Protector

If there was anyone to embodied the phrase contradiction it would be Woohyun. He was both confident and vulnerable. Wildly talented and insecure. Just when Dongwoo was sure he had the younger figured out Woohyun threw him for a loop. He thought though if he could boil Woohyun down to one word — a useless exercise since human beings, especially human beings by the name of Nam Woohyun, could hardly be boiled down to just one word — he would pick the word protector. As goofy and silly and sometimes frivolous as Woohyun was there was no one who was more fiercely protective of his friends.

Dongwoo hadn't noticed it in the beginning, in the beginning he was too busy rolling his eyes over all the posturing and fighting that was going on between Sunggyu and Woohyun. But slowly as Infinite fell into place more and the different personalities became used to one another Dongwoo began to see the protective side of Woohyun arise.

It started with Sunggyu, whenever someone would complain about Sunggyu's endless perfectionism, Woohyun was the first to try and play devil's advocate to deflect  the comments or to change the subject. It was subtle in the beginning.

And then they debuted and Woohyun's protectiveness doubled, and while a majority of their reception was warm, some of it was frosty and downright cruel. Woohyun then began to put himself between those comments and the band. It may have looked a little like self-absorption (and Dongwoo wouldn't be surprised if there was a good helping of that mixed in with Woohyun's intentions) but truthfully it was a form of protection. If Woohyun took most of the fire for his cheesiness, silly nature and general greasiness there were less harsh comments for the rest of them.

Dongwoo never told Woohyun that he knew, however, Woohyun seemed to catch on that Dongwoo was aware of what he was doing. He also seemed to know that Dongwoo was worried about him because he was taking all the extra criticism for the other members and he was just as vulnerable — even moreso sometimes — as the rest of them were to the harsh words. He provided a silent support for when Woohyun wanted to break down and stop being so strong for all of them. And the grateful look in Woohyun's eyes was more than enough to make Dongwoo feel happy that he could at least do something for the younger man.

Woohyun's protective streak grew even more pronounced when Sunggyu made his solo debut. Whenever he saw a bad comment about Sunggyu or his preformance he'd seethe for days. In fact there were even times when he would pull the leader aside and whisper advice in his ear in order to prove the harsh comments wrong. It wasn't until Infinite H made their debut that Dongwoo found himself on the recieving end of this kind of fierce protectiveness. Hoya seemed completely taken aback by how eager Woohyun was to dispense his advice about staying in tune or moving around the stage a little more. But Dongwoo just smiled because it was so completely Woohyun.

Woohyun was a protector. And he always would be. Dongwoo just felt fortunate to be on the recieving end of it, because it meant that he was important to Woohyun.