Lose the argument, not the person.
Synopsis: "Lose the argument, not the person." What happens when you enter into your first hardcore argument with your long-time group member with his new identity as your boyfriend? | SEVENTEEN 14th female member oc/au
Genre: angst, comfort, fluff
Word Count: 2,686
Warning: foul language/swear
It's silence that she feared the most. Arguing with someone was not the end of the world for her, especially when you are surrounded by 13 men with slight anger issues when it comes to food (no pun intended). But silence, or refusal to talk things out, scared her the most, especially when it came to her favourite person.
Seungcheol would say for himself that although he had responsibilities being SEVENTEEN's Leader, he had fewer work opportunities to his name compared to fellow members. He takes it as a badge of honour, however, seeing it as allowing other members more opportunities to showcase their skills and looks everywhere, while providing him more alone time for himself and his loved ones. Though being a workaholic in a slight sense, he has grown to understand the importance of balance between work and life, volunteering within SEVENTEEN to cut down on his workload and handing over brand deals and sponsorships to fellow members instead.
In an ironic sense, his girlfriend thought differently. Perhaps it was the fear of missing out, but she liked entertaining herself in various work opportunities: releasing her own solo EP, performing solo at Lollapalooza, and taking on brand deals left and right. She loved work, for the paycheck, of course, but also she loved seeing the happy faces that fans light up whenever they see her plastered on different malls and advertisements, as well as all the banners and smiles that await her performances at different stages and stadiums.
Before an official romantic relationship started, Seungcheol never bothered the maknae about her workload. He understood that this was her method of enjoying the very few days that they had not working as a group, and how she saw modelling or performing as her own hobby and relaxation method.
However, post the relationship's official beginning, Seungcheol would have never imagined himself to be the "jealous" type, wanting more time from his girlfriend for his own. He made it his mission to stick with her no matter what, disguising his slightly obsessive mission as affectionate "delivering coffee to his girlfriend" or "picking up his girlfriend from work" moments. And normally, she enjoyed these small actions, but perhaps today was just different.
This time around, she was in the photography studio filming for Calvin Klein's advertisement for their newest season of clothing. Known for the brand's more suggestive shots considering the nature of the brand, she made it her mission to not have Seungcheol see her in her outfit, as she could quickly imagine his fierce look and pouty lips, denying her from continuing the shoot, potentially with the line, "Just cut the contract with them, I'll pay you what they pay you. What's to see should only be for my eyes, and my eyes only,".
She had originally asked Chan to preoccupy his hyung for the time being, until she could arrive home all changed and comfortable. But, of course, no one could handle the pouty Seungcheol when he's desperate to see his girlfriend, almost as if his life depended on it.
Chan: He's coming over after seeing the location on your phone, said he's buying coffee for you. Good luck, and don't kill me, I'm sorry :(
One might say that Chan lost his drinking buddy very soon, but who would take note of that when she sat there, more shocked and unsure how to act beyond the message. Before she could even put on a T-shirt and jeans and pretend that was the theme of the photoshoot, someone barged into the room holding a stack of Americanos.
It didn't take more than two seconds to recognise that strong scent of cologne or the heavy gasp that came with the intruder — Choi Seungcheol himself stood at the doorway of the studio, before walking over to his girlfriend, slightly annoyed but more so with a disappointed look written all over his face.
"You didn't say you were filming for CK," he pouted slightly before handing over the Americano drink to her, still with a splash of milk within the drink, as she liked it. She took a sip, unsure how to respond to his comment as she blankly stared at his doe eyes, which looked intensely into hers.
"You... you lied. You said it was a fashion brand." He mummbled slightly, with confusion as to why his girlfriend was not honest about her own photoshoot details. Surely he wasn't as controlling as she thought he was, right?
"I... I didn't want you to be worried or upset," She responded as she looked down at the outfit she was wearing — a bra top and plain underwear. Not that it was extremely revealing, but still, it would make sense why a boyfriend would have been upset with their girlfriend for wearing this set of outfits for a shoot — something to be plastered across shopping malls around the world and played non-stop of non-skippable ADs for many on various social media platforms.
"It's just, I wish you were more honest," He confessed softly against his soft breath that came after it, before shaking his head slightly, with disappointment written all across his face. He took a final glance at his girlfriend, commenting almost inaudibly, "You look sexy today," before making his way to the exit of the studio, leaving her confused and stoic for the rest of the shoot.
It was only professional to continue a shoot despite her boyfriend walking off the studio, considering the many staff taking their weekend off for something like this. However, as much as she wanted to control her facial expressions and twist her body around for the various poses required, her thoughts wandered quickly to those of her boyfriend, and his words replaying within her head almost like a film tape let loose — "I wish you were more honest".
"And that's a wrap, thank you, Evelyn!" the male director expressed as he showed her the various photos he had taken on his camera, pressing the buttons all around the camera to pick the best ones. It would be the truth, however, that her focus was not on the pictures that she had taken for the past hours with the team, but rather on how to resolve the argument she had with her boyfriend. "Obviously, we're going to fix the lighting on these pictures." "Yes, fix the lighting, but how am I fixing my relationship with Cheol?", she thought silently to her head.
She dashed out of the studio after changing into a more relaxed outfit and thanking the fellow staff, with her mind all filled with the numerous made-up scenarios in her head. What if he was upset? Yeah, no shit, he was. What if he didn't want to see her? Yeah, he probably didn't.
The walk to their shared apartment wasn't that far, and considering how quickly she walked, she was able to close the distance within seventeen minutes. The elevator floor ticked, as her nervous heartbeat thumped continuously. The more time that passed, the more she was frantically pacing around the elevator alone, unsure how to even approach a pouty and upset Seungcheol.
It had been years since they had had an argument; granted, she was always his favourite within the group. Seungkwan could be outed for arriving at the studio late, post high school classes, whilst she could walk in still munching on a gimbap from the convenience store, and Seungcheol would barely bat an eye. He refused to talk to anyone who sent him his birthday text even minutes later than 12am, but justified it for the little maknae for her late by three hours message, following the non-existent time difference in Japan when she was there for work purposes.
She barely remembered a time that Seungcheol actually "stormed out" of an argument, or even had an argument with her. He was fierce and quite a madmaker pre-debut, but he never argued or disputed anything against her. Even when she delayed the recording process for the Hip-Hop team due to her poor pronunciation of Korean words when she first came from New York, Seungcheol refused to be harsh against her, even staying back hours after midnight to help her practice her pronunciation and Korean skills. Same thing when she stole his expensive Supreme jacket and managed to mess it up with soy sauce, he simply patted her head and told her not to worry about it, while Jeonghan texted her about how he bought the same jacket again and lied to her face that he was able to get rid of the stain.
So, for him to walk out of an argument, over something that she did wrong, now costs her the greatest amount of guilt that sat across her heart.
She took a deep breath before unlocking the door to the apartment, in hopes of simply finding a sulking Seungcheol sitting on the couch, ready to begin a conversation, only to find the living room empty, with hints of commotion inside the bedroom.
How great, even more suspense after a long day.
She took off her shoes and walked towards the shared bedroom they owned together, passing by the different framed photos of each other that they hung together against the originally boring white walls down the hallway. "I like this one, where you're smiling." "Then I like this one when we're laughing at each other." How ironic.
The door was left slightly open, revealing a 30-year-old man-child speaking to his dog, Kkuma, like she was a play-pretend stuffed toy best friend of a 3-year-old child. "Do you think mommy hates us, Kkuma? What if you lose your mommy?", she heard Seungcheol babble to Kkuma while she simply gave him the blankest stare of the century, and turned her head over to make eye contact with her mommy standing against the doorway watching the scene, with eyes that screamed: help me mommy, daddy has been talking to me for the past hour pretending like I care about things other than my treats.
Seungcheol blankly stared at his girlfriend after noticing how stupid he looked with a near-empty opened bottle of soju on his side, while holding a dog that he was just murmuring and ranting to. She, on the other hand, found it hard to resist a slight giggle that she let out, finding slight amusement in the situation despite how awkward it was whenever an argument arose within couples.
The awkward stare between the two began, until Kkuma got annoyed and simply jumped out of Seungcheol's arms and walked away like a model on a catwalk, her gaze almost saying: fix this problem yourselves, you stupid humans.
Seungcheol sighed and ruffled his hair after Kkuma left his lap, while he watched his girlfriend slowly walk over to him, wearing the exact Supreme hoodie that he bought a second time, which looked extremely oversized on her, while the necklace he bought her with his initials dangled against her slight movement. She sat down next to him before leaning her head against his shoulder — a habit she always had whenever they were listening to instructions during any filming or evaluation processes, where she felt bored and just wanted to rest against someone's shoulder, yet amongst the thirteen shoulders available within the group, it was always Seungcheol's one that had her head resting on it without a doubt.
"You said I looked sexy today," she joked, almost teasingly awaiting Seungcheol's reaction to her comment. After she received a near-silent hum in approval of the statement, she continued, "Are you mad at me?", to which she received a nod with a pouty face.
She turned her head over now so that she was facing his face directly, the very eyes that she fell in love with recognisiton the day they met each other in the green rooms of Pledis, and that mouth that seemed to never know when to shut up whenever she was desperate for a kiss, now turned into a dissapointed look and pouting while he wondered how on earth to approach her teasing attitude despite the slight argument they had moments before.
The staring contest began as the two failed to begin a proper conversation, both being too stubborn to say anything, or simply being unsure of what to say to each other after having the first major disagreement or silent argument in their relationship.
The silence was broken by Seungcheol's deep yet gentle voice, "Yeah. I can't be mad at you, really, when you look like that", he said as his eyes roamed around her face, observing the very features on her face that he fell in love, and was sure to be able to draw a potrait for the authorities in case she ever went missing. But rest assured he would never need to do that, all because he was sure to keep her around him at all times.
She chuckled softly and broke down in laughter upon hearing his almost sudden confession, before reaching out to hold his big hands in comparison to hers, holding them firmly before confessing, "I'm sorry for not being honest, really." as she suddenly felt a tight hug coming from Seungcheol, knocking over the soju bottle next to him, staining the carpet they bought together. But that was no one's biggest worry when their biggest attention was literally millimetres away from each other.
"Why... why didn't you tell me about the shoot?", he asked with slight confusion, but more so fear, unsure as to why his usually honest girlfriend suddenly became mysterious about today's shooting event. God, he should have known it was weird when Chan suddenly invited him to go gaming when he hated gaming with Seungcheol with a passion due to his anger issues whenever they encountered failure.
"I just... didn't know how you would think of it. All my exes hated it when I did these kinds of shoots—" Before she could finish her sentence, she was greeted with a soft and gentle kiss upon her forehead, leaving her face flushed with rosiness as Seungcheol spoke, "But I'm not like the other ones darling, you could do anything if there was anything that bothered me, I'd be hating myself instead."
She looked up into his eyes, which were stern and full of certainty backing his own vow. He continued, "I know it's hard to believe men like me exist." To which she rolled her eyes again, "But some men actually find it okay when their girlfriend does these kinds of shoots, but I'd rather you've told me about it, in case I needed to defend you against some creepy men on set."
Her smile reappeared further with greater intensity following his reassurance, as she read his face, one filled with love and a hope for his girlfriend to feel comfortable being fully honest and open with him about various things. "You know, I kind of like it when you're mad," she confessed softly as he chuckled against her comment, before replying to her thought, "I think it's because you've never seen me be genuinely mad, darling. I can never be actually mad at you, even when you do the stupidest things known to mankind." He said as he thought back to the moment when she tripped three times over the same flat ground on stage on the same performance night as well. "I guess when you're down bad for someone, you can never be mad at someone, only sorry, you know?" he added, earning a soft punch against his hard biceps from her as he teased her.
Every fight is a chance to learn how to love each other better.
"But best believe we will never fight, because I'll always find a way to make it up to you, even when you're in the wrong, just because I love you too much." He asserted to her, before planting a soft kiss against her lips, touching the necklace of his initials dangling against her neck, before confessing with a near-breathless voice, "You'll be the only girl I argue with, actually, no argument. Because I'd rather lose any argument than you."
