Chapter Text
Hongjoong smiled down at his phone as he scrolled through the photos on Yeosang’s Instagram. He doubled tapped them then went on to the next post. He smiled at the first photo then slightly cringed at the next. Yeosang was on an anniversary vacation with both of his boyfriends, Wooyoung and San and they were truly cute. Hongjoong was so happy for them. But at the same time, he didn’t see the reason behind taking a photo of Wooyoung sleeping on his stomach on the hotel bed butt naked and showing half of his ass and then post it online for everyone to see. But then again, that’s not his boyfriend, not his relationship, not his problem.
He sighed as he liked those sets of photos as well and then he was caught up. He’s liked every single photo his friends have posted the last two days and Hongjoong still hasn’t posted in over a week. Him and all of his friends weren’t Insta famous or anything but they did have a decent amount of followers, especially Wooyoung, San, and Yeosang because of their relationship that they like to show online. Yunho and Mingi also have their fair share of followers and they gained more when they remind the app that they were a couple and then tag each other on the photo. Jongho focused on his fitness and diet on his page so a lot of his followers are people who either A. look to him for inspiration, B. truly listen to his advice and recipes, or C. drool at the shirtless he photos he’d occasionally take.
Hongjoong was proud of his 5,000 followers and he didn’t feel like he needed more. So it was fine if Woosansang had 20,000 or if Yungi had 17,000 or if Jongho had 10,000.
Hongjoong’s pictures didn’t have much of a theme but it definitely looked somewhat…sensual with a dash of basic artsy bitch. The last photo he posted was of the new jacket he upcycled and the one before that was of him crouching down in front of his full length mirror with the golden hour sun illuminating his boxer clad body. He was turned to the side to reveal his soft thighs and the shape of his bottom and the camera covered his face. He took a bunch of photos that day and the only ones he liked were the ones in which his face was covered. It be like that sometimes. The greenery of his several house plants really livened the photo and he loved taking pictures in that spot. Probably too much even.
So about the photos Yeosang, San, and Wooyoung take of each other...Hongjoong's single, okay? His body isn't reserved for anybody just yet. He can take nudes and post them. It's fine. Totally different situation.
He set his phone down after going through his explore page for a bit. He’d see posts of sceneries, of other artsy bitches, of cute e-girls, the occasional kpop video, and the occasional cute boys. Hongjoong was…picky when it came to his men. He was only a little embarrassed to say that his next boyfriend had to be handsome and hot and tall and with a nice body. Maybe that was shallow of him especially considering he wasn’t any of those things, at least in his eyes, but maybe that’s why he wanted that in a boyfriend, the complete opposite of him.
Hongjoong sighed. It was only 4 pm, he still had at least another 6 hours to kill before he can succumb to sleep so he doesn’t completely mess up his schedule…again. Well, he thought, might as well take selfies. He sat up and began removing his clothes. He was in that kind of mood. He stopped at his boxer’s waistband and thought about it. Was he in a nakey mood or a just underwear kind of mood? He’ll just have to start and see what he ends up with.
He kept his underwear on for now as he set up the phone on his nightstand. He put it on top of books and an empty shoe box before he deemed it good enough. After setting up the self-timer, he jumped onto his bed and posed on his stomach. He tried a few poses but it just didn’t feel good enough to post. He tried to pull his boxers down a little bit so the top half of his ass showed but he still wasn’t feeling it. In the end, he ditched the boxers entirely and posed for a few more photos. Sitting naked on his bed, he reviewed them all and immediately deleted the first 30 photos that he took where he wasn’t naked.
His attention was caught by one of the last few. He would have to put an emoji over his side crotch that was exposed but this was the one. He was still on his stomach with his knee bent and he had leaned back as if he was about to roll over and his hand was rubbing at his eye, both of which were closed as if he had just woken up. This was the vibe he didn’t know he was going for.
He quickly chose a pink flower emoji and made it as small as he possibly could to cover his dick that was clearly showing then fixed the lighting so it was more golden on his skin and then just like that, posted it. He put the Zzz emoji on his caption and called it a day. He waited a few seconds before refreshing the page and saw he had gotten 20 likes already and 2 comments. One with several heart eyes and another that just said ‘HOT’.
Hongjoong grinned and refreshed again. 36 likes. 3 comments. Refresh again. 42 likes. 5 comments. He refreshed a few more times until a certain comment caught his attention. Well, their profile picture as well.
mars.psh: Gorgeous. I could take pictures of you all day
The comment ended with the same pink flower emoji that Hongjoong used. This kind of comment wasn’t unusual, really, but that profile picture. He clicked on his page to see it better and saw that his account was set to private. Hongjoong frowned. He really would like to see more of him.
The profile picture was of a guy with jet black hair breathing out smoke that covered a lot of his features but from what Hongjoong could see, he was Hot with a capital H. He read his description.
Mars Park. 22. Artist.
How interesting. Usually, artists like to show off their work not keep their account private unless they had two different accounts. Did this Mars have another account? Well, he couldn’t really find that out.
Still, Hongjoong had nothing to lose. He requested to follow and then he was back to his photo and refreshing the page. He smiled and replied to a few comments before deciding that was enough Instagram…for the hour.
He didn’t really feel like putting his underwear back on so he made his way to his living room where he turned on the TV and let it play in the background while he made himself some ramen and an egg.
After his food was done and plated he brought it to the foldable table next to the couch and he retrieved his phone from his bed and sat down on his couch. He checked his Instagram again because he had a problem and lowkey, he wondered if this Mars Park would accept his request.
Oh shit. Oh, shit, oh, shit, he did. Hongjoong was quick to click on his profile and his jaw dropped.
Very first photo, shirtless, black Adidas sweatpants, tattoos! He wants this man for dinner. Fuck the ramen. He wants him. He double tapped that photo. He checked the next one. A set of 3 photos that he took on a mirrored elevator. On from the doors, one from the walls, and one from the ceiling. He had on all black, ripped jeans, boots, and a black mask covering his face. Hongjoong has yet to see his full face.
Next photo, why did this one have to be cute? Mars was hiding behind the shoulder of a toddler who was smiling hugely at the camera. He could see that the child was sitting on top of Mars with her back against Mars cheek and chin. Still, no clear view of his face and another thing that he noticed was that he didn’t put any caption on any of the posts. Just a single period. That was odd.
But the next one, dear Lord. Mr. Park was pushing his hair back, a ring on each finger, a septum piercing on display, an eyebrow piercing above his blue eyes, and the tip of his tongue licking at the corner of his gorgeous lips. Whomst the fuck gave him permission to look like that? Whomst? Hongjoong really needs to know.
He ended up liking that photo too and Hongjoong decided he needed to stop before Mars finds out and realizes that Hongjoong was thirsting over him too much. That didn’t mean that he didn’t scroll all the way down to his first photo. He didn’t realize that Mars only had 23 photos. How sad.
The first photo he ever posted was the same picture he had as his profile picture. He almost double tapped it. Almost. Finally, Hongjoong set his phone down. His battery was down to 21 percent and it was still only 4:30pm.
After he finished his early dinner, and let’s be real, he’ll eat a second dinner later, he went back on his phone after plugging it in to charge. He checked his DMs like he normally did and answered a selective few, laughed at the memes that people would send him but then he spotted that Mars fucking Park sent him a DM. An hour ago. Fuck!
Hongjoong quickly clicked on it and read it.
mars.psh: hey, not that i mind, but why did you request to follow me? also, i think your page is really nice.
Why did that message sound so dry? It was all the punctuation marks. He really needed to learn to use more emojis and capital letters and exclamation points. That’ll liven everything up at least a tad.
Hongjoong responded:
joongie98: honestly, i saw your comment on my latest post and i liked your d.p. so i was curious about you…and thank you! i try
Hongjoong stared at his phone for probably too long, waiting to see if he’ll respond quickly. He didn’t want to lose this chat in the midst of all the other ones. In the end, after 7 minutes have passed, he locked his phone and sighed. Man, he was so hot.
Admittedly, Hongjoong got so invested in the movie that was playing on the TV that he completely forgot about Mars’ chat. It wasn’t until mid-shower that he remembered. He quickly rinsed off the soap from his hair and body and just barely put his robe on before flying into his room and searching frantically for the chat.
When he found it, Mars had sent him two. Count them, TWO messages.
mars.psh: oh, i see. thanks i guess
mars.psh: btw, i hope you don’t find this creepy, but i seen you at starbucks before
Hongjoong nearly dropped his phone. They’ve indirectly met?? How? That can’t be possible. Hongjoong would surely have noticed him. He’s fucking attractive as shit. How did he not notice him?
joongie98: no way! you live in new york??? i feel like i would have noticed you…
Hongjoong waited even longer this time. 10 minutes and then he saw that he read his message. He squeaked and held his phone with two hands and watched as he typed.
mars.psh: no, i live in boston but i visit a friend there and i just happen to see you
Hongjoong squeaked again in a fit of different emotions. Embarrassed because he could have looked awful that day, shy because he got noticed by him, happy because he recognized him, then sad because they didn’t live in the same city.
mars.psh: you had red h air
mars.psh: hair*
Hongjoong immediately started typing. That was like 2 months ago.
joongie98: ah! that was a while ago…would you be visiting again anytime soon??
Hongjoong put a hand over his mouth as he awaited an answer to such a bold question. He could see that Mars was online, he could also see that he read his message but it still took him a second to reply. If Hongjoong didn’t want to ruin his perfectly painted nails, he would’ve bitten them down to the nub.
Finally, he was typing.
mars.psh: i might come back around october for a bit.
Hongjoong frowned. October was 3 months away!
joongie98: aww that’s such a long time! ☹☹☹
mars.psh: it costs money, joongie
Nobody calls him Joongie. Not in real life at least. His followers would sometimes refer to him as that or as Hongjoong, the name he had written on his bio but there was something so satisfying about Mars calling him that.
mars.psh: also i’m not from here so driving myself makes me nervous
joongie98: ah! where are you from??
mars.psh: south korea. i moved here one year ago
Hongjoong never wished he knew more Korean than he did just then. He understood quite a bit because his mother spoke it to him constantly but he’d always speak to her in English and so, by default, his Korean speaking skills leave a lot to be desired.
joongie98: wooow that must’ve been difficult for you huh??
mars.psh: it was because i wasn’t good in english. i’m still not the best but im okay when typing
joongie98: that’s kinda how i am with korean. i understand it perfectly fine but i can’t speak it well.
joongie98: if we ever meet up, you can speak to me in korean and i’ll speak to you in english 😊 deal??
Bold, Hongjoong, bold.
mars.psh: sure. but why would you want to meet me?
mars.psh: i don’t mean to sound rude but im just a random person to you
Hongjoong frowned. That is true and Hongjoong actually wondered if Mars wasn’t so hot, would Hongjoong be willing to meet up with him.
joongie98: if i’m sounding like i’m forcing you to meet with me, i’m not.
joongie98: you know what i realize this is weird on my part. sorry. ignore what i said
Hongjoong locked his phone and shoved his face into his pillow. God, why did he say anything to him? He tried very hard to ignore the urge to look at his phone. He really did. But he barely lasted a minute and when he checked, Mars sent him a long message.
mars.psh: no i am sorry. i don’t want you to think i wouldn’t want to meet you. i just don’t understand why you’d be want to meet me. i followed you for around 5 months and i like your photos. not just of you but the art you share with everyone is really nice. please understand im just very…궁금합니다…
Hongjoong took his time reading those Korean characters but he understood why Mars felt that way.
joongie98: if it would make you feel better, we can just chat until october comes and if you still think i wouldn’t want to meet you, then we don’t have to. but i think you’re an interesting person so far. you put ‘artist’ on your bio yet you don’t share any art and your account is on private…that’s what made me curious about you
mars.psh: my life is my art.
mars.psh: my life is private.
What a fucking ‘i am an artist’ type of shit to say. How fucking deep. Hongjoong’s phone slipped from his fingers and hit him on the face right on the cheek and almost hitting his eye. He had a small little rage fit about it before beginning to type.
joongie98: mars fucking park, you’re such an interesting bean. please let me get to know you more
mars.psh: if it means getting better at english, sure
joongie98: is that all i am to you now? i am hurt mars ☹
mars.psh: you’re a gorgeous piece of art on the outside. i don’t know much about your inside though
joogie98: i’ll accept that. let’s be friends then, mars.
mars.psh: sure, joongie