“Are you sure?” Their CEO says, giving Jiyong and Daesung a very serious look. They nod, completely unfazed by his stare. He lets out a deep sigh. “Alright then. Just…just be sensitive about it, please?” They nod again and are excused from the office.

Less than an hour later, Jiyong is reading the comment avalanche from YG’s most recent press statement on his Twitter.

‘Wait, who are they dating?’ ‘Both of them at once? Not fair!!’ ‘I wonder what lucky girls got them…’

Jiyong was only mildly surprised by the quick responses. He knew that putting out his dating status as ‘taken’ would cause a small uproar, but he was still kind of shocked by the sheer amount of people that cared. He smiles lightly to himself, wondering how big the uproar will be when it comes out that he and Daesung were dating each other and not two random girls, or guys even.

“What ya  reading?” Youngbae asks, leaning over Jiyong’s shoulder. Jiyong was sitting on the floor in one of the studio rooms, and Youngbae had come up behind him to see what he was doing.

“Comments.” Jiyong mutters, scrolling through as even more pour in from around the world. Youngbae snorts and backs up.

“Wait until you are asked who you’re dating. Those comments will be even better.” Youngbae says before moving to a couch on the far wall and grabbing a drink off of the table.

Jiyong tenses at the thought. Though he had thought of the massive fall out that could, and most definitely would, come from announcing his relationship with Daesung, it had always been rather periphery. Youngbae’s words, though said flippantly and kind of off-hand, made the point sink home; there very well could be long-lasting effects of this announcement that would affect everyone around him.

“Oh God Youngbae…I hadn’t even…well I had, but not really.” Youngbae raises an eyebrow before sitting forward, passing the bottle between his hands.

“What’s the matter, Ji?”

“The repercussions of this whole…of telling the fans and the world. I just…I had thought of how some people would be against it, and some would be fine and whatever…but I hadn’t thought about it on the level that I should have…” Jiyong pauses, looking down at his hands.

“Ji…” Youngbae starts, stopping to take in a deep breath. He stops playing with the bottle and places it down next to him, moving back to the floor to sit in front of Jiyong. “Big Bang is a family. This company is a family.” Jiyog nods and Youngbae pokes his knee. “The CEO wouldn’t have given you permission to say anything if he didn’t think it would be OK…and honestly? For a while I’m fairly certain that people will think it’s just a joke.” Jiyong smiles a little ironically.

“Yeah, I’ll be on a radio show being like ‘no, no really I’m dating him.’ When normally I just have to say someone is cute for everyone to think that I’m dating them.” Youngbae laughs and nods.

“It’s funny, but it .” Jiyong takes a deep breath and nods. “But whatever happens to your career happens. You won’t be able to anticipate everything.” Jiyong nods again, knowing that his friend is right.

“Yeah, but I mean…It’s my decision that will ruin my own career…I don’t want my decision to ruin yours, or Seunghyun’s or Seungri’s as well.” Jiyong says, wishing that there was a way to make sure that nothing bad would happen.

Youngbae takes a deep breath and leans forward, trying to look into Jiyong’s downcast eyes. “I will stand by your side no matter what.” He says, voice barely above a whisper. “You know that as well as I do, and if by still loving you and being your friend no matter what I lose fans or popularity or this career…well…I would deal with it as it happened because I can’t hate you, especially not for how other people think.” Youngbae smiles softly and brushes his hand over Jiyong’s face. “Don’t cry, Daesung will beat me up if he thinks I upset you.” He says, causing Jiyong to bark out a laugh while trying to wipe the silent tears off of his face.

“Thank you, Bae, you’re the best.” Jiyong says, scooting forward to wrap his arms around Youngbae’s shoulders.

Youngbae sighs and hugs Jiyong back. “That’s what I’m here for. Now get up and start writing; I can practically hear a new song beating its way out of your brain.”

Jiyong lets out a short laugh before letting go of Youngbae and leaning back. “Yes, song time. You should head down to the gym or something…You’re getting soft.” Youngbae looks at him in confusion for a short second before rolling his eyes.

“Haha, very funny. I was heading down that way anyway.” He grabs his drink up off of the couch. “Want me to tell Dae that you’re up here?” He asks, stopping at the door to look back.

“Nah, I think he’s got voice training later or something. I’ll text him later.” Youngbae nods and leaves; Jiyong sits and watches him go.

He bites his lip and grabs the nearest pen, rolling it between his fingers for a couple of moments, lost in thought as he stares at the recently closed door. Singing is all that any of them have ever wanted to do, and even if they’ve sometimes made mention of other, more mundane, jobs that they would enjoy trying, they never really meant it. Singing and performing were their lives; they had no other skills. He and Daesung were potentially putting his closest friends and hell maybe even the entire agency, at risk for losing the best thing that had ever happened to them. He scrubs a hand over his face as his mind returns to Youngbae; his best friend, who stands to lose just as much as Jiyong because he’s thickheaded and would defend Jiyong at every turn.

He sighs and lets his pen touch the paper in front of him, allowing the words to flow out onto the page as if by that single action he had opened up some sort of floodgate; a direct link from the tip of the pen to the well of his brain. He needed to get these emotions onto the page and away from his stress-filled mind. There was nothing more relieving to Jiyong than when he was able to get his thoughts out onto paper, and even if they didn’t become a song, they were still full of far more emotion and depth than he would care to admit.

It was four hours later that a soft knock could be heard at the door. Jiyong ignores it, more because he didn’t hear it than because he didn’t want to answer it. It didn’t matter though, as the door slowly opens revealing Daesung. He smiles brightly at the sight of Jiyong leaning over the table with what could be considered reams of paper scattered around him. He moves into the room quietly, shutting the door behind him as softly as possible. He walks carefully over to the table and places a box down in front of Jiyong, careful not to put it on any of the scattered pieces of paper.

Jiyong slowly raises his head, a smile curving across his lips. “Hey.” He says softly.

Daesung sits down across from him. “You’ve been busy.” Jiyong laughs and drags a hand through his hair.

“Yeah, you could say that.” He nods toward the box of what smelled like chicken. “What’s the occasion?”

“I heard from a rather reliable source that you’re now in a relationship.” Daesung says, leaning back in his chair, a rather mischievous smirk on his face. “I wanted to congratulate you.” Jiyong puts down his pen, and his head to the side.

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve also found yourself in a relationship.” He crosses his arms over his chest and leans back. “I must say, whoever’s dating you must have excellent taste.” Daesung laughs, shaking his head and allowing his hair to fall into his face in an attempt at hiding his blush.

“You always do that.” He says softly, trying to pout through his laughter.

“Yeah, maybe I do.” Jiyong says, leaning forward to brush the hair out of Daesung’s eyes. “But I mean it, otherwise I wouldn’t say it.” Daesung just nods, taking a deep breath before nudging the box toward Jiyong.

“Open it. I’m starving.” He says, and Jiyong smiles while clearing the table of paper so that they can have room to eat.

“I thought you weren’t eating fried things.” Jiyong asks, passing a pair of chopsticks to Daesung before claiming his own.

“I’m not. I’m eating chicken, it’s different.” Jiyong laughs and shakes his head.

“You mean ‘I’m not when Youngbae is around’, don’t you.” Daesung smiles brightly, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Maybe.” He says, and both of them laugh.

Maybe. The word gets lodged into Jiyong’s head, and even though he’s eating and having a good time, he knows that the chord that that word struck within him will continue to sound until he has the time to think about. Because ‘maybe’ is a good word, a safe word. It’s a word that means that there is always a chance that the terrible and awful things he’s been envisioning won’t come to pass. It’s a word that means that after the chicken is gone and Daesung kisses him goodbye, Jiyong will still be sitting there at the table; because maybe opens up so many doors, not the smallest of which allows the words in his head to flow out onto the papers before him.

They will talk about how and when to tell the world about them another day, when they’ve had enough time to digest the flood of comments coming in from the announcement that neither of them are single.