IMB 2012: Seraphic (2/2)
Title: Seraphic (2/2)
Pairing/Focus: Woohyun/Sunggyu
Rating: pg
Summary: Sunggyu finds out the hard way that hitting an angel with your bicycle isn’t good luck.
Final word count: ~13000
A week later, Woohyun lies on Sunggyu’s sofa drinking boba tea and watching the television. “I forgot to ask you,” he says between sips, sitting upwards. “How’s Howon’s club?”
Sunggyu sits beside him and changes the channel. “It’s good. Apparently ninety percent of the school didn’t even know we had a dance club,” they chuckle slightly, and Sunggyu continues. “He had like what, twenty something people ask to join?” He nods, “It’s great. He’s sad that you can’t be in it though.”
“More like he’s sad you can’t be in it,” Woohyun retorts. “Why aren’t you in it?”
Sunggyu shoots him a look. “I’m the one who stuffed it up, remember? Besides, I don’t dance.” He turns off the television and gets off the couch, “Stop watching crap television. You’ll become dumb,” he tells him, and courtly stomps up the stairs only to stop before opening his door. “Dumber,” he corrects himself, and disappears into his room.
Rolling his eyes, Woohyun follows him, stopping by the kitchen to put his empty drink container on the dining table (’Just throw it away, for goodness sake!’ Sunggyu would tell him, clearly annoyed, and for this reason specifically Woohyun continues to do it. He opens the door to find Sunggyu lazing on his bed, rapidly mashing buttons on his PSP at a rate that would have given Woohyun an insane finger spasm. He takes a step back, before launching himself onto the bed earning a groan from Sunggyu who drops his PSP on his head.
“Get off me you lump,” he moans, pushing Woohyun onto his mattress. He pouts and rests his arms on Sunggyu’s bed.
“Don’t you love me?” he asks him, and Sunggyu makes a face.
“Ew,” he says, rolling over and facing the wall, pulling his PSP from under him. This isn’t the answer that Woohyun wants, so he crawls back onto Sunggyu’s bed and jabs him under the ribs.
“Stop playing! Play with me,” he whines, aegyo lacing his voice in a way that makes Sunggyu cringe under him.
The door opens, and the two of them freeze. “Hyung?” a voice asks, and the owner steps into the room a moment later. His eyes widen at the situation, looking around at the room, and he swallows, taking a step back. “Who’s this?”
He has that look in his eyes, the one people get when they’re putting things together. Of course, from just the room itself, it’s clear that he’s getting the wrong idea, and Sunggyu sits up immediately, sending Woohyun crashing back onto his mattress. “I-It’s nothing,” he says quickly, pulling the blanket over himself. “He’s nothing, I swear.”
The boy smirks. “Of course, hyung. I’ll knock next time.”
Shaking his head, Sunggyu gets up from the bed and motions with his hand for him to get out of his room. “It’s not like that, Sungjong-ah. He’s just a friend.”
“Yeah, because your friends live in your room while your mom’s away,” he says, kicking the mattress. Woohyun looks up at him, and the boy bows. “I’m Sungjong, Sunggyu’s cousin.”
“He’s not my cousin,” Sunggyu says, and Sungjong pouts.
“We’re as good as cousins!”
Sunggyu shakes his head, “Being family friends doesn’t make us cousins. It just makes you someone I know.” He forcefully pushes the boy out of his room, and Woohyun follows closely behind them. “Why are you even here?”
Tilting his head, Sungjong looks up at him from the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t you check your phone? I sent you a message like, last week saying that I’d be visiting. And staying the night, since my dad’s out of town today. I’m a young boy, I can’t be at home by myself~”
He blinks, “My home phone?” and Sungjong nods. “Sungjong-ah,” he groans, rubbing his temples. “I don’t check my home phone, you know that. You’re meant to call my mobile.” He sighs, and heads towards the kitchen. “It can’t be helped now, I guess. Have you eaten?”
It amuses Woohyun, that despite Sunggyu saying that he doesn’t like the kid, it’s clear that he has some kind of affection for him, whether it be brotherly or fatherly. Most probably brotherly.
It makes him jealous, almost.
“Where are you from?” Woohyun asks him, sitting at the table across from him.
“I live ten minutes away. Who are you?” he asks.
He nods, “I’m Nam Woohyun, Sunggyu’s best friend.”
Sungjong frowns, “Hyung has friends?” causing Sunggyu to turn around and whack him on the head, as well as hit Woohyun. “Ow, sorry. Where are you from?”
He pauses. “Jeollabuk-do. Like Sunggyu. We go way back,” he says, nodding, and Sunggyu shoots him a glare, mouthing ‘liar’ in his direction.
They eat their food in moderate silence, save Sungjong kicking Sunggyu under the table, and the older flicking food onto his plate. Woohyun can only watch, slightly awkward and bemused as the two quarrel in silence.
When Sunggyu is washing the dishes (he lost in rock paper scissors), Woohyun makes small talk with Sungjong, finding out that he’s two years older than the boy and that he likes softball. “Tomorrow’s Sunday,” he says, “maybe we could drag Sunggyu hyung out and hit a few.”
Sungjong shakes his head, “I injured myself two months ago, I can’t play,” he shakes his head sadly, and Woohyun hates himself for bringing it up.
“Well, we can still do other things right?” he asks, changing the subject. “A movie marathon, or something. We can have a sleepover,” he suggests, “movies and all.”
“Let’s!” Sungjong pipes, at the exact same time Sunggyu disagrees. “I’m the guest here, and technically so is Woohyun hyung. Have some host manners!” Sunggyu murmurs something about tossing them both out the door. And this is how Nam Woohyun experiences a human sleepover.
“Let me win, dammit!” Woohyun yells, tossing the controller in his lap in frustration. Sungjong only laughs, and sticks his tongue out at him.
“Never,” he replies. “Even Sunggyu hyung beat you, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Woohyun narrows his eyes and makes a face at Sungjong behind his back, picking the controller up again. Racing games are stupid.
Sunggyu is amused, having finally found something he can actually beat Woohyun at. Looks like they’ll be playing Mario Kart more often. He glances at the clock, and sits up. “Hey I just remembered,” he says suddenly. He looks at Woohyun, “Howon told me that a good movie’s on tonight. It’s on like, now,” he says, already reaching for the remote. “I don’t know what it is though. He just told me the title.”
It turns out to be a horror movie, and one of those freaky as shit Japanese ones at that. Sunggyu makes a reminder to himself to personally hurt Lee Howon, because the three of them sit on the couch with pizza and popcorn bundled in blankets practically pissing themselves.
“Don’t open the door!” Sungjong screeches, but of course, the lead opens the door and a ghost pops out, dragging her into the closet. Woohyun glances at him, and is amused to find both Sunggyu and Sungjong covering their eyes.
“I wish I could take a photo of you guys, you’re absolutely terrified,” he muses.
“Yah,” Sunggyu says, his tone serious. “Don’t. You’re not any better, you know.”
Woohyun wants to open his mouth and tell him, ‘You know, ghosts don’t even do this actually. They’re actually just hungry half the time. For freedom, not humans,’ but he refrains, because Sungjong is there and he’d rather not freak the poor boy our more than he already is.
He thinks that this whole thing isn’t too bad, lazing on sofas making useless talk and eating junk food. He quite enjoys it, actually, and wishes that his friends at home would do something marginally as fun. The movie ends, the three of them having probably only watched about a third of it each, which is alright, because that’ll add up to the whole thing more or less. Sunggyu remembers to shoot Howon a text message telling him to die, and Woohyun smiles at this.
They sit in Sunggyu’s room (to his chagrin - there’s a perfectly good lounge outside!) playing card games and drinking hot chocolate, and Woohyun absolutely loves playing cheat, because Sunggyu is a shit liar and so is Sungjong. “I’m a god at this,” he proclaims as he wins for the fifth time in a row.
Sunggyu rolls his eyes. “He’s always like this,” he says to Sungjong, who just laughs.
“Finally something you’re good at,” he jokes, and Woohyun glares at him.
“I’ll be right back,” he says, mumbling something about getting water and stands up. It’s then that Sunggyu sees it, and his mouth drops in surprise.
“Woohyun, your w-“ He stops himself just in time, and Sungjong only tilts his head in confusion. “Nothing,” he says, but he darts his eyes to Woohyun’s wrist. Thankfully, Woohyun is a pretty observant person (a factor as to why he’s so good at cheat) and gets the message, and he makes a noise of surprise when he lifts his wrist to find two glowing wristbands.
He swallows his surprise, closing the door behind him and walking to the kitchen. “Sungjong?” he says to himself, his fingers tracing the outline of the band. “Was there something wrong?” he wonders.
It’s only 1am and Sungjong is fast asleep, worn out by their stupid night, but he sleeps so peacefully that neither of them have the heart to wake him up.
“What do you think is with this?” Woohyun asks, lifting up his arm to show off his now two glowing bands. Sunggyu shrugs.
“I’m not too sure. I have sort of an idea though.” Woohyun shifts closer to show he’s listening. “Last year…” he hesitates, his eyes tracing Sungjong’s sleeping figure once again. “His mother passed away,” he says quietly. “He was pretty upset about it for a long time, but he’s a lot better now. Didn’t he say something about injuring himself? He was obsessed with softball,” he slumps his shoulders. “It’s just a guess, but I think he’s just been lonely.” He smiles at Woohyun, who’s too surprised to say anything. “Anyway, congratulations,” he says. “Let’s go to sleep, okay?”
Woohyun’s still too shocked to say anything, so he just nods. “Good night.”
Woohyun’s pretty sad when he has to say goodbye to Sungjong, but the younger tells him to cheer up because if they ever want to talk, he lives just a few blocks away. “Sunggyu hyung knows the way,” he says, nudging him. Sunggyu nods reluctantly, agreeing to visit some time or another. They wave goodbye, and the door closes, and suddenly the house is left with a ringing silence.
“Just one more,” Sunggyu says softly.
Woohyun puts his hand over the bracelets, turning them over. “Yeah.”
It’s exam time, and Sunggyu has less time to muck around with Woohyun and more time to spend in his textbooks. Woohyun agrees that for his benefit he’ll be less annoying, but of course, he’s still pretty annoying. Aside from that, they hadn’t conversed much the entire week, and Sunggyu enters his room that Friday to a sleeping Woohyun.
“Woohyun,” he calls as he opens the door of his room with a bowl of rice in his hand. “Are you hungry?” He stops when he sees the younger boy sleeping in his bed. Sunggyu places the bowl down gingerly before sitting on the lump that is Nam Woohyun. “Yah, did I say you could sleep in my bed?” he asks as he lets his weight sink onto him.
Woohyun makes noises of disapproval as he squirms his way from under Sunggyu’s weight. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asks groggily, his voice thick from sleep and his eyes half-lidded. Sunggyu shrugs and Woohyun pushes him off the bed. “Let me sleep. I was out all day yesterday. Saving people is hard work.”
“It’s four fifteen,” Sunggyu deadpans, glancing at the clock.”Saving people can’t be that hard when you’re on your butt all day,” he jokes. He receives no response, so he can only sigh as he retrieves the bowl of rice and starts eating it. “Too bad, I make some mighty fine bibimbap, if I may say so myself.” Woohyun still doesn’t stir, which is strange because usually he struggles to shut up. Sunggyu puts his hand on his shoulder and shakes him slightly. “Hey, are you okay? You’re really quiet,” he says softly.
He opens his eyes and looks at him, his expression tired. “I’m fine. Really,” he says, and something about the way Woohyun says it makes Sunggyu not believe him. It could have been the way his voice was quiet, his vocals strained in an attempt to keep it sounding the same as it usually did. It could have been the way that he took a faint breath before every sentence, as if he was out of breath and struggled for words. It could have been the way his eyes were soft and dull, quite unlike its usual radiant glistening, making his overall appearance more aged and altogether just plain tired. It could have been all three.
“You can take the bed today, I’ll sleep on the floor,” Sunggyu says quietly, replacing the quilt over Woohyun’s torso. And with that their conversation is deemed over, with Sunggyu digging through his bag for his history textbook and pencil case before dropping it on his desk and poring over his homework.
Woohyun watches him from under the blanket in silence, his lips pursed tightly as he sees Sunggyu chewing on the end of his pencil. He thinks nothing of it until later that night when he turns off the lamp on his desk, piling all his things together and shoves it in his school bag. He draws back the blanket of the thin mattress he’d laid out the past few weeks for Woohyun to sleep on, and sits on it for a moment, looking out his window. When he finally lies down and rests his head on the pillow, Woohyun can practically feel the uncomfortable hardness of the floor he’d been feeling for the past few weeks and a bit and he shifts over on the bed, lifting up the quilt.
“Hey,” Woohyun murmurs. “Sleep here.”
“No. You’re not feeling well.”
There’s a pause, and Woohyun holds his breath. “I mean sleep here. With me.”
He expects laughter on Sunggyu’s behalf, rejection and probably a lecture telling him why he shouldn’t be sleeping with the ill. Not for him to slide into the space beside him and drop his head onto the pillow, their bodies the closest they’d ever been. “Thanks,” he murmurs.
Woohyun is almost too surprised to talk. “It’s cool,” he replies, hoping the shock isn’t evident in his voice. He shuffles over slightly so he can give Sunggyu a bit more room. “Sorry if it’s too hot.”
“It’s not,” Sunggyu says quietly. “Sleep.”
He nods his head, and closes his eyes again completely aware of the boy sleeping next to him, subtly breathing in his scent, carefully remembering the feel of his body next to his and absently memorizing the feeling of just being together, the feeling alone enough to jolt his heart and make him more subconscious of his surroundings than ever.
Sometime before seven, Woohyun wakes up. It’s incredibly hot to the point where he’s sweating and there’s a dry lump in his throat. He rolls over, uncomfortable with him position, only to find himself collide with a sleeping Sunggyu - he’d forgotten that they were sleeping together.
It’s then he realizes that Sunggyu had taken the quilt from the bed and laid a sheet over Woohyun’s body. Sunggyu’s body is extremely warm, and his eyes have circles under them - they’re faint, but still noticeable, and a strong feeling of guilt surges throughout Woohyun’s body as his fingers hover over his cheeks.
He shifts his weight and sits up against the wall, legs hugging his chest as he waits for the time to pass. Sunggyu was tired, no doubt about that, and he wasn’t going to wake him. The room is dark, the sun only slightly up and the curtains are drawn tightly, letting only the slightest amount of morning light trickle though the gaps and underneath. Woohyun likes it like this, where it’s bright enough to see what’s in front of him, what he wants to see, but dark enough to hide the world’s imperfections.
Of course, he likes the light too, but sometimes a person needs a change. He leans against the wall, the cold surface sending shivers through his skin as he moves himself into a more comfortable position. He waits for the sun to rise more and for there to be an adequate amount of light in the room before he reaches into his coat pockets small tattered notebook, a black pen shoved in the spine bending it out of proportion. He flips open the cover, the paper full of scribbles, half finished drawings and unfinished sentences from where his mind had blanked out.
I have an assignment for you, his teacher had told him. Write down all things you find beautiful, because you never know when they will disappear. He laughs to himself now, sending small tremors throughout the bed frame. How right he’d been. He leafs through his earlier pages, the words neat and even and sounding much like a Christmas card: sunsets, dew drops, the spiciness of winter air. It was cheesy shit, and stuff that he’d never be caught dead speaking aloud.
He turns to the next page, a fine liner gripped tightly in his fingers, before setting it to the paper.
“Come out with me,” Sunggyu announces one day, darting into his room. He dumps his bag at the door as he pulls off his tie and undoes his top button, before untucking his shirt completely. Woohyun sits up from Sunggyu’s bed and sets down the book he was reading so the page isn’t lost. “You’re pretty much a tourist here, right?” he asks him. “There’s a place just outside of the city you have to see. You won’t find it in travel booklets.”
And that’s how Woohyun ends up following Sunggyu along a dirt path road through the dusty streets just outside of Seoul and through a natural vegetation environment he had no idea existed.
“We couldn’t have taken the bus?” he complains after fifteen minutes of walking, the soles of his sneakers stained orange with soil and his back stiff from standing.
The older boy shakes his head. “No buses head out this way. And my bike is broken,” he adds, giving a pointed look towards Woohyun who tells him he needs to find new excuses. He shuts up after that, mindlessly kicking the grass. The two continue for a while longer, always a stride apart and sometimes more. A part of Sunggyu wants to slow down so he can spend just a little bit longer with Woohyun, but he doesn’t in case Woohyun slows down too.
“This is it,” Sunggyu says absently as he gazes into the sky under them. They’d come to a stop atop a cliff providing a clear view of the residential areas surrounding them. The wind blows as they sit on the grass and lean against trees, the dirt soft under their feet, fresh and relaxing in a way.
Woohyun sighs, breathing in the air around them. “It’s really fresh here,” he comments.
Sunggyu nods his head, and sighs as he turns his sight to the sea of houses below them. “It’s kind of sad, isn’t it?” he says more to himself than to Woohyun. “All that used to be grass. It used to be national park, just like this one.” He taps the grass beneath him, and smiles. “Soon this will all be houses too.”
Woohyun doesn’t know what Sunggyu is thinking. There are times where he can read the boy like a picture book, his face so animated and the words so big and simple that it’s hard not to. But there are also times like this where Sunggyu is an encyclopaedia, clawing at the grass, picking at the foliage in his fingers before shredding it and releasing it into the air and being a natural nuisance in general. He picks at a shrub and bites at the edges of stalks, giving him a completely different image to what he held in his room - studious, hardworking, and obedient. The Sunggyu at home was so different to the Sunggyu outside, where he’d lose that stressful expression and seem content to just lie on his back and stare at the clouds, and it’s this Sunggyu - the real Sunggyu - that Woohyun knows the least.
“That can’t be healthy,” Woohyun says quietly, pulling a leaf from Sunggyu’s lips. “Don’t they put like pesticides on this stuff?” he flicks it away and steps on it before Sunggyu can take it back.
He shakes his head, “Not this part. This place is protected. At least, until the end of the year it is.” He closes his eyes as he sits upright, eventually raising his head to meet Woohyun’s eyes.
It’s quiet and the sky’s tinted orange, the sharp tinge of summer tangy on their skin as the temperature cools down. Everything about it is like something from a picture book, and definitely something Woohyun didn’t expect to find on Earth of all places.
“Woohyun-ah,” Sunggyu says suddenly. His voice is soft, thick and wavering so slightly that it’s almost undetectable. “I like you,” he says quietly. “It probably doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes even less sense to me. You, Nam Woohyun,” he murmurs, gazing into the sky. “Me. This.”
Woohyun wants to open his mouth to talk, but he can’t seem to do it. His jaw is set, no words come out. His brain is forming sentences, phrases, anything. But his voice box doesn’t work.
Sunggyu’s not even looking at him. “I really hated you when I first met you, you know. You were crazy, you invited yourself over to my house and asked me stupid things,” he stops. He exhales slowly, and he finally turns to meet Woohyun’s eyes. “But I still listened to every word you said.” He’s shaking his head, running his fingers through his hair and his spare hand is toying with the edges of his shirt. “I just don’t get it.”
The younger takes a bold step towards Sunggyu, and stands directly opposite him. He’s glaring fiercely into the other’s sight, not dropping it for a second as his breath is stark and hitching in the back of his throat. He swallows, “hyung.”
He shakes his head, smiling almost and pretending Woohyun never spoke. “It’s always been a problem. Kim Sunggyu, the lonely studious nobody in the back of the classroom who still gets shit results no matter how hard he tries. The one who teachers talk about in the staff room about how I won’t get into college. The one whose parents look at and talk amongst each other, about how I’m a disappointment and not someone they want their children talking to, all of it’s me.”
Woohyun stops him. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“Everything,” he lowers his gaze to the ground once more. “Talking. Friendship.” He pauses. “Love. They’re things that I’ve always wanted, and until you dropped from the sky, it’s never been possible. You really are my saving angel,” he smiles weakly, and he steps forward. His hand grabs Woohyun’s wrist lightly and brings it up to their chests. The last band is glowing, the black fading and turning into the colour of blinding purity. “I like you, Woohyun.”
“No,” Woohyun murmurs as he snatches his arm away and grips the bracelets. “No, not now.” His fingers tighten around the band as he attempts to claw it off, only for his hand to jerk away a moment later and he lets out a hiss of pain. His finger is red, presumably burnt from the heat coming out from the three bands which were all eye-blindingly bright. His fingers close around nothing, and it’s then that he realizes that the bands have disappeared into nothing leaving his wrist free and his whole body feeling lighter.
He looks back to Sunggyu, words threatening to spill from his lips, but Sunggyu’s not looking at him. He’s looking right past him, and Woohyun doesn’t have to ask to know why.
“Pretty,” Sunggyu murmurs, the light reflecting from Woohyun’s wings, polychromatic as they spread around his shoulders like a safety guard. It’s enchanting - almost mesmerizing, Sunggyu thinks, as they sit just next to him, his hand unknowingly leaning out to touch them only to find his hand passing right through them. He closes his fingers around the air, the wings disappearing from his sight until his arm retracts, where they magically materialized once more. “I’m glad I was the one to help you. I wanted to be there when you left, so that I could say thanks to you. Because you’ve given me so much,” he tells him. “What better way than to be the last one you help?”
“Hyung! Stop this right now!” Sunggyu blinks at him, confused, but Woohyun continues before he can get a word in edgeways. “How... How can you just do this without telling me?” he asks, his voice cracking on the last word as he struggles to look at the older boy.
He frowns, “W… What do you mean?”
“I don’t think you get it!” Woohyun’s eyes are dark, glassy, lifeless. His mouth is set into a tight line, his neck stiff and features unmoving, but his voice is a stark contrast. “This is it,” he tells him, his words bleeding raw emotion as he pleads with his hyung to stop what he’s doing, to stop this. “Why did you help me?”
Sunggyu’s staring at him, not understanding why Woohyun is so distraught. “I-Isn’t this good? You get to go back now,” his voice trails off at the end, and he bites his lip as Woohyun looks up at him once more with pain in his eyes.
“No!” he says, his voice breaking, and his expression finally falls apart. He closes his eyes as he breathes deeply, “Hyung, I…” Woohyun had always found words to be feeble, collapsible, ephemeral. He found it funny, how that in a single moment, short-lived and silent, everything that he’d been building up to could be nullified from the very core. Words are useless, he thinks, only a tool in showing emotions. Some things needed to be shown rather than spoken.
They kiss in silence, Woohyun’s fingers tracing Sunggyu’s jaw line softly, his free arm holding his back in a motion that’s firm yet careful, as if he was afraid to break him. Sunggyu parts his mouth slowly, stiff at first but slowly relaxing into Woohyun’s hold, his eyes closing as he wraps his arms around the younger’s back, his fingers tightening to grip into his clothing tightly and their surroundings disappear.
It’s this kind of moment, tender and sweet, that Sunggyu allows himself to indulge in. He allows himself to be caught up by the intensity, the idiocy and raw perfection of the moment, letting it sink into his skin, a feeling that he’ll never forget.
How nice it would be, to stand atop the hill and kiss Woohyun’s stupid self forever.
The walk home is twice as long as the walk there. He’s taking his time, each step slow and drawn out as if he never wants to leave, and he keeps staring into the sky, counting the clouds and the birds overhead.
Sunggyu is alone, and for the first time in his life, he really, really hates it.
Woohyun was cruel like that, coming uninvited into his life and changing the flow of it, and giving him a sense of friendship and actual happiness. Now that he’s gone, he’s just left with an empty feeling, a hole, absence.
He hates it.
He hates opening the door to his house with no Woohyun talking incessantly behind him.
He hates the way the kitchen is clean, without cups and plates littering the table waiting to be washed.
He hates opening the room to find the mattress there, the way it had been for the last forever, needing to be put away.
He hates the way it smells of him, and the room reminds him of him.
He hates it, but can’t bring himself to hate him.
It takes him a week to gain the sense to put away the mattress, only after it started getting dusty and making him cough every time he stood on it. Whilst folding it, a book falls down, small and creased, as if it had been and gone places that it could only tell you about. “Beauty,” he says, reading out the cover, and turning the page and being met with Woohyun’s familiar and neat handwriting.
Birds. Trees. Grass. Dirt. They were all typical things, the things that are overused in books when describing the scenery and emphasized upon, the regular, ordinary things that people don’t think twice about. It continues like this for a moment, before delving deeper. Music. Dance. Rhythm. Sunggyu laughs quietly, nodding his head. He knows where that one came from. Pizza. Blankets. Strawberries. Sunggyu laughs louder. He didn’t know Woohyun thought like this. He turns the page, and a small gasp escapes his lips, and he drops the book in surprise.
There, the only thing written, stark black against the white, was his name.
For the first time since Woohyun left, he cries.
“Hey Sunggyu,” Howon whispers, tapping him on the shoulder. Sunggyu blinks groggily as he sits up, his arm numb from sleeping on it. “Isn’t that your cousin?”
“My what?” he mumbles, his eyes half closed from the harsh light of the classroom, and he shakes his head. “I don’t have any cousins.”
Howon tilts his head, confused. “But Nam Woohyun…”
Something clicks in his head, and he coughs a few times. “W-Woohyun?” he asks, surprised, and his head immediately turns to the door.
He’s sure he’s imagining it. There’s no worldly, logical reason for him to be standing at the door of the classroom in full uniform and all, but there he is, Nam Woohyun in all his ethereal looking the same as he ever did.
“Hey.”
Pairing/Focus: Woohyun/Sunggyu
Rating: pg
Summary: Sunggyu finds out the hard way that hitting an angel with your bicycle isn’t good luck.
Final word count: ~13000
A week later, Woohyun lies on Sunggyu’s sofa drinking boba tea and watching the television. “I forgot to ask you,” he says between sips, sitting upwards. “How’s Howon’s club?”
Sunggyu sits beside him and changes the channel. “It’s good. Apparently ninety percent of the school didn’t even know we had a dance club,” they chuckle slightly, and Sunggyu continues. “He had like what, twenty something people ask to join?” He nods, “It’s great. He’s sad that you can’t be in it though.”
“More like he’s sad you can’t be in it,” Woohyun retorts. “Why aren’t you in it?”
Sunggyu shoots him a look. “I’m the one who stuffed it up, remember? Besides, I don’t dance.” He turns off the television and gets off the couch, “Stop watching crap television. You’ll become dumb,” he tells him, and courtly stomps up the stairs only to stop before opening his door. “Dumber,” he corrects himself, and disappears into his room.
Rolling his eyes, Woohyun follows him, stopping by the kitchen to put his empty drink container on the dining table (’Just throw it away, for goodness sake!’ Sunggyu would tell him, clearly annoyed, and for this reason specifically Woohyun continues to do it. He opens the door to find Sunggyu lazing on his bed, rapidly mashing buttons on his PSP at a rate that would have given Woohyun an insane finger spasm. He takes a step back, before launching himself onto the bed earning a groan from Sunggyu who drops his PSP on his head.
“Get off me you lump,” he moans, pushing Woohyun onto his mattress. He pouts and rests his arms on Sunggyu’s bed.
“Don’t you love me?” he asks him, and Sunggyu makes a face.
“Ew,” he says, rolling over and facing the wall, pulling his PSP from under him. This isn’t the answer that Woohyun wants, so he crawls back onto Sunggyu’s bed and jabs him under the ribs.
“Stop playing! Play with me,” he whines, aegyo lacing his voice in a way that makes Sunggyu cringe under him.
The door opens, and the two of them freeze. “Hyung?” a voice asks, and the owner steps into the room a moment later. His eyes widen at the situation, looking around at the room, and he swallows, taking a step back. “Who’s this?”
He has that look in his eyes, the one people get when they’re putting things together. Of course, from just the room itself, it’s clear that he’s getting the wrong idea, and Sunggyu sits up immediately, sending Woohyun crashing back onto his mattress. “I-It’s nothing,” he says quickly, pulling the blanket over himself. “He’s nothing, I swear.”
The boy smirks. “Of course, hyung. I’ll knock next time.”
Shaking his head, Sunggyu gets up from the bed and motions with his hand for him to get out of his room. “It’s not like that, Sungjong-ah. He’s just a friend.”
“Yeah, because your friends live in your room while your mom’s away,” he says, kicking the mattress. Woohyun looks up at him, and the boy bows. “I’m Sungjong, Sunggyu’s cousin.”
“He’s not my cousin,” Sunggyu says, and Sungjong pouts.
“We’re as good as cousins!”
Sunggyu shakes his head, “Being family friends doesn’t make us cousins. It just makes you someone I know.” He forcefully pushes the boy out of his room, and Woohyun follows closely behind them. “Why are you even here?”
Tilting his head, Sungjong looks up at him from the bottom of the stairs. “Don’t you check your phone? I sent you a message like, last week saying that I’d be visiting. And staying the night, since my dad’s out of town today. I’m a young boy, I can’t be at home by myself~”
He blinks, “My home phone?” and Sungjong nods. “Sungjong-ah,” he groans, rubbing his temples. “I don’t check my home phone, you know that. You’re meant to call my mobile.” He sighs, and heads towards the kitchen. “It can’t be helped now, I guess. Have you eaten?”
It amuses Woohyun, that despite Sunggyu saying that he doesn’t like the kid, it’s clear that he has some kind of affection for him, whether it be brotherly or fatherly. Most probably brotherly.
It makes him jealous, almost.
“Where are you from?” Woohyun asks him, sitting at the table across from him.
“I live ten minutes away. Who are you?” he asks.
He nods, “I’m Nam Woohyun, Sunggyu’s best friend.”
Sungjong frowns, “Hyung has friends?” causing Sunggyu to turn around and whack him on the head, as well as hit Woohyun. “Ow, sorry. Where are you from?”
He pauses. “Jeollabuk-do. Like Sunggyu. We go way back,” he says, nodding, and Sunggyu shoots him a glare, mouthing ‘liar’ in his direction.
They eat their food in moderate silence, save Sungjong kicking Sunggyu under the table, and the older flicking food onto his plate. Woohyun can only watch, slightly awkward and bemused as the two quarrel in silence.
When Sunggyu is washing the dishes (he lost in rock paper scissors), Woohyun makes small talk with Sungjong, finding out that he’s two years older than the boy and that he likes softball. “Tomorrow’s Sunday,” he says, “maybe we could drag Sunggyu hyung out and hit a few.”
Sungjong shakes his head, “I injured myself two months ago, I can’t play,” he shakes his head sadly, and Woohyun hates himself for bringing it up.
“Well, we can still do other things right?” he asks, changing the subject. “A movie marathon, or something. We can have a sleepover,” he suggests, “movies and all.”
“Let’s!” Sungjong pipes, at the exact same time Sunggyu disagrees. “I’m the guest here, and technically so is Woohyun hyung. Have some host manners!” Sunggyu murmurs something about tossing them both out the door. And this is how Nam Woohyun experiences a human sleepover.
“Let me win, dammit!” Woohyun yells, tossing the controller in his lap in frustration. Sungjong only laughs, and sticks his tongue out at him.
“Never,” he replies. “Even Sunggyu hyung beat you, you should be ashamed of yourself.” Woohyun narrows his eyes and makes a face at Sungjong behind his back, picking the controller up again. Racing games are stupid.
Sunggyu is amused, having finally found something he can actually beat Woohyun at. Looks like they’ll be playing Mario Kart more often. He glances at the clock, and sits up. “Hey I just remembered,” he says suddenly. He looks at Woohyun, “Howon told me that a good movie’s on tonight. It’s on like, now,” he says, already reaching for the remote. “I don’t know what it is though. He just told me the title.”
It turns out to be a horror movie, and one of those freaky as shit Japanese ones at that. Sunggyu makes a reminder to himself to personally hurt Lee Howon, because the three of them sit on the couch with pizza and popcorn bundled in blankets practically pissing themselves.
“Don’t open the door!” Sungjong screeches, but of course, the lead opens the door and a ghost pops out, dragging her into the closet. Woohyun glances at him, and is amused to find both Sunggyu and Sungjong covering their eyes.
“I wish I could take a photo of you guys, you’re absolutely terrified,” he muses.
“Yah,” Sunggyu says, his tone serious. “Don’t. You’re not any better, you know.”
Woohyun wants to open his mouth and tell him, ‘You know, ghosts don’t even do this actually. They’re actually just hungry half the time. For freedom, not humans,’ but he refrains, because Sungjong is there and he’d rather not freak the poor boy our more than he already is.
He thinks that this whole thing isn’t too bad, lazing on sofas making useless talk and eating junk food. He quite enjoys it, actually, and wishes that his friends at home would do something marginally as fun. The movie ends, the three of them having probably only watched about a third of it each, which is alright, because that’ll add up to the whole thing more or less. Sunggyu remembers to shoot Howon a text message telling him to die, and Woohyun smiles at this.
They sit in Sunggyu’s room (to his chagrin - there’s a perfectly good lounge outside!) playing card games and drinking hot chocolate, and Woohyun absolutely loves playing cheat, because Sunggyu is a shit liar and so is Sungjong. “I’m a god at this,” he proclaims as he wins for the fifth time in a row.
Sunggyu rolls his eyes. “He’s always like this,” he says to Sungjong, who just laughs.
“Finally something you’re good at,” he jokes, and Woohyun glares at him.
“I’ll be right back,” he says, mumbling something about getting water and stands up. It’s then that Sunggyu sees it, and his mouth drops in surprise.
“Woohyun, your w-“ He stops himself just in time, and Sungjong only tilts his head in confusion. “Nothing,” he says, but he darts his eyes to Woohyun’s wrist. Thankfully, Woohyun is a pretty observant person (a factor as to why he’s so good at cheat) and gets the message, and he makes a noise of surprise when he lifts his wrist to find two glowing wristbands.
He swallows his surprise, closing the door behind him and walking to the kitchen. “Sungjong?” he says to himself, his fingers tracing the outline of the band. “Was there something wrong?” he wonders.
It’s only 1am and Sungjong is fast asleep, worn out by their stupid night, but he sleeps so peacefully that neither of them have the heart to wake him up.
“What do you think is with this?” Woohyun asks, lifting up his arm to show off his now two glowing bands. Sunggyu shrugs.
“I’m not too sure. I have sort of an idea though.” Woohyun shifts closer to show he’s listening. “Last year…” he hesitates, his eyes tracing Sungjong’s sleeping figure once again. “His mother passed away,” he says quietly. “He was pretty upset about it for a long time, but he’s a lot better now. Didn’t he say something about injuring himself? He was obsessed with softball,” he slumps his shoulders. “It’s just a guess, but I think he’s just been lonely.” He smiles at Woohyun, who’s too surprised to say anything. “Anyway, congratulations,” he says. “Let’s go to sleep, okay?”
Woohyun’s still too shocked to say anything, so he just nods. “Good night.”
Woohyun’s pretty sad when he has to say goodbye to Sungjong, but the younger tells him to cheer up because if they ever want to talk, he lives just a few blocks away. “Sunggyu hyung knows the way,” he says, nudging him. Sunggyu nods reluctantly, agreeing to visit some time or another. They wave goodbye, and the door closes, and suddenly the house is left with a ringing silence.
“Just one more,” Sunggyu says softly.
Woohyun puts his hand over the bracelets, turning them over. “Yeah.”
It’s exam time, and Sunggyu has less time to muck around with Woohyun and more time to spend in his textbooks. Woohyun agrees that for his benefit he’ll be less annoying, but of course, he’s still pretty annoying. Aside from that, they hadn’t conversed much the entire week, and Sunggyu enters his room that Friday to a sleeping Woohyun.
“Woohyun,” he calls as he opens the door of his room with a bowl of rice in his hand. “Are you hungry?” He stops when he sees the younger boy sleeping in his bed. Sunggyu places the bowl down gingerly before sitting on the lump that is Nam Woohyun. “Yah, did I say you could sleep in my bed?” he asks as he lets his weight sink onto him.
Woohyun makes noises of disapproval as he squirms his way from under Sunggyu’s weight. “Are you trying to kill me?” he asks groggily, his voice thick from sleep and his eyes half-lidded. Sunggyu shrugs and Woohyun pushes him off the bed. “Let me sleep. I was out all day yesterday. Saving people is hard work.”
“It’s four fifteen,” Sunggyu deadpans, glancing at the clock.”Saving people can’t be that hard when you’re on your butt all day,” he jokes. He receives no response, so he can only sigh as he retrieves the bowl of rice and starts eating it. “Too bad, I make some mighty fine bibimbap, if I may say so myself.” Woohyun still doesn’t stir, which is strange because usually he struggles to shut up. Sunggyu puts his hand on his shoulder and shakes him slightly. “Hey, are you okay? You’re really quiet,” he says softly.
He opens his eyes and looks at him, his expression tired. “I’m fine. Really,” he says, and something about the way Woohyun says it makes Sunggyu not believe him. It could have been the way his voice was quiet, his vocals strained in an attempt to keep it sounding the same as it usually did. It could have been the way that he took a faint breath before every sentence, as if he was out of breath and struggled for words. It could have been the way his eyes were soft and dull, quite unlike its usual radiant glistening, making his overall appearance more aged and altogether just plain tired. It could have been all three.
“You can take the bed today, I’ll sleep on the floor,” Sunggyu says quietly, replacing the quilt over Woohyun’s torso. And with that their conversation is deemed over, with Sunggyu digging through his bag for his history textbook and pencil case before dropping it on his desk and poring over his homework.
Woohyun watches him from under the blanket in silence, his lips pursed tightly as he sees Sunggyu chewing on the end of his pencil. He thinks nothing of it until later that night when he turns off the lamp on his desk, piling all his things together and shoves it in his school bag. He draws back the blanket of the thin mattress he’d laid out the past few weeks for Woohyun to sleep on, and sits on it for a moment, looking out his window. When he finally lies down and rests his head on the pillow, Woohyun can practically feel the uncomfortable hardness of the floor he’d been feeling for the past few weeks and a bit and he shifts over on the bed, lifting up the quilt.
“Hey,” Woohyun murmurs. “Sleep here.”
“No. You’re not feeling well.”
There’s a pause, and Woohyun holds his breath. “I mean sleep here. With me.”
He expects laughter on Sunggyu’s behalf, rejection and probably a lecture telling him why he shouldn’t be sleeping with the ill. Not for him to slide into the space beside him and drop his head onto the pillow, their bodies the closest they’d ever been. “Thanks,” he murmurs.
Woohyun is almost too surprised to talk. “It’s cool,” he replies, hoping the shock isn’t evident in his voice. He shuffles over slightly so he can give Sunggyu a bit more room. “Sorry if it’s too hot.”
“It’s not,” Sunggyu says quietly. “Sleep.”
He nods his head, and closes his eyes again completely aware of the boy sleeping next to him, subtly breathing in his scent, carefully remembering the feel of his body next to his and absently memorizing the feeling of just being together, the feeling alone enough to jolt his heart and make him more subconscious of his surroundings than ever.
Sometime before seven, Woohyun wakes up. It’s incredibly hot to the point where he’s sweating and there’s a dry lump in his throat. He rolls over, uncomfortable with him position, only to find himself collide with a sleeping Sunggyu - he’d forgotten that they were sleeping together.
It’s then he realizes that Sunggyu had taken the quilt from the bed and laid a sheet over Woohyun’s body. Sunggyu’s body is extremely warm, and his eyes have circles under them - they’re faint, but still noticeable, and a strong feeling of guilt surges throughout Woohyun’s body as his fingers hover over his cheeks.
He shifts his weight and sits up against the wall, legs hugging his chest as he waits for the time to pass. Sunggyu was tired, no doubt about that, and he wasn’t going to wake him. The room is dark, the sun only slightly up and the curtains are drawn tightly, letting only the slightest amount of morning light trickle though the gaps and underneath. Woohyun likes it like this, where it’s bright enough to see what’s in front of him, what he wants to see, but dark enough to hide the world’s imperfections.
Of course, he likes the light too, but sometimes a person needs a change. He leans against the wall, the cold surface sending shivers through his skin as he moves himself into a more comfortable position. He waits for the sun to rise more and for there to be an adequate amount of light in the room before he reaches into his coat pockets small tattered notebook, a black pen shoved in the spine bending it out of proportion. He flips open the cover, the paper full of scribbles, half finished drawings and unfinished sentences from where his mind had blanked out.
I have an assignment for you, his teacher had told him. Write down all things you find beautiful, because you never know when they will disappear. He laughs to himself now, sending small tremors throughout the bed frame. How right he’d been. He leafs through his earlier pages, the words neat and even and sounding much like a Christmas card: sunsets, dew drops, the spiciness of winter air. It was cheesy shit, and stuff that he’d never be caught dead speaking aloud.
He turns to the next page, a fine liner gripped tightly in his fingers, before setting it to the paper.
“Come out with me,” Sunggyu announces one day, darting into his room. He dumps his bag at the door as he pulls off his tie and undoes his top button, before untucking his shirt completely. Woohyun sits up from Sunggyu’s bed and sets down the book he was reading so the page isn’t lost. “You’re pretty much a tourist here, right?” he asks him. “There’s a place just outside of the city you have to see. You won’t find it in travel booklets.”
And that’s how Woohyun ends up following Sunggyu along a dirt path road through the dusty streets just outside of Seoul and through a natural vegetation environment he had no idea existed.
“We couldn’t have taken the bus?” he complains after fifteen minutes of walking, the soles of his sneakers stained orange with soil and his back stiff from standing.
The older boy shakes his head. “No buses head out this way. And my bike is broken,” he adds, giving a pointed look towards Woohyun who tells him he needs to find new excuses. He shuts up after that, mindlessly kicking the grass. The two continue for a while longer, always a stride apart and sometimes more. A part of Sunggyu wants to slow down so he can spend just a little bit longer with Woohyun, but he doesn’t in case Woohyun slows down too.
“This is it,” Sunggyu says absently as he gazes into the sky under them. They’d come to a stop atop a cliff providing a clear view of the residential areas surrounding them. The wind blows as they sit on the grass and lean against trees, the dirt soft under their feet, fresh and relaxing in a way.
Woohyun sighs, breathing in the air around them. “It’s really fresh here,” he comments.
Sunggyu nods his head, and sighs as he turns his sight to the sea of houses below them. “It’s kind of sad, isn’t it?” he says more to himself than to Woohyun. “All that used to be grass. It used to be national park, just like this one.” He taps the grass beneath him, and smiles. “Soon this will all be houses too.”
Woohyun doesn’t know what Sunggyu is thinking. There are times where he can read the boy like a picture book, his face so animated and the words so big and simple that it’s hard not to. But there are also times like this where Sunggyu is an encyclopaedia, clawing at the grass, picking at the foliage in his fingers before shredding it and releasing it into the air and being a natural nuisance in general. He picks at a shrub and bites at the edges of stalks, giving him a completely different image to what he held in his room - studious, hardworking, and obedient. The Sunggyu at home was so different to the Sunggyu outside, where he’d lose that stressful expression and seem content to just lie on his back and stare at the clouds, and it’s this Sunggyu - the real Sunggyu - that Woohyun knows the least.
“That can’t be healthy,” Woohyun says quietly, pulling a leaf from Sunggyu’s lips. “Don’t they put like pesticides on this stuff?” he flicks it away and steps on it before Sunggyu can take it back.
He shakes his head, “Not this part. This place is protected. At least, until the end of the year it is.” He closes his eyes as he sits upright, eventually raising his head to meet Woohyun’s eyes.
It’s quiet and the sky’s tinted orange, the sharp tinge of summer tangy on their skin as the temperature cools down. Everything about it is like something from a picture book, and definitely something Woohyun didn’t expect to find on Earth of all places.
“Woohyun-ah,” Sunggyu says suddenly. His voice is soft, thick and wavering so slightly that it’s almost undetectable. “I like you,” he says quietly. “It probably doesn’t make sense to you, but it makes even less sense to me. You, Nam Woohyun,” he murmurs, gazing into the sky. “Me. This.”
Woohyun wants to open his mouth to talk, but he can’t seem to do it. His jaw is set, no words come out. His brain is forming sentences, phrases, anything. But his voice box doesn’t work.
Sunggyu’s not even looking at him. “I really hated you when I first met you, you know. You were crazy, you invited yourself over to my house and asked me stupid things,” he stops. He exhales slowly, and he finally turns to meet Woohyun’s eyes. “But I still listened to every word you said.” He’s shaking his head, running his fingers through his hair and his spare hand is toying with the edges of his shirt. “I just don’t get it.”
The younger takes a bold step towards Sunggyu, and stands directly opposite him. He’s glaring fiercely into the other’s sight, not dropping it for a second as his breath is stark and hitching in the back of his throat. He swallows, “hyung.”
He shakes his head, smiling almost and pretending Woohyun never spoke. “It’s always been a problem. Kim Sunggyu, the lonely studious nobody in the back of the classroom who still gets shit results no matter how hard he tries. The one who teachers talk about in the staff room about how I won’t get into college. The one whose parents look at and talk amongst each other, about how I’m a disappointment and not someone they want their children talking to, all of it’s me.”
Woohyun stops him. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“Everything,” he lowers his gaze to the ground once more. “Talking. Friendship.” He pauses. “Love. They’re things that I’ve always wanted, and until you dropped from the sky, it’s never been possible. You really are my saving angel,” he smiles weakly, and he steps forward. His hand grabs Woohyun’s wrist lightly and brings it up to their chests. The last band is glowing, the black fading and turning into the colour of blinding purity. “I like you, Woohyun.”
“No,” Woohyun murmurs as he snatches his arm away and grips the bracelets. “No, not now.” His fingers tighten around the band as he attempts to claw it off, only for his hand to jerk away a moment later and he lets out a hiss of pain. His finger is red, presumably burnt from the heat coming out from the three bands which were all eye-blindingly bright. His fingers close around nothing, and it’s then that he realizes that the bands have disappeared into nothing leaving his wrist free and his whole body feeling lighter.
He looks back to Sunggyu, words threatening to spill from his lips, but Sunggyu’s not looking at him. He’s looking right past him, and Woohyun doesn’t have to ask to know why.
“Pretty,” Sunggyu murmurs, the light reflecting from Woohyun’s wings, polychromatic as they spread around his shoulders like a safety guard. It’s enchanting - almost mesmerizing, Sunggyu thinks, as they sit just next to him, his hand unknowingly leaning out to touch them only to find his hand passing right through them. He closes his fingers around the air, the wings disappearing from his sight until his arm retracts, where they magically materialized once more. “I’m glad I was the one to help you. I wanted to be there when you left, so that I could say thanks to you. Because you’ve given me so much,” he tells him. “What better way than to be the last one you help?”
“Hyung! Stop this right now!” Sunggyu blinks at him, confused, but Woohyun continues before he can get a word in edgeways. “How... How can you just do this without telling me?” he asks, his voice cracking on the last word as he struggles to look at the older boy.
He frowns, “W… What do you mean?”
“I don’t think you get it!” Woohyun’s eyes are dark, glassy, lifeless. His mouth is set into a tight line, his neck stiff and features unmoving, but his voice is a stark contrast. “This is it,” he tells him, his words bleeding raw emotion as he pleads with his hyung to stop what he’s doing, to stop this. “Why did you help me?”
Sunggyu’s staring at him, not understanding why Woohyun is so distraught. “I-Isn’t this good? You get to go back now,” his voice trails off at the end, and he bites his lip as Woohyun looks up at him once more with pain in his eyes.
“No!” he says, his voice breaking, and his expression finally falls apart. He closes his eyes as he breathes deeply, “Hyung, I…” Woohyun had always found words to be feeble, collapsible, ephemeral. He found it funny, how that in a single moment, short-lived and silent, everything that he’d been building up to could be nullified from the very core. Words are useless, he thinks, only a tool in showing emotions. Some things needed to be shown rather than spoken.
They kiss in silence, Woohyun’s fingers tracing Sunggyu’s jaw line softly, his free arm holding his back in a motion that’s firm yet careful, as if he was afraid to break him. Sunggyu parts his mouth slowly, stiff at first but slowly relaxing into Woohyun’s hold, his eyes closing as he wraps his arms around the younger’s back, his fingers tightening to grip into his clothing tightly and their surroundings disappear.
It’s this kind of moment, tender and sweet, that Sunggyu allows himself to indulge in. He allows himself to be caught up by the intensity, the idiocy and raw perfection of the moment, letting it sink into his skin, a feeling that he’ll never forget.
How nice it would be, to stand atop the hill and kiss Woohyun’s stupid self forever.
The walk home is twice as long as the walk there. He’s taking his time, each step slow and drawn out as if he never wants to leave, and he keeps staring into the sky, counting the clouds and the birds overhead.
Sunggyu is alone, and for the first time in his life, he really, really hates it.
Woohyun was cruel like that, coming uninvited into his life and changing the flow of it, and giving him a sense of friendship and actual happiness. Now that he’s gone, he’s just left with an empty feeling, a hole, absence.
He hates it.
He hates opening the door to his house with no Woohyun talking incessantly behind him.
He hates the way the kitchen is clean, without cups and plates littering the table waiting to be washed.
He hates opening the room to find the mattress there, the way it had been for the last forever, needing to be put away.
He hates the way it smells of him, and the room reminds him of him.
He hates it, but can’t bring himself to hate him.
It takes him a week to gain the sense to put away the mattress, only after it started getting dusty and making him cough every time he stood on it. Whilst folding it, a book falls down, small and creased, as if it had been and gone places that it could only tell you about. “Beauty,” he says, reading out the cover, and turning the page and being met with Woohyun’s familiar and neat handwriting.
Birds. Trees. Grass. Dirt. They were all typical things, the things that are overused in books when describing the scenery and emphasized upon, the regular, ordinary things that people don’t think twice about. It continues like this for a moment, before delving deeper. Music. Dance. Rhythm. Sunggyu laughs quietly, nodding his head. He knows where that one came from. Pizza. Blankets. Strawberries. Sunggyu laughs louder. He didn’t know Woohyun thought like this. He turns the page, and a small gasp escapes his lips, and he drops the book in surprise.
There, the only thing written, stark black against the white, was his name.
For the first time since Woohyun left, he cries.
“Hey Sunggyu,” Howon whispers, tapping him on the shoulder. Sunggyu blinks groggily as he sits up, his arm numb from sleeping on it. “Isn’t that your cousin?”
“My what?” he mumbles, his eyes half closed from the harsh light of the classroom, and he shakes his head. “I don’t have any cousins.”
Howon tilts his head, confused. “But Nam Woohyun…”
Something clicks in his head, and he coughs a few times. “W-Woohyun?” he asks, surprised, and his head immediately turns to the door.
He’s sure he’s imagining it. There’s no worldly, logical reason for him to be standing at the door of the classroom in full uniform and all, but there he is, Nam Woohyun in all his ethereal looking the same as he ever did.
“Hey.”