Chapter Text
Hyunjin is in the middle of a dance practice when he notices his phone is lighting up, indicating that there's an incoming call. Hastily, Hyunjin turns the stereo off and picks his phone from the table to answer the call.
The name flashing on the screen shows that the caller is his younger brother. Hyunjin wonders what he wants this time.
"Yeah?" Hyunjin says as soon as he accepts the call, breathing still heavy and unsteady from all the dancing he's done. Hyunjin unscrews the cap of his bottled water and downs the liquid greedily to quench his thirst.
"So, I might have done something," Jeongin starts. "It's a stupid mistake but not all that terrible."
"Jeongin," Hyunjin sighs into the receiver. "How many times do I need to tell you? Stop mistaking my underwear for yours! I labelled them with neon fabric markers. It's impossible not to see it."
"I was binge watching some videos on youtube," Jeongin easily ignores him. "And, liked a couple of videos while I was at it."
There's silence after that statement. Then: "Congrats on figuring out how to like videos on youtube," Hyunjin says sarcastically. He's lost interest in the conversation, briefly wondering why Jeongin's called to tell him this. If Hyunjin knew, he would have just continued practicing instead of entertaining his brother. "Now I have a practice to get back to and—"
"Using your account," Jeongin quickly adds, immediately halting Hyunjin mid-sentence. "I forgot I wasn't logged in on incognito mode tab, watched a few videos and liked a couple of them. Only then I realized your account is still logged in."
"Jeongin!" Hyunjin screams in disbelief. He hopes to god his brother wasn't watching anything improper using his account because he had his privacy set to public and all his 1 million subscribers could see his likes and whatnot on his page. "Is it porn?!"
"Wha– no!" Jeongin denies. Hyunjin feels a little relieved hearing that but not completely yet because he still doesn't know what kind of videos Jeongin was watching and liking. He's caught Jeongin watching a video of a person stuffing their mouth with as many marshmallows as he could once before, and shudders at the memory. Hyunjin can't imagine having those kinds of videos on his page. It's meant to promote videos of other dance covers, not... that!
"Then?!"
"Calm down, oh my god," Hyunjin can sense Jeongin rolling his eyes from the tone of his voice. "I told you it's not that terrible. They're just videos of bullet journal spreads and stationery hauls."
Hyunjin lets out the breath he doesn't know he was holding in. Okay. Okay, it wasn't that bad. Nothing incriminating, thank god. Hyunjin inhales and exhales deeply to calm himself. "Okay. You've removed them from my page, though, right?"
"Yeah," Jeongin affirms. "...Like, 2 hours later."
"What?!" Hyunjin widens his eyes. 2 hours is a lot of time for people to notice and– oh my god, wait. He's set the setting to automatically share his youtube activity on twitter, didn't he…?
Hyunjin abruptly ends the call even though Jeongin is still explaining something on the other end, and then blanches seeing the amount of twitter notification he's received. The mentions, retweets and quote retweets keep coming in apparently since 2 hours ago, matching with what Jeongin's told him. What doesn't match with Jeongin's explanation is the fact that he'd only liked a couple of videos because when Hyunjin opens his twitter page, it's filled with more than 10 likes on the same channel and a subscription to minniesjournal.
Hyunjin makes a call to his brother, yelling a loud "Hwang Jeongin!" as soon as it's picked up. "You're dead. So, so dead."
~*~
Editing is a long, exhausting process, so Seungmin likes being as comfortable and relaxed as he could when editing his videos. Honeyed chamomile tea and soothing scented candles are the basic must have, along with piano music as the background noise and putting on his favorite comfy hoodie. His phone is usually set on vibrate only or on complete silent mode during the duration of editing, but he makes sure to put it close to him for him to notice any incoming calls. That night, his phone's battery was running low, resulting in him having to charge it and the only available socket is the one near his bed so he has to put the phone on vibrate mode to listen for incoming calls or texts.
Seungmin also likes working in peace and without distraction, but it's getting increasingly hard to focus when his phone keeps vibrating on the mattress. It couldn't be his friends or parents because he'd told them earlier that night that he would be editing and wouldn't be available for a few hours. He's still editing the new video which was to be uploaded the next day, and his last instagram post was 4 days ago so it doesn't make sense that the notifications that keep on coming come from those platforms— which means the notifications probably are coming from twitter.
"Huh," Seungmin stops editing to shift his gaze to his phone on the bed, vibrating from another new notification again. Seungmin's last tweet was a good night post, which usually doesn't warrant that much response after a few hours, making it even weirder than it already is. He wonders if something happened, feeling the worry stirring in his chest so Seungmin gets up to get his phone but before he could check any of the notifications, Felix is calling him. Seungmin yanks the usb cable and brings his phone to his ear. "Hello?"
"Are you friends with Hyunjin?!" Felix says instead of greeting Seungmin properly. "Introduce me to him, please!"
"Uh," Seungmin replies dumbly. "I...would if I knew him…?"
"You don't?" Felix sounds as confused as Seungmin is feeling.
"No? I don't know a Hyunjin."
"JinnieHwang on youtube?"
"Huh?"
"JinnieHwang!" Felix repeats himself urgently. "He owns the coolest dance cover account on youtube."
"The only coolest youtuber I know that does dance covers is you," Seungmin tells Felix, which is true. Seungmin doesn't venture to that part of youtube much as he's more into journaling and all that stuff.
"That's equal parts flattering and tragic," Felix sighs, sounding like he doesn't know if he's thankful or disappointed in Seungmin. "Are you sure you don't know him?"
"I'm positive that I don't."
"Okay. But...if you don't know him then how does he know you …? I mean, no offense bro. Hyunjin doesn't seem like the type to care about bullet journaling. It doesn't fit with his aesthetic."
Seungmin snorts at this and walks back to his table. It doesn't seem like Seungmin could get back to editing anytime soon so might as well save his current progress first and continue again later. "I'm pretty sure this Hyunjin doesn't know me either. Why are you asking me all of these anyway?"
"Have you not been on twitter?"
"No? I was editing my video. What's up on twitter?" Seungmin asks, genuinely curious.
"So I guess you haven't seen what's up then. Stan twitter is in shambles right now."
"What?" Seungmin widens his eyes. This definitely doesn't help with his confusion at all. "Is that...good or bad?" he asks unsurely. "Should I go on twitter, or…?"
Felix laughs at him on the other end of the line. "I wouldn't say it's bad? This Hyunjin I was talking about liked a few of your videos and subscribed to your channel."
Seungmin makes a high-pitched noise of confusion. "Did he talk about me or something? Wait, I thought you said he didn't like bullet journaling??"
"He didn't talk about you– there are only tweets posted about his activity on youtube, which was how people knew about it in the first place," Felix explains. "And I didn't say he doesn't like bullet journaling; I just think it doesn't match with his aesthetic. If he does like it, then that's good for him. Study channels are pretty cool," Felix says. "I thought you guys knew each other and that he was helping you boost your channel up. So, you really don't know him?"
"No," Seungmin confirms for what felt like the hundredth time. "Maybe he was just liking random videos and subscribing to random channels. Why is it such a big deal anyway?"
"It is such a big deal," Felix tells him. "Hyunjin only strictly shares likes and subscriptions to other dance cover accounts on his page. God, I wish I could be on his page and maybe do dance collaboration with him someday," Felix sighs dreamily. "It'll really help my channel gain more views and subscribers."
Seungmin can't help but laugh at this. "So, in other words, you want to use his popularity to your own benefit?" he teases.
"Hey!" Felix protests, but doesn't really deny it. "I think it would be good, you know? He has over a million subscribers and besides, I think he's a pretty cool dude to be friends with."
"He has a what?" Seungmin almost choked on air hearing what Felix just told him. "A...a million subscribers?"
"Over a million subscribers, actually," Felix corrects him. "And over 700k followers on twitter and instagram? He's kinda a big deal. He has all different kinds of followers and he's never done this before so his stans on twitter are equally interested, delighted and confused."
"Not gonna lie, mate. I'm confused and terrified," Seungmin confessess. Never had he imagined he would get attention this way. "He's not even an idol but he has a huge fanbase huh?"
"With the kind of influence he has, he might as well be one."
Seungmin sighs. "I don't know if I should go on twitter. Don't know what to expect either."
Felix bursts out laughing again. "It's actually kinda funny, this whole situation right now. Your phone must be blowing up with notifications, huh? You don't need to check them if you don't feel like it. I get that it must be overwhelming. But I assure you most of the reactions are positive, if not funny."
"Thanks, I guess?" Seungmin says. "I am a little scared. I think I'll take a peek and go back to editing."
"Right. You were in the middle of editing. Sorry for bothering you!"
"Nah, it's okay," Seungmin assures. "I needed a quick break anyway, and I'm almost done with the video."
"If you say so. Also, you should check Hyunjin out later. If you're not into the dance videos, you can always check out his vlogs. He's so funny."
"What are you, his promoter?" Seungmin laughs in amusement.
"You won't regret it~ He's such an eye candy too, you know?" Felix singsongs. "I'll leave you alone for now. Don't spend too much time editing, please!"
"I won't. As I said, I'm almost done."
"Good. Go to sleep early after that. We have a lunch date with Jisung tomorrow. Don't forget that!"
"Forgetting an important date with my friends? Couldn't be me! Not under my trusted bullet journal's watch anyway."
"Shut up," Felix laughs. "Goodnight, Min."
"Night, Lix," Seungmin greets back with a smile and they end the call.
Curiosity gets the best of Seungmin because as soon as the call ended, Seungmin opens his twitter app to witness the commotion himself. There's a lot of confused what?? and who are you?? in his mentions (honestly, Seungmin could say the same to them), people mentioning @jinniehwang203 and a lot of new followers. I love journal spread videos!, one of the mentions says, making Seungmin smile. So glad hyunjin liked your videos. Now i can't stop watching after discovering your channel. Subscribed! <3
Seungmin decides to let everything cool down first before tweeting anything as to not cause anymore noise so he sets his twitter notification on mute for now and puts his phone away. Perhaps, Felix is right. It's a good thing that this Hyunjin guy had liked his videos and subscribed to his channel because even though Seungmin is content with having few followers and subscribers, new ones are always welcomed in his space as he loves sharing his hobbies and discussing them with people who have similar interests.
"Better finish this and upload new content soon then," he says to himself and gets back to editing his video so he can upload it as scheduled.