Work Text:
(From Seokjin’s phone, currently in his hand as he scrolls through Twitter:)
From: Jeongguk;
To: Yoongi; Namjoon;
Cc: Seokjin; Hoseok; Jimin; Taehyung;
Attached: WeddingVideo1
Hi hyungs!
Just in case something goes wrong with my USB later, here’s a copy of your video!
(unmarried hyungs – here’s a copy for you, too. Can one of you check that the file plays properly on a television and get back to me?)
It’s Seokjin’s day off, so he doesn’t feel guilty in the slightest for spending most of the morning lying prone on his couch. His television’s on, set up for him to play video games, but he hasn’t quite gotten round to getting up to turn any of his consoles on yet; he’d been spending his time hopping from app to app when Jeongguk’s email had come through, and he hadn’t really been planning to get up for at least another hour.
However, he knows that Hoseok, Jimin, and Taehyung are at work, and they’re all supposed to be going over to Yoongi and Namjoon’s new place to watch their wedding video this evening, so he swings himself up into a sitting position, gets his laptop off the coffee table, and boots it up.
He knows that there’s got to be an easier way to play the file on his television, but he doesn’t know how to do it, so he downloads it from his emails, and then, and he’s sure this causes Jeongguk’s Gen-Z brain to twitch subconsciously, he burns the file to one of the blank discs he still owns.
Seokjin owns a DVD player, too, which is something else that seemingly blows Jeongguk’s mind whenever he sees it. It is, admittedly, very rarely used, and he has to use his phone’s flashlight to see where to unplug his Switch from in order to plug in the DVD player, but he manages it, flopping back down onto his couch and pressing play on his remote.
(From Seokjin’s phone, laying face down in front of the television:)
From: Jeongguk;
To: Yoongi; Namjoon; Seokjin; Hoseok; Jimin; Taehyung;
Attached: WeddingVideo11
Sorry, wrong file! Delete the last one, please – here’s the actual finished project!
Seokjin’s never seen a wedding video before, but he hadn’t realised just how long they were. He’d always kind of assumed the videographer would edit some of the boring bits out, but Jeongguk’s apparently kept everything he'd filmed in the video, judging by the over five-hour runtime.
Not to say that Yoongi and Namjoon’s wedding had been boring! On the contrary, it had been lovely, even if it was very different from Yoongi’s original idea of having them to sign the back of a receipt in their recording studio. Namjoon had looked seconds away from agreeing before Seokjin and Hoseok, jaws almost hitting the table, had managed to convince them that maybe this was a milestone their friends and family would want to celebrate with them.
Instead of inside their studio, their studio’s building superintendent, with a soft spot for both of them, had agreed to let them use the rooftop garden for both their ceremony and their reception. They had bucked at some of the traditions of a wedding in Korea-
“For starters, we’re two men,” Yoongi had pointed out when they’d been outlining their plans, all those months ago. “And I think that’s pretty fucking untraditional in this country.”
-they didn’t have anybody officiate the ceremony, because it wasn’t technically a legal marriage, and they had decided not to sign anything (“Marriage is a dialogue, not a one-signature-and-done form,” Namjoon had said, incredibly blasé considering it was maybe the most romantic thing Seokjin had ever heard in his life). They did, however, choose to have groomsmen, and they did pay Jeongguk to make their wedding video.
Which is what Seokjin’s watching right now.
(From Seokjin’s phone, still face down in front of the television:)
(WeddingVideo1, currently playing on Seokjin’s 65" television:)
“Hyung!” Jeongguk says, his gleeful voice audible from behind the camera as he zooms in on Seokjin’s face in Jimin's bathroom mirror. Seokjin, trying to sort out his hair parting, quirks a grin. “How are you feeling?”
“Good? Good,” Seokjin confirms, frowning at a strand of his own hair in his reflection as he adjusts it. “I’ve asked Yoongi to toss the bouquet rather than Namjoon, I don’t want to risk an injury when I try to catch it, you know?”
“The bouquet?”
The camera zooms in a little closer, and it's quiet enough in the bathroom Seokjin's getting ready in that the microphone picks up on it, a quiet little whirring sound. “Yeah? You must’ve heard that superstition, Jeongguk-ah, that if you catch the bouquet at a wedding you’ll get married next?”
“You want to get married, hyung?” Jeongguk answers – the camera’s getting closer to Seokjin again, but that’s because Jeongguk is walking it over himself.
“It doesn’t have to be marriage, necessarily,” Seokjin says airily, straightening up and tilting his head left and right, examining his hair from as many angles as possible in the mirror. “A boyfriend would be nice.” He laughs and finally turns to look the camera head on, although he’s not looking down the camera lens. “Ah, listen to hyung, getting soppy at Yoongi and Namjoon’s wedding, and we’ve not even touched the alcohol yet. Make sure you cut this out of the final film, Jeongguk-ah!”
“If you want me to,” Jeongguk says.
Whatever expression he’s pulling off-camera makes Seokjin’s face turn soft, a little fond. “What’s got you pulling that face?”
“Anyone would be lucky to date you, hyung,” Jeongguk says. The camera’s still zoomed in from earlier, so he zooms out again, catching the moment where Seokjin throws his head back in laughter. “I-it’s true!”
“You’re very sweet,” Seokjin says, still chuckling. “I’ll bring you along to my first-dates, yeah? You can big me up, tell them what a delight I am.” He smiles widely, and the footage suddenly cuts to black.
Seokjin expects the wedding video to cut to similar segments with the other groomsmen, and it does.
Sort of.
The other groomsmen give much more traditional interviews as they go about their tasks in preparation for the ceremony – Hoseok had gleefully recounted the story of how Yoongi and Namjoon had first gotten together; Jimin, double-checking the number of seats they’ve set out in the rooftop garden, talks about how he’d first met Yoongi and Namjoon and had assumed they were bitter rivals until he had caught them making out in their studio; Taehyung, stringing up last-minute replacement fairy lights, had described how he had thought they were already married until they had sent him an invitation over KakaoTalk.
The filming style’s different for their interviews, too – much less dynamic, far fewer zooms. In Hoseok’s segment, Jeongguk doesn’t move the camera at all, giving Hoseok the air of a contestant on a reality tv dating show.
Having watched all four of their segments back-to-back, Seokjin comes to the conclusion that his, for whatever reason, is different. Maybe Jeongguk was trying something new with his camerawork? Although that doesn’t make sense – they'd all gotten ready at Jimin's place first, and then moved to Yoongi and Namjoon's studio's building to help with setting up, so Jeongguk must have filmed his segment first.
Well, whatever the reason, Jeongguk had probably given his camera work and editorial decisions a lot of thought and consideration, and Seokjin’s willing to admit when somebody knows more about a topic than he does.
(From Jeongguk’s internet search history:)
how to unsend an email
recall an attachment
how to login to someone’s email remotely to delete an email you sent them by accident
opposite side of the world
plane tickets to Uruguay
After the interviews with the groomsmen, Jeongguk moves on to talk to the grooms. Yoongi's segment is very brief - he takes one look at the camera, blurts out "Interview me after!" and books it out of the hallway Jeongguk had ran into him in. The segment where Jeongguk talks to Namjoon, on the other hand, is very sweet, but…
Okay, Seokjin’s no expert, but some of this could have definitely been cut for run time.
For example, the part he’s watching right now – Namjoon’s been carefully deliberating over his answer for some time, and Jeongguk’s has just been filming Seokjin to pass the time. Seokjin’s not even doing anything in the footage Jeongguk’s included, he’s just sitting and scrolling on his phone while they wait for the guests to take their seats up on the rooftop. Occasionally he’ll look up and grin at Jeongguk, but whenever he does Jeongguk will whip the camera around to look at Namjoon again.
“…I think I knew Yoongi was it for me when I realised I always looked for him first in a crowded room,” Namjoon explains, in answer to a question Jeongguk had asked so long ago that Seokjin, lounging on his couch in his pyjamas, has genuinely forgotten what it was. “No matter how many people there are, or who they are, I always wanted to know where he was. I’m never tired of finding him, you know?” He trails off again, perhaps to give the original question some thought, and Jeongguk lets the camera pan over to Seokjin again.
“Yeah,” he says off camera, so quiet that his camera’s microphone struggles to pick it up. “I think I get what you mean.”
Seokjin, the besuited Seokjin on camera and not the one lounging on the couch, looks up at Jeongguk and smiles again. This time, Jeongguk doesn’t move the camera away.
(Seokjin’s phone notifications, on Silent:)
Jeongguk: Missed Call (2)
Jeongguk: hey hyung can you call me back? starting to freak out about this video aha it’s very important to me that you DON’T…
Watching the ceremony is… Odd.
Not the actual ceremony! The actual ceremony had been very touching. Even watching it back, Seokjin can feel himself welling up all over again at Namjoon and Yoongi’s speeches to one another.
He’s just not sure why, in the video, Jeongguk has cut to other people as often as he has.
Namjoon and Yoongi take up a significant portion of the footage, but it seems as though Jeongguk had been going for reaction shots from the guests, and had, maybe, been too overzealous in getting those shots? It seems as though a lot of the reactions come from him, but Seokjin’s sure that that’s just because of some psychological, subconscious bias for recognising his own face and that, if he sat there and tallied it up, there would be just as many reaction shots from all of the other groomsmen.
Seokjin also hadn’t realised just how often he looks over at Jeongguk, either. He remembers the ceremony, or at least the vast majority of it, but he doesn’t remember looking at Jeongguk anywhere near as much as he’s been caught doing on camera. He sits up slowly from his lounging position on the couch, feeling a burgeoning sense of realisation deep in his gut when his onscreen self looks at Jeongguk again, eyes bright and smile wide as, next to him, Yoongi and Namjoon share their first kiss as a married couple.
(From Seokjin’s voicemail:)
“Hyung? Where are you?
“Okay, look, on the off chance that you’re, uh, watching that video and you’re ignoring my calls but you, um, hear this, I’m really sorry? That’s the raw footage, and I didn’t realise…
“Anyway. Um. I’m coming over to apologise. I didn’t want you to find out like… Well. Please let me in, okay?”
Seokjin pauses the wedding video, winces when he realises he’s paused it on his own, besotted face, and stands up to pace around his living room.
He doesn’t… Think anyone’s noticed? He hadn’t even noticed just how much he looks at Jeongguk, especially with that expression on his face.
Somebody simultaneously knocks on his door, opens it, and starts speaking very quickly, making Seokjin jump guiltily.
“Hyung I’m coming in because you told me to stop knocking on the door when I have a key but I’m knocking anyway because I realise I’ve crossed a line and I want to apologise-”
Seokjin looks from Jeongguk, clutching the handle of his front door with a wild expression on his face, to the stupidly huge image of himself on his stupidly huge television, and back to Jeongguk, who’s now also staring at the television, pressing his lips together tightly.
“Jeongguk, I-” Seokjin begins, because he can see the dawning realisation of something on Jeongguk’s face, and Seokjin’s only just realised his own feelings, he doesn’t want to have to deal with Jeongguk noticing it mere moments after he had. He wants time to process.
“Did you… Didn’t you check your messages?” Jeongguk asks quietly, sounding close to tears. Seokjin pats his pockets, realises his phone isn’t there, and then spots it resting in front of the television. He grabs it, keeping his eye on Jeongguk, who looks set to bolt at any given moment.
“Sorry, Jeongguk-ah,” Seokjin says, scrolling through his notifications. “It’s been on silent. So this is… The wrong video?” Seokjin glances worriedly at his own face, blown up huge on the television.
Jeongguk nods, still pressing his lips together. When he releases them, the blood rushes back into his lips, pinking them up quickly. “It’s the raw footage.”
“That explains why it’s so long,” Seokjin jokes awkwardly, gesturing to the video scrubber, still less than halfway through the full runtime.
“Hyung, I’m so sorry,” Jeongguk blurts out. Seokjin frowns and gestures for him to sit down; when he finally does, Seokjin sits down next to him.
“Why are you sorry?” Seokjin asks – he goes to pat Jeongguk’s knee, but rethinks it when Jeongguk shoots his hand a wide-eyed look. “’S not your fault.” He’s only just noticed how much he looks at Jeongguk, so it should be pretty easy to tamp these feelings down and parcel them up in a little corner of his heart so that they can keep being friends. Easy peasy.
“It – whose else’s fault could it be?” Jeongguk asks incredulously. “I was the videographer!”
“I’m starting to think we’re talking about different things here,” Seokjin says slowly. Jeongguk’s knee starts bouncing, so Seokjin changes his mind again and puts his hand on his knee to steady it.
“I’m talking about how I kept filming you,” Jeongguk explains, staring down at Seokjin’s hand. “I didn’t even realise I was doing it, but then I looked through the raw footage and thought ‘oh, god, I’m being incredibly obvious about how I feel, I need to edit round this’ and in the edited version you can’t even tell! But I sent everyone the raw footage instead, which I guess is why my professors always used to say ‘make sure you name your files accurately!’ Bit late now, but I’ll learn for next time I do something embarrassing, I suppose-”
“You don’t need to apologise,” Seokjin interrupts, pressing his hand down a little firmer; Jeongguk shuts his mouth so abruptly that Seokjin can hear a little popping noise as his lips smack together. He waves his other hand towards the television. “Does that look like the face of a man who doesn’t want you looking at him?”
Jeongguk contemplates the image for a moment, and then shrugs. “You always look like that whenever you look at me, hyung.” Well, that’s a specific brand of embarrassment he’s never felt before. He feels seen, but it’s not necessarily a bad feeling – it’s close to the feeling of embarrassment over friends and family jumping out to sing Happy Birthday at a surprise party. Seokjin watches, in real time, as understanding dawns over Jeongguk’s face. “Oh. That’s how you always look at me.” Jeongguk looks down at his lap, which does nothing to hide the shy smile blooming over his face. “How long?”
“I don’t know,” Seokjin admits. “I only realised just now, watching my own smitten face every time I looked over at you, all in glorious high-definition.”
“Oh,” Jeongguk repeats, still grinning. “You’ve liked me all this time but you didn’t realise? That’s kind of embarrassing, hyung.” Seokjin yells indignantly as he knocks his shoulder against Jeongguk’s. When he goes to do it again, Jeongguk turns and leans his back against the arm of the couch, sending Seokjin sprawling on top of him. It’s nothing they haven’t done before while roughhousing, but there’s an intent in Jeongguk’s eyes as he looks up at Seokjin that’s never been there before. “In case you haven’t realised yet,” Jeongguk jokes, although his voice trembles a little. “I’d really like you to kiss me. I know it sometimes takes you a few years to notice these things, hyung.”
“When did you become such a smartass,” Seokjin says – he means it to sound like a grumble, but the effect is somewhat ruined by the fact that he’s obviously staring at Jeongguk’s lips. He’s leaning uncomfortably on his side from where they’d toppled over, so he readjusts himself to straddle Jeongguk’s lap; Jeongguk, in turn, shuffles upright a bit more, moving Seokjin along with him with an ease that Seokjin knows he will be examining the implications of later. For now, though, he leans in to kiss Jeongguk.
Jeongguk’s lips are warm and soft against Seokjin’s, and although they’re keeping a syrupy-slow pace, Jeongguk has his fingers weaved in Seokjin’s hair and one of his heels draped over his calf in an attempt to pull him as close as possible. When Seokjin pulls back Jeongguk lets him go easily, but he’s not going far – he drops kisses on his forehead, his nose, both of his cheeks, until Jeongguk’s giggling and relaxed underneath him.
“I know you wanted me to delete the file,” Seokjin says in between kisses. “But do you mind if I keep it?”
“The actual wedding video is way better,” Jeongguk points out. He keeps grinning so widely that the apples of his cheeks are making his eyes crinkle, and he’s looking all over Seokjin’s face as though he’s cataloguing every part of it. The combination of it – the sheer happiness on his face combined with how intently he’s looking at Seokjin – makes delight effervesce in Seokjin’s chest like champagne bubbles.
“But you said you cut all of that out,” Seokjin says, jerking his head in the vague direction of his television, where his face is still dominating the screen. “And that’s the bit I want to see. I want to see all the times you looked at me without realising.”
Jeongguk nods thoughtfully, smile still broad on his face. “You can keep it, if you want, but if you want to see all the times I look at you, you just have to look at me, hyung – odds are, I’ll be looking at you, too.”