DiYue Thought Catalogue - One-shot Collection

Two Old Friends Meet Again

June 2019

Shen Yue abruptly stopped talking when she could feel eyes on them. She couldn't help but to look behind her. There she saw Xize, Kuan and Inga sitting in another corner of the coffee shop, looking at her and Dylan with teasing eyes.

She let out a chuckle when she turned back to face him, which caused him to raise a brow as if questioning what's on her mind.

"Well I just had a funny thought" She chuckled. Dylan looked at her with confused eyes and waited for her to explain.

"I think with us sitting here alone," she pointed fingers between both of them, "they may have thought we sneaked out for a date. I can't believe people keep shipping us!"

Dylan chuckled and shook his head. Then he paused for a moment as if he was contemplating something.

"I wonder... has all of this teasing ever affected you?" He asked, looking straight into her eyes.

Shen Yue was not sure how to make of this question. Has it ever affected her? She's not sure, or maybe the truth was that she's scared to even find out about the answer.

"Well yes, I did get annoyed at first with all the constant teasing going on, but now I just get used to it," she tried to answer nonchalantly. But wait, did he just sigh at her answer?

"Well, hypothetically, do you think there is a possibility though?" He asked.

"What possibility?"

"The possibility of this teasing coming true?" Dylan asked looking into her eyes again as if trying to read something.

Shen Yue felt her breathe stop. She could hear her heartbeats increased. Was he seriously asking that? She tilted her head and maintained her eye contact, trying to read his mind. She felt that they were inching toward a dangerous territory now. Or did she think too much? It could just be a simple question asked out of curiosity.

She would be lying if she said she felt nothing at all. With all those late-night calls, daily chats and Buddy catch-ups they had, something did start to emerge, but was she ready to face this feeling or even let him know? Probably not. This is too risky and scary.

"Well, no because we are co-stars, working in the same industry. You already know that I like things simple, and I'm not planning to date anyone in this industry. It will make things complicated," she reasoned. It's true. That was her plan, and that was her rule. What she didn't expect was that him showing up and shaking up the rule she had set for herself.

"Well...what if we were not co-stars and not in this industry?" Dylan continued his hypothetical questions as if trying to push for something out of her. She dared not to read too much into this.

But then this question got her thinking. From the start, whatever feeling that emerged, she tried to push it away and locked it inside because she didn't want to face the complications that it would bring. If that restraint was taken away, would she decide differently?

"Well maybe no? We're not each other type." She bit her lips trying to answer it as nonchalantly as she could. That's the truth. He's not her type, and she's not his. But that's not the whole truth anymore, at least not in her case. "I like simple and warm guy, which you are not. You like cool girl, which I'm not. And come on, we're buddies. That's great the way it is now, right?" She tried to smile at him and brushed off the tightness she felt in her chest.

Was that a glimpse of disappointment she saw in his eyes for a few seconds? Or maybe she thought too much. But in their situation and their world that is full of competitions and complications, it's better to kill whatever hypothetical possibility now before it could start.

Dylan looked at her intensely one more time as if he's trying to read and understand her, but she stood firmly on her ground. 'That's the way it should be.' She told herself.

Little did she know, two hearts were shattered that day.

Little did she know that was the last time they had a long conversation alone. The chats they had and the promise to keep in touch slowly died down until there was none. She had no one but herself to blame. She put up the distance between them. She ran away because of her fear.

—————-

2022

Shen Yue snapped back out of her thoughts when she heard loud laughters echoing through the VIP room that they were in with the alcohol taking effects. He Lao Shi was kind enough to invite everyone to dinner after the Hello Saturday recording. That's how she found herself being around the team and most importantly him.

She looked across the table and saw the familiar piercing eyes staring right at her. She hated to admit that those eyes still affected her. Dylan looked startled for a second before he smiled and nodded at her. He then turned back to talk with Justin.

Throughout the recording, she sadly noticed the distance that they had now, yet she couldn't help feel his eyes on her when she's not looking. Was the feeling she tried to lock away still there? Maybe not or at least not as it used to be, but the question of What-ifs did come back to haunt her when she met him again after all these years.

She needed to get out of here and get some airs, so she excused herself to go to the ladies' room.

"Shen Yue, what's wrong with you? That's what you want, right? Let's stop all these crazy thoughts." Shen Yue looked at herself in the restroom mirror and sighed. Locking herself in the room for the past 15 minutes did help a little. At least within that 15 minutes, she could let all her thoughts and feelings ran free, but she should go back now before anyone came looking for her.

"What are you doing here?" Shen Yue asked, nearly jumped when she saw Dylan leaning on the wall outside the restroom.

"Finally. Everyone thought you fell asleep in the restroom or something." Dylan laughed before asking her in concerned tone, "are you ok? You were inside for quite some time"

"I'm fine. Let's go back." Shen Yue said and tried to walk past him to go back to the VIP room before she felt her wrist being held, forcing her to stop.

"Hey" Dylan said while still holding onto her wrist. She looked at him and saw a lot of emotions flashed through his eyes.

"I don't know what happened. I don't know why we suddenly drifted apart. If I did something wrong, I'm sorry. I miss what we used to be. As selfish as it may sound, I miss my Buddy." For a minute, Dylan looked like a vulnerable child, holding onto her wrist and looking down as if he feared how she would react with his words.

Then it clicked for her. She didn't realize that while she was running away from her fear without any explanation, she was hurting him too.

Dylan looked up when he suddenly felt Shen Yue's hand squeezing his.

"I miss that too. You did nothing wrong. It was me. I'm sorry." She squeezed his hand as if trying to comfort him. They just looked at each other silently with a silent understanding between them.

"Shall we leave and go somewhere else for a catch-up?" He asked smiling.

"But what about others? Should we go back to tell them first?" She questioned, looking at the direction of the VIP room.

"Shen Yue, you know that following rule is not my strength, and if you go back, they're gonna ask tons of questions and may not even let us out, so yes, let's just go. We have a lot to catchup on for the past three years, Buddy." He said dragging her to the back door.

All she could respond was to laugh at his antics. Something surely never changed. Indeed they surely had a lot of catchup on, and having her Buddy back is surely not a bad idea at all.