He sleeps for fifteen hours straight and spends the next day in a hazy daze. He gets about fifty calls and a hundred texts from his manager, asking why he’s not at work. He doesn’t respond to any of them, instead choosing to drown himself in soju.

Hyesung is a terrible drinker, the worst in Shinhwa, but he chugs the alcohol like it’s water. He’s blackout-drunk after only half the bottle (it’s because he wants to get drunk) and spends half the day looking at pictures of Shinhwa and crying.

If forever exists, can it last forever?

At some point during his booze haze, Minwoo forces his way in, snatches the green bottles away, and slaps Hyesung right in the face. It almost sobers him up, but then another wave of alcohol makes its way to his brain, and Hyesung collapses into drunken giggles.

When he manages to wipe the tears out of his eyes, Minwoo is standing over him with a glass of water, forcing it into his hand. “Drink this,” his friend says roughly. “Damn it all, why did you drink so much? You’re going to have a splitting hangover tomorrow.”

Hyesung tries, he really does, but he ends up spilling most of the water onto himself. He’s already soaked with alcohol, though, so a bit of water doesn’t really make a difference. Minwoo groans loudly and drags Hyesung to the bathroom.

The last thing Hyesung remembers is Minwoo dumping an entire bucket of water on him, and then, suddenly, he’s lying on his bed, . His head hurts like a jackhammer going through his brain, and there’s sunshine streaming in from the window, illuminating the dancing dust particles that fall softly onto Minwoo’s hair--

Wait. Minwoo?

Hyesung blinks hard, rubs his eyes in disbelief, and looks again. Yep, that is Lee Minwoo slumped against his bed, snoring away like a baby. A very loud baby.

He’s going to have a really stiff neck, Hyesung thinks as he (very carefully) sits up to shake his friend awake. “Hey,” he whispers, voice croaky. The vibration sends another throb of pain to his brain. “Why’d you stay?”

Slowly and with an audible crack, Minwoo straightens up, peering at Hyesung through bleary eyes. “I’m too good of a friend,” he mumbles, stretching. Hyesung can’t deny that; he doesn’t even remember how drunk he was last night, and that is never a good sign.

“Just…” Suddenly, a wave of nausea overcomes him, and he takes a deep breath. Good ol’ hangovers. “How drunk was I?”

At the mention of last night, Minwoo suddenly perks up like a puppy, and Hyesung has a sinking feeling that he probably babbled.

“Well…” The evil look on Minwoo’s face makes Hyesung want to puke all over him. “You told me just how much you loved Andy, just how sad your fight made you, and just exactly what happened--”

Hyesung lunges forward, nearly pukes, but manages to slap his hands across Minwoo’s mouth. “ing hell,” he growls as a screen of black passes across his eyes. His stomach lurches, and Hyesung dry-heaves. Minwoo scrambles away as Hyesung collapses, retching over the edge of the bed.

“You are an actual idiot.” Something cold touches Hyesung’s hand, and he instinctively wraps his fingers around it. The glass of ice water helps ground him, and Hyesung groans pitifully. “Jung Pilkyo, you are an actual idiot.”

“Thank you.” Hyesung feels tears pricking at his eyes and finds that he can’t swallow them back. He ends up spilling the water on the floor as he buries his face in the mattress and cries. Minwoo’s soft hand his hair, and Hyesung loses all his self-control. He sobs to Minwoo about his feelings, about Andy, about these twenty years and the secrets and the pain. He probably did the exactly same thing last night, but it doesn’t matter because Hyesung just needs to talk, and Minwoo understands .

Finally, after everything has been said and done, Minwoo sighs through his nose and moves his hand down to Hyesung’s nape. “You moron,” he chides gently. “Have you not realized that he loves you too?”

heheheeheh short short; meant to be a transition; the next (and final) chapter will be longer. minwoo really is a good friend, isn't he? also, how often do you see hyesung lose his composure lol. i love this man, yall. i would marry him in a single ing heartbeat.