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jeon jeongguk is a good gamer. there’s no two ways about it - he excels whenever there’s a controller in his hands or a keyboard under his fingers. it’s a good thing, really, since that’s helped him find the selling point of his gaming streams - the fact that no matter how skilled he needs to be, jeon jeongguk never loses a game. well, he’ll lose a round or two, maybe fail a level once, but in the end, every game is just another trophy under his belt.
he likes the games that make him feel just enough stress that it commandeers every little bit of his attention. jeongguk likes the unsettling horror games and the darker first person shooters - even though overwatch admittedly takes the number one spot in his heart.
considering jeongguk’s own undeniable success, considering his own ridiculous gaming skills, there’s probably no reason why he keeps finding himself spending five hours straight watching someone he’s never spoken to playing a dating game.
it’s not even an otome game which jeongguk feels like he could probably explain - no, kitty powers’ love life is something else entirely, a game based around a drag queen who guides you in running a matchmaking village. yeah. it’s not exactly jeongguk’s thing. he’s also pretty sure if he ever streamed a playthrough on twitch, he would end up no followers left. it’s really not his thing.
so, the game is absolutely not jeongguk’s type - not to play in his free time or on a stream - but the same thing can’t be said for the streamer who’s chatting away to his webcam in the corner of the screen. jeongguk’s heard his username a few times but just waved it off - in his defence, babyg absolutely sounds like one of those twitch girls who pretend to drop things on the floor just so they can pick them up with their ass to the camera. then again, who is he to judge other people’s usernames considering his own?
jimin, as jeongguk’s learnt his name to be from the chat, must love cheesy games. he’s giggling through almost the entire playthrough, he reads the dialogue as overdramatically as he can, joking around with his chat in between gameplay. it’s irritatingly adorable and jeongguk can’t help laughing along, having to physically stop himself from typing into the chat in case he gets recognised and ends up in an awkward situation.
kitty powers’ love life is colourful and cartoonish while jimin’s facecam takes up the tiniest amount of the screen in the corner yet that’s where jeongguk’s eyes are dragged to. jimin’s hair is an alarming bright red, complimenting his skin tone like nothing jeongguk’s ever seen before. but maybe it’s the way jimin’s wearing cat eared headphones - the band is a solid black against his red but the lit up purple of the cat ears and headphones themselves are even brighter than jimin’s hair. jeongguk almost feels ashamed of how boring his own earphones are but that odd shame is replaced with pride when jeongguk realises jimin’s gaming chair is just a plain black - jeongguk’s own chair is his ultimate guilty pleasure, a pastel pink overwatch gaming chair with a big bunny icon. it’s kind of his pride and joy even if he gets teased for it every single stream.
jeongguk’s eyes drift from jimin’s annoyingly symmetrical face to the chat once again but he regrets it as soon as he does. there’s always an asshole in the chat but jimin’s clearly attracting more than just one. jeongguk’s glad that jimin’s moderators are banning and defending in a split second but it’s still disheartening. jeongguk’s heart breaks when jimin sees a cutting insult and visibly cringes, trying to shake it off with a laugh.
the thought of jimin feeling unloved - even though logically jeongguk knows nothing about jimin himself and the rest of jimin’s chat is filled to the brim with compliments and encouragement - is jeongguk’s sole inspiration for his next action.
“oh my god,” jimin gasps a second after the little ding indicates a new donation, “oh my god.”
captainseagull has donated $300!
oops.
maybe, just maybe, jeongguk should have done it anonymously.
the chat is a mess in under a second, people recognising jeongguk’s sadly unforgettable username and insisting to know what the donation message says. jimin’s just staring at his second screen, eyes as wide as planets. (for a disgusting second, jeongguk thinks to himself that it makes sense considering there’s a dusting of stars already hung in jimin’s eyes.)
“holy shit,” jimin laughs with shock, hands coming up to wipe at his face, “hi jeongguk, i guess? i don’t even know what to say, oh my god, thank you? i don’t know why everything is coming out as a question?”
the character on screen is trying to decide whether to watch drag queens in space or not but jimin’s just gaping at his other screen, mouth opening and closing with squeaking sounds like a fish.
“thank you,” jimin manages to settle himself into sounding almost calm, “seriously, thank you so much. this is way too much just for this but honestly, thank you so much.”
jeongguk blushes from behind his own computer screen, heart racing at the fact jimin’s addressing him directly - even if it is technically in front of hundreds of people over the internet.
“thank you,” jimin’s voice somehow manages to get softer and jeongguk knows jimin’s not just referring to the cash.
please don’t listen to anything those jealous bastards say, really all they wanna do is sign up with kitty powers to try and get a date with you — captainseagull, $300
jimin doesn’t read the message aloud, using his regaining of composure to finally go back to the game, finally allowing poor jerry gumbum to watch drag queens in space.
jeongguk watches until the very end, softly saying goodnight to jimin when he finally leaves and ends the stream. sure, jimin can’t hear him but something in jeongguk feels content as knowing his affection is floating out into the universe anyway.
it’s after he’s hit the follow button on jimin’s twitter profile that jeongguk realises subtlety might not be his strong point. he just donated a possibly obscene amount of money out of nowhere and now he’s following jimin on twitter? if anything, it makes his splurge look even more ridiculous and out of the blue.
at least he doesn’t have to worry about jimin following him back - he’d searched up babyg on twitter just to find that jimin’d already followed him. it gives jeongguk a weird surge of confidence that he doesn’t really want to dwell on. he doesn’t need to try and convince himself jimin has some sort of crush like jeongguk has on him already.
jeongguk’s notoriously bad at answering his dms - any messages really, his unread texts are shamefully close to being in the hundreds - and yet, when he sees jimin’s dmed him on twitter, he’s opening it in a flash.
babyg
hi! it’s jimin haha though i guess u already know that lol…. anyway! i just wanted to say thanks again! it really meant a lot and i hope u can tell how grateful i am :)
captainseagull
hey no worries man, just remember what i said and buy yourself something nice
jeongguk doubts himself immediately after sending it - did he seem too cold? should he have used a smiley face or something? fuck, he is bad at this. what if jimin thinks he’s an asshole or something? is he being too pretentious? he groans, cringing at himself.
babyg
i will! to both of those things haha but what counts as something nice? lol haha
okay, never mind, jeongguk has got this.
captainseagull
anything that makes you happy
he does not have this, repeat, he does not have this.
captainseagull
anything that makes you happy is nice
oh my god, is he making this better or worse? how can he tell? jeongguk hasn’t had to try and make new friends in a long time - sure, he meets fans at conventions and things like that but that’s so different to this - whatever this is.
babyg
i guess that makes u and ur streams nice then haha
jeongguk will deny it for as long as he lives but that notification makes him squeal to himself, alone in his bedroom.
captainseagull
wow that was cheesy lol
babyg
sorry haha i couldnt resist
captainseagull
no i liked it
is this flirting? is jeongguk flirting right now? is jimin flirting? is this just being friendly? jeongguk has half a mind to phone hoseok or seokjin or anyone, anyone in the whole world who’s better at any kind of social interaction than him - except that’s probably everyone.
babyg
good :) u’ll have to get used to it
what does that mean? does this mean jimin’s, like, his friend now? jeongguk’s going to lose his shit, he’s really, honestly, and totally just going to lose all of his shit.
babyg
anyway, when are u streaming again? i love watching them lol haha
from then on, jimin ends up as a constant in jeongguk’s life. he’s the only person who jeongguk replies to in an actually acceptable amount of time - which jeongguk will never, ever admit to being true - and since graduating from dming to texting to talking to each other over the phone and facetime, both jimin and jeongguk can’t stop referencing each other in their streams.
it gets to the point that there’s even a discourse on whether they’re dating or not - to the point that it’s rare jeongguk goes a day without being asked about jimin on any platform. it’s surprisingly not irritating, if anything, it makes jeongguk feel flustered and embarrassed. thankfully, jimin never mentions it negatively which fills jeongguk’s stomach with butterflies at the idea of jimin even thinking about dating jeongguk.
jeongguk might be a bit whipped.
chrisuwu donated $10!
hi jeongguk, are you going to the con in a few weeks? love your streams dude, keep it up — chrisuwu, $10
“i will be,” jeongguk responds after reading his latest twitch message aloud, “and i hope to see as many of you there as i can, thanks!”
as something close to a professional, jeongguk keeps his phone on silent and across the room when he’s streaming so he doesn’t see jimin’s message until he’s finally shut twitch down, eyes burning.
jimin
omg! im going to that convention too! we can finally meet irl!!!
jeongguk drops his phone. to make it even worse, his screen actually smashes, iphone now adorned with a massive crack across his screen. fuck.
jimin’s never been to a convention before - they’d had a casual chat during facetime about it one day while jimin was doing his eyeshadow and jeongguk was...just devoted to watching jimin doing his eyeshadow to be honest - so jeongguk hadn’t even thought to ask.
though, jeongguk does feel a bit stupid for being so surprised considering that he knows that convention is close to jimin whereas jeongguk is going to have to partake in a roadtrip. he’s not too bothered about the travelling, though, considering namjoon and hoseok are coming with him. well, maybe he is a little bit bothered because third wheeling such a ridiculously cute couple can actually be physically painful.
jeongguk
holy shit
jimin
well said
just like that, it becomes a countdown for jeongguk - every day brings him closer to meeting jimin in person. he’s going to hear jimin laugh in person and they’re gonna touch and it’s going to be - well, it’s going to be something. what that something is, whether it’ll be a disaster or a fairytale, he has no idea. he’ll just keep his fingers crossed until the day comes. not literally, though, otherwise he can’t stream or drive or eat or do anything at all but he does consider actually doing it for a brief second. then he was just left to wonder if even the idea of seeing jimin face to face has sent him a bit insane. it’s alarmingly possible.
“oh my god,” jeongguk kicks the back of namjoon’s chair, ignoring how both namjoon and hoseok immediately tell him off, “jimin might have his headphones.”
“please shut up,” hoseok retorts immediately from the driver's seat.
“i hope he does,” namjoon takes over the role of ‘being mean to jeongguk’ from his boyfriend, “since at least that way he won’t be able to hear you stammering about how much you want to hold his hand.”
“hoseok, crash the car,” jeongguk barely lets namjoon finish his sentence before he’s whining and pouting.
“stop pouting,” hoseok doesn’t even have to check behind him to know, “joon’s just teasing. jimin likes you and you know it.”
jeongguk sighs, staring out the window at the scenes blurring past. he hasn’t been this nervous for a long time. sure, he’s nervous to meet so many people and probably get invited to play a game in front of everyone but he’s done that before and it’s fun - meeting jimin, meeting someone he cares about so much for the first time is completely unknown water and yet, he’s jumping in head first whether he likes it or not.
“what if he doesn’t like me?”
hoseok snorts, “he literally texts you good morning and goodnight every single day. he talks about you in every single stream and won’t stop referring to you as a ‘cute baby’.”
namjoon sighs, turning around in his chair to look pityingly at jeongguk. jeongguk pretends not to notice in the same way he also pretends not to hear hoseok because the evidence is considerably damning when put like that.
jeongguk sticks his fingers in his ears when namjoon starts making fun of the time jimin and jeongguk facetimed for twelve hours straight.
he wakes up when hoseok pushes jeongguk’s own finger further into his ear painfully. “what the fuck,” jeongguk whines, fighting against hoseok’s hand to de-finger his ear.
“we’re at the hotel,” hoseok grins, finally leaving jeongguk alone to grab their bags from the boot. namjoon’s already checking them in at the front desk which jeongguk is eternally grateful for. all jeongguk wants to do is get into the hotel room and plant facedown onto the bed until tomorrow comes along with the first day of the convention in tow.
“does this look better? i think the other one might have been nicer,” jeongguk fidgets in front of the hotel mirror, checking himself out from head to toe. namjoon bangs his forehead against the wall in response.
“what? you’re meant to be helping,” jeongguk picks up the top he first tried, looking at it in his hands.
“jeongguk, honey,” hoseok sighs from where he’s waiting by the door, “they’re both white tops. they look the exact same. you look good in both.”
“please,” namjoon groans, head still resting on the he wall, “we need to have breakfast before we go and i’m hungry.”
the reminder of the breakfast buffet that’s waiting for them in the hotel dining room finally seems to be the thing that persuades jeongguk to finally decide on which plain white t-shirt to keep on. his friends almost sob in relief.
“i’m dumping you for these pancakes,” hoseok groans to namjoon through a mouthful of said homewrecker, “fuck.” namjoon doesn’t even blink, just shovelling in another mouthful of his own pancakes. jeongguk’s already finished his because, well, what can he say, he’s a born winner.
“i’m getting more,” jeongguk decides, it’s fine, he just checked the time and there’s still a while before they need to be at the convention centre. he also needs more pancakes to try and quell the nerves that have re-appeared since checking his phone and seeing more texts from jimin. sure, jeongguk had already received the usual ‘good morning’ and sent his own back but seeing jimin talk about his yummy hotel breakfast just reminds him how real it is.
jeongguk makes a beeline for the pancakes, eyes set on the prize. until - until he sees a splash of red out of the side of his eye. he wouldn’t normally react except he’s seen that shade of red every single day in a certain someone’s icon and in their snapchats and their selfies to him and their -
“jeongguk?”
time stands still in front in a hotel’s breakfast buffet’s pancakes. jeongguk hasn’t even put one on his plate yet.
jimin’s in front of jeongguk, staring up at him. he’s wearing a white t-shirt and black dungarees and he’s -
“you’re fucking adorable,” is absolutely not what jeongguk meant to say, it’s what he was thinking but it’s absolutely not what he meant to say. to be honest, he was meant to just say hi.
jimin lets out a shocked giggle, clutching his own plate of waffles tighter. for a second, jeongguk’s brain tells him it’s because jimin thinks jeongguk is going to snatch his breakfast from out of his tiny hands and jeongguk just feels really offended. it’s a devastatingly long second before jeongguk realises jimin’s just nervous.
“sit with me,” tumbles ungracefully out of jeongguk’s mouth before he adds on a, “please.”
relief floods jeongguk with jimin nods, saying he’ll be back in a second since he has to let his friend taehyung know. (like jeongguk doesn’t know taehyung is jimin’s platonic soulmate and he’s literally spoken to taehyung a number of times.) but the distraction gives jeongguk a second to get pancakes but mostly mentally scream as loud as he can. jimin’s so handsome.
jeongguk genuinely just considers smashing his own plate over his head. jimin’s so beautiful and jeongguk’s already embarrassed himself too many times in front of him.
jimin pops back over, a big smile on his face as jeongguk awkwardly leads him to his table. hoseok and namjoon recover far quicker than jeongguk - actually managing to string normal sounding sentences together as they introduce themselves and ask jimin basic questions.
after a small pancake bite and a few jimin giggles, jeongguk manages to capture a bit of composure.
“do you wanna hang out together today?” jeongguk’s immensely proud of how normal he sounds, voice only a tad higher pitched than usual. jimin looks at him so gently that jeongguk feels an inch tall in the best way possible. he didn’t even know that was possible.
“yeah,” jimin nudges jeongguk’s arm softly, “i’d really like that.”
after the first hour of saying hi to viewers and taking pictures next to each other, and in some cases together, jeongguk and jimin finally manage to fall into the easiness that’s followed their entire online relationship. except now, jimin falls into jeongguk when he laughs and jeongguk gets to compare their height properly, ruffling jimin’s hair teasingly when he gets scolded for it.
the whole thing is like something out of a dream. jeongguk can’t believe strangers love him because he plays video games, can’t believe he deserves this attention, and he can’t believe that he has jimin whispering in his ear about something he can’t even pay attention to because the proximity is killing him from the inside out.
jimin’s talking to a girl when jeongguk makes another rash decision. he’s just - he’s watching jimin listen wholeheartedly to this teenager talking about a ridiculous romance game and jimin’s so attentive and beautiful and kind that jeongguk just -
“i like you.”
the teenage girl gasps. for a second, jeongguk thinks he’s confessed to the wrong person and he’s about to start begging for forgiveness and hoping he doesn’t end up on drama alert. but as he watches her eyes dart from jeongguk to jimin - the same way everyone else in the vicinity’s does because apparently jeongguk didn’t use his inside voice - he realises what’s exactly just happened.
honestly, he feels immediately like an asshole. asking someone out in public? when everyone’s watching and filming? jimin probably feels so much pressure but then, he is the type to just say no anyway so -
“i like you too.”
and jimin stops the whole world again like it’s nothing but a timer in his hands. it’s slow motion yet a blur when jimin throws himself into jeongguk’s arms but it feels like forever when jeongguk wraps himself around jimin and rests his chin on the top of his head.
jeongguk kisses jimin for the first time in a crowded convention centre, surrounded by game nerds and computer geeks filming the entire thing. he kisses jimin without a care in the world and that’s exactly how jimin kisses back. it feels like a promise, a secret, and exactly like love itself. kissing jimin feels like jeongguk’s just won the best game in the world. except jimin’s not overwatch or call of duty or a kitty powers game, he’s jimin, he’s jeongguk’s favourite human alive and far, far better than anything else jeongguk’s ever experienced.
“date me,” jimin whispers, their noses touching in an eskimo kiss.
“i hope you’re not just saying that because i gave you a few hundred dollars once.”
jeongguk gets a kick in the shin that jimin immediately apologises for, much to the amusement to all of their viewers around them.
it’s - it’s quite terrible, really. their relationship just became official as someone dressed as a homestuck character took their photo. weirdly, jeongguk thinks it suits them. the situation, he means, not the cosplay. he doesn’t really have an opinion about that.
“jeongguk!” jimin calls, leaning his mic away so he’s not yelling into his viewers ears.
“yeah, babe?” jeongguk comes in, frowning at how jimin’s stolen his pastel pink gaming chair again to stream, like he’s done ever since he moved in.
“this couple just got divorced and i’m unnecessarily sad about it,” jimin pouts, as ridiculous and adorable as always in his flashing cat headphones. he’s wearing one of jeongguk’s sweaters and he’s drowning in it amazingly, his hands covered by the sleeves.
“wow,” jeongguk snorts, “you’re getting shit at this game.” even as he says it, jeongguk’s walking over with adoration in his eyes. at this point, he doesn’t even think twice about being live on twitch. he’s pretty sure none of jimin’s fans are surprised he’s popped up once again - at this point, they’re basically sharing the same viewers anyway. they’re the legendary couple of twitch these days.
jimin just pouts in response up at jeongguk, pointing at his mouth in the most unsubtle hint.
jeongguk kisses him anyway, just a chaste peck on the lips, a hand unconsciously coming up to cup jimin’s soft cheeks. jimin smiles into his mouth. jeongguk can’t help but peck the tip of jimin’s nose, grinning as he pulls away. he mouths three words silently, live on stream, before he leaves jimin to blush and squeal and curse jeongguk to himself.
well, it’s not like subtlety ever got him anywhere anyway.