he’s been stood up several times, he can('t) handle this. 

there’s no texts, no missed calls and no notifications whatsoever from myungsoo. there’s one text from sungyeol that tells him to enjoy the date. he tucks his phone back into his pocket, making sure to have the vibrations on in case he would get something. 

minutes pass and he doesn’t get anything. he’s been officially forgotten, ignored, left. it’s obvious by now. it had taken him forever to grow courage and ask him out. it had taken so long and yet he’s there alone. he knew it wasn’t worth it from the moment he got a simple reply from myungsoo. it was so nonchalant and so easy going that woohyun got a bit worried. 

he wonders if he’s the only sad one in the park. people who pass by the fountain look happy, joyful, excited and he sits there with a heavy heart and a lump in his throat.  

he takes out his phone and sends a reply to sungyeol. it takes another forever to type it out, it’s as if he doesn’t want to admit it to himself that yet again, his date doesn’t show up. 

[ txt; woohyun ➝  sungyeol ] I got stood up. 

[ txt; sungyeol ➝ woohyun ] forreal? how many times has it been now? 

[ txt; woohyun ➝ sungyeol ] really…? 

[ txt; sungyeol ➝ woohyun ] sorry, bad timing :/ 

woohyun can’t bring himself to reply right away, because he asks himself the same question. how many times has it been?  he wants to go back to campus, bury himself in essay work and never leave again. he swallows thickly and manages to type up a reply to sungyeol. 

[ txt; woohyun ➝ sungyeol ] it’s probably been about 4 times now btw. 

[ txt; sungyeol ➝ woohyun ] i’m sorry, champ. next time? 

woohyun doesn’t want a next time. he wants to give up on dating because it never goes his way. he wants to forget the blushing, stuttering mess he was in front of myungsoo when he finally got to speak to him alone, when he finally got to ask him out. he wants to forget the way his heart pounded against his chest. 

[ txt; woohyun ➝ sungyeol ] i give up, i should just focus on finishing my essay.  

[ txt ; sungyeol ➝ woohyun ] i thought you were done with it? what is there to even write about in aerospace engineering… >> 

[ txt ; woohyun ➝ sungyeol ] i couldn’t finish because i was too excited about this… also, there’s a lot.   

woohyun doesn’t give anymore replies, he heaves a sigh as he gets up from the bench he was occupying and he makes his way towards the bus stop he stepped off at. the last reply from sungyeol is him saying it’ll go better next time. woohyun can’t bring himself to believe him. it’s hard, to be consistently be stood up on first dates. he can only blame it on himself. he must be doing something wrong, whose else fault can it be? 

on the bus he idly scrolls through sns, keeping himself occupied while the people around him chat mindlessly. woohyun freezes, seeing one specific post and it’s not what he needs to see. suji sharing a photo of her and myungsoo, a caption about them spending time together. woohyun presses his lips into a thin line and he wishes he hadn’t seen it.  

”you look like you just saw the worse thing,” he hears and woohyun lifts his head from the screen, eyeing the stranger. he wants to ignore them but they’ve already made eye contact and woohyun can only bring himself to look away, lower his gaze. 

”i’m sorry, whatever it is,” they continue and woohyun’s unable to say anything. he feels the same lump in his throat as he did before and he gives a slight nod, acknowledging their words.

”i hope it smoothes over” they say and woohyun knows he should say his name in return, but the lump blocks his words and he only gives a slight bow of his head to the stranger. 

”that bad, huh,” woohyun hears and he bites down on his lower lip. he wants to cry, it’s embarrassing to be found like this, to be this transparent. he looks at them silently before he brings himself to nod. 

it’s that bad.