‟chapter eleven

Yongsun clicked on the upload button and sighed as she watched her latest video being uploaded to her youtube channel. Youtube was something she has finally decided to do after a long while because she didn’t want to just rest at home and she wanted a platform where she can communicated with the people she loved even better. At this point, Youtube to her was almost just as important as her career to her. She enjoyed that she could make videos she thought would be fun for everyone and she enjoyed that she could be real with everyone else. Which was why she decided to announce their relationship through her channel, because that was where she could be real and now she just happened to also wanted to do videos with someone she loves with her whole heart and shared it to the whole world.

There is no turning back now, and soon it will be done for good. For a moment, she almost wishes in fear that Korea doesn’t have the fastest internet speed in the world. Trying to calm the nerves inside her, she stands up to leave the room so she doesn’t have to see the video being uploaded to the world. Maybe she wants to just be with Eric privately for now before they are officially being known by the public. 

She walked into the kitchen to a delicious aroma of a familiar dish. Peeking her head in, she grinned as she saw Eric setting plates of food for both of them on the table in her kitchen. He probably doesn’t even know she has uploaded the video yet, and he probably doesn’t even know what she was going to the named their video either. He told her that she can decide what to do with it because it’s her channel and because he trusted her. Yongsun wishes he wouldn’t ask her about it now though, she doesn’t really feel like talking about it yet. Perhaps the thought of their fandoms turning their backs on them scared her or perhaps she already knew how it was going to be so she, for once, wanted to just isolated themselves from the reality. 

    “It’s really nice having someone who can cook around.” She teases, her grin grows bigger and Eric motions at her to sit down as he places a bowl of rice in front of her. “Maybe we should move in together now.”

His eyebrows twitch in surprise and Yongsun laughs at how he’s still surprise at her antics even after all these time. Taking off his apron, he slides into the seat across from her and returns her a cheeky grin that Yongsun loves seeing on him. She has grown to notice that whenever he’s about to shot back a mischievous reply to her, the corner of his lip would lift into a cheeky grin and his eyes would be staring at her almost dearly. His head would be slightly tilted and she almost smiles thinking about how well she has started to know him by now.

    “Sure you won’t regret it?” He tilts his head as if he’s thinking. “Ah, maybe you can move into my apartment?” 

    Yongsun pops a small bite of rice in and beams. “I’ll start packing my stuff. Don’t try turning me away when I show up at your door, I know your door passcode.” 

They laughed over that and for a short second, they both almost forgot what the world around them was saying about them. Not the furious fandoms who would be loading their social media platforms with hate, not the companies who probably had a hard time dealing with the media, not everything at all in the world. Yongsun took a bite of Eric’s signature teriyaki chicken dish and hummed as the familiar taste exploded in . He has always been a better cook than her, and although she felt bad that she couldn’t cook a nice and decent meal for him once, Eric kept on reassuring her that it was fine. She had a slight instinct that he was indirectly insisting that he’d rather she not cook because it was really that bad. The only few times she made something edible enough for him were when she filmed a one-day cooking class challenge with her sister for her channel, and she was able to properly learn to make something edible. Yongsun tried to forget how sister kept on telling her that it was actually almost inedible. 

Yonghee has to out of the country for a short while for her work, and she has absolutely no problem with Eric sleeping in the same house and room with Yongsun. In fact, Yongsun doesn’t even think Yonghee cares at all. Sometimes she would come home to both of them cuddling on the couch and she would just threw a casual hi at them and went into her room to work on her given projects. Yongsun doubt it’s because they’ve been dating for quite a long time now because her sister has always been cool about them even a few days after she first introduced him to her, but Yonghee has always been cool about everything that Yongsun doesn’t even bother finding out why anymore. That was just how her sister has always been. 

    “Ah, I’m having a concert next week in Seoul. Do you want to come by?” 

Yongsun almost forgot that by then they’d already be going public and they no longer have to hide from the media and their fans. They would have more freedom, be more open, and actively and publicly support each other’s works, but they would also get hate on for everything they do together but she knew what she was signing up for, and she was sure she didn’t really regret her decision. Grinning like a little puppy, she chimed an excited yes and Eric found himself naturally grinning at her expression. 

    “But uh, my parents, my brothers and his fiancé will also be there.” His face flushed a shade of concern. “Eddie wanted to introduce Brittany to Korea and she also wanted to look for an authentic hanbok for their wedding too. Is it okay with you?” 

    Yongsun nods, a flash of nerve runs across her face then for a split second, she gives him almost the brightest grin he’s ever seen. “Maybe it’s about the time we introduce each other to our parents. I think they’ve both been secretly thinking about that too.” 

Eric grins and he gladly agrees to it. It has been over a year now, and he knows both of their parents have been bugging them to introduce each other to them soon. He watches Yongsun eats each bite of the teriyaki chicken like it’s the tastiest she’s ever tasted and he unknowingly smiles at that. That mochi sitting across from him is his and he still can’t believe it yet.

    Placing his chopsticks on top of his empty bowl of rice, Eric clasped his hands together. He seemed almost hesitant to asked. “Did you already upload it?”

    She nodded. In a small whisper, he asked, “What did you name it?” 

    Yongsun grins at him. Tilting her head to rest on top of her hands, she says, “Why don’t you go to youtube and find out?”

He raised his eyebrows confusedly but was tempted to do the exact same thing. Yongsun placed her chopstick down after finishing her last bite and told him to check it later. She knew what comments they would be getting by now, and she wasn’t sure if she waned him to see any of those yet or not. Maybe it was her who didn’t want to see it but she also hates the thought of imagining him reading through those comments. She loves her fans but she knows exactly to what extend they can be regarding this matter. They could take this very badly and they both knew exactly that.

    “Our phones are blowing up right now.” Eric said and Yongsun only smiled bitterly at that.

    She shrugged, her expression a complete opposite of the one he had just saw. She was still smiling, but he could still located the fear and dejection behind those eyes. “I guess that came with the territory.” 

    Trying a light joke, he said, “Do you want to bet if your members contact you first or your sister did?”

Yongsun said she’d bet her entire fortune on her members, especially Byul and not because Yonghee was oversea, but because Byul was just that concerned about everything. Eric only laughed at that. He was thinking the same thing, no one would be faster than Byul, it was as if she was keeping a watch on each one of them.

Heaving a big sigh, she started clearing up the empty plates and suggested they cleaned up and went to bed early tonight. Eric did not need to listen to her voice twice to know she was just as dejected and scared about this whole thing as he was - perhaps she was even more scared but tried to pretend she was fine because that was how Yongsun has always been. She has always pretend to be strong, has always pretend that nothing negative could affect her, has always pretend that she would always be okay even when he caught her crying late at night all by herself thinking he was asleep. He helped her placed the dirty dishes into the dishwasher which wasn’t really something they both tend to do often. Normally either one of them would have to do the dishes but neither felt the need to do anything else other than holding each other to sleep tonight so they won’t have to hear what the internet has for them in response to what they’ve just given. Both of them knew how mad their respective fandoms would be at this point but maybe, by a very very small miracle, both hope they’d take it better than hearing it from dispatch.

Later that night when Yongsun fell asleep soundly against him, Eric quietly grabbed his phone and searched for her youtube channel. Clicking onto the videobutton, a list appeared but the latest video with a thumbnail of them both sitting next to each other with a sticker on his face caught his attention. His eyes glazed over the title of the video and Eric grinned in amusement before hitting the share to twitter button and decided to call it a day as well. 

    THE BOYFRIEND TAG