[PROMPT #5] Next Big Actor (1/2)
Title: Next Big Actor
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 16k
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Jackson is a Chinese superstar, doing his first CF deal in Korea with NBA. There are stand-ins at the stores, and Jackson decides he wants one, and impulsively just strolls into a remote store to ask for it.
It’s when he meets Jinyoung, a drama student who has no interest in popular culture, and mistakes Jackson for a fanboy.
Notes: N/A
Meet Jackson. Jackson Wang, 22 years in international age, 23 in the weird Korean way of counting, former fencer, current singer and variety star from Hong Kong, China. Mostly known in China, but recently making his way into the hearts of the followers of Korean pop culture with his charms and surprisingly good language head, appearing in various variety shows and now, doing his first CF in Korea with NBA.
Jackson had done CFs before of course, different promotions and sponsorships starting from when he was a star youth athlete in the Olympics, but it was the first time he had such a massive campaign solely abroad, and Jackson was super excited about it. The NBA promotions included all sorts of perks, from tv adverts to social media campaigns and Jackson’s likeness plastered all over the NBA stores everywhere in Korea.
There were stand-ins at the stores. Jackson wanted one.
He knew Mark, his manager and ‘unfortunately’ also his best friend, would be mad at him for leaving his hotel room without an entourage to go out, but Mark had also been around for long enough to know that nothing could cure Jackson of his late night trips alone, four walls never being able to contain him for too long as he seeked excitement or distractions despite having had long days of work behind him. This time though, Jackson was on the move earlier than usual, at a time where plenty of normal people might still be up and about, but that was because Jackson was on a mission. After having settled into his hotel room he had gotten the impulsive idea to go see one of the NBA stores himself and on the same trip ask for a stand-in of his own. Jackson had looked up online a store that would both be still open quite late in the evening and sort of out of the way that it would be less likely to be full of people, and to his glee, found one only a short taxi ride away.
Of course Jackson had taken the appropriate measures by disguising himself well, charging his smartphone battery sufficiently and checking the different exit routes and taxi stops around the mall where the store was located so that he could always get himself out if he happened to catch too much attention. See? Jackson was not completely reckless, not after the times he had gotten crowded at public places before and with how he had to deal with that at airports despite the security every time he flew because of his schedules. But anyway, it seemed like this time his measures were not as needed as usual when he was out, because Monday evening was apparently and thankfully not a popular day for shopping in this part of town. Jackson got into the NBA store without being stopped even once, although some girls had been whispering and pointing at him as he passed by the café at the entrance of the mall, so he considered himself lucky. It was rather freeing, to be able to walk around without being recognized, tailed and filmed everywhere he went for once.
It was bound to come to an end of course, since the whole plan was to go into the store that had Jackson’s face and body on every promotional poster at every corner of the store, and full-body stand-ins at the front. Jackson crinkled his nose as he noted that the promotional team had photoshopped his legs to be slightly slimmer and longer on the picture printed onto the stand-in than what Jackson felt like he saw every morning in his full-body mirror, although Jackson had explicitly asked for them to not touch his short stump legs with an editing program.
(Mark would have told him they hadn’t photoshopped his legs but rather it was Jackson who saw himself worse than he was, but Mark wasn’t here, was he.)
Anyway, the stand-in and the other promotional pictures looked good. Better even now, seeing them live and in the store than from what they had looked like in the pictures shown to Jackson, and he was even more excited about the stand-in than he had been before, if that was possible. To remember this feeling he was taking pictures around the store as memories, sending some to his mom straight away because he knew she would love to have them. Jackson remembered the days of the NBA photoshoots and the interviews and everything, remembered being totally exhausted after having had them crammed into his already full schedule. He had been, like usual for schedules, especially photoshoots, pulled and pushed back and forth between makeup and styling and hair for hours and hours. His then long flashy blonde hair had been styled every which way to suit the different caps and sweatbands, and he had been sweating like a little pig under the hot studio lights, but Jackson thought back to it fondly now, very happy with the results (and the money he knew was coming in was nice, too, he guessed).
Jackson rearranged the short strands of his now short dark brown hair under the cap he had pulled on earlier to hide his face, before making a beeline for the counter of the (rather small) store. Jackson was rather proud of himself for his great choice of store, because this one was basically empty, the only other customer having left just before he had sneaked his way in, and as a cherry on top there was a rather pretty boy working the cash register. Perfect choice indeed, Jackson liked his fanboys the best, and although this one might not be his fan exactly, they would still know who he was just by working here and having seen his face everyday, and Jackson knew him appearing at such a time and at such a store so far from being the flagship of the line would definitely be a huge surprise for the sales clerk. Jackson looked forward to his reaction.
Checking his looks in a mirror behind a rack of jackets before stepping up to the counter, Jackson tipped his snapback up a little and pulled the black face mask he had been wearing down below his chin to flash a trademark smirk at the sales clerk just as the black-haired man looked up from whatever he had been focusing on below the counter. His charm and confidence on full blast, Jackson asked whether he could have the stand-in.
The thing was, Jackson absolutely did not expect not to be recognized. Not after revealing his full (although makeupless) face in a store where he was currently doing a promotion in, with his likeness plastered on every vertical surface that was not a mirror. But instead of eyes widening in surprise or getting all flustered and shocked, the sales clerk just blinked at Jackson with a polite but blank expression on his handsome face. Not even a pinch of recognition flickered in the beautiful pair of black eyes.
“I’m sorry, but the stand-ins are company property and we are not allowed to give them away to fans, no matter how devoted.”
Meet Jinyoung. Park Jinyoung, 23 in Korean age, drama student majoring in acting at the Korean National Institute of Arts, and working on evenings and weekends at the NBA store nearest to the campus to pay for his tuition and obscenely high rent. He would have much rather worked at a library or a bookstore, but those had very few openings and he had not managed to secure one, so it was either he become a sales clerk or a waiter, and as a waiter he would have had way less excess time during his late evening shifts that he could have used for reading, and much more sucking up to do towards the customers, so the choice had been rather easy.
The pay for a waiter at some popular theme café would have been better, sure, but the NBA store was conveniently closeby and mostly quite calm. Only the occasional complaining customer and the ever-changing celebrity promotions caused any sort of fuss, the latter as on the opening days fans would swarm in, wanting to take pictures of and with the promotional posters and stand-ins, if their smaller store had managed to secure some. Same had been with this promotion like with every promotion before it - fans had come in, made a mess and bought some items that their favorite or favorites were wearing, and went on their way. They made a lot of noise, but they brought the store a lot of promotion and money, which was what the bosses of course wanted. Jinyoung didn’t care. Jinyoung would get paid the same amount anyway.
Usually the fans were of the other sex than the idols doing the promotion though, which made for some hilarious purchasing choices. That was what made this particular fan different from the others, if not already for the fact that they came in late at night, barely fifteen minutes before closing, and several days after the display had opened. That hadn’t seemed to dampen their excitement though, what with the way they were snapping pictures of the pictures, which was rather redundant in Jinyoung’s opinion. He was quite sure that NBA had most likely shared the promotional pictures on their social media anyway - why bother taking pictures of their own unless they were taking selfies with the pictures of their idols?
Anyway, none of Jinyoung’s business. He had no interest in pop culture in general. Sure, he knew the songs that were looped all the time on radio and in stores such as the one he was working in right now, but he didn’t really watch tv shows nor did he follow any groups. His co-workers, especially Bambam, the (wonderful) pest, could not understand how Jinyoung did not know this and that girl group member and how they were looking especially cute in these promotions, or whatever dating news or scandals were going on at the moment, but they weren't in Jinyoung’s interests. Television dramas and movies, of course, books and literature, definitely, but pop music, gossip and girl or boy groups? Not so much.
It didn’t seem like the fanboy was up to any trouble, so Jinyoung let his eyes slip down to the course book he was reading below the counter. There were final exams coming up, and Jinyoung wanted to keep his good grade average and graduate with high marks, so he was using every moment he could to revise.
Movement from the corner of his eye alerted Jinyoung to the fanboy approaching the counter now, so he quickly marked his page and placed his book under the counter so that he could address the customer as was proper. His eyes flickered up the fanboy’s frame clad in loose, black clothing up to a rather handsome makeupless face, big almond shaped eyes blinking at Jinyoung and full mouth spread into a confident, toothy grin.
Jinyoung didn’t even get the first syllable of his greeting out before the man spoke, accent clear but not too heavy on his Korean. “Hi, I was thinking, could I have the stand-in once the promotions are done?”
Ah. Another one of these. Kind of late if they really thought Jinyoung could just give out the stand-in like he owned it, considering he had gotten received several of these questions already on the opening day of the promotions (he had tried to avoid working that shift, but had had no such luck). Jinyoung refused the fanboy like he had refused all the fangirls before, but unlike the girls, who would nod, avert their gaze and thank him anyway, this fanboy kept staring at Jinyoung expectantly, and Jinyoung was not quite sure how to react, his role as a customer servant preventing him from just going back to his book as the customer was still standing right there and clearly wanting something of him.
To break the rather awkward silence, Jinyoung widened his friendly customer service smile a bit more and asked, “Is there anything else I could help you with?”
That seemed to do the trick, as the fanboy snapped out of his daze and blinked those (tremendously big) chocolate eyes in quick sequence at Jinyoung. The fanboy’s mouth dropped open for a moment before he closed it again with a snap, one hand rising to point at his own face in a quite silly manner as he spoke. “Um, can’t you make an exception? I’m, you know, Jackson Wang? Not just any fan, so.” A pause that did not last enough for Jinyoung to form a polite answer before the boy continued, “You know what, I don’t usually do this, but I could sign the stand-in, so you would get more customers for sure for as long as the promotions go on, how’s that sound like?”
“Please don’t vandalize the stand-in,” Jinyoung blurted before he could help himself, hand rising in an effort to gesture back the crazy entitled fanboy who had already started to turn to make his way over to the (Plastic? Cardboard? Jinyoung wasn’t sure) figure and give it his apparently blessing of a signature. Well, Jinyoung guessed fanboys were probably pretty rare in the fandom, and this one must be popular on instagram or twitter or weibo or whatever the fans used nowadays to think himself this important.
To try and make the situation crystal clear for the foreign boy, Jinyoung cleared his throat and tried to format his frustration as politely as he could. “Look, you’re not the first fan who asks for the stand-in. Some even offered money for it, but the thing is, it’s company property. We can’t promise it to anyone, so I’m sorry, you can’t get it.” To try and soften the message, Jinyoung added, ”You can take as many pictures with it as you’d like, though.”
If Jinyoung wasn’t feeling annoyed right now, he would think that the surprised and open expression on the fanboy’s face was cute. But he was, and the boy’s attitude of the salesperson refusing his request being the biggest surprise in the world was really getting on Jinyoung’s nerves.
“You really don’t know who I am?”
Oh, the entitlement. Like Jinyoung was required to know everything about the idol and the fandom just because he worked at the store they were doing a promotion in, a promotion Jinyoung had had absolutely no say in. “No, I don’t, I’m sorry, I’m not really in the scene.”
“Oh.” The boy seemed perplexed for a moment, a furrow appearing between clearly plucked and shaped eyebrows, before it faded into a happy-go-lucky smile that caught Jinyoung totally off guard with its brightness and suddenness. The foreigner’s moods were changing so quickly Jinyoung was getting whiplash. “That’s cool.”
Jinyoung figured the foreigner was trying to say that it was alright, so Jinyoung nodded, expecting the boy to finally back off, but apparently he was wrong again, because the boy was settling his hands on the counter and leaning slowly over it to study Jinyoung’s face closer, like he was a curious specimen in a lab or something. Jinyoung wondered how far he could lean away from the fanboy before it would be considered impolite customer service, when the chocolate-eyed boy opened his full lips to speak again and-
Maybe Jinyoung was not completely out of luck yet, because the fanboy’s cellphone rang, and the shorter man quickly backed away from Jinyoung’s personal bubble to dig it out of his baggy pants and answer.
“What’s up Mark, don’t worry I’m fine -” and the rest Jinyoung didn’t understand because the boy switched from English to Chinese, since although Jinyoung had done excellently in his English and Japanese courses, he hadn't taken any Chinese, and thus couldn't follow the rest of the conversation if he would have even wanted to.
So now Jinyoung was just standing there, behind the counter, not able to get back to his book as he still had the customer standing there, although the foreign boy was now focusing on the phone call and not Jinyoung, fingers of his free hand dwindling on the hem of his oversized sweater. Jinyoung followed the movement with his eyes for the lack of anything else to do, distractedly noting that the fabric of the slightly shorter boy’s pants clung to his thighs just a little bit, revealing their muscularity.
Jinyoung snapped his eyes up to the man’s - Jackson’s? - face with quite the speed as the foreigner ended his call with a “I’ll be right there, see ya” in English.
“Sorry, that was my man- uhhh, friend, I gotta go. I’ll try to visit later again, though!”
Not knowing what to do, Jinyoung nodded and blurted the usual farewell he was supposed to say to customers as they were leaving, although the fanboy - Jackson - hadn’t even bought anything, and as such, couldn't really be called a customer. From his post behind the counter Jinyoung saw Jackson stop by the stand-in at the entrance, but when it didn’t seem like the boy was trying to steal it in front of Jinyoung’s watchful eyes - and anyway the alarms would go off if he even tried to - Jinyoung relaxed, digging his course book from beneath his counter before lifting his eyes again, checking up on Jackson once more.
Jinyoung decided to fix his eyes firmly onto his book as they had started to cling too much on the curve of Jackson’s neck where the back of his head attached to the nape of his neck, the dark but still brown hairs visible beneath the snapback.
Because he was focusing on his book Jinyoung didn’t see the boy leaving, and it wasn’t until a couple of minutes later, when Jinyoung was closing the store, that he noticed that he really should have kept a closer eye on the fanboy. Despite Jinyoung’s explicit forbiddance, Jackson had gone and scribbled his (rather big) signature onto the stand-in, like he was some sort of a big star or something. Slightly panicking, Jinyoung attempted to rub at the black ink with his fingers, but it wasn’t budging, made with permanent marker or something, and Jinyoung cursed under his breath. In an attempt to not get fired, Jinyoung picked the stand-in up and lugged it into the backroom, intending to google a way to remove permanent marker.
Bambam, who had been at the back of the store room sorting the new incoming products, noticed him entering with the stand-in. The Thai boy blinked at him a couple of times before oh-so-eloquently and cleverly questioning Jinyoung. “Why are you bringing the stand-in in?”
Instead of answering verbally Jinyoung set the stand-in down and turned it to face Bambam, pointing angrily at the scribble right on top of the idol’s chest. Bambam got up from his seat and approached Jinyoung with his head tilted, like he couldn’t have seen the black signature contrasting on the white jacket the stand-in person wore already from where he had been sitting.
“Was that signature there before?” Really, Jinyoung had thought Bambam was smarter than this.
“No, obviously, blockhead. Some fan came in just before closing and vandalized the stand-in while I wasn’t looking.” Jinyoung tried to reach to hit Bambam lightly on the head, but the (at the moment grey-haired) younger man ducked from beneath his arm to observe the damage from up closer.
“A fan?” Bambam repeated, big round eyes flickering up to look at Jinyoung in doubt before lowering them again to the signature, touching his fingers to the edges of it much more gently than Jinyoung had before.
“Yeah, some fanboy. Jackson something. Foreigner. Spoke Korean quite well though, and I told him not to scribble onto the stand-in, but either he didn’t understand or he didn’t care. Can you run to the general store downstairs and get some nail polish remover or something and help me to get it off? I think something like that should do the trick…”
“Jackson? Like, Jackson Wang?” Bambam was giving Jinyoung that face again, the one when Jinyoung did not know the latest fandom drama or girl group debut or whatever, and there was a lot of surprise mixed into it. But Jinyoung was annoyed, stressed and rather tired, and he wanted to get back home to study instead of staying late at the store to clean a scribble off of a stand-in, so he had no strength or patience to humor Bambam right now.
“Yeah, I guess. Can you go get some nail polish now, please? I want to get home preferably some time before midnight.” It was saying a lot that Jinyoung was asking somewhat nicely.
Bambam bursting into a fit of laughter was not the reaction Jinyoung had wanted nor expected. It was not helpful, and also it made Jinyoung feel stupid as he was clearly missing out on an apparently hilarious joke that was most definitely making fun of him.
“Oh my god this is priceless, I can’t wait to tell Yugyeom,” Bambam finally got out between wheezing breaths from where he had bent over, straightening to smirk at Jinyoung openly. Jinyoung did not appreciate the disrespect. “Nah, leave the signature. He’s kinda famous in the fandom, fans coming in are gonna love it.”
Jinyoung tried to argue against it, unwilling to let the fanboy win even symbolically, but Bambam didn’t give in, and in the end Jinyoung didn’t feel like wasting any more time fighting about it, agreeing to leave the signature if Bambam took all responsibility for it in case their superiors came asking about it. Bambam agreed with an easy grin, which made Jinyoung narrow his eyes at the unruly dongsaeng, being suspicious of the Thai boy’s intentions, but not having any energy to argue anymore.
Bambam had agreed to take responsibility for it, so whatever. It was not Jinyoung’s problem.
In the end, Jinyoung had to grudgingly admit in the back of his head that Bambam (and Jackson) were right, because the signature was loved by the fans coming in. After Jinyoung had answered to the first enquiry of “is that stand-in really personally signed by Jackson Wang?” with an affirmative, the news apparently spread fast amongst fans, and more came in to take pictures with the now signed stand-in than there had been even on the opening day.
Jinyoung didn’t know what the big deal was, but he didn’t want to ask with how smug Bambam had acted about it on the days after, so he left the matter alone, and hoped that whenever that apparently famous fanboy would come in the next time, if he even would come like he had threatened, Jinyoung would not be working that shift.
But as Jinyoung’s bad (or good?) luck would have it, of course he was.
It could be explained with how Jackson was not used to not being recognized by people around his age from countries he was active in if he had revealed both his face and his name. Not since the days when he had won his first variety prices in China, and since his appearances on TV in Korea, the same fate of being recognized on the streets if he wasn’t properly disguised haunted him here, also.
Jackson would have found it understandable, really, if it would be just some random guy from the street not recognizing him, but someone literally working at a store where Jackson’s face was everywhere? It was more than unlikely, it was weird, and so of course Jackson was interested in seeing how far he could take it before he would get caught. It was his new project, and planning it was a way to spend time between filmings and being shuffled around between Korea and China as Mark did his absolute best to get Jackson through all the different things crammed into his schedule, like usual.
But since he had straight out told the salesperson - Park Jinyoung, his name plaque had read - his name, Jackson had to get creative. He had to wait for the boom at the store to calm down - he saw a lot of fans posting pictures online of the signed stand-in once they had figured out that it had his actual signature - as he did not want to end up at the store in a crowd of fans without bodyguards or Mark. After some days, when the flood of pictures had mostly calmed down, Jackson saw his chance. He idly wondered while sneaking out of his hotel room on another Monday evening how long it would be until Mark would finally have a nervous breakdown and attach a GPS tracker to the idol he was supposed to guard and watch over. Well, apparently Jackson was hellbent to find out.
Anyway, Jackson was taking more risks this time than he usually was, which was another reason for Mark to scold him later. He was wearing much more obvious clothing than last time, because his plan was to wear the same exact clothes he was wearing in the picture they had used for the stand-in in the store Jinyoung worked at, and see if that would get Jinyoung to recognize him. He couldn’t look that much different from the pictures just because of the lighting, change in hair and no makeup, right?
Because of his more obvious choice of clothes, Jackson did of course get recognized much more this time, but at least he managed to shake his fans off before entering the mall.
It had not even occurred to Jackson that he might arrive at a time when Jinyoung wasn’t working, but his gamble worked out even without him having realized its risk, because when Jackson ducked into the store and glanced around to make sure there was no other customers, his eyes found Jinyoung again behind the counter. Much like last time, the black-haired man was immersed in a book, but he looked up at the movement of Jackson half sprinting into the store (he was trying to avoid being noticed just before he got into the store because he didn’t feel like doing laps around the mall to lose his tail).
The half glare that Jinyoung directed his way told Jackson that Jinyoung was (probably) still blessedly unaware of who Jackson was, which was great, because that was why Jackson had taken all these extra risks to arrive here in this very recognizable getup. It also told Jackson that Jinyoung remembered him despite not (probably) knowing his idol status, which was also nice, and what Jackson was truly after - someone knowing him and maybe at some point liking him without caring about his fame. It wasn’t something Jackson had experienced in quite some while, not since the beginning of his career.
Jackson waved exaggeratedly towards the cashier, an excited smirk spreading on his face as he willed for his plan to work. All the bother Jackson had gone through to arrange his escape here would be worth the reaction he could and would get out of Jinyoung as the shop assistant would maybe finally come to realize who Jackson was, and possibly still see Jackson in the same way, without getting starstruck. It was playing with fire, taking a lot of chances, but Jackson was rather rash sometimes. “Hello, it’s me again!”
The words Jinyoung spoke back at him were a standard polite store personnel greeting, but the look in the store clerk’s eyes was far from polite, and Jackson was really enjoying this too much. When Jinyoung didn’t say anything more, not even when Jackson arrived at the counter and planted his hands on it, Jackson opened his mouth again, letting his lips curve into a smirk. “So how has the signature been working, Jinyoung-ssi~”
The question was unnecessary, really, considering that Jackson knew exactly how well it had been received among his fans, but it was a conversation opener and also a way for Jackson to gauge how he had managed to avoid getting found out by Jinyoung. Of course, not already counting that Jinyoung might possibly be blind considering he hadn’t noticed that Jackson looks exactly like the person who stares back at Jinyoung from the walls of the store whenever Jinyoung would look up from the book he probably shouldn’t be reading while working anyway. Jackson tried to peer at the cover of the book to see what exactly Jinyoung was reading, but the shop assistant was quicker than he was, hiding the object under the counter. Afterwards, though, Jinyoung had no more excuse to look away from Jackson’s eyes, which was nice, as Jackson rather liked locking gazes with the sales clerk’s expressive, pitch black eyes.
“Yes, surprisingly, fans seem to love it. Are you happy, Jackson-ssi?” Jinyoung added obviously grudgingly, but Jackson was just happy to break out of the polite sales personnel speech pattern Jinyoung had tried to uphold with him, and get into the banter he had rather hoped to get out of the black-haired man. Jackson was also very pleased to hear his name fall from Jinyoung’s lips, completely without the admiration or polite fear or whatever Jackson usually got around people who weren’t Mark or his other long-time friends. Also, point made, Jinyoung had remembered his name without the fame being attached to it.
Jackson beamed at Jinyoung as widely as he could, going forward with his plan as at least so far, Jinyoung hadn’t recognized him despite the clothes. “I’m glad. So, I was thinking, could you take a picture of me with the stand-in?” As Jinyoung hesitated and looked around the shop, Jackson added, “There aren’t any other customers anyway, so how about it? Pretty please?”
Jinyoung sighed and deflated, agreeing probably just to be rid of Jackson faster, but that was alright. As Jinyoung rounded the counter Jackson took a few quick steps to walk to be able to walk to the stand-in side by side with the slightly taller man man, eyes taking in the perfect proportions of Jinyoung’s frame and gosh, was there anything that wasn’t perfect about him? Jinyoung had a perfect, handsome face, a soothing, low voice, beautiful eyes and absolutely gorgeous proportions. The Korean male was truly just like a male model out of a magazine, so of course Jackson just had to blurt, “Are you a model or something?”
Jinyoung did a double take at him before bursting out in loud laughter, one hand coming to hover over his mouth to hide his teeth although Jackson would have loved to see them, trying to find just one flaw to make sure Jinyoung was real and not a hallucination Jackson was having of a perfect man. Maybe that should be his new mission, although considering how the small imperfections Jackson could already see on Jinyoung’s skin did nothing to alleviate his opinion that Jinyoung was perfect, maybe it would be an impossible task.
The sides of Jinyoung’s eyes crinkled really attractively when he smiled truly, and it made all the difference to the polite customer service smile Jackson had been seeing mostly so far, except of course when Jackson had made the black-haired man frown and purse his lips at him. In any case Jackson loved Jinyoung’s true smile, although it made his chest feel tight.
“No, I’m not a model. Just a drama student and a shop assistant at NBA, I’m afraid.” Jinyoung finally answered after having his laugh, eyes sparkling as he glanced at Jackson, and Jackson felt warmth spread out from the center of his chest, the tight bundle not loosening.
“You totally could be, your legs are really long and your face is very handsome.” Jackson half flirted half stated matter-of-factly as they arrived by the stand-in. Jinyoung waved his compliment off with a hand, but Jackson didn’t mind, rather enjoying the slightly bashful expression. Moving forward with his plan, Jackson handed his smartphone in camera mode to Jinyoung before walking to stand next to the stand-in, waiting expectantly for an expression of dawning realization to appear on Jinyoung’s face as he draped his arm carefully over the shoulders of his more or less exact likeness. Jackson even strived to take on the same expression as he had on at the moment of taking this picture, a smoulder in his eyes and lips closed in a firm line.
But alas, no. Jinyoung simply raised the smartphone in front of him, took a couple of pictures and stated, “Wow, you really went for the twin look today, didn’t you, with the clothes and all. And I thought you weren’t a customer but just a fan who wanted to take pictures of their idol.”
Jackson’s face started to fall, but he didn’t have much time to react to Jinyoung’s disappointing words before the loud guffawing laugh of another person filled the space between them. Both Jinyoung and Jackson turned to look to the side, where another sales clerk was approaching them. This one had even longer legs than Jinyoung had, a lanky frame and stylishly overly long grey hair that was not quite long enough to hide the amusement flickering in his big, round eyes. With the way this new arrival had one eyebrow raised as he glanced between Jackson and Jinyoung, Jackson was sure there was no way he didn’t know who Jackson was.
“Oh my god Jinyoung-hyung you are so dense, but it’s okay, at least you’re good-looking.” The new boy smirked at Jinyoung, and Jinyoung let out an indignant complaint that sounded something like “yeah so I can’t know all the fandoms and fanboys, would you stop already”, but Jackson didn’t really listen to him as the Hong Kong idol was too busy staring at the new foreign? boy with his eyes wide in panic like a deer in the headlights, unable to run from his oncoming doom.
The grin on Jinyoung’s dongsaeng’s face was downright predatory when he directed it towards Jackson, but at least the mirth dancing in the boy’s eyes softened it up a little, giving Jackson some hope. “Hello Jackson-ssi, my name is Bambam. Would it be alright with you for me to take a picture together with you and the stand-in?”
Jackson understood from the smirk on Bambam’s face and the tactical choice of words that the picture was the price of the silence of Jinyoung’s friend. And it should be fine, what with Bambam obviously wearing the clothes of a NBA salesperson and Jackson in full NBA promotion mode, it would look like just a part of the promotions. So he nodded, and Bambam’s smile turned into a more friendly Cheshire cat’s grin. After a moment of fumbling around Jinyoung had naturally ended up in the role of the photographer again, Jackson’s smartphone exchanged for Bambam’s and Bambam moving to stand next to the Jacksons as they posed for the picture.
“I don’t think he’ll get it before you or someone else straight out lays it out to him.” The words were spoken quietly, but Jackson didn’t have to turn to check that Bambam had directed them at him, as they were almost a whisper clearly not meant to reach Jinyoung’s ears. Jackson was relieved. So it was certain now that Bambam did know who he was, and at least for now Bambam didn’t seem to have the intention to use it against Jackson, at least for more than getting a selfie with him, and that was a deal Jackson was ready to make.
“I’m surprised he doesn’t realize even with me posing with a picture of myself…” Jackson mumbled and Bambam let out a giggle, earning a glare from Jinyoung before the older shop assistant declared he was done taking photos. Bambam insisted that he needed to check them first before Jinyoung would be allowed to go, and Jackson was quietly thankful to the younger boy, taking any opportunity to spend some more time in Jinyoung’s company although he didn’t know how to, using the precious seconds by shifting awkwardly from one foot to another, as Jinyoung was mostly focused on glaring at Bambam, who was flicking through the photos with his nose crunched a little. Thankfully, maybe, Jinyoung’s dongsaeng deemed that none of the pictures were good enough and that ‘Jinyoung-hyung’ needed to snap a couple more.
Jackson absentmindedly wondered if Jinyoung was older or younger than him. Bambam was definitely younger, but with Jinyoung Jackson wasn’t quite sure. Jackson didn’t bother to stop to wonder why it even mattered, as they probably wouldn’t have the chance to get to a level of familiarity that would have them drop the formal ‘ssi’ for a ‘hyung’ or ‘ah’ anyway, although Jackson of course hoped they would. He was just a silly dreamer sometimes, a hopeless optimist when given a chance, although the world had taught him out of the worst of it a long time ago. So maybe he wanted a friend who didn’t care about his celebrity status. Maybe he would want even something more with Jinyoung, who knows. And maybe he would risk a lot because he was kind of crazy, and wanted to give whatever he could have with Jinyoung a try.
Anyway, leaning close with Bambam again, Jackson decided to put his neck out a little more to see if he could find a co-conspirator in Bambam, voice pitched low and quiet so that Jinyoung wouldn’t hear. “I’m sort of trying to get him to realize, but I don’t want to outright tell him, so, if you could keep my secret from him and not spread the picture before the promotions are over, I’d really appreciate it.”
Bambam hummed like he was thinking it over, but as Jackson spared him a side glance, the sparkle in the lanky boy’s fakely grey eyes revealed that he was more than up to the task. However, beneath the mirth there was an assessing tone in the younger’s gaze, like he was mapping out Jackson’s sincerity or intentions or something, and Jackson shifted on his feet awkwardly, until Bambam gave in or found what he was looking for, Jackson wasn’t sure which.
“Alright, if I also get you to comment on the post on ig after I post it. I’ll tag you of course.” A business arrangement, then. Jackson could deal with that, turning to hug the younger boy as Jinyoung announced that now he was really done with taking pictures, and if none of them were suitable, then Bambam could take the pictures himself and stop blaming his poor hyung.
“Alright, deal.” He said softly into Bambam’s ear, and the victory sign and happy smile he got as an answer confirmed that they were now partners in crime. A small win for Jackson. Maybe. He didn’t even know what he was doing.
Jackson rushed to Jinyoung’s side, boldly grabbing onto the arm of the man who still didn’t know who he was, tilting his head to the side and pulling on a cute face as he opened his eyes wide, noting happily how Jinyoung was startled but didn’t really attempt to pull back from his hold. Why did Jinyoung look so good up close anyway? It was unfair. “Did I look okay?”
Jackson could hear Bambam snort in the background, but he was more focused on the way Jinyoung was leaning slightly away as he got slightly flustered by Jackson’s closeness, struggling to find the words, something Jackson found totally adorable. Especially with how Jinyoung was obviously amused, his eyes doing that crinkling, smiling thing as he looked down at Jackson. “Um, yeah, I-”
“GAGA.”
Ah, damn. The party was over, he had been found.
Jackson guiltily let go of Jinyoung’s hand as he turned towards the voice, although he really did not have to look to know that his manager and long-time friend was standing by the entrance of the shop. It was also not a surprise that his friend’s usually so calm exterior would betray his fuming worry and anger now, all directed towards Jackson who had again snuck out without telling anyone. And, as Jackson had already known, there the American was, black beanie pulled over his honey brown hair, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Jackson, and Jackson winced. Jinyoung was looking back and forth between them, confused, but Jackson didn’t dare to look at him anymore, having to focus his attention on his visibly frustrated friend.
“Oh hi Markie-hyung, you found me, uh, I was just leaving!” Jackson said in an overly happy voice, stepping away from Jinyoung at the same time as Mark took long strides towards him with his unfairly long legs to close the distance, grabbing hold of Jackson’s elbow the second the lanky brunette reached his protege.
“You better be. You’re lucky your location is not posted all over the social media right now, what with how you’re dressing.” Mark had switched to Chinese, knocking Jackson over the head and slinging an arm around his shoulders, holding him close, obviously having worried despite his scolding words. He switched back to his accented Korean as he gave a nod towards the sales clerks and apologized, “I’m so sorry for any trouble he caused, we’ll go now.”
“Bye Jinyoung-ssi, Bambam-ah!” Jackson threw over his shoulder, waving at the two men they were leaving behind, and trying to firmly press deep into his memory the confused expression on Jinyoung’s handsome face, and the furrow between his brows. Jackson was already planning his next escape, no matter how Mark chided him all the way back to the hotel, but that was just how he was, completely unable to give in.
It didn’t really make much sense, as there wasn’t any further that Jackson could go without straight out telling Jinyoung that he was the idol plastered all over the store, but Jackson wasn’t trying to explain it to himself. He was completely okay with mentally placing his fingers into his ears and ‘lalala’ing until his common sense would stop nagging him about why he was so eager to see Jinyoung again, if that meant he could justify doing it again.
Mark, unfortunately, was too smart for his own good (or maybe smart enough to justify why he had survived working with Jackson and being friends with him at the same time for all these years), since the LA boy wasn’t dumb enough to think Jackson wouldn’t try to go to the store again another time. Instead of trying to stop the persistent idol, Mark knew when to give in a little to keep hold of Jackson, and Jackson had to agree to plan with Mark when to go the next time and take the manager with him, or Mark would make sure there would be no chance for Jackson to escape the next time they’d fly back to Korea. No amount of puppy eyes or pouting changed Mark’s mind, the older way too used to Jackson’s antics, and Jackson knew when to pick his fights.
On top of being smart, Mark was also perceptive enough not to ask why Jackson was doing this, letting the singer and variety star delude himself that he wasn’t totally going out of his way and doing something extraordinary for the sake of seeing the face of one man.
( part two)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 16k
Warnings: N/A
Summary: Jackson is a Chinese superstar, doing his first CF deal in Korea with NBA. There are stand-ins at the stores, and Jackson decides he wants one, and impulsively just strolls into a remote store to ask for it.
It’s when he meets Jinyoung, a drama student who has no interest in popular culture, and mistakes Jackson for a fanboy.
Notes: N/A
Meet Jackson. Jackson Wang, 22 years in international age, 23 in the weird Korean way of counting, former fencer, current singer and variety star from Hong Kong, China. Mostly known in China, but recently making his way into the hearts of the followers of Korean pop culture with his charms and surprisingly good language head, appearing in various variety shows and now, doing his first CF in Korea with NBA.
Jackson had done CFs before of course, different promotions and sponsorships starting from when he was a star youth athlete in the Olympics, but it was the first time he had such a massive campaign solely abroad, and Jackson was super excited about it. The NBA promotions included all sorts of perks, from tv adverts to social media campaigns and Jackson’s likeness plastered all over the NBA stores everywhere in Korea.
There were stand-ins at the stores. Jackson wanted one.
He knew Mark, his manager and ‘unfortunately’ also his best friend, would be mad at him for leaving his hotel room without an entourage to go out, but Mark had also been around for long enough to know that nothing could cure Jackson of his late night trips alone, four walls never being able to contain him for too long as he seeked excitement or distractions despite having had long days of work behind him. This time though, Jackson was on the move earlier than usual, at a time where plenty of normal people might still be up and about, but that was because Jackson was on a mission. After having settled into his hotel room he had gotten the impulsive idea to go see one of the NBA stores himself and on the same trip ask for a stand-in of his own. Jackson had looked up online a store that would both be still open quite late in the evening and sort of out of the way that it would be less likely to be full of people, and to his glee, found one only a short taxi ride away.
Of course Jackson had taken the appropriate measures by disguising himself well, charging his smartphone battery sufficiently and checking the different exit routes and taxi stops around the mall where the store was located so that he could always get himself out if he happened to catch too much attention. See? Jackson was not completely reckless, not after the times he had gotten crowded at public places before and with how he had to deal with that at airports despite the security every time he flew because of his schedules. But anyway, it seemed like this time his measures were not as needed as usual when he was out, because Monday evening was apparently and thankfully not a popular day for shopping in this part of town. Jackson got into the NBA store without being stopped even once, although some girls had been whispering and pointing at him as he passed by the café at the entrance of the mall, so he considered himself lucky. It was rather freeing, to be able to walk around without being recognized, tailed and filmed everywhere he went for once.
It was bound to come to an end of course, since the whole plan was to go into the store that had Jackson’s face and body on every promotional poster at every corner of the store, and full-body stand-ins at the front. Jackson crinkled his nose as he noted that the promotional team had photoshopped his legs to be slightly slimmer and longer on the picture printed onto the stand-in than what Jackson felt like he saw every morning in his full-body mirror, although Jackson had explicitly asked for them to not touch his short stump legs with an editing program.
(Mark would have told him they hadn’t photoshopped his legs but rather it was Jackson who saw himself worse than he was, but Mark wasn’t here, was he.)
Anyway, the stand-in and the other promotional pictures looked good. Better even now, seeing them live and in the store than from what they had looked like in the pictures shown to Jackson, and he was even more excited about the stand-in than he had been before, if that was possible. To remember this feeling he was taking pictures around the store as memories, sending some to his mom straight away because he knew she would love to have them. Jackson remembered the days of the NBA photoshoots and the interviews and everything, remembered being totally exhausted after having had them crammed into his already full schedule. He had been, like usual for schedules, especially photoshoots, pulled and pushed back and forth between makeup and styling and hair for hours and hours. His then long flashy blonde hair had been styled every which way to suit the different caps and sweatbands, and he had been sweating like a little pig under the hot studio lights, but Jackson thought back to it fondly now, very happy with the results (and the money he knew was coming in was nice, too, he guessed).
Jackson rearranged the short strands of his now short dark brown hair under the cap he had pulled on earlier to hide his face, before making a beeline for the counter of the (rather small) store. Jackson was rather proud of himself for his great choice of store, because this one was basically empty, the only other customer having left just before he had sneaked his way in, and as a cherry on top there was a rather pretty boy working the cash register. Perfect choice indeed, Jackson liked his fanboys the best, and although this one might not be his fan exactly, they would still know who he was just by working here and having seen his face everyday, and Jackson knew him appearing at such a time and at such a store so far from being the flagship of the line would definitely be a huge surprise for the sales clerk. Jackson looked forward to his reaction.
Checking his looks in a mirror behind a rack of jackets before stepping up to the counter, Jackson tipped his snapback up a little and pulled the black face mask he had been wearing down below his chin to flash a trademark smirk at the sales clerk just as the black-haired man looked up from whatever he had been focusing on below the counter. His charm and confidence on full blast, Jackson asked whether he could have the stand-in.
The thing was, Jackson absolutely did not expect not to be recognized. Not after revealing his full (although makeupless) face in a store where he was currently doing a promotion in, with his likeness plastered on every vertical surface that was not a mirror. But instead of eyes widening in surprise or getting all flustered and shocked, the sales clerk just blinked at Jackson with a polite but blank expression on his handsome face. Not even a pinch of recognition flickered in the beautiful pair of black eyes.
“I’m sorry, but the stand-ins are company property and we are not allowed to give them away to fans, no matter how devoted.”
Meet Jinyoung. Park Jinyoung, 23 in Korean age, drama student majoring in acting at the Korean National Institute of Arts, and working on evenings and weekends at the NBA store nearest to the campus to pay for his tuition and obscenely high rent. He would have much rather worked at a library or a bookstore, but those had very few openings and he had not managed to secure one, so it was either he become a sales clerk or a waiter, and as a waiter he would have had way less excess time during his late evening shifts that he could have used for reading, and much more sucking up to do towards the customers, so the choice had been rather easy.
The pay for a waiter at some popular theme café would have been better, sure, but the NBA store was conveniently closeby and mostly quite calm. Only the occasional complaining customer and the ever-changing celebrity promotions caused any sort of fuss, the latter as on the opening days fans would swarm in, wanting to take pictures of and with the promotional posters and stand-ins, if their smaller store had managed to secure some. Same had been with this promotion like with every promotion before it - fans had come in, made a mess and bought some items that their favorite or favorites were wearing, and went on their way. They made a lot of noise, but they brought the store a lot of promotion and money, which was what the bosses of course wanted. Jinyoung didn’t care. Jinyoung would get paid the same amount anyway.
Usually the fans were of the other sex than the idols doing the promotion though, which made for some hilarious purchasing choices. That was what made this particular fan different from the others, if not already for the fact that they came in late at night, barely fifteen minutes before closing, and several days after the display had opened. That hadn’t seemed to dampen their excitement though, what with the way they were snapping pictures of the pictures, which was rather redundant in Jinyoung’s opinion. He was quite sure that NBA had most likely shared the promotional pictures on their social media anyway - why bother taking pictures of their own unless they were taking selfies with the pictures of their idols?
Anyway, none of Jinyoung’s business. He had no interest in pop culture in general. Sure, he knew the songs that were looped all the time on radio and in stores such as the one he was working in right now, but he didn’t really watch tv shows nor did he follow any groups. His co-workers, especially Bambam, the (wonderful) pest, could not understand how Jinyoung did not know this and that girl group member and how they were looking especially cute in these promotions, or whatever dating news or scandals were going on at the moment, but they weren't in Jinyoung’s interests. Television dramas and movies, of course, books and literature, definitely, but pop music, gossip and girl or boy groups? Not so much.
It didn’t seem like the fanboy was up to any trouble, so Jinyoung let his eyes slip down to the course book he was reading below the counter. There were final exams coming up, and Jinyoung wanted to keep his good grade average and graduate with high marks, so he was using every moment he could to revise.
Movement from the corner of his eye alerted Jinyoung to the fanboy approaching the counter now, so he quickly marked his page and placed his book under the counter so that he could address the customer as was proper. His eyes flickered up the fanboy’s frame clad in loose, black clothing up to a rather handsome makeupless face, big almond shaped eyes blinking at Jinyoung and full mouth spread into a confident, toothy grin.
Jinyoung didn’t even get the first syllable of his greeting out before the man spoke, accent clear but not too heavy on his Korean. “Hi, I was thinking, could I have the stand-in once the promotions are done?”
Ah. Another one of these. Kind of late if they really thought Jinyoung could just give out the stand-in like he owned it, considering he had gotten received several of these questions already on the opening day of the promotions (he had tried to avoid working that shift, but had had no such luck). Jinyoung refused the fanboy like he had refused all the fangirls before, but unlike the girls, who would nod, avert their gaze and thank him anyway, this fanboy kept staring at Jinyoung expectantly, and Jinyoung was not quite sure how to react, his role as a customer servant preventing him from just going back to his book as the customer was still standing right there and clearly wanting something of him.
To break the rather awkward silence, Jinyoung widened his friendly customer service smile a bit more and asked, “Is there anything else I could help you with?”
That seemed to do the trick, as the fanboy snapped out of his daze and blinked those (tremendously big) chocolate eyes in quick sequence at Jinyoung. The fanboy’s mouth dropped open for a moment before he closed it again with a snap, one hand rising to point at his own face in a quite silly manner as he spoke. “Um, can’t you make an exception? I’m, you know, Jackson Wang? Not just any fan, so.” A pause that did not last enough for Jinyoung to form a polite answer before the boy continued, “You know what, I don’t usually do this, but I could sign the stand-in, so you would get more customers for sure for as long as the promotions go on, how’s that sound like?”
“Please don’t vandalize the stand-in,” Jinyoung blurted before he could help himself, hand rising in an effort to gesture back the crazy entitled fanboy who had already started to turn to make his way over to the (Plastic? Cardboard? Jinyoung wasn’t sure) figure and give it his apparently blessing of a signature. Well, Jinyoung guessed fanboys were probably pretty rare in the fandom, and this one must be popular on instagram or twitter or weibo or whatever the fans used nowadays to think himself this important.
To try and make the situation crystal clear for the foreign boy, Jinyoung cleared his throat and tried to format his frustration as politely as he could. “Look, you’re not the first fan who asks for the stand-in. Some even offered money for it, but the thing is, it’s company property. We can’t promise it to anyone, so I’m sorry, you can’t get it.” To try and soften the message, Jinyoung added, ”You can take as many pictures with it as you’d like, though.”
If Jinyoung wasn’t feeling annoyed right now, he would think that the surprised and open expression on the fanboy’s face was cute. But he was, and the boy’s attitude of the salesperson refusing his request being the biggest surprise in the world was really getting on Jinyoung’s nerves.
“You really don’t know who I am?”
Oh, the entitlement. Like Jinyoung was required to know everything about the idol and the fandom just because he worked at the store they were doing a promotion in, a promotion Jinyoung had had absolutely no say in. “No, I don’t, I’m sorry, I’m not really in the scene.”
“Oh.” The boy seemed perplexed for a moment, a furrow appearing between clearly plucked and shaped eyebrows, before it faded into a happy-go-lucky smile that caught Jinyoung totally off guard with its brightness and suddenness. The foreigner’s moods were changing so quickly Jinyoung was getting whiplash. “That’s cool.”
Jinyoung figured the foreigner was trying to say that it was alright, so Jinyoung nodded, expecting the boy to finally back off, but apparently he was wrong again, because the boy was settling his hands on the counter and leaning slowly over it to study Jinyoung’s face closer, like he was a curious specimen in a lab or something. Jinyoung wondered how far he could lean away from the fanboy before it would be considered impolite customer service, when the chocolate-eyed boy opened his full lips to speak again and-
Maybe Jinyoung was not completely out of luck yet, because the fanboy’s cellphone rang, and the shorter man quickly backed away from Jinyoung’s personal bubble to dig it out of his baggy pants and answer.
“What’s up Mark, don’t worry I’m fine -” and the rest Jinyoung didn’t understand because the boy switched from English to Chinese, since although Jinyoung had done excellently in his English and Japanese courses, he hadn't taken any Chinese, and thus couldn't follow the rest of the conversation if he would have even wanted to.
So now Jinyoung was just standing there, behind the counter, not able to get back to his book as he still had the customer standing there, although the foreign boy was now focusing on the phone call and not Jinyoung, fingers of his free hand dwindling on the hem of his oversized sweater. Jinyoung followed the movement with his eyes for the lack of anything else to do, distractedly noting that the fabric of the slightly shorter boy’s pants clung to his thighs just a little bit, revealing their muscularity.
Jinyoung snapped his eyes up to the man’s - Jackson’s? - face with quite the speed as the foreigner ended his call with a “I’ll be right there, see ya” in English.
“Sorry, that was my man- uhhh, friend, I gotta go. I’ll try to visit later again, though!”
Not knowing what to do, Jinyoung nodded and blurted the usual farewell he was supposed to say to customers as they were leaving, although the fanboy - Jackson - hadn’t even bought anything, and as such, couldn't really be called a customer. From his post behind the counter Jinyoung saw Jackson stop by the stand-in at the entrance, but when it didn’t seem like the boy was trying to steal it in front of Jinyoung’s watchful eyes - and anyway the alarms would go off if he even tried to - Jinyoung relaxed, digging his course book from beneath his counter before lifting his eyes again, checking up on Jackson once more.
Jinyoung decided to fix his eyes firmly onto his book as they had started to cling too much on the curve of Jackson’s neck where the back of his head attached to the nape of his neck, the dark but still brown hairs visible beneath the snapback.
Because he was focusing on his book Jinyoung didn’t see the boy leaving, and it wasn’t until a couple of minutes later, when Jinyoung was closing the store, that he noticed that he really should have kept a closer eye on the fanboy. Despite Jinyoung’s explicit forbiddance, Jackson had gone and scribbled his (rather big) signature onto the stand-in, like he was some sort of a big star or something. Slightly panicking, Jinyoung attempted to rub at the black ink with his fingers, but it wasn’t budging, made with permanent marker or something, and Jinyoung cursed under his breath. In an attempt to not get fired, Jinyoung picked the stand-in up and lugged it into the backroom, intending to google a way to remove permanent marker.
Bambam, who had been at the back of the store room sorting the new incoming products, noticed him entering with the stand-in. The Thai boy blinked at him a couple of times before oh-so-eloquently and cleverly questioning Jinyoung. “Why are you bringing the stand-in in?”
Instead of answering verbally Jinyoung set the stand-in down and turned it to face Bambam, pointing angrily at the scribble right on top of the idol’s chest. Bambam got up from his seat and approached Jinyoung with his head tilted, like he couldn’t have seen the black signature contrasting on the white jacket the stand-in person wore already from where he had been sitting.
“Was that signature there before?” Really, Jinyoung had thought Bambam was smarter than this.
“No, obviously, blockhead. Some fan came in just before closing and vandalized the stand-in while I wasn’t looking.” Jinyoung tried to reach to hit Bambam lightly on the head, but the (at the moment grey-haired) younger man ducked from beneath his arm to observe the damage from up closer.
“A fan?” Bambam repeated, big round eyes flickering up to look at Jinyoung in doubt before lowering them again to the signature, touching his fingers to the edges of it much more gently than Jinyoung had before.
“Yeah, some fanboy. Jackson something. Foreigner. Spoke Korean quite well though, and I told him not to scribble onto the stand-in, but either he didn’t understand or he didn’t care. Can you run to the general store downstairs and get some nail polish remover or something and help me to get it off? I think something like that should do the trick…”
“Jackson? Like, Jackson Wang?” Bambam was giving Jinyoung that face again, the one when Jinyoung did not know the latest fandom drama or girl group debut or whatever, and there was a lot of surprise mixed into it. But Jinyoung was annoyed, stressed and rather tired, and he wanted to get back home to study instead of staying late at the store to clean a scribble off of a stand-in, so he had no strength or patience to humor Bambam right now.
“Yeah, I guess. Can you go get some nail polish now, please? I want to get home preferably some time before midnight.” It was saying a lot that Jinyoung was asking somewhat nicely.
Bambam bursting into a fit of laughter was not the reaction Jinyoung had wanted nor expected. It was not helpful, and also it made Jinyoung feel stupid as he was clearly missing out on an apparently hilarious joke that was most definitely making fun of him.
“Oh my god this is priceless, I can’t wait to tell Yugyeom,” Bambam finally got out between wheezing breaths from where he had bent over, straightening to smirk at Jinyoung openly. Jinyoung did not appreciate the disrespect. “Nah, leave the signature. He’s kinda famous in the fandom, fans coming in are gonna love it.”
Jinyoung tried to argue against it, unwilling to let the fanboy win even symbolically, but Bambam didn’t give in, and in the end Jinyoung didn’t feel like wasting any more time fighting about it, agreeing to leave the signature if Bambam took all responsibility for it in case their superiors came asking about it. Bambam agreed with an easy grin, which made Jinyoung narrow his eyes at the unruly dongsaeng, being suspicious of the Thai boy’s intentions, but not having any energy to argue anymore.
Bambam had agreed to take responsibility for it, so whatever. It was not Jinyoung’s problem.
In the end, Jinyoung had to grudgingly admit in the back of his head that Bambam (and Jackson) were right, because the signature was loved by the fans coming in. After Jinyoung had answered to the first enquiry of “is that stand-in really personally signed by Jackson Wang?” with an affirmative, the news apparently spread fast amongst fans, and more came in to take pictures with the now signed stand-in than there had been even on the opening day.
Jinyoung didn’t know what the big deal was, but he didn’t want to ask with how smug Bambam had acted about it on the days after, so he left the matter alone, and hoped that whenever that apparently famous fanboy would come in the next time, if he even would come like he had threatened, Jinyoung would not be working that shift.
But as Jinyoung’s bad (or good?) luck would have it, of course he was.
It could be explained with how Jackson was not used to not being recognized by people around his age from countries he was active in if he had revealed both his face and his name. Not since the days when he had won his first variety prices in China, and since his appearances on TV in Korea, the same fate of being recognized on the streets if he wasn’t properly disguised haunted him here, also.
Jackson would have found it understandable, really, if it would be just some random guy from the street not recognizing him, but someone literally working at a store where Jackson’s face was everywhere? It was more than unlikely, it was weird, and so of course Jackson was interested in seeing how far he could take it before he would get caught. It was his new project, and planning it was a way to spend time between filmings and being shuffled around between Korea and China as Mark did his absolute best to get Jackson through all the different things crammed into his schedule, like usual.
But since he had straight out told the salesperson - Park Jinyoung, his name plaque had read - his name, Jackson had to get creative. He had to wait for the boom at the store to calm down - he saw a lot of fans posting pictures online of the signed stand-in once they had figured out that it had his actual signature - as he did not want to end up at the store in a crowd of fans without bodyguards or Mark. After some days, when the flood of pictures had mostly calmed down, Jackson saw his chance. He idly wondered while sneaking out of his hotel room on another Monday evening how long it would be until Mark would finally have a nervous breakdown and attach a GPS tracker to the idol he was supposed to guard and watch over. Well, apparently Jackson was hellbent to find out.
Anyway, Jackson was taking more risks this time than he usually was, which was another reason for Mark to scold him later. He was wearing much more obvious clothing than last time, because his plan was to wear the same exact clothes he was wearing in the picture they had used for the stand-in in the store Jinyoung worked at, and see if that would get Jinyoung to recognize him. He couldn’t look that much different from the pictures just because of the lighting, change in hair and no makeup, right?
Because of his more obvious choice of clothes, Jackson did of course get recognized much more this time, but at least he managed to shake his fans off before entering the mall.
It had not even occurred to Jackson that he might arrive at a time when Jinyoung wasn’t working, but his gamble worked out even without him having realized its risk, because when Jackson ducked into the store and glanced around to make sure there was no other customers, his eyes found Jinyoung again behind the counter. Much like last time, the black-haired man was immersed in a book, but he looked up at the movement of Jackson half sprinting into the store (he was trying to avoid being noticed just before he got into the store because he didn’t feel like doing laps around the mall to lose his tail).
The half glare that Jinyoung directed his way told Jackson that Jinyoung was (probably) still blessedly unaware of who Jackson was, which was great, because that was why Jackson had taken all these extra risks to arrive here in this very recognizable getup. It also told Jackson that Jinyoung remembered him despite not (probably) knowing his idol status, which was also nice, and what Jackson was truly after - someone knowing him and maybe at some point liking him without caring about his fame. It wasn’t something Jackson had experienced in quite some while, not since the beginning of his career.
Jackson waved exaggeratedly towards the cashier, an excited smirk spreading on his face as he willed for his plan to work. All the bother Jackson had gone through to arrange his escape here would be worth the reaction he could and would get out of Jinyoung as the shop assistant would maybe finally come to realize who Jackson was, and possibly still see Jackson in the same way, without getting starstruck. It was playing with fire, taking a lot of chances, but Jackson was rather rash sometimes. “Hello, it’s me again!”
The words Jinyoung spoke back at him were a standard polite store personnel greeting, but the look in the store clerk’s eyes was far from polite, and Jackson was really enjoying this too much. When Jinyoung didn’t say anything more, not even when Jackson arrived at the counter and planted his hands on it, Jackson opened his mouth again, letting his lips curve into a smirk. “So how has the signature been working, Jinyoung-ssi~”
The question was unnecessary, really, considering that Jackson knew exactly how well it had been received among his fans, but it was a conversation opener and also a way for Jackson to gauge how he had managed to avoid getting found out by Jinyoung. Of course, not already counting that Jinyoung might possibly be blind considering he hadn’t noticed that Jackson looks exactly like the person who stares back at Jinyoung from the walls of the store whenever Jinyoung would look up from the book he probably shouldn’t be reading while working anyway. Jackson tried to peer at the cover of the book to see what exactly Jinyoung was reading, but the shop assistant was quicker than he was, hiding the object under the counter. Afterwards, though, Jinyoung had no more excuse to look away from Jackson’s eyes, which was nice, as Jackson rather liked locking gazes with the sales clerk’s expressive, pitch black eyes.
“Yes, surprisingly, fans seem to love it. Are you happy, Jackson-ssi?” Jinyoung added obviously grudgingly, but Jackson was just happy to break out of the polite sales personnel speech pattern Jinyoung had tried to uphold with him, and get into the banter he had rather hoped to get out of the black-haired man. Jackson was also very pleased to hear his name fall from Jinyoung’s lips, completely without the admiration or polite fear or whatever Jackson usually got around people who weren’t Mark or his other long-time friends. Also, point made, Jinyoung had remembered his name without the fame being attached to it.
Jackson beamed at Jinyoung as widely as he could, going forward with his plan as at least so far, Jinyoung hadn’t recognized him despite the clothes. “I’m glad. So, I was thinking, could you take a picture of me with the stand-in?” As Jinyoung hesitated and looked around the shop, Jackson added, “There aren’t any other customers anyway, so how about it? Pretty please?”
Jinyoung sighed and deflated, agreeing probably just to be rid of Jackson faster, but that was alright. As Jinyoung rounded the counter Jackson took a few quick steps to walk to be able to walk to the stand-in side by side with the slightly taller man man, eyes taking in the perfect proportions of Jinyoung’s frame and gosh, was there anything that wasn’t perfect about him? Jinyoung had a perfect, handsome face, a soothing, low voice, beautiful eyes and absolutely gorgeous proportions. The Korean male was truly just like a male model out of a magazine, so of course Jackson just had to blurt, “Are you a model or something?”
Jinyoung did a double take at him before bursting out in loud laughter, one hand coming to hover over his mouth to hide his teeth although Jackson would have loved to see them, trying to find just one flaw to make sure Jinyoung was real and not a hallucination Jackson was having of a perfect man. Maybe that should be his new mission, although considering how the small imperfections Jackson could already see on Jinyoung’s skin did nothing to alleviate his opinion that Jinyoung was perfect, maybe it would be an impossible task.
The sides of Jinyoung’s eyes crinkled really attractively when he smiled truly, and it made all the difference to the polite customer service smile Jackson had been seeing mostly so far, except of course when Jackson had made the black-haired man frown and purse his lips at him. In any case Jackson loved Jinyoung’s true smile, although it made his chest feel tight.
“No, I’m not a model. Just a drama student and a shop assistant at NBA, I’m afraid.” Jinyoung finally answered after having his laugh, eyes sparkling as he glanced at Jackson, and Jackson felt warmth spread out from the center of his chest, the tight bundle not loosening.
“You totally could be, your legs are really long and your face is very handsome.” Jackson half flirted half stated matter-of-factly as they arrived by the stand-in. Jinyoung waved his compliment off with a hand, but Jackson didn’t mind, rather enjoying the slightly bashful expression. Moving forward with his plan, Jackson handed his smartphone in camera mode to Jinyoung before walking to stand next to the stand-in, waiting expectantly for an expression of dawning realization to appear on Jinyoung’s face as he draped his arm carefully over the shoulders of his more or less exact likeness. Jackson even strived to take on the same expression as he had on at the moment of taking this picture, a smoulder in his eyes and lips closed in a firm line.
But alas, no. Jinyoung simply raised the smartphone in front of him, took a couple of pictures and stated, “Wow, you really went for the twin look today, didn’t you, with the clothes and all. And I thought you weren’t a customer but just a fan who wanted to take pictures of their idol.”
Jackson’s face started to fall, but he didn’t have much time to react to Jinyoung’s disappointing words before the loud guffawing laugh of another person filled the space between them. Both Jinyoung and Jackson turned to look to the side, where another sales clerk was approaching them. This one had even longer legs than Jinyoung had, a lanky frame and stylishly overly long grey hair that was not quite long enough to hide the amusement flickering in his big, round eyes. With the way this new arrival had one eyebrow raised as he glanced between Jackson and Jinyoung, Jackson was sure there was no way he didn’t know who Jackson was.
“Oh my god Jinyoung-hyung you are so dense, but it’s okay, at least you’re good-looking.” The new boy smirked at Jinyoung, and Jinyoung let out an indignant complaint that sounded something like “yeah so I can’t know all the fandoms and fanboys, would you stop already”, but Jackson didn’t really listen to him as the Hong Kong idol was too busy staring at the new foreign? boy with his eyes wide in panic like a deer in the headlights, unable to run from his oncoming doom.
The grin on Jinyoung’s dongsaeng’s face was downright predatory when he directed it towards Jackson, but at least the mirth dancing in the boy’s eyes softened it up a little, giving Jackson some hope. “Hello Jackson-ssi, my name is Bambam. Would it be alright with you for me to take a picture together with you and the stand-in?”
Jackson understood from the smirk on Bambam’s face and the tactical choice of words that the picture was the price of the silence of Jinyoung’s friend. And it should be fine, what with Bambam obviously wearing the clothes of a NBA salesperson and Jackson in full NBA promotion mode, it would look like just a part of the promotions. So he nodded, and Bambam’s smile turned into a more friendly Cheshire cat’s grin. After a moment of fumbling around Jinyoung had naturally ended up in the role of the photographer again, Jackson’s smartphone exchanged for Bambam’s and Bambam moving to stand next to the Jacksons as they posed for the picture.
“I don’t think he’ll get it before you or someone else straight out lays it out to him.” The words were spoken quietly, but Jackson didn’t have to turn to check that Bambam had directed them at him, as they were almost a whisper clearly not meant to reach Jinyoung’s ears. Jackson was relieved. So it was certain now that Bambam did know who he was, and at least for now Bambam didn’t seem to have the intention to use it against Jackson, at least for more than getting a selfie with him, and that was a deal Jackson was ready to make.
“I’m surprised he doesn’t realize even with me posing with a picture of myself…” Jackson mumbled and Bambam let out a giggle, earning a glare from Jinyoung before the older shop assistant declared he was done taking photos. Bambam insisted that he needed to check them first before Jinyoung would be allowed to go, and Jackson was quietly thankful to the younger boy, taking any opportunity to spend some more time in Jinyoung’s company although he didn’t know how to, using the precious seconds by shifting awkwardly from one foot to another, as Jinyoung was mostly focused on glaring at Bambam, who was flicking through the photos with his nose crunched a little. Thankfully, maybe, Jinyoung’s dongsaeng deemed that none of the pictures were good enough and that ‘Jinyoung-hyung’ needed to snap a couple more.
Jackson absentmindedly wondered if Jinyoung was older or younger than him. Bambam was definitely younger, but with Jinyoung Jackson wasn’t quite sure. Jackson didn’t bother to stop to wonder why it even mattered, as they probably wouldn’t have the chance to get to a level of familiarity that would have them drop the formal ‘ssi’ for a ‘hyung’ or ‘ah’ anyway, although Jackson of course hoped they would. He was just a silly dreamer sometimes, a hopeless optimist when given a chance, although the world had taught him out of the worst of it a long time ago. So maybe he wanted a friend who didn’t care about his celebrity status. Maybe he would want even something more with Jinyoung, who knows. And maybe he would risk a lot because he was kind of crazy, and wanted to give whatever he could have with Jinyoung a try.
Anyway, leaning close with Bambam again, Jackson decided to put his neck out a little more to see if he could find a co-conspirator in Bambam, voice pitched low and quiet so that Jinyoung wouldn’t hear. “I’m sort of trying to get him to realize, but I don’t want to outright tell him, so, if you could keep my secret from him and not spread the picture before the promotions are over, I’d really appreciate it.”
Bambam hummed like he was thinking it over, but as Jackson spared him a side glance, the sparkle in the lanky boy’s fakely grey eyes revealed that he was more than up to the task. However, beneath the mirth there was an assessing tone in the younger’s gaze, like he was mapping out Jackson’s sincerity or intentions or something, and Jackson shifted on his feet awkwardly, until Bambam gave in or found what he was looking for, Jackson wasn’t sure which.
“Alright, if I also get you to comment on the post on ig after I post it. I’ll tag you of course.” A business arrangement, then. Jackson could deal with that, turning to hug the younger boy as Jinyoung announced that now he was really done with taking pictures, and if none of them were suitable, then Bambam could take the pictures himself and stop blaming his poor hyung.
“Alright, deal.” He said softly into Bambam’s ear, and the victory sign and happy smile he got as an answer confirmed that they were now partners in crime. A small win for Jackson. Maybe. He didn’t even know what he was doing.
Jackson rushed to Jinyoung’s side, boldly grabbing onto the arm of the man who still didn’t know who he was, tilting his head to the side and pulling on a cute face as he opened his eyes wide, noting happily how Jinyoung was startled but didn’t really attempt to pull back from his hold. Why did Jinyoung look so good up close anyway? It was unfair. “Did I look okay?”
Jackson could hear Bambam snort in the background, but he was more focused on the way Jinyoung was leaning slightly away as he got slightly flustered by Jackson’s closeness, struggling to find the words, something Jackson found totally adorable. Especially with how Jinyoung was obviously amused, his eyes doing that crinkling, smiling thing as he looked down at Jackson. “Um, yeah, I-”
“GAGA.”
Ah, damn. The party was over, he had been found.
Jackson guiltily let go of Jinyoung’s hand as he turned towards the voice, although he really did not have to look to know that his manager and long-time friend was standing by the entrance of the shop. It was also not a surprise that his friend’s usually so calm exterior would betray his fuming worry and anger now, all directed towards Jackson who had again snuck out without telling anyone. And, as Jackson had already known, there the American was, black beanie pulled over his honey brown hair, arms crossed over his chest as he glared at Jackson, and Jackson winced. Jinyoung was looking back and forth between them, confused, but Jackson didn’t dare to look at him anymore, having to focus his attention on his visibly frustrated friend.
“Oh hi Markie-hyung, you found me, uh, I was just leaving!” Jackson said in an overly happy voice, stepping away from Jinyoung at the same time as Mark took long strides towards him with his unfairly long legs to close the distance, grabbing hold of Jackson’s elbow the second the lanky brunette reached his protege.
“You better be. You’re lucky your location is not posted all over the social media right now, what with how you’re dressing.” Mark had switched to Chinese, knocking Jackson over the head and slinging an arm around his shoulders, holding him close, obviously having worried despite his scolding words. He switched back to his accented Korean as he gave a nod towards the sales clerks and apologized, “I’m so sorry for any trouble he caused, we’ll go now.”
“Bye Jinyoung-ssi, Bambam-ah!” Jackson threw over his shoulder, waving at the two men they were leaving behind, and trying to firmly press deep into his memory the confused expression on Jinyoung’s handsome face, and the furrow between his brows. Jackson was already planning his next escape, no matter how Mark chided him all the way back to the hotel, but that was just how he was, completely unable to give in.
It didn’t really make much sense, as there wasn’t any further that Jackson could go without straight out telling Jinyoung that he was the idol plastered all over the store, but Jackson wasn’t trying to explain it to himself. He was completely okay with mentally placing his fingers into his ears and ‘lalala’ing until his common sense would stop nagging him about why he was so eager to see Jinyoung again, if that meant he could justify doing it again.
Mark, unfortunately, was too smart for his own good (or maybe smart enough to justify why he had survived working with Jackson and being friends with him at the same time for all these years), since the LA boy wasn’t dumb enough to think Jackson wouldn’t try to go to the store again another time. Instead of trying to stop the persistent idol, Mark knew when to give in a little to keep hold of Jackson, and Jackson had to agree to plan with Mark when to go the next time and take the manager with him, or Mark would make sure there would be no chance for Jackson to escape the next time they’d fly back to Korea. No amount of puppy eyes or pouting changed Mark’s mind, the older way too used to Jackson’s antics, and Jackson knew when to pick his fights.
On top of being smart, Mark was also perceptive enough not to ask why Jackson was doing this, letting the singer and variety star delude himself that he wasn’t totally going out of his way and doing something extraordinary for the sake of seeing the face of one man.
( part two)