Title In Progress

Superficial Brothers: 1 & 2

1.

I guess you didn’t know, right? That Yan Jin and I are arch-enemies.

After all, when the two of us publicly debuted as a duo, all you could see was a pair of brothers who loved each other.

Yan Jin sings, and I play the guitar. He looks refined and handsome under the spotlight, his features sentimental, his voice gentle and deep like rainclouds, he looks like that handsome guy in school that every girl is secretly in love with. And I am his foil, I do accompaniment and harmony for him, I’ll sing a brief solo every once in a while, but most of the time I just sit outside of the limelight with my head bowed, plucking the strings, reserved and not fond of talking, with a shy and modest smile.

According to the character introductions magazines have written about us two, Yan Jin and I are childhood friends who’ve known each other for 20 years, with a love more solid than gold, the two of us have adored music since we were young, so we were kindred spirits, and we established shared goals while growing up and pursued our dreams, supporting each other and overcoming many challenges along the way, all the way to the present.

The TV interviews about us say Yan Jin and I are so deeply compatible even our souls are in sync, and that, when it comes to music, his voice and my strings are like a match made in heaven, and that it would be a real pity to lose either; When it comes to our life, the two of us have never fought and never gotten angry at each other, with a friendship that almost surpasses love.

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

Well then, let me tell you.

——It’s all fake.


We’re just superficial brothers.


2.

“We should split up.”

If I remember correctly, I’ve already had this talk with Yan Jin many times before, “We’ll be exposed sooner of later if we keep acting like this.”

His mind was clearly somewhere else, his gaze was vacant and he slumped on a chair to smoke, doing his own thing. I’ve already told him not to smoke in the recording studio, I hate the tarry smell. He heard me, but he didn’t change.

I frowned as I used a hand to fan the grey fog drifting in front of my face, not waiting for him to state his piece, feeling my patience wearing away little by little. Fortunately, he knew the limits of my patience and replied just as I was on the verge of exploding, “If you can still pretend, I can also pretend, and we won’t be exposed.”

I swallowed a breath, “Where’s your confidence coming from?”

“It’s just the facts.”

He wasn’t wrong, it was just like how the company had always warned us, we had to keep up our image in front of people no matter how tense our relationship was behind closed doors. The atmosphere of friendly affection we created was part of our work, it’s the required commercial packaging and setting.

But, ironically, our official image is almost completely opposite to our actual circumstances: Yan Jin is not refined and gentle at all, he smokes and drinks, he’s full of bad habits, he’s arrogant and wilful, and he doesn’t care about anyone; and I’m not shy and reserved either, I’ve got an extremely bad temper and I don’t get along well with people, I’m as irritable as a pack of explosives about to go off. It was only because our external appearance gave people the impression that we “should” be that way that the company made us suppress our natures, even gilding the lily by calling it “self-improvement training”.

I’ve tolerated it for three years, I really can’t tolerate it any more.

“I’ve had enough.” I grabbed a stack of sheet music and firmly slammed it down onto the mixing board, announcing, “I want to quit.”

“Don’t, brother?”

Seeing that I wanted to leave, Yan Jin finally moved. He put out his cigarette and stood up, rushing in front of me to block my way and standing in front of the door to try and persuade me, but I knew that wasn’t his real intention, his words were contradictory and the expression in his eyes as he looked at me was blatantly mocking, “Isn’t it just a song?”

I glared at him, not yielding an inch.

“Just write whatever you like, okay? I’ll sing it… I’ll sing whatever you write, really, I’m counting on you, okay?” He snorted and scratched the back of his neck, “Is it really worth making such a big fuss over such a small thing… Grow up a little, Chi Sheng, look at the big picture.”

He yawned and his eyelids drooped as he looked haughtily down at me, he had a fake smile on his face and his words were extremely ear-piercing.

“I’ve never said I had enough of you, but you got fed up with me first?” He said, “Makes me feel very good about myself.”