking away he didn’t even notice that the question had slipped out of his mouth.

“Is Yixing okay?” Lu Han looked around with a slight furrow of his eyebrows. “He looked sick a while ago.” He supplied as if the director didn’t know.

“Oh, so you did notice.” There was sarcasm laced around the director’s voice but Yifan doesn’t really care, a part of his brain just wants to know if Yixing is okay or not. “I thought you were just utterly focused on your work that you didn’t detect any of the commotion around you.”

“Will you please just answer if he’s alright or not?” Lu Han is starting to irritate him and the question came out hissed as he kept his teeth gritted as he spoke.

Lu Han pulls back in indignation before asking: “What’s it to you anyway?”

Yifan is close to pulling his hairs out but he’s too exhausted to put up a fight so he settles for: “Fine, if you’re not answering I’ll just see you tomorrow.”

He hears Lu Han snort as he stomps away from the director, Minseok trailing closely behind. Just when he’s close to leaving the area completely he hears the director shout: “No one dies of hyperventilation, !”

A/N: 21:13 HULLO EVERYONE! It's been quite a while >.< I'm very sorry for the late update >< BUT I did post two Fanxing fics in the absence of any Working Title update...I hope that was okay >.< WARNING: SHAMELESS PLUGGING AHEAD...If you haven't seen them yet, here they are: What Will Yifan Do? and Totally Different :)

Anyway, I know there are actually quite the number of gay films in the Chinese film industry so I'm twisting some parts of reality here...it's a work of 'fiction' anyway heheheheh so just give it to me, eh? ;)

So many celebrations today! HAPPY PEPPERO DAY! HAPPY SINGLES DAY! HAPPY WHATEVER-IT-IS-ON-YOUR-NATION'S-DAY DAY!

ANDDDDD THE MUSIC VIDEO FOR YIXING'S ONE PERSON SONG IS OUT! IF YOU HAVEN'T YET: https://t.co/sLXFvHZaBf !!! It's part of the OST of Ex-Files 2 :) Anyway, have a great day everyone!*^^*