[Still stockpiling chapters... Sorry, I'm really such a dog...]
Shan Yan is a corporate slave and programmer. He used to be brimming with confidence, but now he's a gloomy, reclusive shut-in. He spends his days working and likes to draw... especially perfect self-portraits.
One day, he got drunk at a party. In a daze, someone slipped him a talisman. When he got home, he leaned over his portrait and threw up all over it, then blacked out completely.
When he woke up, he was lying in bed, and a handsome man with a dark expression was sitting in the living room.
The guy looked strangely familiar. He was a little taller, a little more handsome, a little better built, stood a little straighter, and looked a little more haughty... Wait, wasn't this the self-portrait he'd painted?!
He turned to look. There was a talisman stuck to the painting.
Well, would you look at that. His self-portrait had come to life, and he was the one who'd made it happen.
"Shan Yan" couldn't understand why the other him was shorter, slouched more, looked more docile, and lived such a gloomy life.
That guy kept making him wear suits to meetings and even tossed him into all kinds of parties to be hit on by handsome men and beautiful women. Meanwhile, he would stand in the shadows with a mask on, grinning like an idiot.
Idiot... If people could like "Shan Yan," then why couldn't they like Shan Yan?
He liked him, anyway.
Shan Yan knew he was afraid of the dark, so he was willing to share a bed with him.
Shan Yan knew he wanted to be praised, so every day he came up with new ways to lavish him with compliments.
Shan Yan knew he was afraid of being lonely, so he was always reaching out to stroke his head.
Shan Yan knew how proud he was, so when the rumors started flying, he voluntarily returned to the company and endured all those malicious stares.
Even if they were originally the same soul, unable to touch each other...
He was still willing to burn himself up, like a moth to a flame, in exchange for one real embrace.
[Little Scene 1]
That day, he was feeling annoyed and sat alone by the sea, lost in thought.
After a while, "Shan Yan" came running over with the painting in his arms, crying as he ran.
"It'd be better if I didn't exist! You must have given me the good parts of your soul, and that's why you've turned out like this!"
Shan Yan was speechless. "Maybe watch fewer short videos..."
But "Shan Yan" still held out the painting and insisted that he remove the talisman.
"If you miss me, just give yourself a hug."
[Little Scene 2]
After they got together, "Shan Yan" kept pestering him to let him change his name.
"What do you want to be called?"
"Shan Buyan."
Shan Yan was stunned. "Why that name?"
"Shan Yan" hugged him tight and pressed their foreheads together. "Because... when we're together, we never tire of each other."
[Reader's Guide]
1. A confident, proud top x an insecure, docile bottom. A short, sweet story about saving each other. One-on-one pairing, happy ending.
2. Told in Shan Yan's first-person narration. "Shan Yan" will eventually change his name to "Shan Buyan."
3. Come ship this narcissistic pairing with me! ψ(`∇´)ψ
Theme: Accept yourself and keep moving forward
