Wednesday morning at five o'clock as the day begun, Wonwoo couldn’t get himself out of bed. He had stared at Mingyu, sleeping in the bed next to his for a good part of the night. The younger’s face was so beautiful, he couldn’t stop himself from opening his eyes over and over again when his lids felt heavy, sleep trying to press them down. Now he regretted it, his body not feeling rested in the least.

Wonwoo turned around in his bed once more, looking at the same face again. He really couldn’t grow tired of it. But with a tiny sigh, he decided to sit up and leave the warm cocoon of his sheets to go to the bathroom and get ready for the day. It was really just a waste of time to admire a face, he knew he’d see for many more years. Maybe, if he didn’t stare at it to this extent, his heart would flutter less, he thought.

It was still quiet in the dorm at this time of day and Wonwoo loved the bit of peace in the morning. No one was battling him to get into the bathroom and no one bothered him when he was quietly eating breakfast.  The day would get hectic enough. In the next fifteen minutes the other trainees’ alarms would start going off in the bedrooms. Seungcheol mostly got up immediately; Soonyoung and Seokmin usually peeled themselves out of their sheets after the second alarm; Doyoon and Junhui would get up with the third and Mingyu with the fourth. The rest were woken up by force or got up the moment Mingyu started whining stridently about how tired or hungry or late he was.

Wonwoo would wait for him in the kitchen, where he could throw some toasts into the toaster whenever someone asked him to in passing. The last one he made was always that for Mingyu, even adding some jam sometimes. During the few steps towards the front door Wonwoo would hold it out for him, so he could bite down on it. The younger would always keep it like that between his lips until he put on his shoes and then start inhaling it like nothing in the few seconds more Wonwoo took to tie his shoelaces properly.

“I still don’t get why you can’t just tie your shoes once and then simply slip them on like all people do,” Mingyu would always say whenever Wonwoo took a little longer.

“And I am tired of always telling you, that you’re ruining them like that,” he would shake his head, as they hurried down the stairs.

And Mingyu would ignore this. They would always talk about little nothings on their way until they had to part at the underground. Wonwoo would then put on his headphones and walk to the bus station, wait for the next bus going in his direction, get on and mentally prepare for class, a test or go over a choreography he was currently learning.

But today he received a message. It wasn’t unusual to receive them, but Wonwoo would never get any at this time of day. He looked at the display, showing the preview of a message from an unknown number. Furrowing his brows in a mix of confusion and wariness, he decided to open it.

Do you believe in a love at first sight? Thank you Two

Wonwoo blinked a few times. Two…it’s what he had scribbled onto that weird message at the lockers! How in the world did the person find out his number? And how was it that this seemed so familiar again? Over and over he thought about the person’s words. Do you believe in a love at first sight…carve your number on my wall and maybe you will get a call from me…then it hit him. The Beatles. The secret originator had translated parts of their songs into Korean!

He was hesitant at first, opening the keyboard, but settled on continuing the lyrics of ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’.

Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time. What do you see when you turn out the light?

Send.

Wonwoo smiled. What a nice change to his always-repeating schedule.

To celebrate the new lunar year the company had organized for the trainees to receive a lesson in the tea ceremony. Once Wonwoo arrived after school, most of the others were already sat in a circle on the floor of the practice room, a traditional teaset spread out in front of a man with glasses, wearing a blue shirt. Wonwoo bowed quickly and mumbled a greeting before sitting down cross legged next to Mingyu. Only when Doogi took out a camera, he forgot, this was going to be filmed and put online.

He flashed a look at the younger’s warm hand casually resting on his thigh. On one side, his mindless touches felt nice, but on the other, they had Wonwoo feel feverish. Careful not to draw the other’s attention he brushed it off, setting it down right next to his knee.

Wonwoo looked around the circle of trainees, inspecting their faces. None of them were quite as attractive as Mingyu, but still they didn’t mind being around him on camera. For another moment he considered sitting down somewhere else to avoid the possibility of his heart racing and palms sweating, but looking at the younger once more, all he felt was positivity. Nothing but pure energy seeming to burst out of his sparkling eyes and being soaked right into Wonwoo’s pores, intoxicating him with his radiating glow. This was where he belonged.

It didn’t even matter much to him that they were supposed to be calm and quiet during the tea ceremony; he felt so happy just like this at Mingyu’s side. He even felt daring enough to agree to the younger’s whispered suggestion of a love shot. It was inappropriate, he knew, and he was barely able to drink from his cup due to the ridiculousness of it all.

The entire shoot felt so much more enjoyable with all his worries forgotten and him embracing the fluttering feeling, when his fingers brushed Mingyu’s as he passed him his cup of tea. He was only feeling shy again once Mingyu helped him pour tea from the pot because his hands were shaking so much, which he hadn’t even noticed before. He couldn’t muster up the courage to look into the younger’s eyes, because he knew his heart might explode. But the moment Mingyu retreated to his place, it was all like it had been before.

It was just like always. Just the two best friends, with one living off the other’s energy. And maybe his heart only beat because his body couldn’t bear the amount of radiation whenever Mingyu was getting too close. He was like the sun and Wonwoo was Mars, at constant battle with himself and living just close enough to the warmth for him not to burn and them to collide.

Wonwoo knew he was lucky when the next day a taekwondo teacher greeted the trainees in the practice room. When he was younger he had taken lessons and was confident in the beginner moves. Immediately he abolished the thought of sticking around Mingyu during broadcast from now, since today he could shine enough by himself.

He talked to the teacher, asking him about some kicks he had always wanted to learn but never got to, because he had left taekwondo to learn dancing instead. It wasn’t even that hard, though his movements looked fairly different to those of the teacher. He noticed the small red light of the cameras starting to blink and felt pressured to do something cool to compensate, so he went over some steps from the choreography. During warm-up his confidence went up again, effortlessly putting the exercises into practice.

They were supposed to do the following moves in pairs and automatically his eyes met with Mingyu’s, who stretched out his hand towards him. Nervously he looked around the room and eventually just nodded at Jihoon standing right in front of him. The teacher then told them to form teams of similar height and Wonwoo desperately pulled Soonyoung into a shoulder bump. He didn’t mind his hand resting on his back until he started trying to lift his shirt up at the hem to which Wonwoo wriggled away a little. There were no butterflies whenever the other trainees were being touchy, but baring himself in front of an audience was not something Wonwoo planned to do any time soon.

The teacher didn’t seem happy yet and ended up pairing him up with Mingyu. Wonwoo tried to look as if he didn’t care, awkwardly standing beside the younger. Maybe they wouldn’t even touch so much. But as the teacher told Chan, his partner for demonstration, to grab his wrist and the other trainees to follow along, he grumbled a few curses in his mind as to why it had to turn out like this. He then looked at Mingyu, who was intently watching the simple movement and decided not to care; to embrace the fluttering feeling, just like he had done the day before.

He tapped the younger’s arm slightly, telling him to go on and grab him (and it sounded too damn ual in his ears) and when he did, Wonwoo’s heart skipped a beat. But he knew this exercise was about freeing oneself from another’s grip, so he did. Again and again, whenever Mingyu’s hand closed around his wrist. No fluttering for now, but as the teacher called them out for messing around they had to stay still and Wonwoo felt like the younger’s touch was burning into his skin in the most pleasant way imaginable.

Once he got used to it, Wonwoo found himself relaxing beneath the younger’s warm fingers. And when Mingyu retracted his hand, Wonwoo had the urge to keep them connected and reached out for him. The happiness took over again and with it cheekiness, having Wonwoo join the younger in overdoing all actions and play fighting. Mingyu’s touch felt so nice, whether it was playful, slightly painful or delicate, like when his fingers automatically interlaced with Wonwoo’s while watching another demonstration.

Wonwoo had trouble not smiling like an idiot and when his guard was down he felt himself falling.

Falling, yes I am falling.

His back hit the floor hard after having been turned around and dropped by Mingyu. Wonwoo curled  his body to the side, acting as if in pain, and quickly felt the younger’s hands on him again.

“Do you need anybody?” Mingyu asked, his face right above Wonwoo’s.

He gulped. I need somebody to love.

The younger must have taken his silence as a no and moved his fingers quickly to tickle Wonwoo, which had him jumping up. They were separated by the teacher soon, probably because of their noisiness, but somehow they kept finding each other, like their gravity was now poled to each other.

AN: So, this is kind of shorter than the other chapters and I'm not a hundred percent happy with it (though it does have its very good moments, where my mind just kind of surprised me), but it's been so long since the last update. I was busy with exams and was in Paris for a week with school, so it all delayed it even more. Other than that I've been working on the storyline for a new project, but that might take a bit, because I feel like I'll need to do new character studies that the debut is actually happening. oh, now that I'm at that DEBUT!!! FINALLY!! It's not like I've been waiting for 3 years or something. I was literally ready the entire time, but now I'm not prepared at all. I hope I'll survive that. But yeah...thank you for reading and also hi~ to the new subscribers. I'm happy you found your way here ^-^