Yanan’s days in the office were usually spent peacefully.

Most people would call it boring, maybe, but he would beg to differ. The 21st floor of Chaoyin Studio liked to follow a certain routine when it came to work. Everybody stayed in their respective cubicles, communicating with one another only when necessary, and stepping out only for bathroom or snack breaks. It was a quiet that Yanan fairly enjoyed because it was also one he could spend listening to music without fear of missing out on anybody talking to him. 

Nobody would have guessed he worked at the Bridal Department of the studio, but honestly, Yanan thought it actually made perfect sense. Everybody on his floor was tasked daily with designing anything from a wedding gown to a groom’s suit and tie. They all had their own way of channeling creativity. It just so happened all of them preferred silence. There was also the fact that there was only five of them working on the floor that contributed to that, though. 

The one closest to Yanan’s age was a dark haired boy named Xu Minghao, who stayed in the cubicle right beside his. 

Xu Minghao was often in a world of his own, but every now and then Yanan would exchange some ideas with him here and there. Most of the younger boy’s ideas were eccentric, bordering the line between avant-garde fashion and classic bridal gowns, which was basically Yanan’s exact opposite. That just meant he could easily gather new ideas from the other boy and vice versa, when needed. It was a pretty good work environment.

One day, the two in particular were called into the Head of the Bridal Department’s office, where Su Yunying herself sat waiting. 

“Yes?” Minghao asked immediately, never really one who liked being pulled away from his work.

Behind him, Yanan listened with curiousity and mild panic as the head explained that they were going to be working on a project with a special team on the 17th floor. The overall CEO of Chaoyin Studio’s daughter was going to be married and of course, the studio covered everything. It also meant it was going to be extravagant and a wedding to look out for. Yanan and Minghao were in charge of outfit design, handpicked by the CEO himself out of their floor for their previous great work.

(Not to mention, Minghao was previously from the Fashion Department, which meant he had plenty of experience creating his own clothes as well.)

As Yunying continued to chatter about the new job, Yanan’s thoughts drifted to who else he was going to be working with. 

There was Zhou Zhennan and Samuel Kim, an inseparable duo from the Lights and Sounds Department. Both of them were wildly known for producing stellar results when together; that wasn’t to say they didn’t warrant the reputation if they were to work alone, but it was just different when they handled a project with both their forces combined. Yanan has spoken with Zhennan once before, when the younger boy had drifted to their floor in search of coffee.

For the overall decor, Wu Jiacheng was in charge. He was someone Yanan has definitely seen around before—maybe heard around was a more appropriate term—and they’ve been on one project once upon a time when Yanan just started. He was pretty sure Jiacheng had forgotten him by now. Flowers for the event were going to be sourced from Eric Chou’s store, most likely, if Jiacheng was involved with the planning. 

“Minghao can work on the men’s clothes fine by himself, but we’re going to assign him with Victor in case he needs help,” Yunying continued, while Yanan dutifully listened on to whom he would end up partnered with, since that’s what was happening apparently. He didn’t know a lot of names and faces from the Fashion Department, but if he had to pick one he definitely didn’t want to work with, it would have to be—

“And Yanan here will be with Wen Junhui!”

Speak of the devil.

“Wen Junhui?” Yanan spoke for the first time since they entered the room, his voice barely above a whisper. 

As if reading his thoughts and sensing his panic, Yunying smiled cheekily at him, “I think both of you will work great together! Now go pack up and head down, I’m sure the rest of the team are informed by now. Bye bye! Enjoy!”

With that, the two were shooed out of the office room and were left to stand in the middle of the hallway in a kind of dazed shock. At least Yanan was in a dazed shock, since Minghao looked like he was taking the news of the special project pretty well. The latter instead looked at Yanan with a concerned expression on his face; he had come from the Fashion Department after all. He knew about how wild it could get up there on the 29th floor.

“Hey, you nervous?” Minghao asked after a moment of silence.

Yanan hesitated for a moment before he nodded, “I’m always nervous. This feels like such a huge break from routine.”

“Don’t worry,” the younger boy assured him. “You’re in good hands with Junhui.”

Somehow, Yanan doubted that, but he wisely chose not to comment and followed the other boy back to their cubicles to pack up. 

It wasn’t like he had some kind of personal vendetta against Wen Junhui; far from it, actually. His panic had a lot to do with the first and last time he visited the Fashion Department, a few weeks into the start of his job. He had thought it was where he could find Jiacheng, since he had yet to memorize the floors, but instead was greeted by the mess that was the 29th floor. A whole world apart from his calm, peaceful life on the 21st. 

Cloth bolts were strewn about, loud music was blasting here and there, and various stations with sewing machines were scattered around the room. It was like the floor thrived on a feeling of chaos, which Yanan immediately felt like he should stay far away from. Unfortunately, before he could escape back into the elevator, he was stopped in his tracks by the sight of a tall figure in the middle of the room. 

Sharp eyes were watching Yanan as he stood, frozen and unable to look away from the slim boy with dark brown hair.

“Can I help you?” Wen Junhui asked, smiling brightly at Yanan.

In response, the taller boy fled the second the elevator doors opened again. 

It took him only a few days to learn about Junhui. At first, he wasn’t all the interested in the water room gossip that happened when he dropped by, but two of the older designers were standing around and talking way too loudly to ignore. They described a man with golden skin and model-like proportions from the Fashion Department and immediately Yanan’s thoughts drifted to the person he had seen. 

As it turned out, Wen Junhui was a name that was known to most—if not all—the employees of Chaoyin Studio. Originally hired as a model (which Yanan understood completely), the pretty boy from Shenzhen soon showed interest and potential in actually producing clothes instead. He was well-loved in all departments; his demeanour was pleasant, easy likeable, and charming. So really, Yanan shouldn’t be so apprehensive to work with him, right?

Except the taller boy was never good at working with handsome, charming men.

Not one bit.

After packing up his things, Yanan waited a while for Minghao to finish before both of them headed down to the 17th floor. When they got there, only a few of the others were already around, greeting them from the large table in the center of the common area. They were waiting for the overall head of the wedding, Fu Longfei, to further discuss the finer details of what was going to happen. Yanan sat himself next to Zhennan, who nodded at him in greeting before returning to his conversation with Samuel.

The seat next to him remained empty for only a few seconds before a voice sounded from behind him.

“Is this seat taken?”

Yanan didn’t need to glance to know the soft voice belonged to Junhui, but he did anyway, catching the polite smile on the other boy’s face.

It took him a bit too long to nod in response.

“I’m Wen Junhui,” he said once he was seated, flashing Yanan an even brighter smile and holding his hand out. “I’m from the Fashion Department.”

“Yanan from Bridal,” the other boy replied, thankful his words didn’t stutter as he shook Junhui’s hand briefly and let go as if it burned him, but Junhui didn’t seem to notice as a look of recognition flashed in his eyes. 

“Oh! You’re my partner!”

A light blush spread across Yanan’s face at the term; there wasn’t anything weird with what Junhui said, but the idea of being partnered with the gorgeous looking boy was still a bit too much. He just nodded in response once more, unsure of what to say. He couldn’t find it in him to look away, however, since Junhui was still staring at him with sparkling eyes that roamed around his face, making him way too self-conscious. 

Moments later, Junhui spoke again.

“You know, Yanan, you’re really handsome.”

Before Yanan could reply—in between his brain short circuiting and his face flushing—Fu Longfei appeared before them with an air of business surrounding him, making the entire team bring their focus to the man in front. It seemed like Junhui wasn’t even waiting for a reply anymore as the other boy quickly brought his attention to what was being said in front, uncaring about the panic he managed to send Yanan in. 

“Think of it as the biggest wedding of the century,” Longfei said with a grin. “Admittedly, it’s not, but that’s what the boss told me so I have no choice but to repeat his words.”

He gave a brief run through of the theme and immediately, Yanan was already envisioning how he imagined the gowns to look like. It was supposed to be elegant yet modern, something new, yet demure at the same time. The wedding dress was supposed to look like that, anyway, but the bride wanted something else entirely for her reception gown. Lots of colour, apparently, which seemed more like where Junhui’s interests would enter.

Yanan could already see Minghao whispering next to Victor, who gave in inputs of his own.

Across the table, he met the eyes of Jiacheng, who had been looking at him funnily ever since the meeting started.

“Hey, Yanan,” Jiacheng finally said once he noticed the younger boy was looking back.

“Yes?”

Jiacheng grinned, “I’m glad I get to work with you again. I feel like we barely talked the last time.”

“Yeah,” Yanan found himself saying, smiling shyly. “I’m glad to be on this project as well.”

Next to him, Junhui leaned closer into his space, making Yanan momentarily lean back in surprise. Their knees were close to brushing against each other, but Junhui didn’t seem to mind the invasion of personal space. The brunette was pouting at Jiacheng as he spoke, “Xiao Wu, how come you’re not saying that you’re glad to be working with me again? I thought we had so much fun last time!”

“Wen Junhui,” Jiacheng said with a loud laugh. “My ears would like to rest.”

“Excuse me? You’re one to talk!”

“I can’t believe poor Yanan is stuck with you,” the older boy teased further while Junhui stuck his tongue out like a child.

“I’m sure Yanan and I will get along just fine,” he said petulantly, before glancing back at Yanan, who was staring at the side of Junhui’s face and admiring his facial structure as the other two argued. It was hard not to get distracted with the other boy around. Unaware of Yanan’s current thoughts, Junhui caught his eye and gave a playful smile. “Isn’t that right, Yanan?”

“W-what?” The dark haired boy asked, which elicited a laugh from Jiacheng who pointed out that Yanan was already tuning Junhui out, making the latter pout even further.

Finally realizing the situation, Yanan quickly shook his head, “wait, I wasn’t ignoring him, I just zoned out!”

“So you’re glad we’re working together?” Junhui asked expectantly. 

More than his heart would like, Yanan thought to himself. He didn’t trust himself to speak further so instead he just nodded silently. Sooner or later he was going to get over being so nervous around Junhui, but that day was not today. Today, Yanan found himself fumbling around with his stuff as he followed Junhui towards their designated area of the floor, listening to the other boy chatter about any random topic under the sun, and giving his two cents once in a while.

It was going to be quite the experience working with Wen Junhui.

Honestly speaking, Junhui was having a lot of fun.

Only a few days into the project and he was beginning to think that being a part was one of his best choices yet since joining the company. It was extremely fun working with the others; Jiacheng always made everybody laugh, Samuel was adorable despite being confused half the time, Zhennan provided wisdom beyond his age, Minghao’s out of this world ideas were useful, Victor’s criticisms were extremely helpful, while Longfei managed to bring the team together under his leading.

Of course, there was also his partner, Yanan.

If he had to be honest, Junhui might even say that Yanan was his favourite part of the whole thing.

When they had first started out, Junhui was actually worried that he would end up scaring Yanan off with how weird and random he could be. He could tell that the other boy was on the shy side, usually offering just a quick smile to the other boys’ antics, but slowly and sure Yanan eventually began to open up. Much to Junhui’s delight, he soon realized that a lot of Yanan’s thoughts mirrored his own. 

The design work between them was pretty smooth sailing, too. Yanan’s ideas and sketches could easily be envisioned by Junhui, who gained inspiration to work on the gowns each day, already starting earlier than most even Victor and Minghao. It didn’t feel stressful at all. Yanan didn’t even complain whenever Junhui needed to play music to keep him going, commenting once that he even liked Junhui’s song choices. 

With each new day though, Junhui found himself in a different dilemma.

He had already told Yanan ever since they first met that he found the other boy handsome; he’s had that impression ever since Yanan wandered into the Fashion Department by accident that one time, but they’ve never met until the project came along. He had actually thought Yanan was a new male model for the department to work with at that time, initially surprised to find out he was actually a designer. 

Now that he worked in close range with Yanan, Junhui found himself constantly distracted.

It didn’t help that whenever he would casually glance at the taller boy, Yanan was almost always staring back.

Each time Junhui found himself in that situation, he would flash a bright smile to ease off the awkwardness, which would be pleasantly met with a light blush from the other boy.

So, really, he was having fun. 

Still, Junhui was beginning to think that they could definitely have even more fun, somehow. He wasn’t sure why, but he just had the feeling that Yanan was hiding something beneath that gentle, soft demeanour. He’s already caught glimpses of it—whenever Yanan would mumble under his breath as he sketched—but Junhui craved for more of what went on inside the other’s head. He was pretty sure he would like what he would find.

“Minghao,” he greeted as entered the other’s shared space during one of his breaks; he lost Yanan to Zhennan, who had suddenly decided that he needed Yanan’s vision to decide on something for the stage, while the other boy followed without complaint. When Junhui asked if he could follow, he was met with an incredulous look. What did he ever do to that kid, really? Zhennan hurried off soon after, leaving Junhui to decide on what else he could do.

“I have a question to ask you.”

He was met with a quick reply as Minghao returned to his work soon after greeting. 

“What is it?”

“So you’re from the same department as Yanan right?” Junhui tried to say casually, slipping into the seat across from Minghao.

His question must have been more random than usual, since Minghao actually stopped his sketching to glance at him.

“Yeah. What’s this about, Jun?”

“I was just wondering,” the brunette began to say, fingers fiddling with a pencil he found on the table. He didn’t know why he felt so nervous all of a sudden; as if he was asking Minghao for Yanan’s hand in marriage or something, which definitely wasn’t the case. In fact, he wasn’t even asking for anything related to the sort. He just wanted to know the other boy more, that was all. Junhui shrugged, “what’s he into? He feels so shy and all.”

“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Minghao replied, chuckling a little as he glanced back down.