September 15th, 2015

The next day Yixing found himself in a meeting with his boss and a few other colleagues to discuss the topics and articles for the upcoming week. He hadn’t heard from Yifan, but he felt like this could change any minute, so he went for a more sophisticated look today and wore the best shirt he owned.

“Okay, we’ve got the sports column covered, what about you, Mr. Zhang?”

Mrs. Wang stood at the head of the table, hands placed on it, leaning forward and facing him directly. The other people looked at him with curious looks on their faces. Yixing cleared his throat and took out his notes about his rough plan of the articles.

“Umm, well, I thought about releasing one article every second Sunday. Like, a big article, about all the preparations going on. To give a very… broad insight to the people.”

Sometimes he couldn’t even stand himself talking. He wanted to slap his face, but Mrs. Wang just curled the corners of up to give him a pleased smile, something that happened very rarely.

“You’re going all in I guess?”

Yixing suppressed a panicked laughter and just nodded. Mrs. Wang stood straight again and looked out of the window. Then she turned back to him and said:

“Very well, Mr. Zhang. I want you to bring some new color to these articles – Mr. Deng always portrayed Wu Yifan through the eyes of a mentor, it’s time to change that.”

“Ummm, okay?”

She pointed her finger at him and explained:

“You’re about the same age, right? I want you to get to know this guy. I want you to portray him as if you two grew up together. Get into the head of him and behind this spoiled-brat-facade. I want a bunch of intimate portraits of this man. People their fingers after this kind of stuff.”

When she used the word ‘intimate’ Yixing felt shivers running down his spine again, but he just nodded.

“Understood. I’ll do my best.”

“Of course you will. I never expect less from you.”

The other co-workers kept smiling through the conversation, but their eyes gave away that they would love to switch places with Yixing. And they hated him for snatching away the best opportunity to get their hands on the most wanted project in the whole newspaper office.

“Good, that’s all for today.” Mrs. Wang raised her voice and clapped her hands, “Well done, I expect the articles for Thursday’s issue by six o’clock today. Not one minute less. Are we good?”

“Yes, Boss!” The twelve employees said in unison and then got up to get working.

Yixing hovered back to his office and decided to get started on his first article, since he had no idea how and when he was about to meet Yifan. When he opened the door to the room, he almost jumped back a few feet.

“What the ?!”

Yifan sat on his chair behind Yixing’s Macbook, swirling around on it like a child. He stopped to face him.

“Finally! I thought this meeting would never end!”

“You… what… what are you doing here? How did you get in?”

“I’m picking you up. And I obviously walked in, asked for your office and sat down here. The door wasn’t locked.”

“You can’t just walk into my office…!” Yixing revolted and looked around as if looking for evidence Yifan had gone through his stuff.

“Well, yet here I am…”

The prince did not seem to understand why Yixing was angered and got up from the chair. Then he examined Yixing’s outfit and said:

“Wow, you look hot.”

“Oh god, cut the crap.” The journalist muttered and put his laptop into his bag, “Where are we going?”

“We’re going to have brunch with Tao and Yili at the Four Seasons.”

“Are you only taking me out to eat stuff?” Yixing shot at him while grabbing his jacket and his camera.

Yifan who already stood at the door smiled, came closer and cupped the other’s face. Yifan’s hands were so large Yixing’s face looked like that of a fragile porcelain doll. And suddenly he also felt like it. Vulnerable and delivered on a silver platter for Yifan to play with.

“I promise you, darling, we’re going to have so much fun together. I will take you anywhere you want.”

“Wow that was a weak pickup line.” Yixing hissed and Yifan just laughed and turned for the door.

“Come on, Yili and Tao are already there.”

The Four Seasons was not far from Yixing’s workplace. The ride in the Bentley was rather short and about twenty minutes later he followed Yifan through the doors of the hotel’s restaurant. Yili and Tao were already seated at a table for four and when they looked up, they smiled and got up to greet them.

“You’ve made it!” Tao chirped and hugged Yifan.

Yili and Yifan shared two kisses on the cheek and Yifan turned to Yixing to introduce him:

“This is Zhang Yixing. He’s the substitute for Mr. Deng, the man who writes all these articles about our family.”

Yili was the first to grab his hand and shake it – her grip was just as strong as her mother’s, but she seemed way less intimidating than the Empress.

“I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself properly yesterday, that was very rude. Please don’t be offended, but I just came back from the USA and I’m still a little jetlagged, I was totally out of it.”

“Oh, please… no offense taken!” Yixing hastily said and Yili gave him a thankful smile.

When she let go of his hand, Tao grabbed it. He also touched Yixing’s elbow.

“Huang Zitao, nice to meet you. Me and Mr. Deng never really talked, but I’ve heard he’s a nice man. Why are you taking his place? Has he gotten into retirement?”

“Um, no. He’s in bad health and as long as he’s getting treatment, I do his work.”

“Oh no, what’s the matter?” Yili asked while they sat down.

She had a sincere tone in her voice, and Yixing was a little taken aback. Yifan had not asked once what Mr. Deng had exactly and he didn’t even seem to care much now.

“Bowel cancer.”

Yili’s eyes widened in shock and she looked like a kicked bunny. Zitao sighed.

“Is he going to be okay?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him. But he got diagnosed in an early stage, he might have a chance.”

“We should send our regards to him, Yifan.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Yifan’s sister smacked his arm.

“Ya! Where are your manners?! Show some sympathy! This man is a friend of the family and he always cared for us. Visiting him is the least we could do!”

The prince sighed and said:

“Okay, okay. We will. But we didn’t come here to discuss Mr. Deng!”

A waiter came and brought a bottle of champagne along with four glasses.

“He’s right, Yili. Let’s talk about something more light hearted. Yixing will surely give you all the contact information you’ll need to get in touch with Mr. Deng later, right?” Tao threw in.

“You’d do that?”

Yili’s eyes lit up in thankfulness as Yixing only nodded, even though he had no idea how to get the info. Maybe Mrs. Wang would come out with them but he wasn’t even sure of that. He had never come to her with a request. It was usually her that requested things and got her way.

“Thank you, Zhang Yixing.”

“It’s only Yixing. I’m your age, you don’t have to be that formal with me.”

“So you’re a goat too, I reckon?”

Yixing nodded.

“Born in October.”

Yili stopped short and leaned forward.

“Which date exactly?”

“Um, October 7th.”

Yili and Tao let out a surprised gasp but Yixing did not really understand why. Yifan grunted and took a gulp of his champagne. Yili clasped her hands and cried out:

“We were born on the same day!”

“Wait, really?”

She nodded. Yixing tried to recall any event that had indicated the princess’ birthday but he had to admit that the focus had always been on Yifan. Yili kind of disappeared next to him.

“That’s so cool! Isn’t that cool, Yifan?” She nudged her brother who did not really respond, then faced Yixing again, “High Five on that, brother!”

She stretched out the palm of her delicate and small hand and Yixing felt weird when he returned the gesture.

“He’s not your brother, Yili!”

“Do you have to be the fun killer every time, my love?” Yili shot at Yifan and Tao scented an approaching argument so he pulled a stack of paper out of his bag.

“Oookay kiddos, what about getting over the stuff we wanted to talk through today?”

“Good idea!” Yifan threw in and Tao handed him one of the sheets, “We need this to be amazing. I want the whole world to talk about it.”

Yili rolled her eyes, but she was smiling, as if she took no offense that her brother made the whole matter about him once again.

“Um, wait, you are not going to throw some sort of party?” Yixing asked her and she looked up, blinking, as if she couldn’t follow.

It took her a few seconds to put Yixing’s question in perspective.

“Ooooh, yeah. No. I’m not a huge fan of being the center of all the attention. Most of the time I’m in the US anyway, so I never really celebrate.  I hang out with some friends and that’s about it.” She explained matter-of-factly.

“Plus, the 25th birthday is a huge thing in our family,” Tao continued, “It’s like coming off age. But it’s more important. Yifan will be officially the heir to the throne. 25 marks the time a prince is considered to be mature enough to lead a country, since there were too many young emperors on the throne that kind of drove the whole thing against a wall. Well, nowadays it’s more some sort of symbolic act, but still a huge thing in the family.”

“Aaaah, I understand.”

“It also means that he’s in marital age,” Yili added and Yifan made a grimace, “Mother is already looking for a suitable candidate.”

“I’m not going to marry anytime soon!” Yifan scoffed.

“Well, tell that to Mother.”

“She will hear from me!”

Yili patted his arm, then they finally turned to all the stuff that needed to be organized. Tao cleared his throat and handed Yixing a paper with a rough timetable. Then he explained:

“I was thinking about kicking it off one week before November 6th. We’re starting at the 31st and throw a huge Halloween party.”

Yili squealed in excitement.

“Oh, oh, let me organize this! I’ve been to so many amazing Halloween parties in the States, I know exactly what we need!”

Tao did not object and moved on to the next point.

“We’re going to have one event per day. I also minded that your mother requested to hold a benefit ball on the 5th.”

“Ugh, no, she really wants to go for the ball?” Yifan whined.

Yili clicked her tongue.

“It’s tradition, Yifan. Don’t be like that every time mother tells you to do something.”

Yifan gave up defeat but muttered something under his breath which sounded like he wasn’t happy about it. While the waiter kept serving small appetizers and snacks and more champagne, the three royals planned the whole week that would be crowned with a big birthday party on the 6th. One thing that stood out was that Yifan had decided (after Yili had come up with the idea) to do some giveaways – if people did enter them they could win tickets for the events, and Yixing suddenly remembered how many fans Yifan actually had. Most of them were young girls and women dreaming of becoming the princess at his side. People would go crazy and would do anything to get a hold of these tickets, and the thought of it made Yifan giggle like a child.

After the Halloween Party there would be some other parties and events and the guest lists contained a lot of Chinese, Korean and Japanese superstars that Yifan had or hadn’t met in his life.

Yifan seemed to be content with the outcome, even though he was still grinding his teeth about the benefit ball, but neither Tao nor Yili gave in to his begging to just blow this one.

“I want an artist to perform at the 6th.” Yifan suddenly threw in after they had gone through the guestlist of the benefit ball.

Tao and Yili tilted their heads in question. Something in their looks told Yixing that Yifan was about to drop a major bomb and no matter what it was, they wouldn’t be prepared.

“And who do you want to come?” His sister asked him.

Yifan was lost in thoughts for a moment before he leaned back and said as if talking about the weather:

“I was thinking about Gaga.”

Yili choked on her champagne and when she finally was able to breathe again she asked:

“But I thought you hated her new album?”

“Doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate her existence,” Yifan answered, shrugging his shoulders.

Yixing suddenly pictured fanboy Yifan at one of her concerts to cheer for her with a lightstick in his hands. He suppressed his laughter at the thought and decided to take a picture of the three instead. They did not even seem to notice his work. Maybe they were so used to people taking pictures of them, it had become something that wasn’t even worth a gaze.

“Oh come on, guys! How awesome would it be to have an international artist performing? Tao, you always brag about your connections, now’s the time to use them. Give her a call!”

Tao groaned in frustration and Yixing let his camera sink down in disbelief – did Yifan just tell Tao to call Lady Gaga? Meaning dialing a number which belonged to Lady Gaga’s phone and have a chat with her?

“Gaga’s in Chicago right now, she’s going to kill me if I wake her up in the middle of the night!”

Yili pouted and looked at her small watch around her wrist and seemed to calculate something.

“Given the fact that Chicago’s thirteen hours behind us, it should be 9pm where she is.”

“That’s a reasonable time to call someone!” Yifan threw in but Tao was still not convinced.

And Yixing blinked confused - Yifan DID tell Tao to call Lady Gaga!

“What if she’s at a concert or something!”

“She’s not, according to her Instagram she’s chilling at the hotel.” Yili threw in and showed an Instagram picture that the artist had posted ten minutes ago.

“See, my dearest cousin? Pleaaase, call her!”

Yifan’s cousin took a sip of his champagne, sighed theatrically and asked:

“Does everything have to be this complicated with you?”

“Yes, it does!”

Tao must have had conversations like this a lot of times in his life with Yifan, so he just sighed and gave up defeat. He pulled out his phone and opened his contacts, mumbling something that sounded like he wished Yifan dead.

“Out of all the people I could hook you up with you ask for Gaga…” he muttered and opened the contact – he stopped short and looked up and tried to launch a counterproposal, “Adam Levine is pretty cool, too!”

“Naaaah, I want Ga-ga!”

Tao sighed and finally dialed the required number.

“Put it on speaker!” Yili asked in excitement and the siblings leaned over the table to stare at the phone that Tao had placed in front of him.

At first there was just the ringing of the line and right when Tao was about to hang up, it clicked and the four of them heard:

“Tao! Darling! Hello!”

“Hello, sweetheart!” Tao chirped but his face looked like he wanted to commit suicide.

“I was just thinking about my favorite guy from China!” Gaga chattered and they heard how she wandered around in the room.

“Oh, really?”

“Really! What’s the matter?”

“I’m not disturbing you with anything, am I?” Tao asked.

“Oh, no, no! You can call me at any given time, you know that sweety!”

Yili held onto her brother’s arm and was overly excited, while Yixing forgot how to breathe for a second – Tao really did give Lady Gaga a call and they even had pet names for each other!

“Aaaah, amazing, as always!” the Chinese beamed but rolled his eyes immediately.

Yifan gestured to hurry this thing up a little and Tao nodded and cut right to the chase:

“Listen, sweetheart, I have to ask you for a… little… or maybe big… favor.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Sooooo, you know, I have this cousin…”

“That very handsome prince of yours, are you talking about him?”

When Gaga called Yifan ‘very handsome’ he smiled satisfied as if he wanted to say ‘Yeah, that woman has taste’.

“Yes, the Prince, right,” Tao confirmed, “It’s his birthday in about eight weeks. November 6th to be more precise. You know, us Royals, we have this thing for 25th birthdays and how it has to be big and all this kind of stuff…”

“Ooooh, yeah, I remember you told me when we met in New York last month!”

“In fact, yes, I did!”

The siblings eyed Tao and raised an eyebrow in question – Tao’s face flushed red. And Yixing felt like somebody had just punched him in the face. Tao went to dinner dates with GAGA?!

“That was a very lovely dinner we should definitely do that again!” The artist cried out.

“Yeaaaaah, absolutely!” Tao threw in before she could indulge in any memories of that evening, “But I didn’t call because of that.”

“Oh riiiight. The prince. Go on.”

Tao seemed a little uncomfortable but after taking one deep breath he said:

“He asked me if I could ask you to come over that day and perform for his birthday.”

A pregnant silence hung in the line and Yixing was sure Lady Gaga wasn’t even breathing for a moment.

“I know, it’s a really big favor that I’m asking of you, and I would totally understand if you cannot manage to squeeze in a little performance into your busy schedule…” Tao blabbered and Yili bit her lower lip.

Her eyes wandered between Tao, the phone and her brother who mouthed the words:

“I’m paying her whatever she wants!”

“Ummmm, you’d get payed for this, of course! Any expense you have to make, my cousin will cover for it!”

“Payed?! Screw this, I’m doing this for FREE!” Gaga suddenly cried out and it sounded like she jumped off something, maybe her bed.

“… really?” Tao asked and seemed surprised himself while the siblings silently high fived each other.

Yixing had proceeded to nonstop headshaking.

“Are you kidding me, baby? A ROYAL wants ME to sing on his birthday? This is like… Marilyn Monroe singing for Kennedy! – OH my god! Marilyn Monroe! I just had the PERFECT idea for this!”

Tao closed his eyes and seemed to count until three while Yifan was already beaming from one ear to the other.

“Okay, perfect! I’ll call you back to give you further details, is that alright with you?”

There was no answer at first because the four just heard Gaga’s excited squealing:

“Asiaaaaa, we’re going to sing for a real PRINCE, isn’t this amaziiiiiing?”

“Did you hear me, sweetheart?” Tao tried to bring her back to reality.

“Of course! Call me back! Anytime! This is so exciting, thank you so much, Tao! Tell your cousin that I’m very happy and honored! Oooh, I need to talk to my stylists ASAP! This needs to be perfect!”

Tao wrapped up the call very quickly and when Gaga had made some weird kissing noises, he had hung up, exhaling a very long breath.

“Ooooh, Tao, she is lovely!” Yili swooned and Tao looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

“She is but once she starts talking she cannot stop and it’s getting very exhausting,” Tao explained and put his phone away “Yifan, you better be grateful, you little brat.”

Yifan beamed and sing-songed:

“Thank you, favorite cousin!”

“I’m the only of your five cousins you talk to on a regular basis, don’t give me that .”

Yixing had to fight the need to down another glass of alcohol, while Yili was typing something on her phone. Like her brother, she owned an iPhone 6 which she protected in a hardshell case that was covered in black, golden and white crystals. It sure made her phone stand out from all the other iPhones, but it kind of matched her, looking classy in her perfect manicured hands, but not pretentious. Yixing immediately asked himself how it was possible that the same phone from two people with the same genes could look so different. He figured it must have been Yili’s whole attitude since she seemed to be the easier of the two.

“Guys, when are we through with this?” She then asked, without looking up from her screen.

“I think we’re good as of right now.” Tao gave an answer.

“Okay, cool. Then I’d better get going now.”

Yili put her phone back into her small Chanel purse and got up. The other two guys shot up too, so Yixing figured he’d do the same. No matter how rich and spoiled, manners like these seemed still to apply to the family. If the woman leaves the scene, the men had to get up and bid her goodbye in a proper way.

“Where are you going?” Yifan demanded, after she had hugged him.

“Oh please, why don’t you just give me a GPS bracelet to check on me every five minutes?” Yili shot at him, but continued to explain, “I’m meeting with Liling to go shopping. I’m allowed to meet old high school friends, right? I mean, I already took one semester off solely for your birthday. I am allowed to have fun, am I?”

She didn’t even await her brother’s answer and pulled Tao into a big hug.

“Yili, it’s been amazing to see you again.” Her cousin beamed and squeezed her shoulders when they had parted.

“When will you leave for Qingdao again?”

“Tomorrow, unfortunately. But I’ll be back for that family shoot and I’ll be here at the end of October. We’ll stay in touch?”

“Sure. Just hit me up whenever you need something.”

With a last peck on Tao’s cheek she turned to Yixing who did not exactly know what to do. She beamed at him and pulled him in a quick hug. Yixing felt his cheeks blush when she said:

“Goodbye, my long lost twin. I guess we’ll meet again sooner or later! Yifan said you’d be with us for a while!”

“Yeah, that’s right I guess… umm…. Goodbye.”

She strode out of the restaurant just like she had left Yifan’s bedroom yesterday – graceful, and it seemed as if her Louboutins did not even touch the floor. One of the bodyguards at the entrance followed her. Of course the princess needed personal protection just as much as the prince needed. Even if Yixing believed that Yili could stroll through the streets of the city without people noticing it.

“Just so we’re clear: You belong exclusively to me.” Yifan stated when the three of them sat down again.

“Just so we’re clear: I belong to nobody but myself. You’re not even the one who’s paying me for following you around like a stalker,” Yixing responded, grabbed his camera and snapped another picture.

Tao snorted and even Yifan managed to show something that could have been labeled as a smirk. They emptied the bottle of champagne and Yixing listened to all the stories that Tao had to tell him about his cousin. Even though Tao was born and raised in Qingdao, the two seemed to be close. Tao talked about playing hide and seek in the Imperial Gardens when they were young boys and how they used to pull pranks on the royal household. He swooned when Yifan mentioned their first nights out together in clubs and bars with fake IDs and lamented about the good old days before responsibilities had taken their tolls and chained Tao to a desk at his father’s office: His father, the Emperor’s younger brother, had built up a prestigious firm for business consulting, and Tao was, as the only son, expected to follow his dad’s footsteps. He seemed to be okay with it, even if it meant he couldn’t visit Yifan as much as he wanted.

“Those were good times,” Yifan sighed with a melancholic look on his face as he relived the moments of his childhood.

“They were,” Tao nodded and emptied his glass, “But I think we cannot complain about our lives now either.”

The Prince just shrugged his shoulders in response and Yixing silently agreed with Tao. These two really couldn’t complain. They had everything in the world and if they didn’t, there surely was an easy way to get it. When Yifan had taken his last sip of champagne, Tao proposed:

“I think we should go now, shouldn’t we? What about we go and look for some clubs for your parties?”

“Marvellous idea!” Yifan cried out and when Tao had paid for the brunch, the trio left for the limousine that had waited for them downstairs.

Yixing tried hard to keep his pokerface while the other two were chatting about yet another memory of their younger days. He had been with Yifan for not even 48 hours and he physically felt like that time when he had been graduating and missing out on a lot of sleep so he could keep the deadline for his thesis. When he checked his phone, he couldn’t believe it was barely past noon. This was going to be a very, very long day.

LMAO I'M SO STUPID. I was too fast with the article which was supposed to be posted after this chapter oh my god. Anyways. I'll fix it, let's pretend this never happened lmao.

I also cannot believe I've dragged Mother Monster into this pile of omg well.