Work Text:
Mingyu meets Wonwoo the last semester of 7th grade. The school orchestra trip had included all the grade levels, and Minghao had convinced Mingyu to room with two upperclassmen, stating that he met Junhui a few months ago. Reluctantly, Mingyu agrees.
They stand outside the hotel, a large group of 100 kids waiting for their names to be called so they can go into their rooms. When Mingyu and Minghao are called to the front, the elder nearly faints. Wonwoo stands near the staff with Junhui, waiting for his two new roommates for the night.
“We’re rooming with them?” Mingyu hurriedly whispers to Minghao, who seems to be walking faster with each step.
“Yeah? Why?”
“You’re going to make me share a bed with the hottest man I’ve ever seen in my-“
He’s cut off abruptly when the chaperone greets them with a smile, leading the way up to their room. Junhui stands in front with the teacher, Wonwoo slightly to his side, and the younger boys following behind. Even the boy’s back profile is attractive.
Wonwoo is stoic. Monotone. Emotionless. He looks as if he would rather be anywhere else than here… At least, until Junhui begins talking to Minghao.
“I can’t believe our room in on the third floor. That’s so disappointing, Mr. San. Can’t you make some changes and like, switch us around or something? There’s like 50 floors on this building.”
Minghao lets out a shy laugh at the complaint, and Junhui turns around to regard him with a beaming smile.
Wonwoo scoffs and holds open the door out of the stairwell. “You’d rather walk up 47 more flights of these?”
Junhui pointedly looks away from the confrontation. “There’s an elevator.”
As they walk down the long hallway, Wonwoo steals glances behind him, eyeing the two underclassmen. Minghao makes it his life’s goal to stare straight ahead at the back of the teacher’s head, pretending he doesn’t see the peering eyes coming his way.
It only takes a few more tries before Wonwoo catches Mingyu’s eye, lingering only for a second longer than it had on his friend, before he turns back with a chuckle. Mingyu wonders what that means. He lets his gaze lay on Wonwoo’s wavy hair and his broad back as they arrive at the room.
When they enter, Wonwoo immediately throws his bags on a bed and flops down onto it, closing his eyes with a sigh. Mingyu tentatively places his things on the ground near the bed and slips away into the bathroom.
-
In the morning, they pack up their things and board the bus to go to an amusement park. It’s their treat for participating in their music competition.
While Mingyu spends the entire time attached to Minghao, Minghao spends the entire time following Junhui around, which inevitably means Mingyu is forced to be around Wonwoo the whole day.
“We have to go on the biggest ride first, y’know? It’s more fun that way.” Junhui states, looking directly at Minghao, who has a shy Mingyu attached to his arm. Wonwoo stands to the side, looking warily up at the height of the roller coaster. The line isn’t too long, which might’ve been why they were dragged there first, but it’s not any less nerve-wracking.
Mingyu’s never been on a roller coaster before. Which is the most embarrassing part of it all. And seeing all the people riding past them doesn’t make his fears lessen. Their legs dangle in the air and the screams are nothing short of absolutely fucking terrifying. And as the slowly move up the line, Mingyu’s grip on Minghao’s arm tightens to the point where the younger boy pulls away with an uncomfortable grunt.
Mingyu wrings his fingers into each other, nervousness bleeding through each of his steps as they get closer to boarding. He can barely contain it, rehearsing all the ways he can tell Minghao that he’s going to step out and wait for them at the exit while they go on the ride without him.
When the gate in front of him opens, he opens his mouth to speak, to tell them he’s leaving, when an insistent hand grabs onto his wrist. He turns back to see Wonwoo, the elder’s eyes darting everywhere except to Mingyu, despite the grasp on his forearm.
“Will you sit out with me?” Wonwoo asks in a hushed voice, the tips of his ears bright red.
Mingyu nods without a second thought and steps past the seats of the ride over to the exiting platform, casually slipping his fingers in between Wonwoo’s as they walk. He hears the objecting calls from Junhui and Minghao, but Wonwoo doesn’t seem to listen to them while they leave.
They stand outside the exit of the ride awkwardly, Mingyu wondering if he’s still allowed to be holding Wonwoo’s hand, but not seeing any protests of it from the older boy.
When Junhui and Minghao meet up with them, Mingyu unknowingly drops his hand from Wonwoo’s.
And when they board the bus to go back home, Mingyu doesn’t see Wonwoo again for two months.
-
It’s the last week of school, and Mingyu is slumped against the wall of the gym, wondering why they’re still doing physical education when there’s only 3 days of school left.
He closes his eyes, trying to tune out the echoing bouncing basketballs and chatter and heavy footsteps running around. It’s a bit of an overstimulation to his brain. His limbs feel too heavy to move as he takes in everything around him at once.
He only opens his eyes when he feels a difference in the lighting in front of him, his eyelids going from bright pink to dark. He peeks up at the person in front of him, only to widen his eyes ten times more at the sight.
Wonwoo. Standing in front of him. Peering down at him, seeming to wonder if he’s still breathing.
“Mingyu, come help me,” Wonwoo says, holding out his hand.
Mingyu doesn’t even know why the elder is here. He doesn’t have this period with him. Maybe he’s ditching? Mingyu didn’t think Wonwoo was the type to do that.
Still, he takes Wonwoo’s hand and gets pulled up to stand with them. It’s only been a few months, but he’s grown an inch or two, now standing eye-to-eye with Wonwoo.
“We’re setting things up for the dance tonight. Come help us,” Wonwoo says with a smirk. Half-smirk, half-smile. Playful.
And while Mingyu wants to leave this class as soon as possible, especially if it means he’ll get to hang out with the upperclassman he’s been missing for the whole semester, he’d never be seen ditching. He has some morals, he supposes.
“I can’t just leave my class,” he says in a whiny sort of tone.
“Yeah, you can. I asked your teacher.”
“You asked Mr. Shin if I could leave, and he said yes?”
“I’m pretty popular around this school,” Wonwoo tilts his head to the side with a scoff. “Wanna come or not?”
“Are you sure I’m allowed to?” But he doesn’t get an answer before Wonwoo is tugging at his wrist and leading him out of the gym.
There’s a group of upperclassmen hanging out in the common area. Some, Mingyu have seen before, not that he’s ever spoken to them, however. Wonwoo leads him to a setup table in the middle of the room and gestures for him to sit on top of it.
“Okay your job is to grade our acting.” Wonwoo takes a few steps away from the table and grabs one of the student’s arms. “We’re gonna read the script and you’re gonna tell us what to fix.”
“I thought you were setting up for-“
“That was a lie, obviously. You just looked bored in that class, so I went in a got you to hang out with us.”
Wonwoo. Went into Mingyu’s class, talked to the strictest teacher in the school to get him dismissed, dragged him by the wrist, just so they could hang out? They’ve barely said any words to each other, and yet Wonwoo knows where Mingyu’s class is? They’ve barely said any words to each other and yet Wonwoo wants to hang out with Mingyu?
Mingyu nods insistently, not wanting to miss any more chances. He swings his legs and laughs while he watches the comedic play being put on, many of the kids forgetting their lines and sending them into a horribly improvised situation.
By the time the bell rings, Mingyu realizes he wouldn’t mind too much if he got to see Wonwoo and hang out with Wonwoo and be with Wonwoo all the time.
And at the end of the school day, Mingyu doesn’t realize that he won’t see Wonwoo for another six months.
-
Mingyu logistically knew that Wonwoo was graduating and going off to high school to be with his older friends. He didn’t realize that meant he’d never get to see him again. It keeps Mingyu up at night sometimes; how his feelings for the boy came and fizzled out faster than the speed of light.
Minghao introduces Mingyu to Seokmin a few months into the new school year. They’re the upperclassmen now, cooler, hotter, and way taller than they were last year. Seokmin is funny, and lives right down the street from the school, so they end up going there to hang out a lot. Seokmin has a tiny dog that loves to bark at Mingyu when they sit down to play games. Seokmin has the perfect hair texture for Minghao to braid while Mingyu devastatingly loses to him in their video games.
And on the days Seokmin gets sick and doesn’t come to school, Mingyu and Minghao sit outside his house in the yard facing the street and count the number of red cars that come by. Seokmin opens his window and shouts at them to get off his lawn, but eventually ends up crawling out to play with them.
It’s days like those that create the happiness that helps Mingyu forget about how he misses a boy he barely even got to speak to.
And it’s days like these, when Seokmin and Minghao are running in circles on the lawn trying to escape each other in some form of double tag and the sky is clear blue and Mingyu has a slight sunburn on his cheeks from staying outside for too long, when Mingyu realizes that maybe he shouldn’t miss Wonwoo at all.
A school bus drives by on the street, and Minghao stops abruptly to wave enthusiastically at the high school kids on it. A few respond to him with shouted greetings, but the bus drives off too quickly for Mingyu to make out anyone.
“Do you know those kids?” Seokmin says, breathing heavily.
“Yeah, some of them. My friend Junhui said he’s gonna start taking the bus home from his school, so we might get to see him more often. And Wonwoo might come with him too since they live in the same apartment complex.”
Mingyu instantly perks up at the mention of Wonwoo’s name, and he turns around to look at his two friends. “Wonwoo?”
Minghao nods and then turns to Seokmin to slap him on the arm, resuming their game of running. Mingyu looks down at the grass and picks at a few pieces.
Wonwoo. He might get to see him again. He bites his lip to try and distract his heart from beating too quickly at the thought.
Mingyu falls back onto the grass on his back, letting himself relax until Seokmin and Minghao collapse down on either side of him in a fit of giggles. Mingyu lets out a laugh too while his friends calm down.
The sun filters through the tree branches above them but it feels blinding when Junhui’s voice cuts through the air.
“Now what are my favorite dongsaengs doing lying down and getting their uniforms dirty?”
Mingyu is the first to shoot up from his position and he’s met with the sight he’d never thought he’d see again.
Wonwoo stands tall with a smirk on his face. He has glasses that frame his face, and his hands hang loosely in his pockets. He looks straight at Mingyu and winks.
The butterflies come back instantly, and Mingyu wonders how he ever got through the past months without having Wonwoo to look at every day.
-
Mingyu sees Wonwoo almost every single day after that. He always shows up with Junhui after the older kids get out of school and he sets his bags down and sits slightly too close to Mingyu. Sometimes he’ll even rest his head on Mingyu’s shoulder and let out soft sighs while he breathes in the clean air.
Junhui lets out loud yelps as he entertains Minghao and Seokmin when they teach him their games and Wonwoo brings out a book to read while Mingyu tries to understand the topic over the older boy’s shoulder.
And when autumn comes Wonwoo and Mingyu clear up piles of leaves for the other boys to jump into so that they have clear space for themselves to sit on. Sometimes, Seokmin will sneak up behind them and dump handfuls of leaves on their heads just to see their reaction before he slips away, giggling uncontrollably.
And when winter comes and the snow keeps them from sitting, Minghao finally convinces Mingyu to play double tag and they run in the snow and soak their shoes and uniforms in water. Wonwoo watches from the side, a smile always on his face until Junhui hits him straight in the face with a snowball. Wonwoo barks out a laugh and runs to tackle the other boy.
And when spring comes, high school becomes a matter to contend with. Mingyu’s not going to the same school as all of them, he’s moving away when the school year ends. And when he almost cries one day watching all his friends play, Wonwoo laces their fingers together like they had a year ago and squeezes tightly. The best year of his life is almost over and he’s about to lose the one thing he really loves.
“I’ll walk you home today,” Wonwoo states, standing and brushing off the clovers stuck to his pants.
Mingyu follows with a questioning look. “You don’t have to, hyung.”
“It’s alright. I have to tell you something.”
Mingyu’s heart beats a little faster at the implications of the words. So, he tries to nod as calmly as possible, throwing his backpack over his shoulder and gesturing towards to direction of his house.
They wave goodbye for the day to their friends, who have somehow arranged themselves into a pile with Seokmin yelping for help when Junhui stacks himself right on top of Minghao, who’s holding down Junhui’s arms while lying on top of Seokmin. Wonwoo laughs and adjusts his glasses, a habit he seems to have picked up after the wind blew so harshly and helped them slip off his nose.
As they walk, it’s silent, and Mingyu wonders if maybe Wonwoo forgot that he had something to say.
Spring is Mingyu’s favorite season. He loves the new greenery and how everything just becomes so much brighter when the sun begins to shine regularly again. He likes spring storms because the warm feeling of rain on his skin feels more electrifying than lightning.
But that feeling might have a competition when Wonwoo’s hand brushes against the back of Mingyu’s. The younger boy’s fingers twitch at the sensation, suppressing the violent shiver running down his back. He doesn’t pull away though, allowing their hands to touch briefly every few seconds.
And he guesses that maybe Wonwoo loses patience when the elder finally links their pinkies together, stopping in their place along the sidewalk. It’s not in any important spot, although it’s directly under the sun. Mingyu turns his body towards Wonwoo and sees the forever inquisitive look the elder has always had.
He had mistaken it for void emotions when he was younger, but now he knows, after spending everyday together. Wonwoo examines everything he sees like it’s a math equation he knows the answer to, but he doesn’t quite know the process to get there.
“I want to tell you something,” he says simply. Mingyu nods and wonders if the sweat running down his face is from the heat or from nervousness. “I might not be coming around with Junhui anymore.”
Mingyu’s eyes widen in surprise, and he takes a step closer to Wonwoo. “Why not?”
“Um, finals are coming up. And they are for you too, right? And I just need to focus a lot on studying since it’s my first year of high school, yeah? So, um, yeah, I might not be coming around for a while.”
Something in Mingyu breaks, but he hopes it doesn’t show. He already thought he had lost his chance with Wonwoo months ago, and now it’s happening again. Mingyu’s moving away from the city, and now he won’t even get to spend the rest of the semester with the boy he’s liked for nearly a year.
“Are you serious?” he asks, voice cracking in the middle of his question.
Wonwoo looks down at their interlocked pinkies and adjusts his glasses again. “Yeah,” he nearly whispers.
Mingyu doesn’t even know what to say, doesn’t know how to express his feelings, so he drops his hand and turns back in the direction of his house.
“I’m gonna go home now.”
Wonwoo lets out a miniscule nod and watches as Mingyu makes his way down the street, not even turning back. When Mingyu turns the corner, he wonders if he should at least glance to the side, but he doesn’t, knowing that if he did, he’d hold onto the gaze for the rest of his life.
And once again, Mingyu doesn’t see Wonwoo for 3 years.
-
It takes Mingyu a surprisingly short amount of time to get over Wonwoo. He guesses not seeing someone for a while certainly helps you forget about them. But he refuses to admit that sometimes, his mind still drifts to thoughts of Wonwoo. He guesses it’s not that easy to forget your first love.
It’s the first day back from summer break. Mingyu’s in his third year of high school. He’s made plenty of friends, dated plenty of people, and built himself quite a popular reputation if he wants to brag. He’s not exactly the star quarterback, but he has good looks that keep him afloat in terms of popularity. Nearly everyone knows him.
He’d grown a lot, long legs and broad shoulders that make him look more fit than he is. His height towers over many of the people in his grade, and even the older students. His jawline is sharp, and he keeps his skin clear, knowing that’s what the girls around him are into.
He’s fresh out of another breakup with another nameless girl when he walks into the school, greeting friends he hasn’t seen all summer. He’s just about to throw a wink at a group of girls ogling him when Vernon smacks him hard on the back as an introduction to his presence.
“Already flirting and the first bell hasn’t rung yet?”
Mingyu throws an arm over Vernon’s shoulders and shakes him. “I have to keep up appearances.”
“Yeah, sure whatever man. See you in calculus.” Vernon drifts off to the side of the hall, wrapping his arms around Seungkwan. Mingyu continues his lap around the school before finally ending up in his classroom, sitting in the back row where he’d be able to throw paper planes and his friend’s unassuming heads.
He gets through half the day and past lunch before it starts going wrong. He’s heading to his second to last period of the day, walking the crowded hallway when he sees a person blocking the direct route he’s taking right along the wall. It’s such a hassle to walk in the middle of the crowd.
He groans quietly and merges in with the rest of the students, being pushed around by kids shorter than him. And he’s just about to pass by the person and get back into his lane when his arm is grabbed suddenly, and he’s tugged nearly straight into the wall.
“What the fuck?” Mingyu turns to the person, anger burning since it’s literally the first day back and he’s already putting up with this bullshit, but the face he sees stops him.
Wonwoo. He’s changed. His glasses are round now, and his face is longer with a sharp nose. He’s gotten taller, but he’s now noticeably shorter than Mingyu. His long fingers linger on Mingyu’s sleeve before they drop.
“Oh.”
And just like that, everything Mingyu told himself about love and being forgotten and definitely not still thinking about Wonwoo fades because Wonwoo is here, standing in front of him. Right now.
“You’ve gotten taller,” Wonwoo says. The first words he says to Mingyu after being gone for almost three years are about his height. And yeah, Mingyu’s gotten a few growth spurts he supposes, but was it really that obvious?
He clears his throat awkwardly. “Um, yeah.”
“How have you been?”
“Um, I’ve been alright.” Mingyu bites his lip, not sure how to continue the conversation when his heart is beating so loudly in his ears. “Why are you here?”
Mingyu wants to know how Wonwoo is so composed after seeing him for the first time in so long. “I moved out here over the summer.”
The crowd of students begins to dissipate around them, but Mingyu is too stunned to even think about moving. Wonwoo is here.
After spending slightly too much time staring, Wonwoo nods and moves to turn around. “I’m going to class now. See you around?”
Mingyu nods dumbly, but when Wonwoo actually turns around, he grabs the elder’s wrist and pulls him back, closer than before. Wonwoo has to visibly look up at him now, his glasses showcasing every color in his eyes.
“I’ll see you around, right?” Mingyu asks softly, scared that maybe this is a dream. Maybe Wonwoo isn’t real, and his brain is fucking with him. He doesn’t know what he’d do if he had to walk away from Wonwoo again, not knowing when the next time he’d see him would be.
“Of course,” Wonwoo says with his half-smile, half-smirk, and it feels real.
Mingyu sees Wonwoo an hour later after class, and purposefully bumps their shoulders when they walk past each other just to get a reaction out of the older boy.
-
“I’d never thought I’d see you again,” Mingyu starts incredulously a few nights later. They’re at his house, in his bedroom, sitting on his bed. He had convinced Wonwoo to come over that afternoon, saying that they should catch up.
“Yeah, well, I’m here now, huh?” Wonwoo smiles and shrugs. “You’ve changed a lot.”
“If I had changed that much then how did you recognize me?”
Wonwoo looks at Mingyu like he’s trying to solve a puzzle. Like there’s a right or wrong answer to his question. “You never lost your cuteness. I saw you trying to act all hard and cool, it’s different from you in middle school.”
Mingyu flushes at the words. Wonwoo thinks he’s cute? Wonwoo still thinks he’s cute? As in, he used to think he was cute and thinks he’s cute now too. His brain is sent into overdrive.
“Ah, middle school, haha.” Mingyu rubs the back of his neck, trying to hide the redness. “A lot is different from then, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Wonwoo says softly, as if wants to say more, but doesn’t know how.
Mingyu’s too busy trying to keep his nerves under control to notice how close Wonwoo has moved towards him until the elder raises a hand up to him and presses it against the heat of Mingyu’s neck. The younger boy flinches forward but the hand follows. Mingyu slowly turns towards Wonwoo with a confused expression.
“I missed you,” Wonwoo admits. “The year before you left was one of the best I’d ever had.”
Mingyu nods in acknowledgement. Because he feels the same, and it’s strange to know that Wonwoo had felt the same this whole time.
“And I always wondered if you thought of me when we were apart,” Wonwoo brings his hand down and takes Mingyu’s, pulling it into his own lap to fiddle with his fingers. “I knew it was dumb of me to have a crush on some dongsaeng of mine, but I really couldn’t help it.” He chuckles. “You were really so cute.”
Mingyu thinks his heart is going to beat out of his chest. It’s been 3 years and yet it still feels like the first time he ever saw the older boy. Still feels like maybe his love hasn’t died down for a moment, and that no matter how much Mingyu pushed it down, it was always there, always bubbling at the surface.
And now his feelings are about ready to erupt out of his throat, but he holds back. Who knows what’s changed in Wonwoo’s mind since then?
“And you’re still the cute kid I used to see every day. Although now you’re a whole lot taller.”
Mingyu chuckles and looks at Wonwoo, only to see the elder completely flushed red, the color sitting high on his cheeks with pride. Mingyu feels his chest warm at the sight.
“And this probably isn’t the best way to say hello after being gone for so long, but you knew I liked you, right? And… and I still do, of course.”
Mingyu doesn’t have the words to express his feelings, and the grip on his hand begins to loosen, scared of a repeat of what had happened the last time they had been separated.
“Can you promise you won’t leave me this time?” Mingyu tightens his grip on Wonwoo’s hand and pulls the boy closer to him, thighs touching, noses brushing against each other as Mingyu examines every single strand of color in Wonwoo’s eyes. “Can you promise that you’ll stay with me this time?”
Wonwoo lets out a soft sigh. “I can’t promise you that I won’t leave, Mingyu.”
The younger boy shuts his eyes. He should’ve known. Nothing good lasts forever. It’s not like Wonwoo had wanted to date him and be romantic anyways.
But the tug on his hand until their lips are touching, but not quite kissing, seems like enough when Wonwoo whispers, “But I can promise you that no matter what happens to us, how far apart we are, that I’ll always love you. Always.”
And Mingyu knows he doesn’t really need any other confirmation to lean all the way in and press his lips against Wonwoo’s.