Chapter Text
“And what can we say about this?” Jungkook doesn’t look very pleased, setting aside the report Taehyun had just spent a week working on. He’d checked into a very expensive hotel, even staked outside in a residential area for two whole nights, only eaten buns and ramen this whole time, just for Jungkook to not appreciate his hard work. “Who cares if these low-profile actors are dating? I don’t even recognise their names!”
Jungkook lets out a sigh and holds a hand to his temple. He continues, “You’re meant to be my best couple catcher, and yet, we haven’t been able to post about any couple with full certainty in almost a year. You're lucky your guesses have turned out right.” He runs a hand through his hair, ruining the styling his girlfriend must’ve done before—Taehyun can recognise it because that’s how she always did his hair.
“They’ve gotten better at hiding it,” Taehyun mumbles to himself, averting his gaze to the ground when Jungkook glares at him.
“You’re lucky I’m dating your sister,” Jungkook grumbles before taking out a file from under the pile on his desk. It’s honestly a miracle that he ever manages to find anything on his table, the mess seemingly grows every time Taehyun visits his office. “Look at these two.”
Taehyun peers over the desk and raises a brow when he recognises the faces, two male idols from different groups. “What about them?”
Jungkook leans over the desk, a smirk on his face as he says, “Rumour is, these two have been dating for a while now. But no one’s been able to piece any evidence together, just stories of ex-trainees who may or may not be bitter and spreading lies.”
“But I thought we didn’t do idols,” Taehyun answers, taking the pictures from Jungkook’s hands. He’s never been a big fan of male idols, always a girl group fan through and through. But he’s seen both of their faces before, on billboards and even ramen packets (like the ones he binged during his stake). They’re famous enough that if Taehyun was to post an article about them, it would have a big impact—the people know Taehyun is reliable. But they had a policy not to post about idols.
“This is different,” Jungkook exclaims, clasping his hands together. “One of them is going to have a solo debut soon, so his company requested we post about him. They didn’t specify if it was anything negative or positive, though,”
He looks evil, giggling to himself about his plan, not a care in the world that he could possibly subject two innocent people to hate they don’t deserve. Taehyun doesn’t really care, as long as he can get his work done and hopefully enjoy it this time around.
“So you want me to check if,” Taehyun pauses, eyes scanning the page to find their names. “This Choi Yeonjun is dating Choi Soobin?”
Jungkook nods. “And don’t worry, you won’t be on this alone.”
As if this couldn’t get worse, now Taehyun had to work with someone?
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10 hours.
It took Taehyun 10 hours to get through all the content related to Choi Yeonjun and Choi Soobin, idols from different groups—and yet, there was so much to them! At first Taehyun thought tiktoks would be enough for him to get a good idea of what their dynamics must be, after all, people have gone through the effort to make his life easier, right? No. He went from tiktok to youtube, scrolling through variety shows they both attended together, the number of times they’ve mentioned each other in their own content, and—
“Are you crying?” Taehyun sniffles, wiping a stray tear that spilled over to glance at Kai, standing by him with a confused look on his face. “You okay?”
Taehyun puts his phone down, hoping Kai didn’t see he was reading Yeonjun and Soobin (yeonbin, as their fans call them) fanfiction. So, yeah, maybe a few of the hours in the 10 were of him reading fanfiction, but he couldn’t help himself. The two of them look so good together, Taehyun felt like he could feel the tension fans were pointing out between them. Like when Yeonjun slapped Soobin’s ass as they crossed paths on stage, and the smile Soobin gave him as a reaction. Or when their eyes met in the middle of a variety show, and Yeonjun licked his lips, Soobin’s eyes dropped to his tongue before gulping. They were fucking. No other explanation.
“I’m fine,” Taehyun says, clearing his throat. He rubs his face roughly, being careful of his contacts before looking up at Kai. “I’m great. How are you Kai?”
Kai normally sits on the table beside Taehyun and he almost never completes his work on time, always teethering over the deadline. He’s been like this possibly all his life, or at least he’s been like this since Taehyun met him in university. He can never understand how Kai manages all the stress of deadlines and hold a smile over his face knowing he’ll get an earful from Jungkook later; Taehyun could never. But he supposes it’s because he wants to impress his older sister's boyfriend.
“I’m fine, you sure you’re alright?” Kai asks again, pulling his seat to sit next to him. “Is this because of Jungkook hyung? You know, you can tell your sister if he’s getting a bit too mean. That’s what I do.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Kai casually answers, leaning back in his seat. “She always ends up calling him and makes him apologise to me.”
Taehyun has no idea how Kai hasn’t lost his job yet. “I can’t do that,” Taehyun huffs, turning his focus back to his monitor screen. “I refuse to use my sister to make work easier for me. Besides, this isn’t because of Hyung.”
“Then what is it?” Kai glances at his screen before gasping, latching a hand onto Taehyun’s shoulder. “Wait, you’re writing about Choi Yeonjun?”
“And Choi Soobin, look.”
“I love them both so much. Can we switch stories, please, please. Please, Taehyun-ah, please?”
Taehyun rolls his eyes, unable to hide his fond smile before shrugging Kai’s arm off. “I can’t do that, Hyung specifically assigned me on this. And besides, you don’t report on relationships.”
“I’ll do it for them!” Kai whines, shaking his head. “I’ve been following the two of them since their debuts, which by the way, were on each other’s birthdays. Do you know how crazy of a coincidence that is?”
Taehyun does know, because he’s just spent the past 10 hours researching them.
“Kai-yah—”
“Please.”
Taehyun sighs. “Look, Hyung said someone else is going to be joining me, maybe you could check with him to see if that’s you, or ask if you could be put on this instead?”
“I love you, Taehyun-ah.”
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Taehyun is exactly one more almost-kiss away from writing Yeonbin fanfiction himself. He doesn’t understand how the fans have managed all these years without a single kiss between the two of them. The closest they got was to Yeonjun kissing Soobin’s cheek as a punishment on a variety show—though Taehyun reckons it wasn’t much of a punishment for either of them.
It makes sense why people suspect the two of them are dating, Taehyun's ready to pronounce them married if he could after binging all their content. There is a small part of him that wonders if this is all just fanservice, two idols knowing attention flocks towards them when they do anything as small as look at each other. But there’s so much lore to them, he can’t ignore it.
Yeonjun and Soobin, according to the profiles written about them online (with sources, of course) state that the two of them used to train together, until their label decided to separate the two of them into different groups, debuting a year and 3 months apart. Taehyun would kill to see them in a group together. They’re the most popular duo of their groups combined, which should make him feel bad for the other members of their groups, if Taehyun could even remember their names.
He’s got all the backstory ready, even typed it all up after he finished crying to yet another angsty, slow burn fanfiction. He doesn’t understand why Yeonjun and Soobin fans like to hurt themselves so often, but he’s enjoying it.
“Hyung said I can’t join you,” Kai mumbles, walking back from the direction of Jungkook’s office. “He said he’s already got two people working on it. And that he can’t get rid of the other guy.”
“Who is the other guy?” Taehyun asks. He hadn’t gotten the chance to ask Jungkook about it the other day since he had a meeting to get to.
Kai shrugs his shoulders. “Some guy called Choi Beomgyu. Jungkook said he’s usually downstairs.”
Downstairs? Taehyun shivers at the thought of the downstairs. All the most evil articles written about celebrities were dealt with by the people downstairs. Most of them were truthful, but some were so blatantly false, Taehyun couldn’t understand how they could bear to write about something so far from the truth.
“I’m sorry you couldn’t join me,” Taehyun says, patting Kai’s back.
Kai slumps over in his seat, leaning his head on the table. “It’s fine. Can you at least do one thing for me?”
“What is it?”
“If you do manage to find out if they’re dating. Let me know first, please.”
“Why? Do you also read Yeonbin fanfiction, or something?”
Kai sits up straight just to laugh in his face, like Taehyun said something strange. “I don’t read fanfiction of them together. I read fanfiction of them with me, you know, the reader kind. I need time to prepare myself for this.”
“What?”
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Dear Choi Beomgyu,
The email stares back at Taehyun, waiting for him to continue typing it up, but he doesn’t know how to phrase it. Jungkook had said that the two needed to work together, and yet, Beomgyu hadn’t gotten in contact with him, and Taehyun…didn’t want to head downstairs just yet. He was a little afraid of the people there, especially Beomgyu after he sat through reading a few of his articles. He was so mean, pulling apart the celebrities he was writing about. It wasn’t like he was picking on innocent celebrities, but the way he worded things was so witty and full of sarcasm. Taehyun was afraid of meeting someone like that in real life. What if Beomgyu starts mocking Taehyun when they meet? Taehyun might not seem like it, but he’s got a soft heart.
Dear Choi Beomgyu,
I’m not sure if you’ve been informed through Jungkook, but
“Taehyun-ah,” Kai snaps him out of his focus, and he lets out a groan. “What, what is it?”
“I just started writing the email, what is it, Kai?” Taehyun grumbles, turning to him with a frown.
Kai pouts before pointing in front of them. “Someone’s waiting for you, that’s all.”
Taehyun whips his head around to see who it is and his frown deepens when it’s a face he’s never seen before. The guy stands a few feet away from them, by the wall, looking between them with a fairly startled expression, like he wasn’t expecting the attention—or maybe he had heard their conversation and thought Taehyun was a harsh person.
“Sorry, can I help you?” Taehyun asks, leaning over his desk.
The guy nods and shuffles forward, his bangs falling into his eyes and cardigan almost slipping from his shoulder. He looks like a mess, but Taehyun can’t deny he’s a little cute. He’s got round eyes, red cheeks, defined jaw–if he wasn’t wearing a lanyard around his neck showing he’s a staff member, Taehyun would’ve assumed he’s a model. Maybe he should switch careers while he has the chance.
“I was sent here,” the guy says, his voice a complete contrast from the way he looks, much deeper than Taehyun was expecting. “Jungkook-sunbae told me we should have a meeting before we get started.”
Taehyun raises a brow. “Jungkook hyung sent you?”
The guy nods again, his hair fluffy and bouncing around. “Has he not spoken to you yet? He told me he did…I’m Beomgyu, from downstairs?”
Taehyun’s eyes widen and he fails to hold back his gasp, leaning back in his seat. This was Choi Beomgyu, this puppy-looking soft guy? This was the man behind all those harsh phrases, all those hatred-fueled articles? Taehyun couldn’t even imagine this guy saying a swear word, let alone using the most click-bait headlines.
“Uh, you are Kang Taehyun, right?” Beomgyu says, tilting his head to the side. He doesn’t sound mad, nor does he look it, but Taehyun’s stomach twists in fear. Was he secretly cursing him in his head for not responding quickly?
“Y-yeah!” Taehyun sits up, fingers curling into fists and resting over his knees. “I’m Kang Taehyun. Jungkook hyung told me about the project, we could have a catch-up right now, if you’d like?”
Taehyun hears Kai snort on his side, but he can’t take his eyes off Beomgyu, for more reasons than one.
“Sure, if you’re free.”
They find themselves on a small table a little away from Taehyun’s desk a few minutes later. Taehyun pulls out his diary and shifts in his seat uncomfortably, feeling more conscious now that they were sitting opposite each other. Beomgyu doesn’t look in any way bothered by Taehyun, tucking his hair behind his ear, sifting through his own diary before glancing up at him.
“So, I’m assuming you’ve had time to check out who Choi Soobin and Choi Yeonjun are?” He asks, pulling out the same two images Jungkook had passed him.
“Yeah, I’ve had a look through their things. Went through a little spiral, actually, with all the shipping content their fans have posted.”
Taehyun was half-expecting Beomgyu to let of a sigh of relief and agree with him, that they’re just so shippable. That there’s too much evidence to prove they’re secretly in love and hiding their relationship from the public eye. Or maybe even pull out some of his own research that Taehyun had somehow missed—though he doubts that could ever be possible.
But Beomgyu does something completely different.
“Shipping content? Please, it’s all evidence to prove they hate each other.”
Taehyun blinks once at his diary, then pauses, thinking he might’ve heard that incorrectly. but Beomgyu isn’t done.
“Are their fans blind? The smiles they share are filled with rivalry since the time they were trainees. No one talks about it, but Yeonjun framed Soobin during their trainee-period, which made him have to face a penalty. The penalty was to debut late. Again, they don’t talk about it, but there’s been bad blood between them for years now.”
“Where’s your proof for this?” Taehyun scoffs. He’s never heard about this before, and he’s sure it doesn’t exist, because Taehyun is a thorough researcher. If there was anything like this, he would’ve found it.
“Reports from trainees,” Beomgyu rolls his eyes. “What, you don’t trust me? There’s no way you actually believe the lies their fans have been spouting. Yeonjun and Soobin hate each other, I can feel it through the screen.”
Taehyun can’t help but laugh. “No, actually, you’re the delusional one here. Yeonjun and Soobin love each other, and I can feel it through the screen. But I don’t need to rely on vibes, they’ve said they love each other countless times in interviews.”
Beomgyu runs a hand down his face before whispering, “I can’t believe he assigned me to this with a yeonbin shipper.”
“And I can’t believe you’re denying what they’ve said themselves to believe some bitter ex-trainees.”
“It’s the truth!” Beomgyu slams his fist down on the table, and it looks so out of character for him, with his beige cardigan and soft brown hair. But then Taehyun remembers his articles and it clears his mind. “Trust me, I would know.”
“And how do you know this?” Taehyun pushes, not wanting to give up on this. He hasn’t even known of Yeonjun and Soobin for long, but he feels the need to defend them. “Until you can bring me proof of them hating each other, real concrete proof, I’ll keep calling you delusional.”
Beomgyu laughs mockingly. “Yeah? And until you bring me proof that they’ve dating, which I can already assure you won’t be able to find, then that’s all they will be to me. A fake ship.”
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“So now you’re fighting with your project partner?” Jungkook looks tired, pouring himself a full glass of juice—no alcohol allowed in their household, thanks to Taehyun’s sister. “That’s not how you start things off.”
“I didn’t start it!” Taehyun cries, turning to his sister. “Noona, tell him I didn’t start it.”
“You’re 23 years old,” his sister, Sakura, briefly comments before turning to her boyfriend. “Stop picking on my little brother.”
Jungkook turns back to Taehyun with a frown. “Listen, I know how people of the downstairs can be, but you have to tolerate it. Beomgyu did a really good job last month, he managed to expose a celebrity for evading his taxes, which literally no one had noticed. So, just try to make things work.”
“But he claims that Yeonbin hate each other!”
“Yeon…bin…?” Jungkook looks at him with disdain before shaking his head. “Whatever helps you focus on this. If you’re so offended that he thinks that, then prove him wrong.”
Sakura takes a seat beside him, rubbing his shoulder empathetically. “It’s work at the end of the day, Tyun. You’re obviously going to have differences with people at work, even if it’s over ships or anti-ships.”
She doesn’t even mean it in a mocking way—Sakura’s too genuine to ever be mean to him about anything—but Taehyun still feels silly for getting so worked up over a ship. Beomgyu may be a little dramatic and aggressive in his thinking, only looking at the negatives about things and accusing them of hating each other, but that just means Taehyun has to work harder to prove him wrong.
“And don’t forget,” Jungkook chimes in as he always does, with nothing good to add of course. “You have until the end of next month. Choi Yeonjun’s solo debut is in November and we need this out before that.”
Taehyun nods begrudgingly. “I'll prove they're dating in a month, watch me.”
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“What are you doing here?” Taehyun grumbles, keeping his gaze ahead of him. On his right sits Beomgyu, the two of them in the Inkigayo studio corridor.
Beomgyu ignores him, grabbing his phone and making it a point to show Taehyun that he's increasing the volume of his headphones. It's a shame, Taehyun thinks, running his eyes over Beomgyu. The boy’s so cute and yet he has such a horrible attitude that it completely overshadows his beauty. If they had met outside of this work situation, and if Beomgyu didn't talk maybe, he would've tried making a move on him.
Instead Taehyun rolls his eyes and turns away, trying to look natural as he flips through the random cue sheet he picked up from somewhere.
He's fortunate enough to have connections that he got a pass for backstage, and it's just his luck that Yeonjun's an MC for the show while Soobin is promoting with his group. To be honest, he found this information out after scrolling through what their fans were talking about, but it turned out useful anyway. What he doesn't understand is why or even how Beomgyu is here.
“Probably scammed his way here,” Taehyun mumbles under his breath.
“I'm not like you,” Beomgyu suddenly says, pulling his headphones off. He glares at Taehyun as he continues, “I actually live on the truth, which I'm aware you're far from understanding.”
Here he goes again. “Whatever, I can't be bothered fighting with you. How did you get here?”
“Same way as you, genius,” Beomgyu scoffs, standing up as he looks away. “I, too, have connections.”
And just as he says this, Beomgyu opens his arms wide and hugs someone who was walking past. At first, Taehyun is incredibly confused until they pull away, and Beomgyu greets him.
“Hyung! Thank you again for the pass,” Beomgyu says, his voice bubbly and completely different from when he was talking to Taehyun just earlier. How mean, when Taehyun's been nothing but nice. “I promise I'll treat you after this.”
“You better,” Beomgyu's Hyung, whoever he is, replies, affectionately ruffling Beomgyu's hair before his eyes fall onto Taehyun. “Oh, is this your friend?”
Beomgyu glances over his shoulder, and from the way he smirks at Taehyun, he can already expect he isn't going to get a very friendly introduction. “This is Kang Taehyun, the guy I'm working with on the report.”
The Hyung immediately muffles a laugh behind his hand, with both he and Beomgyu having to turn away to hide their faces. Taehyun clenches his fingers into a fist and stands up, fairly annoyed that Beomgyu’s slightly taller than him. There goes his usual intimidation tactic.
“Nice to meet you,” Taehyun says, choosing peace over violence.
“Nice to meet you, too,” the guy responds, shaking his head to get rid of his laughter. “I'm Seokjin. Beomgyu told me about you before.”
“I can tell,” Taehyun answers with a tight smile. He doesn't know what kind of nonsense Beomgyu's been telling about him to the people in the industry, but he can't exactly be mad when he's done the same thing with Beomgyu. He's sure most of his friends already know about his hatred for Choi Beomgyu from downstairs.
“Well, I've got to go,” Seokjin says, bumping shoulders with Beomgyu. “If you're still here for lunch, let's grab something to eat.”
Beomgyu giggles to himself before nodding, waving him goodbye as he leaves. The smile on his face drops the moment he meets Taehyun's eyes. “What are you looking at?”
Taehyun has to stop himself from rolling his eyes for the nth time around Beomgyu. “Whatever, get out of my way, I have a couple to expose.”
Taehyun walks past Beomgyu, but he spins on his heels and starts following him. “You know we have to do this together, right? If you'd managed to get yourself a pass, you should've gotten one for me too. That's how a team works.”
“You managed to get yourself in,” Taehyun counters, shrugging his shoulders. “If you care so much for teamwork, then why didn't you get one for me either?”
“That's besides the point,” Beomgyu huffs, almost bumping into Taehyun's back when they reach the end of the corridor, and he stops. “What, are you going to tell me to go away?”
Taehyun turns slowly, deliberately taking his time, enjoying the annoyance on Beomgyu's face when they finally meet eyes. The corridors’s narrow here, the walls plastered with laminated cue sheets, and staff shouting in the background about something, but Taehyun isn’t too focused on that. Instead, he leans forward, raising a brow as he echoes, “Besides the point? That is the point.”
Beomgyu scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “You’re unbelievable.”
“And yet,” Taehyun says with a smirk, eyes flicking to Beomgyu’s lanyard. “You’re following me which tells me you either need me or…you’re lost.”
It sounds foolish because if he is lost, how can he trust Taehyun knows where to go? It’s Taehyun’s first time here as well, and the only thing he knows about this place is from what he’s seen from the behind the scenes content of Yeonjun and Soobin’s clips. Beomgyu parts his lips to say something back, probably try and refute him with his baseless points, but then a staff member barrels past them with a headset over their ears. Beomgyu just about instinctively steps forward to avoid getting hit by them, and ends up crowing Taehyun’s space.
Taehyun glances down, unable to stop his smirk from widening as he says, “You know, if you wanted to stand this close, you could’ve just asked.”
“Shut up,” Beomgyu mutters, but not stepping back as more staff pass by them. It’s honestly a surprise that none of them have stopped to even ask them who they are and what they’re doing here, the lanyards must be some piece of magic. “I should be the one saying that to you. Why are you smiling so much—What the fuck, stop smiling. Stop it, stop.”
The only reason Taehyun stops trying to get a reaction out of Beomgyu is because they hear a door from the end of the corridor open and snap their heads towards it. At first, a staff member that loses their interest immediately pops his head out from the door before Choi Yeonjun, in his flesh, wearing the cutest outfit Taehyun has ever seen him in, steps out with his script in his hand. He’s got a bright smile on his face, walking with a writer by his side as they make their way towards the interview stage across the corridor. Taehyun grabs Beomgyu’s hand without thinking and starts tugging him in that direction.
“Quick, come on,” Taehyun whispers, slicing through the crowd of staff to try and find a nice place to spy on him. He’s thankful that while the actual stage is just a small set tucked into a corner, there’s enough space for an audience opposite them. He randomly picks up a box from the side and gestures for Beomgyu to do the same. “Act natural.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Beomgyu huffs, but still listens by grabbing a random set of papers and sorting through them. He nudges Taehyun’s shoulder a moment later and nods his head at the door, just as Choi Soobin walks in with the rest of his group. “Tell me that isn’t the face of someone who despises Choi Yeonjun.”
Taehyun doesn’t answer right away. Because the moment Soobin steps onto the set, Yeonjun’s eyes are on him. Taehyun doesn’t blame him, because Soobin looks amazing in his stage outfit and makeup, but this much staring is definitely going to be a point to discuss in his article. They both smile at each other, it barely lasts a second, but the moment is engraved in his mind forever now. He watches as Yeonjun greets the rest of the group, wishing them luck for the broadcast. It’s not as if they’re rookies, but Yeonjun treats them with care, encouraging the youngest member to be confident in his lines. Taehyun enjoys the sight from afar, glad to know his bias (yes, Taehyun is officially a Yeonjun fan now) is as nice as he seems behind the cameras.
And then, Yeonjun turns to Soobin. “Did you rest well?” He asks, directly to the younger.
Soobin looks as startled as Taehyun is, nodding faintly. “Yeah, I’m better now.”
“There,” Taehyun murmurs.
Beomgyu squints, trying to see what Taehyun is talking about. “What?”
“That,” Taehyun repeats, a smile blooming on his face. “That was not hatred.”
Beomgyu laughs, immediately quietening down when some people turn to look at him. “You cannot be serious.”
Taehyun looks at him with a frown. “Why wouldn’t I be? He went out of his way to greet Soobin.”
“Yeah,” Beomgyu agrees, but it’s in such a condescending manner, Taehyun has to brace himself for what he’s going to say next. “To shame him for looking tired, he was trying to embarrass him in front of everyone here!”
“Did we watch the same thing?” Taehyun asks, genuinely baffled how Beomgyu was able to misinterpret something so badly. “It was out of love.”
“It’s called resentment.”
“No,” Taehyun says calmly. “That was out of discretion.”
Beomgyu clicks his tongue as he shakes his head. “You’re projecting. Those two can’t stand each other. Everyone in the room sees it beside you.”
“Everyone who’s only using a quarter of their brain, like you,” Taehyun counters. “Did you not see the way everyone smiled at their interaction?”
Beomgyu nods. “Because they were enjoying the drama too.”
“Because everyone here wants them to be in love.”
“Wants. So it isn’t real.”
They stop talking as the producer puts her hand up to alert everyone that they are going live soon. Taehyun has to chew the inside of his cheek to keep himself quiet, watching as Yeonjun introduces Soobin’s group, gesturing to them to allow them to say their greeting. The entire time the camera pans from member to member, Yeonjun’s eyes stay on Soobin, a fond smile on his face.
Taehyun nudges Beomgyu’s elbow, leaning in close to whisper in his ear, “The look of love.”
Beomgyu scowls, “You disgust me.”
A staff member shoots them a warning look and they both flinch back into place. The interview whizzes past quicker than expected, Taehyun already misses them and they’re still standing in front of him with microphones in their hands. Everyone slowly starts pilling through the doors, the idols in the middle of it.
That’s when Taehyun sees it, the way Yeonjun walks a little faster to brush past Soobin, knocking his hand against the youngers. They both share a look, so subtle and quick that no one else would’ve caught it if they weren’t looking as intently as Taehyun was. And with the way Beomgyu freezes beside him, he’s sure he’s seen it too.
“Could mean anything,” Beomgyu says once they’re both out of the building, lanyards returned to their generous partners in crime. “He might’ve been trying to annoy him.”
Taehyun doesn’t say anything, instead pulling his phone out to save clips from the recording he’d made with his glasses (he’s a competent journalist).
Beomgyu glares at him. “Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“That,” Beomgyu grumbles, pointing at his face. “You’re stupid little smile, stop it.”
Taehyun smiles even wider, exaggerating it just for the sake of getting Beomgyu to roll his eyes and turn away, “I’d say that’s 1-0 to me, isn’t it? I got evidence today and you…well, you embarrassed yourself.”
“Evidence of what?” Beomgyu scoffs, shaking his head. “You’ve never covered real hatred between celebrities, have you?”
“I’ve covered real relationships,” Taehyun replies with an easy shrug of his shoulders. “And from what I just saw, this fits the pattern.”
“Well your pattern’s wrong.”
“Well—” Taehyun stops himself, taking a deep breath. Why is he stooping down to Beomgyu’s level and entertaining his childish arguing? “Well then, since you’re so sure that you’re right, let’s make a deal.”
“What kind of deal?” Beomgyu looks at him suspiciously.
“When it turns out they’re secretly dating and have been in love, you have to buy me lunch every day for an entire two months.”
Beomgyu raises a brow, but still goes along with it, saying, “And when it turns out they can’t stand each other, you have to write an entire admission of defeat and post it on the staff board.”
Taehyun can’t help the laugh that spills out of him. “Deal.”