So of course he tries approaching the young man. And it goes pretty good too! Sure Jiang Cheng was a bit unsure at first why someone like Lan Xichen would ever be interested in HIM, but he slowly warms up.

Soon they even hang out just for themselves, not just because he tags along with wwx and happens to be here. Jiang Cheng is just so happy that someone seems to like him back (because of course he had a crush on him, have you seen him!?).

He also gets to meet with Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue.

They both wondered what Lan Xichen kept talking about when he mentioned that cute boy he met. Nie Mingjue knew he was friends with his didi, but that was it. Maybe a story here and there coming from nhs.

but it doesn't take long to understand what lxc means, jc is pretty cute, especially when you praise him and he ends up all flustered because he enjoys the praise.

The two friends were also slowly also falling for jc's charms, wanting him to themselves too.

They would have been happy with lxc getting a new boyfriend for himself, but now they actually also wanted a piece of the little cute jc. if the young man would like it, they are happy to also love him.

And like this, everything was going so well in Jiang Cheng's opinion.

He made new friends who take good care of him, He is becoming a bit more confident now that he has people who don't always pin him against wwx and his crush seems to also be interested in him!

He even thought that he should try and tell lxc about his feeling!

But then his hopes of that got crushed.

They were going to watch a movie and had decided to first grab lunch in a cafe next to the cinema. He was early but assumed he could just get them a table. But he wasn't even in when he saw through the window lxc and jgy kissing at a table, looking as though they had been there for a little while already and having a date.

He wasn't sure what to do, not feeling comfortable at the idea of interrupting whatever moment they were having right now.

He was about to back out, only to bump into someone as he was turning around. He jumped a bit, apologising, only to hear a familiar voice calling out to him. Of course, he had bumped into nmj when he tried to flee.

"Are you alright?" he asked, frowning a bit worried because of jc's reaction. "Yeah, yes, I was just unsure this was the right place" jc lied with a slightly forced smile. There went his chance to run away.

He followed nmj inside, happy to see lxc and jgy were not all over each other again, sitting down with them. The afternoon ended up being a bit awkward for him, trying to still have fun. It was not their fault that he was the one who misunderstood lxc intentions.

at the movie he took a seat next to nmj on the side, making sure to leave lxc and jgy on the other side of nmj.

he couldn't stay with them afterwards though, feeling like he needed to just be alone to tend to his broken heart.

and from there little jc felt more distant from lxc, finding reasons not to be able to hang out if everyone was here, needing some time to just throw aside his feelings ("I get it, jgy is pretty and smart, I wonder bother him with my feelings").

"I don't get it! It feels like a-cheng has been avoiding me lately?! but I don't think I did anything wrong, everything was going smoothly, I was even going to confess to him!" lxc said, laying on nmj's bed.

"Maybe something happened, when did it all start?"

"Three weeks ago? When we went to the movie I think".

jgy hummed, trying to think of what could it be.

"Well, he did look a bit troubled before going to eat" nmj mentioned when he thought about it, "He looked about to leave when I got there.

it was as if he had seen something bad, but he said he was just unsure about the place".

jgy frowned a bit, before remembering what lxc and he had been doing. They had decided to have a little date to themselves just before going, being more openly touchy than usual.

"He saw us kissing," jgy said, turning to nmj, "Why did you never tell us jc had acted weird before joining us?! We thought he had come with you, not gotten there early".

nmj looked unsure, he hadn't thought something like this had happened, he hadn't known those two had decided to go full-on PDA when they knew jc was supposed to join them.

"Don't look at me like this, why hasn't either of you told him about us then? Would have cleared any possible misunderstanding"

With this, they decided it was probably better to tell Jiang Cheng about it. Maybe he wouldn't want to join them, or even just give them a chance to lxc, but it was better to try than see him sad because of a misunderstanding.

But little a-cheng is so hard to contact these days!! He kept being busy or awkwardly finding reason when they see each other. He still couldn't really face Lxc with his feelings knowing he is together with jgy 😔 He wants to be happy for them when they hang out, not feel like crying. He wants to be a good friend!

So 3zun needs to resort to trickery to get him to talk to them! And who's better to do so than Nie Huaisang who of course would *never* trick him, right?

And so he went for dinner with nhs to this new place he wanted to try, only to be abandoned by nhs the moment they got the private room where 3zun already was.

He wanted to go, but nhs made sure he couldn't get out ("I better get a good reward for this dage!").

He had no choice but to accept to sit down, looking nervous and awkward. Not to help none of the older men were saying anything either.

"Look, I think we need to make something clear" jgy finally started as he saw no one was talking. This had jc immediately shrink in his seat, feeling like he knew where it was going.

"There's no need to worry, I get it, I got my feelings all up, but I won't push it on anyone and I am really happy to know you have someone great with you" jc started, not feeling like having that kind of conversation.

"I-I just need a little bit of time to forget it all, it was my mistake, I won't-"

"You got it all wrong!" lxc quickly said, not wanting to see him blame himself again for something he didn't do.

"But... I saw you two kissing" jc said, looking puzzled, how could he get it wrong?

"It's true that I am dating xichen-ge" jgy said, only for jc to sink in his seat again, looking confused as to what they were saying, "But I also do date ming-ge" he added.

This only had jc looking even more confused and surprised, looking at the man sitting next to him.

He had nothing against this, if they were happy that was fine!! But how was it that he got it all wrong? That he was missing nmj in his equation? now this only meant lxc had two great boyfriends he couldn't even compare with.

"lxc is head over heels for you" nmj mentioned as lxc nodded, "He also wants to date you" he then added, making it clear that lxc was still very much interested in him /right now/.

"Is this true?" jc asked when he turned back to lxc, the man giving him a smile.

"Of course, I wouldn't lie to you about this, I really wanted to date you," he said.

"At first we were happy that xichen-ge found someone new to love," jgy said, "But then me and ming-ge also ended up falling for your cute little face and your charms and wanted to start dating you"

"But we understand if you only want to date lxc" nmj mentioned, "you clearly were flirting with him, not us".

This was quite a lot for jc to take in. Not only was the guy he loved also in love with him, but he also had two other great dudes (who were also boyfriends with his crush) loving him?!? how had he attracted the attention of so many successful young men?!?

He thought about it for a moment and got a bit flustered at the idea of being loved by these three people. Could he really?

"You don't need to give us an answer right now," lxc said with a smile, "You can think about it more if you need to".

"It's also okay if you decided to only choice lxc, or no one if this doesn't suit you either" jgy added. they didn't want to make it seems like he would be forced to date them if he didn't want to.

They had dinner all together, jc being curious about how all of this was working for them. it was pretty interesting to listen to, also gave him an idea of how it worked.

By the end of the night, he had already thought about it, grabbing lxc hands as they were getting out of the restaurant. He felt like if he didn't say it right now he wouldn't later and would only doubt himself and his choice.

"I-I would like to try it out with you three... if you do want me around," he said, looking nervous.

He was taken aback when he felt strong arms hug him, looking up at a smiling lxc. "Of course, we would love to," he said.

jc couldn't help but look towards jgy and nmj once lxc let go of him, seeing jgy come for a hug too, much more gentle than lxc had been. "We already said it, we also fell for how cute you are," jgy said, before also being surprised when another pair of strong arms came to hug them both at the same time. "We will make sure to love you so much you won't want to go away anymore and you won't have any more doubt about us" nmj assured him.

jc couldn't help but feel warm at the attention and how confident they sounded in this.

Maybe he was also good enough to have such great and wonderful boyfriends too.