he thinks it's pathetic really, the annoying dependence he has on woohyun. he hates how reliant he is on him, how he can't seem to do anything right if he's not by his side. sure, the members offer help too, and sunggyu is more than grateful to them for that. but somehow it's just not right, not as beautiful as the moments that woohyun smiles at him and sets his world on fire.

of course infinite are close, but in different ways. woohyun and sungyeol are the troublemaker buddies; sunggyu and dongwoo are the hyungs who share their fears and concerns. woohyun and sunggyu, however, are an iffy pair. they're different yet startlingly similar; when they quarrel there's enough friction to cause discomfort for days afterward, but yet their connection runs much deeper than they realise.
 

they're gathered in the small and cramped living room of their dorm watching the recent episode of sesame player, to monitor their performance. sunggyu makes remarks every few minutes, telling sungjong to speak up more or myungsoo to at least try to keep up his handsome prince façade. myungsoo buries his face in sungyeol's shoulder.

on tv, woohyun, dongwoo and sungjong were in the car going to idae, and woohyun mentioned something about sunggyu being anxious and not knowing how to have fun there. it's there and then that he says, "kim sunggyu without me is like chopsticks without a spoon, a needle without thread!"

"a kite without string!" dongwoo piped up.

"a kite without string!" woohyun repeated happily after him.

the members burst out into laughter in front of the tv, and none of them notice sunggyu stiffen almost imperceptibly.

sunggyu knows that it's a spur-of-the-moment, unrehearsed blurt; in other words, it's a nam woohyun thing and he shouldn't be surprised, but he still marvels at how true the statement is. it's scary how insecure and afraid sunggyu feels without woohyun by his side. he is infinite's leader! he shouldn't be feeling this way! he's supposed to be strong and infallible; how could he have such a weakness?

he can't sleep that night. woohyun's words replay themselves over and over in his head. he shuts his eyes, willing his brain to stop, but it doesn't. he hates how dependent he is on woohyun, almost as if he can't survive without him. he tries to imagine a world without woohyun, and finds that he can't. it's a bleak, uncomfortable truth, and sunggyu doesn't know how to face it. woohyun's peaceful countenance is on the bed next to him, and sunggyu marvels at the contrast—woohyun seems to not be reliant on him at all. he's touchy with all the members, and sunggyu doesn't recall any sign that shows he might be more special to him than anyone else. he loathes himself even more.

and so sunggyu tries to wean himself from woohyun. he deliberately avoids him at all cost, as if he's trying to block him from his life. woohyun automatically gravitates towards him after one of their rehearsals for music bank, and sunggyu ignores him on purpose, going to talk to dongwoo instead. howon and sungyeol raise an eyebrow simultaneously at this unusual act of their leader, but find it wise to keep quiet. after all, it's usually not good to interfere in sunggyu's personal affairs.

woohyun blinks a few times, confused. he walks on, but sunggyu's chatting and laughing with someone that isn't him, and oddly it causes his heart to plummet and a strange sensation in his stomach. he doesn't like it one bit. but he  sungyeol instead and tries to brush it away.

see, i don't need him, sunggyu thinks, eyeing woohyun and sungyeol who are walking side by side. i'm perfectly fine on my own.

the tense atmosphere soon becomes unbearable. with the two most forceful members in the group ignoring each other, the dorm is suffocating. by now, all the members notice there's something really, really wrong with woohyun and sunggyu. even in the same room, they aren't speaking to each other. woohyun has tried to talk to sunggyu like before, but is only met with curt replies and brief acknowledgements. woohyun's confused, but most of all angry. if he did something wrong, sunggyu should be the one telling him. he doesn't understand the sudden change in his hyung's behaviour, and it breaks his heart.

they're two halves of a whole—neither of them can be one without the other. and everyone realises that except themselves.

but because sunggyu's the leader, and they're so used to taking orders from him, everyone hesitates when it comes to approaching him. no one knows exactly how to broach the topic. the relationship between woohyun and sunggyu is subtle and delicate—it only takes a little to tip the scale. finally they decide that dongwoo will talk to sunggyu because he's the next oldest, and he's the most perceptive of all of them.

dongwoo corners sunggyu one day when all the members are out. "what are you doing, hyung?"

sunggyu plucks an earbud out of his left ear. "listening to music."

"you know perfectly well what i mean. don't make me spell it out for you."

"i... it's nothing. there's nothing going on," sunggyu says resolutely. dongwoo sighs at how difficult and stubborn sunggyu is being. it's not helping.

"we can't help you if you don't confess what's going on between you two!"

"there's nothing going on! what are you talking about?"

"exactly! there's nothing going on when there used to be! you and woohyun were all over each other last time and now you're barely talking. what happened?"

sunggyu winces. "was it really that bad?"

"you're not answering the question!" dongwoo is exasperated. finally, sunggyu sighs, defeated.

"fine, i'll tell you." and he spills about all his insecurities—ignoring the nagging voice inside his head telling him not to reveal so much because it'll make him seem weak—and dongwoo actually listens, nodding from time to time. it's the undeniable connection between the two oldest members, and dongwoo always makes him feel reassured.

dongwoo is deep in thought for a long time. "what happened between you two, i suggest you talk it out. tell him how you feel. i know this is dumb advice but this is the only thing that will work. stop avoiding him, hyung! it'll just make your relationship turn sour."

sunggyu gives a small, resigned smile. "i guess i'll try. but promise me something, dongwoo."

dongwoo nods, indicating that he's listening.

"keep this between you and me, alright?" sunggyu asks earnestly. and by dongwoo's reassuring nods, he knows he can trust him.

woohyun finds out anyway. dongwoo doesn't plan on telling him at first—after all, he's not too sure how he'd deal with the information. but woohyun, being the stubborn guy he is, forces everything out of dongwoo easily enough. and then woohyun's struck numb—he doesn't know that this was the reason sunggyu was acting all cold towards him. such a stupid reason! woohyun wants to laugh, but then he remembers that sunggyu actually thinks of it seriously.

woohyun corners sunggyu in the waiting room, grabbing his wrist in a confrontational manner that says he means business. sunggyu flinches and pushes him away as usual, but woohyun doesn't let go; instead, he drags him to a corner of the room away from prying eyes (despite sunggyu's yells and protests), and shuts the door.

"i'm sorry if what i said hurt or upset you," woohyun says genuinely. sunggyu shakes his head violently—the last thing he wanted was for woohyun to think that he was the cause of sunggyu's worries.

"no, it's not you. it's... me. it's my own inferiority complex. i kept blaming myself for... for..."

"for what?" woohyun presses on.

"for liking you, for depending on you so much, for feeling like a whole chunk of me is missing whenever i'm not with you." and these words tumble out of his mouth too fast, too unexpectedly; it catches both of them off guard.

sunggyu's hand goes up to his mouth immediately. his face is burning red, and he doesn't dare look at woohyun.

"i'm sorry, forget what i said," sunggyu apologises and tries to turn away, but woohyun is much faster. he grabs sunggyu by the shoulder and spins him around.

"you're so stupid hyung. doesn't that mean i can't survive without you too? if kim sunggyu without nam woohyun is like chopsticks without a spoon, thread without a needle, a kite without a string; then nam woohyun without kim sunggyu must be a spoon without chopsticks, a needle without thread, and a string without a kite—in other words, completely useless!"

sunggyu is struck dumb. his mind processes woohyun's words and it takes him a while to respond. "really, nam?" he asks, softly and quietly. his eyes dart around on the floor, never daring to meet woohyun's face.

"yes!"

his eyes stop moving; they travel, slowly, upwards to meet woohyun's own ones. blink.

everything happens in a blur afterwards; before he knows it a pair of plump, warm lips are on his. tears are streaming down sunggyu's face, ruining his eyeliner but he doesn't notice. all he can make sense of is woohyun kissing him, and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't fantasised about this before, woohyun's nose bumps into sunggyu's cheek a couple of times; they're clumsy and messy but sunggyu doesn't complain. instead, he grabs woohyun's collar to pull them even closer, such that there's no space at all between them. he missed him—it's been too long since they were this suffocatingly intimate.

they pull apart after what seems like eternity, but sunggyu still finds it too short. "shh, just let me be here for you, alright? don't push me away," woohyun whispers with the soft press of his lips to sunggyu's temple. and sunggyu let's himself relax in woohyun's embrace; in this moment, he's not infinite's leader kim sunggyu, just sunggyu.

why should he care so much about whether he's over-reliant? everyone needs someone in their lives—for kim sunggyu, it just happens to be nam woohyun. they're akin to two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, fitting perfectly in each other's nooks and crannies. there are no two people in the world more meant for each other.

"hyung, i missed you," woohyun murmurs, voice raspy, eyes hooded, and oh, how much sunggyu would give to kiss him again. "i need you too, you know. those past few weeks were absolute hell."

"so do i. i avoided you to prove to myself that i didn't need you, yet it just confirmed the exact opposite."

"that was stupid. please never do it again." woohyun's tone is softly reprimanding, and sunggyu nods.

"agreed."

A/N:

Heavily inspired by this and this. The lyrics dispersed throughout are Kim Sunggyu's I Need You.
Also, I seem to be only able to write canon Woogyu for some reason.