Two months later and Jonghyun had gotten used to conversing regularly with one of his favourite idols. The singer had continued to message him intermittently, often about inane topics or what he was doing that day, sometimes with questions for the composer, sometimes he just sent a single emoji. Jonghyun, after a while, had become comfortable enough to initiate conversations himself – his first text without Onew texting first was merely a simple ‘This song is frustrating me’ and had received some, actually very useful advice, in return – and eventually he started texting the idol whenever something interesting or frustrating happened in his day. Every so often, both males would have access to their phone and a longer conversation would ensue between them, often reaching multiple hours of back and forth text messaging.

Their conversations were usually light, the topics never straying into any territory that could be considered dangerous – whether emotionally or in terms of their jobs. Jonghyun never divulged what group he was writing songs for, he had been warned not to by SM Entertainment as the information was a potential spoiler risk. He was sure that Onew would never leak any spoilers, and maybe it wasn’t even a spoiler as he too was employed by SM Entertainment – he received the same stern warnings Jonghyun did and it was likely the idol already knew about the upcoming comebacks and débuts anyway – but he kept the information to himself either way. Onew, in turn, never spoke of what he was doing outside of general terms. Jonghyun was informed of photo shoots and press conferences but he was never informed of the context of these events and in many cases he didn’t even know where they were being held.

Despite this, Jonghyun could comfortably say he and Onew were becoming close friends. The two had a lot in common and conversation was easy between them. However, it had taken the aid of Jiwoong to get them to this point. If you had said to Jonghyun before the fact, that his roommate would aid him in matters involving social interaction and emotions, he would have laughed, loudly and at great length. The artist had the emotional range of a tea spoon – to steal a phrase from Hermione Granger – and had a terrible habit of saying incredibly embarrassing things, often in front of other people. However, he had proven to be a god send in this situation.

On the day Jonghyun received his first messages from Onew, the composer had come home from work in a strange sort of daze. As he clattered through the doorway, his roommate had poked his head out the kitchen – where he was cleaning his paint brushes, he was banned from cooking when no one was home – and called a greeting to the blonde. His eyebrows had pulled together in confusion when he received no response.

The artist followed the sounds of clattering through the small apartment, finding his roommate in the living room, sat on the sofa, his bag tossed by his feet and his hands clutching his phone. Jiwoong watched from the doorway, quietly, hoping for some clue as to what was bothering the man. As he watched, the blonde barely moved, his entire focus taken up by the device in his hand.

The artist found this odd. Jonghyun always had his phone on him and was always quick to reply to messages. However, he had never been the type of person to constantly stare at his phone, not like those teenagers he always saw on the train. He wasn’t even sure the composer had a social media account. He often spent time on those SHINee forums of his – although not recently for obvious reasons – but he usually did that on his laptop.

Breathing deeply and preparing himself for a potentially difficult conversation, the college grad walked into the living room, a smile on his face.

“What’s up big-shot?”

Jonghyun startled, not having noticed the boy coming into the room, “Not much.”

Jiwoong nodded lightly, not believing a word the other male said. Sitting down beside the composer on the sofa, the male arched his back, making dramatic stretching noises, “Sure? You seem spaced.”

“I’m sure.” The composer said, still staring at his phone.

Sighing, Jiwoong ran a hand through his hair in frustration; it seemed his roommate wasn’t going to make this easy for him. “I’m not sure I believe you.”

Jonghyun finally looked up from the device, looking at his roommate, who only became surer something was wrong when he saw the blonde’s expression. Jonghyun, for a while, considered keeping quiet and continuing his denial however, he knew his roommate too well to believe he would let it go. “I got a text from Onew.”

“Wait, that idol you like? The one you met the other day?”

“Yeah,” Jonghyun agreed.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Jiwoong asked, confused as to why his roommate seemed so spaced out because of this. He would have assumed that the male would be happy about this. He knew, from three years of being the male’s friend, that the blonde was completely obsessed with SHINee and, after a little prodding, he had even managed to extract  a confession that the male had a massive crush on the leader of said group.

So this reaction to a simple text message from the male seemed strange. After meeting the idol in person the other day, the blonde had been bouncing off the walls. Now, this blank, vacant look was strange and not what he would have expected at all.

“He said he wanted to be friends.”

Jiwoong looked at his roommate in shock. He had assumed the other male had received a single text, like an apology for the bullying issue, he hadn’t considered the messages could actually be a conversation. That was huge, for a fan of the group to be asked to be friends by one of the members. This reaction still didn’t make sense to the artist, however. Surely the blonde should be thrilled.

Deciding to go with humour, Jiwoong joked with Jonghyun, hoping for a reaction. “Look at you big shot, making friends with idols. Any chance you can get me a hot girlfriend, what with all your new contacts? Girl’s Gen are pretty cute.”

Jonghyun looked at his roommate in a bemused state of shock, “What?”

“You’re talking to an idol,” Jiwoong explained, like he was teaching a small child, “idols have other idols’ numbers. Hence, you can get some hot girls’ numbers for me.”

Jonghyun gave a reaction other than blank shock for the first time that conversation at this statement. “Yeah, good luck with that. As if any girl will want your stank .” He joked, his hands falling into his lap and his phone screen fading to black for the first time since he arrived home.

“Better than yours.” Jiwoong shot back, jokingly.

“As if. You saw that tweet. People think I’m hot stuff.” Jonghyun chuckled, flicking his fringe out of his face exaggeratedly.

“They wouldn’t find you so hot if they knew about your little obsession with Onew,”

Immediately, Jonghyun’s expression changed. The open smile he had on his face faded, however it didn’t return to the strange blankness that was present before. He now looked pensive and a little concerned and these were emotions that could be worked with. Jiwoong considered that a success. He decided to take this chance to keep going with the important conversation, now that the blonde seemed slightly more receptive.

“So, why’s being his friend such a bad thing?” The artist asked, leaning towards the composer slightly as he spoke.

“It’s not.” Jonghyun said, speaking quickly as if to defend the singer. “It’s just…” he trailed off, clearly think about how to phrase what he wanted to say, “I feel terrible talking to him, like I’m taking up his time.”

“If he’s initiating the conversations, surely there’s no issues?” Jiwoong asked, slowly beginning to understand the issues that were plaguing the blonde. Jonghyun had loved this idol for years, to suddenly have him want to be his friends was probably a shock and his roommate clearly hadn’t come to terms with it yet.

“But… what if he’s doing this out of obligation?” Jonghyun said, looking up at his roommate. If Jiwoong was a soppier person he would possibly have called the sight adorable. The blonde’s hair was slightly mussed and his eyes were wide with vulnerability.

“Dude,” Jiwoong said, partially to restore the masculinity he felt like he had lost due to that thought, “as if. He’s super famous, he doesn’t have to talk to anyone he doesn’t want to.”

“Unless the management told him to.” Jonghyun countered, looking down at his lap once more.

“Why would they do that?” the artist asked, confused. He wasn’t sure if he was missing something but this didn’t seem like an issue to him. He had thought it was just the blonde being overwhelmed because he was speaking to his idol but it seemed he had actually created this entire strange issue in his head surrounding it. He groaned mentally, this was an issue far more suited for Eunji to fix.

“Because of the bullying thing.”

Jiwoong actually laughed aloud. “No way, man. They wouldn’t make him go that far because of that.” Seeing Jonghyun’s look of disbelief, he explained himself some more, “They released that official statement thing, yeah?” Not even waiting for Jonghyun’s confirmation, he continued, “Then SHINee did that video thing. That’s their bases covered. They did their part they can step back.” Jonghyun’s mood appeared to be improving, so he continued talking, glad this was working, “Meeting the dude one-on-one was a publicity-free thing so that was done out of the goodness of the guy’s heart. Add on him getting your number and you have one nice dude who clearly wants to get to know you. And that’s rad.”

“But…” Jonghyun said, still seeming unsure. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, Jjong.” The artist grinned, patting the blonde’s thigh. “What does he call himself in these messages?” He asked, realizing something that might help persuade the blonde.

“Jinki?” Jonghyun said, looking at his roommate in confusion, “Why does it matter?”

“Because Onew is a stage name. And you aren’t talking to Onew.” Jiwoong explained, grinning, “Jinki wants to know you for you and for you to get to know him for him.”

“Wait,” Jonghyun said, looking even more confused than before, “what?”

“It’s simple,” Jiwoong said, patting Jonghyun’s knee condescendingly, “It’s like if you meet a hot chick at a bar and she tells you her name is Victoria or something. It’s clearly not a real name and she obviously doesn’t want to know you. At that point she’s talking to you for business or kicks. But if she tells you her real name, you actually have a chance there and she really wants to get to know you. You know?”

“No,” Jonghyun deadpanned. He’s gay and he rarely went out to the club, Jiwoong knew that, so of course he doesn’t know. “But I get the idea.” He stopped talking briefly, clearly thinking and Jiwoong allows him to do so, his hand rubbing soothingly on his lower thigh, “So, Jinki is talking to me because he really wants to get to know me?”

“Most likely,” Jiwoong nods sagely. “And even if he’s not, which I doubt, enjoy it whilst you can.”

Jonghyun placed his own hands over the other males on his knee and grasped the paint-stained fingers lightly, “Thank you.” He said, smiling at the artist softly, before standing up abruptly, the conversation clearly over. Walking out of the room he called back over his shoulder, “What do you want to eat?”

“I’unno,” Jiwoong replied, sinking back into the sofa cushions and kicking Jonghyun’s bag to the side with his foot, “Whatever you feel like cooking.”

He heard a noise of acknowledgement from the blonde and the clattering of pots and pans starting to be removed from the cupboards. This was soon followed by a noise of annoyance and the artist cringed, knowing what was coming. He considered hiding but the apartment was small and the only other rooms were the bedrooms and the bathroom and Jonghyun would just get madder if he wasn’t there.

Seeing the angry look on his roommate’s face, Jiwoong cowered back into the cushions, using one to shield his body, just in case – a just in case that came true when a handful of damp paintbrushes were thrown at his head.

“How many times do I have to tell you not to clean your damn brushes in the kitchen sink, I cook around there?!” The blonde fumed, stomping back out of the living room to continue his previous task, his mission complete.

“Careful,” the artist complained, “these are expensive.”

“Then don’t leave them in the kitchen!” Jonghyun called back making Jiwoong recoil, he hadn’t realised the blonde was still able to hear him.

Chuckling to himself he flipped on the TV, hoping to find something mindless to watch. The two may argue often and they may be total opposites in many ways but Jiwoong was proud to call Jonghyun his friend and he was happy to help him with his issues – no matter how inconsequential or imagined they may be. Hopefully something good came from his roommate’s new friendship. Jiwoong was absolutely ready to cut someone, even if they were super famous, if they dared hurt his friend. He would enjoy it too.

 

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CHAPTER NOTES: Jiwoong is one of my favourites.

And I totally hit 2000 views on this story, which is rad. You guys are cool people <3