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"You're using Instagram, Jisung?"
"He's just been staring at the sign-up page for the past 30 minutes," Renjun sighs.
Donghyuck frowns at Jisung from across the table as he settles down on the bench.
"I thought you didn't want to use Instagram?"
"It's not that I don't!” He whisper-yells defensively. “I've seen Instagram plenty! It's just that Mark does too and, like, maybe everyone else. Even Donghyuck’s younger sister has Instagram! And I feel like I’m missing out by not having an account."
It wasn’t a lie to say he had used Instagram; Sometimes when the days were slower or they weren’t feeling as chatty, Jisung would lie against Mark’s chest in bed and watch as he scrolled through his Instagram feed. He had seen enough to know that his boyfriend was decently popular, and that so were his friends. Sometimes Mark even let him scroll his explore page when he was bored of Tiktok.
(Mark would joke that it felt like he was babysitting a kid and rewarding him with screen time. Jisung would retort with the age-old you're dating the kid joke, which Mark still scolds Jisung for. )
"That's not true." Renjun frowns at him, which Donghyuck nods vehemently to.
Jisung exasperatedly points between the both of them.
Huang Renjun, whose Instagram page is filled with modelesque pictures, courtesy of the Fashion and Photography departments who always sought him out for their projects so that even the Lecturers knew who he was, and Lee Donghyuck, who uses his Instagram story like a public diary.
(Jisung would know, because Mark complains to him every other day about Donghyuck trying to ruin his image by posting the most unflattering pictures of him to his Close Friends story, which Mark says has way too many people to be just ‘Close Friends’. Jisung only coos at Mark’s annoyance and texts Donghyuck to send him the pictures when Mark isn’t looking.)
“Seriously? That means nothing coming from you two. Empty words, lies!”
Donghyuck only laughs at him.
Jisung puts his phone on the table and rests his face in his palms, sighing.
“Is there any reason you suddenly feel like making an account? It just seems so sudden.” Renjun asks.
“It’s not really, I just never saw any reason to before.” Jisung shrugs, “But people keep asking me for my Instagram account and seem surprised and maybe disappointed even, when I say I don’t use it. Makes me feel like I should have one too.”
Renjun and Donghyuck look at each other, with almost a knowing glint in their eyes.
Jisung continues to poke at his phone screen.
“And Mark is so popular, people talk about him to me all the time! His silly unpopular boyfriend with no public social media. They always say something about what Mark posts, but I don’t know what he posted so I just feel dumb nodding to what they say.”
Renjun whips his head to look at Jisung, and when Jisung looks away from him he sees Donghyuck staring at him with his eyes wide open, disbelief pouring through his expression.
“Jisung…” Renjun trails off. “You can’t be serious when you say that y-”
Jisung practically jumps off his seat as soon as his phone starts ringing, scrambling to gather his stuff with one hand, the other already answering his phone.
“Speak of the devil, I gotta go meet Hyung. I’ll catch you two later!” He shouts over his shoulder, quickly jogging out of the cafeteria.
Renjun and Donghyuck stare incredulously at Jisung’s disappearing back. They look back at each other and shake their heads. If only Jisung knew how popular HE was.
—
“My baby! I missed you the whole day!” The door to their dorm room slams shut and he feels arms wrap around his waist, wet lips peppering the side of his face as Jisung half-heartedly tries to push Mark away in consideration from Chenle, who was sitting right beside him.
“Mark, can you slobber on him another time, preferably when I’m not here? We’re doing something important here.” Chenle rolls his eyes when Mark presses one last kiss to the corner of Jisung’s mouth and kisses the top of Chenle’s head, much to his disgruntlement.
“What are you two up to?” Mark settles down at the foot of the bed in front of them, socks off and in bed-ready clothes. Jisung blushes at the warmth he feels seeing Mark so comfortable in his space.
“Jisung’s making an Instagram account, so I’m helping him with it,” Chenle tells Mark, going back to typing away on his phone.
“What? Wait no Chenle, give me that phone,” Mark lunges for the phone. “Don’t force him to make an account if he doesn't want to!”
Chenle shouts, trying to hold the phone out of reach.
“I’m literally not! I’m in as much disbelief as you are, trust me!”
The two continue to tousle on the bed, knocking off Jisung’s pillows and plush toys and leaving a mess he knows he will have to clean later.
“Hyung, stop trying to kill my roommate. I was the one who asked him to help me.”
Mark loosens his grip on Chenle’s wrist, halting his attack on Chenle who breaks free from Mark’s hold and goes back to Jisung’s phone, seated on his desk chair this time.
Mark turns to face Jisung, who only stares back at Mark wordlessly, waiting for him to say something.
“You want to make an Instagram account?” Mark’s eyebrows raise, as though in disbelief that Jisung would want to make a Social Media account. It made Jisung feel like a child and rubbed him the wrong way.
Jisung tilts his head at his boyfriend. “Is there something wrong with that?”
A flash of something, Jisung might call uncertainty, in Mark’s eyes, before he shakes it off his face and smiles at Jisung, albeit a little too tight to be comforting.
“Not at all, baby, if that’s what you want.”
Jisung ignores the confusion he feels at that and just grins at him, going back to leaning on his headboard and patting the space beside him for Mark.
“Help me decide on a username?”
Jisung sees the hardness in Mark’s eyes melt away at that, and he silently pumps his fists in the air. A genuinely upset Mark was a rare sight, but never something Jisung wanted to be the cause of.
He settles in between Mark’s legs, leaning back against his warm, sturdy chest as he goes through with Chenle and Mark how he should set up his account.
Mark’s hands never leave from where they were tightly wrapped around his waist, not even when Jisung was beginning to doze off, lights still on and Mark’s chest rumbling against his back whenever he laughed loudly in conversation with Chenle. He hears the sound of the phone camera click! , but he supposes that it was his own imagination, only shifting so he could snuggle further into the crook of Mark’s neck.
–
“We shouldn’t have let Mark of all people help you with set up. No offense, Sungie, but your username sounds awful.”
The sentence gets Donghyuck a resounding slap on the head from Jaemin, who only smiles back at an expressionless Jisung.
“Ignore Hyuck, I think that it’s sweet that Mark-hyung helped you set up your account. The username is really not that bad, Donghyuck is just being stupid.”
“I was the one who helped him with most of the set-up, thank you very much. Why does Mark get all the credit when all he did yesterday was be Jisung’s pillow?” Chenle waves his fork around in protest, swallowing his food quickly.
Jisung, still cranky from having to wake up and being separated from Mark when he woke up so comfortable and cosy this morning, only nodded mindlessly to whatever his friends were saying, words only background noise to him.
As soon as he arrived at the table with Chenle, the other two boys bombarded Jisung with questions about his new account, forcing him to follow them and their other friends while trying to explain the basics of the platform to him. Jisung was sure he only absorbed maybe two words max from all that they said to him, but they seemed so genuinely excited that he couldn't bring himself to ruin their fun so early in the day.
By the time he left for his dreaded morning lecture with his classmate Jake, who had also asked him about his new Instagram account, he had gained about 50 new followers. He thinks. He wasn't looking properly.
“How did you know I made an account?”
“I saw Mark’s Instagram story. Anyways, I'm glad you two seem to be going strong,” Jake replies as he walks away from Jisung to his own seat. Jisung only stands there in confusion until he sees his lecturer walk in, and frantically rushes to his own seat.
—
People start approaching Jisung when he's on his own.
"Jisung! I saw that you made an Instagram account," he hears from behind. He turns around to see one of his classmates grinning at him with his phone screen towards him, on his profile.
"Yeah, I finally gave into Social Media, Haha," He replies distractedly, trying to quickly finish packing so that he wouldn't keep Mark waiting outside.
"We're practically friends so I think you should follow me back and reply to my DMs."
Jisung tries not to frown outwardly as he looks at his classmate, not remembering his name.
"I haven't been able to figure out how to use the app yet so, maybe," he turns away from the man, eager to escape from the conversation.
The classmate grabs his wrist before he could leave, pulling him back to himself closer than was comfortable.
"Why the rush? If DMs don't work then I'd be happy to take your number instead, hm?"
Jisung was strong enough to just rip his wrist out of the man's hold, but he didn't want to seem too rude about it so he tries to wiggle his hands out gently, which only makes the hold tighter, even.
"Why the rush? I can garuntee you that I could show you a better time."
Jisung doesn't hide his eye roll as he rips his wrist away from him.
"Jisung?"
He meets Mark's concerned gaze, which immediately hardens when his eyes land on the man.
"Didn't I tell you to stay away from my boyfriend?"
"Its okay Mark, let's just go," Jisung walks away from the guy, taking Mark's hand and walking out of the classroom.
(The guy turns out to be from Mark's basketball team. He talks to Mark about what happened and Mark is fuming. He goes to Jisung's DMs and they discover a bunch of messages with similar connotations, some pictures too, which Jisung turns away from immediately, nose wrinkling in embarrassment and disgust.
The man obviously knew that Jisung and Mark were dating, and was hellbent on showing Jisung that he was better. Mark laughed as he pressed the block button for Jisung.
The dude's dick was much smaller anyways, Mark thought to himself.)
—
“Hello, my favourite mini-celebrity!” Renjun ruffles his hair when he sits next to Jisung outside the library. He’s waiting for Mark to finish his group meeting with his project mates, deciding to sit outside instead because the library was too cold.
“What are you talking about Hyung?”
Renjun looks at Jisung for a few seconds before he sighs dramatically.
“Jisung? Do you really not know what I’m talking about?”
Jisung just shrugs before sliding down so that he can lean his head on Renjun’s shoulder.
“Barely had time to do anything this week. Haven’t really been using my phone.”
Renjun turns his head to stare down into his eyes, but Jisung can’t be bothered to try to keep them open, too tired to stay awake now that he has a makeshift pillow, even if it wasn't his boyfriend.
Renjun shifts himself and brings Jisung’s head down from his shoulder to his lap instead, carding his finger through his hair softly.
“My poor child. Go and sleep, I’ll wake you up when Mark is here.”
He feels his phone vibrate against his thigh just as he’s about to fall into the arms of Morpheus, but he hears Mark’s voice and subconsciously takes it as a sign to shut his brain off, in the security of his boyfriend’s presence.
–
When he reaches the table, all of his friends immediately go silent and stare at him.
“Uh… Good Morning? Did I do something wrong?”
Donghyuck clears his throat. “It has been a week since you made your Instagram account.”
Jisung just looks at Donghyuck, waiting for an expansion on what he said, which doesn’t come.
“Jisung, what’s the point of making an Instagram account if you won’t even use it!” Donghyuck whines. “Do you know how many stories I’ve tagged you in that you could’ve reposted to your story?”
Jisung shrugs at him, turning his attention back to his chocolate bar.
“Who would be interested in seeing my life anyways?”
Renjun scoffs, “Tell that to the five thousand people who follow you even though you haven’t opened the app since you made that account.”
Jisung jumps in his seat when he hears the number, because he’s not even sure he knows five hundred people, let alone five thousand.
“It’s eight thousand now actually,” Chenle thrusts his phone into Renjun’s face.
“I actually took the liberty of taking a screenshot of every story that had tagged Jisung and made a whole spreadsheet!”
Renjun glares at Chenle and ungracefully shoves his arm out of his space. “And for what? If only you used that stupid brain of yours on things that actually matter, like your schoolwork or something.”
As they continue to squabble, Jisung pulls out his phone, frantically tapping through to get to the app to see the numbers for himself, because there is just no way, but there at the top of his profile reads the big over eight thousand follower count, his following count still at zero.
It was a stark contrast to see the two numbers together, and Jisung was ultimately still in disbelief. He taps on his followers and scrolls through, seeing some names he recognises, scrolling until he sees people he may have seen once or twice, some he has never heard of or might not remember. He taps on his DMs and sees messages from so many people, people he’s close to in school, his classmates and acquaintances, and even some almost strangers. He thinks he sees some of his friends too, but he’s not sure because he’s only looking for one name.
“So was this the reason Mark was being pissy and annoying the whole week?” Jaemin pipes up from behind his laptop screen, the only one of them actually doing work. The other boys shush him, but it's too late because Jisung’s eyes widen at them.
“Mark has been upset this week?”
“Jisung, come on, you know it's not your fault!”
“I honestly didn't think so either, but that sentence literally just changed my mind. Why is he upset and what did I have to do with it?”
“Mark is just…” Donghyuck trails off, unsure of how to continue.
Renjun and Jaemin look at each other, just as hesitant.
“Goddamn, I’ll just say it. He’s been so fucking annoying the whole week with his Why isn’t Jisung posting me on Instagram, he hasn’t followed me, he hasn’t seen my DMs, all that bullshit. And I’m sick of having to hear it.” Chenle leans back in his chair, pointing toward’s Jisung’s unlocked phone on the table
“I was with him the whole week though? He literally left the dorm with us this morning.”
Renjun places his hand over Jisung, patting the back of his palm.
“What he’s saying is that Mark is jealous.”
“Jealous? Mark? Of what though?”
Renjun sighs.
“In case you haven’t noticed,” he points at the table behind them prompting Jisung to turn behind and accidentally make eye contact with a girl who must’ve been looking at him, because she immediately flusters and buries her head into her book. It flusters him just as much to catch someone looking at him. Jisung turns back.
“You’re kinda popular, Jisungie. And you’re oblivious to it. People love that. And obviously, you're dating Mark, and he posts about you, so people follow him. To see the two of you, but mostly you.”
Renjun takes Jisung’s phone to go to Mark’s profile from Jisung’s account and he scrolls, showing Jisung all of his posts. Some he recognises; he either was there when Mark took the photo, was the one behind the camera or was in the picture himself.
“So now you have your own account. Don’t get me wrong, Mark is kind of popular on campus as well, but honestly, it doesn't have much to do with that.”
Jisung sees the colourful ring around Mark's profile picture and he taps on it. The photo expands to a picture of himself, cuddled into his sheets and face buried under one of Mark’s oversized hoodies. He blushes, recognising the photo to be from that morning, barely a few hours ago.
“He’s just being a little bitch because he doesn’t want to share you, but he also secretly wants you to share him. Make it Instagram official or whatever.”
"He has a goddamn highlight for Jisung even!"
Donghyuck groans dramatically, slamming his forehead on his open textbook.
“They should just get Facebook and officialise their marriage there. This is incredibly nauseating to witness.”
–
“What are you doing, Jisung-ah?”
Jisung giggles trying to push Mark away from him with his foot.
“Can’t you just be nice and cooperate for once?”
Jisung smiles as Mark predictably takes the bait, and he lunges like a cat towards Jisung, who presses record on his phone as he tries to dodge Mark. They laugh loudly as they try to jab each other, Mark giving up and playing dirty; wrapping himself around Jisung to stop him from moving. Once Jisung stops wriggling in his hold, trying to catch his breath, Mark smiles up at him from Jisung’s chest.
Mark raises himself above Jisung, hovering over Jisung before he nods. Mark lowers himself slowly so that he’s breathing right on Jisung’s mouth, lips barely touching. They make eye contact, and they both can't help but break into shy smiles, Mark going to peck Jisung's nose as he softly laughs up at the chaste press of lips.
As soon as he stops laughing, he looks deeply into Mark’s eyes, and sees when the glint of mirth in his eyes subtly shifts into one of desire. Winded, Jisung closes his eyes and slightly tilts his head up to softly brush his lips over Mark’s, and that’s all Mark needs to finally seal the gaps, dropping his weight onto Jisung completely so that he could tangle his fingers in the hair at the nape of Jisung’s neck, hand smoothing down the expanse of his throat. Jisung shivers into the kiss, accidentally giving Mark an opening to slip his tongue in, which Jisung gasps at. They kiss so deeply, they kiss and kiss and kiss for what feels like hours before Jisung genuinely feels like he’s starting to lose consciousness and tilts his head up to break the kiss. Losing their placement, Mark’s lips graze his neck accidentally and he whimpers because that was uncharted territory that they cannot and will not cross yet. ( Soon, his monkey brain hopefully supplies, which his eyes roll at because when did he become so much like Mark? )
Mark moves off of Jisung and settles onto his side instead, back against the wall as he makes space for Jisung to snuggle into.
Jsiung grins as he takes out his phone, tapping away and being careful to tilt away from Mark so that he couldn't see what he was doing.
“Love, what are you doing?”
Mark’s phone dings! And when he sees Mark's lock screen light up (a picture of him taken from behind) he sees an Instagram notification.
Jisung squeaks and rushes out of the room. “I've got to go to the bathroom real quick,” he says, almost escaping to the bathroom.
Mark clicks his tongue at him and grabs hold of his waist, dragging him back to the bed. Jisung pouts and instead hides his face in his pillows, avoiding Mark's eyes.
Mark taps on the notification and he chuckles.
“You finally decided to follow me back, baby?”
Jisung peeks out from where he was hiding in his pillow, to point Mark towards his Instagram story.
The story post was uploaded less than 5 minutes ago, a video of Mark grinning while looking somewhere behind the cameras, so clueless and in love as he comes closer and closer. The caption reads, “My favourite big scary tiger” and Mark is tagged very visibly.
Mark tosses his phone aside to wrap his arms around Jisung, suffocatingly tight as Jisung tries to squirm out of it.
“You seem very happy about this, Mark. Care to explain?”
Mark only laughs, kissing his temple and bringing his head to his shoulder so they can finally go to sleep.
As Jisung drools on his shoulder, Mark takes his phone from the bedside table. He watches the Instagram story again, if only to analyse and see for himself how the amount of love he holds for Jisung in his being simply oozes from his eyes whenever he is with Jisung. He likes the story and reposts it onto his story, with hearts on his own caption.
Welcome to Instagram, Love.