#I just suddenly don't vibe with any songs I wanted to vid to

[mabyn-mabyn]

Like/Unlike (And Like Again) | Jinkook Fic

Title: Like/Unlike (And Like Again)

Pairing: Jungkook/Seokjin

Word Count: 18,822

Rating: M

Status: Complete

Tags: Instagram Famous AU, Introverts, Social Media, Meet Cute, Singers, Humor, Awkwardness, Romance

Summary:

Jungkook: if i like someone's post on insta and then unlike it really really fast will they still get a notification Jimin: OOH what did you DO tell us Jungkook: i was looking at this post from one of my fans and i accidentally liked it Tae: WAIT was it a dude and on a scale of 1-10 how hot was he Jungkook: you haven't answered my question??? Jimin: oh he'll definitely see your notif, kook ;)

Jungkook, Instagram-famous singer, doesn't date fans. Then he accidentally likes an old post by user Kim Seokjin. Panic ensues.

People who hate social media don't become Instagram famous.

"You wanna hear a new song, huh?" Jungkook asks, tucking a strand of dyed-purple hair behind one ear.

In his tiny studio apartment, he's both alone and not alone. Can't be alone, not with 56,000 people watching him. The number is dizzying, but the live broadcasts have gotten easier since he's learned how to pay less attention to the viewer count and more attention to the musical connection he's built with his audience.

Sure, before becoming Instagram famous, he spent 90% of his free time online, as any solid introvert might. He'd mostly been a wallflower though, lurking on other people's posts, watching their vids, laughing at their jokes.

But when he breaks out his guitar and starts to sing, a transformation comes over him. Suddenly he wants to be in the limelight.

Well, not exactly be the star, but just...share his music with other people. That magic. It's hard to define, but it's one of the few moments in which he stops feeling like an isolated atom adrift in the universe and more like he's a small part of a cosmic body breathing and existing as one.

"Let's see...I've been trying something out this week, but I'm stuck on the chorus. Tell me what you think."

He's sitting cross-legged on his narrow twin bed, the mattress sunken in the middle from years of use, with his favorite mood lamp casting colorful patterns over the ceiling. In his lap sits the same acoustic guitar he's been playing since he was twelve when his mother had finally, finally surrendered to his desire to switch from piano to guitar.

Sure, he could afford more with the money rolling in from his account sponsors, but he knows viral popularity can be short lived, so he shores up all the cash for an uncertain future and a shaky dream.

He does what he does for the love of it.

He closes his eyes and strums out a few variations on what he's been working on, a melodic ballad with a folksy vibe. The words are nonsense, but that's okay for now, it will come.

For a brief moment, the magic happens, and the guitar becomes a part of his body, and his voice blends together with the sound of the instrument. He ascends into that timeless space for a while before, just as suddenly, it drops away.

He opens his eyes, the room comes back into focus, and, clearing his throat, he scooches forward to read the comments.

Voice of an angel!

call me

What do you mean stuck on the chorus?? this one's going to the grammys!

jungkoookksdff you sexy af!!!

album WHEN

Jungkook grins happily. They like it.

Back then, his first, hesitant post—a 30-second clip of him singing a cappella in a shaky voice—turned into two, then three, and it wasn't long before he got addicted. Maybe he didn't have a lot of viewers at first, but he was finally "putting himself out there," the way Jimin and Taehyung always told him he should. Easy for them to say—there had already established huge follower counts as models.

But it turned out that he liked that feeling, the possibility that every time he posted, someone new would listen, would be inspired by him, would connect with him.

With each post, his popularity grew in dribs and drabs, and then all at once. And when the explosion happened, and the comments flooded in, and the hearts all blazed red, he found himself urged to do more, post selcas, share little notes, and offer stories to his followers. He isn't sure he's good at it, but his follower count, now reaching up to almost 950,000, says otherwise.

Jimin and Taehyung now joke that he's left them in the dust. His followers are drawn to his shyness, Hoseok always says, whose work as a choreographer in the idol industry has given him insight into what drives fan attachment. According to him, Jungkook is authentically awkward in a way that the slick influencers of YouTube and Twitter and Instagram can never quite mimic.

Jungkook leans closer to his phone as he scans through the questions that are coming in.

"Hmm...My tattoo covers my chest on one side and, well, much more," he answers one of the questions with a giggle.

It feels like hanging out with a bunch of friends who all really like him. It's hard to not be flattered. He's learned how to scroll past both the hate and the thirst comments.

The majority of his fans are actually quite sweet, posting heart emojis or complimenting his singing or asking him innocent questions. He loves it all. He's even, according to Jimin, sort of figured out how to flirt with his viewers.

"You what?" he asks in disbelief. "You want to see? I don't think so. I'd have to take off my shirt. Really?? Oh my god. You're all shameless. Okay, maybe just a little..."

He shifts around on the bed until his back is facing the camera. Thankfully, since the room is fairly dark, it's less embarrassing than it could be. Besides, it's not like he doesn't post thirst traps every other day, selcas of him wearing low-cut tanks showing off his collarbones or half-unbuttoned shirts hinting at the outline of his pecs. Taehyung's great at composition.

But taking off his clothes live while interacting with fans, no time lapse between what he's doing and the moment they see him, no editing the photographs or selecting the most appropriate one, feels more intimate and more scary.

He unbuttons the shirt just enough so that he can push it down his shoulder, giving the camera a look at the part of his tattoo that he's never revealed. It's an intricate floral pattern in a circular arrangement that brings out the shape of his muscles. He knows it's pretty.

Now his fans know, too. He thrills a little at the idea that they might find it attractive.

He turns his chin over his shoulder to peek at the camera. "You like it?"

He giggles again and tugs his shirt back up, then quickly redoes the buttons.

When he settles back into position and returns to his phone, the screen is overrun with comments. They're coming in so fast that he can barely make out what they say.

Hot as hell, Jungkook-ssi!

ooh, what is it? are they flowers?

that must've hurt!

You're so beautiful, please marry me

"Okay, one more song?" Jungkook asks, picking his guitar back up. He tucks a strand of hair behind his ear. "How about something older, since we just heard something new?"

Song requests stream in. "Okay, yeah, we can do City Streets."

He takes a deep breath before launching into one of the first songs that earned him a real following. For this song, he neglects the guitar as he belts out each verse in full voice.

Although he's sung it hundreds of times by now, he still connects with the passion of the song. It's not exactly that shimmery, excited feeling he had when he first performed it, but rather a matured ache layered with the experience of all its previous performances and everything that followed.

"That's a wrap!" Jungkook waves at the camera and offers his brightest smile. "I'll be posting another clip tomorrow, so look out for that! And if you don't already, please give me a follow! It keeps me going. All right, everyone, borahae!"

He puts on his signature outro track. He always waits a few minutes at the end of his lives before logging off. There's something bittersweet, both sad and energizing, about the array of goodbye messages his listeners leave him before they depart.

You improve every day, Jungkook-ssi

the image of your muscled back is gonna haunt my dreams tonight istg

TAKE MY MONEY!!!

aw, this song is such a fave ::pleading eyes emoji::

One reply comes in that's so long it fills the entire screen. Jungkook can barely scan it before it floats away.

Something about life being shades of grey, with each day indistinguishable from the other, but Jungkook's art—yes, the commenter had called him an artist—being the one dash of color that got them through.

Jungkook has to remind himself not to frown too much in concentration as he reads. Jimin always said it would give him wrinkles.

He catches sight of the commenter's name before it disappears from the screen—Kim Seokjin.

Okay, Kim Seokjin-ssi. Let's see who you are, Jungkook thinks to himself as he closes down his live.

He stretches his arms over his head and bends his torso to one side, then the other. He's cramped after sitting for so long and holding his body rigid. He shifts back to the head of the bed so he can recline against the soft pillows, and curls around his phone.

He scrolls through his recent posts one at a time until he catches a comment that user Kim Seokjin left a week ago on a selca he'd taken in front of the recording studio. Jungkook is standing outside on the sun-drenched sidewalk wearing a fitted black t-shirt, and yeah, it's a bit of a thirst trap, but his fans love those.

so very pretty, jungkook-ssi

Jungkook finds himself blushing. The comment isn't that different from the usual kind of thing he gets, but something about the approving tone of it in combination with the long, emotional missive Kim Seokjin had just blasted into his live stands out to him.

Curiosity piqued, he clicks on Kim Seokjin's username, and a barrage of selcas featuring a very, very handsome man floods the screen.

"Wow," Jungkook can't help but murmur out loud. Having as many followers as he does, he's seen his fair share of good-looking men. They're eager to pack his DMs with their best selcas or send him offers of, ahem, financial support. But Kim Seokjin is of a different class entirely. He clicks on one of the photos to enlarge it. Creamy skin fills the screen. "Wow."

The man's black hair is slicked back from a broad forehead, his full red lips are parted sinfully, face tipped back. But what most captures Jungkook's attention are his eyes, narrowed slightly, enhanced with smoky eyeshadow, and gazing directly at the camera as if captured in a moment of seduction.

A flannel shirt is stretched across broad shoulders, and it's unbuttoned enough to reveal a well-used blue t-shirt. The striking thing is that the man isn't even trying to be hot. It's not a thirst trap. He's not even alone. He's sitting in a cafe with a couple of friends who are chatting, relaxed, and seem blissfully unaware of the camera. Only Seokjin seems to know they're being photographed.

The camera clearly loves his face. And honestly, how is this guy not a household name? He's easily better looking than most of the actors Jungkook lusts over.

He jumps back to Seokjin's profile. 59 followers. So definitely not a star. He's just some guy. His bio reads part-time human, full-time sloth. overthinking never brought anyone peace. An idiosyncratic sentiment, but not technically untrue. Despite the flippant line, the man is clearly someone who overthought the point to begin with.

So: a reluctant philosopher. Age? Not given. Older than him by a few years, but possibly shy of 30. Married? Children?

Jungkook clicks back to the photos and scrolls through. Doesn't seem like it. The only other people who appear are the two men from the cafe, sometimes together, sometimes just one. They're attractive in their own way, he supposes, but they're normal people.

They make Seokjin seem like he might be a real person, too, and not some account that stole the photos of a model to establish a fake identity. The friends are tagged in a few of the photos, Kim Namjoon and Min Yoongi, and the Kim Namjoon one is always obscenely, expensively well-dressed. Interspersed with the sporadic selcas are snapshots of floral arrangements spotted on city streets and scenery from vacations.

He keeps scrolling down until he comes across one post that looks different from the others. Professionally shot, Seokjin's lovely frame is draped in a bold, printed silk shirt matched with trousers so soft Jungkook can practically feel the wool between his fingers. In the hands of someone who is clearly a professional photographer, Seokjin's striking looks blossom.

The stats on the image read 56k likes. Okay, wow. Seokjin's account may be obscure, but this post clearly enthralled people. The tagline reads, Changed up my day job today. Like it? The thirsty comments that follow reveal that yes, people liked it.

Seokjin could be a model. Part of Jungkook wonders why he isn't, but he also gets it. He loves sharing his music, and he needs an audience to do that, but the attention, the scrutiny, the need to perform aren't for him. Maybe this Seokjin feels the same.

He scrolls back up the posts and decides he prefers Seokjin's casual, everyday pics instead. In them, Seokjin appears relaxed and happy, like a regular person who was accidentally born with the face of a god and hasn't quite figured it out.

Jungkook lets his finger graze over one of the pics in which Seokjin is laughing, sprawled out on a sofa and covering his body with his arms as if protecting himself. Is the person behind the camera tickling him? It must be heady to make someone like Seokjin smile so big. Jungkook finds himself strangely jealous. He gets a little lost staring into Seokjin's beautiful eyes, and when he finally shakes off the spell, that's when he notices.

The little heart below Seokjin's post is filled in red.

Wait. Did he do that? Did he like Seokjin's photo? Jungkook? When?

He looks at his traitorous finger in horror. He must have clicked it accidentally when he was tracing the outlines of Seokjin's face. Hold on.

Tracing the outlines of Seokjin's face? Who does that? The little heart glares red at him ominously.

Then an even worse thought occurs to him: Seokjin will see his like. He'll see his like and know that Jungkook was scrolling deep deep through Seokjin's page. This isn't even one of the latest posts, it's way, way down there. Seokjin will know that Jungkook has been scoping him for—how long has it been? He glances at the clock. An hour. Ugh. He's never interacted with one of his fan's pages before.

That would be weird. This is weird.

In a desperate attempt to undo the mistake, he unclicks the heart. The red drains from it immediately, leaving an empty shape outlined in black. Jungkook breathes a sigh of relief.

Erased.

But.

Will Seokjin get a notification anyway?

He will, won't he? Jungkook gets so many notifications he doesn't even see them anymore, the first few usernames appearing in his feed followed by a "+ 500 more." But Seokjin with his 59 followers? He'll see every one of them.

Jungkook peeks at how many people have liked this post. Two. Okay, yeah, Seokjin will definitely see his notification. Fuck. Seokjin's going to think he's creeping on him. (He might be creeping on him?)

Jungkook if i like someone's post on insta and then unlike it really really fast will they still get a notif

Tae what did you do kook-ah

Jungkook i can hear the judgment in that question and im offended

Jimin OOH what did you DO tell us

Jungkook no it's embarrassing, just answer

Tae YES TELL US

Jungkook god it's not a big deal, but i was looking at this post from one of my fans and i accidentally liked it, and i dont want them to think, idk!! whatever they might think

Jimin relax kook you're not wonho or sth. it's not like gonna be in dispatch that you randomly liked some dude's post

Tae WAIT was it a dude ::eyes emoji:: and on a scale of 1-10 how hot was he

Jimin yeah was he hot is that why you were insta-stalking him

Jungkook i was NOT stalking him! See!!! this is exactly what i DONT want him to think you're proving my worries are valid

Jimin SO HE WAS A 10

Tae oooh link us link us link us we wanna see

Jungkook NO. and you haven't even answered my question??? WILL HE GET A NOTIF OR NOT?? this is why i shouldve texted hobi hyung

Jimin oh he'll definitely see your notif, kook-ah ;)

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