But I can’t get through,

I don’t mind, I could wait forever

The message from the Stranger light up on the screen of Wonwoo’s phone the next morning as he was brushing his teeth. He didn’t remember sending his message to him the night before, but he’s been half asleep when stumbling into an empty bed anyway and might have forgotten. It has been sent either way. And in that moment Wonwoo was struggling what to reply again.

The taste of mint was getting painful in his mouth. He finished quickly, checking for stains of toothpaste on his face before exiting the bathroom. Wonwoo had gotten used to the people running around the dorm in the mornings, so he now allowed himself to seep a little longer. But with longer practice times and a daily meeting of the trainees in the morning, one couldn’t really talk about sleeping longer.

“Good morning,” Mingyu was leaning against the sideboard, a toast and cup beside him on the countertop, as Wonwoo entered the kitchen.

Wonwoo smiled, “Hi”

The younger pointed at the plate next to him, “I made breakfast for you.”

“That’s new,” Wonwoo raised his brows.

“For my best friend, I’d do almost everything.”

“Did Seungcheol teach you manners all the time?” The elder chuckled and reached for a slice of bread.

“No. He just…” Mingyu pursed his lips and furrowed his brows as if he was thinking really hard, “I don’t know. Does it matter? You’re my favourite hyung either way.”

Wonwoo nearly choked on his toast, “That’s nice to hear.”

“You know, even if I may talk to the other members sometimes, it won’t change.”

“Oh stop it, I’m blushing,” Wonwoo said jokingly.

Mingyu smiled mischievously.

“What?” The elder asked.

“Nothing,” Mingyu shook his head, “The coffee is for you too, you know.”

“Thanks”

He looked down into the cup he picked up; otherwise he might have really blushed. It sure was nice to get some attention again, though this felt different. Carefully he looked at Mingyu from the corner of his eyes and when, to his surprise, he found Mingyu already looking at him and smiling, his heart skipped a beat.

Wonwoo smiled back subconsciously, and somewhere in a hidden corner of his mind he was glad that nothing had changed.

“Mingyu-yah!” Wonwoo yelled when he saw him walking just about a hundred meters ahead of him towards the company that same afternoon. He had just hopped off the bus from his school and his day had been horrible. He was so tired today, mentally and physically, and the results of the last test had been horrible, but seeing Mingyu turning around upon hearing his voice and smiling widely made everything a whole lot better. 
Wonwoo jogged up to the younger and found himself in a state of conflict when it was only a few steps to go. While he wanted to hug the younger, he noticed how weird that would be, but just stopping next to him and waving “hi” like he would usually do would be just as strange after having run all this way. Mingyu though put up his hand in the air and Wonwoo was even more confused and stopped a good five meters away from his friend and looked at him questioningly. 
“High five!” the younger smiled. 
“You expect me to jump up there?” Wonwoo blinked. 
Mingyu had gotten quite a bit taller than when he first met him. It was only a few centimeters of difference between them, minimal really compared to that of Jihoon and the younger, but Wonwoo would have to get on his tiptoes if he wanted to reach up there. 
Mingyu rolled his eyes and lowered his hand to the level of his waist, the palm facing upwards. Wonwoo walked the last steps towards him and slapped it only so much it wouldn’t hurt, but when their palms met, Mingyu’s fingers closed around Wonwoo’s hand. The elder looked down at them and then up again at the younger’s face but he was already half walking again. He bit down on his lip before returning the pressure and catching up the step, the younger was ahead of him.
“The performance is tomorrow,” Mingyu said. 
Wonwoo hummed. He knew, obviously. 
“Are you excited yet?” the younger asked. 
“I’m fine actually. You?” 
“I’m just happy to have some peace and quiet afterwards.” 
“Until the day we disband we won’t actually have a peaceful day anymore,” Wonwoo said. 
Mingyu chuckled, “We haven’t even debuted yet and you think about disbandment?” 
“I just tried to tell you that this was just the beginning,” Wonwoo corrected his statement, “It will only get more stressful from now on.” 
“But we will be together again,” the younger nudged the other’s shoulder lightly. 
Wonwoo raised an eyebrow, “You didn’t have to ignore me.” 
“Yes, I know I messed up. I’m sorry.” 
“It’s fine, really. If it’s me at the end of the day, I’m totally okay with you running off to the others.”
Mingyu wriggled his eyebrows, “At the end of the day, huh? Are you implying something?” 
“What?!” 
Mingyu let go of Wonwoo’s hand to hold onto his chest and made a pained expression, “Ah, I got shot by Cupid. Hyung let me kiss you! Let me luurve you!” He made kissy lips and Wonwoo laughed as he pushed the younger away lightly. 
“Dude. You know I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, half laughing, half trying to keep a straight face, partially to cover up that he wouldn’t even mind. That thought scared him slightly, but before he could think too much about it, Mingyu laughed and reached for Wonwoo’s hand again. “I know. I’m just joking.” 

When entering the company, Wonwoo saw his team sit in the entrance area. He waved goodbye at Mingyu who proceeded to go down to the practice rooms without him. Soonyoung gave the team a quick pep-talk since it was only so little time left until the performance. He reminded them to work hard but also remember that it wasn’t the performance yet. “I don’t want you whining about sore muscles nor any injuries, got that?“ 
The boys then also went to the basement to change and then start with a quick warm up. But when Wonwoo opened his locker a postcard fell out. It showed the night view of Seoul and on the back, written in single letters from magazines and newspapers, neatly cut out and glued on, a message was to be read.

Writing postcards,…
You have always been my inspiration, please be good to me.
Your Stranger

He had to blink a couple of times to take in what he held in his hand. When Wonwoo did, a grin started spreading slowly but surely across his face. The Stranger had actually taken some or probably a lot of time to make this card for him and possibly personally dropped this off in his locker. 
Wonwoo looked up, biting down on his lip to control his expression a little and saw Mingyu though the glass door of the practice room. For a moment he considered showing the postcard to him and bragging a little about his crush, whoever it may be. He then nearly slapped himself when he realized how silly of an idea that was. Why should he show that to his actual crush? And again he wanted to slap himself for thinking that. 
He settled on storing the card somewhere far in the back of his locker and eventually took out his things to change.

Doogi PD entered the practice room at 10 PM prompt, “Boys, go home.”

“But we need to practice more, hyung,” Seungcheol complained as he entered the green room because his team had been in the next one.

“No, you need to rest, all of you. Just look at yourselves and the dark circles under your eyes. This is not the time to give your all,” Doogi replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest, “You can act like this when there’s something actually at stake, but now there isn’t. Go home.”

They didn’t say anything, but all of the trainees knew that the others were just as happy to get to bed early as themselves. When Wonwoo closed his locker again after putting his close-to-clean practice trousers inside, he jumped a little, as Mingyu’s face had been right behind it.

“Hi there,” the younger winked.

“Long time no see,” Wonwoo replied and tried not to smile too widely at Mingyu’s action.

“It always takes you so long to organize all your things after practice. Do you like the company building so much?”

“I just like taking my time,” the elder replied.

“I see. Let’s go home slowly then,” Mingyu laughed.

“Let’s go.”

It was dark outside as per usual on their way to the dorm. A few blocks away some cars were heard rushing by. Some say that cities don’t sleep. Seoul definitely didn’t. On the slightly busier street to the dorm most of the stores were still open and had numerous guests. In the mix of orange and neon light from streetlights and windows, a few people were walking around outside as well.

Wonwoo smiled, “You know what this reminds me of?”

From the corner of his eyes he saw Mingyu looking down at him, “No, what?

“Do you remember that night last summer when you took me to eat ice cream?”

“Oh that,” the younger smiled as Wonwoo turned his head to meet his gaze, “That was a nice night.”

“It was indeed.”

“But this is totally different. It’s cold and there are so many people out,” Mingyu pouted.

“Want some ice cream?” Wonwoo asked and the younger’s face light up.

It was Wonwoo this time who went inside the store. He stood in front of the freezer, thinking about what he should get, when he pulled out the coins from his pocket. He counted them and realized that it wasn’t enough to get one for both him and Mingyu. Wonwoo pursed his lips and then reached for a Ssang-ssang bar.

When he walked out of the store a minute later, waving it around, Mingyu laughed again.

“So now you wanna share?”

Wonwoo nodded, unwrapped the ice cream and held it on one of the sticks to let Mingyu pull on the other. He kept holding it even after they broke apart until the younger clinked his part of the ice cream with his own. Jjan.

The two boys walked the rest of the way in content silence. Mingyu was done with his ice cream just before they reached the dorm and unlocked the door and held it open for Wonwoo to enter. When he the light as he kicked off his shoes, he spotted a white envelope lying in the hallway. Wonwoo picked it up just to see his name being written on the front. Who would write him a letter?

“What is this?” Mingyu asked, his voice muffled because most of the other trainees seemed to be asleep already.

“An elephant, or what else does it look like?” Wonwoo replied and went to the kitchen to throw away the stick of his ice cream and grab a knife to neatly open the envelope.

“That wasn’t funny. I know it’s a letter,” Mingyu said, leaning against the doorframe.

“See, you knew it all along,” Wonwoo smiled as he put the knife away again and went to sit down in his corner of the living room.

Carefully he pulled out the content. Cut out letters formed the words on a plain white sheet of paper

Writing letters…

Take a good look and you’ll see, that you and I are meant to be.

Your Stranger

“Mingyu-yah?” Wonwoo asked, his brows furrowed.

“Yes?”

“Was the door properly locked?”  Wonwoo looked up and saw the younger seeming rather worried.

“Yes, why?”

“How did this get in here?”

“May I see it?” Mingyu asked, one of his hands stretched out towards the elder as he sat down next to him.

Wonwoo handed it over silently. He watched as the eyes of the younger scanned the paper. Mingyu reached for the envelope and examined it as well. Then he shrugged.

“Must be a prank or something,” he concluded.

“No but…I’ve been messaging someone whose name I don’t know. I named that person The Stranger. I also had a postcard like this in my locker this afternoon.”

“Maybe one of the others saw one of the messages on your phone when you weren’t paying attention and in now doing this as a joke?” Mingyu guessed. He pulled a small packet out of his pocket. He opened it and took out what seemed to be a match. Without much of a point he light it up.

“But how would they know…”

“Know what?” The warm light of the tiny flame was dancing across Mingyu’s face.

Wonwoo reconsidered asking his question. The younger didn’t have to know everything. “Nothing.”

 “Okay,” Mingyu shrugged and blew out the flame just to light a new one.

“Don’t you think this might be dangerous?”

“Why should this be?”

“I already see you dropping the light match and setting the dorm on fire,” Wonwoo said.

“You could get a candle to light,” Mingyu suggested.

“Why would I?”

“Because it’s nice?”

“I don’t know. I don’t really like playing with fire,” the elder said.

“Okay,” Mingyu blew out the match again. The room was light only by the pale moon shining through the window.

“Hyung?” the younger asked after a while.

“Yes?”

“Do you maybe want to get something to drink?”

Wonwoo sighed, “What do you want?”

“Do we still have grape juice?”

“I’ll go have a look,” Wonwoo said and got up. There was indeed just enough left in the fridge for two glasses. The elder returned with the beverages, handed one of them over to Mingyu and sat down next to him again.

“Thank you,” the younger murmured before taking a sip.

“You’re welcome.”

They ended up sitting there in the corner of the room, chattering quietly until two in the morning. By chance Wonwoo had taken a look at the clock and suggested going to bed, since they had to get up early the next morning for the last practice. Mingyu had nodded and the two had fallen asleep squeezed together in the only empty bed left.

I’ve got time

I’m so tired, I don’t know what to do

AN: I'm sorry. This took way too long. I was on holiday (without my laptop) for basically 3 weeks and then started working again and just happened to always get the late shift so I was done with everything once I got home. I know I'm making excuses again, but yes I am very truly sorry. But this story gained so many subscribers I feel totally overwhelmed. thank you for reading this~~~