This show has grown particularly drab. What began as a hit now drags on into too many episodes. Tonight is the finale, but Liu Xiao looks forward more to sharing popcorn and critiques with Xia Fei than seeing the animated conclusion. He scrolls with one hand through social media and, every so often, checks the screen with a flit of his eyes.
Until a singular post catches his attention. ‘June 25th. International Hug-A-Deer Day.’ The corners of Liu Xiao’s lips quirk. Arms move to wrap snugly, gently, around Xia Fei. He leaves the screen awake — evidence of his reasonings bright on his lap — as he rests his chin on the blond’s shoulder. Sighs. Rolls his eyes.
“I’m disappointed,” he says. In the show, of course. The popcorn bowl warms the side of his thigh, nudged between them by his closer movements. He has a feeling that getting on Xia Fei’s nerves this way will be far more entertaining than their plans of a watch party.
cRYING…. ╱ timeisllikemusic.
it’s an ongoing, recurring malady for shows that kick off with promise - flickers of potential that wow the crowds like shooting stars in the night sky, bewildering the masses below. when the show’s a hit, money flows; and with money come executive decisions, cold and counting, where the direction of each new season crowns the series for its remarkable brilliance, its handle with care - or shear it clean of its soul. in xia fei’s eyes, if one hopes to witness the love that made the series, you need not to look any further than the first season. it was genuine. well-thought intent sewn into every line of script, by the desire to carve complex artistry in storytelling and pacing. form relatable human experience through fictitious scenes. once upon a time, the plot was allowed to breathe, and the characters feel - there use to be life here. but telltale signs of corporate greed in promising media always hold a talent for creeping in, manifesting their ugliest colours across the screen, and choking out something once thought masterful. dull plotlines stretched like worn, decrepit fabric. new characters revealed, but only as lifeless ornaments - insignificant or contradictory, tossed in without spine. or a brain. a change of writers, production staff replaced with others who align more neatly with the minds and appetites of the ones above. wielding power like modern slave-drivers. or worse still, an overworked team stretched paper-thin until every drop of affection for the series is squeezed to the last drop, leaving only monotony and listless routine.
boredom sat plainly on xia fei’s face. there’s gratitude in knowing the series reached its end. that former, real interest, had long departed somewhere along the way, and what remained was the completionist in him, stubborn as a rock, wedged and sunken in wet sand. simply finishing what they started, wanting only the right to claim he’d seen it through, and hating every minute of it. yet, it became a ritual - something he did with liu xiao, as if closure could be wrung out of his disappointment - maybe he was too optimistic?
he hadn’t even noticed when liu xiao had pulled his attention off elsewhere. when he let his focus stray, and when he even stopped pretending to care. honestly, he didn’t blame him. they’ve already mapped where the plotline fell apart, and where the show had derailed itself, a dozen different ways, in more angles than he can count on both hands. to do so again would be playing a broken record - the same scratch, same tired beat, the same inevitability in a worn-out tune… he’s sure liu xiao felt the same.
“ you’re telling me— ” even in his snark, genuine agreement was threaded through it. they often did this with the show - judging and reacting like it owed them answers for its loss in quality. and the time they spent wasting away to watch it come undone.
arms came to coil around his toned, slender frame, and the moment they did, his shoulders tightened instinctively. pierced brow twitched, and his face, traitorous to all his efforts at composure, immediately turn pink across his natural features. hugging him in this particular moment, was like embracing an immovable telephone pole - except xia fei was perfectly sized for liu xiao’s head to nestle snugly against his shoulder.
a turn of his head and, his gaze captures what glares back at him from liu xiao’s lap. the dark letters on a white digital page… ' international hug-a-deer day ' - and above it, a pitiful little fawn with its pathetic doe eyes staring back at him. as though pleading for affection. his lips purse, taut under his nose, the expression across xia fei’s face seemingly sharp enough to cut - this felt calculated. deliberate. definitely not a coincidence.
“ seriously? ” he lifts lazy arms to cross his chest, but not without stealing a few buttery kernels from the snack bowl between them. deliberate as well, with a harmless measure of spite. it was also to soothe his nerves and settle the craving for something salty on his tongue. after swallowing, the need to reinstate his dignity against this blatantly ridiculous comparison rises in him, like some petty reflex - only for his mind to blank at exactly the wrong moment.
what leaves his throat is a scoff, then - because the universe loves to humiliate him - one of the pieces briefly snagging in his throat. it causes him to cough; a short, jagged fit that does absolutely nothing to help his hopeless attempt to keep his pride intact. goddamn it!
