The thing about college is that if it's not finals season, then it's midterm season. Endlessly. Wenhan's suffering a raging headache just thinking about all the studying he has to do, and the library seems just about as appealing as another one of Yixuan's dad jokes. So he holes himself in the room he shares with Junhui, who is slaving away at his desk across from him. Wenhan sighs and is about to finally open up the economic textbook he had neglected for the past few weeks when suddenly, something clicks in his head.

He turns to Junhui, who looks like a zombie from wrestling with biochemistry homework all night. "I have reached a conclusion," Wenhan declares, and Junhui only eggs him on, raising an eyebrow. "Why am I doing all this school stuff when I could just become a Youtuber?"

Junhui blinks once. Then twice. "Are you kidding me?" he finally utters, rubbing his eyes and reaching for his coffee cup.

Wenhan shrugs. "What's wrong with it? I bet it's way easier than getting a degree."

His roommate only shakes his head in disbelief, writing it off as another "one of Wenhan's silly ideas" - which are not silly, excuse him. In any case, when Wenhan sets his mind to something, he's going to do it. He is not an athlete for nothing; challenges have got nothing on him. He'll make sure of it, even if near-sighted people like Junhui cannot see the genius in his ideas.

 

 

 

And this is how Wenhan ends up walking backward with a camcorder (borrowed from a friend) in his hand, giving a tour of the campus. "And this is the famous Campanile tower. It is officially 100 years old now!" He trips over a crack in the ground, nearly dropping the camcorder in the process. Clearing his throat, he continues, "It's the third tallest bell and clock tower in the world!"

Somewhere down the path, he accidentally bumps into a random bypasser. "Oops, sorry," he mutters apologetically, flustered, then makes his way toward Sproul Plaza. "This is the hub of student activity, where all the clubs fight for your attention. I found out about the Chinese Student Association because of a flyer that was shoved in my face. Amazing, right?" He flashes a smile at the camera lens.

So this is how the rest of the afternoon goes: he continues with his campus tour, quite proud of himself, already painting an image in his head about how the end product would be. Excited to start editing his footage, he uploads the videos onto his laptop later that night. As he waits for everything to finish uploading, Wenhan decides to take a shower. Ah, so relaxing. What a treat after an exhausting filming day, he thinks.

When he comes out, however, he is greeted by a ruckus in the living room. The kids (code for freshmen) are over at their apartment, mooching off their food as usual. Minghao, Yibo, and Tzuyu are curled up on the couch laughing at something on Wenhan's laptop screen, sending him immediately into internal panic mode. Uh oh. Code red. Mission abort. What could possibly be so laughable? Wenhan thinks to himself, his ego burning.

"Oh my goodness, the camera's so shaky, I'm getting motion sickness," Tzuyu is clutching her stomach in a fit of giggles.

Minghao's slapping Yibo's knee, unable to control himself. "Do you see that finger slightly blocking the bottom of the lens for literally a whole five minutes? How does he not notice these things?"

Yibo's laugh is unnervingly loud today, and he's practically jumping up and down on the sofa. "HAHAHA, this is not real life-" He stops to take a deep breath in the midst of his glee, "It keeps going in and out of focus! True talent, I tell you!" he remarks sarcastically.

They're so wrapped up in their (tasteless, rude, demonic) laughter that they don't even notice Wenhan standing there with his arms crossed, lasers shooting out of his eyes. They might as well have been bullets firing from his glare instead. Wenhan sort of wishes that they were.

"He's talking about the Campanile but all I can see is his eye in the frame," Minghao says, ever so observant. He just thinks he's so smart, doesn't he? Wenhan fumes from within.

Tzuyu cracks up. "I bet he had zoomed in on something before but then forgot to zoom back out," she suggests, barely able to enunciate at this point. "Classic Wenhan." She high-fives with Yibo, whose posture has turned into one that resembles a deformed noodle.

That's it. "What are you all doing?" Wenhan finally roars, hands on his hips.

The room falls silent, and the freshmen on the couch stare at the older boy. Then they immediately start laughing again.

Wenhan feels like flipping the whole couch upside down and kicking them out. "What?"

"I just," Yibo really can't form coherent sentences today, "- can't take you seriously anymore," and he's literally on the floor laughing.

Wenhan is more than displeased. "Excuse me, who's the older one around here?"

He can tell Minghao's about to pipe up with a smart-alec answer, so he cuts the younger one off before he can say anything. "And no, Yixuan is not here." A pause. "Which makes me the one who must be shown respect." He hopes this is working, this "I have seniority over you" card. He usually doesn't like to do this, but this is his future vlogging pride on the line.

Tzuyu pretends to rub her chin in thought. "You know, maybe all you need is your own cameraman. It'll probably be easier than trying to film everything yourself."

Minghao agrees wholeheartedly. "After all, I don't think the footage you have here is exactly... how do I say it... subscriber-worthy," he says cheekily. Wenhan believes that this kid needs to cut it with the sass.

"I volunteer!" Yibo raises his hand, even though they're not in a classroom at all. "Believe me, ge, I'd be super good at it." Wenhan almost doesn't want to believe him, but hey, it's not everyday that Yibo offers to be nice to you and sacrifice some of his gaming time.

Wenhan eyes the motley freshman crew warily. Tzuyu and Minghao's eyes are twinkling, as if nudging him to accept Yibo's offer. Yibo looks unnaturally peppy today. Wenhan chews his lip. "Okay," he agrees warily.
 

 

 

 

The next day, they're back on the filming grind on campus, this time in front of Dwinelle Hall. Yibo's giddily skipping around with the camcorder, leaving Wenhan to yell out directions. "Wait, you're supposed to film me, kid!"

Yibo doesn't quite hear him, instead engrossed in a squirrel that has bounded onto the wooden bench he's sitting on. "Look how chubby you are," Yibo coos affectionately, and Wenhan hears this all the way from across the plaza and has to stop himself from cringing too much or else his facial muscles would cramp. That would not be good, especially on a filming day.

Which reminds him... "Hey, stop filming the squirrels! We can have another video on them later! You're supposed to be filming me, I don't know how many times -"

"When I grow up, wouldn't it be nice to just be a squirrel?" Yibo sighs, interrupting Wenhan, who cannot believe what his ears are hearing. Has he been staying up too late playing League, the lack of sleep finally getting to his head?

"Yibo, for the last time -"

"Aw, look, it's not scared of me - I should get an award!" Yibo proclaims, a wide grin spread across his face. Wenhan merely groans.

Needless to say, Wenhan has to admit defeat that day, for Yibo was content filming anything and everything besides what they were supposed to film according to Wenhan's script. He sighs. He should've known better than to trust that kid.
 

 

 

However, Wenhan is not the type to give up. He'll prove Junhui wrong - Junhui has be making himself dizzy with all the work he has to do while Wenhan is out having fun vlogging while also securing his future. Killing two birds with one stone, am I right? Wenhan thinks to himself proudly.

He takes matters into his own hands that day, deciding instead to film a tour of their (sort of messy) apartment. "First stop, Yixuan's room," Wenhan whispers to the camcorder, pushing open the door. "He has a single and -"

The door swings open completely. "Oh hi, Yixuan. Look guys, we get to have an exclusive interview with our resident grandpa!"

The camera pans toward said grandpa, who looks like he's about 200% done. "Say hi, Yixuan."

Yixuan raises a hand haphazardly. "Hi, welcome to my room?" It comes out more like a question.

Wenhan moves on to save everyone from the awkwardness. "Hmm, what do we have here? Ah, his famous stack of Chinese history books! What a bookworm," Wenhan explains. "I know I'm not one for reading many books, but what would you recommend me, Yixuan?"

Yixuan studies Wenhan thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing. "For a handsome and smart young man like you..." Wenhan waits in anticipation, "...I would recommend the highly classy, majorly intellectual..." Wenhan eager nods, "...dictionary!"

Yixuan's smile on his face is the literal definition of troll and Wenhan can't help but feel like he's being played. But he laughs good-naturedly anyway. "Nice joke, Yixuan. You're getting better at these," Wenhan shoots back.

He moves on to Yixuan's desk, where there's a notebook laid open on the surface. "Ooh, ge, you journal?"

Yixuan's eyes widen into saucers, and he quickly snatches the journal from Wenhan's grasp.

"Any secrets you are hiding? Oh my gosh, what if you have a girlfriend? Do you have a girlfriend?! I should know these things, you know!" Wenhan gushes, on a roll.

Yixuan merely rolls his eyes. "NO! Stop jumping to conclusions," he huffs.

Whatever. Wenhan's next target is Yixuan's dresser. "And now, ladies and gentlemen, I will show you Yixuan's boxer collection! He has a wealth of cool designs," Wenhan exclaims, pulling the top drawer open. Yixuan's dismayed cry does not faze him one bit. "Wow, there aren't as many boxers in here as I thought. You must be running on low supply."

"THEY'RE IN THE LAUNDRY, STUPID!" Yixuan finally bursts out.

Wenhan pretends that he didn't hear that. He turns the camcorder toward himself, enthusiastically saying, "So ladies, Yixuan is single," Wenhan winks, "And if you're stuck on what you wanna give him for his birthday, just buy him some nice boxers to add to his collection!"

Yixuan's face is tomato red in embarrassment. Ah, Wenhan loves this feeling.

"Wenhan," Yixuan says sternly, his patience obviously running thin. "Get out," he points toward the doorway, and Wenhan gladly obliges. Anyway, mission success! He figures that this would be an okay introductory video for his channel after some post-production editing.

Later that week, after his first upload, Wenhan's frowning at the video view count. "Why are there only 8 views?" he murmurs to himself.

He receives a phone call from Minghao, then. "Hello?"

"Hey, ge? I was trying to find your video again but I can't find it anywhere - what's your channel name again?"

"HANdsomeeeeBOY123. Four E's," Wenhan says nonchalantly.

A pause on the other end. "Ohhhh," Minghao says, enlightened. "There are four E's! I thought there were only three! No wonder I couldn't find it."

Wenhan sighs. He starts wondering if maybe he wasn't cut out for this after all. He groans - Junhui's going to have a field day with this.

Later at the next Chinese Student Association social event, Tzuyu notices Wenhan's downcast expression. He had hoped it wouldn't show, but Tzuyu's way too sneaky and perceptive to get past. Ugh, girls, why can't they just be oblivious for once?

"Hey," she says. "Still feeling down?"

"I feel like all the views on the video are just from myself," he mutters under his breath.

"I've watched it a few times too, if that makes you feel any better." Tzuyu looks at him sympathetically. "You know, Wenhan, sometimes studying isn't as bad as we think." Wenhan wonders what kind of gibberish she is speaking. In what universe is studying not horrible? "It's not that bad when you study with friends," she smiles.

Wenhan stares at her, eyebrows furrowing. He is not quite ready to accept the reality of his vlogging failure. But he supposes her words have got some truth in them.

"Let's study together at the library tonight, alright?" she suggests.

Wenhan sighs. "Okay."

Studying is still horrible, in his opinion, but he guesses it'll have to do.

(For now.)