final
it feels like you're mine, it seems like you're minewonwoo is sophisticated, as so it appears to be.
in reality, wonwoo is full of witty, old man jokes that makes half of friends leave the table and the other half questioning their friendship. many likes to label him as secretive, often unreadable and someone who keeps things to himself.
which applies in some aspect. however, wonwoo thinks otherwise, in fact, wonwoo thinks he is the walking and living prove of ‘you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover’ but many don’t understand that. because people tend to judge anyway.
he thinks he’s simple, he doesn’t have a face that stands out in the crowd, the only thing that stands out about him is probably his height, but as of now, kids’ height has been shooting up high in an unhealthy rate so, now even with a good 182 centimetres sometimes, wonwoo still stands short. the only thing that helps wonwoo work his way through society is probably his undeniable socializing skills. it’s because people view him as someone who is unapproachable that when he actually opens a topic and starts conversing; it intrigues them.
the thing about him is that he enjoys playing with people, he likes seeing the dilation of their pupils when he appears to be what they assumed he wasn’t. he likes seeing people put low expectation on him and feeding on their surprised look by the end of the proposal he made. wonwoo also has the habit of pretending and playing different roles, he has dated girls left and right only to have them say things like ‘you’re just not what imagined you to be like’ and wonwoo would retort in another tone (his true self) as if he’s switching between personalities.
eight out of the ten girls would probably ask things like,
‘are you joking?’
and wonwoo would have to do his trademark eye-rolling motion, with a click of his tongue he’d say, ‘does it look like i’m joking? if you don’t like me then just go’.
there would probably be some tears from his now considered as ex-girlfriend and some angry stares and whispers from bystanders. then wonwoo would take the hint to leave after saying, ‘i’ve never apologized to anyone before in my life.’
you could blame him, you could say things like ‘they loved you’ or ‘they have feelings too’, but to wonwoo, they’ve never loved him, they’re only in love with the image they depicted wonwoo as. and it certainly isn’t wonwoo’s fault that he is who he is. as for feelings... pretending to love him—well, that’s his feelings being played.
that’s one of the reason why jeon wonwoo is 25 years old and successful but never has a permanent person ever.
****
“yeah, mom, i have to go to work,” wonwoo sighs as he tries to wear his shoes with one hand while the other holding his phone against his ear, “i know, i’ve been eating well, stop worrying.”
his mother goes on and on about how he has to watch what he eats and wonwoo could only sigh internally as he shuts his apartment door close; locking it in process. he paces down the elevator noisily (hoping that she gets the hint that he’s about to drive), gets off and walks over to his white Porsche. “mom, i really have to hang up, i’m driving,” he says.
there’s another exasperated sigh but this time no longer inside his head, “yeah, i love you too,” and the line clicks.
he starts the car with a swift tap of his index finger and drives a silent ride to his work. while he gets stuck in the frequent traffic, wonwoo starts thinking about his schedule today. he has a to meet jun to collect the specimen tests from the radioactive room today, and just thinking about wearing the suits for the room already sends a solemn feeling to wonwoo.
then he’d have lunch because recording specimen growth would probably take longer than expected as he’d have to strain his eyes more than usual and take mini breaks in between the count otherwise he would wind up needing new eyes than having glasses. suddenly, he remembers the break-up he just experienced last week, so that means he’d be having lunch on his own, something to fuss about—deciding on where to eat. wonwoo sighs, already feeling tired when the day has barely started.
he turns on his blinkers and stirs his steering wheel, making a turn into his work place. almost rolling his eyes when he parks beside joshua who just got out from his car and is heading into the building probably already waiting for the elevator. he considers staying in his car for another five minutes until joshua leaves so he could skip the awkward small talks in the small contained space while he waits until he gets to the 15th floor. but he couldn’t possibly afford to be late, especially since jun is waiting for him to get work done, and he also has to work on the blood specimens that just came in at two in the morning today.
shaking his head, wonwoo adjusts his black tie, and steps out of his car, he checks himself in the reflection of his car’s window and forces a bright smile which quickly falls into a scowl. wonwoo mumbles under his breath incoherently, already feeling the dryness of his contact lenses even when he hasn’t start staring into the microscope for two hours. he turns around, walking into the building and as usual he sees joshua (well there were other people there but wonwoo doesn’t know them so it’s not a bother).
“good morning, wonwoo,” joshua greets.
wonwoo knows it’s no harm to be friendly, and it’s really his fault that he gets so irritated by joshua, “hey,” he mumbles.
“why the foul mood in the morning?”
“i’m just tired,” wonwoo lies easily, too often that somehow along the lines, it actually becomes a true statement.
“really? nights have been really hard to go by then huh?”
“yeah,” wonwoo smiles wryly hoping and praying for the conversation to end.
it’s not that he has something against joshua. he’s just bad with people who are like joshua, those that have no clue about how cruel society is, if you think of wonwoo as someone who is uncaring and has little empathy then you are wrong. wonwoo may be a huge jack but only to people who he deems to deserve it but people like joshua who wonwoo can’t make bad religious jokes or just plain witty jokes with, is a no.
“so… what’s up this morning?”
wonwoo rolls his eyes (he just couldn’t control it anymore), “some specimen recordings,” only points, leave no room for more conversation, he chants in his mind.
the elevator rings a huge noise and has arrived at the 9th floor and joshua makes a departure, says something about the meeting with the medical department that wonwoo just nods to without actually understanding the information.
“i could feel your annoyance from this corner,” the elevator door closes and wonwoo turns to look at where the voice comes from.
“um,” he starts, “do i know you?” he eyes the tag that hangs around the boy’s neck that reads lee jihoon.
“no, but i know you.”
“o…kay.”
“you’re one of the really smart guy from the research department, right?”
“which one?” wonwoo smirks, “because as much as i know, there’s only one.”
jihoon doesn’t shoot a reply back instead he stands by the corner of the elevator appalled and silently staring at wonwoo, the elevator rings another huge noise 14th floor. jihoon bids a goodbye to wonwoo and leaves.
a few seconds go by and wonwoo arrives in his department, what an early adventure, he thinks as he shrugs his jacket off and leaves the rest of his belongings on his desk. the room is rather empty as most of them has probably headed off to the meeting joshua has spoken about earlier (or something like that). so, wonwoo strides over to jun, making funny chicken noises and motions that throws the chinese boy into a laughing fit.
“please stop,” he says between his laughter, “this is why girls dump you.”
“why, because they can make better chicken noises?”
“wonwoo, if you don’t shut up and grab your files, i’m just going to get going and leave you behind.”
“okay, okay, geez,” he grabs the files from the shelves and waltz out of the room and sings songs time to be blind again while he and jun heads towards the lab coats and proceeds their specimen recordings of the day.
time passes by quickly when you’re focusing really hard on something. at times, wonwoo forgets to blink and will have to take a longer mini break because his eyes stings (he’d be bothering jun). lunch break comes sooner than usual and wonwoo has already gotten ¾ of his recordings done. he stretches in his chair, letting out a sneeringly loud, stretching noise that is completely unnecessary and had jun jolting up and dropping his papers on the floor.
“for s sake, wonwoo,” he complains as he bends down, collecting the pieces of papers.
wonwoo laughs and turns around in his chair, rolling around in place, “i’m so tired and hungry.”
“you say that every time.”
“yeah, and i mean it every time i said it.”
“are you asking me out for lunch?”
“i didn’t say that, but is that what you wanted to say?” wonwoo asks back his voice raising with playfulness with each syllable.
jun rolls his eyes and looks at wonwoo expectantly, “sometimes, i wish you can be more honest.”
“me too, jun, me too,” wonwoo agrees sarcastically, “but the world is cruel, not everyone gets what they want.”
“okay, stop minding me.”
wonwoo laughs triumphantly as he spins back to his desk, packing and sorting his equipment and files back.
“i can’t have lunch with you though, minghao already asked me out, and you know… he hates your guts.”
“didn’t ask you out for lunch though,” wonwoo replies casually tuning around to wink at jun who only returned him with a middle finger and a scowl.
they bid their see you later as jun drives off to pick minghao up from his work place. wonwoo laughs silently to himself as he remembers the first time he met minghao. it was a rather gloomy Wednesday and jun reluctantly decided to bring wonwoo along to lunch. only because wonwoo was gloomy and claimed that if jun doesn’t eat with him he’d have to sit by the rain alone (he likes teasing jun and watching the latter’s annoyed reactions).
so jun had said, ‘ok but don’t do any weird ’.
jun turned around the corner of the street to pick minghao up with wonwoo sitting obediently on the back seat. when minghao came in they exchanged formal acquaintances greetings, everything was fine and good until they were seated in the restaurant to find out that one of the waitress working happened to be wonwoo’s ex-girlfriend and also happened to be minghao’s close friend. the world is you see, really small.
needless to say, jun had to sit through minghao literally frowning and scoffing at every word wonwoo said and it would’ve ended if wonwoo chooses to be the water element and lets minghao take the fire element, except he doesn’t. wonwoo wouldn’t back off, in his defence it was a gloomy day and it sort of got into his mood.
they would start with wonwoo commenting on pasta and minghao will evidently scoffed and said, “maybe if you treat your girlfriend better, she’d be able to cook a meal for you but sike!”
and wonwoo would retort by saying, “you don’t even have one, who are you to give advices?”
it’d go on and on and jun had to interrupt, but after a while they’d start it again so, in the end they had to leave the place earlier. minghao had gotten so annoyed being around wonwoo that he opted for a bus ride instead of jun sending him back for work, and of course wonwoo was satisfied with the decision; feels like a victory to him. though he goes back to work and receives a silent treatment from jun for a week.
thinking about it makes wonwoo chuckle in delight, he isn’t close with minghao so it doesn’t bother him a lot. he starts his white Porsche again. wonwoo stares outside of his car all blurry and fuzzy, he has removed the contact lenses. wonwoo opens the small compartment in front of the passenger seat and takes his glasses out. he checks his reflection, slightly fixing the front of his hair and wears his glasses.
then he whips out his phone, sliding through different pages, trying to find the right recommendation to dine in. however, nothing seems attractive enough for wonwoo to settle for. that leaves wonwoo to drive aimlessly around the town, eyes hunting for anything that sparks the interest that died in him long time ago.
he stops when the traffic light blinks red, sighing and tapping impatiently on his steering wheel, he turns around to see a university, prestige it is. he remembers about the old times he has in university, though he only has a vague memory of three-quarter of the people he met there, it was a pretty interesting stage of his life. it’s then he spots a small standing stall situated in a walking distance from the university, just a small ragged stall that probably only serves ramen.
but it leaves wonwoo a strong impression, perhaps it’s the red banner. he makes a turn and finds a parking space in front of some small bakeries and walks over to the standing stall. the pavement on the way isn’t flourished and is really just stones and pebbles rather than an actual pavement, wonwoo regrets it a little, but he has already parked his car and walked all the here; he might as well.
there is a bar in the stall that looks cleaner from the outside and stools that wonwoo would trust his with. surprisingly, the stall isn’t packed at all, in fact there’s only one person eating. it’s weird, wonwoo thinks, that the stall is located so closely to the university but none of the students are eating there. back in his time, he’d have rushed over every day. somehow, food outside always tastes better than the food in the cafeteria. odd.
wonwoo takes a sit, a gap away from the stranger who is there before him. the stall tender is old and shaggy when he held onto the bowls, wonwoo has to calm himself down for fearing of spilled soup. he makes an order of a bowl of ramen and looks around. his eyes surprisingly meets with the stranger sitting beside him.
wonwoo makes it a point to be courteous even though, he could tell that the kid is younger than him, he gives a small gentle and rarely honest smile while nodding his head—a sign of acknowledgment.
“sir, why are you eating here?” the kid asks.
and wonwoo deadpans, a little taken a back at being called sir, but realizing that fact that he is indeed 25 years old this year, he collects his composure and smiles again, “just trying out new things.”
“oh, i wasn’t expecting you to reply me,” the kid grins, he stands up from his stool (and god, he’s tall) moves his bowl of ramen next to the gap between him and wonwoo, and makes himself comfortable literally next to wonwoo and then leans in, “well, you’re about to get good.”
wonwoo twitches visibly as the kid leans away, turning his attention back to his bowl of ramen again; slurping pretty loudly. wonwoo makes a mental note to never approach kids again. later, his bowl of ramen arrives and he stirs it for a moment, mixing the toppings around the soup diligently. and then he tentatively pushes the sleeves of his shirt up, and takes a sip of the soup; the steam of the soup blurring the lenses of his round glasses.
the feeling is crazy, it kind of feels like stubbing your little toe or listening to metallic object scratching against one another. wonwoo almost immediately cringe at the taste but he is only holding back because the old grandpa is watching him with such a sweet smile and it sort of reminded him about his deceased grandfather.
wonwoo gives the old man what the he wants; an approving smile, the grandpa then turns away and goes to god knows where, and wonwoo drops his spoon dramatically into his soup—it landed with a loud pop, he takes his glasses off and turns around to the kid, stoic and stunned, “do you have water?” he croaks.
fortunately, the kid does. and wonwoo takes more than one huge gulp of water down his throat to erase the any remaining hints of saltiness, and by the time he’s done with cleansing his soul from the amount of saltiness. (it may or may not have been that bad, wonwoo could be exaggerating). he puts the bottle of water down with a loud thud, and breathes loudly, as if he has just finished a marathon. while wonwoo cleans his glasses with the insides of his button up shirt, he hears the other guy asks, “sir, drinking water that quickly must be a talent.”
wonwoo turns around while wearing his glasses ready to give this kid a solid punch across his face only to stop when he sees the kid smiling widely, the rows of his teeth aligned nicely and his canines is abnormally showing, suddenly wishing he hasn’t worn his glasses because everything is so high-definition. he decides to let the matter to slide. wonwoo stands up abruptly from the stool, and reaches for his wallet, leaves 2300 won on the bar table and turns around to leave. he manages to catch a sad glimpse of the kid’s face but really, wonwoo has more important issues to attend to like finding a better place to eat.
he gets to his white Porsche and ignites the engine, his eyes blinking half dead as he remembers the saltiness of the ramen. how the did the kid eat that? he questions himself, and he turns over to take a look at the stall again, only to see the kid’s legs, and ¼ of his body, the rest is sheltered by a hanging cloth. wonwoo sighs, he could leave the kid to finish the food on his own, and maybe tonight when he goes back, his hair would fall off, that would be a tragedy after all, he is pretty good-looking, wonwoo thinks. he does a double take, turning around to look at the stall again, this time he sees the kid tapping gently on the ground and wonwoo makes a wailing noise at the back of his throat, he stops the engine and stalks over to the stall (again).
“sir, you’re back,” the kid beams.
“get up, we’ll leave for a better restaurant.”
“what, why? this one tastes okay.”
“are you stupid?” wonwoo asks ridiculously and the other seems a little taken aback by his outburst, wonwoo takes the spoon off from the hands of the kid, “you’re going to get yourself killed drinking ramen soup that is made out of only salt!”
the kid shakes his head, and looks to the back of the stall alarmingly, and then pulls wonwoo closer by his tie, he bends over whispering beside wonwoo’s left ear, “the owner’s daughter just died two months ago, and this stall was originally run by her, the grandpa told me that he wanted to recreate the taste, so i’m trying not to break his heart.”
he lets go of wonwoo leaving him dumbfounded. then wonwoo shakes his head, “it’s business, if you can’t do it, you can’t. i’m sure he can do other things other than literally almost poisoning people.”
“you can leave if you want to,” the kid replies nonchalantly.
with that, wonwoo lets a sarcastic laugh, putting one of his hands on the side of his hips as he watches the kid slurping on his ramen slowly. leaving would mean defeat, wonwoo stubbornly thinks. so, he takes back the 2300 won and stuffs it back into his wallet. wonwoo makes it a point to sit incredulously angrily and taking the spoon up from his previously abandoned soup in huge gestures.
he mumbles something about his conscience and takes gulps and gulps of his ramen.
later, the grandpa comes back, a light-hearted smile at the sight of wonwoo and the kid still being there.
“it was good!” the kid exclaims and wonwoo stares at him skeptically amazed at how a lie can seem so real, but at the same time, felt proud that what he has painfully done can bring such a gentle smile on someone who has little left.
when he sees the kid rummaging through his bag supposedly for money, wonwoo coughs loudly, “i’ll pay.”
the smile on the kid’s face is a sign of victory for wonwoo; and he quite celebrates it in his mind. he opens his wallet and counts the notes carefully and stretches both his arms out to hand the notes to the grandpa with respect.
they get up from the stool quickly. wonwoo confirms again that he is definitely shorter than this kid—it does a little stomp on his pride. they walked over to wonwoo’s car together, he isn’t sure why is the kid following him behind but he opts for listening to the sound of the rocky pavements against the sole of his shoes and trying to quench the amount of salt he tastes in his mouth and not to mention that his throat is really, really dry.
“sir, there’s a juice bar here, maybe you could get some with me,” the kid says suddenly from behind wonwoo, “and my name is kim mingyu.”
“great,” wonwoo whispers not because he wants to but because he couldn’t feel his throat, “i’m jeon wonwoo.”
as they enter the juice bar, mingyu lets wonwoo order his juice first maybe he could tell how dehydrated wonwoo is from his pale, dry lips and him constantly clearing his throat every now and then. wonwoo makes an order for a large avocado juice. he waited in line for a bit, later the juice comes and wonwoo reaches for the wallet in the back of his pocket again. this time, mingyu peers over from behind and watches as he opens his wallet. towering over wonwoo with a slight four to five centimetres gave him a clear view and mingyu shouts a rather raspy and low pitched, “oh my god!”
wonwoo cowers quite literally from the unexpected noise and turns around looking to face mingyu while he pays the cashier. before he speaks, he takes the cup of juice in his hands and tastes the glory of soothe, making him shuts his eyes entirely as his throat clears and the taste of avocado (which happens to be his favourite) fills the entirety of his mouth.
he comes back to reality when he hears mingyu order a watermelon crush, “why did you scream?”
“i just—i just saw your work ID and what, you’re only a year older than me?” mingyu half-laughs and wonwoo blushes a light shade of pink while biting onto his straw, does he look that old…
“don’t get me wrong,” mingyu starts again as if he’s reading wonwoo like an open book, “i just, you’re dressed so professionally, it was only right for me to assume that you’re way older than me.”
wonwoo doesn’t reply, if he’s 25 years old and mingyu is a year younger than him that makes him… he loses the track of his thoughts as feels mingyu drape an arm over his shoulder, “what?” wonwoo questions, eyes squinting at mingyu, he’s too close, he thinks, “why are you sticking so close to me?”
mingyu laughs and it’s not that kind of normal polite laugh when someone tells you a lame joke but that kind of full-blown laughter that has the cashier staring at him weirdly too, “i just thought it’s pretty cool, like how we met and stuff, we could be all buddy-buddy soon.”
wonwoo sneers and shakes his head repeatedly, before going dead serious he says, “no.”
“what, why not?”
“because we just can’t. we’re from different worlds.”
“how different, there’s only earth.”
wonwoo rolls his eyes, “i meant it metaphorically, are you stupid?”
“my mom says that to me a lot,” mingyu says softly.
wonwoo stares at mingyu, frowning and his mouth agape, there was a visible cress on his forehead as he looks over at the cashier confused like he’s demanding answers from strangers then looks back at mingyu again, “are you sure you’re a year younger than me?”
mingyu walks ahead of wonwoo, opening the door rather abruptly causing the bells hanging onto the door to chime loudly, “well, yes.”
“oh,” wonwoo looks at his phone and follows mingyu behind then walking faster to his car, “excuse me, because i’m going to be late for work. bye.”
“wait!” mingyu calls out, “can i hitch a ride?”
wonwoo stops in his tracks, answering the question bluntly “no?”
“but you drank my whole bottle of water,” mingyu states as a matter of fact and wonwoo nods quietly.
“you’re using that against me now? clever.”
“what, wonwoo-hyung, the convenience store i’m working in is literally a few minutes’ drive from here. and if i were walk there i’d finish my juice and then i’ll have no water to drink because you drank it all.”
the lie itself is so stupid and obvious that wonwoo has to control himself to not laugh, “i do believe they sell bottles of water in convenience stores.”
“wonwoo, i’m broke,” mingyu says no longer addressing him formally (wonwoo twitches), “why do you think i ate there.”
wonwoo rolls his eyes (he could almost believe the last sentence because it’s sort of logical), sighing really loudly, he turns around without giving a reply and gets into his car. he watches from his rear mirror, mingyu standing behind his car and looking like an abandoned puppy, he thinks of the stray cat he picked up in middle school. wonwoo lets out a frustrated groan and ruffles his hair roughly, he gets out of his car again, “get in the car, .”
mingyu practically beams at wonwoo and happily skips his way into wonwoo’s car. he buckles his seatbelt up and looks around the car, obviously fascinated by every speck of it. it makes wonwoo proud but he also couldn’t help himself staring unbelievingly at mingyu who happens to be quite attractive but also really, really, annoying and dumb.
“wow, so what do you work as?”
“lab stuff.”
“wooooow,” mingyu coos in fascination, touching the steering wheel and wonwoo just sits there already glaring daggers at him.
“can you like not do that, it offends me.”
“selfish much,” he pouts but immediately takes his hands back from the steering wheel.
wonwoo rolls his eyes, hitting on the acceleration, “you literally begged me to let you hitch a ride. so, just be quiet.”
“for the record, you sort of offered.”
and wonwoo deadpans, he vividly remembers the conversation he had with jun earlier today and he laughs bitterly, karma is a . “whatever,” he mutters under his breath.
“you know you’re really different from what you appear to be like.”
“does that bother you?”
mingyu does a double take and blinks in surprise, a hand on his chest, “no, not at all.”
wonwoo stops by the junction, watching left and right for incoming cars and finally appreciating the fact that mingyu has shut up, but alas, “so hyung, how did you get so rich?”
“sheer willpower.”
“like how? what kind of lab work?”
wonwoo grits his teeth, “can you stop asking questions?”
“but i’m curious.”
“and i don’t care about your curiousity.”
he sees mingyu’s pout again, though it’s less obvious. wonwoo thinks that he may be doing it unconsciously.
“it’s just lame stuff, like researching and experimenting,” wonwoo replies minutes later.
and he feels mingyu grinning even without looking at the younger boy, “that’s so cool!”
mingyu has his radio and the song ‘some’ by soyou and junggigo plays softly in the car.
subconsciously, wonwoo starts singing along in the chorus, “these days, it feels like you’re mine, it seems like you’re mine but no, it feels like i’m yours, it seems like i’m yours but no.”
“wow,” mingyu exclaims from the left. wonwoo jumps remembering that he isn’t alone.
“what?”
“you sing well, i was just really surprised because for a moment, you look like you don’t even listen to music.”
“thanks,” he mutters quietly ignoring the rest of the sentence.
mingyu continues, “you were looking at the road really blankly too, what were you thinking about?”
“i wasn’t thinking.”
“really? but seriously, your singing is nice. has anyone told you that before?”
mingyu keeps asking wonwoo question, speaking very little about himself. it’s really strange, how mingyu brings this side of wonwoo around quickly breaking the stranger-stranger relationship and leaping into (wonwoo hates to say it but) buddy-buddy stage. and he feels at ease, he feels almost like he was in high-school again, sassy and quirky, easy-going and less thinking.
“no.”
“oh.”
mingyu points at a turn and gestures wonwoo to turn in. it’s just some small seven-eleven convenience store that didn’t look like it has a lot of customers. wonwoo starts wondering just what kind of life mingyu is living, why is he broke, why did he eat the horrible ramen and just why does he carry a school backpack? wonwoo stops right in front of the store and waits for mingyu to get out but the latter doesn’t move. he seems to be in a train of thoughts and wonwoo coughs deliberately bringing him back to reality.
“we’re here.”
“right,” mingyu says and purses his lips in a thin line. the glint in his eyes sort of had an implication that he doesn’t really want to get out, “hyung.”
wonwoo rolls his eyes again at the sudden formality in mingyu’s tone, “what?”
“do you like science?”
“huh?” wonwoo asks, he’s genuinely confused now because mingyu’s wearing a -eating grin on his face, and the glint in his eyes is now replaced with something that leaves an unsettling feeling that pools around wonwoo’s stomach.
before he could ask again, mingyu opens the door of wonwoo’s car, and he gets out his car—slinging his bag onto his shoulder and straightens his shirt. he bends down again, one hand on the roof of wonwoo’s car and the other on the side of his door. maybe it’s the ramen, wonwoo thinks because with the sun looming in the sky and shining over mingyu’s dark hair that flows on his eyes so graciously and his stupid toothy smile, mingyu looks absolutely stunning.
wonwoo is suddenly wishing that he hasn’t noticed the protruding canines of mingyu’s because now if you take a whole look, mingyu is just really cute.
mingyu opens his mouth again and what came out of it has wonwoo rolling his eyes so far back that at one point he’s sure it wouldn’t come back, “because i’ve got my ion you!”
mingyu shuts the car’s door rather loudly, and he skips away from wonwoo leaving wonwoo half angry that mingyu slammed his car’s door and half astonished because of mingyu’s weird demeanour. later, he drives out of the small junction and stops his car when the traffic blinks red. wonwoo tries hard to not think about mingyu’s stupid face—when he’s slurping the salty ramen, or mingyu’s surprised ‘you can sing’ face or mingyu’s stupid pick-up line that obviously doesn’t work on wonwoo (or so he believes).
the radio in his car is still playing, and wonwoo reaches forward and clicks it shut, the screen on the radio blinks a 1:13pm he could still make it back to work on time, but something in him sparks and he looks at the small seven-eleven store from the rear mirror of his car once again hearing mingyu’s i’ve got my ion on you loud and clear in his head.
he shakes his head disbelievingly as he makes two u-turns and arrives in front of mingyu’s work place again. he honks quite obnoxiously loud and since the place was pretty secluded, mingyu looks out from the store and he comes out of the store in their trademark, black and red button up shirt with a black cap, he’s standing there looking at wonwoo the amusement in his eyes glimmering as bright as the sun as he watches the window on wonwoo’s white Porsche rolls its way down.
“are you made of fluorine, iodine and neon?” wonwoo asks a loud smirk on his face.
and he sees mingyu standing there, crossed arms, a quirked eyebrow and an even more amused expression, wonwoo takes it as a hint to continue, “because you are FINE. now, goodbye.”
he doesn’t wait for mingyu’s reaction or reply, wonwoo rolls the window of his car up quickly and makes a quick exit, he doesn’t know why he’s rushing, but he could feel the heat seeping out of his cheeks and he cackles loudly (a way to tell himself he’s not freaking out) as he looks at the rear mirror of his car, something tugs in his chest when he sees mingyu’s wide smile (he must be laughing) and mingyu waving goodbye really, really cutely with both of his arms up high.
he gets back to work (again) at the same time as joshua (who surprisingly is also running late), he stops his car’s engine and chuckles to himself as he remembers his oh-so-great pick-up line and mingyu laughing. he meets joshua again outside the elevator, it’s like the day is repeating itself but this time it’s different, wonwoo stands beside joshua and looks over, “good afternoon,” he greets brightly.
and he sees the shine in joshua’s eyes followed by a very pleasant smile, “good afternoon, wonwoo.”
weirdly, they don’t start any conversation, they rode the elevator and joshua is silent, it sorts of terrifies wonwoo a little. though, he decides it’s for the better. before long, the elevator dings a loud 15th floor and wonwoo enters his department. the rest of the work day goes by as usual except today, during his mini-breaks, he doesn’t bother jun, he doesn’t go around making loud chicken or whale noises instead, he sits quietly thinking about mingyu.
nobody asks why or what happened, because that’s just how temporary everyone feels about wonwoo.
****
in the next week, wonwoo is bogged down by work again. he spends days and nights, sometimes skipping meals, in the research lab, to observe the growth of a parasite the team has picked up from the depths of the ocean, exposing it to different pollutions to see what causes the rapid reproduction of this species. it’s on the eight night that one of the medical assistant, seokmin, comes up to the 15th floor to leave samples and sees wonwoo slouching against the analytical balance equipment, the pages of the old research papers fluttering quietly.
he’s always alone in the department this late because jun hates working overtime and makes it a point to leave latest only by half an hour and well, his other colleagues mostly have family to tend to.
“hey,” seokmin greets suddenly.
it’s freaking two in the morning by the way, so wowoo does what fatigue does to his system, he almost jumps out of his skin and screams, “GHOST!” it doesn’t even sound girly.
it doesn’t help that seokmin is also half-dead from working overtime that day because now he’s screaming and wonwoo is screaming too.
“okay, stop,” wonwoo finally says when he realizes how stupid the situation is.
there’s a light chuckle from both parties and suddenly they’re both laughing like old buddies.
“you never change, wonwoo hyung.”
there is an awkward pause.
“…do i know you?”
seokmin looks a little offended when he turns around from the lab desk to look at wonwoo, “we went to the same university together and had two classes together. you called me squinty eyes.”
“ah…”
“did you seriously forget?”
“no, it’s just i haven’t sleep and all,” wonwoo lies while rubbing his eyes.
“right, i can tell, you should really go home.”
“i could say the same about you.”
“i’m going in a bit, actually.”
wonwoo laughs bitterly, “i’m still stuck, i have to get this done.”
“why don’t you go home to take a shower and have a good night sleep, come back more refreshed tomorrow?”
“hm…”
“i know i’m being nosy but i think it’ll be better because right now the medic depart is receiving some bone marrow samples from the south hospital and you’re going to have things to rush tomorrow.”
wonwoo lets out a yawn and leans back against his chair. it makes a loud creaking noise as he stretches further back, “i guess… you’re right.”
“that’s great, then i’ll be leaving now.”
“w-wait!” wonwoo calls and he hastily gets up removing his lab coat while simultaneously packing his belongings, “let’s leave together.”
“okay…?”
“look, you scared me just now okay, and it’s dark outside, one of us might get mugged.”
seokmin laughs anxiously at the idea of being mugged and waits for wonwoo. by three in the morning, they bid farewell as they went to their parked cars separately. wonwoo gets into the car and removes his glasses, pinching the bridge of his nose as he sits back and lets the wind coming from his air-condition hits his sticky skin. then he sits forward, and cracks his neck—loosening the strained muscles on his shoulder.
“ah, ,” wonwoo whines as he feels it now—the ignored sleep and meals.
he goes for the radio this time, hoping that something nice will let him forget how famished he feels and lets him at least stay awake on his way back to his apartment. and it does anyway, except in a rather shocking way. the radio’s playing ‘some’ by soyou and junggigo, suddenly he’s overcome by the thrill of that day. he leans back, the music softly playing as he remembers mingyu’s voice in his head.
“these days, it feels like you’re mine, it seems like you’re mine but no, it feels like i’m yours, it seems like i’m yours but no,” he sings.
wonwoo doesn’t know why, maybe it’s the fatigue in him that’s making him feel this way. he feels so empty and void, he hasn’t dated anyone this week (not like he has a girlfriend every week) but they’re quick to come by and they’d start off as flings first. that way, it makes days more entertaining to go by. but tonight, he just feels so tired and lost.
“it feels like we’re lovers, it seems like we’re lovers but no,” he continues the song in his low and quiet voice.
wonwoo looks over to the empty passenger seat next to him and suddenly he’s driving and heading to the very familiar small seven-eleven store. he doesn’t know what made him do what he does, but he must admit that he kind of misses bickering with mingyu even if they’ve only done it once.
wonwoo doesn’t look at the cashier when he walks in to the store, maybe he’s nervous or maybe a part of him is waiting for mingyu (if the cashier is mingyu) to call out to him. he scurries over and takes a soda pop from the fridge then he goes back to the cashier. even then, he doesn’t bring himself to look at the person, but when he sees a female’s hand bagging the soda pop that he just purchased, a little light in him dies. and a small sad voice in his head says, it’s not him.
it’s weird and frustrating.
it’s weird because throughout the week he’s never thought of mingyu once. not even mingyu’s silly pick-up line that has wonwoo running late for his work. and now, he thinks of mingyu one freaking time and he’s like this—yearning and missing.
it’s frustrating because he was half hoping that mingyu would be here, expecting and anticipating his arrival and approach (because that’s what everyone does when they want wonwoo) and it only gets worse to understand that mingyu is not like that.
he makes only one u-turn and drives the way back, with the soft dj’s voice accompanying the painfully cold night ride back home. wonwoo gets home and removes his shoes hastily, he doesn’t even make his way into his bedroom. instead, he collapses on the leather sofa sitting in his rather empty living room—falling asleep while whispering, “don’t’ eat that ramen, idiot…”
****
the next week flashes by slowly, and one day (in a blue moon) jun is left with wonwoo alone in the laboratory. it’s 1 am, and some departments still has their light up, but today in wonwoo’s department it’s just him and the upset chinese boy.
“ing jihoon,” jun curses under his breath.
wonwoo doesn’t react as he tries to search for the memories of where he has seen the mentioned person.
“ing pulling an all-nighter because of his stupid report,” this time jun is slamming files on the desk angrily.
“yeah, him!” wonwoo joins (he has no idea who the hell is jihoon) but decides it’s fun anyways.
it’s raining lightly outside and wonwoo stands, stretching by the window as he looks out emptily, it has been a month. one freaking month since he’s seen mingyu, honestly, he doesn’t know why he’s even counting. he sighs, but one thing he knows it’s that it’s driving him a little crazy.
he’s lacking in his performances, and some reports are left piling up.
“you’re weird,” jun suddenly remarks.
wonwoo turns around, and jun is sitting on his chair, files balanced on his lap, “how weird?”
“what happened to sohye?”
“what about her?” wonwoo grunts, turning around to look at the droplets on the window again. he doesn’t even remember telling jun about the girl that met by the bar last week.
“for as far as i’m concerned, you two seemed to hit it right off the last time.”
and this makes wonwoo turn around again, “stalking me?”
jun rolls his eyes incredulously and flings his hands up in the air, “like i would do that.”
there is a pause and jun is staring at wonwoo who has turned around again and now using his fingers to follow the tracks of the droplets on the window. “you’re reaaaaally weird,” he says again this time dragging the really.
“whaaaaat?” wonwoo mocks him.
“usually you’ll be shooting random lame jokes at me when i deem your existence as unworthy to boast about.”
“you talk too much.”
jun looks taken aback, and now he’s more shock than ever as he stands up and goes over to wonwoo, “dude, are you sick?” he asks and places a warm hand on wonwoo’s forehead only to be slapped away.
“jun, i’m twenty-five, i can take care of myself.”
“i was just worried for your sass-.”
wonwoo lets out a sigh, i’m worried about me too, he thinks. “it wasn’t fun.”
“what?”
“i said it wasn’t fun,” wonwoo walks to his desk and sits resting his head on the bend of his elbow on top the papers, “sohye isn’t fun at all.”
“okay…”
“we didn’t even click, she just kept talking about herself, i was just pretending to enjoy her stories.”
“well, that kind of .”
“it does, why can’t people be more like mingyu?”
“mingyu?”
wonwoo sits up straight abruptly, why did he say mingyu? wonwoo blames the weather, “mingyu?”
“huh?”
“what.”
“what the ? why do you always do this?!” jun raises his voice without looking at wonwoo and he’s slamming the files on his desk angrily again, the pent-up frustration growing at an alarming rate.
at this wonwoo laughs rather loudly, like he just dropped the best bomb joke in the world. jun spins his chair around, pointing a middle finger at wonwoo and it makes the latter laugh even harder.
****
it’s two am, wonwoo notes. jun is now hunched over his paper works on the floor and he looks like he has finally given up on being angry with jihoon(whoever that is) and is now fully focused on his work. just then, footsteps were heard from the hallway, and wonwoo looks up at the corkboard above him, he could feel his eyes twitching.
“jun,” he whispers.
“yes?”
“do you hear that?”
jun looks up and tries to listen intently, “footsteps?”
“yeah,” wonwoo says, it’s not like he’s afraid of ghosts (okay, maybe he is but not now), he really just isn’t going to enjoy a conversation now.
and seeing the person by the door triggers wonwoo more. xu minghao is standing by the door. and wonwoo lets out a really loud forced sigh. minghao seems to not appreciate his presence either, because his expression darkens as soon as he sees wonwoo.
“hi,” jun greets gingerly.
“hey,” minghao holds up two paper bags, “you texted me you’re working overtime with a colleague so i thought i could drop by.”
there’s a pause and then wonwoo feels someone glaring at him, “but i didn’t know it’s this punk.”
and that’s it, wonwoo spins around and crosses his legs and smiles wryly at minghao, “this punk? don’t you mean this gem?”
jun rolls his eyes, “guys, it’s 2 am please.”
minghao is about to say something again but jun stands up and takes the plastic bag from him, “thanks,” he says in chinese.
minghao is smiling brightly again but starts scowling when wonwoo says thanks as well.
“if i knew it was you, i wouldn’t have bought it.”
wonwoo rolls his eyes as he takes the paper bag from jun. it smells nice (deep inside he really appreciates but refuse to take the frown off his face), midnight street snacks are the best. wonwoo is petty and he’s now rummaging through the plastic bag, purposely making as much noise with it. he hears jun and minghao conversing in chinese behind him. suddenly, wonwoo feels it again, that void and empty gut feeling. he stops rummaging suddenly, and his shoulder evidently falls.
“what’s wrong?” jun asks (wonwoo hears minghao’s protest but chooses to ignore it).
“nothing.”
“really, you usually stop making stupid irrelevant actions until someone speaks up.”
“i’m tired, okay…” wonwoo answers sadly.
he really is, he hates feeling like this and now he’s starting to miss things that don’t even matter like screaming ghost in seokmin’s face and laughing like old buddies, or actually enjoying steak with eunha, but mostly, he misses mingyu as a whole. it’s just so stupid and it doesn’t make sense, mingyu just makes him feel things that he doesn’t feel for anyone. and he doesn’t even know mingyu that well. what if mingyu sells drugs, he thinks, but will laugh at the thought every time he’s reminded of how mingyu pressed on finishing the salty ramen just because he didn’t want to upset the grandpa.
does he even kill ants?
wonwoo wonders.
the rain pours harder outside, and wonwoo wonders if mingyu is doing okay, if he’s eating at some random ty stores because he’s broke again. or if he’s looking like an abandoned puppy by the street again, really, he just can’t freaking help it, he can’t help but fret over stupid mingyu. jun has also stopped asking wonwoo questions, he probably could tell that wonwoo really doesn’t want to talk anymore. the glasses boy is suddenly glad that minghao came.
the rest of the rainy night goes by like a breeze, and wonwoo is dragging himself to sit upright at 7 am when jun wakes him on his desk.
“did you not go home?”
“no… i think i fell asleep…”
wonwoo literally drags his feet to the staff washroom. he washes his face many times and reaches for the top cabinet, some of the colleagues belonging left there in case they have to stay for a day (mostly wonwoo’s) and brushes his teeth with his eyes lazily closed.
it’s 8 am by the time he leaves for the elevator, he tells jun that he’s going back to have a good sleep and he’ll come back by tomorrow morning. wonwoo gets into his car and slouches immediately, pressing his face against the steering wheel. he hears his stomach growls, “ahhhhhhh….” he groans.
he steps on the acceleration and starts driving quietly. unknowingly wonwoo parks in the same space a month and few weeks ago, where he first made that crazy decision to eat ramen in a standing stall. wonwoo thinks for a moment, he’s hungry and he misses mingyu (last night he spent 80% of the time fighting with his inner self about mingyu and he finally gives up and admits it, he misses mingyu).
wonwoo stops the car engine, and gets out of his car. pretty soon, he finds himself in the same spot where he first met mingyu. the old grandpa appears from behind the store with a toothless smile.
“hi,” wonwoo greets, “ramen, please.”
it doesn’t take a long time, and now wonwoo is sitting on the stool, both of his hands between his lap and his shoulders slouched as he stares blankly at the bowl of ramen, mingyu’s voice chimes in his head, what were you thinking about and absentmindedly wonwoo mutters, “i’m not thinking…”
he takes the spoon and drinks it, it’s still as salty as ever, and wonwoo curses under his breath, why does he always make such bad decisions. yet strangely, today, there’s a hint of bitter at the end of every gulps he takes. wonwoo doesn’t finish the bowl of ramen, he leaves a 3000 won on the bar because he knows mingyu would say something like you’ll hurt his feelings and wonwoo thinks the best he could do, is to leave more money. he can’t possibly bring himself to finish the bowl of ramen.
that day, wonwoo drives back to his apartment with the radio on but the familiar song doesn’t play and suddenly everything just doesn’t feel right.
****
it’s 1 am and usually wonwoo would be dead asleep if he isn’t at work, but he’s slept his entire morning and afternoon away and not to mention, he also feels really horrible. so, it brings him here by the bar in the big city, drinking some lonely tequila while swinging around in his stool. he’s content now, he still doesn’t feel like talking, and whenever someone comes by to talk to him, he’ll just pretend that the music is too loud.
“hey,” a girl calls.
wonwoo rolls his eyes, the cup of tequila pressed against his lips, he’s getting ready to act like he can’t hear before he realizes that it’s sohye. wonwoo blinks, “hey.”
“what brings you here? i haven’t seen you in a long time.”
“i’m not drunk,” wonwoo replies, he’s not straining hard enough to listen, he’s tired and tipsy.
“what?” sohye chuckles, “i didn’t ask you that.”
“i know.”
“hm…” she says twirling her hair, “where have you been?”
“working.”
“well guess what i’ve been up to,” she says suggestively.
“i don’t know.”
“come on wonwoo, try harder.”
wonwoo sighs, setting his cup down and he looks over at sohye with half-lidded eyes, “look, i don’t care okay.”
she looks disconcerted probably shocked by wonwoo’s sudden attitude. by then, wonwoo is praying to all the gods for her to leave. but she doesn’t, instead she presses against wonwoo, and takes a seat next to him, “i’ll drink with you.”
wonwoo rolls his eyes, shaking his head. “can you just leave?!” he shouts.
now he’s done it, because sohye looks like she’s about to cry and wonwoo rolls his eyes again, downing his tequila in a shot and he gets up from his seat, leaving. he stumbles around the street, he’s a little drunk but still able to make sure he doesn’t do crazy things like drive his car back home. so, he sits down beside a poll, his head hung low, bystanders are staring at him but wonwoo could care less.
he takes his phone and calls a random contact number.
“hello.”
“hi,” wonwoo slurs.
“what’s wrong wonwoo? you sound gibberish.”
“ah, well, good morning, joshua,” he giggles between pauses.
“um.”
“you know, i hate small talks!”
“okay…?”
wonwoo hears someone else’s voice behind joshua and he hears joshua says i think my friend is drunk so wonwoo yells, “i’m not drunk!”
“where are you?”
“on the floor.”
“you’re drunk.”
“ugh,” wonwoo groans, his head is spinning, he takes his phone away from his ears, hears joshua saying something that he couldn’t really understand and hangs up.
wonwoo stands up and wobbly walks down the street, clueless and lost. he cries a little about his state, about how he pushed sohye away rudely, about what he said to eunha or the girls before that, about his mother, wonwoo misses his mother, and he wishes he makes phone calls more often. he cries about the littlest thing that night—about how he lied to seokmin that night, how he couldn’t thank minghao for bringing snacks over that late, how he couldn’t remember who the is jihoon.
then he remembers joshua and now he’s angry with himself, angry with how careless he is around joshua, and yet the said person is calling him repeatedly and leaving text messages to see if he’s okay. if he could just greet joshua properly, he’s sure, it’d make joshua’s day a little better instead of always giving him the cold shoulder.
wonwoo stumbles around and from a far he sees a bright seven-eleven sign, right¸ he thinks, kim ing mingyu. wonwoo thinks mingyu started this, mingyu came in and showed wonwoo a different form of kindness, prods wonwoo to answer question about himself then he occupies all of wonwoo’s mind that he has gotten nothing done perfectly for the past month. the worse part is now wonwoo turns on the radio in his car for s sake! he doesn’t do that. it’s all mingyu’s fault, he thinks bitterly.
he steps in front of the glass door, and it slides open immediately. wonwoo blinks at the bright light emitting and it burns his eyes. his sight is blurry and he tries to reach for his glasses hanging loosely on the collar of his t-shirt. but, he obviously misses his face and drops the glasses on the floor.
“oh my god,” wonwoo shrieks, suddenly aware of the situation, how is he going to drive back home blind now?
there’s a really loud laugh from the cashier at the end of the store, and wonwoo squints his eyes to take a good look, but god ing hell he’s really blind right now. he frowns and crouches down to take his glasses, muttering, “shut the hell up.”
there’s another laugh from the counter and wonwoo remembers this oddly familiar feeling pooling in his stomach, “who?” he asks emptily, wonwoo’s squinting really hard now and he’s struggling to open his glasses correctly.
he sees someone walking over to him. he takes wonwoo’s glasses away and cleans it with the inside of his shirt (the colour looks like the black and red attire). and then before wonwoo could protest about how disgusting that is, the said person helps put the glasses on wonwoo’s face.
“you’re so cute you make my zygomaticus muscles contract.”
wonwoo gapes, there’s a crack on the left side of his lenses but it’s no mistaking that the person standing in front of him is none other than kim mingyu. wonwoo lets out a hearty laugh. backtracking his steps and almost stumbling back to the street before mingyu catches him by the waist. there mingyu goes again with the horrible pick-up lines.
“what brings you here? haven’t seen you in a while.”
wonwoo may be tipsy and definitely not drunk, but he can vividly remember the same sentences coming from sohye just now, but this one from mingyu, he wants to answer.
“you,” he replies.
wonwoo brushes mingyu’s hands off his waist quickly and side steps into the store. he clears his throat as the automatic glass door closes behind mingyu.
he could see how stunned mingyu is but he could also tell, mingyu’s doing well, he turns around and sees a cup of noodles sitting on the counter, “i’m glad you’re not eating some ty ramen.”
mingyu chuckles, “you bet.” he moves to the back of wonwoo and grabs his cup of noodles, “want some?”
“no,” wonwoo says stubbornly and hears his stomach growls.
mingyu gives him a weird look, still holding the cup of noodles up. “no, mingyu, i don’t want your stupid cup of noodles!” wonwoo shouts.
thank god, the store is empty.
“okay, okay, chill,” mingyu says between laughter.
“i look like i do science a lot, but i’m actually a good singer and sometimes i write underappreciated music!” wonwoo shouts again.
and mingyu’s laughing really hard now.
“can you stop laughing at me.”
“okay, okay.”
“stop saying okay, okay!”
“alright.”
“ugh, what the mingyu!”
“what? why’re you scolding me?” mingyu asks (he’s still laughing).
“where have you been all this while?! i went back to eat that ramen again because i thought you’ll be there i went back to that shaggy seven-eleven and you weren’t there either?!”
“my zones got changed after that day,” mingyu explains seriously.
but wonwoo’s not taking none of that, “lies!”
“hyung, i think you’re drunk.”
“stop calling me hyung...”
“what are you even saying now?”
“i’m wonwoo!”
“okay?”
“i’m jeon wonwoo!” wonwoo screams, and he knows somewhere at the back of his mind that he’s making a huge embarrassing scene, he knows he’s going to regret this tomorrow but he couldn’t bring himself to stop spitting nonsense.
the glass door opens and someone comes in.
“yo, mingyu.”
“vernon, thank jesus, you’re here.”
“what?”
“i can go, now right?”
“yeah, i guess.”
with that mingyu scurries behind wonwoo, collecting his things while vernon and wonwoo exchange weird stares.
“come,” mingyu whispers and pulls wonwoo by his arm, there’s a little protest from wonwoo but mingyu’s shout back to vernon covers up his whining, “you can have the cup noodles!”
they leave the store, wonwoo could tell when he feels the colder breezy air hitting his face, autumn is ending, winter is coming, it’s getting colder, but with mingyu still holding onto his arm, he feels warm. mingyu holds onto him as they walk down the street away from the store (just so wonwoo doesn’t fall and crack his skull), he turns around again facing wonwoo who couldn’t even keep his eyes open and wraps a scarf around him.
“w-what?” wonwoo flutters awake.
“it’s getting kind of cold.”
“oh,” wonwoo buries his face into the scarf, it smells like mingyu.
“where did you park your car, i’ll drive you back.”
“you can drive?” wonwoo asks incredulously, blinking sleepily.
“wonwoo, i’m literally only a year younger than you.”
“i know, i know.” he pulls away from mingyu a little, and feels giddy when mingyu tightens his grip unwilling to let go.
they walk slowly, took many wrong turns and then have to walk back to the store to start walking again because wonwoo couldn’t find his damn car. but mingyu never complained once, throughout the joke he’s still conversing lightly with the tipsy wonwoo about his days and his work. though, wonwoo wants to hear more about mingyu, wants to ask him what does he do with his life, but a part of him wants to be sober to listen about the stories mingyu has to tell.
“are you sure it’s this way?”
“yes.”
mingyu is still holding onto wonwoo’s arm and he wishes he’d hold his hand instead, because his fingers are kind of getting cold, and also can mingyu not be so un-romantic, “hold my damn hands, will you?!” wonwoo blurts out.
mingyu takes a step away and blinks confusedly at the sudden outburst, they stop walking and wonwoo just stands there with his eyes closed muttering something incoherent under his breath.
“mingyu,” he says again calmer this time, “hold hands with me.” wonwoo is practically begging now, and it’s really, he really hopes he doesn’t remember anything from tonight (but a small part of him wants to remember).
“okay,” mingyu says there’s a small in his voice wonwoo could hear, but his head fills heavy and he honestly can’t bring himself up to look at mingyu’s stupid face. mingyu holds onto his hand.
“why the hell must you be taller than me?”
“i don’t know, genes?”
wonwoo snorts, “if i were an enzyme, i’d be dna helicase so I could your genes.”
mingyu laughs at that, really hard. and wonwoo feels the same as how he usually feels when he completes all the recording and testing samples and reports back in the lab which he hasn’t been able to lately.
soon, they arrive at wonwoo’s car. wonwoo takes his keys out voluntarily and swings it in front of mingyu’s face, it hits his face quite painfully and mingyu lets out an unpleasant wail.
“hyung, that hurt!” he exclaims holding onto his nose.
wonwoo chuckles, “i know, i can tell.”
“isn’t this the part you say sorry.”
“mingyu… i’ve never apologized to anyone before in my life.”
mingyu blinks a few times and if he’s imagining he definitely sees the fleeting sadness in wonwoo’s sleepy sharp eyes. “what kind of excuse—“
“hurry up and open the damn car.”
“okay.”
they spent a few minutes in the car as wonwoo struggles to key his address into mingyu’s phone.
“look why don’t you just tell me, and i’ll type it.”
“no, i can do it.”
the ride home—wonwoo could vaguely remember, the only thing he knows is that mingyu turned the radio on, and he’s humming to some random oldies song. he also hears mingyu saying things like, “i’ve never drive such a prestige car i’m actually tingling a little now.”
wonwoo smiles as mingyu’s presence beside him lulls him to slumber, sleep has never felt this peaceful before.
****
wonwoo doesn’t remember how he got on his bed, how he’s no longer wearing his jeans but his boxers. he blinks around, his head is spinning a little and it hurts. then it all comes back to him.
he rushes out to his living room almost falling flat on his face. his apartment is empty, just like how it always looks like. something in wonwoo dies, he doesn’t know what he’s expecting; maybe he’s expecting mingyu to at least stay until he wakes up. he wants to talk to mingyu, he wants to ask so many things about mingyu. and wonwoo thinks this is probably the first time he’s ever genuinely want to hear about someone’s day.
he goes back into his bedroom, falling on his bed with huff. his phone buzzes and suddenly he remembers he’s got a few responsibilities to tend to, groaning he takes his glasses and grimaces at the crack from the left side of the lenses.
there were many texts from jun and some from the other colleagues in his department. wonwoo only opens the chat from jun.
jun hui 09 08
it seems like you are not coming to work
jun 09 30
it really seems like you’re not coming to work
jun 09 45
i told our supervisor about your condition and how hard you’ve been working so he understands
you’re off today
don’t have to come in
jun 10 00
i just told jeonghan to take over your periodical reading and he’s really annoyed now…….
wonwoo laughs, he owes jun.
then wonwoo looks at the wall clock hanging on the wall of his bedroom, it’s 11:00 am. he gets up from his bed and walks over slowly to the kitchen, dragging his feet on the wooden slate floor. then he looks over to the kitchen counter and sees a white food cover, he frowns not remembering he has ever left anything on the counter. slowly, he walks over and picks the food cover up, he catches the small blue note torn from his notebook first. the glint in his eyes ignites again.
hi wonwoo.
i was waiting for you to wake up but you kept grunting and told me to stay away from salty ramen.
but anyway, i have to leave for work. i’m actually a bit late, but i guess i can take a few scolding :)
here’s my number, come meet me later at 12?
mingyu didn’t leave the venue but somehow, wonwoo knew by heart of where he is referring to.
wonwoo feels the milk, it’s already lukewarm, he doesn’t waste a lot of time. with his head spinning, he downs the milk quickly, doing his normal morning routine as quick as he can—takes a quick but complete shower while brushing his teeth. by the time, he gets out of the bathroom, the clock ticks 11:27 am. wonwoo shrieks, running into his bedroom and wearing his clothes hastily.
he doesn’t know why is he rushing, he never bothers punctuality with any of his dates, besides he’s got mingyu’s number now, he can literally just call him up and just tell him that he’ll be arriving late, but wonwoo well he’s being himself—stubborn.
wonwoo rushes out of his apartment, by the time he’s on the road, there’s a slight traffic, he sighs waiting for the light to blink green. wonwoo looks around the road and then turning his attention to the radio. with a little hesitation, he turns on the radio, and guess what? ‘some’ is playing. wonwoo laughs, it’s crazy really, his head is hurting a little when he throws it back in a fit of laughter but damn… nothing has ever felt so right in his life before.
wonwoo doesn’t sing to the song when the light blinks green, he’s screaming it at the top of his lungs even rapping at some parts.
****
wonwoo arrives at the familiar rocky pavements, looking at the same stall that brought him nightmares months back. from where he stands he could see mingyu in his black jeans, sitting on the stool.
wonwoo laughs as he walks over, a large avocado juice in one hand and watermelon crush on the other.
****
“sorry for hitting your face with my keys.”
hey you've reached the end!
i'm sorry it's lengthy and doesn't include a lot of meanie interactions :/ between, i was trying to create a more realistic scenario, like something that isn't too good to be true? you meet someone one day, and it's not like you'll meet them again anytime soon, you'll think about them a lot, realize things as day goes by and just that one encounter changes a lot of your routine and behavior but if fate goes around, you two will definitely meet again kind of thing. (at the point, i'm just blabbering nonsense that nobody understands)
by the end of it i actually started twisting the plot and making wonwoo a little mental. like making mingyu a person who only exist in wonwoo's head and his mom is dead and he's just crazy. believe it or not, i wrote it (i actually fking wrote it). later, i read back about it and i realized i didn't want to do that. i'm writing all these, because i love making you (who reads my work) smile(sometimes cry but for good reasons) and also, writing like that is just not my style. ahahhahahah, or is it :-) im kinda sad that recently i opened a blog just to reblog and cry about wonwoo and meanie......... ugh
i feel so light and happy about how lengthy this oneshot is, but i hope you enjoyed it as much as i enjoyed writing it! thanks for reading!
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