Woohyun has loved Sungyeol since he was 20.

He knows that it’s a foolish concept, love. To love, one has to willingly put one’s own heart and soul into the other party’s hands. One has to trust wholeheartedly, that the other party won’t destroy the bits of his soul that he has entrusted the other party with. It’s something that he - he with huge pride - usually would not do. He just can’t afford to take the risk.

But Sungyeol is an entirely different story. Sungyeol is....well, Sungyeol. When Sungyeol smiles at him, it’s like his whole world has lit up, and he can literally feel his heart racing just that little bit faster. Sungyeol’s smile is so earnest, so real, that he can’t help but just fall in love with it. When Sungyeol gets that mischievous look in his eyes as he’s about to play a prank on someone, Woohyun finds it plain adorable. When Sungyeol gets excited about something (they’re usually nothing to be excited about, by the way), Woohyun can’t help but feel a similar excitement surge through him. It’s just the vibes that Sungyeol gives off.

Woohyun can give a never ending list of reasons as to why he loves Sungyeol. Heck, even though Sungyeol can be terribly short tempered at times, Woohyun loves that side of him too. Nobody’s perfect, after all. It just makes him all the more human.

But Woohyun keeps quiet about his crush for one year. They’re different majors after all - Sungyeol is a fashion major who happened to take a music course to gain extra credits, while Woohyun is simply a music major. Sungyeol is loud and sociable, which is why he’s also extremely popular. Woohyun- well Woohyun is loud, too, but only around friends. Which is why Woohyun mainly keeps to the same small circle of friends. It’s curious how they’re so similar, yet so different.

During a lunch break with his best friends, the idea comes to him.

Sungyeol is sitting at the other end of the canteen and Woohyun is taking this chance to whisper excitedly the latest gossip about Sungyeol.

‘They say that he saw his neighbour’s dog stuck in a tree and he voluntarily climbed up to help get the dog down! God, isn’t he just so kind?’ Woohyun sighs dreamily.

One of his best friends, Hoya, just snorts.

‘Let’s be honest,’ Hoya munches on his sandwich, chewing thoughtfully. ‘That story sounds totally made up. How the hell does a dog get up there in the first place? I mean, if you said cat it would have made more sense...’

Sungjong, Woohyun’s other best friend, chokes on his pasta, caught between laughing and swallowing his food. Woohyun just glares at Hoya. Seemingly intimidated, Hoya raises his hands up mockingly.

‘I’m just saying!’ He attempts to defend himself. ‘In any case, i don’t see him the way you do. He just looks like a monkey to me. A really, really tall monkey. Who now apparently climbs trees. So there, the description fits, right?’

‘Why you-’

‘Hey,’ Sungjong cuts Woohyun off casually. ‘You’ve been pining over him for a year already. We’ve had to put up with this schoolgirl crush talk for a year, good god. Can’t you just....man up and ask him out?’

The following silence at the table is, ironically, rather loud. And depressing.

‘From what I’ve heard,’ Hoya says, with a more serious tone this time. ‘He’s gay too. And he’s not attached. There’s no harm trying.’ He catches the hesitant look in Woohyun’s eyes. ‘Of course, if you’re unsure about it, I guess you can wait for a while more? Maybe you’ll meet another guy you like.’ Hoya understands woohyun far too well. They’ve been best friends since high school, and Hoya knows that Woohyun has far too much pride to ask someone out.

It turns out though, that maybe Hoya doesn’t know Woohyun that well after all.

‘No. I’ll do it. I’ll ask him out. Tomorrow. Sungjong- you’re friends with Sunggyu right? The fashion major,’ Woohyun says, a determined glint in his eyes. ‘Could you ask him to get Sungyeol to meet me at the basketball court tomorrow at 5?’

This time, Hoya is the one choking on his food. Sungjong just gapes at Woohyun, open-mouthed. He then registers that he’s been asked for a favour, and nods slowly in disbelief.

Woohyun knows that it’s a first, that he’s willing to put down his pride to this extent. But he likes Sungyeol so much that he thinks he’s able to go this far, at least. The fear of rejection is there, of course, but the thrill of possibly, just possibly, becoming Sungyeol’s boyfriend outweighs it. In the university dorm, he rehearses his lines again and again - to the point where his roommate, Kibum, yells at him to either get out and confess, or shut up and let him sleep in peace. He takes the latter option, deciding to sleep as well so that he’ll look reasonably refreshed the next morning. Somehow, he can’t sleep though. He tosses and turns in his bed, trying all sorts of methods. Yet he only drifts off into a restless sleep near dawn, around three hours before classes start.

‘You look terrible,’ Hoya mutters when they meet for their composition tutorial. ‘Shouldn’t you be trying to give off a decent first impression to your crush when you confess?’

‘It’s not a first impression, he was in my course for a while, remember?’ Woohyun growls back, head laid flat against the desk. ‘And i tried, okay. Like. I slathered lots of bb cream on my face and over my eyebags. Is it still that bad?’

Hoya’s sigh is enough of an answer for him.

The rest of the day passes by in a daze. Woohyun barely pays attention in his lectures and tutorials, either dozing off during class or stressing out about the meeting later. 

‘You’ll do fine,’ Sungjong murmurs as Woohyun stabs at a sausage halfheartedly during lunch. ‘At least Sunggyu didn’t ask who you were when i asked him for the favour?’

That does little to comfort Woohyun, unfortunately. At 4 pm, he’s pacing up and down his dormitory, nervous beyond belief. At 5.05 pm, he’s making his way down to the basketball court slowly, clammy hands rubbing against each other out of worry. He doesn’t want to appear too eager, yet at the same time, he doesn’t want to be too late.

To his surprise, though, things go smoothly. Sungyeol is already there when he arrives, casually sitting on the floor reading a book, his legs stretched out. When Woohyun approaches him, he looks up from his book and nods at him in acknowledgement, lazily patting the empty space beside him.

Woohyun sits down, and he can’t hold it in anymore - he just can’t. He blurts out the words in a hurry, a hopeful look in his eyes. Please, he thinks. Please, you have no idea---

‘Okay,’ Sungyeol says calmly. ‘So...boyfriends now?’

When Sungyeol says the word ‘boyfriends’, Woohyun squeals inwardly. So what if his friends had jabbed at him yesterday? So what if he had sacrificed his pride to confess? He’s officially boyfriends with Sungyeol. Sungyeol, the boy he’s been in love with quietly over a year.

It doesn’t even strike him how Sungyeol seems so casual about it. that Sungyeol doesn’t even appear excited about being his boyfriend. That maybe, just maybe, he’s the only one feeling the spark in their relationship.

He’s just too far in love to see it.

--

a/n: happy gyu day! inspired by his hole-y shirt, i put him as a fashion major here. also, it's T-minus 19 minutes to (hopefully) the next teaser being released for woohyun's solo, i am unbelievably excited.

edit, 010516: i decided that it wasn't very nice to read stories without proper capital letters, haha. also the phrasing was a bit weird here and there. hopefully i'll have the second (and last) part up by 9/5! (a very special day. ie. the day that woohyun releases his solo!! /showers confetti/)