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Dan Heng sighs as he picks up his red eyeliner and leans close to the mirror. He places a hand on his temple and uses the other to draw a sleek line under his left eye. He puts the pen back and closes his bathroom cabinet.
He steals another glance at his mirror and adjusts his tie before turning the lights off and leaving.
He’s currently working as a concierge at a high-end hotel. He had some doubts about working there at first, but after a while of assisting the guests, he found it wasn’t too bad. It’s almost a little comfortable; all he has to do is arrange tours or make reservations for the guests, sometimes he has to handle luggage—but all he really does is watch over the porter as he works.
He’s about to step into the car the hotel has provided for him when his phone chimes with an all too familiar ringtone.
tingyun
11:28
dan henggg
i need a little favour
are you free right now? :)
Dan Heng tilts his head as he reads the message. He’s quite close to Tingyun—he’d gotten acquainted with her when he first started out as a concierge. She was staying at their hotel to accompany her father on a business trip when they first met. She gushed about how beautiful his skin was and if he was interested in being a model, he declined her offer of course, but ever since then, Tingyun has always requested him as her concierge whenever she stayed at their hotel.
They eventually became friends. She’d always drag him along after work to go drinking or take him shopping with her on the weekends.
dan heng
11:30
I’m on my way to work.
What happened?
tingyun
11:30
you replied 😊
it’s a bit of a personal matter
it’s nothing too serious
dan heng
11:32
I’m not going to France with you to buy those ballet flats you want again.
You should ask Fu Xuan.
I’m sure she’d love to join you.
tingyun
11:33
it’s not like thattt
and i already bought those flats silly!
and i did go with fu xuan 😆
anyway, i need you to attend a meeting in my place
dan heng
11:34
?
Why can’t you go?
tingyun
11:34
i’m getting to that part!
it’s a blind date for an arranged marriage
i want you to go and make the guy think you’re me and lose interest
Dan Heng sighs as he rereads the message.
dan heng
11:35
I think you should just go.
What if you end up liking him?
tingyun
11:36
i’ve already seen his picture and he’s not my type
i’m not into his whole ‘tortured heart and mind’ image
just this once, go for me?
pretty pleaseee
dan heng
11:38
What’s in it for me?
tingyun
11:38
money money money!
dan heng
11:39
How much?
Dan Heng waits for Tingyun’s next message when he gets a notification from his banking application, he looks at the beautiful number of Yuan she’s graciously transferred into his account.
dan heng
11:40
I’ll do it.
tingyun
11:41
yayyy!!!
i’ll text you the details
someone will come pick you up later
thank you again! :)))
About two hours into his shift, Tingyun bursts into his office and whisks him away into her car.
“Couldn’t I just get ready myself?” Dan Heng asks her, fastening his seatbelt.
“Nope.” She inserts the key into the ignition. “Moreover, it’s not just about how you’re dressed. It’s about how you act.”
“What do you mean?” He tilts his head.
“The man you’re meeting for me comes from extremely old money. His entire bloodline has been rich since god knows when. I know you work around rich people everyday, so picking up habits won’t be hard.”
“I’m not following.” Dan Heng sighs.
“It means that unlike most rich people you encounter, he’s a lot more sophisticated.” She hums. “The rich people who stay at the hotel you work at are probably… A or S-class? The man you’re meeting is SSS-class.”
“...Did you just use web novel terms to describe how rich he is?”
“If that’s what you want to think.”
Dan Heng sits obediently in front of Tingyun’s vanity as she works her magic on him. With every brush of makeup she leaves on his face, she gushes about what a shame it is that he never became a model.
“People would kill to see you walk on a runway.” She shakes her head while applying gloss to his lips.
Dan Heng doesn’t bother to entertain her with a response. By the time she’s done and he’s all dolled up as she likes to say, Dan Heng thinks that maybe being a model wouldn’t be so bad.
He’s wearing a white shirt with flowy sleeves and a simple black vest overtop, his pants are straight slacks that flare slightly at the bottom. And to finish it off, she makes him wear a pair of short-heeled boots.
“You’re the most beautiful boy I know.” She smiles.
“Jing Yuan would faint if he heard that.” Dan Heng snorts.
“Oh, to hell with him.” Tingyun huffs. “Now, you know what to do, right?”
“Disgust him.” Dan Heng says obediently.
“Wonderful!” Tingyun claps.
When Dan Heng arrives at the restaurant he’s meeting Tingyun’s blind date at, he marvels. The place is familiar, he’s reserved it for hotel guests before, but actually being there feels completely different.
It looks a lot better than it does in pictures, and with every step he takes, the richness in the place seems to ooze into him.
He walks in confident strides towards a host and shows the woman his reservation card. She takes in the specific colour of the card and her eyes go wide. “Oh my, I’ll take you to your private room immediately, sir. My apologies, I wasn’t notified of anything.”
Dan Heng raises an eyebrow, but follows her as she panics.
The person he’s meeting in Tingyun’s stead is named Blade, however, he also goes by the name Ren. He has no preference of which name to use over the other, so people address him by both. He’s recently turned 26, making him two years older than Dan Heng.
When they arrive at the private room, the host turns to him. “Your companion will join you soon, he’s currently taking a call downstairs.” She hands him a menu and steps out of the room, leaving Dan Heng standing helplessly.
He takes a seat and rolls around the directions Tingyun gave to him in his head. Introduce yourself with confidence! Focus on listening to what he’s saying, not about what you want to say next! Eat carefully and slowly!
It’s funny, Dan Heng’s supposed to disgust him and yet, Tingyun gave him all the directions on how to impress her blind date.
But then again, Dan Heng knows that this man is more powerful than Tingyun’s family, so he has to make sure not to offend him and bring trouble to his friend.
A few minutes pass and the door to the private room slides open. Dan Heng slowly turns his head to look at his company.
He looks nothing at all like what Tingyun described him as. He looks like he was never loved a day in his life, She’d said, poor thing. But Blade looks like he was loved by everyone he expected love from and more.
His skin is pale in contrast to his inky black hair, which is styled in an elegant mullet. His eyes are deep-set and red like cherries, his eyebrows look as if they were drawn by one single uninterrupted stroke of a brush.
His jaw is perfectly chiseled and his cheekbones sit high on his face. Even his body, though concealed by the layers of his suit, seems to be sculpted to perfection.
“Lady… Tingyun?” He says after a bit.
Dan Heng’s in for it now, how can his voice be just as perfect as the rest of him?
“Dan Heng, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He says just as Tingyun instructed him to.
Blade smiles slightly. “Blade, it’s a pleasure to meet you too, Dan Heng.” He takes a seat in the chair opposite to him. “You’re not lady Tingyun.” He states.
“My apologies, it seems like my auntie mixed up my name with my younger niece’s one when she arranged this meeting.”
“I see.” Blade says, smiling a little wider.
A server enters their room with a bottle of wine and pours it into their respective glasses, he then takes their order and walks out of the room.
“I hope you’re not disappointed that I’m a man.” Dan Heng says, taking a sip out of his glass.
Blade chuckles. “Of course not.” He offers Dan Heng a charming smile. “Gender isn’t important to me, you’re beautiful and polite, and that’s all that matters.”
Dan Heng feels the need to loosen his collar after that comment, it’s getting a little hot in the room. Maybe he has a thing for older people? Or maybe it’s Blade who’s just too attractive.
“Before we proceed with… this. I need to inform you of some things.” Dan Heng puts his glass down and looks Blade in the eye.
“Oh? I’m all ears.” Blade folds his hands on the table.
“I like having multiple partners at once.” Dan Heng finally begins putting Tingyun’s plan into action. “I’m not asking for your permission to keep partners, I’m informing you.”
Blade’s eyes go wide as saucers and then he laughs. “As long as you don’t run off and marry someone else, you can have as many partners as you like.”
Dan Heng frowns at this. He expected Blade to be a lot more traditional and strict seeing how impressive his lineage is.
“I’m not big on tradition, I brush it aside and don’t care for elders’ opinions.” He says, trying to add some fuel to the currently non-existent fire.
“That’s fine.” Blade shrugs. “I don’t care for traditions either, I’m just asking for a good spouse.”
“I have a tendency to overspend, I max out cards often.”
“No problem.” Blade says in English. “I can just get you another card.”
“I’m very demanding, and I get jealous easily.”
“I have a younger sister, so I’m pretty flexible, and I can reassure you if you ever get jealous. Not that I’d ever give you a reason to be so in the first place.”
Dan Heng gulps. What should he do? Blade is just… too perfect? Dan Heng doesn’t have a specific type, but somehow Blade is exactly his type.
“I’m not interested in having kids.”
“That’s okay, there’s no need for it if you don’t want any.”
Dan Heng’s getting to the end of the script of possible horrible things he could say to Blade that Tingyun entrusted to him, so now he’s going to pull out what she told him to say if nothing else works.
“I frequent BDSM clubs often. I’m kinky, it’s hard for me to find partners because of my tastes.” Dan Heng’s not sure what sort of expression he’s showing, but he hopes it’s believable with whatever nonsense he’s spouting.
Blade bursts out laughing. “No worries. People in our circle consider BDSM as a pretty refined activity, and I’m open to trying new things. If you need a partner, you only need to let me know.”
“I’m obsessed with sex.” Dan Heng says as a last resort, his mind reels a little. “I want it all the time and I can go for hours without stopping.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Blade smirks. “I’m also insatiable, and I go to the gym regularly. Like I said, if you need a partner, you only need to let me know.”
Dan Heng wants to jump out of the window in the private room. He’s humiliated himself to an extreme degree—BDSM? Obsessed with sex? He’s never even thought of such things!
When a server enters their room with their food, he excuses himself to go freshen up and runs out of the restaurant as fast as he can.
On the way he sends Tingyun a stream of messages.
dan heng
7:18
I can’t do this.
I left.
Get someone else to finish the job for you.
tingyun
7:18
what do you mean you left?
hey reply
dan hengggg
dan heng!!!!!!!!
why did you leave!!!!!!!!
you can’t just leave like that???????
hey
what am i supposed to do now TT
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Dan Heng enters the employee lounge at work the next week looking absolutely haggard.
“Oh my, are you alright?” Himeko, one of the hotel managers, looks down at him as he collapses onto a plush sofa.
“No.” He chokes out.
March, a receptionist, giggles as she walks in with her girlfriend, Stelle, another concierge. “I heard he went on a date last week.” She says as more giggles fall out of her mouth.
“No way?!” Caelus exclaims, he works as a bartender in the hotel’s nighttime lounge. “Dan Heng getting some before me?”
“Anyone could get some before you.” Stelle rolls her eyes, she happens to be his twin sister.
“It wasn’t really a date…” He sighs. “I just took someone else’s place.”
“So you’re a scammer?” Caelus says scandalously. “You’re a conman?!”
Dan Heng doesn’t even have the energy to tell him off.
“I think you all should give him some space.” Himeko tries to mediate. “Would you like some tea? One of Welt’s clients gifted him a beautiful assortment of teas yesterday, I’m sure you’d like them.”
Dan Heng smiles, nodding. “Thank you, Himeko.”
“Himeko!” Asta, another manager, barges into the lounge, her normally pristine suit ruffled. “Oh my god, please tell me you’ve seen the email?”
“The email.” Himeko repeats dumbly. “The email!” She says again with more vigour.
“Oh man, the email?” March places a hand over her mouth.
Stelle groans. “The fucking email…”
“So it’s already that time of the year?” Caelus blanches. “The accursed email.”
“What email are you all talking about?” Dan Heng asks, confusion evident in his voice.
“For the—” Stelle stops abruptly, staring at him dumbfounded. “Yearly inspection? By the president of the hotel himself? Mr. Blade?”
“Yearly inspection by president Blade.” Dan Heng mumbles. “Wait, Blade?”
Everyone around him bustles around, calling the other employees to notify them of the email, whatever that means. However, if Dan Heng is right, if this president Blade is the same Blade he met last week and told about his sex obsession, he might be in some trouble.
“Himeko,” He desperately clutches onto her sleeve. “Does president Blade have red eyes?”
She looks at him like he’s just asked the most stupid question possible. “Yes? Everyone knows that. Red eyes, black hair.”
“Oh.” Dan Heng squeaks out pathetically, and then clutches her sleeve tighter. “Himeko—last week, ah, date and then I—met a guy, red eyes, he—” He scrambles around, trying to explain.
But Himeko seems to catch on, eyes lighting up in recognition. She pulls a keycard from the pocket of her skirt. “Room 3006. Stay there until the inspection is over, there should be complimentary snacks in the fridge. Take your phone with you, I’ll let you know when he’s gone.”
Dan Heng thanks her, thanks everything she stands for, thanks her entire bloodline, thanks her mystery girlfriend, and then dashes into an elevator and out of sight.
Blade steps out of his car and into the beautiful hotel that Kafka had built and furnished specifically for him to manage.
Her magnum opus, she calls it. It truly is gorgeous, definitely suiting her aesthetic senses. Every little detail, from the carpet, to the chandeliers hanging above, it’s so obvious that Kafka was the one to furnish the place.
Even the music playing in the hall is something straight out of Kafka’s classical records collection.
His phone rings just then, he scowls in annoyance. “What do you want?” He says ungracefully in a way that would make everyone in his family reprimand him.
“You’re at the Ritz, right?” Silver Wolf mumbles from the other side, the muffled sound of her rhythm game frying Blade’s ears.
“The what?” He questions.
“Hotel?” Silver Wolf asks. “London? Y’know, afternoon tea at the Ritz? With the scones and tasty strawberry jam?”
“Silvie,” Blade falters. “I’m in China.”
“What?” She sputters.
“I’m in Chi—Hold on, I'm busy. Listen, I’ll call you back, okay? If you wanna go to London, just ask Elio or something.” He hangs up, not caring to listen to Silver Wolf’s words of protest.
A hotel manager walks up to him, Himeko, he sees her nametag. Kafka’s secret girlfriend, his mind supplies him. She looks very… fitting with the hotel. Almost as if Kafka furnished the entire place to suit her. He might not even be too far off the mark.
“President Blade,” She greets him politely. “Please, come this way.”
He nods and follows obediently. She leads him to the banquet hall, the swimming pool, the golf court, the spa facilities, the meeting rooms, the gym, the lounges, the bar, the kitchens, and the cleaning rooms.
By the end of it, he’s very pleased with how the hotel’s maintained. He expresses this to her, and she beams. She thanks him and they bid each other farewell.
He’s on his way to exit the hotel when a grating voice assaults his ears.
“Hey, Ren!” A man with white hair waves at him.
Blade looks behind him with a glare. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“What’s it look like I’m doing?” Jing Yuan looks at him with a sleazy smirk, golf bag thrown over his shoulder and a Ralph Lauren polo on his figure. “Nice hotel you got.” He laughs. “I love the seafood you serve here.”
Blade makes a mental note to take all the seafood items off the menu because taking away Jing Yuan’s joy and happiness is his number 1 goal in life. “Get out, now.”
“Nah.” Jing Yuan smiles.
“Fuck you mean, nah?” His scowl deepens.
“My stay ends tomorrow at noon. I think I’ll enjoy your seafood a little longer.”
“Kill yours—” Blade almost says, but he’s mature and a gentleman and no longer attending university with Jing Yuan, so he catches himself. “Keep yourself safe.”
“Thanks.” Jing Yuan looks a second away from laughing his ass off. “Anyway, I heard a nice rumour the other day.”
“Oh, do tell.” Blade grits out.
Jing Yuan snickers. “Well, I heard that our dear president Blade got stood up at his last blind date. I heard your date ran away.”
It takes everything in Blade to not punch Jing Yuan right then and there. “How do you know that?” He spits out.
Jing Yuan snorts. “You act like I don’t frequent any of the establishments you own just because you own them.” He shakes his head. “I eat at Stellaron every other day and I stay here at least once a month. I know everything.”
Oh man, Blade really wants to punch him now.
Especially for reminding him about that disaster of a date.
The man Blade met that night had been exactly his type, even though he was a little strange. He was sure he had their marriage in the bag, and then the guy left to go to the washroom and didn’t come back.
And a day later, he found out that the person he was actually supposed to meet was the daughter of a well-known fashion designer—and that the guy he met was someone that she hired to take her place because she didn’t want to marry him.
Blade desperately wants to meet that man again because 1) he was damn cute, and 2) he was definitely talking to Blade yesterday based on a script, so none of what he said was probably true, so he’s probably not a sex obsessed tycoon who frequents BDSM clubs and has multiple partners at once.
“Die.” Blade says to Jing Yuan with no particular malice.
Jing Yuan beams, and then looks behind Blade with wide eyes. “Oh wow, I haven’t seen that guy in a while.”
“Huh?” Blade turns his head to look behind him and time stops.
“Yo!” Jing Yuan calls. “Dan Heng!”
Dan Heng only hid in the room for an hour and a half while eating away at an assortment of almonds and dark chocolate. When Himeko texts him saying the coast is clear, he calls room service to get the place cleaned and walks back to his office.
He drops by the main desk to return the keycard when a boisterous voice calls after him.
“Yo! Dan Heng!” It’s Jing Yuan, he already knows. A friend from high school, an old client, and a thorough disturbance to his everyday life.
He turns around to flip the man off when he sees another man he absolutely did not want to see under any possible circumstances. Blade.
He throws all professionalism out the window and backs away before bolting out of the hotel, little does he know, Blade bolts after him.
He runs out into the bustling traffic in front of the hotel and across the street and keeps running. He doesn’t look back once. A few cars honk when he crosses in the middle of the road, but he pays no mind.
He runs until he’s a good amount of blocks away from the hotel. From there, he steps into a Starbucks and orders a water. He sits down at a table far away from the door and catches his breath.
He pulls his phone out and checks his messages, something from March about seeing him bolt out upon seeing Jing Yuan and a bunch of crying emojis. He sighs.
He takes the first sip from his water when the door opens and a detested man sits down in front of him. “Fuck,” He says, out of breath. “Don’t run anymore, dammit. What are you, a gazelle? Jesus.”
Dan Heng doesn’t have the energy to run anyway, so he stays put.
“Listen,” Blade starts. “Our first meeting wasn’t too goo—”
“I can explain.” Dan Heng says abruptly.
“Yeah?” Blade frowns, looking thoroughly tired. “Please do.”
“My friend, Tingyun, she’s not really… that interested in men, so she hired me to take her place. She told me to disgust you, so you’d never want to marry her or even think about her.” He says in one breath.
“I see, well, I figured as much.” Blade sighs. “I know your auntie didn’t actually mix up your name with hers, and I know you two aren’t related. I thought maybe you two were friends and you were interested in me, so she swapped places with you.”
Dan Heng sheepishly scratches his neck. “Are you mad?”
“Nah, not really.” Blade ruffles his hair. “Just feeling a bit wounded.”
“Pardon?” Dan Heng looks up.
“I don’t know about you, but I was feeling pretty interested in you that night. I meant what I said about you being beautiful and polite.” Blade rests his chin on his hand and looks straight at Dan Heng. “I might still be interested in you.”
“I—” Dan Heng stills. “I told you I had a sex obsession. I wanted multiple partners, I—your standards are a bit low.”
Blade looks away as his ears turn red. “Listen, I’m a pretty open-minded guy, okay? I like placing my partner’s happiness above mine.”
“That’s not good.” Dan Heng frowns. “You shouldn’t devalue yourself like that.”
Blade feels a little like a child being scolded. “Yeah, yeah. I get it. So what about you?” He looks at the other man hopefully. “Did you feel interested in me at all?”
Dan Heng looks at Blade, really looks at him. His messy hair, his deep cherry eyes, his open collar, and the natural tint of his lips. He can practically feel his face grow red. “I did. I felt really interested.”
Blade’s eyes crinkle at the corners. “If you weren’t hired by your friend, and it was a marriage meeting between you and I from the beginning, would you have stayed the entire evening?”
“I would.” Dan Heng says without shame.
“Then how about it?” Blade breathes. “You and me, right now, marriage meeting. You can tell me actual facts about yourself, and not how you frequent BDSM clubs.”
Dan Heng blushes. “Ask away.”
“Favourite colour?”
“Jade green.”
“Drink of choice?”
“Oolong tea.”
“Hobbies?”
“Reading, going to cat cafes.”
“Your MBTI?”
“INTJ.”
“Hm, what else should I ask…” Blade tilts his head. “How about you ask me now?”
“Okay, favourite colour?”
“Crimson red.”
“Favourite drink?”
“Hot cocoa.”
“Your hobbies?”
“Going to the arcade with my sister and sketching.”
“You can draw?” Dan Heng asks with starry eyes.
“Yup.” Blade nods. “I majored in architecture.”
“That’s amazing,” Dan Heng says. “I’m not very good with my hands, so I admire artists a lot.”
Blade smiles fondly. “So what do you think? Will you marry me, Mr. Dan Heng?”
Dan Heng huffs. “Take me out to dinner first, and then fight in a war for me.”
Blade doubles over in laughter, and then Dan Heng joins him.
If his ring finger becomes adorned with a beautiful Graff ring in 4 months time, and Tingyun becomes his bridesmaid, well, she’ll certainly have a story to tell all their guests.