YENNA (I_callyoumoonchild): This is an extra one-shot written by my amazing BETA-reader (unusual_pb on AO3!), further expanding on the story of Dee and Wai in the movie Masquerade! All credit goes to her for coming up with this so please leave a comment if you like!
At the end of this will be a small announcement about the sequel as well!
UNUSUAL_PB: To all the I.L.Y. readers, Welcome!!!!
Hope you like this one-shot and get a better view of Wai and Dee.
This one-shot takes place a while after their night at a Masquerade party where Dee and Wai, best friends since high school days, unknowingly slept with each other. Dee takes advantage of the anonymity to hide his feelings for Wai but he keeps in contact as the masked man to explore his feelings.As for Wai, his dream relationship with his high school crush is going nowhere, he's suddenly thrown off balance when he spends an eventful night with a masked man who will not leave his head. And his ever-present, problem solving best friend is also out of reach.
A huge thanks to Yenna for beta-reading this.
_
Wai is in a difficult situation. His feelings are all jumbled up in a mess that he couldn't see past.
The thing is Wai has been in love with this girl for a long time now. But they could never get past the barrier of phi-nong. He truly loved her since high school. And it is now, after they have grown up and were each headed their own way that he's been able to progress this relationship to a probably dating stage. However, he's in a dilemma as he cannot see a future to this relationship. Now that they're dating and all, he's realised it's not as good as he imagined. N'Lisa is a great girl and partner but he can't feel like there's something missing in this relationship. Somehow, she must have picked up on his thoughts because she has already made several comments about the producer's lack of enthusiasm for their burgeoning relationship.
Which brings Wai to his second problem, he went to a masquerade party a few days back where he slept with someone else. Even worse, with a man he had never met before. Now, he's no homophobe nor does he have issues with gays – he even agrees that some men could be really attractive – but the man never thought that he could be attracted to a man enough to be able to sleep with him. He had to admit that said night was one of the best nights of his life.
The next morning, it didn't come as a surprise when his partner was missing from the bed. Wai was however left with a note with that person's number. After much thinking, he sent a sticker of a bear waving. He didn't receive any response for a few hours and was ready to give up when the producer received a message asking who he was. And thus, began their text affair.
All of this contributes to his current predicament. On one hand, Wai is technically still dating N'Lisa but he's debating whether this relationship will go anywhere. And on the other hand, he slept with a guy that he's still talking to through text almost every day. They still haven't met up after that initial night, however he has a feeling they will meet if things go on the same. Talking to this guy brings him a sense of passion that was missing from his life that he only got from music before. And now even the music can't match up to the euphoria this guy brings to him.
So, now Wai is going to the only person that can maybe help him out of this mess. His best friend Dee.
Before today, the only time Wai went inside Dee's office was when he first got the job, to help his best friend settle in his office. The designer liked to keep his work life a separate from his friends. Arriving at the building, the producer went directly to where his office is supposed to be. As he expected Dee was busy working. So here Wai was, coming to bother his friend who's busy at work. He normally wouldn't do this, but he felt like this couldn't go on like this.
As he waited for his friend to take a little break to be able to catch his attention, he observed him in work through the glass wall. His friend seemed to be in his element, talking to his assistants, dressing up mannequins and going through the shelves of clothes. He truly seemed to enjoy his work. However, there was something different from what Wai knew of his friend. There was something he found unfamiliar about his best friend. Dee had a certain softness that he had never seen before. As the musician found this intriguing, he couldn't help but continue observing him.
Wai also took a look around the office. The office he found was nothing like the one he had visited the first time. The desks had been shuffled around, fabrics and mannequins scattered around. Racks full of clothes by the walls. On the walls themselves were hung few blown out pictures of clothing models and some notice boards with a lot of drawings on them. Wai guessed that those were the designs his friend's office was working on.
Before long Dee let his assistants go with his list of instructions. Wai opened the door to his office where he saw Dee holding on to his desk, eyes closed as he seemed to take a little break. His tiredness was apparent, Wai immediately felt guilty for coming to bother him further. But before he could do anything Dee had already lifted his head and suddenly met his eyes.
"Wai?" He seemed surprised. "What are you doing here?"
"I just came to see you," he replied. "Are you busy?"
"Yeah, I'm preparing for the new collection that we're gonna put out. So, it's been a little hectic these days. Do you need anything?"
"No, not really. I just needed someone to talk to about something, so thought I'd come by."
Dee frowned a bit. He opened his mouth to say something, but a knock came from the door before he could. Sighing, the designer asked the person to enter as he shoots an apologetic look at Wai. His secretary popped her head in, "Excuse me sir, the new photographer you were scheduled to meet today is here. Shall I bring him in?"
Dee looked at Wai apologetically and turned to his secretary, "Yes please bring him here. And ask the others to join." She nodded and turned to comply to his instructions. He then turned to Wai. "I'm sorry, Wai. I'm a little busy at the moment. How about this, I'll see if I can finish early today and we'll go for a drink and talk then. But I'm afraid I can't promise anything; I still have a lot of work to do," he said with a consoling smile.
"Yeah, I guess I'll leave you to your work. Don't work too hard or you'll get sick," Wai turned to leave, and the door opened once again. This time the secretary let another man in and proceeded to introduce him to Dee as the new photographer.
He was almost out the door when he heard the photographer say, "You know now that I see you, I can't help but wonder. I mean with a designer as good looking as you I don't know why you hire other models."
Wai stood there for a second to see how Dee flushed and responded with a giggle. Then he heard him say, "If I were to do the modelling, I don't think it would just be my designs that people will concentrate on. It's nice to meet you." He had a flirty smile on his face. Or at least it seemed flirty to Wai. He lingered a while in front of the designer's office, as he peered into the room through the glass walls to satisfy his curiosity. After seeing his friend smile and joke around a few more moments he came to the startling conclusion that Dee was indeed flirting with this photographer guy.
There was a certain tightening in his heart.
That interaction that the producer witnessed, lingered in his mind for the rest of the day. Wai was aware that his best friend was either bisexual or gay. Dee never really came out to him; he simply guessed his preferences when he saw him check out some guys in high school. But what surprised him the most was the fact that Dee was flirting. Or at least what Wai thought was flirting. In the past decade that he's been friends with Dee, Wai has never seen him flirt. As far as he knew Dee never flirted with anyone and never had a girlfriend or boyfriend. Even when they were in a band together the girls used to flock around them, but he rarely saw any girl catch his friend's attention. Of course, Dee went on dates with girls, but none of them went as far as a proper relationship. All of them fizzled out after few dates or several for some, which were already exceptions.
Wai left the designer's office with a nagging feeling that he didn't seem to know that much about his supposed best friend after all . He had never held back from sharing even his slightest troubles from his friends, namely Dee. But it seemed that Dee never really reciprocated that rapport. The musician had run to his friend when he encountered any issue that he needed to vent, because he knew Dee would always present a fresh perspective that made him feel better. However, suddenly Wai couldn't honestly remember a single time when his friend has done the same.
Heck, he hadn't even known his friend was interested in fashion. Wai had only found out about his friend's career choice in their last year of high school. When he was complaining about his parents' reluctance to let him study music, he had asked Dee what he planned to do if his parents refused as well. Dee had informed him that he intended to pursue fashion design, and that he had already negotiated with his parents, so they were okay with it. He had said that with such certainty that the musician was left dumbfounded. Dee's tone had suggested that the decision had already been made, something that he had prepared for beforehand. He had already taken steps to ensure his decision wasn't opposed by others. Meanwhile, Wai, his friend, was left unaware of such important decision of his life.
Wai had always thought that Dee would pursue music like himself and that they would take their friendship to college as well. Except, it seemed that he had been the only one thinking that. They did continue their friendship in their college as well, but they went to different universities and took on different lifepaths. It still amazes him that despite all that distance between them they somehow managed to maintain their friendship.
Eventually, the producer was back in his office. He needed to catch up with his own work. He had several projects to look into - make more music - but none of them really retained his attention. He had gone to visit Dee that morning to look for a solution to his problems. However, he left his friend's place with more issues than he went in with. And it seemed the newer issues had taken over his head. They had taken the front stage and had become somewhat of a crisis of what he believed to be his reality or fiction.
He threw his head back in frustration and kicked his desk resulting his chair to roll backwards. His sudden fit was interrupted when someone knocked on his office door. He replied with permission to enter and his former classmate and co-worker James had popped his head in. The tightness in chest increased.
"Hey man! What are you up to? Wanna grab dinner together?" he asked.
What, dinner!? Wai looked towards the clock and it was indeed dinnertime. That means that this whole day, he had done nothing but think about his best friend. All his issues had taken over his head and he had accomplished nothing in terms of his actual work. Suddenly hit with this realisation, he proceeded to groan and put his head in his hands.
"Wai, is everything alright?" Great! Now James was worried.
"No, no, everything is fine. I just haven't progressed in the new composition. Don't worry" he tried to reassure his colleague. But he didn't seem to buy it.
"Dude, you look like you haven't slept in ages. Why are you holding your head? Do you have a headache? Do I need to call Dee?" James rambled on.
"Why do you need to call Dee?" he blurted out. Crap Wai, control your mouth!
"What? What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Don't worry. It's nothing." He yawned and rubbed his eyes to get rid of his sudden tiredness.
"Dude what do you mean 'it's nothing'. Dee is the one you always talk to about your problems." Yeah, but he doesn't do the same, does he? "If you're having serious issues that you're not sleeping why haven't you talked to him yet?" he continued.
"Yeah I went to visit him, but he was busy."
"Oh yes! He might be busy with his upcoming collection. It's a really important one for him." How do you know that? "Do you want to talk to me instead?"
Wai looked at James and thought about it. He was tempted for a moment but the next thought that crossed his mind stopped him in his tracks. He was reminded of when the band had decided on doing a reunion dinner; everyone was going around proposing different restaurants for them to meet in. When one of their ex-bandmates proposed a restaurant, James had istantly replied that the restaurant was no good because he had went there before with Dee and they hadn't liked the restaurant. That memory just made him more anxious. At the time, he hadn't really thought about what that meant, but now, it made him realize that James probably knew more about Dee than he did. His supposed best friend confided more in someone else other than him.
Once again, his mouth got ahead of him and he ended up asking; "James, do you know why Dee chose fashion designing?"
"Why do you ask? Did you see what he was working on? He's good, isn't he!?" he looked thoughtful for a moment. "I asked him that too and he said that he really likes it. His mom had a sewing machine you know! Apparently, she used to make clothes for the family as a hobby. When her kids were naughty, she punished them by making them help sew the clothes. Dee ended up liking it and started making his own share of clothes too. So that's why he chose designing."
"That's nice, I guess. He never told me," Wai sighed. He looked at James "I'm sorry man! I think I might stay a bit longer to finish up some work. I'm really behind, let's have dinner together some other day, yeah?"
"No worries! Don't take too much pressure, okay? You can talk to me if you really have some trouble you know. I'm here for you too." James said as he stood up to leave.
"Thanks. I'll keep that in mind. Have a nice weekend!" He said to his friend who was on his way out.
James closed the door behind him and left him to his thoughts. Wai shook his head and turned to his computer, determined to at least accomplish something for the day. But the uncomfortable feeling lingered in the back of his mind. Sometime after, the chime of his phone broke his concentration. He opened his phone to see a message from Dee, saying that he couldn't make it after all. The producer was a little disappointed but understood that it couldn't be helped. He sent a message back saying it was okay.
As he was about to put his phone down, he suddenly had a crazy idea. He quickly unlocked his phone, opening his chat with his mysterious lover and sent a message.
I miss you
Well hello! I missed our little talks too
No, I missed you.
What are you up to?
Let's meet
Wow, so forward! What brought this on?
Don't you want to meet?
Of course, I'd love to meet, handsome.
But not today. I'm a bit busy you see.
Do you mind meeting tomorrow?
Sure! Works for me too
Where do you wanna meet?
Well that depends on your intentions, sweetheart. Do you want a cute little coffee date? Or do you want to roll between the sheets with me?
Your place or mine?
Really forward today, aren't we? Did you loosen up with some drinks beforehand?
Sorry to disappoint you, but neither. We're going to meet in a hotel room. Unless you don't want to?
Fine by me. I just want to see you.
Are you on a mission to make me blush? Cuz you're definitely succeeding.
I want to see that blush for myself. Send me a picture.
Something to look forward for tomorrow.
The rarely exchanged pictures, but they had done it in the past. But it rarely had been selfies. Their faces were always absent, or half obscured in those pictures. So, he was scared that his request would be denied.
You're really making it difficult, aren't you? Fine
There you go
[image included]
Wai looked at the picture that his mystery encounter had sent him. The lighting was dimmed in the picture like a movie. He was donning the same mask from their first encounter, covering the upper half of his face. A little redness was evident in what was visible of the lower half the face, confirming he was really blushing. It was somehow endearing. His cherry coloured lips were parted, reminding the musician of their night together. He remembered kissing that mouth vividly. Memories of those lips being bitten in throes of pleasure came to the forefront of his mind.
Please send me a picture without the mask
No can do. This mask isn't coming off
It'll be there tomorrow as well. That's not up for debate.
Well, what more can Wai do? So, he resigned to his fate, too scared to ruin his chance of meeting this mystery man the next day. Instead he sent a message detailing what he felt after seeing the picture, trying to lead the conversation in another direction.
That night Wai went to sleep in anticipation of the next day's meeting. He dreamt of the evening that he shared with the stranger.
The next day the producer arrived in front of the room where he was supposed to meet the masked man. He knocked on the door and it opened after a minute to reveal the man he dreamt of last night, clad in nothing but a bathrobe, hair wet as if just out of the shower. The mask stubbornly in place, covering the upper half of the face. Somehow, the simple fact that he was here and that it was really his masked lover, chased away the restlessness in his heart. Wai suddenly felt a hundred times lighter than he did yesterday, and he smiled. He got a smile in return. But for Wai, since their last exchange the previous evening, he had been dreaming about capturing that smile with his lips. He strode forward and sealed that mouth in a searing kiss. A kiss that promised of the night to come.
___
YENNA: Once again, thank you all for reading and enjoying I.L.Y. so much! I've been regularly updating and writing the sequel back on AO3, and decided it's finally time to update it on here as well~!
Link -> https://www.wattpad.com/1005095031-you-don%27t-know-about-us-a-mewgulf-au-prelude-when
There's a prelude written by Unusual_pb as well, which I hope you enjoy before we get into the real story of the other's universe's Gulf! Thank you for all the comments and votes, they really made my day!