Work Text:
The email from management had arrived on a Tuesday, which Hongjoong had always considered a cursed day of the week. The subject line read: Mandatory Sensitivity & Professional Conduct Training – All Members. The body of the email was three paragraphs of HR language that amounted to: we have seen the fancams, and we have concerns.
He had spent the following forty-eight hours trying to figure out how to present a PowerPoint about sexual harassment to seven men who had, collectively, spent the last several years treating personal space as a fun suggestion. He had not come up with a satisfying answer. He had made the PowerPoint anyway.
The meeting room smelled like the coffee Yunho had brought and the protein bar Mingi was eating directly in front of the no food sign. Hongjoong had decided not to fight that battle.
"Is this about the kissing?" Wooyoung asked, settling into his chair with the energy of someone who had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about and was simply curious.
"It is about several things," Hongjoong said.
"It's definitely about the kissing," Seonghwa said, from the chair closest to the window. He sounded amused. He should not have sounded amused. Hongjoong was going to address that later.
San was sitting next to Yeosang, which Hongjoong had tried to prevent by arranging the seating chart in his head on the way here and then forgetting to actually execute it. San was sitting very close to Yeosang. Yeosang appeared to be watching the blank projection screen with the still, patient expression of someone who had decided to give this their full attention and was reserving judgment until it became necessary.
Mingi had finished the protein bar and was now looking at the projected title slide – Workplace Conduct and Professional Boundaries: A Refresher – with the expression of a man encountering a mildly interesting art installation.
"Professional boundaries," Jongho said, reading it aloud. He said nothing else. He appeared to be filing the phrase somewhere.
"Right," Hongjoong said, clicking to the first slide. "So. Management has asked us to go through this together. There are four situations. We're going to look at photos, official photos, content we released, and we are going to identify what the professional concern is. And then we are going to not do those things anymore."
"Official content," Yunho repeated, and his voice had already taken on a quality Hongjoong recognized as incoming amusement that Yunho was still technically suppressing.
"Official content," Hongjoong confirmed. "Which is important. Because this is only what we let people see."
There was a small silence.
"Okay," Wooyoung said, in a tone that meant he was already having fun.
Hongjoong clicked to Situation 1.
***
The photo was from a fan meeting. It was, objectively, very clear.
San and Wooyoung had Yeosang bracketed between them with the coordinated efficiency of two people who had done this enough times to have developed a system. Wooyoung had him by the shoulder. San was already mid-motion. Yeosang's expression was the expression of a man who had been ambushed and had not yet decided whether to fight or simply wait for it to be over.
"Situation 1," Hongjoong said. "What is the professional concern?"
Silence.
"Anyone," Hongjoong said.
"Yeosang is cute," San said.
Hongjoong closed his eyes for one full second. "That is not the answer."
"I mean, look at him." San gestured at the screen with the open sincerity of a man making an argument he considered airtight. "He's right there. What was I supposed to do."
"Not kiss him without warning him first," Hongjoong said, "is the answer management was looking for."
"He didn't look that upset," Wooyoung offered.
"I was a little upset," Yeosang said mildly.
Mingi, who had been studying the photo with his arms crossed and the focused expression he usually reserved for understanding complicated choreography, said: "So San is the one kissing him without asking, and Wooyoung is the one holding him in place so he can't leave."
"That's a little reductive," Wooyoung said.
"That's what's in the photo," Mingi said.
"I am noting," Hongjoong said, writing nothing down because he did not need to write it down, "that we have identified the concern. Physical contact without consent. Good. Moving on."
"Yeosang is mine, by the way," San added, to no one in particular, before Hongjoong could click away.
"That is also not a professional standard we recognize," Hongjoong said, and moved to Situation 2.
***
This one was from a variety segment. Jongho, in the photo, had the look of a man who was re-evaluating his life decisions in real time. San was beside him, tilted at an angle that made his intentions completely legible.
"Situation 2," Hongjoong said.
Jongho looked at the screen. Looked at San. Looked at the screen again.
"The concern," Seonghwa said, with the careful neutrality of a man who was absolutely laughing internally, "appears to be the same general category as Situation 1. Attempted physical contact without confirmed consent."
"Jongho didn't look like he wanted it," Mingi said.
"I did not want it," Jongho confirmed pleasantly.
"And yet," Mingi said. He turned to San with the air of a scientist observing a recurring phenomenon. "San. This is the second photo. Both photos feature you, attempting to kiss someone who has not asked to be kissed."
"Jongho has a very kissable face," San said, with the dignity of a man who had given this genuine thought.
"That is not a defense," Hongjoong said.
"I'm not defending myself. I'm explaining my reasoning."
"There is no version of that reasoning that helps you here."
Wooyoung was grinning. Seonghwa had placed one hand over his mouth, which meant he was also grinning and had made the calculation that plausible deniability was worth the effort. Yunho was looking at the ceiling.
Yeosang examined the photo briefly, then looked back at the screen with an expression suggesting he considered this situation significantly more manageable than Situation 1.
"Can we agree," Hongjoong said, "that the concern is: San, stop doing this."
"That's not the official phrasing," Mingi said.
"Paraphrasing. Moving on."
***
Hongjoong had been dreading Situation 3.
The photo was also official content. This had seemed like a good idea to someone at the time. In the photo, Yeosang's t-shirt was approximately forty percent of the way off his body. San had the hem. Jongho had the other side. Yeosang had both arms up in the posture of a man who had either surrendered entirely or was waiting with great patience for this to end.
The room went very quiet.
Then Mingi said, slowly and with great deliberateness: "San."
"Yes," San said.
"That's you again."
"Yes."
"Removing Yeosang's shirt."
"He has a very nice... "
"San."
San closed his mouth.
"Jongho also," Mingi continued, swiveling slightly, "is in this photo."
"I was helping," Jongho said, and then appeared to hear himself. "That came out wrong."
Wooyoung had both hands over his face. This was not distress. Hongjoong knew what distress looked like on Wooyoung, and this was not it. His shoulders were shaking.
Seonghwa had stopped pretending to be neutral. He was watching the proceedings with the open, slightly delighted expression of a man at a very good play.
Yunho said, "I'm just going to say, for the record, that I am not in any of these photos."
"Very helpful," Hongjoong said.
"I thought so."
Mingi turned back to the screen, studied it for another moment, and then said, in the tone of someone delivering a verdict: "Yeosang is s frequent subject. San is the recurring offender. And Wooyoung and Jongho," he added, without turning around, "held him in place. The group has a pattern."
"I object to pattern," Wooyoung said.
"The photos are the pattern," Mingi said.
"Yeosang is mine," San said. It was quieter this time. Almost tender.
"Yeosang," Hongjoong said carefully, "is a person who has the right to have his t-shirt remain on his body."
"He was very comfortable," San said. "You could see it on his face."
Everyone looked at the photo again. Yeosang's face in the photo was a masterpiece of carefully maintained blankness.
"Sure," Hongjoong said, and clicked to Situation 4.
***
There was a brief moment, between Hongjoong advancing the slide and the image loading, where the room was quiet and he thought: maybe this one will be fine. Maybe this one will be straightforward.
The image loaded.
It was from a live broadcast. Wooyoung had been moving quickly, reaching for something behind Yunho that had been just out of frame, and the angle and the momentum had conspired against him in a way that was, in the photo, completely unambiguous. Yunho's expression was frozen in a specific register Hongjoong had no precise word for, somewhere between having not yet processed the situation and sincerely hoping the camera had not caught it.
The camera had caught it.
Off to the side of the frame, partially visible, was Yeosang. His expression was extraordinary. It was the expression of a man watching the best thing that had happened to him all week.
Yunho looked at the screen for a long moment. Then he looked at Wooyoung.
"It was an accident," Wooyoung said immediately.
"I know it was an accident," Yunho said, in the tone of someone who had made peace with something by force of will.
"I was reaching for... "
"I know, Wooyoung."
"You're in the photo," Mingi pointed out to Wooyoung. "Second time. You're really building a résumé here."
"I don't want the résumé."
"Too late."
Seonghwa was laughing properly now, quietly, in the way he laughed when he had decided the situation was genuinely too good to manage. Hongjoong looked at him. Seonghwa looked back with an expression that said: I am not sorry, and also you knew this was going to happen.
Hongjoong had known this was going to happen.
"The professional concern here," he said, pressing forward because there was no other direction, "is... "
"Oh, this one's actually an accident," Yunho said, with some urgency. "This is different from the others. The others were choices."
"The professional concern," Hongjoong continued, "is unintentional contact and how we handle the aftermath. Which includes... " he looked at the screen, at Yeosang's visible expression of profound personal entertainment, "...not enjoying it when it happens to someone else."
Everyone looked at Yeosang.
Yeosang looked at the photo. Looked at his own face in the photo.
"I wasn't involved," he said.
"You look like you're watching a sporting event you bet on," Hongjoong said.
Yeosang appeared to consider this characterization. He did not dispute it.
Wooyoung, who had spent the last two minutes looking at his own photo with a pensive expression, said: "For what it's worth, this one was genuinely not on purpose."
"Situation 1 was also partly you," Mingi said, without inflection.
"That's different."
"You held him in place."
"I was... " Wooyoung stopped. He looked at the ceiling. "Okay."
"The least problematic person in this presentation," Mingi said, turning to survey the room with the gravity of a man about to present an award, "is Seonghwa-hyung. Who is not in any photo."
Seonghwa accepted this with complete composure, as if it were simply his due. Hongjoong thought Seonghwa was lucky. Lucky specifically that Hongjoong had assembled this PowerPoint himself, and that the several incidents involving Seonghwa and Hongjoong's personal space had not, for editorial reasons, made the final cut.
"San is the most problematic," Mingi added.
"I prefer," San said, with dignity, "'most expressive of affection.'"
"That's not what the HR department will call it," Mingi said.
***
Hongjoong clicked to the final slide, which was titled Key Takeaways, and which he had written at two in the morning with the grim determination of a man who wanted this to mean something.
"Okay," he said. "Takeaways."
The members looked at him with varying degrees of attentiveness. Jongho was actually paying attention, which Hongjoong appreciated. Seonghwa had composed himself back to something resembling neutrality. Yunho had his arms crossed and the expression of a man who had been through something and was processing it privately. Wooyoung was paying attention. San was looking at Yeosang. Yeosang was looking at the projection screen with the quiet, attentive expression of someone giving a situation the consideration it was due and reaching no particular conclusion. Mingi had produced a second protein bar from somewhere.
"First," Hongjoong said. "Consent before physical contact. This includes kissing, grabbing, holding in place, and removing clothing. Any clothing. This should not require explanation but apparently it does."
"Noted," San said.
"Second. 'He didn't stop me' is not the same as 'he said yes.' Those are different things. Learn the difference."
San glanced at Yeosang. Yeosang did not look at him.
"Third. What we release as official content is held to the same standard as everything else. The fact that something made it through editing does not mean it was appropriate."
"It means our Atiny are a little... " Wooyoung started.
"Yes," Hongjoong said.
"And the editors know it," Yunho added.
"Yes," Hongjoong said. "We're not here about them."
"We're all complicit," Seonghwa said pleasantly.
"Moving on," Hongjoong said. "Fourth. If you are in a situation and you are not sure whether it's appropriate, ask yourself: would I want to explain this to Mingi afterward."
Mingi looked up from the protein bar. "Why me?"
"Because you've been building a prosecution case for the last forty minutes and you've been right every time."
Mingi considered this. "Okay," he said. "That's fair."
"Any questions," Hongjoong said, in the tone of a man who had not actually meant it as an invitation.
There was a brief silence.
Mingi raised his hand.
Hongjoong looked at it. "Yes, Mingi."
"What if we're dating."
"That's not – what?"
"What if two members are dating," Mingi said, with the patience of someone who considered this an entirely reasonable clarification to request. "Does the policy apply differently? Because consent is presumably established at the start of the relationship, so– "
"That is not how consent works," Hongjoong said.
"I'm not sure that's true," Seonghwa said.
Hongjoong looked at him. Seonghwa looked back with the expression of a man who had opinions on the matter and felt they deserved an airing.
"Consent is contextual," Seonghwa continued pleasantly. "It would be reasonable to argue that an established relationship changes the dynamic. Mingi's question is actually quite pertinent."
"It is not pertinent," Hongjoong said. "It is a hypothetical question designed to– "
"Are any of us dating," Yunho asked, with the mild curiosity of someone checking whether he had missed a memo.
"No," Hongjoong said.
"Allegedly," Wooyoung said.
"We are moving on," Hongjoong said. "Other questions."
San raised his hand.
Hongjoong had known this was coming. He had known from the moment San had sat down and said almost nothing for an entire hour that the nothing was temporary.
"San."
"What if," San said, with the focused calm of a man presenting a proposal he had thought through carefully, "I ask beforehand. Backstage. Before the event. And we agree on a sign. So if at any point he wants me to stop, he does the sign, and I stop immediately."
The room was quiet.
"That is…" Hongjoong started.
"Who," Mingi said. "Who is the 'he' in this scenario."
San said nothing. The answer was evident to everyone in the room.
Yeosang, who had been looking at the projection screen with consistent attentiveness for the past hour, took out his phone.
"Yeosang," Hongjoong said, because he felt someone had to. "Do you have a sign."
Yeosang appeared to be reading something on his phone. He did not look up.
"He's not answering," Wooyoung observed, delighted.
"That's basically a yes," Yunho said.
"It is not basically a yes," Hongjoong said. "It is a non-answer, which is different from– "
"Other questions," Jongho said, raising his hand with the composure of a man who had been waiting to contribute something useful. Everyone looked at him. "If a member initiates contact and the other member doesn't object but also doesn't confirm, what's the protocol for documenting that for future reference?"
There was a long pause.
"That," Seonghwa said, "is the most reasonable question anyone has asked today."
"I know," Jongho said.
"There is no documentation protocol," Hongjoong said, with the strained precision of a man reading from a script that had not anticipated this conversation. "The protocol is: ask. In the moment. Out loud. Every time."
"Every time seems like a lot," Wooyoung said.
"Every time," Hongjoong repeated.
"What if the moment is very fast," Wooyoung said. "What if there's no time to... "
"Then you don't do it," Hongjoong said. "That is the answer. If there is no time to ask, there is no time to do it. Wooyoung, I say this with full awareness of the irony given Situation 4."
"Situation 4 was an accident," Wooyoung said, for the second time, with somewhat less confidence than the first.
"Other questions," Hongjoong said through gritted teeth.
No one raised their hand. Hongjoong waited four full seconds, which was long enough to be sure and short enough not to invite further thought.
Hongjoong looked out at them, this collection of people who were, against all available evidence, his responsibility, and felt the specific exhaustion of a man who had done his best with limited materials.
"That's it," he said. "We're done."
Chairs shifted. Jongho stood, said something quiet to Yeosang, and headed for the door. Mingi folded the protein bar wrapper with unexpected care and pocketed it. San leaned over and said something to Yunho, who responded with two words and then stood up.
Hongjoong was closing his laptop when Wooyoung kissed him on the cheek, with the casual energy of someone saying goodbye to a family member at the airport. Hongjoong stood very still. Wooyoung was already at the door.
Next year, he decided, someone else was running the training.