[M] DO IT FOR THE FANS [YEONBIN]

11. Fans would be disappointed

"Okay, you're ready", the make-up artist smiled at Yeonjun, giving him a couple of soft pats on the cheek.

Soobin scratched the arm of his chair with a single nail, looking at them through the mirror that was in front of him.

Slight jealousy was by no means new to him, but what he found weird was that lately those feelings wouldn't quickly die down in just a couple of seconds. Some weeks before, whenever someone got too touchy with Yeonjun, or he said something about finding someone other than Soobin attractive, or anything of the sort, and a small hint of jealousy made its way into the younger's mind, he'd immediately brush it off. Sometimes, the next thing he felt was sadness, but that was it.

Recently, however, the stinging feeling lingered for as long as what was causing it stayed in Soobin's line of vision. If he caught Yeonjun and Beomgyu sitting too close to each other while playing videogames, he'd have to leave the room to stop his own annoyance. The week before, he found himself calling Huening Kai over using some stupid excuse, just so the maknae would stop resting his head against Yeonjun's arm while they read acting scripts.

And now even the make-up artists were a problem for his stupid brain, apparently.

What the fuck is wrong with me? Ever since Yeonjun confessed to me I've been feeling as if... As if I owned him or something.

He sighed and shook his head to shake the thoughts off. He'd been doing that a lot, lately.

"You OK, bud?", someone said, and Soobin let out yet another sigh, knowing the soft voice belonged to Yeonjun.

"Yeah."

Ugh, does he have to react to every little thing I do?, Soobin thought, and when Yeonjun got up from his chair he contracted his muscles in annoyance, excepting the other to ruffle his hair on his way out as the elder usually did. However, the hyung just nodded in response and left the room.

The younger boy found himself once again staring blankly at the door through which the other had disappeared, feeling disappointed at first, and then upset at his own disappointment.

That day they were guests in a TV show. They entered the stage before the cameras started rolling, and greeted the few fans that had been lucky enough to attend the recording at the TV station during the pandemic. As usual, their job consisted in talking about their next album release, show some dancing steps for songs the audience requested and play a couple of mini-games. For the final segment, they'd have a laid back discussion about their next steps as a group, and the biggest recent events in the K-Pop industry.

"Did you hear about Kim Heechul and the rumors that he was gay?", the host of the show asked.

"Ah, the member of Super Junior, right?", Soobin answered calmly, knowing that as the leader of the group he had to make sure the other members knew what the topic under discussion was, and no one made a fool of themselves by mixing up celebrity names or events.

"Yes,  back in the day there were strong rumors about him being gay, but apparently he didn't deny them because he figured homosexual fans would be disappointed if he did."

Huening Kai, Beomgyu and Soobin let out a "Ohhh", as a formality to show respect for their interlocutor's words. They also knew that they shouldn't give any clear opinions on such sensitive topics. Idols are meant to gather as many people as possible in their fan bases, and expressing any political thoughts, no matter how insignificant they were, meant to lose fans that held different opinions. This was specially true for the members of TXT, since they were all still very young and trying to grow their fan base mostly through online appearances, given that concerts and live meetings with MOA hadn't been possible because of the pandemic.

"I think... I mean, I read, the reason is a little bit more complex than that", a voice said suddenly, and Soobin's hair stood up on the back of his neck as he turned to look at Yeonjun, who was speaking. "He didn't only want to be appealing to those fans, he also wanted them to use him as support for accepting themselves."

"What do you mean?", the host said immediately, clearly seeing the opportunity to get some juicy opinions out of the idol. After all, being a host of a TV show that didn't belong to Bighit, that was his job. Making idols spill tea was precisely the reason why that segment of the show existed.

"It's very important for us that our fans love themselves for who they are", Soobin answered hastily, his response being as neutral as possible.

Yeonjun turned his head and looked at him directly in the eye, no readable expression on his face. He nodded in agreement, but then intertwined his fingers and leaned forward, pressing the topic further.

"We all know the LGBT community is under-represented everywhere, and I don't think the K-Pop fans that belong to it are receiving enough support. I think Heechul is amazing for realizing that and supporting his fans in such a way, specially given that this wasn't such a popular topic back in those days."

Soobin, who was sitting three places away from Yeonjun, failed to find a good moment to intervene, and forcefully listened in horror as the other expressed such clear political opinions. He did catch, however, how Beomgyu, who was sitting next to the oldest member, discreetly moved his feet to kick Yeonjun's.

The host nodded with a fake expression of interest on his face, also making sure he didn't express his own opinions himself. Again, although more and more idols were starting to show their support for certain social movements (some of them sincerely, some of them as part of their marketing strategy), most celebrities still kept to themselves.

"Do you think minorities should receive more support?", the host pressed further, raising an eyebrow.

"We love and support every single one of our fans", Taehyun smiled, in another attempt to get away with a vague answer, similar to Soobin's.

"Our society is slowly getting better, but there's still a lot of work to be done", Yeonjun added with dead-serious eyes. "Many people suffer every day and are incapable of reaching happiness altogether because of others' prejudice. It's everybody's job to try and end that." Then, as if he had suddenly realized how much he was frowning, he relaxed his expression and added in a more formal and steady voice: "That's what the article I read said."

Soobin had forgotten how to breathe, and slowly turned his head to the people beyond the audience. Behind the cameras, he spotted the group's direct manager, who had his arms crossed in front of his chest and was frowning hard.

The boy didn't know how to read lips, and the lights made it almost impossible for him to tell for sure, but he thought he saw the man's mouth move. "I'm going to kill him", was what he thought the manager had muttered.