Two

 

The roof was silent and empty, with the exception of two boys, sitting side to side, feet dangling over the edge of the building. It was the tallest building in the residential neighborhood, and it gave them a birdseye view of the goings on below.

Yixing was wrapped up in a warm cardigan, carrying in his hands a worn copy of 1984.

“Xuezhang, have you ever read this book?”

The taller boy glanced over and sighed. “I thought I told you not to call me that. Just my name, okay?”

“Okay, but…this book…?”

With a disinterested shrug, the taller leaned forward, eyes glinting. “Yixing, I’m trying to kiss you; please put down that book now.”


Yixing woke with his heart pounding out of his chest. The dream had been too real, way too real. He looked over, and saw that it was 3:30AM. With a groan, he flopped back into bed and burrowed into his blankets. This was only his fourth week working at ExoZine, and he had found that the dreams had increased ten-fold since.

“Stupid Lu Han and his stupid get-in-the-romantic-mood activities,” Yixing grumbled. The pink room was rubbing off on him, bringing back memories that he had worked so hard to repress.

Yixing, however, was experiencing his first cycle. The first week was the same, with cheery Lu Han, Tao, Chen, and Xiumin joking around and messing with each other. Then, as the days went on, everything got considering messier and more somber as deadline approached.

Today was day 26 of the cycle, and the office looked like it was in the middle of the apocalypse.

“Luna called and said that she’s behind on schedule,” Lu Han moaned, banging his forehead against his desk. His hair was sticking up in ten directions, and dark circles surrounded his tired eyes.

“She has the flu,” Chen confirmed, not looking much better. His shirt was sporting a giant coffee stain, and the buttons didn’t exactly match up.

“But don’t we go to print tomorrow morning?” Yixing rasped. He, too, looked much for the worse. Considering how they were supposed to get the manuscript to printing in less than 26 hours and they were still missing their biggest piece, he understood the stress of the cycle fully. “What are we going to do about those pages?”

“Goddamnnit, Luna should know better; she’s a veteran!” Kris’ hands slammed into his desk and he stood up, knocking the chair over in his haste to stand up.

“Um…boss?”

“I’m going to go sort it out,” Kris replied, waving Tao’s questions away. “Finish everything else, and leave the manuscript complete except for the missing pages.” He turned, and picked up his coat from the back of his chair. “And you,” he added, pointing at Yixing. “Lay, come with me.”

“Me?” Yixing repeated, bewildered.

“Yes, you,” Kris mocked. “You don’t know enough yet to be of any help here, and I don’t want you distracting the others.”

Don’t know enough to be of any help here?

Yixing flinched, but did as he was told.

“Don’t we have a bank of filler manga strips somewhere?” Yixing asked as the elevator took them down to the lobby. “Surely, one of them is good enough to use.”

“’Good enough’?” Kris ground  his teeth, glaring at Yixing. “I only accept spectacular.” His angry eyes alerted Yixing to danger, so the smaller boy kept quiet in the taxi ride across town.

Luna, one of the most popular mangakas under the Sapphire Department, worked out of her spacious home. Yixing trailed Kris as the taller man took the steps three at a time and pounded on the door.

“There’s a doorbell,” Yixing said.

Kris just shot him a look and continued knocking rudely.

The door was opened by a harassed looking guy, who let Kris in without a short glance. “My sister is in the living room.”

Yixing looked around and saw a lone blond girl sitting in a corner, huddled in a warm blanket, lying face down next to a cup of warm tea.

“Luna!”

The girl jerked up at the found of Kris’ voice and looked absolutely terrified. Her eyes were bloodshot and tired looking, and she sniffed, letting out a small sneeze.

“Kris, I’m dying,” she groaned, flopping back down onto the table.

“How much do you have left?” Kris asked, ignoring her statement.

Luna just looked at him, helplessly, and did not answer. Kris understood the meaning behind her silence.

“Look, you’re a veteran, Luna,” Kris barked angrily. “I returned the manuscript to you for editing, what, over a week ago. You know better than to have left it until the last minute.”

Luna’s light brown eyes were filling up with tears, and Yixing was horrified at Kris’ harsh tone toward her. She was even younger than them, and not to mention, probably had a bad case of the flu.

“I planned on getting it done, but…I just - ”

“I don’t want excuses, Luna, I want results. I want - ”

“ - I’ll help,” Yixing interrupted, breaking Kris’ tirade. Luna looked as if she was about to cry, and Yixing hurried to finish his offer. “I don’t know much about manga, but I am a decent artist. I can draw the backgrounds for you.”

“That would save me a lot of time,” Luna replied, sitting up straighter.

“Kris will work on the dialogue,” Yixing added. “If we all work at the same time, we can make the deadline.” He expected Kris to blow a gasket about overtaking his authority, but to his surprise, Kris merely sat down and pulled a stack of finished panels towards himself.

The work was tedious, and Yixing found himself drawing the same bakery, school, and bedroom background over and over again for the scenes. Kris