Work Text:
There was content that needed to be recorded that day. Noah, Bamby, and Eunho arrived early in the afternoon, filmed a tiktok, then waited in the lobby for Yejun and Hamin. Noah said he had to go to the bathroom, so he left YaTaz to their devices and wandered off into the distance.
Eunho reclined on one of three couches, Bamby perched on its arm. He scrolled on his phone absentmindedly, legs crossed, head lolling. Bamby was fixing the straps on his gear and humming a tiktok audio. Eunho hopped between apps, bored. He preferred youtube to other forms of social media, but sometimes he got the urge to see what Twitter was up to, so he clicked on its icon.
Dog pictures, fan edits, K-pop charts, musicians he followed. There was only one post that stood out from the rest.
A drawing. Yejun holding Eunho in his arms, their faces flushed and inches apart. Eunho’s eyes were gigantic and sparkling. Yejun looked sultry. Eunho’s head was abnormally small, his height downsized, his frame slim. That didn’t even make sense. He was bigger than Yejun.
“Aiiish, this is…” He rubbed at his forehead, not sure if he should be impressed by the technical quality of the art, or unnerved at how this specific fan envisioned him.
“What is it?” Bamby asked, interest piqued. He peered over Eunho’s shoulder. Bamby saw the picture, then laughed. He laughed so hard his shoulders shook.
“No way,” he snorted. “Is this your feed?”
“I don't even know how it got through. I thought I blocked that stuff.”
“It’s not that bad though? The art is nice. It makes you look handsome,” Bamby said between fits of giggles. He took another look at it, guffawed, then slapped Eunho on the back a couple times.
“Ok, it’s not that funny, hyung,” Eunho glared at him, pushing him away. Bamby almost fell off the couch, too busy laughing to stay stable.
Noah, having left the bathroom a few seconds prior, approached them both. “What’s not funny?”
Eunho showed Noah his phone. Noah squinted. He got closer, nose almost touching the screen. He squinted some more. He reached for his glasses, then realized he was in his work clothes and didn’t possess them. He plucked the phone out of Eunho’s hand.
"Is that Yejun-ah and Eunho?" Noah asked, shocked.
Bamby, unable to speak due to him trying to catch his breath, shook his head yes. Noah stared at the picture more, eyes straining in what may or may not have been an attempt at analyzing every line, color, and shape of the drawing.
He held a hand to his chest. "I didn't know this was happening," he said with seriosity.
Bamby's laughing came to an abrupt stop. He wiped a few tears from the corners of his eyes, then he stared at Noah, perplexed. Eunho stared with him.
"Didn't know what was happening?"
Noah pointed at Eunho. "You and Yejun. The Plli. Pairing you two together," he strung together loosely, like the weight of the information was too much for his brain to handle.
"It's been happening," Bamby laughed.
"All of us get paired together, hyung. It's called shipping."
"I know what shipping is," Noah snapped. He actually hadn't until just now, but he wasn't going to be caught being out of the loop. Eunho raised an eyebrow.
Eunho pointed to his phone. "Scroll through this page, you'll see more Puppiez stuff. Don't click on any posts. Also, don't tell me if there's anything weird, I don't wanna know."
Noah obliged, thumb scrolling down as he chewed on a fingernail. Images flashed by, some detailed and some not, some posts consisting of just words, others with gifs. Noah stopped when he scrolled past a drawing of Eunho in a collar with Yejun holding onto the leash, deciding he had seen enough.
His outlook on the world had been altered ever so slightly.
"Wow, but—Yejun-ah and Eunho..." Noah repeated, hand running down his ponytail. He stared into the distance, eyes glossed over in contemplation. "I can't see it."
There was a pause, then Eunho cackled. "Yeah, well, of course you can't see it. You know us. You know we're not dating," he said matter-of-factly, leaning over the couch, beckoning for his phone back.
"Mmm, yeah, except," Noah dropped the phone into Eunho's palm, "I can totally picture Hamin and Bamby together."
Bamby squawked.
"What does Dance-line have to do with anything?!" He jumped up from the couch. Eunho was frowning behind him. Noah didn't seem to understand what he had said wrong.
"Of all the pairings Plli talk about, Bamby and Hamin make the most sense," He nodded as if his explanation was logical and sound.
"Really, how can you say such things, Noah-hyung?!" Bamby hissed, cheeks pink. He hit Noah on the arm. Once. Twice. Noah looked down at him, confused.
"I'm being for real though? You two are, like, unnaturally physical with each other," Noah said.
"It's not unnatural," Bamby retorted while Eunho commented, "I'm physical with Bamby-hyung too."
Noah peered at Eunho. Eunho shrunk into the cushions.
Noah popped his hip, raised an eyebrow, then asked Bamby, "Didn't you twerk for him once?"
"That was just choreo."
"He's always grabbing your waist," Noah added.
"He's friendly."
"I grab Bamby's waist too," Eunho muttered, loud enough to hear. They ignored him.
"The night at the sauna..."
"We don't talk about that!" Bamby outcried. "Plli don't know about that!"
Eunho perked up. "Wait, what happened at the sauna?"
Noah sighed. "I'm not saying you guys are dating, I'm just saying you act like a couple."
Bamby burned with embarrassment. He only liked Hamin as a friend. Sure, he could be a bit overboard with the aegyo, and occasionally Hamin could be a little heavy handed with his flirting, but that didn't mean that they were actually dating—that they were actually gay. Bamby is gay, but that wasn't the point. And for all of this to be pointed out, not by the fans, but by his own hyung?
"I can't believe you're saying that when you and Hamin act even worse," Bamby frowned at Noah. Noah reeled back, affronted.
"Me and that punk?" Noah was aghast. "Me and that—that—"
"What's going on here?" a voice questioned from the entryway. Yejun stood at the door, leaning into the trio's conversation. Hamin was a few steps behind him.
Bamby gestured between Hamin and Noah. "You guys know each other's ticklish spots. That's kind of weird—yah, Yejun-hyung, isn't that weird?"
"Excuse me?" Hamin half-smiled, baffled but amused. Yejun was too shocked to speak. Yejun looked to Eunho for an answer. Eunho thought back to the fanart and suddenly couldn't look Yejun in the eye.
"We're explaining shipping to Noah," Eunho said to Yejun's shoe.
"I know what shipping is!" Noah snapped, then he turned to Hamin. "This kid thinks we're gay."
"We kind of are, hyung."
"Not as gay as you and him!"
Hamin pursed his lips. "I dunno, hyung. Last week we got shirtless and showed each other our bodies."
"Whos side are you on?!" Noah whined. Hamin said he was on nobody's side, and that he had just arrived, and that he was confused. Yejun took a seat on the couch, weary. He had a feeling Noah was going to say something crazy, so he braced himself.
"But surely I'm much gayer with Yejun than with you."
Yejun groaned, his face falling into his hands.
"Yeah," Eunho said. "Nobody's denying that. You guys got married."
"Fake married!" Yejun butted in. He didn’t believe he was gayer than Hamin. The thought offended him. He was gay, but not that gay.
Yejun and Noah had been acquainted for many years; they both acted overly fond, and Noah knew that their relationship could come off as eccentric from time to time. But did fans really see them as more than best friends? "Wait, so Plli ship us too?" Noah tested out the word for the first time.
No one had the heart to tell him that he and Yejun were one of the most talked about pairings. That if he still had Eunho’s phone and had kept scrolling he would’ve eventually stumbled upon a trove of “YeNoYe” content. Noah scanned all the faces in the room. Their silence spoke volumes.
Noah gulped. "Bamby and Yejun too?"
"Very much so, yes," Yejun blushed bashfully.
"I was grinding on him during the Seoul concert," Bamby shrugged, "It kind of makes sense."
"Eunho and Haminie?"
"I think so. I'm not shy with hyung at all—Plli know I think he's cute."
"Haminie and Jun-ah?"
Had Noah not been paying attention during the peak of the Yeline era, when it was all serenades and heavy eye contact? Yejun nodded slowly.
"Me and Bamby?"
Eunho rolled his eyes. "Of course."
"We have a song where we kiss, hyung. I said I wanted to connect your moles with a marker. You're always trying to touch my pecs."
Noah nodded through Bamby’s list as if he was recounting the weather and not a series of extremely homoerotic events.
"But to ship us together just because we act a super friendly sometimes—"
Hamin smirked. "Wait until you see the fanarts of you and Eunho."
Noah's face turned a sickly shade of pale.
A staff member walked out from the next room over, schedule in hand. He told them they’d be starting in 20 minutes, then he left. It was hard to tell if he had overheard their intimate conversation.
Yejun got up, delighted that they now had a distraction, relieved that this discussion could finally be put to rest. He started walking, Noah following soon after, Bamby and Hamin at their coattails.
Eunho trailed behind them all, hands in his pockets, upset and thinking.
He mused, "Why has nobody mentioned Bamby and Eunho shipping?"
The response was simple. "Because everybody knows you're dating,” Noah said.
"We're like, super freaking obvious. You've called me honey on cam—twice,” Bamby reminded Eunho, hand reaching out to interlock their fingers.
"Oh."
Yejun huffed, "You two are the most popular pair anyways, why would we bring it up? Everyone already talks about you."
"Yeah, stop being greedy, hyungs.”
"I think the fans should focus more on Hamin and I,” Noah said to no one.
"I thought you said you two weren't gay?"
"I never said that."
Bamby opened his mouth, rebuttal on the tip of his tongue.
"I think we should all get to work," Yejun tried to interrupt, urgency clear in his voice.
Noah ignored him, “What about a throuple?” he wondered, “Like, do Plli ship any of us as a throuple? I could see myself being with both Yejun and Hamin.”
Hamin sighed, tired. “Some of them like all five of us together.”
“At once?”
“At once.”
Noah’s jaw dropped.