Chapter Text
When Fon had decided that she wanted to be an Idol, she had if she was completely honest, done so because the boy she had a crush on called her names. Now, as something like an adult (she didn't really felt like one, but technically she was) she had changed her reasons for pursuing this dream. Afters years of gentle encouragement from her parents and therapy she had found herself and made another decision. She wanted to be an Idol, yes. But she wanted to be one young people could relate to. Someone that had struggled but in the end succeeded. Someone that spoke up about the troubles teenagers faced daily. She wanted to help (and yes, she wanted to meet the boy again and show him, how wrong he had been - even if he hadn't meant it in a malicious way). So she did. Or at least attempted to. Getting a foot into the Idol-Business was even harder than expected- and she had expected a lot. She (with the help of her parents) had at least managed to get a manager. The first steps were done, now she only had to get popular. Fon already had a decent following on social media, but it wasn't enough yet.
So between her therapie sessions, family dinners, dance rehearsal, singing lessons and most importantly her classes she asked her manager for idol approved work opportunities. P´Plum had told her to start with getting known to the locals. So Fon had checked their university page. Next to the typical asks and offers she had found one from a group of seniors of their art department. They were searching for actors for their senior project. A movie, they would show first at university and then at the local cinema. Excited she had called P´Plum who asked her to first get the script and/or the seniors to her. So Fon had dragged them (literally in case of P´Dee) to P´Plum so they would present their idea to her. And she had agreed- Fon had given her her biggest smile and puppy dog eyes and after the seniors had left in a daze a really grateful hug- so now Fon was getting ready for the first day of filming. She had memorized today's scenes, had a light meal and approached every crew member to introduce herself. She was ready to start. The only missing person now, was her acting partner. The male lead.
And then she found him. And how she found him. In an unexpected twist of fate he was sitting at a nearby table, face emotionless except for when he talked with his friend. Tiny smiles and slightly crinkled eyes turned up every time his friend behaved especially energetic. Otherwise he remained stoic.
Even if PˋDee hadnˋt told her that her acting partner was “the tall handsome one with the face carved from marble” (Fon had suppressed a giggle at that. Being an art student herself she knew a lot of her classmates tended to be very dramatic at any given opportunity- but she still hadnˋt expected to hear something like that outside of a movie), she would have recognized him. She had seen him often enough when she was scrolling through social media after a glass of wine (maybe even after two or three), Not that she had searched specially for him. No. She had searched for Boss. Her childhood crush. The one person she just couldn't let go of. On Bossˋ various profiles (open for public, that adorable, clueless dumbass) were hundreds upon hundreds of photos, most of them of his friends and family. Vacations, study group dates, night outs- and in nearly all of them: Mek the, how Boss proclaimed in a lot of posts and tags, bestest of best husbands.
The first time she had seen this caption, her heart had stopped for a moment and she had to take a big sip of her wine, glass clutched so hard in her hand, that her fingers had turned white. The thing was, she had never expected him to be single, he was afterall a boy (man now) with a big heart and lots of love to give. Still it stung. But after scrolling and scrolling and scrolling she came upon a photo Boss had captioned with “My super cute girlfriend!!!!! Thanks to my awesome hubby Mek for cooking for us!!!”. It showed Boss grinning widely into the camera while a girl who must be the girlfriend (Boss was right, she was really cute) looked slightly disgruntled. That had clued her in: Boss and his friend werenˋt actually a couple .The comments underneath also helped. Someone named AmazingBohn, who was also in a lot of the pictures, had written that he pitied the poor girl who had to compete against Bossˋ best friend, while the one who called himself The Plant King wrote a gentle reminder that he should probably reconsider calling his best friend his husband while in a relationship just to be safe and evade a possible future heartbreak.
Fon would had considered him the mature, responsible one in the friend group, if she hadnˋt seen a previous post where he had rambled about plants while obviously heavenly inebriated. In the background she had seen Boss doing his best at dancing, it only looked a little like a stranded octopus trying to wiggle back into the water. Fon had replayed the video an embarrassing amount of times, until she noticed at the end of the video the boy with the strong jawline (who she knew to be AmazingBohn thanks to social media) stumbling into another person before bending over to puke on his own shoes. Puking made her queasy, so the video was indefinitely banned (on the nice side: she now knew an absurd amount of things about ferns).
But what she had gathered from all of the frankly accidental social media stalking was the following:
- Boss seemed to have found his place in the world, surrounded by a tight knitted group of friends, who got in and out of trouble, tended to be overdramatic but always had each other back
- Boss still was the same boy as in elementary school, sure he had grown (a bit) and matured (also a bit) but deep down he was still the same: big hearted, big mouthed and with a deep sense for harmless trouble. In short: big dumbass energie. It was still adorable.
- None of his relationships lasted very long.
And after every break up post there were photos following, obviously showing a night out drinking with his friend and depending on who took him home the after morning posts differed. When The Plant King and Mek took him home, Boss would rejoice the next morning, posting pictures of the three of them eating brunch together, captions littered with “thanks to the bests!” and hearts. When AmazingBohn and TotallyTee took him home, the following pictures showed Boss with various confusing trinkets he, as he had written, seemed to have bought sometime in the night when he was drunk. The last thing he had bought was a neon pink fedora. Bohn had explained in one of the comments, that Boss had whined so long until he had payed for that “stupid hideous thing” just to get him to shut up and finally home. Boss had sent hearts in response. Bohn, to Fons surprise, had sent some back.
And now she was in front of him and panicking. She wasn't ready to meet him yet. And because of that she flunked their reunion. She basically ignored him, focussing instead on Mek and keeping her cheeks from burning. She more or less succeeded in both, but it had cost her an uncomplicated reunion. Mentally she despaired.
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Luckily for her, her next chance had come in the form of the celebratory dinner paid by her art department seniors. After a delicious meal and a very awkward, stilted conversation with Mek, Boss had offered to accompany her to the bus stop and wait with her (or did he say that he took the same bus home? She had barely heard him over her pounding heart). She had accepted. Of course she had, it wasnˋt every day that someone got a second chance. She took it and grabbed it with both her hands. While waiting for the bus to arrive, they had talked. And how they talked. Fon only could sighn fondly, remembering the pure joy she had felt when Boss had rembered her (and because of a stupid doodle!). She had thought that she couldn´t be happier, but then Boss had asked her out. Awkward and stuttering, his usual boisterous energy depleted, fumbling and stumbling. Blushing she had said yes. And now she had a date. With Boss. He had invited her to an “absolutely amazing” café at the nearby park.
Dressed in a cute dress and with perfectly applied make up she arrived 10 before the planned time, nervous and excited for her very first date (overall, but more importantly with Boss!!!). She nearly declared it fate when Boss arrived at the entrance door at the same time as her. He looked good. Very good. Not that he normally didnˋt look good, but today he looked even better. Instead of their school uniform he wore a slightly oversized button-up, his hair slightly tousled and a grin bright and shining.
“Fon! Hi!”
“Hello Boss. You look nice”, she smiled and brushed her hair out of her face. Trying to distract from her blush, she smiled back.
“Oh. Yes! You too! You look very pretty. But I know that. At first the thought of dressing up didnˋt come to me, but my friends scolded me and I thought: would Fon like it if I dressed up and that made me remember that you always look very cute and put together, so I just had to dress up!”, he rambled, his hands dancing in the air in front of him, while his blush rose.
Fon giggled, absolutely enamored.
“But then I noticed that I didn't have nice dress up clothes except for my school uniform, so I had to borrow a shirt from Mek. I don´t look ridiculous, do I? I mean you said that I looked good, but I wasnˋt sure if you said that because you thought you had to”, his smile had dimmed into insecure lifted lips, attempting to imitate his former grin.
Fon blinked. So the shirt was not his own (that explained how it was slightly too long at the arms and too wide at the shoulders) but it still looked good on him. She took a step closer to him, trailing her finger up his arm.
“You look very good”, she took hold of his arm and smiled upt to him.
“Shall we go in? Or do you want to eat outside?”
They were seated inside the café near the window front. And Boss was right. The café was amazing. And the chocolate cake was to die for. Fon tried to not eat such rich desserts all too often, but she could have eaten the whole cake instead of only a slice.
“How did you find this café? Are you often at the park?”, Fon took a sip of her iced coffee.
Boss swallowed his mouthful of cake before answering.
“No, Mek did. I-”, he looked away from her, embarrassment colouring his voice.
“I was very nervous about our date. I wanted everything to go well, because you´re amazing and I had a crush on you since elementary school. So I asked Mek to practice our date. And he took me to this café and the cake was just too amazing!”
Fon didn't know what to say. On one hand it was unusual to practice date your best friend to not fail a real date (and in this instance Fon did understand Boss´ ex-girlfriends and their jealousy) on the other hand it was really adorable. The sweetness weighed more in her opinion. So she smiled.
“I annoyed my best friend with basically a million selfies because I had to wear the absolut perfect outfit”
Boss beamed back at her and was starting to say something when her phone began to blare the newest song of her current k-pop obsession from her purse. It was the ringtone she had set for P´Plum. Apologetically she looked at Boss.
“I´m so sorry. My phone is on mute except for my manager. I really have to take this”, after Boss nodded smiling, she rushed up and out of the front door.
“Hello P´Plum. How are you?”
“I'm good Fon. I have exciting news. Are you ready!”
“I'm always ready for exciting news!”
“Do you remember that I sent your application to the latest local Idol Contest?”
“Of Course I do!”
“Well, congratulations. You´re in”
“I´m in?”
“Yes”
“No kidding?”
“No kidding”
Fon smiled so wide her cheeks hurt.
“It would be the best if you could come to my office to sign all the paperwork”
“Of course I will be there in-”, Fon stopped. She was on a date. She couldn't disappear without saying something.
“I will be there as soon as possible. See you P´Plum!”.
She ended the call and turned around to go back into the café when she noticed Boss standing behind her, holding a little bag with the cafés logo. He smiled insecure.
“Everything okay?”
“Better than okay. I got accepted into an Idol Contest. I only have to sign the paperwork and I- that's my biggest chance yet!”, she was so excited, she felt like vibrating out of her skin.
Boss smiled back at her.
“That's awesome. I bought you some cake to take home with you, but now you can eat it in celebration! Well if it survives the next part of the date”
Fon felt guilty, her smile dimmed.
“I actually have to sign them as soon as possible”
Boss' smile fell, then it returned, even if it was smaller. Then he held the bag out to her.
“Well then. Go sign them. We can reschedule our date”
“You´re the best! Thank you so much!”, she took the bag, pressed a small kiss to his cheek and started walking towards the nearest bus stop. And if she was walking way faster than normally, well she was in a hurry. She was nearly out of the hearing range, when Boss' voice rang out.
“Fon! Are we dating now? Am I allowed to call you my girlfriend?”
Fon laughed delighted.
“Sure! I text you when I´m back boyfriend!”, she waved and turned back towards her destination when she saw Boss´ face break out in a wide grin.
This day got better and better. She made a big step towards her dream and got the boy she was crushing on since elementary school. Life was beautiful and Fon very happy.