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Ryo didn’t intend to start a fansite or anything like that. It just ended up happening, somehow.
His family was full of K-pop fans to begin with. Both Ryo’s mother and older sister shared his love for idols, and none of them were ever shy about it. They had always supported him and his interests.
When Ryo started learning Korean, they were proud and eager to help. When Ryo started scraping together all his pocket money to join fanclubs and buy merch, they helped fund what they could. When Ryo graduated high school and got accepted to Korea University with a scholarship to study international relations, they were impressed and encouraged him to attend.
He was hesitant at first, considering the cost of tuition and living expenses, at war against his own ambition and desire for independence. With their encouragement, Ryo ended up taking that leap, moving to Korea with the promise that he’d find a job to cover his costs.
So, he ended up in Korea, alone, barely an adult, looking for work while all of his connections came from other NCTzens online. Ryo wasn’t the best at composition and design, but he wasn’t too bad either. Combined with the camera he’d inherited from his sister, he started selling raw images to other fansites, along with posting some of his own. Eventually, it evolved into selling his own designs as merchandise too. Spotting his own banners and fans in the crowd of Wishzens had become a point of pride.
Ppang_star had built a name for itself steadily. At first, Ryo went to concerts and live shows. For a side hustle meant to fund his matcha addiction on top of his tuition, sneaking an entire camera into event venues might have seemed troublesome to most. But to him, it was always worth it. Sakuya shined the most when he was on stage, in Ryo’s (not) professional and unbiased opinion.
As his fansite grew, Ryo had the means to purchase and group order albums at the level of getting into fansigns on a regular basis. Now, Ryo was unsure whether choosing to attend those fansigns was a mistake or the best choice he’d ever made.
He’d gotten used to the hustle and bustle of other NCTzens during these shows and fansigns. Everyone was shaking from excitement and nervousness to be meeting their idols, other fansites were rushing to set up their cameras and equipment, and everything blended into a constantly shifting crowd. Ryo became an expert at tuning them out and focusing on his viewfinder until it was his turn to go up and meet the members.
His hand flew down to steady the bag dangling at his side. It was heavy with expensive camera equipment, gifts curated to suit both the members and fans’ tastes, and an album with carefully written questions on sticky notes inside, just waiting to be signed.
From behind the camera’s lens, Ryo’s eyes were automatically drawn to the familiar pink-haired figure seated at the end of the table, hands locked with another fan.
It still felt surreal when it eventually got around to his turn and Ryo was (once again) face-to-face with NCT Wish, even after gaining experience from his fansite. With his exposure, from all this time spent staring at them on a screen, scrolling social media and sorting through his camera roll, there was still nothing like it. Not even the most expensive of cameras could capture the joyous, youthful sparkle they all seemed to emit in real life.
NCT were the pinnacle of idols. The Wish members were all so sweet and beautiful and did their fanservice so sincerely even Ryo was impressed. That was, of course, until they got more familiar with Ryo specifically.
Fanboys weren't super common among boy groups, especially NCT Wish, and even more so considering the fact that Ryo was a fansite master and reoccurring attendee. But the most uncommon thing about him wasn't his gender or status. It was his interactions with the members.
Ryo always loved idols, but he used to be drawn to the cool, performance-oriented types. He used to follow admirable role models like Doyoung or the older NCT members, or even BoA. NCT Wish was the most fanservicey, cutesy group Ryo had ever been a fan of, and somehow the members could tell. Because over the times he's interacted with them, the tone of their interactions had definitely shifted.
The members were seated in age order today, so Ryo basically faced the final boss first. Excluding his bias, of course. Sion lit up when he recognized Ryo, sweet smile already transforming into a mischievous smirk at whatever he saw in Ryo's expectant expression. As soon as Ryo was seated in front of him, the fawning began.
"You're here?" Sion put his hands under his face, cupping his chin in a flower pose, with an exaggerated innocent expression. "Could it be that you wanted to see me?"
Ryo physically recoiled at the aegyo. Sion burst out laughing at his reaction.
"I'm so glad to see our cutest fanboy here again!"
He reached over the table to lace his fingers with Ryo's, grabbing and pulling his arms back even when Ryo tried to dodge. Sion only giggled at the attempt. Ryo scrunched up his nose, but couldn't help the laugh that escaped him as well.
"Ack, hyung, let go and answer my questions!! I wrote them down in Korean and everything."
When Ryo laid out the sticky notes in front of Sion, he read them and laughed again as he processed the contents.
"Aigoo, as sharp as ever, Ryo."
After moving on from Sion once their time was up, Riku reached over the table to actually pet Ryo's head, ruffling his hair and cooing at him like he was a baby.
Yushi smiled while he jokingly requested "better options for answers next time," and promising to beat Ryo at any game they played together, if ever given the chance. Ryo challenged him to a round of Splatoon or something on the Switch, the only console he had experience with, or it'd be unfair.
Jaehee taught him some more dialectical slang, laughing along as Ryo practiced his accent and acting impressed at Ryo recalling what he'd taught him last time.
After they'd discovered how Ryo would react, shutting down their attempts at affection while leaning into it at the same time, the members all played a sort of game with him in the push and pull dynamic they'd established. It was the same song and dance. The NCT Wish members were always teasing him, and Ryo always snapped back. It made fansigns a lot more fun on both ends, and as a bonus, made Ppang_star extremely popular for the humor other NCTzens found in their interactions.
Even his questions became part of the ongoing bit, asking Sion to stop saying noona or stop winking, or Yushi to choose between Jaehee becoming an actual tree or Riku becoming an actual chestnut. It was always absurd and tailored for the members. The video recordings of his fansign interactions were especially popular, for him being such a well-known fan but still joking with the members just as a normal guy would.
Ryo had finally ended up in front of his bias, and the first thing he did was point accusingly at Ryo. Sakuya's expression was so serious it looped back around to being comedic.
"Ppang star! Ryo!"
Ryo pointed back at him. "Fujinaga Sakuya!"
"Wow, full name? Aren't we closer than that by now?…And you brought me something, right?"
Sakuya leaned forward to let Ryo put his silly headband on his head, the springs with overcrowded hearts matching his pink hair. All of the members got small, real gifts, but Sakuya was the only one who got an accessory as well.
"You literally started it?" Once it was settled, Ryo pulled back and gave him a straight expression that caused them both to crack into laughter as he settled the album with its questions in front of him. As Sakuya read through them and answered, he made sure to keep looking back up and talking to Ryo the whole time. Absentmindedly, when Ryo laid his hand across the table, Sakuya let him lace their fingers together and squeeze his hand while he wrote.
"Did you see our latest Videohood performance?" Sakuya asked, knowing full well that Ryo wouldn't miss it even if he hadn't attended the event in person.
"Of course I did." Ryo had even recorded a fancam, in fact, and posted some previews on his account already.
"I know, I saw you post some photos."
"Then why'd you ask?" Ryo cut in, but Sakuya just steamrolled through with his train of thought.
"It was cool, right?" He asked shamelessly.
"Huh? Yeah, Videohood is always cool."
"…Let me rephrase that." Sakuya wrapped up whatever he wrote on the back of the final question's sticky note, capping his pen to set it down and focus on Ryo. His eyes were bright with mirth as he turned all of his attention on him. "I was cool, right? Was Videohood cool or was I cool?"
Ryo squinted suspiciously at his bias, squirming from the intensity of his questioning. "What are you even saying." Ryo tried to turn his head away, but felt the force of Sakuya's gaze pinned on him regardless. He could feel a blush starting to materialize. "…Are you fishing for compliments right now?"
Sakuya shook their clasped hands between them. "I'm your bias, right? So was I the coolest?"
Suddenly, Ryo realized what this was about. Because he hadn't just posed Sakuya's previews, this time; he'd snapped some good photos of the hyungs as well, and one with Yushi's clean dance lines was too good to not see the light until April Fool's, so he'd posted it as a bonus. Was Sakuya getting jealous over losing a fan? He'd never seriously done that before, and Ryo was kind of incredulously amused at the notion.
"Ah… I mean, I guess? You were the coolest."
Sakuya released Ryo's hand, almost throwing it as he leaned away sulkily, so quickly his even his headband shifted off center with him. His eyes were still sparkling with the semblance of suppressed laughter, so Ryo knew it was all an act. "You guess?! What, my fansite is moving to a new favorite?"
Ryo couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of him as he reached to retake his hand, Sakuya letting him easily. He even leaned forward again to let Ryo fix his headband. "No, no, Sakuya's still my favorite!"
"Good." Sakuya's bright, intense gaze seemed to burn through Ryo as he looked at him head on. "Only look at me, Ryo."
Why would he say it like that! Ryo couldn't fight the blush that was surely on his face already, but he just let Sakuya squeeze his hand as his other one came up to cover his face in embarrassment. How was he supposed to respond to that. Ryo's bias was killing him.
Luckily, or unluckily, their time was basically done. Sakuya shook their hands between them once more, smug in his ability to fluster Ryo, and whispered in Japanese in a voice too low for anyone but them two to hear.
"I left you a note on the last one. Check later."
And then he let Ryo go, attention turning to the next fan in line. All too soon, the fanmeeting was over, and Ryo went home pleasantly tired from a blur of a full schedule day. He went through the motions of his hygiene and skincare routine, and he even got some light studying done before he had to move on.
When he got around to sorting through everything that night, Ryo checked the sticky note of the last question Sakuya had answered. The front seemed normal enough, but Sakuya had written in a new answer. It was one of the more fanservice-like questions that his account audience sometimes preferred,
"What would you like NCTzen to call you?"
The answer options were 6 standard petnames and honorifics, but Sakuya had added a 7th one crammed between the rows.
"7. Ppang_star's"
He sputtered, and in disbelief, Ryo checked the back of the note as well. There, a phone number was scribbled, along with some Japanese. "Text me. I can play games with you or more." Was he listening to Ryo and Yushi's conversation?! Seriously, what was with that guy? Ryo literally ran a fansite for him, it's not like he was going anywhere.
In shock, Ryo added the number to his phone and sent off a message.
This is Hirose Ryo, @Ppang_star. Are you seriously that jealous about losing me as a fan?!