"pick up, please pick up," ricky muttered as he paced back and forth, his phone pressed up against his face with so much force it was making his cheek sore.
"who are you calling?" hao asked quietly.
"ollie."
hao winced. "i figured. you realize he's terrified of your parents, right? he's not gonna be helpful at all."
ricky rolled his eyes. "the fact that he's such a push over is literally the reason my parents haven't fired him. they like people who dote on them, so they trust ollie- but so do i. perfect double agent."
hao sighed sadly. "he's too young and cute to be the assistant of two monsters. how many times did i say- you should work at a coffee shop, ollie. you should work at a pet store, ollie. high school students aren't multibillion dollar company owners' assistants, ollie. ricky's parents are scary and might chop your head off if you serve their tea wrong, ollie."
"shhhhh. you're stressing me out."
hao snapped his mouth shut. "sorry."
the phone rang and rang, and ricky paced and paced, and hao chewed all his nails off until his fingers were bleeding.
"hello?" a small voice finally said from the other end of the call, and ricky gasped in relief, shooting hao a quick nod to confirm that the call had connected.
"ollie!"
"ricky!" ollie responded in a bubbly voice. "you haven't called in forever. how are you?"
"no. nope. not right now. fuck, are my parents up yet?"
"huh?" ollie's voice inquired. "i don't know, why?"
ricky rubbed his fingers against his temple. "something- i fucked up, and now there's this thing that they really can't see. you know what they'll do and you're one of the people they trust so i need you to please keep them off the internet. at least for an hour, until i can get it taken care of."
he could hear hao rattling with nervousness behind him.
there was silence for a moment until ollie spoke again. "i can try, ricky, but you know there's a lot of people besides just your parents that could see and bust you."
ricky swore under his breath. "i know, just- just try, okay? i'm gonna go see if i can get the post taken down right now but if my dad still checks that stupid fucking uni update account every morning then i might already be fucked."
"maybe he doesn't," hao muttered behind him, but ricky could tell by his voice that even he didn't believe that. "maybe they've cooled down. maybe they forgot about you."
"i'll try my best," ollie chirped. "but you need to call later so we can actually catch up, okay?"
ricky sighed. "alright. thanks, ol."
ollie hummed, and there was a beep to signify the end of the call, and ricky swiveled to look at hao as he tucked his phone back into his pocket.
"i already texted hanbin," hao said quickly, standing up from where he was perched on the armrest of the couch. "come on, let's go."
"i don't know where he is," hanbin said for the millionth time, and for the millionth time ricky protested.
"you live in the same fucking dorm!" (read: mansion, practically. the "dorms" where the university dance team lived was just a giant house that the whole team split rent for and shared.)
"yeah, but he's not in his room. he might have a class right now."
hao sighed, walking over to hanbin and placing himself in the boy's lap. "this is really important, hanbinnie," he said quietly, gently carding his fingers through hanbin's hair. ricky tried not to gag.
"you barely even talk to gyuvin," hanbin responded, closing his eyes and leaning into hao's touch. "why are you suddenly dying to see him?"
"did you see his most recent blog post?"
hanbin hummed, nodding. "yeah, he showed it to me himself, actually. he thought it was funny." he opened his eyes, looking up at ricky. "why?"
ricky deadpanned. "hanbin, who the fuck else do you think owns designer underwear that was at that party?"
ricky watched in sick amusement as something clicked behind hanbin's eyes and his mouth fell open in shock.
"you're gyuvin's mystery lover?!" he gasped, turning to look at hao for confirmation, who gave him a quick kiss on his nose before nodding.
ricky rolled his eyes.
"holy cow. he's been talking about you all morning. hold on- he's been talking about you. like ricky shen you." hanbin looked ricky up and down. "you really slept with gyu? he doesn't seem like your type at all."
hao laughed. "that's what i said, too."
hanbin raised an eyebrow, his cheeks curling into a grin. "we always have so much in common." then he pulled hao in for a sickeningly loving kiss, and ricky had to turn away lest he actually act on his murderous thoughts.
"you guys are disgusting," he groaned. "hao and i should've just stayed in china."
hao pulled away from hanbin's embrace, gasping in mock offense. "how dare you."
"it's okay, baby," hanbin hurried to say. "i would've just moved to china to be with you." and then hao was giggling, and they were kissing again.
hao and hanbin had met online on the girl group side of k-pop stan twitter back when ricky and hao were still in high school in china. they had ended up e-dating for years until one day hao had impulsively announced that he was moving to korea to go to college (read: to finally get date hanbin in person), and ricky had begrudgingly joined him because he was bored and lonely and sick of his parents constantly looming over his shoulder at all times. but at times like this, ricky really rethought following hao here, because although he had known hao and hanbin really liked each other (and when he said really, he meant REALLY, because hanbin had literally sent hao a fucking car for his 18th birthday) he never expected them to be so, well, in love all the time. it was horrible.
"zhang hao!" ricky snapped.
hao pulled away from his lover yet again, turning to shoot ricky an unimpressed look as hanbin nuzzled his face into hao's neck.
"what," the boy drawled.
"did you fucking forget why we're here?"
"oh! right!" hao jumped off of hanbin's lap, making the boy whine in protest.
"hanbin, listen," ricky practically pleaded. "the stuff gyuvin posted on his blog could get me in a lot of trouble. if my parents see it- or anyone who could potentially show it to them- i'm dead. not to even mention all the competition business families in china who could use that fuckass picture to crumble my parent's career, which would make them even more mad, so i really need gyuvin to take it down."
hanbin nodded slowly. "yeah, okay, i'll text him."
"calling him would be better," hao said gently, reaching down to intertwine his fingers with hanbin's. "we need to reach him as quick as possible. ricky's parents are seriously everywhere. they're kinda terrifying and i don't know what they'll do if they see that post."
"i do," ricky breathed in terror. "i'm already the problem child and they already hate me enough for leaving china and not, you know, taking over the stupid shen company monopoly. they've been waiting for one thing to happen to push everything over the edge and it can't be this, god."
