Chapter Twenty Five: Liked

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[ ᴛʜɪʀᴅ ᴘᴇʀsᴏɴ ᴘᴏᴠ ]

The post-concert sound check air was calm-- almost too calm. For once, the universe had decided to give Seungmin a break. The wind hadn't been feral enough to launch Chan's carefully glued-down wig into orbit, Jisung was too busy tripping over his own limbs and forgetting his lyrics to pester anyone, and He, Chris, and Changbin were thankfully occupying themselves with an Instagram Live under the chaos name of 3RACHA.

Seungmin lay on the hotel bed, one leg hanging off the edge, arms splayed out like he'd just fought in a war. The war being "Dealing With Jisung's Tangled Earphones While He's Mid-Meltdown." He lazily scrolled through Instagram, his eyes half-lidded in boredom.

Then he remembered something: Nayoung. Or rather, Nayoung's dramatic late-night rant about a K-pop blog competition that she'd dropped on him like it was state-secret information. She had gone on for two full hours about tropes, emotional arcs, underdog protagonists, and something called 'emotional constipation representation.'

"Apparently, it's a genre now," he muttered as he searched up the blog, internally bracing himself for secondhand embarrassment. He found it fast-- Fanfiction Frenzy.

The theme this week? Opposites Attract.

He squinted. The thumbnail showed a rebellious girl and a nerdy boy with a calculator. It was so cliché he could smell the Wattpad energy radiating off the page.

He tapped on the entry marked: "Coffee Breath & Highlighters" by Minnie_ and began reading. It took him exactly seven seconds to identify who the emotionally constipated one was. He scoffed. "Gee. Wonder who that's based on."

But still... he read the entire thing.

And then-- he liked it.

Without realizing, of course. It was a reflex. A twitch of the thumb. A betrayal of his soul. By the time he noticed, he was already three stories deep into reading another trope.

That's when Felix's message popped up.

> Kitchen disaster: check ur dms i sent the CUTEST edit everrrrrrrit made me wanna cry and also marry u idk

Seungmin sighed. "Cute" by Felix's standards ranged from emotionally devastating montages to a video of a baby duck falling off a chair.

He clicked away, preparing to switch to his alt account before anyone could witness his slip-up-- Only to see something that made his soul evacuate his body.

He wasn't on his alt.

He had liked the post.

From his main.

The official account.

THE ONE WITH A BLUE CHECKMARK.

The one that Nayoung follows.

His body stiffened like a squirrel hearing a microwave beep. He froze, thumb hovering over the screen as if he could somehow undo time by sheer willpower.

Seungmin tried not to panic. Really, he did. All he had to do was unlike the post swiftly, ninja-style, and pretend it never happened. Easy.

But just as his finger hovered over the heart, the feed refreshed-- and there it was. A fan update. 'SEUNGMIN LIKED A BLOG POST?? MINNIE_ WHO ARE YOU??' These people moved faster than dispatch on dating rumors.

It's fine, he told himself. Totally normal. He liked things all the time. Memes. A cat playing the piano. This was no different. Just a totally random fanfiction post... from a totally random author... about emotionally constipated boys. Yep. Normal.

Nothing will happen.

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I was supposed to update this on Fridaylast week, but yeah... Sorry

Last chapter's answer:Jisung

Quote of the day:You have seven kids?

Anyways hi, how are you?

As always Lee (> •-•)> will be taking your votes and comments

Thanks for readingCya🖤