Love O2O- Beyond a Beautiful Smile

Chapter 32- Do Dreams Come True?

A/N: This scene is sooooo long- it took 4 pages of script and The last chapter was only 1.5 pages. I've noticed that the timeline in the series is really not too accurate with individual days etc. So I'm taking liberties with that side of things.

"I once had a sincere online romance right in front of me, but I didn't cherish it." At the time he hadn't cherished it because of a small issue with gender, but now that he was involved with KO he randomly wondered what would have happened if he hadn't run away. "Now that I think about it, I really regret it."

"Senior Hao," Wei Wei shook her head at him. "Online romances are not appropriate."

"Then what about you and Xiao Nai?" Match point, thank you very much.

Wei Wei cleared her throat. "We met each other online and then got to know each other in real life. And then... " She shook her head and changed track. "Whose was yours with? Let's hear it."

"It wasn't in Dreams of Jiangshu. Before I was playing Dreams of Jiangshu I played a game called Galaxy Dreams. I played a Heavenly Healer character."

"I know of that game." Bei Wei Wei frowned. "But I thought only female gamers played as Heavenly Healers. You played a female character?"

"Hmm. that was the only character that fit my aesthetic tastes." No one around the table evinced any sort of surprise. Mei continued. "A lot of my friends formed partnerships, so I wanted to find a partner too."

"In general, couples are formed by a man and a woman. You had a female character, where you looking for a male player?" Wei Wei flicked a look across the table at the stone faced hacker before turning back to Mei. Curiosity was obviously the stronger force than worry about stepping on toes.

"You're wrong." Mei shook his chopsticks in denial. "I was looking for a yaoren."

"That worked?"

"Of course." Kind of. In theory, it had worked anyway. "There was a male character in the game named Blossom Arrow. It was designed to be very feminine. Most guys wouldn't choose to play that character. Instead, it was very popular with the girls. I thought I'd look for a Blossom Arrow. I even found someone who's name looked like a girl's. It was... Shou Ke Zhai Xing Chen" (A/N: Plucker of Stars)

Wei Wei frowned. "That name sounds very bold and imposing. Why would it be a girl?"

Wah! Here was the difference in genders. Saosan thought it sounded bold? Where was she when he was looking through the names? "I... I thought only girls would want to pluck the stars."

Wasn't that the sort of romantic idea that girls liked? Or was it as Wei Wei had said, and the idea of plucking stars was for the bold? Was the plucking of stars only romantic if the man plucked them to give to the female? He groaned. "And in order to express my understanding, I deliberately didn't ask the question of gender."

Because he was an idiot.

"In the end, I found out he was... a she-male..."

"That's so complicated. So was it a man or a woman?" Confusion creased Wei Wei's brow as shetried to make sense of Mei's convoluted retelling.

"He was pure man." Barely hidden glee tinged Yu Ban Shan's voice as he answered Wei Wei. Her mouth opened like a fish.

"And then?"

"Later on?" Mei sighed. "There's no more. After I found out he was a man, I didn't touch that game anymore." Except for that one time he logged in and wondered about what could have been. Which was ridiculous because what could have been? Despite his current situation, Mei was sure he wasn't gay. Women still attracted his attention and he could easily imagine a happy future with a women... if he wasn't already with KO. Who was a man. To Mei's mind though, KO was the exception and the fact that their parts were a matched pair was incidental.

"Mr Beauty..." Reproach was clear in Wei Wei's voice and the disappointed looked she gave him. "You're blaming someone else? You were the one who masqueraded as a female player, played with someone else's feelings, and then abandoned them."

"Scum." Yu Ban Shan pointed his chopsticks at Mei as he agreed with Wei Wei.

"I'm not scum!" Okay, he kind of was. "But at the start, my motives were pure."

Ban Shan and Wei Wei exchanged a look before turning to Mei with the clear intention of ganging up on him. Before a further word could be said, however, KO spoke up.

"Was the server you were on, called 'Chang'an Under the Moon'?"

"How did you know?" Mei was shocked. Even after he'd filled the guys in, he'd never mentioned the server, so it wasn't as if Yong Hou or Ban Shan could have told him.

For the first time during the meal, KO looked at Mei from across the table. "Because I am Shou Ke Zhai Xing Chen.

Silence fell around the table. Not even the clatter of dishes and hum of conversations from the diners around them intruded into the bubble that surrounded the four of them. Wei Wei and Ban Shan exchanged glances as KO and Mei stared at each other, neither aware of the shock of their friends. A silent conversation was pantomimed across the table and Ban Shan suddenly gripped his stomach.

"My stomach really hurts. Junior Wei Wei, Take me to the hospital."

Wei Wei blinked at him. "It's really that serious?" Exaggeratedly solicitous, Wei Wei helped Ban Shan leave the table.

KO and Hao Mei stared at each other.

Wei Wei returned to grab the bag of food she had prepared for Xiao Nai.

KO and Hao Mei stared at each other.

She bowed at them as she took her leave, but the interruption was enough to break the eye-lock between the two men. KO shifted his gaze to a point just beyond Mei's shoulder, while Mei fidgeted in his seat and nervously sipped at his juice.

Well, this is awkward. He couldn't believe KO was Shou Ke Zhai Xing Chen. Afterall, what were the odds that the only two people he'd had a romantic interest in over the last two years, were actually the same person?

"KO..."

"Mei..."

They spoke at the same time and their eyes collided once more.

"You go first."

"It's alright, you go."

"No, really..."

Mei coughed to cover his laugh. "We sound like teenagers refusing to hang up the phone on their crush."

KO smiled at the image and Mei immediately forgot what he'd been about to say. Damnnit.

"Ah..." Clearing his throat, KO rose from the table. "We should go."

Pursing his lips, Mei nodded. They couldn't really sit at the table all afternoon, especially without ordering anything and he'd eaten more than enough at lunch. Besides, there was the minor detail of work. Paying for the meal- and discovering that Ban Shan and Wei Wei had skipped out and avoided their share of the bill- Mei followed KO outside, so lost in thought that when the older man stopped he promptly ran in to his back.

"Huh?"

Ko turned, looked quickly around and then dropped a quick kiss on the tip of Mei's nose.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? Pervert!" Mei scowled at him. "Standing out in the middle of the street like this. Stop acting like the male lead."

"Mei, we need to talk."

A/N: There was soooo much dialogue involving KO and HM during this scene. I completely underestimated how long the chapters would be once I included the background bits and pieces which is why the scene has been split into two chapters. There's at least two more chapters to tie in this scene with the scene from Episode 24 when XN bribes HM to marry KO. I seriously thought that I'd be launching straight into that from here, but I went back to read this story again and discovered several hints/clues that I dropped earlier and this is the perfect time to bring them back in. No unanswered questions left from the first 15 chapters by the time I finish this chapter sequence- HoK needs to be tight before they discover the ramped up presentation date.