The second the thunder roared against the window Miyeon jumped up from the bed and ran out of the room she shared with her older brother. She wasn't running away from the echoing loud sounds. In fact she had once liked watching storms and had asked her teacher if they could talk about thunder, and how they happened, in class, but since her brother Yeongmin had read this particular book she dreaded the days of bad weather and thunder. It was a book he had gotten from a thrift shop that basically said: Whenever a storm would occur it meant that the person who is with you did something wrong and you and said person would have to get punished for this from the gods of weather. In order to not get punished with Miyeon together, Yeongmin would always lock her in the storeroom of their basement, turn of the lights and only get back to her when the storm was gone. In his words he would prevent to get punished for something he didn't do. Miyeon always tried explaining to him that she wasn't aware of having done anything wrong, but they were both just young children not knowing any better.
Seven year old Miyeon was too slow for her three years older brother as he got her while she was trying to run upstairs. Sometimes she was lucky enough that Minsoo was staying over who was taller and stronger than Yeongmin, always defending her from him. Today she was unlucky since Minsoo had caught the flu.
She heard her father yell for Yeongmin to go and play with her since they always thought she was running around in fear of the thunder and her brother was sly enough to yell back what they wanted to hear.
Even crying never changed his mind as he pushed her into the storeroom filled with different utensils they didn't need upstairs currently. The only thing he did was give her a small hug so she would cry a little less, but the door fell shut after some time anyway, telling her to think about her actions more carefully while walking upstairs, turning of the light and shutting the door to the basement.
On some days Miyeon was lucky enough and the storm died down quickly. On other days it lasted for hours of hours and everything she could do was sit down, pull her knees up to her chest and hug them with her arms to give her something she could hold onto.
Whenever Yeongmin let her out he would ask her if she would make another storm occur ever again which she always denied.
Yeongmin believed in this around three to four years and one day even started hitting her as she - in his opinion - kept on provoking these storms he, in contrary, he was scared of. Until to Miyeon's luck their parents finally caught him.
Wooshin was at loss of words. He had always wished to have siblings, especially younger ones to take care of. To hear that someone else was blessed to have a younger sibling and treated them like this made his stomach twist. Kids were so damn open to influence and believed everything you'd say.
"Now I understand why you're so extremely scared of it.", Wooshin said and met eyes with her for a few seconds before looking away as she still looked very troubled about it and he almost felt guilty for making her think about it.
"It's fine. I'm just confused that after almost ten years it still stuck with me. Whenever I hear thunder, there is this instinct inside of me that tells me to go run and hide, but there is nobody to go get me and lock me up in a storeroom anymore.", Miyeon explained now a little more relaxed as her shoulders looked less tense and she grabbed her pen again. She luckily seemed to be one of those people that felt better after talking about what was bothering. Wooshin was not.
"Things that happen to us in a very young age usually stay with us the longest since it's the time where our character and our special traits develop.", he explained and looked at her notes, correcting a short mistake.
"You sound like you're talking out of experience?", she carefully suggested while erasing a number and replacing it correctly. Wooshin nodded, unsure if he could open up to her like she did to him, but the way she tiled her head at him made it impossible to not at least tell her a little bit about himself.
"My parents raised me to show as few emotions as possible because they thought it would be better for my further career and I would get less hurt.", Wooshin explained with a sad smile. He actually didn't like this side of him, but it was so hard accept all of his emotions and let them show. "Usually people compliment me on it and tell me how nice it would be to be able to not show anyone your deepest feelings, just being a closed up book yet I hate it and I can hardly turn it off.", Wooshin confessed to anyone else next to Xiao for the first time. For a few seconds he kept on looking at his hands laying in his lap. Why did he say that just now? This was something of the most personal things about him ever.
"But you seem to have someone you can be an open book to.", Miyeon drew out her thoughts as he looked back at her. Wooshin quickly nodded, but like a scared cat he quickly pulled his tail back into a secure spot so she wouldn't be able to touch him any further.
"Let's get back to number six.", Wooshin said almost in a demanding manner as he sat down next to her. Miyeon suppressed a sigh and gave in. Whenever she felt like she could see underneath his surface and suddenly grasp something, he pulled back even further and ran away. She wanted to know what's behind all of this mask, but she knew that it was too soon. Maybe if their friendship would deepen further she would be able to take said mask off of his face and reveal the truth.

It had gotten pretty late already as Miyeon stretched herself after having finished the last task of the week's recap. The food Wooshin had gotten for them later was already finished a long time ago and multiple Pepsi bottles had been killed to stay awake further.
Slowly due to the tiredness kicking into her limps despite the caffeine Miyeon packed her books into her bag rather slowly and got up, looking outside of the window above Wooshin's desk. It was pitch-black outside, the wind howling and the rain from the storm which had died down still pinching against the glass. She dreaded to go outside, but they both needed a lot of sleep.
Wooshin didn't want her to go out and walk home through this weather, but he was way too tired to drive her. The other option would be to let her stay at his place yet he wasn't sure if suggesting that would make her uncomfortable, especially since they were a boy and girl. Was it too early for this in their friendship? Wouldn't it be just messing more with his feelings?
"It's already past midnight", Wooshin mumbled as he got up himself, dragging out the last word further than needed while he was thinking about what to say next, but he didn't want to hurt their friendship with this and make them feel awkward Luckily Miyeon caught up on him quickly, "You want me to stay over?", she asked in a rushed tone.
Wooshin blinked at her multiple times. Was it that she had thought about it too or where his actions too obvious? Did something give him away?
"I know how worried you can get when it is about friends and it's pretty late to walk out alone, especially as a girl.", she quickly explained, now being the one to blush for a change. Wooshin noticed the rosy cheeks even as she turned her head over to the window unnecessarily. He thought it was cute yet he wondered why she would be blushing in the first place. It was just him.
"I mean if you wouldn't mind", Wooshin started off and scratched the back of his neck nervously, "I have a mat I could grab and sleep on so you can sleep in my bed."
Miyeon quickly shook her head at him, "No- I mean, yes! I don't mind, but you're hurt and I don't want you to sleep on the ground. I can sleep on the ground. It's fine as long as I get a blanket and something to wear to sleep.", she rambled and crossed her arms in front of her chest. According to the look on her face it was no use to make her change her mind, but Wooshin dared to try just for the fun and to see her cute reaction, "You won't be sleeping on the ground."
Now Miyeon rolled her eyes at him, "Fine. Then I'll go and walk home.", she threatened with a slight grin and grabbed her bag again. A small smile spread onto his face. She knew how to get what she wanted. He liked that.
"Fine.", Wooshin gave in willingly and she instantly dropped her bag onto the ground while grinning at him through tired eyes; like a cute devil that had won another game of life.

The small lamp next to Wooshin's bed projected the time in small red digits onto the ceiling and already read 3:54AM. To say that he was tired was an understatement, but he couldn't fall asleep with too many things going on inside of his head and to top all of that Miyeon was moving so much in her sleep on the mat a meter away from his bed that he could constantly hear her toss and turn the blanket. Curious of her actions he got up and walked over to her, sitting down on the cold laminated floor right next to the mat while the clouds had cleared up so that the moon could give him some help to make out her features. She looked distressed and somehow his heart clenched at the way she held the blanket in her hands, how her lips were pressed together into a thin line and how she turned around to one side just to kick something invisible with her leg and turn around to face him again.
Knowing that she was in a state of deep sleep since it seemed like she was dreaming he had enough courage to her bangs out of her face and her hair carefully with slow and steady motions. Luckily he was used to someone sleeping in his room with nightmares since Xiao slept at his place or him at Xiao's for 90% of their lifetime and he knew how to calm him down perfectly. He treated Miyeon the way he treated Xiao when he was having a nightmare in hopes that it would calm her down, too.
At first it took it's time. her hair only did a slight change. At least she wasn't turning and kicking whatever it was anymore, but her breathing was still uneven and her eyebrows furrowed together. She was calmer, but not completely calm. It wasn't enough for Wooshin so he had to take a step further which even made him shy and his cheeks heat up despite her sleeping. The risk of her waking up though was way higher with this. It was something that Xiao loved a lot.
As gentle as possible Wooshin placed his hand onto her cheek and started it with his thumb. For the first few seconds he was holding his breath as he was watching her carefully, almost praying for her not to wake up from the touch. To his luck the only change that happened was that she was slowly calming down, her facial expression relaxing with every second that passed.
After around ten minutes of doing so Wooshin was becoming tired of the constant motion that he laid down next to her which also made it easier to her cheek. Looking up at the clock he told himself to keep on doing this until 4AM and then he would go back into his bed to catch some sleep for himself. She was already perfectly calm, but he wanted to make sure that it wouldn't change within a few minutes. Unfortunately the constant movement of his hand compared with her steady breathing next to him lulled him into sleep without him knowing about it. Without any will power he drifted off into a deep sleep.
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Both due to the long wait and since chepter 14 and 15 fit together I decided to double update today. To me you/Miyeon sounded a little shallow from time to time with zero backstory, so I decided to give you some. Fun fact: This happened to one of my friends in elementary school. She was very scared of thunder and somewhere in third or fourth grade she confessed to me on a sleep over in school during a storm. It was very crazy and now after all these years where I've even finished school it still stuck with me so I thought Why not?
I know OC works aren't appreciated and loved that much, but at the end of the day this story is a lot about you/Miyeon and Wooshin T T I have a lot planned for them, but I'm also going to satisfy those people who ship different things in here. I've planned sooo much for the ships in Up10tion. Just wait and see! This fic is going to be long. We're still at the beginning/opening phase where I'm introducing the motives, the background of the characters and everything. I'm scared that those few people who are reading this are unsatisifed now, because it's no Up10tion ship, but I hope you can understand T T Yet I'll make sure to satisfy everyone!
Thank you for reading this mess.