Capturing My Demon King Costar

MY COSTAR ASKS ME TO MARRY HIM

Yao Shen and Xin Hulei spend the rest of their day in domestic bliss. Maybe it's due to the recent threat on their life, but Yao Shen thinks there's nothing he'd rather be doing than cleaning the apartment while Xin Hulei cooks them dinner.

It's so easy to take the simple things in life for granted. Free time to spend with the people you love is the greatest privilege of all.

The news of Xin Hulei's impending retirement make Yao Shen think about his own long-term plans.

He has just dipped his fingers into acting, Yan Shuyi is his first major acting role, and all things considered, 'Crimson Promise' does kind of reduce him to Xie Huan's love interest, and little else.

Yao Shen wants to take on meatier roles, the kind of roles people will remember him for in the future. The kind of roles Xin Hulei has always had the luck to play.

So he's not ready to join Xin Hulei in retirement just yet -- but he also wants to look over the Underworld too. That's a promise he made himself, that he would never let things get as bad as they were.

Despite his terrible temper, he knows he can trust Xie Bian to run everything, and Fan Wujiu to do as Xie Bian tells him.

Still, there's the whole immortality of it all to consider.

"What are you going to do, once you retire?" Yao Shen asks Xin Hulei, over dinner on the safe.

Xin Hulei smiles, and it softens his whole face. He has been doing that more today, and it never stops leaving Yao Shen a little winded.

"I was thinking you would let me hang out with you."

"'Hang out?'" He raises one eyebrow. "You thought that, uh? That's all you want? To hang out with me?"

Xin Hulei hums. "Maybe there's other things we can do too."

"Yeah? Like what," Yao Shen asks, enjoying Xin Hulei's pleased little smirk.

"Maybe we could make 'hanging out' official."

A beat. Yao Shen's blood starts pumping loudly inside his ears. Perhaps it's just his own wishful thinking, but he could have sworn that sounded like...

"Are you...proposing?"

"No," Xin Hulei says, and sets down his bowl on the table in front of the sofa.

Yao Shen tries not to let his disappointment show. "Oh."

He's looking down at his hands, so he doesn't see the moment Xin Hulei takes out a red bookmark from his back pocket.

Yao Shen almost jumps out of his skin when Xin Hulei places the bookmark over his hands, its cool touch startling him.

"I bought this during our first date," Xin Hulei says, his voice low and warm, like a roaring fire on a cold winter day.

Yao Shen turns the bookmark around in his fingers. It's decorated with auspicious sayings for marital bliss, along with some tacky traditional wedding decorations. It makes Yao Shen smile.

'Their first date' could barely have been called that...but...trust Xin Hulei to remember the occasion nonetheless.

"I was drawn to that one, I can't say why."

Yao Shen holds up the bookmark in front of his face. "Could it have been because of its incredible good taste, and of what an excellent example of graphic design it is?"

Xin Hulei's smirk widens. "Almost certainly." Despite his glib words, it's obvious this matters to him. "Anyway, I just wanted to buy it, so I did. But I didn't give it to you, despite how much it reminded me of you."