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Kim Taerae has always liked pretty men. His past relationships are proof of it, and while they’re not that many, they are always, in Taerae’s eyes, beautiful.
So, when he came across a Twitter post congratulating a certain trainee–very breathtaking by the way–getting 7th place on a survival show, he had to know who he was immediately. Fortunately, a simple Google search gives him an answer: ZeroBaseOne, formed through the survival show Boys Planet, has just debuted with the title track of In Bloom. After watching their music video and a K-profile search, he found his name.
Kim Jiwoong.
A lot has happened since his discovery of the glamorous man. He has learned a lot about not just Jiwoong, but all of the members after consuming content, listening to all the songs in their debut album and boys planet stages, and creating his own stan account on Twitter, which would turn later into a fansite account.
With the display name of JT and a username of T0729 – the date he found them out – he, an ordinary barista, became a zerose barista mostly dedicated to Jiwoong.
(On a side note, Taerae almost knelt to the ground after seeing Ricky in the music video, but that can be unpacked at another time.)
Now, brought about by some otherworldly luck, he has his Melting Point album in hand, waiting for his turn at a ZeroBaseOne fansign!
He’s nervous as hell, so nervous in fact, he had to wear his black thick rimmed glasses to ground him (he’s also borderline blind, but who cares). His appearance earned him some whispers from other fans. Aside from being one of the few male fans, a lot of them were saying something about him being ‘kinda cute.’
I know I’m cute, thank you very much. A lot of the customers told me so. It’s also one of the reasons why I chose to wear this.
Anyway, enough about him. He’s about to meet the Kim Jiwoong for god’s sake!
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
Kim Jiwoong, the 7th placer of the 8 member group ZeroBaseOne, has always been praised for his visuals, and he wears those praises like a badge of honor. He has always been confident in his looks, even swung his nose back and forth in an interview they went to because he was raised naturally.
The members of ZeroBaseOne are currently setting up on the seats provided for the fansign, greeting the fans in front of them from time to time. One fan in particular, though, has Jiwoong mindlessly wave to nothing as the idol follows him with his eyes.
A male fan wearing a simple combination of black cardigan and jeans, but he’s wearing those thick rimmed glasses that would make anyone look like a nerd. He does look like one, but the way his gaze passes through those glasses and oh my god his bangs makes Jiwoong think that taking off those glasses will be a feast for anyone.
The fansign starts and Jiwoong doesn’t get to meet him for the first half. Ten minutes to start again have never felt so long, but luckily for Jiwoong, he’s the first one the cute fan will meet after the break.
“Hello…” the fan approaches him in a careful manner, seemingly calm, but Jiwoong doesn’t miss the slight tremble of his fingers and the shake in his voice.
“Hi!” Jiwoong says in a tone more than cheerful, earning the stares of his members. Crap, a bit overdone. Well, whatever. “What’s your name?”
The fan, now sitting in front of him, gives a small smile at the other members first, as he seems to feel their stares as well, before giving Jiwoong his name. “Taerae, I’m Kim Taerae. You?”
. . . ?
“Shit- I mean I’m sorry! I know who you are! Really! I’m just so nervous!” Poor guy. The adorable guy, named Taerae, can’t even think straight anymore. Jiwoong, after basking in the cuteness of the guy, laughed before saving him from his misery.
“Calm down, Taerae-ssi.” He grabs Taerae’s hands with his own and rubbed circles on his knuckles. The action causes a few squeals to erupt from the audience, but Jiwoong doesn’t mind because he's so red, so cute. He also thanks the idol culture of fanservice so much because he can do this without suspicion.
“What do you want me to write on your album?”
With a deep sigh, Taerae eventually calms down. He lets go of Jiwoong’s hands (unfortunately) and opens the album. He takes out a small paper with, in Jiwoong’s experience, more words than usual.
“Actually… I’m writing a song and I’m kind of stuck. Do you think you can add something?”
Well that’s new. With only a short amount of time, others would just ask about a boyfriend fantasy or a TMI with other members, not something seriously thought out like song lyrics.
Jiwoong therefore concludes that as a well trained idol, he must absolutely live out to the expectations of Kim Taerae.
“Sure! Can I see?” Taerae gives the paper to Jiwoong and the latter silently reads it. Lyrics are there, but two empty lines at the bottom stare back at him.
Jiwoong wants to think more, but with limited time and knowledge of the melody, he writes the first thing that comes to mind. This is just going to sound like fanservice, but oh well.
“Do you write songs often, Taerae-ssi?” He asks while writing.
“Well, yes. It’s just my hobby though.” The words shock Jiwoong, because the lyrics he’s trying to complete right now are skillfully done. Hard to believe it’s just a hobby.
“Really? You don’t work as a songwriter? You have a talent for it.”
He sees Taerae blush before he replies, sharing his work as a barista.
Jiwoong hums in response as he finally hands back the paper, “Here you go, Taerae-ssi. I hope it’s up to your standards.”
He sees Taerae pause for a while after reading it and he grows worried.
“So how is it?” No response.
“Wait, can you even read it?” Taerae just stares at the words he wrote–he can tell because the bottom part of the paper is directly in front of his eyes. Is his eyesight that bad?
“I’m sorry if my handwriting or if the lyrics are ba-”
“This is perfect!” Taerae’s head suddenly shoots up and their eyes meet. He puts on what Jiwoong thinks is the widest grin possible. His eyes, which previously gave off the impression of being grounding, shine brighter than the stars and it makes Jiwoong melt. He’s probably going to be put on a compilation of male idols swooning over male fans with the way he’s looking up at Taerae but again, oh well.
“Thank you so much, Jiwoong hyu- ah.” Ah indeed. It’s probably a slip of the tongue, but Jiwoong takes it as a win.
“You can call me hyung, Taerae-ah. I like it.” and that does the thing as Taerae’s grin seems to grow even wider with the addition of his reddening ears.
“Well then, Jiwoong hyung, the lyrics you wrote are perfect.” He looks at the paper once more before keeping it inside his album.
“Really? How does it sound?” Jiwoong says with genuine surprise.
“You want me to sing it right now?”
“Yeah!”
“Well…” Taerae seems to avoid his gaze as if he’s shy and didn’t just call him hyung. Jiwoong’s about to start teasing Taerae but the staff’s shout of ‘Next!’ stops him.
“That’s a shame~” Jiwoong not-so-fakes a sulk (which earned a slight gag from Gyuvin beside him. “Wait a minute, I didn’t get to sign your album! Quick!”
The two scramble to sign Taerae’s forgotten album. “Taerae-ah,” Jiwoong calls out as soon as he finishes signing it, “sing it to me next time?” he asks cutely and adds a head tilt.
That seems to do the trick as Taerae’s ears reddens again. He lets out a small ‘hmph’ as if complaining, “and here I thought the idols are supposed to be the ones taking requests.” He gathers his things to move on to the next member, Gyuvin.
“But sure.”
It’s safe to say that Jiwoong looked at his camera at all times.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
Taerae’s first fansign is a hundred percent a success. Nevermind that his heart almost escaped his own ribcage, but the fact that he finished his song and got to talk to Jiwoong like that is a win.
Also, the idol looked his way every time a new prop was given to him. A police uniform? New picture. The Mona Lisa as a prop? New shot. A sailor moon outfit? Jiwoong made several poses facing his camera and Taerae got all 50 of them.
He shared some of the pictures on Twitter and the quality of his pictures–pixels and poses alike–instantly boosted his account’s engagements. He even gets called JT-nim on and off screen as others were also able to piece together who he was based on the angle and his position as an audience.
Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now, because the next fansign comes faster than it should have, and Taerae’s luck is successful once again. His only focus right now, though, is Jiwoong’s haircut for Feel the POP. It makes him look younger and Taerae’s heart can only handle so much.
“Welcome back, Taerae-ah.” Jiwoong greets him with a soft tone, a complete opposite from his first greeting, but the same genuineness nonetheless.
“How are you, Jiwoong hyung?” He sits down and hands Jiwoong his album, which immediately gets signed to avoid a repeat of what happened at the last fansign. “I really love your haircut.”
“Really?” Jiwoong looks up as he touches it. “It feels awkward for me personally, but if you like it, then I like it.” He finishes signing the album and returns it back to Taerae.
“So, what do you have for me today? A song, hopefully?” Jiwoong shows a cheeky grin, which immediately gets shut down by Taerae.
“Unfortunately, I’m still finalizing the melody, but I do have two things for you today!” He says, earning Jiwoong’s curiosity.
“The first one is a bit personal, though.” Taerae takes off his glasses (note: now thinner) and runs his hand through his hair. “Can you recommend me a haircut? I feel inspired with what you did with yours.”
The idol just stares at him and Taerae realizes that this is what Jiwoong probably felt when he went all silent while reading his lyrics.
“...Jiwoong hyung?”
“Ah, sorry. I was just thinking of a haircut, like you said.”
Sure, but I’m pretty sure one looks up towards the hair and not down towards the lips- calm down.
“Can I touch you?”
Calm the fuck down how?!
Jiwoong’s question catches him off guard and he isn’t able to think of any response except for a slow nod that resembles those in mockumentaries.
Jiwoong runs a hand through his hair and Taerae flinches at the touch. He really tries to calm down, but his eyes are being held captive by the man’s own in front of him. “I think you’ll fit a hairstyle exposing your forehead, Taerae-ah. And, ever thought about going blond? You’ll suit it too.”
Just like that, the hand on his hair is gone, but the warmth he feels will take a while to die down (it might have to do something with the medically concerning speed of his beating heart, but that’s surely unrelated).
“Yeah? Okay…” Taerae’s certain that he’s redder than before, but this is fan service in all of its glory. Call him a satisfied serviced fan.
However, he still has another mission in mind. Taerae slaps his own cheeks, much to the surprise of Jiwoong, and quickly grabs the duck plushie in his bag.
“Thanks for the recommendation, Jiwoong hyung! Pose with this later for me?” He says in a high speed, almost jumbling his words. Jiwoong smiles as affirmation and takes the plushie.
Much to Taerae’s surprise, what the idol says next is neither ‘yes’ or ‘sure,’ but, “This kind of looks like you, don’t you think?”
The idol holds the plushie next to Taerae’s face, and Taerae judges him for a poor attempt at holding his laughter. Fortunately, but more unfortunate, the staff shouts ‘Next!’ once again. He offers a quick goodbye and moves on to Hanbin beside Jiwoong.
At home, he smiles in content as he looks at the pictures he has of Jiwoong and his duck. Jiwoong never let the plushie down unless it absolutely required him to. It even got to dance with him during an intermission number. So this is what jealousy feels like.
He will never let Jiwoong know that the reason why he chose the duck plushie is because he knows he looks like it.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
GOOD SO BAD is by far Jiwoong’s favorite title track. It’s emotional yet fun, the others love it as much as he does, and most importantly, it allowed him to go blond. He can’t wait to flaunt it, and what other way is better than doing so at a fansign?
His excitement doesn’t go unnoticed by his members, and they all know it’s amplified by the presence of a certain fanboy. The members found their hyung cute after hearing him talk for an hour about Taerae after the first fansign, but one hour turned to two, then three with spontaneous comments while they’re on schedule.
Sometimes he’ll just giggle and when asked, he’d start with ‘There’s this person…’ and the members attempt to escape immediately. They are currently backstage preparing for the fansign, but some of the members peek out every now and then.
“Eek!”
Eek, really? The members collectively think as they look at Jiwoong skipping around all of them while muttering something incomprehensible. Matthew grabs him by the shoulders, effectively stopping him, and asks, “Hyung, respectfully, what?”
“Taerae just came in and he’s matching blonds with me!” The older exclaims, immediately earning either a sigh or rolled eyes, but they all look at each other after Jiwoong skips past them once more.
Something needs to happen.
The fansign starts, and when Taerae approaches Yujin, the first member for the fansign today, their plan is set in motion.
“Taerae hyung! Hi!” Yujin immediately greets him, shocking Taerae.
“Yujin! You remember me?” Taerae gives him his album to sign.
“Hard not to hyung. Jiwoong hyung talks a lot about you.” Yujin emphasizes ‘a lot’ and he sees Taerae’s signature blushing face. This will be easier than they expected.
Ricky then compliments his hair, noting that Jiwoong hyung makes good recommendations. Gyuvin is able to write ‘If we’re together’ while Gunwook completes it with ‘I don’t want anything else’ on their signatures. Hao and Hanbin quack at him like it’s the most normal thing in the world.
Now is probably a good time to say that they don’t really have a specific goal in mind, so hopefully, Jiwoong can take some action.
‘Please, treat our hyung well.’ Matthew smiles at him after he finishes signing his album. The staff shouts ‘Next,’ and after all the teasing and comments about Jiwoong and him, Taerae feels dizzy.
Jiwoong catches on to what they are doing when he hears Hao and Hanbin quack, and he feels embarrassed for Taerae, but while he wants to do something, it doesn’t help that he can’t look the younger in the eye due to his striking blond hair.
“Jiwoong hyung, hi.” It is Taerae who starts their conversation for a change. The younger looks somewhat fidgety, touching his hair from time to time.
“The hair looks nice, Taerae-ah.” He says, although he avoids Taerae’s gaze. The blush he sees in his peripheral disappears as fast as it comes, and Taerae lets out a confused ‘thanks.’
Their conversation continued on with Jiwoong completely looking at different things: Taerae’s album, Taerae’s hair, and even the interesting curtain almost behind Taerae. Beside him, Matthew takes notice of this and quickly kicks him under the table, as if saying what the hell are you doing?
Shut it! Jiwoong kicks back in response, but before he can plan to salvage whatever he has done, the staff, once again, yells ‘Next!’ and Taerae has to leave.
It is the first time that Jiwoong doesn’t talk about Taerae after the fansign. The others feel worried, but Matthew feels annoyed instead. At the dorms, Matthew barges in his room, putting his suffering on hold. “You know, we’ve done what we can.”
And his suffering continues. Jiwoong groans as he covers his face with a pillow, but before he can explain that he was just so extremely flustered because of his hair–not an excuse, he knows–Ricky appears next to Matthew.
“Hyung! Look at what you’ve done!”
The younger man shows a post on Twitter that almost made him jump out of the window.
← Post.
JT.
@T0729
hyung didn’t look at me today TT
[jiwoong.png]
“Wow… you didn’t even look at his camera. What a loser.”
“Both of you, get out!”
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
Taerae was disappointed, not at Jiwoong, but more so himself. Maybe he said something wrong, or maybe he crossed a line. Either way, Jiwoong avoided his gaze throughout the last fansign and he wants to change that.
Other fans and fansites even commented on the photo he posted, saying that it was new for Jiwoong and they know the fondness the idol has on his (objectively) favorite fansite.
He has tried to deny that, being his favorite fansite, but others just quoted him his own posts of Jiwoong looking at his camera with mesmerization or the video of Jiwoong styling his hair. So, really, he doesn’t have that strong of an argument.
As soon as he finishes setting up his camera, he finds Jiwoong looking at his way. Jiwoong seems to have noticed his disappointment, as the idol gives out an apologetic smile. Jiwoong glances at his camera from time to time with the same apologetic smile all throughout the fansign for Blue promotions. Taerae gives off his own smile every time Jiwoong does it.
Smiles can only go so far though, and Taerae wants to talk to Jiwoong already. Unfortunately, he seems to be the last one in the queue, and every minute he waits is one more possible mistake overthought.
The moment he sits down, Jiwoong hands him a piece of folder paper. He’s about to open it, but Jiwoong grabs his hand.
“Open it after, please.” Taerae pauses but eventually nods and hides the paper in his pocket.
“What do you have in store for me today?” Jiwoong says, tone completely normal as if his actions haven’t put Taerae in a whirlwind of emotions. Guess this is what media training does to you. Taerae doesn’t back down, and responds as normal as he can.
Done with the fansign and back at his seat, he immediately opens the paper, and if he sees Jiwoong in his peripheral jumping in his seat, he doesn’t dwell on it. The message on the paper reads,
sorry for the last fansign, taerae-ah (シ_ _)シ this might sound like a poor excuse, but really, you and your blond hair are just so stunning. you might have heard some fans say i look at you differently, and that’s true. i’ve tried to make it obvious that i’ve taken a liking to you (and even my members, but that was unplanned) but with how i acted last time, this is the only way to make it up to you.
message me? 010-XXXX-XXXX
Oh yes. Oh yes yes yes, hell yeah! Taerae can feel the heat rushing up to his face and an ugly smile forcing its way out. He covers the lower half of his face with the paper and looks up to find Jiwoong’s gaze on him–expecting, hopeful.
With a shaky hand, he gestures an ‘OK’ sign, instantly earning a huge smile from his idol.
Taerae looks away in shyness, missing the way Jiwoong jumps his members in joy.
𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
On the way home, Jiwoong receives his first message from Taerae, which comes in the form of a voice recording. Grabbing his headphones, he clicks on the recording, and the sound of a guitar greets him, followed by Taerae’s singing.
He recognizes the last lines as the ones he wrote during their first meeting, and honestly? That coincidentally sums up his feelings for Taerae. He checks his schedule for tomorrow, and after seeing it blank, he replies to Taerae.
[jiwoong]
i would listen to your voice everyday, taerae.
lunch and coffee at 12 pm tomorrow, JT-nim?
[taerae]
(⌐■_■) !!
sure 🤍
This is all I want from you
Just keep doing it like right now
I started my day looking at you
Sleeping with you
That's enough
If we're together
I don't want anything else.