Work Text:
Hongjoong slammed his head at the studio's desk, not once, not twice, but multiple times that it alerted another music producer in the room who's helping out on a composition Hongjoong had told him about, is now checking on him worriedly, as he hasn't seen the light for the last five hours, cooped up in the room with stress pouring out in every corner of the studio after every minutes passing by.
"Just go home, it won't do you any good forcing yourself like this and not making any progress."
"But hyung, I--"
"No, just come back tomorrow, after a good rest."
And Hongjoong is more frustrated than before, he feels like letting people down by just going home like this, especially his beloved fans and possibly future fans that's going to join them on their journeys. But, he went home anyways as told, because he's an obedient child, standing up after he heaves a sigh of disappointment all while gathering his stuffs involuntarily and bids the other goodbye in murmuring manner, closing the door behind him.
He rolled his shoulders to relief some of the stress that's been building, it's not that weird due to how tense he is today, much moreso than before as he pressured himself to do better in this really tight spot of an already packed schedule. He fishes out his phone from his back pocket to look at the time, and it's not even the same time that he used to get back to the dorm (Well, it's an apartment but it's easier to refer as a dorm), which is just ten minutes away from three in the morning. His normal hours is usually after four.
"Seonghwa surely going to sense something weird..."
Hongjoong muttered to himself as he started to walk, pushing back his hair into his beanie and sighed, for the nth time today and closes his eyes briefly to imagine what he's going to do and say when he sees his best friend, to which he just wishes to avoid any conversation at all since he doesn't think he can handle one, he's just so upset and drained about himself due to his weirdly slower workflow today, and he might break infront of his loving friends.
Whatever, he'll just tell him he's tired, and knowing Seonghwa, he wouldn't want people to feel uncomfortable around him so he surely wouldn't push him around to get an answer out of him, now Hongjoong is less stressed about the confrontation and moreso glad to have such good friends (And Hongjoong sheds a few tears thinking about the seven people at the dorm on his way back).
It wasn't a surprise seeing Seonghwa awake at this hour as he shuffled through the hallway to the kitchen for a drink, and the taller male is the one that's end up being surprised instead, with two couple's mugs that occupied his hands are placed back down to walk over to the captain who's nonchalantly opening the fridge for a cold bottled water. Hongjoong's guessing the other mug is for San, he could hear the clicking and the keyboard tapping from where he's standing.
"Hey."
Hongjoong raised his eyebrows alongside his greetings after pushing the door of the fridge with his hips to a close, while twisting the bottle's cap off.
"Hey, you're back early. What gives?"
Seonghwa briefly glances at a clock, and back at Hongjoong with a smile, a happy one. Probably thinking that he finished his works early, and the rapper feels the guilt and disappointment resurfacing, heavy on his chest and restricting his throat--suddenly he's fucking parched and he immediately started chugging the whole water bottle with gusto.
"I was told to go home."
He replied, a beat after finishing the cold water off and placed it on the countertop, to which the taller puts them in the recycling bin as if it's a reflex embedded in his brain, a slight crease form between Seonghwa's brows.
"You wanna talk about it?"
"No--I mean, not like, not ever. Just, not now."
Hongjoong breathes out heavily, rubbing his face harshly with his right hand while the other curled into a fist.
"I understand, don't worry. We'll talk when you're ready, okay?"
"Yeah, sorry"
The sorry came out unexpectedly, and Hongjoong almost regrets saying that out loud as he bits lips down and removes his hand from his face to see Seonghwa's reaction, and him being the bestest friend ever, he just smiled and didn't question him about it. And it's no wonder why everyone comes to him for comfort, he's literally radiating homely aura by just being present.
"No need to say sorry, it's really alright for me if you want to hold off till later on. Are you okay staying at San's for a bit? We didn't expect you to come home early, so he's staying at ours instead."
"I'll be fine, no worries"
"I'll still worry even if you said that,"
Seonghwa chuckled and squeezes Hongjoong's shoulders before grabbing the two mugs from earlier.
"We'll keep the noise down so you can rest, goodnight Hongjoong."
"Yeah, thanks--like, a lot. Goodnight"
He watches the other smiled warmly at him and leaves the kitchen, and he hears the door closes quietly afterwards--to which Hongjoong quickly feels his legs turning jelly as he slowly sits down on the floor, knocking the back of head at the cabinet's door below the countertop, closing his eyes tightly as he feels his throat is closing every second passing by, the familiar hot feeling behind his eyes, and the tremor of his hands.
Fuck, he was barely holding on when Seonghwa is so...him. He couldn't say anything about tonight nor masking his feelings well enough and it's stressing him out, as if it wasn't bad enough, he couldn't tell his best friend who surely gets the hints and will be worrying about him while spending his quality time with his favourite person. God, he feels like shit. He should have been better at work today, or else this wouldn't happen, and he wouldn't ruin both Seonghwa's and San's time.
"Hyung? What are you doing on the floor?"
Shit--that voice sounds familiar. No, no, he can't look up now. He is totally not ready to face anyone else right now. Then he hears the steps growing near him, and he can feel the warmth of the person is right beside him now, making Hongjoong unable to escape from this confrontation.
"Hyung? Are you feeling okay?"
"I'll be fine, I just feel dizzy, that's all"
He tries, voice rough and somehow pulled a smile at the sight of the endearing, sleepy Yunho, with some of his hair at the back of his head is defying gravity, eyes blinking slowly yet fills with concern as he flicks them up and down Hongjoong's form as if to look for any injuries--then immediately stops at his face as his eyes are now wide awake.
"Hyung, why are you crying?"
"Wh-What?"
The older one blinks rapidly at that comment and he quickly swipes his fingers at his now wet cheeks, confirming that he's indeed crying, albeit without him noticing. To which Yunho later turned his head around to see if anyone else awake as he cups the latter's cheeks in his much larger hands, his thumbs wiping the tears away so gentle and careful that makes Hongjoong breaks a little more inside.
"Did someone hurt you? Who was it?"
"No one--"
"Who made you cry?"
"Yunho, no one did--"
"I swear, I'll--"
"Yunnie, puppy, please,"
Hongjoong chuckles, it came out somewhat hoarse around the edges as he sniffed his tears.
"No one made me cry, I promise you"
"So, you're the one who made yourself cry"
Yunho whispered, moreso to himself but the older one hears it of course, since they're clse enough to feel each other's breath, so he nodded, smiling defeatedly.
"Yeah,"
He softly whispered back, lowering his head down to rest his cheeks on Yunho's palm, sighing out shakily, one hand to hold the other's on his left.
"I did."
He closes his eyes, breathing in and out heavily, trying his best to holding on to whatever the fuck he has right now to not breakdown even more infront of the younger male, trying calm down so that he could just not talk about it and sleep so he can get back to work tomorrow. And Yunho didn't say anything, other than removing his hands from holding his cheeks, alerting Hongjoong immediately, feeling the guilt weighing even more.
Instead, he was lifted up, bridal style, arms placed below his knees and his back as Yunho wordlessly carries him down to his room as Hongjoong quietly panics at this sudden turn of events, and also confused, and he's now placed to sit down on the other's bed.
"Wh-Why--Huh?"
Is all Hongjoong could come up, and it sounded horrifically stupid as well, to his ears anyways. But it sounds like Yunho enjoyed the flustered reaction, with the way the corner of his eyes crinkled and a soft giggle as a reply.
"You can change into my clean shirt and shorts, give me your clothes so I can hang them up"
"O-Okay?"
Hongjoong is confused with this whole ordeal, but does it anyways, pulling the much larger white t-shirt over his head that it is halfway through slipping off one of his shoulders, and a comfortable pair of grey shorts. He dumbly watches Yunho hangs up his clothings, and moves around the room to grab something, closing the main light in the room and turning on a night lamp instead, then moves back to where Hongjoong is.
He proceeds to carefully wipe the latter's face clean with a damp, warm towel as to not hurt him (which he doesn't, Jeong Yunho is a very good boy) and pulls out a couple of cotton pad that he puts some skincare products on, then gently pats them around Hongjoong's face before tossing the cottons out in a nearby small trash can, and puts away towel in a laundry basket. He smiled in satisfaction to himself before laying down sideways on the bed, patting the space beside him for Hongjoong.
"What are you doing?"
The older questions after he lays down on Yunho's offered bicep that's probably larger than his, looking up with eyebrows furrowing curiously at him.
"What does it look like I'm doing?"
"... Forcing me to sleep?"
"No, hyung, you idiot,"
The other chuckled in amusement at that, and Hongjoong feels his chest rumbles against him, his eyebrows curled upwards.
"I'm taking care of you, isn't that obvious?"
Oh.
"Oh."
He uttered, again, aloud now. Wow, now he's going to feel like he's going to lose it.
"You're way too hard on yourself and I'm guessing today's is one of the days you're way harsher than usual."
"... What makes you think that?"
He's genuinely curious, really. He hasn't said anything about what he's thinking of nor what had happened.
"You're home earlier than usual and San didn't come to this room, so it's not a good thing--and you didn't talk to Seonghwa-hyung about it, because if you did, San is going to be here telling me about you worryingly."
He started to talk after a beat of soft humming from him.
"And you would delay the talking whenever you're having a hard time with your performance at work, because you have a high standard of your own work flow--so anything below that, you would be super upset about it and moreso on yourself. Also, you cried on the kitchen floor, that's a first, so you must have been beating yourself up with it, and for you, talking to Seonghwa-hyung is hard enough already."
And, Hongjoong obviously didn't expect that from how fucking much he was right on the nose with just guessing with what he has. Holy shit that scared him a little, but also proud? He doesn't know, but it's nothing negative, that's for sure.
"How did you...?"
He whispered, sounded more like a statement by how shocked he is rather than a question, honestly. And that made Yunho snorted, wrapping his free arm around Hongjoong's waist to pull him close, the one under the other's is curled to hug his head instead, inevitably making Hongjoong the small spoon, his chin resting on top of Yunho's shoulder as the younger buried his nose in his half-dyed hair.
"Of course I know, you're my favourite hyung."
He mumbled, his voice sounds teasing before continuing,
"And I love you way too much to not know and notice all the little things about you."
Oh.
Oh my god this kid--
"So, let me lend you my shoulder this time to make up for the other times you did for us, for me. No one's going to be mad and upset at you, I can assure you that. We all know you did your best today, so don't worry and let's do our next best tomorrow, okay?"
And that was it, the moment he feels everything comes crumbling down. The moment he feels the hug from the other grows tighter, and Hongjoong's whole body shakes alongside his tears streaming down like waterfall, soaking Yunho's shirt. He feels bad about it, but the way his hair is carefully stroked, the words of affirmation along his soft-spoken voice, and the comforting pats on the back by the other's large, warm hands, he knows Yunho is probably more than happy to let him sob like a baby instead of worrying about his shirt.
And right now, Hongjoong feels that he'll be all right when the the next day comes by.