Neverland Pride

A Year Later

"Did you set everything up properly?"

Tin nodded, and smiled at his boyfriend Can, who sat in front of a camera in their very own studio, shifting nervously.

"Maybe I should check..." Can shifted nervously, "just to make sure."

Shaking his head, Tin walked over and placed a kiss on Can's cheek.

"For good luck," he said. "Relax. We have prepared and rehearsed everything, you are ready... we are ready."

With another encouraging smile, Tin stepped aside and gave the signal to start the recording.

"Hello and welcome back! This is Tangmo, and today, I have exciting news for you!" Can started.

He looked even cuter than a year ago, when they had been stuck in a hotel room together, Tin thought. And what a year it had been. While the world around them had gone off the rails, and they had ended up spending several more occasions trapped together in their apartment to practice social distancing, it had also been the best year in Tin's life.

About half a year after he had moved into Can's condo, they had found a bigger apartment, one they still happily shared.

But before that, Tin had used the first few weeks to recharge, and figure out what he wanted to do with his life.

He had also spent too much time continuing that infamous story under his pen-name 3LIZ4. He had tried to stop it after Can had read it to him back in the hotel room in a strange kind of foreplay. But, Can had been so inspired by it, that he actually made worried comments, whenever there weren't any new updates for a while.

Somehow, Tin had missed the moment to tell Can the truth about that story, and he was still figuring out a way to retire 3LIZ4 from her fanfiction writing career, without upsetting Can.

While writing it had been a fun pastime, it had also made Tin realise that he actually liked telling stories a lot, and together with Can, he had started a new video channel with original content written and produced by Tin.

That channel had become very popular very quickly – not least because the fact that they were a real couple had created a lot of fan buzz, even more so once it had become known that Tin came from the prestigious Medthanan family, and that his parents weren't opposed to the relationship.

On top of that, a lot of professional TV and movie productions were delayed or postponed due to the pandemic. So, people had a lot of time watching the things that were made, and due to their backstory, meeting in quarantine, Tin and Can were well placed for people to find.

They had received a lot of offers from entertainment agencies, who wanted to manage their careers, and promised to grow their brand – but Tin had soon realised that he didn't want to work for someone else.

He had finally found his passion. And, he pursued his new business plan with the same ambition he had used inside of the family company before.

That was the announcement that Can was making.

Tin had finally finished all the setup, the contracts and the finances, for their very own entertainment company. They would play to their strength and focus on creating content for a young audience for different platforms. Can was building on his experience with streaming games, while Tin wanted to produce movies and TV series for an international market, and had already opened negotiations with networks in several countries in Asia and overseas.

"See you soon!" Can said, waved to the camera, and ended the broadcast.

He was beaming at Tin when the recording light turned off.