Chapter Text
Lying on his stomach on the sofa, Jeongin scrolls through his DMs, meticulously sorting them as he usually does before going about sending any replies. Unpaid followers' messages go to the trash, and anything remotely inflammatory - paid or unpaid - gets them blocked. Honestly these days, after doing this for a while, even just something kind of rude, creepy, or that rubs Jeongin the wrong way runs the risk of getting the follower at least temporarily timed out.
That's the unfortunate side-effect of his job as not only a camboy, but a gay trans one at that - it pulls all kinds of people out of the woodwork, thinking they can just say whatever vile things that pop into their heads, as if there isn't a human on the other side of the screen. He's tried to grow a thick skin and focus on the positive comments - especially when those comments tend to vastly outweigh the negative - but some days, it's just hard. As his following has grown, so has the volume of comments he has to sort through, and Jeongin's starting to realize he might need some help and find himself a mod.
He's so engrossed in his task that he barely notices when his roommate Changbin gets home from one of his regular trips to the gym and starts putzing around the house. It isn't until Changbin sits down on Jeongin's back, knocking the wind out of him, that he finally looks up from his phone.
"What do you want?" Jeongin chokes out, his arms and legs flopping down bonelessly as he tries to melt into the sofa and lessen the pressure of having a full grown man on top of him.
"I'm home now," Changbin draws out the words in a whiny tone. "Pay attention to me!"
Changbin twists his torso to reach over and give a playful slap to Jeongin's backside. Jeongin groans in faux irritation and squirms around to try and escape, but there's no way he's getting out from under this meathead's weight. His attempted escape just spurs Changbin on, and a flurry of smacks rain down on both of Jeongin's cheeks.
It hasn't been long since the two moved in together, but it's been like this from the start. Changbin's always been an affectionate guy, so Jeongin knew what he was getting himself into.
Jeongin and his core friend group all met as idol trainees. Young, shy and early into his transition, back then Jeongin was filled with anxiety and self-doubt about whether he could really even be accepted into a boy group. He already felt so grateful for his parents' tentative but earnest support, it almost felt selfish to pursue something so ambitious. Getting accepted into a company at all felt like such a huge accomplishment, and he met some of the most precious people in his life as they danced and sang and laughed together; as they worked themselves to the bone and fought and cried together - but ultimately, they still failed to debut as a group.
Whether it was because Jeongin is trans or not, he'll never know - one day the company just took him aside and said they no longer wished to move forward with him. But as soon as he brought the news to the rest of the group, they immediately declared they would debut as eight or nothing, and vowed to bow out with Jeongin, a gesture that still to this day means more to him than he could ever hope to even articulate.
While the development had been devastating to them at the time, now, years later, they've all settled into tangentially related careers in music and entertainment, and particularly within the last year or so they've managed to find decent success in their fields. Jeongin's career path might be the most unique out of all of them, but it's pretty similar to being an idol, in a sense - putting on a persona similar (but markedly different) to yourself and getting in front of a camera to give the viewers what they want.
Now, everyone already knows what Jeongin does for a living, to varying levels of comfort, which is good because they've nearly all lived with him at one point or another. Even after rooming together as trainees, the eight close friends have continued to live together in almost every configuration amongst them. It got to the point where the idea of living alone just felt strange - what on earth was Jeongin expected to do if he couldn't go bother a hyung at every whim?
For the longest time, Changbin had lived with Chan and Jisung, the three of them focusing on music production after giving up on debuting. That is, until Chan and Jisung ended up forming a throuple with Jeongin's roommate Minho, and soon it made sense for some swaps to happen. Jeongin immediately had his eye on the large master bedroom occupied by Chan and Jisung, so he was more than happy to trade apartments to live with Changbin instead. He'd have way more space to store and set up his filming equipment and add more decor to his "set" instead of just the bed crammed into a corner.
This is his first time living in a separate space with just Changbin, but Jeongin figured it wouldn't be a big deal for him to have a roommate in his line of work, and therefore didn't make a big deal about it himself when mentioning it.
—
"Oh, before I forget - you'll want to ignore any sounds you hear coming out of my room a little later today," Jeongin said casually one day shortly after he'd moved in, the two of them at the kitchen table enjoying their lunch of instant noodles. He had his knees tucked against his chest, the heels of his feet propped up on the seat of his chair, and was looking down at his food and before glancing up at Changbin. "I've got a video commission to film and it'll probably get loud. Put on some headphones or go hit the gym or something."
Changbin choked on the bite he was scarfing down, quickly setting down his cup and chopsticks to slap his own chest and hack up anything that went down the wrong pipe. Jeongin covered his own amused smirk with a sweater paw - he supposed the other man was surprised to hear it referred to so casually. He sputtered out a timid response, and that was that.
—
But Jeongin couldn't bring himself to just stop there - he ended up mentioning it here and there, again and again, just to fluster his new roommate. He'd tell him when he would be filming, allude to whatever kinky category of content he'd be making, ask him afterwards if all the noises he made had been bothersome.
And every single time, Changbin's reactions were a great source of amusement - dropping or knocking over whatever he was holding, cracking out-of-pocket jokes to change the subject, or otherwise making a fool of himself. And Jeongin noticed that even though he suggested Changbin leave to occupy his time somehow, he never did - he always seemed to hole himself up in his own room whenever Jeongin was filming.
This has been going on for a few months now, and something about the desire to keep pushing the envelope and his recent struggles with managing his DMs makes a fun little idea occur to him just now, as he continues to struggle on the sofa under Changbin's weight.
"Hyung, wait," he rasps, earnestly trying to free himself now. His roommate finally gets up and instead of trying to make room to sit on the sofa Jeongin is splayed across, instead he kneels on the floor and looks at him expectantly.
"I have a favor to ask," Jeongin says, folding his arms under his head.
At the same time that Jeongin continues with, "You can say no if you want to," Changbin's eager voice overlaps his with, "I'll do it!"
Laughing, Jeongin says, "You don't even know what it is!"
"I'd do anything for my Innie," Changbin croons, nuzzling his face into Jeongin's shoulder.
"Ugh," Jeongin pushes Changbin away and finally moves to sit up, making room for him on the sofa. "Quit sitting on the floor, you look like a dog."
"I'd be a dog for you if you wanted," Changbin says simply, putting his hands on the ground between his legs, furthering the illusion. "Woof!"
"Stop!" Jeongin whines. "You're so weird."
He plants his foot squarely in the middle of Changbin's chest and pushes him backwards. Changbin's sturdy form barely budges, and he grabs Jeongin's ankle to pull him instead, making him slide down the sofa slightly.
"Stop!" Jeongin says again, pulling an exaggerated grimace and trying to shake his leg free.
"Okay, okay," Changbin lets go and finally takes a seat next to him. "What's this favor you want?"
Jeongin pulls his legs up to sit cross legged, and cuts right to the chase. "I want you to moderate comments for my camming channel."
Changbin's jaw drops in genuine shock, then he quickly closes it back up with a click of his teeth coming together. Jeongin can't help but laugh, and when his roommate doesn't reply for a while, he prompts, "Well?"
"I don't - I can't—" Changbin struggles to get the words out, and Jeongin tries to hold back more laughter.
"What happened to 'I'll do anything for my Innie'?" he asks with a faux innocent pout.
"I would!" Changbin insists, looking genuinely distraught. "I just - I don't know anything about - that kind of stuff…" he trails off weakly.
Jeongin smiles softly and pats Changbin's knee. Of course when Jeongin gives him an inch, Changbin takes a mile, so as he moves to withdraw his hand, Changbin grabs it back and laces their fingers together. Jeongin sighs, but doesn't resist.
"Well," he starts off, trying to think of the main bullet points of the responsibility. "Mostly you just have to delete comments from people calling me slurs."
He gives a wry laugh, but stops at the sight of Changbin's horrified face.
"I'm exaggerating," he backpedals, feeling bad for being so blunt. He waves his hand in front of himself and tries to laugh it off. "It's really not that bad. Anyway, there's two main components to it - moderating live when I do my streams, and then going through DMs and comments on my on-demand videos. Right now, I have it set so comments have to be approved before they show up, and I don't like them to sit for too long. Really, I try to reply to everything as quickly as I can but sometimes it can get…a little exhausting, especially when there's negative things to go through. That's why I'm asking. But - again, you can say no. I know it's a lot to ask, and it'll take up some of your time. Oh - but, I'll pay you for it, too, so…"
Changbin's been listening closely the whole time, but doesn't offer a reply right away after Jeongin trails off.
"You don't have to answer right away," Jeongin amends, realizing it might be a big decision to make on the spot.
"No, I'll do it!" Changbin rushes to say, squeezing Jeongin's hand in his, then repeats, "Anything for my Innie, right?"
Jeongin laughs in relief and squeezes back, hoping his friend isn't tremendously underestimating what he's signing up for.