Work Text:
Oh go—.
No.
No, no, no nono nonononono!
Please no. Pleasepleasepleaseplease.
Hanbin’s hand is shaking as he ruffles through his bag and his pockets and his jacket’s pockets. His hands are cold and clammy as he even checks Hao’s bags and his pockets and his jacket’s pocket. His heart is thundering in his chest is he traces their steps, checking every nook and cranny he may have missed.
But it was gone.
Hanbin’s old iPhone is gone.
Fuck.
* * *
Kwon Eunbi is Upset. Yes, it needs a capital U to emphasize how upset she is.
The whole day has been a bust for her.
School has, as it always does, been an absolute shit show. She spent majority of it studying like her butt is on fire and then logging online to join any HaoBin discussion she could find, but not finding anyone to talk to. She barely spoke to anyone in her class, except for Teacher Han who had called on her to answer the Math equation on the board. She answered it correctly, just in case anyone would like to know.
It’s a lonely existence, but that’s usually what happens when you have no friends in school and the only people you actually call friends are all online and some are even in different time zones. But it’s okay. Eunbi is usually going to end up okay.
Today just sucked because they were asked to group themselves into fours and everyone immediately went to friends while Eunbi had automatically gone to the other three girls in her class that weren’t very sociable. She thinks she slightly saw some familiar looking photos on their wallpapers, but she couldn’t be too sure. But she realizes its probably wishful to even imagine these three other girls to be just like her. Minji, Ara and Harin all look like they’re probably just normal fans and not a weirdo like her.
Which is why when Eunbi finds The Phone, she doesn't turn it over to the police.
Eunbi had been on her way home from school in her usual path when she spots the phone near one of the garbage bins, looking like it had accidentally fallen off someone when someone was throwing out trash. She picks it up, fully planning to return it, but then she sees and lets out a gasp.
“Haobin?!” Eunbi whispers. It’s the photo from their Instagram post after their Salon Drip guesting wherein they look like they either just got engaged or are taking photos for their wedding.
There is only one reason for this photo to be this person’s wallpaper—they must believe them to be dating too, right? Right? And if they dropped this phone somewhere around Eunbi’s walk home it means they must live close! Maybe Eunbi can finally make a real life HaoBin friend!
The phone is an older iPhone, scruffed up in some places, and definitely well-used. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have cellular capability and WiFi is the only way to connect online. Thus, Eunbi needs to figure out a way to open it.
Surely…
Eunbi types different variations of Hanbin’s birthday and Hao’s birthday, but did not yield any result. The iPhone has had to ask her to wait a few minutes before trying again.
This might be a project for tomorrow when she has a brain working. In the meantime, it is time to check on any news that has popped up since she has been sucked into checking The Phone. As Eunbi unlocks her own phone, she pauses.
There is one date she hasn’t used yet… the same one she uses on her phone.
0…4…2…0…
Like magic, The Phone unlocks.
“Yes!” Eunbi says excitedly, pumping her hands the air.
The usual sets of applications are there: Instagram, Plus Chat, MNET Plus, WeChat…
It would be easier if she can log in the phone to their WiFi network, but her Dad has settings wherein he has to allowing who can connect and who cannot. Eunbi is stuck on having to use what is already in the device to figure out how to track the owner down.
Curiousity getting ahead of her, Eunbi figures checking the chat logs would be the best way to see if this person is a fan. It wouldn’t hurt… right? Just a sneak peak into it…
jangjang🐬: good morning~
haobao: good morning binnie ^^
jangjang🐬: sorry i had to leave you alone in bed this morning
jangjang🐬: i had to be in the studio early
haobao: i missed you but i understand ><
haobao: you should have woken me up though i would’ve given you a kiss 😘
jangjang🐬: 🥰
jangjang🐬: you need more sleep too my love
haobao: i’ll just give you kisses when i see you later
haobao: good luck with mc-ing and drink lots of water!
haobao: you have to take care of yourself because i can’t be there to take care of you
jangjang🐬: noted my love~
jangjang🐬: care for a drive tonight?
haobao: with you?
jangjang🐬: who else with? please?
haobao: i was just kidding!
haobao: you know i love you lots
jangjang🐬: i know of course i love you too
haobao: see you in 5 mins my love
jangjang🐬: can’t wait my love
jangjang🐬: sometimes i miss you too much i feel like im going crazy
haobao: sometimes i want to see you again even though we just said goodbye
haobao: bin-ah…
haobao: i love you
haobao: you were gone before i could say so
haobao: enjoy the day with gyuvin!
jangjang🐬: i miss you tooooo
jangjang🐬: enjoy the day with yujinnie!
Eunbi blinks at the sweet exchange of words and wonders if this person does Role Playing with another fan because they both seem to be acting out a scene. It’s cute, but a little weird. But as Eunbi scrolls up and sees more cute lovey dovey messages she couldn’t help but think these two people pretending to be Hao and Hanbin were doing too good of a job. She wonders if these two are actually in love as they act out roles to be Hao and Hanbin.
In any case, that was a bust. It’s not like Eunbi can figure out who haobao and jangjang🐬 are based just on their usernames. He’s sure a lot of people use those names in their chats so there’s no way to track this person down.
Now that she knows they’re definitely a fan, though, she can make arrangements to return The Phone and on that day she’ll bring her Yura Yura HaoBin photocard as well as her Hanini and Binini and come up with a reason to bring HaoBin up. Then she will make friends with them and she will have a real life HaoBin friend she can gush with!!!
However, the contact information contained nothing.
Eunbi is really scratching her head about this problem and because her last resort is something she had been hoping to avoid because even she knows that is stepping too far into being polite. But with no way to figure this whole phone owner situation out, she figures checking the photos wouldn’t hurt.
* * *
Hanbin absolutely loves fansigns because it’s the only chance he gets to actually have personal time with the fans who has supported them through it all. It’s also always different every time, different requests and different questions and different fans.
Today, though, Hanbin is a little jittery. Hanbin can’t be too excited for anything because for at least a week now he’s been waiting for the absolute worst thing to drop—for everything they’ve built to just explode.
“You okay?” Hao asks, touching his arm.
The answer is no, he is not okay. And Hao knows this too.
“I still haven’t seen anything on the news, not even a whiff at any of the fan spaces… Matthew’s checked the English and French speaking side of the fandom too…” Hao tells him, tryng to sound comforting. But he can hear it in his hyung’s voice too, the slight fear.
Loving Zhang Hao isn’t something emabarrassing or to be hidden. In fact, loving Zhang Hao is possibly the best thing Sung Hanbin has ever done in his life. And one day, but not today, he would be able to scream it to the world and be unashamed in his love for the older man.
“Nothing on Find My too… it hasn’t been connected to WiFi at all…” Hanbin sighs, voice shaking, “How could I have been so stupid and careless, Hao?”
Hao reaches over to cradle Hanbin’s cheeks, his thumb caressing the soft skin there.
“It’ll be okay… I’m not ashamed of loving you,” Hao promises despite the tremor in his hand.
“Me too,” Hanbin promises.
A fan he hasn’t seen at all slides in front of his seat. She looks jittery and nervous, but she’s all smiles.
“Hi Hanbin oppa! I have something for you and I’m sorry that this is the only way I could think of returning it!” the fan, Kwon Eunbi according to the sticky note on her album, says as she puts a cute bag on the table and moves it over to his side of the table.
“Oh?” The bag isn’t anything impressive, sure it’s cute but he can’t really tell if there’s anything special about it. But as he touches the bag, feels its weight and its shape… “This—”
The fan raises her hand immediately. “I promise I didn’t do anything and I promise I didn’t take copies! I swear! But please do change your password, okay? It took me 15 minutes to crack it…”
Hurriedly, Hanbin checks the bag and sure enough his old iPhone sits there. The fan in front of him looks at him with earnestness, eyes honest and body rigid. Hanbin shouldn’t trust people so easily, shouldn’t take their word at face value in this kind of world they live in… but for some inexplicable reason… Hanbin trusts Kwon Eunbi.
“How can I repay you?” Hanbin asks in a whisper.
Eunbi points to her album. “Your signature, your happiness and…” she lowers his voice, “an invitation to the wedding?”
* * *
Sometimes when we wish to grow up we don’t realize how much being adult sucks. Eunbi wished to leave her High School life, to finish University, get a proper job, and have her own family. What she doesn’t realize is that wishing for all of those to come so quickly means time is going to run so fast too.
In no time Eunbi has left High School and the friends she’s made, Minji, Ara and Harin who all turned out to be weirdos just like her. The days of them skipping school to attend pre-recordings and concerts has long since passed. Then she was in University busting her butt off studying, part-timing, attending concerts, and dating all at once. Suddenly she’s an office worker who stays in the office almost 12 hours a day, editing videos for shows for people to enjoy, and dating a nice boy she would soon call her husband.
ZEROBASEONE too has come and gone, like a sweet dream. They’ve gone their separate ways, but they make sure to remind everyone that their friendship and the bond they forged during the three years they were together are stronger than ever.
And Hao and Hanbin… has moved on to different groups and what was once scavenging for moments between the two of them became even scarcer. Almost impossible. Almost none. But Eunbi knew better.
Life moves quickly when one enjoys it, Eunbi thinks. One moment she was wishing for fandom friends who enjoy HaoBin and ZEROBASEONE, the next moment she is taking care of her newly born baby girl in her arms.
“Honey, you have mail!” Eunbi’s husband calls as he arrives home, pressing a kiss to her forehead and the baby’s forehead when she comes in.
“Who is it from?” Eunbi asks, quite unsure why she is receiving one. None of the people she knows still sends mail.
“Looks like a wedding invitation…” Eunbi’s husband notes as he hands the envelope to her. “Here, open it. I’ll hold baby Rohee for now. Right, Rohee? Come to Papa~”
Eunbi opens the envelope, removes the card and immediately tears up.
Zhang Hao & Sung Hanbin would like to invite you to celebrate their wedding on…
“Hanbin oppa kept his promise after all…”