Picture ATEEZ and ONEUS members mixed and dispatched into two rival K-pop groups. Then imagine their leaders falling in love with each other. Now you've got the gist.
"Jongho-ssi, I don't really understand," the young journalist said, eyes frowning and looking down at his coffee. "You want me to write an article about you and say that you're dating a man from the K-pop industry?"
"Yes," the solo artist replied curtly. "It's not that hard to understand, you know."
"But... Why?" the other man asked, confused, finally looking up.
Choi Jongho rolled his eyes before taking a sip of his coffee. "Because it's true, and because I want to choose the way I announce it. I thought I could trust you. But if you don't want the exclusive story, I can always—"
"No!" the journalist of Idol Radar protested quickly. "I'd be delighted. It's just... It's big news for me, too! Choi Jongho, dating a male idol. That's a lot to take in." Jongho tilted his head to the side, for the sole purpose of making the other man uncomfortable. It worked. "I mean, not that I disapprove or anything! It's great. You're great. I'm sure the fans will support you no matter what." Jongho smiled. He was content.
In fact, Lee Keonhee could not believe his luck. He was simply a young, still inexperienced journalist and he had been hand-picked by the famous Choi Jongho to publish the news about his official coming-out. It promised to make quite some noise. He was on the road to success! Keonhee was ecstatic, and just because of how grateful he was for the unexpected opportunity, he agreed to every one of Jongho's conditions — the idol would get to read the article and suggest changes before it came out; he would get to choose its title as well as its featured pictures; and the name of his partner would be left out. Lee Keonhee had understood the assignment: Choi Jongho wanted a simple, uncontroversial confession, and most of all, he wanted no backlash. The journalist would give that to him.
When Lee Keonhee's article was published in Idol Radar, Jongho had expected much criticism, unstoppable rumours and some fuss of some kind. But actually, even though it was indeed a massive scandal, the article was well-written enough to have been taken the right way by the public opinion; most of Jongho's fans were accepting and supportive, and Jongho was not counting the flowers he had had to throw away because they kept being delivered to his company with words of encouragement. He did not think South Korea was ready for gay idols, but now, he thought he could rightfully hope he had somehow paved the way for more open-mindedness. And even if he was not really dating anyone — it was a matter of time before Kim Leedo yielded, he was telling himself — he felt safer knowing most of the people were fine with his homosexuality. He had not completely lied about the whole thing.
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Xion was trying not to shake and not to show he was impressed by all the cameras flashing and all the journalists showering the film direction team with questions. He should be used to public attention by now, but he felt way less comfortable talking about his acting skills than his career as an idol.
The film crew of "Now is a Good Time" were nonetheless adorably considerate and he was well taken care of during the whole film promotion tour, which was to last for a week. It would have been very nice and fun, if his manager had at least been there — but he had more pressing matters — and if Choi San and Jung Wooyoung had not been there. The two devils incarnate were, it seemed, haunting him anywhere he went, and very naturally, Xion was trying to avoid them.
