Part II

Vanishing Act

Chapter VI

The Forgotten one

Dongwoo took Woohyun back home with a heavy heart, things had definitely not turn out like he expected, least of all like how he wanted.

It wasn't meant to be like this. Not a single ing bit, everything had planned out so perfectly in his mind.

Sunggyu wasn't mean to have Amnesia, he was meant to wake up and see Woohyun and smile.

And Dongwoo was so excited to see his leader wake up. It was beginning to feel like he would never wake up—it was beginning to feel like Woohyun would have to wait forever.

Their relationship was always going to up some way, it was inevitable, but he couldn’t help but blame himself, because he felt like the person in charge of the two them, was him.

But there was no 'two-of-them' now, Sunggyu had forgotten who Woohyun was, and now Woohyun was stuck to waiting—again.

It was agonising to watch.

Woohyun had finally broke, his realisation had finally sit in, and it was not doing him any good and Dongwoo couldn’t help but slightly loathe Myungsoo and Sungyeol for doing this to them.

To be honest, he slightly loathed the whole group—Myungsoo, Sungyeol, Sungjong, Hoya.

They were in their own little bubble, Woohyun and Sunggyu were the leftovers and Dongwoo... Dongwoo wasn’t even there.

He was blending in with the surroundings—he was becoming nothing but a useless prop and the play of happiness was over.

It had been over for a while and Dongwoo had managed to keep a meaning—he had managed to keep a use for living up until now.

His use was repairing. He had taken charge in patching up the cuts of Infinite... and wasn’t Dongwoo a part of Infinite?

He was left to pick up the pieces of himself.

He too, had forgotten about the plasters. He too, had forgotten about himself.

He had spent hours just speaking and crying to an unresponsive person. He knew what it was like to be forgotten and he felt pity, so much pity, for Woohyun.

... But it was different. Sunggyu had a mental disorder—he had amnesia, he had a reason for forgetting but what about them?

Sunggyu had forgotten  about Woohyun, Sunggyu had gotten stabbed, Sunggyu had been in a coma for months, he had a perfectly good reason for only slightly forgetting about Dongwoo’s condition because he was patching up his own mental state.

Myungsoo, Sungjong, Sungyeol, Hoya. He had fallen in love like them too, but he was a total outcast in a world of outcasts.

They had absolutely no reason to forget him. They had no reason to leave him behind, but they did it anyway.

Woohyun, Woohyun had OCD and localised Amnesia but to an event. He knows he shouldn’t be blaming Woohyun, but god ing damn it. It didn’t make any ing sense to him.

He understood that Woohyun couldn’t help it, but it was NOT a reason to completely ignore the existence of his best. ing. Friend.

How could cleaning up a clean room beat talking to his best friend? All Dongwoo ever wanted was one, ing, hour of Woohyun.

Not Crazy Woohyun, not mental Woohyun, not Woohyun who had to count every ing step he took and not Woohyun who had to chew on the left side of his mouth and switch the light on and off twice before going to sleep and waking up to the same song every day.

He didn’t want that Woohyun.

He just wanted Woohyun, who would skip with him to who-the-hell-knows-where and would crack up with him over useless, crappy jokes, he just wanted Spontaneous Woohyun back.

He wanted his best friend back.

...

He was never getting his best friend back.

A broken human is not like a broken toy—but they both have one similarity.

They can never be repaired.

So Dongwoo didn’t even try, he just stuck them back together.

Woohyun and Sunggyu had been together merely six months after Infinite had become official, which meant that Dongwoo had been picking up the fallen threads of Woohyun’s heart (and maybe he also sewed it into Sunggyu’s pinkie) for years and years.

It meant that Woohyun had been very slowly crumbling under the pressure of being an idol long before Sungjong started to crack.

That means that by the time Sunggyu had joined the fallen team, Woohyun had quite a few plasters stuck on his heart and was maybe missing a few pieces of his mind but that was nothing compared to the aftermath.

And even though you can never be repaired, you can be healed, but Time doesn’t heal, but love does. Dongwoo’s love mended his cuts and Sunggyu’s cured his illnesses.

But just not this one.

So Dongwoo was left to take care of the shell of his leader and the remaining pieces of his best friend and even then, they were in their own little world.

It wasn’t Dongwoo’s fault he turned out like this, 24/7 he was either with a crazy person or an unconscious person. He was worse than anti-social. He had become isolated.

The fans considered Sungjong the alone one.

Sungyeol considered himself the separate one.

But it was nothing compared to Dongwoo.

They may have been separated, but like the many times said, he wasn’t even ing there.

He was truly left behind because somehow their ed-up relationship lasted.

Because Woohyun reintroduced himself, and somehow that red string of fate* Dongwoo's-ing-awesomeness that he sewed into Sunggyu managed to not completely rip.

Sunggyu still managed to hold on to the heart strings of Woohyun and he had fallen in love again.

Yes, it was a pretty ed up relationship but it was still there—they were still holding each other up by the waist and they too, had sprinted in front of him.

Dongwoo remembers the times when he used to be in front of everybody—no, he remembers the time when he used to just stroll with Hoya. Strolling along the beaches and roads, and mountains and forests.

He remembers the times when yes, maybe Hoya wasn’t his best friend like Woohyun was—but Hoya was different. He was a different type of best friend and he understood more than anyone what it was like to be an outcast—so they became outcasts together.

They strolled on the same time plane, they strolled together but somewhere along the way Dongwoo had fallen.

He had fallen hard and fast, tripping over the way Hoya would look at him, but he had fallen into a dumb hole, and he had fallen for much too long.

By the time he came out Sungjong had caught up to them. It was no longer Hoya and Dongwoo strolling together, it was Hoya and Sungjong running together and Dongwoo trying his best to keep up.

He was tripping up because of the way Hoya would look at Sungjong, he stumbled and tried to pick up his feet and catch up with him but he was falling behind.

He was holding on to Hoya’s jacket by a string but Hoya had eyes for Sungjong and he didn’t want Dongwoo.

He left without looking back. Dongwoo fell for the last time as the last connection to Hoya snapped. He crawled pathetically along the floor; he had watched others pass by him while he was being dragged behind.

He was a pathetic creature.

But he picked himself up as he saw Woohyun’s fallen figure, he picked up the not-quite-whole Woohyun and the majority of his missing pieces.

He stuck him on backwards, upside down and in all the wrong places—but Woohyun was still there. Crazy and all—he was kind-of there.

And sweetly, Sunggyu had walked back to come for Woohyun.

This time Dongwoo didn’t even try to catch up.

Not as his unrequited love left, not as his best friend left and not as his dongsaeng’s skipped with not even a glance.

Dongwoo watched the couple in front of him with a sickened gaze.

He doesn’t know why he always stays, everyone had already retreated to their rooms and he was the last to leave apart from them.

Originally, his eyes had been on the way Hoya had his arm wrapped around Sungjong but now he watched the bittersweet couple.

They would never have a happy ending so why did they keep trying?

“Sunggyu, how do you love me? I mean, you don’t remember me.”

“But I already know you. I may not remember you, but from the moment your arms wrapped around my figure and honestly, it was your tears. It was your broken sobs that made me want to fix you.

“I wanted to heal you. I wanted to make you feel safe and happy and eventually, I fell in love with the person I met.”

“So you fell in love with me because I was broken?”

“No. I fell in love with you because you’re Woohyun.”

Dongwoo felt sick.

He glared at the oblivious couple and let the bile out of his throat when he arrived into the locked bathroom.

He let the running water wash out the sounds of his ugly sobs.

The tears slowly ran down his face and dropped into the basin beneath, joining the disgusting water.

Dear Hoya, who once let me fall,

               Why did you leave me behind?

From Dongwoo, who had decided to make a new path, without you.

*Red string of fate- the red string of fate is a famous East Asian belief, In Japanese culture the red string is normally tied around two people's little finger and ties them to fate and they are destined to meet/be together. It is widely known for romance, but it is not always the case.