Pivot

Their lips connected. Minato was thrown over by the sheer force that Shinya put behind his action. They toppled over together, Shinya straddling Minato‘s lap. Minato stared at him as if he wasn‘t real.

“I must be mad,“ Shinya whispered.

Minato moved immediately and embraced him.

“That’s fine. As long as that madness allows me to hold you.”

“I want to trust you again. I care for you.”

Minato felt every muscle in his body relax. This was what he had feared. That Shinya had fallen out of love with him. But he hadn’t. This perfect man. He still…

“You still love me?”

Shinya held him closer. “It wouldn’t have hurt as much if I didn’t.”

“I’ll make it up to you. Every day of my life if I have to. But I can’t bring myself to regret it entirely. It made me fall for you in the end.”

Shinya looked up, eyes full of tears, his cheeks coloured by a rosy blush. The people who called him plain had no idea how lovely Shinya was. But that was okay. It meant that Minato had him all to himself.

“And what do we do about the gossip?” Shinya asked.

“Didn’t Fujibashi tell you? They found the one who leaked the photo and put the rumour into the world.”

Shinya’s eyes widened. “Already? She didn’t…”

“It was Kazuya. The photographer came forward when he was questioned. It will likely influence Kazuya’s career going forward.”

“It’s my fault.”

“Shinya?”

Minato put a hand on Shinya’s face.

“It was my fault to begin with, prioritising you. He only—”

Minato’s lips cut off Shinya’s words, turning them into a shy moan. As they separated, Minato pressed their foreheads together.

“Stop it. People get casted or not for myriads of reasons. No one forced that guy to do anything, least of all you. He acted out of hate, but you acted out of love. Never ever compare these two.”

Shinya hiccuped and wiped the tears from his face. “But that doesn’t solve the issue at hand. They’re still going to accuse us of colluding.”

“Well, then they should just talk.”

“What?”

Minato wrapped his legs around Shinya, grateful to have him close again. He kissed him just because he could and was pleased to feel Shinya melt into him.

“Stop distracting me.”

“You’re easy to distract.”

“Minato…”

Minato buried his face in Shinya’s shoulder and breathed in deeply. Shinya looked up and saw the face of the man he had in his arms looking back at him from every wall. It was surreal.

“It’s kinda out already. There’s more photos of us than just that one. I’m pretty sure someone followed me here too.”

“What are you saying?”

“Put the record straight. We met on set. Fell in love. The whole truth. Well, without mentioning my lapse in judgement. By the way, I fired Fukuhara.”

“You did what??”

“I wasn’t comfortable with him anymore. He blamed you for everything, when it was clearly our side at fault. This isn’t a foundation for anything.”

“You have more to lose than me if we go public.”

Minato released Shinya and took his hand to lead him to the bed. They sat down next to each other, as Minato took another good look around.

“I don’t think even I am as much of a fan of myself,” he quipped.

“I won’t apologise for that.”

“No need to apologise. I encourage you,” Minato said and shifted closer for another kiss. “Now tell me, what role I played was your favourite?”

Shinya closed his eyes as Minato kissed along his jaw.

“I’m dreaming,” he whispered.

“I assure you, you’re not.”

“I’m pretty sure I had this dream at least a dozen times before,” Shinya said and made a conscious effort to push Minato away, who protested loudly. “Now tell me what you plan to do.”

“We’re going to talk to my agency tomorrow. They wanted me to put out a statement. It’s not the one they’re hoping for, but it’s the one they get. No, don’t worry. They won’t let me go. Have you even seen the social media response?”

Shinya shook his head. “I tried not to.”

“Come on, put our names into TikTok.”

In the end, Shinya was convinced to comply. He opened the app, started typing Minato’s name and before he’d even finished writing it, the suggested topic was already both of their names together. He swallowed nervously and tapped it.

The first video was an influencer talking about the situation. Not very engaging. But the next one… It was photos of them, together. On set, events, live streams. And the music that played was…

“Ugh, cheesy,” Shinya complained.

“Yeah, but that’s the whole point. They like us together. Go on.”

Shinya scrolled through video after video of what could only be described as shipping content. The kind he had daydreamed about in his weaker moments—which had been frequent.

“You have to admit we look good together.”

“So that’s it? We just go public? What if you decide in a few months that I’m annoying and you ruined your reputation for nothing?”

Minato chuckled as he embraced Shinya and kissed the edge of his mouth.

“Then I’ll just pivot to BL dramas from now on and make good use of it.”