Work Text:
“Hyunwoo, it huuurts!”
Hyunwoo stopped pedaling his bike when he heard Minhyuk’s whiny voice. Turning around, the younger kid seemed to fall from his own bike, and when Hyunwoo got closer, he could see the scraped knees of the boy.
The 7-year-old kid looked up at Hyunwoo with teary eyes. “Hyunwoo, my knees hurt,” he whimpered before crying.
Hyunwoo, a year older than him, crouched down in front of his friend, checking the wounded knees. “It’s only small scratches, Minhyuk, you’re just fine.”
“But, it hurts so much!” The Minhyuk boy kept whining. Tears now made two tracks down his cheeks and Hyunwoo hated to see Minhyuk crying like that.
Thinking of what to do, Hyunwoo then remembered that he had a lollipop a nice old lady next door gave to him for helping her catching her cat this morning. It was a good coincidence because Minhyuk loved lollipops, another good coincidence because the lollipop was strawberry milk flavored, Minhyuk’s favorite.
“Hey, stop crying,” Hyunwoo said. He fished his pocket pants and showed the lollipop to Minhyuk, making Minhyuk’s wails slowly turn into soft sobs. “I’ll give it to you if you stop crying.”
Still sobbing a little, Minhyuk nodded. He waited with eyes locked on the sweet candy as Hyunwoo opened the plastic wrap for him, muttering a thank you when the older fed him the lollipop. Soon enough, he had been busy sucking on his lollipop, forgetting the scraped knees he had. Hyunwoo smiled at that—Minhyuk was just so cute.
“Come on, I’ll carry you home,” Hyunwoo showed his back to Minhyuk, gesturing him to climb on.
“What about the bikes?” asked the younger as he wrapped his thin arms around Hyunwoo’s shoulders, wincing when Hyunwoo pulled him up.
“I’ll take them back after taking you home,” replied Hyunwoo.
The sun was warm when he piggybacked Minhyuk. Minhyuk was way smaller compared to him, and it felt like he carried a puppy on his back because Minhyuk’s body was light. The chest that was pressed against his back felt thin, but Hyunwoo loved how Minhyuk breathed steadily. Their hearts beat in the same rhyme, and Hyunwoo found it comfortable.
+
“Come here, you fucker! Come here so we can fight like fighters!”
Hyunwoo sighed when he heard the voice he’d known forever. People were gathering around something—someone—and Hyunwoo knew it would get worse if he didn’t come right in time.
“Do you really think you can beat me, pretty boy? Look at that face, you’d better run away before I crush your pretty face!” Hyunwoo knew that voice, too; it was Jooheon’s, a delinquent student. He was still in his first year in high school, but no one wanted to have a problem with him because he was known as a good fighter (and a bully, too).
What has that stupid boy done that he has to mess with Jooheon?
Hyunwoo finally reached the center of the crowds, feeling rather relieved because at least he came before a bigger mess happened. As a senior, he should’ve stayed away from this kind of issue and focused on studying for college, but he couldn’t just stare without doing anything.
“Stop it, you two!” Hyunwoo’s voice made the noises disappeared—Hyunwoo was somewhat grateful that he had a good reputation around the school that made people respect him. “Jooheon, we all know that once again you pick a fight in this school, you’ll be expelled, so stop. Don’t waste your time to fight this fool.”
The ‘fool’ one, of course, didn’t agree with that at all. “Hey—”
Hyunwoo shot him a glare, making the latter shut his mouth immediately. “And, you, Lee Minhyuk,” His voice was stern. “You come with me. Now.”
“What, no! I still have something to do with that fucker—” Minhyuk still wanted to argue, but something was shoved into his mouth, stopping him from saying anything more.
And, before he could protested, Hyunwoo’s strong arms had carried him, throwing his lithe frame over the broad shoulder. Hyunwoo didn’t even bother to listen to Minhyuk’s yells of wanting Hyunwoo to put him down, nor did he care about people’s stares at them.
“Hyunwoo, you’re not doing this in front of everyone!” Minhyuk wiggled in Hyunwoo’s arms, trying to escape.
“I should stop you from harming yourself, so this is needed to be done,” Hyunwoo said like there was nothing happened. “Lollipops and a piggyback ride, two things that always manage to calm you down.”
Minhyuk scoffed. “You’re not even piggybacking me.”
Hyunwoo chuckled. They were in the hallway when Hyunwoo put him down and bent down. “Get on my back, then. I’ll piggyback you to class.”
Minhyuk’s face clearly said that he couldn’t believe it. They were in school, where so many people looked at them with weird expression. But, Hyunwoo knew the younger wouldn’t mind the piggyback ride to class. He knew it because Minhyuk was laughing—Minhyuk was laughing and climbing on his back without thinking twice.
“This is so weird! Three years you’ve spent your life here as an straight-A student with flawless reputation, and now you’re destroying it by doing something weird with me!”
Actually, Hyunwoo didn’t mind.
+
“I’ll sue you! I swear to god, I’ll sue you!”
Hyunwoo sighed. “Stop suing the poor stairs, pup. It’s just stairs,” he said as he adjusted Minhyuk on his back. He came to pick Minhyuk up from the white-haired (yes, Minhyuk dyed his hair white, or maybe silvery, Hyunwoo couldn’t decide the color) man’s campus for lunch, but what he got was Minhyuk tripping on his own legs on the stairs, and now the younger was about to sue it; the stairs, yes, what a fool Minhyuk was.
“This wasn’t the first time, Hyunwoo. No, they said there’s ghost living in those stairs, and it always wants to take someone with it, to its realm. So, to make it clear, I’m not suing the stairs; I’m suing the ghost! It tried to kill me!”
As silly as how Minhyuk sounded, Hyunwoo still couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “I’ve never found someone as mental as you,” he said, earning a slap on his shoulder.
“Shut up. My ankle hurts; you’d better do something with it.”
“We’ll take care of it later, now you’d better get your lollipop here, on my jacket pocket.”
It was a little work to do to get the lollipop, but Minhyuk managed to reach into the pocket, anyway. He opened the wrapper and sucked on it. “Let’s just head to my dorm and order something for lunch. You have no class after this, don’t you? My roommate won’t be home until tomorrow night, so you can spend a night.”
Hyunwoo hummed in return. He adjusted Minhyuk’s position once again, making Minhyuk whimper in pain softly. He looked aside, worries in his expression.
His face changed a bit, though, when he realized that Minhyuk’s face was so close to his that he could clearly see how stunning Minhyuk was. Those bright eyes, those long eyelashes, those pouty, pinkish lips—Minhyuk was just perfect. Minhyuk was beautiful.
Minhyuk was everything that keeps his heart beating a beat faster.
“If you kept staring at me, you’d fall in love with me.”
Hyunwoo hurriedly looked away, embarrassed because Minhyuk found out he was staring.
“Did you really think I could fall for you?”
Minhyuk laughed lightly, his arms around Hyunwoo’s shoulders tightening a bit.
+
Minhyuk was a mess when Hyunwoo arrived. Minhyuk was drunk, Minhyuk was in unstable state.
Hyunwoo received a phone call from Minhyuk an hour ago, past midnight, telling that the younger was sad, so sad that he needed Hyunwoo as soon as possible. From his voice, Hyunwoo could assume that Minhyuk was drunk because he was blabbering. Hyunwoo even needed to tell Minhyuk to give the phone to someone sober near him to get the location—it was good there was a nice bartender with Minhyuk when he called, so Hyunwoo could go to pick him up right away.
Minhyuk was a mess, but he still smiled when he saw Hyunwoo. He launched himself to Hyunwoo’s arms when Hyunwoo was in his reach, slumping into the warmness of Hyunwoo’s body.
“You came. You came. Not like him. He left, Hyunwoo. Hoseok left.”
Minhyuk was a mess; he was sad. Hoseok, Hyunwoo repeated the name in his head. So, your boyfriend left you.
It wasn’t easy to dig the information of what had happened from drunken Minhyuk. His words weren’t clear, he was slurring, but in the end Hyunwoo could draw a conclusion that Hoseok left Minhyuk for someone else, someone named Yoo something, Hyunwoo couldn’t hear it clearly.
And, being left behind, Minhyuk went to a club, treating himself everything he thought could reduce the pain in his chest.
It still hurt, though, because in their way back, Hyunwoo could feel his shoulder slowly getting wet.
Minhyuk refused to get into Hyunwoo’s car; he insisted to have a piggyback ride back to his apartment, which was quite far to go by walking, but Hyunwoo complied. He knew why Minhyuk wanted to be carried home, yes, he knew why.
“Did you bring my lollipop?”
“It’s in my pants pocket.”
They’d been friends for many, many years, since they were kids until now, when Hyunwoo had worked in a law firm and Minhyuk slowly but sure reached his dream to be a children’s literature writer. They’d been friends for many, many years, too close to each other like two brothers that Hyunwoo was afraid to cross the borderline, even though he really wanted to. They’d been friends for many, many years, and they were still the same, they were still them.
Lollipops and a piggyback ride had become their habit since long, long ago. It had become their habit since Hyunwoo still thought of Minhyuk as his little brother up until now, when Minhyuk wasn’t his ‘little brother’ anymore, when Minhyuk had turned into someone he loved with his whole heart, his source of living, even though Minhyuk might never think the same.
Strawberry milk flavored lollipops and a piggyback ride home would always be provided for Minhyuk, for the sake of Minhyuk’s happiness. Even though it was hard to calm Minhyuk down in this kind of situation right now, Hyunwoo knew he would be back to his usual person soon.
Because lollipops and a piggyback ride were still there for Minhyuk to calm him down until he was happy again.