Chapter Text
Not that it's anyone else's business, but Nicholas' search history may or may not contain exactly twelve hours worth of xlov and xlov rui related results. He spent so much time staring at their member profile that he thinks he could recite each fact about them, verbatim, to anyone who asked.
Is he ashamed? Sure. Does he regret it? Why not. There's arguably more cons than pros to lusting after a person who was obviously more interested in your groupmate than you. That said, Nicholas still thinks it's well worth it to take advantage of them being at the same place for a second day in a row.
He's got an idea. It's not a good idea. Nothing original, either, but it should be easy enough to carry out.
He's going to grab one of those abomination sandwiches from catering and tape his phone number to it, then smoothly hand it to Rui when the opportunity presents itself.
Easy.
It's already in his hands when XLOV stop by the greenroom to exchange albums, and he clutches it nervously throughout the entire interaction, no doubt pressing indents into the bread. Although, as soon as Rui walks up to him and hands him the album, Nicholas' plan takes a sharp detour. The sandwich remains on standby.
"So," Nicholas says. To his ears, it sounds relatively calm. "Come here often?" Granted, it's supposed to be a joke, but the way his voice is shaking really zaps any semblance of humor right out of it.
Lucky for him, Rui still laughs. "Can't say I do."
"Yeah, yeah… same here." Nicholas nods. "Not a huge fan of waking up at one in the morning to get my makeup done, either."
"I know," Rui agrees. They point to their eyes with the most severe manicure Nicholas has ever seen. "Hair, makeup, six different layers of clothing. And these contacts are a pain to put in too, let me tell you."
"Ah, they're different colours," Nicholas notes softly, having to remind himself not to stare for too long. "Pink is nice. I like pink."
"Yeah? Me too," Rui says, and they've got these tiny little gems on their canine teeth when they smile; a sight that makes Nicholas wish he had a photographic memory. "It's my colour, y'know? Do you have a colour?"
Nicholas' gasps, pointing at himself. "Pink! Mine is pink too!"
Clearly excited by the news, Rui claps their hands. "No way!"
"And I also heard... somewhere— uh, that you're Taiwanese," Nicholas says. He's allowed to be sly about it. No one needs to know that he got all of his intel from google. "So am I. It's, like, kind of crazy how much we have in common."
"Oh? Is that right?" Rui tilts their head. "So, tell me, what else did you hear about me?"
Nicholas flounders. "I-I, well, that's kind of it. But, ya'know, I wouldn't mind learning more." He thinks he might've bitten his tongue in the process of getting all of that out.
Rui looks him over out of pure curiosity, studies him, then says: "Maybe we could figure something out." Their members have since wandered closer, if not just to hover near them. The three of them smile politely, but they've all got a hand or two on Rui as they try to usher them towards the door.
Nicholas backs up a step, lips pulled into a thin line. It feels like everyone in the room is watching him now. "Good luck with your promotions."
"Thank you, sunbaenim. You too," One of the members says, flashing a pretty smile. They've got little gems on their canines as well, and an odd-coloured contact just like Rui's. This is Wumuti, if Nicholas is remembering the group's concept photos correctly. "And thank you for meeting us. We'll enjoy the album."
"And we hope you enjoy ours too," Rui supplies shyly.
"Yeah, I will! We will! For sure. I bet it's great," Nicholas says, and maybe he was a little too loud, a little too excitable. The sound of his own voice reverberates in his skull well after he's done talking.
Not that it matters. He's so numb, he can't bring himself to care. He can't even begin to feel proud over getting through a conversation with Rui without totally humiliating himself because his mind is still reeling from it.
He doesn't even register that the sandwich is still in his hand until he tries to take the damn thing with him on stage.
"Wow. Good haul," Harua says to the assortment of albums spread out on the living room floor. He goes straight for AHOF's album first, parting it down the middle in search of photo cards. "You wanna go ahead and open Xlov's?" He asks, and though his head is down it's obvious that he's smirking.
Nicholas sneers and aims a lazy kick at him, but ultimately holds his hand out expectantly. "Yeah, why the hell not."
"Take the photo cards out first," Harua instructs him, moments before he whips the book his way. "I'm collecting them."
"You are? Since when?" Nicholas asks. He smooths his fingertip along the signature, searching for any pulls in the cellophane wrapping to make the removal easier. His nails are too short for this.
"Couple months ago. They go for a lot online, and I get them for free," Harua explains smugly. "I'm gonna hoard these until they outnumber everything else I own, and then I'll cave and sell them… and then I'll retire at thirty."
Nicholas purses his lips. "Well, it's good to have ambitions." He moves his finger to the bottom of the album, and there he finally finds a weak spot. A clean tear in the plastic resides there, like an invitation, and he pulls at it curiously. The wrapping unravels in one go.
"Who'd you get? Hand them over," Harua says, tipping his head up to see better.
Nicholas waves him off lightheartedly. "Give me a second," He says. "I haven't looked yet." He peels the book open, and three photo cards tumble out onto his lap; one of Haru, one of Hyun, and one of Rui. He hadn't expected there to be three in there, but he's sure Harua won't be complaining.
He holds up Rui's card and squints at it. It doesn't look out of the ordinary, aside from the fact that it was on a different page than the other two, and that there seems to be a small shadow in the far corner. Printing error, if he had to guess.
"What's that?" Harua asks. He points at the card.
"Who, not what, Rua," Nicholas corrects under his breath. "It's Rui."
"I mean the writing on the back," Harua says. "Turn it around."
Nicholas does that. He wasn't sure what to expect, but given his underwhelming performance in the flirting department as of late, he certainly doesn't expect to see a number written there.
He blinks, wide-eyed, and shows it off to Harua. "Holy shit. Check this out," He says. "I think it's their phone number."
Harua oohs and awes, climbing up onto the sofa to take a closer look. "Text it!"
"What are you talking about? I can't text it!" Nicholas balks, pulling the card out of Harua's reach, just in case he gets any funny ideas. "It's obviously not for me."
"How do you know?"
"Because I saw the way Rui acted around Kei-hyung. They're into him, not me, and if I text them then they'll probably just ask me to give their number to Kei-hyung instead."
Harua quirks an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything.
"What?" Nicholas asks.
"Nothing, I'm just like, trying to make myself believe that you're not an idiot."
Nicholas scoffs incredulously. "Well that's mean. I'm not an idiot."
"Really?" Harua leans back. "Who was holding the album, Nicholas?"
"Rui."
"And who did they give it to?"
Nicholas frowns at him. "Me."
"Sorry, say that again. Who gave it to you?"
"…Rui did."
"So, don't you think that there's a pretty good chance that they meant for you to also get their phone number? It doesn't really seem like there's much room for coincidence here."
Nicholas gulps. "But, what about Kei-hyung? Rui blushed when they were talking to him."
"Everyone blushes when they talk to Kei-hyung," Harua states boredly. "Grown men in their forties blush when they talk to Kei-hyung." He shrugs. "I think that number is for you, Nicholas. And… I think that the sooner you text it, the better."
"Why?"
"Are you not paying attention?" Harua groans, smacking his own forehead. "If you don't make a move, then who's to say that Rui won't assume you are an idiot and move on to Kei-hyung instead? You wanna take that risk?"
Nicholas doesn't answer, he's too busy frantically pulling out his phone.