Both Minho and Key’s eyes widened.

A photo? Of the two of them? Does that mean—?

No, it couldn’t be.

How!?

Why now?

“Hyung, what photo? How bad is it? What are people saying?”

Key came closer, standing behind Minho, since this now concerned him as well.

“What’s going on? What photo?”

The manager scrolled on his phone. “People won’t stop sharing it online. There are all kinds of rumors going around.”

He finally presented his phone to them.

Key looked confused as he made out the contents of the photo.

Minho sighed in relief, then rolled his eyes and facepalmed.

It was a photo of them at the restaurant earlier, clinking their shot glasses together and smiling.

“Hyung, this— this is nothing! We were just having dinner!”

“Just having dinner?”

Minho scoffed, not sure how to answer such a ridiculous question. “What else would we be doing!?”

“You weren’t meeting over anything in particular?” Minho stared, trying to maintain a poker face to hide his panic.

The manager sighed in frustration. “Are you thinking about switching labels or not!?”

Minho rolled his eyes, completely dumbfounded. “, that’s what people are talking about?”

“That, plus the usual hate comments from both fan communities, saying you met with Key out of ‘service’ or something, along with some dating-related comments since you guys didn’t meet with anyone else. But that’s obviously not true.”

Neither Key nor Minho reacted to that last speculation.

“What? People have a problem with singers from different labels hanging out?” Key remarked.

The manager rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s not that. Well, it sort of is. Our supervisors are anxious about giving our competitors good publicity. I’m sure it’s the same for your company, Key-ssi. They’re always in hot water, and have to consider their investors.” He lowered his voice to whisper. “And with contract renewals coming up and our company not handling things well right now, fans must have gotten carried away with their theories, like thinking you were trying to recruit him or something. They’ll latch onto anything and start spreading rumors as fact.”

Key just stood there, speechless at the situation.

Minho combed a hand through his hair. “Aishh~ Look, hyung, how about we meet with the team tomorrow to talk about this? There isn’t much we can do right now. And it’s not so urgent that we have to wake everybody up right now.”

The manager sighed. “If we wait until tomorrow, then the photo will keep circulating and the rumors will keep growing. Who knows how the higher ups will react?”

Minho’s face lit up. “Hyung, I have an idea!” He pulled Key forward and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. “Why don’t we take advantage of this? We can just say we’ve been friends for a while. We can market that, can’t we? Fans will eat that up!”

The manager’s eyes widened in curiosity, while Key raised an eyebrow, wondering why Minho was suddenly proposing this.

“This whole time, we’ve been getting attention by pretending to be enemies. This time, we can flip the script! We can instead be something like ‘the friends who can’t get enough of each other’ or ‘enemies-to-best-friends’.”

“We have nothing in common. How would we become ‘best friends’?”

“How about something like ‘opposites attract’? We’ve promoted together, so we could just say we met backstage.”

“But we’ve only been talking for less than a month. We still don’t know that much about each other.”

“So we’ll keep talking! We can keep hanging out, take selfies together to convince them?”

“Who’s going to believe that!? Just because we start taking pictures together?”

“Should I kiss you on the cheek for good measure?”

Key deadpanned. “Do you want to die?”

They stopped bickering at the sound of the manager laughing hysterically.

“You two have good banter. Maybe this could work.”

Minho smiled in relief, while Key still looked at them both with uncertainty.

The manager waved goodbye, in higher spirits than before. “Alright, sorry to bother you two with this at this hour. Minho, you and I will talk more about this tomorrow with the team.” He bowed toward Key. “It was nice to finally meet you. Enjoy your evening.” Key bowed his head slightly in return.

The manager left the room, leaving the two singers alone by the door, Minho with his arm still wrapped around Key.

Minho rolled his eyes. “Well, that killed the mood.”

“All over a picture of us having dinner. We panicked for nothing.”

“I thought it was gonna be something from the club.”

“Me too!” They both laughed. Key smirked. “I guess that’ll stay our little secret for now.”

Minho chuckled. He almost leaned in for a kiss, but held back, not sure if Key was on board this time.

Key tried to ask something serious. “All that talk about fanservice, are we really going to do that?”

Minho shrugged his shoulders. “That’s just an idea I had. Instead of people online fighting over who’s better, I just thought ‘Why not have us be friends’ instead? Not just to prove everyone else wrong. I know from my roommates that fanservice gets a lot of attention and helps to sell the image, so I thought that we could use the photo to jump off it. We wouldn’t have to avoid each other anymore on camera. But if you don’t want to, that’s fine. We don’t have to do anything like that.”

Key nodded, reassured. He wasn’t necessarily opposed to the idea; he just wished he had known beforehand before Minho told a manager of all people. Though he felt relief in knowing that nothing was set in stone.

“…And what about us? Off-camera? Are we just going to be friends? What you said before about this—” Key motioned his head behind, toward the couch. “not being a one-time thing. Does that still hold? Or was that just something you said in the heat of the moment?”

Minho pondered Key’s question, loosening his grip on Key’s shoulder. “Key, to be honest, I like talking to you and I liked spending time with you today. If you’re up for it, I’d like to try being more than friends.” He paused to gauge Key’s reaction, but the latter wanted him to finish before responding, so he continued. “If you don’t feel the same way, though, I’d still like to be your friend.”

Key showed a small smile. He felt the same way, but was still hesitant about the logistics. “I don’t really know how this would work. We can’t exactly go on any dates. We’re both busy. And it’s been a while since I dated anyone.”

Minho rubbed Key’s back, trying to reassure him. “We may not be able to go on traditional dates that often. We’re busy anyway, and we both know how busy it can get, so we don’t have to stress ourselves out trying to talk or meet up 24/7. We can text whenever we have the time, like we’ve been doing. We can chat backstage whenever we see each other, like for broadcasts. What do you think?”

Key pondered for a moment, then hugged one arm around Minho’s waist to pull him closer. “We can have a movie night at my place. No need to worry about flashing cameras or people following us.”

Minho nodded, delighted by Key’s idea. “We can do that. You can still take me water skiing,” He whispered, leaning in closer, eyes focused on Key’s lips.

“You can meet my kids.” Minho pulled back a bit, confused, prompting Key to chuckle and clarify. “I meant my dogs.”

Minho smiled again. “I’d love to meet them.”

With their lips just centimeters apart, they closed the gap together with a comfortable kiss. Key placed his free hand on Minho’s chest, while Minho used his free hand to caress Key’s jaw.

When their lips parted, Key felt more confident in voicing his thoughts. “I liked talking with you, too. I don’t want to put a label on this right now, though. I think I just want to take things slow, feel things out. Is that okay?”

Minho lightly rubbed Key’s jaw with his thumb. “That’s good with me.”

They shared another deep kiss, hugging until there was no more space between them.

As much as Key wanted to stay in Minho’s embrace, he remembered his early schedule for the next day. He pulled back from the kiss. “I should head back before it gets too late.”

“Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night? It’s already pretty dark out.”

“I don’t know how comfortable the twin bed is going to be.”

“It’s actually quite comfortable. We could hold each other close, too.” Minho smiled mischievously.

Key chuckled at the thought of the two of them struggling to fit on such a tiny bed. Minho smirked, then leaned in close to Key’s ear.

“We can do as much or as little as you’d like.”

Key didn’t want to admit that hearing Minho whisper directly into his ear with his naturally deep voice was turning him on. Minho planted a long, gentle kiss on Key’s cheek. He lowered his lips and planted another behind Key’s ear, then slowly left a trail down his neck and along his shoulder. Even through his shirt, Minho’s lips were making Key’s skin tense.

Key lifted Minho’s jaw to stop him before they could get carried away.

“Not tonight. I’m kind of tired now. I also have to pick up my kids first thing tomorrow.”

“Can’t you just go from here?”

Key shook his head. “I have to drive over to my parent’s place to pick them up. Since it’s dark out, now is the perfect time to head back. There shouldn’t be any cameras out.”

Minho sighed, agreeing with Key. “You sure you can walk back? The soju isn’t making you clumsy?”

“I managed to walk here just fine.”

“Alright, just checking.”

Key went back to the sofa to get his bag, then returned to the front to put on his coat and shoes.

“Just so we’re on the same page, we’re not going to tell any about us, are we? Like managers, staff, friends, you roommates…”

Minho shook his head. “Not a chance. The last thing we need is them lecturing us about how we’re sabotaging our careers. Also, one of my roommates isn’t exactly keen on the idea of two men getting together.”

“…Noted.”

Now ready to leave, Key turned to face Minho, who waited by the door.

“Text me when you get back?”

Key smirked. “Are we really doing that?”

Minho pouted. “I just want to make sure you get home safe. You never know what can happen out there. Please, Key? For me?”

He wasn’t wrong, and he seemed genuinely worried, so Key obliged. “'Kibum'. You can call me 'Kibum'. And alright, I’ll text you.”

After sharing a warm smile, Key pecked him on the cheek and departed for the night.

***THREE MONTHS LATER***

The interviewer on the program inquired. “People have spotted you hanging out with Minho from T.M. Entertainment! Are you two friends?”

Key, the guest celebrity, answered “Yes, we’ve become good friends. We hang out on occasion.”

Multiple pictures of them flashed onto the screen one by one, from them drinking at the restaurant, to them water skiing, to them posing for a selfie together.

“Since you two were competing for so long, how did you two end up becoming friends?”

“We started talking backstage when our promotions overlapped. Media outlets like to pit us against each other as if we’re competing, but we actually get along quite well.”

“You don’t feel threatened by his talent or popularity?”

“Not at all! People like to manufacture drama online, but idols like supporting each other. We all hang out and learn together. We congratulate each other when we achieve something. We have different styles different backgrounds, and that makes kpop more interesting. We don’t need to feel threatened by each other.”

The interviewer nodded in agreement. “I see~ What’s one thing you like about Minho?”

"He’s a good performer. And he has good visuals.”

“So, you’re not worried at all about him becoming more popular than you?”

Key smirked. “I won’t give him that much credit.”

All the cast members laughed hysterically. The screen flashed with comedic visual effects.

“Hey!” Minho shouted over the television broadcast. “You couldn’t think of anything better to say about me!?”

“What are you going on about?” Key called from the kitchen.

Minho would have gotten up from the couch to confront him had Key’s dog, Garçons, not settled onto his lap.

As Minho’s manager had predicted, the photo continued to spread online, being shared across multiple social media platforms within a few hours. Even some news articles and stations reported on the viral photo the following morning.

Both Minho and Key rolled their eyes. It must have been a slow news day for their photo, of all things, to be covered on TV as a major headline.

Over the next three months, the two of them occasionally found time in their busy schedules to hang out. Some of those times, they would post a selfie or a candid to one of their Instagram pages, teasing their fans with glimpses of their private lives. Sometimes they did it for themselves; sometimes they did it specifically for the fans.

Some fans rejoiced in seeing them hang out, despite the fierce rivalry between their companies.

Some speculated that they were teasing a future collaboration.

Some theorized that the companies switched gears and pushed their friendship to distract the public from their own corrupt activities.

And even so, a small subset of their ‘fans’ continued to pit them against each other. It got ridiculous enough that both Minho and Key ignored those areas of social media altogether. They were now on good terms with each other, in public and in private, and that’s all that truly mattered.

Minho rubbed Garçons’s back and continued to yell out to Key.

“In your interview! You just complimented my ‘visuals’! Nothing else about me. And you weren’t even that specific!”

Key walked over with two glasses of wine. “Well, it’s not like I could talk about your arms or your broad shoulders on TV!”

Minho rolled his eyes. “Really? Is that all you like about me? I told everyone about how much I learned from you and how great you are, and you just want to talk about my body?”

Key settled next to Minho on the couch and handed him a glass. “Relax. That’s what they want to hear from me. I talked about your music too! I guess they cut that from the final broadcast.” Key looked down to his side and patted the couch cushion.

“Come here, Comme Des!”

His other dog jumped onto the couch and settled beside Key.

“Aish~ that’s annoying. But I guess that’s just how the industry is.”

“If it makes you feel better, some of your fans think you’ll be the next Michael Jackson.”

“Really? Where did you hear that?” He asked sarcastically.

“Mostly on Twitter. Along with some tweets saying I dance like a chicken.”

Minho rolled his eyes. “This is why I don’t keep up with fan comments online. They’re always saying ridiculous stuff like that. Why do you read all these?”

“I try to stay in the loop. It’s good to have an idea of what people are interested in, and what the latest trends are.”

Minho sighed. “Fair enough. I’m not caught up with all this. What other kinds of stuff are they saying about us?”

“A lot of them want us to collaborate for the upcoming Dream Concert.”

Minho raised his eyebrows. “That’s next month. We would have announced that already if it was true.”

“I guess they’re waiting for a surprise.”

“Maybe if we had more time, we could have done something. Should we try for next year?”

“We could. We could come up with ideas for a performance, suggest it to our companies, and then wait for them to—”

“Reject it.” They finished the sentence together.

They laughed and clinked their glasses together.

“Alright. Enough work talk. Will you start the movie already?”

Key grabbed the remote with his free hand and switched over to another streaming service to set up the movie. Once he clicked ‘Play’, he set the remote down on the coffee table and looped his hand through Minho’s elbow. He huddled in close and rested his head on Minho’s shoulder.

Minho, in turn, lightly pecked the top of Key’s head, and then rested his own head on top as the movie started.