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Halfway through the performance, Kyungsoo realized today was going to be one of those nights when the Internet would end up flooded with unflattering pictures of himself squinting at the stage.
A small part of him did actually mind, but mostly he just thought those pictures were funny. And tonight he was too busy to care. He was trying to focus his eyes on the first dancer to the right of the main artist. Something in the way your shoulder-length locks waved back and forth every time you moved looked extremely appealing to him. It was something that, paired with your precise moves and captivating body rolls, made you look incredibly expressive even to his shortsighted eyes. Kyungsoo wished he could see your face more clearly, because the short periods of time you appeared on the big screens at the sides of the stage weren’t enough. So Kyungsoo spent the entire performance trying very hard to focus his sight without making any too weird faces. He knew he usually wasn’t succesful at this, though, but he just had to try.
Needless to say, he didn’t mention a word of this to any of his group members, and he checked that night’s show on Youtube as soon as he found himself alone in his room back home, this time with his glasses on. And, damn, he was flustered to find out you were so his type. Maybe not the most conventionally pretty girl out there, but definitely his type. You had one of the most expressive, beautiful smiles he’d ever seen, paired with an overall expressive round face and also some sort of laid-back vibe going on. You were hypnotizing.
Before he could realize, it was already way past his usual bedtime and he still wasn’t done searching videos of your many other performances on Youtube.
Damn. Damn. Damn. Damn. He really thought he wasn’t nervous, but that turned out to not be the case at all. Kyungsoo could feel his heartbeat increasing with every step you took towards him.
He really couldn’t believe his luck when, after very reluctantly accepting to participate on We Got Married (”Wouldn’t Chanyeol, or Baekhyun, or literally anybody else be a better choice for a show like that?”, he’d tried to argue, but the only EXO member with a free schedule was him, apparently), his manager told him his wife-to-be was you. Of all people! What kind of miracle was this? He said yes so enthusiastically his manager gave him a weird look and he had to feign lack of interest when he asked when your first meeting would take place.
And here you were now.
When you and your own manager finally came up close to him, he bowed a very respectful almost 90 degrees. Whether it was out of nervousness or extreme politeness only he would know. When he straightened up again to smile at you, he could see you were slightly taken aback by the action, but you bowed and smiled back, and a feeling of relief instantly washed over him. That was a half-decent first impression, he supposed. Now he just wished he was wearing his glasses so he could see the radiant smile you seemed to be sporting on your face.
“Hi, I’m Do Kyungsoo, nice to meet you. I’m looking forward to working with you”.
Your first official date for We Got Married arrived sooner than he’d thought. The show producers had told him to wear something date-appropriate, a matter he’d left in his stylists hands. Because of this, he knew you had most likely been told the same thing and hence, here you were, in a very cute and very short dress and high heels. Kyungsoo tried to look like he hadn’t memorized the shape of your legs from just looking at pictures and videos online. He seemed to be doing a good job at it, because the conversation was flowing naturally despite his reserved nature.
Kyungsoo soon learned you behaved differently when the cameras were rolling, and because of this, he was feeling the very tempting need to tease you, despite the fact that you two weren’t that close yet. When a brief moment of silence fell between you, he took another sip of his coffee and smiled playfully at you.
“So, are you, by any chance, a fan of EXO?” he asked.
“Yes, of course! I love you guys’ music”.
Your answer sounded practiced, to say the least, which probably meant you either couldn’t care less about EXO, or you were a raging fan. Whichever it was, it was clear you had been expecting him to ask that exact same question, and your answer wasn’t as spontaneous as he’d hoped. Getting to know the real you was proving to be a harder task than he imagined. But he went on.
“And do you have a favorite member?” Kyungsoo asked.
Deep inside, he had hoped you would blush even if it was just a little bit, but, if you did, he couldn’t see it. Your blurry image gave him a confident smile and answered: “You, of course!”.
There was a not-so-subtle glint of playfulness in your voice. You were lying, no doubt, but Kyungsoo smiled in response, trying to ignore the slight but inevitable feeling of disappointment in his gut.
“You don’t have to lie to me, you know?” He teased. It was ok. They were 9 members after all, which meant a 1/9 chance of being your favorite. He’d be lucky to be the one. “I know it’s Kai, or Sehun. They’re better dancers than I am.”
Now the blurry image in front of him was growing flustered. Oh, boy, so he hit the nail on the head. You were a fan. Damn being the shortest member, and damn being the quiet one. Not that he was willing to change for anybody, mind you, not even for a beautiful girl like you, but, still, damn it.
“I can appreciate other arts apart from dancing! You have an amazing voice, and you’re not a bad dancer yourself! Maybe we could dance together sometime. I know a choreographer who would love to come up with something for the both of us.”
Kyungsoo let out a triumphant chuckle at your sudden agitation.
“Yeah, sure, whatever, but it is Kai, is it?”
“It’s not!!”
He knew from experience not to read the comments but this time he just couldn’t help himself. No one was better at unraveling every tiny bit of emotion on someone’s face, every slight hint at something —anything— between two people, than the fans. Not that they could ever know better than himself, who was the actual person involved, but, still, Kyungsoo reasoned with himself, a thousand pair of eyes saw better than one.
So he read.
Wow, Kyungsoo is at peak politeness level this episode
Lmfaaaao ksoo didn’t know where to put his hands
We stan a respectful king!!
Kfdjskdskd ksoo looked like a deer caught in headlights this entire episode
Well then, fuck him. Fuck his life. Fuck We Got Married. Fuck reality shows. And, above anything else, fuck you and your goddamn teasing. He knew he wasn’t usually that clumsy dancing. His body wasn’t usually that stiff. He just couldn’t help but flinch whenever you rolled your belly in his direction. He had had to touch your back and sides for the choreography, but every time the choreographer teasingly reminded him to do the moves properly, every time you laughed and said “Kyungsoo, please, loosen up! I promise I’m not going to eat you!”, all he could think about was the comments online labeling him a pervert or something of the sorts.
But there was no winning when it came to internet comments, was it?
Look at this side-by-side comparison of the color of Kyungsoo’s ears before and after dancing the choreography lol
Damn it. Chanyeol was never going to let him live this one down.
“This is so much pressure on me, taking you, the foodie, to a restaurant.”
“I promise I won’t be too hard on you if the food turns out terrible.”
“Oh, you say that now!”
“C’mon, it’s Moroccan, how bad can it be?”
“It isn’t! I’m telling you! I just don’t trust your judgement.”
“I’ve done nothing to justify you viewing me like this!”
“Oh, are you sure? It’s the next right, by the way.”
“Ah, alright.”
Kyungsoo loved many things about food, and one of those things definitely was how easy it made to bond with people over it. You two had been talking about food and restaurants on the filming set, and you had continued talking about it later, which had eventually led to many nice conversations about many different topics over text message.
He’d once mentioned never having tried Moroccan cuisine, and now here he was, trying to convince his brain that your casual clothes (no short skirt or high heels in sight) meant this was just a friendly outing rather than a date. Or maybe it was, and that was just the way your off-camera persona preferred to dress for dates?
“And, by the way, it’s me who’s driving so, technically, I’m the one taking you to a restaurant. I’m paying too.”
“No, you’re not!”
Hmm. Maybe it wasn’t, after all.
Later, when you arrived to the restaurant and ordered your food, he had to admit he’d been intermittently distracted by all the new dishes and flavors. Trying something new to eat was always an adventure to him and he was determined to thoroughly enjoy the experience and not let your presence be the only thing he remembered from that night. It was proving to be a difficult enough task, though, because he didn’t often get the chance to be near you while wearing his glasses, and you happened to look cuter than ever with your hair tucked behind your ears and a satisfied expression on your face while you happily chewed on the stew. And then a sexy expression while you put your lips around the straw in your soda and sucked on it. Then you licked your lips, wetting them. You had the cutest cupid’s bow in the world.
“So, do you prefer this lamb, or the one we had earlier?”
Your voice awoke Kyungsoo from his trance. He was suddenly feeling thirsty, and his face was hot. He hadn’t been staring at your lips for long, had he? They were still moving, but what were you even saying to him?
“I think…” he began, not knowing how to confess he hadn’t really been listening. Oh, God, he was a terrible friend. He forced himself to look you in the eyes. You were giving him a weird look, but you didn’t seem offended. “I need to go to the toilet. Excuse me.”
As soon as he got up from the table, he noticed the effects of the beer he’d been drinking on his body. This explained why he hadn’t been able to control the urge to delight in the way your lips moved. He needed to be careful from now on.
In the men’s toilets, he splashed his face with cold water. He looked like a complete fool when he looked in the mirror. And his ears were bright red. Everything was so obvious, he had to be giving himself away for sure. There was no way you hadn’t noticed. Was he this obvious in front of the cameras too? Did the show’s director, the staff, the entire country know about his huge crush on you?
“Are you drunk?” you asked him when he got back to the table.
“No, not much.”
“But you’re a bit tipsy.” It wasn’t a question, and you were clearly holding back your laughter.
“Yeah. Why is it so funny?”
“Oh,” you smiled sweetly at him. “It’s just that you’re always keeping such a neutral face that it’s really impossible to tell what’s going on inside of your head. You seem fine and the next second you’re drunk.”
Kyungsoo couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Really?” he asked, suppressing a relieved smile.
He could breathe again.
On your 12th week of marriage, the We Got Married team took you and Kyungsoo fishing in a beautiful lake near your hometown. Neither of you had been very successful at catching any fish for the time being. The weather was nice, but walking along the shore of the lake was proving to be a nearly impossible task, even with appropriate shoes, and, at some point, Kyungsoo heard your alarm cry:
“Be careful! You’re about to step on muddy–!”
Kyungsoo felt the ground slip beneath his feet and his whole body approach the water dangerously fast. He dropped the fishing rod. Then something —presumably you— pulled on his clothes and, before he could tell what was going on, he fell face first into the water.
“Oh, fuck, it’s so cold!” He heard you yell somewhere immediately behind him.
He put his hands in the ground to lift himself up, and, true to your words, it was completely covered in mud. How disgusting. Carefully, he kneeled on the ground, the water reaching his thighs, and looked for you. You were right next to him, sitting on the water, looking at him like you couldn’t believe what had just happened, and he had to cover his mouth with his hand to try and hold back a laugh. Thankfully, or not, you were dry from your waist up.
“To be fair, I’m not wearing my glasses” he said, matter-of-factly.
You squeezed your eyes shut in an overly dramatic manner and, for a brief moment, he thought you were going to yell at him, but then you threw your head back and just started laughing. Kyungsoo just looked at you dumbfounded, a faint smile creeping across his features.
“Oh, my God, you’re drenched!” you said, pitifully, and still laughing.
Kyungsoo looked down. Truthfully, all of his clothes were completely wet, and his fringe was dripping onto his cheeks. The only part of him that was still somewhat dry was his back.
“You’re drenched too, I’m so sorry! Please, will you forgive me?”
“Ah, c’mon, it’s nothing!”
Carefully again, he stood up and walked a few slow steps towards you, his hand held out in your direction. You took it without a word, still laughing, and maybe because you were still laughing you didn’t pay enough attention to your feet. When Kyungsoo pulled your hand to help you lift up, your feet slipped on the muddy ground again, kicking Kyungsoo’s legs and making him lose his hard-earned balance and fall with you to the water again.
Now this was a sticky situation.
You weren’t laughing anymore and neither was Kyungsoo; his face mere centimeters away from your collarbone. Panicking, Kyungsoo put his hands on the ground on either side of you to lift himself up, but they sunk and slipped in the mud, bringing his whole weight down once again. Fuck. This wasn’t how he intended to bury his face in your chest, were he ever given the chance. You had gone completely still under him, and he couldn’t even apologize unless he wanted to swallow a whole load of muddy water. And, of course, the several cameramen and staff members that were watching wouldn’t lend either of you a hand. You were supposed to give the impression that you were alone, after all. Desperate, Kyungsoo resorted to flipping himself to the side, falling once again on his back on the water but finally, and effectively, getting himself off you.
You sat up and gave him an awkward look. No wonder your face had gone beet red.
“Let’s just crawl to the shore.” You simply said.
Kyungsoo couldn’t agree more.
“You’re right. It’s not like we’re not already soaking wet.”
“Are you ready to go viral again after today?” Kyungsoo asked you some time later.
The sun was starting to set, and the two of you were sitting on the back of the van, now dry, comfortable and warm, and with a cup of hot tea in your hands.
You let out a brief laugh. Or a sigh. He really couldn’t tell.
“We’re becoming quite the popular TV couple, aren’t we?” you said.
You were giving him a very warm look, the kind of look that made him grow restless and feel butterflies in his stomach. And you didn’t look like you entirely hated the idea of being part of a couple with Kyungsoo. At all. The cameras were still rolling, but the pull of your eyes, sparkling with hope, was too strong to resist.
Kyungsoo coughed.
“Listen…” He began, hesitantly. “I… just want you to know that I really like being your husband…” He was praying his face wasn’t burning up too much from the confession. “I’m glad I got to know you through this show. But if you ever feel like it’s too much, we can call it off. I know you’re not used to this much attention from the public, like I am, so I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable for my sake. Just… keep that in mind.”
You looked at him for a brief moment of silence, the affection in your eyes so evident Kyungsoo wished time would stop.
“I like being your wife too.” You finally said, making his heart soar. “You’re so kind, and you’re funny, and sincere, and selfless, and I love spending time with you, even if it’s just a few hours a week recording for the show. I’m glad I gained a friend like you thanks to this show.”
Kyungsoo definitely didn’t like the use of the word friend there, but he really wasn’t worried about that. There had been a tinge of red on your cheeks when you spoke, a certain shakiness in your voice which he was ninety-five percent sure he hadn’t imagined. But, just to make it a hundred percent, had you really meant what you had just said? Did you really like him like that? Like he liked you?
Cameras be damned. He felt like he was 15 again and completely inexperienced in love matters. Any other man would’ve come up with a flirty answer by now, at the very least, but there he was. Frozen. His throat getting drier by the minute while you just stared at him. How could he be such a coward? It was really all the cameras’ fault! They had no right meddling at a time like this and yet he wouldn’t have met you if it weren’t for them.
It was all so unfair.
Then you let out an uncharacteristically shy laugh. When Kyungsoo directed his gaze from your lips towards your eyes, you were giving him an apologetic look, and for a second he thought you could read his mind. Maybe you felt trapped under the public scrutiny too. Maybe you too wanted to carry on this conversation and didn’t know how. Maybe you also had so many things you wanted to say to him, just not on prime time schedule.
He had to hold himself back from stretching one of his hands towards yours. He clenched his fists instead.
Just to make sure, he rewrote his message over and over again until the words stopped making any sense in his head, and, even then, it took everything he had to muster the courage to press “send”.
Sent message: I just want you to know that everything I said earlier today on set was true.
There. That was as non-straightforward as he could get while still reassuring you of his feelings. Or his best attempt at it, at least. He threw his phone across the room, immediately regretting it when the loud noise it made reminded him of Chanyeol’s presence in the next room, not wanting him to come ask what the hell was going on. What had you turned him into?
His heart leapt from his chest when he heard his phone vibrate, not even three whole minutes later. He jumped from his bed and flew to fetch his phone from the ground with shaking hands.
Received message: Same here, Soo. I love being with you.
Received message: I can’t wait to see you next week.
Holy shit.
This was it.
No friend bullshit, plus a desire to see him. This was it, right? He kicked his bedsheets, making a mess out of them, but bubbling too much with joy to stay still.
You liked him back.
On average, Kyungsoo could quite successfully predict how popular a particular We Got Married episode was going to be based purely on how hard his heart had been beating during the filming. And if the lake episode had been a total hit, today’s would break all records.
The producers had decided the show called for a little more domesticity and, thus, you had spent the entire afternoon at your fake shared home filming some very predictable cooking class.
You kept teasing him, though. As if he wasn’t already shaking in nervousness from seeing you for the first time after your latest exchanged messages —yes, the ones where you admitted to “loving being with him”—, you kept giving him casual touches on his arms and shoulders, taking advantage of his jumpy state in a pretty similar way to that one time when you had danced together.
There hadn’t been knives involved that one time, though; and, as skilled as Kyungsoo was with a knife, his hands were still made of flesh just like anyone else’s.
“Oh, no, I’m so sorry!”
“It’s nothing. It’s not even deep, don’t worry,” Kyunsoo said, holding his finger in front of his eyes, closely examining the cut.
“Let’s disinfect it, come with me.”
You didn’t even give him time to resist before you grabbed his wrist and pulled him with you to the bathroom. He watched you fumble around looking for the first aid kit, then apply disinfectant with a cotton ball, then a bandaid, with your soft fingers.
“This isn’t necessary. It’s–”
It’s not like you did anything too radical to shut him up, but his lips started to burn under the touch of your finger and, suddenly, he couldn’t speak anymore.
With the hand that wasn’t on his lips, you closed the bathroom door shut. In the reigning silence that followed, he was afraid you would be able to hear his heart beating frantically.
“I don’t know about you, but…” you began, your voice a lot lower than usual. “I’ve been wishing we could get a little privacy some time.”
The bathroom was narrow enough, but it did seem like you were a lot closer to Kyungsoo’s body than you needed to. He’d never held his breath this carefully.
“We haven’t been able to hang out these days like we used to at first,” you continued. “And I wouldn’t like for all of this to get in between our friendship.”
You fell silent and looked at him, giving him his cue to speak his mind now, take the friendship card you were offering him, or go on and accept whatever it was that you were ready to give him.
“They may get the wrong idea from this closed door, though,” Kyungsoo murmured shakily, your finger still grazing his lips in a way that felt a lot like kissing your skin.
He was slowly lowering his head, almost not aware of the movement. One of his hands came to rest on your waist. He could see you hold back a smile.
“Oh, but you know…” Your mouth was millimeters apart from his now, your eyes completely fixated on his lips, and he didn’t know how much longer he’d be able to hold his breath. “You worry about everyone else way too much. It’s ok to be a little selfish sometimes…” you said, and your fingers were sliding off his trembling lips, coming to rest on his feverish chest, and then on the back of his neck. “To forget about the cameras, the fans, your manager… Everything. To think only about what you want, right in this moment.”
You layed your penetrating eyes on him and he could feel his entire body burning. What he wanted… He knew damn well what he wanted.
There was an unmistakeable determination in your gaze, and you must have seen something in his eyes too, because the next thing he knew, you were kissing him, your soft lips pressing against his thick ones, your warm tongue asking for permission to enter his mouth. The pressure in Kyungsoo’s chest dissolved and turned into a fuzzy feeling at the back of his head that was threatening to drive him crazy. He opened his mouth and tasted the invasion of your tongue. He carefully placed both of his hands on your waist, not yet daring to pull you closer. You were so small. He could feel the heat emanating from your body, and your breasts pressing against him. He felt like his bones were melting. God, he liked you so, so, much.
“Cut! CUT!!” You and Kyungsoo jumped apart, frightened by the directors angry sounding voice from the other side of the door. He was missing your warmth already. “What are you two doing in there?! You’re not being paid to stay behind closed doors! Do you think I have all day?!”