Work Text:
9:57p.m., Hyunbin is laying on his bed watching some game stream on his laptop when his phone lights up with a Kakaotalk message.
Sanggyun-hyung: Hey Hyunbin-ah, wanna play a round or two? Taehyun-hyung and his friends are on, we need one more man
Hyunbin quickly typed a reply — Sorry hyung, maybe not tonight — and pressed send.
He could be playing the game himself, but somehow he found it more relaxing to watch Nyangguk play it.
Nyangguk’s livestreams at 10p.m. daily were the oasis in his dry routine which mostly consisted of work and sleep. It was the part of the day that he looked forward to the most everyday.
There was something about Nyangguk that made his livestreams a joy to watch.
From his calm demeanor to his occasional adorable reactions, there was something about him that healed Hyunbin’s soul.
“Crush released a new song lately, and I like it a lot,” Nyangguk said as he waited for the game to load, “Have you all heard it?” He cleared his throat before starting to sing a small verse.
His singing voice was clear and pure, almost angelic. Hyunbin’s jaw dropped.
Nyangguk stopped singing as soon as the game loaded. Hyunbin never thought there would be a day he wished a game loaded slower, but here he was. He made a mental note to watch the replay of that part later.
------
While watching Nyangguk’s livestream on a Wednesday night, Hyunbin’s phone started flashing and vibrating . Hyunbin blinked when he saw the caller ID — Kim Donghan.
Donghan was Hyunbin’s roommate during college. Hyunbin thinks he wouldn’t have really got to know him if they didn’t happen to room together. Donghan was the cool kid in the dance club, and he busked often with his dance crew. He was kind of like a mini campus celebrity, really.
Hyunbin got to know Taehyun through Donghan as well. Taehyun was Donghan’s senior at the dance club, and Sanggyun was kind of like a package deal with Taehyun. Sanggyun was shy at first but he clicked well with Hyunbin soon enough as they shared the same passion for video games.
Turns out that Donghan had moved into a new place with his boyfriend Kenta, and was hosting a housewarming party this weekend. Hyunbin promised to attend. He’d have to think of a gift to bring later.
With the call done, Hyunbin returned his attention to Nyangguk’s livestream, just in time to see Nyangguk’s eyes widen in shock when he got sniped unexpectedly in game. Then, he just sat there for a moment, staring at his black and white screen while pouting a little. ‘Cute,’ Hyunbin thought.
“Ah, I’m doing badly tonight. What do I do, everyone?” Nyangguk laughed a little, scratching his neck as he took some time to read the live comments.
Hyunbin took the opportunity to type in a request that he sing a song.
“Oh, Komurola-nim here,” Nyangguk read out Hyunbin’s username and Hyunbin was breathless, “wants to hear me sing. I’m flattered.” Nyangguk looked into the camera and smiled widely and Hyunbin thought he was going to melt.
Nyangguk obliged and sang the first verse of Heize’s Jenga. Hyunbin fell asleep with a smile that night.
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Saturday evening arrived soon enough.
Kenta was the one who responded when Hyunbin rung the doorbell of Donghan’s new apartment. Kenta and Donghan have been dating for a few years now, ever since Donghan would tell them all about this cute barista who worked at the cafe near his dance studio.
Kenta was still as friendly and sweet as ever as he led Hyunbin into the apartment, thanked him for bringing drinks — ah, peach-flavoured soju! I love this! — and then showed him around the apartment for a bit.
When Kenta returned to the kitchen to help Donghan with preparing the food, Hyunbin gravitated to the sofa when he noticed something familiar about the person leaning against the wall next to the sofa.
Hyunbin’s eyes widened. It was him. It had to be. Hyunbin has been staring at his face almost every night for half a year by now, there was no way he would have been mistaken.
Nyangguk was there, in person, right in front of his eyes.
Hyunbin hands flew to his phone and he typed away furiously, sending multiple messages to Sanggyun.
Hyung, where are you?
hyung
NYANGGUK IS HERE
help
Moments later, the sent turns into read and Sanggyun replied: otw. nyangguk?
Hyunbin replies immediately:
the streamer i watch everyday
Oh, cool, go talk to him or smth, i’ll be right there
‘Talk to him? ’ Hyunbin thought to himself. Yeah, he supposed he could do that. Well, this might be his only chance. He poured himself three shots — four, heck he could have the entire bottle and it might not be enough — before walking over to the streamer who was currently leaning against the wall and staring rather blankly at the TV.
However, just as Hyunbin moved to approach him, he started to look at his phone, looking very preoccupied.
‘Shit,’ Hyunbin thought, ‘what do I do now, he seems busy with his phone, do I interrupt him?’
Luckily, Kenta walked past at the moment and decided to introduce the two of them to each other. (If someone told Hyunbin that Kenta was an angel now, Hyunbin would’ve believed them.)
Nyangguk, whose name was Kim Yongguk, was Kenta’s neighbour before, having had rooms next to each other above a Chinese restaurant.
“Yonggukie helped me alot when I just came from Japan,” Kenta explained, and Hyunbin saw Yongguk smile softly for the first time in person. He couldn’t help but stare.
“Kenta! The stew is overflowing?!” Donghan shouted from the kitchen. Kenta instantly ran over with a yelp, leaving Hyunbin and Yongguk alone.
“I’ve watched your streams, I’m a fan,” Hyunbin confessed, smiling somewhat goofily.
“Oh? What’s your username?”
“Uh, Komurola,” Hyunbin said a bit shyly. He didn’t expect Nyangguk — Yongguk to be so interested, really.
“Komurola...sounds familiar…Ah! Could it be, you’re the one who requested singing last week?”
If Hyunbin expected anything, it wasn’t this. Well, three days ago, not last week, but still. He remembers him .
When Sanggyun and Taehyun arrived, Kenta and Donghan set down the food. They also started opening the alcohol. Hyunbin downed a whole bottle of soju in one go so everything after became a blur to him.
He did, however, remember getting thrashed at Street Fighter by a giggling Kenta who had earlier claimed that he was bad at games and asked Hyunbin to go easy on him. (Perhaps he wasn’t an angel after all. )
He also remembered asking Yongguk for his number. He couldn’t remember how exactly it went, but the first thing he did when he woke up was to check his phone. True enough, he found “Yongguk-hyung” saved under new contacts. Hyunbin grinned from ear to ear.
-----
Yongguk replied to texts faster than Hyunbin expected him to.
They talked about various things, and sometimes Yongguk would treat Hyunbin like a Korean slang dictionary — not that Hyunbin minded at all. Turns out Yongguk was actually Chinese Korean and he just moved to Seoul a few years ago. Yongguk barely has an accent and Hyunbin wouldn’t have thought he was foreign, really. He just sounded like he was from a different, maybe more provincial, part of Korea.
Yongguk was pretty chill. Sometimes he’d complain a little about the customers he meets at his job at a travel agency, but other than that he was pretty easygoing. Honestly, Hyunbin expected Yongguk to be quite different off-screen, like how people were different in front of different people and in different situations. However, Yongguk wasn’t very much different. He was maybe a little more irritable, but that was pretty much it. Hyunbin supposed it was because Yongguk’s on-screen enthusiasm wasn’t at an unreal level. Perhaps that was why he had always found it relaxing to watch Nyangguk’s streams — they felt natural.
Sometimes they played games together. Hyunbin would embarrass Yongguk by calling him ‘gaming genius’ whenever he makes a play. It would make Yongguk cringe and Sanggyun laugh.
Sometimes they had meals together. Sweet and sour pork was a staple for Yongguk. Hyunbin knew Yongguk liked this dish, but he didn’t know he liked it this much, really. It reminds me of home , Yongguk would say.
Sometimes they watched movies together. They both liked horror movies but were also easily startled. Yongguk would cower into his seat while Hyunbin would hold onto Yongguk like his life depended on it.
Sometimes they had drinks together. Yongguk was reluctant at first, but Hyunbin liked having liquid courage around Yongguk. Eventually Yongguk gave in. Yongguk could drink quite a lot, but his accent would get thicker as he got more drunk. Hyunbin found it to be absolutely endearing.
It went on like that for about a year before Hyunbin started to think that maybe, he wanted more.
They were lounging on the sofa of the shared living room at Yongguk’s place, watching a competitive gaming match, when a wave of courage washed over Hyunbin.
“Do you want to go out with me?” Hyunbin asked somewhat suddenly. His voice was soft and he could hear his heart thundering in his ears.
“Hmm, yeah,” Yongguk answered nonchalantly without much hesitation. Hyunbin freezed.
“Hyung, you know what I meant?” he asked tentatively.
“Yeah, where do you wanna go?” Yongguk paused to look at Hyunbin’s expression, then laughed lightly. “Just kidding, I know what you meant.” Yongguk cuddled up to him closer and left it at that.
Oh . Hyunbin never expected it to be quite so easy. But then again, everything seemed to fall in place naturally with Yongguk.
------
Nothing much has changed, really.
They meet up on weekends, but on most days, things remained pretty much unchanged.
Yongguk streams as usual, and as usual, Hyunbin watches his streams religiously.
Except that sometimes, Yongguk acknowledges him with a short welcome, Kumorola-nim and a smile.
Except that every night, Yongguk messages him goodnight, Hyunbin-ah .
Hyunbin loves this new routine.