◎ No, Thank You. ◎
Seeing the screenshot on his phone at home in the morning, Su Yun was entirely unwilling to accept it, lacking even the desire to look at it a second time.
The dreamy bubble was ruthlessly popped, and he slumped weakly onto his desk.
So everything had just been his own wishful thinking.
In truth, when they were eating together yesterday, Si Yan had already made things quite clear.
Yet he had clung to wishful thinking, hoping that he had simply misread or misunderstood the situation.
Fool, a massive fool!
However, it was not entirely his fault either.
Who could ever guess that someone who told him to report safety upon getting home, urged him to rest early and not stay up late, and even said good night four times in a row would turn out to be a straight man?
Waaaaah!
“Ding-dong~”
Just as he was immersed in his sorrow, WeChat popped up with a new message, and the sender was none other than the very Si Yan who had caused his emotions to rollercoaster.
Orange Cake: “Good morning.”
Su Yun pouted his lips, hesitated for a moment, and replied: “Morning.” At the same time, those two screenshots from the chat window next door automatically flashed through his mind.
Orange Cake: “Did you sleep well?”
Su Yun typed out his response with difficulty: “Pretty well.”
Orange Cake: “You mentioned yesterday that you wanted to draw a portrait of me. I wonder when would be a convenient time to schedule it?”
Su Yun sank down completely, his chin knocking against the desktop every so often.
Draw a portrait, my foot. Right now, he did not want to lay eyes on Si Yan at all.
Without replying to Si Yan’s message, he tossed his phone onto the desk and continued lying facedown, playing the role of a moldy mushroom.
Right at that moment, through the gap between two monitors, he caught sight of a figure resembling Si Yan drifting into Fang Ko’s office.
“No way, am I hallucinating?” He stood up, rubbed his eyes, and prepared to step out of his office when Yang Ximing barged in.
Noticing that Su Yun’s tense expression looked as though he had seen a ghost, Yang Ximing instantly grew vigilant. Remembering what was written on the old calendar about how today was unsuitable for anything, he asked with concern: “Are you alright?”
Su Yun’s gaze remained fixed in the direction of Fang Ko’s office: “Who just went into the boss’s office?”
Yang Ximing had just stepped out of Fang Ko’s office after making a copy of some documents and hadn’t seen anyone enter, so he countered with a question: “Did someone?”
“Yes.” Su Yun pressed against the glass and looked outward.
“It’s probably someone from KG. I just heard Fang Ko taking a call, and it sounded like the head of the modeling center was coming over. It must be him,” Yang Ximing said. With that, he borrowed the car keys from Su Yun because he needed to head back to the Huan Fang studio to pick up some items for Fang Ko.
Su Yun reached into his bag and retrieved the car keys.
Taking the car keys, Yang Ximing hurried off in a rush.
Once Yang Ximing left, Su Yun followed him outside.
Fang Ko’s office door was closed, with the Venetian blinds pulled halfway down, making it impossible to tell what was happening inside. He wondered whether he should find an excuse to go in and take a look.
Surely it wouldn’t be such a coincidence. He remembered his grandfather mentioning that the Si family was in real estate, photography was merely Si Yan’s hobby, and he would likely inherit the family business in the future. Furthermore, judging by Si Yan’s temperament and speech, he didn’t seem like the type to become a corporate slave in a high-pressure industry like a gaming company.
Just as he was hesitating, someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind, scaring him so badly he almost flung the Pokémon figure he was holding.
“Su Yun, have you seen Sandy?” The person who approached was a colleague from the modeling center who had previously worked with Su Yun on project integrations. “He just said he was coming to find President Fang.”
Sandy was the head of the modeling center, whom Su Yun had met a few times. The man was tall and thin, walking as though he were floating.
Combining this with what he had seen earlier, he told himself that he really had seen wrong.
“Um, he should be inside the office,” he answered.
That person didn’t go to disturb them either and asked Su Yun if he had time right now to go over some design drafts.
Su Yun agreed, grabbed his backpack, and followed the colleague to the modeling center.
Inside Fang Ko’s office.
“Are you planning to officially take over KG now?” Fang Ko asked the man sitting across from him.
“Not yet. The rotation period agreed upon with Thomas still has two months left,” Si Yan replied.
“Then why on earth did you eagerly run off to Country A to manage their marketing and promotion? This doesn’t look like your hands-off management style at all. Could it be that you’re running away from a family-arranged blind date again?” Fang Ko poked holes in his excuse. “Ah, wait, that wasn’t a blind date, it was a political marriage.”
As though reminded of something, Si Yan smiled and answered: “No.”
“You can dodge the first day of the year, but you can’t dodge the fifteenth,” Fang Ko advised him not to struggle.
Unflustered, Si Yan replied: “Not an issue. Before coming back, I already made things clear with my family.”
“Made what clear? Made it clear that you are a celibacy advocate?” Fang Ko was curious.
“I told them I only like men and have no way of carrying on the Si family line,” Si Yan said casually.
Fang Ko nearly spat out the water he had just taken a sip of. However, his initial reaction wasn’t concern for his old friend’s sexual orientation; instead, he hitched his chair backward with a cheeky expression: “You roped me into joining KG, you couldn’t possibly have taken a fancy to me, right?”
Si Yan raised one eyebrow slightly, the furrowed bridge of his nose filled with utter disdain: “Sorry, you are not my type.”
Wounding his delicate heart, Fang Ko clutched his chest and declared: “Friendship over.”
Cooperating with his performance, Si Yan took a cold sip of his coffee.
Fang Ko staged yet another scene of being wounded by a heartless scoundrel before putting away his acting skills with lingering satisfaction and returning to his friend’s sexual orientation: “Do you really like men?”
“Perhaps.” Si Yan did not provide a definitive reply.
Fang Ko understood that this was merely an excuse Si Yan used to deal with his family.
Given Si Yan’s personality, pulling a stunt like this was already quite filial compared to claiming he wanted to move to a primeval forest and live as a wild savage.
The conversation that followed was split evenly between pleasantries and official business. Over half an hour later, Si Yan stood up to leave.
“I forgot to congratulate your studio on getting such a wonderful result in this original art creative grand prix,” Si Yan said as they parted ways.
“Since we are joining KG, we naturally have to produce some presentable results,” Fang Ko said without a shred of modesty. “Besides, everyone in my studio is an elite soldier. Would you like me to send you their resumes for a look?”
Si Yan smiled: “Let me enjoy a few more days of peace. I’ll look at them once I officially take office, and besides, I trust your people.”
Fang Ko’s gaze suddenly grew profound, as though a thousand words were struggling to find expression: “You’d better take office sooner rather than later.”
Seeing right through his little scheme, Si Yan said, “You wouldn’t happen to be thinking of asking me to be your backing, would you?”
Not expecting his lines to be stolen, Fang Ko instantly scaled down his ambitions: “Our studio’s chief designer needs you.”
Perplexed, Si Yan asked, “Hmm?”
With a righteous expression, Fang Ko declared: “Your model-like face is extremely well-suited for inspiring creativity. Our chief designer will definitely love it.”
Si Yan let out a hum of laughter and pointed toward the smart self-balancing scooter at the entrance: “A welcoming gift for you. I’m leaving.”
Standing in place, Fang Ko admired his friend’s tall and straight back as he picked up his phone, opened WeChat, and sent a message to his chief designer: “Xiao Yun, I’ve found a rather nice model for you.”
Su Yun was busy reviewing drawings with a colleague from the modeling center and only saw the WeChat message from Fang Ko a while later, which stated that a model had been found for him.
Clueless, he replied with an emoji carrying a question mark.
Fang Ko was presumably busy too, as he did not reply to his message afterward.
Nearing noon, Su Yun finally returned to his office from the modeling center.
Once things settled down, he remembered that he still hadn’t replied to Si Yan’s message from the morning, and his mind instantly tangled into a mess once again.
How should he reply?
He took out his phone and scrolled through his past chat history with Si Yan.
Actually, upon closer reading, Si Yan hadn’t said anything overly ambiguous. Even on that message prompting him to report safety, the other person had specifically explained the reason, as if afraid he would misunderstand.
Despite their brief contact, Si Yan had consistently given him a very courteous impression, and the other person leaving their contact information was likely out of sheer politeness.
Yet what straight man would say good night four times to a same-sex blind date partner?
Right, Si Yan had even given him an entire orange-flavored cake simply because he noticed he liked eating it.
That behavior really didn’t look very straight.
Then again, it was hard to say. A straight man who looked as completely straight as Si Yan might not have given it a second thought at all.
Besides, none of those things were the main point. The main point was that Si Yan had a girlfriend.
Making up his mind, Su Yun typed out a reply to Si Yan: “Apologies, I’ve been quite busy with work lately and have to go on a distant business trip, so I’m not sure when I’ll be back. Therefore, please don’t take that matter to heart.”
As soon as the message went through, typing appeared at the top of the chat window.
Half a minute later, he received a reply.
Orange Cake: “Alright, contact me again when you aren’t busy.”
Lifeless, Su Yun replied with a cold “Mhm” and then deleted the contact note for “Orange Cake.”
The letter S was located quite far down, so he wouldn’t have to worry about seeing the other person immediately upon opening his address book.
After lunch, seeing Yang Ximing looking completely drained of life, Su Yun asked with concern: “What’s wrong with you?”
“Still haven’t adapted to the rhythm of a big company,” Yang Ximing said listlessly. “Especially since those people don’t use Chinese names, they use English names. There are already several just starting with the letter S, and this concubine simply cannot remember them.”
Su Yun, who had just tried his best to forget a certain WeChat name starting with “S”: ……
“Don’t rush, take your time adapting.” Fang Ko’s mood was visibly much better than it had been in the morning. After returning to his office, he stepped out riding a smart self-balancing scooter to cruise around, using his expression to ask, “Am I looking very handsome?”
Eager to try it out, Yang Ximing said, “Boss, is this provided by the administration? Why didn’t I see it this morning?”
“Hehe, someone whose conscience suddenly pricked sent it to me.” Fang Ko hopped down and let Yang Ximing have a turn playing with it.
Watching Yang Ximing drifting back and forth over there, Su Yun was reminded of that drifting spirit he had seen in the morning.
“Boss, did Sandy come looking for you today?” He wanted to verify it once more.
Fang Ko thought about it. After Si Yan left in the morning, quite a few people had indeed come to see him, among whom were two whose names started with S. If he remembered correctly, one of them was indeed named Sandy.
“He did,” he answered.
“Oh.” Su Yun couldn’t quite figure out why he still cared so much.
“Right, from now on don’t call me boss, it gives off a bad impression, call me Kent,” Fang Ko said. “You guys need to quickly come up with English names for yourselves as well.”
“Got it, Kent.” Yang Ximing had developed an allergic reaction to English names, looking thoroughly lifeless.
“Received, Kent.” Su Yun felt thoroughly depressed.
He was going to pick an English name that didn’t have the letter “S” in it.
[Author’s note]
Si Yan: Waiting for our date.