Voices (WooGyu Drabble)
Title: Voices
Pairing: WooGyu
Genre: Angst
Rating: PG-13 (swearing)
Summary: Sunggyu is tired. He's tired of everyone and everything. His solo was just released and he should be happy, right? But he's not, and Woohyun's the only one who can help him.
a/n: wrote this in Asia class again. so productive in that class it hurts. here, Shannon, have some sobs.
Sunggyu whips his phone across the room, narrowly missing Woohyun as he steps into the doorframe.
Woohyun pauses dead in his tracks, looking first to his immediate right, a mere 3 inches from his head where the phone in question hit the wall proceeding to break due to impact, and then directs his vision to the crumpled mess in the corner, now shaking with sobs.
"Gyu...............What's wrong?"
Woohyun receives no spoken reply but the sobs suddenly stop, as though Sunggyu couldn't bear to be heard breaking down.
And actually, he really couldn't take it.
Woohyun takes a couple of strides, slowly across their shared room to his boyfriend on the floor, cutting the tension more and more with each step his body takes.
Sunggyu has his head buried in his arms, knees brought up to his chest.
He was breaking inside and Woohyun knew it.
"Go away, Woohyun."
"Why?"
"Because I said so."
Woohyun crouches down and pats Sunggyu's back a couple of times, unsure of what else he could possibly do at that moment. Sunggyu told him to leave, but Woohyun wasn't stupid. This is how he comforts the other members and a couple of pats on the back usually does the trick for Sunggyu too, but he'd never seen Sunggyu this completely shattered before.
He thought that Sunggyu would be in a great mood. Absolutely fabulous. His solo had just been released and it was doing extremely well, proving all of their prior concerns to be invalid. Woohyun himself was overjoyed for Sunggyu! He'd never been more proud of anyone in his entire life. The hard work, the composure, the tolerance it takes to be such a good leader, and the extreme care he held for everyone in his heart, especially Woohyun, all proving why Sunggyu deserved this time of his own to ~shine. Sunggyu had helped him through more than he could ever admit as well.
So why couldn't Woohyun figure out how to help Sunggyu?
"No."
"Leave Woohyun."
"No. I'm not going anywhere, Kim Sunggyu."
Sunggyu responded, lifting his head from his arms and sent Woohyun a glare that would have killed anything within three miles of the pair, but Woohyun withstood the icy wave of death, his warm heart impervious to such tactics.
"Are you going to talk to me?"
..........................................
It took a long time, or what felt like ages, for Sunggyu to finally speak, but when he did, Woohyun was speechless.
"Why can't I sing Woohyun?"
Woohyun's breathing literally halted. His eyes grew wide and he started to shake.
"What?" was all he could choke out in response.
Sunggyu's body turned away from his boyfriend and he looked straight ahead, tears streaming down his face and his entire body shaking uncontrollably. He was entirely broken and upset and nothing seemed right with the world in any way.
"My solo, Woohyun. People don't think it's me singing because it sounds different."
"So? Why does this mean you can't sing?"
"Because I had to get some help from Jongwan hyung. I know how to sing, it's just different with INFINITE. The arrangements and structure and the notes and everything. Everything is different. I don't know. It seems like no matter what I try or what I do, I just get put down. I get constantly shit on and all I do is work. IT IS MY VOICE, WOOHYUN. IT IS! WHY DOESN'T ANYONE BELIEVE THAT?! WHY DOESN'T MY SINGING MAKE ANYONE HAPPY?! NO ONE IS HAPPY WHEN THEY HEAR ME SING, AND I HATE IT."
His eyes were pleading, as by this time he'd turned fully to look at Woohyun and earnestly ask him the preceeding questions.
Sunggyu was absolutely lost and it was no more evident than it was at this moment.
Woohyun felt the tears roll down his own cheeks, matching those on Sunggyu's.
Sunggyu put his head in his arms again, no longer able to take the silence between him and his boyfriend.
"This is why I told you to go. You don't need to see me like this, and you don't need to deal with my problems. They're mine. I'll handle them. Just leave," he said, his voice muffled by his own body.
Woohyun couldn't hold back any longer and by pure instinct lept forward, englufing Sunggyu's weeping face into his arms and kissed the top of his head, resting his own atop Sunggyu's afterward.
Sunggyu's body shaking sobs had returned at the gesture, and Woohyun just held him close. He felt as though if he let Sunggyu go, Sunggyu would slip away from him, all but end up swept away by a tsunami of stress and despair caused by people who thrive on the suffering of others. Sunggyu deserved so much better than what he'd been through.
All of his auditions. All of the critiques everyone makes on his leadership tactics. All of his trouble with managers.........
All of his grief he received for his singing voice..............
Woohyun thought Sunggyu's voice was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. And Sunggyu was right. Singing with INFINITE was in fact different from singing on his own. No one could say he was wrong. It was totally different, but Sunggyu's voice was beautiful no matter who he was singing with.
Sunggyu could sing and he could sing well.
Now, if only he himself would believe that.
"Sunggyu. I'm sorry, so so sorry. You don't deserve this backlash. Not in the least. I know things seem horrible right now, but just remember things will get better. Think of it this way. I know for a fact that for however many people hate your voice or try to bring you down, there are a hundred times more, at least, who adore you and find total happiness in your voice, especially me. I will never stop loving your voice or you or anything about you. Okay? Your voice makes me happier than anything in this world, so never stop singing, okay? Never stop singing."
Sunggyu broke from the hug and looked up at a now equally sobbing Woohyun.
A smile then cracked on Sunggyu's face.
How did he get so lucky?
This stupid boy, crying with him because he doesn't know what else to do.
He sank into Woohyun's arms, muttering a small "thank you" as Woohyun hummed a song.
Sunggyu let himself relax and feel safe for the first time in weeks, and it was wonderful.
He could sing.
He would continue to sing.
As long as Woohyun was listening, that was all he needed.