Wen Rui spent the rest of the weekend pretending the world didn't exist as he caught up with Elysium. The new PvP format was difficult for him to grasp straight away but he enjoyed it enough to keep trying.
Perhaps it was because he'd been overstimulated by the game, but for the next two nights, Wen Rui's dreams were plagued by flashing strobe lights and loud music. He was at Club Apex, but he wasn't sure whether this was 18 year old him, or 21 year old him. Someone shouted, someone laughed, and someone's cigarette smoke smelled oddly like cedar…
He woke up on Monday morning on the wrong side of the bed, staring blankly at the wall for a good 30 minutes before reluctantly hauling himself out. The driver that had ferried him to and fro the hospital was Zhou Ye's, and Wen Rui wasn't sure he had a personal one himself. Certainly, the 30,000 yuan left in his bank account meant that he didn't have the luxury of hiring one anymore.
It was already 8.30 a.m by the time Wen Rui finished washing up and choosing his outfit for the day. He tensed up as he walked down the stairs and towards the dining room, shoulders only relaxing when he saw that the place was empty besides for Auntie.
Knowing Zhou Ye, he'd probably risen with the sun and finished his first business meeting of the day by now. It must suck being his employee.
Auntie had prepared the sort of breakfast that he Wen Rui liked. He didn't want to spend more money than he had to, so he wolfed it down heartily and thanked her before dashing out the door. SH City's taxis were known to be the most expensive in the country, but more than that, it was almost impossible to get one at this timing. And Didi was even worse, with their sky-high demand and inflated peak hour prices.
For the first time in his life, Wen Rui had to learn how to take the metro. It might sound insane that someone of his age wouldn't have tried this out before, but this just showed how privileged his childhood had been. His mother, especially, had smothered him with her over-protectiveness. And now, Wen Rui had to pay the price.
CE was in the centre of the city, a convenient 5-minute walk from Changxiang Station. This station was a busy interchange chock full of harried commuters, who had somewhere pressing to be. There were 13 exits in total, and by the time Wen Rui stumbled off his train and found the right one, he was already half an hour late.
Manager Qu was already blowing up his phone with calls and angry messages. Wen Rui chewed on his lower lip, at a loss for what to do. On one hand, it was so tempting to be avoidant and just pretend that the problem didn't exist until he reached the studio and had to deal with Manager Qu and the rest of the group face to face.
On the other, he wasn't raised to be like this at all.
He finally made up his mind to answer when he surfaced from underground. Inside the train, it'd been so packed that Wen Rui had been squished into an unobtrusive corner. That, along with the black mask, cap, and hoodie that he wore, helped him to remain incognito.
But now that he was out here in broad daylight, he was starting to attract curious glances from some younger women, who probably chased celebrities in their free time. Uncertain about how popular HEX4 really was, he didn't want to risk getting recognised without any bodyguards around. He tugged o the brim on his cap and strode off quickly.
Manager Qu was already in a shouty sort of mood when Wen Rui finally picked up his call. Which, Wen Rui surmised, he couldn't be blamed for.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!"
Wen Rui sighed. "I took the wrong exit and got lost," he confessed, already anticipating the barrage of taunting that was about to occur.
Sure enough, Manager Qu began deriding him. "Oh? Young Master had to come out and mingle with the populace?"
"Yup, exactly." Wen Rui glanced at his watch for the nth time and quickened his pace. In principle, he hated being late in a professional capacity because he found it unclassy. Unless at a social gathering, of course, in which case, it was always fashionable to walk in last, at least in terms of B points.
But for work, this was a big no-no. And Wen Rui was now on his way to work.
Pity he still couldn't run without requiring another visit to Dr Li.
His groupmates were already in the studio by the time he burst through the doors. The tension inside was palpable, so the friendly one didn't do more than give him a small wave and a tentative smile.
Wen Rui tried returning it but he was violently yanked into the room by Manager Qu, nearly tripping and falling over from the force of it.
"Now that our young master has finally decided to grace us with his presence," Manager Qu griped scathingly, "let's begin, shall we? Hong Si, start the music."
The boy who'd spent the entire last meeting scoffing and sneering at Wen Rui rolled his eyes and headed over to the music player in the corner. Loud, upbeat music blasted from the ceiling speakers, making Wen Rui wince. This wasn't…his type of jam at all, being classically trained. But he figured if his fashion sense could change so drastically, his taste in anything else could too.
The studio that they were in was beautiful. The walls were painted like the interior of a gothic castle, with a 3D effect, and the ceiling was also done up like a renaissance mural, with clouds and winged angels. Wen Rui could appreciate the art, even if he wasn't sure whether it was just a backdrop for an MV.
The boys took their places in the dance routine, a gaping hole in the formation was Wen Rui was supposed to stand. Because of his outstanding visuals, he was often placed in the front for more screen time. But as a result, now that he had completely forgotten all the moves and could not participate, he became a glaring missing link that no one could compensate for.
Unless they brought in a new member to replace him. But it was evident that management had no intentions of doing that.
"Watch and memorise the moves," Manager Qu instructed with a dark look on his face. "I've let the higher-ups know about your 'amnesia'." He purposely stressed that word with a jeer, to make it clear he thought Wen Rui was making this up. "They're giving you one chance to redeem yourself, otherwise we'll terminate your contract on the grounds that you have breached the clauses, and I'm guessing Young Master won't be able to afford that now."
Wen Rui's eyes flicked in his direction, before reverting to the dancing trio. He didn't bother replying. This seemed to raise Manager Qu's hackles. He reached out to seize Wen Rui's shoulder, but Wen Rui sidestepped him neatly.
"You're distracting me," he said with a frown. "If you'd like me to learn the choreography, then please stop talking to me."
He ignored the purple tinge on Manager Qu's livid face in favour of paying closer attention to the moves. They were…surprisingly simple. Wen Rui thought at first that it was because they were familiar since 21 year old him should already have the muscle memory for their concert routines. But he realised that if he tried to think about the next sequence of dance steps, nothing would come to mind.
Perhaps it was because of his old training then. His mother had always emphasised how a graceful posture was important and had signed him up for ballet classes since small to help with that. She'd been surprised by how much Wen Rui had loved those lessons, insisting on training for examinations and throwing himself wholeheartedly into the art.
But then he'd started junior high, and the other boys in class had teased him when they'd learnt that he was attending ballet lessons because those were just for sisters or sissies. They'd drawn him in tutus on the blackboard and told the girls to lend him their skirts.
After two weeks of playing truant at the dance studio, his teacher had finally called Wen Rui's mother up to ask what was going on. Wen Rui's mother had confronted him and learnt about the bullying, which had broken her heart. Another two weeks later and after some meetings with Wen Rui's form teacher, Wen Rui had been transferred into Xu Mushen's school and had swapped from ballet to contemporary.
"Well? Stop stoning, do you magically remember how to dance again?" Manager Qu wanted to force Wen Rui to drop the act.
Wen Rui walked past him like he couldn't hear Manager Qu's pompous bellowing. He went up to the only friendly member of the group, and asked, "What's your name?"
The boy blinked in surprise. "Mu Feng," he said, with a grin that was warm like sunshine. "But Rui Ge can call me Xiao Feng or Ah Feng if you'd prefer."
He was probably younger than Wen Rui then. "Okay, Xiao Feng," he said. "Could you show me the steps from the bridge again? At around 2:45 of the song."
Mu Feng's eyes widened. "Sure!" he said. "Is that the only part that Rui Ge can't recall? I'm glad that your memory loss isn't that serious!"
But Wen Rui shook his head. "No," he replied. "It's the only part I haven't relearned."