Chapter Text
Minho was very excited when he got the offer from We Got Married. As one of the only openly out males in the business, he was looking forward to being the start of a new era of WGM that represents all types of couples, including ones of the same gender. He was nervous about how it would be received but he was even more nervous to find out who his husband was going to be. Although more people were coming out due to acceptance becoming more widespread, there still weren’t many. He could probably count the number of possible men on one hand.
Minho tried not to worry about it too much but on the first day of shooting he was very anxious. They were going to have their first meeting at Namsan Tower. Minho knew it was cheesy but he honestly loved visiting and it was one of his favorite places in Seoul. He loved the romantic air about the place. He could sit at the top of the tower for hours and be perfectly content staring at the city below.
He knew that he was going to arrive first so he didn’t have to worry about meeting his husband right away but during the elevator ride up, his heart was pounding. The awesome video shown on the ceiling surprisingly did nothing to distract him. When he got to the top, he was directed to go and sit on one of the stairs. However he couldn’t sit there for long and instead scooted over and gazed out the window instead. Filming was early, before the tower opened for the public, so he got to watch the sun rise over the city. Seeing the bright colors of the sky calmed him.
The director decided that having him sit there would be better so that he couldn’t see his husband come in. As soon as Minho was about to start questioning why the mystery man was taking so long, the director told him that he was on his way up so he shouldn’t turn around. Oh god here we go, Minho thought slightly panicking. He had felt so peaceful sitting there that he almost forgot his was filming. His hands were starting to get sweaty, this was not good. He sat up straight and closed his eyes tightly, willing himself to calm down but to no avail.
He could hear footsteps behind him and then felt a tap on the shoulder and a playful “Anyeong yeobo”. He turned around and looked up. His eyes widened when he saw the handsome, smiling man before him. He was blond and had piercing eyes. His lips looked very soft and pink and he had a scar on his eyebrow that fit his look oddly well. Minho couldn’t look away from the attractive face. He vaguely recognized him but he honestly couldn’t recall from where.
The man bowed and said, “I’m Key. I’m a musical actor, it’s nice to meet you.” Was that flush of pink on his cheeks makeup or was he blushing? Minho now remembered his new husband seeing as he just recently came out as gay. Minho quickly came to his senses and stopped staring at the pretty face. He stood and bowed as well. He noticed that Key was at eye level, only about and inch shorter than him. He said with a shy smile, “My name is Choi Minho, I’m an actor as well but mostly on tv.”
“Has anyone told you how pretty you are, Minho?” Kibum asked with a mischievous look in his eye. Minho could feel his ears turning red. He didn’t get pretty often. He got hot and sexy a lot due to the uncomfortable amount of shirtless scenes he had to do. He liked pretty better. “Thank you, you’re really handsome yourself.”
“It’s pretty early, do you wanna get some coffee and we can learn more about each other? Since we are married now,” Key said with a twinkle in his eye. Is he even nervous? Minho wondered. Key seemed to be perfectly at ease. He even insisted on talking casually from the start. They walked around the tower and then sat in front of a window and chatted. Minho was blown away by how easy Key was to talk to and how effortless it was to keep up conversation.
“Wait, you’ve seriously never been here before?” Minho asked wide eyed.
“I haven’t,” Kibum chuckled, “All my friends said it’s overrated so I just never came.”
Minho gasped, “Overrated? This is one of my favorite spots in Seoul! How have you lived here all your life and not visited?”
“Not everyone likes the romantic cheesiness of the place like you seem to,” Kibum laughed. “But I’m actually from Daegu, not Seoul.”
“Really?”
“Yep! But I moved here to pursue my acting,” Kibum explained.
“I actually love musicals,” Minho admitted, “I’d love to act in one but my voice isn’t super strong. What musical are you working in right not?”
“I’m playing Frank in Catch Me If You Can which is why my hair is blond,” Key explained.
“It looks so good on you,” Minho said, “I’ve always wanted to go blond but I’ve never gotten the chance to. All of my roles have had dark hair.”
Key scanned his face, making Minho feel flustered, and nodded, “I’d approve, it would look very refreshing on you.”
Minho smiled shyly, “Thanks Key.”
“Please, call me Kibum. Kim Kibum, it’s real name. Since we’re married now, I’d prefer if you called me that,” he admitted.
“Okay Kibum,” Minho got little butterflies when he said his name. It felt right. He was hoping to get a friend out of this experience. With Kibum in the picture, he now hoped he’d get something more.
They continued chatting, playing off each other nicely. Kibum was very amused by Minho’s high pitched laugh that greatly contrasted his deep voice and Minho loved how borderline obnoxious Kibum’s laugh, sometimes it was more like a cackle if he was going to be honest, was. Every time he laughed, he leaned towards Minho and grabbed his arm or his shoulder. Minho tried to keep him laughing with very bad jokes just for the little acts of skinship.
Minho found out that Kibum has two poodles with ridiculous French names that he can’t remember, is surprisingly good at water skiing, and can handle alcohol very well. Minho shared his fanatic love of football, his embarrassing obsession of anime, and his secret hobby of writing songs.
“Will you write me a love song, please!” Key pouted.
Minho just rolled his eyes leaning towards the man, “I suppose, I couldn’t say no to that face.”
At that moment they got a mission card. “Write each other postcards that will be mailed and received a few months from now,” Kibum read outloud. They were handed postcards, both embarrassingly lovey dovey on the front, and went to one of the tall tables. Minho had an idea of what he wanted to say but it seemed so cheesy. Kibum was already writing at a fast pace. Minho tried to sneakily peak at what he was writing but was immediately smacked on the head with the postcard. “Don’t even think about it Choi Minho,” Kibum threatened walking to a different table and covering his postcard with his hand.
“Please, I wanna see what you’re writing!” Minho whined in his best aegyo.
Kibum burst out laughing, “Oh my god your aegyo is too much. But no, you’ll get to see this later.”
Minho just sighed knowing he’d get nowhere with the man. He ended up writing the cheesiest note but he thought it was fitting and could see Kibum enjoying it. They dropped their letters in the little red mailbox together and with two big smiles the first show came to a close.
It was close to 10am now, the time that the tower opened, so they had to get cleaned up and leave quickly. Minho was surprised, whenever he watched We Got Married, the first meetings were always awkward but he and Kibum hit it off naturally. The two chatted as they were released to go home for the day. Well Minho was going home before shooting began in the evening and Kibum was heading straight to the theatre.
“Wait Minho, where are you going?” Kibum questioned as Minho walked towards the cable cars that would take them back down to the city.
“Did you wanna walk down? That’ll take forever and you have to go to work. Plus the tower is about to open so people will be walking up and they want this to be a surprise so we can’t be seen in public together. Next time we will, I promise!” Minho said not noticing how Kibum’s face had paled.
They got a cable car all to themselves and as soon as the doors closed and it started moving, Kibum crouched down with a curse, startling Minho. “Kibum, are you ok?” Minho asked with a worried look, crouching next to him.
“This is my first time on one of these. Why is it moving around so much??” Key exclaimed, eyes squeezed shut and arms tight around his body.
Minho touched his shoulder, “Kibum it’s ok, I’m right here. I’ve been on these things a million times and nothing bad has ever happened.” He rubbed Kibum’s back, “Come on Kibum, look at me I’m right here.” Kibum hesitantly opened his eyes. “Good now let’s stand up,” Minho said as he loosened Kibum’s arms and took his hands. Kibum just kept staring at him. They stood up together but right as they did a gust of wind made the cable car sway. Instead of crouching down again Kibum latched onto Minho, burrowing his head in his chest and clinging onto him for dear life. Minho immediately held the shaking man, softly whispering comforting words. Kibum slowly calmed down a bit and loosened his grip on Minho.
“Sorry, I guess I should’ve mentioned that I’m scared of these,” he said with a shaky laugh.
“It’s ok Kibum, don’t apologize. Anyways we’ll have to do a lot of skinship on the show so why not start now,” Minho chuckled, “How did you get up here if you didn’t take one of these?”
“I walked, that’s why I was late,” Kibum stated simply.
Minho erupted in laughter, “Are you serious?!”
Kibum pulled back to look him in the face, “Hey, stop laughing at me!”
“I’m sorry, it’s just I was waiting for so long I can’t believe you walked up all the way up so early in the morning,” Minho explained.
“It’s not my fault, I can’t control my fear! I didn’t even know we were coming to Namsan until we arrived this morning!” Kibum declared indignantly.
“Whatever you say Kibum,” Minho giggled.
“Choi Minho I will get you back for this just you wait,” Kibum narrowed his eyes. Just then he saw that they were about to arrive and quickly let go of Minho so that the workers wouldn’t see them so close. Minho in return linked his arm just in case he was still scared. The taller liked the small smile placed on Kibum’s face and the faint blush on his cheeks, much nicer than the terrified man from a few minutes ago.
Once they got to the bottom safely, Kibum walked Minho to his car. “Thanks for helping me out back there, Minho. I’m sorry, I’m a bit mortified,” Kibum blurted.
“Kibum, really it’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Minho chuckled. He thought it was cute how embarrassed Kibum was about the whole situation. Little did he know that Minho would react similarly if they ever went into a cavern. He had a very traumatizing experience in New Mexico as a child.
Once they reached Minho’s car, Kibum said, “Hey, I’m honestly really excited about this. I was super nervous about who I’d get but I suppose you don’t seem too bad.”
Minho wondered if the playful light in Kibum’s eyes ever went out. “Thank you,” he replied with a laugh, “You seem alright as well.”
They stood there smiling sweetly at each other for a beat too long until Kibum broke the silence, “I should probably get going. I don’t want to be late. I’ll see you soon.”
“Wait, can I get your number?” Minho asked and then stuttered, “I mean just since we’ll be working together and everything.”
Kibum smiled widely, “Of course.” Minho stood there shifting his weight as Kibum entered his number. “Okay, here you go!,” He said handing Minho the phone, “And I called myself so I’ll have your number too.”
“Awesome. Well it was nice meeting you Kibum, seriously.”
“Bye Minho,” Kibum waved, walking away.
Minho got into his car and immediately put his face in his hands and giggled. He couldn’t believe his luck to get such a handsome fake husband. He checked his phone and saw that Kibum put his number in under the name yeobo. He could see this show going very well.