I Know We're Not in a Drama

Ch 3. Do You Know How I Know?

Moving to Caiyi and starting to work for a living was challenging. Not just learning about this new corporate environment, but learning how to live on his own as well. There was no one there to make him dinner anymore, no one else to clean the bathroom while he scrubbed the kitchen and living room floors. There was no one to talk at, while watching a funny television show. No one to say goodnight to.

And in the office and labs? Or when his department went out to dinner or did some other bonding activity? Lan WangJi was there, of course. They worked in adjoining labs and under the same manager. But they had to pretend they were never more than occasional classmates and now colleagues.

It was hard. It was horrible. It was painful to not be able to give Lan WangJi a knowing look when their colleagues were making jokes. There was always this overpowering temptation to sit next to each other during lunches and immerse themselves back into their private lives.

On the first absurdly hot night of summer, Wei WuXian sat in front of his fan eating half frozen grapes, cheese cubes, and carrot sticks for dinner. Not having central air was helpful to his wallet; now he was living in a sauna. He tried to make light of the situation by remembering that people paid lots of money for access to saunas. And he got it as a perk. An incoming email on his phone directed his thoughts away from the heat.

[Do you know how I know we're not living in a drama? I was passing by the break room today and two of our colleagues were talking about me. They called me an 'ice queen'. If this was a drama, you would have been one of them.]

Wei WuXian laughed as he typed his answer: [I would never call you an ice queen. Ice king, maybe. I cannot imagine you wearing a sparkly dress with long blond hair singing 'let it go!'. When are you going to move into the 20th century and text like a normal 20 something? Or use one of those chat apps?]

A few minutes passed before the response arrived. Far longer than it should have taken. And if they were texting, he'd be able to see the 'read' message and the dots indicating typing. Email was... frustrating. [My brother is with me trying to argue me out of renting an apartment. He is another reason I know we're not living in a drama. In the four years we roomed together, we never once barged in on the other bathing or dressing.]

Wei WuXian smiled. [True. Did XiChen walk in on you?]

[Worse. We share a bathroom; one door to his room, one door to mine. Whoever is using the bathroom locks the other door. He forgot to remind his girlfriend, and I walked in to shower after work today. She was taking a bubble bath.]

That set Wei WuXian off into full blown giggles. [You poor, poor, man. Completely understandable that you'd want your own place.] The poor girlfriend if she honestly didn't know to lock the second door. Poor Lan XiChen if she thought to seduce Lan WangJi with the classic sexiness inherent in the image of a beautiful (she had to be beautiful; would Lan XiChen date an average woman?) woman surrounded by bubbles that concealed, and popped, and promised hints... wet skin glistening in the light. He wrenched his thoughts away. Sleeping was going to be difficult enough in the heat without adding in thoughts of a (straight) naked Lan WangJi walking in on a naked woman in the bath. And then making the movie in his mind. And then doing something about said movie.

But other than the headache of not being able to be open friends with his friend, work was... good. He was challenged and enjoyed the challenge. He was only a junior member of his research team, and therefore relegated to reading and data analysis instead of creating or running anything, but it was still fascinating. They were working on a grant to see if there was a drug, either oral, injected, or in drop form, which would decrease or eliminate cataracts reducing or eliminating the need for surgery. It was fascinating.