Chapter 42: Not Ordinary

All eyes were on Zhao Yingyue once she exited the bathroom. They needed to know how something as simple as this effected her.

The looks on everyone's faces as they saw her composure ranged from concerned to satisfied to expectant.

Zhao Yingyue, in an attempt to break the ice, jokingly asked, "Why is everyone looking at me? Did I smear my lipstick?"

She had put her mask back on before coming out so she knew this would make no sense but it was the only thing she could come up with the break the ice. She didn't like the thick tension in the room.

Li Dongyang awkwardly laughed before everyone shifted back to whatever position they were in. There was still obvious tension in the air, but Zhao Yingyue just walked back to where she had been sitting before.

She was thankful for being covered up as it covered her eyes that would've given away the fact she had just cried. She didn't want them to misunderstand the reason why she cried.

Zhao Yingyue reached over and picked up her previously discarded phone and was met with a message.

[Are you okay?] -Captain H

She smiled at her phone. Even when he couldn't outwardly show it, her husband seemed bad at hiding his worry for his wife. She quickly typed out a reply.

[All better now. I'm just thinking it's about time for 'Luna' to create a Tantan account]

The reply was almost instantaneous, which made her think that he was waiting for it.

[Make sure to let Manager Guo to check anything before you post anything that could be problematic.] -Captain H

She had remembered reading about not causing any problems for the name of the team. She supposed this had to be one of the precautions set in place to avoid a sticky situation like that. It was alright though since she wasn't intending to post anything controversial yet.

[Don't worry. I only intend to introduce myself.]

After that, she got to work on crafting her account. She filled out every field truthfully—though no one would be able to see her real name.

By the time she finished, they were called to board their flight. She'd just have to save the rest for later.

***

Comfortably sitting in business class, Zhao Yingyue fiddled around with her phone a little more. Liu Haoyu sat next to her with his gaze curiously lingering on her.

Once the flight took off, he would talk to her some more. In that moment, though, he had to wait for everyone to finish boarding. Otherwise, it was possible that a fan would hear her talk or come up with some story about how close the pair was.

He was so frustrated with the whole charade and unfortunately they would still have over a week before the press conference.

In theory, this was the best option but in practice, he was actually starting to second-guess himself.

While he sat there in his thoughts, Zhao Yingyue had been crafting up a message to share as her first post from 'Luna'.

When she placed the phone in Liu Haoyu's face, snapping him out of his thoughts, he was startled at first.

"What's this?"

"This is the post I'm planning on putting up before we take off. What do you think?"

He read the message to himself quickly, curious as to how she would address her fans.

[Hello everyone! This is Luna! Thank you for supporting me throughout this long journey of mine in 'Honor', amongst the other games that I have streamed for you all. After seeing so many of you guys excited to meet me today, my spirits are high! Seeing as how everyone had wanted to speak to me, I rushed to create this account so that I could reach you all! Please understand that for now, I do have to keep my identity hidden just a little longer and I hope that you all can remain just a little more patient in that time! Thank you again everyone! Love you loads! Luna, out!]

Liu Haoyu nodded in approval. This was an appropriate post for her to do and would spark no further controversy.

Zhao Yingyue smiled.

"My goal is to bring the anti-fans toward me so that they don't keep attacking the real ones as they are now. I just know I can't start by directly scolding those anti-fans who parade around as my fans. So, I instead decided the best way to counter their arguments was to make them invalid by reminding them of the set day for the press conference and reaching out to make it so I wasn't completely ignoring them."

Liu Haoyu was impressed with how much thought was put behind the post. Though he did have to remember that this was his wife. No wife of his would be ordinary.

"You did good."

That simple sentence was all the praise he could give in the moment but the sense of pride swelling up inside of him was immense.

Zhao Yingyue pressed the post button and then put her phone on silent. She would deal with the aftermath later. For now, she put in her headphones and listened to some music.

Liu Haoyu smiled at the peaceful sight and sent her a message.

[Care to share your music?] -Captain H

Zhao Yingyue smiled at the message and opened her music app. She opened a shared listening session and sent the link to him. She, admittedly, was listening to her favorite k-pop group at the moment.

Liu Haoyu clicked on the link and was shocked when the music hit him. He hadn't been expecting to hear this type of music from her.

The beat was actually pretty catchy though and he found himself rather enjoying it. Not only was it not bad, he also enjoyed learning a bit more about his wife. So this was the type of music that she liked then. He'd make sure to look out for any concerts for her, regardless of which country it took them to. It would all be worth it when he saw the excitement on her face.

[Did you know that I could speak Korean?] -Captain H

[Really? I also can speak Korean. Along with Japanese and English. Mom always thought the more, the better]

She felt like bragging a little. It was only to Liu Haoyu so it was okay to show off a bit.

[Interesting. So talented, Wifey.] -Captain H

Zhao Yingyue rolled her eyes and turned her head the other way so that he wouldn't see the blush that betrayed her want to pretend to be annoyed.

With a satisfied smile, Liu Haoyu continued listening with her—monitoring her small actions without bringing noticed to her. He'd notice how she would start doing these adorable little dances in the middle of it and hum along at certain parts of the song. The hum was barely audible but he was right next to her and hyperaware of her actions.

The other members of the team had glanced over at the couple before but didn't let their gazes linger too much.

Everyone knew how important it was to keep their relationship under wraps. Even though they were in business class, it wasn't like they had brought all of the seats, so there were other people there who weren't apart of their group. There was no telling who they could trust so Zhao Yingyue was still forced to cover up as much as possible.

Luckily, no one in business class was giving them too much trouble.

[When we land, we'll finally get some alone time. We will all head to the same hotel together but we will have a suite to ourselves. We can go out but we'll have to be careful.] -Captain H

[This is exhausting. We still have so long until the press conference.]

[I know but you need to hold out just a little bit longer. Unfortunately, even when you go out alone, you will still need to be careful around people. If we go somewhere together, we will have to leave alone and ditch the paparazzi before we can meet.] -Captain H

[I know. It's fine though since I plan to spend at least a full day in bed. It's been so long since I've had the freedom to sleep in.]

Liu Haoyu shifted in his seat. It was hard to hold up this cold mask when he just wanted to give all of his affection to his wife. They were sitting right next to each other but he couldn't even look at her the wrong way.

Even after they released her identity, he would have to be careful since most fans would draw conclusions if he even looked at her the wrong way.

Life was truly unfair.

On the other hand, Zhao Yingyue silently thought about how her post would be taken by fans. She only hoped that those who supported her would no longer receive hate.

To do so, she was willing to endure it all for them.