"Thank you very much for today and I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow." The director finished the first workshop and everyone sighed in relief.

Xiulan glanced at the watch and dialed An Ni. It was half-past six and he felt beat. Socializing and working with people for eleven hours wasn't easy. His introverted part has kicked in a long time ago.

"Bye-bye." Hua Ling waved to him and left among the others. Jack, who was walking next to Yi Bai, slightly nodded to him as a goodbye. Xiulan managed to form a smile and signed them off. He didn't want to leave with everyone, someone might have suggested going for a drink or karaoke. Xiulan was in no state to participate.

The room was emptied fairly quickly and he headed to pack his stuff.

"A towel, a towel..." A voice next to Xiulan muttered to himself. It was none other than Jian Lan. He's been behaving the same way as in the morning. All traces of his mature and intimidating aura were gone.

"That's... actually mine." Xiulan said and breathed out. He refused to believe this was the same guy. There must have been some kind of glitch in the matrix or something.

"Hm... Ahh! I'm very sorry, senior!" Jian panicked when he noticed the towel in his hand wasn't his. The fact he's already wiped his hair and face into it wasn't helping. He handed it right back but Xiulan didn't take it.

"Keep it, it's dirty now anyway." He muttered and packed the rest of his things. Xiulan's phone rung, signalizing that An Ni was waiting for him outside.

"It's hard for me to sweat so it shouldn't be that dirty." Jian Lan argued and tried to return it forcefully. His concerned and apologetic expression made Xiulan frown. He didn't respond to him and threw his backpack over the shoulder. "I'll wash it and bring it tomorrow then! See you later!" Jian raised his voice to say goodbye when Xiulan headed out.

"See you." He muttered and didn't even bother to turn around.

Any other person would consider this behavior rude, but not Xiulan. He wasn't angry nor mad at Jian Lan, he was just tired and exhausted. It has always taken him a few days before he adapted to the tight filming schedule. On top of that, he didn't care about the towel, he had a whole bunch of them at home.

"Arghh." Jian let out a frustrated sigh and ran both of his hands through his hair. He was the last person in the whole gym. The big and empty room gave him mild anxiety, though he decided not to leave yet.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘐 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘶𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘳.He wondered and headed to the radio that was at the back of the room. 𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘐 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩? 𝘔𝘺 𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘳𝘺 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘐 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵. Jian Lan continued wandering in his thoughts while he pressed the ‘on’ button. A loud music started echoing in the room.

𝘓𝘦𝘵’𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘯, 𝘪𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘑𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘓𝘢𝘯. 𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰. He stood in the middle of a big dancing floor and started moving to the beat.

***

"Arghh." Wen Xiulan let out a frustrated sigh and allowed his body fall on the bed. He was finally at home and had taken a very much needed shower. "I should have declined the job." He said quietly to himself and took out the script. It was already so wrinkled because he carried it everywhere.

The director planned to act out some scenes tomorrow to see how it would go. Xiulan only hoped they won't do the same activities they did today.

Apart from the dancing and acting in teams, all of the twelve actors had to perform a small scene individually in front of the others. This was designed to get rid of their shyness and insecurities. Some of them did better, some poorer, yet the most remarkable was Jian Lan.

Xiulan put the script aside and stared at the ceiling, recalling some of the events which happened that day. 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩? He thought and analyzed all of the Jian's scenes. His gaze, posture, facial expression, and voice... it all changed in an instant when he started acting.

"𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺, 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘰 𝘡𝘩𝘦𝘯." Xiulan sit up when he remembered that line. The scene ended right after that, leaving everyone speechless. It seemed like the chemistry was there between the leads and that was important. The director was pleased, Xiulan was not. Something was telling him to stay away from people like Jian Lan. He was the type of person with emotions written all over his face, with an innocent look and harmless appearance that you want to protect at all costs.

Xiulan was (not) surprisingly the most defenseless against those people. They crawled under his skin so easily no matter how many walls he built around himself for protection. He wasn’t ready to care for anyone anytime soon and let him in his life, An Ni was the only person Xiulan needed.

That’s why when they were supposed to talk and interact with their closest co-actors in the drama, he didn’t show any interest. Although Xiulan and Hua Ling spent a lot of time talking while holding hands or looking closely at each other's eyes without breaking the contact, he only perceived it as work. He’s already experienced a lot of skinship with other women, kissing and touching on various places during the filming, though it never got past the set. Many have hit on him but nobody managed to capture his heart, Xiulan was known for his cold shoulders.

Although he wasn't interested, he still remembered most of the things Hua Ling said to him. She was born and raised in the countryside, had two brothers and one dog. She decided to become an actress to support the family after her parents divorced.

She attempted to start a deeper conversation but Xiulan responded with just enough facts about himself to keep the flow going. He was an only child, living alone in the quiet part of Beijing. In his free time, he enjoyed reading detective books or playing the piano. That was about all Hua Ling managed to know about Xiulan.

By the end of their bonding, he was feeling surprisingly relaxed around her. She wasn’t too pushy and got used to his reserved behavior.

After Hua Ling, the next one Xiulan chatted with was Jack. They hit it off very fast and Xiulan also laughed a few times. This was rather unexpected, but Jack had such charisma to charm his senior’s cold heart. It turned out that he was from a family of musicians. After refusing to join the same career, Jack ran away from home and had been a street performer until a manager discovered him. One thing led to another and he ended up in the acting industry. Xiulan enjoyed listening to the story since Jack made it very entertaining. Before ending their conversation, they came up with a cool-looking handshake to use in the drama for greeting.

"Oh." It was then Xiulan realized.

𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘺𝘦𝘵. Of course, there was a need for interaction between the two male leads. 𝘐 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘺. 𝘖𝘳 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵. Xiulan recalled the scene when Jian Lan grabbed his chin.

𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵... 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘘𝘶𝘪 𝘚𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘪𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘰𝘳?