Hoya jammed the key into the doorknob of his apartment, turning it with more force than necessary and nudging the door open with his shoulder. He spent the entire evening at Dongwoo's house doing the project, and yet they (or more appropriately, Hoya,) had so much left to do since Dongwoo refused to help at all.

Digging his phone out of his pocket, he read the time as 9:15 and let out a string of incoherent curses under his breath. Hoya tiredly dumped his backpack on the ground and kicked his shoes off his feet while his hand scrambled against the wall to find the light switch. Once the light flickered on, Hoya caught sight of Woohyun lying on the couch. He stepped closer and smiled softly at Woohyun's sleeping figure; his closed eyes, his steady breathing, a bit of his lower lip sticking out. 

"Aigo, did you wait for me?" Hoya whispered and settled on his knees, propping his arms on the cushion of the couch. He pushed away the stray hairs of Woohyun's bangs covering his closed eyes and lazily dragged his finger down Woohyun's nose, stopping to lightly tap the tip of his nose before placing his finger on Woohyun's lips.

Hoya let his eyes wander, from Woohyun's soft, dark hair that fell across his forehead, to the handsomely shaped nose, to pink, full lips that he could kiss all day and the sharp jawline beneath it, and the only word that came into Hoya's mind was perfect.

His thoughts are broken when he feels a slight pain around his finger, and he turns his attention to Woohyun, finding that his teeth had bitten softly on Hoya's finger. Woohyun opened one eye and grinned playfully as he released his bite.

"Of course I would wait for you," Woohyun says groggily and rubbed at his eyes, smiling softly.

Hoya smiled back. "So you're awake now?"

Woohyun stretched his back and let out a small yawn. "Now I am. You were loud when you came in," he laughed lightly.

"Ah, sorry about that," Hoya sighed.

"So how was your evening at Dongwoo's place? I bet his mansion was totally cool and he's probably got maids—"

"He lives in a house."

"—and butlers and like, a hundred rooms and... wait, what?"

"Yeah, you heard me. A plain, damn house. No mansion. No maids. No butlers. It's like he's not even rich at all." Hoya groaned. "And oh, I forgot to tell you that he decided it was a totally appropriate idea to pick someone up and them in his own damn room right before I came so his room reeked of and he didn't care about the project and he didn't help me at all and I had to work on the damn thing by myself and—" Hoya stopped when he ran out of breath, and by then Woohyun was giving him a confused look.

Hoya just shook his head. "In short, it was horrible. Dongwoo's a ing and he's so goddamn irritating and I hate him so ing much and I just..." He realizes he's rattling on again and lets out another sigh. "And I'm just tired, Hyun."

Woohyun frowns and scoots over, making enough room as possible with the smallness of the couch. He pats the cushion and Hoya slips in the small space next to him. He feels like he's practically about to roll off the couch with the little space he had, but Woohyun hooks an arm around his waist and pulls him in, close so that their chests are touching and Hoya buries his head in the crook of Woohyun's shoulder.

"My Howonnie," Woohyun pouts and comfortingly slides his hand up and down Hoya's back. He immediately relaxes, feeling that familiar warmth Woohyun always seems to give him as he scoots in closer and tangles his legs with Woohyun's, sliding his arm around his waist and letting out a relaxed breath.

"Do you want me to help you?" Woohyun suddenly asks and Hoya raises an eyebrow. "On the project," he clarifies. "I could help you work on it."

Hoya's about to break into a big, overjoyed grin and gratefully say that yes, he'd absolutely love that extra help, but then Woohyun yawns and he's holding up his hand to his mouth so he can hide it, and Hoya instantly feels bad that he'd only thought of himself.

"You're tired," Hoya states, frowning and tilting his head up to catch Woohyun's eyes drooping a bit, but then his eyes open abruptly and he's shaking his head. 

"No, no, seriously, it's fine, I could help you, rea—" Woohyun yawns again and Hoya chuckles a bit, balling his hand into a fist and punching the other's chest lightly. 

"You're an idiot, Hyun."

"What? Why?!"

"Jeez, if you're tired, then just say so. I won't get mad."

"I was the one who was offering!"

Hoya rolls his eyes and rests his head against Woohyun's chest again, rubbing against the other's back with his palm. "Just rest, okay? You're already working with Sangchul on the project. Thank you for offering, but it's fine, really. I can just... work on it by myself or something."

"But—"

"It's fine, Hyunnie."

Woohyun lets out a sigh and rests his chin against the top of Hoya's head, slowly shutting his eyes. Hoya felt as the other's breathing slowed, fiddling with the hem of Woohyun's shirt.

And just being there, legs tangled and bodies fitting close together almost like puzzle pieces, Hoya thought about how Woohyun was like his own perfect-fitting puzzle piece.

Sometimes Woohyun would joke to him, saying how "a Lee Howon without me is like chopsticks without a spoon! Thread without a needle!", and Hoya would just laugh it off as just more of his usual greasiness.

But now that he thought about it, what would Hoya be without Woohyun?

~ ♦ ~

The next morning, Hoya wakes up yet again to the annoying beeping of the alarm on his phone and a really sore back, carefully moving Woohyun's arm from around his waist to reach for the phone in his pocket and turn the alarm off.

After the sound stops, he blinks his eyes, adjusting to the light of the morning seeping in from the windows and stretching his back a bit from sleeping on the couch that night. Hoya breathes out a sigh and Woohyun shifts in place next to him, moving a little too much on Hoya's side that suddenly Hoya only has a little bit of space now and he remembers that he removed Woohyun's arm around his waist so there's no longer any support if he were to—

Hoya hits the floor with a hard thud.

~ ♦ ~

Hoya trudged inside the classroom, rubbing his now-sore bottom that just adds to his sore back, and Woohyun follows behind, repeating "Howon-ah, I'm sorry,", "I didn't know, I was sleeping!", "Howonnie, I love you~", and of course his endless heart-throwing grease.

When Woohyun throws a heart at him for the tenth time, Hoya turns and punches him on his shoulder, grumbling a "Hyun, your adorable grease is annoying the out of me so please stop" before turning back to sit at his desk. Woohyun pouts and takes a seat at his desk next to him, but after a few seconds his lips form into a small smile as he looks back at Hoya.

"Did you just call me adorable?"

Hoya immediately freezes in place, hand midway from pulling out his textbook from his backpack. He blinks a few times before shaking his head and slamming his book on the table. "I did not."

Woohyun's smile only grows wider. "Yeah you did. You said 'adorable grease'."

Hoya scoffs. "I-I was only talking about your annoying heart-throwing."

"But you pretty much just indirectly called me adorable." Woohyun smirks. "So you're not mad at me anymore right?"

Hoya elicits a quiet groan, face flushing red as he frustratingly tears out a sheet of paper from his notebook. Woohyun's too busy laughing to himself that he doesn't hear the sound of crumpling paper beside him and suddenly, he feels something hit the side of his head. He looks down and sees a crumpled-up paper ball fall on his desk, and he looks to see Hoya's face buried in his textbook, but he can clearly see his ears still red from embarrassment.

Their teacher enters the classroom and quickly begins the lesson, Hoya focused deep on his note-taking while Woohyun jots down important bits here and there, playing with the paper ball in his hand. He grabs lightly at a corner of paper that's sticking out, pulling on it softly until he opens it a little and finds small scribbling inside. He opens it all the way, finding two sentences written on the inside, and he's smiling again.

I was never mad in the first place, babo. And... yes, I like your annoying, adorable hearts, okay? 

~ ♦ ~

Hoya's standing in front of Dongwoo's house once again, on that damn doorstep outside house number 610, and he's seriously debating if he should just bail on their meeting today and call Dongwoo (Dongwoo had demanded an exchange of phone numbers earlier in class, "Just in case") to tell him that something important came up or just anything that would work as an excuse; Hoya just really didn't want to be here right now. 

And really, what help would Dongwoo be anyway? He'd be better off at home with Woohyun who was willing to help him in the first place. And plus—

"Are you just going to stand there all day or what?"

Hoya blinks and focuses his attention on Dongwoo, who had suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Umm..."

"You've been standing out here for a while now, you really think I wouldn't notice some guy standing outside my house for the past ten minutes?" Dongwoo smirks. "You coming in?"

Hoya quietly nods his head and steps inside, knowing that he really can't turn back now.

"Soda? I didn't really know if you were a Coca-Cola or a Pepsi type of person so I got both."

"Uh, water's fine, actually."

"Really?" Dongwoo huffs. "You should tell me that before I go out and buy all this soda."

"Well, I didn't think it would be a problem for you considering how rich you are."

Oops. That hadn't meant to come out.

But Dongwoo only continues to walk towards his kitchen as if he hadn't heard it, and Hoya mentally slaps himself because it's his sharp tongue that always gets him in trouble. He quietly slips off his shoes as he hears the sound of things being rummaged in the fridge. 

Dongwoo comes back with a can of cola in one hand and a bottle of water in the other, holding it out to Hoya without a word. He takes it with a small "thanks" and Dongwoo only hums in response, motioning for him to follow to his room.

Dongwoo takes his usual spot on his bed while Hoya takes a seat at the desk again, pulling out all the necessary items from his bag and beginning his work. After a while, he can't take the awkward silence any longer and that small feeling of guilt in him, feeling like the increasing tension is suffocating him from what he had said earlier. 

"Um," he starts and clears his throat a bit. "Sorry, if um... if what I said earlier offended you or something. Er, I didn't mean it, honest. I just—"

"It's fine." 

The tone in Dongwoo's voice, however, clearly shows it isn't, and Hoya can't help from asking. "Really, I'm sorry. Is it bothering you that much?" He looks to see Dongwoo lying on his bed, facing the ceiling with his arm resting on his forehead. 

"No."

"...You sure?"

Dongwoo stays silent for a few seconds before he speaks up, voice coming out a little strangled. "I... no, it's nothing."

Hoya sighs and turns back to his work. "If you say so." He continues on the assignment, flipping through his textbook and jotting down important things, and after about ten minutes of silently working, he hears Dongwoo clear his throat.

"I..." Hoya turns at the sound of the voice and looks at Dongwoo again, still in the same position from before as he stares blankly at the ceiling. 

"I just... why is it that people suddenly expect that I live like a rich person just because I come from a family of them?"

Hoya's a bit surprised at the sudden question, but he figured something like that must have been bothering him, so he just listens quietly.

"I mean, why is it so stereotypical? Hasn't anyone thought that maybe they wouldn't want it? Yeah, I could have stayed in that mansion and continued going to a private school and have maids and stuff like that, but I didn't want it. You know why?"

Hoya purses his lips to the side and doodles on the side of the page, listening silently.

"Because I didn't want people to know me. I didn't want them to know me as 'that rich kid, Jang Dongwoo' or 'Dongwoo, son of the Jang's' or 'Jang Dongwoo, whose parents own a zillion restaurant chains throughout Korea and have -ton loads of money and live practically like royalty'." He stays silent for a moment before he gives a loud scoff.

"My parents... they wanted me to take over the company. 'You're the next in line, the only one who can continue the success of this company' and whatever. What bull. I didn't want to run some stupid company. I even told them that, but they scolded me and told me that it's best for me. Whatever, I knew that they were just thinking of themselves. I... truly... truly, I wanted to be an idol. I'd learned to dance, rap, and sing, but when my parents heard about my ambition, of course, they immediately refused.

I fought back, because I wanted it. I finally had my own dream that I wanted to achieve, just when they thought their son wouldn't know what to do with his life, I finally knew what I wanted, and they shot it down. 'Who the hell would want someone like you to be up on a stage? Trust us, you'd be better off working behind a CEO desk.' 

And that's when I had enough. I packed my bags and moved out because I knew that there was no need to be there anymore. And I can do fine by myself."

"What made you stop becoming an idol?" Hoya asked and Dongwoo immediately sat upright on his bed.

"Were you actually listening?" Dongwoo asked in surprise and Hoya nodded his head.

"You didn't have to... you know..." Dongwoo said quietly. "I mean, all I was doing was ranting, so..."

"Yeah, I know, but the way you acted earlier after what I said made me feel that something was wrong, and there definitely was. It's okay to rant sometimes, you know. After all, you're here by yourself and I'm pretty sure you're not the type to really discuss your problems." Hoya shrugged. "And besides, I can relate to you too, so I was interested."

"Wait, what? Really?"

"Yup. I guess our past is sort of alike. See, a couple years back I wanted to be an idol too. Mainly I wanted to be a dancer, but I could sing and rap as well. I told my parents that I would drop out of school and follow that dream." Hoya gave a sad smile and shifted in his seat, playing with the pencil in his hand. "But... hearing that made them furious. They kicked me out of the house and basically disowned me. I was a wreck after that. I didn't know where to go. What to do." He sighed.

"Then what?" 

"What, you're listening?" Hoya asked sarcastically in mock surprise, chuckling slightly. Dongwoo only rolled his eyes in response and gave a small smile. "Well, you know Woohyun? Nam Woohyun? He's in our class."

"Yeah, that guy who's always telling cheesy jokes and making hearts everywhere?"

Hoya laughed. "Yeah, him. Well, after that he was the one who pretty much helped me get back on my feet. He took me into his apartment and even got me back in school. Woohyun may seem like a greasy idiot on the outside but he's actually really intelligent. And he wants to become a singer too, but he'd told me that education was important or something like that." He let out an airy laugh. "So... I guess... here we are."

"Wow." Dongwoo blinks and gives a half-smile. "You know, I didn't think we'd actually have something in common."

"Yeah..." Hoya nods his head slowly. I guess we do.

a/n: ok so first off gUYS INFINITE'S COMEBACK ASDGLKHDFGJSGHKJGS I aM sO eXcItEd. AND THE TEASERS OMFG I'M dYyYyInnNngGNngG. Less than a week Inspirits, are you ready? ヽ(≧∇≦)ﾉ (because I sure as hell am! xD)
so anyways, i've realized that pretty much half of this chapter is wooya omg, at least there's a bit more yadong? lol, oh well. so here we have Dongwoo's and Hoya's backstory i guess? i'll be putting more yadong in now, considering how this story's finally getting somewhere. 'til next update~!