Not late
Pairing: Wooyoung/Nichkhun
Genre: Flangst
Rating: Pg-13
Summary: Nichkhun is "married". Wooyoung realizes something.
A/N: Took me forever to finish writing this one-shot. Wonder if I still have any readers left :)
‘Khun-ah, are you happy? Are you truly happy?’ Wooyoung thought, walking absent-mindedly in the park where he and Nichkhun used to come together.
It has been two months since the WGM had started. Two months since Khun’s life changed, and with his Wooyoung’s also did. If before his life twirled around Khun’s, his closest friend among other fellow band mates, now he was left aside, by himself. Chan Sung was with Junho and Junsu was with Taecyeon playing around and fan-servicing. Woo never have felt this lonely as in past two months.
Nichkhun would be with them, practicing, singing, dancing, and doing everything just like before, with only difference: now, he had no time for Wooyoung. Every free minute he would either spend talking with his ‘wife’ or planning the time he would spend with her.
Their long hourly talks turned into simple ‘Woo, what’s up?’ or ‘Woo, where do you think I should take Vic for next date?’ All the simple words killed Wooyoung piece by piece, especially the latter one. At first he thought that he just missed attention he received from Khun, but with time flying and the feeling getting gloomier, he realized it wasn’t it. But what was it?
“Woo-ah, what, in the world, are you doing here?” Wooyoung heard the voice he had missed the most.
“Oh, Nichkhun,” Woo couldn’t bring himself to call the Thai prince with the gentle ‘Khunnie-ah’ since Victoria started calling him that. Only one person had the right to call Nichkhun that, and before that right belonged to Wooyoung. “I’m just walking, fresh air, cool breeze, you know…”
“It’s freezing out here; your lungs must hurt from this so-called ‘fresh air”. Is anything bothering you?” Khun seemed to be really worried about him.
Only after Khun had pointed the coldness out, Wooyoung realized the freezing weather. He reluctantly looked down at his watch and gasped. He has been walking for last three and half hours. It already was deep night, 2am.
“Nah, I’m fine. What are you doing here? How was your date with your ‘wife’?” last words escaped his mouth before he registered the bitterness in them.
“It was good, we had a great time. Victoria is so funny. She never fails to amuse me” Nichkhun smiled to no one. He didn’t notice the bitterness in Wooyoung’s voice. “Wait, don’t you change the subject, just tell me, what’s wrong?”
‘You forgot about me, why now care all of a sudden?’ Wooyoung’s mind screamed. “Nothing is wrong, Nichkhun, I just wanted to clear my head from the loud music. If you still remember, I always take a stroll after the shows. ” he quietly replied, trying to not look at Khun’s eyes. Thai Prince never failed to see the lie in Woo’s eyes.
“Oh, right. But we should go inside.” Khun smiled and tugged Woo’s shoulder towards the apartment. ‘How easily you gave up, Khunnie-ah… No, you’re not Khunnie-ah anymore, you’re just Nichkhun Norvejkul, and there’s no reason for you to notice that I lied. ’ Woo thought, while they silently walked towards their dorm. None of them broke the silence.
When they arrived in the apartment, Woo went straight to the bed, not caring to say ‘good night’ to Khun. But Khun didn’t seem to notice.
***
“Boys, I know you’ve worked hard for your comeback. After the comeback show, we’ll be busy, you’ll have to work twice, even thrice as hard as you worked before-” the manger-hyung was saying on the group gathering.
“Hyung, it’s impossible to work twice as hard!” Taecyeon exclaimed, “We have only 24 hours and we already work 20 of them!” he never whined, but this time he only voiced the thought of every fellow member. The management agency was asking for impossible, they couldn’t work any harder.
‘Maybe more work will take him out of my mind’ was the first thought in Woo’s head. The black-haired man was getting sick of thinking about the newly blond-colored-haired man, who sat quietly on the side and texted with mysterious recipient. ‘I bet it’s Victoria’ the thought just crept into Woo’s mind. He was getting paranoid, whoever Khun would communicate on phone, texts, or emails it was Victoria for Woo.
“Woo-ah, want to go work on steps of new routine?” Khun suddenly looked up from his phone.
“Oh… ”Woo was caught off the guard “Sure, let’s go.” He stood up. And two walked out. The rest of the group was dumbfounded. They were in the middle of the meeting after all, and two members just walked out, like nothing happened.
The awkward silence crept between two young men walking towards the practice room.
“You seem to be quiet lately” Khun was the first one to break the silence.
“Not really” Wooyoung said, trying hard to not show his tired gaze to Nichkhun. “We are just busy; there is no time for chatting.”
Entering the practice room, Wooyoung walked up to stereo system and turned music on. Khun started moving his body to the beat with closed eyes, remembering steps. Woo just stayed there, staring at taller guy’s fluid dance moves. He couldn’t take his eyes away. Why did the man have to so handsome? Why did he have to be so funny? Why did he have to steal Wooyoung’s heart?
Wooyoung felt numbness in the chest. It hurt too much to be so close to Khun, but not be able to be with him. “I love you” left his mouth before he registered what he said. Thankfully, Khun didn’t seem to hear what smaller guy whimpered.
“Come here, Woo-ah, don’t just stand there” he motioned towards himself, not stopping his routine. For once Woo was glad that Khun didn’t notice what he felt.
Closing his eyes, Wooyoung started moving.
***
Wooyoung sat on the couch in the living room, rubbing his temples. The headaches he has been having for past few days didn’t let him sleep. He sighed. He knew the sole reason for his headaches was certain tall, raven-haired guy, who happened to be from Thailand.
Few days ago, Victoria came to visit Nichkhun on the backstage to cheer him up, and brought homemade food. The look Nichkhun had upon seeing Victoria left an empty feeling in Wooyoung’s heart. He could never make Nichkhun look like Victoria had. Each time he closed his eyes he would see Nichkhun’s face, and feeling of helplessness would pawn on him. So he chose to not close his eyes, not going to sleep unless he was tired enough to fall asleep immediately after his head hit the pillow.
He sighed, getting up and walking over to kitchen to grab sleeping pills. Today he wasn’t tired enough, and next day they had a full day of activities.
Entering the kitchen, he didn’t notice that light was already on. He walked towards the cupboard where all medicine was and grabbed the bottle. As he was about to pop two tablets in the mouth he felt someone looking at him.
“Woo, are you not feeling well? We can ask manager-hyung to give you tomorrow off.” Nichkhun stood on other side of the table, his hand gripping the bottle of water.
“Nah, I’m alright. I just couldn’t sleep. Why are you awake?” He continued to swallow the pills. Nichkhun offered the water. He took a sip.
“F(x) came back today from promotion in Busan. Finally talked to Vicky, she was busy, haven’t talked to her in days,” Khun smiled.
“That’s good. I’m going to sleep,” Wooyoung walked over to the door, gripping the handle. He stopped there for a second, turning around to face Khun. “I’m glad you’re happy with her,” he whispered, only loud enough for Thai prince to barely catch it. Not waiting for reply, he walked out, slamming the door behind himself.
‘I should let you go.’ He added to himself. “Why can’t I?”
***
“He hasn’t been sleeping well for past week,” Taecyeon said, picking Wooyoung up from the couch he was brought promptly to after he fainted during the rehearsal.
“Why didn’t he tell us that he wasn’t feeling well?” their manager was flaring with anger. The group had a fan-meeting in two days, and Wooyoung was sick because he pushed himself too hard.
“I saw him taking sleeping pills last week, I thought it wasn’t anything big,” Nichkhun bit his lower lip. He couldn't understand how could he let this happen, and why hasn’t Woo told him anything. They were best friends, at least Nichkhun thought so. Apparently Wooyoung didn’t, otherwise he would have shared his burdens.
Past months, Wooyoung has been withdrawing further and further away from Nichkhun. He didn’t wait for Nichkhun anywhere anymore, didn’t invite him to grab drinks, heck, he barely talked to him. When once Khun confronted him about it, he just brushed it off saying they were too busy for ‘chatting’, but that never was a problem before. Woo always found time to have some time with Khun. Not anymore. The realization made him want to get wasted; completely drank so it wouldn’t hurt so much, understanding that Woo didn’t care about him anymore.
***
Wooyoung opened his eyes and noticed that he was in his bed. Feeling heavy headed, he tried to sit up. But something was holding him down to the bed. Looking down he saw pair of hands secured around his waist. He followed the hand and his breath hitched when he saw who was holding him.
Nichkhun peacefully snored, his body in uncomfortable position: his lower part on the chair near the bed, his upper body on the bed, hands around Wooyoung and head just behind Wooyoung’s shoulder blades.
Wooyoung tried to wriggle his way out of the Khun’s embrace without waking the latter up, but was unsuccessful.
Khun shot his head up, letting his hands fall of Wooyoung.
“Oh, you’re up. How are you? Anything hurts?” he showered the smaller man with questions.
“I’m fine. Why? Did something happen” Wooyoung was confused. He couldn’t remember how he got to his bed last night, but he was sure he didn’t get in any accidents, and his body didn’t hurt. He was just tired because of sleepless nights, but good night’s sleep made the trick and he felt like a new energizer battery.
“You fainted!” Knuh’s words sounded accusing, as if Woo had done an unforgivable sin. He didn’t mean to though. He was just worried.
“Oh, really, I probably just fell asleep while dancing, I was just tired. No big deal. Why are you here?”
“I was worried-” Khun wanted to explain but was cut off.
“Really now? I thought you wouldn’t notice this either.” Woo’s bitter words escaped once again without him being able to stop.
He stood up from the bed, dropping the blanket on the floor and walked into the bathroom, not looking back at Khun.
***
Next few days passed slowly for both Khun and Wooyoung. Ever since Khun became aware of Woo’s withdrawal, he started noticing every small change in Woo. He noticed how Woo would not look at him, how he would laugh with other members, how sad Woo’s face looked when he thought no one saw him. But also, he noticed how cute Woo’s smiles were, and how handsomely Woo would smirk at Junsu or Junho when they challenged him in anything, or how adorably he snored in his sleep at the back of the car on their way back home.
While looking at Woo, Khun didn’t notice that he became more and more attracted to the shorter man. His time with Vicky turned from fun time into one of assignments. But more attracted he became the further Woo seemed to be.
Not being able to take it anymore, Khun decided to do something about it. He couldn’t stand it anymore. If he didn’t do something soon, he would snap and probably hurt Woo in the process.
“Wooyoung-ah, can you help me with something?” He approached smaller man after the recording the music show.
“Uhm, sure thing, Khun-ah. But what do you need help with?” Woo was surprised at Nichkhun’s plea.
“Oh, I need help with planning something for Vicky,” Thai prince couldn’t come up with any better idea.
“Oh, okay, let’s go,” Khun felt bitterness once again. Of course it would be about Khun’s ‘wife’. There was no other reason for Khun to ask him to help him.
They walked through a long corridor, towards the back door where Khun’s new car was. When they reached the car, Khun opened the passenger door for Wooyoung to get in. Wooyoung just stared at him. But nevertheless, he got in.
Pulling his seat belt, Woo watched Khun to get in to the driver’s seat and start the car. But the awaited action did not happen. Khun didn’t move to start the engine, but just sat there, looking at Wooyoung.
“What? Is something wrong with my face?” Woo started brushing his face off.
“No, I just missed looking at you.” Khun quietly sighed.
“What?” Woo didn’t understand what Khun was saying. He understood, but didn’t understand. What did he mean by that?
Looking at Woo’s puzzled expression, Khun laughed quietly and noted how adorably Woo looked. He couldn’t keep his feeling at the bay anymore, and captured Woo’s lips with his own.
“Saranghae, Woo-ah, I can’t do this anymore.” Khun whispered into their kiss. “Tell me stop. Tell me to fuck off, and I will let you go. I’ll leave the country if you want me to after this.”
But Woo didn’t understand anything anymore. Only thing he could comprehend was Khun kissing him. Nichkhun Norvejkul was kissing him. The straight Nichkhun Norvejkul was kissing him.
But soon, Khun’s words caught up to him. “I don’t want you to stop-” was the only thing Nichkhun needed. He deepened their kiss, grabbing the back of Woo’s head and tangling his fingers into the brunette’s soft locks. His tongue invaded latter’s mouth, tasting the sweetness from the cavern, teeth clashing together. Neither of them wanted the kiss to stop.
When they broke gasping for air, Woo hugged Khun close to him, not wanting to let him go. It felt like a dream, and that he was about to wake up. He didn’t want to wake up.
“Is it a dream?” he asked, clutching into Khun’s back.
“No,” Khun replied, “but if it’s, then it’s the best dream I’ve seen. I love you, Woo-ah. And this part is not a dream.”
“Say it again,” Woo pleaded, loving how those three words sounded, and loving that those words were for him even more.
“I love you, Wooyoung. I love you. I love you.” Khun kept repeating, showering Woo’s face with kisses between each word.
***
“Finally! It’s about time!” Taecyeon laughed from the window. “Junho, you owe me 100 bucks! It was Nichkhun confessing first!”
Junho sighed, “I should have known that Wooyoung would be a chicken!” but nevertheless took out his wallet.
End.