Tine should be happy for his boyfriend. Getting to compete in a nationwide music competition is a big deal and can open so many doors for him in the future. It’s a big accomplishment, and to say Tine is anything less than proud is a complete lie. But feeling happiness is much more difficult than pride when loneliness overwhelms most of his senses.
Being apart has never gotten easier for him. During the days, he can better ignore it. He has studying to do, cheerleaders to train. But coming home to an empty apartment, the smell of Sarawat diminishing the longer he’s gone, makes him feel as though he’s been sharply slapped across the face, all of the sadness he’d left at the door earlier that morning rippling back into him.
He cuddles his miniature Sarawat doll, burrowing into his pillow in the hope that he can soak up a bit of the man he loves the most, but it’s futile. After experiencing the real thing, small traces of Sarawat just aren’t enough for him.
Hearing his phone ring, he rolls over to unplug it from his charger and check the contact name. He guesses that it’s his brother checking in on him or Ohm attempting to lift his spirits with the promise of bottomless alcohol. But to his surprise, the picture of the person he’s so badly missing lights up across his screen, and he scrambles to hit the answer button.
“Hello?” he says as he brings the phone to his ear. “I thought you were supposed to be competing tonight?”
Sarawat’s voice rushes into his ear, and he sinks into that feeling, letting it wrap around him like the tight hug that he so desperately craves. “We are, but we’re pretty far down in the lineup for the first round. We’ve got some time before our set.”
“I’m sorry I can’t be there.” He has yet to miss one of his performances, as his boyfriend at least, and it doesn’t feel right that the first one he has to is such an important one. He should be there, front and center, cheering him and the rest of the band on. “But I know you’ll do great.”
“There’s a lot of good groups here,” Sarawat says. It’s subtle, but just beyond the surface of his words, Tine can hear the slightest of nerves in his voice. It’s difficult to pick up on, but for over a year, he’s become an expert in all things Sarawat Guntithanon.
Commenting on it will only lead Sarawat into a spiral of fierce denial, pushing him further over the edge. Distraction will take his mind away from his anxiety, and Tine is more than willing to oblige.
“You know the reason why Scrubb is my favorite band, right? Their songs make me feel more than I feel without them.” A faint hum drifts through the phone, urging him to continue. “No other musician has ever made me feel the way that Scrubb makes me feel. Until I heard you perform. Even when you’re on stage in front of a whole crowd, the way you sing makes me feel like you’re playing just for me. Like you know every one of my feelings and put them into your songs.”
There’s silence on the other end of the line before a breathy laugh falls through the speaker. “I’m always playing for you, no matter who else is around to hear me.” It’s the typical, cheesy line he’s used to hearing from Sarawat. It’s enough for him to know he’s feeling better, and for that, he’s relieved. “Even tonight, I’ll be playing for you.”
“And I’ll still feel it,” Tine assures, wide smile spreading across his cheeks as he brings the Sarawat doll to his mouth to speak into its felt hair. “That’s how good of a musician you are.”
“Careful, you’re starting to sound like me,” he teases.
“Oh, please. No one could ever be as obnoxious as you.”
They both laugh – because they know it’s true – and Sarawat says, “We’ve got to warm up, but I’ll call after the performance.”
“Good. I want to hear all about it,” he says, before adding, “Good luck. You’ll be amazing as always.”
“Thank you, little buffalo. I love you.”
His heart squeezes a bit too hard, nearly knocking the air out of him. After missing him all day, hearing those three little words are simple but effective. They make him yearn for him even more, but he doesn’t tell him so. He instead returns the sentiment with, “I love you too,” before they hang up and part once more.
Back to the silence of the bedroom, he flops onto his back with a sigh, staring up at the ceiling. A few more days, and Sarawat will be back where he belongs. It feels soon and far away at the same time.
Somewhere between crawling under the covers and skimming over his unread emails, an Instagram notification pops up at the top of his screen. Opening it, he’s surprised to find a selfie of Sarawat staring back at him. He rarely takes photos of himself, even more rarely posts them to his public profile.
In this one, he’s smiling without his teeth, his hair styled for the stage. He’s as unfairly handsome as ever, and Tine wishes so badly to reach through the screen and kiss that smile until it grows wide enough to show his teeth. Beneath the photo, likes and comments are already accumulating. What catches his eye, however, is the caption Sarawat’s chosen: I’m wearing the smile you gave me.
How right they’d both been to think that no one would ever be able to be as stupidly romantic – mush, gush, and all of that – as Sarawat. He double taps the picture, and the heart turns the same shade of red as he’s sure his cheeks are. The next few days cannot pass fast enough, but when they finally do, he’ll be eager to see that smile in person.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Additional Tags:
Alternate Universe - Fairytale, Getting Together, Fluff, Don't copy to another site
Word count: 2k
Summary:
When asked to marry, Crown Prince Wei Wuxian comes up with a most interesting criteria. Whoever plays for him, the correct song from his memories of his youth, he will marry. Many try, many fail. Until Second Prince Lan Wangji comes to take his turn.
ooemoo replied to your photo “Maaaasks. So, I’ve managed to set up a RallyUp fundraiser to sell a...”
please share some pics of the "super ugly"
Oh sure! There will be photos on the fundraiser page too, but here are two I just completed:
I don’t think they’re necessarily objectively ugly, but I took a look at the fabric and was like “this is for people who want to make a real statement.” I didn’t feel like I could get someone all excited about getting a nice mask and then send them one like these.
vivsmiedema replied to your photo “Maaaasks. So, I’ve managed to set up a RallyUp fundraiser to sell a...”
These look awesome
I’m pretty proud of them. Most have some little quirk or wrinkle or uneven seam, but by and large they look nice and people can’t tell there’s a crooked nose seam from more than 6 feet away :D
voyageboots replied to your post “All right! The chicken is marinating and skewers are soaking, the...”
Do the cats love grill days?
They do! I come home COVERED in new smells, but the dominant smell is cooked meat, and they love that. Plus, usually after grilling I’m pretty tired. So once I put the food away, put the dirty dishes in the sink, and put away the grill bag, I sit on the sofa and they come sit in my lap and we all have a nice quiet afternoon together. I’m literally answering this with the laptop balanced on one knee while the cats curl up between my knees and enjoy the heat from the laptop fan blowing on them.
weilongfu replied to your photo “I’m getting ready to change the tires on my bike and do some other...”
Would it have helped hold the wrenches in place if you wrapped the flat knot over the short end of the wrench? Then there'd be more than one contact point to hold them in the necklace?
I thought about it but I don’t think so -- I mean ultimately they are quite heavy pieces of metal being held by relatively narrow gauge fibers, with nothing to prevent them slipping through the loops. You could, instead of using glue, add something onto the ends of the metal, like a little ridge to stop them falling out, but they’d still slip around quite a bit. I think some E6000 at the neck of the wrench should do the trick the most effectively, anyhow.
No AMA or Headcanon, but congrats on your followers! I hope you continue to only have good things come to you!
谢谢朋友! ❤️ I’m actually very stunned tbh... I mean, I saw the follower count and I kinda knew this was gonna happen but I didn’t think it would happen this fast? I am grateful that you are here with me. I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Are you making mooncakes this year? I’ll take photos when I get mine 🌕
I haven't watched MODC and I probably never will becauuse the screenwriter obviously is either tone-deaf or does not care for the audience. Tragedies have their place. But BL is a romance subgenre, romances promise happily-ever-afters or at the very least happy-for-now. If you want to do a tragic romance, you have to foreshadow it and telecast that via the story. Don't pull a bait and switch.
The way people are reacting either the story was not built up properly or there was lack of proper character arcs. The premise of a character recalling how their first love changed them forever and beginning over after it ends tragically has a lot of potential.
Off the top of my head's here's two basic ways to do that plot and have it work better.
If similar impact is the goal, save about 3-5 episodes towards the end to show the Haoting going through the stages of grief and learning to move on. This gives you 15-17 episodes to get the same built up but ending isn't so cheap and female love interest doesn't feel like an afterthought. Of course foreshadowing Xi Gu's death clearly.
Alternatively, shift the story so it's about first loves and learning to move on from tragedy. Oops, I said two basic ways, I have a variants of this way.
Basic plot 2 A:
Dedicate the first half third to the high school romance and then the death is the climax of that arc.
Have the second third be about about Haoting going through the stages of grief and not dealing in the healthiest ways. The female love interest could be involved in this part but not at all in a romantic light. Making the decision to move on.
The last third is where he continues his recovery and gets to a point where he begins to spend more time with the female love interest and they slowly fall in love. Having Haoting being conflicted is good tension.
Basic Plot 2B:
Dedicate the first 10 episodes to the high school romance
Have only 1-3 episodes be about how the death wrecked him. End it with him deciding that he has to move on.
Use the rest of the episodes to build up the romance between the female love interest and recovery.
I would prefer either these either be framed at the start with either an obvious scene showing someone is dying/dead or one where Haoting is standing in front of grave and saying recollecting this as part of the moving on scene. When you jump to that part of the story in the chronological timeline, it ends with him either stating he's moving on or asking permission to marry someone else.
These plots keep all the tragedy but handle the death, recovering from grief, and finding love after tragedy better.
This will definitely appeal to a smaller audience from the onset but appealing to a niche audience is better than tricking your audience with an unearned plot twist.
okay, this is so difficult?? i love makeup so much, to the point where i have an entire drawer overflowing with it. if i have to pick a specific favorite product, i’d say either liquid eyeliner (because i always need to have wings on, always) or lip products. i have so many (lipsticks, lip stains, liquid lipsticks, lip glosses, you name it) that it’s honestly a problem.
golden: favorite stationary product?
this is hard TOO. i also love stationary, but if i must choose, i’d say all of my stickers (i collect them and have bags upon bags) as well as my brush pens (specifically the tombow dual brush pens, though the crayola super tip markers are great as well).
