EVERGLOW

I. How it started

**Thirty-One Months Ago**

"Shen Yue!"

His voice echoed all throughout the enormous lobby of the Happy Camp studio in Changsha. She couldn't help but giggle at his antics. Sure enough when she turned around, Dylan Wang was strolling towards her with his hands in the pockets of his white hoodie. A huge grin was plastered on his face, and even though he wore no makeup yet, she knew every single sensible woman in the room was watching him.

He looked oblivious to it all though. Her stupid Didi. When she first met him, she had thought it was all just airs that he put on, pretending not to notice his many admirers.

After five years of getting to know him though, she learned that he just didn't care who looked at him. Sure he knew he had the looks, but he was confident enough to not need validation at all.

She couldn't stop the rush of female pride at knowing that it was her name he called out, even though he had been here in this studio countless times before. Their closeness had stoked a lot of speculation about their relationship, and they both shrugged it off laughingly. They were friends. Everybody else can speculate all they want.

When he finally got close enough, he held out his hand for the usual handshake. He had kept bugging her about their lack of one while they filmed their first project together, Meteor Garden. Four months ended and he still could not make up his mind on what it should be. It didn't help that she kept forgetting his suggestions.

It was almost a year later, when they worked together again in The Inn 2, that they finally worked out what their handshake should be. It had been her idea, the first time she ever contributed, and he had smiled so wide when he told her it was a really good one. It was a lot less elaborate than his handshakes with the other casts, but it involved a lot less movement, and it was all Yue could manage. He had looked very happy with it though.

He mussed her hair right after, a habit he had formed a while back and could not seem to break. She hid her frown. Five years and he was still mussing her hair like she was an errant child. Never mind that she was actually older than him by two years.

"Dylan!" she complained, slapping at his hand and trying to pat her hair back in place. He took hold of her hand and pulled her closer.

He leaned low to whisper. "Nobody else is around. Do you have something to say?"

She looked at him blankly. "Something to say? No."

His brows turned down into a scowl. "You said no without thinking!"

"What do you want me to say? Or is there something you want to hear?"

"Figure it out. Nobody asks the other person what they want to hear." And the great Dylan Wang pulled a massive pout.

She clenched her teeth in an effort to keep from laughing. It had been on ongoing thing between them, randomly spouting off lines from Meteor Garden that would fit into their conversation. The first one to break out of character gets bullied.

"Oh, I almost forgot to thank you. Thank you. For the ice cream purse that you got me from your last trip," she smiled at him cheekily.

She got through that without laughing, which was rare. He always managed to make her laugh, or at least fluster her into forgetting the lines. "Where did you find it? I loved it!"

His face fell and his eyes roamed her face.

"Just a thank you?" The disappointment on his face looked so real, Shen Yue felt her heart skip a beat. And just like that, she forgot what her next lines should be. He was indeed a great actor, probably the best in their generation.