A/N: For this chapter onward, the "bold" indicate that they are talking in foreign language.
A week later
A tall guy with the sunglasses walked out from the arrival door with a bag in his hand and a book on the other one. Another slender American-look guy followed the first guy from behind with a trolley full of suitcases. The media and reporters were around and flashes were everywhere. The bodyguards quickly prepared to escort them. In between the crowds and the just-arrived guy, there's standing a man with his assistant. The assistant was holding a bouquet of flower. The guy walked towards the man.
"I guess you're Mr. Li Huizhen, right?" The guy asked. The man nodded, his assistant handed the bouquet. The man smiled and handed the flowers to the guy. The other guy took it for the first guy's behalf as he was told. "Sorry, I'm not being rude. My hands are full."
"Don't worry, I know. Welcome to Beijing, Sean Xiao." Mr. Li said. The guy called Sean smiled.
"I'm feeling great to come back home." Mr. Li smiled to hear his fluent Mandarin. Guess after staying in America for some time, the young guy didn't forget his mother tongue at all. "I still have my gege in America to talk Mandarin with." As he was reading Mr. Li's minds, Sean answered. Sean looked around, his face slightly changed.
"Oh, don't worry about the media. I already ask them not to release your photo until you are ready to debut and have the debut teaser released. They only allowed to post anonymous scoop. Like your CEO, Mr. Harry's request." Mr. Li said. Sean smiled slightly.
"It's my request actually. I just want my return to China being a secret first. I should surprise my foster parent. Other than my brother, no one knows me coming back to China to have a debut as a singer." Sean gave a thin smile. Mr. Li nodded in understanding.
"Don't worry, Sean. We agreed upon that, we're prepared to bring a surprise to your fans in China too." Mr. Li said. He then instructed his assistant to bring them to the car. Four of them left the VIP private gate, escorted and protected by the bodyguards from the media.
They went to the company first before going to the apartment that prepared for Sean on his stays prior to his debut. Sean asked to do that - visiting the company, he wanted to give a visit first before he went to the apartment even though Mr. Li wanted to let him rest for today, knowing the guy is just arrived and still jetlagged. But Sean is just a workaholic type as told by the slender American guy, Taylor who is Sean's manager, so they just went to the company first.
"Taylor, text my gege we have arrived." Sean said when they arrived at the company. The manager, Taylor nodded. Mr. Li gave an amusement look to hear Sean talked in Mandarin with that American guy. Sensing the look, the actor turned. "Oh, Taylor can understand and talk in Mandarin a bit but he's not fluent and still learning." Taylor smiled shyly to Mr. Li. The CEO just nodded as they're in the elevator.
"The prepared apartment is not that far from this company, 15 minutes by car from here, if there's no traffic. I also prepared a van for your manager and a car for yourself. You can tell me if you're not satisfied." Sean chuckled lightly. The elevator dinged.
"Don't worry, all my dissatisfaction, I keep it first until my debut is a success. I should make money for you first, Mr. Li before I can complaint." He said. Mr. Li chuckled to his mature thought. They stepped to the office. Mr. Li introduced him to the staffs at the open space working where jobs like promoting, marketing, fanservices and also anything about idols' concern and health were done. The CEO brought Sean and Taylor to a desk.
"Shengzhe." A man in blue shirt looked up. He quickly stood and bowed to the CEO. Mr. Li just smiled. "Where are the new IDs I asked yesterday?" The man searched his table and took an envelope. Mr. Li nodded and turned to Sean and Taylor. "He's Cao Shengzhe, the person in charge of company security. This is the access card to the door and elevator like you see my assistant has it. Idols will have their own password to replace the ID card, but on the meantime, Sean is considered as a trainee. After you debut, Mr. Cao will give you your password." Mr. Li said.
"Wow, the security is no joke here." Sean said. Mr. Li just smiled.
"Let's go. My team for handling your debut is already waiting for you in the meeting room." Mr. Li said as his assistant notified him. Sean and Taylor nodded, following them to a meeting room.
"You're here, Mr. Li." All of the people in the room stood up as Mr. Li came into the room. Mr. Li smiled and asked them to sit back.
"I see he's not here yet?" Mr. Li asked, directing his question to the lady on the left side.
"He will be up soon. He's on the way back from meeting with a drama team." She answered. Mr. Li chuckled.
"I know you will know his schedule, Zixuan." Zixuan grinned. Shunrong and the rest just smiled. "You fill him later what he misses on." Zixuan nodded.
Mr. Li smiled to them and motioned his assistant to call Sean in. Sean stepped in and bowed to them before stood beside Mr. Li in front of the other. Taylor and Mr. Li's assistant stood at a side. "I'm introducing you the new trainee will be joining us starting today. He's a part of a collaboration project that I mentioned in previous meeting. He's a famous actor in Hollywood films and actually a Chinese. His agency in America wanted him to widen his career becoming a singer and decided to let him debut in China. He will be signed to our company as a singer after this introduction. Introduce yourself, Sean."
"Hello, nice to meet you. I'm well-known in Hollywood as Sean Xiao, but I do hope people to know me here by my real name, Xiao-"
Just before he could introduce his real name, the door opened and the attention turned to the door. The attention-stealer looked up after bowed a sorry for his lateness. "I'm sorry, I just arrived from-"
The time stopped. The guy at the door was unable to finish his sentence as soon as he looked up and saw the person beside Mr. Li. The said guy also stiffened on his feet. A period passed and the ice broke by Mr. Li.
"I already know your reason of lateness and just sit down now. You're interrupting the introduction, Yibo." Yibo blinked, snapped from his trance. Trying as much as possible not to show his surprised face and mixed feelings inside, he acted professional and bowed again to them, taking his place beside his wife. Zixuan asked whether he's fine or not, Yibo just gave her a single nod. The attention was again to Mr. Li. "Continue, Sean."
The guy nodded. "I hope you just call me by my Chinese name, Xiao Zhan." Yibo could feel his hands turned cold to hear that name. He wasn't dreaming right now. He wasn't seeing things. Yibo repeated that in his heart.
"Okay, that's great. I feel closer hearing that. Xiao Zhan, good name." Mr. Li commented. Zhan just smiled a bit. His eyes took a quick glance at the black haired guy who arrived just now. Mr. Li drew his attention again. "Okay, I will introduce the team who will work for your debut. Here is the manager that will in charge of your schedule, training, health and diet, Zhou Yian. As you already have Taylor, I think you just have two managers at once." Zhan nodded and smiled to the mentioned man. They shook their hands.
"Nice to meet you, Zhan."
"Please take care of me, Yian-ge." Yian smiled a bit as Zhan just quickly dropped the formality. Somehow, the man liked Zhan's smiley and easy-going character. Yian smiled to Taylor. Taylor smiled back.
"This is the company's head manager of idols' image, Luo Ziyi." The lady smiled and bowed. Zhan bowed back politely. "This is the dance trainer, Li Shunrong. He will choreograph for your debut song." Shunrong shook hand with Zhan. Zhan smiled.
"Mr. Li's son?" Zhan asked. Shunrong raised his brow while Mr. Li chuckled.
"Yeah, how did you know?" Mr. Li said. Zhan smiled.
"Wild guess, but you two look similar in a way. Let's work hard; I'm not good in dancing. Hope you can bear with me, Shunrong." Zhan said and flashed a smile to Shunrong who nodded. Mr. Li looked at Zixuan who sat beside Shunrong.
"This beautiful lady is a vocal trainer. Even I already know your vocal skill is very good, but we still need to fit you with the concept for your debut, so we need a vocal trainer."
"Don't worry. I'm okay with it, should do anything to make an improvement right?" Zhan smiled. "By the way, I won't mind a beautiful trainer like her." Zhan grinned as he bowed to the lady. Mr. Li chuckled.
"Hush you, young man. She's married." Mr. Li said. Zhan blinked. The lady chuckled.
"My name is Wang Zixuan." Zixuan said. Zhan nodded.
His eyes fell on the guy beside him. His breathing quickened in nervousness and excitement. "And the last one, the song producer for your debut song, well-known hit-maker by the name Y.Wang. His name is Wang Yibo." Zhan took a breath. Yibo looked up to him. The eyes were cold, Zhan froze. Taylor on the side looked at Zhan with a concern. Their hands met, turned Zhan into an ice sculpture. The hands he was touching were no longer warm like he usually knew. Zhan gulped a big lump when their hands separated and Yibo began to talk.
"Nice to meet you." Those four words hurt Zhan a bit. But he should already predict that from the start when he saw this guy at the door. Zhan gave a sheepish smile.
"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Producer." Zhan said. Mr. Li chuckled slightly.
"Don't scare him, Yibo. Look, he's being too polite with you now. He didn't know his mistake." Zhan frowned and turned to Mr. Li. The man chuckled, the rest of the people - except Yibo and Taylor - were smiling. "You're trying to flirt with his wife, who won't get mad, young man?" Zhan looked shock, and Taylor as well. Looking at the confused Zhan, Zixuan butt in.
"Zhan, Yibo is my husband. I'm Mrs. Wang, even though my name is also a Wang." She said chuckling. At that, Zhan's eyes now were on Yibo who was looking at him. No word exchanged.
"Enough, you possessive husband." Mr. Li said looking at Yibo and patted Zhan's back. "He's away from China for few years so he maybe needs to catch up things while he's away. Hope you can understand him and treat him well. Let's work hard together to make this project a successful one." They all nodded. "Okay, that's it. This meeting is just to introduce Zhan to you guys so you can get some ideas for his debut. Zhan, let's go to my room to sign your contract and get you touring the other floor before I let you go and rest." Zhan nodded absent-mindedly and walked with the man. The team bowed to the CEO as he's leaving. Zhan took a last glance at the black haired man before disappearing at the door.
Yibo took a breath. A minute looking at those eyes, he almost fell from his sanity. Luckily a hand touched his back, snapping him from his own thought. "Darling?" Yibo turned to Zixuan. "Are you okay? Did the meeting with the director go bad?" Zixuan asked.
"I'm fine. The meeting is fine." Yibo plastered a smile, forcing himself to look okay. He reached for her hands, the rest already left the room after the CEO and Zhan left with the assistant and Taylor. "Did you eat already? I'm hungry." Yibo said pouting. Zixuan chuckled.
"You're not like usual. What's up being a baby, hum Wang Yibo?" Zixuan said as they left the meeting room. Yibo grinned.
"Just want you to accompany me eat, baobei." Zixuan chuckled.
"Okay, I don't eat yet too. Knowing you will skip your lunch as you have that meeting around the lunch time." Yibo grinned. He pinched her nose.
"Good to have a sweet wife like you. Let's go." Yibo said. Zixuan just chuckled and followed Yibo who was leading the way. Not seen by Zixuan, Yibo's smile faltered as soon as his mind back to the encounter just now. He returned. Yibo took a breath. His breathing was shallow and rushed. Xiao Zhan.
Taylor opened the main door. Zhan stepped in with a bag in his hand. He looked around the apartment he got from Mr. Li. "Nice." That one word slipped out his mouth. He sat on the couch, leaning and sighing. His head throbbed a bit on the way coming to this apartment. Guess jetlag hit him now. Taylor done bringing in the three suitcases in, two was Zhan's and another one is his.
"Thank you for helping, Yian-ge." Taylor said. Yian just smiled. He turned to Zhan.
"I will let you rest; you can call me if you need help. The fridge already filled up, if one of you can cook then you can use the stuffs. It's yours."
"Good, Taylor is a great chef." Zhan said while opening his eyes. "Are you going somewhere, ge?"
"Um, yeah. Besides you, I'm a manager for an idol group too. You will meet them around soon. As for today, you can have a rest. I will inform Taylor later on for your schedule tomorrow." Zhan nodded. Taylor and Yian exchanged their numbers.
"Thank you for driving us here, ge." Zhan said. Yian nodded and took his leave after giving the van and car key to Taylor. Taylor sent him out and walked back in after shutting the door. "He's going back with what?" Zhan asked when Taylor was back to the living room.
"He said someone pick him up." Zhan nodded. "Do you want anything, Sean?"
"Not now. My head throbs. I should get some sleep. Just leave my luggage in the room, I will be sleeping here. I'm too lazy to walk to the room." Zhan said and lay down on the black couch. Taylor just nodded and pulled Zhan's suitcases to the master bedroom, he also brought the bag that Zhan brought to the room. After finished with that, he put the flowers given by Mr. Li just now in a glass pot with water and settled it at the corner of the counter bar. Then he put his bag into another room which a bit smaller than Zhan's. Taylor looked around the apartment, there's another room in same size as his room. The small kitchen with a counter bar and living room, there's also a balcony which is facing the busy street of Beijing. Taylor came in after looking at the balcony view. He saw Zhan didn't close his eyes when the guy said just now he wanted to sleep.
"Sean?" Zhan turned.
"The view is nice?" Zhan asked with a bitter smile. Taylor nodded. He took a seat at the one-seated couch. His eyes fell on Zhan who still lying on the three-seated couch.
"You...thinking of something, right?" Taylor asked with his limited Mandarin words. Zhan sighed and sat up. He slightly nodded. "You want to keep your return a secret from him, avoid releasing any photo of you until the debut teaser... but..."
"We met. I never know that Y.Wang is him. I should have been more careful, should check the names when they send us the team's details." Zhan ran his hands on his face, sighing. "I don't know if I can get through this or not, Tay."
"You're well-known being workaholic and professional, Sean. I trust you. You can keep the feeling aside once you focus on work, I believe that." Zhan sighed.
"Hope so, because I never dream to be back to his side again." Zhan let out a small smile. "Anyway, he's married now." Taylor looked at him, a worried look.
"Zhan..." Zhan took a breath and flashed a smile.
"I'm fine, really. I should get some sleep. You should too, Tay. Catch some sleep before making dinner." Zhan said and got up. He walked a bit before stopping in the middle. "Don't tell Yan-ge about Yibo. Let it be secret that I met him; I don't want Harry to worry about me. I think he will get furious if he knows." Taylor nodded. He felt bad for the younger. All about Zhan, other than Zhan's brother Harry or the real name Xiao Yan, he also knew as Zhan did share with him everything about himself who is the actor's manager. Taylor just hoped the younger is strong to face the ill-fated encounter with that guy.
Harry Xiao Yan is Zhan's elder brother, the owner of Olive Studio. Zhan is an actor under his own brother's successful entertainment agency in America since two years ago. The Xiao brothers lost both of their birth parents since both were 5 and 3, and the brothers are adopted into different family on the same day two years after being orphans. Yan is adopted by a rich family where the wife is a Chinese and the husband is an American, which leads Yan to stay in America with his adopted family while Zhan is adopted by a lovely Chinese couple, Mr. and Mrs. Zheng who live in Beijing. Both were raised apart from each other but they kept in touch as both couples agreed to let the two brothers keep in touch with each other.
Zhan went into his bedroom. He fell onto his bed with a sigh. "Woah, what a new comfy bed." Zhan said and moved up down on the bed. He smiled before letting himself dipped into the bed. His eyes fixed on the ceiling. The sudden meeting with the person he wanted to hide from forever made himself tired as hell. Or maybe he did overreact. Maybe jetlag is one of the reasons of his tiredness right now. Zhan took a breath. Who he's trying to lie now? Maybe he can say he's fine to Taylor just now. But the pain in his chest-
"Damn it." Zhan cursed while covering his eyes with his arm. A silent tear fell from his eyes. Another hand gripped his clothed chest, the pain in the heart spread through his veins. "Sean Xiao Zhan, you're a pathetic fool." Zhan whispered, chuckling at the last word. After those years spending time away from Beijing, he thought he was stronger. But he's not. He should just agree when his brother wanted to cancel the project on the last minute. The project wasn't his brother's idea but the rest head chiefs of the agency. Yan did asking him many times, concerning about the plan of him debuting in China. His brother worried Zhan may not like the fact he needs to go back to Beijing for a bit longer period and the possibility of meeting him higher when he stayed longer. But Zhan didn't want his brother to worry, so he just agreed and accepted the project. It's not like he never return to China in those two years he's in America. He did come back for a day or two for visiting his foster parents. It's a short trip and he also didn't expose himself in crowd in those short trips which of course, he won't see or bump to him by any slight chance.
Zhanbit his lips, his mind wandered, reminiscing the past of him and his.
*****
A/N: Hello everyone. I seriously wanted to update the story as often as I could but yeah, life wreck my time and I'm lost in doing editing to this story. It's weekend soon I think I will update as much as I could in those days anyway. Let me know if there's mistake you spotted. So, our mains have meet again. What do you think about this? More thing will be revealed in the next chapters. Anyway. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy this. COMMENTS ARE LOVED~