Chapter Text
Hello, it’s us again! I am You Zhangjing (and I am Fan Chengcheng), and you’re watching Your Fan Eats!
“Yanjun, when are you coming home,” Minghao asks on his phone while he settles down in his favorite bean bag. “Zhangjing and Chengcheng uploaded a new video in their channel!”
“I know, my YouTube app notified me. I was about to watch it when you suddenly called,” Yanjun, the guy on the phone, answers a little bit irritably.
“Oh, okay! But you're coming home soon, right? Do you have dinner with you?”
“Yes, I bought dinner before coming home. You know that I never trust ourselves in the kitchen, right?”
Minghao chuckles. “Okay then, I'll see you when you get home. Be careful!”
Minghao ends the phone call when he hears Yanjun groan back, saying that he'll be careful on road. He then places his laptop on his lap and plays the video he paused moments ago.
So before we head in to our food vlog, we’re bringing in some good news to everyone! (We can’t believe this, really.) We hit one million subscribers this morning! (One million foodies, baby!) We’ve been notified by some of our fans with some shots of our video channel, and when we looked at it we really reached a million! (We’re so happy guys, really. Thank you so much for all the love and support you’ve been giving us since day one. Without you guys, we won’t reach a million foodies!) Really, thank you guys. We can’t stress enough how much we’re thankful, so with that I hope this next thing we’re telling you will make you foodies really happy!
We’ve been planning to do this for a while now (actually, right when we got 500,000 subscribers), but both of us missed that mark since our subscribers have rapidly increased since last year. Luckily, we’ve reached the mark and we have some dates to spare so we’re planning to have a free dinner with you guys!
“Minghao, I'm home—”
“Shh, they're saying something about free dinner,” Minghao says without facing Yanjun.
“Free dinner? Are you watching ‘You/r Fan Eats’ ?” Yanjun asks as he approaches Minghao who is immersed in watching the video.
“Yes, it’s the new vlog,” Minghao answers.
We're doing this dinner to express our gratitude to our foodies for subscribing to our channel! We want to thank everyone who has been with us, whether you're here from the start or you just stumbled upon our recent videos. (Really, thank you guys. If not for you, we wouldn't be doing this free dinner!) In addition, this free dinner will be uploaded as part of our main series!
(So how are we going to do this free dinner, Zhangjing?) Okay, the mechanics are simple. Continue this sentence: Your Fan Eats is… and comment down below your answer together with your Twitter or Instagram ID! (We’ll be personally reading you answers, and we’ll also be the ones to notify you if you have won through our official accounts.) Submission of entries is until 15th of June, 11:59PM Chinese Standard Time! Only one submission per Twitter and Instagram ID, and you can have lengthy answers as well (we'll read them fully!).
FAQs are in our description box under this video. And if you have more inquiries, feel free to message us on our official e-mail: [email protected].
We'll reveal the winner and their answers once they confirm their IDs within 24 hours after we've messaged them, otherwise we'll give other people a chance!
We’re excited to have a meal with you guys and learn more about you, but for now let’s go through our food vlog for today! We’ve recently visited a…
Yanjun has dressed himself in his home clothes and sat beside Minghao, who is still immersed watching the vlog. “You want food?” He asks, to which the younger shakes his head. “I’ll eat after watching this,” Minghao adds.
Yanjun nods and watches the vlog with him. He hasn’t finished watching the vlog since he stopped halfway when he was nearing their apartment.
Yanjun starts to think his answers for the free dinner chance. He has been a fan of the channel way before Zhangjing and Chengcheng started to be famous. In fact, Minghao is the reason why he is watching their series. If it isn’t for ‘You/r Fan Eats’ , he wouldn’t have gotten closer to Minghao at all.
He remembers the first time Minghao moved into their old apartment. There were five or six of them residing that time, and Minghao was the newest and youngest housemate they had.
“Hello, I’m Huang Minghao. I’m young, like literally young, so please take care of me,” Minghao introduces himself to Yanjun as soon as he steps in the apartment he’s going to live in for a few months — years rather.
“Aren’t you too young to live in an apartment with guys a few years older than you?” Yanjun straightforwardly asks the newbie.
Minghao stutters. “W-well, I am. My new school is far from my residence, so my parents decided me to make me move into an apartment near my school.”
Yanjun smiles and pats his head. “The landlady isn’t here yet for some reason, so stay here and make yourself comfortable. I’ll prepare some snacks for you at the kitchen, but call me if you need anything.”
Minghao hesitates but goes through. “What’s your name?”
Yanjun chuckles. “I forgot to introduce myself, sorry for that. I’m Lin Yanjun, one of your housemates.”
“Nice to meet you, Yanjun.”
He hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Minghao after their first conversation due to their different schedules of classes. Minghao goes out earlier than Yanjun, while Yanjun comes home later than Justin. They got busy not only with their academics but also with their organizations and extracurricular activities.
That changed when Yanjun caught Minghao watching a YouTube video one time. Both of them didn’t have classes, so they stayed inside their apartment and did their own things. Yanjun had nothing to do, so he decided to talk with Minghao more.
“What are you watching?” Yanjun asks as he tries to look at the video Minghao was watching.
“Your Fan Eats? Or is it You Fan Eats? It’s a series of food vlogs from a food channel I stumbled upon search,” Minghao explains.
Yanjun nods. “Can I watch with you then?”
“Of course!” Minghao answers excitedly as he shifts his seat to give Yanjun a spot beside him.
‘You/r Fan Eats’ was relatively a short series back then because they were new, so Yanjun and Minghao finished the series easily. They shared how much they’re excited to see more of Chengcheng and Zhangjing’s food adventures because they both like food and they both like the content the two vloggers have been releasing thus far.
Eventually, both of them talked things other than ‘You/r Fan Eats’ which led them to get closer with each other. Yanjun treated Minghao as his younger brother, while the younger treats him as his older brother. Yanjun helped Minghao adjust with the household rules (and chores) and sometimes helped him with his difficult assignments. When Minghao would miss his family, Yanjun would be there to comfort him and make him feel better.
When Minghao graduated high school, they decided to move out to a new apartment which was near to Minghao’s university and Yanjun’s workplace (they had consent from their parents before doing so). They were happy to finally have some space for their own.
“Yanjun, are you even watching?” Minghao asks him, pausing the video.
“O-oh, sorry. I was thinking of an answer for the free dinner,” Yanjun answers.
Minghao chuckles. “That quick? Man, I really want to have dinner with them! I can’t wait to see Zhangjing and Chengcheng eat as if there’s no tomorrow.” Minghao squeals as he expresses his excitement for the free dinner. “Also, we can get cooking tips from them! It's time that we stop having takeout and start cooking for ourselves!”
“I agree, we’ve been losing so much money from all the takeout we’ve been buying since we moved!” Yanjun tells in between laughters.
“Now that I think about it, we’ve grown together with the channel and I think that’s beautiful,” Minghao shifts the mood as he says that. “We’ll join the contest and get that dinner, right?”
Yanjun smiles. “Right.”
“This is it,” Chengcheng says as he sits in his favorite bean bag. “It’s time we finally read everyone’s entries. I’m excited to read everyone’s thoughts, how about you?”
Zhangjing lays the tray with food on the table in front of them and sits on the bean bag beside Chengcheng’s. “I’m excited too actually. I can’t wait to see everyone’s messages about our channel!”
“Can we not rush this in a day, though? I don’t think we can handle a large amount of comments in one day?” Chengcheng innocently asks.
Zhangjing chuckles. “Of course, idiot! I’m sure there are thousands of subscribers who want to have dinner with us. I can’t even read long messages, how much more this one?”
“Okay, we’ll take this slowly then.”
Two days have passed since June 15, the deadline of entries for their free dinner, and the two YouTubers are ready to read messages from their fans (or foodies as Chengcheng calls them).
“How do we do this, by recent entries or number of upvotes?” Chengcheng asks, skimming the comments of their recent vlog.
“I say we should go by recent entries. There might be nice answers that don’t have a lot of upvotes, and also to be fair with everyone who sent in their answers,” Zhangjing answers, doing the same. “Also, can we read comments separately then send screenshots of comments that touch our hearts? I feel like that would save time at least,” he adds.
Chengcheng agrees to Zhangjing’s suggestion and starts reading. The most recent ones say that the viewers feel bad that they have missed the opportunity and hope that another round of free dinner comes soon. They feel bad that some viewers have missed the deadline, however they aren’t sure if they’ll be able to handle another free dinner so they take note of those comments just in case they can do another one.
After reading those comments, they start seeing actual entries for the dinner. Some entries are witty while some are emotional. Zhangjing and Chengcheng have been sharing a couple of entries that caught their attention, also sharing their thoughts along.
They’ve read around a quarter of their total comments after almost three hours, so they decide to take a break and eat the food Zhangjing has prepared earlier.
“You know what, there’s this one comment that caught my attention,” Chengcheng says as he eats his sandwich. “It says that they built their friendship with someone through our channel. And you know what’s touching? They’ve been avid supporters of our channel since the beginning. It reminds me of how we became friends.”
“Wait, is this the one that says ‘You/r Fan Eats is friendship formed with someone I didn’t expect I’ll be close with’ ? The entry by Minghao Huang?” Zhangjing asks after he sips from his orange juice. Chengcheng nods. “I’ve read it, it does remind me of our friendship too.”
“To think of it, we’ve been more than YouTubers who share the same channel and run the same vlog. You know, we’ve been friends and brothers too as we filmed more vlogs,” Chengcheng says, reminiscing how he got closer to Zhangjing because of their channel.
“Oh dear, I remember. We really started from scratch, and here we are.”
Zhangjing wanted to film himself eat happily, so he looked for a food stall at the mall with good food. He tried to look at the food court, but it was so packed with people. He didn’t want his voice to be overshadowed by the people near him, so he decided to leave the food court and find a food stall that will allow him to film himself eating.
He walked for a little longer and found a shabu-shabu place that was almost empty. The only customer that was there was a guy who was also filming himself eat his meal.
‘Should I go and talk to him if we can collaborate?’ Zhangjing asks himself.
He drove his nervousness away and headed inside the shabu-shabu place. The guy filming looked at him, specifically to the GoPro he was holding.
“Are you going to film yourself eat?” The guy asks him. Zhangjing gives him a confused face. The guy chuckles. “Oh, I’m Fan Chengcheng. I want to start up my own food channel, so I decided to film myself eating. Are you starting up your channel too?”
Zhangjing scratches the back of his head. “Uh, I was actually going to ask you if we could collaborate since I was going to film myself. I’m You Zhangjing by the way.”
Chengcheng, the guy filming, made space for Zhangjing to sit beside him. “That’s great,” he happily says. “It’s a little lonely to film food videos alone without anyone to talk to.”
“That’s great! We could create a channel together,” Zhangjing got excited that he says his idea to Chengcheng without hesitation. “I mean, if you don’t mind of course,” he follows up to mask the awkwardness.
Chengcheng laughs. “You seem to be a fun person,” he says after calming down. “We can talk about it while we film.”
“Wait, really?” Zhangjing asks in shock. “You’re not joking?”
“Yup, I’m legit serious! And I can’t wait to work with you.”
Zhangjing sits beside Chengcheng immediately. They both set up their cameras properly and started filming. They talked about how they stumbled upon each other and suddenly agreed to film their first video together. They also ask questions about themselves, why they want to make a channel, and the likes. They also talked about how they’ll pull off the content they’ll be providing, all of that while they finish the food Chengcheng has gotten beforehand. They had their second round and continued to ramble almost everything under the sun.
That was their first video, but that didn’t make it to the cut. The first video they uploaded on their channel was a vlog where they both ate at an Italian restaurant in the same mall they filmed their very first video together.
They wanted to keep it as a little secret to themselves, so (obviously) they lied when talked about how they first met. They told the internet that they became friends at a food convention, when in fact the first time both of them went to a food convention was when they were invited by the organizers themselves.
Along with that little secret were many more secrets they’ve told each other, from Chengcheng’s rebellious high school years, to Zhangjing’s childhood crush that he never met again. The more they filmed together, the more they got to know each other and became closer.
“Wait, am I seeing things?” Chengcheng says as he goes back to read comments. “Yanjun Lin? Isn’t this your childhood crush?”
Zhangjing almost drops his phone upon hearing the name. “What? Y-Yanjun?”
“Yeah, do you want to double check?” Chengcheng asks as he passes his phone to Zhangjing so he could see Yanjun’s comment.
Zhangjing skimmed Yanjun’s comment to find his SNS accounts and went through his instagram to check if it was really him and Chengcheng wasn’t just seeing things.
And boy, Chengcheng was right.
“Oh my gosh,” Zhangjing says as he scrolls Yanjun’s feed. “It’s actually him! Chengcheng, what should I do?”
Zhangjing is starting to hyperventilate while Chengcheng tries to calm him down. It has been years since Zhangjing last saw Yanjun, so he can’t believe that his childhood crush is actually a subscriber of his channel.
“Chengcheng, can we just drag Yanjun to the dinner? Please?” Zhangjing begs.
Chengcheng laughs loudly. “Zhangjing, are you really doing that? You can contact him separately if you want to talk to him.”
“I have no idea if he still remembers me or not!” Zhangjing says. “I mean, it’s been years now. He probably forgot about me. But I really want to meet him!”
Chengcheng sighs. “If his comment is good, we’ll message him and declare him as ‘winner’ if he confirms his identity. Otherwise, you have to man up and ask him if both of you could meet.”
Zhangjing sighs in relief. “Okay, I can manage with that. Hopefully his comment is good enough for your taste.”
“You won’t even bother reading his message?” Chengcheng asks. “I can’t believe this, you’re whipped for him.”
“Fine, I’m reading it.”
Both of them read Yanjun’s comment and notice the same thing: his comment was the same as Minghao’s with regards to context, even including Minghao’s name at some point (Yanjun tells the YouTubers that if ever they pick Yanjun, they should pick Minghao too).
“In all honesty, I think this is destiny,” Zhangjing says after reading Yanjun’s comment. “Look, we first loved Minghao’s comment about his friendship with someone, which reminded us of our own friendship. Now, we stumble upon Yanjun’s comment, my childhood crush that you know, only to find out that he and Minghao are friends.”
“So, the point is?” Chengcheng asks.
“Let’s drag both of them to dinner. I mean let’s have them as winners. Besides, they’re located around our place too. It’s less hassle for us to set dates and places,” Zhangjing suggests.
Chengcheng chuckles. “The things you do for your childhood crush, I can’t believe I’m getting dragged to this.”
“Come on, you can check out Minghao. It’s time you have some love life!”
“Oh my gosh, please no,” Chengcheng says almost immediately.
“Yes please! I mean, be friends with Minghao. Then if you find him cute or anything you can start from there. If you don’t, you can remain as friends,” Zhangjing suggests. “I just want you to be happy, you know. You’ve been pushing yourself with your academics and the channel, and I just want you to life your life more.”
Chengcheng sighs. “Okay, for you I’ll do this. Besides, I like Yanjun’s comment too.”
Zhangjing pats him on the shoulder. “Do this for yourself, not for me. But this is settled already, okay? Yanjun and Minghao?”
“Yanjun and Minghao it is.”
1 new notification: @yourfaneats have sent you a private message.
“Yanjun!” Minghao calls the older guy who’s in his room. “ ‘You/r Fan Eats’ messaged me!”
Yanjun comes out of the room right right when he heard Minghao say ‘You/r Fan Eats’ . “What for?” He asks, approaching Minghao.
“ ‘You/r Fan Eats’ messaged me,” Minghao repeats once more and shows his phone notification to Yanjun. “I’m so excited and scared at the same time. Do you think this is about the free dinner? Did you receive anything from them?”
Yanjun checks his phone. “I haven’t received anything from them.”
“I’m nervous, what if I’m the only one who gets dinner and you don’t?” Minghao worriedly asks.
Yanjun smiles, a hint of sadness slowly showing on his face. “It’s okay, you still get to have dinner with them. You can tell me what happens, you know? You can also relay my messages for them if I don’t get to have dinner with them.”
Minghao sighs. “Okay, I’ll read the message now,” he says as he opens @yourfaneats’ message on his Instagram.
Hello, it’s Zhangjing here! I’m sending this message to you to confirm that you are one of the winners for our free dinner treat! Let me know as soon as possible if you’re up for it, and your contact details so we can talk about this easier!
Chengcheng and I hope to see you then!
(PS. I feel like Chengcheng will forget to message as soon as possible, so please let your friend Yanjun know that he’s the other winner. Cheers to you both!)
“Oh my gosh, Yanjun!” Minghao screams. “We’re the winners! We’re going to have free dinner with Chengcheng and Zhangjing!”
“What, you’re not joking?” Yanjun asks in disbelief. “Are you sure that I’ve won too?”
“Yes, we’re both the winners,” Minghao answers in between of squeals.
‘How come I don’t receive anything from them?” Yanjun asks again, starting to get skeptical.
Minghao finally calms down and shows him the message. “Chengcheng’s going to message you soon, Zhangjing says.”
Right after Minghao says that, Yanjun receives a notification saying that @yourfaneats have messaged him. He checks the message, and Zhangjing was right. They both win the free dinner sponsored by Chengcheng and Zhangjing, the YouTubers they have been a fan of for quite some time now.
“OH MY GOD,” they both freak out. “WE’RE GETTING FREE DINNER! WE’RE HAVING DINNER WITH ZHANGJING AND CHENGCHENG!”
They both jump out of excitement, as if tomorrow doesn’t exist anymore. They can’t believe that their two favorite YouTubers have chosen them to have dinner with. They hug each other and share how much they’re blessed to have this opportunity. They continue to express their overwhelming emotions until they realize that they need to verify their details to the YouTubers for the dinner to push through.
“This still feels unreal,” Minghao says after sending in his contact to the official account. “I don’t think I can sleep properly from now on, knowing that we’ll have a dinner with them.”
“Man, me too,” Yanjun says back. “I’m so excited to meet them.”
“I’m glad we joined.”
“I’m glad we got to win too.”