Hongbin, Minha(OC), Wooyoung (OC) / Angst / Request

Wooyoung grabbed Minha’s wrist and forcefully pulled her along. Minha’s face scrunched up in pain as she whined for him to let her go. She held on to a pole as he tried to drag her along, and Wooyoung stopped after her repeated attempts to stop him.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. It’s my bachelor party, I’m only going to have this like once in my life. You’re my best friend, are you going to miss this? Huh? What kind of friend are you?”, he gave Minha that 100% effectiveness pleading look, and she sighed.

“You know I hate these kind of things…”

*          *          *

Hongbin entered the club, which at the moment was full with people going wild. He frowned and shook his head in disapproval as he approached the bartender.

“Hey, do you know where the VIP lounge is?” The bartender pointed at a small, stout man, who smiled warmly at Hongbin. He was trying to say something, but nothing much could be heard above the loud music. Hongbin nodded as if he was listening to the conversation, and the man beckoned at him as they made their way through the crowd.

According to his Adidas sports watch, and the schedule Jellyfish had sent in Monday morning that week, Hongbin was five minutes late for the last photo shoot of the week. Hongbin had done many photo shoots, but none in a place like that. In fact, he never had the chance to visit a club, and he hated it already.

“You’re late. Go change.”, the PD said coldly. Hongbin apologized profusely, his face turning a light shade of red as he stared down at his feet. The staff ushered him to the changing room and handed him his clothes, and within minutes he was lounging on the sofa, the bright disco lights of the club shining through the windows surrounding him, softening his sharp angular features.

“Okay. Nice. Give me a cold expression.”

Hongbin tilted his head upwards, and thinned his eyes. He stared with a strong gaze filled with distaste, and received approval from the PD. The staff had also nodded in approval while monitoring the results.

“Good. Now give me an expression… like you’ve just seen something you didn’t like, or didn’t want to see.” Hongbin tried his best to give a disgusted look, but the PD’s eyebrows furrowed with every picture they took. They had switched angles a few times already, but the frown on the PD’s face had deepened.

“PD-nim, Hongbin-ssi should switch positions.” One of the staff quietly commented, “He looks relaxed in this position. That kind of position would fit a cold expression, but not the one you asked of him. I think he should lean on that cupboard over there and look over the club. It’ll be more natural.”

The director nodded, and gave his permission for Hongbin to switch places. He looked down at the busy club scene, as the lights flashed into his eyes and the photographer moved quickly to assess the best angle for the shot.

“That’s it! That expression’s good.”, the PD exclaimed in satisfaction.

*          *          *

Minha sulked as she watched the children run noisily past her. She took her cellphone out and checked it again. There was nothing. Still nothing. She wiped the screen with her sleeve and rubbed her eyes red, but there was still nothing.

“Noona!~ Come play with us!”, a little boy that went by the name of Sooyoon tugged on Minha’s cardigan. He looked at Minha with large curious eyes as she abruptly plastered a forced smile onto her face.

“What happened, noona? Why are you upset?”, Sooyoon pouted cutely as his innocent eyes swept across Minha’s face. A gentle, genuine smile tugged at the edges of Minha’s lips, and she pat the boy’s head and sighed softly. Sooyoon hugged her arm and pulled her to the sandbox with all the strength a six year old boy could muster.

“It’s Hongbin hyung, right?”, Sooyoon blurted out as he continued dragging Minha along. When they had finally reached the sandbox, Sooyoon pointed to a heart drawn crudely in the sand, and the sandcastle towering above it.

“Noona should break up with hyung! Then Sooyoon will marry her when he grows older!”, the child stated with determination. Minha laughed gently, and at that response, Sooyoon smiled his brightest, dimpled, eyesmile.

“Tsk. You’ll grow up to be exactly like your Hongbin hyung!”

*          *          *

“Let’s retake this. Hongbin you have to try to look more natural. Your acting was so good the last time we filmed an MV. Why does it look so forced now? This is supposed to be easy. Just do a natural smile, would you?”, the PD harshly spoke. Wrinkles appeared on his forehead as he frowned while monitoring Hongbin’s performance.

“Take a break. Ravi, you’re up.”

Hongbin returned to the temporary waiting room. Biting his lip, he subconsciously reached for the cellphone in his bag. The members wide eyes were on him, watching him as his eyebrows furrowed with an annoyed groan, and they spoke in hushed tones, worry seeping into their voices. The cellphone was thrown aside. His elbows rested on his knees, his hands were clasped together, and his body was hunched down.

“Hyung, what’s going on?”, the maknae innocently asked.

*          *          *

“Hongbin.”

“Bin?”

“Binnie, what’s going on?”, Minha tugged on his arm, the inebriated man sprawled over the couch. His eyes were wide open, staring straight into Minha’s hazel eyes, but his lips were shut and his movements were careless. His face was scarlet and he reeked of alcohol.

“Binnie?”

No response. Minha’s face was pale from her worry. A week without even a single text, a week without coming back home, and when he finally did return he was besotted to the point of not answering to his name, not even answering to her aegyo which had always worked on him. Minha’s eyes had begun to water, as she relentlessly hit his chest, her weak and reluctant strikes gradually becoming stronger as her emotions brimmed to the surface.

“Stupid Binnie. Where have you been? I was so worried about you I had to watch live music shows on television to know you were alive you irresponsible, selfish idiot.”

No response. Hongbin held his alcohol well, he was usually sober enough to employ all his five senses, and he could see clearly that Minha was talking, but everything was background noise to him. He heard nothing of what she had been saying, but he had observed her slight frown, and her desperate eyes. Hongbin blinked twice, staring into the space beside Minha’s neck. There was a clock behind them. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Hongbin stared at the second hand, like he was waiting for time to pass.

“You’ve found another person, haven’t you?”, the first tear leaked out of Minha’s left eye, curved itself around the contours of her face, and made its way to her neck. Hongbin’s unfocused eyes were drawn to the tear.

Tears were cheap, and Hongbin knew it well, but for Minha, he always took his handkerchief out from the pocket of his suits, and wiped her tears away, like a gentleman would. More tears were flowing, and they looked like the surface of a river as it met rays of sunlight – kind of mesmerizing, kind of blinding.

Hongbin lay on the couch watching the girl sitting next to him being as upset as he was three days ago, realizing that he was being irrational. He held up his hand and wiped away the tears he had caused, and Minha withdrew from his sudden movement.

In his stupor, he stuttered, “Don’t go, uh, go.. Wooyoung.” Confused eyes.

“Hate… the Wooyoung. Not, no you.” She nodded slowly. Was understanding.

“Love, Minnie. Everything will disappear.” His voice was strained and wrinkles had appeared on his forehead as his eyes gradually stopped focusing. He pulled her onto his broad chest, and he out.

 

 

by winter