Basic Human Decency

Yukuaki was not an abusive boyfriend.

Sure, sometimes his pranks were a little extreme, and sometimes his little jokes had not-so-little effects, but he still knew to not cross the line.

Yukuaki was also not an uncaring boyfriend. He made sure that he never went too far, and would gladly step in if any of his help was needed.

So why was the hashtag #SaveCallum trending on every social media platform he looked?!??!

~

It all started when Yukuaki somehow stumbled into someone in an otherwise deserted alleyway. They were sitting on a dilapidated washing machine, leaning against the graffitied wall behind him and gazing up at the starry sky, soaked with shadow. Their hair was slicked back, though the gel was starting to lose its hold, and was wearing a tight sleeveless turtleneck. Although the night was cold, the wind biting, they seemed unbothered by their absolute lack of warm clothing. Yukuaki had thought this figure looked familiar, but it wasn’t until they noticed him standing there and sat up straight that he recognized them.

How did I not recognize him at first glance? What kind of fan am I?

Saying Yukuaki was surprised was an understatement. The wildly popular idol Callum, in a dirty alleyway during the dead of night? No wonder he was so meagerly dressed. Known for his extreme aversion to heat, in addition to his unexpressive and standoffish personality, Callum had earned the title ‘Frozen Ardour’. And frozen he was, it seemed, as he was currently staring blankly at Yukuaki, who was deciding whether to run and leave him alone or not.

Slowly backing away from this international icon, Yukuaki hesitantly said, “Well, goodbye, I won’t disturb you…”

Callum was still eyeing him warily, and Yukuaki was just about to full on sprint out of there to escape the sight of a globally beloved celebrity when said celebrity curiously reached out a hand.

“You aren’t going to jump me?”

“...sorry, what?”

Yukuaki turned back to see that the idol looked mildly surprised and was leaning forward, forearms resting on his knees.

“Not even gush about how you love me? Beg me for an autograph? Take about a thousand selfies with me?”

Every word that came out of his mouth was completely sincere, not in a mocking way at all, and each made Yukuaki more and more concerned. Knitting his eyebrows together, he opened and closed his mouth a few times, at a loss for words.

“No…?” he managed.

Callum raised his eyebrows, even more taken aback.

“It is that you don’t know who I am?”

He didn’t say it in a condescending way―rather, it sounded like he was genuinely surprised that it was possible someone had not heard of him before.

Yukuaki hastily shook his head. “Oh, no, I definitely know who you are.”

“Then..not a fan?”

“Nope, very much a fan.”

“And you…aren’t going to try and kidnap me?”

Yukuaki didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“No? What kind of person does that?”

Callum widened his eyes.

“You are different,” he mused.

“A-am I―?”

“Could I ask you out for coffee sometime?”

“...are you asking me solely because I have basic human decency?”

~

At first, Callum had tried to keep their relationship hidden from the public’s prying eyes, though he was aware of the fact it would not stay like that. Still, he wanted to keep it on the down low for simply as long as possible. His attempt at that was to disguise himself with inconspicuous clothes whenever he and Yukuaki went out together, though it really seemed to have no effect. Unfortunately, Callum was an extremely well known celebrity, and of course had fans everywhere―most of whom were very hyper if they saw him in public and snapped about a million photos of him when they thought he wasn’t looking. Not even a week passed before rumours spread that the aloof Callum was going out with someone.

That had triggered something akin to a manhunt. Everyone online was losing their minds and desperately trying to piece together this mystery by any means possible, be it hyper analysing every photo or video in the past year that Callum appeared in, tracking down every person Callum had interacted with recently, or spamming Callum with blatantly fake sob stories followed with ‘btw who are u dating?’.

Callum decided it would be best for him and Yukuaki to stop going out to places together, lest he got jumped by a mob of excited and/or jealous fans. Yukuaki flat out refused.

“The problem’s only going to get worse if you try and hide it!” he declared. With a shit-eating grin, he added, “Besides, I want them to discover that you chose me.”

Callum sighed; he had asked this boy out because he was the first person that hadn’t immediately tried to violate his rights, but it turned out he didn’t care much for his own. Still, he couldn’t help but smile at how smug he sounded about being the ‘chosen one’.

The two decided to stop hiding away, and instead acted like they were any other normal couple―which proved difficult with the cameras and eyes and lights everywhere, but they made it work. Callum still felt somewhat anxious, but he trusted his boyfriend’s confidence. Yukuaki decided that he would ignore everything that was watching them, and unashamedly showed his affection―to hell with the public’s scrutiny. Let everyone know exactly how he felt about ‘Frozen Ardour’, Callum!

-

“Why…whyyy…I’m a good boyfriend…I swear….”

Callum sighed, plonking himself down on the floor and giving his boyfriend a few comforting strokes. Yukuaki lay face down, protesting to the carpet how good of a partner he was. Picking up Yukuaki’s rejected phone, Callum scrolled and tapped, quickly seeing the source of his distress.

“#SaveCallum,” he read aloud. Yukuaki groaned more from this place on the floor.

Every social media platform had that tag trending, and as Callum laid his eyes on the countless photos, videos, and extensively detailed eye witness reports, he couldn’t help but laugh.

It seemed that all social media users and their dog believed that Callum was in an abusive relationship.

“I’m sorryy..” Yukuaki moaned into the fuzz of the carpet. Callum did not hear the apology, as by now was too far gone and was fervently scrolling through what seemed like endless well. He shoved Yukuaki’s phone in its owner’s face. The screen showed a mildly blurry picture of two figures that were obviously them sitting in a restaurant. One of the figures was flushed red and passed out on the table, while the other seemed to be laughing uproariously. But wait, there’s more! It seemed like Yukuaki’s every prank had been captured and posted online. No one held back in sharing what they thought was solid fact. Everywhere he looked, Callum could see people worrying for him, fuming for him, and mostly, wishing unpleasant demises onto Yukuaki. He sighed. Smoothing this over was not going to be an easy job.

-

After countless statements of clarification on many social media platforms―most of them generally saying things like ‘yes, Yukuaki is my boyfriend, no, he’s not abusing me we have a very stable relationship, please don’t send him death threats’―Callum could only sit back and hope the public believed what he said.

At least this situation would discourage Yukuaki from pulling any pranks―for a little while.