it’s been a week and sunggyu is most likely going through woohyun withdrawal. he understands that promoting without the others meant that he wouldn’t see them as much but sunggyu hadn’t gone without seeing woohyun for more than five days in a long while. he feels not quite himself and when he’s up on stage he closes his eyes and thinks, ‘woohyun’s watching me’ because the younger did promise to watch every single one of his performances. but when he’s off the stage and in the dressing room getting his makeup washed off, he feels a sense of loneliness wash over him and the lack of greasy words and playful touches makes him feel a bit ; if he could be honest.

as he said, he’s nothing without nam woohyun.

he can’t even go to the dorms during most of his promotions, the others are rarely there and he doesn't like going there alone, so he sleeps in hotel rooms or at his apartment that he sometimes forget is even there. it’s a while before he sees one of the members again and it’s howon, they’re practicing for sunggyu’s final stage and the younger will being rapping tablo’s part in daydream. he’s going over the english with him when he finally caves in and asks the younger about woohyun.

“he’s doing well, but his throat’s been bothering him.” howon answers, giving a sigh. “we told him to go to the doctor, but does he listen? no.”

“is it bad?” sunggyu wonders, his own frown forming.

“bad enough that he had a coughing fit yesterday for a good fifteen minutes.”

sunggyu takes in this information and it makes him feel sick, howon must’ve noticed, because he reaches out to put his hand on top of sunggyu’s, “hey don’t worry. i’m sure he’ll be okay. you’ll be coming home again soon right?”

“i hope so. i have a magazine shoot soon… and then another after that. i’m so busy i hate it, i just want to relax with you guys.” with woohyun.

“we’re all proud of you sunggyu hyung, and your album. don’t worry so much. we’ll be together again soon to prepare for our comeback -- and the tour.”

“i know, you’re right.”

howon smiles, and sunggyu gives one in return.

it’s a week later and sunggyu stumbles into the dorm with tired eyes and slacked shoulders, no one’s awake, he doesn’t expect anyone to be awake at three in the morning anyway. sungyeol though seems to stir from the couch and he smiles tiredly at his leader. sunggyu waves and brings his finger to his lips in a ‘shhh’ gesture, and sungyeol understands and leans his head back against myungsoo’s, who was dozing peacefully at his side. sunggyu smiles at the two before making his way to woohyun’s room, it’s dark inside and sunggyu has to feel around before he figures where the bed is. when he finds it, he smiles and his eyes slowly adjust to the darkness of the room.

woohyun is curled up on his side, and there’s a bottle of nyquil on the table near him. he heard about the trip to the hospital and it nearly caused sunggyu to rush off stage and run his way to the ward but his manager held him back and told him that woohyun would be okay. he’s happy to see the other in person, resting and well. he reaches out to brush back the others fringe and he leans down to press a chaste kiss upon his forehead.

leaning away, sunggyu goes to change into a pair of sweats and a tshirt, and he crawls into bed with the other. he wraps himself around woohyun, the other vocal basically drugged to sleep. he has to remind himself to thank dongwoo; this was surely the second eldests doing after all. woohyun would have never taken the medicine on his own free will.

sunggyu closes his eyes and takes in the others warmth, after so long apart and only a few calls and texts between the two, he finally feels relaxed. sleep comes to him easy.

the next morning, sunggyu feels something brush against his cheek, and he blinks his eyes awake. woohyun is staring at him with this look that screams love and affection and sunggyu melts slightly, sunggyu leans into the touch and he hears woohyun breath out. “i dreamt about you last night,” he whispered. sunggyu can hear the small strain in his voice and he raises his hand to rest over the one on his cheek. he smiles softly and turns his head to kiss woohyun’s palm.

“i’m here now.”

he sees woohyun slowly stretch his lips into a smile and he leans forward to finally kiss the other, kiss that smile he’s missed so much. woohyun leans into the kiss and his fingers move to sunggyu’s hair, tilting his head slightly. sunggyu closes his eyes and parts his lips; his tongue reaching out to meet woohyun’s in the middle. the kiss is slow, comforting -- and yet at the same time it had a bit of urgency to it, desperation. as though the both of them were so in need of this, this verification that they were finally together.

the knock to the door breaks their kiss, and sunggyu laughs and buries his face into woohyun’s neck. he hears sungyeol yell about them needing to stop cuddling and get dressed and sunggyu breaths in woohyun’s scent.

he’s home.