Chapter Text
Wooyoung felt perturbed and antsy. His skin sat too tight on his body and he rolled his shoulders as he left his vocal lessons.
This was like the day that wouldn't end.
They'd all been up early this morning to film an episode for Show Champion to show off their song "Celebrate". It had gone well, he supposed. They had sounded good and looked even better. Seemed like there would be lots of good content for Atiny.
He'd gone straight from that taping to a stupid photoshoot the manager had scheduled last minute and then had to rush to make it to his vocal lessons.
He hadn't had a second to breathe since he woke up, let alone time to grab foo-
"Ya," he smacked his own forehead. "I'm just hungry! Pabo."
No wonder he felt...off. It was well into the afternoon and he'd barely eaten today.
He pulled his phone out to see if anyone else wanted to grab food.
8 Makes 1 Team Chat:
Woo 🐈: This late in the day and no one has fed me yet! Who is coming to get food with me?
HetHet: Sorry Wooyo, Jongho and I grabbed lunch with Hwa-hyung a couple hours ago.
HoJong: ☝️
Seonghwa✨: Sorry jagiya! Make sure and still grab yourself something xx
FixOn_n_On: Stuck in the studio trying to wrap up before the break. Sorry man.
Wooyoung waited for any other responses, but when none came he shoved his phone back in his pocket with a pout.
Fuck those guys, I didn't want to eat with them anyway.
His first instinct was to text San, but things had been tense since their argument last night, and he figured he needed to smooth things over before San would want a text from him.
His skin felt too tight again. He didn't like being at odds with any of his members, but San was always the worst. Of course, being as close as they were, it unfortunately happened fairly often, but they always found a way to fix it.
He hardly remembered what had started the initial argument last night. Mostly exhaustion and shortened fuses caused by busy schedules and almost constant close proximity. San had said something he didn't like, so he'd fired back. They'd continued to swap barbs and accusations until the evening had ended with two slammed doors.
He'd purposely ridden in the other car when they all left the dorm for filming that morning, nursing his wounded ego, but after almost a full day without San's presence the loneliness was beginning to chafe.
Wooyoung pulled out his phone. Still no new messages in the group chat or his direct chat with San. He worried his bottom lip between his teeth as he pondered his options.
Of course he wanted to reach out to San, but his pride didn't want him to be the first to cave.
"Fuuuuuck, get your head out of your ass, WooYo," he rubbed his hands down his face as he scolded himself.
Deciding to just go home and make a protein shake, he pocketed his phone and started walking back. He'd skip grabbing food and get back to find San, cuddle and aegyo his way back into the other member's good graces, and then wrap up this hellacious day on a high note.
- - - - -
By the time Wooyoung had reached the dorm the black cloud hanging over his head all day was more than figurative.
About 10 minutes before he reached home the skies had opened and drenched him. He could have called a car, sure, but the rain only fueled his already raging temper more, so he continued his walk and let his anger fuel his thoughts.
By his calculations, he didn't need to rush home and apologize, cause San had just as much a part in the fight as he had. They'd both been mean and wrong, so it seemed only fair they just skip the bullshit and get back to their normal selves.
He'd go in and make his shake, then grab some dry clothes and a shower, and then find San. Hell, if he knew San, he'd walk in to find the slightly older man already cuddled up in Wooyoung's bed and pouting. San was clingy on a good day, and downright limpet-like after a quarrel.
Wooyoung smiled for the first time today at the thought as he entered the dorm and toed his shoes off and onto the rack.
He could hear milling about upstairs towards the bedrooms, and Hongjoong's nasally tone on a call somewhere down the hall.
Dropping his keys on the table as he walked further into the living space, Wooyoung changed his plan and decided to head to his room for clothes and a shower. If he found San, like he assumed he would, maybe he'd offer to make one of the chocolate shakes he knew San preferred and present it as a peace offering.
Still damp from the rain, he noticed belatedly that his soaked socks and jeans had tracked wet footprints all along his trail. He rolled his eyes with a groan. Seonghwa would kill him if made another mess in the apartment they'd just cleaned. He'd gotten a sharp smack to the backside this morning for leaving dirty clothes in the shared bathroom. Last thing he needed after today was another lecture from Mom.
Growling far louder than necessary for the menial task, he walked to the kitchen and yanked the paper towel roll off the counter and set to work with a petulant attitude even his baby brother would be proud of.
After he'd dried the footprints up and discarded the evidence into the trash with a huff, he finally made his way up to his shared room.
Realizing he was a little anxious about finally coming face to face with San, he rolled his neck and plastered a nonchalant smirk on his face. His plan was to head straight for the closet under the guise of grabbing clothes. That way he could break the icy silence without having to look San in the eyes. He refused to fully acknowledge how cowardly that was as he opened the bedroom door and breezed in.
"Ya, what a shit day, man! Feels like it's been three days since we left for the studio this morning," he rambled as he pulled fresh sweats from the closet. "God, I'm soaked to the bone. I'm gonna grab a shower to warm up and then make a protein shake. You want me to make you-"
He stopped dead in his tracks when he exited the closet to find that he was talking to an empty room.
Glancing around the room to ensure he hadn't missed San, Wooyoung deflated when it sunk in that he was alone. He was truly shocked that his prediction of finding San here hadn't been proven correct.
Shit. Guess he's still pissed.
Wooyoung tried not to name the tendrils of emotion that were coiling in the pit of his stomach. Better to wrap his anger at the day around himself like armor than to examine them too closely and let sadness creep in.
He'd be the first to tell you that his personality was a bit rough. A tired and temperamental Wooyoung was one thing, but a tired and emotional Wooyoung was a ticking time bomb.
He shuffled around grabbing the last bits of things he needed for his shower before slinking across the hall to the bathroom. Maybe a hot shower would melt some of the tension pressing down on his shoulders away. He'd finish up here and then go make shakes before going to face San.
If he glanced overlong at San's bedroom door down the hall as he closed the door, then at least no one was around to catch him in the act.
- - - - -
The shower had done nothing to soften his rotten mood. If anything, it had just given him time alone with his thoughts to spiral.
Not to mention, the water took too long to heat up, someone had used the last of his favorite conditioner without replacing it, and he'd stubbed his toe on the bathroom counter while doing his skincare.
By the time he made it back downstairs to the kitchen, Wooyoung was a vibrating ball of tension.
He flipped the hood of his sweatshirt up around his head as he started collecting materials to make shakes.
Of course, someone had used his shaker bottle already and he had to pull it out of the dishwasher to hand clean. Slamming the cup on the counter he stormed to the pantry to grab protein powder, slamming that shut too. He scooped his powder into his cup haphazardly and reached to grab San's bottle out of the cupboard, before realizing that it was also in the wash. Pressing his lips thin and growling, he slammed the cupboard closed and set about cleaning that one.
Apparently he'd used a little too much force on one too many doors, because before he even had the powder fully scooped for San's drink, Hongjoong was sauntering into the room with his arms crossed over his chest.
"And what exactly did the cabinets ever do to you, Wooyoung-ah?," the leader leveled his best Dad-Look across the small kitchen.
It took everything in his power to not whirl around and bite the Captain's head off. Tangling with Hongjoong was not high on his list of to-dos right now. So instead, he shrugged a shoulder and grunted as he tossed his measuring scoop at the sink roughly.
"Ya! Don't throw stuff around in here," Hongjoong scolded. "Seonghwa had us cleaning all day yesterday."
"Yeah...I know. I was there too, thanks," Wooyoung couldn't keep the snark out of his voice if he tried.
Hongjoong raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Watch yourself, Woo."
Wooyoung grit his teeth at the warning.
"Leave off, hyung. I've had a shit day and I'm just minding my own business, you're the one who came in uninvited. No one is keeping you here."
"I'm sorry you're having a rough day," Hongjoong sighed as he stepped further into the room and leaned a hip against the counter near Wooyoung. "But that doesn't mean you can take it out on our kitchen or me."
Wooyoung rolled his eyes and began shaking the bottles in tandem, drowning out the leaders voice.
Hongjoong placed a heavy hand on his dongsaeng's arm, stopping the loud noise.
"And I suggest you fix your attitude. I need to talk to you."
"Hyung, I'm really not in the mood for one of your infamous "Come to my room later" chats. So please, just back off."
"I intended to speak to you like an adult here and now, but if you'd like to continue acting like a child I can certainly move the chat to my room," Hongjoong's grip tightened slightly around Wooyoung's bicep.
Wooyoung knew he should stop. Tried to stop even. But his already short fuse had been lit and the shame he was feeling from how he was acting towards Hongjoong only added fuel to the fire.
And so Wooyoung detonated.
"Seriously Hongjoong, fuck off! I cannot take anymore shit today! And I've already got my own shit to take care of before this day fucking ends, so just get lost!"
Wooyoung had whirled on his leader as he began his tirade, and was now face to face with the slightly shorter man.
"Continuing to act like a child it is," Hongjoong said in a low, even voice. "Put the drinks down and go wait in my room."
"No. I'm taking this upstairs to find Sa-"
Before Wooyoung even fully processed what happened, the bottles were ripped out of his hands and placed on the counter before he himself was shoved prone over the same counter.
"Have it your way, Wooyoung-ah."
Hongjoong wasted no time laying searing smacks across the upturned ass in front of him. When Wooyoung writhed and tried to stand back upright, he simply laid an arm across his lower back and continued the spanking.
After 15 or so swats, Hongjoong stopped, but kept his other arm holding the younger man in place where he was breathing hard across the counter.
"Now, I suggest you listen this time and go wait for me in my room," Hongjoong pulled Wooyoung upright with a hand around his arm. "You will not like it if I have to bring you there myself."
"Hyung, no! You already just smacked me!"
Without further hesitation, Hongjoong tightened his grip on Wooyoung's arm and frog-marched him up the stairs. He may be small, but he had the muscle to manoeuver them to his room with little issue.
Shutting the door behind them, Hongjoong sat down on his bed and pulled Wooyoung over his lap.
"No...hyung, please!," Wooyoung shrieked as he felt his sweatpants and boxers shoved down to his knees.
"You brought this on yourself, Wooyoung," Hongjoong resumed the spanking with a heavy smack to the already pinkened skin. "I had no intention of spanking you when I sought you out in the kitchen. I really did just need to talk to you, but now we'll work out some of this attitude and then talk."
Hongjoong laid layer of smacks on top of layer of smacks over the entirety of the younger member's ass and thighs.
Wooyoung, for his part, remained fairly still during the onslaught. Feeling keenly a sense of being wronged and treated unfairly. He just wanted it over so he could go find San for a cuddle while he licked his wounds.
While he'd been sniffling throughout, the tears began in earnest when Wooyoung felt the spanking stop and heard Hongjoong reach into his side table drawer to grab the hairbrush he kept there for occasions such as this.
"You'll take the standard eight, Wooyoung," Hongjoong stated as he held the cold wood of the hairbrush against the presented backside before him.
Not for the first time, Wooyoung cursed their group having eight members instead of something smaller. Whenever anyone earned punishment with an implement, their Captain made them take a lick for each member.
"You don't need to count. Are you ready?"
Despite the bitter irony of being asked if he was ready to receive tremendous amounts of discomfort, Wooyoung knew he should be thankful the leader was always cool and collected and made sure his members were alright.
Gripping Hongjoong's leg and burrying his face into the bed, Wooyoung nodded his consent.
The first strike had him screaming into the comforter covering the bed. He wondered vaguely if he should lift his head and let his yelps be heard. Maybe hearing him get punished would soften San to his apology even more. However, all thoughts were soon chased away by the next snap of the hairbrush against his ass.
By the time Hongjoong placed the brush back into the drawer and lifted Wooyoung up into his chest for a cuddle, the younger was a mess of tears.
"Aigoo, aigoo," Hongjoong smoothed a hand over Wooyoung's sweaty head as he held him close. "Take a deep breath for hyung, Youngie."
Sucking in what air he could over his shuttering cries, Wooyoung began to relax into the elder's embrace.
"That's it, good boy. Calm yourself now. It's all done. You took your punishment so well for hyung."
As Hongjoong continued to whisper sweet assurances into his hair, Wooyoung realized his chest felt a bit lighter than it had since last night. The stress and guilt of the day seemed to have ebbed away along with his ability to sit.
Curse his wise hyung for knowing how best to settle him.
When he'd finally gotten his breathing back under control, he sat up and away from Hongjoong's chest as he wiped a sleeve across his tear-streaked face.
"I know how stupid you think it is when I ask if you're alright after a spanking, so I won't even ask this time," Hongjoong huffed out with a small chuckle. "But you think you can answer if you're ready to go stand in the corner for a bit to get your head back on straight?"
"That question gives new meaning to cruel and unusual when it comes to punishment and you know it. It's just part of your big, scary, leader repertoire for keeping us in line," Wooyoung countered shakily.
"I'll take that as a yes for corner time. Come on, hop up," Hongjoong patted Wooyoung's outer thigh to get him moving, purposefully avoiding the tender areas.
Once he had him positioned in the corner, Hongjoong sat back on the bed. Woo was already far calmer than he had been, so he wouldn't need to keep him there long. Just a few minutes to let the younger man register the spanking and to fully settle from it.
He needed Wooyoung calm and collected before this next part. The conversation he needed to have with him would not be a pleasant one, and he wanted-
His thoughts were cut off by his phone ringing. Lifting the screen to see who was calling, Hongjoong huffed when he realized he needed to take it.
"Youngie, I need to step out and take this call. Stay where you are and I'll be back to speak with you shortly."
"Ne, hyung."
Wooyoung heard the door close behind him and immediately moved to rub his abused posterior. Even through his sweats, that Hongjoong had thankfully pulled back up before sticking him the corner, he could feel the heat radiating off his skin.
Wooyoung laid his forehead against where the two walls converged in front of him as he let a small whimper escape and few new tears fall.
He wanted to feel indignant at how unjust his spanking had been, but he couldn't. He'd been rude and thrown a tantrum even when Hongjoong had warned him. San often liked to joke that Wooyoung would just save them all some time if he'd just start outright asking for spankings as opposed to making the Matz hyungs go through the whole process of trying to reign him in every time.
Wooyoung huffed a laugh as he wiped the tears from his eyes. San was going to give him such Hell for this. He'd mercilessly tease him and make quips about how of course Wooyoung would find a way to go into their weeklong break with a bruised ass. But then he'd also coddle him endlessly and make sure he was as comfortable as he could make him.
Moments later the door opened and closed again.
"Fiiiiiinally, Joong-hyung," Wooyoung whined, "can I come out now?"
There was a moments silence as he heard the bed creak behind him.
"Well, wrong hyung, but yes you can come out," a soft, deep voice replied.
Wooyoung turned quickly to look at Yunho in surprise.
"First, you're eight months older than me," Wooyoung said walking stiffly towards the bed. "Second, why are you here?"
"We need to talk, Woo."
"Why does everyone keep saying that? What is it that needs to be addressed so urgently that it derailed my night?"
"Come here, I'll just show you."
Wooyoung sat gingerly down beside Yunho at the foot of the bed and watched as he pulled up a video on his phone.
Wooyoung instantly recognized it as footage from their shoot at Show Champion this morning. He looked to Yunho in confusion.
Yunho scrolled to a section of the video near the end and thrust his chin at the phone to make Wooyoung look back at the video.
Wooyoung saw himself as he stood talking to Seonghwa and Yunho in a small cluster.
He saw the way he was obviously trying to keep his eyes from wandering to find San behind them. Saw too how eventually San hesitantly joined their group and stood close to Wooyoung.
The Wooyoung in the video did his very best to completely ignore San's presence, even when the pink-haired man had extended an olive branch and slung an arm around his shoulder. If anything, it looked like that just made Wooyoung double his efforts to shun him.
All the forlorn, puppy-eyed looks that San had turned on Wooyoung had been ignored. Each subsequent dismissal etched more pain onto his handsome, tan face.
However, the greatest trespass was at the end of the clip, as Wooyoung wrapped up his conversation without ever acknowledging San and had callously taken the arm from around his shoulder and quite literally thrown it off, before walking off camera.
Present Wooyoung looked up at Yunho and covered his mouth with both hands as he gasped.
Did I really do that!? And right in front of the camera!? Shit.
Turning back to watch the last few seconds of the clip, Wooyoung saw Yunho look between the two and connect the dots, before scooting awkwardly over to San, whose face was awash with hurt.
The video ended there.
"You saw that, right?," Yunho asked.
"Yes, God, I was such an asshole. Yunho I didn't even realize I did that! I wasn't trying to hurt him! We argued last night and I guess I was still pissed this morning, but I swear I wasn't trying to-"
"Wooyoung you do this all the time," Yunho cut in.
"W-what?"
"You guys fight and then you exploit San's weaknesses for you until you feel he's been sufficiently punished."
"I do not!"
"You do though," Yunho sighed. "Look I'm not trying to say you're doing this maliciously, or maybe even consciously, but the fact of the matter is you do do it. You punish him by withdrawing your love and with silence. Then once you're ready to make-nice, you turn it all back on and he's left reeling from your whims."
Wooyoung shakes his head slowly back and forth, bewildered.
"I-I do?"
"I think it's your defense mechanism, Woo. Probably helped you cope or control situations in your childhood, so it's just second nature now. But it's toxic, and it's poisoning someone you're supposed to care deeply for."
"Y-you...you think I'm poisoning Sannie?," Wooyoung's voice trembles as he subconsciously runs a finger over the friendship tattoo on his thigh that he knows lies hidden beneath his sweats.
"Well, not him personally, but your relationship with him, yes." Yunho reaches over and gently grabs Wooyoung's hand into his much larger ones. "San is softhearted, but he's not weak. He shoulders your rejections without complaint because you're special to him. But even the strongest mountains can crumble under too much pressure."
"Oh God, Yunho...I...I have to go apologize," Wooyoung has tears streaming down his face again. "I was on my way to do that anyway before Hongjoong-hyung got to me."
Yunho has his head hung low between his shoulders, no longer looking at Wooyoung,"Woo..."
"Actually, you know what, even that's fucking bullshit cause I hadn't planned to actually apologize. My plan was to ply him with protein shake offerings, and pretend like our argument had never happened. I'm such a dick! I've gotta make this right."
"Woo-," Yunho tries again.
"No Yunho, I've kept him waiting long enough, he deserves my apology. I need to go-"
"Wooyoungie wait," Yunho grabs tighter to his hand as the smaller man tries to stanch his tears and stands quickly to walk out of the room.
"Yunho, let go! I've got to go talk to San! Why are you keeping me here!?," Wooyoung is aware he sounds slightly hysterical now, but that's because he is.
"Wooyoung...," Yunho finally looks up and Wooyoung realizes he's also crying. "Wooyoung, San's not here."
"W-What?," Wooyoung stutters. "Where is he?"
"He left, Woo," Yunho rubs soft circles on the back of his friend's hand, as if that will soften the blow he just dealt.
"What...what do you mean he left?," Wooyoung's voice comes out like a strangled croak.
"He flew to Namhae this morning right after the shoot," Yunho sniffles, aggrieved to be the one who has to tell Wooyoung this. "Told Hongjoong-hyung he was going home for the break, packed his bag, and left."
Wooyoung's knees give out and he crumples to the ground in a heap of tears.
San is...gone?