Work Text:
When Junhui managed to reach the library he sat down and heaved as he took in the amount of work he had to do in just one afternoon.
It did not help that he was in the middle of a bad day, where everything seemed to be set up against his well-being and sanity.
He had woken up late and had to rush to college, when he finally managed to arrive he found out his first lecture had actually been cancelled, so he was two hours early and to top it off the following one was in a classroom where the air conditioner had managed to break down, and the temperature was boiling.
At least, he thought, the library was always a safe space, so he could sit down and work properly, without any disturbance.
So, Junhui took out his brick of a literature book and placed it as carefully as possible on the library table, without making it slam, and opened it where he left it last. He also took his notebook, where he had been carefully writing his notes for the upcoming exam for the last three days.
His main goal was to get everything done that same afternoon, so he could transcribe everything on his computer at night and also because in the evening he was... busy. He avoided thinking about it or he wouldn't have been productive enough.
Just as he started, someone sat down three chairs away from him, which he usually didn't notice when he was focused enough, but the person quite literally threw everything that they had on the table and plopped down on a chair heavily.
Junhui glanced and was met with a mad individual huffing and puffing while he kept looking at a paper in his hands.
"Must have failed a test, not my problem."
“Excuse me?” Junhui almost thought he had voiced his thoughts, but the dude was watching him intently, actually trying to get his attention. Now that he looked better he found his face familiar… “You’re in Mr. Brooks’s lectures too, right? Lit two?” Question answered.
“Yes I am, do you have anything to ask or?” Junhui really didn’t want to be cocky, but he had work to do and he wanted to finish as soon as possible.
“Were you present at his last lecture? I wasn’t there and needed to ask someone anyway”
Junhui could think of at least a hundred different excuses to shoo him away, but his heart won over the mind.
“Yes, do you need the materials?” That single sentence was enough to take him away an hour and a half of his time, wasted in explaining literature when he should have been the one studying it, giving him all the pages and quotes from the professor.
Junhui thought that by helping the guy it would be it.
It wasn’t.
He kept murmuring under his breath as he read the stuff that had just been given to him, almost like a prayer. Junhui mustered all of his patience in and put on his earphones, desperately trying to block out the sound.
The rest of the afternoon was (luckily) spent finishing the work and once he had finished summing up the last paragraph of the last page, Junhui let his body relax on the old wooden chair for the first time in hours.
He packed up with a small smile on his face, both being proud of his work and knowing about the wonderful evening waiting for him. He left the library, backpack on his shoulders and finished notebook in hand, flipping through the notes to feel better about himself.
As he was walking through the corridor leading to the exit a high-pitched sound pierced his ears and water started raining from the ceiling.
Someone had pulled the fire alarm.
Junhui opened his phone while striding out of the building, noticing the message from his boyfriend telling him he was outside. That was his day somehow getting better.
The happiness didn’t last long, though, because once he walked through the automatic door something caught his eye.
His notebook.
The water ruined his notes.
He immediately felt his eyes filling up with tears in frustration, and he tried to hold them back, not wanting to show himself like that in front of the entire student body, slowly pouring out in the garden surrounding the school premises.
He was doing a pretty good job up until he saw his boyfriend. He somehow knew something was wrong just by looking at him once (it wasn’t hard to understand). Junhui stopped right in front of him, a few centimetres away from bumping into him.
“Hi Junnie”
“Hi Wonwoo”
“Is everything okay?” Every imaginary dam impeding Junhui from bursting out in tears broke. It first started as a soft sob, which turned into sniffling and laboured breathing in seconds.
Wonwoo pulled Junhui into a tight hug, letting him cry his frustrations out.
“I can’t do it anymore Won, I’m so tired,” Junhui said between one sob and the other “Today everything went badly and this was really the breaking point, I can’t…” Not being able to find the words to keep on speaking, Junhui gave in to Wonwoo’s hold, the latter whispering sweet nothings into his ear to calm him down.
After a while, Wonwoo stepped away from Junhui, holding his face in his hands while drying the tears left on his cheeks with his thumbs.
“Over there they’re saying something caught fire in the chem lab, so don’t worry about having to beat someone up for ruining your notes and come with me” Junhui leaned into his partner’s touch, smiling slightly at his statement.
Wonwoo leaned in and left a light peck on Junhui’s lips, then held his hand out for him to grab.
“Let’s go” said Junhui while holding onto Wonwoo’s hand tightly and following him to his car, most probably headed to his place to spend the rest of the evening, completely forgetting about the soaked notebook between his arms.
fin.