These Really Aren’t Matching Couple Icons

I've been revising this continuously, so please read with caution, orz. Buy chapters as you need them in the V chapters~

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Lin Zuo has been a fan of music creator Shang Jian for five years. He loves him so much that when he meets Lu Zezhuang, whose profile picture and signature both match his idol's, he acts on impulse and takes the other half of the same image to use as his own profile picture, hoping to make a secret connection.

Once the excitement wears off, he remembers in despair:

Lu Zezhuang can't hear. At all!

That was way too forward.

One little incident stirs up a huge commotion, and before long, the gossip is about Lin Zuo himself.

Because of their profile pictures and signatures, their friends unanimously decide that the two of them are:

Dating.

What Lin Zuo doesn't expect is that the other party directly commissions him to paint their matching couple avatars on a blank wall in his bar.

Lin Zuo: Why does it feel like he's enjoying this? It must be my imagination. (eyes shut.jpg)

Lu Zezhuang: No, you're not imagining it. (smirking.jpg)

Friends A, B, C, and D: As expected... Just a couple's little game. (can't bear to watch.jpg)

One night, Lin Zuo gets drunk and wraps his arms around Lu Zezhuang's neck, mumbling a whole string of nonsense.

The next second...

Lu Zezhuang, who has mastered sign language from scratch to win him back, turns his face toward him: "You can talk?"

Lin Zuo sobers up halfway in an instant: "You... you can hear me?!"

Not long after regaining his hearing, the sly old fox Lu Zezhuang says he wants to talk things over.

Lin Zuo asks, confused: "Talk... as in have a conversation?"

Lu Zezhuang curls his lip: "Talk as in turn the rumor into the truth."

Lin Zuo: ???

Later, when Lin Zuo finds out his boyfriend is Shang Jian...

He lets out a yelp and explodes.

*

When he was fifteen, Lin Zuo saw a young man playing the piano in an abandoned practice room. He never saw the man's face, and had no idea that the other person had already memorized his reflection in the piano.

Later, that young man became the famous music creator Shang Jian. Lin Zuo worked desperately at drawing, hoping that one day his work would be adapted into animation, so he could invite Shang Jian to compose the music, work with him, and stand by his side.

The one thing he never expected was that Shang Jian would retire from the industry and disappear at the height of his career.

So Lin Zuo found a new dream: to have his art seen by the man, then tell him, "Your music gave me strength."

Along the way, he happens to meet Lu Zezhuang, the owner of a bar.

Lin Zuo thinks it's their first meeting.

He doesn't know that for Lu Zezhuang, it's been five years in the making.

[Fake Hearing Impairment, Actually a Scheming Old Rogue Music Creator x Fake Muteness, Actually a Socially Anxious Angel of a Student Illustrator]

[Reading Tips]

* This story is slow-paced and focuses on everyday life. Very sweet!

* Please add it to your favorites and let it grow~

Theme: May your heart always beat for love and dreams.