Work Text:
jihoon loves his job.
really, he does.
people used to laugh at him, baekho, and bumzu when the three of them were starting out, saying that what they wanted to do would never work, that companies would never put their trust and their money in the hands of three people hiding behind screens and pseudonyms. even his own parents weren't supportive of him at first, saying that music doesn't put food on the table and that he would be better off staying in school and pursuing a career that does.
but against all odds, with their combined perseverance and bumzu's industry connections, the three of them made it work, eventually taking another producer, shannon, under their wing as well.
jihoon loves his job.
jihoon loves it, loves the way he gets paid to make music that reaches thousands of people without sacrificing any of the privacy he so treasures. he likes that he can have dinner anywhere he wants without being asked to sign anything, likes that he can go to airports anytime he wants without having to worry about getting mobbed.
there’s never been anything that’s made jihoon wish that his job was something else, anyone to make him wish that he could have a face to his name, until kim mingyu came along.
★
adore u was the first song jihoon had ever written on his own. after months of watching bumzu and baekho compose for other idols, sometimes even helping them with a few songs, jihoon finally decided to make one that was completely his.
when pledis entertainment contacted them about a debut song for their new soloist, bumzu asked jihoon if he wanted to offer adore u . it was time for jihoon to release his music, bumzu said back then, time for him to make his mark. jihoon said yes.
from then on, lee jihoon, otherwise known as woozi, made almost every song performed by kim mingyu.
jihoon welcomed every bit of praise for mingyu’s music, savored them as if they were meant for his own ears. mingyu’s success meant his success, and that knowledge alone was enough to push jihoon forward and make him try to be better every day.
when mingyu received his first music show win for pretty u , jihoon started crying even before mingyu did, tears of joy streaming down his face as he sat in his studio, the light from the live stream illuminating his face.
when mingyu won his first daesang with oh my! , jihoon downloaded every video he could find of the announcement, played every clip over and over again, and greedily drank every moment in. this is it , he found himself thinking. i’ve finally made it .
in hindsight, maybe jihoon shouldn’t have been at all surprised to realize that his once purely professional relationship with kim mingyu had turned into something a little more … personal.
★
baekho-hyung
r u free rn
woozi
no
doing research for a new album
baekho-hyung
oh ok
woozi-ya fighting! <3
jihoon laughs out loud at that, turning his phone off and putting it into his pocket. he’s sure baekho doesn’t expect his definition of research to mean watching kim mingyu’s concert live, but jihoon figures that his friends don’t necessarily have to know any of the details about how he’d spend the night.
mingyu’s music videos play on the screen one after the other, and while the rest of the crowd fills the stadium with each song’s corresponding fanchant, jihoon finds himself speechless.
jihoon is in a stadium with hundreds of people who willingly listen to and support his music. he knows that the fans are here for mingyu, of course, and not for him, but still.
still.
he's still written every line, created every melody. jihoon likes to think the songs are still his, even if he's the only person in the entire venue who knows it.
after what feels like an eternity, mingyu steps out on the stage to deafening cheers and screams from the audience.
he's extremely proud of mingyu, jihoon realizes as the night goes on, and eternally grateful for him. kim mingyu is exactly the kind of idol who is born for the stage, and jihoon realizes that there is no one else in the world he’d rather make music for.
“i want you to see me as your comfort,” mingyu tells his fans for his final ment. “we’ll be fine, as long as we have each other.”
jihoon leaves the concert with a melody building in his head and his stomach filled with butterflies he never knew existed. the moment he gets back to the studio, jihoon sits at his computer and writes come to me .
★
if jihoon is being honest, he’s not exactly sure why he’s here. he must have been drunk when he bought the ticket to mingyu’s fansign, because he would never do anything like this sober. concerts are one thing, because then he’s just another fan in the sea of a thousand others. to attend an event like this, where they’re actually expected to interact with each other? it’s a different story entirely.
but as the line moves, and as jihoon gets closer to mingyu, he finds himself relaxing. jihoon introduces himself when he reaches the front of the table. the idol reaches out a hand for jihoon to shake, and doesn’t let go. jihoon watches as mingyu scribbles a message on his album, and returns mingyu’s smile when he hands the album to him. the smile stays on jihoon’s face long after he’s returned to his assigned seat.
after a while, mingyu stands up from the table and moves to the front of the stage. he performs a few songs, and makes small talk with his fans. he answers a few questions and happily entertains their requests for silly poses.
mingyu poses onstage for another fan, and jihoon stares, transfixed, as mingyu’s smile transforms his entire face. he’s a perfect subject, in every sense of the word, and the thought brings a smile to jihoon’s face, unbidden.
jihoon has never been one for photography, but he’s certain he wants to capture this moment forever. so with the beginnings of a melody starting to form in his mind, jihoon pulls out a piece of paper and starts to write the lyrics to snap shoot .
★
“thank you for all the greetings,” mingyu says after he blows out the candles on his birthday cake. it’s shaped like a dog this year too, like it has been for every other year that jihoon has watched mingyu celebrate his birthday.
“ did you have a good birthday? i did!” mingyu says as he stabs a fork into his cake.
“ what did you do today?” mingyu reads out from another comment, and even through the grainy video quality of the live stream, jihoon notices the way mingyu’s eyes light up. mingyu rambles between bites, going on and on about the day he had with his friends. he talks about how they surprised him at home with flowers and cake, how they all cleared their schedules so they could take a road trip together, and how they made sure to take him to a restaurant that served seaweed soup before dropping him off at the company. he had an amazing birthday, mingyu confesses, one he’s sure he’ll remember forever.
at one point, mingyu’s phone rings, and he promptly answers and informs the caller that they’re on loudspeaker. the response is a slightly disjointed chorus of happy birthday, mingyu-ya!, which mingyu responds to with an affectionate roll of his eyes. someone else chimes with an i miss you!, and mingyu says, “we just saw each other a few hours ago, dummy.” the call ends, and mingyu turns his full attention back to the ongoing vlive.
“my friends are stupid sometimes,” he says, trying and failing to sound exasperated.
jihoon has heard all about mingyu’s circle of friends. the 97z, as they call themselves, are essentially a collection of the industry’s brightest and shiniest celebrities. kim mingyu the idol, lee seokmin the musical actor, xu minghao the model, and the list goes on. jihoon actually doesn’t know a lot of things about them, aside from the fact that they all spend an inordinate amount of time showing up at each other’s schedules and featuring on each other’s instagram pages.
jihoon has to admit that he's impressed. most industry friendships tend to focus more on the industry part rather than the friendship, which is exactly the reason he doesn’t have a lot of friendships like those in the first place.
yet mingyu seems to genuinely love these people, and somehow that thought comforts jihoon. he’s glad that there are people who care about mingyu so much, that he has friends who would go out of their way to make his special day truly special. jihoon cares about this idol, and he no longer finds any point in denying it.
for his birthday gift for mingyu that year, jihoon writes that pure look of joy on mingyu’s face into a song he names hey buddy .
★
jihoon likes to think that he has a pretty firm grip on reality. he's spent enough years adjacent to the idol industry to know that so much of it is heavily manufactured, that almost none of it is real.
but for some reason, there's an insistent voice in his head telling him that kim mingyu is different.
mingyu has given a voice to jihoon's dreams, accompanied by plenty of charming laughs in his variety show features and lots of well-timed winks in his music show fancams. mingyu made jihoon into something more than a teenage boy who occasionally tinkered with composing software, made him into a legitimate producer with a steadily growing list of songs under his name.
and mingyu cares.
mingyu cares about jihoon as his fan, the way he cares about each and every person who shows up to his schedules to support him. mingyu is warm, incredibly so, and he extends that warmth to every single one of his fans. he ends his concerts early so they can get home safely, designs his lightstick to be bright enough to save a life, provides food and coffee trucks during fansigns, and calls them all by name.
mingyu cares about jihoon as his producer, too. mingyu asks about how woozi is doing every time he records something with bumzu, sometimes even going so far as to send food and other gifts to the studio. mingyu takes every available opportunity to thank woozi, to acknowledge his hard work in every interview and every song release.
jihoon finds that somewhere along the line, he has fallen in love with the one person he has absolutely no right to fall for.
and for someone who has built his whole career on writing about being in love, jihoon finds that he has absolutely no idea what to do about it.
★
“baekho-hyung? how did you tell minhyun-hyung who you were?”
“we got introduced at a party with same-age friends,” baekho says.
"did he always know? that you're, you know, a secret producer too?"
"there are really no secrets when you're friends with yoon jeonghan," baekho muses. "so yes, minhyun's always known who i am. is there anyone you want to tell, jihoon?"
there's a split second where jihoon almost says yes. he wants to tell mingyu who he is, wants mingyu to know him beyond another faceless, nameless fan in a crowd of thousands.
then that split second passes, and jihoon realizes that there is simply no way. this is kim mingyu, his inbox is probably already full of people claiming to be woozi. there's no reason for mingyu to believe jihoon, no reason for mingyu to not dismiss him as another person looking for an extra five minutes of fame. in other words, it's simply not happening.
"jihoon?" baekho repeats, concerned.
jihoon forces a smile as he looks up at baekho. "there's no one to tell, hyung," he says as he quickly turns away. "i was really just asking."
★
“minhyun-hyung? baekho-hyung isn’t here, he’s probably in his studio.”
“i know,” minhyun tells him cheerfully. “i’m here to see you.”
“is everything okay?”
“i wanted to give you this,” minhyun says, handing jihoon an envelope.
jihoon opens it and pulls out a vip ticket and a backstage pass for minhyun’s new musical, dated for the night of his birthday.
“hyung, is this for me?”
“baekho told me you wanted to see the show,” minhyun replies nonchalantly.
jihoon is shocked. he remembers mentioning to baekho once, when ticketing for minhyun’s musical started, that he’d been hoping to see that show for some time. but the tickets had sold out extremely fast, and jihoon hadn’t been able to secure any.
“thank you, hyung,” jihoon says, touched. “you really didn’t have to do this.”
“it’s nothing, jihoonie,” minhyun says as he turns to leave. “happy early birthday!”
right before he steps out of the studio, the older turns back around and says, “just so you know, i got the best seat for you. don’t miss it, okay?”
“okay, hyung,” jihoon promises easily.
★
by some stroke of fate, minhyun's promised best seat turns out to be even better than jihoon ever expected. jihoon has the perfect view of the stage in front of him, baekho on his left, and the biggest surprise of his life currently making his way over to take the seat on his right.
“kim mingyu-ssi?” jihoon whispers as the idol sits down, voice filled with thinly veiled awe.
“oh, hi!” mingyu says casually, almost like they’re old friends. “jihoon, right?”
starstruck, jihoon can only nod.
baekho turns to look at jihoon, slightly bewildered, and jihoon suddenly remembers that nobody knows he had been sneaking out to attend mingyu's schedules. the older fixes him with a look that says we're definitely talking about this later , and when jihoon nods ever so slightly, leans back into his seat and waits for the lights to dim.
thankfully, they don't get the chance to talk about it. baekho receives a call from minhyun as soon as the show ends, and the two of them make their way backstage, mingyu trailing behind.
there's a part of jihoon that wonders if maybe, he should make conversation, but it turns out that he doesn't have to.
“mingyu!” jihoon hears someone call, and turns around to see another one of the show’s leads, seokmin, running at full speed toward them. mingyu catches the other smoothly, spinning him around and peppering kisses across his face.
jihoon hastily tears his eyes away from the pair, hoping that his face doesn’t show how shattered he feels.
★
pledis entertainment puts in a request for a ballad for mingyu, and jihoon throws himself headfirst into composing the new song.
my love only amounts to this , jihoon writes, as he thinks about the time he’s spent loving mingyu from afar. mingyu is an idol and jihoon is still his fan, and idol-fan relationships never go anywhere, even if you also happen to be said idol’s secret producer.
you make today’s me look forward to tomorrow’s you, as he looks at the list of songs he’s already prepared for mingyu’s future releases. briefly, jihoon wonders how many of those will ever see the light of day.
and even though jihoon knows that they’re of different worlds, and that mingyu will probably never get to know him for anything beyond a few fansigns and a musical, jihoon makes a promise anyway. i’ll protect you throughout all your days.
it’s a lot of work, trying to distill the past few years of his feelings for mingyu into three minutes and twenty-one seconds, but finally, jihoon gives the song one last listen and deems it good enough to be sent to the company.
he uploads the finished guide into a new folder and calls it all my love .
★
“i’m sure woozi would have loved to receive this award in person,” bumzu says at the 2021 asia artist awards. “however, i’m also sure that it’s best not to disturb him when he’s locked himself up in the studio.”
the audience responds with good-natured laughter, and once the laughter has died down, bumzu continues, “it’s a great honor to receive this award for woozi. it’s truly unexpected to receive such an award at the young age of 26, and on his behalf, i would like to thank all of you for giving so much love to his work. i hope that you continue to support woozi as he comes back with even better music.”
bumzu concludes the speech shortly, then returns to his seat. a few minutes later, mingyu walks up the stage to receive his second daesang.
needless to say, jihoon is overwhelmed. a few months ago, bumzu told him that when mingyu first listened to his demo of rock with you , the idol loved it so much he actually started crying. it was nice to know, back then, that mingyu liked something he made enough to actually shed tears over it. that thought alone made jihoon so happy that he nearly started crying too.
he just never expected that the rest of the world would receive his work as well as mingyu did. he hoped they could keep it on the charts for a few weeks more than normal, sure, which mingyu’s fans and the public certainly did. did he ever, in his wildest dreams, hope that it would be enough for him to ever win best producer on the same night that it would be awarded song of the year? of course not.
it's a special kind of honor, receiving two extremely prestigious awards for the same song, and jihoon carries the high with him for the rest of the night. he falls asleep thinking of mingyu, and tries not to wonder too hard if mingyu is thinking of him too.
★
jihoon walks into his studio a couple of days later to find a huge bouquet of flowers on his desk and bumzu on his couch.
"hyung?" he asks, gesturing to the flowers. "what's this?"
"there's a card," bumzu says as he stands. "why don't you read it and see?"
our best producer woozi-ssi, congratulations! , jihoon reads, in handwriting that, thanks to an ever-growing pile of signed sticky notes, posters, and albums, has now become extremely familiar. his suspicions are confirmed when he looks at the bottom to see the idol's signature.
jihoon frowns to himself, starting to wonder if this might be some kind of elaborate prank. he flips the card over, hoping for an explanation, only to see another line of mingyu's messy scrawl. the message goes, ps: thank you for the daesang!, accompanied by an extremely detailed drawing of a dog blowing a kiss.
"hyung,” jihoon whispers, still in disbelief. “i don't deserve this."
"of course you do, jihoonie," bumzu replies, fingers running affectionately through jihoon's hair. "you and mingyu are here because of each other. of course you deserve this."
★
mingyu goes on a world tour the following year. unable to follow him to every city, jihoon tries to be content with lurking on twitter and with watching his fancams.
it's been seven years after his debut, but somehow, mingyu still does his best to perform at every show with the energy of a rookie idol. he's no longer the boy who walked into an audition room in his slippers and sang the national anthem, that's for sure, but he's still as hardworking and earnest about everything as he was the day he first started.
but jihoon notices it, the strain on mingyu’s voice that seems to grow more obvious as the tour goes on, and the slump in his shoulders that becomes more pronounced at every airport photo. when he concludes his tour with an encore in seoul (this one, jihoon can finally watch in person), mingyu can only whisper his ment into the mic. mingyu is exhausted, and though he tries his best to put on a bright smile and reassure his fans that he’s okay, jihoon sees right through him anyway.
jihoon knows full well that this is all part and parcel of an idol’s job, but it unsettles him. he finds himself wondering if mingyu has someone to lean on at the end of all of this, if he has someone to greet him at the door whenever he comes home. he wonders if mingyu has warmth waiting for him when the winds get too harsh and the days get too cold. he wonders if mingyu has any space in his life for eternal love, and, in another moment of weakness, allows himself to wonder if that place could be his.
he puts those thoughts to paper and fits a track over them. for the first time in his career, he decides to send the song directly to mingyu, with the email containing only two words: to you .
★
“mingyu-ya? what’s up?”
jihoon doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, he swears. he was just passing by to give bumzu his latest draft of lyrics for the new fromis_9 song, but he hears the next words out of bumzu's mouth and feels like he's been brutally slapped.
“sure, mingyu,” jihoon hears bumzu say. “i’ll tell woozi you want to try working on your own music now.”
jihoon runs out of the building, ignoring shannon’s gasp of concern as he rushes past her with tears streaming down his face.
★
“baekho-hyung told me you were sick,” soonyoung says as he enters jihoon’s apartment. “i didn’t believe him, because one, you rarely get sick, and two, you’d still be at work even if you were.”
“what are you doing here? aren’t you supposed to be at work?”
“i don’t care,” the other says decisively. “they’re grown-up idols, they should survive without their choreographer for a day. what happened, jihoonie?”
it’s incredibly childish, not to mention unprofessional. mingyu has spent years in the industry by now, of course, it was only natural for him to want to start working on his music on his own. if it had been any other artist, jihoon might even be proud.
but this is mingyu, so the only thing jihoon feels is heartbreak.
jihoon sits on his couch, and leans into soonyoung when his best friend wraps an arm around him. he tells him everything, from attending mingyu’s schedules in secret, to meeting him at the musical. he talks about the conversation he overheard, how it ended with mingyu basically saying that he doesn’t want woozi’s music anymore. soonyoung stays quiet the entire time, patiently waiting.
when he speaks up, he only says one thing.
“you really have feelings for him, don’t you?”
jihoon only nods, too exhausted for anything else.
“oh, jihoonie,” soonyoung says, squeezing jihoon tighter, “you’ll be okay.”
★
jihoon takes a deep, grounding breath as he opens the door to bumzu’s studio and enters.
“i talked with mingyu last week,” bumzu says once jihoon is seated in front of him. jihoon fidgets uncomfortably, waiting for bumzu to drop the news that will definitively break his heart. when the older takes too long to get to the point, jihoon loses all his patience and cuts bumzu off.
“hyung,” he says, pained. “you can stop trying to be nice to me now. it’s over with mingyu, i already know that.”
“what?” bumzu asks, bewildered. “jihoon, what on earth are you saying?”
jihoon sighs helplessly, and looks up. “i already know he doesn’t want to work with me anymore, hyung. i heard you talking to him.”
“but that’s not what we talked about at all!” bumzu exclaims. “he asked me if we would be fine with him also working on his next album. he asked me if you would be willing to teach him.”
“hyung, what?”
“mingyu wants to work with you, jihoon,” bumzu explains patiently. “he wants to meet you.”
★
“mingyu, this is woozi. woozi, this is mingyu.”
“thanks, hyung.” woozi says. he waits until bumzu has left the room to finally look at the idol sitting across from him. “hi,” he tells mingyu, trying for a smile.
“i don’t understand,” mingyu replies confusedly. “you’re woozi?”
“yes?” jihoon says, hating how uncertain his voice sounds.
"but you're jihoon!" mingyu says incredulously. "i know you! you go to almost all of my schedules! if you've been woozi all along, why didn't you ever tell me?"
"i never knew how to say it," he admits after a few moments of silence, looking down at his lap and hoping mingyu doesn't notice how red his face is.
"i'm sorry," jihoon adds sincerely. "i know this must be so weird for you."
"it's okay," mingyu replies, now smiling at him gently. "i'm just happy i finally got to meet you properly, woozi-nim."
★
“why me?” jihoon asks a few days in.
“what do you mean?” mingyu asks in return, looking up from the lyrics he’s writing.
“you’re kim mingyu,” jihoon says simply. “you’re practically the most popular idol out there. shouldn’t you have a very long list of producers who want to work with you? why choose me?”
“what, aside from the fact that you’ve made ninety percent of my discography?”
the bluntness makes jihoon laugh, and he smiles as he says, “exactly, mingyu. don’t you think it’s time for something new?”
“i don’t want something new,” mingyu says simply. “and besides, i always thought you wrote about love so prettily.”
jihoon almost blushes at mingyu’s words, but something about that statement makes him pause. "so," jihoon says slowly. "you came here because you want me to help you make a love song?"
"um, yes?"
oh .
"is it for a specific someone?"
"not exactly," mingyu muses. "are your love songs always for a specific someone?"
yeah, jihoon thinks sadly. you.
★
“can you look at something for me, hyung?”
they’ve been working for a few weeks now, with mingyu’s new album taking shape more and more every day. jihoon used to hope for a friendship between them, but mingyu had been so intent on keeping a professional distance that jihoon was beginning to lose hope. mingyu is so painfully formal, always addressing the older as woozi and adding all the required honorifics. jihoon’s equally amazed and frustrated at mingyu for his manners.
you don’t have to be so stiff with me , jihoon wanted to say. i know that i have no right to want to be anything else, but at the very least, please just be my friend.
so when mingyu actually slips up and calls him hyung , jihoon physically feels his brain stop. he freezes like a deer in headlights, and mingyu takes his shock for disapproval.
“i’m so so sorry, woozi-nim,” mingyu stammers, looking like he’d much rather bury himself alive than come close to offending jihoon. if jihoon’s brain had been working properly, he might have even found it funny. “it won’t happen again.”
“ah,” jihoon says, finally having regained control of his mental faculties. “it’s okay, mingyu. you can call me hyung.”
mingyu’s responding smile is blinding. jihoon flushes red, and hastily turns away.
★
“these lyrics are really good, oppa. did you make them?”
“which ones?” jihoon asks absently.
“here,” shannon says, pulling out a piece of paper from the stack on the desk. she holds it up and starts to read, “ falling over in order, this feeling nobody knows, i fall over in one hit like a domino. ”
“oh, no,” jihoon responds. those lyrics aren’t his, he’s never even heard them before. someone else must have written them, and jihoon knows only one person who could be leaving lyrics around in his studio. “mingyu made them.”
“it’s nice, that mingyu-oppa really knows what he’s doing.”
“he does, doesn’t he?”
jihoon means for it to sound like approval, or maybe something close to pride, but shannon turns to look at him with concern at his tone. he wonders when he became so transparent to his workmates, and if those same feelings of heartache show so clearly when mingyu looks at him.
“oh, oppa,” she says, squeezing jihoon’s shoulder comfortingly. “i’m sorry.”
★
“jihoon told me that your song is almost finished,” bumzu says at lunch one day.
“really, hyung?” mingyu asks excitedly.
“yeah,” jihoon affirms. “i think we still have to figure out the mixing in some parts, but we should be done this week.”
“wow,” mingyu breathes, looking at jihoon with something close to awe. “you’re amazing, hyung.”
“it’s nothing,” jihoon says, brushing the compliment off. mingyu has been like this to him lately, brimming with compliments and adoration, and it’s always hard for him to recalibrate and remind himself that mingyu’s only in his life for long enough to learn how to write a song.
“you’re amazing,” mingyu repeats, his voice insistent. he catches jihoon’s eyes and holds his gaze. once jihoon breaks eye contact, mingyu adds, “i can’t wait to tell my friends!”
“your friends?” baekho asks curiously. something tells jihoon that he’s not going to like the answer to this question, but he leans in to hear mingyu better anyway.
“yes!” mingyu says enthusiastically. “my friends have been really excited about this song. especially seokmin, he’s been waiting for this for some time.”
a memory surfaces in jihoon’s mind the moment mingyu mentions seokmin’s name. that night feels like a lifetime ago, when jihoon went with baekho to support minhyun in his musical and found mingyu sitting right next to him. when jihoon went backstage, and watched as mingyu picked his friend up and spun him around the room like he weighed nothing. that night feels like a lifetime ago, but jihoon feels the memory sting like it happened yesterday.
huh. maybe mingyu's love song is for a specific someone, after all. jihoon can only hope that seokmin would like the song as much as he knows he does.
★
“what did you think?” jihoon asks as the song ends. he’s met with silence, and immediately his heart sinks at mingyu’s lack of response. belatedly, jihoon realizes that this is one of the things he’s taken for granted about the anonymity of his job. criticism about his music is much easier to swallow when it’s from a distance and much harder to take when it’s right in front of him.
“it’s fine if you hate it!” jihoon says hurriedly. “we still have time to make a new song,” he adds, his hands already moving to close the opened file.
“don’t,” mingyu says suddenly, reaching out to cover jihoon’s hand with his. “hyung…”
jihoon turns, and finds mingyu’s eyes trained solely on him. “mingyu?” jihoon asks, when he finds his voice.
“hyung, can i kiss you?”
jihoon just nods mutely, and mingyu surges forward to crash their lips together. it’s clumsy and uncoordinated and the best thing that has happened to jihoon in all his years of existence.
“i’ve wanted to do that forever,” mingyu whispers once they part.
“honestly?” jihoon confesses, pulling the other close again. “me too.”
★
“i wanted the music in this new album to feel a bit more straightforward and expressive. the process of falling in love fills you up with happiness unlike any other experience, and this is a song that captures that restless excitement transparently.”
jihoon smiles fondly at the sight of mingyu on his screen. he tunes out the rest of the questions about mingyu’s album preparations, only focusing again when he hears the mc mention his name.
“mingyu, you worked with woozi on domino . how was the experience?”
“getting to work with woozi-hyung was amazing,” mingyu says sincerely. “he’s taught me a lot, and i’m really honored to be one of the few artists who have gotten to meet him in person.”
“do you have any special message for him today?”
“woozi-hyung,” mingyu begins, facing the camera and smiling like jihoon is right there in front of him. “i know i’ve said this a million times since we started working together, but i’m saying it again: thank you, so much, for everything. i’m a better person because of you. i love you.”
there’s a few seconds of pause as the full force of mingyu’s own words catch up to him.
“oh my god,” mingyu says once it all sinks in, with the same youthful, boyish laugh jihoon had found himself falling for, all those years ago. “can we cut that part?”
jihoon rolls his eyes and reaches out to pick up his phone. he bites back a smile once he reads mingyu’s last few messages, and sends out a few of his own.
minggu <3
[2 pictures attached]
all ready for the live showcase!!
you’ll be watching, won’t you?
uji-hyungie <3
you’re so stupid
i love you too 💖
★
“are you really okay with it?” mingyu asks, face buried in jihoon’s chest as he hugs the older. “i’m really sorry, hyung. i don’t know what i was thinking.”
"stop apologizing,” jihoon murmurs comfortingly. when mingyu refuses to reply, he adds, “why wouldn’t i be okay?" he stops stroking mingyu’s hair and uses a hand to tilt his face up. "now, the whole world knows that you're all mine."
there's a slightly dazed look in mingyu's eyes as he stares straight at jihoon. he swallows heavily, then says, "i'm all yours, hoonie-hyung. only yours."
"exactly," jihoon agrees, as he leans down for a kiss. "you're my superstar. my sweet, sweet superstar.”