Chapter 6

Notidol!WOOHYUN

Hoya stays silent on the floor for a long time, and Woohyun isn’t sure what else to say, so he keeps quiet. It’s only when his stomach rumbles does Woohyun remember that they had been meaning to order lunch before this happened. Hoya looks up at the sound, and he manages a small smile.

“Let’s call for delivery.”

Lunch consists of Woohyun trying to keep Hoya distracted from the heavy topic he brought up earlier by asking him about INFINITE. He’s learning more than he wants to know about idols and more specifically about the seven members of INFINITE, but Woohyun thinks it settles Hoya into a more comfortable mood, which was the main point of the conversation anyway. He almost forgets their talk by the fridge earlier until they’re clearing up the empty bowls of jjanjangmyeon and jjampong. Hoya’s dumping the trash into the bin and Woohyun’s wiping the table when Hoya suddenly says, “I think I should tell him.”

It takes Woohyun a while to gather that Hoya’s talking about telling the other Woohyun that he likes (loves?) him.

“Are you sure?” Woohyun asks, looking up from cleaning the table to observe the guy. Hoya’s posture is slightly slumped unlike his earlier more confident stance, but his eyes are determined when he eventually answers.

“Yeah.”

The first thing Hoya does is call the other Woohyun and asks if he’ll be back for dinner. It seems to be the case, because once he hangs up, Hoya starts opening the fridge and looking through the cupboards.

“What are you doing?” Woohyun asks.

“Finding things I can use to cook,” is Hoya’s reply.

Woohyun looks at him search, and he doesn’t even have to think before he asks, “Do you need my help?”

They spend most of the afternoon cooking, although Hoya has to run out to the supermarket to get some ingredients he couldn’t find in idol Woohyun’s house. Woohyun had wanted to go as well, help him choose the items or carry the bags, but then he remembered that he’s not supposed to go out of the house.

“It’ll be hard to explain why you’re seen around here when Woohyun’s filming something at the TV station,” Hoya had said, and Woohyun pouted (earning him a finger flick on the forehead from Hoya) but he stayed in the apartment.

Later after Hoya returns, they start cooking. Mostly Woohyun helps by preparing and chopping the ingredients, because he can tell Hoya wants to be the one to cook the dinner. He’s cutting radish into large chunks for the soup when he decides to ask, “So, are you going to confess to him after you two eat the dinner that you cook?” Woohyun doesn’t even have to ask to know that he shouldn’t be there at dinner later. (Maybe he should sneak out before idol Woohyun comes back.)

“Yeah,” Hoya replies without looking up, and Woohyun catches a hint of hesitation in the answer as well as a slight embarrassment if the redness in his ears is anything to go by. He doesn’t tease the guy though, because he knows this is probably a big step (risk) Hoya is taking. All he does is give him a pat on the shoulder.

“Don’t think too much, I’m sure things will work out somehow.”

It’s probably just empty words to Hoya, Woohyun thinks, but maybe it needs to be said anyway.

Woohyun is about to sneak out before idol Woohyun returns, but Hoya stops him.

“Can you like… be here for moral support?”

“…You want me to be here when you confess to him?” Woohyun asks somewhat incredulously, and Hoya frowns at him.

“No, I mean. Like. Can you, I don’t know, stay in one of the rooms or something? Make sure I don’t chicken out of this. So if I don’t say anything, you can come out and knock some sense into my head… you know, that sort of thing.”

It sounds like the worst thing he can do, and Woohyun doesn’t really want to be here when the dinner is for just the two of them, but he doesn’t get to protest because just then, the beeps of someone keying in the passcode to the apartment sounds through the house.

“He’s back, quick, hide,” Hoya whispers, pushing Woohyun into the nearest room, which happens to be idol Woohyun’s bedroom. The door closes on him from the outside, and the next thing Woohyun hears is idol Woohyun’s voice.

“Hey, so what’s the occasion? I smell food. Wait, that looks home-cooked… Did you cook dinner? Wow –”

He feels like a creep listening to their conversation, so Woohyun quickly moves to the further end of the room, trying to distract himself by opening up idol Woohyun’s drawers. Maybe he can find some earphones and a music player to tune them out. He’s flipping through notebooks and stationery when he finds a bunch of photocards. Or more specifically, a bunch of Hoya photocards, which Woohyun presumes are from INFINITE albums (Sunggyu arranges all his idol photocards in a clear plastic folder, so Woohyun has seen enough to guess that these are the same kind). He puts them back into the drawer after he looks through all of them, but can’t help smiling a little.

Aish, this isn’t your business, Woohyun, don’t read too much into it, he chides himself as he closes the drawer, continuing his search for earphones (or even just ear plugs). He doesn’t find any though, not even after looking through the bookshelf and keyboard area, so Woohyun gives up and sits on the chair after a while. Laying his head on the table, Woohyun wonders how Hoya’s conversation (confession) is going. He perks up his ears to listen to the conversation outside, and it’s only then does he realize that it’s been quiet outside for a while. There’re no voices coming from across the door.

…are they still talking? What happened?

He doesn’t remember hearing anything loud or significant while searching idol Woohyun’s room earlier, so he doesn’t think anything bad could have happened, but Woohyun thinks he should probably take a look anyway. Maybe Hoya had indeed chickened out of confessing because wouldn’t the confession cause a bit of a reaction or ruc