High Energy Collision [Completed]

Chapter 28 - Now I know I'll never ever go back

Mean looked up in a routine modelling pose and suddenly froze.

Instead of the photographer in front of him, his eyes landed on Plan walking along the garden path, surrounded by the production crew of the tv show that were filming his home story. It was like that night at Gravity all over again, when he had noticed the barkeeper and he couldn't help but stare at him.

Plan looked... different. And, Mean's mind didn't... compute.

They had joked about looking handsome for each other in the morning, after their little make-out session in the workshop, but... Mean hadn't been prepared for Plan to take it this seriously.

Damn, what was he doing, looking hot like this?

It was hard to pinpoint the changes to specific features, Plan simply appeared transformed.

Or, maybe that wasn't entirely true, either. He still looked like himself, like the physics genius everyone was hyping him up to be, just polished up and confident.

The old, oversized glasses had been replaced by more delicate round metal frames, he had gotten a more fashionable haircut – the professional styling and make-up did much to highlight his features as well – but despite still looking his cute self, he also had a more mature air about him.

Maybe it was his new suit... it was actually fitted to him properly, not like the ill-fitting white shirts he usually wore. Or, it might simply be due to his new aura after the decision he had taken last night, that he wanted to stay here and embrace the story.

There was still a slightly aloof air about him, though, like he was trying to keep the cameras at a distance – unlike when he was behind the bar at Gravity, where he had been smiling and chatting with customers all evening.

"Can we take a small break?"

Mean got out of his modelling mindset as soon as the photographer had nodded and lowered the camera.

The TV team finally noticed them, and waved him over.

"Young Master Mean," the head producer greeted him respectfully, smiling at him. They had worked together many times before, whenever Mean's family had wanted to feature on TV, "hard working as well, I see. Are you interested in appearing in our segment as well?"

Mean glanced at Plan, who gave him a small, well concealed nod.

"Of course, I'd be happy to. What is your angle?"

*~*~*

Lying on his rollout mat on the floor of his room, Plan was watching the home story on his phone.

The part of him that wasn't anxious about the story itself was actually impressed that they had managed to wrap up filming in the late afternoon, and then edit everything to include it in their society news show at ten o'clock.

It didn't turn out half bad, he had to admit.

They had followed the narrative he had chosen, about a humble country boy being unexpectedly thrown into high society in the big city. They had succeeded in making him look sympathetic: equally down to earth, smart, and handsome.

He particularly liked the passage where they showed him planting flowers and vegetables in the garden patch that had come with the patio outside of his room. He had wanted to do this anyway, and it was a nice backdrop for him to talk about his origin. He might have given up trying to return to his village, but that decision hadn't taken the farmer and gardener out of him.

The parts where they tried to show him doing physics were rather cringy in comparison.

At first, they had wanted to film him at the workshop doing some kind of crazy professor experiments – but he really wasn't the applied physics type of guy and he had insisted that they found something else.