@hanguangjuun @DalongGazi @riwethiel @dwukwiatek @Iiebeslied thread to introduce you to some of the big CP's in S2, aka, in S2 fandom, biggest 3rd wheel is fandom itself (I tagged moots that from my knowledge I don't think are well versed in Chinese/Weibo sry if I missed ya!)

The earliest CP in S2 is no doubt double He, they met when auditions were held in Europe and had the backing of the show. Here they are in S2's guest appearance on the 07/14/2019 episode of Day Day Up to promote the show 1 week before it started airing

Along with Double He, other members that went repping S2 included Yu Hua, Dong Pan and Xu Junshuo. This episode also featured ALongChuanCai, which led to these iconic screencaps at 1 pt

Everyone was joking about poor Junshuo being a 5th wheel...that is, until EP 3 aired. And we got this iconic serenade where Junshuo sings acapella a small segment of 1 of Qiyuan's most iconic musical solos in a bid to convince Qiyuan to pick him over He Liangchen for the duet

And ofc as if the serenade isn't enough, he also changes the lyrics so instead of the last line being, "you aren't here anymore", it becomes, I want you still here

During the show's run, members would also sometimes do livestreams on Weibo where they'd watch the first airing in realtime along with fans, make comments etc. And guess who they got to watch along with fans for the 08/09 EP. 4 livestream? Yeup! The JunQi CP!

But wait, these livestreams were always done with 3 ppl, so guess who got to be the 3rd wheel here? None other than Qiyuan Ge's roomate, Mao Er!
Caption on p4 says: Qiyuan Ge please have mercy on me (oh poor Mao Er)

Now at the time, we were all thinking, oh poor Mao Er...except, was it really? 2 days earlier he posted this video in celebration of Qixi. In it he's seen taking the hand of an unidentified person and asks us to guess to

It's actually a poke fun at Dong Pan, since Pan Pan posted something earlier that day where he was holding hands with Yingxi Ge

Later that night, the riddle is solved when Yang Haochen shares this post in celebration of Qixi. Mao Er then reposts it

Haochen: happy Qixi! @ Mao Er, wishing everyone...
Mao Er: this is the answer y'all wanted

Now, not many ppl paid these weibo's much attn at the time, or I certainly didn't anyways. But then not long after, more signs started popping up...

This is a snippet from a Weibo BTS where they celebrate Xu Kai's bday. LOOK AT HOW NATURALLY HAOCHEN GRABS MAO ERS WAIST

weibo cred in watermark

Look at dat hand. So at ease, like it's s'posed to fit there

Also this upclose gif from another BTS extra. Yes that's Mao Er drawing circles on Haochen's neck with this thumb ELDKFJDJDJDND

Now Mao Er and Haochen are both part of Dong Pan performance team. You know who else is in that team too? Schoolmates and roomates Guo Hongxu and Dong Pan, who have also been incredibly shippable since day 1

So within the Dong Pan Group, we have both the PanXu CP, and the YangMao CP. The only 2 remaining members in that team are Xu Kai, and Wang Minhui. Because Xu Kai's from overseas (Malaysia) he's not as active on Weibo, and is more on the quiet side to begin w/anyway

But Wang Minhui is always very lively in the comments section of the 2 CPs and so fandom took to pitying Minhui for having to put up with those 4 PDA devotees

And then shortly after the show ended did we then realize, of all ppl, Minhui was the person we needed to worry the least about.

They weren't that obvious during the show's run, but towards the end of it, it became pretty obvious that Zhou Shiyuan and Wang Minhui are kinda close. Here's Shiyuan doing Minhui's makeup for him because Minhui "doesn't know how to himself" (he says those words in the video)

And here's Zhou Shiyuan having the honour of presenting the bday cake to Minhui at his bday party shortly after the show finished recording (which he flew from Beijing to Shanghai to ESP. attend).

It's also well known that Zhou Shiyuan comes from a pretty well off family. So take a moment to digest the fact that Zhou Shiyuan GIFTED Minhui a NEW LAPTOP for his bday, which he throws out oh so casually in this interview

And if that's not enough for you, here's HuiYuan CP singing their only collab from the show at the Zhengzhou stop. The outfit Minhui is wearing was given to him by Shiyuan.
If ever you wanted to ship a real person spoil-you-silly-CEO pairing, HuiYuan's gotcha!

So yes, who does the fandom really have to pity? No one but ourselves, in reality, we are all Xu Kai in the photo below

Caption: Me and my CPs

This is from the Zhengzhou stop, L-R is HuiYuan CP, YangMao CP, and XuPan CP

Honorable mention:
ChaoXin CP, aka Dong Pan perf group 3rd wheel CP

@peonyuno this is why I said Jiaxin BB doesn't need protecting either

XuPan + Zhao Chaofan are often referred to as the Nanjing 3, cuz they all study in Nanjing. The 3 of them did the watch along with fans livestream tgther, and have hung out together several times in Nanjing after filming ended
P2: them cooking dinner tgther

Wang Jiaxin was roomates with Haochen during filming of SV and often hung out together with YangMao. Here they are at an amusement park together during Mid-Autumn Festival break