Work Text:
Taehyung blames boredom. If he wasn't bored, he wouldn't start scrolling through dancejhope's Instagram feed. And the Most Embarrassing Thing Ever would've never happened. At least that's what he says. Jimin thinks he was being a bit of a drama queen (but that's just normal because "you're a drama queen all the time, Tae". "And you love that, Jiminie").
The Most Embarrassing Thing Ever incident happened on a lazy Saturday afternoon. Taehyung was laying on the couch of the apartment he shares with Jimin, that was sitting on the other couch reading a book. Neither of them had nothing to do or nowhere to be, pure boredom. There were dishes to be cleaned in the kitchen sink and neither of them had done the laundry, but still there was nothing fun to do, pure boredom. After getting tired of playing Crossy Road on his phone, Taehyung opened his Instagram and started going through the photos of his favorite YouTuber's account. He found the YouTube channel Hope On The Street almost a year ago. Hoseok, better known as J-Hope, posts videos of dance covers, some choreographies he created himself and random videos about random stuff, like those youtuber tags, q&a's and even a couple of videos of him rapping ("He raps, Jiminie. My favorite youtuber is also a rapper, Jiminie! Today is the happiest day of my life!". "You said that when a dog licked your hand yesterday"). Taehyung wishes he had the courage to do the same. He was an extrovert and a really friendly person, he also loves taking selcas and posting them (even though most of his selcas are blurred or from weird angles). But when Jimin suggested that he should post a video singing a cover of a song, Taehyung found out that he could get camera shy. Sometimes he records himself singing, usually songs from Disney movies or anime soundtracks, and posts on Instagram and on Tumblr, but never showing his face while singing. He’s been always really shy when it comes to that. It doesn't matter how many times people say he's good at singing, he was self-conscious. And posting videos of himself singing on the internet where everyone could see? No, thanks.
Jimin likes to tease Taehyung about Hoseok, saying that his friend has a crush on the dancer. Taehyung always denied that. He just likes watching his videos and seeing his photos and reading his tweets, because Hoseok is a nice guy, with a bright personality and a cute smile and a pretty face and a really hot body and... Ok, Taehyung, focus. It's not a crush. He was going through Hoseok's Instagram photos and smiling at his selcas in a completely platonic way. There was one selca that he specifically likes, Hoseok was wearing a backward snapback and you could see his forehead, he was biting his bottom lip, and what were those arms and his neck was just ugh and... Taehyung accidentally double tapped the picture. He liked the picture. That was posted ten months ago. Shit. He didn’t know how to react to that and, in panic, he threw his phone to the other couch, where Jimin was sitting.
"What was that?", Jimin asked, looking at the phone that landed right next to his leg.
"Oh my God, I hate my life", Taehyung's voice was muffled by the cushion he was holding against his face. If he was trying to hide his embarrassment or to suffocate himself to death, Jimin couldn't tell.
"What happened?".
"This is so embarrassing, I wanna die".
"Taetae, put this cushion away, I can't understand you. What happened?".
"I was seeing some photos on J-Hope's Instagram", Taehyung said, looking at Jimin and ignoring his eye rolling, "and I accidentally liked his selca".
"What do you mean? Don't you like literally every single photo he posts?".
"Yeah but this photo...", Taehyung's voice lowered and Jimin didn't listen to the end of the sentence.
"What?".
"He posted that selca ten months ago, that was before I even started following him on Instagram", and then he put the cushion on his face again and screamed.
"Don't tell me you were stalking him again".
"I wasn't!", Taehyung almost yelled.
"Then what the hell were you doing seeing a photo that was posted ten months ago?".
"I'm bored. And I like seeing his photos. And... Okay, maybe I was stalking. But the point of stalking people on social media is not letting people know you're stalking them. Oh my God, what if he sees the notification and thinks I'm some sort of creepy stalker and..."
"You sort of are".
"Shut up, Jimin. My life is ruined".
"You're overreacting, Taetae. He has a lot of followers, he must get Instagram notifications all the time. I'm pretty sure he won't even see your..."
Jimin's voice was interrupted by the beep of Taehyung's phone. A new notification.
"Holy shit", Taehyung whispered, looking at the phone as if it was about to explode.
His phone beeped again three times.
Taehyung looked at Jimin with wide eyes, but he just laughed and took the phone.
"Chill, Tae, I'm sure it's nothing".
"How can you be so sure? Wait. How do you know my phone's password?"
"I know everything about you", Jimin answered, his eyes not leaving Taehyung's phone, "your phone password. Your Facebook password. Your dog's birthday, which is your Facebook password, that's not really smart. The name of the guy who was your first kiss. The day your PMS starts every month".
"Shut up".
Taehyung was going to say something else, but Jimin mouthed a "wow" and looked at him with a surprised expression.
"What happened?".
He handed Taehyung his phone. His Instagram's notifications were open.
dancejhope liked your photo.
dancejhope liked your photo.
dancejhope liked your video.
dancejhope started following you.
Taehyung is pretty sure he blacked out for a second.
And that's how The Most Embarrassing Thing Ever became The Happiest Day of Taehyung's Life.
The photos Hoseok liked were selcas he posted the week before, one was blurred and on the other he was winking at the camera. And the video was twenty-five seconds of him singing the opening of his favorite anime.
"Jiminie, I'm literally crying right now".
"No, you're not. Why do you always say that you're literally crying when you're literally not crying? It's like when you say 'I literally choked on my coffee', you don't even drink coffee".
"It's metaphorical. And you're ruining the moment. In the future, when I remember this, I don't want my memories to be ruined by your blabbering".
"I can't believe you just say that".
"Well, I..."
But another phone notification interrupted Taehyung. He unlocked the screen faster than ever before and screamed when he saw what the notification was about.
"He left a comment. Jiminie, he left a comment! I can't believe all the embarrassment in my life led me to this. I'm so..."
"What did he say?", Jimin interrupted with an annoyed tone, but he was actually very amused by this situation.
"I haven't read it yet, wait. He left the comment on my video. He said... Holy shit. He said 'really liked your voice, you should sing more'. Oh my God. Oh! My! God!"
"Oh no", Jimin knew his best friend for long enough to know he was about to explode.
"Today is the most beautiful day of my life!", Taehyung was hugging a cushion and almost jumping on the couch. "Write his comment on my gravestone because I am dead".
"Ok, you're not dead, just like you weren't literally crying. Stop with all this drama", Jimin was trying to sound irritated, but he was having a hard time containing his smile. He liked when his friend was happy.
"Jiminie, Hoseok-hyung knows I exist. He said he likes my voice!"
"Hyung? What? You don't even know him and you call him hyung? You don't call me that?"
"You're two months older than me, Jiminie, stop with that, it's not gonna happen".
Jimin rolled his eyes at that. He got up, leaving his book on the couch and heading to the kitchen. “I’m kinda hungry. But none of our lazy asses remembered to do grocery shopping this week”.
“We should order pizza!”
“It’s four in the afternoon. Who eats pizza at four in the afternoon?”
“Pizza!”
Later that night, Taehyung was alone in his room watching anime on his laptop. He had just finished the third episode in a row, when he heard the notification beep on his phone. He usually ignores the phone when watching anime, but after what happened earlier he opened every notification in the speed of light. His heart almost stopped when he saw the Tumblr notification with a “dancejhope started following you” . He opened the internet browser and had to type three times before writing “tumblr” right, he was so excited his hands were shaking. He opened the activity tab and there it was. “dancejhope started following you” .
“Holy shit”, he muttered in shock.
For a second he thought “how the hell does he know about my Tumblr?”, until he remembered there was a link to it in on his Instagram bio. He was happy that there was nothing embarrassing on his Tumblr. He only reblogs gifs of cute animals, photography, funny text posts, music and those astrology posts because, even though he says he doesn’t believe in this sort of thing, those posts are always right. He makes his own posts too, when he takes a picture he really likes or short videos of him singing (there’s this really sweet user, jkookie97, that always sends messages to him saying he’s good at singing. Taehyung only posts those videos on Tumblr because of him).
What he wanted now, more than anything, was to send Hoseok a message. Ever since he found out the youtube channel, Taehyung has been leaving comments, on both YouTube and Instagram, but none of them were answered. But, now that he’s following Taehyung on Tumblr, if he sends an ask, Hoseok wouldn’t ignore him, right?
Taehyung took deep breathes and opened the ask box of Hoseok’s Tumblr blog. He thought an ask would be better than a chat message, that looked too personal for him. He kept staring at the ask box for a whole minute, not really sure of what he should write.
Then he just typed: “hey! i’m taehyung. i’m a huge fan and i love you”...
Your ask has been sent. He had accidentally sent the message.
“What?”, he shrieked. “No! No no no!”
He refreshed the page and started typing another message.
“i love your videos. thats what i meant. i accidentally sent the previous ask without finishing writing it. i meant i love your videos i always watch them. you’re great. yeah, bye”.
And then he pressed “ask” before he could do anything even more embarrassing.
He kept scrolling through Tumblr, reblogging a couple of posts, while waiting for an answer. It came faster than he expected. When he saw the “1” on the message icon, he clicked on it twice, wishing the page could open faster. Hoseok answered privately the second ask he sent (the right one).
“Hello, Taehyung. I’m glad you’re a fan. I have that channel for almost two years but I'm always a little surprised when people say they like my videos. But thank you. That means a lot”.
Taehyung's smile was wider than ever. He opened his ask box again and started typing a new message, being really careful not to send it again before it was finished.
“you shouldn't be surprised about that. your videos are great, you're a really good dancer. and i think it's really brave of you not to be afraid of doing something you really like in front of a lot of people”.
Really happy for not doing anything embarrassing this time, he sent this message.
He didn’t have to wait long for the reply. But for his surprise, it wasn’t on the inbox icon that the “1” appeared, but on the chat icon. Hoseok had sent him a message on the tumblr chat. Taehyung almost couldn’t contain his scream.
dancejhope
hey, i thought this was better than sending asks
anyway, thank you
yeah, in the beginning i was a little afraid of posting the videos, bc i didn’t know what people would think and say
but now i’m glad i did it, i really like having my channel
taeisbae
having a youtube channel sounds like fun
sounds like a lot of work too
dancejhope
it is a little bit of both
but since is something i really like
you know, dancing
it’s more fun than work
Taehyung wasn’t really sure of how to continue the conversation. He didn’t want those awkward silences, even though they were talking through the internet. But luckily he didn’t have to worry about that. Hoseok asked him about an anime he likes ( “i saw you reblogged a gif” ) and they started talking about it. There were never awkward silences after that. They talked about their favorite tv shows, their favorite music, their favorite food; about their dogs, what superpowers they’d like to have, what cities they’d like to visit. The next thing Taehyung realized is that it was almost 2 am. Hoseok ended their chat with a “we should talk again anytime” . It took Taehyung at least one hour to finally fall asleep, a smile never leaving his face.
“Tae, I’m talking to you, put your phone down”.
Jimin had to call Taehyung twice before he finally put the cell phone down and looked at him. They were sitting in the kitchen, having breakfast before going to class. Jimin have been talking about how one of his teachers have this really sleepy voice and it’s almost impossible to stay awake in his class when he noticed Taehyung wasn’t paying attention to him but to his phone.
“Hm? Did you say something, Jiminie?”
“What’s so interesting on your phone that you weren’t even listening to me?”
“I’m talking to Hoseok-hyung”, he said with a smile. Jimin thought he saw the boy blushing a little, but he decided not to tease him about it.
“Again? Aren’t the two of you texting each other for, what? Six days in a roll?”
“Five days, but yeah”.
After that first time they talked on Tumblr, Hoseok kept what he said about talking again. The next day he sent a message again. And on the other day, they exchanged their kakao IDs and have been texting each other non-stop ever since. Taehyung never thought he would have so much in common with Hoseok or that they would get along so well. Their messages went from “what do you think dogs would say if they could talk” to deep conversations at 3am. In those five days, Taehyung learned more about Hoseok than on the whole year he’s been watching the videos on his channel. It was the small details that he liked the most, like that his favorite color was green or that he wants to have three dogs. Some things Hoseok shared were a little too personal, like how his dad didn't like his dream of becoming a dancer but his mom always supported him. Taehyung liked that Hoseok felt comfortable enough to share those things with him.
Taehyung had said a lot about himself too. He’s usually the one who overshares and then thinks people are annoyed at him because of that, but Hoseok somehow thought everything Taehyung had to say very interesting.
Jimin tried to start talking to Taehyung again, but he got a new message on his phone and Jimin knew it would be useless.
“i’d love to listen you singing an actual song someday”.
Taehyung had to read those words at least three times.
He was laying on the couch, waiting for Jimin to come back home for their Movie and Pizza Night, while texting Hoseok again (“You talk to him more than you talk to me”. “You don’t need to be jealous, Jiminie, you’re still the number one in my heart”). They started talking about the short videos of him singing that he posts sometimes, Hoseok was saying that he really liked Taehyung’s voice, even though he doesn’t sing actual songs. Those words made Taehyung really happy, more than happy. He was almost speechless and that’s something that hardly ever happens.
Even with all his camera shyness, Taehyung wanted Hoseok to listen to him singing. He admired Hoseok and wanted to know his opinion about this. So, he quickly wrote: “i could send you a video….. maybe?”. He sent the message right after he finished typing, before he could change his mind.
Hoseok’s reply came fast: “i’d love that”.
Taehyung got up and the couch and sat up straight. ‘Ok, I can do this’. He opened the camera of his cell phone, looked at himself on the screen and took a deep breath. ‘I can do this’ . He pressed the record button, just to realize he didn’t even know what song he was going to sing. Before he could panic and throw his phone on the other side of the room, he started singing the first song that came to his mind. It was “If You” because he remembered one of their conversations, when they were talking about what kind of music they like. Taehyung said Big Bang was one of his favorite groups and Hoseok said If You was one of his favorite songs. He didn’t sing the whole song, stopped after the first chorus, and sent the video to Hoseok. He didn’t want to watch the video before sending it, he was sure that he would end up not sending it if he did.
After that he just put his phone aside and got up, starting to feel a little anxious. It’s been always like that when he sings to someone. He walked around the living room, staring at his phone. Four, five minutes passed and still no answer from Hoseok, and Taehyung’s anxiety about that was just getting worse. He had just picked up his phone and opened the chat with Hoseok, ready to say something like “i told you i’m not good”, when the reply came.
“omg, taehyung, your voice is amazING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! dude r u sure ur not a professional singer or something??????”
If Jimin was home, Taehyung would tell him to “write this on my gravestone because I’m pretty sure I’m dead right now”.
“thank you so much. that means a lot coming from you”.
“i mean it. youre great”.
Usually when people say that Taehyung doesn’t believe them. Singing has always been something he really liked doing and, when he was younger, he thought this was what he was going to do for the rest of his life. Sadly, the ones who were supposed to support him just told him he shouldn’t dream that high. His father said that becoming a singer was really difficult and he should have more realistic goals for life. So Taehyung grew up thinking he was not good enough. And it didn’t matter how many times people tell him he’s good, there’s always a small voice in his head telling him he’s not, telling him people are just saying that because they’re being polite and not because they really mean it. It took months of friendship before he started believing Jimin meant every time he said Taehyung’s voice was good. But this was the first time Taehyung wasn’t self-conscious about this.
He believed Hoseok.
“I want to post a pretty selca”.
“Ok, then post it”, Yoongi simply said.
Taehyung just rolled his eyes.
He and Jimin went to Namjoon and Seokjin’s apartment (because, according to Jimin’s words, “I’m done with junk food, I need to have an actual meal. But don’t tell Jin that’s the reason we’re going there, ok?”). And when Seokjin said on their group chat that he was going to do dinner for the two boys, Yoongi was already saying he was gonna be there too. Now they were all in the living room of the apartment having dinner.
“That’s not what I meant, hyung”, Taehyung explained, “I want to take a nice photo. But I don’t know anything about photography, my photos are usually all blurred and on weird angles. But you know a lot about photography. You could help me”.
Yoongi looked at him with his best “I didn’t study Photography for four years to help you with your selfies” face.
“I thought blurred and weird angles were your… How was that? Your aesthetic?”, Namjoon said.
“I know that, but I want nicer pictures”.
“And why you’re worrying about that now?”, Seokjin asked.
Taehyung didn’t answer immediately, he didn’t know how to put it into words without sounding silly. Luckily, or not, he didn’t have to say anything, Jimin explained everything for him.
“Taetae has a crush on this guy that started following him on Instagram and now he wants to show this guy how hot he is, but in a subtle and indirect way”.
“That’s not true!”
“Oh, really?”, Jimin smirked at him.
“Ok, that might be true. But can you help me, hyung? Please? Please please please?”
Yoongi rolled his eyes before saying: “Fine”. Taehyung could see he was actually smiling.
“Jiminie, look! I actually look good on those pictures”.
“You look good on every picture, Tae”.
“Even the ones you posted on my birthday?”
“Ok, almost every picture”.
Taehyung had gone to Yoongi’s apartment earlier that day. They didn’t do anything too elaborated. Yoongi’s photography have always been a little minimalist, the simpler the better, and that’s what he told to Taehyung. The pictures were mostly taken with a blank wall behind him. On some photos he was looking at the camera, on others he wasn’t (“Look to the left, it makes your jaw line look better”. “You think my jaw line looks good, hyung?”. “Just do it before I change my mind”). Taehyung even took different t-shirts (“Why did you bring those?”. “I want to take photos with different clothes so it won’t look like it was all taken on the same day. Now tell me, do I look good with this headband?”. “Oh my God, Taehyung”).
Yoongi sent the edited photos to Taehyung’s e-mail almost one two hours after they finished the small photoshoot. Taehyung loved all of them and now he didn’t know which one to post first.
“I liked the one with the headband. Post that one”, Jimin said, looking at the photos on Taehyung’s phone over his shoulder.
“Ok, if you said so”.
He opened his Instagram and posted it, without any captions full of hashtags he usually writes on his photos (“that’s really lame, Tae, don’t do that”), and waited.
Not even thirty seconds later there was a notification on his phone.
“Oh, my God, Jiminie. He liked my photo!”.
“Wow, already?”
“Yeah”, Taehyung was smiling while hugging his phone.
“There’s only two reasons for someone to like a photo that fast. They’re a stalker like you…”
“I’m not a stalker!”
“You liked a ten months old photo. Anyway, the second reason is he likes you”.
“Yeah… No, I’m pretty sure it’s not that. Maybe he’s just a stalker”.
[ tae / 07:13 pm ]
heeey
how was your day?
[ hobi / 07:14 pm ]
a little exhaustive but everythings fine
i was practicing this new choreo this afternoon
but now im editing a new video
[ tae / 07:17 pm ]
i bet the choreo is great
what is the video about?
[ hobi / 07:19 pm ]
you'll have to wait until i upload it like everyone else
[ tae / 07:20 pm ]
aigoo
why do you do that to your biggest fan?
[ hobi / 07:21 pm ]
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[ tae / 07:21 pm ]
ಠ_ಠ
[ hobi / 07:22 pm ]
( ˘ ³˘)
[ tae / 07:22 pm ]
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
[ hobi / 07:23 pm ]
waaat
[ tae / 07:23 pm ]
idek
[ hobi / 07:28 pm ]
hey tae have you ever thought about making videos too?
[ tae / 07:30 pm ]
you mean like you?
making videos and posting them on youtube and stuff?
[ hobi / 07:32 pm ]
yeah
there’s a lot of people that posts videos of song covers on youtube
and you have a great voice
i think you should try
[ tae / 07:35 pm ]
i dont know
[ hobi / 07:36 pm ]
youre really great tae
i think this is worth a try
“Taehyung, you’ve been staring at your phone for the last thirty minutes. I’m starting to get worried about you”.
Jimin has never seen his roommate as quiet as he has been on the last day. It looked like Taehyung was lost in thoughts, walking around the apartment as he usually does when he’s anxious about something. And always checking his phone. Not typing, not smiling at it, as he’s been doing ever since he started talking to Hoseok. Just staring at it.
“Did something happened?”, Jimin asked. “Is it about Hoseok?”.
“No”, Taehyung answered looking at Jimin, “and yes, I think. It’s just that a couple of days ago he said he wanted to hear me sing, so I sent him a video of me singing a song. An actual song, not twenty seconds of Disney movie songs like I post on Instagram. And yesterday he said he thinks I should post videos of me singing. You know, like, on YouTube and stuff”. He handed Jimin his phone so he could read the last conversation he had with Hoseok, the one he suggested that.
“Oh”, Jimin knew how Taehyung felt about singing to other people, especially people he didn’t know. “And you’ve been thinking about that?”.
“Yeah. I… I think I kinda wanna do it”.
Jimin’s face lit up with a big smile. “Tae, that’s great! I’m so happy for you”.
“I just don’t know… I mean… I’m…”
“Don’t worry”, Jimin interrupted him, “Do you really want to do it? I mean, because of you, and not because of him or anyone else? Is this something you really wanna do?”
Taehyung stopped for a second to think about that. Of course he wanted to do that because of Hoseok, but he understood what Jimin meant. He really wanted to do that for himself too. He loves singing and, maybe, it was time to start following this old dream.
“Yes”, he smiled, “I really wanna do it”.
“Ok. I’m gonna help you. Let’s do this”.
When Jimin said he was going to help, Taehyung didn’t expect that. In less than a day, he borrowed a camera from Yoongi (Taehyung never thought Yoongi would ever lend one of his cameras to anyone, but apparently he can’t say no to Jimin’s aegyo). He helped Taehyung to find a nice spot for them to record (“we’re not doing that in your room, Tae. Nobody needs to see that mess”) and even applied makeup on him (“just the basic, it will look pretty natural, but also hot as fuck”). Since he wasn’t going to play any instrument (he tried learning how to play the guitar once and it didn’t go very well. He knows a little about playing the saxophone, but he didn’t think this would be really helpful right now), he and Jimin decided to just record him singing and then put the instrumental of the song on the background on edition.
And there he was.
He was sitting straight, even though Jimin said he should try to relax a little. He had one headphone on, so he could listen the instrumental of the song while singing. His eyes were fixed on the camera in front of him.
They have already recorded the introduction, Taehyung said hello, his name and what song he was going to sing. He decided to sing Big Bang’s If You, because that was indeed one of his favorite songs, and he thought Hoseok should listen to him singing the whole song. Now all he needed was to sing.
“I’m gonna start recording now”, Jimin said while touching something on the camera, “You can start whenever you want”.
Taehyung took a deep breath and pressed play for the song to start playing on his headphone.
And he didn’t sing anything. He just stared at the camera.
“Ok, cut”, Jimin announced, stopping the recording. “Let’s do this in a different way, ok? I don’t want you to look at the camera, I want you to look at me. I’ll sit here right in front of you and you’ll sing to me and not to the camera, like you’ve done already a thousand times, ok?”.
“Yeah, let’s do it this way”.
Jimin pressed the record button on the camera again and sat on a chair in front of Taehyung, on an angle that he wouldn’t appear on the frame. Taehyung pressed play on the song again and looked at Jimin. This was easy. He had already sung for Jimin a lot of times. And on the familiarity of his best friend’s eyes, he forgot the camera. Before he could even remember there was a camera recording him, he had already finished the song.
“I did it”, was the first thing he said, after a couple of seconds in silence when the song ended.
“You did it”, Jimin pulled him into a tight hug.
He did it.
Neither Jimin nor Taehyung knew a lot about editing videos. Luckily, Jimin’s aegyo never fails him, so he convinced Yoongi to teach them the basics. Both of them were curled up on Taehyung’s bed, they’ve finished the editing already and were setting things up for Taehyung’s channel. They disagreed on some things (“I know your tumblr url is taeisbae, but I’m not letting you put that name on your youtube channel”) but, in the end, everything was easier than Taehyung thought it would be. After they uploaded the video, Taehyung sent a message to Hoseok with the link. He didn’t explain anything or said what it was, just sent the link.
Not even five minutes later, he got a notification from Twitter, Hoseok had mentioned him in a tweet.
J-Hope @dancejhope
hey guys, my friend @taetaehyung had just started his youtube channel. pls show him lots of love and support.
On the tweet there was also a link to his first video.
“That’s so sweet of him”, Jimin said when he read what Hoseok wrote.
“Yeah. He’s… He’s great. I’m gonna send him a text”.
“Why don’t you call him?”
Taehyung just looked at Jimin as he just said something completely absurd.
“What?”, Jimin laughed at Taehyung’s expression. “You have his number, don’t you? You already text him all the time, maybe you guys should take this relationship to the next level”, he wiggled his eyebrows in the least attractive way possible, making Taehyung laugh. “Ok, I’m gonna mind my own business”, Jimin got up from Taehyung’s bed, “but I think you should call”.
He left Taehyung’s room, leaving him alone with his thoughts. The thing is, he wanted to call. More specifically, he wanted to call Hoseok ever since he got his phone number. Taehyung knew that calling other people is something pretty much anybody does anymore, because why to call when you can just send a message? But he likes to call people. He likes to listen to people’s voices.
Before he could chicken out and give up, he dialed Hoseok’s number (no, he didn’t know his number by heart… Maybe he knew it, but that’s not important). He waited until Hoseok picked up the phone and said a hesitant “Hello?”.
“Hey, Hobi-hyung, it’s Taehyung”.
“Hi. Yeah, I… I know. Hi, Tae. I wasn’t expecting you to call”.
“Oh”, Taehyung was suddenly unsure about the whole calling idea. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask if it was okay for me to call you. If it’s not I can hang up, no problem”.
“No, it’s not that”, Hoseok laughed. Taehyung thought his laugh sounded better on the phone than on his videos. “It just caught me off guard, but it’s ok”.
“Ok, then. I just wanted to say thanks. You know, for telling your followers to watch my video. I’ve already got some visualizations. And likes. I wasn’t expecting that”.
“You also have comments”.
“What?”, Taehyung exclaimed, making Hoseok laugh again. He hasn’t seen any notification about comments, but he still wasn’t entirely sure if he knew how YouTube works. He refreshed the page and went to the comment section of his video. And, yes, there was a comment there.
Hope On The Street. 1 minute ago
That was great, Tae. I’m already your biggest fan. #fighting
Taehyung had to contain his high pitched scream because he was still on the phone with Hoseok.
“Oh, gosh, I already have to deal with those crazy fans”, Taehyung tried to keep his tone smug, but he was sure Hoseok could hear the smile on his voice.
“Yeah, you should be careful with those fans. They are the worst. Especially when they do crazy stuff, like stalking your Instagram and liking really old photos”.
Oh, shit.
At this moment, Taehyung was really happy because he wasn’t face to face with Hoseok, because he could feel the embarrassment blush all over his face. Also, he’s sure he blacked out for a second. He was going to stutter an answer, when Hoseok continued.
“I’m just messing with you, Taetae”, and he laughed again.
Despite all the embarrassment, Taehyung couldn’t help but laugh too. He was happy things work out just right.
“So, are you guys ever going to meet in real life?”, Jimin asked, out of the blue.
And Taehyung choked on his bubble tea.
Jimin decided they should do something to celebrate because everything went right with the first video of his channel, so he took Taehyung to their favorite bubble tea place after their classes. His video didn’t have that many views or likes or comments, but Taehyung was happy. There were a few people supporting him and that was important. His smile got bigger at every positive comment he read. Some of his real life friends also send messages telling him they loved the video. Taehyung started to wonder why he didn’t do this earlier.
“What do you mean?”, Taehyung asked after he stopped coughing bubble tea.
“Come on, you know what I mean. You and Hoseok have been talking through texts and social media for almost two months, right? It’s pretty much obvious the two of you have a crush on each other”.
“No, it’s not”.
“He left a comment on your selca on Instagram that said ‘always looking handsome, taetae’ with a heart eyes emoji”.
“You do that all the time”.
“Yeah, but I’m your best friend, your platonic soulmate. I’m allowed to do those things without looking weird. But that, my friend, is a big fat crush”.
“I don’t know”, Taehyung said after thinking about it for a while. “Maybe he’s like that to everyone, or maybe he’s just being friendly”. Jimin rolled his eyes and was about to say something but Taehyung continued: “And even if what you say it’s true… Well, I want to meet him, even if it’s just as friends, you know. But how am I supposed to do that? I can’t just text him ‘hey hyung what’s up wanna meet?’.”
“Actually that’s exactly what you should do”.
“I don’t know”.
“Ok, Kim Taehyung, stop that”, Jimin’s tone was really frustrated. “You like him. It’s more than obvious you like him. And ever since I’ve met you, many years ago, every single time you liked someone, you just told them that. Yeah, that got you some weird looks, one punch and one relationship that only lasted two weeks. But this is who you are. And this is the first time that I see you liking someone and not doing anything about it”.
Jimin was right. And Taehyung knew that. He always believed that when you like someone, telling them is the best thing you can do. And he was never ashamed of doing that. It doesn’t work every time, but that’s what he does. But there was something holding him back about Hoseok.
“It’s just that… I think I really like him. But we’ve never seen each other, you know. What if telling him that ends up screwing up what we have now?”
“That’s gonna sound really cliche, but you’ll never know if you don’t try”.
Taehyung was just staring at his phone, not believing what his eyes were seeing. Not even one week have passed since the talk he had with Jimin on the bubble tea place (and he already posted one more video of a song cover, this time he sang Adele’s Someone Like You. Who knew singing for strangers on the internet would be fun?) and he couldn’t stop thinking about it. He decided he should do it, he was going to tell Hoseok that he wanted to meet him in real life. He just wasn’t sure of how he was going to do it. It had to be in The Perfect Moment, but this moment never happened. Jimin said that this waiting for the perfect moment thing was just a way of procrastinating, and maybe he was right.
But then this happened.
Hoseok had just posted on his twitter a poster of the first “Dance YouTubers Fan Meet”. He and some other youtubers organized this. It was going to happen in two weeks. And the place of the event was just four blocks away from his University. He already knew that he and Hoseok lived in the same city, but seeing this just seemed to make everything more tangible, more real.
“Why are you staring at your phone?”, Jimin asked when he entered the kitchen and looked at Taehyung leaning against the counter with the phone on his hand. “And why do I feel that I asked you this question on the last month more times than in our entire lives?”.
Instead of answering, Taehyung just handed his phone to him.
“Whoa, that’s really nice. I know those youtubers too, I can go with you if you want. Oh, look, Lay is going to be there, he’s really good, I love his videos. Whoa, Minzy, she’s amazing. Taemin is going to be there too, that’s so cool. He’s great, I really like him”.
Then he saw the look on Taehyung’s face. Jimin thought his friend was going to be happy about having a chance of finally seeing Hoseok. But he didn’t seem happy. He seemed confused and apprehensive.
“Tae, is everything okay?”
“I don’t know if I want to go”.
“What? Why? Didn’t you say you wanted to meet him?”
“Yeah, but… What if it’s different, in real life? What if he doesn’t like me that much?”
“No, Tae, don’t say that”, Jimin hugged him tightly. There was nothing he hated more than seeing his best friend sad. “I’m pretty sure he likes you. And if he doesn’t, then he’s the most stupid guy in the world and you don’t deserve him. But you can’t know that if you don’t go”. Jimin took a step back to look at Taehyung on his eyes. “I’m going with you, ok? I’m going to be there with you if anything happens. But I really think you should do this”.
“Ok”, Taehyung said with a small smile. “Thank you, Jiminie”.
“No problem. That’s what I’m here for, remember? And you can always thank me by doing my laundry for a month or two”.
“Ha ha, very funny. No”.
Maybe this was all a really bad idea.
When Taehyung said that to Jimin, he just rolled his eyes and said: “We’ve made this far, we’re not going back now. And also, I want at least to talk to Taemin, so chill”.
They were at the place where the fan meeting was going to happen. Taehyung woke up early that day, already feeling a little anxious about this. He took longer than usual to choose his outfit (“I swear to God, Taehyung, if you change your t-shirt again, I’m going to leave without you”), his anxiety getting bigger the closer they were from the time of the fan meeting. But he didn’t give up and left. He was going to do this (and when he suggested to just let it go and leave, Jimin shoot him a so intense glare he feared for his life for a couple of seconds).
Hoseok knew he was going to be there. The same day he posted the poster of the fan meeting on his twitter, he sent Taehyung a text asking that. Taehyung answered quickly, “obviously im gonna be there”.
There were more people than Taehyung expected. He knew Hoseok and the other youtubers were very popular but he wasn’t expecting that many people. (“Gosh, Taehyung, ‘the other youtubers?’. You don’t even know their names, do you? You’re so in love with him”. “Jiminie, I don’t need that right now, ok? I’m already feeling anxious. So stop the jokes about Hoseok or I’m not gonna ask him to introduce you to Taemin”. “Whoa, chill. Ok”). When they entered the actual place of the fan meeting, he saw a stage at the end of the room, with a table in there. He recognized some of the youtubers, but his eyes went straight to Hoseok. He was talking to a guy (and because of Jimin’s high pitched scream in his ear he found out that guy was Lay, that other youtuber he talked about). Jimin pulled him by his hand through the crowd so they could get a place to sit near the stage. Taehyung was trusting completely in Jimin not to let him stumble on anything because his eyes didn’t leave Hoseok for just a second. He couldn’t believe this was actually happening.
Suddenly, Hoseok took the microphone on the table and turned it on.
“Hey, everyone!”, his voice echoed on the entire place. “I’m J-Hope, from Hope On The Street channel. We’re gonna start the fan meeting in a few minutes, ok?”.
Then, a lot of things happened at the same time.
Jimin let go of Taehyung’s hand, finally finding a place to sit. Hoseok looked through the crowd, that was now cheering loud. His eyes stopped on Taehyung, who saw that the dancer recognized him. Hoseok waved at him and was about to say something, but Taehyung just turned his back to him and walked towards the exit. His breathing was erratic, like there wasn’t enough air in the room. Some people looked at him, annoyed because they were trying to get in when Taehyung was trying to get out. He heard someone calling him, but he didn’t know if it was Jimin or Hoseok. He didn’t stop walking anyway.
He only stopped when he was on the outside, on the sidewalk. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down his nerves. He was a bit ashamed for panicking like that.
“Taehyung?”, a familiar voice called him.
He turned to the direction of the voice so fast he almost fell.
“Whoa, are you okay?”, Hoseok said, stepping closer to him. “I was going to talk to him, but you ran”.
“Yeah, it was too hot in there. You know, too many people”, it was obvious to both he was lying, but Hoseok didn’t say anything.
Holy shit, he’s actually here! Taehyung thoughts were almost a scream. He couldn’t believe Hoseok was even more handsome in person.
“It’s really nice to finally meet you, Taehyung”, Hoseok smiled and Taehyung thought he was going to melt into a puddle of goo on the sidewalk.
“It’s nice to meet you too”.
Taehyung wanted, he really wanted, to keep a conversation going and avoid the awkward silences, but it felt like his brain had stopped for a second. He didn’t know what to say, he just wanted to keep looking at Hoseok for one more minute. Then he remembered why he was there.
“Wait, weren’t you supposed to be in the fan meeting now?”
“Yeah. I kinda don’t wanna do that right now. I’d rather talk to you”.
Now Taehyung was sure he was melting into a puddle of goo.
“Ok, look, how about this”, Hoseok continued. “We go back in there, and this time you don’t run away. And when the fan meeting end, we could go somewhere… We could go for a coffee maybe?”
Taehyung thought his brain would go on curt circuit. He wanted to just hug Hoseok and say “yes, anything you want”, but he had already embarrassed himself enough.
“Sure, that sounds great. I just think I should tell you beforehand that I’m not a big fan of coffee”.
“Oh, great”, Hoseok sounded relieved. “Neither am I. How about ice cream?”
Taehyung couldn’t believe that he thought, even for just a second, that meeting Hoseok in person could be a bad idea.
After the fan meeting (and Taehyung had to deal with Jimin’s smug smirk and some occasional “I told you so”, but he didn’t care that much, he was too happy for that), he met Hoseok at the backstage (and Jimin finally met Taemin. Taehyung have proof in video that Jimin was fanboying over the dancer, he’ll use that against Jimin for the rest of their lives) and they went to this ice cream place Hoseok said was the best one he knew. It wasn’t very far from where they were, so they went walking. And just like it was when they were texting, once conversation started, it didn’t stop. Everything was so easy between the two of them. Taehyung was eating strawberry ice and Hoseok, chocolate. They both lost track of time, just like they did when they were texting each other. But now it was better, they could look each other in the eyes and see each other’s reactions and laughs.
Taehyung was telling a story about one time that his friend Yoongi had lost a USB and thought it was in Taehyung’s pocket but it was actually a steamed bun, but he interrupted himself because of the look on Hoseok’s face. It was amused, for sure, but there was something else.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”, Taehyung asked, hoping that his face wouldn’t start blushing from the intensity of Hoseok’s eyes.
“Nothing”, he said with a shy smile. “It’s just… Is it weird that there’s a part of me that doesn’t believe this is actually happening? I mean, two months ago I found you on Instagram and we started talking and we had so much in common. I told you things that I haven’t told to my friends. You know, my real life friends that I see every day. And now we’re here”.
Taehyung smiled and now he was sure he was blushing. He thought he was the only one that felt that way.
“No, it’s not weird. I feel the same. Do you know Jimin, my roommate? I told you about him, right? Well, it took me more than one year of friendship for me to tell him about my dad, about how he didn’t support my dream of becoming a singer. And I’ve already told you that. And I used to hate singing to people I didn’t know very well, but I didn’t mind singing for you. And… Well, yeah, I feel the same”.
They fell silent after that, too lost in each other eyes. And it wasn’t an awkward silence, it was pacific. As if they had just found something that was missing.
And then Taehyung’s cell phone rang.
“It’s a message from Jiminie”, he said while checking the phone. “It looks like we’re supposed to go to Jin’s for dinner today... Wait, dinner?”, he checked the hour. “Holy shit, it’s almost 7pm. But when we got here it was 3. Well, I gotta go. But… I text you?”.
“No”.
Taehyung, who was typing on his phone a quick answer for Jimin, stopped and looked at Hoseok with a disbelief look on his face.
“Now that I met you”, Hoseok continued, “I don’t think I wanna keep texting you. Nothing personal, it’s just I’d rather see you”.
“You… What?”
“Would you like to go on a date with me?”
It took some seconds for Taehyung to process that because he didn’t believe what he just heard. But then he smiled and answered: “Yeah, I’d love that”.