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For a man in his twenties, Choi Beomgyu was ridiculously passionate about his Minecraft server.
It’s not like he was addicted to the game, per se. The server created when he was 12 years old had been with him throughout many stages of his life. Every single friend he had ever made was invited to play, and that did not exclude the new friends he had made at uni as well — albeit it took him some time before he revealed this information to Soobin and Huening Kai — and he had always welcomed new players with open arms. The server was his pride and joy, with numerous automatic farms built that made gathering resources much easier for everybody. So why on Earth would someone steal from his chests?
The most confusing part of all this was that the thief didn’t steal valuable items. Beomgyu’s tools, armour, and his elytra were all still kept safe and sound — he triple checked. His prized possession, the Ender Dragon head, was still proudly displayed in the middle of his chest room. The thief had only taken decorative items. Large quantities of sea lanterns, concrete, amethyst, white tulips, and more were taken from his chests.
The thievery started only two days after Kai had invited his roommates to the server. Kang Taehyun, whom he shared a class with and strangely reminded him of a kitty cat, and a mysterious ‘yawnzzn’. Taehyun had only ever logged onto the server once, and with one look at his abandoned dirt house, it led Beomgyu to his final suspect.
—
“How long have you been on that game for? Do you have any idea what time it is?” A sleepy Soobin asks him incredulously. “I refuse to believe that you’ve sat there for 17 hours straight waiting for some guy to get online.”
“He’s not some guy! He’s the guy who stole my shit while I was offline and I intend to catch him in the act by tonight.” Beomgyu retorts. “Why are you awake? How did you know it’s been 17 hours anyway?”
Ignoring the first question, Soobin holds his phone out and shows him his Discord profile that tells him that he has, in fact, been at his computer for way too long to be considered healthy. “You should probably turn that setting off if you don’t want everyone in your friends list to know that you’re a total loser, by the way.” He leaves the room dodging the pillow Beomgyu throws at him on his way out.
Tears prick at his eyes while he yawns. He reaches for his phone and checks the time. ‘5.53 AM’. Whatever, Beomgyu thinks. I’ll just try again tomorrow, I’m tired. He prepares to log out and head to bed, when two little yellow notifications popped up at the corner of his screen.
yawnzzn joined the game
huepengkai joined the game
His hands move faster than his sleep deprived brain could comprehend.
< bamgyuuuu> hey
< bamgyuuuu > yswnzzn
< yawnzzn > ?
< yawnzzn > wjat?
< yawnzzn > what*
He panics, he didn’t think that it would’ve gone this far.
< bamgyuuuu > uh
< bamgyuuuu > whats ur name
< bamgyuuuu > i dont think weve met
< huepengkai > huh
< huepengkai > do u really not know who yeonjun hyung is
< huepengkai > from the way he talks about you i wouldve assumed that you at least knew his name lol
Beomgyu freezes. What?
< bamgyuuuu > ???
< bamgyuuuu > wdym
He sits in silence for the next twenty minutes.
huepengkai left the game
yawnzzn left the game
Oh.
bamgyuuuu left the game
—
Beomgyu’s next encounter with Yeonjun comes sooner than he expected.
bamgyuuuu joined the game
< yawnzzn > hii
< yawnzzn > do u possibly have any blue concrete blocks i could borrow
< yawnzzn > and white tulips
< yawnzzn > pls
Wait. Wasn’t this the guy who stole his items? Beomgyu quickly shoots him a reply.
< bamgyuuuu > um
< bamgyuuuu > how much do u need?
< yawnzzn > like 17 stacks of concrete
< yawnzzn > and as many of the flowers as possible
Beomgyu stares at his screen in pure horror. This guy was only invited a mere 2 weeks ago. Taehyun had barely upgraded from a dirt house to an oak plank one, and that was only after Kai had begged him to log back on. What new player would ever need this many materials for?
< bamgyuuuu > lemme check my chests
< bamgyuuuu > give me a moment
Of course, his chests did not have a single blue concrete block. Or concrete power. Or any concrete for that matter. Nor were there any white tulips, he assumes that the Yeonjun had already taken them all.
< bamgyuuuu > i dont have any white tulips or concrete
< bamgyuuuu > sry
< bamgyuuuu > i do have some sand and gravel if ur interested in crafting the concrete urself
< bamgyuuuu > not sure if itll get you 17 stacks tho
< yawnzzn > thats oke!!!!!
< yawnzzn > ill take what i can get at this point
< bamgyuuuu > give me the coords to ur base ill bring these to you
< yawnzzn > okay
< yawnzzn > uh
< yawnzzn > how do i do that?
—
Yeonjun’s base was an eyesore, to say the least.
If Beomgyu was not in shock at how ridiculously large it looked, he would’ve laughed at how it stuck out like a sore thumb in the cherry blossom biome Yeonjun had chosen to build his base in.
It’s obvious the guy was very new to the game, although Beomgyu had long grown out of the ‘Bright, Blue and Square house’ phase when he was 12, it was clear that Yeonjun’s had just started. Yeonjun’s base was square. There was no dimension to it at all. Blue concrete, and amethyst blocks, were arranged in a specific pattern to look like a checkerboard that a unicorn had shat on. Sea lanterns, which were used as the main light source, were placed erratically throughout the structure. The floor was grass, with white tulips scattered around. The cherry on top was that the structure was hollow, and despite the absurd amount of sea lanterns Yeonjun had placed, the building was still dark. Beomgyu swears he sees one or two bats flying around when Yeonjun was giving him a grand tour.
At least he’s finally found who’s stealing his stuff, Beomgyu supposes.
< yawnzzn > do u like it?
< yawnzzn > i found the materials from the communal chests near spawn hehe
< yawnzzn > hyuka said that i was free to take whatever i wanted
< yawnzzn > thanks for the sand and gravel btw!
Beomgyu takes one look at the monster of a building, then looks at Yeonjun’s avatar — he has a cat skin on — crouching at him.
< bamgyuuuu > ive never seen anything like it thats for sure
< bamgyuuuu > can i add u on discord?
—
Beomgyu and Yeonjun haven’t really stopped texting since that day.
They quickly exchange numbers after having a 2 hour call with each other on Discord. Yeonjun was just so easy to talk to. He gives Beomgyu updates on his daily life at every minor interval. He vents to Beomgyu about the amount of workload his professors give him — Yeonjun studies dance. He complains about nasty customers he had to serve during work to Beomgyu — he works as a barista at a cafe not far from campus. He tells Beomgyu how he suspects that Taehyun, Kai, and Soobin had something going on between them.
He’s certain that he’s never met anyone like Yeonjun, and ignores how his heart skips a beat everytime he receives a notification, hoping that it was Yeonjun who texted him.
He doesn’t have the heart to tell him that the ‘communal chests’ Kai had told him about were actually his personal chests, and simply stocks up his chests with more white tulips for Yeonjun to take.
—
“What do you mean you don’t know what hyung looks like?” Taehyun sighs. “Don’t you talk to each other all the time? I haven’t seen him glued to his phone like that in my entire life.”
“It just never came up in our conversations! It’s not like I can ask him to send me a selfie in the middle of talking to him!” Beomgyu whines.
“You mean to tell me that you’ve never looked him up on social media? He has a bunch of followers on Instagram.” Soobin interjects.
“How many?”
“Like thirty thousand, last time I checked.”
Beomgyu almost shat his pants in utter disbelief. “No fucking way. You’re kidding.”
Taehyun retrieves Beomgyu’s phone that was sitting on the table, unlocks it and goes on Instagram to show him Yeonjun’s profile.
Before he could even question how in the world did he figure out his phone’s passcode, Beomgyu sees the hottest man he has ever laid eyes on. It must be illegal to be this pretty and hot at the same time. Each post had at least ten thousand likes, with a pinned post having over five hundred thousand. A brand deal with some French luxury brand whose name he could never pronounce. No way this was the same guy who bragged about his BTS Lego set to him the other day.
Soobin grabs Beomgyu’s phone from him. “You’re drooling. You should follow him.” He scrolls back to the top of Yeonjun’s profile, and nearly loses his mind when he finds out that Beomgyu had (unintentionally) left Yeonjun’s follow request pending for 3 days.
—
Beomgyu’s first real encounter with Yeonjun was unexpected.
Kai had somehow managed to convince Beomgyu to dye his hair with him, and after a heated discussion on why Beomgyu would not dye his hair bright red, they’re cramped in Kai’s tiny bathroom.
“Have you dyed your hair on your own before?” Beomgyu asks. He’s sat on the closed toilet seat, while Kai sits on a small stool right across from him.
“No, but hyung offered to help dye our hair for us.” Kai replies. “He’s been dyeing his hair for years!”
“Who?”
“Yeonjun hyung of course!”
The colour drained from his face. This was not how he planned his first meeting with Yeonjun. His hair is too flat. His breath smells vaguely of the cream cheese bagel he had earlier in the day. He’s dressed in a tattered t-shirt he found tucked away at the back of his closet. Hell, the shirt had a unicorn printed onto it. He wasn’t ready to meet Yeonjun like this.
He contemplates jumping out of the bathroom window when somebody knocks on the door.
“Hello? Kai-yah? Are you in there?” Beomgyu recongizes the voice immediately. It’s Yeonjun’s.
Kai springs up from his seat to open the door for the older. “Hyung! You’re finally here!” He pouts.
Yeonjun enters the bathroom, and finally gets a good look at him in real life. He feels like all of the air in his body has been sucked out of him. He won’t survive this, Yeonjun looks way prettier in real life.
“There was a long queue at the store… I had to buy the good blea– oh.” Yeonjun’s face flushed a pretty pink and his eyes rake over Beomgyu’s body, before looking back at him in the eyes. “Gyu? Is that you?”
His brain turns into mush. He’s sure he’s going to have a stroke and pass out. Hearing Yeonjun call him by a nickname on call was already unbearable, but seeing him in real life, hearing him say it in real life, makes it much, much worse.
“Y-yep! Hi… hyung.” Beomgyu lets out a nervous laugh. It was going to be a very long day.
—
Staring at himself in the bathroom mirror, Beomgyu decides that he likes his new red hair more than he’d ever admit to Kai. Of course that rascal had taken advantage of the fact that Yeonjun’s mere presence alone turns his brain into jelly and managed to convince him to dye his hair bright red. Kai himself had opted for a more natural colour, ash blonde.
Not to mention that the guy dyeing his hair was the cute boy that he liked.
“Hey.” Yeonjun says from behind him. “Beomgyu?”
He has no choice but to turn around and face him. “Yes?”
“I think that you’re really pretty and I like you a lot, will you go on a date with me?”
“Huh?” Beomgyu stupidly replies. He must’ve been hearing things wrong, there’s absolutely no way that Yeonjun liked him and-
“I’ve liked you for a while now,” Yeonjun sheepishly admits. “I bought minecraft a few weeks ago after Kai told Taehyun and I about your server and I begged him to let me join it.” His ears are unnaturally red, and Beomgyu smiles warmly at the sight of a rare flustered and shy Yeonjun. “I didn’t know how else was I supposed to get close to you.”
Beomgyu giggles before replying, “I’d love to go on a date with you, I’ve liked you for a while too.”
—
Beomgyu had been going out with Choi Yeonjun for the past two weeks. Most of their time spent together is spent indoors, usually at Beomgyu's place. Soobin gets banished from the apartment every 3 days, and ends up crashing at Taehyun and Kai’s. but Beomgyu doesn’t think he minds as much as he says he does.
Beomgyu’s confession, much like all of his first encounters with Yeonjun, was unexpected. They’re hanging out in Beomgyu’s bedroom, Yeonjun lies down on Beomgyu’s bed as he watches Beomgyu’s avatar breaking down the big, ugly cube that’s Yeonjun’s house, while begging to help the older build a new base in the server.
“Please, hyung! I can’t have the entire server knowing that my boyfriend has an ugly base! I’ll let you steal more stuff from my chests, please just let me rebuild it for you! You can even have my ender dragon head!” Beomgyu pleaded.
“Boyfriend?” Yeonjun's eyes widen, sitting up from the bed at once.
Oh. Fuck. Beomgyu's heart drops at once. “I’m sorry! It just slipped out! I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable... Let's forget i said anything...” He mumbles. How could he ever forget that they haven’t properly established a label to their relationship yet? He wants to die. He fucked up. Yeonjun will never speak to him ever again.
“Gyu, can you please look at me?” Yeonjun asks, after a short moment. Beomgyu reluctantly turns around to face the older, head hanging in shame.
“Do you want us to be boyfriends?” Yeonjun’s voice is gentle, and it drops to a whisper. His hand gently lifts Beomgyu’s chin up to make eye contact, stroking his cheek lovingly. “Because I want us to be.”
Beomgyu’s nods fervently, and nods again when Yeonjun — his boyfriend — asks for permission to kiss him. They kiss featherly. It’s chaste and sweet, and Beomgyu can taste a slight cherry flavour from his new boyfriend’s chapstick.
They stare lovingly at each other after breaking apart for air, both afraid to break the delicate silence that’s cast upon them. Until Yeonjun speaks up. “What did you mean when you said that I stole from your chests?”