Chapter Text
The shrill noise of Bokuto’s ringtone woke him up out of his deep sleep. The night prior, he had gone out drinking with his friends, Kuroo, Atsumu, and Hinata, and the three may have had one two many. Grumbling, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, slapping his hand around aimlessly attempting to locate his phone and make that damn buzzing stop.
“What?” Bokuto grumbled out, voice laced with sleep.
“What the fuck were you thinking? Oh, I know! You weren’t, you absolute jackass!” ” screamed his manager, Futakuchi Kenji. Bokuto pulled the phone away from his ear, sitting up, running his hand over his face.
“Whoa whoa whoa, rewind, what are you talking about Kenji?” Bokuto questioned.
“Have you not checked your phone? You fucked up. Big time bud,” stated Kenji. Bokuto sighed holding his pounding head.
“No, I was asleep, I went a little too hard last night,” he admitted sheepishly, putting Kenji on speaker to check his socials. He opened Twitter seeing ‘#BOKUTOISOVERPARTY’ trending. “Oh fuck…” Sleep still clouded his thoughts, making time slow down a little bit around him, his body growing numb.
“Oh fuck is right, dumbass, why do I put up with you? I could have had easier clients.” whined Kenji.
Bokuto ignored his manager, scrolling through the tag, feeling the numbing start to disappear and be replaced by a sinking feeling of dread.
Random.user “I cant believe i stanned him, he’s not even apart of the LGBTQ community and has the audacity to say that?”
Random.user2 “it would be different if he was gay saying that shit…”
There were thousands of tweets echoing the same thing. His head was spinning. “What the fuck did I do last night?” he thought, racking his brain trying to remember.
He continued to scroll through, finally seeing a video, it was him from last night. He looked absolutely plastered. He played the video, it was Hinata and Atsumu, both very drunk, grinding on one another, the video then panned over to Bokuto throwing back a shot before laughing out, “Broooo that’s so gay!” pulling a faux disgusted face, he could hear Kuroo’s laugh before the video ended.
“Shit…” Bokuto murmured to himself.
Bokuto’s eyes widened, “Kenji, what do we do? It’s trending !” he whined.
“I need you to get to the office as soon as possible, we have to talk this over, discuss our plan. Don’t post anything on any socials until we come up with a plan. Don’t even like anything, we don’t want to make this worse.” Kenji let out a heavy sigh that crackled over the phone.
“Okay, see you soon,” mumbled Bokuto, pulling on a fresh pair of Nike sweatpants and a hoodie. He quickly brushed his teeth, taking his appearance in, in the bathroom mirror. He looked trashed, his hair was everywhere and he was sporting dark bags under his eyes.
Bokuto sighed and grabbed a beanie, shoving it on his head. Moving into his kitchen, he opened his fridge, snagging a protein shake as his phone dinged.
Kenji
Your Uber’s outside
hurry the fuck up.
Bokuto
*thumbs up emoji*
Bokuto grabbed his keys, slipping on his AF1’s, before heading out the door, locking it and going towards the elevator. Living on the 30th floor had its perks, the elevator ride was not one of them. His mind was overthinking the video, and all of the tweets. He began to scroll through them again. His phone dinged, a text from Kuroo popping up on the top of his screen.
Kuroo
Holy shit dude, I’m so sorry for the video.
Bokuto
It’s fine, Kenji is pissed at me
but, we’ll figure it out
Kuroo
I really thought i posted
that on my personal man im sorry
Bokuto
We were plastered its not ur fault
Bokuto locked his phone as the elevator dinged, he stepped out, leaving the apartment building and getting in his Uber. After a fatigued greeting, Bokuto asked the driver if they could make a stop at the closest coffee shop. The driver agreed and they were off.
~~~~~
Bokuto sighed as he entered the office building, he was not excited for his meeting with Kenji and his team. The secretary smiled at the two-toned haired boy, before buzzing him up to Kenji’s office. Bokuto was preparing himself for the verbal lashing he knew he was bound to get from his manager.
He pushed the door open, Kenji’s head instantly snapped in his direction, “Glad you could finally join us, you absolute dumpster fire ,” he sneered, before looking him up and down. “You look like shit.”
“Thanks Kenji, I feel like shit.”
“Good.”
Bokuto plopped down into his seat, sliding a coffee over to Kenji, casually sipping his.
Kenji eyed him suspiciously, “Bokuto, you can’t get yourself out of this by bribing me.”
The tired boy sighed, placing his head on the sleek black table, “I know, just thought it would lessen the blow,” he mumbled under his breath, defeat tinged under his words..
Kenji sighed, knowing that Bokuto was sensitive. Bokuto was usually able to avoid negative comments, but with the onslaught of personal attacks, Kenji could guess that the young model wasn’t in a good place mentally. He queued up the presentation of their plans, in hopes that it could help lessen the negative backlash.
The door was pushed open, Bokuto looked up at the person who entered, and it was none other than Terushima Yuuji, Bokuto’s personal stylist and hairdresser. His face resembled a kick puppy. He also worked closely with Kenji as a publicist, he knew how to make a good impression.
“You can’t say ‘that’s so gay,’ Kou! It’s 2020, what were you thinking?” Yuuji laughed out.
Bokuto let out a whine, burying his face in his hands. Futakuchi looked at Terushima, quietly scolding the blonde, mouthing ‘Don’t’ very aggressively. Terushima picked up on Bokuto’s disdain and went to sit next to him.
“Hey Bo, it’ll be okay,” he reassured, rubbing his hand on Bokuto’s back. “We’ll figure it out, and some other celeb will do something stupid, and that’ll become the news of the week.”
“They hate me,” he grumbled. “Everyone hates me now, over some dumb joke. And like I would date a guy! I’m not even homophobic,” he exclaimed.
“That’s the thing that I think can help us,” pondered Kenji. “This whole time we kept your sexuality out of the press, and I don’t want to push you to publicly say anything, but I think you need to inform the media that you’re pansexual.”
Bokuto nodded at Kenji’s words. “It’s not a problem publicly saying it for me, I’m comfortable with my sexuality. It’s just, why do people care so much. There’s real issues happening but a straight-passing man says ‘That’s so gay,’ and the worlds over.”
Kenji felt bad for the male in front of him, he really did, but his hands were tied. They had to address it. He nodded towards Terushima, beckoning him closer. “Go get him something to eat at one of the restaurants nearby,” Kenji whispered into Tersushima’s ear slipping a few bills into his pocket. Terushima gave the brown haired male a curt nod before heading out of the office.
“For now, let me have your phone,” demanded the brunette. “I don’t want you checking your phone constantly, it’s not good for your mental health Bo.”
Bokuto let out a small whine, “Let me text my friends first.” Kenji nodded at him. Bokuto quickly sent a text to his group chat with Kuroo, Atsumu, and Hinata.
Bokuto
Kenji is taking my phone
for the day i think? idk tbh
but i’ll keep u posted
He powered off his phone before sliding it over the table to Kenji. Futakuchi took a deep breath, sighing at the man before him. “Okay, let’s plan out what you’re going to say, yeah?” Bokuto glanced up at him mumbling a “Yeah.”
The two had been discussing his statement. Kenji wanted it to mainly be Bokuto’s words, it was personal to him. Terushima eventually returned with food for all three of them to eat. Bokuto hadn’t realized how hungry he truly was.
The tall boy inhaled the bento brought to him by the blonde, while Futakuchi read over their prepared statement. “I think it’s good.”
“Rwefy?” the two-toned hair boy asked, mouth full.
“Don’t talk with food in your mouth!!” screeched Terushima, smacking the boy on the back of the head.
Futakuchi ignored the two in-front of him, continuing on. He turned to Terushima, “Yuuji, I need you to do something about his appearance right now, he looks like he’s been hit by a bus.”
“HEY!” interjected Bokuto.
Terushima nodded, going to get all his stuff ready. They were going to film a video addressing the situation, none of that ‘impersional iPhone notes screenshot shit,’ as Kenji called it. Bokuto had a more straightforward relationship with his social media, so it fit with his style to make a video. Plus the dude was emotional, which was finally working in Kenji’s favor.
After having his hair fixed, and some light makeup applied to lessen the appearance of his dark circles, Bokuto was sat on a couch in one of the side rooms, reading over the statement. Kenji had set up lighting and was currently adjusting the tripod and camera.
“Don’t worry about saying everything word for word, I’m not too concerned about that, just stick to the main points,” instructed Kenji. Bokuto nodded at his manager, before taking a deep breath to prepare himself. Kenji did a countdown with his fingers, before pressing the button.
Bokuto had made videos for his social media page before, but this was different. He felt like he was naked, baring himself in front of the world, and he didn’t like it. He spoke to the camera, feeling his chest tighten slightly.
“I didn’t expect for this to happen like this, but uhh, life isn’t always a straight forward path I guess,” he chuckled. “I’ve never been very open with my sexual preference on my social media platforms, but I have been an ally, that is evident. I don’t think I need to pull up all my past efforts, I’m not trying to brag or say I only did those things to look like a good person. Everything I do, I do in support, not just as an ally, but as someone who also doesn’t identify with being straight. I’m pansexual,” He sighed shakily. “I guess I thought outwardly saying this would cause a lot of people to be mad at me, but not saying it also has? This isn’t really a good time to address it, or come out, but I’ve been waiting long enough. I hope you all can see that the comments I made, weren’t made with hateful intent, and that we can move forward. Thank you,” he ended with a small smile, before Kenji turned off the camera.
Kenji walked over in front of him, placing his hand on his shoulder. “You did great Bo, I know it’s not how you wanted it to happen.” Bokuto fiddled with his fingers muttering a thanks.
“I guess I should probably tell you the other part of the plan…” Kenji trailed off.
Bokuto’s head snapped up, confusion written on his face. “We hired a fake-boyfriend for you.”