Our Couple Pairing Went Viral After We Appeared on a Variety Show With My Ex

Everyone in the entertainment industry knows that breakout star Qiao Yizhou and award-winning actor Lu Fan don't get along. At events, they glare at each other and barely speak, while their fans spend all year fighting and trading insults.

But no one knows that they fell in love when they were nobodies, and that their breakup was anything but amicable.

Three years later, circumstances force the two former lovers to cross paths again. Qiao Yizhou swallows his pride and agrees to film a variety show and fake a relationship with the ex-boyfriend he dumped himself.

At first, Lu Fan treats him like he's invisible, deliberately ignoring him. Even when he does speak, his words are cold and barbed.

But then...

Qiao Yizhou posts a selfie in his pajamas, and Lu Fan accidentally likes it in the middle of the night.

Qiao Yizhou catches a cold and gets a fever, and Lu Fan searches the whole villa for medicine.

Qiao Yizhou injures his leg, and Lu Fan massages it until his own legs go numb from crouching.

Afterward, Lu Fan says coldly, "Don't get the wrong idea. It's all for the show."

Qiao Yizhou: "But there weren't any cameras just now."

-

Lu Fan regrets it a little. He only agreed to join the show on impulse because he'd seen so many people shipping Qiao Yizhou with someone else.

The night they draw a kissing scene, they play Truth or Dare.

Asked, "When and where was your first kiss?"

Lu Fan answers, "First year of college, in a men's restroom at a karaoke bar."

The other guests are shocked. "A restroom? So the other person..."

Lu Fan glances at the other person involved, sitting across from him. "Yes, it was a guy."

-

When the kissing scene airs, the whole internet erupts, and the Fan Zhou pairing becomes a sensation:

"Even the ants walking by would say you two are perfect together! Stop acting like rivals and just get married already!"

"Those looks! That chemistry! That sexual tension! Wait, is this the first time Actor Lu has ever filmed a kissing scene?!"

But fame breeds envy, and their fake-dating contract gets exposed. Countless marketing accounts join forces to attack them, and the internet erupts in a flame war.

The next day, someone digs up a candid photo from a campus event years ago. In it, Lu Fan is carrying Qiao Yizhou on his back and turning his head to talk to him, his eyes filled with a tenderness and affection no one has ever seen before.

Weibo explodes.

Solo fans: "Sorry, I can't believe that actually made me feel warm and fuzzy."

Ship fans: "Thank you, thank you! Thanks to all the haters and marketing accounts! We never imagined our ship was real!!!"

A somewhat tsundere, lovesick, jealous top x a beautiful bottom who is warm on the outside and cool on the inside

[Reading Guide]

1. No real-life inspirations! Same-sex marriage is legal in this setting.

2. Their campus romance takes place in college.

3. The top is younger by two years.

4. There are flashbacks, but not many.

Theme: Hard work pays off.