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Minseok grabbed his phone and glimpsed at the caller ID before answering, "Hello?"
"I think Hyeonjun-hyung wants to break up with me," Wooje mumbled in lieu of a greeting and promptly burst into tears.
Nearly dropping his phone in surprise, Minseok fumbled around for a hot minute before forcing out a weak, "What?"
Wooje's sobbing merely intensified.
"Hey, Choi Wooje!" an alarmed Minseok exclaimed as he stumbled out of bed. "Are you okay? Where are you?"
Nothing but crying filled his ears. Wasting no time, Minseok flung open the door and bolted down the hallway with only one person in mind.
"Sanghyuk-hyung, I need your help!"
"Wooje-yah, you need to calm down," Sanghyuk spoke calmly, Minseok's phone clutched in his hand.
But to no avail. Their ex-teammate remained a blubbering mess on the other end of the line, emotional and incoherent.
"What if he's alone? Doesn't sound like anyone's with him." Undoubtedly, Minseok was concerned for Wooje's safety.
Sanghyuk pressed his lips into a thin line, looking pensive. He then prodded, "Did he say anything else to you? Anything at all?"
Minseok's eyes widened dramatically. "He mentioned something about Hyeonjun wanting to break up with him."
At the mention of the jungler's name, Wooje emitted a dejected wail.
Minhyung had barely set foot in the dormitories when Minseok pounced on him out of nowhere, Sanghyuk seemingly materialising behind him.
"Do you know where Moon Hyeonjun is?" Minseok demanded, seizing his collar.
"He's neither replying to our texts nor picking up our calls," Sanghyuk chimed in. "Hyeonjun—"
"Choi, top-laner," Minseok clarified somewhat helpfully.
"—doesn't know where he is either."
Minhyung blinked, slightly confused by what he'd just walked into. He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again to ask, "Why do I hear crying?"
Minseok grimaced and jabbed a thumb at the phone Sanghyuk was holding up. "That'd be Wooje."
A hiccup came through the speaker.
"Choi, top-laner," Sanghyuk added rather unhelpfully.
They ultimately switched to video call after attempting and failing to coax a full story out of their previous top-laner. Wooje's eyes, bloodshot and puffy, didn't distract from the fact that he had a runny nose.
"You should..." Minhyung mimed wiping his face, only for Minseok to elbow him in the ribs.
Hyeonjun (Choi ver.) cleared his throat awkwardly, trying to ease the tension. Although he didn't know Wooje as well as the others, the sight of the younger in distress tugged at his heartstrings. "Do you need us to come and get you?"
Wooje shook his head, his bottom lip trembling. "I've already gone to the doctor's."
Sanghyuk leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "You and Hyeonjun are perfectly safe?"
Wooje nodded meekly and whispered another apology for worrying them.
"Do you know why Hyeonjun wants to break up with you?"
The silence was deafening.
"Yah, Lee Minhyung!" Minseok shouted as Wooje's face crumpled, the waterworks starting right back up.
Hyeonjun (Moon ver.) swore to never take his boyfriend's words at face value ever again. He should've realised something was up the second he tried to clasp Wooje's hand in his and was immediately brushed off.
"The weather's too hot," Wooje had told him when, in reality, he was running a temperature and refused to let Hyeonjun catch on lest he cancel their date. In Wooje's (poor) defence, they hadn't been on one in ages.
Now here Hyeonjun was, doing his best to whip up a proper meal for Wooje without making a mess in someone else's kitchen. Take this with food, the pharmacist's directive echoed in his head.
At one point, Wooje's older brother, who'd unexpectedly dropped by with groceries to restock the pantry, popped his head in and requested politely, "May I try some?"
Needs more salt, Hyeonjun thought after taste-testing. He glanced over his shoulder. "It's just congee, but I'll set aside some for you."
He'd left his phone behind in his haste to meet up with Wooje, so he settled on an easy recipe. Couldn't possibly go wrong with rice, broth, and vegetables right?
"Great. Thanks." Smiling, Wooje's brother gave him a thumbs-up and walked away. Rounding the corner, he said nonchalantly, "Oh, I caught Wooje crying in his room earlier. The door was ajar, but I didn't want to pry."
Good thing Hyeonjun had it in him to turn off the stove before he sprinted. He thanked his lucky stars that Wooje's parents weren't home.
"That's it. Breathe," Sanghyuk instructed tenderly.
To his right, Minseok continued to berate Minhyung for rubbing salt in Wooje's wound. Hyeonjun (Choi ver.) observed quietly from where he sat on the floor, nursing a cup of matcha inconspicuously.
Wooje, no longer a weeping wreck, sniffled and removed his glasses to wipe at his tear-stained cheeks with the back of his palms clumsily. His eyes were swollen, his head felt stuffy, his throat was sore...everything ached. He wanted Hyeonjun to kiss it better, the flu be damned.
"I want Hyeonjun," Wooje whined, small and feeble.
Sanghyuk tilted his head. "Which one?"
"His boyfriend," Hyeonjun, the one who wasn't Wooje's boyfriend, surmised.
Wooje lowered his gaze, fiddling with the temples of his glasses. "My boyfriend," he agreed.
"But you said—"
Minseok gripped Minhyung's upper arm and mimed slitting his throat, nostrils flared. "Zip it, you."
Hyeonjun (Moon ver.) had no idea why his teammates were upset with him.
Sanghyuk had disappeared, Minhyung and the other Hyeonjun were as useful as a pair of chopsticks in a bathtub, and Minseok was too busy chewing him out to explain.
Wooje, sweet ol' Wooje, blew into a tissue and gave him a snotty rundown on everything that happened.
Understanding dawned upon Hyeonjun at once. "It's okay, baby. We had a minor disagreement, that's all. We'll talk it out," he murmured in reassurance, taking the soiled tissue from Wooje to discard, gently tapping him on the nose.
Minseok slammed a hand on the table, scaring Hyeonjun (Choi ver.). "Does this mean you're not breaking up with our Wooje?"
"...no."
"You hesitated!" Minhyung piped up, raising an accusing finger.
"What?" Hyeonjun stared down at the phone balanced precariously on Wooje's thigh. "I clearly said no, didn't I?"
"Yeah, but it wasn't definitive," Minseok argued for the sake of arguing.
"No, I'm not breaking up with my Wooje," Hyeonjun insisted firmly, ignoring Minhyung's teasing Ooo, how possessive.
Sanghyuk's face appeared at the bottom of the frame. "Hurrah."
Wooje swallowed the last spoonful of congee Hyeonjun fed him and apologised, "I'm sorry, hyung. I don't know what came over me, I just... spiralled. You must think I'm stupid."
"Nope, not stupid. You're congested and, well, irrational," Hyeonjun amended, rising to his feet. He left the empty bowl on top of the dresser and returned to Wooje's side, handing him his prescribed medicine and a glass of water.
Despite Wooje's brief reluctance, the pills were downed in a swift motion.
"Good job, baby," Hyeonjun praised softly, accepting the glass from Wooje and putting it on the nightstand. "I should've made it clear that I wasn't frustrated with you, I was mad at myself for not noticing sooner."
"Not your fault, I didn't want you to find out." Wooje shifted on the mattress and shyly hooked his pinkie around Hyeonjun's, his heart skipping a beat when the older man intertwined their fingers and lifted his knuckles to his lips for a kiss instead.
An exasperated Minseok coughed loudly, interrupting the moment. "A classic example of miscommunication. You morons are perfect for each other."
"Why are you still on the phone?" Hyeonjun grumbled through gritted teeth, taking off both his and Wooje's glasses and laying them aside before sliding under the sheets and up behind his boyfriend for a long-overdue cuddle.
"Because no one bothered to hang up," Minseok responded matter-of-factly, smirking. He tuned out Hyeonjun's grumbling and proposed, "Wooje-yah, we should go out for dinner soon! There's this place not too far from Camp One, you'd love it."
Hyeonjun was on the verge of falling asleep when Wooje shot up in bed, almost striking him in the chin with his flailing. "What the hell, dude?"
Wooje groaned, hiding his face in his hands. "I bawled like a baby in front of my former team."
"Oh, that." Hyeonjun stretched, stifling a yawn. "I guess you did, yeah. They've seen worse, no big deal."
"In front of Doran-nim." Wooje whimpered, feeling abashed. God, he dreaded their next game against T1. "This is so embarrassing."
Hyeonjun slowly sat up and slung an arm around Wooje's waist, pressing his forehead to Wooje's shoulder. "Listen, you're overthinking it. Hyung is nice, he'll pretend to forget about it to let you save face. Maknae on top, remember?"
"You're not helping," Wooje protested in a nasal voice.
"Sorry."
Wooje sighed, resigned to his fate. "At least no one else saw."
Hyeonjun closed his eyes. He, too, resigned to his fate and began to speak, "Actually, about that..."