“You’re Yoon Jeonghan,” a fan breathes when it’s finally her turn at the front of the line. Her eyes are shining with disbelief and the smile on her face is so wide that it almost looks like she’s about to cry.

It’s one in the afternoon and this is probably the three hundredth fan that Jeonghan’s met today—but every time he meets someone new, he feels his heart swell in his chest with joy.

“Yeah, I am,” he smiles back. She beams at him, still trembling due to her nerves as she passes him some merchandise to sign. To help calm her down, Jeonghan reaches to hold her hands carefully within his own. “And you’re a lovely Angel, aren’t you?”

Before his fame really took off, he’d probably cringe at the idea of saying something so painstakingly cheesy. However, he likes to think that he turned over a new leaf when his fans came up with the name “Angels” for his fanclub.

(Seungcheol’s grease has probably rubbed off on him as well, but Seungcheol’s a whole different story.)

The fan’s face blushes a bright shade of red as she squeals in delight at his comment. Jeonghan releases his hold on her hands to scribble his signature onto the assortment of photos, t-shirts, and DVDs. “I-I know that you don’t have much time, but if it’s not too much trouble, I left a question on the back of that photo card. I’d love if you could answer it really quick, but if not, I totally understand!”

One of the things that Jeonghan hates about these convention events is that it’s like he’s always running on a time limit. In all honesty, it’s still really easy for him to put himself in the shoes of his fans: it’s like meeting their hero, but being told that they only have a minute and thirty seconds to speak to him. And it really , Jeonghan thinks, because he knows that each of his fans have a story they want to share and a name that they’d love him to remember and a whole life that they’d like to talk to him about—but it’s difficult to get through all of that in such a short timespan, especially when most of them are so nervous about meeting him in real life.

So maybe that’s why it’s so easy for Jeonghan to smile so honestly hour after hour after hour: because he understands how much these people care about him.

“Of course! I’d love to,” he responds cheerfully, flipping the picture over.

He reads the question and freezes.

If you had to shower with one of the other boys from the show, who would it be?

Jeonghan makes sure to keep the grin plastered on his face, but on the inside, he thinks he’s about to faint.

---

“You're even more beautiful in real life!”

Jisoo flushes a bright red at the statement, nervous smile still dancing on his lips. “R-Really?”

The fan in front of him nods excitedly, twin braids bouncing with each movement of her head. “Yes! And your voice—oh my god, you're not even singing right now, but your voice!”

“Thanks,” he smiles shyly. Jisoo’s still a little new to the whole fame thing—and the whole social interaction thing, in all honesty. In his defense, performing in front of a camera and posting the videos online means that most of his feedback comes in the form of written comments. And written comments means that Jisoo has a solid day or two to come up with a coherent reply.

He's pretty sure that if he made someone wait a day and a half for a response at one of these events, the managers would kill him and his fans would be left confused and heartbroken. “I really appreciate it,” he adds, racking his brain for something else to say to make the moment more memorable for the girl in front of him. “Knowing that there are such kind, encouraging people like you out there supporting me is really what pushes me through the dark times.”

The fan’s jaw drops and her eyes shine with the threat of tears. It’s clear that she's at a loss for words, and Jisoo’s a little worried because he's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

“I-Is it okay if I hug you?”

Jisoo can't help but beam. “Of course!”

He stands up out of his chair to lean over the table and open his arms to the girl in front of him, who squeals in delight when he encircles his arms around her.

From his peripheral vision, Jisoo can see one of the security officials frowning at the contact, but he's found that it's pretty easy to desensitize himself to their stares: they're his fans, after all, and he likes to think that his fans are his friends.

When they part, Jisoo sits back into his chair to continue signing the merchandise that the fan has placed before him.

“I-I hope it's not creepy or anything, but I drew a picture of you that I’d like you to keep.”

Jisoo can't stop the surprised grin from lighting up his features even more. “Wow, you made something for me?”

The girl nods, and this time it's her turn to flush.

After quickly finishing up his signature on a cast poster, he spreads the items before him out, scanning for the fan-made image.

His eyes bulge when he spots the drawing of a very much, very shirtless Hong Jisoo, kissing what looks to be a very much, very shirtless Yoon Jeonghan.

Jisoo can feel the weight of his fan’s expectant gaze on him and knows that he has to say something so as to not offend her. The thing is, his mind is almost entirely blank.

“Wow, look at those abs! I wish I had those in real life!” He’s hoping that that'll be enough, but when he looks up at her again, it's clear that she's expecting something more.

“Can you show it to Jeonghan, too?”

Jisoo feels his body tense up in discomfort, but he makes sure to freeze the smile onto his features as he manages a hesitant nod.

The girl is so happy, she faints.

---

“AYO, S. COUPS—”

Seungcheol beams immediately at the reference—he hasn't used it in about three months now, so it's basically vintage. As the next fan dances (yes, literally dances) toward him, Seungcheol can't help but jump up out of his chair to go in for a bro-shake (he's well on his way to making it the next top trend, he's sure of it). “HERE’S THE BATON, MAN,” he finishes for him, and the younger boy with the gummy smile looks so excited that Seungcheol feels his already wide grin intensify —which he hadn't thought was possible.

“Bro, you're like my biggest inspiration. Like, I live for your updates on Vine and Twitter. Bless.”

As Seungcheol retakes his seat, he can't help but chuckle. “You're too nice to me, really!”

The boy grins as he opens up his backpack to present the celebrity with a series of photos and posters to sign, along with a CD that he fidgets with nervously. “I’m, uh, Vernon,” he introduces, and Seungcheol can't help but think it's a little cute when the other boy blushes furiously in an attempt to get his thoughts together.

“That's a really cool name, Uh Vernon,” he responds with a wink, laughing a little to himself when the other’s face manages to turn a brighter shade of red.

If Jisoo were beside him right now, he’d probably tell him to cut it out with the dad jokes because sometimes people take them the wrong way. Seungcheol knows his fans though, and he knows that corny jokes are the way into their hearts.

His point is proven when the tension leaves the boy’s shoulders as he lets out an honest laugh, finally finding the courage to present the CD to Seungcheol. “I, um, recorded my first mixtape, and i-it would, uh, really be an honor if you were the first person to listen to it…”

Seungcheol’s jaw drops and he gingerly accepts the disk with wide eyes. “Whoa… For real?”

The boy in front of him looks a little more comfortable now as he scratches the area behind his ear with a finger. “Yeah, i-it’s probably not that great, but even though you never really knew I existed until now, you really helped me through some tough times, a-and I just—”

His words are cut off when Seungcheol has to set the gift down onto the table because he's begun to cry and is trying to wipe away the tears with the back of his hands. “Oh my god, you're so nice,” he wails, and a part of him knows that he needs to put up a strong front for his fans, but the bigger part of him has always been an emotional softie for things like this.

Gasps ricochet throughout the waiting line as the other convention attendees launch into frantic worry about what's happened to their favorite star.

“Hansol,” someone shrieks, “Oh my god, what did you do now?”

The boy—Vernon? Hansol?—looks incredibly panicked in that instant, whipping his head back to stare at someone in the crowd before quickly turning his attention back to Seungcheol. “Oh, please don't cry! Please!”

All he receives in response is some incoherent blubbering and a series of sniffles.

There's someone yelling now, some sort of argument taking place, and the boy turns back to look at it in worry. “Oh man, oh man, what do I do?”

Seungcheol’s beginning to regain some of his rationality back, so he coughs a little awkwardly to try and even out his voice, before admitting, “Sorry, I'm a total er for these sorts of things.”

“It’s really okay!” Vernon tries, and the guilt he's feeling right now is all sorts of indescribable. “It’s honestly really sweet and it makes you more approachable? Not that you were intimidating before or anything, it just really accentuates how down-to-earth you really are.”

The older boy can't help but blink in amazement at the evaluation, “Wow, you sound like you're into the whole analysis thing.”

Vernon turns pink again at that. “Y-Yeah, I’m a bit of a writer.”

“Whoa, really? What do you like to write?” Seungcheol asks, completely oblivious to the fuss that's happening in the waiting line. Even Jeonghan and Jisoo—each of them a few meters away—are staring in honest surprise at this point. Jisoo is worried that something’s gone wrong, and Jeonghan’s wondering what sort of trouble the older boy has gotten himself into this time.

“Uh,” the other replies, looking back behind him nervously as the yelling becomes even louder, “I’d rather not specify?” Seungcheol blinks at this, not expecting the answer and slowly beginning to realize that there's something intense happening behind the fan in front of him. Before he can crane his neck to take a look, Vernon blocks his line of sight and hurriedly asks, “Can you do me a favor?”

Seungcheol’s not quite sure what to do. Jeonghan’s the one who's always maintains rationality in pressured situations like these, and Seungcheol can't help but wish that the younger boy was here to give him a helping hand.

“Sure,” Seungcheol finds himself saying, and as soon as the syllable leaves his lips, he can feel the trepidation immediately settle in.

Vernon looks relieved at this and leans in to speak. “In about twenty seconds, two boys are going to break through security—”

Seungcheol is horrified, but the younger boy continues anyway.

“One of them will look really embarrassed at the whole situation—that’s my friend, Chan, and he's great. The other one—”

There’s a high-pitched shriek, along with what sounds like flustered yelling that doesn't really make sense, and then Seungcheol sees a flash of bright red hair hurry towards him.

“The other one is Seungkwan and he's kind of really intense, but he's a good guy overall, I swear.”

Seungcheol’s eyes are flickering nervously between Vernon’s sincere—yet frantic—expression, his cell phone that he can use to dial extra security, and the boy that's charging through the crowd dragging someone else behind him.

He's really not sure what to do.

“When Seungkwan gets here, you have to tell him that his ship is canon.”

“I have to what?”

“The ship,” Vernon repeats with this slight undertone of desperation in his voice, “You have to say it’s canon, okay?”

Seungcheol knows that he's heard these terms before, but at the moment, he can't quite remember what the words mean. He knows that they're fandom slang though, and that makes him think of Jisoo because Jisoo’s obsessed with anime fandoms so he’d definitely know what's up.

Before Seungcheol knows it though, his twenty seconds are apparently up and there are two new boys beside Vernon—the shorter one looks absolutely mortified and is struggling to hide his face behind his hands, while the slightly taller one with a shock of red hair has a fist full of Vernon’s shirt in his hands as he hisses, “Hansol, what did you do now?”

Vernon—Hansol? Seungcheol doesn't really know at this point—is looking at him with a pleading expression, and Seungcheol supposes that that's his cue.

“Seungkwan, right?” He calls, and at the sound of the older boy’s voice, Seungkwan loosens his grip on his younger friend to turn to Seungcheol with wide eyes. Seungcheol does his best to unleash one of his trademark grins despite his confusion as he states, “Your ships have cannons!”

Vernon facepalms, Seungkwan narrows his eyes in confusion, and the youngest boy—Chan—is staring between Seungcheol and Vernon as his mind begins to fit the pieces together.

Once he feels as though he's solved the puzzle, he hits Vernon lightly on the shoulder. “One job, man,” he hisses with a shake of his head. “One job.”

His friend shoots him a withering look, and Seungcheol begins to get the feeling that maybe he's done something wrong.

“My ships,” Seungkwan repeats slowly, “Have cannons?”

Seungcheol forces a nervous laugh as he hesitantly nods in affirmation, racking his brain for a way out of this situation. He makes eye contact with Jeonghan—who's gesturing for him to call security—and meets Jisoo’s worried eyes—the younger boy looks so frightened that Seungcheol is worried he might cry—and that's it, that's how Seungcheol gets his next idea for what to say next.

“Sometimes I imagine that I have ships too. Like, I’d be the captain but Jeonghan would do all the work, and Jisoo would be my parrot because he sings really well—I mean, I guess parrots don't really sing, but can you imagine a Jisoo that can fly and sit on your shoulder? That's the dream.”

Vernon looks like he wants to fall off the face of the planet, Chan looks like he honestly wasn't prepared to suffer so much in a single day, and Seungkwan whispers under his breath, “Seungcheol has a headcanon for a pirate au?”

By that point, security’s finally regained control of their senses and have grabbed the young trio by the arms to them out of the venue. Chan whines about not even getting to meet Jeonghan, Seungkwan still seems to be in a daze, and Vernon manages to look over his shoulder to desperately call out, “Please listen to my mixtape!”

Seungcheol doesn't know what just happened, but a piece of him wonders if he should have let the three boys stick around a bit longer—he has a lot of questions now.

---

When they reach their shared hotel room, Jeonghan says that he's going to take a shower, emphasizing that he likes to take showers alone (which the other two find weird, because why would he be showering with someone else in the first place?), Jisoo screams when Jeonghan walks back into the room without his shirt on (which the other two find weird, because this isn't the first time Jeonghan’s walked around shirtless), and Seungcheol is debating whether or not he should listen to Vernon’s mixtape (which the other two aren't too surprised about, because Seungcheol’s always been a little indecisive).

They're used to having strange days after fan meets, but since they've been busy filming their reality show, it's been a while since their last exposure.

Sometimes Jeonghan thinks about how easier life was when it was just him, his university classes, and his legions of Instagram followers. There was never any pressure to act a certain way or speak on certain subjects or anything like that, because being an Internet celebrity is a whole lot different from being a reality television star. Things had been simpler then, but that's not to say he isn't grateful for the opportunities he's been granted or anything—he's happy where he is now.

As he dries his hair with a towel and glances at the two boys flopped onto a single bed, he can't help but smile.

The best thing about the whole reality show adventure was meeting Seungcheol and Jisoo.

Trying to imagine life without them would be kind of weird.

Throwing on the first shirt he sees—it smells like Seungcheol’s but the other boy probably won’t mind too much—he throws himself on top of the both of them, head resting somewhere by Jisoo’s lower back and feet in the eldest boy’s face. “Are you going to tell us about today’s security breach yet, Cheol? I’m in the mood for a bedtime story.”

Seungcheol snorts, lightly adjusting Jeonghan’s legs so that he can stare at the other directly. “Bedtime story? How old are you again?”

Before Jeonghan has the chance to respond, Jisoo chimes in with an excited, “I’ve missed your stories!”

Seungcheol can’t say no to Jisoo—he’s pretty sure that denying Jisoo is basically illegal.

“Fine, fine,” he relents, ignoring the playful smirk that lights up Jeonghan’s features. “There’s not much to tell though: a fan gave me a CD that they made, I cried, and then the fan’s friends stormed past security—pretty sure that one of them intended to beat the other up, but I stopped them with my devilish charm.”

As those last two words leave his lips, Jeonghan bursts out into laughter and Jisoo can’t stop himself from joining in.

“That was definitely it,” Jisoo jokes. “Though I heard something different when I asked one of my fans about it.”

“I definitely heard the crying though—didn’t realize you could wail so loudly, Cheol,” Jeonghan interjects.

Seungcheol’s face burns a brilliant red as he shoves Jeonghan off of him completely. (The action just makes the other boy laugh harder, which only serves to make Seungcheol even more embarrassed. So he grabs Jeonghan’s legs once more to rest against his chest in an attempt to prove that he’s unabashed—it’s not convincing in the slightest.) “W-What were people saying about it, Jisoo?”

The youngest boy in the room shrugs lightly, turning onto his back and moving Jeonghan’s head to rest in his lap. “I didn’t want it to become the focus of the event, so I didn’t really ask for any specifications. I caught something about you yelling about pirate ships though—she said you dreamed of me sitting on your shoulders or something?”

Jeonghan’s nose scrunches up a bit at that. “Sounds like a really weird kink, Cheol.”

“I-It wasn’t…” Seungcheol begins, before quickly realizing that defending himself is futile. He stumbles while struggling to come up with a coherent response though, and it’s enough to convince Jisoo that maybe Seungcheol does have a weird kink regarding him.

Jisoo’s expression is enough to make Jeonghan roll off the bed in an attempt to control himself.

Jisoo, of course, knows Jeonghan well enough to know that there’s no need to be worried—Jeonghan’s basically immune to accidental injury.

“What was on the CD? Have you listened to it yet?”

Seungcheol silently thanks whatever deity is up there for Hong Jisoo, because Jisoo always tends to take pity on him when Jeonghan won’t. “No, not yet. He was calling it his mixtape though, so I’m assuming the kid’s a rapper. He mentioned something about writing earlier, so—”

“A rapper, you say?” Jisoo’s eyes light up at the word and Seungcheol immediately feels a little bit of regret.

“W-What? I didn’t say—”

Jisoo jumps onto the bed, head almost hitting the ceiling as Jeonghan stops his laughter in worry that the youngest boy will fall and hurt himself.

Seungcheol, on the other hand, is dreading the upcoming twenty seconds or so of his life.

“AYO, AYO,” Jisoo begins.

Seungcheol cringes, hiding himself under the bed’s blankets in secondhand embarrassment. Jeonghan’s torn between encouraging the younger boy and hiding under the blankets as well.

“My name is Jisoo! I think I need a tissue! Because I really missed you!”

“Please,” Seungcheol implores.

Jeonghan has a strained smile on his face and isn’t sure what to say next.

The youngest boy just throws his head back in a lighthearted laugh before falling back onto the bed and hitting Seungcheol in the process. As the eldest whines, Jisoo merely shoots them both a -eating grin, “You guys are just jealous of my talent.”

“That’s definitely what it is,” Jeonghan responds.

“Get it? Like, I missed you so much that I cried and needed a tissue?”

“Yup. We got it.”

“I’m so clever.”

Seungcheol snorts. “Sure, you are, Jisoo.”

“Whatever floats your boat, Jisoo,” Jeonghan continues.

“My rapper name is ‘The Joshua Hong,’” Jisoo insists.

The two older boys wince a little at that, and Seungcheol takes that as his cue to change the subject as quickly as possible. “One of them mentioned something about ships? And cannons? Except I don’t think he meant ship cannons because when I said that, he made a face.” He finishes by creating a cheap impression of Vernon’s dismayed expression, to which Jeonghan can only raise a single eyebrow.

“So I guess that’s where the pirate ships came from?”

Seungcheol nods as Jeonghan crawls back into the bed, forcing all three boys to rearrange themselves: Jeonghan resting his head against Seungcheol’s shoulder and Jisoo lying across both of their laps. “I’m pretty sure they meant it a different way.”

“Well, obviously,” Jeonghan responds with a playful roll of the eyes. “You’re probably too old to know what the slang means though.”

The slightly older boy pouts, knowing that reminding Jeonghan of their two-month won’t do much to help his case. “That’s why I’m asking Jisoo. Jisoo’s young and hip.”

Jeonghan allows his jaw to drop in mock offense while the youngest boy pipes up, “I’m not answering any questions until you refer to me by my rapper name.”

“If you don’t answer his question, I’ll force you to sit on Seungcheol’s shoulders.”

Jisoo flusters at the idea of it, and Seungcheol supposes that this is what it’s like when Jeonghan takes someone’s side—though to be fair, he’s pretty sure that the slightly younger boy is only making the threat to satiate his own curiosity rather than out of support for Seungcheol. Either way, Seungcheol figures he has to take what he can get.

“They’re, like, fandom terms. A ship is basically another word for a couple, and the word ‘canon’ refers to something that’s real.”

The other two boys nod at this, thinking quietly to themselves.

After a few moments of silence, Jisoo can’t help but ask, “So, I guess if you remember what it was that the person said, I could try to make sense of it?”

Jeonghan nods encouragingly, looking towards Seungcheol, who can only scratch his head nervously. “Uh, all he told me was to tell the other guy that his ships were canon.”

“Did he say what his ships were?”

“No.”

Jeonghan quickly raises his head from Seungcheol’s shoulder to look at him with an offended expression. “This is the most anti-climactic bedtime story to have ever existed.”

“Your other ones were definitely better,” Jisoo agrees with a dejected shake of the head. “Now I don’t know if we’ll be able to sleep.”

Seungcheol knows better than to fall into their guilt tripping ways, and it’s not like Jisoo’s asking him specifically for something, so it’s not like he’s telling Jisoo no—which would, of course, be illegal.

(Choi Seungcheol is a man of loopholes and weird ideas. Jeonghan and Jisoo have both learned this the hard way.)

“Just remember that we have to get up at six tomorrow morning for day two of the convention,” he says, doing his best to come off as nonchalant.

Jeonghan snorts at the attempt, eyes wandering the bed only to discover that his phone is nowhere in sight. “What time is it now?”

“It’s almost two in the morning,” Seungcheol singsongs.

Jeonghan doesn’t hesitate to push the other two boys out of the bed while hurriedly burying himself under the covers. “Yup. I’m out. You at telling stories, Seungcheol, and for that you’re sleeping on the couch.”

Well, that wasn’t according to plan.

Jisoo cheers as he flops onto the room’s second bed, and Seungcheol lightly shakes Jeonghan in hopes of getting a response. “W-Wait a second! I’m old, remember? The young one should sleep on the couch!”

“You’re not that much older than us,” Jisoo chimes in, and Seungcheol wants to take back his earlier comment about Jisoo being a blessing in his life. The younger boy’s expression shifts from a playful one to more disappointed one. “Are you really going to make me sleep on the couch, Cheol?”

And Seungcheol can never say no to Jisoo, so he just grumbles like an angry old man before throwing himself onto the springy couch.

(When they’re sure that he’s not looking, Jeonghan and Jisoo reach over to give the other a soft high-five.)

(When Seungcheol is sure that the other two have fallen asleep, he snaps a photo of their sleeping arrangements to post on Twitter with the caption, “#traitors.”)

---

It’s four in the morning when Jisoo wakes up due to an added weight on his bed.

He doesn’t really think much of it at first—he had felt kind of bad for forcing Seungcheol to relinquish one of the room’s beds, after all, and so he doesn’t mind sharing his sleeping space with the older boy.

“Jisoo,” a voice whispers. “Jisoo, are you awake?”

He does mind the explicit interruption of his sleep though.

There’s a beat of silence before the younger boy tiredly groans, “No.”

Usually that single word is enough to deter Seungcheol from pursuing one of his middle-of-the-night “good” ideas. This time, however, Seungcheol is undeterred. “Come on, it’s important.”

Jisoo hides his face under a pillow, muffling his voice slightly. “If this is about that dumb kink of yours—”

“I think I figured out the whole ship thing.”

This makes Jisoo freeze. A part of him says that this isn’t that important and can probably wait until the morning, but another part of him—the part that’s winning—reminds him how much he hates unfinished stories.

With a soft sigh, Jisoo rises up into a sitting position as he rubs his eyes tiredly. When he takes in the scene before him, he’s exposed to an excited Seungcheol and a laptop with at least thirty different tabs open. He shoots Seungcheol a questioning look, and all he gets in response is an enthusiastic whisper: “Jisoo, online fandoms are really intense.”

Jisoo knows that he isn’t ready, but he leans into the screen all the same.

---

It’s four-seventeen in the morning when Jeonghan wakes up to someone fervently shaking him and someone else shoving a laptop screen in his face.

“What?” He hisses, squinting at the bright light in the darkness of the room. “Seungcheol, I swear to god, this better be important—”

“I think I figured out the whole ship thing,” the older boy responds breathlessly.

Jeonghan pauses for a moment, debating something internally before replying, “Okay, well wake me up when you’re sure that you figured out the whole ship thing.”

“We’re sure that we’ve figured out the whole ship thing,” Jisoo whispers from behind the computer screen.

The long-haired boy mumbles a string of annoyed—but somewhat impressed—curses as he sits up in his bed. “Alright, hit me.”

Jisoo’s just about to do so, but Seungcheol stops him before he can do anything too reckless.

“It’s an expression,” he explains.

The youngest member of the trio blushes a little at his blunder, but Jeonghan waves away his embarrassment as he squints at the screen. “Is this… Seungcheol, are you looking up my star lookalikes or something?”

Seungcheol just shakes his head, unfazed by the accusation. “Jeonghan,” he begins, “Online fandoms are really intense.”

Jeonghan can’t help but raise an eyebrow at this explanation, before allowing his eyes to wander back towards the screen. It’s in that moment that he realizes that he’s staring at a hyperrealistic depiction of himself, his jaw dropping ever so slightly.

“It’s too early in the morning for this.”

“Yeah, probably, but we have thirty-seven tabs to go through and there’s no time like the present.”

Jeonghan sighs but doesn’t say no.

---

In a strange turn of events, Seungcheol had noticed a URL to a SoundCloud on his fanboy’s mixtape. Since he had been unable to sleep, he decided to check it out, discovering that “Vernon” is actually the rapper name of a certain Chwe Hansol—a senior in high school with a tumblr account full of fanfiction. Seungcheol had read about thirteen of the short stories before exploring the tags on the posts to discover the entirety of the reality show’s online fandom.

He had woken up Jisoo and Jeonghan to marvel at the wonders with him, and they proceeded to scroll through the plethora of posts for a solid hour and a half.

(All three of them are wondering why they don’t have tumblr accounts, but no one wants to ask the question aloud.)

It’s almost six o’clock when Jisoo shifts out of position to use the restroom, leaving Jeonghan and Seungcheol to take turns scrolling through tumblr tags.

And that’s when Seungcheol realizes something.

“Wait, I don’t get it. Why are ‘jeongcheol’ and ‘jihan’ so popular? Why are your ships so popular?”

Jeonghan just shrugs with a knowing smirk. “Obviously because I’m the most popular between the three of us—it’s the only explanation.”

Seungcheol just shoots him a concerned frown. “Okay, but that would imply that if our fans think that there’s a love triangle between the three of us, that they think that Jisoo and I are fighting over you.” When Jeonghan only quirks an eyebrow at this, the older boy drops his jaw in shock at the other’s ignorance. “Jeonghan, let’s be real: if there was a love triangle between the three of us, it would be you and I fighting over Jisoo.”

The long-haired boy blinks at this. “Oh man. You’re totally right.”

As if on cue, they both hear the toilet flush and Jisoo walks out of the bathroom a few seconds later. When he sees his two friends staring at him with wide eyes, he isn’t really sure what to do. “Uh, is everything okay?”

They stare at him for a few seconds longer until Seungcheol finally turns back to Jeonghan with mischief in his eyes and determination on his lips.

“I have an idea.”

“No.”

“Okay, but it’s a good idea.”

“It’s probably not.”

“I think I missed something,” Jisoo interrupts as he walks back towards the bed to fall into the laps of the two older boys. “What’s going on?”

Seungcheol just shoots him a wide grin. “We’re going to join our own fandom.”

---

And that’s how the three of them end up in the shadowed corner of a Starbucks a week later, Jisoo sipping on a vanilla frappuccino with two pumps of raspberry, Seungcheol eating his seventh cakepop in the span of twenty minutes, and Jeonghan continuing to wonder how he got ered into this.

“I still don’t think this is a good idea, Cheol,” Jeonghan begins carefully as the other two boys continue to scroll through something on Seungcheol’s laptop. “There’s an invisible line here that shouldn’t be crossed.”

“Rules are meant to be broken,” Seungcheol fires back with a devious wink, and Jeonghan immediately regrets teaching him how to do that. “Besides, what's the worst that could happen?”

There are a lot of very bad things that could happen, Jeonghan wants to point out, but Jisoo chirps up before he can speak. “We’ll be careful, Jeonghan! This is such a good opportunity to get to know our fans, and it could be a lot of fun. Please?”

Jeonghan curses because no one can say no to Jisoo.

“Fine,” he sighs, immediately remembering how they convinced him to come along in the first place—Jisoo’s like a secret weapon or something. “Just keep the Hansol kid away from Jisoo—I get the feeling that he’ll be a bad influence.”

The youngest boy looks affronted by the accusation and looks to Seungcheol in the hopes that the older boy will stand up for him. Seungcheol, however, knows that arguing with Jeonghan over something like this is a death sentence, so he pretends that he doesn’t see Jisoo’s pout.

(It’s very hard to do.)

“Don’t worry. Since this was my idea, I’ll be the one that interacts the most with him. Besides, Hansol is obviously a man of taste, and men of taste always stick together.”

“You’re not very tasteful though, Cheol—that’s the issue,” Jeonghan throws in, making the oldest boy flush a bright shade of red.

That’s when someone finally stops in front of their corner booth wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Seungcheol’s face, a pair of denim cut-offs, bright orange Crocs, a camouflage bucket hat, and a nervous expression. “U-Uh, hi.”

Jeonghan is immediately impressed at meeting someone who’s even more awkward than Jisoo. Seungcheol, however, just grins brilliantly at the newcomer, quickly jumping up into a standing position to pull the younger boy into a bro-shake (because they’re totally catching on, okay). “Hansol! I’m so glad that you could make it!”

The boy turns pink at the words and Jisoo can’t help but grin as he watches the exchange because Hansol looks as though all of his dreams are coming true and Jisoo’s just really honored to be a part of it all.

“I’m honestly still in shock,” the boy admits as Seungcheol wraps an arm around his shoulders and invites him to take a seat. “I hope you don’t mind, but I asked one of my friends to tag along in case you weren’t who you said you were? N-Not that I think you guys are liars or anything, but you know—”

Jeonghan feels bad for thinking that Hansol would be a threat—the boy is almost as innocent as Jisoo with his seemingly permanent red cheeks and timid smiles. The real threat here is Seungcheol’s convoluted idea of a plan, but that has nothing to do with Hansol. “Strangers on the Internet can be dangerous,” he supplies for the youngster with a comforting smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Yeah, it’s good that you’re cautious about these sorts of things!” Jisoo throws in. “I’d be devastated to hear that something bad happened to one of our fans!”

Hansol smiles in gratitude before standing up once more to wave his friend over. The newcomer hesitates for a moment before bowing to the other boys as he introduces himself. “Hello, I’m Lee Chan. It’s nice to meet you!”

Jeonghan’s eyes sparkle immediately at the sight of the younger boy, and his two best friends don’t have to get verbal confirmation to know that their friend has picked a new favorite.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Chan,” the long-haired boy grins. He squeezes closer to the wall of the booth before patting the space beside him. “Please, take a seat!”

Chan’s eyes widen in delight as he slides into the booth, and the sight makes Jeonghan’s heart swell.

(Jisoo can’t help but breathe a soft sigh of relief because maybe this means that Jeonghan will start babying him a little less.)

“I guess I'll cut right to the chase,” Seungcheol begins.

Jeonghan immediately looks offended by the suggestion and cuts him off. “Um, no, don't be so rude,” he chastises with a sharp look before turning his attention to the two younger boys. “School just released half an hour ago, right? I'm sure you guys are hungry—or at the very least thirsty. What are you in the mood for? I’d be happy to treat you!”

Seungcheol turns red for not thinking of the suggestion first, but he supposes that it’s Jeonghan’s mixture of sass and eternal thoughtfulness that balances out his emotional tendencies and impulse—so he decides not to dwell too much on it.

The two students hurriedly turn down his offer, but Hansol’s stomach betrays them both, and that's it, Jeonghan concludes, he's going to buy the whole menu.

(They try to stop him at first, but Seungcheol and Jisoo eventually convince them that there's no point in trying.)

“So, uh, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?” Hansol asks nervously, twiddling his thumbs in an attempt to look casual.

For a moment, Jisoo is worried that the older boy will get a little too ahead of himself and say the wrong thing—but then he remembers that even though Seungcheol tends to have a one-track mind at times, he's always focused on what really matters in the end. “I absolutely loved your mixtape,” the oldest boy praises with a genuine smile. “Your lyrics are so honest, and when you rap, your raw emotion really shines through. Last week you said that I'm the one who inspired you, but in all actuality, I think that you're the one who should be inspiring me.”

Hansol’s lip quivers as he does his best to maintain control over his emotions, and that action in itself is enough to make the tears begin to well up in Seungcheol’s eyes.

Jisoo takes that as his cue to step in before they attract too much attention to themselves.

“I was actually wondering if you'd like to rap in a new song that I'm working on? I know that you're busy with school and all, but I really liked your style and—”

Jisoo had believed that tweaking the subject slightly would assuage some of the building emotions, but it does just the opposite: a tear of happiness streaks down Hansol’s face as he nods gratefully and Seungcheol takes that as his cue to throw himself at the younger boy in what is probably supposed to be a comforting embrace.

“I missed something,” Jeonghan states as he regards the situation before him. He takes a moment to eye each of the boys in an attempt to figure out who did what, but he gives up fairly quickly. With that, he gestures to the table as cafè workers set tray after tray of drinks and assorted pastries in front of the others. “Whatever it was, it was probably Seungcheol’s fault—I apologize on his behalf.”

(Hansol wants to defend his longtime idol, but Seungcheol is quick to whisper that doing so would just be a losing battle.)

Jeonghan slides into the booth just as Jisoo makes a grab for one of the cookies. He’s stopped by Chan who can only look at him in wonder. It’s Hansol who speaks up for the two of them, looking equally surprised. “You’re going to start eating before Jeonghan can take a picture for his Instagram?” The words are whispered as though they’re an accusation of blasphemy, making Jisoo’s eyes go wide with unnecessary guilt.

Jeonghan would be lying if he said he wasn't flattered.

“It’s okay, I'll take one after we all finish eating so that I can tag you guys in the post,” he says, nodding for the others to begin eating.

Hansol’s jaw drops in shock and it’s clear that he still can’t believe that what’s happening is real; Seungcheol takes it as an opportunity to baby the younger boy by feeding him one a cakepop and his hair understandingly. Chan’s staring up at Jeonghan as though the older boy is a literal angel and Jeonghan has proceeded to select a plateful of pastries for him specifically, insisting that the youngest of the group needs to eat more because he looks too skinny.

Jisoo's left wondering how he became the responsible one in this situation, because that's definitely not how he expected things to go down.

“We actually found your tumblr too, Hansol, and your stories are really cute! I think that my favorite one was the one about the prom date,” Jisoo praises, taking a bite out of one of the coffee cakes.

At the mention of his tumblr—and his fanfiction—Hansol chokes on his food, throwing Seungcheol into a panic. The older boy’s about to start yelling for someone who knows the Heimlich maneuver to hurry over, but Jeongcheol shoots him a look telling him to calm down. Chan takes care of the situation by effectively giving his friend a strong slap on the back.

Hansol’s still a bright shade of red though, looking as though he wants to fall off the face of the earth. His eyes dart between the three older boys questioningly, but it’s Chan who answers his unasked question. “I told you that writing the link to your SoundCloud on the CD would be a bad idea.”

“I didn’t think he’d actually listen to my mixtape,” Hansol whines in response, allowing his head to fall onto the table in embarrassment. “I forgot that my tumblr was linked there as well.”

“You should listen to me more often,” Chan replies with an innocent shrug. In that single moment, he reminds Jisoo a lot of Jeonghan.

As though realizing that they have to come up with some sort of response at some point, Chan decides to explain. “I’m pretty sure that Hansol has a bit of an impulse problem, but even though he comes off as kind of a trainwreck at times, he’s a good guy overall.”

The description immediately reminds Jeonghan of Seungcheol, who is trying to do his best to convince Hansol that the younger boy isn’t a total embarrassment to himself. When Jeonghan turns to look at Chan again, he feels as though he and the newcomer must secretly be long lost brothers or something.

“There’s really no need to beat yourself up over it,” Jeonghan insists. “We read them of our own accord; it’s not like you were trying to shove them in our face or something.”

Hansol looks up a little at this, and Jisoo—who had felt a little guilty over being the one to bring up the subject in the first place—is quick to add, “We really did have a lot of fun reading through your stories and listening to your songs. I don’t think any of us fully realized that we inspired people to create through so many different mediums.”

Seungcheol is impressed by Jisoo’s words, not realizing that the other could be so eloquent. Chan, on the other hand, is a little surprised at this turn of events because a piece of him had been preparing to dissociate himself from Hansol in case things went south—not that he’s a bad friend, of course, but Chan’s simply not the type of person to get involved in things unless he’s explicitly asked to.

He can’t help but think that it’s a little ironic that the celebrities are the ones gushing over their fanboys, and that makes him smile a little.

“I thought they were really cool, too,” Seungcheol throws in. “It seems like you’re good at everything!”

It’s Seungcheol’s praise that finally makes Hansol sit up out of his slumped position. He doesn’t look entirely convinced as he awkwardly scratches the area behind his ear. “If you guys say so,” he mumbles with a blush.

Chan smiles at the exchange, feeling a bit out of place since it’s clear that this is a big moment for Hansol that he shouldn’t really be a part of. He isn’t allowed to dwell on this idea for long though, because Jeonghan gestures for him to take his pick from the assortment of drinks and Chan doesn’t want to be rude.

(He does, however, think that Hansol and coffee sounds like a bad idea, but he doesn’t want to embarass his older friend.)

“Can you teach us how to write popular fanfics too?”

The request comes out of nowhere and Chan can’t stop himself from spitting out his drink in surprise. Hansol—who still hadn’t recovered from his earlier shock—looks like he’s about to faint. “C-Come again?”

Jeonghan can’t help but facepalm, still in disbelief that this is actually Seungcheol’s plan.

Jisoo still thinks it’s a good idea though, so he repeats the oldest boy’s sentiments. “We were thinking that it would be fun to see what our fans think of us, you know? And if some people seem to have the wrong idea, then we can write our own popular stories to steer them in the right direction!”

Hansol’s still staring at the others as though they have three heads, and Chan wants to tell him that it’s okay, he has some time to think this all over, but Hansol finds himself nodding without really realizing the consequences of his actions.

Seungcheol and Jisoo erupt into an excited cheer, Jeonghan feels like this is just a disaster waiting to happen, Hansol is pinching himself in the hopes that this is all just a really weird dream, and Chan is wondering how they’re going to explain this fiasco to Seungkwan, who had to begrudgingly skip out on this adventure due to his student council duties.

---

“Are we actually going to delay our flight back to LA just so that we can learn how to write fanfiction?”

Seungcheol just waves away his concern. “Come on, Jeonghan, it's not their fault they have classes to attend during the week. What, do you want them to abandon their studies for the sake of fanfiction?”

Jeonghan can't really argue with that, but Jisoo apparently can. “I’m not going to say that fanfiction is more important than grades, but I really want this fic to update.”

The other two boys looks over his shoulder and wince. “Jisoo, the last update was a year ago. Give it up.”

“No, I have to believe.”

“There will be other fics for you to read.”

“But in this one, I'm a badass with a motorcycle! And Jeonghan’s the kid who keeps me from failing classes until he gets kidnapped by a rival gang!”

Seungcheol mumbles something dejectedly about how the best ones are always jihan fics which means he's probably the bad guy in this scenario, while Jeonghan actually laughs. “Yeah, wow, I cannot imagine that.”

Jisoo's jaw drops in mock offense. “I'm going to learn how to ride a motorcycle now, just to spite you.”

Usually it's impossible for the two older boys to tell Jisoo no, but this time, it comes much too easily.

---

When the weekend comes, Jeonghan drives them to a house in the suburbs as Seungcheol speaks to one of their producers on the phone, insisting that the personal time that they’re taking right now is very important and that they’re not up to anything that anyone will regret.

(Jeonghan snorts a little at that, but for the most part, manages to keep his biting remarks to himself.)

They end up arriving at the address fifteen minutes later than they’re supposed to, only remotely surprised when they pull into a driveway where three boys are splayed out on the concrete. Three teenagers outdoors during this time of the day isn’t what’s surprising though—it’s the way one of them is being fanned and fed grapes by the other two.

Seungcheol finally ends his call to squint at the window. “What am I looking at?”

Jeonghan only shrugs and is about to ask if they should respectfully bail while they still can, but Jisoo’s already opened the car door to skip towards the younger trio. “Good morning! Sorry we’re so late!”

The two older boys exchange a glance with one another before getting out of the car themselves.

“No need to worry,” Hansol smiles, setting the bunch of grapes he had been holding onto a plastic tray. He looks a lot more comfortable than he had been earlier this week, and the calm expression on his features makes Seungcheol perk up a little almost immediately.

Chan breathes what seems to be a sigh of relief as he sets the feathered fan down in order to properly greet the newcomers. “We’re really just happy that you could make it!”

The third boy just stares straight ahead with wide eyes, mouth opening and closing like a fish. Jisoo doesn’t seem to think too much of it, Jeonghan is highkey wondering if the boy is okay, and Seungcheol can’t help but feel like he’s seen this kid somewhere before.

“Hansol,” the stranger hisses, “I didn’t think you were serious.”

Hansol just shoots him a -eating grin. “But Seungkwan, I'm always serious.”

The boy—Seungkwan—proceeds to tackle his younger friend to the ground, promptly reminding Seungcheol of where he's seen him before. Jeonghan and Jisoo are staring at the wrestling boys with surprised expressions, and Chan offers a brief “That's just how they are” as the sole explanation.

“One of them will hit their head on the concrete,” Jeonghan mutters, mostly to himself, as he steps forward to break up the fight.

He doesn't have to get too close, however, as Seungkwan stops pulling at Hansol’s hair to gape at the older boy approaching them.

“You're Yoon Jeonghan.”

Jeonghan’s surprised that stopping the spat had been that easy, but manages a small smile all the same. “Yeah, I am.”

Seungkwan’s eyes soon latch themselves onto Jisoo, comically widening as he releases his grip on Hansol’s head to rush over to the older boy.

(The action makes Hansol’s head hit the pavement with a sound that makes the others wince—not that Seungkwan seems to mind. After a second or two, Hansol sits back up with a loopy grin on his face, offering the others a thumbs up.

No one is too convinced.)

“You’re even more beautiful in real life!” Seungkwan squeaks, falling onto his knees to marvel at Jisoo’s glory.

The sudden attention makes the singer flush a bright shade of red. “I-I mean, I look alright, I guess—”

At the deference of his compliment, Seungkwan’s jaw drops. He's probably about to list a million and one reasons why Jisoo is a beautiful human being who needs to be more confident in himself, but Chan cuts him off. “Seungkwan, we’re in a rush, remember? There's no time for squealing, that happened a few days ago. You promised you'd be chill about this, and look, even Hansol’s not freaking out—”

He gestures to his older friend, just as the boy yells, “Seungcheol, look what I can do!” and proceeds to tumble into the grass instead of doing the cartwheel he had planned.

(Seungcheol, of course, had no idea that it was supposed to be a cartwheel and seems to be genuinely impressed.)

Chan just sighs. “I stand corrected.”

Seungkwan, however, rises up out of his kneeling position to walk towards the center of the group. “You're right, Chan, I have to prove that I'm at least better than Hansol.”

(“Hey!”)

The red-haired boy puffs his chest out with his hands on his hips as he addresses the others. “My name is Boo Seungkwan, but you may also know me as aby on tumblr.”

Jisoo’s jaw drops at this information, but Jeonghan feels legitimately lost. When he turns to look at Seungcheol for an explanation, the older boy looks as though he's just met a god in the flesh.

“aby is, like, one of the most popular bloggers in our fandom,” he breathes, and Jeonghan can't help but wonder if it only comes off that way because they spent most of their time on Hansol’s blog and the younger boy likely spent a good amount of time reblogging his friend’s stuff. He figures that this isn't something he should question though.

“Hansol and Chan told me about your situation and I would be happy—no, honored—to teach you the ways of the fandom.”

Seungcheol and Jisoo are still gawking after him, and when Seungkwan turns to enter the house, beckoning them ever-so-subtly over his shoulder, the two are quick to follow.

That leaves Jeonghan, Hansol, and Chan out in the front yard, and the oldest boy can't help but shoot the other two a confused frown. “I'm going to be honest and say that I have no idea what's going on right now.”

Hansol just shrugs. “That's Seungkwan for you—I've learned to just take it in stride.”

“He didn't believe us when we said that we met you in person, so we agreed that if you guys didn't show up, we’d be his personal slaves for a day,” Chan adds in further explanation, shooting Jeonghan a pained look. “Seungkwan’s a bit dramatic, but he's a caring and passionate guy—plus, he's our friend, so if we had left him out of this, he probably would've cried.”

Jeonghan makes note of this in his head, but finds himself unable to truly focused since the part of him that has a tendency to worry has gone into a tizzy. “Is your head alright, Hansol? That kind of looked like it hurt.” He steps closer to the boy, examining the back of his head to see if there are any noticeable bumps.

“Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me,” the other insists, turning pink at the attention. “B-But, uh, do you think Seungcheol thought I looked cool? Because I think he's really cool, so if he thought that I was kind of cool then—”

Jeonghan can't hold back the chuckle that escapes his lips at the younger boy’s fascination with Seungcheol—as far as Jeonghan can tell, after all, Seungcheol is one of the biggest dorks to walk the planet. “Trust me, Cheol probably thinks that you're ten times cooler than he is.”

The compliment—if you can even call it that—makes Hansol’s jaw drop in surprise.

“Seungcheol kind of looks like he's impressed by everything, to be honest,” Chan can't help but throw in. “You probably have a lot more in common with him than you're willing to admit.”

Hansol beams at this, any negative connotation that the sentiment may or may not have flying over his head completely. Jeonghan and Chan share a look with one another before bursting into laughter.

Seungkwan picks that moment to stick his head out of the front door with slightly narrowed eyes and a pout that looks more cute than it does menacing. “We have three hours before my parents get back and I am not going to try to make up a story about why there are three celebrities scrolling through tumblr in our living room—hurry up.”

With that, he slams the door shut and the other three hurry towards it.

---

After a very thorough PowerPoint presentation that is full of nothing but comic sans and screenshots of Seungkwan’s favorite tumblr posts, the so-called leader of the operation finally unveils his game plan.

“Managing a popular blog takes time, effort, and dedication—also a lot of patience because there are a lot of s on the Internet, but we’ll cover that bit later,” he begins. “That being said, I propose that the three of you run a single blog that features three of the most important fandom sub-categories: fanfiction, fan-made graphics and edits, and some good blogger-follower interaction to add a nice, personal touch to your blog.”

Jisoo nods at this as he jots down a few notes onto the paper in front of him, and Seungcheol raises his hand to ask a question. “Should we let our followers know that the blog is run by three different people, or should we keep it vague?”

“Up to you, of course,” Seungkwan answers smoothly.

Seungcheol marvels to himself about how the younger boy knows the answers to everything as he scribbles a few notes into his journal.

Jeonghan had gotten bored midway through the presentation and decided to make everyone chocolate chip cookies and lemonade out of the ingredients in Seungkwan’s kitchen. Hansol and Chan had offered to help him, and so the older boy awarded them with gold stars that he made out of some sticky notes.

(He also makes one for Seungkwan because he knows that the younger boy will likely get jealous of the others if he's left out.)

“And now,” Seungkwan continues, pinky up as he pauses mid-speech to take a sip of his lemonade, “It’s time to divide and conquer.”

“But I haven't finished eating my cookies yet,” Hansol whines.

Seungkwan rolls his eyes, but a pointed look from Jeonghan makes him relent. “Okay, fine. We’ll start after this snack break then.”

---

Hansol and Seungcheol sit with one another at Seungkwan’s dining room table, the former starting up an aged laptop and the latter excitedly flipping through his notebook of story ideas.

In all honesty, Hansol’s having a little trouble focusing on the task at hand because his biggest inspiration is sitting next to him humming some sort of teenage love song and trying to brainstorm plot points for his first fanfiction—that Hansol is supposed to be helping him write. It feels more than a little surreal, and as Hansol opens up his Google Drive account, he can’t help but jump when Seungcheol makes a triumphant sound of elation.

“Uh, is everything alright?”

The older boy just grins brightly at him. “Hansol, we’re going to write a legendary story. This is going to be so much fun! Can you imagine? You and I working together?”

Hansol still kind of thinks that maybe he hit his head one too many times over the course of his short life, because no, he can’t really imagine this actually happening—it has to be some kind of twisted fever dream. “Um, I mean—”

Seungcheol’s eyes widen for a moment. “Oh my god, Hansol, we have to come up with a team name—like, an alias or something.”

“I thought that the idea was to pretend that you, Jeonghan, and Jisoo were all one person though? So shouldn’t the team name be for all of us?”

“Oh, I guess you’ve got me there,” Seungcheol admits, the playful smile still dancing on his lips. “I’m really excited.”

Hansol can definitely tell, but the older boy’s joy is basically contagious, so he feels his nerves skitter away as he opens up a new document. “Me too! I guess we’ll start with listing the major plot points for the story? What kind of events do you have in mind?”

Seungcheol flips to a particular page in his notebook and begins reading off some of his ideas, “Birthday cake, big dogs that act like they’re little, glitter and confetti, giant sushi rolls that take on the form of burritos, a legendary showdown between the Power Rangers and the Teen Titans—”

The younger boy blinks. “Wait, but how does this all connect?”

This time it’s Seungcheol who looks a little confused. “Connect?”

“Like, how does this all fit together in one story? What’s the main conflict?”

Seungcheol looks almost offended by the question. “Conflict? There can’t be a conflict in the story! I don’t want our fans to read about anything bad happening to us!”

“N-No, that’s not what I meant!” Hansol clarifies, feeling unnecessary guilt because of the older boy’s reaction. “Conflict doesn’t always mean that someone has to suffer in the story. It can be, like, a challenge that you guys overcome that causes a change in your characters—you know, teaches you a lesson or something.”

Seungcheol’s frown only deepens. “But I like us the way we are now!”

“I like you the way you are now too!” Hansol is quick to cry, desperate to earn the affection of his biggest idol. “I-I just mean that in stories, there’s usually a problem that has to be solved, you know? It can be something silly, like someone not wanting to get up out of bed, o-or maybe the big dog that acts like it’s a little dog can’t find its owner?”

His attempts seem to be futile because Seungcheol’s happiness seems to have deflated completely. “I don’t want the dog to be sad either…”

“I mean, I guess that a superhero showdown would be a conflict in itself?” Hansol offers, trying once more to lift up the mood.

“But then the superheroes wouldn’t be happy…” The other boy responds, slumping even further into the seat of his chair.

At this point, Hansol’s not really sure what he can say and Seungcheol’s realizing that maybe writing fanfiction is a little harder than he thought it would be.

---

“Wow, Chan, these designs are gorgeous,” Jeonghan breathes as he scrolls through the younger boy’s tumblr on his phone. “I had no idea that you were a graphic designer!”

The younger boy turns slightly pink at the attention as he boots up the desktop computer in Seungkwan’s room. “I mean, it’s just a hobby right now. Being able to pursue it as a career would be really awesome though, I think.”

Jeonghan just beams at him. “It’s great to hear that you have such vision! I’m sure that as long as you keep a clear focus of what you want in life, you’ll be able to accomplish anything you set your mind to.”

Between him and his two other friends, Chan would say that he’s the least likely to spend hours upon hours fanboying over his favorite celebrities. Still, it’s hard to ignore the naturally permanent smile on his face as he addresses the older boy—who just so happens to be his favorite member of the trio. Honestly, this whole experience is like a dream come true.

“To be fair, our fandom is super organized, so it’s not too difficult to find inspiration for my edits,” he insists as he types a URL into the search bar. A second or two later, the screen lights up with multiple images of Seungcheol, Jeonghan, and Jisoo. Under each picture is a series of tags, and at the top of the page, there seems to be a navigation section of sorts in order to help people find what they’re looking for faster. “The admins of this tumblr sort all of the photos into different categories. Here, let’s start with the images that come straight from your social media profiles.”

Jeonghan nods slowly, trying to absorb the overload of information as quickly as possible. When Chan clicks the “official” link at the top of the page though, Jeonghan can’t help but cringe.

“Why are all of these screencaps of Seungcheol’s face so low quality?”

“I think that there’s either a permanent smudge on his phone’s camera or he just doesn’t upload images properly.”

Jeonghan can’t help but sigh. “It’s probably both, to be honest.” Chan laughs a little at that. “This just makes your graphics even more impressive,” he asserts. “I don’t think that I’d be able to work with pictures like that.”

“It just takes a little bit of practice,” Chan insists. “There are other problems that can make it hard to edit pictures too. Like, Seungcheol’s posts are usually a little blurry, Jisoo has a tendency to always looks away from the camera, and you—” He quickly catches himself before he can say something that he’s going to regret, but it’s too late: Jeonghan’s already heard.

The older boy raises a brow at the unfinished sentence, silently beckoning him to continue. The smile on his face is still sickeningly sweet though, and Chan thinks that that only makes the situation worse.

They stare at one another for a few more seconds before the younger boy finally relents. “Sometimes you chop off part of your head in your selfies, so it kind of limits what we can do with the image.”

Chan’s expecting to see some sort of reaction on the older boy’s face, but Jeonghan’s expression doesn’t waver for even a split second.

It’s beginning to creep him out.

They sit like that for about twenty more seconds before Jeonghan nonchalantly says, “Oh, silly me! I guess it doesn’t really matter either way though, since I can just ask Seungcheol or Jisoo to make specific poses based on what I need for our edits.”

If Chan were more comfortable in this situation, he’d point out that doing so would be a little bit like cheating, but he feels an admirable sort of fear beginning to form in regards to Jeonghan, so he decides not to comment. “That’s definitely true. But either way, I still have to teach you how to use Photoshop—”

“My face,” Jeonghan interrupts, pointing to himself with one hand and using the other to force Chan to look him in the eyes. “Doesn’t need to be Photoshopped. Do you see this natural beauty?”

“I-I—”

Realizing that he’s just lost his temper, Jeonghan quickly releases his grip on the younger boy’s shoulder and takes a deep breath—in a flash, the calm smile is back on his features and Chan has no idea what kind of witchcraft he’s just witnessed. “Oh, excuse my outburst!” Jeonghan chuckles as though nothing intense just happened.

Chan doesn’t understand how the sound manages to sound both angelic and devious at the same time, but he’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t impressed—in fact, he thinks, seeing this side of Jeonghan just makes the older boy even more likable.

In that moment, Chan decides that he wants be like Jeonghan when he grows up—messing with Seungkwan and Hansol would be so much more fun that way.

---

“Jisoo, I think that you’re my favorite, but don’t tell the others.” When the older boy blushes at the compliment and offers a tiny nod in response, Seungkwan continues. “Like, watching your song covers on YouTube is kind of what inspired me to take up singing as a hobby too, you know? So I figured that it’s only fair that we singers stick together, and so I kind of cheated and paired you up with me since working with me will be more fun than working with Hansol or Chan.”

(It definitely doesn’t have to do with the fact that Seungkwan is a hardcore Jisoo stan—he’s being totally objective about this.)

“I’m honored then,” Jisoo replies with a small smile that almost makes Seungkwan faint. “Where do we start?”

It’s not like Seungkwan planned this entire thing out or anything, but he sort of did. “I don’t think there’s much to teach you! When interacting with your followers, the most important thing is to come off as funny and likable—which you already do. As long as you maintain a good stock of reaction images and keep up to date with the latest memes, you’re going to be fine.”

Jisoo kind of wants to say that Jeonghan’s the one that has the supply of reaction images and Seungcheol’s the one who has an unhealthy meme addiction, but something tells him that doing so will just spoil the mood. After all, Seungkwan’s already left the entire subject of their makeshift tumblr behind in favor of talking about his last week of school and the latest student council gossip.

Jisoo’s pretty sure that interrupting him at this point would be kind of rude.

Still, as Seungkwan rambles on and Jisoo casually listens, his mind wanders back to how this whole fandom thing started: Hansol telling Seungcheol to tell Seungkwan that the younger boy’s ships are real. And, you know, they never did find out what exactly the younger boy shipped.

So as Seungkwan transitions to something about the librarians being rude to him when he was yelling at an underclassmen for disrupting the silence of the library, Jisoo opens up the boy’s tumblr on his phone and begins to scroll through his posts in search of the boy’s now legendary OTPs.

Twenty minutes later, and Jisoo’s discovered that relying on Seungkwan’s blog for something like this is nearly impossible because the boy seems to post a little bit of everything.

“And so I told the captain of the basketball team that I—”

“Seungkwan?”

The boy in question seems startled by the interruption, tilting his head ever-so-slightly to the left in surprise. “Huh?”

“What’s your favorite ship?”

Seungkwan blinks. “What?”

“You know,” Jisoo continues, starting to feel a little silly. “Like your OTP.”

The fandom term makes the younger boy’s mouth form a round “o” as he regards Jisoo thoughtfully. “Oh, Jisoo, I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you that.”

Jisoo’s not arrogant or anything, but that’s definitely not the answer he had been expecting.

“W-What do you mean?”

Seungkwan just offers him a shy smile. “I mean, now that I know you guys kind of personally, hardcore shipping any pairing over the other would be kind of weird.” When Jisoo just frowns a little in confusion, the younger boy decides to elaborate. “It’s like, there’s a line between what’s real and what's fanboying. And, in my opinion, telling you what my favorite ship is or trying to push you towards one ship over another would be crossing that line.”

Jisoo’s not really sure how to respond because he’s never quite sure how to respond to thoughtful sentiments such as that one. So after a few seconds, he just grins. “I think I get it a little, Seungkwan. Thank you.”

The younger boy just smiles back.

“Okay, so enough about me: it’s your turn to spill the beans. I heard that your show’s going to start filming for the next season soon and I am so ready to leak factual rumors to the fandom.”

Jisoo can’t help but chuckle. “What if I tell you fake things on purpose just to watch your posts flop?”

Seungkwan’s jaw drops, and it isn’t long before he launches into a lengthy tirade because how dare Jisoo insinuate that any post written by Boo Seungkwan would ever be unsuccessful?

The older boy just laughs along and he can’t help but think that this is the most fun he’s had without Seungcheol or Jeonghan in a while.

---

Time flies fairly quickly, and it isn’t long until Seungcheol, Jeonghan, and Jisoo are waving their goodbyes to the younger trio in order to hurry to the airport and hopefully make their flight.

(Hansol is gifted with Jeonghan’s cookie recipe because the older boy insists that he needs to take care of Chan, Seungkwan convinces Seungcheol to try something ridiculously stupid during his next Vine, and Chan asks Jisoo how Jeonghan is even real, but the older boy is unable to form a coherent response to that.)

The car ride is uncharacteristically silent for the three of them.

And even more uncharacteristically, it’s Jisoo who breaks the silence. “That wasn’t what I expected it to be, but it was still a lot of fun.”

He turns to look at Seungcheol—who’s driving—and Jeonghan—who is lying down in the back—in the hopes of some kind of response because the quiet is starting to make him a little uncomfortable. He figures that the lack of conversation has something to do with Seungcheol not wanting to admit that his “good” idea wasn’t so great after all and Jeonghan not wanting to admit that he had been hoping things would work out even if had kept saying they wouldn’t.

The two have a penchant for being stubborn in their own right, but Jisoo likes to think that it’s his role to play mediator in situations like this.

“Yeah, it was… more difficult than I thought it would be,” Seungcheol mumbles quietly, keeping his eyes fixed on the road.

Jeonghan rises into a sitting position behind him, fumbling with his seatbelt as an excuse for not meeting Jisoo’s gaze. (It doesn’t really work though because everyone knows that Yoon Jeonghan never fumbles.) “I really enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with a few of our fans though… It was nice.”

“You know,” Jisoo begins, “Seungkwan said something to me today that reminded me a lot of something you said before, Jeonghan.”

“Oh?”

Jisoo nods. “Yeah, and it got me thinking: sure, it’s nice to look at the things our fans create because our fans are super talented. But at the same time, we shouldn’t have to worry about inserting ourselves into the fandom to make sure that they’re getting the facts straight. In the end, we’re the ones who define our friendship, and so we shouldn’t have to rely on what other people write or draw to alter our own perceptions because there’s a line that separates fanon from canon—at the end of the day, only we get to decide what’s real and what’s not real, you know?”

He had been hoping that his words would be enough to spark a discussion, so Jisoo can’t help but feel a little dismayed when silence consumes the car once more.

After a minute or so, the silence is finally broken when Seungcheol pulls over to the side of the road because he's started wailing about Jisoo growing up so fast, and Jeonghan's rubbing at his eyes trying to act tough as he continues to mutter that he had told them so all along.

Jisoo just smiles, pulls out the box of emergency tissues from the glove compartment, and pulls them all into a somewhat uncomfortable group hug.

---

“I can’t believe that the new season of their show is already tonight and Jisoo didn’t even warn me,” Seungkwan fumes as he places a bag of popcorn into the microwave. “What kind of friend is he?”

Hansol just laughs from his position on the sofa. “Don’t be so mean to my new rapper protege. Did you hear that his rapper name is ‘The Joshua Hong’?” Chan rolls his eyes, but his older friend doesn’t seem to notice since he has this proud smile on his face. “He apparently thought that it sounded kind of dumb and he told me that I’m the one who encouraged him to take up rapping in the first place! Me! Chwe Hansol!”

“There’s no need to brag,” Chan cuts in, playfully elbowing the seated boy. “Seungcheol just sent me a list of these really crazy Vine ideas, and he told me to tell him which one is the most cringeworthy so that he can prove me wrong. Let me tell you how much trust that means he has in me.”

Seungkwan glances at the time on his cell phone, eyes widening as he realizes that there’s only a minute left before the premiere. With that, he shuts off the microwave—the popcorn hadn’t even begun popping yet—and hurriedly beckons the others to follow him to his room. “Alright, but trust is nothing when you compare it to the admiration that Jeonghan has for my latest Instagram posts—I woke up to a like spam from him this morning!”

“Oh, please,” Hansol laughs, “He probably just did it because he’d feel embarrassed for you if your Instagram debut flopped.”

“Hey!”

“Shh! It’s starting!”

“Oh, I’m so excited!”

“Yo, they look so good!”

The black screen’s faded into a shot of the three celebrities laying down in a field: Jisoo strumming his guitar while Jeonghan and Seungcheol rest their heads by his to form a perfect triangle. Seungcheol raps, Jeonghan sings, and Jisoo harmonizes, as the new opening song for their show plays; the lyrics speak of the importance of friendship and the idea of never leaving a friend behind.

Seungkwan, Hansol, and Chan can’t deny that the sentiments are a little cheesy, but as Hansol rests his head against Chan’s shoulder and Seungkwan lies across both of their laps, the three of them can’t stop the bright smiles from lighting up their faces.

After all, the words aren’t just a song: they’re canon.

---