Chapter Text
All things considered, Bojan’s friendship with Jere had been a blessing.
Yes, it was lovely to see their lead singer forge such a strong connection to the Finnish rapper. It transformed their friend, his smile got broader, his laughter louder. Much like his surname suggested, Bojan blossomed with Jere around. And of course the rest of the band had developed a soft spot for Jere and he for them in return, but it went without saying, it was Bojan who was the Finn’s undisputed favourite.
The band wasn’t the only ones who noticed that. No, in fact, there was a substantial part of both their fan bases that noticed this special relationship between the two. A relationship so special that many interpreted it as something exceeding pure platonic friendship.
“Is that you and Käärijä?” had been Jan’s reaction back during Eurovision when he first noticed a video pop up on their shared band account on TikTok.
It had been a silly video. Some clips of them goofing off on that boat set to some cheesy romantic music. Bojan had snorted at that, the others laughed, and soon the video was forgotten.
Or it would have been, weren’t there plenty more videos like these coming their way.
Indeed, during and especially after Eurovision, the amount of fan content made for what would later be known as “#bojere” skyrocketed astronomically. If Joker Out were discussed in a post, if Bojan was in any way or shaped mentioned, it was almost guaranteed the conversation would lead to Käärijä and the bond they shared.
“This is what they used to do on tumblr.” Kris snickered while scrolling down the fandom sphere of twitter. “Can’t believe I actually know someone now who is getting shipped on the internet.”
“Yeah, yeah, so funny, isn’t it.” Bojan rolled his eyes. Once it became obvious that the jokes would not stop any time soon, he turned somewhat agitated for a while. Nevertheless, even he had to admit that no matter the ridiculousness of it all, this whole shipping thing kept people talking about them, kept them relevant, and most importantly, helped them create a solid fan base within Finland specifically.
Again, Bojan’s friendship with Jere had been a blessing because oh, their fans were eating that up.
Jere, ever keenly aware of his steadily growing fan community, suggested they should play it up. Not that he and Bojan weren’t goofing around before, they were! It seemed once these two were in each other’s proximity, silliness was the natural outcome. But now they were doing it for the cameras on purpose.
Especially during the Nordic Tour, they really put in the work.
“The fans are gonna love this IG story.”
“They will be crazy when we perform Cha Cha Cha you see”
“Hey maybe next time when you’re asked about me, say something about how close we are.”
“Like brothers, or maybe something more?”
It’s all fun, amusement and laughter. It's also marketing and part of the job to some extent. The other Joker Out members are glad it is their lead singer who has taken responsibility for that. Okay, fair, Nace and Jan have occasionally fun on stage as well, but mostly they can all rely on Bojan to do the heavy lifting here with his faux-gay nonsense with Jere, it just comes so easy to them at this point. Even when they aren’t technically working, Bojan delivers content, like when he visited Finland on his own for the first time.
He’d been doing that for the past year now, visiting Jere on occasion. Not for work, just for socialising.
In fact, he had been on a solo trip to Vantaa for the past few days now again.
What the others did not expect, however, was when on the third day, both their Twitter and Instagram were buzzing with excitement and their notifications got flooded beyond control. While investigating what caused this morning’s virtual uproar, they were met with what appears to be a blurry, amateur picture taken by someone trying very hard not to fall out of a bush. The motif of the picture were seemingly Jere and Bojan walking down the evening streets of Vantaa while holding hands.
"Huh." said Kris eloquently, peeking over Jure’s shoulder.
"Hmm." Jan agreed, nodding.
"They're really giving the whole bojere shtick their all." Jure chuckled amusedly and scrolled to yet another fan account tagging them into another version of that very same picture.
"They seem so genuine there too." Nace mused, "They're really good actors."
"Where was that talent when Bojan was starring in that movie though?" Kris added cheekily and the others bursted into laughter.
They didn’t have the heart to tell him, but Bojan’s acting skills weren’t really Academy Award worthy, except when it came to fooling their fandom apparently.
They decided to put both their twitter and instagram account on mute for the time being until the whole thing blew over and focus on what they actually met up this morning for: try out some new sounds for the upcoming album.
Mikke knew something was off the second he opened his eyes, checked his phone and saw 248 new notifications on his Instagram account, most of which were DMs.
"Oh no." he thought, and wrestled himself out of bed. Whatever Jere did last night (and of course it was Jere-related), he first needed a cup of coffee to go to deal with it. Or three maybe.
Once the coffee was brewing, Mikke scrolled through his suggested page, and ah...there it is.
Well, that explained it.
Though, the photographer in Mikke was a bit miffed that such a badly taken picture would generate such commotion. It's not even the most scandalous photo that Jere ever took (and yes, Mikke was unfortunate enough to know that).
Silly fans. As if Jere and Bojan weren't doing these antics for the past year or so anyway. And really, holding hands wasn’t in any way noteworthy in the grand scheme of things.
Just when he was about to grab his mug with freshly made coffee, his phone also rang. Naturally it was whom he expected it to be.
"Morning Jere." He took a sip of the black liquid and warmth filled him. Yes, he had needed that.
"Morning, hey..."
There was an uncertainty tracing his brother's voice, one that he only rarely allowed others to hear. That piqued Mikke's interest.
"So, uhm, what's up?" He treaded carefully.
"Ah, uhmm, shit, well...." There was a bit of rustling and Mikke could have sworn he heard a second voice whispering something in the background before Jere spoke up again.
"Mikke, have you been on- on Instagram today maybe?"
"Ah, yeah, I have. If you are referring to that picture that's circulating around your fan pages, then yeah, I've already seen it."
"You have? A- And? What- what do you think?"
Was Jere okay? Since when did he ask for Mikke's opinion when he did one of his crazy PR stunts?
He certainly didn't ask him when he did that borderline obscene pic with Häärijä (Mikke still tries to erase that pic from his memory).
"Well, first of all, the photo quality is shit. I get that you wanted it to look authentic or something like it was taken by paparazzis but c'mon Jere, you could have asked me instead."
For a long, long moment there was absolute silence from Jere's side and Mikke wondered whether the connection had been cut before his younger brother apparently kicked back to life.
"Bu- but we didn't want anyone to take a picture of us."
"Yes, I get that, of course you ‘didn't want’ your picture taken, I understand the vision. But the execution was kinda lousy."
"Is- is that, wait hold on- is that the only concern you have here? That this shitty ass picture is too pixelated?"
"Hmmm, yeah mostly. I mean, okay, mission accomplished: you are the talk of the day. If my Instagram profile is on fire today, then I can't imagine yours and Bojan's. So I guess, you did get plenty of interactions. But it's really by far not your craziest stunt."
"Not my craziest stunt?"
"You have to admit, Jere, nothing will ever top the mania that followed you riding Bojan at Tavastia. But maybe it's not a bad idea to change up your approach. Maybe that’s something you could implement on your shows now. Change it up and kiss Jesse instead of Jukka maybe?"
"What fucking approaches? I’m not joking and I- I don't even wanna kiss anyone anymore! Except Bojan!" Sometimes Jere got upset about the oddest things and why anger was rising in his brother's voice again was a bit of a mystery to Mikke. Frankly, it was also a bit too early for him to deal with that.
"Okay, yeah sure, keep it consistent. I get it, I get it. The fans are gonna love it.” He said dismissively but before the other could reply, Mikke added “Alright, Jere, listen, I gotta get the kids ready for school. See you later. Bye."
On the other side of the line, Jere was sitting on his bed looking confused, angry and somewhat lost at the phone in his hand before glancing up to his new boyfriend of 48 hours. Bojan, who had been patiently waiting here listening to the incomprehensible Finnish conversation.
His boyfriend, Bojan. Incredible thing to be able to say.
On occasion, he'd squeeze his knee encouragingly, give him some support the best way he could, but even the younger man noticed the angry tone Jere took on at the end of the call.
"And? What did he say?" he asked tentatively, fearing the worst.
But the worst didn't happen. No, something way more bizarre happened instead.
"He think we joking around for Instagram followers." Jere just answered plainly.