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It had been a mistake. A dumb one, but still a mistake
and
on his part nonetheless.
Kuroo really didn’t mean to lose himself while watching the performance on stage from his round table at the award show. He also didn’t expect someone to record his reaction, thinking that his status as only a moderately famous idol would allow him to sit back and relax, all the cameras pointing towards his more known and sought after seniors.
Thinking back, it had been a naive way of reasoning. His group had racked up enough fame and recognition during the couple of years of activities as a team to be among the few less mainstream groups being invited to the show, the company jumping up onto the occasion to give even more spotlight to their group. Kuroo himself had been a catalyst to their success. His extraordinary rapping skills and appearance pre-debut on ‘Show Me The Money’ made the group well known as soon as they debuted. He even earned himself the nickname of "The Black Cat", given for his sweet but still overall tough demeanor on the show. It became his signature from that moment onwards, making the nickname be immediately associated with him.
Kuroo’s group was doing well — better than what anyone could have expected — and had been crowned to be among the monster rookies of the year they had debuted in, making their momentum last even longer the more they went on with their career. They were thrilled, as a small group from a small company, and thriving with the many events and schedules they had accumulated. However, they hadn’t been the only group to distinguish themselves among the many that had shined that year, and Kuroo couldn’t say that he knew the other group well. At least, not from a personal standpoint.
There was always some awkwardness between different teams that never had the chance to star on a show or promote at the same time, but, for Kuroo’s group, there was one boy group in particular. They had debuted around the same time but still with months of difference to the point that they never had the chance to see each other. The never overlapping promotion periods, paired together with a natural sense of competition coming from the general public, had contributed to make them avoid each other even more, setting in stone the belief that they actually disliked each other.
He remembered how many fancams had popped out during the period of the ISAC show, the odds of them never encountering each other in any event making people suspect that it had been planned by the agencies to avoid fanwars. Kuroo had no idea where the rumor initially stemmed from, but now he felt like it was almost an automatic assumption that netizens had about their groups.
And so, he found himself the following day, looking through his newly-acquired phone and scrolling more and more at the unexpected trending topic on the main page of the search engine. Kuroo’s eyes caught on a shady-looking title, highlighting his name together with the one of someone he never thought he would see in such a headline.
“TRENDING! Former ‘Show Me The Money’ contestant and idol Tetsuro Kuroo is seen expressing disgust toward fellow idol Sawamura Daichi?!”
There it was, standing on a bright white page, shining on top of a lengthy article complete with low quality photos that looked like they had been taken down from a shaky video.
Kuroo skimmed through it all, his mind not registering completely what the words were telling him. He searched for a reason, an explanation, something that could help him better understand the basis for the ridiculous claim in the title. The more he searched — even looking through comments — the more he saw a fanwar brewing and threatening to explode at any moment.
People claiming to be fans of one or the other group defended or attacked one another without a clear view over the whole problem. The ‘proofs’ that the article claimed to prove its point were screenshots taken from a fancam that Kuroo had no idea even existed. The blurry photos showed moments in which his expression could be easily mistaken for one of disgust, especially when Daichi's part came on.
Kuroo sighed. His phone fell from his hands and landed on his bed as he stared straight up to the wall. The rapper messed with his already unruly hair, something that he had picked up as a little stress habit. All the stylists hated him with a fervent passion for it but he couldn’t help it as he apologized every time with an apologetic grin.
He knew that his expression when he got carried away could be misinterpreted, his CEO even going as far as warning him about it multiple times. It was a rule that he always kept to the front of his mind in order to keep a good image, but as he was surrounded by so many important celebrities, he slipped up. Now, he had possibly made an even bigger problem for the whole group.
“Wow, that looks like a whole lot of a mess.”
The voice that came from behind him scared him, and he almost fell off from his bed. He turned around to look at the owner of the voice, already knowing that he would find the bored face of Kenma, his best friend and composer for the group. Kuroo hadn’t expected for him to come back to the dorm that night, even thinking about going to find him directly in his studio at the company in order to annoy him and seek some advice over the matter. He was definitely worried; the idea of a scandal hitting his group before they even made it to a most stable place in the industry made him tremble in fear.
“Kenma, you scared me!”
“That was kinda the point of sneaking up on you.”
Kuroo stared at his best friend for a second more before scooting over and letting the other sit on his bed. He shared the tiny room with him, taking the bottom bunk for himself so as to not wake Kenma when he was called for a schedule early in the morning. They had easily adjusted to sharing the space, them knowing each other from before debuting being a pro of their cohabitation.
Kenma leaned back towards the wall, his phone in hand as he opened a browser page with the article already there.
“So? Is it true?”
Kuroo was shocked, a feeling of disappointment starting to creep up into his chest and threatening to spill out.
“Of course it’s not true Kenma! I don’t even know him or his group, how could I hate him!”
Kenma should be more aware than anyone else of those facts. Despite everyone pinning them against each other for their rapping skills, he had barely seen any video performances of Sawamura’s group. Kuroo knew the rap featured in their debut song had grabbed not a few people’s attention and made them wonder how such a talented rapper could go unknown during the pre-debut days, immediately comparing him to Kuroo. He had caught wind of the rumors and had decided on a principle to never interact with the other, unless strictly necessary.
What he hadn’t expected was being completely entranced by the performance the rapper had put on, being unable to tear his eyes away from him both during his fast rap and the dance routine he had prepared. It had felt like being drawn into a hurricane, a feeling that contrasted so deeply with his usual image. Daichi had a reputation for being quite the calm and quiet guy, the leader of his group and the typical sweet boyfriend type.
Kuroo felt like he was the complete opposite, his style making the contrast between the two even funnier in his opinion. He wondered if that had also been a part in cementing their relationship in the public’s eyes into rivals, but he quickly shook his head from that thought.
“You should know it better than anyone, I didn’t mean to make that face! This is a disaster.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s not your disgusted face, that’s your impressed face. You completely forgot what the CEO told you, didn’t you? He’s gonna scold you for sure after this, good luck with that.”
Said so, Kenma scooted closer to the wall, his legs close to his chest. Kuroo watched for a second as the blonde guy touched something on the screen of his phone, the obnoxious jingle of a game being heard before he quickly shut it off and began playing. The rapper covered his face with his hands, hoping that if he ignored the problem hard enough, it would disappear on his own. He wished for a second to lift up his head and be told that it was all actually a bad joke from Dispatch. Those guys had the fame of stirring up drama for the sake of views and often made rumors to catch the attention of the netizens.
‘This is the worst, I can’t believe such a dumb thing is gonna be what kicks off my year.’
He was shaken from his self-pity state by Kenma, who kicked him as hard as he could in the shin, making him lift his head and watch Kenma open the VLive App, a notification having made him quit his game. He was about to protest, saying that he was in no condition to start a live show for the fans — his hair looking like he had just gone through a tornado for how much he had messed them — when his best friend gave him a sign to shut up.
“Look.”
The screen showed immediately the image of Daichi, together with another bandmate as they goofed around on the live show that had just started. They were talking about their experience at the award show, making a big fuss over re-enacting some particular scenes of the night that had gone viral over the internet. Kuroo held his breath a little, dreading for the other rapper to start reading the comments, many trying to get their idols’ attention over the infamous video of Kuroo that was going around.
He watched as the viewers divided themselves into two factions, one trying to bring awareness to the idols and the other trying to shield them from it, making the point of saying how that would just hurt the poor rapper without leading to anything useful. Kuroo was sure that there was no way that Daichi’s company wouldn’t have known about such a rumor going around about one of their artists especially in such a moment when they were rumored to have a comeback soon. They probably already had a plan on how to deal with it. He feared for the moment his own phone would ring with the call from the CEO, telling him to either formally apologize or to actively make friends with the other group to save face and dispel the rumors.
“Let’s read some comments!”
Daichi’s bright voice came from the phone, making Kuroo jump back a little, resulting in the back of his head hitting the wall.
“Kenma! I don’t want to watch this, I would feel horrible if he does get hurt by these allegations! Also, they might notice we are watching them, close the app!”
His best friend looked at him, his eyes rolling towards the sky in an exasperated manner as he huffed towards him. He leaned over, showing Kuroo that he was logged on with a separate account — not the group’s as Kuroo feared — and that they wouldn’t be able to notice his presence no matter what.
“Oh? You want to read the comments, Daichi? Leave it to me, you sit back captain!”
The screen flashed white as the other member in the shoot — Suga? Kuroo recollected his name from the introduction video he had watched once — picked up a tablet to read the comments, letting the leader sit back and enjoy the moment.
“Looks like many are commenting over your performance at the award show! And asking about a comeback? What should we say, leader~?”
The cheeky grin that flashed from the gray-haired guy was blinding, Kuroo suddenly aware of why he had the fame of being an unofficial visual in his group. However, the smile looked a little off, appearing to be more mischievous rather than natural.
“I asked him.”
Kenma suddenly speaking up shocked him, unaware that he might know someone from the other group. Even more surprisingly, someone like Suga, who was well-known to be something akin to a social butterfly along with most of the members in his group. Kuroo couldn’t even utter a word before the other started typing endlessly something in the chat.
“You did what?”
“Let’s see~ Oh, Daichi! They are saying you looked incredible back at the show and that it was only right to be mesmerized by you! Looks like a lot of people were caught with their mouths hanging open in admiration for you!”
“Ehhh… What are you saying, Suga? There’s no way they could have said that!”
“That’s not true! Look here, this user said so!”
Kuroo watched with his eyes wide in shock as Suga immediately picked out the comment Kenma had just written, almost as if he was expecting it. Kenma set the phone down, retreating his hands inside his hoodie’s sleeves, making him look like a turtle from Kuroo’s perspective. The scene was so anticlimactic and weird that the rapper could only drag his gaze from Kenma to the tiny screen where the live was playing on undisturbed. Daichi on the screen was blushing, saying that he was glad that so many people recognized his hard work and that he was glad their fans had the opportunity to witness it too, all as Suga smiled like a cheshire cat in the corner of the frame.
“And… done.”
Kenma’s tiny voice, paired with an extremely satisfied smile was such a weird scene that Kuroo couldn’t explain.
“‘Done’ what? What’s done? Also since when do you know Suga? You always hide behind us when we meet with other groups. Not to mention that we never even met them personally yet.”
“I had asked Suga to set this up. We all knew about this whole mess and decided to put an end to the rumors as they started to rise. People will now listen if your fans say your face was one of surprise rather than one of disgust.”
“Still, that was…”
“Also,” Kenma started, sending daggers with his gaze towards the rapper. “Suga is also a composer and we met because of that. He respects my personal space, and he’s cool. He knows my private VLive account’s name and searched for my comment to show Daichi.”
“Kenma…!”
Kuroo felt touched by the action of his best friend. Kenma’s craftiness was almost like a blessing in his mind, even if it led to him suffering for a whole night thinking his career was over.
His attention was once again brought back to the screen, the voices from the live stream still coming in loud and clear, traveling all through the small dorm room they shared. As they started to become louder — from what he could understand Suga was teasing Daichi and playfully fighting — Kenma moved to shut it off, partially because he feared it would disturb the other members and partially because his job was done. He was clearly hoping to resume his game, when Kuroo stopped him. Daichi was on screen, face blushed in a color that made the rapper look extremely bashful and sweet. It made him look even more handsome than usual.
Or had he always been like that?
Kuroo got impossibly close to the screen, almost as if he could fall into it. He was shocked when the camera suddenly turned to Daichi's face, almost making him feel like they were mere inches apart.
"Stop messing around, Suga! We should say our wishes for next year!"
Daichi's voice was playful, and a glint in his eyes made Kuroo's heart jump. It was the same look that he had seen during that performance, a sparkle in Daichi's gaze that conveyed all the joy he was feeling, be it when performing or when being with his closest friends.
"Anyway, I really wish that sometime this year I will be able to collaborate with another rapper. There was someone that caught my eye and I wish that the impressed expression I've caught on his face while I was performing might be a good sign! But we will see, he looks like a tough cat to catch."
As soon as Daichi finished his wish, Suga started speaking nonstop, his words sounding far away and incoherent to Kuroo's ears. Daichi nodded along, agreeing and laughing as his eyes shone so brightly even through a screen. It was such a view, and it felt like Daichi held the stardom they both so strived to reach right into his eyes. Kuroo felt that he needed to get it, embrace it, and protect it with his whole life.
He was blushing hard. The realization that he had been noticed and that the other had thought of him as someone worthy of his time making his thoughts feel like a mess. The raven-haired rapper lifted his head and looked back at Kenma, who glowered at him with an unimpressed expression on his face, then back to the screen, where the two idols had already said their goodbyes and cut the stream off.
"That… He really said that, didn't he?"
"He did indeed, Kuro."
Kuroo groaned a little, hiding the little smile that was creeping up on his lips. He was gone and he knew it.
'I need to introduce myself to him as soon as possible.'