Today was a photoshoot for 4NEMO to model a new clothing line– approximately two days had passed since your interaction with Xiao in the classroom. Directly after you finished with your student council work, you rushed straight to the site of the shoot. It was in a local park around the center of town, so they had to empty out the whole entire street in order to avoid crazed fangirls running onto the set.
By the time you arrived, the boys already had the majority of their makeup done and were in their outfits. While the other boys had a makeup artist tending to their appearance, you noticed that Xiao was working on his primarily on his own. Seeing that he was the only one alone, you walked over to see if you could provide him with any assistance. He was applying a vibrant peach-colored eyeshadow to the corner of his eyes with a makeup brush, gently accentuating each stroke to create a beautiful wing. A small purple diamond was painted on his forehead, most likely to match the casual yet stylish clothing that he was wearing. He was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt under a light gray hoodie with the sleeves cut short. It accentuated his figure perfectly and the soft dark green bamboo pattern brought the whole outfit together.
Even though hoodies were often known to be casual clothes, he wore them in such a refined and proper way that you couldn't help but ogle at him a bit. Sensing your gaze, he simply asked, "Is something wrong?"
Not taking an eye away from the mirror as he applied the final touching to his makeup, Xiao appeared the most in his element. I had no idea he knew how to apply his own makeup... I should have him teach me someday.
Once he was done, one of the staff handed him a strap to hoist on his shoulder that had the emblem of 4NEMO on it and a few pins with Chinese characters on them.
"Ah, you're the manager, right? Do you think that you could help put on the accessories for him?" the staff asked you with an apologetic bow. "One of the seams from Shikanoin's outfit came off so I have to tend to that..."
"Of course!" you clapped your hands together, glad to finally be useful in some manner.
"I can do it myself," Xiao insisted as you picked up the accessories, but you shook your head.
"I didn't come here to just stand around, you know," you glared at him, "you know that I hate being deadweight."
Ushering him to stand up, you placed the strap-like creation over his shoulder, taking care to position it in the correct spot. You messed around with the position of it, trying to get it so it fell on the perfect place of his chest.
"U-uhm," you heard Xiao's quiet voice above you.
Looking up, you saw that his cheeks were dusted red. Ah, I was touching him a lot, huh... he must feel uncomfortable.
"I'm sorry, I think it's in the right position now," you assured him, taking a step back.
After giving him a few seconds for the embarrassment to fade away, you attached the three pins to the bottom of his sweater, completing the look. Taking a step back, you stared at the now fully-dripped-out Xiao. He had put on the final touch–a pair of sunglasses with a long thin chain–while you were occupied with the pins.
"Wow, you look amazing," you grinned from ear to ear, happy that you managed to help out in some way. This was so much more exciting than your repetitive student council work.
Xiao put his hand onto his mouth, his eyes flickering away from yours. "Y-you really think so? Thanks, I guess." He mumbled the words under his breath as if he was embarrassed.
Just as you were about to continue teasing him, the head of the shoot called the four of them to take the shoot. Each of them was individually modeling a separate article of clothing from the new line the clothing brand was planning to advertise. You watched as each of them took pictures, Xiao ended up being the last out of all of them. They chose a sunflower-colored background for him to accentuate his eyes while bringing out the clothing style. You would've never thought to use such a combination. I thought they would use red... I really need to do some more research on modeling and idols in general, huh?
You couldn't help but let out a sigh as you thought of all your work. There isn't really time to indulge in the stuff I'm interested in since I'm the student council president, but I chose this path for myself...
The shoot took around two hours– by the end of it, you were fairly fatigued. Being an idol is hard work.
You had always known that singing and dancing were hard to maintain consistently, but they had even more on their plate besides just what they did on stage. Perhaps you had simply never realized it because you had never looked into their world or perspective.
I've always been Xiao's friend, but I never even looked into his personal life or what he does outside of school... I'm so self-absorbed. I don't even know why he's friends with me at this point.
"(Y/n)," a familiar rough voice snapped you out of your thoughts, "what are you doing there spacing out? The shoot's over."
You glanced up and found Xiao staring at you, a mix of irritation and concern in his eyes. "Ah, my bad. I was just lost in thought."
"What?" he inquired, taking off the sunglasses he wore and revealing his soft amber eyes. "Was this too hard on you with all the student council work? You know, if you're too busy, you didn't have to show up at all."
"No, I was thinking about you," you told him honestly, not realizing the implication of your words.
Xiao froze up, his eyes widening with shock. "You were... thinking about me...?"
You sighed after realizing your strange phrasing. "Not like that. I was just thinking about your idol career."
He sighed. "Oh, so that's what you meant."
"Anyways, we should wash off your makeup now that the shoot is over." You tactically changed the topic, not exactly wanting to discuss the topic anymore out of fear of coming to an unwanted realization.
Xiao nodded, back to his usual stoic look. "Okay."
Even though you had to leave early for student council work, his bashful expression wouldn't leave your mind. Anyways— the shoot went well. Right–the shoot...
. . .
A few days passed afterward which Xiao had specifically told you to take off due to the plans for the cultural festival. You still tried to check in with the members daily to make sure there weren't any emergencies that they needed help with.
Heizou had shaken his head and said that there wasn't much going on this week, Venti and Kazuha essentially saying the same. The release of the clothing line advertisement with 4NEMO was a massive success. You scrolled through a bit of the comment section during your lunch break.
127,478 likes 5,238 comments
Xx4xiaoxX: OMG. Xiao is so hot. I wish he would take me right now like he does in my dreams ughhhh
3,000 likes on just that comment?!?!
The same comments were similarly repeated for the members, while the rest were commenting on the clothing. It seemed that they had gained some decent coverage with this release. You found your gaze lingering on the picture of Xiao for no reason in particular.
We're really far apart, aren't we?
Xiao was part of 4NEMO, one of if not the trendiest idol groups right now. In comparison, you were just...
Shaking the negative thoughts out of your head, you turned off your phone and placed it on the table, turning all of your attention back to the stack of papers in front of you. There was no time to be doting on such useless topics!
After all, you were the student council president- known for being an extremely mature and intelligent individual. You couldn't let all of the people who were excited about the cultural festival down.
Ah, that's right! I need to meet with the broadcasting committee.
You shoved the idle thoughts out of your head and hurried over to the broadcasting room.
hope you enjoyed today's chapter!<333 embarrassed Xiao is so adorable, i love writing him being a tsun ^-^ if anyone knows the artists for any of the images, please let me know so i can credit them! i couldn't find the original creator for either of the images shown so far.
much love,
wasabi