Chapter Text
34.0522° N, 118.2437°W
The members are driving back to their hotel after performing at KCON. It was a day packed with different activities and meetings with fans, and the time difference did not help, making Jungwon feel more exhausted than usual.
Jungwon is leaning against the window and feels his eyes coming to a close, unable to keep them open any longer. He gets lulled to sleep with the gentle turns and stops of the car, finally able to relax after the long day.
Jungwon feels something interrupting him from his sleep, attempting to tug him away from his dream.
“Wonie,” Jay says quietly, shaking the younger’s shoulder tenderly, trying to wake him up. The younger one furrows his eyebrows, irritated that someone is waking him up from his sleep. He grumbles under his breath and tries to move away from the hand but doesn’t get far, the hand remaining on his shoulder.
“Come on Won-ah. We’re at the hotel. You can sleep on your bed.” Jungwon purses his lips in annoyance and smacks it as he squints his eyes open, meeting Jay’s gaze that is filled with warmth.
Jay sends an understanding smile at the younger, knowing how tired he must be feeling. All the members didn’t have time to adjust to the time difference and are all running on a couple hours of sleep.
Jungwon feels like weights are holding him down and his body is throbbing with pain because of how tired he is.
The younger one wonders if he will ever get used to flying long distances and how it will be during their upcoming tour. Maybe he needs to start drinking caffeine to help.
Jungwon sends Jay a small nod to tell him that he is awake and slowly begins to gather his stuff by his feet and gets out of the car. He blinks wide-eyed, trying to get rid of the tiredness that is weighing his eyelids down, but nothing changes. He is still tired.
Jungwon is walking with his eyes half closed, glazed with fatigue. He is following behind Jay and brings his hand up to grab onto the hem of his jacket, holding it tightly between his fingers. He trusts Jay to lead him safely to their hotel room and lightly closes his eyes.
Jungwon needs to actively think about bringing one foot in front of the other, too tired for the action to happen unconsciously. He blearily sees their manager open the door to their room through his half-lidded eyes and walk away, leaving them alone, confident that Jay will safely get the younger one to bed.
“Come on Won-ah,” Jay says softly, sending an adoring smile over his shoulder at the cute tired expression on the younger’s face. Jungwon flinches at the bright lights that turn on automatically in the entrance hall.
Suddenly his hands feel lighter. He looks down and sees a tanner, slightly bigger hand grabbing his bag from him and taking it away.
Jay can clearly tell that Jungwon is not in his right mind, too exhausted from travelling and working for the entire day. So he decides to help Jungwon out.
“I’ll take care of this. You go ahead and shower first,” Jay insists, knowing that if the younger goes to his bed first, he will not get up and decide to sleep in his sweat and grime. And he also knows that when he wakes up, he will be disgusted and upset about it.
“I’ll bring your clothes,” Jay says, gently taking Jungwon’s arm and guiding him to the bathroom and opening the light before closing the door behind him.
Jungwon almost trips on the hole of his pants as he trying to get it off, head heavy with fatigue. But he safely gets into the shower without any injury. He turns on the faucet and hot water hits him in the face.
Jungwon sighs loudly in relief. The water soothing his aching muscles and helping him wake up, and becomes more aware of his surroundings. He scrubs the sweat away and feels much better.
As he is showering, he hears the door open. “Thanks hyung!” Jungwon shouts through the running water, appreciating Jay for bringing him his clothes for him.
He spends a couple of minutes just standing under the water after he is done cleaning himself, closing his eyes and relishing in the warm shower, letting it wash away all his fatigue and aches.
Jungwon feels much more like himself and smiles to himself as he dries himself and puts on his clothes.
Knowing that the older will want to shower too, and he must also be tired, Jungwon decides to forego his skincare routine and ask his hyung to shower while he finishes getting ready for bed. He doesn’t want his hyung to wait any longer than he needs to.
When Jungwon steps out of the bathroom, he smells something, instantly making his stomach grumble. Jay made instant ramen.
The younger one brings a hand to his stomach that is aching with hunger, belatedly realising that he didn’t eat dinner. Maybe he should make some noodles for himself. There is nothing better than going to bed with a stomach full of warm and spicy ramen.
But Jungwon is too tired to make it and can’t be bothered to wait for it to cook either, so he decides that he’ll just go to sleep with his empty stomach. It won’t be the first or last time.
“Hy-,” but Jay interrupts him before he can finish. “Oh you’re done. I made ramen for you. I noticed you didn’t eat much earlier and would probably be hungry now.”
Jungwon’s mouth opens in surprise, which Jay chuckles at. “Go eat Jungwon-ah,” he says in a soft tone, “I’m going to shower now.”
Jungwon is already devouring the ramen before Jay makes it to the bathroom with his pyjamas. Jay shakes his head fondly at the loud slurping of the noodles and satisfied sighs escaping through the chewing.
After Jungwon finds himself staring up at the ceiling, eyes heavy with sleep.
“Thanks hyungie.”
All he hears is a soft snore in response.