Sighing is frowned upon on the rooftop shed. Possibly even more than excessive sweating and loud singing. You see, the dance club has long accepted that Soonyoung sweats enough for all four, now five, of them. The rock band loves the fact that Seokmin overpowers their non-existent musical talents. It works out for some people, at least.

Mingyu sighing works out for no one. He drops his drum sticks even more and randomly hits the drums so loudly that even Seokmin can’t screech over it. Which mean he sings louder and Soonyoung gets more irritated. Or would have been. Honestly, he’s just more concerned about what made the regularly cheery Mingyu so glum.

The whole thing is a negative spiral. His sighing makes Wonwoo stressed so he plays the guitar more wrongly than he normally does. Which is actually an achievement in itself. Jeonghan gets affected by the awfully bad playing and misses the chord change, so Seokmin sings something completely different. The contrast is terrible. And noisy. So the dance club can’t practice in peace. Normally Soonyoung would be mad, but Mingyu looked so glum that he can’t bring himself to be angry. He’d rather his hair and tell him everything would be okay and the world is a beautiful place with rainbows and unicorns where wishes come true.

He’s thankful that they’ve already gone over the complete festival performance before. The atmosphere in the room is so heavy no one can learn or practice properly at all.

“Okay, let’s take a break. My throat is super dry.”

Seokmin lets go of the pencil case he uses as a microphone (how uncool of him) and sits on the floor. The others follow suit, with Wonwoo going right up to Mingyu and asking whether he’s alright.

“I’m fine. Really tired.”

Then he stands up and moves to the other side. Near The Line.

Crap. Kim Mingyu just ignored Jeon Wonwoo.

The world is coming to an end, ladies and gentleman.

Jeonghan raised his nicely manicured brow really high at the dance club. Do something.  Or more accurately, get Wonwoo out of the room while we confront Mingyu.

“Chan, I’ll give you five bucks if you take Wonwoo out for a long walk.”

He blinks adorably, almost looking as if he’ll listen unquestioningly to Vernon. Chan turns to the other members. Jun and Minghao are doing the intense nodding thing. Soonyoung joins in.

“Five bucks and I get to stand in front at 1 minute 41 seconds.”

Damn. Barely a month in and he’s already picked up an attitude. Soonyoung is pretty proud. 

“Call. Just get him out. Twenty minutes or no deal.”

Ah. Vernon is still more cunning. There’s no way Wonwoo would stay separated from Mingyu for fifteen minutes in school. Experience trumps after all. Well, whatever. The innocent act Chan put on got Wonwoo out there pretty quick. Something about having lost something on his way to the shed.

“Spill.”

The dance club and rock band gather really close to The Line.

“What?”

“What happened between you and Wonwoo? You’re sighing like you’re getting paid for it. We can try and help.”

Mingyu sighs really heavily, like he’s Prometheus and carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. No kidding, Soonyoung is scared.

“Nothing.”

“Oh god, let’s not act like angsty teen girls! That’s Wonwoo’s role!”

“It really isn’t anything.”

He tries to stand up. And fails spectuclarly. Jeonghan and Seokmin pin him down from the right side of the room and Junhui and Minghao grab him from the back.

“You wouldn’t know anything about it.”

His eyes have the wet look and oh god is Kim Mingyu going to cry because that’s just freaky. Kim Mingyu who banged his head against the wall loud enough for there to be a loud thud with blood from his head and still laugh it off get dangerously close to crying. (Mingyu is a beast. Soonyoung acknowledges it.)

"Especially you two. And you. And you."

First he pushes Junhui and Minghao away. Then Vernon. Then Jeonghan.

"You guys are okay. You might understand my pain."

Soonyoung's lips turn up in a kittenish manner. But Seokmin beats him to the punch line.

"This is totally about Wonwoo isn't it."

Mingyu sighs heavily.

"Just man up and confess he obviously likes you! You like him, he likes you, perfect!"

Even Minghao has gotten frustrated with Mingyu. And he was the king of denial about his and Junhui's relationship. It looks like someone’s upped the ante.

"Well I do like him-"

The door bursts open with a Chan trying fruitlessly to hold the taller Wonwoo back. His smile crumples and he walks in slowly. Soonyoung holds his breath.

"Is that the reason why you've been so silent? You like somebody and didn't want to tell me?"

He says this so softly, pronouncing every word clearly. Over the words Soonyoung can hear the sound of Wonwoo's heart breaking. He opens his mouth, wanting to interfere, to stop them from accidentally hurting each other.

"Shh."

 From over The Line Seokmin pulls a hand over his mouth. Leaning down the speak straight into his ear, he continues slowly, blending straight into the silence.

"They need this."

For some reason Soonyoung implicitly buys his words. Maybe it's because Mingyu and Wonwoo always say Seokmin is nice to them. But he closes his mouth and leans back.

"Yeah."

Mingyu is a witty guy. He speaks fast, he's bright. He sometimes make bad jokes at inappropriate times like any silly teen boy.  But in front of Wonwoo he's so silent, so serious.

"And you didn't think it was important to tell me?"

"Yeah."

Wonwoo backs out so hard Chan looses the death grip he had on his shirt. Turns around, slams the door and leaves. The echoes of the metal steps are so loud they can hear it from their room.

There's a lot of things Soonyoung wants to say. Like "What are you doing? Chase after him, you fool!" and "Just tell him that you like him!" But the hand over his mouth simply presses closer to his lips, and he falls silent.

Soonyoung holds his breath.

Mingyu just stands there.

Everybody must be collectively holding their breaths, because from downstairs they can hear a choked up cry. Damn, his allegation that you could hear Seokmin from the bottom floor was definitely right. The walls are so thin.

He runs. Pulls the door open, letting it slam against the doorframe with a loud bang. Clatters down the stairs.

The room stops holding their breath simultaneously. They burst through the door, craning their necks from stairs up trying to look at Mingyu and Wonwoo. It's pathetic. Kwon Soonyoung is patently aware of how pathetic it is. Pressed against Seokmin and Chan while trying to spy. Terrible. They all are.

"Wonwoo, hey-"

"Don't talk to me."

Wonwoo sounds so hurt, pushing him away. Mingyu is equally hurt and keeps clinging on.

"Wonwoo I'm sorry-"

"You're not sorry." He screams over his tears. "Is it that difficult to share things with me? I asked you so many times! I tried so hard and you just-"

His anger almost disappears as quickly as it started. Vanishes the moment he looks up and sees Mingyu's face, hurt and pain etched so deeply in it.

"You just keep pushing me away and I don't know what to do."

Mingyu moves closer. Wonwoo moves further.

"You're right. I'm not sorry."

He approaches suddenly, holding Wonwoo's wet hands and trying to stop him from crying.

"It's too difficult for me. I want to tell you how much I like you but I'm scared. I'm so scared you don't like me back. I like you so much."

Wonwoo looks up from under his tears. Looks straight into Mingyu's eyes that are dead serious because as everyone else knows, he is.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Wonwoo surges forward. Hugs Mingyu while beating him up at the same time.

"Idiot. Idiot. Idiot. You should have just said so earlier. I like you so much too. I was so worried for you, you know? I like you."

The smiles on their faces are motherly for a long while. Then Seokmin gets that glint in his eye. It's contagious. Everyone gets it, even Chan.

Soonyoung would be lying to say he does not want to break up that soppy, melodramatic scene.

"Awww! So cute, now kiss!"

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

Seokmin is the devil. A very playful and cheeky one, but a devil nonetheless. Not like he or the rock band or the dance club is any better. They're chanting in perfect harmony.

Mingyu leans in. Wonwoo smiles and they kiss.

Vernon whoops. Chan covers his eyes with his hands but peeks through the gaps in his fingers. Junhui and Minghao are holding hands and have their fingers all intertwined. Probably reminded of their very own equally squeamish confession. Jeonghan has his eyes all soft and snappy and he’s texting someone. Probably that Literature Club boyfriend of his. What’s his name again? Jizu? Jisu? Lord Jisus? He can’t tell the difference, that boy is very nondescript for how outstanding Jeonghan is.

He and Seokmin? Their phone camera shutters are operating at rapid speed as they keep taking photos. Blackmail material is important to obtain! Just in case they keep denying they aren’t disgusting together. Soonyoung’s toes are curling just thinking of how terrible they would be together. They’re already super touchy, he’s already cringing thinking it’s going to get worse.

As much as he’d like to continue humiliating Wonwoo and Mingyu for their terrible confessions (They buy yummy food that Soonyoung wants to eat but they don’t share. Meanies.) But intruding anymore isn’t really nice. There are plenty of other opportunities to bully those two.

“You know, that was thirteen minutes. I kept the time.”

Chan’s eyes go wide.  Right, Vernon was too cunning. He flops to the floor tiredly, pouting away.

“No way! I tried so hard too!”

“Might be better. The festival is tomorrow, it’ll be difficult to change the positions this late. They’ll be more later this year.” 

He ruffles Chan’s hair. Cute kid.

“Jeonghan make sure you pack the equipment up and you can go.”

“We aren’t practicing? But the deal- ”

“Don’t worry. We’ll still beat the dance club even without practicing today. Go off and make out with that boyfriend of yours in the Literature clubroom surrounded by dusty old books or something.”

“He has a name okay?”

“What’s it? Jisu? Jeffery? Jisus? God, I wouldn’t know.” 

“Joshua!”

Oh, right. Joshua.

Well, he’s not the only one who thinks Joshua is pretty unmemorable. 

a/n: thank you for reading/suscribing/commenting/upvoting everyone :>> really appreciate it!!