final

cai xukun is a perfectionist; every single object he owns and every emotion he feels is always in the right place and at the right time, no matter the circumstances. and although he’s a social butterfly, to him there is nothing more beautiful than coming home to his own, individual, personal space.

that also happens to be the reason why can xukun’s current biggest fear is meeting his new roommate.

after last year’s less than pleasant and long-lasting encounter with wang linkai, xukun swore that he will never disrespect anyone else’s privacy and silence. sure, music might be his major and a lifelong passion, but he really didn’t enjoy his roommate’s three-day-long playlist consisting of nothing but overplayed rap. he shuddered, the thought of linkai rapping to zico’s artist being unwillingly retrieved from his long term memory.

when what seemed like a million light years to xukun has passed, a swift yet loud knock on the door snapped him out of his attempt of organisation and he swore that if this roommate’s noise was even a fraction of linkai’s, his clothes are going straight back into the suitcase and into the wardrobe in his room back in zhejiang. xukun sighs, and puts the last sweater into its place before getting up to greet his new companion for the year.

“hey, you don’t have to knock—“ xukun cuts himself off as his new roommate greets him with a wave. black hair, styled strangely but in a way that surprisingly suited him. slightly taller. good fashion sense. a smile that could, if it tried hard enough, overpower the sun on the hottest day of the year.

and for the first time in forever, cai xukun is so mesmerised he loses his voice.

“hey,” the other says, and xukun’s breath hitches in his throat. “i’m wang ziyi, b-o-o-g-i-e, a dance major.” said boy — ziyi — looked over xukun’s shoulder and glances around the room. “glad to see my roommate isn’t a mess.”

xukun steps out of ziyi’s way and opens his mouth to introduce himself, but nothing comes out. ziyi chuckles.

“okay, roommate it is. nice to meet you, roommate!”

xukun wishes that interpreting emotions was taught in place of math, as whenever wang ziyi glances in his direction he feels butterflies exploding in every part of his body.

when zhengting knocks on xukun’s (and now ziyi’s) door a few hours later, the latter had just left to see his own friends.

“so, kunkun,” the older smirks and throws his arm around xukun’s shoulder. “how’s your new roommate? i can’t hear screaming or music so they’re better than xiao gui already, right?”

xukun quickly shook his head and zhengting shot him a confused look. “zheng, i don’t think i’m going to survive living with him. he’s impossible. i can’t—“ he cut himself off and stared right into his friend’s eyes with a serious expression plastered all over his face. “i want to room with xiao gui again.”

zhengting was certain that he felt his jaw drop. “what? kun, he can’t be that awful. at least his side of the room looks organised. who is it?”

“wang ziyi. you know, b-o-o-g-e-r …” xukun wandered off until his friend’s outburst of laughter brought him back to reality.

“you mean b-o-o-g-i-e?” when xukun nodded, zhengting had to physically and mentally restrain himself from collapsing from laughter. “i don’t see what the problem is. ziyi’s in all my classes and he’s the nicest roommate you could’ve gotten with your dumb luck.” he paused for a few seconds. “unless he finds out about you calling him a booger. only then you’re dead meat.”

xukun cringed. “yeah, zheng, that’s exactly the problem. he’s too nice and i’ve only known him for what, a good five hours? and i swear i couldn’t breathe for about two and a half of those.” he buried his face into his hands. “i’m done for. this is how i’m going to die.”

zhengting removed xukun’s hands from his face and pinched his cheeks. “aw, is my little baby kunkun infatuated?” he laughed in triumph when he saw the other’s cheeks stain bright red.

of course xukun wasn’t in love. five hours definitely wasn’t long enough to fall in love, not even for someone who claimed to believe in love at first sight. but god, if ziyi continued to greet him with such a smile every morning and a good night’s sleep every night, he could see himself creeping closer towards that forbidden word.

“don’t worry, kunkun, i understand. he’s really hot, right?” xukun’s head automatically nodded. “and he’s a really nice guy. if you ever get the courage to snatch him i’ll support you all the way!”

xukun wanted to enquire more, about how zhengting was so convinced that ziyi was a good person and about how he could, potentially, approach him and manage to live him for the following year, and about if ziyi even had an interest in guys, but before he got the chance to say anything else, his roommate walked back into the room with earphones stuffed into both of his ears.

“oh, speaking of the devil,” zhengting chuckled, and ziyi quickly removed one earphone to greet him. “welcome back, ziyi! glad to see kun and one of my good friends rooming together.”

said boy looked at zhengting in confusion. “kun? ah, so you must be friends with roommate?”

xukun looked down in embarrassment. he really did forget to introduce himself, didn’t he? zhengting won’t ever let him live this one down.

“roommate? so you guys haven’t introduced yourselves to each other yet?”

despite asking, zhengting didn’t wait for either of the two to answer his question. he swiftly got up, threw on his jacket and made his way towards the door.

“looks like i’ll have to give you some time to get to know each other. use it well, kunkun.” the door closed, but not before zhengting shot xukun a flirtatious wink. what a er.

xukun’s gaze averted towards ziyi, who in the time taken for zhengting to leave has made his way over to xukun’s bed, sitting just over a meter away and yet just over a meter too close. the silence was awkward and unbearable, but xukun feared that breaking said silence would create even more discomfort and decided to stay quiet for as long as he needed to.

“so, you must be kun?” ziyi finally speaks up, and xukun has to fight the instinct to freeze.

“c-cai xukun,” he stutters out. “kun to close friends.”

he only realises how rude the statement must’ve sounded when ziyi’s smile fell and a small frown appeared on his face.

ziyi laughed. “okay, so roommate it is until we get to know each other better. you don’t mind me calling you that, right?”

xukun shook his head with a small smile yet without a word. he didn’t trust himself to speak again.

“by the way, cai xukun, your name is really pretty.” you’re really pretty.

and just like that, said cai xukun realised that he was royally ed by wang ziyi, but not in the way he would’ve wanted to.

after two months of living with cai xukun, wang ziyi was going crazy.

by no means did he want to blame the other boy for what he was feeling, but he was certain that his emotions wouldn’t be caught up in this mess if his roommate was, say, bu fan.

(in the distance, bu fan sneezed four times in a row. must be xiao gui talking again.)

his walk from one class to another involves passing the studio and practice rooms, which is also where he finds his roommate moving his body to a song with obscene lyrics which, ziyi decides, don’t happen to suit the soft nature of his face. and although his dance isn’t very special and lacks several technicalities that would usually ruin a performance, he finds himself drawn in and staring at the less-than-perfect choreography.

that is until the music switches off and he’s faced with a sweaty and oh so attractive can xukun.

“ziyi? what are you doing here?” xukun enquires with a shaky voice. he must’ve been practicing hard, ziyi thought.

“n-nothing. sorry, i was just walking to class and i heard a cool song playing and— yeah, that’s how i’m here. it’s really good, by the way. the song.” the other choked out, certain that it sounded a lot better in his head.

to his surprise, a wide smile spread across xukun’s face and all the butterflies inhabiting ziyi’s stomach started fluttering at once.

“thank you so much! i’ve actually composed and written all the lyrics by myself. it means a lot to me since it was written during my hard times and it’s the one song i identify with the most,” xukun explained.

he didn’t get a chance to say anything else as ziyi was already out of the door, apologising for leaving so suddenly and babbling about being overly late to class.

anyone who knew wang ziyi well would’ve known that rather than class, he found himself spread out on the floor of you zhangjing and lin yanjun’s room.

“guys, it’s over. there’s no point in trying. xukun’s as straight as a ruler.” ziyi whined and as if on the count of three, both zhangjing and yanjun started laughing in sync.

“yeah, as straight as a flexible one more like.”

“no, yanjun!” the other protested. “i’m serious. have you heard his self-written song? the lyrics? tell me, have you ever heard someone who’s into men sing ‘cutie is shaking that body, figure swag swag swag’? my baby girl?”

zhangjing raised his hand. “i have, and i’ve known xukun for long enough to know that he’s definitely into men. ziyi and girl both have four letters, anyway. go and get your man!”

ziyi crossed his hands in disagreement. “no way. even if he did feel something for me before, i’ve ruined it now. i ran out on him after walking into his practice.”

“wang ziyi, are you going to send an apology text or am i going to have to do it for you?”

he really did hope that his friends weren’t lying.

xukun hates phone calls, yet he found himself relentlessly dialling zhu zhengting’s number and impatiently waiting for him to pick up the eighth incoming call.

“kun? what’s wrong, you never —“ zhengting never gets to finish the sentence, as xukun immediately bombards him with questions.

“zheng, will you mind me moving in for a week? or maybe for a year? will chengcheng mind? i promise, i won’t be intruding or anything and i’ll—“

“cai xukun, calm down,” zhengting’s assertive tone resulted in xukun halting mid-sentence. “tell me what happened. did you have an argument with ziyi?”

xukun whined into the phone and zhengting swore that his eardrums were now a long, lost memory. “no, he visited me during practice and we spoke but i could barely breathe when speaking to him and sounded like an obvious idiot and he must think that i’m weird for being attracted to a straight guy,” he choked out all in one go.

“you’re an idiot, kun,” his friend sighed “we both know very well that even if you’re straight you can be into cai xukun. what, you think zuo ye was into men before he met you?”

zhengting sighed. “trust me on this one. i’ve known ziyi for over a year and i know his close friends. would i really lie to you when i know him better than he probably knows himself?”

“no, but zheng—“

“i’ll leave you to think about this one. i have morning classes on wednesdays, i need some sleep. you should sleep too, kunkun. goodnight!”

zhengting only feels bad for putting the phone down for a few minutes, falling asleep only after seeing a text message pop up on his screen.

just now
kunkun ☼
omg zheng-gege ziyi just asked me to go to the amusement park with him on sat so we can get to know each other better i think im going to die pray 4 me pls

ziyi didn’t have the guts to say that he was practically asking his roommate out on a date until he spotted him at their designated meeting spot. seeing cai xukun made him desire making a public service announcement that yes, this was a date and no, xukun had no idea that it was one.

he approached the smaller boy and lightly tapped him on the shoulder. “hi, roommate. you ready?”

xukun smiled and nodded. “let’s go,”

though both of them initially thought the outing would turn out to be nothing more than awkward, they were pleasantly surprised to find out more than they had hoped for about each other.

xukun found that ziyi was much, much braver than him when it came to dealing with speed and heights, hearing him laugh every time xukun involuntarily buried his head into his shoulder to seek comfort (and truthfully ziyi didn’t mind in the slightest). ziyi also seemed to find his newfound hatred of water rides more than amusing.

“since you’re so drenched now, roommate, does that mean you won’t be hogging the shower later on in the evening?” ziyi laughed, earning himself a piercing glare.

“no, it means i’ll be staying there for an extra hour.”

ziyi has never been this glad to follow zhangjing’s advice; he might even thank him for it in a few weeks’ time, when he finally gathers up the courage to advance further.

like all good things in life, the sky soon changes from a soft, pale blue into midnight blue and there are only twenty minutes left before the amusement park closes.

they manage to get off their last ride, xukun with more difficulty than ziyi thanks to his unstable legs — he swears that he’ll never let ziyi, or anyone else for that matter, drag him onto any ride other than the ferris wheel — and slowly make their way towards the exit until ziyi grabs xukun by the arm and stops him from walking away even further.

“you know, now that we’ve spent more than two hours together without awkward silences and running away, i think it’s time for your nickname to upgrade, roommate,”

xukun laughed. “upgrade? what are you going to upgrade it to, housemate? roomfriend?”

“how about boyfriend?”

it takes ziyi a few seconds to process what just came out of his mouth, and only nanoseconds for him to realise that he’s a complete ing idiot. he wished that one of the carts would miraculously detach itself from the ride and plummet straight into him.

“ no xukun i didn’t mean that it was a slip of the tongue i’m so sorry,” he babbled, and because of how much he avoided the younger’s gaze he couldn’t see the small smile of satisfaction transform into a pout.

xukun sighed. “that’s a shame, i was going to say that i really wouldn’t mind that.”

ziyi finally looks down and straight into xukun’s eyes. there’s a slight blush on his face, and ziyi thinks that he has never seen anything this beautiful. his hand travelled to xukun’s face and he found himself cupping the flushed cheek, running his thumb across the soft skin. xukun leaned in.

“as happy as i am to hear that, i’m afraid that won’t be possible until we go on an official date. say, is tomorrow okay?”

the brief sadness in xukun’s expression evaporated. he leaned over and all of a sudden his lips were on ziyi's, and the other swore that he never felt so blissfully lightheaded.

“it’s more than okay.”