“Daehyun! You’re filming an ice-cream commercial this coming weekend.”

It’s hard being an idol. Opportunities like these just spring up out of nowhere and sometimes you don’t necessarily have a choice but to partake in them. Like in this situation, I don’t remember putting myself forward for a frickin’ Baskin and Robbins CF but hey, what do you know? My company likes to make the decisions for me and I just have to go with the flow, even if I’m not quite happy with the whole operation itself.

It’s nice having my name popular among directors and producers in the media industry outside of my singing career, but it to know that I’m stripped of my own freedom of choice sometimes. Manager Kang so far has made that pretty clear to me and another one of my band members who also feels the same way I do, but just a tad more inferior. You’ll see why.  

“Since when?” I ask, perking up from my delicious teriyaki chicken and salad sandwich. Often, I’m either battling it out with a bucket of spicy fried chicken wings or scoffing down an entire box of pizza on my own when I get the news that I have an off-spec event to attend. Today, my affairs with my sandwich just had to be rudely interrupted for something like this.

“Where is that imbecilic roach with the fat nose and embarrassing choice of underwear?” rants my manager, storming passed me with a face hotter than the rice cakes Himchan made the other day.

Getting blanked is the norm for me. I think the team and my band mates have come to a mutual agreement that whatever pours from my mouth (other than my high notes) is classed as irrelevant that should be ignored at all times. It’s outrageous, considering my fans name me the ‘God of Vocals’, I should have a lot more respect than that. These days I’m only credited for reaching a few record-breaking octaves and I could confirm that there is a lot more to me than just a falsetto or a bonus octave, I also happen to have a better set of social skills than some people in my band! (I am totally not hinting at Yongguk).

Did I forget to mention that one particular band mate always has to endure the consequences of my popularity? Consequence is probably the best word to describe the matter since this literally always happens whenever I’m chosen to work somewhere outside the B.A.P dormitories.

“Yah! Yoo Youngjae, you’re doing it with him!” shouts Manager Kang, storming out of the restrooms with a bit of toilet paper stuck under his shoe. Youngjae emerges from behind him wearing a scowl Himchan finds cute. Luckily he’s at a safe distance from the second vocal, because Youngjae hates being referred to as “cute”. He’s probably the only one who doesn’t see the bunny in him, because the rest of B.A.P do without doubt. And there you have it, victim number two.

After mentally slicing Himchan a few times with an axe, Youngjae murderously looks towards Manager Kang who is now squeakily sliding his shoe against the floor to get the tissue off.

 “Why do I always have to be dragged in whenever Daehyun is involved?” he snaps, his adorable bunny scowl unwavering.

“It wouldn’t be the case if the pair of you seen together aren’t the hottest issue on the planet. Your fans ship you. The entire company ships you. Even I ship you.” Manager Kang breathes, a sweaty mess after running up and down the building with new information. Youngjae’s scowl hardens.

“I am my own person.”

“Not anymore!”  Manager Kang sings before he disappears in a puff of smoke, probably towards the cafeteria. Youngjae then scoffs at me, who sat innocently this whole time with my sandwich, and exits with his arms folded across his chest. Himchan and I exchange a look before I follow in my donsaeng’s footsteps towards our practice room. He always runs in there thinking no one will find him but I’m Jung Daehyun. The same guy who knows every member’s underwear size. Don’t ask me how.

“If you want to punch me for my existence then go ahead but just mind the—”

Youngjae punches me square on the jaw and my head is forcefully whipped to the left with my baseball cap flying to the other end of the room.

“—face.” I finish, locking my jaw back into its rightful position. When the impact of the punch kicks in, I turn to my band mate and seriously ask, “Do you hate me that much?”

I didn’t think anyone as visually weak as Youngjae had the ability to punch like Floyd Mayweather.  Okay, maybe I am exaggerating just a smidge.

“Every time you get an offer I come second place, does that seem fair to you?” Youngjae argues, flailing his arms out in front of me as though I didn’t already understand his frustration. Exhaling, I reach out to place my palm on his shoulder, only to have it smacked away. “Why does my fame always have to get tagged along with yours?”

“Did I deliberately ask for it to be this way?” I finally snap, hating the way my best friend was taking his anger out on me. It’s not my fault I’m aesthetically pleasing to the public. Yet again, I was pushed to have surgery on my nose, an inquiry made by the label I’m under without any consideration of my input. I just woke up one day with a new nose in a cosmetics room. Can’t Youngjae be a bit more reasonable here?

“Last I checked, you’re the one who is always clinging onto me like a koala. You do things without properly overviewing the outcome and look where that has gotten us! Now we’re known as “DaeJae”— even my name comes after yours!”

“Yah! There is nothing wrong with our ship name. DaeJae sounds right, JaeDae sounds wrong.”

Ignoring me as usual, Youngjae carries on by saying, “We have been given specific rules and that is to show a limited amount of skinship. The way you carry on makes it look like we’re dating!”

I scoff and turn my neck away from his direction. “Who would want to date you anyway? Besides, you’re the one who has an obsession with my lips. Haven’t you seen all those fancams of yourself staring at them?”

Youngjae gasps incredulously and I look back at him with a smug look on my face.

“I do not!” he protests.

“You do too!”

 “I do not!”

“Just shut up and pack your stuff, at least be grateful that we’re getting paid to eat free ice-cream in front of a camera.” I say, a little irritated.

“Okay.”

As soon as we arrive at our hotel, Youngjae starts complaining about the bed. I mean, I don’t blame him…we have to share it…but what’s currently giving me anxiety is the fridge expenses. $5 for a can of Coke? If this is meant to be a joke then I must be the only one who’s not laughing because Manager Kang said I will have full responsibility on extra expenses. This is a major crisis because I tend to get really thirsty in the middle of the night and if I can’t drink water without having to pay $10 for it then what is the point in me even being here?!

“Daehyun will you just shut up about the goddamn refrigerator and help me with this kettle? It’s not boiling the water and I NEED a coffee right now.”

I had no idea I was voicing my thoughts this whole time. At the sound of Youngjae’s nagging I roll my eyes and continue to scan the fridge, hoping to find something at a reasonable price. “DAEHYUN!”

“Dammit Youngjae you’re a frickin’ mastermind yet you don’t know how to use a kettle?!”

Suddenly the sound of bubbling fills the silence of the room and Youngjae plasters a grin that spells success, leaving me to turn back to my mission. He sure loves his coffee, so much that it becomes irritable sometimes. Well, I’m one to talk.  

“Thanks for being useless, once again,” he breathes. 

Doesn’t he know when to shut up?

“This is critical okay?” I murmur, gently closing the fridge. “Fridges are supposed to be wonderful…they’re not supposed to inflict trauma. My wallet feels traumatized!” I dramatically announce, spreading my arms out and falling back onto the bed. Youngjae stares at me while his kettle boils, unfazed. You could tell I do these things often to a point it’s not weird anymore…just the usual.

“You know, this is why we ignore you.” Youngjae remarks bluntly, causing my jaw to go slack. Does he not know who I am? I am Jung Daehyun, the God of Vocals—

Before I have the chance to give the little imbecilic fat nose by the kettle a piece of my mind, Manager Kang barges into our room commanding us to be downstairs A.S.A.P to prepare for the commercial. Neither of us have had lunch yet, so as soon as our Manager disappears, Youngjae and I start slagging him off because really, we haven’t got anything better to do other than call Himchan and tell him we’ve arrived safely. And neither of us want to do that to be honest because Himchan is like a mom. Once he starts with the instructions, he doesn’t stop.

After having a good rant to each other about how the journey and how Manager Kang’s haircut resembles a champignon mushroom, Youngjae and I decide to send Himchan a text message, just to stay on the safe side and using the commercial as an excuse not to call. We freshen up and head downstairs before leaving for the venue, sharing knowing looks between each other when manager Kang sits in front of us with his ugly hair-do. Hasn’t he looked in the mirror recently?

When we arrive at the venue, we’re given the script and our outfits for the commercial. In 15 minutes, Youngjae and I manage to rehearse our lines before we were sent to our dressing rooms to get pampered. Each of us only had two to three lines maximum so memorizing them wasn’t so hard. We’re just shooting an advert for ice cream, not the Titanic.

Youngjae exits his dressing room wearing a pink button up with dark denim jeans and white plimsolls. I on the other hand, happen to be wearing a blue button up instead of pink and the pair of us exchange a look of suspicion. Something is not right here. We slowly come to the realisation that we’re wearing couple shirts and Youngjae throws a fit.

“Why am I wearing the pink one?!”

“The pink suits you—” I try to reassure, but as you’ve probably guessed, I get ignored. I want to give him a few more compliments but I know it won’t be a good idea since he is already fuming for being the more ‘feminine’ one. Even his hair is styled adorably into a parted fringe showing a small section of his forehead. At this moment, he looks perfect for an ice cream commercial.

“We’re in goddamn couple t-shirts, Daehyun!”

I tilt my head. “So?”

“So? What do you mean ‘so’? Clearly I’m supposed to be the girl, I mean look at my lips! I’m wearing lip-gloss!”

I look at his lips and awkwardly look away at the paint on the wall. His lips look really pretty in lip-gloss…is that weird? Besides, I’m wearing lip tint. That may not be the same as lip-gloss but it’s still a beauty product used by women. Doesn’t this idiot realise that the commercial is centred around the mouth area? We’re eating ice cream, not sitting on it. What else did he expect?

 “Youngjae just calm down, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

“Easy for you to say, you’re not the one wearing the pink shirt.”

I side eye him so he gets the hint. I love pink and I would happily swap if the director didn’t already assign us our outfits. He’s some cranky old guy I don’t really want to mess with. Eventually, we are guided onset full of bright summery colours and decorations suited for the commercial. We have a few locations to shoot but immediately we start indoors where the staff provide us with our first scoops of ice cream.

Youngjae is having a hard time smiling for the camera and I’m having a harder time remembering the stage directions. The director isn’t looking so impressed with my work but on the other hand, Youngjae seems like a natural when it comes to product advertisement. He looks cute too, in that pink shirt. I want to cuddle him but that's just asking for an early death wish.

“What’s his name again?” the director murmurs at one of the cameramen, but he somehow remembers a moment later and rudely cuts the poor guy off.

“Yah, Jung Dae!”

I look up from my ice cream and send the director a cheesy grin. “Yes?” I ask, blinking at him innocently for good measure. 

“You need more passion when you’re that ice cream. it like it’s the best treat you’ve had in ages, OK?”

I nod enthusiastically and centre my attention back on the frozen good slumped onto a cone. Don’t forget your lines! I mentally scold.

Whilst Youngjae waits backstage, I get into position on set with my ice cream and ask cheerily “Are you ready for summer?” before taking a long of the ice cream. The director shouts cut! and Youngjae takes his place on stage with his vanilla scoop. The camera zooms in on him and with an adorable grin he chirps, “Enjoy this warm season with Baskin and Robins!”

After a few re-takes, our coordi-noona appears from back stage and takes us back to our dressing rooms to give us our new outfits. I ignore the scowl Youngjae sends me and enter my room, feeling a little down. It’s not like the director has asked us to do anything intimate in front of the lenses.

Well, I think I spoke too soon.

Our next location is at a garden not too far from the studio. Youngjae and I are directed to act out a scene where one of us approaches the other with the ice cream, making the other person jealous. Strangely, I was cast as the jealous one and not the other way around.

“Omo! How dare you buy ice cream and not offer to share!” I playfully accuse, sliding over next to Youngjae on the bench and stealing his cone.

“Yah, yah! Who said I wanted to share with you?” he asks stubbornly, making coordi-noona coo behind the scenes at his adorable act. It wasn’t really an act though, Youngjae hated that we had to share the same ice cream in this scene. He didn’t have to tell me that for me to notice. In the end, Youngjae takes his ice cream back while I get my own and together we finish by saying “Get your delicious summertime desserts from Baskin and Robins!”
 

After the take, both of us were mentally preparing ourselves for the fans’ reaction on social media. They are definitely going to freak out over our ‘indirect’ kiss once this commercial is released.

The crew applaud us for our performance and then we are driven to our next location, which is at a beach. The camera crew shoot a few scenes of us splashing each other in the water and attempting to build our own sandcastles. At the end of the scene we both spot a Baskin and Robins shack further down the beach and run towards it. Excitedly, Youngjae and I begin running (as directed in the script) before the director yells cut! and has us at a standstill.

“Aren’t you two the most famous pairing in B.A.P?”

Youngjae and I exchange an awkward look between us before turning back to the director, unsure whether that was a rhetorical question or not. If humans acted out what they thought, I’m almost 100% sure Youngjae would be kneeling on the sand right now praying to all the Gods that the director would not ask us to do something cringeworthy. But unfortunately, it’s too late to say our prayers.

“Hold hands.” He instructs and without any reluctance, I grab onto Youngjae’s hand and the filming continues. Youngjae sends me a look as if to ask what the heck? but I ignore it and pull him across the sand towards the shack. It’s better we get it done and over with before he creates a fuss and anyway, we’re only holding hands. Knowing Youngjae, he would just make a big deal out of it like he does with everything. “I hope this doesn’t air.” He mutters under his breath, leaving a cold sweat to run down my spine. Youngjae is quite harsh when he wants to be. Luckily his words weren’t loud enough to get picked up by the overhead microphone.

“What’s your favourite flavour?” I ask, following the lines of the script.

Youngjae pretends to think before saying “Choco chip!”

“Same here!” I say excitedly, throwing his hand away from mine. Youngjae sticks his hand into the pocket of his swim shorts and I casually rub my own sweaty one against my tank top, turning towards the actress in the shack.

“Can we get two Choco chip ice creams please?” I ask, and the director yells cut! because apparently my tone of voice is too 'over-the-top'.

The final scene is of us sitting beside each other on the sand, happily our ice creams before we both veer our attention towards the camera directly in front of us. In unison we ask, “What is your favourite flavour?!”

And then it’s a wrap.

Back at the hotel, things are a little quiet between me and Youngjae. We were too awkward to say anything during the journey back home and to be quite frank, neither of us wanted to talk to the other after today's events. It became awkward, even though we have never initially been awkward with each other in the past. We're the closest in B.A.P, so this sudden awkward atmosphere is new and unwelcoming. Sure, we were just acting but there was a lot more tension between the lines than we had hoped for.

“Are you okay?” I gently ask, taking a seat on the bed. Youngjae is sitting alone at the desk under the TV, tapping aimlessly at his phone screen. He doesn’t seem the least bit interested in the text messages he received from back home.

“I’m just a little annoyed, is all.” He says, shrugging a little and turning to look at me over his shoulder. I smile at him and pat the space beside me on the bed, wanting him to come over and warm up to me. Maybe we’re being a little silly by overreacting, but I think Youngjae has every right to be a little mad at me after today. He did go out of his comfort zone just for the likes of others, and that’s not always an easy thing to do. Giving in to my smile, Youngjae sighs and gets up, abandoning his mobile on the desk and filling in the space beside me. We sit in silence against the headboard, pondering before Youngjae decides to ask me something that had been on his mind.

“Is this what brings B.A.P fame? Us?” Youngjae asks, blinking up at me with his pretty doe eyes. Sometimes I have a hard time staying angry with Youngjae because of them. Those chocolate brown orbs hold so much to be considered normal- Youngjae, to me, is perfectly unique in his own way. He knows I find it hard to say no whenever he wants something from me.  I press my lips together and shake my head.

“We’re a pretty talented group of boys, don’t you think?” I say softly, tilting my head so that it is resting on his shoulder. Surprisingly, Youngjae doesn’t shake me off and instead leans his head against mine as well.

“Sometimes I think my fans only like me because I’m always paired with you.” He quietly admits, playing with his fingernails.

I chuckle and look up at him through my bangs. “Yoo Youngjae, don’t you know how talented and beautiful you are? Your fame has nothing to do with me. Your fans love you for you and I think I need to remind you of that. You’re smart, y, fun, adorable…” I trail off for a moment, dwelling on all the positives about Youngjae before sighing. “What is there not to like about you?”

Youngjae breaks into a contented grin, pretty eyes widening in curiousness. “You think so?”

I nod, shuffling my face against his shoulder and inhaling his scent with my nose pressed against the fabric of his shirt. The brunette continues to grin above me, also adjusting his head to a comfortable position against mine. “I know so.” I mumble, feeling myself become a little drowsy. Today was rather eventful and I just realised I barely had enough sleep because of the journey. “Daehyun?”

After hearing my name, I look up only to have my eyes slip to a close when Youngjae tilts his head forward and closes the space between our faces. He seals our lips together and my mind goes blank. We both still during the kiss, our hearts racing at the same speed. Having Youngjae on my lips is sweet and once I manage to subside the shock, I place my hand around his neck and pull him closer, parting my lips to take in more of his. When his fingers thread through my hair, the kiss turns heated and with a great difficulty, I pull away from him to stop myself from getting carried away. We are left breathing into each other’s faces, lost for words. I clear my throat and sit up, not really sure about what just happened. Did this mean Youngjae wanted us to be an item this whole time?

“I’m sorry—” he starts but I stop him before he could say anymore.

“You don’t have to apologise,” I intervene, unable to stop the smile spreading across my face. “I liked it.”

Youngjae keeps his gaze lowered to the bedsheets, a pink blush creeping up his neck. Hesitant, I pull him close and give him another peck on the lips, just to reassure him. I don’t know what we’re doing, and neither do I regret it.

“Looks like our fans were right about us all along, huh?” I tease, hoping to lighten up the atmosphere. I don’t want Youngjae feeling uncomfortable because of a kiss or a potential relationship.

“You’re still an idiot,” he remarks, bringing me closer towards him. Youngjae’s opinions about me have always been irrelevant and for the record, they’re going to stay irrelevant especially in moments like this where I’m completely over the moon for no true reason. Exhaling, I lean back against him and smile.  

“And you’re still my donsaeng” I murmur, allowing him close the distance between our lips once more. 

a/n: sorry you had to wait decades for this crap otl 
just some daejae fluff because I'm so daejae deprived and i really miss them ;-;  
sorry about any errors!