Chapter Text
Pau instantly grinned as the crowd started cheering and chanting his name when he finally stepped into the boxing ring.
Unlike what some of the media liked to assume though, it wasn't because he reveled in the attention or fame that came with his career as a professional boxer.
It was because he was proud to be someone that people could enjoy watching do what he loved.
He had been boxing since he was a kid, something that his parents and older sister supported him through his entire life. After all, it was his parents that bought him his first pair of real boxing gloves and his sister, Irene, who took it upon herself to become his 'training coach' when he had finally started taking classes.
He boxed all throughout grade school, and was even one of the standouts on his high school varsity team in just his first year.
Which is exactly why it was no surprise that he was now one of the most popular names in the entire sport.
Within his first year as a professional, fans and the media had deemed him 'the Golden Boy', for his outstanding technique and performance, despite only being 17 years old during his debut.
Pau never let any of it get to his head though, not really.
His family had raised him to always stay humble and liked to make sure that he never got too full of himself or anything like that.
The media wasn't anything like his family though.
Within his second year of professional boxing, the media that had once deemed him 'the Golden Boy', had started trying to twist narratives and paint the picture of Pau being some sort of selfish brat who thought that he was too good to even entertain the thought of dating any woman 'below his status'.
Which wasn't the case whatsoever.
It was true that Pau hadn't publicly dated any women since going pro.
He hadn't dated any women point blank.
Unless he counted the two girlfriends he had when he was ten and fourteen years old.
But, it didn't have anything to do with Pau thinking he was too good for just any woman.
It was because he just wasn't exactly into women like that.
When Pau's second girlfriend had broken up with him, she had told him that she thought he needed to figure out some stuff about himself and at the time, he had no idea what that meant.
But fast forward a few more years to his high school graduation, he finally realized exactly what she had meant by that when he looked at his classmate giving the valedictorian speech.
Oh.
I'm gay.
And that had been that.
He didn't really feel any need to make a big deal about it.
After all, it wasn't really a big deal anyways. At least, not to Pau.
He never really liked to make an effort to make it a known fact to people.
Hell, he had come out to his best friend-manager, Pedri, by just saying that he thought his opponent for his next match was kind of cute.
Of course, Pau didn't think it was anything and just went back to eating his steak, completely oblivious to the way Pedri's fork had dropped from his hand and clattered on his plate.
That and the ten minute interrogation session that Pau was going to be forced into by said best friend.
Pedri was more than supportive about the whole thing, in fact, he had been a bit too supportive.
He kept insisting that he could set Pau up with a few cute guys if Pau ever wanted and that he would just have to say the word and Pedri would be on it, which Pau assured him he would absolutely never do.
After Pedri chuckled and rolled his eyes at the boxer, he took on a more serious look before saying, "You know that you can't really talk about that in this line of work, right, Cuba?"
Pau knew. He knew better than anyone.
When he had signed his contract, he knew that he would probably never be able to tell the world about someone he loved.
Or show up to events with someone on his arm.
Or just talk about his partner to the press.
It was unfair, but it was just how the sport was.
It's how the world was.
Or, that's what he thought before his third year.
He had spent his entire second year listening to dozens of reporters and interviewers asking him about his love life and when he was going to get a girlfriend, as if those were things that even had anything to do with his career as a boxer.
On top of that, he wasn't even free from all of the speculation and rumors in his personal life.
Every time that he did so much as open any app on his phone, he was practically bombarded with article upon article about how he was this primadonna and a whole bunch of other nasty names that people liked to comment under all of his posts.
Which is exactly why he had deleted all of the social media apps on his phone and delegated the task of posting any promotional content onto his social medias to Pedri, who understood exactly why Pau had asked him to, even without the boxer explicitly telling him the reason.
It was all just becoming too much for even him.
That's probably why he had ended up exposing what was considered his biggest secret to the entire world during his very first press conference of his third professional year.
As expected, the first question that he was asked was about his love life and along the lines of, "Is this the year that you finally publicly reveal a new girlfriend?".
He definitely should've just replied with a polite, "That's apart of my personal life and I'd like to keep that separate from my professional career.", just like Pedri had scripted him to answer.
But something in him just felt like it was threatening to spill over when he looked at the way the reporter who had just asked him that was subtly smirking at him, like he just knew that it didn't matter how Pau answered because the media would scrutinize him over it anyways.
Fuck it.
It was obviously the worst idea that Pau had ever had, but he was honestly so tired of everything that everyone had to say about him as if they knew him personally.
So, he leaned in closer to the small microphone mounted on the table in front of him and decided that if his career was going to end like this, then it wasn't the worst way to go out.
"I'm afraid that I won't ever publicly reveal any girlfriend," He could see a handful of reporters quickly scribbling down notes, probably stuff he didn't even want to know. "Because I'm tired of everyone assuming stuff about me when none of you know that I don't even swing that way. So, you can all stop assuming that every single woman I interact with is my girlfriend. That's all for today."
Pau wasted absolutely no time getting up and leaving the room that had now erupted into chaos with reporters trying to get in their questions in about what he had just said.
Something about getting that out in the open felt like a giant weight being lifted off of his shoulders.
He knew that feeling wouldn't last very long though.
He braced himself for Pedri's expected outburst and yelling at him for basically ending his entire career with a single sentence as he entered the room for authorized personnel only.
Pedri quickly came into his view and if the deep furrow of his eyebrows was anything to go by, Pau knew that he was really in for it.
"Pau Cubarsí Paredes!"
Great, full full name.
"Hey, Pedri, listen—"
"No, you do not get to tell me to listen after the stunt you just pulled," Pedri crossed his arms across his chest and glared at Pau, which was horrifying even though Pau had to slightly look down at him. "I know that you know how many times I've told you that I don't care that you're gay, hell, I'm happy about it!"
"Uh, thanks?"
"Shut up, you're not allowed to interrupt me this time." His best friend gave him a look that made his blood run cold. "And I know that the media has been ruthless when it comes to your personal life and all that, believe me, I know that you're tired. But, you just gave the public something that they're almost definitely going to get on your back even more about."
Pau was about to apologize, but knew better than to try and interrupt Pedri for a second time.
"If you want to back out of everything after this mess and disappear off the face of the earth, then that's your decision and you know that I'll stand by whatever you decide. But if not, then I hope you're prepared to face the reality that comes with announcing something like that in the sports world. Can you do that?"
Originally, Pau kind of figured that he would probably just get forced to leave the professional ring after coming out, especially the way that he did.
But the more he thought about it, he realized that if there was even the slightest chance that he could keep doing what he loved most, then he wasn't going to just give up.
"Yeah," Pau decided. "I can do that."
The first two years after him coming out were some of the worst years of his entire life.
He constantly got booed during matches, no matter how big or small the crowds were and regardless if he won or not.
Every time that he walked out to Pedri's car after matches, there was always at least one person calling him all sorts of slurs and taunts for just existing.
His family and friends stood by him through everything though.
His parents and Irene invited him to stay at their places for a bit when everything had been at its peak, which Pau couldn't thank them enough for. Because even though Pau constantly took all sorts of hits and punches every single day, the things people said about him were the most painful thing he'd ever experienced.
Instead of everyone spreading rumors about him and hating him for it all, they now hated him for who he actually was and Pau didn't know if he should've been upset or happy about that.
Marc didn't even ask about it when Pau had finally showed up to the lower floor of the gym after weeks of radio silence. He had just taken one look at his friend and opened his arms for Pau to collapse in without a single word from either of them.
Xavi had been the same when he walked into the gym and saw Pau sobbing in Marc's arms. He dropped his bags on the ground and practically ran over to hug the both of them.
Pedri had made sure that no reporters or paparazzi breached the security at Pau's apartment building and constantly shut down any questions he was asked about Pau.
Pau honestly didn't think that it was ever going to get better. There had been so many nights where he just cried, either in Marc's and Xavi's, or Pedri's arms, and sobbed that he just wanted to be allowed to do what he loved like he was before he came out.
But when his sixth year started, something seemed to finally change.
His first few matches weren't as bad as they'd been for the last two years.
Sure, he got a decent amount of boos and jeers, but he had also heard some genuine cheering amongst it all. And that was more than enough for him to keep going.
He realized that the public perception of him had really changed when he saw a rainbow flag held up in the front row of the stands.
When he walked out into the stadium and spotted the flag, he felt his body moving before his brain could even register anything.
He walked up to the two holding the flag, one teenage boy and another teenage girl, and the second that they realized Pau was actually standing right in front of them, they started freaking out.
"Cuba, ohmygoditsactuallyyou!" The girl blurted out as she held out a sharpie to him, her entire arm visibly trembling. "Can you, maybe, sign this? Only if you want though!"
"Yeah, you don't have to if you don't want to." The boy added nervously next to her. "But, you've been our favorite boxer since you debuted and when you came out, it gave us both the courage to do so too."
I gave them courage?
"Really?" Pau's voice sounded so small, basically just a whisper at that point.
"Of course! If you could be brave and be who you are, then we figured that we could too." The girl smiled at Pau and he could feel tears brimming his eyes.
He suddenly threw his arms around the two and whispered a soft, "Thank you." before pulling back and quickly signing the flag.
The teenagers looked absolutely star struck and just slowly waved back at Pau as he finally jogged over to the ring.
That was a little more than a year ago now and things felt like they had only been going up since then.
He still dealt with homophobia from the public every other day, but it wasn't as in his face as it had been before. He could, at the very least, ignore it a bit more nowadays.
But most of the people who came to watch his matches were genuine supporters of him.
Hell, he had seen posts online from people saying that him coming out helped them realize how pointless homophobia was.
Pau was still the same boxer that they loved to watch before he came out, nothing had really changed about him after the fact and that was the thing that made a surprising majority of people realize that Pau being gay had nothing to do with his performance as a boxer.
In addition to that, there seemed to be a drastic increase in LGBTQ+ related things within the boxing world since that press conference four years ago.
Boxing companies started collaborating with different types of queer organizations in all sorts of visibility, awareness, and support campaigns.
Many that Pau himself had been the face of.
He wasn't the only boxer who got involved in things like that though, many other big names started joining in on everything and Pau couldn't help but feel a tiny bit proud at the impact he unknowingly made on the sport he had always been in love with.
Because even though he had suffered through years of hatred from the public, and debated leaving everything behind, he wouldn't change a single thing he did.
Because if he hadn't said what he said during that press conference four years ago, so many doors in the boxing world would've stayed shut for who knows how long?
That's exactly why he always smiled so much when fans cheered for him.
He remembered the way those exact stands had echoed with nothing but shuns and shouted slurs.
Now, they were vibrant with smiles, all sorts of queer flags, and genuine cheers of support.
That and a certain famous singer there for the night's match.
Not that Pau would know that until later though.
—
The referee raised Pau's hand up in the air, signaling that he had won the match of the night.
Pau wildly grinned as the lights practically blinded him, sweat glistening on his skin while he panted.
The stands went crazy when Pau balled his right hand into a fist and kissed his knuckles, something that had been his signature celebration since he was just a little kid.
After all the formalities that followed every boxing match, Pau hopped down the boxing ring and over to the front row of the stands where dozens of fans were cheering and waving at him with matching looks of awe.
He always liked to say hi to and sign things for people in the stands after his matches whenever he could.
"Cuba, you were so cool!"
"You did amazing tonight!"
"I love you, Cuba!"
Pau's cheeks were already flushed as all hell from the exertion of the fight, so the blush just darkened when everyone started complimenting him at the same time.
He laughed in embarrassment when someone pointed it out while he signed a photo of himself for them.
When he realized that he had to get going and head to the dressing rooms to clean up and change, he quickly finished posing for a selfie with a man who couldn't be that much older than Pau.
As he apologized for not having any more time, he started jogging away, but immediately stopped when he accidentally bumped into someone seemingly trying to leave.
"Oh, shoot! I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going and—" Pau felt all the air in his lungs immediately disappear when he saw the poor person he'd clumsily bumped into.
In front of him was a man, probably around Pau's age, with soft brown and blonde curls. He was dressed incredibly nice, for a boxing match anyways, he was wearing an expensive black leather jacket paired with some baggy black jeans with a silver chain around his neck.
He had devastatingly beautiful brown eyes that were now wide as the man gazed back at Pau, probably trying to process what exactly had just happened.
Pau looked down at the ground for a brief second and noticed a pair of sunglasses that looked like they cost the same amount as half of Pau's entire wardrobe.
Oh god, did I just make him drop these? Can I even afford to pay for these right now?
Just as Pau started thinking about everything he'd have to sell in order to pay for a replacement pair for the beautiful stranger, the man in question softly laughed.
"It's okay, I'm sure you have a lot on your mind after that match."
Right, Pau almost forgot that they were only talking because he had just fought in a match open to the public.
Wait.
That meant that this beautiful man just watched him fight in said match.
Did he enjoy it?
Did he think Pau was cool?
Okay, Pau really had to slow his roll and relax, he didn't even know this guy's name.
"Uh, yeah. Did you watch?" Why on earth would you ask that? Of course, he watched. Literally why else would he be here?
"I did," The pretty man smiled. "You looked cool up there."
"Really? I mean, thanks. I, uh, appreciate that." Pau choked out awkwardly.
Clearly, he hadn't actually talked to anyone that he found this attractive in a while.
Oh yeah, the sunglasses.
Pau carefully picked up the pair, not wanting to damage them any more than he already had, and held them out to the man.
"I think these might be yours. I'm really sorry if I made you drop them, I promise that I can pay for another pair if that's what you want."
The other man took the sunglasses and glanced at them for a brief second, and Pau was pretty sure that he was about to get yelled at.
"It's okay, don't worry about it." Pau's eyebrows flew off of his head in surprise. "You can keep them actually, I have a couple of them."
"Wha—" The boxer's jaw dropped completely. There was no way this guy was being serious right?
The man looked down at the time on his phone before apologetically interrupting Pau. "I'm really sorry, but I gotta go."
"Oh, no problem." He tried to hide the evident disappointment in his voice. "Thank you for the sunglasses by the way,—"
Pau had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from smiling at the adorable way the man slightly tilted his head in confusion.
Then, his lips parted in a silent "oh" and he smiled at Pau, "Lamine, my name's Lamine."
"Thanks then, Lamine. Uh, my name's Pau, but I guess you already probably knew that."
"Of course, who doesn't know the Golden Boy Cuba?" Lamine waved with a boyish grin and started walking away, but paused and suddenly looked over his shoulder at Pau. "Hope to see you around sometime, Pau."
Pau couldn't even utter out a normal 'goodbye', so he just waved like an idiot.
Pedri was probably going to scold him for being so late to the dressing rooms.
—
As Pau made his way to Pedri's car, there was a crowd of paparazzi practically lining the walkway from the stadium's exit.
He just sighed heavily and prepared himself for the headache that was about to hit him as he continue to walk over to his getaway (Pedri's) car.
"Cuba!" A woman shouted, "What did you think of your fight tonight? Do you think it was fair?"
"Over here! Are you looking forward to your next match?"
"What's been your training regiment lately?"
He just ignored most of the comments and questions being frantically thrown at him in a frenzy like he usually did.
He never liked the paparazzi and all of the questions they asked without a single care for other peoples' privacy or well-beings, so he always made an effort to ignore the vast majority of them.
With very few exceptions.
"Cuba, you've never worn sunglasses before. Is this a new look?"
Pau paused mid-step and looked down at the sunglasses clipped to his shirt.
The nice pair that Lamine had given him.
He smiled without thinking about it and just kept walking.
When he finally slipped into the passenger seat of Pedri's car, his shoulders immediately relaxed as he slouched in his seat.
"Long night, huh?" Pedri chuckled as he turned his car on and started driving.
"Something like that, I'm exhausted after today." Pau leaned his forehead against the cool glass of the car window.
His best friend hummed faintly and the two just sat in comfortable silence for most of the drive, the soft buzz of other cars echoing past them every now and then.
Pau ended up dozing off sometime during their long drive back to his apartment. He just couldn't help it, he hadn't been getting as much sleep as usual the past few nights for some strange reason.
Maybe he'd bring it up with his doctor next time he saw her.
He woke up to Pedri gently shaking him to tell him that they were finally at his apartment.
Pau sleepily blinked a few times, waiting for his brain to catch up with everything, when he noticed Pedri's gaze travel down towards his chest.
"Holy shit, did you buy these, Pau? These look so expensive, since when do you get yourself stuff like this?" Pau followed Pedri's line of vision down and realized exactly what he was talking about.
Lamine's sunglasses.
"Oh, uh, no." He awkwardly muttered.
"What do you mean no? Where did they come from then? I swear I've never seen you have a pair like this before now."
"They were," Pau slowly diverted his gaze away from Pedri. "A gift."
"A gift?" Pedri's eyes narrowed, immediately sensing that Pau was skirting around something. "From who exactly?"
"Do I really have to tell you?"
"Seeing as I'm your best friend, yes." Pedri paused for a second. "That and the fact that I'm literally your manager and need to know things like this."
Pau rolled his eyes. He hated how Pedri kind of had a point with that.
"From some guy I accidentally bumped into. He dropped these sunglasses and decided that he wanted to give them to me for whatever reason."
"Right, definitely sounds like he wasn't flirting with you at all."
"Oh, shut up, Pedri!" Pau shoved his best friend with a scoff.
"This guy must have a crazy job to afford to just give away sunglasses like these," Pedri tried grabbing at the sunglasses, only to be swatted away by Pau.
"No idea what he does, all I know is that his name's Lamine."
As soon as Lamine's name left Pau's mouth, Pedri's entire demeanor changed.
"Lamine? Wait, wait, wait." His manager quickly rattled out. "Like deep brown eyes, curly brown hair with blonde highlights, a little shorter than you, that Lamine?
Pau's eyes widened ever so slightly. "Yeah, how did you know all of that though?"
"God, it's like you actually live under a rock, Pau." Pedri let out a heavy sigh as if he didn't willingly spend most of his time with Pau. "Lamine Yamal is literally one of the most famous singers in the entire world right now."
"Wait, really? Like, you're not messing with me?"
After giving it five more seconds of thought, Pau realized that it would actually make sense with the way that Lamine was dressed and would definitely explain how easily he had given away those expensive sunglasses.
"Of course, I'm not messing with you! Here, look." Pedri started quickly typing on his phone before shoving it into Pau's hands.
"What am I looking at—holy shit!"
Open on Pedri's phone was Lamine Yamal's Instagram account with a whopping 58.7 million followers.
"Okay, yeah. Maybe I do live under a rock." Pau admitted reluctantly as he scrolled through the singer's account.
Lamine's account was definitely something. There were photos from brand ambassador photoshoots with brands like Louis Vuitton and Adidas, concert clips from his past tours, and plenty of posts from all the different countries he'd visited.
None of those were what piqued Pau's interest though.
What really caught his eye were the several photos scattered throughout Lamine's profile of him with his family and friends.
In all of his posts, Lamine always had the brightest smile, but there was something different about the way he smiled with his family and friends.
Something special.
"Wait." Pau looked up at Pedri, who was now back to staring at the sunglasses on his chest.
"What?"
"Have you been wearing those sunglasses since Lamine gave them to you?"
"Uh, yeah. Why?" Pau raised an eyebrow in confusion at Pedri. What was the problem?
"Fuck, Pau!" Pedri yanked his phone out of Pau's grasp. "Please tell me that none of the paparazzi saw them."
"Well,"
"Pau."
"Someone might've asked if it was a new look, but it wasn't like I said anything back!" He tried to defend himself.
"Madre mía." Pedri groaned as he threw his head back against the headrest.
"I don't see what the big deal is, Pedri."
"The big deal is that the paparazzi noticed the sunglasses and we all know that you'd never get those for yourself. Which means that people are going to dig and probably figure out that they're from Lamine Yamal of all people and that means that people are going to try to connect dots that aren't there."
"Which means…?"
"Which means that you shouldn't be too surprised when you wake up and see the internet buzzing with the hottest new dating rumor."
"Hold on, dating rumor?"
"Yeah, and guess who it's going to be between." Pedri sighed, clearly ready to call it a night. "The Golden Boy boxer, Pau Cubarsi, and the Starboy himself, Lamine Yamal. Wanna bet that's going to actually be a headline?"
Pau furrowed his eyebrows. "Don't you think that you're the one jumping to conclusions here, Pedri? I mean, they're just sunglasses."
"Suit yourself, but don't say I didn't warn you tomorrow morning."
The boxer just shook his head and chuckled at the absurdity of it all.
Pedri was just being paranoid. Sure, the media and public could be crazy, but he didn't think they were that crazy.
Pau would wake up in the morning and open his phone to absolutely nothing new and when he did, he'd be sure to laugh in his best friend's face about it.
—
He did not wake up in the morning and open his phone to absolutely nothing new.
And he definitely was not going to laugh in Pedri's face about it.
When Pau woke up at near 6:30 in the morning, he groaned and threw his arm over his face, desperate to just go back to sleep.
He knew that he couldn't though, he had a meeting with Pedri and his management team that morning and he knew that if he told Pedri he didn't feel like going, his manager would just drag him out of his apartment himself.
Pau blindly reached around his nightstand before finally grabbing his phone.
He winced at the blinding brightness of his screen, but his eyes immediately widened when he saw how many notifications he had gotten overnight.
It wasn't like his phone was some sort of barren oasis. As a fairly well known boxer, he had his fair share of his phone being blown up every single day.
Which was a huge reason why he had silenced most of his social media notifications.
But, the majority of the notifications were from his friends, Marc and Xavi mostly, a ton of missed texts and calls from Pedri, and an alarming amount of news articles from a bunch of different celebrity news outlets, or whatever they liked to call themselves.
"Did something happen?" Pau scrolled through all of the notifications before clicking on one of the ones from the multiple celebrity news outlets.
Pau didn't really know what to expect, but the little annoying voice in the back of his head, that sounded an awful lot like Pedri, kept whispering to him that he knew exactly what to expect.
Every ounce of fatigue in his body instantly dissipated as he shot up from his bed when he read the gigantic headline of the article that he'd clicked on.
Professional Boxer "Golden Boy" Pau Cubarsí Seen Last Night Wearing a New Pair of Louis Vuitton x Lamine Yamal Collection Sunglasses: Soft Launch or Just Style?
Under the headline were two pictures of Pau from last night with said sunglasses. It probably didn't help Pau's case that he was also smiling softly to himself in both photos.
He scrolled further down to read the actual article.
After his impressive victory against Enzo Fernández last night, "Golden Boy" Pau Cubarsí was seen signing autographs and taking selfies with countless fans, something that the 23-year old boxer has stated he always tries to do after matches in several previous press conferences.
Fans have longtime praised Cubarsí for his genuine love of the sport, as well as his undeniable love and gratitude for each and every single one of his supporters. Many have even affectionately named him, "Boxing's Sweetheart" for his seemingly endless kindness and his ongoing advocacy for a variety of different social issues and marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community.
Cubarsí famously came out to the public during a press conference when he was 19-years old, barely three years into his professional career.
"I'm afraid that I won't ever publicly reveal any girlfriend. Because I'm tired of everyone assuming stuff about me when none of you know that I don't even swing that way. So, you can all stop assuming that every single woman I interact with is my girlfriend."
- Pau Cubarsí
Immediately following his statement, the boxer became the victim of several hate campaigns, as well as a general target for homophobia-driven attacks, which were majority only verbal.
Cubarsí quietly faded from the public eye soon after a public physical attack from a crazed man that led to the boxer requiring ten stitches on his face.
Many believed that Cubarsí wouldn't ever return to the ring, but were proven wrong when he suddenly made an appearance in a match after weeks of radio silence, which he proudly won.
In recent times, Cubarsí has made a full return to boxing and is now in his seventh year as a professional.
The noise around the boxer's sexuality has drastically lessened after the events of his unfortunate attack. Now if you were to attend one of his matches, you'd see that there's an overwhelming majority of fans cheering and shouting "Cu Cu Cubarsí!" in the stands.
However, many can't help but wonder, will the boxer ever make any relationship public now that he's come out?
For the past year, the public's come to the unanimous conclusion that Cubarsí will never reveal any details about his romantic life to the world. But, public opinion has suddenly changed after a certain turn of events following Cubarsí's match last night.
After waving goodbye to a few supporters in the stands, Cubarsí was seen talking to none other than Lamine Yamal.
The 22-year old singer-songwriter was seen by many in the crowd at Cubarsí's match and it was even said that Yamal could be seen cheering for Cubarsí all throughout the match.
In addition to that, a few videos have even been posted online to platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, of the two talking to each other.
Fans and media alike wondered if the two knew each other prior to the interaction or if they had just magically crossed paths that night.
Photos and videos of Cubarsí leaving the stadium were posted shortly after the boxer left and fans were quick to notice the pair of Louis Vuitton sunglasses dangling off the collar of his shirt, something that he'd never been seen wearing before.
As the internet always does with things like this, people did their digging into what exact pair Cubarsí was seen wearing and found that they were a pair from Lamine Yamal's "Chico Estrella" collection with Louis Vuitton, released this past January.
So now, the question was, did Cubarsí buy the pair for himself or were they a gift of some sort from the "Starboy" Lamine Yamal himself?
Well, when asked about the sunglasses and if they were apart of a new look, the boxer just fondly smiled and walked off. Could this be his way of subtly hinting at a new relationship with Lamine Yamal?
Lamine Yamal is currently set to start his "Beginning of 3:04" tour with an opening show in Barcelona in just a few weeks. This will be his fourth worldwide tour and is officially stated to be in honor of the release of his eighth studio album,"510", an album that delves into Yamal's personal experiences with building his name as an artist, as well as the several struggles that he's faced along his path to fame.
With all of the short clips and photos of Yamal and Cubarsí interacting, as well as the subtle nod to Yamal from Cubarsí when asked about his sunglasses, fans of Yamal have begun speculating that his song off of 510, "love-stitched", is actually about Cubarsí.
Fans have been analyzing the song's lyrics since its release and the general consensus has been that it's a love song written for someone specific, but no one knew who Yamal possibly could've written it for. Now, people are drawing connections between the song's lyrics and the beloved boxer.
Some of the lyrics that people, seemingly overnight, have connected to Cubarsí are as follows—
"That scar on your face, I love how it feels against my lips"
"I guess that's why they say you have a heart of gold"
"The world sees you, but you only see me"
Neither Cubarsí or Yamal, or their respective management teams, have made any public comments or statements regarding their rumored romance yet, so the public can only continue to speculate.
While their apparent romance has been nothing short of a surprise to everyone, many have commented on how perfectly the two seem to fit each other and how they're hopeful that the rumors are true.
What do you think? Do you think that this is all a small interaction blown out of proportion by the public or has the next big celebrity couple finally happened?
Pau rapidly blinked, as if what he had just read was a figment of his imagination or some sort of really weird dream.
Nope, still there.
Okay, what on earth was Pau supposed to do about this first?
Right, he should probably call Pedri back since he had at least five missed calls from him.
He already knew for sure that his manager was already dealing with all of the aftermath that definitely followed the release of the article that Pau had just read, along with all of the other things posted regarding his alleged relationship.
Oh god, what did Lamine think about all of this?
Pau really hoped that he would get some sort of chance to apologize to him about this entire mess.
He would have to worry about that later though. Right now, he had to call Pedri back and deal with his end of everything.
He hit the call icon under Pedri's contact and slid on his slippers as he waited for him to pick up and immediately yell at Pau.
"Cubarsí." Pedri's stern voice echoed from his phone's speaker.
"Okay, so I know that I'm in deep trouble right now."
"That's one way to put it," He could practically hear the way that Pedri was rolling his eyes at him. "While you were sleeping your ass off, me and your entire management team have been scouring through every single thing posted about you and Lamine Yamal since last night's match. And believe me, those have been the most depressing hours of my entire life."
"Listen, can't we just put out a statement saying that me and Lamine literally just met last night and that there's nothing going on between us?"
"Obviously, we could do that. But, you know how much the public doesn't like to listen." There was some muffled conversation in the background. "But, it's fine actually. I think we reached a good way to deal with this all."
"Really? That was fast—"
"Just get over here within the next hour or dating rumors with Lamine Yamal will be the least of your problems, Cuba."
"Yeah, heard you." He grumbled, already trudging to the bathroom.
"Alright, see you then." Pedri paused briefly. "Love you." He quickly hung up before Pau could even say it back.
Pau sighed tiredly, finally setting his phone down on the bathroom counter and grabbing his toothbrush.
Today was going to be day.
—
When Pau walked into the room number that Pedri had texted him, he expected to see his best friend glaring daggers at him.
What he definitely did not expect was to see Lamine Yamal of all people sitting at the table in the middle of the meeting room.
But before he could even utter out a single word, Pedri spotted him and basically shoved him into the seat directly across from Lamine.
"Took you long enough, thanks for showing up." Pedri said sarcastically before sitting down next to him.
"You're welcome," Pau tried grinning, but was immediately shut down by his best friend giving him a nasty side eye.
"Okay, so we're all here right now because of the new rumor going around that Pau Cubarsí here," Pedri motioned to Pau, "and Lamine Yamal are romantically involved with each other."
Everyone at the table nodded at that. Pau couldn't help, but glance at Lamine to try and gage the singer's feelings on all of this. Which didn't really give him any new insight since Lamine looked like the only thing he was thinking about was the meeting itself.
"As your respective managers, me and Gavi have been talking nonstop for the past few hours about this all and we've come to two ways you two can decide to go about this."
The brunette man sitting next to Lamine, Pau assumed he was Gavi, hummed in agreement before continuing where Pedri left off.
"Right, like Pedri said, we've come up with two main ways to go about these rumors." Lamine subtly looked over at Pau out of the corner of his eye. "One, both your teams and you two personally can issue official statements denying everything and explaining the situation and we'll do our best on our ends to make the rumors die down over time."
"Isn't that literally what I said we could do?" Pau turned to Pedri with an unimpressed look.
"No, our way is better than whatever you said," He heard someone quietly laugh at that.
"Wait, then what's the second way?" Lamine raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I was getting to that. God, all you superstars and your impatience." Gavi scoffed. "The second way is that you guys don't deny anything."
"What?" Lamine and Pau interjected at the same time.
"What are we supposed to do? Just let people keep speculating?" Pau asked.
"Not exactly."
"What do you guys mean not exactly?" Lamine's eyes narrowed and both managers quickly glanced at each other before Pedri explained further.
"We mean that you guys both come out and confirm the rumors."
"Wait—"
"So, like—"
"So, you guys start a PR relationship and start fake dating for lack of a better term." Gavi finally confirmed outright.
Pau and Lamine both gaped at that, clearly neither of them actually thought that this would be the route that their managers would suggest to them.
Sure, publicity stunt relationships weren't a foreign concept to them, both of them had been in the public eye long enough to know that those were just a normal thing in the world of celebrities.
That didn't mean that either of them ever thought they'd be in one.
Especially not with each other.
They had literally just met last night, how were they supposed to pull off something like this?
"I know that it kind of seems like a crazy idea and you're both probably wondering why we're even suggesting this." Pedri looked at the matching surprised faces on both of their faces. "But after looking through the vast majority of things that people are saying about the two of you possibly being together, me and Gavi really think that extending this rumor to something more could be good for both of you."
"I agree, I mean look at all of these articles that have been written about you two in just the past twelve hours or so." Gavi opened his laptop and swiveled it around so that Pau and Lamine could take a look.
Just like Gavi had said, there were dozens upon dozens of articles and headlines about them.
Starboy Lamine Yamal and Golden Boy Pau Cubarsí: Pop Culture's Hottest New Couple?
Boxing Champion Cubarsí Sports Lover Lamine Yamal's Louis Vuitton Sunglasses!
Boxer and Singer, They Say it's a Romance Straight Out of a Movie
Learn More About the Speculated Muse behind Lamine Yamal's hit song, "love-stitched"
"Beginning of 3:04" Tour Set to Start Soon, Will Lamine Yamal Hard Launch his Rumored Relationship with Pau Cubarsí at the Opening Show?
After Years of Radio Silence on his Love Life, Pau Cubarsí Finally Soft Launches Secret Relationship with Superstar Lamine Yamal!
Pau couldn't help the way his cheeks flushed as he read a few of the headlines, especially since Lamine was right across the table from him, doing the same exact thing.
"We aren't pressuring either of you to make any decision that you don't want to, you guys can think about it if you need more time." Pedri offered sympathetically.
Pau knew that a lot of risks came with comitting to something like a PR relationship. They might not get along and get stuck being around each other, one of them might find someone they want to actually date, the public could scrutinize them over it all for whatever reason.
Either of them could get their heart broken.
But, there was something about the way Lamine was trying to subtly look at him without anyone noticing that made him think that maybe those risks were worth taking.
Maybe this was a way to finally get people to stop speculating about his love life, since that hadn't necessarily stopped even after he came out.
Hell, maybe it was even a way to build some sort of friendship with someone that intrigued him the very second that they came into contact with each other.
He met Lamine's gaze and slightly tilted his head in an unspoken, "do you want to do this?". He hoped that Lamine would catch onto what Pau was trying to ask him.
To his surprise and relief, Lamine nodded ever so slightly and from there, it was sealed.
They were doing this.
"It's okay," Lamine suddenly interrupted Gavi, who had been rambling about everything that him and Pedri could do to get people to stop talking about the two of them if that's what they wanted. "We'll do it."
Pedri and Gavi's eyebrows both flew up in surprise at that and they both looked at Lamine before turning to hear Pau's response to that.
"Yeah," Pau smiled dumbly at Lamine. "We'll do it."