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Yeonjun and Soobin walked hand in hand through the park. “Do you ever think we’ll be able to come out? Like publicly?” Yeonjun asked after a few peaceful moments of silence.
“I mean, I’d like to, but I have no idea if we’d ever be allowed to,” Soobin said reasonably.
“I want to be able to tell everyone how much I love you. I wish I could shout it from the rooftops,” Yeonjun said, twirling around to face Soobin and grab his hand.
“I know, babe. If we could come out I’d jump on the opportunity in a heartbeat,” Soobin said, leaning forward to kiss Yeonjun gently. It was at that moment that the pair heard a camera shutter. They both froze knowing exactly what that meant. “Well. Babe, I think that might be our chance to come out,” Yeonjun chuckled.
“Manager-nim is gonna kill us. We’re gonna get fired,” Soobin panicked.
“They can’t fire us, the fans would riot,” Yeonjun quickly reminded him.
Soobin sighed. “We should go home and enjoy the last bit of time we have before we get yelled at.”
“I can feel the panic on you, love. It’s all gonna be okay. We’re gonna get home and cuddle up and everything is gonna be okay,” Yeonjun calmly reminded him, wrapping an arm around the taller.
“I love you,” Soobin said, kissing Yeonjun’s hand.
*************************
“You got caught, didn’t you?” were the first words out of Beomgyu’s mouth when the pair arrived home.
“How did you know?” Soobin asked.
“I’m smart like that,” Beomgyu snarked.
“Yeah, well. Dispatch was at the park we went to. I should warn Felix, he sometimes goes there with his boyfriend too,” Yeonjun decided, wandering away to go text Felix about the recent Dispatch sighting.
“Aren’t you scared of getting in trouble?” Beongyu questioned.
“Maybe. Yeonjun’ll handle it,” Soobin said, looking after Yeonjun.
“Stop making that face,” Beomgyu said.
“What face?”
“The gross love-eyes thing. Stop it.”
“Oh hush,” Soobin snapped, going to follow his boyfriend.
*************************
“Choi Soobin, Choi Yeonjun, we need you for a meeting. Now,” Their manager summoned, ushering the pair into a conference room with the head of PR.
The head of PR was holding a bunch of paperwork and the screen behind her showed pictures of the couple from the night before. “So. Dispatch saw you. As a company, we don’t have a problem with you dating behind the scenes, but publicly it is more difficult. It could take away from the attention on your careers,” she explained.
“Have they released anything?” Soobin asked
Their manager shook his head. “No. It’s the usual fee and they’ll drop it.”
“What if we actually want to go public?” Soobin questioned.
“We have been talking about it for a while as a couple and that could be a better option,” Yeonjun continued.
“Are you sure this is something you actually want to do? It can’t exactly be undone,” she pressed.
“Of course. We’re sure,” Soobin said, holding Yeonjun’s hand under the table.
“Dispatch is gonna get us if we don’t come out first,” Yeonjun added.
“We can pay them off,” the PR head reminded them.
“Look at this as an opportunity: the gays love to see the gays in the media. Us coming out gives so much support to our lgbtq fans. Let us. Please? I won't do things you have to edit out for the rest of the comeback,” Yeonjun bargained.
“I don’t believe you,” their manager said.
“Fair. But please. If you stop trying to just cover this up and let us come out you get free promotions and you now will have less to edit out,” Yeonjun reasoned.
“Okay fine. We’ll set up a meeting with all the higher-ups this afternoon,” the head of PR said decisively, getting up quickly and power walking out of the room with their manager following behind.
“Babe, we might get to come out,” Yeonjun said incredulously, spinning on his chair to face Soobin.
“This is a good idea, right? It’s not gonna affect the group?” Soobin worried.
“It might, but if you spend like five minutes on Twitter you’d see that fans already have their speculations,” Yeonjun assured him.
Soobin sighed and leaned against his boyfriend. “That’s true. I liked what you said about supporting fans. Like, imagine if there were more idols who were openly out when we were younger.”
“That was my thought process exactly. It would have been so much easier to come out.”
After a minute, Soobin’s phone pinged, interrupting the thoughtful silence.
“Oh, look, it’s the kids,” he said thoughtfully.
“Why did they text you and not me?” Yeonjun whined.
“They texted the group chat with everyone,” Soobin stated.
“Oh. I muted that.”
“I know, love. The kids want to know if the company tried to put us back in the closet.”
Yeonjun laughed. “You should tell them what’s going on. Also, tell them we're not gonna be home for a while, I want to go on a date after this.”
"Oh? Where did you have in mind?" Soobin asked.
"Probably just to dinner. I want to have some time just the two of us so we can talk about everything without eavesdropping children," Yeonjun elaborated.
"That's fair."
Soon they were called into a meeting with their manager, head of PR, CEO, and the team from marketing who usually handled Dispatch.
"So. We heard that you two want to go public with your relationship?" Bang PD stated.
"Yes, PD-nim," Soobin said, bowing respectfully.
"And you've thought about the effect this will have on the group and your fans?" he asked.
"With all due respect, the fans have been speculating since debut. I personally don't think it would shock them too much."
A member of the marketing staff nodded. "That's true. Fans do think of you two as a couple. It's all over Twitter.".
"We also talked about the impact it would have on fans who are part of the LGBTQ community to have idol role models."
"That is a very good point. How do you propose we do this then? Let Dispatch leak the photos?"
"We could release an announcement on social media before they get the chance."
"What about a couple's photoshoot? Add a little flair to the whole thing?"
"How long did Dispatch say we have until they leak it?"
"Tomorrow night."
"Can we pull off a photoshoot in twenty-four hours?"
"It'll be close, but if we go all hands on deck I think we can pull it off."
"Okay everyone, here’s what we’re going to do; gather every stylist and photographer in the building. We're doing this," Bang PD said, smiling determinedly. Soobin grabbed Yeonjun’s hand again and squeezed it.
*************************
Thirty minutes later, the couple was ushered into a studio set up for a photoshoot. The backdrop was decked out with an intricate pattern of rainbow colors.
"It's beautiful," Yeonjun gasped, squeezing Soobin's hand.
"We wanted to make something to show joy and make the message clear for the announcement," one of the stylists explained.
"You've done an amazing job."
They were ushered into wardrobe by a stylist. Yeonjun was put in overalls with a rainbow embroidered on the front and Soobin was given a button-up and blue jeans. Next, they were sent to hair and makeup where the stylists were going for a "natural glam" look, which basically meant lots of highlighter.
They were then ushered into the actual shooting space. As they stood in front of the backdrop watching the camera crew start setting up, Yeonjun turned to Soobin. "Can you believe this? we're actually coming out."
Soobin rested his forehead against his boyfriend's shoulder. "I never thought this would be possible a year ago. A month ago, even."
"I love you so much," Yeonjun whispered to him.
"I love you too," Soobin whispered back.
"I think we got the perfect shot," the photographer said, startling the pair out of their moment. She beckoned them over and turned her monitor so they could see. It was a perfect candid shot that perfectly captured their closeness and emotions. They looked so in love and happy, arms around each other.
"It's perfect," Soobin said quietly, blinking tears away, hand coming up to cover his mouth. He looked at Yeonjun who had quiet tears streaming down his cheeks. He wrapped an arm around him holding him close and kissing Yeonjun on the forehead.
"Do you guys want to take a couple more photos for fun?"
"Yeah, just give me a second to stop crying," Yeonjun said, fanning his hands in front of his face to try to stop the flow of tears. "I don't know why I'm so emotional." Soobin gave him another kiss.
The makeup noonas did some touch-ups and they were back to shooting. These poses were much less emotional, just some cute couple shots for the pair to keep for the future. Soobin’s favorite was one where he and Yeonjun were both toward the camera, looking at each other, hands clasped between them. Yeonjun’s favorite was one taken from above them, lying on the floor on their backs together, arms linked.
Even with all the beautiful pictures they got, they still decided to post the original one as it was the most candid and showed their personalities the best.
“Are you ready to post it?” Their manager asked after all the photos had any last touch-ups done. They had decided on a simple caption ‘Yeonjun 🦊 and Soobin 🐰: We would like to take this opportunity to announce our relationship to the world. We have so much love for each other and didn’t want to hide it any longer. Thank you for your support.’
“Yeah. Can we have a countdown?” Yeonjun asked, squeezing Soobin’s hand.
“Okay. Ready. 3...2...1. And it’s up!” within seconds, the comments started flooding in.
I KNEW IT!!!
Omg my heart
YEONBIN IS REAL!!!!
I’m unstanning
^then go away
OUR BABIES ARE GROWING UP
I’m so proud of them