Following the Maps (That Lead to You) 1/2
Title: Following the Maps (That Lead to You)
Pairing: Jongdae/Yixing; side Baekhyun/Luhan, Chanyeol/Jongin, severely hinted Kyungsoo/Minju (the Ark)
Rating: PG
Length: 18k
Summary: Jongdae never thought doing things au naturel would lead him to dating one of the cutest YouTubers around.
Notes: Originally for chenpionships. The videos mentioned are inspired by Kurt Schneider’s videos on YouTube. (ao3 version here)
YouTube has been Jongdae’s favorite website ever since he was thirteen. He wasn’t aware of the beginning of a new age when the site opened in May of 2005, but he was there when his older brother showed him the birth of the new group, Wong Fu Productions. He was there when they created their very first video and uploaded it onto YouTube, starting small before amounting to where they are now. Jongdae likes to think of them as his role models, his inspirations, because everything they do and everything they have created thus far has had some type of meaning hidden within each video.
Wong Fu Productions is probably the reason why Funky JD Incorporated exists today.
Jongdae laughs as he reads the comments of his recent video. He loves it when he receives feedback of any kind, from constructive criticisms, to downright bashing, but the ones that really warm his heart are the comments where his viewers seemingly overflow with feelings and can’t help but smash their keyboards in hopes that their emotions get through to him somehow. Those comments are truly genuine, in his opinion, and he likes the feeling that he can make someone’s day with a video he poured his heart and soul into making.
He smiles as he sees a comment asking him how he does all this in-between school and he figures this is also why he’s “so popular” according to his best friend. He clicks to reply to the comment, quickly typing up his response before sending it, and he bursts into a fit of giggles when he immediately receives an answer back.
He also loves talking to his subscribers, his Twitter usually lighting up like fireworks after he posts a new video, and he’s always sleepy in class the next day because of it. He never minds it though. If his followers take time out of their day to send him a message, he should at least have enough time in his day to reply back.
To be honest, Jongdae doesn’t think he has as many followers as Wong Fu Productions. If anything, he has at least a fifth of the amount of subscribers Wong Fu has. If he’s being optimistic, he has a third of the amount of subscribers they have. But he thinks it’s only because he also does covers of the more popular songs that make its way onto the university radios around campus.
He hums as he makes his way towards the university restaurant, already seeing Chanyeol inside playing billiards with the rest of their friends, and smiles at the happy expression he can see on his face. Jongdae normally makes a video once every two to four weeks, but he hasn’t been able to make time to create a new short while the whole campus was gearing up for examination week. He even had to spend the past month trying to learn and re-learn everything in his classes so he didn’t fail a single one. But now they’re over. Now, he can get back to planning his next video.
“Fail or pass?” Chanyeol hollers right when Jongdae steps foot inside the establishment. He’s grinning from ear-to-ear and Jongdae thinks the man feels amazing about all the tests he took today.
“Pass,” Jongdae answers with a similar bright smile. He laughs as he tosses his backpack into the booth where their other friends are sitting. “Pretty sure anyways,” he adds on.
Jongin is currently playing billiards with Chanyeol, both of them using the game as an excuse to brush past each other to get to the cue ball, and Jongdae can’t help but smile at their awkward flirting. He plops down next to Baekhyun in the booth.
“Any progress on them?”
Baekhyun laughs in astonishment. “Them? No way.”
Jongdae laughs along with him, stealing some of Chanyeol’s fries before reaching into his backpack to get his notebook. There are several ideas and songs already listed in there, but he feels like doing something different for a change since all of his friends seemed to have survived examination week decently.
One of the ideas listed is to do another cover where he sings and Jongin dances. It’s been a while since the first time they did this and he thinks his subscribers would love to see Jongin in one of his videos again. He quickly became popular because of his looks and his skills with dancing.
Another one of his ideas listed is to sing another duet with Baekhyun. Their voices mesh well together since Baekhyun’s voice is on a lower range while Jongdae is more on a higher range, but there have been too many recent covers coming out by other famous YouTubers like Max Schneider and Sam Tsui. Besides, he doesn’t really want to strain his friend’s voice either. It’s been starting to sound a bit raspy recently despite him reassuring them he’s not getting sick.
Jongdae pouts as he looks over the rest of his ideas, none of them sounding appealing enough to actually do and make Chanyeol and Jongin edit, before he looks over to Baekhyun next, the latter’s attention clearly focused on the duo currently arguing over who won the last game. “Hey, Baek,” he says, waiting for the other to look back at him. “What should I do for my next video?”
“Hmm?”
“For my next video,” Jongdae repeats, sliding his notebook closer to Baekhyun until it’s next to his friend’s empty plate. “I want to do something special instead of the usual videos I do.”
“Then why don’t you just do a video of all of us hanging out?” Baekhyun easily suggests before gesturing towards their now laughing friends, Jongin slapping Chanyeol’s shoulder in what one would think is a flirtatious manner. It’s not. Baekhyun smiles at him. “I think all your subscribers would like to see all of us just chill for a change.”
The idea definitely isn’t a bad one, Jongdae thinks, as they watch Chanyeol loop an arm around a now flustered Jongin. They laugh as Jongin immediately pushes their larger friend away, Chanyeol stumbling before he regains his balance and starts laughing too. He thinks his followers would love to see how they all act together. He smiles mischievously, lips pulling into a wide grin as he hums pleasantly. Then he laughs in embarrassment when Baekhyun shoves him to get his mind out of his dreams.
Maybe he can get his subscribers to help him get Jongin and Chanyeol together.
Getting everything ready for a new video always takes a lot of time and preparation. It takes time to edit and get all the best views and lighting right. But for this video, Jongdae doesn’t think it’ll take too much to prepare or film. He’s going for an ‘au naturel’ look. He smiles brightly as he sets up his tripod out in the university courtyard, Chanyeol spreading his mother’s quilt on the grass so all four of them can sit on the ground comfortably.
Get ready for an amazing new video! Baekhyun types into Jongdae’s twitter. Ready to see us all up close and personal?! ^o^
Jongdae laughs as he sits back next to Jongin, who’s too busy plucking out the small flowers surrounding them, and checks his phone. His Twitter is blowing up again and he glares playfully at a beaming Baekhyun, pride written all over his face as he pulls Chanyeol close to him when he scoots too close to an innocent Jongin.
“So,” Baekhyun says, laughing when Chanyeol pouts at him like a puppy, “What are we going to talk about for our first Au Naturel video?”
Jongdae shrugs as he stares at his friends for inspiration. Chanyeol’s guitar is sitting beside them, but he figures they can close out their video with a short song. Instead, he looks to Jongin next to him, still too preoccupied with the flowers and grass, before another idea hits him. A smile breaks out onto his face as he turns and leans over to turn on the camera, pressing record easily before sitting back.
“Hello, lovely viewers!” Jongdae greets, just as bright and warm as every other video he makes. He sends the camera a small wave. “This video was a bit different from my previous ones, but I hope all of you enjoyed it nonetheless. I thought we should have some fun and show you what we do in our spare time between exams and university life.” He looks around to see Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Jongin staring at him before they each give him a variety of smiles. “You’ve now officially met my best friends!” He turns back to the camera happily. “If you enjoyed this video, hit the Subscribe button below,” he points down to his left before pointing to his right, “If you want to see my last video, click this nifty box right here.” He laughs when he sees Chanyeol and Baekhyun trying to play with the imaginary box. “Well, that’s it for today! See you all in the next video!”
He reaches forward to turn off the camera, waiting a few seconds before turning it on again. His friends know he does his videos a bit backwards, preferring to record the ending before recording the actual video, and he likes how they don’t mind it at all. He sits back before Baekhyun starts speaking first.
“Hey, everyone!” Baekhyun greets happily, waving cutely to the camera. “This is Funky JD’s first Au Naturel video! You’re witnessing a momentous occasion!”
“Anyways,” Chanyeol interrupts, constantly looking to Jongin who now looks bashful knowing he has to speak at some point, “We’re winging this whole video. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Jongdae lets his friends talk, smiling to the camera every few seconds before he looks back over to Jongin who keeps picking at the flowers in his hands. He smiles at the nervous action, reaching forward to grab some of the flowers on the ground between them to twirl and lock together. A flower crown is quickly made and his smile brightens when Jongin looks up at him shocked, allowing him to gently place the crown on his head. Jongin practically preens underneath the attention, and Chanyeol starts whining.
“Hey!” Chanyeol shouts, reaching out to slap a hand down on Jongdae’s thigh. “This is your video! You should be talking too!”
“Your jealousy is showing, Yeol,” Baekhyun retorts, rolling his eyes as the tips of Jongin’s ears turn red and he looks to Jongdae for help.
Jongdae simply mimics Baekhyun, rolling his eyes before scooting over to be able to link his arm with Jongin’s. “Don’t you think Jongin looks like a flower prince? The flower crown just enhances his beauty more.”
“Jongdae,” Jongin whines in embarrassment, squirming a bit before eventually settling down against him again. There’s a moment of silence and they’re stunned. “Chanyeol?” Jongin questions curiously. All Chanyeol does is stare at him with wide eyes. “Yeol?”
Jongdae shakes his head fondly before he turns to face the camera, now noticing a small crowd standing behind his equipment and watching them amazed. “These are my wonderful friends,” he says sarcastically, “Aren’t you guys glad that I’m the sane one in this group?” He bursts into laughter when Baekhyun tackles him to the ground first, followed by Jongin and Chanyeol. “I’m kidding!” he screeches, trying to push his friends off of him. “I surrender! I’m not the sanest!”
“Damn right!” Baekhyun yells back, laughing when they all eventually start slapping at each other to get off of the dog pile. “You’re the weirdest!”
“I’m pretty sure you mean the funkiest,” Jongin comments, laughing when Chanyeol focuses his attacks on him.
Jongdae stops trying to put Baekhyun into a headlock when Chanyeol elbows him in the back, face contorting into pain briefly before they look over to see Chanyeol still pinning Jongin down onto his side to tickle him into oblivion. Jongdae and Baekhyun instantly separate, both of them shaking their heads before getting up on their knees to head towards the camera.
“If any of my viewers are watching this weird cuddle-fest,” Jongdae whispers, hand cupping his mouth as if to prevent anybody else from hearing him. Baekhyun simply nods his head in approval, lips in a firm line as he gives the camera his most serious look to date. “And you ‘ship’ this odd couple behind us, help us out here and make them officially confess and date already. It’s getting too painful to watch.”
“Tell me about it,” Baekhyun mutters in annoyance. He suddenly yelps when he topples backwards and Jongdae looks over at him alarmed, only to find Chanyeol and Jongin targeting him now. Jongdae sighs affectionately before turning back to the camera.
“These are my best friends,” he announces again, easily slapping away the encroaching hands when he sees them appear in his peripheral vision, “Do I deserve them? I have no idea.” He slaps more hands away. “This is probably the weirdest video all of you have ever seen.” He gives the camera a lopsided smile before he screams and he accidentally knocks his tripod over, camera instantly turning off when it hits the ground. “I apologize for that, but we’re entertaining. Right? My camer-!”
Jongdae doesn’t expect the amount of comments he receives a few days after he finally posts the ten-minute long video, one of his longest videos to date. Granted, he does expect the usual amount of comments to show up, but having twice the amount is astounding. Did his viewers really like his Au Naturel video that much? Does he need to create more of them? What did they even do besides attack each other and flirt, in Jongin and Chanyeol’s case?
He pouts in concentration as he reads through all the usual comments and sees all the normal emojis, skipping over a few until he scrolls past a comment that has a name he doesn’t recognize. He scrolls back up to re-read the comment and pouts even harder in confusion.
look at yixing! that’s yixing right?!
yixing is so handsome <3
jongdae you know yixing???
Jongdae doesn’t understand. He scrolls back up to the video when he sees others comment the time that this ‘Yixing’ person shows up and he re-watches it, actually cringing at seeing Jongin and Chanyeol flirting on the screen in front of him. There are people walking in the back of their video, which is usual since they were in the university courtyard, but he doesn’t see who this ‘Yixing’ person could be. He jumps when his cell phone buzzes next to him, vibrating against the library table as he stares at it momentarily puzzled. Baekhyun’s name pops up on the screen and he frowns, picking it up and answering immediately.
“Zhang Yixing freaking goes to our school?!”
Jongdae is floored. Baekhyun knows who this Yixing is? “What?” he says for lack of a better word.
“Zhang Yixing!” Baekhyun screeches, Jongdae flinching as he tries to lower the volume of his cell phone so everybody in the library doesn’t hear their conversation. “That handsome Chinese singer I told you about?! The one who does all the awesome covers of pop songs and ballads and everything!”
It takes several long, agonizing seconds before the information and random excitement click in his brain. Jongdae’s eyes widen with realization. “Yixing is that guy with “the really cute dimple” that you kept talking about months ago?” He suddenly frowns when he hears a chorus of “yes, yes, yes.” “How did you not know he went to our university if you were in love with him then?”
“I don’t know!” Baekhyun yells. Jongdae thinks his right eardrum might burst. “I completely forgot about him when he did a cover with Lu Han and I know Lu Han goes to Yonsei University!”
“What the hell?” Jongdae breathes out, getting up from his table to go to a secluded area of the library, between the aisles of the Encyclopedia sections. “Is this what all my viewers sound like? It’s insane.”
Baekhyun sounds completely calm when he answers him, “More or less, yes,” before he goes back to screeching, “I can’t believe Yixing goes to our university! It’s insane that there are two famous YouTubers going to our school!”
“Baekhyun,” Jongdae whines, wanting the screaming to stop, “Calm down. I don’t know what you want me to do about it.” He pouts as he traces the letter ‘J’ on one of the encyclopedias. “How did you find out anyways? You don’t watch any of my videos. You usually just listen to them.” He can hear Baekhyun take a deep breath to calm himself down and he finds it slightly amusing that a pre-med student can be broken down into a mess like this.
“I follow Yixing on Instagram,” Baekhyun quietly explains, like he’s trying to control himself, “He recently posted a new picture of bunnies, like two hours ago, and when I scrolled through my feed, I saw comments on his picture saying something about you.” He pauses before he’s talking faster and getting louder with each word. “And then I went to your YouTube page and checked out your video and then I saw him there walking behind all of us while we conspired to try and get Jongin and Chanyeol together- Jongdae, oh my God!”
Jongdae laughs at his friend’s reactions, trying to stifle his giggles behind the dusty, old books. “Hey, Baek,” he quietly calls, “You okay there?”
“I can’t breathe!” Baekhyun manages to breathe out. His voice sounds airy and raspy all at once. “Zhong da!”
Jongdae laughs even harder when Baekhyun slips and calls him by his Chinese nickname given to him when they took Mandarin together the year before. He smiles when he sees some classmates stopping to stare at him curiously. They smile back. “What do you want me to do, Baek? Who do you even like more? Yixing or Lu Han?”
There’s complete silence on the other end and Jongdae wonders if they accidentally hung up on each other. It’s happened before.
“Lu Han plays soccer and dances,” Baekhyun murmurs, like that’ll give him all the answers in the world.
Jongdae frowns when he doesn’t elaborate. “So?”
Baekhyun sighs, and it sounds wistful. “Imagine those thighs and that stamina. He’s gorgeous.”
“And?”
“And he sings,” Baekhyun emphasizes, “His voice is beautiful and so deep and just imagine. He can get so deep-”
“Okay!” Jongdae squeaks out, eyes widening before he stuffs his face in an empty spot of a shelf. “Alright, Baek,” he whispers, making sure nobody is staring at him before stuffing his face back in to hide it. “How do you propose I get in contact with him? I’ve never heard about or seen Yixing before you mentioned him months ago and today.” He hums in thought as he looks up at the dark wooden shelf above him. “What does he even look like?”
It takes less than five seconds for Baekhyun to give him an answer.
“Exam hell week is over. I’m going to neglect my studies for the next week to introduce you to the wonderful world of ZYIXING.”
Jongdae is too busy alternating between planning his new sketch and trying to actually do well in his Cost Accounting class by completing the homework correctly, (apparently, he did well on the recent exam so he has to back it up somehow), when someone slams an insanely large science textbook down next to him. He swears he jumped halfway to his death because why the hell are all science textbooks literal monsters?
A laptop is placed gently in comparison on top of the horrifying book and when Jongdae looks up, Baekhyun looks like he walked out of the Walking Dead franchise. He frowns in concern. “What happened?”
“Surprise exam,” is the only answer Jongdae needs to immediately pull his best friend into a hug. His head is right next to Baekhyun’s abdomen, and he’s surprised to find lean muscle there instead of the soft tummy he used to always rub with friendly affection.
“You’re amazing, Baek,” Jongdae simply says before he feels fingers card through his hair in appreciation.
“And this is why I love you most.”
Jongdae laughs at that, letting Baekhyun push him away before he’s being forced to stare at a screen already loaded with one of ZYIXING’s videos. He stares at it a moment longer before he rolls his eyes in realization. Of course, Baekhyun would choose a video with Lu Han featuring in it.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me!” Baekhyun complains immediately, taking the seat next to him and scooting closer so they can watch the video together. His eyes are bright and Jongdae has to admit Baekhyun’s crush on this Lu Han guy is pretty cute. “Come on. This is one of Yixing’s better covers. He’s the one wearing the tank top and moving around the most to get to the appropriate places for each part of the song.”
Jongdae hums his acknowledgment, already focused on the paused video because Yixing has an amazing amount of views and likes on this video as well.
The video is a collection of Maroon 5 songs, a medley, and Jongdae thinks it’s amazing. He’s mesmerized by how smoothly Yixing and Lu Han can move around the apartment complex and hallways to create an intricate yet enjoyable video. This would take hours, if not days, of practice and he has to give this man credit. He doesn’t want the video to end.
There’s silence between them once the video finishes and Jongdae can feel Baekhyun’s imploring gaze directed towards him. He admits with a smile, “They’re good.”
Baekhyun nods immediately. “And Yixing?”
Jongdae hums. “He can sing.”
There’s a challenge in Baekhyun’s eyes and Jongdae knows this isn’t going to end very well.
“Let me show you his other popular videos.”
Spending hours in the university café doing something other than planning videos and doing homework isn’t exactly how Jongdae would spend his Friday afternoon. Yet, here he is. He rubs both his eyes with the heels of his hands, leaning back in his chair to take a break. He’s been staring at the computer screen for far too long. He knows Baekhyun is doing the same because he’s making that yipping noise only he is capable of when he’s tired.
“How many videos does this guy have?” Jongdae groans out, leaning over to slump on top of the table.
“Enough to re-populate the earth with AIs.”
Jongdae doesn’t even question his best friend, knowing his brain was fried even before he decided to crash his study day. He heaves a tired sigh, watching as Baekhyun slowly closes out each tab of YouTube, before he’s sitting back up to go back to work. He’s just figured out how to make a product more cost-effective when he feels someone lean against his side again. He sighs. Again.
“Hey, Baek.”
“Hey, Zhong da.”
Jongdae smiles at his textbook. “How are you doing?”
“I’m tired,” Baekhyun laughs out, moving in to place his head in the crook of Jongdae’s neck and shoulder, “Can I nap here?”
Jongdae laughs softly in return, moving so his best friend can get comfortable. “Let me order another latte then.” He stares at the screen where it’s paused to Yixing playing the piano, eyes closed as he “becomes one with the song” as Baekhyun so helpfully describes it, and he isn’t sure whether his best friend made him like this guy or dislike him. There are so many videos. He hums as he puts the video to the lowest possible sound setting and presses play, simply watching Yixing’s expressions as he plays the piano.
“Just so you know,” Baekhyun mumbles against his shoulder, “This whole thing is probably a bad decision on my part because, you know, we watched almost every video within the span of a few hours.” Jongdae doesn’t understand what he’s saying. “But it’s probably a good decision on your part.”
What.
(Pictures and videos of bunnies give Zhang Yixing life. He loves how cute and fluffy they are and how they nibble at the foods presented to them, he wishes he owned a bunny farm full of different kinds of bunnies. Lu Han calls him the most adorable devil to grace the planet and he always takes it in stride because how can someone not love bunnies?
He smiles happily as he scrolls through his Instagram feed and sees another picture of an adorable bunny, and promptly giggles when he re-posts it even though he just re-posted a picture of a different bunny hours ago.
Yixing barely notices a comment on his post about YouTube when his phone suddenly spazzes and there are instant notifications about varying degrees of comments from his followers. His eyes widen in surprise as he drops his phone, letting it flash continuously on his kitchen table as he sits back and watches it do its thing.
Normally, comments flow in like this for the first few minutes after he posts something new to Instagram, but with the way it’s continuing on longer than usual, Yixing can’t help but stare at his cell phone in confusion. He pouts before getting his laptop from his bedroom and turning it on, immediately going to YouTube because half the comments mention YouTube. He doesn’t understand. He hasn’t posted a video in over a week. Why are they mentioning it now?
Yixing’s pout turns into a frown when he sees he has new comments on all of his recent videos, all of them mentioning some man named Jongdae and Funky JD Incorporated, and he curiously clicks on a link somebody posts in his comments. He’s taken to a video recently posted within the week and he stares curiously as four people show up on the screen. The YouTube name sounds familiar but he can’t place where.
They’re talking about some Au Naturel concept when Yixing recognizes one of the people in the video from his dance class. His eyes widen when one of the men mentions Jongin, now sitting there with a flower crown on his head, and jumps when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He whips his head up to see Lu Han standing there behind him, like always.
“You’ve finally come around to checking out his videos,” Lu Han mentions before he walks away and tosses his soccer bag onto the floor next to the front door. “Although, that wouldn’t be one of the first I’d watch, if I were being honest,” he calls out before he disappears to somewhere else in the small apartment. “You should watch one of the few sketches he directed that has Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Gayoung in it.”
“What?” Yixing answers back out of habit, even though he always hears what Lu Han says. He pouts as his eyes go back to the video, just about to end when he sees a flash of himself disappear off screen. His eyes widen in shock before he rewinds it back and watches as he walks behind the quartet, trying to untangle his Apple earbuds that seem to be forever tangled. That’s all he’s doing the entire time he’s in view of the camera. He sighs. Of course that’s what he’d be doing if not his own videos.
“Hey, Lu?” he questions when he hears a door close. He hopes he didn’t just speak to nobody. “Lu?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m in this Jongdae guy’s video,” Yixing simply says, hearing footsteps coming closer to him. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to do something about it or not.”
“You two go to the same school?” Lu Han inquires, eyes wide as he goes to look over his shoulder. “I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t know that either,” Yixing says, frowning in confusion. “Am I supposed to do something about it though? All my followers keep commenting and telling me to do stuff, but what?” He looks to Lu Han pleadingly, hoping for some kind of answer, but all Lu Han does is shrug in response before walking away to take a shower.
“How about talking to him and maybe try to collaborate? He sings too, you know.”
Yixing watches his friend walk away, belatedly realizing the stench hanging in the air, before looking back to his laptop and staring at all the comments mentioning him. He pouts as he scrolls back up to the ten-minute long video and replays it again. Does Jongdae really sing?)
KYAAAHHH DO THEY REALLY KNOW EACH OTHER?!!! COLLAB!! is what greets Jongdae on a Tuesday morning right before his Business Accounting exam weeks after his first Au Naturel video made its appearance. He has no idea what brought this random comment on, or the many random tweets accompanying it, but he really look further into it until after the exam. He’s surprised to know a little more than half of the concepts on that dreaded test.
“Are you getting a lot of new comments now?”
Jongdae glances over to see Jongin suddenly walking in stride with him. He hums as he waves in greeting and Jongin laughs back. “Yeah. On all of my recent videos.” They both take the same general biology lecture and laboratory for first-years. Jongdae just so happened to choose a required first-year science late.
“So,” Jongin starts slowly, giving him a confused look, “you didn’t make a new video?”
Jongdae frowns. “Do none of my own friends watch my videos?”
“Sorry, Dae.”
“Whatever,” Jongdae mumbles, knowing very well Chanyeol doesn’t watch his videos either, unless it has Jongin in them. Of course. He looks back down to his cell phone, going through his Twitter feed after reading as many of the new comments as he can. “Oh. There’s a link in this tweet.” Jongdae lets Jongin bump into his shoulder once before they get a good rhythm and they’re both staring at the iPhone while still walking to class. “It’s a new video,” Jongdae informs, waiting for the five-minute cover video to load.
But he knows this song, and it only lasts four.
It’s when they’re seated and waiting for class to start that Jongin pulls out his earbuds and plugs it into the phone, each sharing one as Jongdae finally presses play. A melodic tune plays in the background and they both unconsciously sway to the beat. It’s sounds really nice, if Jongdae must say, and Yixing’s voice fits the song perfectly.
When the song ends, it’s then Jongdae realizes why there’s an extra minute left in the video. It shows Yixing sitting on his bed facing the camera. That part of the room looks minimalistic but that only keeps Jongdae’s attention for five seconds before Yixing speaks.
“Hello, everyone! Thank you for taking the time to watch my cover of Boa’s ‘Who Are You.’ If you liked this video and want to watch others, click the little box right here,” Yixing points to an area beside him before pointing down cutely, dimple showing as he grins, “If you want to be notified of upcoming covers, please subscribe!” There’s a pause where Jongdae thinks the video is finished, but he notices there’s still a good forty seconds left. “Recently, I’ve been getting notifications about appearing in somebody else’s video unknowingly. I just want to say that all of you should like and subscribe to his videos because you like what he does. I don’t want my sudden appearance in one video to cause a surge of subscribers because that isn’t fair for him and his work. However, I have checked out some of his videos, and I think they’re great.” There’s only a few seconds left. “If he checks out this video, I just want to say - Hi, Jongdae. My name is Yixing.” The last image is of Yixing smiling and waving to the camera, and Jongin and Jongdae’s mouths drop in complete shock.
Jongdae doesn’t even stop Jongin from trying to replay the ending, too dumbstruck to do anything but hear once again, “Hi, Jongdae. My name is Yixing.” His heart is suddenly beating way too fast to be considered normal and the words keep ringing in his ear because Jongin keeps replaying the ending and has Yixing always had dimples on both of his cheeks?
Jongin is giving him a look, one where he looks like he knows too much, and Jongdae feels his body heat up from the ends of his hair to the tips of his toes. “What?” he squeaks out, flinching when Jongin reaches up to gently tug his earbud out of his ear.
“You’re red, Jongdae,” is all Jongin says before a soft smile takes over his lips, habitually reaching out to pet his head. It’s a weird-Jongin-habit he had taken up with only his close friends. His voice is unsurprisingly soft to match the soft smile on his face. “Have you ever met him in real life?”
Jongdae shakes his head.
“Would you want to?”
Jongdae averts his eyes from Jongin, opting to look back at his cell phone, video paused right before the ending. Class is starting, but with a class as big as theirs, the professor doesn’t really care how many of his students are actually paying attention to him or not, as long as they get the necessary notes for the upcoming exam.
“You know,” Jongin whispers as he’s taking out a notebook for all his notes, “I heard Yixing is trilingual.”
That puts a new spin on things.
Jongdae hastily forgoes his biology notebook in favor of his Funky JD Incorporated notebook instead. He gives Jongin a bright smile.
“How would you like to do a video with me tomorrow?”
(Yixing stares blankly at his computer screen, meanwhile Lu Han’s trying to smack the thing to load faster, and his jaw falls when he sees Jongdae grinning cutely with Jongin waving behind him wearing another flower crown. Did the university really have this many flowers? Yixing doesn’t know nor does he give it a second thought when Jongdae opens his mouth and sings.
“The song is called ‘Into Your World,’” Lu Han informs quietly, smiling lightly as he sings along softly, “There’s an English and Chinese version as well,” he adds as an afterthought.
Yixing wants to know how he knows but he’s too mesmerized by how Jongdae effortlessly hits all the right notes, the sounds making a pleasant tingle run throughout his body. He’s never seen someone sing like this before. Not even Lu Han can hit the notes Jongdae is reaching way too easily.
“Hello, everybody,” Jongdae greets with his signature cat-like grin, Jongin sitting behind him smiling vibrantly and sweating the slightest bit before he’s looking away again, “In short, this is a response to a video whose owner gave me a shout-out. It’s basically the reason why this video isn’t part of that mini-series I’ve been directing that everyone’s been waiting for.” He laughs when Jongin pokes him and oh. His giggle is cute too. “Hi Yixing, my name is Jongdae!”
Yixing immediately pauses the video when Lu Han smacks his arm. “Ow!”
“You two are flirting so hard!” Lu Han exclaims excitedly before he smacks Yixing again and then presses play. Yixing pouts at the abuse, rubbing his arm to soothe the sting, before he looks back to the video again.
“Thank you for the shout-out and getting me new subscribers!” Another giggle. Oh God. “Hopefully you’ll get more subscribers too because your videos are great. Lu Han is a great singer too, if you’re watching this!”
“I approve.” Yixing glares at Lu Han, who’s wearing a stupid bright grin on his face.
“Anyways,” Jongdae continues, big smile becoming softer, and oh. Oh. “Thank you.”
The video ends with Jongdae singing a snippet of the song in Chinese before he messes up and tells Jongin to turn off the video instead. Yixing goes back to staring at the screen blankly, Jongdae’s delicate voice resonating within his head and all those powerful notes pulling at his heartstrings. He feels a pat on his shoulder and he looks up to see Lu Han staring at him curiously.
“He’s cute,” Yixing blurts out, eyes wide and cheeks red. Lu Han laughs at him, continuing to pat his shoulder as if to go on. “Is he always that cute?”
Lu Han shrugs, pulling away. “I don’t know. I don’t go to your school, remember?”
Yixing pouts at the reminder before replaying the video at least two more times.)
“To my beautiful subscribers, I apologize this isn’t a new cover or collaboration with Lu Han. It is not a new composition of mine either. Instead, this video is a short one because Lu Han here says I have no tact-”
“You don’t!” Lu Han yells from behind the camera with a laugh. Yixing easily ignores him and continues on.
“-but, Jongdae, do we really go to the same university? How come I haven’t actually seen you yet? Also, my earbuds are perpetually tangled; I don’t know why I keep trying to untangle them. I’m sorry that’s what I was doing to get so much attention to your video. I should’ve been doing something else or- something.”
“Xing. You’re doing that thing again. Stop talking. The video is getting long.”
“What thing? Wait! Lu! Don’t turn it-”
The smile on Jongdae’s face can’t possibly get any wider. He’s in his room, sitting in front of his laptop on his desk with his earbuds in, and he can’t help but think Yixing is adorable in the way he speaks Korean. He’s busy re-watching the video and giggling to notice his roommate sneaking up on him. He screams when he feels a chin on his head. “Don’t hurt me! I didn’t do anything to you!” And then arms drape over his shoulders in a relaxing manner. Jongdae breathes out a sigh of relief at seeing the hands free of anything and outstretched in a placating gesture before one comes back to tug an earbud out of his ear.
“Do I need to be concerned?” is Kyungsoo’s only question before he backs off to sit on his bed. He doesn’t look concerned, but Jongdae knows better. He thinks.
“About what?”
Kyungsoo raises a brow. Jongdae breaks easily.
“Do you think he’s cute? Have you heard of Zhang Yixing? YouTuber by the name ZYIXING?”
“Yeah.”
Jongdae doesn’t comprehend. How does Kyungsoo know of Yixing and he doesn’t? Kyungsoo doesn’t even do much with technology, only using his cell phone and sometimes the computer to watch anime and listen to music. He also watches all the official music videos of artists because it’s his way of ‘showing support’ for them after only watching it once.
“Why don’t you two actually meet up?” Kyungsoo asks, breaking Jongdae out of his thoughts. “Obviously he has an interest in you if he made a video I thought was going to be a new original.”
Jongdae gapes at him. “You already saw this video?”
Kyungsoo shrugs, lips tugging up into a smirk. “Got the notification early this morning.”
“And you didn’t say anything about it?”
“I wanted to see your reaction,” he says before the smirk falls and curiosity fills his gaze. “Jongin also called. Something about a birthday party he wants you to go to. He said Baekhyun could come too.” He tilts his head in confusion. “He said I could come also since I answered the phone. Jongin’s so weird.”
“What?” Jongdae removes the remaining earbud from his ear, getting up from his desk to get his cell phone off his bed. There are text messages from Jongin and a whole lot from Baekhyun and Chanyeol. “Did he say when and where?”
Kyungsoo hums in thought. “October 7th. At night - eight in the evening maybe?” He frowns when Jongdae looks back at him confused. “It’s on campus. Jongin’s gonna to swing by here to come get you.”
“But that’s a Wednesday.”
“When do we ever go to sleep at a respectable time in the middle of the week in university?” Kyungsoo retorts, lips working up into a smirk again. “It’ll probably be worth it if Jongin is the one basically advertising it. He’s trustworthy I guess.”
Jongdae snorts at his choice of words, falling back onto his bed, and waiting for the minute Baekhyun comes banging on his door for an explanation. He smiles up towards the ceiling at thinking of Yixing’s newest video and he turns his head to see Kyungsoo still looking at him curiously. “Do you think this invitation to a birthday party will stop Baekhyun from complaining and whining in my ear 24/7 when he sees that video?”
It’s one of those blessed times Kyungsoo laughs as much as he does right now, because as if right on cue, someone comes banging on their door wanting an explanation for this special video just for Jongdae.
University cafés were never really Jongdae’s thing until this year when all his classes became ten times harder and he needed to be somewhere else other than his dorm room to actually focus on all his work. He doesn’t think they’re bad or anything, per se, but he would’ve simply preferred some place else where students weren’t typically found doing their homework other than the library. But the place is really convenient and they have this one type of pretzel sandwich he definitely thinks is a gift from the heavens.
He’s busy munching on said sandwich in the early afternoon, headphones on as he tries to mute out the extra noise of the busy café so he can focus on the essay he’s trying to write up for his Business Finance class. He doesn’t get far though when he suddenly hears squeals through his headset and they get louder when he sees two people sit down in front and beside him out of the corners of his eyes. He looks up mid-bite only to almost choke on a particularly salty pretzel piece.
Jongin is wide-eyed, freaking out as he’s trying to talk to him, but Jongdae honestly can’t hear anything until Jongin pulls the headphones off his head and suddenly everything comes in a loud rush. “Are you okay?!”
Jongdae’s only logical response is to drop his pretzel sandwich onto his plate and repeatedly slap Jongin on the arms like his life depends on it.
“What are you doing?!” Jongin screeches, stumbling out of his chair to try and shield himself from the attacks.
“You don’t just- Jongin!”
And then Jongin takes Jongdae’s pretzel sandwich and stuffs it in the latter’s mouth, Jongdae now sporting a deer-in-the-headlights look as he belatedly realized some of the patrons at the café have their phones out recording this moment.
“Hi, Jongdae,” Yixing finally says, completely amused with the situation and putting his drink in front of him. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”
Jongdae takes the proffered drink after taking a reasonable bite out of his sandwich and trying to swallow it without dying. He’s surprised to find it’s the raspberry lemonade special drink of the day and he looks to Jongin who gives him a bright, knowing smile. He didn’t realize his own was empty.
Yixing is handsome up close, he concludes. His hair is shorter and a lighter brown than in his last video, but he thinks it makes him look pretty. He’s also staring at him with curious eyes and Jongdae realizes he hasn’t said anything yet to the guy who practically flirted with him for the whole worldwide internet world to see. He swallows.
“Hi, Jongdae. You’re Yixing.”
“What,” Jongin deadpans.
That elicits laughter from Yixing and the people around them who know who they are, and Jongdae immediately covers his face with his hands as he groans in embarrassment. “I mean. Hi, Yixing. You already know I’m Jongdae. Kim Jongdae. Funky JD Jongdae who-”
“What is wrong with you?” Jongin interrupts, and when Jongdae peeks through his fingers, Jongin is giving him a weird look. “Is your brain fried from your Business Finance class? Or is it Biology?” He then looks to everybody who has cameras out on them. “Can you please stop filming? If you want to see how this progresses, check their YouTube channels within the next month. Otherwise, please let them have their privacy.”
It takes a few moments, but when the other students actually accept Jongin’s conditions with slight glares, Jongin simply glares back until they’re gone just as quick. It doesn’t help that he sees Chanyeol walking by the café with Baekhyun though and he’s hastily jumping out of his seat to meet up with them. “I won’t tell Baekhyun anything. Bye!” are his last words before he’s gone from sight, Jongdae gaping because he thought Jongin was his favorite. He looks back to Yixing shortly after, who’s still smiling at him.
“How do you two know each other?”
“We happened to be in the same dance class this semester.”
“What?” Jongdae gapes again, eyes wide with surprise. “You- he didn’t say anything?”
Confusion on Yixing’s face is probably the most adorable expression ever. “Who? Jongin?” He hums as he leans back in his chair. “I didn’t know either until I got notifications saying I was in your video and saw him in it.”
“Oh,” Jongdae mumbles. He can feel his face heating up, watching as Yixing just stares at him as if he was one of the most interesting humans on the planet. “Oh.”
“Did Jongin invite you to my party next week?”
The question breaks the trance and now Jongdae is confused. “Next week?”
“October 7th,” Yixing replies, pouting himself as he fumbles for his phone in his pocket to check his messages. “I asked Jongin if he could invite you and your friends. Lu Han’s throwing it so it should be fun. Some of my other friends are coming too, another YouTube person you might know. Z.Tao? Ever heard of him?”
Jongdae is happy for Yixing’s distraction. It allows him to think more clearly and he hums. “I’ve heard of him,” he murmurs, “He does raps and dance covers too.”
Yixing smiles brightly at him, eyes lighting up. “Yeah! Well, he’s coming too. You two can meet; maybe collaborate? He’s been searching for another singer,” he says thoughtfully, but then scrunches his nose. “He and Lu Han always bicker like they’re real brothers. It gets annoying after a while.”
Jongdae thinks Yixing is really cute. And odd. “Really?” he asks, watching as Yixing nods. He smiles when Yixing reaches out to grab his drink, only to pause midway and realize he gave his drink to him when he first arrived. “I can buy you a drink?” Jongdae offers, watching as Yixing’s brow rises in query. “As a gesture of gratitude for the prevention of my drowning in heavenly pretzel sandwich goodness.” The resulting laugh in incredulity is enough for the grin to stretch wide on his face, getting up to go to the counter and hopefully guessing correctly which drink the man likes.
If Yixing doesn’t like the drink, he doesn’t say.
The following days blur into a week as Jongdae manages to gather his friends together to finally create the next skit in his series featuring Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Gayoung. It takes the entire weekend plus Monday to film all the scenes needed for the fifteen-minute long video, but the result is worth it after Jongin edits it.
It has comments flowing in immediately, thanking Jongdae for finally creating another one of these videos. Jongdae simply smiles through it all, trying to respond back to every other comment and those who mention him on Twitter. It’s a feat that lasts more than a day, and he’s not prepared for when Wednesday comes. It blindsides him and he’s sitting on his bed, completely perplexed as Baekhyun and Kyungsoo stand in front of him and his closet, arguing about what he should wear for the party tonight.
Mentions of black silk in combination with a red tie for a compromise has Jongdae snapping out of his daze, falling back onto his bed only to grab two of his pillows and throw it at his friends. They both yelp and Jongdae is proud, if only for a moment. He pales when he sees both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun glare at him with the intensity of the entire universe behind them.
“What are you guys so worked up about?” Jongdae manages to squeak out moments later, slowly crawling back on his bed to further the distance between them. “Did something happen?”
The question breaks Baekhyun, the man dropping all the clothes he’s holding onto the floor, and Jongdae screeches as his best friend lunges at him, knocking the wind out of him. He scrambles to sit on his chest and when he does, Jongdae is wheezing trying to get air back into his lungs.
“Baek-” He wheezes more when Baekhyun jabs his finger in his cheek.
“You have been holding out on me,” Baekhyun accuses, repeatedly poking him on the face, “I watched Yixing’s video. There’s some kind of weird friendship-romance thing going on between you two and, whether it looks like it or not, Kyungsoo and I are determined to figure out what possibility there is between you two.”
“For the record,” Kyungsoo pipes up, throwing clothes at them that covers both their heads, “I’m only going hoping for some cool drinks tonight.”
“Exactly,” Baekhyun affirms before he’s scrambling off of his friend to search through whatever remains of his clothes. “Plus,” he adds, “Lu Han is going to be there.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Of course.”
“We’re going purely for our own intentions.”
When Kyungsoo and Baekhyun aren’t bickering, they can be a deadly duo if they collaborate together. He groans when more clothes are thrown on top of him.
“You guys are going to be the death of me.”
Baekhyun throws him a smug grin.
“Just be glad Chanyeol and Jongin aren’t here too.”
Jongdae groans again, much more loudly this time.
( part 2)
Pairing: Jongdae/Yixing; side Baekhyun/Luhan, Chanyeol/Jongin, severely hinted Kyungsoo/Minju (the Ark)
Rating: PG
Length: 18k
Summary: Jongdae never thought doing things au naturel would lead him to dating one of the cutest YouTubers around.
Notes: Originally for chenpionships. The videos mentioned are inspired by Kurt Schneider’s videos on YouTube. (ao3 version here)
YouTube has been Jongdae’s favorite website ever since he was thirteen. He wasn’t aware of the beginning of a new age when the site opened in May of 2005, but he was there when his older brother showed him the birth of the new group, Wong Fu Productions. He was there when they created their very first video and uploaded it onto YouTube, starting small before amounting to where they are now. Jongdae likes to think of them as his role models, his inspirations, because everything they do and everything they have created thus far has had some type of meaning hidden within each video.
Wong Fu Productions is probably the reason why Funky JD Incorporated exists today.
Jongdae laughs as he reads the comments of his recent video. He loves it when he receives feedback of any kind, from constructive criticisms, to downright bashing, but the ones that really warm his heart are the comments where his viewers seemingly overflow with feelings and can’t help but smash their keyboards in hopes that their emotions get through to him somehow. Those comments are truly genuine, in his opinion, and he likes the feeling that he can make someone’s day with a video he poured his heart and soul into making.
He smiles as he sees a comment asking him how he does all this in-between school and he figures this is also why he’s “so popular” according to his best friend. He clicks to reply to the comment, quickly typing up his response before sending it, and he bursts into a fit of giggles when he immediately receives an answer back.
He also loves talking to his subscribers, his Twitter usually lighting up like fireworks after he posts a new video, and he’s always sleepy in class the next day because of it. He never minds it though. If his followers take time out of their day to send him a message, he should at least have enough time in his day to reply back.
To be honest, Jongdae doesn’t think he has as many followers as Wong Fu Productions. If anything, he has at least a fifth of the amount of subscribers Wong Fu has. If he’s being optimistic, he has a third of the amount of subscribers they have. But he thinks it’s only because he also does covers of the more popular songs that make its way onto the university radios around campus.
He hums as he makes his way towards the university restaurant, already seeing Chanyeol inside playing billiards with the rest of their friends, and smiles at the happy expression he can see on his face. Jongdae normally makes a video once every two to four weeks, but he hasn’t been able to make time to create a new short while the whole campus was gearing up for examination week. He even had to spend the past month trying to learn and re-learn everything in his classes so he didn’t fail a single one. But now they’re over. Now, he can get back to planning his next video.
“Fail or pass?” Chanyeol hollers right when Jongdae steps foot inside the establishment. He’s grinning from ear-to-ear and Jongdae thinks the man feels amazing about all the tests he took today.
“Pass,” Jongdae answers with a similar bright smile. He laughs as he tosses his backpack into the booth where their other friends are sitting. “Pretty sure anyways,” he adds on.
Jongin is currently playing billiards with Chanyeol, both of them using the game as an excuse to brush past each other to get to the cue ball, and Jongdae can’t help but smile at their awkward flirting. He plops down next to Baekhyun in the booth.
“Any progress on them?”
Baekhyun laughs in astonishment. “Them? No way.”
Jongdae laughs along with him, stealing some of Chanyeol’s fries before reaching into his backpack to get his notebook. There are several ideas and songs already listed in there, but he feels like doing something different for a change since all of his friends seemed to have survived examination week decently.
One of the ideas listed is to do another cover where he sings and Jongin dances. It’s been a while since the first time they did this and he thinks his subscribers would love to see Jongin in one of his videos again. He quickly became popular because of his looks and his skills with dancing.
Another one of his ideas listed is to sing another duet with Baekhyun. Their voices mesh well together since Baekhyun’s voice is on a lower range while Jongdae is more on a higher range, but there have been too many recent covers coming out by other famous YouTubers like Max Schneider and Sam Tsui. Besides, he doesn’t really want to strain his friend’s voice either. It’s been starting to sound a bit raspy recently despite him reassuring them he’s not getting sick.
Jongdae pouts as he looks over the rest of his ideas, none of them sounding appealing enough to actually do and make Chanyeol and Jongin edit, before he looks over to Baekhyun next, the latter’s attention clearly focused on the duo currently arguing over who won the last game. “Hey, Baek,” he says, waiting for the other to look back at him. “What should I do for my next video?”
“Hmm?”
“For my next video,” Jongdae repeats, sliding his notebook closer to Baekhyun until it’s next to his friend’s empty plate. “I want to do something special instead of the usual videos I do.”
“Then why don’t you just do a video of all of us hanging out?” Baekhyun easily suggests before gesturing towards their now laughing friends, Jongin slapping Chanyeol’s shoulder in what one would think is a flirtatious manner. It’s not. Baekhyun smiles at him. “I think all your subscribers would like to see all of us just chill for a change.”
The idea definitely isn’t a bad one, Jongdae thinks, as they watch Chanyeol loop an arm around a now flustered Jongin. They laugh as Jongin immediately pushes their larger friend away, Chanyeol stumbling before he regains his balance and starts laughing too. He thinks his followers would love to see how they all act together. He smiles mischievously, lips pulling into a wide grin as he hums pleasantly. Then he laughs in embarrassment when Baekhyun shoves him to get his mind out of his dreams.
Maybe he can get his subscribers to help him get Jongin and Chanyeol together.
Getting everything ready for a new video always takes a lot of time and preparation. It takes time to edit and get all the best views and lighting right. But for this video, Jongdae doesn’t think it’ll take too much to prepare or film. He’s going for an ‘au naturel’ look. He smiles brightly as he sets up his tripod out in the university courtyard, Chanyeol spreading his mother’s quilt on the grass so all four of them can sit on the ground comfortably.
Get ready for an amazing new video! Baekhyun types into Jongdae’s twitter. Ready to see us all up close and personal?! ^o^
Jongdae laughs as he sits back next to Jongin, who’s too busy plucking out the small flowers surrounding them, and checks his phone. His Twitter is blowing up again and he glares playfully at a beaming Baekhyun, pride written all over his face as he pulls Chanyeol close to him when he scoots too close to an innocent Jongin.
“So,” Baekhyun says, laughing when Chanyeol pouts at him like a puppy, “What are we going to talk about for our first Au Naturel video?”
Jongdae shrugs as he stares at his friends for inspiration. Chanyeol’s guitar is sitting beside them, but he figures they can close out their video with a short song. Instead, he looks to Jongin next to him, still too preoccupied with the flowers and grass, before another idea hits him. A smile breaks out onto his face as he turns and leans over to turn on the camera, pressing record easily before sitting back.
“Hello, lovely viewers!” Jongdae greets, just as bright and warm as every other video he makes. He sends the camera a small wave. “This video was a bit different from my previous ones, but I hope all of you enjoyed it nonetheless. I thought we should have some fun and show you what we do in our spare time between exams and university life.” He looks around to see Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Jongin staring at him before they each give him a variety of smiles. “You’ve now officially met my best friends!” He turns back to the camera happily. “If you enjoyed this video, hit the Subscribe button below,” he points down to his left before pointing to his right, “If you want to see my last video, click this nifty box right here.” He laughs when he sees Chanyeol and Baekhyun trying to play with the imaginary box. “Well, that’s it for today! See you all in the next video!”
He reaches forward to turn off the camera, waiting a few seconds before turning it on again. His friends know he does his videos a bit backwards, preferring to record the ending before recording the actual video, and he likes how they don’t mind it at all. He sits back before Baekhyun starts speaking first.
“Hey, everyone!” Baekhyun greets happily, waving cutely to the camera. “This is Funky JD’s first Au Naturel video! You’re witnessing a momentous occasion!”
“Anyways,” Chanyeol interrupts, constantly looking to Jongin who now looks bashful knowing he has to speak at some point, “We’re winging this whole video. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Jongdae lets his friends talk, smiling to the camera every few seconds before he looks back over to Jongin who keeps picking at the flowers in his hands. He smiles at the nervous action, reaching forward to grab some of the flowers on the ground between them to twirl and lock together. A flower crown is quickly made and his smile brightens when Jongin looks up at him shocked, allowing him to gently place the crown on his head. Jongin practically preens underneath the attention, and Chanyeol starts whining.
“Hey!” Chanyeol shouts, reaching out to slap a hand down on Jongdae’s thigh. “This is your video! You should be talking too!”
“Your jealousy is showing, Yeol,” Baekhyun retorts, rolling his eyes as the tips of Jongin’s ears turn red and he looks to Jongdae for help.
Jongdae simply mimics Baekhyun, rolling his eyes before scooting over to be able to link his arm with Jongin’s. “Don’t you think Jongin looks like a flower prince? The flower crown just enhances his beauty more.”
“Jongdae,” Jongin whines in embarrassment, squirming a bit before eventually settling down against him again. There’s a moment of silence and they’re stunned. “Chanyeol?” Jongin questions curiously. All Chanyeol does is stare at him with wide eyes. “Yeol?”
Jongdae shakes his head fondly before he turns to face the camera, now noticing a small crowd standing behind his equipment and watching them amazed. “These are my wonderful friends,” he says sarcastically, “Aren’t you guys glad that I’m the sane one in this group?” He bursts into laughter when Baekhyun tackles him to the ground first, followed by Jongin and Chanyeol. “I’m kidding!” he screeches, trying to push his friends off of him. “I surrender! I’m not the sanest!”
“Damn right!” Baekhyun yells back, laughing when they all eventually start slapping at each other to get off of the dog pile. “You’re the weirdest!”
“I’m pretty sure you mean the funkiest,” Jongin comments, laughing when Chanyeol focuses his attacks on him.
Jongdae stops trying to put Baekhyun into a headlock when Chanyeol elbows him in the back, face contorting into pain briefly before they look over to see Chanyeol still pinning Jongin down onto his side to tickle him into oblivion. Jongdae and Baekhyun instantly separate, both of them shaking their heads before getting up on their knees to head towards the camera.
“If any of my viewers are watching this weird cuddle-fest,” Jongdae whispers, hand cupping his mouth as if to prevent anybody else from hearing him. Baekhyun simply nods his head in approval, lips in a firm line as he gives the camera his most serious look to date. “And you ‘ship’ this odd couple behind us, help us out here and make them officially confess and date already. It’s getting too painful to watch.”
“Tell me about it,” Baekhyun mutters in annoyance. He suddenly yelps when he topples backwards and Jongdae looks over at him alarmed, only to find Chanyeol and Jongin targeting him now. Jongdae sighs affectionately before turning back to the camera.
“These are my best friends,” he announces again, easily slapping away the encroaching hands when he sees them appear in his peripheral vision, “Do I deserve them? I have no idea.” He slaps more hands away. “This is probably the weirdest video all of you have ever seen.” He gives the camera a lopsided smile before he screams and he accidentally knocks his tripod over, camera instantly turning off when it hits the ground. “I apologize for that, but we’re entertaining. Right? My camer-!”
Jongdae doesn’t expect the amount of comments he receives a few days after he finally posts the ten-minute long video, one of his longest videos to date. Granted, he does expect the usual amount of comments to show up, but having twice the amount is astounding. Did his viewers really like his Au Naturel video that much? Does he need to create more of them? What did they even do besides attack each other and flirt, in Jongin and Chanyeol’s case?
He pouts in concentration as he reads through all the usual comments and sees all the normal emojis, skipping over a few until he scrolls past a comment that has a name he doesn’t recognize. He scrolls back up to re-read the comment and pouts even harder in confusion.
look at yixing! that’s yixing right?!
yixing is so handsome <3
jongdae you know yixing???
Jongdae doesn’t understand. He scrolls back up to the video when he sees others comment the time that this ‘Yixing’ person shows up and he re-watches it, actually cringing at seeing Jongin and Chanyeol flirting on the screen in front of him. There are people walking in the back of their video, which is usual since they were in the university courtyard, but he doesn’t see who this ‘Yixing’ person could be. He jumps when his cell phone buzzes next to him, vibrating against the library table as he stares at it momentarily puzzled. Baekhyun’s name pops up on the screen and he frowns, picking it up and answering immediately.
“Zhang Yixing freaking goes to our school?!”
Jongdae is floored. Baekhyun knows who this Yixing is? “What?” he says for lack of a better word.
“Zhang Yixing!” Baekhyun screeches, Jongdae flinching as he tries to lower the volume of his cell phone so everybody in the library doesn’t hear their conversation. “That handsome Chinese singer I told you about?! The one who does all the awesome covers of pop songs and ballads and everything!”
It takes several long, agonizing seconds before the information and random excitement click in his brain. Jongdae’s eyes widen with realization. “Yixing is that guy with “the really cute dimple” that you kept talking about months ago?” He suddenly frowns when he hears a chorus of “yes, yes, yes.” “How did you not know he went to our university if you were in love with him then?”
“I don’t know!” Baekhyun yells. Jongdae thinks his right eardrum might burst. “I completely forgot about him when he did a cover with Lu Han and I know Lu Han goes to Yonsei University!”
“What the hell?” Jongdae breathes out, getting up from his table to go to a secluded area of the library, between the aisles of the Encyclopedia sections. “Is this what all my viewers sound like? It’s insane.”
Baekhyun sounds completely calm when he answers him, “More or less, yes,” before he goes back to screeching, “I can’t believe Yixing goes to our university! It’s insane that there are two famous YouTubers going to our school!”
“Baekhyun,” Jongdae whines, wanting the screaming to stop, “Calm down. I don’t know what you want me to do about it.” He pouts as he traces the letter ‘J’ on one of the encyclopedias. “How did you find out anyways? You don’t watch any of my videos. You usually just listen to them.” He can hear Baekhyun take a deep breath to calm himself down and he finds it slightly amusing that a pre-med student can be broken down into a mess like this.
“I follow Yixing on Instagram,” Baekhyun quietly explains, like he’s trying to control himself, “He recently posted a new picture of bunnies, like two hours ago, and when I scrolled through my feed, I saw comments on his picture saying something about you.” He pauses before he’s talking faster and getting louder with each word. “And then I went to your YouTube page and checked out your video and then I saw him there walking behind all of us while we conspired to try and get Jongin and Chanyeol together- Jongdae, oh my God!”
Jongdae laughs at his friend’s reactions, trying to stifle his giggles behind the dusty, old books. “Hey, Baek,” he quietly calls, “You okay there?”
“I can’t breathe!” Baekhyun manages to breathe out. His voice sounds airy and raspy all at once. “Zhong da!”
Jongdae laughs even harder when Baekhyun slips and calls him by his Chinese nickname given to him when they took Mandarin together the year before. He smiles when he sees some classmates stopping to stare at him curiously. They smile back. “What do you want me to do, Baek? Who do you even like more? Yixing or Lu Han?”
There’s complete silence on the other end and Jongdae wonders if they accidentally hung up on each other. It’s happened before.
“Lu Han plays soccer and dances,” Baekhyun murmurs, like that’ll give him all the answers in the world.
Jongdae frowns when he doesn’t elaborate. “So?”
Baekhyun sighs, and it sounds wistful. “Imagine those thighs and that stamina. He’s gorgeous.”
“And?”
“And he sings,” Baekhyun emphasizes, “His voice is beautiful and so deep and just imagine. He can get so deep-”
“Okay!” Jongdae squeaks out, eyes widening before he stuffs his face in an empty spot of a shelf. “Alright, Baek,” he whispers, making sure nobody is staring at him before stuffing his face back in to hide it. “How do you propose I get in contact with him? I’ve never heard about or seen Yixing before you mentioned him months ago and today.” He hums in thought as he looks up at the dark wooden shelf above him. “What does he even look like?”
It takes less than five seconds for Baekhyun to give him an answer.
“Exam hell week is over. I’m going to neglect my studies for the next week to introduce you to the wonderful world of ZYIXING.”
Jongdae is too busy alternating between planning his new sketch and trying to actually do well in his Cost Accounting class by completing the homework correctly, (apparently, he did well on the recent exam so he has to back it up somehow), when someone slams an insanely large science textbook down next to him. He swears he jumped halfway to his death because why the hell are all science textbooks literal monsters?
A laptop is placed gently in comparison on top of the horrifying book and when Jongdae looks up, Baekhyun looks like he walked out of the Walking Dead franchise. He frowns in concern. “What happened?”
“Surprise exam,” is the only answer Jongdae needs to immediately pull his best friend into a hug. His head is right next to Baekhyun’s abdomen, and he’s surprised to find lean muscle there instead of the soft tummy he used to always rub with friendly affection.
“You’re amazing, Baek,” Jongdae simply says before he feels fingers card through his hair in appreciation.
“And this is why I love you most.”
Jongdae laughs at that, letting Baekhyun push him away before he’s being forced to stare at a screen already loaded with one of ZYIXING’s videos. He stares at it a moment longer before he rolls his eyes in realization. Of course, Baekhyun would choose a video with Lu Han featuring in it.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me!” Baekhyun complains immediately, taking the seat next to him and scooting closer so they can watch the video together. His eyes are bright and Jongdae has to admit Baekhyun’s crush on this Lu Han guy is pretty cute. “Come on. This is one of Yixing’s better covers. He’s the one wearing the tank top and moving around the most to get to the appropriate places for each part of the song.”
Jongdae hums his acknowledgment, already focused on the paused video because Yixing has an amazing amount of views and likes on this video as well.
The video is a collection of Maroon 5 songs, a medley, and Jongdae thinks it’s amazing. He’s mesmerized by how smoothly Yixing and Lu Han can move around the apartment complex and hallways to create an intricate yet enjoyable video. This would take hours, if not days, of practice and he has to give this man credit. He doesn’t want the video to end.
There’s silence between them once the video finishes and Jongdae can feel Baekhyun’s imploring gaze directed towards him. He admits with a smile, “They’re good.”
Baekhyun nods immediately. “And Yixing?”
Jongdae hums. “He can sing.”
There’s a challenge in Baekhyun’s eyes and Jongdae knows this isn’t going to end very well.
“Let me show you his other popular videos.”
Spending hours in the university café doing something other than planning videos and doing homework isn’t exactly how Jongdae would spend his Friday afternoon. Yet, here he is. He rubs both his eyes with the heels of his hands, leaning back in his chair to take a break. He’s been staring at the computer screen for far too long. He knows Baekhyun is doing the same because he’s making that yipping noise only he is capable of when he’s tired.
“How many videos does this guy have?” Jongdae groans out, leaning over to slump on top of the table.
“Enough to re-populate the earth with AIs.”
Jongdae doesn’t even question his best friend, knowing his brain was fried even before he decided to crash his study day. He heaves a tired sigh, watching as Baekhyun slowly closes out each tab of YouTube, before he’s sitting back up to go back to work. He’s just figured out how to make a product more cost-effective when he feels someone lean against his side again. He sighs. Again.
“Hey, Baek.”
“Hey, Zhong da.”
Jongdae smiles at his textbook. “How are you doing?”
“I’m tired,” Baekhyun laughs out, moving in to place his head in the crook of Jongdae’s neck and shoulder, “Can I nap here?”
Jongdae laughs softly in return, moving so his best friend can get comfortable. “Let me order another latte then.” He stares at the screen where it’s paused to Yixing playing the piano, eyes closed as he “becomes one with the song” as Baekhyun so helpfully describes it, and he isn’t sure whether his best friend made him like this guy or dislike him. There are so many videos. He hums as he puts the video to the lowest possible sound setting and presses play, simply watching Yixing’s expressions as he plays the piano.
“Just so you know,” Baekhyun mumbles against his shoulder, “This whole thing is probably a bad decision on my part because, you know, we watched almost every video within the span of a few hours.” Jongdae doesn’t understand what he’s saying. “But it’s probably a good decision on your part.”
What.
(Pictures and videos of bunnies give Zhang Yixing life. He loves how cute and fluffy they are and how they nibble at the foods presented to them, he wishes he owned a bunny farm full of different kinds of bunnies. Lu Han calls him the most adorable devil to grace the planet and he always takes it in stride because how can someone not love bunnies?
He smiles happily as he scrolls through his Instagram feed and sees another picture of an adorable bunny, and promptly giggles when he re-posts it even though he just re-posted a picture of a different bunny hours ago.
Yixing barely notices a comment on his post about YouTube when his phone suddenly spazzes and there are instant notifications about varying degrees of comments from his followers. His eyes widen in surprise as he drops his phone, letting it flash continuously on his kitchen table as he sits back and watches it do its thing.
Normally, comments flow in like this for the first few minutes after he posts something new to Instagram, but with the way it’s continuing on longer than usual, Yixing can’t help but stare at his cell phone in confusion. He pouts before getting his laptop from his bedroom and turning it on, immediately going to YouTube because half the comments mention YouTube. He doesn’t understand. He hasn’t posted a video in over a week. Why are they mentioning it now?
Yixing’s pout turns into a frown when he sees he has new comments on all of his recent videos, all of them mentioning some man named Jongdae and Funky JD Incorporated, and he curiously clicks on a link somebody posts in his comments. He’s taken to a video recently posted within the week and he stares curiously as four people show up on the screen. The YouTube name sounds familiar but he can’t place where.
They’re talking about some Au Naturel concept when Yixing recognizes one of the people in the video from his dance class. His eyes widen when one of the men mentions Jongin, now sitting there with a flower crown on his head, and jumps when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He whips his head up to see Lu Han standing there behind him, like always.
“You’ve finally come around to checking out his videos,” Lu Han mentions before he walks away and tosses his soccer bag onto the floor next to the front door. “Although, that wouldn’t be one of the first I’d watch, if I were being honest,” he calls out before he disappears to somewhere else in the small apartment. “You should watch one of the few sketches he directed that has Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Gayoung in it.”
“What?” Yixing answers back out of habit, even though he always hears what Lu Han says. He pouts as his eyes go back to the video, just about to end when he sees a flash of himself disappear off screen. His eyes widen in shock before he rewinds it back and watches as he walks behind the quartet, trying to untangle his Apple earbuds that seem to be forever tangled. That’s all he’s doing the entire time he’s in view of the camera. He sighs. Of course that’s what he’d be doing if not his own videos.
“Hey, Lu?” he questions when he hears a door close. He hopes he didn’t just speak to nobody. “Lu?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m in this Jongdae guy’s video,” Yixing simply says, hearing footsteps coming closer to him. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to do something about it or not.”
“You two go to the same school?” Lu Han inquires, eyes wide as he goes to look over his shoulder. “I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t know that either,” Yixing says, frowning in confusion. “Am I supposed to do something about it though? All my followers keep commenting and telling me to do stuff, but what?” He looks to Lu Han pleadingly, hoping for some kind of answer, but all Lu Han does is shrug in response before walking away to take a shower.
“How about talking to him and maybe try to collaborate? He sings too, you know.”
Yixing watches his friend walk away, belatedly realizing the stench hanging in the air, before looking back to his laptop and staring at all the comments mentioning him. He pouts as he scrolls back up to the ten-minute long video and replays it again. Does Jongdae really sing?)
KYAAAHHH DO THEY REALLY KNOW EACH OTHER?!!! COLLAB!! is what greets Jongdae on a Tuesday morning right before his Business Accounting exam weeks after his first Au Naturel video made its appearance. He has no idea what brought this random comment on, or the many random tweets accompanying it, but he really look further into it until after the exam. He’s surprised to know a little more than half of the concepts on that dreaded test.
“Are you getting a lot of new comments now?”
Jongdae glances over to see Jongin suddenly walking in stride with him. He hums as he waves in greeting and Jongin laughs back. “Yeah. On all of my recent videos.” They both take the same general biology lecture and laboratory for first-years. Jongdae just so happened to choose a required first-year science late.
“So,” Jongin starts slowly, giving him a confused look, “you didn’t make a new video?”
Jongdae frowns. “Do none of my own friends watch my videos?”
“Sorry, Dae.”
“Whatever,” Jongdae mumbles, knowing very well Chanyeol doesn’t watch his videos either, unless it has Jongin in them. Of course. He looks back down to his cell phone, going through his Twitter feed after reading as many of the new comments as he can. “Oh. There’s a link in this tweet.” Jongdae lets Jongin bump into his shoulder once before they get a good rhythm and they’re both staring at the iPhone while still walking to class. “It’s a new video,” Jongdae informs, waiting for the five-minute cover video to load.
But he knows this song, and it only lasts four.
It’s when they’re seated and waiting for class to start that Jongin pulls out his earbuds and plugs it into the phone, each sharing one as Jongdae finally presses play. A melodic tune plays in the background and they both unconsciously sway to the beat. It’s sounds really nice, if Jongdae must say, and Yixing’s voice fits the song perfectly.
When the song ends, it’s then Jongdae realizes why there’s an extra minute left in the video. It shows Yixing sitting on his bed facing the camera. That part of the room looks minimalistic but that only keeps Jongdae’s attention for five seconds before Yixing speaks.
“Hello, everyone! Thank you for taking the time to watch my cover of Boa’s ‘Who Are You.’ If you liked this video and want to watch others, click the little box right here,” Yixing points to an area beside him before pointing down cutely, dimple showing as he grins, “If you want to be notified of upcoming covers, please subscribe!” There’s a pause where Jongdae thinks the video is finished, but he notices there’s still a good forty seconds left. “Recently, I’ve been getting notifications about appearing in somebody else’s video unknowingly. I just want to say that all of you should like and subscribe to his videos because you like what he does. I don’t want my sudden appearance in one video to cause a surge of subscribers because that isn’t fair for him and his work. However, I have checked out some of his videos, and I think they’re great.” There’s only a few seconds left. “If he checks out this video, I just want to say - Hi, Jongdae. My name is Yixing.” The last image is of Yixing smiling and waving to the camera, and Jongin and Jongdae’s mouths drop in complete shock.
Jongdae doesn’t even stop Jongin from trying to replay the ending, too dumbstruck to do anything but hear once again, “Hi, Jongdae. My name is Yixing.” His heart is suddenly beating way too fast to be considered normal and the words keep ringing in his ear because Jongin keeps replaying the ending and has Yixing always had dimples on both of his cheeks?
Jongin is giving him a look, one where he looks like he knows too much, and Jongdae feels his body heat up from the ends of his hair to the tips of his toes. “What?” he squeaks out, flinching when Jongin reaches up to gently tug his earbud out of his ear.
“You’re red, Jongdae,” is all Jongin says before a soft smile takes over his lips, habitually reaching out to pet his head. It’s a weird-Jongin-habit he had taken up with only his close friends. His voice is unsurprisingly soft to match the soft smile on his face. “Have you ever met him in real life?”
Jongdae shakes his head.
“Would you want to?”
Jongdae averts his eyes from Jongin, opting to look back at his cell phone, video paused right before the ending. Class is starting, but with a class as big as theirs, the professor doesn’t really care how many of his students are actually paying attention to him or not, as long as they get the necessary notes for the upcoming exam.
“You know,” Jongin whispers as he’s taking out a notebook for all his notes, “I heard Yixing is trilingual.”
That puts a new spin on things.
Jongdae hastily forgoes his biology notebook in favor of his Funky JD Incorporated notebook instead. He gives Jongin a bright smile.
“How would you like to do a video with me tomorrow?”
(Yixing stares blankly at his computer screen, meanwhile Lu Han’s trying to smack the thing to load faster, and his jaw falls when he sees Jongdae grinning cutely with Jongin waving behind him wearing another flower crown. Did the university really have this many flowers? Yixing doesn’t know nor does he give it a second thought when Jongdae opens his mouth and sings.
“The song is called ‘Into Your World,’” Lu Han informs quietly, smiling lightly as he sings along softly, “There’s an English and Chinese version as well,” he adds as an afterthought.
Yixing wants to know how he knows but he’s too mesmerized by how Jongdae effortlessly hits all the right notes, the sounds making a pleasant tingle run throughout his body. He’s never seen someone sing like this before. Not even Lu Han can hit the notes Jongdae is reaching way too easily.
“Hello, everybody,” Jongdae greets with his signature cat-like grin, Jongin sitting behind him smiling vibrantly and sweating the slightest bit before he’s looking away again, “In short, this is a response to a video whose owner gave me a shout-out. It’s basically the reason why this video isn’t part of that mini-series I’ve been directing that everyone’s been waiting for.” He laughs when Jongin pokes him and oh. His giggle is cute too. “Hi Yixing, my name is Jongdae!”
Yixing immediately pauses the video when Lu Han smacks his arm. “Ow!”
“You two are flirting so hard!” Lu Han exclaims excitedly before he smacks Yixing again and then presses play. Yixing pouts at the abuse, rubbing his arm to soothe the sting, before he looks back to the video again.
“Thank you for the shout-out and getting me new subscribers!” Another giggle. Oh God. “Hopefully you’ll get more subscribers too because your videos are great. Lu Han is a great singer too, if you’re watching this!”
“I approve.” Yixing glares at Lu Han, who’s wearing a stupid bright grin on his face.
“Anyways,” Jongdae continues, big smile becoming softer, and oh. Oh. “Thank you.”
The video ends with Jongdae singing a snippet of the song in Chinese before he messes up and tells Jongin to turn off the video instead. Yixing goes back to staring at the screen blankly, Jongdae’s delicate voice resonating within his head and all those powerful notes pulling at his heartstrings. He feels a pat on his shoulder and he looks up to see Lu Han staring at him curiously.
“He’s cute,” Yixing blurts out, eyes wide and cheeks red. Lu Han laughs at him, continuing to pat his shoulder as if to go on. “Is he always that cute?”
Lu Han shrugs, pulling away. “I don’t know. I don’t go to your school, remember?”
Yixing pouts at the reminder before replaying the video at least two more times.)
“To my beautiful subscribers, I apologize this isn’t a new cover or collaboration with Lu Han. It is not a new composition of mine either. Instead, this video is a short one because Lu Han here says I have no tact-”
“You don’t!” Lu Han yells from behind the camera with a laugh. Yixing easily ignores him and continues on.
“-but, Jongdae, do we really go to the same university? How come I haven’t actually seen you yet? Also, my earbuds are perpetually tangled; I don’t know why I keep trying to untangle them. I’m sorry that’s what I was doing to get so much attention to your video. I should’ve been doing something else or- something.”
“Xing. You’re doing that thing again. Stop talking. The video is getting long.”
“What thing? Wait! Lu! Don’t turn it-”
The smile on Jongdae’s face can’t possibly get any wider. He’s in his room, sitting in front of his laptop on his desk with his earbuds in, and he can’t help but think Yixing is adorable in the way he speaks Korean. He’s busy re-watching the video and giggling to notice his roommate sneaking up on him. He screams when he feels a chin on his head. “Don’t hurt me! I didn’t do anything to you!” And then arms drape over his shoulders in a relaxing manner. Jongdae breathes out a sigh of relief at seeing the hands free of anything and outstretched in a placating gesture before one comes back to tug an earbud out of his ear.
“Do I need to be concerned?” is Kyungsoo’s only question before he backs off to sit on his bed. He doesn’t look concerned, but Jongdae knows better. He thinks.
“About what?”
Kyungsoo raises a brow. Jongdae breaks easily.
“Do you think he’s cute? Have you heard of Zhang Yixing? YouTuber by the name ZYIXING?”
“Yeah.”
Jongdae doesn’t comprehend. How does Kyungsoo know of Yixing and he doesn’t? Kyungsoo doesn’t even do much with technology, only using his cell phone and sometimes the computer to watch anime and listen to music. He also watches all the official music videos of artists because it’s his way of ‘showing support’ for them after only watching it once.
“Why don’t you two actually meet up?” Kyungsoo asks, breaking Jongdae out of his thoughts. “Obviously he has an interest in you if he made a video I thought was going to be a new original.”
Jongdae gapes at him. “You already saw this video?”
Kyungsoo shrugs, lips tugging up into a smirk. “Got the notification early this morning.”
“And you didn’t say anything about it?”
“I wanted to see your reaction,” he says before the smirk falls and curiosity fills his gaze. “Jongin also called. Something about a birthday party he wants you to go to. He said Baekhyun could come too.” He tilts his head in confusion. “He said I could come also since I answered the phone. Jongin’s so weird.”
“What?” Jongdae removes the remaining earbud from his ear, getting up from his desk to get his cell phone off his bed. There are text messages from Jongin and a whole lot from Baekhyun and Chanyeol. “Did he say when and where?”
Kyungsoo hums in thought. “October 7th. At night - eight in the evening maybe?” He frowns when Jongdae looks back at him confused. “It’s on campus. Jongin’s gonna to swing by here to come get you.”
“But that’s a Wednesday.”
“When do we ever go to sleep at a respectable time in the middle of the week in university?” Kyungsoo retorts, lips working up into a smirk again. “It’ll probably be worth it if Jongin is the one basically advertising it. He’s trustworthy I guess.”
Jongdae snorts at his choice of words, falling back onto his bed, and waiting for the minute Baekhyun comes banging on his door for an explanation. He smiles up towards the ceiling at thinking of Yixing’s newest video and he turns his head to see Kyungsoo still looking at him curiously. “Do you think this invitation to a birthday party will stop Baekhyun from complaining and whining in my ear 24/7 when he sees that video?”
It’s one of those blessed times Kyungsoo laughs as much as he does right now, because as if right on cue, someone comes banging on their door wanting an explanation for this special video just for Jongdae.
University cafés were never really Jongdae’s thing until this year when all his classes became ten times harder and he needed to be somewhere else other than his dorm room to actually focus on all his work. He doesn’t think they’re bad or anything, per se, but he would’ve simply preferred some place else where students weren’t typically found doing their homework other than the library. But the place is really convenient and they have this one type of pretzel sandwich he definitely thinks is a gift from the heavens.
He’s busy munching on said sandwich in the early afternoon, headphones on as he tries to mute out the extra noise of the busy café so he can focus on the essay he’s trying to write up for his Business Finance class. He doesn’t get far though when he suddenly hears squeals through his headset and they get louder when he sees two people sit down in front and beside him out of the corners of his eyes. He looks up mid-bite only to almost choke on a particularly salty pretzel piece.
Jongin is wide-eyed, freaking out as he’s trying to talk to him, but Jongdae honestly can’t hear anything until Jongin pulls the headphones off his head and suddenly everything comes in a loud rush. “Are you okay?!”
Jongdae’s only logical response is to drop his pretzel sandwich onto his plate and repeatedly slap Jongin on the arms like his life depends on it.
“What are you doing?!” Jongin screeches, stumbling out of his chair to try and shield himself from the attacks.
“You don’t just- Jongin!”
And then Jongin takes Jongdae’s pretzel sandwich and stuffs it in the latter’s mouth, Jongdae now sporting a deer-in-the-headlights look as he belatedly realized some of the patrons at the café have their phones out recording this moment.
“Hi, Jongdae,” Yixing finally says, completely amused with the situation and putting his drink in front of him. “It’s nice to finally meet you in person.”
Jongdae takes the proffered drink after taking a reasonable bite out of his sandwich and trying to swallow it without dying. He’s surprised to find it’s the raspberry lemonade special drink of the day and he looks to Jongin who gives him a bright, knowing smile. He didn’t realize his own was empty.
Yixing is handsome up close, he concludes. His hair is shorter and a lighter brown than in his last video, but he thinks it makes him look pretty. He’s also staring at him with curious eyes and Jongdae realizes he hasn’t said anything yet to the guy who practically flirted with him for the whole worldwide internet world to see. He swallows.
“Hi, Jongdae. You’re Yixing.”
“What,” Jongin deadpans.
That elicits laughter from Yixing and the people around them who know who they are, and Jongdae immediately covers his face with his hands as he groans in embarrassment. “I mean. Hi, Yixing. You already know I’m Jongdae. Kim Jongdae. Funky JD Jongdae who-”
“What is wrong with you?” Jongin interrupts, and when Jongdae peeks through his fingers, Jongin is giving him a weird look. “Is your brain fried from your Business Finance class? Or is it Biology?” He then looks to everybody who has cameras out on them. “Can you please stop filming? If you want to see how this progresses, check their YouTube channels within the next month. Otherwise, please let them have their privacy.”
It takes a few moments, but when the other students actually accept Jongin’s conditions with slight glares, Jongin simply glares back until they’re gone just as quick. It doesn’t help that he sees Chanyeol walking by the café with Baekhyun though and he’s hastily jumping out of his seat to meet up with them. “I won’t tell Baekhyun anything. Bye!” are his last words before he’s gone from sight, Jongdae gaping because he thought Jongin was his favorite. He looks back to Yixing shortly after, who’s still smiling at him.
“How do you two know each other?”
“We happened to be in the same dance class this semester.”
“What?” Jongdae gapes again, eyes wide with surprise. “You- he didn’t say anything?”
Confusion on Yixing’s face is probably the most adorable expression ever. “Who? Jongin?” He hums as he leans back in his chair. “I didn’t know either until I got notifications saying I was in your video and saw him in it.”
“Oh,” Jongdae mumbles. He can feel his face heating up, watching as Yixing just stares at him as if he was one of the most interesting humans on the planet. “Oh.”
“Did Jongin invite you to my party next week?”
The question breaks the trance and now Jongdae is confused. “Next week?”
“October 7th,” Yixing replies, pouting himself as he fumbles for his phone in his pocket to check his messages. “I asked Jongin if he could invite you and your friends. Lu Han’s throwing it so it should be fun. Some of my other friends are coming too, another YouTube person you might know. Z.Tao? Ever heard of him?”
Jongdae is happy for Yixing’s distraction. It allows him to think more clearly and he hums. “I’ve heard of him,” he murmurs, “He does raps and dance covers too.”
Yixing smiles brightly at him, eyes lighting up. “Yeah! Well, he’s coming too. You two can meet; maybe collaborate? He’s been searching for another singer,” he says thoughtfully, but then scrunches his nose. “He and Lu Han always bicker like they’re real brothers. It gets annoying after a while.”
Jongdae thinks Yixing is really cute. And odd. “Really?” he asks, watching as Yixing nods. He smiles when Yixing reaches out to grab his drink, only to pause midway and realize he gave his drink to him when he first arrived. “I can buy you a drink?” Jongdae offers, watching as Yixing’s brow rises in query. “As a gesture of gratitude for the prevention of my drowning in heavenly pretzel sandwich goodness.” The resulting laugh in incredulity is enough for the grin to stretch wide on his face, getting up to go to the counter and hopefully guessing correctly which drink the man likes.
If Yixing doesn’t like the drink, he doesn’t say.
The following days blur into a week as Jongdae manages to gather his friends together to finally create the next skit in his series featuring Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Gayoung. It takes the entire weekend plus Monday to film all the scenes needed for the fifteen-minute long video, but the result is worth it after Jongin edits it.
It has comments flowing in immediately, thanking Jongdae for finally creating another one of these videos. Jongdae simply smiles through it all, trying to respond back to every other comment and those who mention him on Twitter. It’s a feat that lasts more than a day, and he’s not prepared for when Wednesday comes. It blindsides him and he’s sitting on his bed, completely perplexed as Baekhyun and Kyungsoo stand in front of him and his closet, arguing about what he should wear for the party tonight.
Mentions of black silk in combination with a red tie for a compromise has Jongdae snapping out of his daze, falling back onto his bed only to grab two of his pillows and throw it at his friends. They both yelp and Jongdae is proud, if only for a moment. He pales when he sees both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun glare at him with the intensity of the entire universe behind them.
“What are you guys so worked up about?” Jongdae manages to squeak out moments later, slowly crawling back on his bed to further the distance between them. “Did something happen?”
The question breaks Baekhyun, the man dropping all the clothes he’s holding onto the floor, and Jongdae screeches as his best friend lunges at him, knocking the wind out of him. He scrambles to sit on his chest and when he does, Jongdae is wheezing trying to get air back into his lungs.
“Baek-” He wheezes more when Baekhyun jabs his finger in his cheek.
“You have been holding out on me,” Baekhyun accuses, repeatedly poking him on the face, “I watched Yixing’s video. There’s some kind of weird friendship-romance thing going on between you two and, whether it looks like it or not, Kyungsoo and I are determined to figure out what possibility there is between you two.”
“For the record,” Kyungsoo pipes up, throwing clothes at them that covers both their heads, “I’m only going hoping for some cool drinks tonight.”
“Exactly,” Baekhyun affirms before he’s scrambling off of his friend to search through whatever remains of his clothes. “Plus,” he adds, “Lu Han is going to be there.”
Jongdae rolls his eyes. “Of course.”
“We’re going purely for our own intentions.”
When Kyungsoo and Baekhyun aren’t bickering, they can be a deadly duo if they collaborate together. He groans when more clothes are thrown on top of him.
“You guys are going to be the death of me.”
Baekhyun throws him a smug grin.
“Just be glad Chanyeol and Jongin aren’t here too.”
Jongdae groans again, much more loudly this time.
( part 2)