Chapter Text
“Fuck.”
Chongyun’s head rounds the corner. “Everything good?”
“Yes.”
His roommate’s unusually sparse responses has the exorcist-wannabe exiting as quietly and fast as he can, because he knows that Xingqiu’s fuse is about to blow. Xingqiu getting excessively mad used to be a rarer thing, but ever since he joined this messaging platform for his favorite webtoon, it’s been an angry Xingqiu at least biweekly--if not every other day.
“I’m… gonna head to the store. Want me to grab you anything?”
“No.”
Duly noted , Chongyun thinks to himself before locking the door and hastily walking from the door. He’s barely out of earshot when Xingqiu shouts in anger and loud clacking is heard shortly after.
“What… do… you… mean… that… they… shouldn’t… end… up… together…
“Have… you… even… fallen… in… love… before… you… emotionless… idiot… I’ll probably get a warning for that one, but,” a scoff punctuates his sentence, “it’s totally going to be worth it.”
Xingqiu’s latest predicament comes from his new obsession, a popular M/M webtoon called Our Constellations . Originally a webnovel, the comic has seen a boom in followers due to its recent webtoon adaptation.
Our Constellations follows a pair of star-crossed lovers that went through a traumatic incident (backstories haven’t been uncovered yet) where one of them lost their memories of everything prior to that and now they travel the universe to find the key to his missing memories, in the process making more and redeveloping the originally established relationship in a new way. Since the reader gets to see snippets of both sides--the past, already developed relationship and the new, budding romance, it is a particularly heart-wrenching and addicting read.
And Xingqiu is a sucker for those.
He binged all seven parts of the webnovel in two days (this was during finals week) and has already preordered physical copies of the webcomic, which has only covered two-thirds of the first book. The webnovel is on hiatus, so he’s glad for the reprise the webcomic provides.
One can imagine his absolute elation at discovering a fan-made community for his favorite story, and how fervently he participated in discussions about where the story would go. It was a bit difficult, since most of the people in the server hadn’t read all seven books yet and were just keeping up with the webtoon, but Xingqiu was open to discuss however and whatever--whether it was panel seven of chapter four of the webcomic or chapter 159 of the webnovel, he was open to everything.
Well, mostly everything, which leads to his current situation: there is a particularly infuriating user on the platform that had read to the latest book of the webnovel as well, but instead of seeing the obvious love between the two leads for what it was, this person decided to ship the second lead with the main character.
Which was mostly fine, as Xingqiu could at least maintain Internet etiquette if not real life, but this user not only actively commented on almost all main ship content Xingqiu talked about, but also enjoyed personally attacking him.
It would go like this:
zhingqueue8: did anyone see the latest official art!??!11 they’re so fkin beautiful
Artist: I did.
Artist: Will you be purchasing prints this time as well?
zhingqueue8: yes ofc lol i feel like i pay the artist directly w the amount of stuff i order
Artist: Haha.
Artist: I hope you’re not overspending.
Artist: The prints can get expensive.
Like, what the hell was that!? Aside from the obvious problems with their username--artist, really? No way can they draw better than ddcge, the artist for Our Constellations --their entitled, snobby tone drove Xingqiu crazy. And who was he to tell Xingqiu how to spend his money!? If he decided to use his grocery money to buy merch, that was on him goddamnit. None of his business.
zhingqueue8: open to discussion for c25! ping me if u wanna chat
Artist: @zhingqueue8
zhingqueue8: yes…?
Artist: You said to ping you if we want to chat.
zhingqueue8: oh, my b! how did u like the chap this week ? i felt like li was particularly romantic, bringing wang to the same place they had been a millenia ago
Artist: What did you think about the background for that scene?
Seriously, what the hell? Read the room, Artist! We were obviously talking about the plot, not the art--
But this one is easier to let go of, because ddcge’s art is truly masterful.
zhingqueue8: SO BEAUTIULF OMG MG G PLS
zhingqueue8: ddcge is my idol psl if i could meet them irl i would
zhingqueue8: pls WHEN WILL THEY HOST AN EVENT OR PUT UP A VIDEO OF THE DRAWING PROCESS omg that way at least i could see my prince’s face ghuhh
Artist: That would be fun.
zhingqueue8: ikr!
This one… wasn’t as offensive but did make Xingqiu feel awkward about over-fanboying to someone very more apathetic about it. That awkwardness probably contributed to his hatred for Artist.
Now, these previous examples had been slightly charged interactions between the two, but Xingqiu hadn’t resorted to full on name calling in his previous chats. But this latest conversation really did need some rudeness:
zhingqueue8: pls i can’t with them
zhingqueue8: they’re too cute
zhingqueue8: Attached IMG_7490
zhingqueue8: AGHHHHHH DDCGE PLS MARRY ME
zhingqueue8: also pls hte way he draws them is too beautiful how could anyone even bother shipping hy with li
Artist: I prefer Huang Yu with Li.
!?!!!???!!?!??! What?!??!??!
zhingqueue8: really ! ? even tho the story has mainly focused on the other two thus far?!
Artist: Yes.
Artist: I feel like Huang Yu can see more of Li for who he is as opposed to seeing him for what he was.
Artist: Li has changed a lot from the person that Wang knew him as, so I think it would be beneficial to both parties for them to split up.
Artist: I feel it disrespectful for people to be with another only for the memory of it as opposed to tangible feelings.
So yes, Xingqiu is mad.
zhingqueue8: wdym they shouldn’t end up together?
zhingqueue8: u fockin idjit
zhingqueue8: [deleted a message]
zhingqueue8: i disagree w u, i feel like 7 books of the webnovel showing their relationship isn’t for no reason
zhingqueue8: like the shipping is a matter of preference but i think everyone deserves a chance to be happy together and it’s kinda weird that you seem kinda adamant about them not happening
Artist: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for my statement to come across like that.
Yeah, well, it’s too late, sucker. I’m gonna avoid you. Xingqiu’s onesided battle made him hungry, so he leaves his recluse in search of something to eat (probably something of Chongyun’s, since Chongyun has good snacks). I wonder if he has any fire flakes…
[1 New Friend Request]
Artist: I think we have good discussions together. I’d like to be your friend.