Chapter Text
Kai kind of feels bad the second he notices him, for the sole reason that he stands out so much that Kai can immediately tell that he must have been stared at by just about everyone in the company ever since he started his job. It can’t be helped, though – as soon as Kai and his manager step into the hair and makeup room, both of their eyes go to the gaggle of stylists gathered on the other side of it, and they both pause at the sight of an unfamiliar figure, at least half a head taller than the rest of them, wider in the shoulders, obviously ill-fitting in the group of women.
He tries to tell himself that it’s the bright colored hair that’s throwing him off more than anything and then feels bad about that, too.
They were aware that the company hired a new stylist – Kai still remembers vividly the way the previous stylist noona’s ears burned while his handsome manager wished her good luck with her next job, handing her a glittery box of macarons they bought her as a farewell gift on their way to the company that morning. She looked like she was going to pass out – a little bit like Kai feels the longer he looks at her replacement.
It’s just… unexpected.
Kai wonders if Soobin knew, but when he looks over, Soobin is looking at their stylist team with his eyebrows raised all the way up his forehead, eyeing the new hire.
As if he felt Kai’s eyes on him, Soobin looks over at him and nudges his side.
“Almost as tall as you, huh?”
The new stylist looks over, the sound of Soobin’s voice probably catching his attention, and Kai makes sure not to be looking at him when his eyes travel over to Kai’s own face. He focuses on Soobin instead – the familiar lines of his face, the crooked collar of his shirt.
“Yeah, almost.”
He’s introduced to the new hire by the head stylist, who keeps one hand clasped on the young man’s shoulder the whole time, even as he shakes hands with them, bowing his head respectfully. “This is Yeonjunnie – I picked him personally! I had to fight management to get him in, those dinosaurs have no idea what they’re doing when it comes to makeup.”
“Oh – you’re the stylist that got huge on social media, aren’t you? I’ve heard about you.”
All three of them – Kai, the head stylist, and ‘Yeonjunnie’ - stare at Soobin in blind confusion as he smiles amicably at the other man. What does Soobin, god bless his heart, know about makeup artists on social media?
“Ah, you’re exaggerating,” the new stylist says bashfully after a moment of silence where nobody steps in to explain, waving his hand in front of himself. “I had a decent following. I got lucky that i caught noona’s eye with my last project.”
The head stylist pats his shoulder a little too hard, her eyes narrowed in a scolding way. “Luck had nothing to do with it – part of my job is keeping an eye on the trends, and your work was the trend, Yeonjun – give noona some credit here.”
Yeonjun dips his head down, chastised. “I’m sorry noona, you’re doing a great job.”
“That’s right,” the woman says decisively, making Soobin chuckle, and then she finally lets Yeonjun go in favor of clapping her hands together. “So – it’s a light makeup day today for the shoot, you won’t mind if Yeonjun works on you today to learn the ropes, right, Kai?”
Kai only manages the briefest moment of eye contact with the man before having to look away again – Yeonjun is a handsome guy, up close; if they told him right now that this whole thing is a prank and Yeonjun is a fellow idol they brought along for his shoot today, he wouldn’t blink an eye. It doesn’t help Kai’s natural timid nature; he can manage just fine to the extent he has to for his job, especially when it comes to interacting with fans, but he’s never quite figured out how to handle new coworkers. Mostly he’s made do with being awkward until they were through enough together to get comfortable naturally.
He’ll figure it out with Yeonjun, too – and even if he doesn’t, it’s not like they’ll see much of each other. They employ a lot of different stylists and a lot of different idols. They don’t need to be more than a slight blip on each others’ radars.
“Not at all!” he says as brightly as he manages to, offering both stylists a vague smile. “Experiment away.”
He sees Yeonjun smiling, but doesn’t focus on it. The head stylist pats both of their arms at the same time, nodding to herself. “Kai here is a delight to work with, you’ll see. He’s the perfect guy for your first day. He’s not fussy, and his face is a great canvas to work with.” She turns to Kai, patting his cheek in a motherly way. “You’ve been taking good care of your skin lately, haven’t you?”
Kai breathes out a laugh. He got a pretty thorough scolding at the end of his last promotion period, but he took it to heart. “Yes, ma’am.”
“See?” The stylist looks away from him to grin at Yeonjun. “A delight. I’ll go get Yerim, she’ll walk you through the basic natural makeup we do for Kai. She’ll take good care of you. You go take a seat, Kai – and Soobin? Seyoung brought in some cupcakes to celebrate Yeonjun’s first day if you guys haven’t had the time to grab breakfast yet.”
Soobin lets out a dramatic sound like someone punched him in the chest. “She’s an angel.” He pats Kai on the lower back, already taking a step away as the head stylists flits away to find the makeup noona she needs to summon. “You’ve got this, right?”
Kai snorts. Leave it to Soobin to abandon his job the moment dessert is mentioned. “Yeah, I can sit down in a chair without you. Get me one too?”
That gets Soobin to shift his attention to Kai again, and his manager gives him a skeptical look.
Dauntless, Kai pouts a little, giving him his best set of puppy eyes. “Please? At least half of one? I can have half a cupcake, hyung, I haven’t had breakfast either.”
Soobin doesn’t respond, but he does sigh deeply before abandoning Kai with the new stylist, so Kai feels sufficiently sure that he’ll return with a cupcake for them to share if not with a whole one for Kai to enjoy on his own.
And then Kai is standing in the hair and makeup room, in a sweatshirt and sweatpants and the hair he more or less woke up with, in front of the new guy, who eyes him with the kind of naked curiosity that makes Kai feel so incredibly underwhelming, both as an idol and as a human being in general. The new guy is wearing some kind of smoky eye makeup, his hair is a vibrant reddish color, and he looks like he’s the one headed to a shoot, and not Kai. Kai just looks like a dude, which he arguably is, some slight gender confusion aside, but it feels like he should be more, even behind the scenes like this. He’s an idol, he should be charming this guy in front of him, not awkwardly avoiding his eyes while trying not to stare at the guy’s trendy clothes. He seems so cool – carrying that effortlessness that Kai sometimes feels like he lacks.
“Ah, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to stare – this is just my first time meeting an idol in person like this. It’s my first day.”
Blinking in surprise at the sudden confession, Kai manages to look up into Yeonjun’s eyes again, but this time Yeonjun is the one looking away, obviously searching for a place to rest his eyes until he settles on the tips of his own shoes. The tips of his ears are red, and Kai feels suddenly frantically embarrassed for him.
“It’s okay! I don’t mind – I mean, I – hey, I’ve never met a guy make up artist before!”
Right. The elephant in the room he wanted to avoid at all cost. He feels his own face burning. Yeonjun looks up at him, his eyes a bit careful now. Kai feels sorry about his entire existence in that very moment.
“They’re pretty common in the west, you know.”
He clears his throat so loudly he thinks the entire room must have heard it. “Right! Yeah. I knew that. Were you… born… there?”
What kind of question is that – sure, Kai was, but that doesn’t mean that every guy who doesn’t make a living doing stereotypical guy things has to have been born outside Korea. He’s being weird – he’s being exactly the guy he didn’t want to be. Amazing start to a new business relationship.
“Me? No – but I have family overseas, in the US. I lived there for a while.”
“Oh,” to his credit, Yeonjun seemed to be taking his weird attempts at conversation exceptionally well. Kai appreciates the mulligan immensely. “Awesome.”
Is it awesome, Kai? This is why he tries to keep his conversations with the staff to a minimum – not because he doesn’t care or looks down on them, he’s just awful at small talk with strangers.
“I’m guessing you—”
“I was raised here, for the most part. I bet you speak better English than me.”
Maybe they’re both having trouble not stepping on obvious landmines. There’s something comforting about that.
“Right.”
“Is Kai your real name?”
He blinks at Yeonjun, a bit taken aback. “Huh?”
Yeonjun blinks back a little too hard. His ears are still red. This conversation is a disaster. “I mean… it sounds like a stage name.”
“Ah.” He supposes it does, doesn’t it. “No, it’s just my name. Technically, my stage name is Hueningkai – that’s what they put on the posters.” At Yeonjun’s blank stare, he can’t help but chuckle. “It’s just my surname. I think it’s to make me legally distinct.”
It makes Yeonjun snort, and Kai finally feels at least a bit accomplished – thankfully, as soon as the one avenue he can be entertaining in dries up, Yerim comes up to usher Kai into his chair and hand Yeonjun a face mask to put on while he works, and the both of them are saved from having to hold any more awkward conversation.
In some ways, though, it doesn’t get much better once Kai is in the chair, trying to busy himself with his phone while Yerim catches Yeonjun up on the fine art of putting makeup on Kai in a way that looks like he isn’t wearing any makeup at all. It’s not the first time he’s hearing someone talk about his face like it’s a product – we’re going for a youthful look, more teenage heartthrob than mature and sober, you know?
They look at pictures of Kai on Yerim’s phone together, and Kai tries not to look at himself in the mirror. He looks fine today. He’s been taking good care of his skin. He just needs some touch ups to make it work for the camera. A little pop to his eyes. A little extra blush to his lips. The head stylist always says he’s a good canvas for the makeup, even though they have a harder time finding good clothes for him sometimes. He has a remarkably workable face. Nothing to get shy over in front of the new hire.
But the new hire isn’t wearing a stitch of makeup aside from his eyes, or he’s just a blending god and he looks camera ready already whenever Kai glances over, and he’s in so much trouble.
Soobin sidles up to him while they’re still discussing what to do with him today with two cupcakes in hand, setting one of them carefully in front of the mirror and giving Kai a wink when he looks up, taking a careful bite of the other one. Kai can’t help but smile at him. Soobin is weak for him, and it makes Soobin’s life as his manager much harder and Kai’s life as an idol much easier.
He likes to think of it as a symbiotic relationship.
Kai picks up his own, leaning forward as he peels the paper cup away carefully, glancing up at Soobin as he does it. “Since when are you into makeup content?”
Soobin snorts with his mouth full, then covers it when the sound makes both Yerim and Yeonjun look over at them. “I have my sources,” he replies with his mouth still covered, then shrugs and lowers his hand to position his cupcake for another careful bite. “You’re not the only person in the company I talk to.”
Kai ponders that as he chews on his own mouthful of delicious chocolate cupcake. Was Yeonjun getting hired such a big topic that it was the subject of company gossip? Either he’s really internet famous, or everybody is as weird about his circumstances as Kai is trying not to be.
When he finishes chewing, he turns to Soobin to narrow his eyes at him, while Yeonjun starts picking up his tools to get to work on his other side. “Was it the marketing guy again?”
His manager gives him an innocent, wide-eyed look which convinces Kai he was right on the money. “Marketing guy who?”
“You’re not funny, hyung,” Kai deadpans, and Soobin shrugs while Yeonjun pulls his mask up in place.
“Hey, so,” he claps his hands together, and his eyes crinkle with a smile. “I can do your eyes first if you really wanna finish that, or I’m gonna need you to hold on for a bit while I do the foundation.”
Kai looks longingly down at his cupcake, then up at the man next to him apologetically. “I haven’t eaten anything today, so…”
“No problem for me, you’re just gonna have to stay really still.” Yeonjun watches as Kai takes another bite and settles back, then sighs to himself as he comes closer with a white eyeliner pencil in hand. “I’m jealous though – they’re offering those cupcakes to everyone and I haven’t even had one.”
“I thought that Seyeong noona made them for you," Soobin remarks, and Kai has a close-up view of Yeonjun rolling his eyes.
“I know, right? But everyone always needs to be talking to me, I haven’t even had a sip of water since I left my place today.”
Kai can’t really move with the threat of eyeliner as close to his eye as it is, but he makes a weak gesture towards Yeonjun with the cupcake he’s still holding, and the other man’s eyes warm up.
“You’re sweet. I’ll be done with you really quick, and then I get to take a break. Don’t worry about it.”
The off-handed praise takes Kai aback a bit, and Yeonjun has to dodge out of the way as Kai blinks hard, willing his face not to go red. Yeonjun laughs a bit, and Kai knows he’s lost the fight with himself.
“But you’re really gonna have to stay still.”
“So how is it?” Taehyun doesn't even look up from his laptop, only moving his drink to his other side to make space for Yeonjun to put his own down in front of himself. “Attending to hot men all day?”
Yeonjun sinks into his seat with a snort. “The company employs women too, you know.”
Taehyun lifts his eyebrows at the spreadsheet in front of himself primly. “Oh I know – I've worked here longer than you. But I also know that those are not your flavor, so—” he finally bothers to look up, his expression all too amused when he sizes Yeonjun up. “How's staring into the eyes of national sensations for a living?”
If the first time Yeonjun recognized a familiar face from his favorite gay bar at work, he cheered internally just a little, knowing that he had an ally in the workplace outside of his straight female supervisor who just doesn't really care what he has going on in his personal life, then Taehyun made sure to curb his enthusiasm by now. If anything, what Taehyun provided at the company whenever they met up at lunch or ran into each other in an elevator, was a very specific, familiar kind of bullying that only a fellow queer dude could provide. He was his family away from family, in the worst and best way.
“Excruciating,” Yeonjun deadpans, and slurps his iced coffee a bit too loud.
Taehyun smiles. “Welcome to business.”
He goes back to his boring spreadsheet, and Yeonjun wastes some time trying to read it over his shoulder before he gives up trying to make sense of the numbers and decides to people watch instead.
There isn't much to see, with the cafeteria mostly populated by the same people who take their lunches at this time on this day every single week. Some are missing, probably busy with emergencies or meetings, and there are some faces he doesn't recognize, but he could have just as well just forgotten them since he saw them last time. It's not like he needs to know every single person who works in the whole building – if he had that kind of memory, he wouldn't have ended up as a semi-successful make-up artist.
He recognizes one face he hasn't noticed in the cafeteria before, though, once his drink is halfway gone and Taehyun had chewed the straw of his into an unrecognizable mangle.
A tall guy with the face and build of an idol, whose most prominent trait is that he isn't one.
It’s one of the manager guys, whose name Yeonjun can’t quite recall if he was even told at any point, but he definitely remembers the man himself, eating a cupcake next to his pretty idol charge. Yeonjun remembers having no idea which one of them was supposed to be the manager at first.
To his surprise, the man looks around the cafeteria before looking right at Yeonjun, who panics a little internally before the guy looks away again and heads in a different direction.
Taehyun clicks his tongue. Yeonjun looks over to see him with his head up and pouting in the same direction Yeonjun was just looking.
“I can’t believe this,” he says, sounding supremely offended.
Yeonjun throws his hands to the sides. “What?”
Taehyun doesn’t look at him, and reaches into the pocket of his suit to get his phone instead. “You haven’t even been here a week and you’re cockblocking me already.”
“Cockblocking you?”
“Yeah,” Taehyun pauses to type something out, then sets his phone aside, sits back and picks up his drink for a pointed sip which he takes while glaring a hole through Yeonjun. “He always comes to my table to chat when our lunch breaks line up. You scared him away.”
“I scared him? I’m just sitting here.”
Taehyun looks over at where the manager sat down, alone at a table to their right. The guy smiles at his phone, then puts it away, but doesn’t look in their direction. Taehyun sighs. “He’s shy.”
“Seems like an issue for a guy with a job like his.”
Obviously taken aback, Taehyun shakes his head back and forth. “You know who he is?”
“I met him - I did makeup for the guy he works with.”
“Huh.” Taehyun tongues at his straw, then shrugs and puts it down. “Well, he’s good at handling his idol, he’s polite and he pays attention in meetings, and that’s really all the company needs from him.”
Yeonjun leans on the table, looking between the man and Taehyun. He should probably ask Taehyun what his name is, but that’s not important right now. “So what’s he to you, your little office romance?”
Taehyun sniffs primly and puts his hands on his laptop keyboard in an overly deliberate way. “We talk.” His tone though just invites Yeonjun to go fishing for details.
“Talk?”
“And have dinner,” Taehyun adds lightly, typing something out swiftly before smiling. “And he pays for the drinks even though we both know that I make more than he does.”
Yeonjun laughs. “So he’s in love with you.”
“I’m just really supportive of his ideas in meetings.” Taehyun picks up his phone, unlocks the screen and turns it towards Yeonjun. There’s a new message there, from a contact labelled Soobin from work , that says, haha i thought you got bored of me already. friday sounds good!
Yeonjun smiles, but then scrunches his nose, taking a sip of his drink. “How’d you know he was safe to hit on? Could’ve gotten in trouble if you got it wrong.”
Taehyun raises an eyebrow at his laptop screen where he resumed typing away at whatever he was working on before. “Have you seen him?” he asks dryly, then sighs, just a little. “And I was careful. Still am - like i said, I’m just nice to him in meetings and we go out for dinner when his schedule’s open. They can’t fire me for being close with a coworker.”
“Guess you’re right,” Yeonjun admits, looking out thoughtfully into the cafeteria. His eyes meet Soobin’s just briefly, and the manager smiles at him awkwardly before looking away.
“Of course I am,” Taehyun replies simply. “I’m always right.”
Beomgyu holds his phone camera at a frankly unflattering angle, giving Kai the perfect view of the inside of his nostrils and the huge sweat stain on the back of his shirt that shows in the reflection of the training room mirror he’s sitting in front of. There’s noise coming through Beomgyu’s side of the call too, other young guys shouting and stomping around. Beomgyu looks sweaty and exhausted, and Kai feels a little bad, bundled up in a fuzzy blanket in the back of a car while Beomgyu has obviously been dancing his soul out just moments before.
“How’s promotions?” He sounds a little congested, too - Kai hopes for his sake he’s not getting sick.
“Good,” Kai replies simply. There’s not a lot to say - he’s having fun and the album is doing well enough to not make the company nervous, but he hasn’t really had a lot of glowing reviews. Good critical reception, maybe, but they’re not exactly playing his songs at convenience stores.
“Wow, that’s riveting, dude,” Beomgyu deadpans, then adjusts the camera angle to something a bit more idol-like. “You really don’t spare any details.”
Kai snorts, and sits up a little straighter. “It’s just going really smoothly this time. I guess two years is enough to get the hang of it.”
“Hm, I told you - you can’t judge it by your rookie year, it’s always tough when you’re just starting out.”
It makes him smile, but he still scrunches his face up and pitches his voice up to tease Beomgyu, just a little bit, so he doesn’t get too comfortable with his helpful senior bit. “I know~ Beomgyu sunbae is so wise~ what would I do without him~?”
“You’d have no fun at all~” Beomgyu sing-songs back, and Kai’s a little proud to see some of the exhaustion fade off his face. “Where are you guys headed now? I can hear the car in the background.”
“Soobin’s driving me to Incheon for the festival.”
“Ah, right,” Beomgyu pulls a face, then ruffles his own hair. “We got invited too, but they didn’t want to take us out of comeback preparations - apparently it builds hype better if we don’t perform publicly before the album drops.”
Kai snorts. “Right.”
“I’ll watch your stage on YouTube later,” Beomgyu asserts, even as he looks away from the camera to fumble with something out of Kai’s view. “I’ll leave a nasty comment so your fans can go after me and give it a lot of engagement.”
It makes Kai laughs out loud, and he sees Soobin glance up into the rearview mirror in front of him to check what he’s laughing at. “Thanks a lot, hyung.”
Beomgyu looks back at the camera to wink at him. “No problem, man. Look, I gotta go, so I can take a shower before my next schedule, but I’ll text you, okay? And we’ll set something up so we can finally hang out when we’re done promoting; just you and me.”
“You know that whenever we hang out on our own it ends up with Soobin being pissed off at me, right?”
“Yeah!” Beomgyu gives the camera a brilliant smile. “That’s why I like hanging out with you. We’ll talk, okay? Bye bye~”
He hangs up before Kai can reply.
When Kai lowers his phone, Soobin pipes up with a, “You guys are not meeting up without a chaperone.”
Kai laughs, maybe more awkwardly than in amusement. “It’ll be okay; we just won’t drink this time.”
"I’m not explaining to the company that you spontaneously dyed your hair again.”
“It was fine! My fans loved it, and theirs didn’t even notice.”
“It was four days before your comeback; I almost got my head torn off at the status meeting.”
Kai pouts a little. “Beomgyu said it suited the rocker vibe way more than what the company suggested.”
“Okay? Beomgyu can say that when he’s got a stake in the company - what does he know about rock, anyway? He’s a boy group idol.”
“He knows as much as I do; he was in a band at school, too. He’s heard of Nirvana - unlike someone I know.”
Soobin huffs, but Kai can see him relaxing, way less on alert than he was before. “Yeah, well - that’s why I don’t make those kinds of decisions for you.”
Kai rolls his eyes, but since Soobin can’t see him without taking his eyes off the road, he gets away with it.
“What kinda music do you make, anyway?”
Yeonjun is busy mixing two shades of blush together to pay too much attention to the artist he’s working on, but he still sees Kai looking up at him curiously. He’s trying to create the perfect shade he’s dreamed up in his mind (last time Kai’s blush came out a bit too orange for Yeonjun’s liking, but he also doesn’t want to go for too much of a pink shade, since that makes Kai look paler - they’re going for a healthy glow, not a porcelain doll look) and his little experiment has caused enough of a delay that the usual amicable silence between them has grown kind of awkward. Given how amused Kai sounds by his attempt at conversation though, Yeonjun wonders if it would have been less awkward to just not say anything until he gets it right.
“You really don’t know any of the artists here, do you?”
He stops himself from huffing in offense just so he doesn’t blow a lungful of powdered blush right into his own face. “I know a couple! I just don’t listen to a lot of idol music.”
Yeonjun knows he’s in trouble when Kai, one of the sweetest people he’s met in the entire company, looks at him with obvious skepticism. “Like who? Name one song our company put out.”
The challenge makes Yeonjun finally look up from the palette and squint at the young idol directly. “There’s that one group, the four guys with that break up song that was everywhere last year?”
Kai laughs. “0×1?”
It rings enough of a bell that Yeonjun jumps on it and nods. “Yeah, those guys.”
He maybe goes back to his work a little too quickly to look confident, because Kai follows up with, “Who’s your bias?” And if Yeonjun is entirely honest, he can barely remember any of their faces, even though he’s pretty sure they’ve done ads for make up brands he’s personally a fan of.
“I don’t know them that well; I just listen to the music.” Or rather, that one song, when it’s playing somewhere he’s at and he has no option but to listen to it.
“Right,” Kai looks more amused than awkward now, at least, and with a bit more pink, Yeonjun thinks that he can put his new concoction on Kai’s face safely without embarrassing the whole company. “You haven’t worked with them yet?”
Yeonjun just shakes his head while he pats the blush on Kai’s cheekbone. He’s pretty sure he hasn’t seen a single member at the company building, even. Not that he’s confident that he’d be able to tell even if he did.
Kai hums while the brush is on his skin, then speaks up again when Yeonjun draws back to grab a tub of glitter and a fresh brush. “They’ll be promoting a new album soon, maybe you’ll get to meet them.”
He’s not exactly thrilled by the prospect, but Yeonjun smiles at him anyway. “If I do, I can tell you who my bias is next time.”
Kai grins, then schools his face so that he doesn’t make Yeonjun’s job harder. “You’re that quick to make a decision about people?”
Yeonjun shrugs, adding a thin layer of glitter on top of the blush. “I know who is and isn’t my type.” He almost regrets his wording immediately, but if it even occurred to Kai to take it in a strange way, he doesn’t let it show. Still, rather than waiting for Kai to reply, he asks, “What’s the name of the album you’re promoting now?”
He doesn’t regret that when the eyes Kai looks at him with in response look so genuinely touched his heart softens a little. He’s not even sure if he was going to do anything about that information when he originally asked, but he’s sure he’s going to listen to the album now .
Kai glances up from his phone at Soobin, who looks just as zoned out as he always does while driving. He always feels a bit bad talking to him in the car; it’s almost like his manager uses their car time to catch a break from work sometimes. At least he won’t break his little meditation with work issues?
“Hyung?”
“Hm,” is Soobin’s only reply, given without him even tilting his head in Kai’s direction - he’s reasonably sure Soobin is actually listening, though.
“What to you know about Yeonjun, the make up hyung?”
The question gets Soobin to snap out of his trance, and he shakes his head and looks over at him in surprise before replying. “Not a lot? I really just heard about him from Taehyun.”
Kai grins as the name is mentioned, temporarily distracted from what he was originally going to ask. “Why were you talking to Taehyun about a new make up artist?”
“Why not? We were making conversation.”
“Over dinner?”
Kai’s always thought that Soobin’s office crush was kind of endearing; if nothing else, he’s happy that his manager could find the time to have a life outside of taking care of him, even if most of it is only a will-they-won’t-they constantly put on hold by his busy schedule with someone he works with.
Soobin rolls his eyes empathically. “None of your business.”
“Did you take him to that Thai place he kept hinting to you about the last time, or did you forget?”
Soobin doesn’t answer, but the squeeze of his lips together and the flush that rises to his cheeks tells Kai the answer for him.
“I’ll remind you next time, if you tell me when you’re going out~”
“Or I’ll just make the reservation while you’re at the shoot,” Soobin shoots back, and Kai laughs.
“So you’re planning to go out together already~”
Soobin grumbles as he makes a turn, then glances at Kai briefly before looking back at the road. “I don’t get why you find us so interesting.”
Kai shrugs simply. “It’s just because you get so embarrassed whenever i bring it up.”
“You know that people could get weird about it if people in the company found out about it.”
Right. Kai sighs, and turns away from Soobin in his seat. “Sure; but I’m not people, you know that.”
“Vaguely,” Soobin says dryly, and Kai chuckles in response.
For a while, they drive in silence.
“Do you know Yeonjun’s Instagram handle?”
Soobin looks over at Kai, then squints at the windshield. “Why?”
“I’m just curious what kinda work he does that it got him the job with the company. I won’t try to contact him or anything, don’t worry - I just want to take a look.” Soobin’s hum in response still sounds suspicious, so he adds, “When he was doing my makeup, I was teasing him for not knowing any of my songs, and I realized that I actually don’t know any of his art, either. If he’s gonna listen to my songs, it’s only fair that I look at his work too.”
This time, Soobin looks much more amiable when Kai peeks over at his expression.
“Good tactic to get your streams up,” Soobin jokes, then shakes his head a little. “I don’t remember if he told me, but I’ll text Taehyun about it. He might remember.”
“Thanks, hyung~” Kai sing-songs, and makes it his personal mission to remind Soobin to make his reservation once they’re at his shoot.
Yeonjun has his earbuds in, trying to listen through Kai’s album when the 0×1 members show up to get their makeup done. He’s decided he kind of likes his music - it’s more up his alley than most other idol music he’s heard, even if he’s more partial to R’n’B than the pop rock blend Kai seems to be going for with this album. It’s easy to imagine losing himself to the songs at a live concert, and he’s almost sad that his job hasn’t really given him the option of getting to see a concert for free - it would have made for some sweet job benefits.
He takes his earbuds out when they come in, but he still hangs back as they greet the staff they’re familiar with, looking them over so he can refer his findings to Kai later. At first glance, they’re all conventionally handsome, polite and as fit as people who dance for a living ought to be. Sure, their faces are all striking and magazine-worthy, but Yeonjun thinks that having worked so closely with Kai and some of the other soloists has kind of numbed him to handsome faces. They’re all pretty; are any of them as pretty as Kai? As Soobin, even?
When his supervisor motions at him to come closer, he does his polite introductions, and to his relief none of the 0×1 members look particularly surprised to meet him - if anything, one of them looks almost disturbingly delighted, which is a mystery for all of half a minute, until he’s seated at Yeonjun’s work station and beaming at him directly.
“Hi,” he says excitedly, and Yeonjun pauses with a tub of makeup in his hand.
“Hi?”
They already said hello when they introduced them - he wonders if this guy’s obvious exhaustion has made him forget that - all four of the boys look like they’re running on a mix of excitement and an unhealthy amount of sugar-free caffeinated beverages.
“I heard about you from Taehyun!”
“Oh,” Yeonjun is not quite sure how to react to that information - why would an idol know a random guy from the marketing department? Why would Taehyun tell one of their idols about Yeonjun? “Cool.”
The idol blinks at him with a manic look in his eyes while Yeonjun layers foundation on his face - maybe this guy could be his bias, if he put his mind to it, and if he stopped looking at Yeonjun like that; he’s kind of freakishly pretty for a guy.
“Are you guys friends?”
Huh. Yeonjun takes his time while dipping his brush before replying. “Yeah, sure. We’re friendly.” He’s not sure how much he can really tell without spilling to this guy exactly why they’ve known each other even before they became coworkers, so he tries to reply cautiously.
“Can you tell me about him?”
Or maybe if anyone in this company could be more than accepting of that information, it would be this guy, because Yeonjun gets the feeling that he recognizes the tone. He’s not sure what’s going on exactly, but he thinks he understands what kind of interest this idol has in Taehyun.
Did he accidentally befriend the company heartthrob? Shouldn’t everyone be chasing after the idols instead of handsome office workers though?
“I’m not sure if I should be gossiping about a coworker.”
The idol pouts, then tilts his head cutely. “We can trade information! I’ve trained here for eight years before I even debuted - I have a lot of friends in the company.”
Yeonjun hums as non-committal as he can, but a curiosity nags at him as he pats eyeshadow into the corners of the idol’s eyes.
“Do you know Kai?”
The eyes he’s staring into from way too close warm up immediately, so he calls bullshit as soon as the boy replies with a, “Mayyyyyyyybe~”
When Yeonjun pulls back, the idol follows up with, “Where do you know Taehyun from?” and that’s enough for Yeonjun to bite back on his own curiosity, so he just shrugs and gives the young man an innocent look.
He kind of expects the idol to react badly, but he just squints at him with that looks like amusement instead. Maybe he knows; maybe he can figure. Maybe Yeonjun’s giving him the wrong idea, even, but it’s better than letting something weird slip in front of his coworkers and getting Taehyun in trouble.
As Kai finishes typing “guys what’s a primer” into his group chat with his sisters, he realizes that maybe he’s spent a little too much time scrolling through the content on Yeonjun’s Instagram. It’s not like he’s ever really been interested in make up before, and he’s not sure if everything he’s watched and looked at is going to change his mind, but a part of him has been endlessly fascinated, both by watching the end-product of Yeonjun’s work and watching Yeonjun work in the videos he has posted that feature him actually putting the looks together, either on himself or someone else. It’s made Kai realize that he’s never really watched makeup being applied, never even looked at his sisters putting it on. For the most part, it doesn’t look that different from putting together a painting - especially some of the more high-concept pieces Yeonjun has posted.
He wonders if doing basic, simple camera-friendly natural makeup isn’t boring for Yeonjun, when he knows he could paint the night sky on Kai’s face if he wanted and have it look like a Van Gogh painting. Is working for an idol company a downgrade?
“Wow, you really are addicted to your phone,” Soobin remarks while tossing a can of soda in Kai’s lap, then ruins his own point by taking his own phone out as soon as he sits down next to him.
“Okay? So are you.”
“It’s different,” Soobin argues without looking away from the screen. “All of my work is on my phone. When I’m off work, I leave the sucker in my work bag and live my life in peace.”
Kai snorts. “What do you even do when you’re off? All I ever hear about your dates with Mr. Marketing.”
Soobin rolls his eyes. “I watch anime on my TV and eat ice cream like a normal human being.”
“So, exactly the same thing you do when you’re technically on the clock, except not on your phone.”
His manager finally looks away from his phone to give him a scathing look. “I get to have fun too when we have downtime, Mr. I-bring-my-switch-to-work-every-day.”
Kai pouts; video games are a perfectly valid way to relax with the amount of stress he’s under on a daily basis. “I just thought maybe you had sides to you I didn’t even know about.”
Soobin’s expression shifts into something skeptical. “I don’t see you going out on your days off.”
It’s honestly a bit unfair, because he does go out with his family, and he would go out with Beomgyu more if their schedules lined up more often, but he shrugs it off. “I can’t go out; I’m supposed to be avoiding scandals, right?”
“See?” Soobin smiles at him triumphantly, like he beat him in some kind of debate. “I’m just leading by example.”
“So it’s okay if i take Beomgyu on a romantic dinner date?” Kai fires back, grinning.
He expects Soobin to react with offense, but he just looks thoughtful for a bit before shrugging. “If you don’t drink alcohol and make sure nobody takes pictures of you kissing.”
It takes Kai aback, and he’s pretty sure he’s blushing by the time he manages to say, “I was just kidding. We’re friends; he’s like my brother.”
Soobin shrugs again, “I mean if anyone would get the need to be discreet, it would be him.”
In some way, the support is kind of heartwarming, even though Soobin is genuinely getting the situation completely wrong. Sure, both him and Beomgyu are interested in men, but it was always more of something to bond over for the two of them rather than a reason to be interested in each other as more than friends. Beomgyu might be his type when he grows his hair out, but they’re just not like that. They’re just close, after having trained with each other for so long. They’ve spent their childhoods together; he isn’t kidding when he says he considers him as much of a sibling as he does his sisters.
“I’m really not—”
“It’s not really any of my business, yeah?”
Soobin meets Kai’s eyes like he’s trying hard to convey his thoughts without words, so Kai just gives up and nods. If something changes, he’s got his manager’s blessing, and maybe that’s valuable on its own, even if he’ll never take advantage of it.
“Yeonjunnie~ You know you’re my favorite, right?”
Yeonjun pauses in organizing the tools at his station with a slight feeling of dread, looking over at his supervisor whose eyes are scrunched up in the widest smile behind a pair of obviously non-prescription gold-rimmed glasses. The smile doesn’t exactly inspire more confidence in him, as he cautiously replies with a, “What’s wrong?”
His supervisor laughs, clapping her hands together. “Well~” her cheery tone still does nothing to assuage his worries. “Manager Soobin just called me to say that they can’t make it back to the company and to the venue on time, since they got stuck in traffic outside Seoul…”
She pauses, and Yeonjun blinks at her. “What do you want me to do? I don’t have a car to drive myself there…” Not here he doesn’t, and not to waste gas on company errands.
“Oh that’s not a problem!” she assures him loudly, and he feels a little like he just stepped into a trap he didn’t see right under his feet. “Soobin can pick you up outside, and if you go to the venue with them, you could do Kai’s make up for him there? There should be just enough time for them to drop by here quickly.”
“Noona… I’m not doing makeup in a car? I’m gonna poke his eye out!”
“No no no!” she waves her hands in front of herself wildly. “You can do it at the venue! They just need to touch base with the venue staff on time, and then they can buy you some time while you touch Kai up. It’ll be really simple, and you get to get out of the building for a while! What do you say?”
From the way she stares at him, Yeonjun gets the distinct feeling that his job security just might hang on his response, so he makes the executive decision to just give up and go with the flow. It’s not like they were planning to do a full face of complex makeup, anyway - they just need to make Kai look a bit more lively at a fansign so he looks good in the fan photos.
As soon as the okay is out of his mouth, his supervisor is helping him pack an emergency kit with a cheerful, “Great! Soobin will be here in two or three minutes!”, only confirming his suspicion that she’s only given him the illusion of a choice, while she’s already okayed the whole operation before she even approached him. Soobin calls her to announce they’ve arrived just as he’s tucking his brushes in, and she ushers him to the elevator like a harried mother hen.
In contrast to the way she rushed Yeonjun out the door, the atmosphere in the car Yeonjun gets into, a nondescript black one obviously provided by the company, is completely peaceful. Soobin peels away from he curb quickly, but he greets Yeonjun with a casual smile and a completely calm, “Thanks for accommodating us, there was an accident on the road so we got delayed by almost an hour.”
He gets into the back seat next to Kai, who looks sleepy and flushed, a bit like he just woke up from a nap. His hair sticks out a little when he shifts to sit up straighter and give Yeonjun more space, and a jacket slides off his shoulders and into his lap. He bows as much as he can while sitting down, and Yeonjun can’t help but find him a little endearing.
“Sorry to wake you up,” he says quietly, and Kai smiles and shrugs.
“Needed to wake up anyway.”
Yeonjun hums in response, and watches as Kai attempts to pat his hair down with little success.
“We’re coming straight from a shoot, it’s been kind of hectic since yesterday,” Soobin offers, then yawns as if to back his own claim up.
“I’m kind of glad we got stuck there, I think this is the most I’ve slept this week,” Kai quips, and Yeonjun can’t really tell if he’s joking or not.
“You were dead to the world at that waiting room on Monday,” Soobin offers, and Kai shrugs instead of arguing back. They both look too tired to banter properly.
For a while, they drive in silence, then Kai looks over at Yeonjun with a smile.
“Hey - have you listened to my album yet?”
Yeonjun nods, and Kai smiles a little wider, turning towards him in his seat as much as he can with his seat belt fastened.
“How’d you like it?”
“It was good; not really my genre, but it was good - I liked that one B-side, the… the one with all the space metaphors? Sorry, I’m terrible with song names.”
Kai chuckles, shaking his head, “It’s alright! I know which one you mean. It’s my favorite on the album - I wrote most of the lyrics to it myself.”
“Oh?” Yeonjun is taken aback, then immediately feels bad about how surprised he is. Maybe it’s rude to assume that most idols aren’t really involved in the actual music making. “Sorry, I mean - that’s great! It’s a great song, I did like all the imagery in it.”
“Thank you,” Kai doesn’t seem particularly offended, if anything he sounds satisfied with Yeonjun’s awkward attempt to compliment his songwriting. “I get to participate a bit more than some other idols do - it’s not that uncommon for solo acts like me.”
“It’s not because you’re a soloist, it’s because the company trusts you when you’ve never let them down,” Soobin says firmly, and Yeonjun sees Kai’s face twitch some kind of emotion that he never lets fully bloom across it, before he grins at the back of Soobin’s head instead.
“I’m a pretty great idol to work for, I know. Huge talent. Incredibly humble. Once-in-a-generation kind.”
Soobin sighs loudly, and Yeonjun finds himself laughing. “Didn’t even get to say the don’t let it get to your head part.”
“I thought I should be confident in front of others because I’m really talented,” Kai retorts without missing a beat.
Soobin meets Yeonjun’s eyes in the rear view mirror and shakes his head. “I’m never praising this brat ever again, I swear to God.”
Yeonjun laughs again. “Your work must be so hard.”
Kai smiles over at him brightly. “Don’t worry! Hyung loves working with me. He’s just shy about it in front of strangers.”
It’s not even a very funny remark, but something about the fact that both Taehyun and Kai described Soobin as shy to him makes him laugh again. “I thought you were the shy one between the two of you?”
“Hyung is better with strangers than I am - that’s why he’s the manager and I’m the idol.”
Yeonjun hums. “I guess I’m not a stranger then? Since you’re not really shy right now?”
Kai looks taken aback by Yeonjun’s words, like he only just realized they had been talking comfortably this whole time. “I… guess not?” When he smiles next, his expression is much softer than the teasing smile he gave before. “Do I get to call you hyung now, then?”
That gives Yeonjun pause in return, but he barely hesitates before nodding. “Yeah. That’s okay. Let’s speak comfortably.”
The smile Kai gives him is adorable, and a hundred percent worth his trouble.
They end up alone together in the green room while Soobin runs off to talk to the venue staff and the company people who have already been here long before they’ve arrived, and Kai tries to just sit still and be the least trouble he possibly could be while Yeonjun drops his bag down on the couch next to him and starts spreading his kit out. It seems to work, for what it’s worth, as Yeonjun gives him a quick smile before starting to dab something under his eyes.
Kai’s stuck watching him focus, kind of helpless against noticing that his mouth won’t stay still no matter what he’s doing. As he’s blending things in, picking up brushes, or dabbing things onto Kai’s face, his lips keep twitching, pursing and pouting, his tongue flicking over his teeth and lips as he squints at his own handiwork - it’s kind of distracting, and Kai is afraid that he’ll never stop noticing it now that he’s realized it’s a habit of Yeonjun’s. It’s not like his mouth’s perfect shape, with prominent lips only emphasized by what looks like some kind of lipstick, makes his mouth much easier to look away from.
Thankfully, before Yeonjun can notice Kai’s sudden fascination with his mouth, he speaks up, and Kai finally finds it in him to look him in the eyes again.
“I met 0×1 the other day, by the way.”
“Oh?” Kai feels a surge of excitement, even as he’s not sure why - for some reason, the idea of Yeonjun meeting Beomgyu and his group makes him giddy; maybe it’s just the part of him that’s all too aware his friend group consists of about three or four people wanting all of them to somehow connect. “Who’s your bias, then?”
Yeonjun pulls an odd face, something pouty and vaguely displeased. “I don’t know, they’re all handsome? But none of them are really my type.”
Kai has to stop himself from scrunching his face in return as well - what is Yeonjun’s type then, if it’s none of the hyper-handsome boy group members, or even Beomgyu with his objectively perfect face? He gets the feeling that if Yeonjun was the type to feel the need to specify that his girl groups are more up his alley, he would have mentioned that already.
“It’s definitely not Beomgyu, though,” Yeonjun says flatly, and Kai has to stop himself from bursting out laughing. “When I was doing his makeup, the guy would not stop talking.”
That makes Kai lose his fight with himself and laugh out loud, which just makes Yeonjun look at him weirdly. “He must have found you really interesting, he’s usually really calm and chill.”
Hilariously, Yeonjun looks deeply confused by hearing him say that. Kai has no idea what kind of mood Beomgyu was in when they met, but it must have been impressive.
“Well, he was none of those things when I met him.”
Kai grins. “I swear he’s a nice guy. You must’ve caught him at a weird time.”
Yeonjun hums thoughtfully and dabs some lipstick on Kai with a tiny little brush. “I guess. All of the guys seemed really wired that day.”
“Comeback season can make you go a bit crazy.”
Yeonjun smiles at him softly while putting the brush away. “I guess you’d know, wouldn’t you?”
“I’ve been through a couple in my time.”
Before Yeonjun can reply, Soobin pops his head through the door.
“How quickly can you get up on the stage?”
“I’m done!” Yeonjun assures him, but steps back in front of Kai instead of letting him stand up. “Just…”
He reaches out, and Kai closes his eyes on instinct as Yeonjun’s fingers sink into his hair, wrangling it into something hopefully presentable. He’s much gentler with it than his hair stylists usually are - when Yeonjun does it, it’s almost pleasant, like having someone ruffle his hair affectionately. Maybe he should talk Yeonjun into changing careers.
“Better,” he declares eventually, stepping away before Kai can look up at him again, but he turns towards Yeonjun anyway once he gets to his feet.
“Are you going back to the company?”
Yeonjun looks a bit surprised that Kai is still talking to him, but he shakes his head. “Nah - if i take a bus back, the company’s never gonna recompense me for the ticket. I’ll catch a ride with you two.”
Kai tries very hard not to feel happy about the information. “Okay! Cool. I’ll see you later then.”
“Good luck up there,” Yeonjun adds before Kai leaves, and Kai sends him a wink and a salute in return.
Yeonjun’s not sure if it’s just Kai, or if these fan-meeting things are actually kind of cute affairs. He stands to the side with some of the venue staff and security, watching Kai spend time with his friends, chatting and bantering with the crowd, signing albums, giving them photo opportunities. He sings for them too, and Yeonjun decides that he does like Kai’s songs more when he sings them live, actually. He’s a good singer, even without a bunch of studio equipment fiddling with his voice to make it perfect, and Yeonjun thinks he gets why people would spend money on him. He’s a talented musician, he’s handsome and charming in a sweet, boyish way. Something about him is a bit bolder when he’s interacting with fans, like he’s let go of something he usually holds back when Yeonjun sees him at work, like he lets himself be a little unpolished with his fans, since they’ll appreciate him that way too.
It’s a good look on him; natural. Yeonjun wouldn’t have thought he could come off this effortless.
At some point, Soobin appears next to him and offers him a cup of coffee before sipping from an identical cup in his other hand. When he looks at it in confusion, Soobin just pushes it closer to his face.
“It’s coffee - as thanks for accommodating us today. Could have been more of a shit show without you.”
Yeonjun huffs. “Well, it’s my job - I get paid for being there to doll Kai up for his fans.”
“Well, and I’m not being that generous - it’s the free coffee they have in the green room.”
He has to try not to laugh out loud, and Soobin looks a bit smug when he eventually accepts the cup of coffee. It’s the most mediocre cup of coffee he’s ever had, but it gets his blood flowing. He imagines that to Soobin who’s probably running on minimum sleep, it’s probably the best coffee he’s ever had.
On stage, Kai coos at the crowd who had been begging him to sing a specific song for the past two minutes and finally relents, taking a guitar from staff who rushes to the stage to play for them. Next to him, Soobin obviously perks up.
He leans towards Yeonjun, but his eyes stay on Kai, who sits himself on a chair in the middle of the stage, getting ready to play.
“It’s my favorite song.”
To Yeonjun, he sounds indistinguishable from a fan - he’d never thought he’d see a manager so genuinely passionate about the work of the artist they work with. Kai seems to have genuinely lucked out to end up with Soobin by his side.
It’s not a bad song at all - too down tempo for Yeonjun’s liking, but Soobin vibing along to it right next to him, and Kai’s voice carrying through the venue somehow makes it work. Maybe it’s just the atmosphere; but the song just works.
On their way back from the venue, Kai reaches into the bag of fan letters he’s brought with him to the car, and hands Yeonjun a small pink cat plushie with a quiet, “If you want it.”
“I thought you guys can’t just accept things at these events.”
“Kai’s really good at making puppy eyes at security,” Soobin offers from the driver’s seat, and Yeonjun finds himself smiling.
He takes the plushie, and Kai starts rummaging through the bag without waiting for a thank you. Yeonjun watches him do it, until he emerges with a pink envelope that’s perfumed enough for Yeonjun to be able to smell it from the other side of the car.
“Yup! Someone gave me a letter for you again, hyung.”
Yeonjuns snorts out a laugh. “Soobin gets letters from your fans?”
“Kai’s fans adore me,” Soobin assures him.
“He has fan pages of his own - I’m not sure if half the girls at my fansigns aren’t there to see him.”
Yeonjun squints at him doubtfully. “I think they can look at two handsome guys at once.”
Kai smiles without facing him, putting the perfumed envelope up to his face to sniff at it - Yeonjun’s not sure why, they can probably smell the strawberries in the car behind them as well. “You think I’m handsome, hyung?”
Yeonjun’s kind of taken aback by the question - of course Kai is attractive, it’s part of his job. He cuddles the cat to his chest, and sits back in his seat with a shrug. “Of course - I made you that way.”
Thankfully, it makes Kai laugh instead of offending him.
Thanks to Soobin’s newfound paranoia about getting to schedules on time, they end up getting to the broadcasting building way ahead of the rest of the team, and as Kai stretches out on the floor of the waiting room to catch up on the sleep he lost so they could beat the traffic, Soobin informs him with some morbid amusement in his voice that the rest of their team is stuck in traffic, although they should still get to the station on time. Apparently they were not the only ones ahead of their schedule, though, since as soon as he closes his eyes, the waiting room door opens and Beomgyu steps through, still in his regular clothes, but with his makeup done and glitter in his hair, throwing his arms wide.
“Guess who’s here!” He immediately crosses the room to where Kai’s quickly trying to sit up, dropping down next to him, completely ignoring Soobin who seems just as shocked to see him as Kai is - he knew that they were scheduled to appear at the same music show, but he assumed that Beomgyu would be either sleeping or too busy to do more than say hi in passing. But he’s right next to him, grinning and obviously as happy to see Kai as Kai is to see him. “The manager hyungs said I can go hang out with you if we film some content.” He waves a selfie stick that Kai didn’t notice him carrying. “So you’ve gotta be nice to me for at least five minutes. I can’t beat you up on camera, it’d ruin my idol reputation.”
Kai laughs out loud, and Beomgyu beams at him in return. “I missed you too, hyung.”
Beomgyu drops the stick to hug him without hesitation, and Kai hugs back with the same enthusiasm. It’s always strange to see him after they’d been separated for a long time; when they were kids, they spent almost all their time together, and now they’re happy to get to see each other in person at all. To Kai, it feels kind of like the opposite of a phantom limb - whenever he gets to be with Beomgyu again, it’s like he finds a limb he didn’t realize he was missing, a feeling of completeness where he didn’t realize he was lacking.
With the newfound lightness Beomgyu brings to the room, Kai nudges him as soon as they pull back from the hug. “Do I have to call you sunbae on camera, though? I did debut after you guys.”
Beomgyu pulls a face of pure disgust and Kai laughs out loud again. “Ugh, I mean - the company would probably love it. One of their artists graciously supporting their hoobae?” Kai cackles, and Beomgyu shoves him, just a little. “Most of them already know we’re friends, though - so don’t mess around.”
Kai feels a bit bad for bringing the subject up, but Beomgyu seems happy enough to move past it, grabbing the camera to set it up, so he follows his lead, grabbing his jacket he was using as a pillow to get a face mask out of his pocket.
“What for?” Beomgyu asks, obviously confused, looking at the mask in his hand doubtfully.
“I mean…” Kai hesitates just because of how obtuse Beomgyu looks. “For my face? I haven’t had my hair or makeup done yet - we came here straight from the dorm.”
“So you just woke up like this?” Beomgyu’s tone tells Kai that he’s playing it up on purpose, but he commits completely, turning to Kai’s manager who is now ignoring them in favor of his phone. “Did he actually wake up like this?”
Soobin snorts a little, obviously catching on too, but he nods. “Yeah, he woke up like this. Pulled him out of bed myself.”
“More like I pulled Soobin off my couch when his alarm didn’t wake him up,” Kai deadpans, then sticks his tongue out at Soobin when he sends him an offended look.
Beomgyu snorts out a laugh, but he still snatches the mask out of Kai’s hand and tosses it aside. “You look great - just do something about your hair.”
Shaking his head, Kai just obeys, running his hands through his hair until the viewfinder of the camera says he looks presentable. It’s not unusual for Beomgyu to try and be kind to others about their looks even though most people, even the good looking ones, end up looking shabby when he’s next to them, but it still makes Kai feel good to see Beomgyu making the effort. If he looks a little crumpled in the content on someone else’s channel, it won’t be an issue, right? Maybe they’ll just blur his face out for artist protection, or put a cut-out of Beomgyu’s face over his for a cute gag.
It ends up being surprisingly fun, even the part they have to turn the camera on for. He can be honest while praising Beomgyu’s comeback, and his and his teammates’ efforts, and he knows that Beomgyu isn’t lying either when he recommends Kai’s album to his own fans. They talk about food, and programs they hate going on, and about how grateful they are for the little overlap in their schedules. Beomgyu hugs him extra tight when the rest of the staff starts pouring in and he has to leave, and Kai almost melts into a puddle when Beomgyu shouts at Yeonjun across the room that he won’t have a lot of work to do on Kai today because he looks great already.
He makes the whole room chuckle though, Yeonjun included. Kai still kind of wishes a manager had whisked him away at least a minute sooner.
Yeonjun notices Kai looking at the pink cat plushie at the corner of his work station while he’s rummaging through his bag to find a brush, and he tries not to feel embarrassed about it. It was a nice gift, and he likes looking at it while he works; that’s all. It’s a cute plushie.
“I thought she was my good luck charm,” he says when he finds his brush, and Kai smiles at him so sweetly he almost hesitates to put it on his face. “Guess it didn’t work all that well though - still hit the worst of the traffic today.”
Kai laughs, then holds obediently still while Yeonjun works on him until Yeonjun pulls back to switch tools again. “I guess I need to get you a better one next time.”
Yeonjun hums to mask his surprise at that response - he should probably not make a habit out of accepting gifts from the idols he does makeup for - even if Kai’s just being sweet with no ulterior motives. “Well, if it means that I need to go on more emergency makeup excursions, let’s make sure next time doesn’t come too soon - my back hated doing it at that angle.”
“Ah, sorry about that,” Kai looks genuinely apologetic, and Yeonjun feels a bit bad about complaining about something that barely bothered him just to cool Kai’s jets a little.
He’s not sure how to reassure Kai that it was no issue while sounding like a normal human being, so he changes the topic instead. “You and Beomgyu know each other well?”
It’s obvious he’s done a good job of distracting Kai, because his face immediately lights up. “Yeah! We’re friends, actually.”
“How come? Did you go to school together or something?”
“Well - that too.” Kai laughs, just a short staccato burst of a giggle. “We trained together for a long time and even ended up in the same class at school. For a while, we were pretty inseparable.”
There’s an odd threat hanging as Kai finished explaining, and Yeonjun can’t help but pull at it. “And then?”
Kai’s face shifts a little, but he keeps up his smile. “They picked him for the 0×1 lineup, so he had to start spending most of his time with them instead.”
“Ah.”
While Yeonjun struggles to find a way out of the awkward spot he’d steered the conversation into, Kai lifts his chin and finds the words by himself.
“He’s still my best friend - maybe aside from Soobin hyung, but he doesn’t count - he gets paid to hang out with me.”
Yeonjun accepts the tension breaker with a laugh, and dabs glitter under Kai’s brow as gently as he can. “I’ll make sure to blend his makeup extra well, then.”
Kai grins at him, easy as ever. “Wow, he’ll get the special treatment now? I guess it pays to be friends with you, hyung.”
Kai stares up at the backstage monitor with an odd feeling on his chest while people file towards the waiting rooms around him. It’s showing the encore stage for the song that won today’s episode, and Beomgyu is on it, smiling and messing around with his members. His hair is shedding glitter into the air around him, and the lights are in his eyes, reflecting off his teeth as he laughs after he nearly misses his line entirely.
The last time Kai won at a music show two comebacks ago, he caught Soobin tearing up in the car on their way home. He remembers feeling stunned through his whole encore - he’s not as used to winning these things as Beomgyu is. It felt a bit like a fluke; a lucky glitch in the system that let him swap places with someone like Beomgyu for just one day. This cycle, he hadn’t been that lucky - on his last day of promotions, he wasn’t even nominated.
Most of the time, he doesn’t mind - and he’s definitely always happy for every success Beomgyu gets to taste in his own career. Today, though, it just feels odd. And odd shape behind his ribs, not letting him look away from the screen.
“I could probably do that choreo, right?” He sounds insecure even to himself, and he kind of regrets saying it.
Soobin makes an ambiguous noise behind him - Kai’s never quite been a dance star. “You look better with a guitar and a mic stand.”
It makes him laugh, and the sharp edges of the object lodged between his lungs smooth out a little. “Thanks, hyung.”
When Beomgyu comes backstage, the last of his members to come down the steps, he beelines for Kai, who hugs him tightly even though his friend is covered in sweat and glitter. To the surprise of probably everyone involved, Beomgyu them pulls Soobin in for a hug too, before grabbing Kai by the hands.
“I seriously wish we could drink to this, but I have a schedule in like two hours and I’m dead on my feet.” He shakes Kai’s hands vigorously. “We’re so on after we’re done promoting though, alright? We’ll kick one back for every trophy we get.”
An the thing in Kai’s chest just… dissolves, as he nods in agreement and squeezes Beomgyu’s hands. “Sounds good. It’s a deal.”
Still obviously running high on his win, Beomgyu leans forward to plant a kiss on Kai’s cheek, then finally lets him go to follow his members into their waiting room.
Soobin gives Kai a meaningful look that Kai doesn’t even bother addressing.
They go back to their waiting room, where the staff pops confetti poppers for him to celebrate his last music show of the promotion cycle, and a cameraman lurks around while they bring him a little cake in the colors of his album cover that he lets them take apart and share around the room while he talks to the camera in the hallway where it’s quiet to thank his fans for spending another promotion with him. When he comes back to the room, he sees Soobin and Yeonjun standing shoulder to shoulder in one corner, and heads straight for them.
Yeonjun greets him with a smile and a wave of the plastic fork he’d been eating his slice of cake with. “Hey - I’m not sure what’s appropriate to say, but… congratulations? I think?”
It makes Kai laugh, and he feels himself relaxing. “Yeah, that works. Thanks.” He nibbles at the inside of his own cheek. “I guess you’ll be free of me now? For the most part? I don’t do a lot of TV or modelling, so I don’t get a lot of make up done while I’m not promoting.”
While it might just be wishful thinking on Kai’s part, he thinks that Yeonjun looks at least a little bit sad about the prospect of not seeing him for a while.
“That’s kind of a shame,” he offers and sounds like he means it, although his next words aren’t quite what Kai was expecting to hear. “You have a TV face.”
It’s so out of left field Kai just blinks at him blankly. “I have what?”
“Nah,” Soobin shoots it down immediately without looking away from his slice of cake. “He has a YouTube face.”
Yeonjun checks him out, like this bizarre direction of the conversation makes perfect sense to him too. “Hmmm, maybe you have a point.”
“Guys, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Do you have any YouTube content?” Yeonjun asks without bothering to clarify what they’re even talking about. “I’ll have to see if Soobin has a point.”
Kai looks between the two of them, but neither of them moves a muscle to help him.
Soobin finally looks up from his cake, but he looks at Yeonjun instead of at Kai.
“I’ll try to get him on TV in the meantime.”