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"So. That was clearly not your profile picture."
Chay eyes the man in front of him with confusion. "What?"
He's broad, dressed in a blood red suit and Chay's a little intimidated. Also, he needs him to leave because what if Wik_Official shows up and sees Chay with some stranger and then comes to all the wrong conclusions? It took Chay weeks to work up the nerve to ask his fandom friend to meet in person; he does not want to blow it. Besides, Chay has been raised right and he doesn't talk to strangers.
"Your pictures", the man says. "Where did you get those? Do you actually know the person or did you take some rando's pictures from the internet?"
Chay has no idea what the man is talking about and he's starting to be severely weirded out.
"I'm sorry, Khun, I don't know what you mean." Secretly, he glances around. They're in the middle of the park, next to the fountain he used to come to with hia all the time when he was little. It's public enough while still providing some privacy. Unfortunately, there is nobody in their immediate vicinity. Chay's not exactly scared – yet – but he'd like this stranger to go away.
The man seems a little thrown for a moment. "Are you not Porsche?"
Chay frowns. While it is not impossible that there are other people out there named Porsche, this does seem like a bit of a coincidence.
"What do you want from hi- from Porsche?" Chay is seizing him up now. From Chay's limited experience with debt collectors, they're usually not that fancy. And they don't ask so many questions either. Usually, there's a lot more yelling and waving around knives and less civil if slightly annoyed conversation.
"So you do know Porsche. Who are you?"
"I'm Jom", Chay lies. He's not about to tell some random guy his name, hia would be so mad. "Porsche's... friend."
"Friend", the stranger says and gives Chay a hard once over. "Or boyfriend."
"Eww! He's my brother!" Chay vehemently shuts that down before he remembers that he wanted to play this cool and not give away too much information.
"Oh", the stranger says and his whole face changes, the dark look gone like it was never there, replaced with something softer and almost pleased. "You're Porchay. It's so nice to meet you."
He offers up a hand that Chay wisely does not take.
"Who are you?" he demands to know.
"My name's Kinn. I met Porsche on – we share common interests. He said to meet me here. I did not expect his little brother. I would have brought a gift."
Chay glares harder. While never one to turn down gifts, his brother raised no fool. Chay knows when he's about to be bribed. Though he's not quite sure what he'll be bribed for.
"Sorry I'm late", someone says from the side. Chay would recognise that voice anywhere. What he does not understand is why his brother is here right now. "Chay?" Porsche says the moment Chay turns towards him, his whole body contorted into a giant question mark. "What are you doing here?"
"I was meeting up with a fandom friend. It's in public!" he immediately adds because he can feel a big brother lecture coming on.
Porsche seems too thrown to admonish Chay for meeting strangers he has found on the internet. Well, Porsche considers them strangers, Chay considers Wik_Official one of his closest friends at this point. They chat every day. About their shared love for music and Chay's immense love for all things Wik, which, despite the name, his friend does not engage in as much as Chay, but that's fine. Chay can love Wik enough for the two of them.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" a fourth voice says. One that Chay would recognise ten feet under water. Because he listens to it every day on the his way to uni and every night before he falls asleep. He's imitated that voice, poorly, when singing along. He's had a thousand conversations in his head with it.
"I should be asking you the same thing. Are you spying on me?" Kinn does not sound alarmed, just annoyed. Which is a bit of a mid reaction for someone thinking they are being followed. But that's just Chay and his unprofessional opinion. Also, why an idol super star would follow some business guy like Kinn is beyond Chay.
But all of that is dwarfed by the enormity of Wik_Official being actually, officially Wik!
For a moment, Chay's mind simply does not compute. Then he remembers all the truly unhinged things he has told Wik_Official about what he might want the real Wik to do to him.
Wik can tie me up any time, lol.
I'd sell my first born for Wik to do that to me.
Being kidnapped by Wik, the dream, right, haha.
Oh God, Chay needs to leave the country. Like, yesterday. He's got to be the unluckiest person in the world, having said all of these things to his actual idol, the person he cares the second most about in this world, outdone only by hia. How was Chay supposed to know that Wik_Official meant that it's actually the official Wik? You'd think superstars have something better to do than lurk in their own fandom forums. This is partially on Wik!
Still, Chay has reached a level of mortification that is physically painful and he needs to get out of here. Hia is a big guy, he can handle this Kinn character, whatever his deal is. So Chay does the only reasonable thing that is left to do: He turns around and briskly marches away.
"Chay?" he hears Porsche call after him, but it's not hia's familiar footsteps falling in line next to him. Out of the corners of his eye, he sees Wik. In the flesh.
"Hey", the idol says quietly and even that little word in that voice sounds heavenly. "Can we talk?"
Chay has no idea what there is to talk about. Does Wik want an apology for all the insane stuff Chay said about him? Which, fair, but also, Wik was never supposed to know all these things!
Chay's not sure how it happens, but Wik manages to manoeuvrer them towards a set of benches near an artificial little stream. He's taken Chay's hand, as if he's afraid Chay will jump up and leave – which, truth be told, is still a strong possibility.
Chay's aware that under any other circumstances, this would be the dream: sitting in a park, holding hands with Wik. Wik.
But Chay does not feel like he's living his teenage dream, it feels more like a nightmare. Like those ones where he's standing in front of the class about to present a topic he forgot to do his research on.
"I didn't mean to upset you", Wik says and he sounds so sincere, Chay just has to look at him. It's not good for Chay's health, looking at that much beauty directly. Though he is a little relieved to find that Wik has toned the idol look down today, just a leather jacket and some slim, silver jewellery. He's still devastatingly beautiful and Chay feels plain and poor next to him.
"I'm sorry I said all these things about you", Chay says. "I didn't meant them. Well... I didn't mean to say them to your face."
Wik shakes his head and Chay can see that he's biting back a smile.
"It's okay", he reassure him. "Those were hardly the most out there things I've seen said about me."
Now, Chay wants to know what the most outrageous things were, but he's not brave enough to ask that. Instead, he gives a little shrug. "Still. I obviously did not know that you were... you know."
"Me?"
"Yeah, you."
Wik smiles. It's makes him look even more angelic than he already is. "I figured, given your reaction."
"Wait, you thought I knew I was meeting up with the real Wik?"
"I mean, I told you, didn't I?"
"Yes, but that was, I did not think you were being serious, obviously!"
"I told you I worked in the entertainment industry. We talked about me going on tour."
"Yes. But. See. I thought you were a roadie or a make up artist or something."
Wik just smiles, he seems a little lost. "Sorry", he apologises again.
Now Chay feels a little guilty for Wik apologising so much. "Maybe that was on me, not thinking that the real Wik would hang out in the forums."
"I like to keep an ear to the ground. It's easier to know what the fans want when I know, well, what the fans want."
Chay frowns. "Don't you have management for that type of thing?"
"I do, but it's always better to get your information directly from the source."
That strike Chay as a bit odd. After all, Wik is an idol, not some type of informant. Before he can make a comment though, the idol carries on. "I brought you some merch."
Chay, still feeling horribly embarrassed, immediately perks up. "You brought me Wik merch?"
The other boy nods. "You mentioned being disappointed about it all being so expensive. So, for you." He holds out a duffel bag with WIK 2024 spilled in bright red and yellow strokes over it. It's from his latest tour. The one Chay did not get tickets for even though he stayed up until midnight and refreshed the page until his laptop crashed.
"Really?" he takes it with shaking fingers. Inside, there is a key chain and posters and a CD, all signed. Most of his attention is drawn to one one of those light sticks that cost a week's worth of groceries. It looked so cool and important on the website and Chay was dying to have one. Now that he's finally holding one, it seems surprisingly cheaply made. Chay still handles it with the utmost care when he presses the button. He watches the little plastic ball spin and the lights flare up.
"Thank you, you did not need to do that." His emotions might be all over the place, but hia has raised him right and also, this was a nice thing to do. Wik did not need to bring him merch.
"They seem to make you far happier than they make me", Wik says gently.
For a moment, there's silence between them. Chay has never been very good with those. He cracks first. "Why did you meet with me?"
Wik looks at him like he does not understand the question. "Because you are interesting. I thought you have some very good points about music."
"But I also said all those embarrassing things."
The idol ponders that for a moment. "Okay, so, this might sound very conceited, but I am sort of used to that? Lots of people find Wik hot and want him to do all sorts of things with or for them. You were also funny and smart and you talked with so much love about your brother, I thought", here, he stops for a moment and Chay thinks the singer appears strangely guilty, "I thought you were just a really decent person and I am in short supply of those."
Chay knows next to nothing about the entertainment industry, but he can speculate.
"It's okay", he tries to reassure the singer. "I won't tell your management."
Wik looks taken aback. "Oh. No, that's not a problem, P'Ari is very chill about this."
Now Chay is confused. "Then what is the problem?"
Wik bites at his lower lip, which evokes the insane urge to reach out and tug it free. Chay interlaces his fingers before they can decide to do something stupid.
"You seem like a really sweet, normal person and I think I have been selfish coming here", Wik finally says with a look like speaking these words physically hurts him.
"I don't mind", Chay interjects quickly, "I don't mind at all!"
At that, the corners of Wik's mouth tick up a little, but Chay does not manage to chase the guilty look off his pretty face altogether.
"I am Kim, by the way", the singer continues. "You should know that much at least."
"Chay", Chay says because he does not have a super secret identity to offer up. Then he realises something. "Wait, is your stage name your real name spelled backwards?"
That, finally, makes Wik - Kim - smile for real. "Yes, it is. Good catch"
"That's so clever", Chay fawns and has the pleasure of seeing that beautiful smile grow even wider.
From there on out, the ice seems broken and things get easier. The fanboy-ish part of Chay still cannot believe that this is really happening, that he is here, talking to the most talented, most beautiful person in the country. The rest is engaged in a conversation about mixing pop with classical elements and whether that is just a good or a really good idea.
It turns out that besides being gorgeous and gifted, Kim also has a surprisingly dark sort of humour and some endearingly strange opinions about certain social topics. At times, he has these little lapses in conversation, like he doesn't know how to progress. For someone who's so smooth in interviews, he can be a bit awkward in real life. Chay supposes that it's probably easier to be all suave, when the suaveness has been scripted for you and anyway, he does not mind helping him over the more stilted pauses in their conversation.
"How do you know Kinn?" Chay eventually wants to know. Kim makes a face that is very un-idol like. "Why did he accuse you of stalking him?"
"Because he's way too full of himself." The way Kim speaks about the other man suggests a familiarity that Chay does not know how to feel about. Jealousy rises it's ugly head. If Kim likes people like Kinn, Chay's love is even more hopelessly one-sided than he thought. He cannot compete with someone looking like that. "Also, he's my brother and someone has to keep an eye on him when he's acting all shady and sneaking around."
"Your brother." Chay is embarrassed by how relieved he sounds. Hopefully, Kim does not notice. "You're worried about your brother."
"Kinn is very worrisome", Kim says and Chay will have to take his word for it. He gets it though. He worries about Porsche constantly and it's warranted. Porsche sacrifices a lot to keep them both afloat, including his health. Chay is not sure how hia ended up knowing Kinn, but if he's Kim's brother, he must be a good person. Maybe, maybe even deserving of Chay's older brother. Big maybe.
They return to their brothers eventually. Porsche is talking a mile a minute, which he only does when he's comfortable. Apparently, Kinn has not yet gotten bored of the no doubt extensive motor cycle lecture he's being given and nods and smiles at the right moments and asks follow up questions.
"We have an understanding with some dealerships", he says, "you should let me take you some time soon."
Chay wonders what that means "an understanding" and decides that that is rich people code for gifts. Or possibly bribes. I give you this, you give me that.
Chay won't judge though, if hia gets a new bike out of this. He deserves it. It's only fair too, since Chay got all the Wik merch he ever wanted. He wants Porsche to benefit from this little misunderstanding as well.
"Are you interested in bikes too?" Kim asks. His tone is neutral, so Chay takes it he's neither for nor against visiting some dealership with "understandings".
"They're fine. But I don't have to spend an afternoon fawning over them", Chay answers truthfully, though he is careful to keep his voice low enough so Porsche does not hear.
"How about an afternoon fawning over guitars? At the studio?"
Chay goes hot and cold with excitement. "The Wik studio? The studio where all the Wik songs are being recorded?"
Kim seems very pleased at his reaction, but tries to tone it down a bit. "If you'd like."
"Would I ever! I don't think an afternoon is enough though. That has to be a weekend trip. At least."
Kim laughs. It's deep and beautiful, like everything about him.