The next day, Xiao Zhan and his flat mate were like  characters from that famous meme "Your crush is here, act natural!"  

They were, indeed,  trying hard to act normal, as though the incidents from yesterday have never happened.

In  that spirit, the  morning after, Yibo, wearing his worn out hoodie and baggy shorts, jumped on Zhan's back to wake him up, the same way as he usually did in all of the previous mornings.

Zhan pretended to get annoyed, same as in any other morning. But secretly enjoying their  little daily routine, same as in all the other mornings.

He was secretly enjoying Yibo's fresh mint aroma tickling his nostrils while whispering  against his neck skin:
"ZhanBi, wakey, wakey, the coffee is ready, and you don't want to be late from work."...

He was secretly enjoying how the lively boy was jumping on his body, regardless if he was sleeping onto his back or onto his stomach...And if he was sleeping on a side, Yibo was sneaking under the coverlet and plastering his front onto his back.
Zhan was smiling in the pillow at BoBi's warm breath, ghosting his ear while softly whining:"Woah, ZhanBi baobei, you are one kind of a heavy sleeping person."
Little did he know that Zhan was fully awake, and could hear him calling him baobei and could feel his arms tighten around his waist.

 

 

 

He was secretly enjoying casually touching the smooth and warm skin of those bare legs folded on each side of his body...when he was finally sitting at the edge of the bed.
He was secretly enjoying  the way he was clinging like a koala onto his back, and his arms were snaking around him ... the way their cheeks were gluing together...
 

Yet, in that particular morning, a heavy awkwardness was floating in the air, around them.

They sipped their coffees and ate the breakfast in total silence and when Zhan was about to exit the door, Yibo just greeted him, without giving him a hug like other times.

 

 

Xiao Zhan greeted him back, adding:
"I will call you from the office a half an hour before coming to pick you up.
Don't cook anything, we will eat with ZiZi in the town.
And, BoBi, I need you to help me with something. We must convince her that we are just friends, not what she assumed from my mother.
That we are, you know..."

"Of course, ZhanBi, don't worry, I know what I have to do.
You should focus on what you have to do.
Firstly, don't forget about the flowers!
Go, now, you don't want to be late, have an easy office day ahead, bye!"

After Yibo cleaned the kitchen, he took a shower and dressed himself into a white shirt and a pair of black jeans that ZhanBi gave  him, folding a bit the too long sleeves and the too long pants legs.
A gray short suit jacket, a bit too big for him, but still looking good on him, had completed his outfit. 

ZhanBi was right, clothes are important when you want to make a good impression on an employer, said the boy  to himself, nodding in satisfaction at his reflection from the mirror.

"Good luck Wang Yibo!
Today it is THE day!" He always said that, whenever he got ready for another day of looking for a job,  same as his brother.

 

 

 

                                                                                              

 

 

 

WuXian and Xiao Zhan were both drowned in their own world while eating at the company's cafeteria during the lunch break.

The first one was smiling like an idiot, rolling absent-minded chopsticks in the food.

The other one was reading eagerly a text on his phone, snapping WuXian out from his day dreaming with his loud "Way to go, Muffin!"

 

"Muffin? 
Yes it would be nice to eat some muffins, but I don't think that they have that in  today's menu.",  WuXian said, getting back to his previous activity.

"I was talking here about a living person, not about food!", Zhan smiled , while typing back to the mysterious living person with the food name.

"Who's Muffin?",  WuXian asked, confused at his friend's sudden  exultation.

"Come on A-Xian, think!
Who can it be, it's not so hard?
Who is sweet and...appealing, and...fluffy, and...tasty, and..."

"I get it!
So, this is what you call your boyfriend, lover, crush, whatever he is to you?"

"He is none of those, he is my flat mate and my trainer and let's say, my friend. But don't get jealous, because you are still my best friend!
And don't you dare to tell him that I called him Muffin.
I call him like that only in my thoughts, and only because he looks like a vanilla muffin with those puffy, fluffy cheeks of his."

"Yeah, yeah, you call him Muffin because of his  cheeks, not because you see him like a yummy, yummy cutie donut!
Have you tasted him yet?
Of course you did, I remember him saying that you kissed him, and, ha, ha, ha,  you fell asleep like an old Yéyé (A/n: grandpa in Chinese), in the process."

"Shut up, you idiot!", Zhan  smacked his friend's head, quite hard.
"I was drunk, and for your own information, that didn't happen at the next kisses."

"Ouch, did you have to hit me that hard?!
Next?
Kisses?!
So you two kissed again, and not just once!
But you still have the nerve to say that he is nothing but a flat mate, trainer, friend, bla, bla, bla!
Spill it out, tell me more!"

"I'm not gonna tell you anything, except that he is not my boyfriend, lover or whatever your twisted mind is  imagining he is. 
As a matter of fact ZiZi came here yesterday, she waited for me after work, and gave me a ride home with her car. 
We will meet again today at 7PM, so I think things are starting to move in the right direction.
I could feel that she finally began to like me, from the way she was flirting and touching me.
Maybe my destiny is on its way!"

"At least tell me what did he text you to make you so happy?",  WuXian pouted, ignoring his friend's blabbering about that woman, whom he dislikes so much.

"He said that he got a job, he didn't have time to tell me more details because he said that he was already training.
He gave me the address and told me to pick him up from there, for our meeting with ZiZi."

"Why would you take him on a date with your DESTINY?",  WuXian smirked, risking another smack onto his head, avoided at the last moment.

"Because it was ZiZi's wish to meet him, and don't you dare to ask me why!
Let's eat better, the break is getting over soon!"

 

 

 

                                                                                                       

 

 

 

 

Zhan stopped by at home after work, to take a quick shower and to change his clothes.
He took his car and drove it to the address Yibo gave it to him.
He was really curious about the job his friend has finally gotten.

The address was at a books store, but the seller noticed him wandering around and when he told him that he was looking for the Rainbow Club, he guided him through a long corridor that opened behind a shelf of books to a narrow street.
"Hmm, this is odd", he mumbled, but walked to the building at the end of that hidden street.

He became even more curious, but somehow worried, too, when  reading the big flashy banner from the building's front:" RAINBOW CLUB".
Nothing wrong about that, though, just that the small blinking letters at the bottom of the banner were wrong for sure: "Drinks and Drags". 

 

 

"Who are you?
Are you the new trainee's boyfriend?",  the beefy guy from the front door halted him from entering.

It was no point explaining to him his relationship with the new trainee, so he just nodded and he was allowed to walk in.

He walked through the dark corridor and opened the door from where there was very loud blues music coming.
It was a huge hall filled with empty tables and a small stage for whatever performers would be.
The only audience was a man who was sitting at the nearest table from the stage
He couldn't put his finger on why, but the music, the tables, the blinding clubbing lights, everything around was reminding him about the gay club  that Wei WuXian brought him at.
Xiao Zhan pondered if to ask now, that man where he could find Wang Yibo, the new trainee, or to wait for what could be a dancing rehearsal to get to an end.

On the stage a  dark haired female dancer was swaying her hips in the rhythm of the y  blues. She was wearing a long black velvet dress with a very low cut at her back and  a pair of  extremely high heels.

When he was about to approach the man from the table, a second female entered the scene.
This  one was dressed in a black leather long robe with white silk ornaments with low cuts  everywhere and was wearing a long red hair wig.
The  lights got off in the hall and focused only on the two women who started to dance together.

"What the fu*k,  Wang Yibo?!!!
What the fu*ck is this?",  Xiao Zhan shouted in the thick darkness, when he recognized in horror his flat mate, in the red haired  dancer, dressed in the leather robe that was displaying too much skin and too much from his y back muscles  and y smooth legs, for his own good.

 

 

 

The man sitting at the table turned his head at him, and shushed  him, then  invited him to his table with a short gesture.

Instead of that, Xiao Zhan propped himself at the base of the stage, to look closer at the two seductive  "women"  dancing lasciviously and sensually touching each other.

 

 

He spitted out  a loud curse when the other woman d the Muffin's bubbly , and another sparkly woman wearing a huge blonde wig popped up out of nowhere and poked the Muffin's alluring clothed crack with the tip of her fingers.

He  stopped at half way from jumping up on the stage when Yibo turned to the  sparkly lady and slapped her hands away, shouting at her:
"I already said that I accept only ChengCheng to touch me!"

 

 

"I know, I'm sorry, but that of yours is too tempting,  and your crack is practically screaming to be poked!
Your will be the death of all customers tonight!
Boss, you should hire him immediately!",  the  glamorous woman shouted, jumping down from the stage and taking a seat at the young man's table.

"Okay girls, we'll take a short break, before the last round of rehearsal!
Come Cheng baobei, I need to talk something with you. And , Nai Bo Nǚhái (A/n: Milk Bo Girl in Chinese), I think that your boyfriend is here, and he looks a bit of pissed off to me, ha, ha!",  the man laughed, seemingly to be the boss of the club, or whatever this place would be.

"Oh, ZhanBi you're here?
Let me introduce to you my dearest friend ChengCheng, Wang ZhuoCheng, who recommended me to the owner of this club for getting a job here. 
He is Xiao Zhan, my, my..."

"I am Xiao Zhan, Yibo's flat mate, nice to meet you, miss Wang ZhuoCheng!",  Zhan nodded curtly, but the explosive rage restrained him from shaking hands with the person who was grabbing  so shamelessly Muffin's minutes ago.

"Could  you excuse us for a moment?
I would like to have a word with my, my BOYFRIEND, as I have just found out that he is for me,  from the door guardian and from your boss!",  Zhan addressed to the woman, in a pretty harsh tone, to Yibo's dismay, who  would had never have thought  that his kind and nice friend could act so impolite towards somebody.

 

 

"What's going on, ZhanBi?
Did you have a bad day at work, or why are you so upset?
And why are you suddenly calling me Yibo, and not BoBi or BoBo, like usual?", he asked after apologizing to the woman called ZhuoCheng, and inviting Zhan to take a seat together at one of the tables.

"Should I call you Nai Bo Nǚhái now?
Do you really not understand why I am upset?
Actually I am rather angry than upset.
Do you really want this kind of job?
You ran away from that brothel and refused to be a e just for becoming a dancer in a suspicious nightclub?
Are you enjoying yourself to be d like that, will you enjoy for drunkards to salivate at your ?!
What about that ChengCheng woman, why did you say that you accept only for her to touch you, are you into this kind of, of...of persons?
And why is everybody  thinking that I am your boyfriend?",  Xiao Zhan yelled, dropping angrily his onto a chair only after finishing his long row of screamed out questions.

"Hold your horses, too many questions at one blow!
Let's see! 
Firstly, yes I want a job, as I've already told you I am a constantly looking for a job.
And, ChengCheng was kind enough to place a good word for me to Mister Liu HaiKuan, the owner of this club.
It's a legal business, nothing suspicious about it. It's kinda hidden because you know  very well why the lgbtq community is  forced to  hide in China, even if as a club business.
Yes I ran away from that brothel and yes I would never accept to be a e or anything near!
The only good thing about that brothel experience was that I met ChengCheng there, who is a great person, by the way.
He was the one helping me and JiJi to escape from there.  
ChengCheng was forced by that animal to work for him as a male because he borrowed money from him  for his mother's hospitalization. 
Fortunately, some day that man lost his house at a poker gambling, and Mister Liu HaiKuan became the owner of the building and the owner of the es, at the same time.
He announced to the boys that they are free to go or to become dancers in his night club.
Only dancers, waiters or guards, not es.
Meanwhile Mister Liu HaiKuan fell in love with each other and got married in Las Vegas.
I said that I accept only for ChengCheng to touch me, because of two reasons. One. I trust him, he is my and JiJi's good friend, and two I trust him that he could have no ert thoughts towards me because he is too much in love with his husband.
As for the boyfriend thingy, Mister Liu HaiKuan taught me to say that I have a boyfriend, for keeping away like that any possible improper advances from the other employees or maybe customers.
You saw what happened with that blonde haired dancer,  only because he came later and didn't find out yet that I have a boyfriend.
But don't worry, you are my boyfriend only here, no danger for this information to go beyond these walls!
I hope that I have answered all of your questions.
Now, I would like you to tell me why you were so angry about it?"

"So that ChengCheng person is a male, and he is married? 
Of course I was angry, watching you there on stage, dancing like that in front of a...man who looked like a buyer or something, watching you touched and d like that, and, and, and don't you think that you show too much for people to see? 
Even though the club customers