interlude

“hey, what’s gotten you down in the dumps, babe?”

mingyu could only blink blankly at the screen, remembering that there was someone there speaking to him at the early hour of two in the afternoon. he almost disregarded the voice to fall back into the train of thoughts that had pulled out of the station at the moment.

“what?”

“don’t try to bring up any ‘i’m fine’ bull to me, gyu.”

“amber...”

“what is it?” his concerned girlfriend frowned as she leaned closer to the screen, as if she could reach from california to seoul and mingyu’s cheek in comfort.

what was it?

what was troubling mingyu so much to the point that he couldn’t talk to amber?

maybe it was the way that he was pulled from his slumber at an ungodly time for it being the summer, but the time difference was forgivable on amber’s end since she wanted to talk about her wonderful, amazing day that had blessed her.

maybe it was the way jeonghan was more and more dreading mingyu’s presence, the parasitic view of him in his apartment making him feel more and more burdened for taking in wonwoo’s big baby. it wasn’t that he was doing anything to disturb jeonghan as well, but it wasn’t something for the other to get used to when he had to realize that mingyu was.. there.

maybe it was the text message that previously woke him up a few hours back. maybe it was the string of words that he had to sit up, reread, dissect, analyze, and frown at that had him acting this way. maybe it was the fact that it came from their neighbor, innocent little lee chan, that irked him the most for some unknown reason.

all this time, mingyu had been swaying from thought to thought about little nothings, about what’s been tugging at his heart lately, why he’s been feeling more affected and sensitive toward certain things that he would only laugh off and continue on with his life. topics and conversations that were once ended with jokes and etched little offenses into his mind soon became ones that he had to think about more in depth.

in all honesty, it was only one topic.

one human topic by the name of jeon wonwoo.

mingyu could remember back when he had first met wonwoo when he was merely six years old, having found no other boy that wanted to play with him since they childishly criticized his skin tone. the moment wonwoo looked up from his drawing to the boy who was missing one of his front teeth all dressed in overalls and a white shirt with shaggy, brown hair, and told him that he looked pretty cool, mingyu vowed to be his bestfriend ‘until i set you on fire!’

thus began their days of being mingyu and wonwoo, or wonwoo and mingyu, depending on who called the dibs that day, and from that day onward, they had spent every single day together. whenever there were team games that were played, mingyu often time ran to his bestfriend and they were always partners whenever the situation called for it. one instance included a sort of olympics settling relay between the boys and girls where mingyu and wonwoo were the boys team’s only hope, and even though wonwoo fell flat onto his face trying to pass the baton to mingyu during the final race, they had helped in the victory of the boys, and wonwoo was aided by mingyu to the nurse’s office in a small fit of giggles.

there was another instance when they were in middle school and mingyu had somehow completely convinced wonwoo to join band. although wonwoo had several years of piano with him, there wasn’t a position open for the instrument, so he decided to take up on the clarinet while mingyu settled on the trombone. there was nothing more mature to them at this age than when they had to practice at home and mingyu would walk into wonwoo’s room declaring that he had a raging because.. trombone.. …

that never failed to make them laugh even now.

there was a particular sleepover that mingyu would never forget when they had to work on a science project together, but being in their teen years and with each other in the same room always caused the pre-studious wonwoo to never pay attention to his work whenever troublemaker mingyu had something up his sleeve. he had collected a list of phone numbers from the prettiest girls that attended their school, and wonwoo, being the weak bestfriend it was when it came to adhering to the other’s words, stopped the research out of curiosity for the other’s actions.

mingyu looked at wonwoo and tell him that he needed a girlfriend.

wonwoo frowned and push at mingyu’s face.

even though wonwoo seemed unwilling, he managed to call three girls on the list before declaring that girls were no fun and acted all shy to seem more charming (?). he declared them to be faking their personalities, and he could tell by the way they spoke to him that they wanted to continue talking to him because it was him.

mingyu frowned as he stowed the paper away and looked wonwoo dead in the eye telling him that he might be swaying the other way.

wonwoo laughed it off and shook his head to the idea. oh please, he told mingyu, what makes you think that?

you’ve obviously failed at finding your ideal girl, mingyu teased, so maybe you have a dream boy instead.

mingyu had never had to dodge so fast from wonwoo’s flying pillow toward his face, though he fell over when the second pillow hit him square in the face, causing mingyu to burst out into laughter.

though wonwoo was irked, he still chuckled a little at how dumb his bestfriend looked before pulling him back up to continue their project.

later that night when they crawled into bed, mingyu made a promise to himself to make sure that he would get wonwoo some sort of companion so that he wouldn’t live the rest of his miserable life playing animal crossing on his own.

here’s the thing: somewhere after graduating high school, somewhere around the time they had gone to china, mingyu’s view of wonwoo started to take a slow shift the more he thought about it. what seemed to be friendly intentions with him started to mean more than just nudging his shoulder to gain his attention, ruffling his hair to annoy him, leaning against him when they were watching a movie or just drinking together. holding his hand to annoy him started to become holding his hand because he wanted to. using his shampoo and body wash as a tactic for vengeance became more of a norm because damn, wonwoo always smelled good. waiting for wonwoo’s classes to be over so they could walk or drive home together started to become moments of anticipation to see wonwoo smile or whine about how his day was and just know that he was someone that was always there for wonwoo.

here’s the other thing: somewhere before then, he never realized all of these things that seemed to make his heart flutter more than anything in the world. he always ignored the fact, scared that he was falling for his bestfriend who probably didn’t view him in the same light. he could admit right away that wonwoo was a handsome boy from every angle, from the way he looked amazing in any hairstyle and choice of clothing to how charming his personality was toward everyone. he did have his adorable flaws such as forgetting names and staring off into space and hardly ever paying attention to some things, but for being his bestfriend of over ten years, mingyu had learned to adapt to them and love them as well.

mingyu blinked again at his screen that showed a frowning amber liu. he remembered that the only reason he had gotten with her was to further push away the feelings that he started to develop for wonwoo. he thought that maybe if he dated someone else, anyone else, that liked him, that maybe he would realize that the feelings were false and that he had been watching too many dramas and pushing their viewpoints into his perspective.

maybe dating amber would push me away from thinking so romantically about wonwoo, mingyu told himself.

here’s the thing: he couldn’t.

“mingyu?”

the said boy shook his head and offered amber a small smile through the video chat.

“remember that one girl you could never stop talking about because you thought that she was the ‘prettiest little flower you’d ever laid your eyes on’ even though you convinced yourself that she was annoying you?” mingyu softly asked.

amber tilted her head out of confusion before breaking out into a small chuckle. “luna?”

mingyu nodded his head.

“of course i do!” amber smiled, and mingyu could tell that there seemed to be more to that smile than he initially thought.

“tell me about her.”

“aw, is my little minnie jealous?”

“you know me better than that,” mingyu rolled his eyes.

“i mean, what is there to say?” amber said as she pursed her lips in thought, “she’s so.. cute, you know? and she’s not annoying. that was my drunkenness speaking. i.. i’d totally date her if i was a guy. damn. her cheeks are really soft and.. she’s the perfect height and she’s really nice and funny and clumsy and all of that.”

mingyu was watching her expression, from the way she fidgeted a bit in her seat and played with her fingers to the small smiles that graced her lips at the mentions of other characteristics that luna possessed.

“amber, you have a crush on her.”

amber stopped and slowly nodded her head. “huh, looks like i might.”

this caused mingyu to chuckle softly, something that broke the stoic expression that amber was stuck with for the past fifteen minutes of their conversation.

“why not just go to her then?”

“because i have you.”

“let me ask you something.”

“we can’t have phone —”

“… amber.”

“continue.”

“why did you say yes to me?”

“i..”

amber blinked, quietness blanketing the two of them.

“did you just say yes to say yes?”

“i said yes because all you ever talked about was wonwoo.”

“i know, i..”

“no. let me tell you how many of those ‘dates’ we’ve spent were just you talking about wonwoo doing this, wonwoo accomplishing that, oh how great his food tastes and how dumb he was. see, i thought you just wanted advice on how to get with him, but you.. surprised me by wanting me to help you fall out of these supposed feelings you had for your bestfriend. i didn’t know what to do. i didn’t say yes because i had to. i said yes because i wanted to help an idiot like you realize how much he hadn’t fallen head over heels for wonwoo, but it just kept on getting worse and worse and…”

amber let out a breathy chuckle.

“mingyu, i know you like wonwoo. everyone ing knows that you like him. the only two people that seem to not get the damn message is the lover himself and the target.”

“amber…”

“no fighting me back on this. i’m so right. all of those times you used wonwoo as an excuse for us not to hangout? i was never hurt. i was actually trying to subtly help you spend more time with him than you already do. maybe the we could’ve gone without, but it felt really good nonetheless and it’s a shame that wonwoo wouldn’t be your first.”

“actually… i wouldn’t have been his first either.”

“what do you mean?” amber frowned as she ran her fingers through her hair.

“i got a text this morning. you know lee chan, right? the cute little guy who lives next door? he congratulated me on ing wonwoo.”

“but… you’ve been at jeonghan’s…”

mingyu slowly nodded.

“… don’t tell me that er junhui—”

mingyu nodded again.

“you do realize that you’re losing right now.”

“i.. i do but i don’t know what to do!”

“break up with me.”

“amber—”

“just do it,” amber grinned as she chugged down on a bottle of what looked like alcohol, “it’s not like we’re meant to be to begin with, right? and i’ve been waiting for this moment to happen anyway.”

mingyu could only exhale a small chuckle. “thanks, amber.”

“you’re welcome, my idiot. now hang up. i have a video date with luna—”

“are you serious, oh my god.”

amber shrugged her shoulders, “she’s cute.”

“good luck to her handling such a load like you.”

“YAH.”

mingyu genuinely smiled for the first time that afternoon as he bid amber a good night, exhaling as he rolled his head back against the couch with his eyes closed.

in all honesty, mingyu had no reason to be completely hurt about the text message since he didn’t know about his wonwoo felt when he and amber had gotten dirty under the sheets. he couldn’t entirely blame wonwoo for the way he felt toward him. it all happened so naturally, and he was coming to terms that his heart was and had always been leaning toward jeon wonwoo.

the only problem was junhui, his alleged competitor.

mingyu’s eyes popped open as he sat straighter in his seat, fully aware that there was a true wall between mingyu and wonwoo in terms of romance. wonwoo obviously showed some sort of affection toward junhui, and the only intimacy that he had experienced with wonwoo was that accidental kiss that happened a few months back.

mingyu wasn’t sure if junhui intended to do some sort of dramatic confession toward wonwoo while he was here. he wasn’t sure of wonwoo’s true feelings toward junhui. he wasn’t sure of what they could be doing at this very moment as well. all of these thoughts suddenly began to flood mingyu’s mind causing him to slightly panic.

what the hell was he still doing glued to jeonghan’s couch?

before mingyu’s burst of energy caused him to stand up, his phone began to ring, causing him to sit back once more and pick the call up.

“mingyu, are you busy?” an all too hastened jihoon asked.

“not really—” mingyu started.

“great! come to the studio right now!”

jihoon hung up without further explaining himself, leaving mingyu slightly confused. he would of put it off, but when jihoon sounded this stressed, he knew he had to attend to him first.

wonwoo could wait.

“wonwoo?”

“hm?” wonwoo nodded before he stopped in his tracks and looked down at junhui, who was knelt down on one knee in front of him with a small smile on his lips. he cleared his throat a little and ran his fingers through his hair before exhaling shakily and meeting wonwoo’s eyes again.

“i have to ask you something.”

i'm not considering this a chapter because mingyu just needs to realize his feelings for woo already. weeps. i will beta this after work. and and and oH NO JUNHUI'S GONNA AS WONWOO SOMETHING. I. WEEPS. upvotes and comments and all of that good stuff would be greatly appreciated~!