“Do you think we’ll ever debut?” Mingyu asked.

Wonwoo was sat on one of those wheely chairs, he knew weren’t called wheely chairs but liked calling them that, in the vocal practice room, his head lying on the desk. He opened his eyes to find Mingyu mirroring his position. From the corner of his eye he saw the hands of the clock on the wall showing quarter past three. In the morning.

“We must. After all the promotions,” Wonwoo croaked.

It hurt talking. Each syllable seemed to scrape over his vocal chords like sandpaper. It’s been twenty-one hours at the company for him already that day. Twenty-one hours of singing, rapping and dancing. He had drunk about two gallons of water and tea and sweat out about four throughout these twenty-one hours. Twenty-one…I don’t ca-a-a-a-a-are. Wonwoo lift his head slightly to roughly drop it onto the surface of the desk again.

“Ah!”

Bad idea. He sat up and held his forehead. He could practically feel the bump forming beneath his fingers.

“Aren’t I the one that always has the stupid ideas?” Mingyu smiled.

“Aren’t you supposed to be studying or something?”

“Aren’t you supposed to practice or write songs or something?

Wonwoo shook his head, “Maybe we should just head to the dorm and sleep until 6?”

“Maybe we should do that,” Mingyu didn’t move an inch.

Wonwoo finally let go of his forehead. It didn’t hurt anymore. He looked at the clock. He looked at Mingyu. The younger had closed his eyes again. The disheveled hair, the worn out dance clothes, the bags beneath his eyes all told off the lack of sleep and number of hours spent practicing, but with his eyes closed and features relaxed he seemed peaceful, almost content. Wonwoo noticed how Mingyu lost so much weight, that his face had gotten skinnier, but the short sleeves of the millionth shirt that grew too small since Wonwoo first got to know him had the newly acquired muscles on the younger’s upper arms come off as more prominent than usual.

With another glance at the wall, Wonwoo noticed that five minutes had already passed and neither of them made the attempt to get up.

“So?” he asked quietly.

“I’ll just skip school okay?” Mingyu mumbled.

“Why should you?”

“I want to spend more time with you, hyung.”

Wonwoo smiled, “But you’re sleeping.”

“No, I’m not,” Mingyu sat up straight in an instant; blinked a few times, his eyes widening a little more each time, until he ended up looking at Wonwoo with big eyes and a bigger smile, “What are we doing now?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. What do you want to do?” Mingyu grinned.

Wonwoo just looked at him with a straight face.

“Not funny. Okay,” the younger nodded, “Play me some music.”

“Music I make or music I like or music you like?”

“Whatever you want.”

Wonwoo sighed and typed some words into the search bar on the computer in front of him.

“With a little help from my friends by the Beatles,” Mingyu read slowly from the screen, “Isn’t that song about drugs?”

“Sort of, but I just…I have a different kind of connection with this song.”        

“Which would be?”

“Do you remember the Stranger?” Wonwoo stopped until Mingyu nodded, “It’s how that person started their conversation with me?”

“With a song?” Mingyu raised an eyebrow.

“With a line from it.”

“I see…” Mingyu fell silent for a while and just listened to the music, “Can I choose a song next?”

Wonwoo shrugged, “Okay.”

It took Mingyu a while to think about the spelling of his song and it wasn’t entirely correct, but thankfully the internet was smart enough to find his song either way.

“Think for yourself. The Beatles,” Wonwoo read aloud, “Since when do you know more songs by the Beatles?”

Mingyu shrugged, “I guess you just kind of rubbed off on me.”

Wonwoo scrunched up his nose, “That sounds weird.”

“But you know what I mean.”

“Of course,” the elder laughed.

And though you still can’t see,

I know your mind’s made up…

Wonwoo looked at Mingyu upon hearing the words he has read so many times over the last year. The younger noticed the other staring after a while.

“What?”

“Uhm…is there a reason you picked this song?”

“None in particular, no,” Mingyu shook his head.

“Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure, yes.”

Wonwoo bit his lip, continuing to study the younger’s face. It was too straight; he seemed too focused on one on Wonwoo’s eyes. Mingyu had once told him after an acting class that, if you wanted to lie and seem honest, you had to keep a straight face and look the other straight in the eyes.

“You’re lying,” Wonwoo stated.

“No.”

“You are. I know you, Mingyu.”

The younger finally let his glance drop. Wonwoo could see him chewing on the inside of his cheek as he thought of something to say.

“It’s just not the right time now,” he eventually mumbled.

“The right time to tell me what exactly?”

“I already told you it’s not the time, so why force me to say it now?” When Mingyu peered back up at Wonwoo, he looked like a lost puppy.

He sighed, “When is the time to tell me?”

Mingyu contemplated for a moment, “I’ll try to make it as soon as possible.”

Wonwoo wanted to drop the topic at first and keep his speculations to himself, but he thought he might try to carefully work himself towards an answer.

“Will I be mad at you?” he asked.

“You might.”

“I might…” Wonwoo repeated.

“I’m just scared of what you are going say. You might never want to talk to me again and that wouldn’t be very good, considering we’ll be stuck in the same band for a while.”

“I don’t think there’s anything you can do, that will make me want to avoid you like that.”

“Are you sure, hyung?” Mingyu asked, looking at Wonwoo again with his puppy eyes.

“I could never hate you. Not in a million years,” Wonwoo smiled. He took a deep breath before saying his next words.

He spread out his arms, “Come here.”

Mingyu seemed surprised, but Wonwoo couldn’t blame him for it. It was rather unlikely for him to initiate any kind of skinship. Nonetheless, the younger scooted closer in his own wheely chair to be awkwardly held by Wonwoo. The elder’s heart started speeding up just slightly, but with the light strumming of a guitar and soft vocals, that automatically started playing after the previous song ended, he decided not to fight it and embrace this moment, because it just felt right. The corners of Wonwoo’s mouth turned upwards.

This felt right.

The dorm fell quiet early the first evening of the new year. The boys had gotten up in the middle of the night to climb a mountain together and watch the run rise. Seungcheol called it a team building exercise, as if they didn’t put enough effort in working together already. They had reached the top way past sunrise and the clouds had covered the sky entirely, but the eldest insisted on holding a motivational speech. This year, surely, they would debut; that’s what their CEO said. Seungcheol wanted their team to last, to not only outnumber all other bands, but shine brighter than them through their joint efforts. He had said to sit down and talk together for an hour each day, so there would never be any big arguments.

“I want us to be together until the day we die,” he had declared, “So we should not keep secrets or worry by ourselves, whatever it may be.”

After the climb back down, practice hours awaited the boys and thankfully the coaches had mercy on them and let them go home at 8 p.m. By the time the clock showed 10, everyone was asleep but Mingyu and Wonwoo, who were sat on the kitchen counters, deep in a whispered conversation. It was the only room, with the exception of the bathrooms, in which no one was sleeping.

“I just hope everything will work out,” Mingyu said.

“Why shouldn’t it? I mean, it seems like a great idea to actually talk about everyone’s problems, so they can be solved immediately.”

“Do you think so?”

Wonwoo shrugged, “I don’t want us to lose members like most of the bands that consist of more than ten people. We had to say goodbye enough already.”

“Do you miss them sometimes?” Mingyu asked.

Wonwoo nodded, “We lived together. How couldn’t I?”

Mingyu nodded as well, “Me too. But…”

“What?” Wonwoo asked, when the younger didn’t continue his sentence.

“What if some secrets might upset some of the members?” the taller kept his gaze on his hands, resting in his lap.

“We know that you eat our food, when we’re not looking,” Wonwoo smiled.

“No, I mean actually…I don’t know disturb some people?”

The elder shook his head, “I already told you, I don’t think there is anything about you that will ever disturb me. Well as long as you’re not secretly necrophilic or zoophilic or something. That’s just disgusting.”

Mingyu chuckled, “That really is disgusting.”

“So?” Wonwoo asked after a while?

“So what?”

“What’s your secret?”

“I…”

“I know you have one. I’m your best friend; you can tell me anything.” the elder tried to encourage Mingyu.

“Well the timing is alright, but…I don’t know where to start.”

“Start at the beginning,” Wonwoo suggested.

“No that wouldn’t be an interesting way to tell you the story.”

The elder rolled his eyes, “Then just start wherever.”

“Okay,” Mingyu cleared his throat and looked Wonwoo straight in the eyes, “Please don’t be mad and please don’t resent me, if you don’t like it and just forget I ever said that, will you?”

The elder blinked at him a couple of times, “Yes. No. I mean, I will do what you asked me to.”

Mingyu giggled, “Okay, thank you.”

Wonwoo smiled, indicating him to start.

“The first time you told me about the Stranger, about that letter that was lying there in the hallway, how would you have expected me to react?”

“I thought you wanted to tell me your secret.”

“I am. It’s part of the story,” Mingyu said.

Wonwoo thought about his answer shortly, “I actually would have expected you to freak out that someone might have broken into our house.”

“But I didn’t.”

“But you didn’t.”

“A match was attached to the last physical message you received from the Stranger, am I right?”

Wonwoo nodded, perplexed at the other’s way of storytelling.

“What did I do the night before that?” Mingyu asked.

“How am I supposed to know that? That was like two years ago.”

“I see,” Mingyu sighed, “Did you actually mean all the things you sent to the Stranger?”

“Why?”

“I’m just curious,” the younger’s gaze dropped back down, staring at the tips of his feet, dangling just above the ground.

“I don’t know. Most of them, I guess?”

“Have you never wondered whether there might have been a reason the Stranger stopped sending you messages?” Mingyu asked.

Wonwoo took a deep breath, “You know it doesn’t seem much like you’re telling me a story, Mingyu.”

“God, I just can’t go on anymore,” the younger hid his face behind his hands.

“Just get to the point, then.”

Mingyu looked at Wonwoo again, “Hyung, I am the Stranger.”

It was quiet for a moment, then Wonwoo started laughing.

“Ah come on, you can tell me what you’re hiding. You don’t have to make up stupid stories like that.”

“No, I’m serious,” Mingyu frowned and reached in his pocket to pull out his phone. He typed something and then said, “Send.”

Wonwoo’s mobile gave off a short tune immediately, signifying an incoming message. Like in slow motion, he picked it up from beside him, seeing the Stranger’s message on the screen.

And I will lose my mind,

If you won’t see me

In the blink of an eye, Wonwoo reached for Mingyu’s phone. The messaging app was still opened. His own name was at the top of the screen, the exact words Wonwoo had just received at the bottom. He just stared at it and the younger didn’t dare moving. They could have been frozen in time, if Wonwoo couldn’t feel the gears in his head slowly turning; processing the information, matching it with his memories.

His voice was but a whisper when he finally opened his mouth again, “Did you mean everything you sent me?”

He could see Mingyu nodding from the corner of his eyes. Wonwoo was afraid to lift his head and look at him. But he was absolutely terrified of phrasing his next thought. He squeezed his eyes together and took a deep breath; he had to know.

“Do you…” his voice gave in, “do you still…”

The younger did not move and carefully, as if he could startle him like a timid fawn, Wonwoo let his eyes wander upwards. When finally his eyes met Mingyu’s orbs, he could see him being just as expectant, yet scared; his glance hurrying across his face.

The movement of his head was miniscule, but had Wonwoo fall forward, embracing him tightly. He could feel tears welling in his eyes and his heart beating at the speed of light, as he buried his face in the crook of Mingyu’s neck. And he was understood. Mingyu pulled Wonwoo even closer, he could feel him clinging onto the back of his shirt and his upper body was shaking as small drops of relief touched Wonwoo’s shoulder.

“I think I might be in love with you, hyung,” he whispered next to Wonwoo’s ear.

“Me too, Mingyu-yah.”

AN: Oh god, i finally finished writing this chapter. I had another option which I had worked on for a long time but I was extremely unhappy with it so I deleted everything and wrote somethign entriely different...well kind of. But yes, finally the reveal. This story is not over yet, though. Now it's time for more fluffy lovey dovey stuff, because I really like fluffy lovey dovey stuff and yessss. Please bear with me, because I will probably have even less time to write in the next weeks (though I have to say that in the past weeks I did work on that other story I've been kind of promoting in like each AN but still haven't posted or made anything official. BUT one chapter is done. and liek 3 others in the working but yeah...we'll see when I think that I have prepared enough to let that baby out into the world. maybe you should prepare for heart attacks already though ;D) aaaaanyway, I am now very happy with this chapter and I start to enjoy writing more again and that's good because more writing! (I'm sorry, I'm tired and school is killing me and there are liek a gazillion things I want to do and social life and ahhhhh) 

Thank you for reading~~~and also hi to all those new subscribers <3