Chapter Text
If you asked Choi Soobin, psychology major, what he enjoyed most about his apartment, his answer wouldn’t have been, for sure, his flatmate. There was a lot to be enjoyed about living on his own, in a nice building, being able to go to classes in a reasonable amount of time, but surely having Choi Beomgyu as a flatmate was reason enough to live on the verge of a migraine every single day. Beomgyu was clean enough, tidy enough, very focused on his music studies, never organized parties at home without asking first, never had too many people over. All of this, anyway, hardly compensated for his burning passion for online shopping. Which landed them in the current predicament.
“I’m telling you,” Beomgyu was half yelling, to one of the guys who lived next door. Whom, Soobin couldn’t quite understand, because he was hidden by the door. Judging by the irritation in Beomgyu’s voice, though, it could only be the short economics student. With the other two, Beomgyu had a better time. “I ordered some stuff , and the website told me it’s been delivered, but it hasn’t been delivered to me .”
Soobin checked his phone once more, his sister was late. Or, actually, she was late only because she’d told him she’d come around way earlier than necessary, just to spend some time together. He sighed, and stepped in the hallway, ready to apologize for Beomgyu’s behavior.
“First of all,” the kid next door replied, his voice really serious. “How do I know it hasn’t been delivered to you?”
Beomgyu’s shoulders dropped, as he groaned kinda loudly. “Are you dumb or what? How can I show you that I don’t have something? You wanna come along to my room and see that there is no pedal for my amplifier? Because you can if you want but then you’ll say something like how do I know you haven’t hidden it somewhere- ”
“Please shut up,” the other kid stopped him. “I actually have an assignment to work on, just tell me what you want.” Soobin was rather impressed, because he himself wouldn’t have been able to just interrupt Beomgyu when he was on a roll. Maybe he should ask for private lessons. He could pay this kid.
“Just, can you check if you or the people who live with you have taken my package by mistake?” Beomgyu looked like smoke could come out of his ears by any second. The other kid must have nodded or something, because he just shut the door, leaving an exasperated Beomgyu in the middle of the hallway.
Soobin laughed quietly at the sight, his flatmate standing in front of a closed door with closed eyes and crossed arms. Beomgyu turned to him. “I hate him,” he said. Soobin was sure the feeling was mutual.
Soojin, Soobin’s older sister, picked this moment exactly to appear from the stairwell. Perfect , Soobin thought. Now he’d have to explain this horrible terrible situation to Soojin, too. Or worse, Beomgyu would explain it, making him and Soojin both late for lunch.
The issue was that, somehow, whoever was in charge of delivering the insane amount of stuff that Beomgyu ordered online, had some trouble with getting the address one hundred percent right. The other side of the issue was that there was a boy living next door — Beomgyu’s enemy’s flatmate — who spent almost as much money as Beomgyu online. Which meant that, inevitably, their packages would always, always , get mixed up. Soobin’s personal hypothesis was that the delivery person had zero interest in their job, never read the full name on the packages, and stopped at whatever apartment number they liked more. Whether it was the Choi in apartment 11 or the Choi in apartment 12 that had ordered something, this person couldn’t care less.
Now, another kind of problem, to be honest, was that Soobin, too, had bought something online. Because, sue him, in 2022 people buy things online. And expect them to be delivered to their address, and not to be lost somewhere, possibly delivered to another Choi next door. So, here they were, both him and Beomgyu hoping that the other Choi had somehow both their packages.
“Can’t you file a complaint to the sellers about this situation?” Soojin said, as she was sitting on their sofa, having listened to a joint account of this disgrace by Soobin and Beomgyu.
“Are you crazy, noona?” Soobin replied, instantly. Why would they go to all the trouble of looking for the address to write the complaint to, and then compile it, and then never get a reply?
Beomgyu’s eyebrows shot high on his forehead, “Noona, this delivery person is possibly underpaid, we underdogs must stick together.” Soobin rolled his eyes. Not again. Not Beomgyu’s anticapitalist rant on a Sunday morning, please.
“How exactly are you an underdog?” Soobin still asked, regretting it instantly. “You study in one of the top universities in the country, you’ve been allowed to study music, of all things, you’re like born from privilege because of this alone.”
Soojin laughed, because she didn’t have to live with him every day of her life. She had her husband, her very cute son, and everything was well with her teacher job. Soojin didn’t have to share her apartment with emo musician Choi Beomgyu who had decided of late that he was part of an oppressed minority. “Soobinnie,” she said, nicely. “Let your junior breathe.” A-ha , see, Soojin was fooled by Beomgyu’s cute, wide-eyed act. He looked so small, so young and so innocent: he was a nightmare.
“Yeah, Soobinnie ,” Beomgyu echoed. And Soobin would have liked to punch him on his, admittedly, very pretty nose. “Also, it’s not like a degree in music will have any use in real life,” Beomgyu said, bitterly. “And we’re kinda ignoring the elephant in the room,” he went on. Soobin frowned. What could he be hinting at? It couldn’t be- He wouldn’t dare. With Soojin? “I’m still gay.”
And there it was.
Soobin sighed. Did they need this on this very fine Sunday? Now Soojin would ask a million questions, all of them to Soobin because surely she wouldn’t want to be rude to Beomgyu. Privileged, spoiled, damned Beomgyu. Soobin shrugged at his sister’s panicked gaze. She was clearly asking how she was supposed to react, but Soobin had no idea. He hadn’t had to react in any way. Beomgyu had sent an application to live in this apartment right when the previous lodger of his room vacated it. The first thing he’d stated in his application, after his name and age, was that he was, to quote him, a homosexual man who will probably have a normal relational life , and if this is going to create problems just don’t contact me . Soobin now wished he’d followed the suggestion. Not because he had issues with Beomgyu’s identity, but because he had issues with Beomgyu as a person.
“I’m sure we’re progressing on this matter,” was Soojin’s answer. A pitiful one. Soobin sighed, again.
If Soobin was a religious man, he’d have thanked his god very profusely when their doorbell rang, before him or Soojin or Beomgyu could say anything else. Beomgyu bolted upright, running to open the door, and Soobin was finally left alone with his sister.
“I’m sorry about him,” Soobin said, weakly. Soojin laughed, again. But Soobin actually found it totally not funny, at all. If Soojin started asking questions about it, it would be so awkward, because truly Soobin had a thousand other things he could say about Beomgyu before getting to the gay thing. And then, the truly terrifying prospect, she might start asking about Soobin. And, well, Soobin had a lot of stuff he hadn’t told his sister. Yet.
Fortunately, Soojin was the most polite person on earth, and she didn’t say anything, moving on to telling him about how her son couldn’t wait to meet Soobin later. “He’ll be so happy, Soobinnie,” she said, “he misses his younger uncle all the time!” Soobin nodded. “His other uncle, he said, has bored him by now. And his aunt, too. Poor girl. That child is a wild beast, he even asked when you’re going to get him a new aunt.” Soobin laughed. Firstly, because his nephew was a comedian. Secondly, because he wouldn’t get him any aunt.
Once again, he was spared from having to reply by an external intervention. Namely, Beomgyu coming back to the living room, with their neighbor in tow.
“Hey,” Choi Yeonjun, from apartment 11, said. And then he bowed politely to Soojin. “Good morning, noona,” he said, being the dream of any woman’s fantasy ever. Because, yes, Choi Yeonjun from apartment 11, one year older than Soobin, graduated with perfect scores in his BA, and currently focusing on his MA’s thesis, was straight out of a romance novel. Tall, elegant, nice and actually funny. He could even endure Beomgyu without flinching.
“Hi,” Soobin replied, “what’s up?” Wow. Smooth. 10/10 in How young people talk to each other without sounding awkward .
“Ah,” Yeonjun started, with a wide smile, “So, I think I have something that’s yours?” He wiggled his eyebrows. Soobin had bought a book . A fucking essay about psychoanalysis that no library in the whole Seoul area could find for him. Why was Yeonjun acting like he had his dirty laundry in his room? “Which leaves our Beomie without anything, at least until Hueningie wakes up and tells us if he’s the one with his pedal.”
Our Beomie , ew. He could keep Beomgyu if he liked him that much. “Can we exchange them? You keep Beomie and I get Kai?” Soobin muttered, but it was loud enough to be heard, because Yeonjun burst out in laughter.
“I’m sorry ?” Beomgyu tried to protest. “I pay to stay here?” Soobin threw him a dirty look.
Yeonjun, anyway, patted him on the shoulders. “I think Taehyunnie would kill him in a second, so we can’t. I’m sorry.” Of all the people Yeonjun had mentioned, none of them hadn’t received a weirdly affectionate diminutive. Yeonjun hadn’t used it with Soobin, though. And why, exactly, had Soobin noticed this?
“Ugh,” he replied. “Hyung, can’t you just give me my book then? If you’re not here to relieve me of my troubles you can at least give me my essay on twenty-first century psychoanalysis.” Soobin knew he could sound petulant. But, again, this was just within his rights. First, they’d lost his book, then Beomgyu had had to go and make a fool of himself with- Taehyun? And now Yeonjun was refusing to help him get rid of Beomgyu.
Yeonjun smiled at him, again. His smile was warm, the kind of smile you give to long-time friends and betrays a deeper level of affection. So, a misplaced smile, because the only interactions Soobin had ever had with Yeonjun were for the most part related to the package delivery problem. Plus, that one time when Yeonjun’s flatmate Kai had made the fire alarm go off and they were all forced to stand outside the building in the middle of the night.
“Oh, your book is already here, I left it where you all leave your keys, next to the door,” Yeonjun supplied, “we talked for a while by the door, so I dropped it there,” he explained further.
“Thank you so much,” Soobin said, with a smile of his own. “Now I can look forward to preparing yet another exam,” he concluded. Yeonjun laughed, his laughter was a bit nasal. It made him stand out. He turned to Soojin again, bowing once more.
“It’s been nice to meet you, noona,” he commented, “Now I’ll go back to my own apartment, and if Kai finds your pedal, Beomie, I’ll make sure to drop by. Bye bye.” Yeonjun made to get to the door, but he turned back as if he’d just remembered something. “Ah, Soobinnie,” he said. “I’ll tell you, too. I ordered a couple of shirts, they should get here this week. If you get a delivery of that weight and shape and that’s from a department store, it’s mine, yeah?” Soobin just nodded, a bit stunned by the way their neighbor was being all casual. They truly weren’t that close.
“Yeah,” he said, weakly.
And then his nightmare truly began. Frankly, Soobin should have known better. He should have started explaining immediately what had happened, he should have told Soojin in full detail that Choi Yeonjun from apartment 11 was just the most sociable person ever and the only one in his apartment who didn’t care about the constant mix-up of packages, and who always sorted everything out. He should have also avoided leaving Soojin alone with Beomgyu for a full ten minutes, as he changed his pants to go out for lunch with his sister, her family, their parents, and their brother. However, he’d done nothing of this. And this sealed his fate.
Soojin drove him to the restaurant, and they chatted about nothing in particular. Soobin was talking about how he should find some internship for the following semester, and she was relaying how her husband couldn’t find a decent repairman for their garden, and Soobin was also telling her that Beomgyu was in a feud with Taehyun from next door also because Taehyun’s plants always dripped on Beomgyu’s hanged laundry, and Soojin told him how when she was in university her heating system broke down in the middle of winter. When they parked, the rest of their family was already there. Soobin’s nephew ran to him instantly.
“Hello, little devil,” Soobin greeted him, and he smiled at him, all gummy and happy. His hands were kinda sticky, too. Soobin hugged him very tight. They sat down at a table, laid out for all of them, a true Choi Sunday Lunch event.
Since Soobin had moved out for university, they made sure to have a Sunday lunch all together once a month. Beomgyu found it cute, he’d said, Soobin found it normal. He liked his parents, he liked his siblings. And also his brother-in-law was a nice person to have around, so it really was good.
“Seokie,” his mom was trying to get Soojin’s child to eat, he wasn’t as keen. “If you eat this, uncle Soobin will tell you a secret!” Why did he always get roped in this kind of thing?
“ Mom ,” he tried to dissuade her. “Seokie, listen to uncle Soobin. If you eat that, I’ll let you meet my friend Beomgyu and his cool guitar, huh? How does it sound?” He wouldn’t sell his secrets for a bowl of rice, come on. Selling Beomgyu, however, it was better.
“Nope,” that damned child replied. “Grandma said secret .” Yeah. Soobin knew. And he also knew that Minseok was a very hard to distract 4 years-old.
“Okay,” Soobin caved in. “What do you want to know?” Again, Soobin wasn’t religious. Maybe he would become so, though, because right now he wished he could pray to a god in which he could trust.
Minseok frowned. Deeply. A weird expression on such a young child. “Uncle Soobin has no girlfriend?” he said. And Soobin’s face fell. He laughed a bit, nervous to his own ears.
“Minseok-ah,” he said, super serious, excessively so. He hoped he sounded playful. “Don’t you like auntie Yuna enough?” Yuna, his hyung’s fiancée, wasn’t even here today. Maybe Minseok had some good reason to dislike her. Children always know more than adults.
“I want another one,” Minseok said. “One’s not enough.” Or, maybe, children are just spoiled brats. Soobin threw a glance at Soojin, hoping she’d come to his help. She shrugged. Traitor that she was.
“Well, uncle Soobin has no aunt to offer right now,” he said, hoping to come across sad enough for the bad news he was delivering.
Soojin laughed quietly, across the table from him. She took a glance at the other people. “I met Soobin’s boyfriend today.”
What. Who? Soobin’s what?
“My who ?” Soojin seemed like she didn’t care for the fact that her brother was having an aneurysm in front of her. “Noona- Noona , what are you talking about?!”
Soojin went on, as if she hadn’t just said the weirdest thing ever, “Yeah, he’s such a fine man, you should all meet him. He was so kind to me, too. He lives right next door from Soobin, can you imagine?” Soobin felt his eyes grow twice their size.
“Yeonjun hyung?” he sputtered. She was talking about Yeonjun who’d brought him his psychology book, Yeonjun who’d talked about everyone else except for him, and who’d kept a distance of two meters from him at all times? “He’s not-”
“Yah, Soobinnie,” Soojin sounded almost offended, “You don’t have to hide it!”
Soobin raised his eyebrows. “I’m not hiding it, it’s just not true. He’s not my boyfriend, he lives next door!” He protested. He felt his ears on fire.
Soojin looked at her husband for support, and he nodded. Seojin, their other brother, picked this moment to speak. “So you’re not into men?”
Soobin groaned, “That’s beside the point,” he tried.
“It’s okay,” his mom supplied, “You can like men, Soobin, I do too.” Soobin wanted to die .
“But do you like guys?” Seojin insisted. “Because if you don’t, that guy is for sure not your boyfriend and Soojin here is mistaken.”
Soobin was regretting not having stayed home for lunch. He was regretting Beomgyu . “Yes,” he said. “I do.” He repeated. “I’m into men. I am gay. Whatever.” What a horrible Sunday. What a terrible way to come out, also.
“Oh, sweet baby,” his mom half hugged him. “Why didn’t you tell us earlier?” Soobin, to be honest, hadn’t thought that they’d all be cool with it just like that. His mom used to not be so open about it, and Seojin, too, hadn’t always been so straightforward and accepting. As for Soojin-
“But also, why did I have to see you being all lovey-dovey with your man before you could talk to us?” Soobin just needed a break, a holiday, a sabbatical year.
Choi Soo Bin
> Beomgyuya it’s HELL
> Soojin thinks im in love with yeonjun
Beom Gyu :D
> that’s fake why
> aren’t you
Choi Soo Bin
> you imbecile
> she thinks im in a RELATIONSHIP with him
Beom Gyu :D
> hkjhgakjhgtr
> no wait.
> fr??????
> also
> u out now? like the gay thing i mean not out of the house bc i know you’re not here now
Choi Soo Bin
> no you know she fucking outed me saying im with yeonjun hyung
> like “i met his bf lol”
> NO ONE LISTENS TO ME
Beom Gyu :D
> shit
> well, let them believe her
> then you can phone your mom and tell her the truth?
> idk
> now you have a government assigned bf
> !!!!
> wish it was me tbh
Choi Soo Bin
> you’re not helping
> gotta go now, i’ve been hiding in the toilet for 10 minutes
> AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAghghg
Beom Gyu :D
> good luck bestie
Soobin needed all the luck in the world. Not only to get through the rest of the lunch, but also to go on with his life. He came back from the toilet. Everyone was staring at him. Great . He sat down, immediately getting back to his plate. Not that he was truly hungry, but it kept him busy.
“Uncle Soobin gave me another uncle?” Minseok had to be tested by a very good doctor, because no 4 year-old was supposed to have a memory this long. Soobin made the mistake of looking up to his nephew, who was staring at him with the widest eyes, and his mouth was drawing a perfect, round, O.
Soobin couldn’t quite break his heart. “Mh,” he said, and he heard his sister sigh, satisfied. “Is it okay with you? Auntie Yuna can still be your favorite, this way.” This poor Yuna, dragged into this madness without her even being here. Soobin would have to apologize to her sooner or later.
“Yah, Soobinnie,” Soojin barged in, once more. “Of course it’s okay!” Why couldn’t she stay out of this, for fuck’s sake. He threw her a dirty look, hoping she’d catch it, but knowing she wouldn’t. Because she was proud of what she’d done.
He sighed, “Yeah, of course it is.” Perfectly okay. With the way he’d totally avoided having any sexual orientation-related conversation at home, because he feared rejection, how couldn’t it be okay .
Seojin got up just to squeeze his shoulder, “Yeah, Soobin-ah,” he sounded like he meant it. “As long as this guy is nice to you and treats you well, everything is okay.” Well . And there it was. Without any boyfriend to force him to accept it, Seojin would have had issues, right? Or maybe Soobin was being irrationally angry because of the situation. Maybe he was just wishing for his younger brother to have someone who cared about him close, right? Soobin just nodded, accepting all the congratulations coming his way, and feeling his stomach tie up in knots as he stuffed it with more and more meat.
When he got back home, Beomgyu was playing video games on his computer. Nonetheless, he paused the game as soon as Soobin stepped inside. His face didn’t look like he was about to make fun of Soobin. He looked more like he was ready to offer a friendly ear. See, this was why, despite how annoying Beomgyu was, Soobin had never actually tried to get him out of the house, or to get himself out, either. Beomgyu was a very good friend to him.
Soobin plopped down on the couch, lifeless. Beomgyu sat down next to him, as if he was a cat wishing to express solidarity through closeness. “Ugh,” Soobin said. Beomgyu nodded, solemnly.
Time passed. When Soobin looked at the time, at least forty minutes had gone by and none of them had said anything. Which meant that possibly it was the longest time he’d heard Beomgyu be silent in all the years they’d known each other. “Beomgyu-yah,” he started, because he felt like he had to say something, or the immense sacrifice Beomgyu had endured, by keeping his mouth shut, would go unrewarded. And unrepeated. “I didn’t want them to know it like this.”
Beomgyu nodded again. “I know, hyung,” he said. “You had the right to tell them in your own time,” Beomgyu was, on occasions, a very mature and rational person. “You’re right to be upset.”
“What’s worse,” Soobin went on, as his voice rose in frustration, “is that my noona and my hyung were so happy about my non-existent boyfriend. You finally found love , and all that. And it sucks, because- because how can I go and tell them that, in fact, I haven’t found anything? And that the only thing they could accept to mitigate it was a lie, a mistake?”
Beomgyu was thinking about the situation, his expression focused. “Well,” he said, tentatively. “I mean.” Soobin’s gratitude was quickly waning off. “You can just keep up the misunderstanding for a while and then you’ll tell them you two have broken up and it didn’t work out.”
Soobin was appalled. “I can’t lie to my family!” Well, he’d already lied to his family, to be fair. He’d lied since the moment he’d stopped contradicting Soojin and retreated to the toilet to text Beomgyu. In the end, it was always Beomgyu’s fault.
“Then call them. And explain yourself. It’s not like you have many options, hyung.” Beomgyu was right. Fuck everything. Soobin groaned. And he still had a couple of essays to plan out and write, and a group project to start. Why did life suck on seven different levels all at once?
Soobin elected to wait until the next day. Maybe the initial enthusiasm about the news would die out, and everyone would forget about his supposed boyfriend. He hoped so, and he also hoped that everything was just a nightmare, and he would wake up in the morning and get to live his Sunday all over again. This time he would text Soojin to meet him up at a café or something, so she would avoid meeting Yeonjun and she wouldn’t get any weird ass ideas.
“If this was a kind of romcom,” Beomgyu replied, when he told him as much, “Yeonjun hyung would find a way to appear at that exact café and still get to know Soojin noona.” Soobin didn’t deserve this kind of hostile environment, he truly didn’t.
“Why do we call him hyung , by the way?” Soobin felt like he didn’t know anything anymore. He was pretty sure that this inexplicable degree of friendliness between neighbors was the reason for Soojin's delirious theory.
Beomgyu thought about the answer, “I’m pretty sure he asked us to?” His next sentence sounded more sure, “Ah, yes, when I moved here. I remember. We used to always come across each other in the elevator. And we never knew how to address him, right? And he told us. Just go with hyung , huh?” Soobin kinda remembered this. He also remembered that this had happened like three years before, and Beomgyu had just come here, and he hadn’t yet started his war with Kang Taehyun, whose room shared a wall with Beomgyu’s. Life was simpler back then.
“Yeah,” Soobin said, wishing he could fall to sleep and never wake up until everyone had forgotten about it. “We should have told him to stick to more formal names.” In hindsight, Soobin should have never moved here, at all. Maybe that was the origin of all his troubles.
He woke up on Monday. Unfortunately. And he woke up to a text from Yuna, his brother’s fiancée, congratulating him on the big news. Soobin screamed in his pillow until his throat started hurting. Then he got up, he took a shower, he started the washing machine, he had breakfast, he walked to the campus library, opened Microsoft Word, typed in the first paragraph of an essay and then went to class. All while pretending nothing had ever happened.
He never replied to Yuna, he never replied to Beomgyu’s thirty seven texts about how his own day was going, and he absolutely didn’t open the family group chat. He needed to focus on studying and nothing else. He was a good student, he was maybe a bit of an academic overachiever, and he couldn’t postpone more important things (like his sociology essay, due in three weeks, on which he was already behind ) for a silly, very stupid misunderstanding.
“Mom,” he picked up the phone after dinner. She had a habit of calling him almost every day. Beomgyu, sitting on the other side of their kitchen table, got up immediately. Soobin begged him to stay, mouthing it. “Yeah, yeah, I’m okay.”
“And how’s your-” his mother hesitated. “Your boyfriend? How is he? Have you told him that we would love to meet him soon?” What? Why? God, this family.
Soobin took a deep breath. “I haven’t talked to him today,” he said, kinda firmly. He hoped he sounded firm. “Because, as I stated yesterday, I’m not in a relationship with him.” Beomgyu raised both his thumbs up, as Soobin waited for his mom’s reply.
“Soobinnie,” she said, “you don’t have to be shy about it!” He wanted to bang his head against the table. “It’s okay that you’re dating him, if he’s the one who makes you happy!”
Choi Yeonjun only made him happy when he found Beomgyu’s packages and brought them back and when he acted as a defuser of Taehyun’s aggressiveness against Beomgyu. “Mom, again, I-”
“So you’re saying you’re single?” Yeah, exactly. That was the whole thing! Soobin enthusiastically agreed. “You see, that’s because you never agreed to go out with Jieun unnie’s daughter!” Soobin’s jaw dropped. Beomgyu — who could hear everything — looked equally disheartened.
“Mom, she’s a girl,” Soobin said, even though it should have been unnecessary. His mom just hummed, casually.
“Yeah, but you’re single ,” she insisted. “And maybe you’re not really gay, Soobinnie.” Beomgyu’s eyes were almost falling out of his sockets, he was so incredulous. Soobin, though, could believe it very well.
“Oh god,” Soobin said, his tone lifeless. “So, let me get this straight, the only way you’ll believe me if I say I’m gay is if I tell you that I am dating someone?” Because he knew that, he fucking knew that his whole family would welcome anyone with open arms, but he had to bring someone. Just saying things would amount to nothing.
“Of course I believe you, Soobinnie!” His mom still said. “But, you know, if you never try, how can you be sure?”
He thought he was going crazy. Out of his mind. “You know what, I’m so sick of this,” he said, and it came out more tired than anything. “When would you like to meet Yeonjun hyung? I’ll ask if the weekend’s fine with him.” He didn’t even look at Beomgyu, before going back to his own room and hanging up. What the fuck was he going to do now?
Two more days passed in a blur of disappointment and, overall, sadness. Beomgyu stayed out of his hair, and this said more than enough on the way Soobin must have looked to an external observer. Soobin hardly ever crossed paths with his flatmate, so much that on Wednesday, in the evening, he started worrying.
Choi Soo Bin
> where are you
Beom Gyu :D
> music studio rn
> i have a submission to,,, submit
Choi Soo Bin
> did you SLEEP there?????
Beom Gyu :D
> u don’t wanna know hyung
> see u later
Choi Soo Bin
> you’re crazy
> please at least eat something
> i don’t have time to assist you at the hospital
Beom Gyu :D
> i don’t have the time to go to the hospital in the first place
> i shouldn’t be talking to you either so bye for now
> ah no, if u go to the neighbors for your “thing” can you yell a bit at kang taehyun for me i think he’s been living too peacefully lately
Choi Soo Bin
> nope
Beom Gyu :D
> >:(((
> u r no fun
The fact was that, yelling at Kang Taehyun aside, Soobin really really had to go to the other guys’ apartment if he wanted to show up to his mom’s “very informal brunch, you know, not the full thing, so that he won’t feel intimidated”. Because she’d been texting him. Nonstop. Excitedly, too.
Soobin hated all about this. He took a look at himself in the mirror. He looked alright. A bit tired, maybe, but that was understandable: studying, hating his life, and putting himself in this mess had to be taking a toll. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and got ready to go and rip the band-aid once and for all. Maybe Choi Yeonjun would reject his proposal and then he could tell his mom they’d fought or something.
He rang their bell. It wasn’t Yeonjun to open the door, but Kai. “Hey,” he said, cheerful. “I don’t think we actually got any packages, because Taehyun hasn’t been home recently and Yeonjun hyung would have told me?”
Yeah, right, because the only interactions they all tended to have were about the messed up deliveries. “Oh,” Soobin said. “No.” He also said. “Also, Taehyun isn’t home? Beomgyu asked me to yell at him in his stead, my mission has failed.” Why did he say this? No one knew. Maybe he was more stressed out than he thought and his brain-to-mouth filter had completely dissipated.
Kai looked confused. Soobin could understand. “So,” Kai still said. “they’re both gone at the same time and that’s why I’m enjoying the most peaceful days ever since I moved here. You have no idea,” Kai went on, motioning for Soobin to come in. Soobin ditched his own slippers at the door, because it’s not like he was wearing shoes but still it didn’t feel polite. “I hate the fact that they’re only capable of fighting. Like, I’m there, chilling in my room, and my roommate has to start a war with our neighbor? God .” At least he didn’t blame Beomgyu? But why didn’t he blame Beomgyu? Soobin thought Beomgyu had to be blamed.
“Yeah, no, totally.” Kai felt like a great person to talk to. Soobin was rarely wrong on first impressions like this one. Well, not really a first one, maybe a fifth. But, still. Kai felt like he would make a good friend. That is, if he was still going to be allowed to talk to these people after he asked Yeonjun what he had to ask him. “Is Yeonjun-ssi home?”
“I thought I told you to call me hyung.” Yeonjun had just come out of what looked like a bathroom. And his hair was fluffy, as if he’d just dried it. “But: hi, Soobinnie.” Soobin blinked. And then he blinked again. What was he going to say?
“Hi,” he said. And then, but only because Yeonjun was basically pouting, “hyung.” Yeonjun relaxed into an easy smile. He, too, looked like someone you could easily talk to. Unless you had to ask him to lie to your entire family, maybe. “Actually,” Soobin said, staring at the wooden floor of the apartment. Which was identical to the floor in his own apartment. “I kinda need to talk to you, Yeonjun hyung.”
He was worrying about how to ask Kai to leave them alone, because one thing is to ask for a fake partner in front of said fake partner, but to do it with an audience? No, thanks. But Kai was an angel sent from the heavens, and as soon as Soobin finished his question, he just said the quickest bye in the history of byes.
And so Soobin was alone with Yeonjun, both standing — one awkwardly, the other way more comfortably — in the kitchen. Yeonjun sat at the table, extending a hand in Soobin’s direction and inviting him to do so, too. Soobin sat down.
“So.” He started.
“Wait,” Yeonjun interrupted him. “Can I, like, get you anything? Juice, water, tea, coffee? A coke?” Soobin was speechless. Yeonjun shouldn’t be nice to him, with what he was about to ask of him.
He just shook his head, and then he started again. “So.” He tried once more. “I have this huge favor to ask.” Yeonjun shrugged, ask away , he meant, clearly. It didn’t take a genius to figure it out. “You remember how you met my noona the other day? Well, now you’re kinda invited to my family’s brunch on Sunday.” Soobin was a true coward, because this was as sideways an approach as he could have used.
Yeonjun’s eyes widened a bit and then he was laughing, a bit awkwardly. “What?” he said, still laughing. “Tell her I’m super flattered, but I don’t exactly swing her way?” Oh. No. Absolutely not.
“She’s married and also she has a kid, and you’re a bit too young for her, too.” Soobin registered the final part of Yeonjun’s reply a bit too late. “What?” He finished, possibly making a complete fool of himself. He wanted to die .
“Okay,” Yeonjun said. “What’s going on here?” Soobin felt his face heat up a bit too much. “You’re sure you don’t want anything to drink?”
One glass of water and a half later, Soobin was maybe ready to explain everything. He took a stabilizing breath. “My sister outed me,” he started, “but she didn’t mean any harm, I know that. It’s just that, it’s going to sound crazy, she saw you and then she was like: oh, Soobin has a boyfriend!” Soobin knew he was talking real fast and without any real pause and he was aware that he was looking like a madman, but what could he do. “And I tried to say that she was mistaken, I also tried to talk to them after that, but no one believes me. Or, well, they believed it when I said that I had no boyfriends but then they said that I was confused and maybe I should date girls. Which. You know.”
Yeonjun put his hand on Soobin’s arm, the one that had fallen lifeless on top of the kitchen table, after he’d finished rambling. He was warm. “Now,” Yeonjun began. “That’s a lot .” Yeah, understatement of the century. Soobin laughed, although there was very little to laugh about. Yeonjun smiled, too. His smile was warm, too. “So, let me get this right. Your whole family is convinced that I am your boyfriend. Correct?”
Soobin nodded. Yeonjun’s smile widened. And he had to bite his lower lip to keep his smile from becoming even bigger. Why was he finding it so funny? “Oh, lucky me, then,” Yeonjun said. What. “And this would mean that I’d have to attend this marvelous Sunday brunch posing as your boyfriend?”
Soobin nodded again. Yeonjun leaned back on his chair. “I don’t see any downsides,” he replied. “I get a free brunch out of this, I get to go out with you , and I help you get back at that horrible behavior from them.”
“Are you saying yes?” Soobin couldn’t believe it. “Wait. What do you mean you get to go out with me.” Yeonjun laughed out loud.
His nose scrunched up when he smiled again. “You’re cute, Soobinnie.” Cute . “But, also, it must have been awful not to be believed by your family. Do you wanna talk about it?”
Soobin had already talked about it, with Beomgyu. And he tried, he tried , saying so to Yeonjun. What happened, anyway, was that he ended up sharing the whole story with Yeonjun, too. And Yeonjun listened. He just listened, his face growing worried when Soobin said something admittedly bad. Like when he said that he’d never even considered coming out to his family unless he actually had someone to bring with him, because he knew that was the only way they’d have it. “It’s not like they’re homophobes, you know,” Soobin said, his voice a bit whiny. “It’s just that both my siblings did everything right, Soojin married her high school boyfriend, my brother’s getting married soon. And I-”
Yeonjun’s frown deepened. “But you’re not doing anything wrong , you know?” Soobin shrugged. He knew, of course he knew. But this was his perfect, poster-like family. And he was a third child headed in a very different direction. “Soobin-ah,” Yeonjun sounded serious. “Sorry if I speak so freely, and about people I have yet to meet. But they were assholes on this occasion. And you’ve been hurting about this, which you don’t deserve, because you’re just being yourself. And just being ourselves shouldn’t be something other people use against us, okay? It shouldn’t be something they try to shape the way they want. From what I can tell, you’re a good person, and you’re a good student, and a very good son. And I’m sure you’ll be a great boyfriend, and maybe husband, to someone, one day.” Soobin looked away. His throat felt tight.
“God,” he said, “of the two of us, I’m the one who studies psychology. How are you this therapeutic, hyung?” Yeonjun laughed again, quietly.
“Give me your phone number, honey,” he said, fishing out a phone from a pocket in his sweatpants. “Let me be the best fake boyfriend you've ever had.”
Beom Gyu :D
> i ran into my worst nightmare on campus
Choi Soo Bin
> ????????!?!?!
Beom Gyu :D
> taehyun from apt 11
> so like he said that he hadn’t been at home in a while
> and i said,,, like
> u should have told me so i would have stayed there
> and he said: my life doesn’t revolve around u
> and i actually shot him back something but then like my alarm rang and i had to go back to the studio bc it meant that the file had finished processing and now im here in front of my computer and im wondering if i should have found a better comeback for him but somehow i have a deadline to make and it was more important but also now im tormented
> wbu
Choi Soo Bin
> ……
> either the two of you end up killing each other or you’ll just fuck
> no third option
Beom Gyu :D
> ew
> still,
> WBU
Choi Soo Bin
> ah. i talked to yeonjun.
> he agreed to pretend to be my bf????????????
Beom Gyu :D
> WHAAAAAAAAAT
> congrats
> oh my how are you going to play it? have you already talked about it?????
> i wanna know everything, ill submit the song and head back so you can tell me ALL ABOUT IT
> hyung!!!!!! you got a (fake) date!!!!
> O
> M
> G
> !!!