"Sima Li…"
"So it's true. Sima Li is close to Mo Fei."
The murmurs spread almost instantly.
Once people noticed Sima Li standing there beside Mo Fei, with Nil only a step behind, curiosity rose like smoke.
The atmosphere shifted all over again.
And Nil's manager instincts, already overworked and underappreciated, began screaming inside him.
This was bad.
Very bad.
If they stayed even one minute longer, someone would take a picture, write a post, start a theory thread, summon a hashtag, and by sunrise the internet would have married Mo Fei to half the entertainment industry.
Nil moved first. "We need to leave. Now."
He grabbed Chen Yu by the arm and began dragging him away.
Chen Yu stumbled after him, still confused.
Meanwhile, Sima Li slapped both hands onto Mo Fei's shoulders, spun him around, and pushed him lightly toward the stairs.
"You heard him. Move."
He snapped it out like a command.
By the time they made it outside to the car parked nearby, Sima Li had fully committed to the role of irritated chauffeur. He opened the back door and practically shoved Mo Fei in.
"Get in," he grumbled. "With all the trouble you've caused."
Mo Fei frowned at once. "I didn't do anything!"
"Yeah, yeah, I hear you," Sima Li muttered, climbing into the driver's seat.
The door slammed shut behind Mo Fei, and a moment later Sima Li started the car and pulled out.
For the first minute, there was only the sound of the road and the soft hum of the engine.
Then Nil finally broke the silence.
"What," he asked slowly, "exactly happened back there?"
Chen Yu turned at once to stare at Mo Fei.
His face was now full of accusation, confusion, concern, and wounded friendship all at once.
Mo Fei, however, only smiled. "We were having a drink."
"A drink?" Sima Li repeated, eyes on the road but disbelief dripping out of every word. "We thought... no, forget that. How did you even end up up there?" He glanced at Mo Fei through the mirror.
Mo Fei blinked. "How does anyone get somewhere? I was clearly invited."
He said it so plainly that Sima Li had to pause and wonder whether Mo Fei was being serious or simply committed to being impossible. Then he scoffed.
Nil slapped a hand to his forehead. "You're an A-list model," he said, already sounding tired again. "Even with the… issues surrounding your name, laying low and not hanging around lower-ranked celebrities is good for your image. Didn't your manager teach you anything?"
Chen Yu immediately turned and cut him a dirty look. "Fix your managing abilities on the one who actually needs fixing." The words landed like a slap. Sima Li gasped and Nil stared straight ahead.
Then Chen Yu turned back to Mo Fei, his expression softening instantly.
"Feifei," he said, reaching over to take both of Mo Fei's hands into his, "they didn't do anything to you, right?"
Mo Fei's face softened too. Ah. This cute little ball of potatoes
"No," he said with a small smile. "I'm alright."
Chen Yu nodded, satisfied at once. "I've met Zach a few times when he came to the restaurant," he said. "I can tell he's not a good person. But since you said he didn't do anything, then fine. We won't drag it any further."
Then he turned toward the two men in front. "Right, guys?"
Sima Li waved one hand vaguely while Nil sighed.
"We'll take both of you home," Nil said, as though that settled the matter and his own suffering simultaneously.
By the time the car pulled up outside the apartment building, everyone had calmed down somewhat. Or at least, calmed down enough to walk in a straight line.
The four of them headed upstairs together and entered Mo Fei's apartment.
The second Chen Yu stepped inside, he kicked off his shoes and tossed them away without caring where they landed. They flew off in different directions, then he made for the couch and dropped onto it as if returning to his ancestral home.
Mo Fei followed immediately and threw himself down too.
Nil stood near the doorway and looked between the two of them. Why did they have the same habits?
Sima Li, meanwhile, was already wandering around Mo Fei's apartment with interest.
"Oh," he said, looking around. "This is cozy. Mo Fei, you're living the life."
He wandered toward the kitchen, opened the fridge without permission, and immediately brightened.
My club activities might have been ruined, but who said the party had to end? He grabbed four bottles of beer, came back triumphantly, and handed one to each person.
When he got to Nil, Nil shook his head in refusal.
Sima Li placed it into his hand anyway.
Mo Fei watched all this with interest, then leaned toward Chen Yu.
"Can he do that?"
"Walk into your kitchen and take your drinks?" Chen Yu asked.
He handed his own bottle to Nil, who automatically opened it for him and passed it back. "Yes."
Then Chen Yu lifted his chin toward Sima Li and added with great seriousness, "He's like a cockroach."
"Hey!" Sima Li protested immediately. "I heard that!"
Mo Fei burst out laughing.
So did Chen Yu.
For a moment, even Nil's mouth twitched.
Then Sima Li took a long drink from his beer, pointed the bottle toward Mo Fei, and said,
"Honestly though… who are you, and what have you done to our Feifei?"
Mo Fei frowned. "Our Feifei?"
He allowed Chen Yu to call him that. Not this shameless peacock in human form, Absolutely not.
Sima Li kept smiling. "You just seem… different," he said. "But different in a good way. I like different."
Nil finally opened his beer and took a sip, then looked at Chen Yu. "You're staying here?"
Chen Yu nodded without hesitation.
At once, Sima Li turned wicked. "Aww. Are you sad Mo Fei is stealing your little boyfriend?"
"Shut up," Nil said flatly.
"Don't tease him," Chen Yu said, though he was already smiling.
Caught in the middle of whatever strange emotional ecosystem this was, Mo Fei could only sigh.
The night had not ended the way he expected.
At all.
But whatever this was, he liked it.
And as the night went on, the apartment grew louder.
They drank more.
Talked more.
Their conversation drifted from gossip to work, from work to scandal, to random nonsense that nobody properly remembered starting.
Somehow they ended up playing games.
Then shouting. Then arguing over rules no one had agreed on.
Then dancing. At one point Mo Fei actually managed to force Sima Li into performing his latest song live in the living room.
Nil objected strongly, because he had already heard Sima Li sing that song a million times and had no desire to suffer through a million and one. His objections were ignored.
By the time the apartment finally went quiet, all four of them had fallen asleep in different states of collapse.