Cao Yuchen // ‘OMG They were quarantined together’ AU
“(y/n)! How dare you hang up on me like that!!”
You had just opened the front door of the company building and was trying to hold it still while dragging your bit suitcase and bag inside, when you heard the voice of your friend Yifei calling you from the other end of the lobby, and the sound of someone running towards you.
“(y/n), I’m so mad I could make a scene right here right now, do you know how worried you made me? I couldn’t sleep last night, thinking about how things turned out… please tell me you are not going to sleep over at Yuchen’s.”
You let out a groan when the box of succulents you were holding almost fell down when your suitcase hit the door and made you lose your balance, “Yi.. Yifei, please, we can talk about this later but can you lend me a hand for a moment?” A pair of businessmen walked beside you and gave you a nasty look: you were trying to stand still, holding paper and boxes with your arms while trying to lift the suitcase with your foot, which also held the handle of your bag. You felt like crawling into a hole and hiding.
Yifei stopped complaining and held the door for you while you pulled yourself together, and then both of you took all of your baggage and placed it next to your office desk, where it would rest until the time you’d leave work.
Feeling like the worst part of the day was already over, you sat down and thanked Yifei, who, even though she had been looking at you with a gaze that kills during the whole process, had done most of the job at moving the heavy boxes and suitcase.
“All set. Can we talk about why I should let my friend sleep over a stranger’s house now? Because I know the answer to that question: I shouldn’t” Yifei sat down abruptly next to you and handed you a can of to-go coffee from the vending machine.
“Yifei… I know it all sounds like a terrible idea, but please… just loosen up a bit. Yuchen is not a stranger” The cold surface of the can made you get goose bumps, and you let it rest on your lap for a minute, enjoying the sensation. Feeling that coldness felt like the only real thing at that moment, everything else was so messed up...
“Oh yeah, not a stranger at all, I almost forgot about the ‘I’d say we are rather acquaintances. I helped him and now he owes me one, but that’s it’ thing… And how can your landlord just send you an email and expect all of you to receive and read it?! she should have made sure everyone was notified!!”
“There’s no way of changing that now… at least it’s thursday, so I will have the whole weekend to look for a new apartment. If I start looking for ads between today and tomorrow, I may have something by Saturday, and I will be able to move between Saturday and Sunday. It’s going to be fine.”
“(y/n), promise me you will call me if anything bad happens… even the smallest and seemingly irrelevant thing…” Your friend looked directly at you, and held your hands between hers.
“I promise…”
“Send me photos of the house and the dog when you are there, and send me a text every time you go to sleep and wake up!” You smiled at the way your friend was behaving, you had never imagined Yifei would be that type of person, “Actually, I have a better idea… I will go and pick you up in the morning so we can come to work together! I’ve always wanted to see Yuchen’s house by myself, and, come on, who wouldn’t want to see a man like him in the morning, that makes anyone’s day!” She kept talking, and you felt like the luckiest girl for having such a great friend, so you pulled her into a hug and rested your head on her shoulder.
“Thank you, Yifei”
She sighed and hugged you closer “Please, don’t mention it… this is what friends are for, dumbass. Now, let’s start working, or else your workaholic brain and our dear superior are going to start shouting at us, and we don’t want that, do we, now?” You laughed, feeling much better than before, and agreed with her, although there was nothing you wanted to do less in that moment than write the reports and sign the documents that awaited you on your desk.
Time went by faster than you thought it would, and in the blink of an eye, it was already time for the lunch break. While walking down the stairs to the canteen, you heard a group of men and women in suits speak hectically while moving their hands up and down and signalling furiously at their phones.
“...they say big companies are already closing up at the other side of the country, and schools and universities are preparing online classes…”
“...that lady who lived three streets above us and her son moved to that city, she definitely was infected last time she visited him…”
“...here, look at what this newspaper says! My husband is already panic-buying too much canned food and toilet paper…”
You didn’t really understand what the fuss was about, so you kept making your way to your friends, who were already sitting at the usual spot, and picked up a tray of food on your way there.
“Hey guys, what’s going on? Is it just me, or are people behaving a bit weirdly today?”
Jiyang smiled at you and slid closer to Yifei so that you could sit by his side.
“Weirdly? What do you mean?”
You put your tray on the table and sat down, “I just walked by a group of really fancy people… but they were all over the place, saying weird things about a virus…”
You felt a cold silence suddenly falling around you, and looked up to meet the eyes of Jiyang, whose smile had disappeared and was now replaced with a weird expression, which matched the one on Yifei’s face.
“(y/n), are you serious right now? do you not now what’s going on about the virus?” Jiyang blinked repeatedly and took a sip of water before continuing, “it’s all over the news right now… It seems very serious.”
“Of course she doesn’t know anything! She has her eyes glued to the reports all day long, and yesterday-” Yifei shut up mid-phrase, wondering if you wanted Jiyang to know about what had happened, but you shook your head slightly, letting her know it was better for her not to say anything about that yet, “what I mean is, do you even know what twitter is, (y/n)?”
“Don’t make fun of me and tell me about it already, Yifei”.
Yifei opened her mouth to say something, but Jiyang was faster, and told you about the mysterious disease that everyone seemed to be talking about, “Apparently a really infectious virus has developed in an area of China, and professionals have estimated that it will spread throughout the whole country in days, so the Government is going to announce the measures that they’re going to take to try to keep it under control.”
You looked at him, holding a spoon full of food in front of your mouth but being incapable of moving your arm, or anything else, for the record.
“You are not being serious.”
“I am being very serious. It mostly affects people who suffer other type of illnesses or respiratory problems, but anyone can catch it, and it’s dangerously contagious.”
You looked at Yifei, expecting a reaction that proved that they were pulling a hidden camera prank on you, but her expression was dead serious, and a frown of concern was starting to form on her forehead.
“Okay… okay, I guess I have to believe this… but come on, guys, we live in the 21st century, a virus is nothing to worry about nowadays.” You played down the situation and resumed eating your meal, which was already starting to cool down, while your friends looked at each other and shrugged.
“That’s true, I’m sure all of this will be forgotten in less than a week, but I can’t help but worry a bit. My grandparents are quite old already, I hope the virus doesn’t arrive here…” Yifei clenched her fists and looked at her lap while speaking up, “Anyway, I agree with you, I don’t think we have to make such a big deal out of it.”
The three of you continued eating, each one lost in their own mind. You didn’t really think again about that virus, as worried as you were about everything else you had to deal with: finding a new apartment, taking all your baggage to Yuchen’s, finishing the reports you had to hand in at the end of the day…
The rest of the day went smoothly after that, excluding the general concern that everyone seemed to have because of the news about the virus. After hours of hard work, the clock stroke eighteen, and it was time to go home. Right You thought to yourself I don’t have a place to call home anymore.
Luckily for you, Yifei had remembered to help you with your bags and boxes, so you picked them up and went to the lobby together. You had to walk slowly and carefully, since the boxes didn’t allow you to see anything in front of you. Because of that, you didn’t notice there was someone standing on your way until you were already on top of him.
“Oh no!” Yifei left the bag she was holding on the floor and quickly caught you before you could fall on the floor, while the boy you had pushed held your other arm to try to steady himself. Fortunately, you hadn’t dropped any of the boxes, and the three of you were still on your feet.
“Ugh! I’m sorry Jiyang! Didn’t see you there!” Jiyang looked at you with a smile on his face and dropped your arm, “I have to be more careful… did I hit you? Does it hurt anywhere?”
“Don’t worry (y/n), it’s nothing! Give me the boxes, I’ll help you…” Jiyang tried to lift a few boxes from your arms, but you pulled them away.
“No!! I mean… it’s okay, don’t worry… I’ll just do it myself.”
“Seriously! Where do you have to take them? I can’t believe they make you carry this much… It’s abusive. Let me help you, please.” He tried to hold the boxes once again, but you turned away and looked a Yifei, asking her to help you.
“Jiyang, leave it, the boxes are hers.”
“Wh… what? Why? What’s all of this?”
You let out a sigh and shrugged, before shooting a reassuring smile towards the boy, “It’s a long story, Jiyang, I will explain everything next time, okay?”
Jiyang looked at both of you and was about to ask something else, but in the last moment decided not to. He didn’t want to be too nosy or make you mad, so he decided to leave things as they were. However, when Yifei left the things she was holding on the floor next to you and proceeded to walk alone to the front door, he looked at you with concern and couldn’t resist inquiring about that, “Wait… Don’t you guys leave together? Why is Yifei leaving alone?”
You stuttered a bit, but managed to seem relaxed and calm, “I have something to do before leaving… Go ahead, Jiyang! I will see you tomorrow! Bye!”
Jiyang wasn’t entirely convinced about leaving you behind, but he glanced once more back to you and waved in farewell before leaving the building. Okay, I’m all alone now. Just waiting for Yuchen, right here, by myself. It’s fine. Hah! This is fine. You kept repeating these words like a mantra, again and again It’s fine, it’s fine…
By the time Yuchen finally arrived in the lobby, you had tried every single couch in the room, had studied every single plant and had discussed everything that could go wrong during the weekend with the photos of the different artists under the company, which were hung all over the walls. You were explaining to Wang Yizhou’s portrait that Yuchen’s dog could possibly have a rare illness that could potentially turn you into a mutant monster that ate green plasma and turned people into goblins, when you heard Yuchen’s footsteps coming out from the elevator. That has to be him. He always walks making sure girls know he is coming, so he can be heard from the other side of the building… Ugh, what a smug.
“Hey, (y/n), were you talking to that picture?” Yuchen lifted one eyebrow and smiled to himself.
“Shut up. Desperate times call for desperate measures”
“Well, then… are you ready to leave?” He looked at you from head to toe and then glanced over the pile of baggage surrounding you.
“Y… Yes… Is your chauffeur taking us?”
“My- what?” Yuchen threw his head back laughing, “Oh, (y/n), come on, is that really the type of person you think I am?”
“Yuchen you are literally a famous actor from a big entertainment company, of course that’s what I think you’re like! Don’t tell me you live in a shack and all those photos online are not really your house…”
“Have you been looking at photos of my house online? Woah, (y/n), you are kind of a stalker, don’t you think?” He ran his hand through his hair and gave you a funny look, “But don’t worry, I do live in that ‘huge ass house’ that’s all over the internet.”
“Hey, hey, don’t brag so much. I know you don’t even have a patio.” You punched him slightly on his arm, and put a box in front of the door so that it wouldn’t close while you moved the rest to Yuchen’s car.
“Hey! I do have one. It’s on the rooftop.” Yuchen picked you bag and suitcase up, and started playing tetris with the different objects so that everything would perfectly fit in the back of his car.
“That’s not a patio, that’s not even a terrace!” You let out a giggle and handed him another pair of boxes. Slowly but diligently, both of you managed to put everything in the car together, and eventually you moved to the front, sat down and plugged in your seatbelts, before Yuchen started the car engine.
“Shut up, that IS a terrace!” You rolled your eyes, tired of the discussion, but also amused.
“Whatever!” Still smiling to yourself, you looked outside and saw people walking on the streets, living a completely regular life. This feels like a movie… But who knows, all of those people could be going through similar things right now, and none of us would now.
