Story Information
Cover Fake It Till We Mean It

Fake It Till We Mean It

Your loudmouth roommate slams the door and informs you that, as of today, you're her partner.

#ContemporaryRomance #FakeDating #RoommatestoLovers #SlowBurn #SliceofLife #RomanticComedy

Story Description

**You've been drafted into a relationship you never agreed to. Effective immediately.** Lu Dahe is loud, competitive, allergic to losing an argument, and your roommate of six months. She pays her half of the rent on time. She steals your leftovers. She has never once knocked. The two of you have the arrangement down to a science: separate lives, shared kitchen, the occasional late-night bowl of noodles, zero expectations. Then she comes home from the family dinner from hell, kicks your door open, and announces that she told her parents she's seeing someone. That someone is you. The rules are simple, allegedly. Show up to Sunday dinners. Hold her hand. Back up her story. Don't flinch when her mother starts asking about your job, your family, and your intentions. In exchange, you get... well. You'll have to negotiate that part. Her mother, Lu Shufen, can smell a lie through a bowl of soup. The match the family already picked out — a perfectly decent, perfectly suitable man named Fang Shuo — isn't going anywhere. And every week the story gets bigger, the details harder to keep straight, and the line between what you're pretending and what you're starting to feel a little less visible. **What to expect:** a grounded, slow-burn fake-dating romance in a modern Chinese city. Slice of life, banter, nosy neighbors, late-night food stalls, and fade-to-black intimacy. Heavy on character, light on melodrama, honest about family pressure and what it costs to be loved for who you actually are. No systems, no powers — just two people sharing an apartment and a lie. You can keep it simple. Play the part, keep your distance, walk away when it's over. Or you can be the person who actually stays. The lease runs for another year. What are you going to do with it?

Characters

YouLu Dahe's roommate / fake partner

You've been sharing a flat with Lu Dahe for months. Your identity, gender, job or studies, and attitude toward all of this are yours to decide.

Lu DaheYour roommate / tomboy

Your loud, competitive, never-loses-an-argument tomboy roommate. She hates being pushed about marriage, lied to her family that she has a partner, and dragged you into the act.

Lu ShufenDahe's mother

The traditional mother who runs the family's old shop and treats her daughter's marriage as the top priority of her life. Sharp-tongued, hiding anxiety she can't say out loud.

Tang YueDahe's best friend

Dahe's oldest friend and the first person to see through the act. Teases relentlessly, but protects her friend when it counts.

Zhao QiMutual friend

A friend you and Lu Dahe share. Well-connected and addicted to causing a scene — the biggest troublemaker in this whole fake romance, and also the most good-hearted.

Fang ShuoThe match her family arranged

The man the Lu family had vetted for Dahe: respectable on paper, well-mannered in person, and a very real rival to the fake romance.

Auntie WangThe landlady

The landlady who lives in the same building. Warm, endlessly nosy, and the building's fastest-moving news service.

Story starts

Starting setup

Opening Preview

The Door Slams

You've been sharing this flat with Lu Dahe for a few months now. She is loud, competitive, incapable of losing an argument, and utterly without shame about any of it — at this point, none of that surprises you anymore. Tonight she's at the family dinner she spends weeks dreading, which means you finally have the place to yourself. You're sprawled on your bed, scrolling your phone. Then the front door slams hard enough to rattle the frame. She's back. One thud and you know exactly how that meal went. Heavy, furious footsteps stomp down the hall — and sure enough, your door bangs open without a knock. Lu Dahe blows in like weather, no apology, no pretense. She's wearing an actual nice shirt for once. The collar's already yanked crooked. She stops in front of you, chest heaving. "Hey. Idiot." No preamble. She kicks the door shut behind her and closes the distance to your bed. "Do me a favor — and it's not a request, you owe me." She drags a hand through her messy dark-green crop, jaw tight, still simmering from dinner. "My parents started up again tonight. When are you bringing someone home, are you really going to spend your whole life alone, the whole speech. I lost my temper. I told them I'm seeing someone." She leans in, one word at a time. "So as of today, you're my partner. And you'd better sell it, because I need them to believe we're disgustingly in love. Don't get squeamish on me. Understand?"

You've been roommates with Lu Dahe for a few months. She just got back from a disastrous family dinner and has declared you her fake partner as of today. You decide for yourself who you are in this relationship and how you feel about it — but note that the fake-to-real degree, the exposure risk, and the family's trust all shift for real based on what you say and do. This is a stage for urban romance and everyday comedy. There's no rush to advance anything. Start by working out whether you're even going to play along.