Finally, Vidol’s BL series’ third installment has made its way to GagaOOLala! ‘VIP Only’ depicts a story about a writer who is having writer’s block and uses the chef of the restaurant directly below his apartment as a love interest to gain inspiration. From his cameo in ‘You Are Mine,’ with the same character, the series stars Stan Huang alongside Xuan Chen. Will their pretend romance blossom like the stories they’ve read about in fairy tales? Let’s all find out in this BLTai recap of its pilot episodes!
Warning: Spoiler alert. Read at your own risk.
Episode 1
A frustrated writer named Liu Li talks with his friend Lai, who keeps telling him to get out of the house and maybe look for a romantic relationship to get over the writer’s block that has been plaguing him for a while. Liu Li, however, is skeptical that he can meet someone by simply walking outside and chooses to eat at Gu Zhai instead, his favorite restaurant, which is conveniently located on the second floor of the apartment complex he lives in. Gu Jing, a passionate chef and part-time photographer, is the owner of Gu Zhai, a restaurant featuring mouthwatering beef noodles and other Chinese cuisine. Liu Li rushes to the restaurant and slips on the stairs, falling straight into Gu Jing’s arms as he opens the restaurant. Feeling ashamed of the previous incident, Liu Li apologized and refrained from looking at Gu Jing’s or his assistant Da Ren’s faces. Da-ren, who is irritated with Liu Li for always getting the best seat in the restaurant every day, suggests that he try their spicy noodles. Seeing that Da-Ren purposefully added more spice to the noodles for vengeance, Gu Jing orders him to bring Liu Li tea as payback for his petty retaliation. Gu Jing looks at the book “The Room Where the Bluebirds Fly Over” which is kept in the restaurant’s minibar before lecturing Da-Ren for his petty behavior as he finds it satisfying that his establishment is cozy enough for patrons to visit daily. Afterward, Liu Li couldn’t help but stare at Gu Jing as he was photographing the meals for his portfolio. Eventually, he turned his attention to the origami paper he was folding to pass the time since he was bored. He didn’t realize that Gu Jing had already noticed him and snapped pictures of him while he was tinkering with the origami. Once more, Liu Li stays in the restaurant until it closes, rushing to finish the manuscript that his editor, Lai, is requesting he turn in by midnight. While writing, he is reminded once more of the manuscript he wrote and gave as a graduation present to Wu Shin, a university classmate he had feelings for. Wu Shin, who already had a girlfriend at the time, was unaware of Liu Li’s romantic feelings toward him and wished for him to follow his dreams before they parted ways.
The next day, Gu Jing tidies up the origami papers Liu Li unintentionally left behind in his restaurant. When Liu Li goes to an amusement ranch in the meantime, Tsai, his editor, bluntly informs him that during the previous year, all of his works had been similar to one another hence not being approved for publication. She advises him to carefully consider his next course of action and reminds him that his contract is about to expire. Liu Li uses the amusement ranch’s zoo as a diversion, and coincidentally, Gu Jing is there to snap pictures for the creative brief of the ranch. Liu Li’s smile captures Gu Jing’s attention once more, and he starts taking pictures of him. Sometime later, Lai calls Liu Li after he’s finished playing around the zoo, reminding him of the blind date he set for him. Liu Li meets Lai in Gu Zhai along with A-ke, his blind date. When A-ke mentions that he and Wu Shin were in the same class in college, Liu Li becomes interested, despite his initial lack of interest. Additionally, A-ke discloses that Wu Shin and he share the same blood type and horoscope. Lai leaves them to acquaint themselves with one another, and A-ke says that he had confessed to Liu Li earlier, but he was too busy with Wu Shin and might not even have remembered him. If Liu Li still wants someone similar to Wu Shin, A-ke says with confidence that he can choose him this time. Gu Jing and Da-ren, who are watching them from the restaurant’s bar, notice that Liu Li is becoming uneasy in his seat.
Owing to the unexpected flashback to his first breakup, Liu Li ends up getting wasted and staying at the restaurant until midnight, with Gu Jing and Da-ren occasionally watching him. Calling Lai on speakerphone, Liu Li complains that he has introduced him to someone who will only make his wounds worse. Lai promises to pick him up from the restaurant and reminds him not to do anything crazy. Liu Li sees Gu Jing and Da-ren and chastises them miserably for standing by while he cries. He then unexpectedly hugs Gu Jing and begins to cry about how awful the day has been. Before going to the kitchen to prepare soup for Liu Li, Gu Jing calls Da-ren to take his place. Da-ren couldn’t help but rant that his boss appears to have apparent endless patience for Liu Li. They are taken aback when Liu Li abruptly pulls Gu Jing close and plants a kiss on his cheek. At that moment, Lai shows up, apologizes for Liu Li’s behavior, and informs them that he has a habit of kissing random people’s faces when he is drunk. To everyone’s surprise, Liu Li brashly disputes it and gives Gu Jing a kiss on the lips.
