This is late and I'm trash.

Emily was practically bouncing off the walls when she got off the plane with Yifan and his staff. She walked a little behind them in order to not arouse suspicion and was amazed at the amount of fans waiting for him in the airport.

They finally made it to a private, secure lot where she and Yifan piled into a sleek black car that drove them to the hotel they were staying at. Emily had insisted she could pay for her room herself, but Yifan told her she couldn’t afford to even walk into the hotel, so she stayed quiet.

It turns out, Yifan did have a legitimate reason for wanting her to come along. His usual stylist was in the hospital with a bad case of the flu, and he knew it would be a disaster if he dressed himself. Emily didn’t mind though. She actually enjoyed talking to the makeup and hair stylists to coordinate a couple outfits for him. She was told there would be a wardrobe at the filming site for her to choose from.

The hotel came into view and Yifan was right. The place was about as snazzy as a hotel could get. There were limos and fountains decorating the front. Inside, the lobby was enormous with more fountains and several glass elevators. Emily was pretty sure everything was gold plaited at least. She sighed at how poor she was and followed Yifan into the elevator. He gave her the room key and said hers was right next to his.

The room was just as swanky as the rest of the hotel with a large fluffy bed and even a small fridge and microwave. Emily flopped onto the bed without unpacking and fell asleep for a quick nap until dinner.

The next day, she woke up early and barely managed to roll herself out of bed. She washed up and changed into the outfit she had carefully planned for today. Even though she wasn’t going to appear on television, she might still meet the stars of Happy Camp, and she wanted to look good.

Suddenly awake and excited at the prospect of meeting Nana, Emily put the finishing touches on her light makeup and grabbed her purse before heading out the door.

Just as her door shut, the one next to hers opened and a very sleepy-looking Yifan stumbled out. He didn’t even seem to notice her presence and merely started shuffling down the hallway.

Giggling to herself, Emily caught up with him and tapped his arm. “Morning, sleepyhead.”

Yifan stared at her as if trying to remember who she was before mumbling, “Mornin.’”

“Not a morning person I see,” Emily commented.
 

Yifan grunted in response before letting Emily onto the elevator before him. The ride to the Happy Camp filming site was relatively quiet, but Emily didn’t mind. Yifan seemed a little nervous, and she realized even people who go on shows all the time can still get nervous.

After she chose a simple, but stylish outfit for Yifan to wear for the majority of the show, an employee lead Emily to her seat. Yifan had gotten her one front and center. There was even a little reserved sign and a rose on the seat. She snorted at the cheesiness and sat down. The rose was fake, but it was still beautiful. She was glad it wasn’t real or she would’ve had a wilted rose by the end of the filming.

Slowly, the audience started piling into the seats around her. Most of them ignored her, but a few gave her curious glances before turning away to talk to their friends or family. She didn’t and settled for messaging her friend Rachel, who was currently expressing how jealous she was and also begging Emily to get an autograph from the hosts if she could.

Just as Emily replied saying she would try, the camera crew and directors motioned to the crowd and the lights dimmed. Everyone cheered as music started playing and several colorfully clad dancers hopped on stage. Emily clapped enthusiastically as the cast of

Happy Camp cheerfully jumped around on stage, performing a fun dance.

The filming went extremely well. Yifan had the audience dying of laughter, all traces of the nervousness from the morning gone.

After the filming was over and the audience had filtered out, Emily awkwardly lingered by the stage, watching as the crew began to clean up and review the footage.

Eventually, Yifan came bouncing out from backstage, dressed in casual clothes again, a bright smile on his face.

“So? Wanna meet them?” he asked Emily with a smirk.

She nodded, “Yes! If it’s okay with them, that is.”

“Of course! They wanna meet you, too.” Yifan casually grabbed Emily’s hand - her heart flopping around in her chest - and dragged her backstage.

He pulled her to the men’s dressing room first, and after knocking on the door, went inside. Emily followed and was greeted with three

familiar faces. He Jiong, Weija, and Haitao looked up from whatever they were doing and smiled at her. They jumped up and greeted her cheerfully.

Emily smiled and relaxed, happy to see they were friendly even off camera. They chatted for a while, with the cast members asking about where she was from and complimenting her Chinese.

Finally, it was time for them to leave, but just before she bid them goodbye, Emily remembered something. “Oh! Wait! Can I have your autographs? It’s for a friend,” she said. She went to reach into her purse for a pen and a small notebook and realized she was still holding Yifan’s hand. She felt her face heat up as she detangled her fingers from his. She may have imagined it, but it looked like he pouted at the sudden lack of contact.

The three male hosts graciously signed the notebook and even left little messages for Rachel. Emily thanked them and followed Yifan down the hallway to the women’s dressing room.

Nana and Wu Xin were just leaving and brightened up at the sight of Yifan and Emily. Emily greeted them and introduced herself and the girls immediately started gushing about each other’s outfits. Nana even gave her an email she could use to contact her if she ever made her own line of clothing, Nana would be happy to advertise it for her. Emily thanked her about a million times and got Nana and Wu Xin’s autographs.

She was in a great mood as she and Yifan walked to the car. Sneakily, Yifan grabbed Emily’s hand again causing her to blush furiously.

She tried to pull away, but Yifan held on even tighter.

Her heart was now performing a full on gymnastics routine in her chest, and she nearly ran away when Yifan quietly said, “Let’s not go back to the hotel yet. I wanna take you on a date.”

“A date?” Emily squeaked.

“Yeah. If I’m gonna hold your hand like this, I should probably take you on a date. A proper one,” he said. “So, do you want to?”

Emily stared at her shoes, completely flustered. But, she only hesitated for a moment before nodding yes.

Yifan grinned and said, “Let’s go, then!” And he pulled her away from the car, his manager yelling at him in confusion as they ran down the street into the city.