Spring brought another strong thunderstorm. Hakyeon sat in his living room, eyes glued on the window that constantly shook with the force of the wind. He didn't have to go to work today, and he would be more thankful for it if he could actually sleep.

Alas, the world seemed to be against him. It was seven in the morning, and for some reason, he was wide awake. Usually, he could sleep through thunderstorms without much trouble, but he'd had no such luck today. He pulled his knees up to his chest, his fingers brushing against the soft material of his long, puppy-printed pajama pants, and continued to watch angry droplets of rain pelt the glass.

The opening of a door shocked him out of his trance just then, and he turned around to see Wonshik coming out of his room and into the kitchen, dressed for work.

"Morning," he remarked, following Wonshik with his eyes as he trotted to the kitchen, his shoes leaving little rhythmic thumps on the apartment floor.

"Morning," the younger returned absentmindedly as he collected up a stack of papers from the counter and straightened it up, then trying his best to slot them neatly into a black folder. Upon success, he nodded subtly to himself, and shoved the folder into his bag, zipped it up, and slung it over his shoulder.

Hakyeon's eyebrows knitted together as it occurred to him that Wonshik was preparing to leave, reaching his hands up to his face and slapping it violently enough to wake himself up.

"Hey," he put in quietly, standing with a disapproving frown and staggering on his little legs up to the kitchen.

Wonshik fully turned his attention to him this time, dropping his hands from his face and paling a little at Hakyeon's expression. "Yeah?" he asked in the tone of someone who'd been caught by their mother doing something they weren't supposed to do.

"What are you having for breakfast?" Hakyeon asked pointedly, standing at the edge of the cold kitchen tiles with bare feet.

"Not feelin' hungry. I'll eat later though," he answered, his face relaxing in apparent relief as he gave Hakyeon an indifferent shrug. His eyes idly glanced downward for just a moment, and upon the sight, his lips curled into a grin laced with a tiredness that Hakyeon hadn't noticed. "Nice pajamas," he commented.

He watched then as Wonshik turned, and with a little wave but not another word walked to the door and disappeared almost as quickly as he'd showed up.

There was something that was a bit odd about him lately. Something just a little bit unsettling. He couldn't quite put his finger on the reason why, but his mannerisms and words lately had just seemed unusual.

Even though he was still kind and understanding to him like he always had been, it almost felt as if they were becoming more like strangers somehow.

The thought frightened him a little, and he shook it away, using his hand on the counter to turn himself around and walk back over to the couch.

The storm was only getting worse if possible, and a particularly loud roar of thunder caught his attention as he sat back down. There was almost a creeping fear that his windows would break. In the time that he and Wonshik had lived here, he didn't remember there ever being a storm like this one.

Maybe he should watch Netflix or something. Something to get his mind out of its gloomy haze. Something to distract him, to make him think about other things more trivial and meaningless than the things hanging in his brain. But even as he thought this, he couldn't bring himself to turn on the television, or get up to get a snack. He simply continued to be frozen, staring at his abused window panes.

Suddenly, he was yanked back to reality once more as he heard a familiar sound blasting from nowhere other than this phone fill the room, and he wheeled around irritatedly to see the screen of it lit up as it rang on the little table next to the couch. At first his instincts told him to pick up and grumble something unpleasant to whoever was disturbing him, or just ignore them because it was still so early, he could pretend he'd been asleep.

But all of his annoyance and dismissal dissipated when he saw the name waking up his screen.

It took him a moment to process what he saw, but when it got through his head, he leaned over and grabbed his phone right away, raising it to his ear as he accepted the call.

"Hello?" he spoke quietly, as if Wonshik was still sleeping peacefully in the next room despite the weather.

"H-Hakyeon?"

"Taekwoon," he remarked confusedly. "What-"

That's when he remembered. The realization caused him to pause for just a moment, hearing the younger boy's breathing through the line that was laced with fear and tension.

"Is it the storm?" he asked, concern swirling in his eyes as he stared out his window.

"Y-Yeah," Taekwoon answered in a shallow, shaky voice. Hakyeon could tell he was trying so hard to stop it from shaking the way it was.

"You're more than just a little afraid of them, aren't you?" he said cautiously, trying to adopt a gentle, understanding tone that went against his usual sarcastic and playful one.

Taekwoon hummed in confirmation just before another loud growl of thunder shook his ears, and he drew a sharp, startled breath.

"Can you stay on the line?" he murmured, and there was a little shuffling noise on the other end that Hakyeon subconsciously tried to identify.

"Yeah, yeah of course," he reassured him, shifting in his position on the couch and trying to get himself in a good mindset.

"We can talk about...lots of stuff. Like, uh...music, or the city. Maybe even Hyuk and like...how dumb he is and that he needs to stop eating all those damn sprinkles or I'm going to kill him."

Taekwoon laughed softly, a warm and sweet sound despite the little frightened shake that lingered in his voice. Hakyeon grinned in satisfaction and waited expectantly when he heard Taekwoon inhale as if he were about to speak.

But a few moments passed in silence, and though it had seemed promising at first, Taekwoon ended up just releasing the breath in a little confused sigh.

"Or if...you would prefer it, we could just be quiet. That's okay with me too, I just...you know."

"No...this is fine," the shy voice crackled through as Hakyeon managed to lift himself up while keeping the phone sandwiched between his ear and right shoulder.

"Oh, okay. Good. Because you know, I've got an idea," he responded back in his silly, mischievous tone, absentmindedly gesturing with his hands though he knew well Taekwoon couldn't see him.

"Do you?" Taekwoon asked. Hakyeon could hear the younger boy's smile in the two words, and his confidence took a step up.

"I do. And it's really good, even for me, the genius."

"Again with that confidence. Not so sure what you see in yourself Hakyeon," Taekwoon shot back impressively, and the older could almost picture him sitting up in the excitement of the retort, smirk spread thick on his lips.

He was at a loss, in all honesty. This guy had been like a baby bunny from first time he'd met him, and suddenly he just pulls one of those out of the bag with expert delivery.

"Sheesh. You're pretty biting when you put your mind to it," Hakyeon marveled as he walked into his kitchen. "Anyways, smartass," he drawled out playfully, opening his fridge doors and listening hopefully for a little giggle on the other end. Unfortunately, there was no way for him to see just how wide Taekwoon was smiling.

"I have a story to tell you."

"A story?"

"You betcha."

"Okay."

Hakyeon cleared his throat dramatically, taking out and setting down a bottle of orange juice before purposely cracking his knuckles right next to the phone. Taekwoon shuddered and made a sound of disgust at the sound.

"Alright," Hakyeon began, ignoring him. "So once upon a time there was a little kitty that lived far, far away from most other kitties. The kitty's name was Leo. Leo had always been very scared of storms. But, because he had his kitty friend to help him and because he was very brave, Leo worked hard and in the end, he wasn't so afraid anymore."

There was a silence on the line. Hakyeon froze up, listening for Taekwoon's reply and only hearing breathing. Oops?...

Just as he was starting to redden in the face and regret saying anything like that at all, Taekwoon's voice came through the line again.

"You're so cheesy." His tone was unreadable, but he didn't sound actually disgusted, which to Hakyeon in this moment was a bonus.

"I know, but it's worth it, I think," he returned, pulling open a cabinet door and grabbing a glass out of it. He set it down on the counter, unscrewing the cap off the bottle and pouring juice in as he waited again for a reply.

"Oh...it's starting to stop," was all he got.

His eyebrows furrowed displeasedly at these words, and he then turned around to see that the rainfall was pretty normal now, and the wind and thunder had greatly subsided.

"Yeah...kinda," he mused as he stared at the changed atmosphere, his face sinking further into a little frown.

The weather in this place was absurd.

"Well, since it's...you know, I can just...stop bothering you," Taekwoon told him apologetically, his voice still small like it usually was but more confident than a few minutes ago.

"You're not bothering me, though," the older boy told him without hesitation, shaking his head halfway just to himself.

Another small silence.

"I have a few other things I've gotta do too," he explained, and he could be heard standing up from somewhere on the other end.

"Oh. Right, okay. Yeah, that's-that's totally fine. Good luck with...whatever it is exactly," Hakyeon muttered out, trying to sound unbothered and to snap himself back to reality, but failing as he lifted the bottle of orange juice and began drinking directly from it instead of the glass he'd just poured himself.

"Thank you for staying," Taekwoon told him softly, and Hakyeon knew he meant it.

"Yeah. Of course. I'll see you tomorrow, right?" he asked after he pulled the bottle away from his mouth.

"Mhm," Taekwoon confirmed.

"Okay...I'll see you then," Hakyeon said, only then realizing his mistake and picking up his glass instead.

"See you."

"Tomorrow."

"Yes, tomorrow."

"Bye."

"Goodbye, Hakyeon," Taekwoon laughed.

"Goodbye."

The line went dead.

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LOOK WHO FINALLY UPDATED THIS FIC WOOOOO

Jesus I need to catch up

See you soon! c: