Weakness (Zuodeng)

Two

4 Years Later

Jiaxin was woken up by the noise of his fellow trainees. It was one of the few days they had to sleep in, so he was a bit annoyed with his friends for causing such a ruckus. They had had a very long week with lots of practice, filming and performances.

He got up from his bed and walked into the hallway, finding that his friends were discussing something. He was the only one without a roommate in the house they lived in, and usually he would be lucky enough to not be woken up by a noisy roommate, but today was not the case.

“What’s going on?” he asked curiously, even though he was annoyed.

“Nothing really,” Zhang Ji answered. “There’s a new trainee joining us though.”

“What?” he asked in surprise. “I thought we weren’t getting any new trainees, isn’t that what the official communication from management said?”

“Yeah,” Ji nodded. “But they made an exception for this trainee, apparently he’s very handsome so they know he will definitely promote the company.”

Jiaxin shook his head. “So they chose looks over talent? That’s what you’re saying?”

“I’m sure he’s talented as well,” Yuhan added.

“So that’s why you guys aren’t sleeping in? Because you want to see the new trainee?” he asked disappointedly.

“Hey relax, it’s 7 am.” Yuhan laughed.

Jiaxin rolled his eyes and returned to his room. He wasn’t going to let some stranger steal his very much valued hours of sleep. He returned to his bed, but the noise outside was still enough to keep him from sleeping. He wondered why his friends couldn’t silently discuss the matter.

He gave up on trying to catch some hours of sleep, so he grabbed his cell phone and started scrolling through social media.

“OMG!” one of the boys shouted in the hallway. “That’s him?”

“He’s really good-looking,” another one agreed.

“Stop looking at him, you’re making him nervous.” Yuhan warned his friends jokingly.

“I thought you boys would be sleeping,” an older voice commented, probably their caretaker John who was bringing in Zuo.

“We wanted to see the new guy.” Someone answered.

They continued to talk outside, much to Jiaxin’s annoyance. He was only interested in the conversation when John said he needed to take Zuo to his room so that he could leave his luggage in there. Jiaxin was nervous, he was the only one without a roommate, and he liked it that way. And he most certainly didn’t want a roommate who got into the company solely because of his looks and not his talent.

The door opened slowly, and Jiaxin sat up. John walked in with the person who was supposed to be Zuo, and Jiaxian’s eyes landed on him. Standing at the door was the most beautiful boy he had ever seen.

“Jiaxin, you have finally gotten a roommate.” John announced. “This is Zuo Hang.”

Zuo smiled at him. “Hi.”

Jiaxin was overwhelmed for a moment, he looked at Zuo, taking in his appearance. When he finally processed Zuo’s words, he answered. “Oh hi…I’m Jiaxin.”

Zuo put his bags down near the empty bed. Jiaxin really didn’t want to have a roommate, but if the roommate was going to be Zuo, maybe he really didn’t mind.