Sehun swiped through filters, deciding on which one to use for his latest selfie. Valencia? No. X-Pro II? Maybe. Sierra? Possibly. Lo-Fi? Oh, God, no. Ah ha! Earlybird. Perfect. Pleased with his choice, he typed out his usual tags and added a few more to fit with the new photo, submitting it for the public to view. Within seconds, he had tens of likes and a few comments. A smug grin crept onto his features; his fans sure were eager for him to notice them. He stretched his arms up, switching positions so that his legs were crossed lazily, elbows resting upon his knees. Skimming the comments, he noted the usual “oppa, you’re so handsome” and “oppa, please update your channel more” before closing the app and tossing his phone aside, pulling his laptop towards him again and unlocking it. A few clicks took him to Tumblr, where he typed in his username to the tag search bar and pressed enter. He made his usual rounds, liking a few fan-made posts and drawings, knowing that it would send his fangirls crazy, before one post stopped him in his tracks.

Two figures positioned together, the differing lighting showing that they had been edited into the same photo, with a few brightly coloured stickers scattered throughout the background; this was the photo that left Sehun with a metaphorical question mark above his head. The figures were facing each other, lips pursed as if they were preparing to kiss. It was quite a typical image for Tumblr, really. The only thing was… the photo was of Sehun. Sehun and an unknown boy.

“The hell is this?” he mumbled, shuffling closer to his laptop.

His eyes scanned the comments typed underneath. From what he could gather from the image, the comments and the insane number of notes, the other boy was called Luhan and his nickname was “Lulu”. It seemed as if this boy also dabbled in vlogs, just like Sehun. However, that didn’t fully explain why the two had been Photoshop-ed together in a romantic image. Sehun decided that this needed further research, recommencing his scrolling in search of more information, another tab open to try and find this guy’s YouTube account.

Luhan fixed his hair in the mirror and his lips quickly before turning back to his computer and clicking on the little red button to start his “Q and A” live stream. He’d been putting it off for far too long and he’d promised his subscribers that he would finally do it this week. Showing a sweet smile and waving as the camera connected, he started to scan the first few comments. They were the usual compliments on his appearance and his channel in general, nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until he spotted one comment. He had to scroll up to chase it before it was lost in the flow of text. One of his watchers had mentioned something called ‘HunHan’. He tilted his head cutely for the camera and asked if his few hundred viewers could explain the unfamiliar term to him. They did so happily, stating that the word was a mash-up of his name and someone called Sehun, a Korean vlogger Luhan had heard about in passing but had never taken the time to look up. Apparently, the merging of their names showed that some of his and Sehun’s fans liked to think of them as a couple, despite the fact that the two boys had never even met, a fact that their fans were unaware of, clearly. Luhan decided to ask for more information, knowing that his fans would be more than willing to answer his questions.

“Is HunHan really that popular?” he asked, hoping that the microphone was working correctly and his viewers would hear him.

A few comments followed. They confirmed that the pairing was quite popular, especially on Tumblr. One girl even commented with some of the reasons why people believed HunHan was real, answering Luhan’s next question before he had even asked it. Both vloggers attended the 2014 YouTube meet-up in Seoul for the first time and they wore very similar bracelets during their videos, leading certain fans to interpret them as “couple bracelets”. Luhan nodded his head as the answers came flooding into the message box, a grateful smile on his face.

“Ah~” he sang happily, clapping his hands together, “Thank you for answering my question!”

He chose to ignore the comments that were now appearing, asking if the pairing was true and if the two boys were really dating. Luhan hadn’t said anything to prove or disprove the theory and he was weighing up his options as to what he should say. If he agreed, the fans would be happy but they would probably ask him to take couple photos with this Sehun boy which would be near impossible, since they had never even spoken to one another. On the other hand, if he bluntly denied the rumours, he could lose a large proportion of his fans, another option he didn’t particularly like. He just decided to smile politely and move on to a different topic, leaving the fans to draw their own conclusions.

After about fifteen minutes of answering general questions from his fans, his face showed a flash of confusion. The comments box was going crazy. Lines of text flew up the screen at such as speed that it was illegible to Luhan’s frantic gaze. He managed to highlight some of the text and paste it into a notepad document so that he could read it. His eyes widened.

Sehun was here.

Sehun was watching his livestream.

‘Oh, God,’ he thought, ‘What the hell do I do now?’

He showed the camera a bright smile, praying that he didn’t look as nervous as he felt. He noticed the message box slowing down, less people commenting. Sehun had asked for the other viewers to stop typing so that he could message Luhan personally. They obliged, of course, and let Sehun type what he wanted so that Luhan could catch it.

[oohsehun: Lulu, I thought I’d come and watch your stream. Have you missed me?]

Questions raced through the older boy’s mind. Why was Sehun here? Luhan was certain that the two had never met so why was he asking if he missed him? Unless… Maybe Sehun knew about their popularity as a couple too. Luhan puffed his cheeks out a little, pouting cutely and deciding to play along with whatever Sehun was doing.

“Sehun-ah, I have,” he started, noting the way his shipper fans seemed to revel in the contact between the vloggers, “I thought I told you not to bother me while I’m working though. I get really distracted!”

[oohsehun: I just can’t keep away. You know that.]

‘This is so weird,’ Luhan thought, keeping the fake smile from earlier on his lips, ‘I’ve never even met this boy and we’re talking as if we’ve known each other for years.’

[oohsehun: Lulu, can I join your stream? Maybe we can answer some questions together.]

What..?

WHAT!?

Before Luhan could reply, Sehun had already sent a request to connect his webcam to the live stream, the message box appearing, dead in the middle of Luhan’s screen. His fans begged for Luhan to allow it in the comments box. He hesitantly clicked the ‘accept’ button and his lips, wondering what on earth would happen next.