Archive of Our Own

Dust. It was everywhere. The one week long absence of Yoo Joonghyuk was evident from the tiny pieces that were flashing on the rays of afternoon sunlight that were seeping from the thin gaps between the curtains. It would be a cool scene for a post-apocalyptic game with vegetation surrounding the deserted buildings and all. However, this wasn’t a game. This was very much real life and his home was dusty like it had never been in the last couple months.

Yoo Joonghyuk had to be away for the week due to one of his responsibilities which he absolutely despised as a pro-gamer, mingling, or networking to put it in a more formal way. One of the main reasons why he chose to be a gamer in the first place was so that he could interact with people face-to-face as little as humanely possible. He was someone who would want to follow his own rights and his own rules. Yet, there Yoo Joonghyuk was, in Jeju Island for a week, although cold, dragged there by his manager to talk about new sponsorship deals with firms of energy drinks he would never dare to willingly put into his body and possible collaborations with other streamers and such left and right. Communication was not his strongest asset and he knew he had a stoic face which could lead to misunderstandings of him being disinterested, although it was well known that that was just what he was like. Even then, there could be newbies that he had to leave a somewhat good impression on, amateurs who looked up to him that he needed to inspire to be more ethical and better gamers. So, with all the attention and talking and charming his way out of talks as much as he possibly could, it was safe to say that he had exhausted his social battery as well as the mental one when he was back to the only place where he was comfortable, where he was genuinely happy, where he could have fun with the man he loves and considers as home.

There was a slight issue though. The week he was absent was also the week his beloved partner Kim Dokja was also very, extremely busy. The gaming company he worked as a team member in the Quality Assurance department, Mino Soft, was preparing to launch one of the biggest game releases of the year and everyone in the company was working rigorously. Even in Jeju Island, the release of this game was among the hot topics between gamers. And because of this, the QA department was working overtime for the last 2 weeks, sometimes working without any days off. Kim Dokja, unfortunately, was one of those who had to experience the latter kind as someone with no powerful titles. He was at the lower parts of this hierarchy in the department which led him to work his guts out whenever there was a new project or a milestone approaching. Luckily, his workload was supposed to be lighter around these times. But Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t sure how his latest condition was since he couldn’t talk to Kim Dokja on the phone during this last week which frustrated him quite a lot even though he did not want to admit it. They checked one another on KakaoTalk every once in a while just to make sure they were surviving in their environment. Sometimes, during those rare couple alone moments at the out-of-sight corners he could find, he would spam Kim Dokja with messages about how he was feeling and what was happening around him. He knew he was not going to get any answers, he knew Kim Dokja had barely time to lift his head up, but taking those thoughts out of his system, sharing them with the one person he could be vulnerable with made him feel significantly lighter and prepared him to get into the crowd, made him feel like he was not alone in this jumble of strangers. Knowing that he was there was enough for Yoo Joonghyuk.

Now, at the entrance of their apartment complex, stood the tall man. He was holding his suitcase in one hand and holding his phone in the other, checking the recent texts exchanged between him and Kim Dokja. The screen was filled with Kim Dokja’s apologies on how he wouldn’t be able to welcome him from his trip and how he was going to be late but would be more free from this day on. Yoo Joonghyuk’s texts read him saying that it was no problem and asking approximately when he would arrive home. Even though it was a Sunday, a day he wasn’t even supposed to work in the slightest, according to Kim Dokja, he would be done at the office around 9:00 pm and it would take him at least half an hour to be back home. Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t sure if he was relieved about this or not. He checked the time on the upper right corner of his screen. It was 5:37 pm. He had plenty of time to be done with the preparations but not enough time to also clean around. Seoul getting hit by a dust storm recently absolutely did not help his case. Yoo Joonghyuk was sure that his partner was so exhausted from working nonstop that he wouldn’t have even realised what today’s date was.

February 15th was a dry day this year with no rain or snow.

It was 5:40 pm now. Yoo Joonghyuk had already spent a couple minutes staring at his screen but he had no time to waste anymore. He had to start preparing the ingredients to bake a cake for Kim Dokja’s birthday. And it was not just going to be a cake either. Yoo Joonghyuk was planning to go all out. He was sure that without his nurture in these past days, Kim Dokja would have taken little to no care of himself. He knew this man who would do literally anything to make others happy and comfortable, putting his own well being later on his priority list. If Yoo Joonghyuk knew him, he must have made do with a take-away kimbap on the way to work for the whole day in the past week. There was a nearby place where they lived where Kim Dokja (and although did not want to admit it, Yoo Joonghyuk too) loved to eat Korean street food. He hoped the sweet ahjumma who owned the place saw how tired Kim Dokja looked and added some extras to his purchases. When he left for the Jeju trip, Yoo Joonghyuk had already seen how lack of rest was taking its toll on Kim Dokja.

Yoo Joonghyuk quickly dropped by to their room to leave his suitcase and change his clothes from his formalwear, a black shirt and black pants that hugged his muscular thighs well. Kim Dokja loved but also hated his legs, and kept whining about how unfair it was for someone who earned money by sitting down on a chair and playing video games to have such a fit body. He knew how much Yoo Joonghyuk worked out outside of his streams though. He would never truly discredit him in that regard. After all, it was a scene his eyes feasted on whenever he stumbled into it. He just wouldn’t admit it vocally and would rather keep denying, whining about what a show-off the buff man is.

Once Yoo Joonghyuk was changed into a more comfortable set of clothes, namely into black sweatpants and a black loose t-shirt, he rushed to the kitchen to check if he had the correct and enough ingredients. His plan was to not just bake a sweet potato cake - Kim Dokja was recently digging the flavour of sweet potato more and more and asking Yoo Joonghyuk to cook different recipes incorporating it, so that was going to be the flavour of his birthday cake as well- but also a birthday classic, Miyukguk, the seaweed soup. His plans included cooking the Murim dumplings, both his and Kim Dokja’s favourite food, he had prepared and put in the freezer some time ago.

After he gathered everything on the counter, he realised they didn’t have one of the most critical ingredients. Baking powder. He felt so dumb for a second because before he left for the vacation, Yoo Joonghyuk was careful to buy everything needed every once in a while, without making Kim Dokja notice that there was stuff in their shopping cart that was out of ordinary. And yet, here was Yoo Joonghyuk, looking at the kitchen counter with his arms crossed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He silently murmured to himself one simple thing that expressed all of his emotions.

“Stupid.”

Going to the convenience store wasn’t that much of a hussle but it was still a waste of time. He could finish everything before Kim Dokja’s estimated time to come home with ease but still, he did not want to risk anything. For a second, he, although regretfully, felt grateful that his partner was working overtime. But Yoo Joonghyuk knew that once his job workload stopped being this overly exhausting, he was going to pamper Kim Dokja as best as he could. He had recently gotten promoted from a contracted worker to a permanent position in the team so maybe he could get a couple days off and they could have a healing time together. Considering how hard his partner had to work, Yoo Joonghyuk’s week of exhaustion felt minute to him. After all, it was only his social battery that took a toll. This was the reason why seeing Kim Dokja happy and relaxed and well-rested was his top priority at the moment.

Possible locations to go and spend leisurely time with Kim Dokja were passing through his mind while Yoo Joonghyuk was quickly getting his shoes on and grabbing his coat to go outside. Yeah, he thought to himself, Mino Soft would allow him to take some time off after the hurricane would leave their territory and move to another department, they should. And as for himself, Yoo Joonghyuk was not worried. He had a solid and loyal fanbase. If he paused his streams for one more week, it would not hinder the steady rise of his reputation and popularity. And Lee Jihye, his social media manager and (unofficial) mentee, could and would love to keep the fanbase active with content. She got along especially well with the fans in the Discord server, possibly because she was as giddy and excited about his gameplays and commentary as the others. They were all in the same wavelength in that sense. After a quick consideration, Yoo Joonghyuk settled on the thought that Lee Jihye would be glad to keep them entertained while her (unofficial) mentor was taking a vacation. He had a creeping suspicion deep down that she would actually get excited from learning that it was going to be a couple’s vacation, but he decided to toss this thought away by checking the time once again. Yoo Joonghyuk rushed out of their apartment.

His uneventful trip to the convenience store only took 15 minutes or so. He was back home in no time to strip from his streetwear and to immediately enter the kitchen to start baking. Ingredients were carefully measured and mixed in a matter of minutes and the batter was put into the oven. The cake had to end first so that it would cool down and the cake layers wouldn’t crumble. It had to be perfect. Yoo Joonghyuk had never served an above average food to Kim Dokja. Ever. His goal was to always prepare the tastiest, the most appetising food he could ever come up with, and he was not planning on changing this routine any time soon, but especially today. One of Yoo Jonghyuk’s favourite things on earth was to see a blinding smile blooming on Kim Dokja’s face, his face brightening up and leaving all the tire behind. It was the most beautiful sight Yoo Joonghyuk had ever laid his eyes on, making something tight in him to loosen. So, in order to treat himself with one of these treasures, he-

Suddenly he heard his phone ringing from the living room. Who could have called at this hour, he thought. Kim Dokja was supposed to be busy with work for another 2.5-3 hours. He couldn’t think of anyone else who would need to call him today. Nearly every person that mattered knew today was the day he would return so they wouldn’t bother him on a day like this. When he rushed to the phone, he was surprised to see Yoo Mia’s name on the screen.

“Hello, Mia?” he asked with a voice softer than usual. It was a tone only Yoo Mia and Kim Dokja were able to detect so far in his life. The edges of his voice would only soften to the two most important people in his life.

“Oppa? Welcome back! How was your vacation?” she cheered on the other side of the phone.

“It wasn’t a vacation, Mia. It could have been, if only I wasn't forced to attend and talk to other people, and instead could actually enjoy my time there.” he spoke to the phone with a sigh.

“Still, you spent a whole week in a cool hotel in Jeju Island, right? With all those cool, famous people! I’m sure they had super nice hot springs too…” Yoo Mia was whining at the end.

“You know your oppa is more famous than most of those people, right?” he said in a tone that was much more matter-of-factly rather than showy. He was among the top entertainers of the current day South Korea, even though he did not know how he reached this position and earned this title which made little sense to him.

The older brother-younger sister duo kept talking on the phone about his trip, her classes, his upcoming streams and who he made new acquaintances, and her friends’ new hairstyles. After more talking, she asked.

“So, what are you going to do today, oppa?”

“I am-” he suddenly realised that during this talk, he forgot to check the oven he was baking the birthday cake layers. With a glimpse of panic in his voice, he continued. “I was baking.”

“Oh, right. Is it already that ugly ahjussi’s birthday?”

He could almost hear her rolling eyes on the other side of the phone.

Yoo Joonghyuk rushed to the kitchen, put his phone on the speaker as he put on the oven gloves. The cake batter was not burned yet but it was overcooked nonetheless. It had lost the moisture. He placed the tray on the stone counter and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Mia, we talked about this. Calling him ugly is rude and he is not old enough for you to call him ahjussi. Also, yes. Today is his birthday.”

“He was born before oppa. He is old.”

Yoo Joonghyuk had no more time left. With the cake overcooked, he had to go back to square one. He needed to scratch the idea to maybe clean up around even if it was for just a little bit.

“I need to go back, Mia. I will see you next week then, yes?”

“Yes, next week for ice skating! See you, oppa. Wish a happy birthday to ahjussi for me too.”

“See you.”

Yoo Joonghyuk was happy to talk to his little sister. It always cheered him up. Everyone knew that he was a man of very little talk but no one would be able to collect their jaws from the floor if they had seen just how much more willing he seemed and he was when he was talking to Yoo Mia and Kim Dokja, or talking about anything regarding them. This alone would be a very solid indicator on just how much this stoic man cared for those he loved and cherished. So, in order to show his love, he started baking and cooking at a speed he never had before.

Yoo Joonghyuk sat down on one of the dinner table chairs in the kitchen once he was done with the food preparation. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a couple seconds, just breathing and absorbing the white noise around him. Then, he opened one of his eyes to check the black and white clock on the wall across to where he was sitting. It was 9:48pm and Kim Dokja should have been arriving around this time. Right then, he heard a dinging sound from his phone. He lifted his phone to his eye level only to see that Kim Dokja was only a couple minutes away from their home and that if Yoo Joonghyuk needed anything to be bought while he was on his way home. He quickly typed a message saying “Nothing needed. Waiting for you.” and sighed. He sat there some more, massaging his temples to spread the headache he felt like was approaching. Yoo Joonghyuk was still mad at himself for not being able to do a better job at time management.

Before he could drown himself in any more of his usual self-deprecating thoughts, he stood up to do the last touches. The dinner table was ready with the food and appetisers. In the middle of everything stood the birthday cake with white icing, decorated with meringue, blue and blackberries on top. He prepared everything, including the meringue and he was proud of how they turned out considering it was his first time making them. Any imperfect ones, he crumbled them and used them as decoration materials as well. Now, facing the table he prepared, he felt proud of himself and decided to take a photo of it.

Not even a minute later, Yoo Joonghyuk could hear the code for their apartment being typed outside the door. He lit the single candle on the cake and turned the kitchen lights off. Then, he walked to the entrance as casually as he could to welcome the other owner of this house. Kim Dokja was leaning down, supporting himself by holding onto a wall with his hand that held his bag, taking off his shoes. Yoo Joonghyuk couldn’t even see his partner’s -his boyfriend’s- face and yet even this sight alone was enough for him to be hit with a wave of affection and love. His lungs were already filled with Kim Dokja’s familiar scent.

Then, Kim Dokja lifted his face and saw Yoo Joonghyuk. The face that turned to Yoo Joonghyuk was full of exhaustion, and yet it took not even a second for it to be washed with relief and warmth. Before Yoo Joonghyuk could study his face even further and say a word, Kim Dokja threw himself at him and wrapped his tired arms around Yoo Joonghyuk’s torso. He was now leaning onto the taller man like he was the most reliable existence on the planet. He wasn’t standing upright so his face was buried into the firm chest, so when he spoke, his voice came muffled.

“Joonghyuk-ah… Welcome back.”

And with that, Yoo Joonghyuk hugged him tight. He nuzzled the top of Kim Dokja’s head and smelled the office and coffee on him that were mixed with his shampoo. He couldn’t hold himself before planting a kiss and then put his chin on his head.

“Welcome back, Kim Dokja.”

Kim Dokja hugged him tight one more time before letting Yoo Joonghyuk go. He lifted his face with a tired smile and half closed eyelids. In front of this, the taller man did not resist the urges and unapologetically planted another kiss, this time on the shorter man’s forehead.

“Are you hungry?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked softly.

And with that, Kim Dokja’s eyes were suddenly filled with light.

“Ah, yes please!” he entered the living room, leaving Yoo Joonghyuk in the entry. He took off his brown jacket and threw it on the couch. He then did the same thing with his bag. Yoo Joonghyuk could once again see, now from the door to the living room, the dust lifting up under the rays from streetlights entering from the living room windows around Kim Dokja. “I think the last thing I ate was one of our emergency persimmon protein bars you made. It was, what, 11am? Gosh, I am starving. Sangah-ssi was kind enough to bring some stuff she made herself - I honestly don’t know what HR was doing today at the office - but before I could even see what she had brought, Han Myungoh-sajangnim called me for some more work. Can you believe it? He didn’t let me go and snack on anything. He is unbelieva-”

While Kim Dokja was ranting, he reached to the only visible light source in the house without realising it, like a moth to a flame. He found himself in the kitchen, instead of the restroom where he could wash off and get refreshen, in front of the table that was filled with different types of foods and drinks. His shoulders dropped and he tilted his head, trying to make sense of the view he was facing. In confusion and disbelief, he turned around slowly, only to find a soft smile above a phone camera.

Yoo Joonghyuk had already started taking the video, right after Kim Dokja had turned his back and started ranting about his workplace and his underqualified disappointment of a work acquaintance. Because that was what he is, not a colleague from the same department. Han Myungoh was the head of the Finance department who was, in Kim Dokja’s words, “fixated on making his life as unnecessarily miserable as possible.” Han Myungoh’s impertinence was well known, so no one in the HR wanted to be bothered with him to tell how it was wrong to pretty much abuse a contracted worker from a completely different department for his errands. Only Yoo Sangah, the sole friend Kim Dokja had in the company and someone whose presence was appreciated in their lives by Yoo Joonghyuk, attempted to stand up for the issue but was made to sit down immediately by her superiors. Yoo Joonghyuk was grateful to her for even attempting to do so even though it was a fruitless one. It always made him happy to know that his hard working boyfriend had people who love and support him. So, with only him and Yoo Sangah knowing the actual depth of Kim Dokja’s exhaustion and hatred towards this man, it amused Yoo Joonghyuk to be able to document these feelings in their purest form and to finally be able to show - convince - their friend group about this emotional outburst. And although they have been together for little more than two years now, it still made him happy and giddy to know that Yoo Joonghyuk was a dependable and comfortable space, a person he can lean on regardless of the situation for Kim Dokja who was a tightly sealed box when it came to expressing his true thoughts and emotions.

Thinking about all of these had made his face twist into a small smirk but to see Kim Dokja’s surprised face right in front of him, his bright eyes that held the entire universe in them was what made Yoo Joonghyuk not being able to hold a big, genuine smile back. Once Kim Dokja also saw this transition in the face of the man in front of him, his surprise gave its place to amazement. Although it wasn’t a rare occasion for him to see the stoic man’s brightest smile, it was always a sight to behold. He really was the most beautiful human being the shorter man has ever seen. With eyebrows as elegant as a famed artist’s delicate brush strokes; a nose and a chin shaped in perfect angles that defied attempts to measure them through mere devices of men; a pair of deep eyes almost as bright as a beautiful jewel containing everything good but also misfortunate within; Kim Dokja could never get enough of looking at his boyfriend’s face. And somehow, that smile he currently had on his face was just elevating all of these into unimaginable levels.

While Kim Dokja was falling in love with the man standing in front of him all over again, Yoo Joonghyuk had somehow managed to pick up the cake with a single, lit candle on top of it with one hand while the other hand was still holding the phone. He was still trying to figure out the entire situation and why there was a seemingly birthday cake when his boyfriend softly told him.

“Happy birthday, my star.”

Birthday… What was today’s date? It couldn’t possibly be his birthday yet. There should still be some time. And yet, the taller man was right in front of him, and if there was anything Kim Dokja was 1000% sure, it was that he could always trust Yoo Joonghyuk. Suddenly, he found his tired body looking for a place to lean on, both due to exhaustion and shock. He let himself sit on the back of the couch that was close to the dinner table harder than he initially intended before reaching out to take the cake from Yoo Joonghyuk’s hand. His eyes once again fell onto the cake, then found the other’s eyes. His boyfriend, still smiling, nodded his head ever so slightly, silently telling him to make a wish and blow out the candle.

Kim Dokja felt his eyes burning. He did not want to tear up, but also couldn’t help himself thinking about how even though Yoo Joonghyuk came back from his trip today, he prepared all of this for him. Knowing his boyfriend, Kim Dokja was sure that he had prepared everything from scratch. He didn’t feel deserving of this, but the smile on the usually-stoic man’s face was convincing him of otherwise with every passing second. Before the candle could fully melt, he held the cake with both hands and closed his eyes to make a wish.

Kim Dokja’s wish was always the same - the happiness and wellbeing of people he loved. This time was no different. Even though this was a moment where he was expected to be selfish, he still wanted nothing more. If his friends were happy, their happiness would be contagious and infect him, too, Kim Dokja always thought. Two birds with one stone.

Once he finished his wish in his mind, Kim Dokja opened his eyes and filled his lungs enough to blow out the candle right in front of his face. However, just as he was about to do so, his nose started to get ticklish. Really, I need to sneeze right now? he thought to himself angrily as he tried to subtly scrunch his nose and scratch the itch inside. He really did not want to ruin this moment. Everything was so dreamy, including the man in front of him who was waiting for him. Kim Dokja did not want to delay a simple task any longer and quickly blew the small flame out.

He was about to reach the now-out candle when he was hit with a stronger itch in his nose so sudden that he didn’t even have time to distract himself from it. It was inevitable. Kim Dokja was going to sneeze and there was no saving him from it. The cake was right in front of his face, which meant only one thing. He tried his best to hold the sneeze inside when his face met the frosting of the cake. He could feel how soft and moist the cake his face got buried was. Kim Dokja was cursing at Yoo Joonghyuk for being such a good baker in his head when he heard a small laugh. The laugh only got louder as he lifted his head and tried to open his eyes from all the icing to look at the man in front of him. Seeing Yoo Joonghyuk smile was a treat only the very lucky ones could experience, hearing him chuckle was even more rare, but Kim Dokja was privileged enough to know both by heart. But hearing his boyfriend laugh this genuinely? This was surprising, even for him. Without being able to hide this surprise, he tried to open his eyes but hissed immediately as a piece of icing fell and burned his right eye. To that, Yoo Joonghyuk’s laugh got more silent with a tinge of tenderness. Kim Dokja, both eyes closed tightly, felt the now-ruined cake being taken from him followed by two hands holding his face. The laugh was much more silent now, yet he could hear it close by. Before he was able to say anything, Kim Dokja felt Yoo Joonghyuk leaning in and kissing his sugary lips softly.

“I am so sorry, I didn’t have enough time to clean around.” he said while his thumbs were gently wiping the icing off of Kim Dokja’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

“No, I am pissed at myself!” Kim Dokja exclaimed. “You spent your entire afternoon preparing this - don’t you dare tell me it was nothing, Joonghyuk-ah - and I just ruined the whole cake… Oh wow, was it a sweet potato cake?!” he asked, after licking around his mouth. He was even more annoyed now to ruin such an exciting dessert.

“It’s alright, my dear, you didn’t ruin the whole thing. There are still parts where you didn’t… sneeze on.” Yoo Joonghyuk started laughing again after seeing the cake he spent hours carefully decorating now having a face shaped dent on top of it. “Plus, I can always bake another one. Don’t worry about it.”

Kim Dokja was still visibly sad. Well, as visible as it was underneath all that pastry. Yoo Joonghyuk briefly left him to get some paper towel to wipe off the bigger bits, held his hand, pulled him up and told him.

“Now come, let’s clean you up and fill your stomach before the food gets even colder.”

Later that night, both Kim Dokja and Yoo Joonghyuk were in their bed. The shorter man was already knocked out, sleeping silently next to the taller man who was on his phone, revisiting the video he took. He would have felt a bit sad for the ruined cake, if only it hadn’t resulted in such a ridiculous event. Throughout the whole night, Yoo Joonghyuk kept laughing silently whenever that image of Kim Dokja’s face appeared in his mind again, which only resulted in the latter man pouting with a hint of a smile.

They had decided to go to bed early after they cleaned up the kitchen since Kim Dokja had to work tomorrow and he needed all the rest possible. And to no one’s surprise, he fell asleep the second his head hit the bed. Although at first he did not feel sleepy, Yoo Joonghyuk could feel the exhaustion creeping up in him as well, slightly making his actions sluggish. Before he called it a day, he wanted to post some photos from today on Instagram. With a blurry vision he changed his account as he had two: one was his professional account which was mainly managed by Lee Jihye, following fellow gamers and different sponsors; and his private account which he followed Kim Dokja and their friends. Although he wasn’t super active on his private account, Yoo Joonghyuk enjoyed seeing what people around him were up to every now and then. He quickly cropped the video he took so that it would only have the last 10 seconds of it where Kim Dokja sneezed at the end of his photos and posted it on his account with a caption that said “happiest birthday, my lovely squid!” and with that, he cuddled the man lying peacefully next to him and succumbed to sleep.

It was past midnight and Lee Jihye had just finished playing the new indie game she was recommended by one of her trusted subscribers and was now chatting with the viewers when her phone buzzed with a notification. She ignored it as usual, it was her principal rule to never check her phone while streaming. If her viewers wanted her to check something, they could just send the link through the chatbox. Speaking of her chatbox, it became dead silent for a couple seconds until it was bombarded with all sorts of messages.

“Chat, what is going o-” Lee Jihye started, until a message caught her eye.

admiral-nim, yoo joonghyuk just posted on his ig!!!

Yoo Joonghyuk? Posted on his Instagram?? What the hell?! What is he doing without telling me at this hour??? She tried to hide her surprise though. Even though her subscribers knew she and him had some sort of an acquaintance, they were unaware of the fact that Lee Jihye was the one responsible for the majority of his social media accounts, foreseeing what was being posted on them since his managers didn’t really trust Yoo Joonghyuk’s taste and his temper with the captions or comments or messages. But to keep a certain image, the fact that she was the one managing them all was kept as a secret, and Lee Jihye was fine with it. It was only on Discord where she was publicly the main moderator of the server.

“Oh, Master-nim posted on his Insta? Isn’t he usually active there, though? Why are you all freaking out in the ch-” she stopped when everyone started saying all bunch of stuff, jumbled up ways, full of typos due to their excitement. The main message was the same, though.

Yoo Joonghyuk hard launched his boyfriend.

“YOO JOONGHYUK DID WHAT?!!” she screamed. Lee Jihye was so shocked that she had disregarded all the honorifics. She immediately stood up to find her phone and check the notification from 2 minutes ago, only to see that it was indeed an Instagram notification from Yoo Joonghyuk’s account. She sat back down on her chair, and immediately opened the post. She was met with a face that was not quite a stranger, but not so familiar either. She had seen this man a couple times during Yoo Joonghyuk’s ad campaigns and photoshoots, but she hadn’t paid him so much attention. To Lee Jihye, he looked like an average office worker with his different shades of grey suits and different coloured ties. She wanted to talk to him only once to introduce herself, but when she searched for this mystery guy, he had disappeared. Only by asking around out of sheer curiosity had she learned that the man was someone from Mino Soft. No one knew the exact reason why he was there, though, and everyone just assumed that it was probably job related. It was only Lee Jihye who was thinking there was probably something else and that it wasn’t just a fully professional work-related encounter, considering the amount of times she saw him and for how long. She had jokingly thought to herself how ridiculous it would be if the most bland looking guy ever was dating her mentor with the most otherworldly dashing looks. She didn’t even know if her mentor was swinging that way, and she did not care either.

Her chat was still flooded with messages, this time people asking who the guy was when she came across the video at the end of the post. The Mystery Guy was holding the cake with a serene expression, until everything went downhill and he sneezed into the cake, his face then full of icing and pieces of cake. She couldn’t help herself and started laughing loudly. The video ended with the guy looking above the camera with a shock written on his face. The clip was muted, so Lee Jihye did not know if it was because her master said something or simply due to the shock of that sneeze. Nevertheless, when she saw the final frame, her laugh became even louder. She checked the chat again, now slightly calmer.

“Oh, that was a good laugh. Poor man, though. His birthday cake got ruined. But that face was priceless.” she said smiling while reading the ongoing messages. There were a few people saying that they had been stalking her master and were able to identify who that man was months ago, giving out names and where he works. Some were even sending a LinkedIn profile as a proof. Seeing that, Lee Jihye’s expression turned sour. “Guys, ew, we absolutely do not condone or tolerate stalking and doxing here. You all do know that, right? I’m sorry, but that is an instant block from this channel.” And with that she blocked the stalker accounts. Whether or not this Mystery Guy was the poor guy - Kim Dokja, what a weird name - they found, she had a zero tolerance policy for this kind of behavior. She did not care if that would hurt her channel or image, her main goal with this profession was to curate a safe space for everyone.

After reading and answering some more messages, she bid her goodbye and turned her stream off. Most of the messages in the chatbox were about this mystery boyfriend, though. Lee Jihye tried to ignore them and kept talking about the game. Before she turned off her computer, she wanted to check the damage on the Discord server. The situation there wasn’t that different from her stream, except this time it was much bigger with the sheer amount of people online. She checked the main chat room, only to find this Kim Dokja name being used by everyone. When she scrolled up a bit, she saw the same LinkedIn profile being shared multiple times. Seeing those profiles still active, Lee Jihye was annoyed. It was Kim Namwoon’s turn to check the server. If he is not going to do his job properly, then why is he still a server mod?! she thought to herself right before she saw the corner of a picture. It was a poorly edited version of the last frame in the clip.

Oh no, Lee Jihye thought, they already meme-ified the guy. She immediately texted Kim Namwoon.

Kim Dokja overslept. He decided to ignore his alarm for 20 minutes since he did not want to peel himself off from the warmth of his boyfriend next to him. It was Yoo Joonghyuk that forced him out of bed to get ready. Technically, Yoo Joonghyuk had also overslept that morning as well. Not that he had a full-time job, it’s just that he would usually wake up earlier than Kim Dokja and prepare breakfast.

He caught the train to work at the last second after running half of the station. It’s criminal to make someone work the whole weekend and then expect them to start off the week like nothing happened, Kim Dokja thought to himself as he rode the train silently. He pulled out his phone and opened the new chapter of the crime web novel he started recently. It was a story interesting enough that even Yoo Joonghyuk was secretly interested in it whenever Kim Dokja would start explaining the recent findings and his own theories more than he would like to admit. He tried to mentally block out the noises of people talking around him and started reading.

When reached the office, Kim Dokja basically threw himself to his chair, relieved that he wasn’t late. He checked the time to see if he had a couple more minutes to go grab a coffee. Once he decided that he had, he quickly grabbed his card and went downstairs. While waiting for the elevator, he could hear people come and go behind him. They were also… giggling. But Kim Dokja didn’t think much of it, even though the amount of people was high enough to perk his ears up ever so slightly. When he took the elevator, there was only one more person in it, who just looked at Kim Dokja with a surprised expression and immediately occupied herself with her phone. The whole ride downstairs was quiet aside from the constant typing noise and a few of Kim Dokja’s yawns that he couldn’t keep silent. Whenever he yawned, though, the young woman would also giggle and keep typing on her phone.

There was a short line when he reached the small coffee shop located inside the building Mino Soft offices were also in. I can read some more while I wait, he thought to himself. When it was his turn, the barista looked him in the eye directly with a hint of amusement and took his order, a simple cafe latte. Kim Dokja’s head was still down, reading his book when he grabbed his order with a small thank you. There were still giggles all around him which was increasingly making him curious. He finished the new chapter with amazement, the cliffhanger with this one was spectacular. As he entered the office his desk was located, he typed a quick message to Han Sooyoung, recommending her to improve her own ones and sent her the link to the current web novel he was reading.

“...my gosh, I can totally see that. But still, a squid? How ridiculous!”

This suddenly made Kim Dokja lift his head and look around to see who was talking about… squids. There was a man and a woman, both slightly younger than Kim Dokja, three cubicles away and both were looking at his way. When they saw the man lift his head, they both flinched and immediately looked away. Weird, Kim Dokja thought, right before he grabbed his coffee cup, only to see a small drawing illustrated right next to his name. It was a poorly drawn octopus, or no, maybe a squid? What the hell?! was his last thought before she saw Yoo Sangah approach him with a gentle smile.

“Good morning, Kim Dokja. Do you have a minute..?”

When Yoo Mia entered her classroom, it was still early in the morning. Since there was still some time until her classes started, she decided to put her head on the table and nap for a bit. It wasn’t long after when she was being poked by both sides to be woken up. When she opened her eyes, she could see her two close friends Lee Gilyoung and Shin Yoosung looking at her with eyes filled with a mixture of excitement and curiosity.

“Good morni-” Yoo Mia started, only to be interrupted by her friends.

“Did you see what your brother posted on insta last night?” Shin Yoosung asked excitedly. With a drowsy mind, she shook her head to indicate no and opened her brother’s private account to see no new photos. She lifted her head to look at the girl in front of her with confusion. Behind her, Lee Gilyoung was shaking Yoo Mia’s shoulders until he saw the account and gasped. Shin Yoosung’s eyes went up to him, questioning.

“You already knew about his boyfriend?!” Lee Gilyoung exclaimed. To that, Shin Yoosung shrieked as her hands went up to hear mouth. Yoo Mia’s groggy mind was suddenly crystal clear as she locked her screen and turned up to him.

“What? What boyfriend? Anyway, how was your weekend?” she tried to deflect and change the topic.

“Mia-yah, since when did you know and why did you never mention it to us?” Shin Yoosung asked. “And don’t try to deny it. Literally all South Korea knows about it. It’s all over Naver.” she continued when she saw her friend attempting to act clueless. Without missing a beat, she turned her phone towards Yoo Mia to show her the post on his brother’s professional account. Behind her, Lee Gilyoung pulled out his phone and showed a low quality meme saved into his gallery, its subject a man’s face smeared with icing. She stared at both of the phone screens in front of her for a while.

“Hyung’s face is everywhere,” Lee Gilyoung said.

Yoo Mia was speechless for a moment before she suddenly stood up and told her friends that she had to call her older brother. She only had a couple minutes before the bell rang, so she had to be quick. Her call was ringing even before she stepped outside of the door. Behind her, she could hear Shin Yoosung questioning Lee Gilyoung, asking him since when they got acquainted enough to call him hyung. It took a couple seconds before Yoo Mia’s call was taken.

“Oppaa…..”

When Yoo Mia called him, he was resting his eyes on the bed. After he hurriedly prepared some food and sent Kim Dokja away to work, he kept his phone’s Do Not Disturb mode on since he wanted to rest some more. Maybe this rest had morphed into another sleeping session. The previous week had tired him more than he had anticipated. It was only because his phone was vibrating right next to his pillow that his sleep was shortlived as he took the call drowsily.

When the call ended in less than 3 minutes, he was wide awake. He sat on their bed, trying to grasp what he just heard from her younger sister. Once his mind felt back on its track, Yoo Joonghyuk turned off the Do Not Disturb mode, only to be flooded by hundreds of notifications, dozens of missed calls from his manager and countless messages from so many people - both familiar and strangers. With a mind foggy with sleep, he confused his Instagram accounts and posted his photos with Kim Dokja on his professional account, accidentally exposing his relationship. There was no denying it now either, since they were kissing in one of the photos. Shit… he thought to himself as he realised that it was too late for his team to do damage control.

Right at that moment, he received another call from his manager. For a second, he considered sending it to voicemail, but then decided otherwise.

“Hey, I know the situation. I need to hang up right now, though. Will call you in an hour. Talk to you later.” and with that, Yoo Joonghyuk did not allow for anything else to be said and hung up his boss’ call. He had to talk to Kim Dokja immediately, but texting or calling him would not be right. He had to see his boyfriend as soon as possible. Considering the quantity of the feedback he received in less than 10 hours, he was sure the media would be having a very close watch on his every move, and he did not want to put Kim Dokja in such a difficult position by being seen together. But the damage was done. This reality especially sunk in when he saw the simple text message from Lee Jihye that read:

Master-nim, I think you accidentally posted on the wrong account. Pretty much everyone knows Kim Dokja-nim now. Also, he became a viral meme overnight.

Yoo Joonghyuk was surprised at first when he read the name of his boyfriend. Lee Jihye was not involved with his personal life enough to know his name. However, his surprise left its place to pure shock when he saw the screenshot she sent him below that message. The screenshot contained multiple blog forums with thousands on their interaction counter, using the low quality version of Kim Dokja’s cake covered face. The top entry had over 100 thousand interactions, using the same photo, and the title read:

my reaction to my imaginary husband hard launching his boyfriend

Seeing that, Yoo Joonghyuk rushed to change into black jeans and a t-shirt, and immediately left the apartment without wasting any more time. Hoping the rush hour had died down by now, he took their car Kim Dokja never liked to use to go to work and started driving towards the Minosoft building. He really needed to see and talk to Kim Dokja as soon as possible.

It only took 15 minutes for Yoo Joonghyuk to reach the building, which was a record time. The roads were mostly empty at the time, unlike the entrance of the skyscraper Minosoft offices were located in. He could see so many press with big cameras and civilians with their phones out crowding the main entry door, demanding to enter or at least see Kim Dokja to get some statements out of him, only to be held back by the security. Not wanting to deal with them right now, Yoo Joonghyuk parked the car on the first empty spot he could find on the street and tried to look for a roundabout way to reach the door. As he was going to hold the handle of the door, a hand reached out to warn him.

“Hey, sir, civilians aren’t permitted to enter the build- Yoo Joonghyuk?” The security man was shocked to see him, left speechless. As his name was uttered loudly by the shorter man in front of him, the crowd behind Yoo Joonghyuk was silent for a brief second, only to shout even louder than before and more flashes of cameras could be heard. He could even hear some people screaming his name. Before wasting any more time, he cracked open the door to throw himself inside.

Yoo Joonghyuk took out his phone to message Kim Dokja as he headed to the escalator on the main floor to reach the elevators. He didn’t really know what he was doing or why he rushed to his boyfriend’s work. All he knew was that he should see Kim Dokja as soon as possible. Yoo Joonghyuk hoped that Kim Dokja hadn’t seen the news and wanted to let him know about it himself, but seeing how big the reaction was, his hopes were out of the window.

The second his text was sent to Kim Dokja to let him know about his arrival, Yoo Joonghyuk reached the upper floor. At the same time, he heard the elevators in front of him ding to signal that it reached to that floor.

“Yoo Joonghyuk?” he heard someone call his name with surprise. A voice he was more familiar than anything, a voice he was lucky enough to hear every single day. Kim Dokja had stopped on his way to go downstairs to stare at the man in front of him. Once that momentary surprise was washed away from his face, there was a mix of fatigue and annoyance left behind. Though it seemed like grasping that Yoo Joonghyuk was there sort of softened the sharp edges to this mix.

“Kim Dokja, I-” started Yoo Joonghyuk, only to be stopped with a flick on his forehead by the shorter man.

“You dumb sunfish bastard, what were you thinking posting that? Also, why are you here?” Kim Dokja’s whining had morphed into a tone of interrogation towards the end. Yoo Joonghyuk’s hand reached to caress Kim Dokja’s arm, his thumb slowly moving up and down in a manner of comforting him.

“I… I actually don’t know why I came here. As soon as I got the news, I felt like I needed to see you and tell you about it myself. In hindsight, it doesn’t really make sense. Apparently it blew up overnight. It was only natural for you to figure it out.”

“I hadn’t, but something was off.” Kim Dokja was now visibly more relaxed, his tight shoulders were now slouching ever so slightly. “And things were only getting weirder when Yoo Sangah-ssi pulled me to the side to let me know. I guess I looked too puzzled.”

To this, Yoo Joonghyuk acknowledged this situation with a hum before something dawned on him. “Wait, what were you doing coming downstairs?”

There were more people and whispers gathering around them but at that moment, it didn’t matter. Everything was out to the public anyway. Whatever damage control would just be a funny attempt of denial. Yoo Joonghyuk did not want his relationship with Kim Dokja to be exposed, not because of any backlash he might have received due to the gender of his partner or for the sake of so-called fanservice, but more so because he was a private person and he did not want to put Kim Dokja under such spotlight.

“Well… I was going to… I was going to give them a piece of my mind and tell them to scram. Not that it would work, but at least they would know that I am not planning on speaking about it. I just got promoted, I had to do something to show my bosses that this is out of my control.”

This was exactly the reason why Yoo Joonghyuk wanted to keep Kim Dokja hidden from this kind of attention. He really did not need to deal with this, he was stressed enough at work. Feeling guilty, he wrapped his arms around the shoulders of his whole world, and he pulled him close. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I will charm your bosses and let them know that it has nothing to do with you.” He could hear the whispers of people getting louder as well as the screams and flashes of cameras from outside. It was then Yoo Joonghyuk realised that where they were standing was visible to the gathering outside. Another mindless act, he thought to himself before Kim Dokja pulled himself away from his arms. Yoo Joonghyuk felt the cold where he was holding his star close to him just a second ago.

“You? Charm them?” Kim Dokja asked with an incredulous smirk on his face. “Since when your talking game is strong with others, Joonghyuk-ah?”

To that, Yoo Joonghyuk had no words. He wanted to be the hero for him, but Kim Dokja was right. The previous week was solid evidence to how he could barely survive socialising with people. Charming them? Especially the stuck up executives? That was a whole new level. It was very likely for him to ruin things even further, and they were both painfully aware of this.

“I guess I will talk to my manager to handle that, too.” Yoo Joonghyuk said defeatedly.

Kim Dokja lightly laughed before leaning the top of his head to Yoo Joonghyuk’s muscular chest. He sighed deeply and with a pout, he asked, “Why did you have to call me an ugly squid, though? People in the office now call me that, and the barista at the cafe attempted to draw one next to my name on my order. Honestly, she should practice drawing some more if she wants to have fun with people like that. That barely looked like a squid.”

A smile started to creep as a sense of relief lightly washed Yoo Joonghyuk over. His stupidity might have caused this mess, but Kim Dokja was strong. Maybe stronger than he was. He knew that this man leaning on him could deal with whatever came his way. He might stumble at first, but he would stand up as quickly for himself. He would later need to vent to someone (with lots of sass) and Yoo Joonghyuk was more than happy to be that person who welcomed everything that would come from this man whom he loved and cherished more than anything.

Feeling the love he felt for this man bloom more and more as he kept thinking about him, Yoo Joonghyuk laughed and hugged Kim Dokja again, tightly. Then, his hand reached Kim Dokja’s chin to lift his face. He looked deeply into his bright eyes before leaning in to kiss his lips lightly. Sighing, Yoo Joonghyuk told him, “Gosh, I love you.”

Other people can be damned, Yoo Joonghyuk thought to himself. He was aware that he had publicly kissed Kim Dokja, but this was old news now. And even if it wasn’t, that was fine, too. Nothing felt impossible when Kim Dokja was looking at him with such adoration.