Chapter Text
Mingyu had to close the game he was playing on his phone when a notification sound came and glitched it. He forcefully exhaled through his nose. What was the point of making money if he never bothered to buy a new phone? He was too attached to this one for no good reason.
He opened his notifications and saw that the reason behind his ruined gameplay was some messages by Minghao. Mingyu exhaled again. Minghao was literally in the next room over, couldn't he say whatever he wanted with his voice?
Mingyu opened the texts nevertheless.
Ni hao: yo
Ni hao: look at what I just found
Ni hao sent a link
[article][Just some kitty things I see my cat doing all the time]
Ni hao: that's literally wonwoo hyung lol
Mingyu blinked once. Was he serious? He was sending him cat articles? He tapped on the link anyway, because it wasn't like there was anything better to do now that his game crashed. It opened a flashy pink page, filled with emojis and hearts, most probably owned by a young woman. There were black, bold letters and random cat pictures around them. Mingyu begun reading.
Hello friends! Is this your first time owning a cat and you want to know more about their behaviour? You clicked the right place!
I was so confused in the beginning when I started living my precious Princess Carolyn, but after so many months, I've come to understand her behaviour a little better and I wanted to share! Here are 5 useful things to know about your cat!
~~
- Cats like snacks, especially if they find them themselves
It was 3AM.
Mingyu couldn't believe his eyes. He woke up from his deep slumber from a weird noise that was coming from the kitchen. After the initial panic that a murderer has somehow broken in, his logic prevailed and he figured that it was probably one of his group members.
The first thing he did was check his phone to see what time it was. Did his alarm clock not ring and it was already time to wake up? It wasn't the first time he would have to rise before the sun for his schedules.
But no. It was 3AM. He definitely wasn't late for work, and neither were any of his group mates. Still, the scratching noise in the kitchen continued, and Mingyu had to reconsider his murderer theory. Suddenly, he heard the covers of Jihoon's bed being thrown to the side.
"Go check up on whoever that idiot is before I do and our kitchen turns into a crime scene," came his roommate’s raspy voice.
"What if it's a murderer and the kitchen turns into a crime scene anyway? I don't want to die," Mingyu whined.
"If you don't go, our room will also turn into a crime scene," was Jihoon's final reply before he lifted the covers all the way above his head and turned his back on Mingyu.
Mingyu yawned deeply and rolled to his side. He really had no choice, did he? He decided to make it quick. He jumped off his bed, making as little sound as possible, and walked out of his room.
There was barely any light coming from the kitchen. The intruder probably only had his phone's flashlight on as he rummaged through their stuff. Mingyu steeled his nerves and entered the room.
He immediately got both relieved and angry at the sight in front of him. The intruder was none other but Wonwoo. He was wearing that oversized t shirt he always wore to sleep and he was barefoot, proof that he must have just gotten out of bed. And like Mingyu expected, he had opened wide one of their cupboards and was fishing around between the packages, phone flashlight in hand.
When he heard him entering, Wonwoo turned to look at him with a startled expression. Mingyu crossed his arms in front of his chest. There was a moment that they just made eye contact like this, like Mingyu just caught the other doing something illegal and Wonwoo was going to get in major trouble for it.
Then Mingyu sighed and looked at what Wonwoo was trying to reach. There were only plastic tupperware and some stray instant noodles in the cupboard he was scavenging. What was he even trying to do? Unless...
"I can't believe you!" Mingyu exclaimed, trying to force as mush exasperation in his whisper as possible.
"What? If you were going to buy pepero why did you even put it so high that the rest of us can't reach it?" Wonwoo whispered back.
"I-" Mingyu blinked, but before he went off he remembered Jihoon in the next room.
There was a guitar in there. Mingyu wasn't taking any risks.
Apparently, Wonwoo didn't have such qualms.
"Now that you're here can you grab them for me?" he asked with a faint smile.
He was either ignoring the atmosphere or legitimately thought that it was completely normal to go steal someone else's snacks at 3AM in the morning. Mingyu was finally channeling his inner Jihoon, he was so going to tell Wonwoo off. It didn't matter he was older, he couldn't just interrupt his precious sleep and steal his food and expect everything to be fine.
"Please, Mingyu?" Wonwoo said quietly then and tilted his head.
And just like that, Mingyu deflated. Of course, that was why Wonwoo expected everything to be alright. Because Mingyu was weak. All it took was one look at the other’s disheveled hair and crooked glasses that were probably clumsily put on before Wonwoo left his bed, because otherwise he would be blind. Mingyu just couldn't stay mad.
He sighed once again and walked over to Wonwoo. He gently fixed his glasses and run a hand through his messy hair.
"You'll get cold if you walk around like this," Mingyu said and took off his slippers so Wonwoo could put them on.
Mingyu bet that his feet were already freezing. That boy just didn't have good blood circulation. Before Wonwoo could say anything, he reached the pepero that were on the top shelf and handed him the whole box.
"Ah, that's perfect. Thanks," Wonwoo hugged it to his chest. "I can't believe I can't reach shelves that you can," he huffed with a frown.
"Isn't your life just terrible?" Mingyu rolled his eyes.
"Right?" Wonwoo smiled.
That pulled a smile out of Mingyu as well.
"Just go," he shooed Wonwoo off.
Wonwoo did just that. He turned his back to him and walked to the door, looking way too excited for being awake at 3AM. Before he left, he turned to Mingyu again, with his hand touching the side of his glasses.
"Goodnight. And thank you," he said.
"Goodnight," was all Mingyu could say.
That was a different thank you than the previous one. This was not a thank you for the peperos, which still was a pretty big thing, the logical part of Mingyu's brain supplied.
As he returned to his room too, he felt like he was walking on a cloud. It was 3AM after a very tiring day, he should be feeling dead inside, but instead he felt warmth. His feet were cold and he wouldn't have a snack for the next week, but he was completely fine with it. He was so weak.
He opened his room's door quietly, glancing at Jihoon's unmoving form on the bed. He closed the door behind him extra quietly. He climbed up to his bed and hugged a pillow to his chest. All traces of sleep were gone now. He felt wide awake. It wasn't a good time for his stupid feelings to manifest in their physical form and torment him with a sleepless night. He had schedules the next day. He let out a high-pitched sigh and clutched the pillow to his chest tighter.
"Was it Wonwoo?" Jihoon's voice suddenly sounded.
"What?" Mingyu squeaked. He waited for a while. "How did you know?" he added.
"It's okay, Mingyu. Just... Sleep. It will be okay," Jihoon was unexpectedly understanding.
"Yeah... Goodnight hyung."
Mingyu rolled over and pulled his blanket underneath his chin. At least he didn't feel alone. No matter what, Jihoon always had his back. It was his heart that he kept wondering how it ended up in the next room over, along with his pepero.
Note: Cats don't understand or care about your rules, so they will get the food even if you don't really want them to.
~~
- Cats love tight spaces. They feel safer if you hold them tight. If you want a cat to calm down, just squeeze it.
Wonwoo rushed to the bathroom right after they left the stage. A manager followed right behind him, and Mingyu was not far away. Seungcheol came as well, like the concerned grandpa he was.
But Wonwoo locked the door behind him and didn't let anyone come inside. He turned on the faucet, and Mingyu couldn't hear anything else from inside the tiny room after that.
"Wonwoo-ya, please unlock the door. Everyone is worried about you," the manager was saying.
"Please Wonwoo, whatever it is, it's okay," Seungcheol was knocking on the door.
The longer the silence from the bathroom lasted, the sicker Mingyu felt. This wasn't going to work. This wasn't going to work at all.
"Wonwoo, can you confirm your physical health? Are you dizzy, are you breathing right?" the manager wiped some sweat off his face.
The silence that followed was deafening.
"Should we kick down the door?" Seungcheol asked desperately.
"We can't kick down the stadium's door, who's going to pay for it?" the manager answered urgently.
"What are we going to do hyung?" Seungcheol was borderline panicking.
"First of all, calm down, if you're going to be like that, you better return to the others."
"Are you joking? I'm not leaving my group mate alone!"
"I seriously don't want you to do anything stupid, there is probably nothing serious happening."
"Nothing seri- Are you kidding me? He locked himself into the damn bathroom, he may be dying right now for all we know!"
Mingyu kicked the door down.
The manager's startled voice barely registered in his brain. He saw Wonwoo leaning over the toilet, dry heaving. There was nothing to puke, his stomach had been empty even before the concert, despite literally everyone trying to feed him something. There were tears in his eyes and when he saw Mingyu, they momentarily flashed with relief, before fear overshadowed it.
"Mingyu, get ou-" he tried to say with a shaky voice, but Mingyu just kneeled down next to him and pulled him in a tight hug. And suddenly, there were even more tears.
The manager and Seungcheol were saying something, but honestly at this point, it was just background noise to Mingyu.
"Can you breathe?" he just asked Wonwoo who shook his head, struggling to get air inside his lungs.
Mingyu held him tighter, even though a part of him knew he should be giving him space, let him calm down. But Wonwoo clutched Mingyu's leather jacket, still on him after their performance, and wasn't letting go of him any time soon. His grip was so tight, that his knuckles appeared white. Mingyu wondered if his blood pressure was also dropping. He needed to talk to him, but first, he had to make him breathe again.
"Calm down, you're okay, I'm here, it's over," he said the most comforting words that came to his mind.
Wonwoo tried to take another breath, but his sobbing just wasn't letting him.
"Come on, in and out," Mingyu rubbed his back.
He made eye contact with the other two then. Seungcheol got the hint. He started dragging a heavily protesting manager away. Mingyu felt a little bad about the man. He had to deal with their messes so often.
"It's just the two of us now. Sitting in a dirty bathroom floor. Breathing deeply and feeling a sudden calm feeling spreading over us," he mumbled to Wonwoo's head, trying his best to make him feel better.
The scariest part was that he had no idea what was going on. Wonwoo didn't look like he was struggling at stage, until the last two songs. What could have happened to him in such a short time? Mingyu’s grip was getting tighter again, and he couldn't stop it.
But then, Wonwoo finally breathed. He placed his forehead on Mingyu shoulder and kept breathing.
"Did it work? Are you calmer now?" Mingyu asked.
"Just... hold me..." Wonwoo managed to choke out.
"Of course," Mingyu said softly.
He begun rocking them back and forth. Wonwoo liked those repetitive motions, he knew that since their rookie days. He fell asleep easier when Mingyu brushed his hair back, or when they counted their heartbeats together. His experience didn't fail him this time either. The sobbing gradually stopped, and Wonwoo went slack in his arms after a while.
"You're a little better now?" Mingyu murmured quietly.
"Yeah. Thank you," Wonwoo tried to hide his sniffle.
He started pulling away then, but Mingyu wasn't ready to let him go. It was just like Wonwoo to up and leave and pretend nothing happened. If that was considered strength, Mingyu definitely didn't have it.
"Wait," he said. "I need to make sure you're okay."
"I'm okay," Wonwoo replied immediately.
Mingyu run his hand down the other's back and soothingly. He felt fine. He wasn’t shaking anymore. He brought his palm to Wonwoo's cheek and lifted his head to look him into the eyes. Now, that was less fine.
"What was it, hm? Did something scare you? Was it a physical thing?" he asked, searching for an answer in his friend's deep eyes.
"It was nothing..." Wonwoo whispered, a little more uncertainly than before.
He tried to look away. Mingyu knew that this was making him uncomfortable again, but he needed to know. He needed to figure what he had to fight to make his Wonwoo smile again.
"Come on," Mingyu caressed his cheekbone with his thumb. "It's just me, you can tell me."
Wonwoo closed his eyes and sighed. It looked like he was thinking it over. If only Mingyu could make things easier for him, he would have done everything. Eventually, Wonwoo leaned in his touch and opened his eyes again.
"I got... a bit sick. Probably the lack of food," he began.
The scolding about Wonwoo not taking care of himself properly was right on the tip of Mingyu's tongue. He was ready to blast a whole speech beginning with an "I told you so". He barely managed to hold it in. Still, he must have made some grimace, because Wonwoo gave him a knowing smile. The decision to not expand on that subject was mutual.
"I suddenly felt like I was going to fall in the middle of the dance. And then I felt like I forgot the choreography. And the worries just kept piling and piling and... here we are," he finished.
"Oh hyung, it would have been alright. Whatever you do, it's alright. Our fans understand," Mingyu pulled him to his chest again. Wonwoo hugged back with no complaint.
“I know… I just couldn’t…” he didn’t finish his sentence, he just closed his eyes again and shook his head. “It just got too much.”
“It’s okay, it happens. Remember how Jeonghan was so nervous the first time we performed that he got a fever that night?” Mingyu said.
“Yeah…” Wonwoo nodded.
“And you have nothing to worry about, you are always amazing on stage,” Mingyu added, his words genuine.
Even when Wonwoo was sick, he did great. Mingyu respected that so much. He sometimes felt he had to try extra hard to be as determined as Wonwoo.
Their conversation has stilled again. Was Wonwoo feeling bad again? Mingyu squeezed him a bit tighter, as it seemed to have done the trick before.
Indeed, a few moments later Wonwoo let out a deep sigh.
"You... helped so much," he quietly admitted. "It felt like I was falling apart, but you held me so tightly."
"Always," Mingyu bumped their foreheads together.
His heart picked up its rate, painfully reminding him of how much he felt about the other. If he was ever going to tell Wonwoo how much he cared, this was the right time. He looked as high on emotions as Mingyu for once, and he could use the comfort.
"Hyung, I..." he begun, but it was his turn to choke now as his mouth wouldn't move further.
Wonwoo's could. He leaned a tiny bit forward and pressed his lips against Mingyu's. The kiss was barely there, it was innocent. Mingyu took it for what it was; a sign of strong bonds, a comforting presence against his own. Wonwoo just wanted to show him that he was there, both physically and emotionally. He did it because he was vulnerable, because he was feeling a lot and it was strange for him and he didn't know how to express it. Even if Mingyu wanted to think that it meant anything else, he couldn't.
So he just smiled after they pulled apart. There was a hint of embarrassment on Wonwoo's face, but Mingyu quickly shook it off by pulling them both up from the floor. The moment was over, sealed with their kiss. Wonwoo looked heaps better. His eyes had gotten some of their spark back, even though he looked a little pale. Mingyu was definitely feeding him two servings of food tonight, but they were mostly back to normal. He felt light again.
And apparently, his wallet was soon following him to feel equally as light, because he was definitely going to pay for that door he broke.
Note: contrary to popular belief, cats do care about their owners. They just don't consider them their owners.
~~
- Cats won't let you coddle them if they don't want to be coddled, no matter what.
Fansigns were somehow the best and worst times for Mingyu at the same time. He was always so excited to meet their fans. Their support was tremendous, and it was his primary reason for sticking through the hardships of the idol life with a smile on his face.
He was always happy to talk to the carats, to see some of them tearing up, giving them silly things to wear or asking them questions directly. It was cute how much they seemed to love everything he and his group mates did. His fans were definitely his favourite part of being an idol.
But this love for the fans sometimes gave them too much power over his group members lives. They could get a bit absurd with their requests, asking for too much aegyo or getting angry in the prospect of his friends dating someone else one day. Their manager just patted their back and told them to do it for the fanservice. After all, in the end of the day those were the people that paid for their food, and they had to do everything to keep them happy.
Mingyu was mostly okay with fanservice. He preferred it when he was being his genuine self, but he could also smile sexily at a random girl he didn't actually want like that to get the mood going. They were not all like that though. He could feel Jihoon dying a little inside every time someone asked him to do aegyo.
Understandably so too, because despite his height, Jihoon had the spirit and talent of a giant. He was their producer, one of the most important roles in the group, but when people asked him to do aegyo, he felt like he was being reduced to merely a cute face on a tiny body. Mingyu imagined that this wasn't the best for his self-confidence.
Still, Jihoon did it anyway. He powered through it like the stubborn man he was. He definitely preferred fans that were buying his music because they liked it and not him, but every fan's money was equally important to their group.
Wonwoo on the other hand, had to power through everything they did for the fans. It wasn't that he didn't like them, he was just never fully excited to do stuff for them, even if they were genuine and not merely fanservice. Mingyu remembered reading an article about introverts once, and he had thought that there were quite a few points in it that Wonwoo could relate. Still, Wonwoo never let it show. He loved his fans, and if expressing it didn't come in a natural way for him, then he forced himself to get it across in a clear way.
But there was one thing he never managed to do.
Mingyu pondered this as carats came and went, their fansign being underway for about an hour now. Wonwoo was sitting next to him, the planners of the event had made sure of this. Mingyu couldn't count how many times he has wanted to reach over and simply talk to him, like every other member did around him, like he himself did with Jeonghan on his other side.
But no, Wonwoo hadn't even glanced at him ever since he sat down. He had seemingly erected a concrete wall between them that Mingyu couldn't break.
And the sad part was that Mingyu could understand the reason. He had lost count about how many fans' questions he had answered about Wonwoo, how many people had asked him to do a heart with him, how many cameras were turned on both of them to capture any kind of interaction they had, and then blow it out of proportions on social media.
Again, Mingyu was mostly okay with it. As the years passed, he had learned what sites it was best for him to stir clear of. Acting cute with Wonwoo so some fans could fantasize about them being together wasn't the most outrageous type of fanservice he had done. He liked being close to Wonwoo like this.
Apparently, Wonwoo didn't. For all the time they spent at home together and joined to the hip, Wonwoo went rigid cold about doing the same in public. Mingyu knew Wonwoo didn’t want to be close to him in public so the fans didn't get to think they were together, but he never understood why though. Why would he care about what random people assumed about them if it didn’t hurt their popularity, but increased it instead? If it was just fanservice, then Wonwoo could power through it, like he did with everything else. If he didn't want it to be just fanservice, then he could just casually rest his head on Mingyu's shoulder when he was tired, like he always did at dance practice, easy and simple. Mingyu couldn't understand why he went out of his way to make their relationship look more distant that it actually was.
After the 11th request from a fan to do a heart with Wonwoo, Mingyu finally turned to him. He poked his ribs with a finger, making him twitch on his seat. When Wonwoo looked at him with a cold glare, Mingyu merely smiled.
"Heart?" he asked cutely and raised his hand over his head.
Wonwoo rolled his eyes and slapped the hand away. Mingyu could hear the camera clicks going off, but it didn't stop him. He lowered his hand and tried to get Wonwoo to make a finger heart with him instead. That didn't work either.
Wonwoo slammed Mingyu's half heart to the table, albeit careful not to hurt him. Mingyu gave him a pout and turned back to the fan with a shrug. He tried his best. Wonwoo was in an extremely angsty mood today.
The girl looked at him encouragingly and said her goodbyes as the line continued. Mingyu felt an ugly bitterness starting to rise from the bottom of his chest and he really didn't want it to show on photos. One last time. He wanted to try one more time, without any fan prompting him this time.
He reached over and let his hand rest on Wonwoo's thigh. He saw how Wonwoo pursed his lips tightly at the contact and forced himself to not look down. He didn't push Mingyu away, but he clearly didn't want the touch either, which felt worse because it made Mingyu feel like he was forcing himself onto him. With an internal sigh, Mingyu pulled away once and for all.
Jeonghan grabbed his hand then and drew a tiny heart on his wrist with his marker. Mingyu smiled playfully at him and drew a smiley face on the other's knuckles. Thank god for the small distractions. Jeonghan knew how to read the atmosphere and realized when Mingyu needed help to keep his happy-go-lucky look in front of the fans. So Mingyu just turned his whole attention to his hyung, even if his heart felt a bit heavier than normal.
~~
- Cats sometimes love to play around and make a mess out of your living room.
Mingyu felt abnormally sad as he walked to the living room.
There was no particular reason why. He had just been down for a few days now, and it finally took its toll on him. There were not a lot of his group members remaining in the living room. Most of them had gone out to enjoy their free evening. Only Soonyoung and Seokmin were remaining. They were trying the impossible, to drag Jihoon out of his room where he was writing lyrics and get him to the outside world. Without any kind of blackmail.
"Hyung, you will have fun! Soonyoung hyung and I will be with you the whole time!" Seokmin was saying.
Ah, so they were using reverse blackmail. Mingyu didn't know how that would benefit them.
"We can get some bread and feed the ducks at the river! We can make Seokmin sing to them!" Soonyoung added.
"Quack quack quaaaaaaack~" Seokmin's singing voice filled the room.
Not even that was enough to make Mingyu smile today. Usually, he would not only have laughed and joined the effort to make Jihoon socialize, but he would have accompanied them to the river as well. He just wasn't feeling it right now.
"Quack quack, quack quackity QUACK!" Soonyoung begun rapping in rhythm with Seokmin's high note quacking.
Jihoon only lasted two minutes. He slammed his room's door open, cheeks swollen from sleep and looking like an especially annoyed puffer fish.
"I can't write lyrics when all I can think about is your stupid duck noises!" he raged.
"Quack? Quack quack quack..." Soonyoung shook his head, pretending to be disappointed.
"Quack quack," Seokmin patted his back comfortingly and then turned to Jihoon. "Quack quack quack quack quack, quack?
"Just take me to the damn ducks before I replace all your lines in the next song with quacks," Jihoon rubbed the bridge of his nose and Soonyoung and Seokmin high fived.
Mingyu watched them getting ready to go and leave the dorm empty, save for Jeonghan who was sleeping upstairs and Wonwoo, who was locked in his room with his video games.
On a good day, if by some miracle Mingyu decided to stay home instead of going out with his friends, he would have been happy to join him and lose at every game they played. But this just wasn't a good day. He was probably going to spend it sulking in the living room with a bowl of ice cream.
At last, his loud friends pushed Jihoon out of their dorm and a silence spread. It was very rare for their dorms to be this quiet. Mingyu had thought it would be calming and peaceful, but it was anything but. It felt unnatural to be this quiet when he was used to being surrounded by people every second of the day. It was so unsettling, that Mingyu felt like he wouldn't be able to stay in that room for long if this silence didn't somehow break.
And just as he thought about it, Wonwoo's door opened and his friend's brown hair appeared from inside it.
"Is everyone gone?" he asked.
"Everyone from this floor," Mingyu nodded.
He didn't understand how he could feel such relief upon watching Wonwoo closing the door behind him and stepping closer towards Mingyu's couch. He ended up kneeling in front of Mingyu and looking up at him with sparkling eyes.
"Do you like, want to do something together?" he asked.
No matter how sad Mingyu felt, he'd never reject that.
"Like what?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Wonwoo said and pretended to think about it for a moment. "How about you cook ramyeon for lunch and I watch you?" he asked hopefully.
"No," Mingyu shook his head. "I'm too tired to cook."
"Please?" Wonwoo tried to convince him.
"No," Mingyu was adamant this time.
"Pretty please?" Wonwoo got up and sat next to him.
"No! I'm not in the mood, okay?" Mingyu sighed.
That made Wonwoo stop speaking. Mingyu kind of hated himself for it, because he really didn't want that silence. Why didn’t he just agree to cook for Wonwoo in the first place? Why did he have to make everything so hard? The other would definitely pick up that something was wrong now.
"Are you sad?" Wonwoo poked his cheek.
Mingyu didn't reply.
"Why are you sad?" Wonwoo changed his question as he poked his shoulder this time.
Mingyu looked at his lap and still didn't reply. He had no idea why he was sad. He didn't want to be like that. He wanted to look at Wonwoo and feel his heart swelling and cook ramyeon for him and smile, not mope around. Mingyu didn't get sad, he was a happy person. It felt wrong to not be, like it was something he wasn't supposed to do. The more he thought about it, the sadder he became.
Then Wonwoo did something absurd. He started tickling him. It took Mingyu by surprise and it made him squirm around violently, but Wonwoo didn't let him go so easily.
"Come on, let me see that smile," he said and Mingyu really had no choice to let out a sound that was somewhere between a laugh and a whine.
"Stop, stop, hey!" he tried to push Wonwoo away, but his grip was weak.
"None of this. You don't get to be sad under my watch," Wonwoo smiled down at him and ah, there was that swell in Mingyu's heart.
It was true. He couldn't stay in a bad mood with Wonwoo like this, pinning one of his arms down on the couch and tickling his sides with the other. This was so stupidly Wonwoo, the way he chose the easiest and most illegal method to make him laugh again. And laugh he did, completely out of his control, and every choked breath he took was like a breeze of fresh air, blowing away all the black clouds that were his negative emotions.
"Suh- stop it!" he protested, because Wonwoo didn't relent even after the sky of Mingyu's heart was clear again.
"Smile for me Mingyu~" Wonwoo said and Mingyu tried his best to throw him a shaky smile. "Good job. Now suffer," Wonwoo added with a smirk and began tickling him harder.
"That was not- aksjaksjs," Mingyu felt tears gathering at the corners of his eyes from laughter.
The traitor. How dare he not stop after all this. Mingyu had to take the matters in his own hands. There wasn't much he could defend himself with. He reached for a pillow at the edge of the couch, and before Wonwoo could realize what he was doing, Mingyu threw it straight to his face.
Wonwoo let out a surprised sound and grabbed the pillow, which gave Mingyu the chance to scramble away from him and get a safe distance between them.
"I hate you!" Mingyu declared, but now that his smile was back, it wasn't going anywhere. Not while he looked at Wonwoo at least.
"You love me," Wonwoo smirked again and threw the pillow right back at Mingyu.
Mingyu dodged it and hid behind the other couch. His hair and shirt were disheveled, his cheeks were red and he felt violated in every level. How did Wonwoo dare not only to clear his sky of the dark clouds, but put a sun there instead?
He gathered all the pillows from his couch and begun chucking them to Wonwoo's direction. He probably missed a few, but the sheer number of them was enough to draw a yelp out of the other's lips and have him scrambling to get shelter as well.
As he got off the other couch, Wonwoo kicked a lamp to the ground. Mingyu didn't have time to check if it broke though, because Wonwoo was gathering all the pillows he threw and blasting them back towards Mingyu.
"This is war, Kim!" he said.
"It has always been war, Jeon!" Mingyu replied dramatically and took cover.
Most of Wonwoo's pillows missed their mark. One hit the curtain rod above the window, causing it to shake dangerously. Another hit their tv and moved it sideways, thankfully not throwing it completely to the ground. But the worst one was definitely the one that landed on the table, where someone had left some dishes from the breakfast that were unfortunately dropped to the floor and broke with a loud crash.
"Your aim is terrible!" Mingyu yelled.
"Your face is terrible!" Wonwoo stuck his tongue out.
Wonwoo grabbed a packet of tissues and begun pulling them out to create small paper balls. Mingyu gathered the pillows that were on his side, and they began attacking simultaneously. A pillow hit Wonwoo square in the face for the second time that day, and Mingyu was certain he must have swallowed at least three of those tiny paper balls. The rest twenty of them ended up scattered all around the living room, like solid snowflakes. At the end of this round of attacks, Wonwoo chucked the entire empty tissue box at Mingyu. It would have hit his shoulder, but Mingyu ducked away in time and it ended up colliding with a painting behind him.
Mingyu wasn't in time to stop it from falling to the ground and its glass breaking.
He made eye contact with Wonwoo instead. The other's mouth was open in shock and regret. Mingyu chuckled. That was what he deserved.
"Don't laugh, Seungcheol is going to kill us!" Wonwoo scolded him. "We can throw out the dishes, but not the painting!"
"Oh no, you're completely mistaken. Seungcheol is only going to kill you," Mingyu kept chuckling unbothered.
"Not if you break something as well!" Wonwoo said and leaped at Mingyu.
Before he could fully grab him, he stepped on the remote control of the tv, making the lid break and the batteries to fly away. Mingyu laughed harder when Wonwoo stumbled, but the laugh choked in his throat as Wonwoo tackled him to the ground, right next to the curtains that were already unstable from before. Mingyu tried not to touch them at all as they wrestled each other. At one point, he managed to flip them around, and as Wonwoo lost his balance, he desperately grabbed the curtains to steady himself. That only managed to make the rod fall on them both.
"Oh my God!" Mingyu yelled and rolled away, rubbing his sore head.
"Serves you right..." Wonwoo mumbled, holding his knee that suffered the most from the impact.
"Me? You attacked first!" Mingyu protested.
"Yeah, but you're ugly," Wonwoo replied, like the true five-year-old he was.
Mingyu shook his head and got up. His heart was beating fast, excited. It only took a stupid fight with Wonwoo to get his blood rushing again. Mingyu couldn't believe how energized he felt compared to how he woke up.
He decided to be the bigger man and help Wonwoo to his feet. But when he started to walk towards him, his foot stepped on a particularly big paper ball and Mingyu felt the earth disappear from under his feet. He fell to the ground comically, with his feet in the air and his hands flopping around.
And then he heard it. An ugly crack sounded throughout the room and Mingyu's heart missed a beat when he realized that that was his phone. He had knocked it off the small table he had placed it onto.
He hurried to pick it up and assess the damage. The screen was destroyed, even below the protector. The useless thing was broken.
"How, how, how did you break?! You've fallen off my pocket like a billion times, but now you decide that you are a weak, fragile piece of outdated technology?" he repeatedly hit the screen with frustration.
"It's all about the angle of the fall, I imagine it wouldn't break if-"
"Oh my god hyung, I don't care!" Mingyu turned to the other.
One look at Wonwoo, that's all it took for his anger to dissipate. It left his body just as suddenly as it appeared. The sun in his heart shone brighter when he was looking at Wonwoo. There was no other emotion he could feel than...
Than?
Mingyu faltered a little. Than what?
He thought about what Wonwoo had done for him. He had lifted his mood in seconds, he had distracted him, he had made him feel okay with himself. He had let his body blow out all the steam it had gathered with that impromptu fight. Hell, Wonwoo had trashed their entire living room for him. And now he was looking at him so fondly from the floor, tangled in the curtains, as Mingyu gripped his broken phone tight. Wonwoo didn't simply put a sun in him. He was the sun. No cloud of sadness had any chance against him.
Mingyu took a deep breath because his thoughts were running wild and he was beginning to get scared.
Wasn't this what being in love was supposed to be like? Every little thing he felt for Wonwoo, wasn't that how his mother had described he was going to feel for the woman he married one day? Mingyu had asked her when he was little about how she knew that his dad was the one for her. She had replied that tο her, his dad was the embodiment of warmth, that there was no cold when he was nearby. That was how she knew she was in love. And Mingyu, being a romantic person, believed her to this day.
Wonwoo... was exactly that, wasn't he? Why did it take so long for him to make the connection? Mingyu gulped and kneeled down next to him. He felt beyond scared, this wasn’t an easy realization to make. He removed the rod and helped Wonwoo sit up.
"I'm sorry about your phone," Wonwoo told him.
Mingyu snorted. Of all the things Wonwoo had to feel guilty about, he chose this. What was Mingyu scared of again? It couldn’t be his feelings for this mess of a human.
"That might have been the only thing you didn't break today," he said.
Wonwoo blinked once.
"Shit," he exclaimed in the end and he glanced around the room.
The dishes with leftover breakfast were still laying broken on the floor near the table, the food spread all around them. The couches were crooked, moved from the places they were supposed to be after they were used as fortresses. The tv was facing sideways, thankfully not broken, but close to it. The remote looked like it had been run over by a truck and its batteries were nowhere to be seen. The lamp was lifelessly laying on the ground. What used to be their curtains was a pile of cloth and wood and there were several pillows and paper balls scattered all around the floor.
The worst damage was the painting. Mingyu had no idea how much it would cost to replace that.
"Hyung. Let's get out of here. They won't have any proof we did it," Mingyu said in a moment of desperation.
"Oh? So you won't leave me to deal with it myself?" Wonwoo raised his eyebrows.
"Of course not," Mingyu pulled them both up.
"Let's go then," Wonwoo's eyes were glinting with mischief again.
There was a second that Mingyu just stared at Wonwoo's eyes and just let his feelings sink in. It was oddly peaceful to look at someone and to know that you loved them, platonically or otherwise. In the end, he just grabbed Wonwoo's hand and pulled him towards the door.
They really needed to get out of that room before anyone found out what they did.
Two days later, and Mingyu couldn't believe they had pulled it off successfully. Nobody figured out it was them who destroyed the living room. Their manager called a cleaning service without many questions and Wonwoo didn't have to pay for anything. Mingyu felt like they were kids again, sharing a huge secret that nobody was allowed to find out. Mingyu loved that.
But recently he had come to realize that he loved a lot of things about Wonwoo.
And every day that passed, he found more and more to love.
Wonwoo didn't have to pay for anything, but he did end up paying for something. Mingyu saw the small box on his bed one day. He hadn't gotten a chance to buy a new phone, but now he didn't have to anymore. For all the things Wonwoo had broken that day, he chose to replace the one he wasn't responsible for. At least now Mingyu knew he loved him, and the somersaults his heart did at the gesture were nothing to be concerned about.
There was a note attached to the package too.
"Let's never talk about this again~ love, hyung"
~~
- When cats want cuddles and pets, they demand your entire attention.
Mingyu yawned for the third time. Maybe he shouldn't have stayed for the movie night in the first place, even though Jisoo had asked so nicely. And well, Wonwoo had stayed as well. And as he had established with himself a while ago, Mingyu was weak and in love.
Now, Soonyoung, Chan, Seungkwan and Jisoo were all cuddled up on one end of the big couch while Mingyu was sitting on the other side of it. Wonwoo was in between. Not quite in the pile of limbs that were his friends, but not touching Mingyu either.
Twenty minutes of the movie have passed when his friend moved a fraction of a centimeter closer to him. Mingyu's eyes immediately caught it. He pretended not to notice though and just kept staring at the dumb action film Soonyoung had put on. Three minutes and thirteen seconds later, Wonwoo moved again.
He wanted to be subtle. He wasn't looking at Mingyu at all as he slid closer and closer to him. But now their arms were touching, and Mingyu kind of wanted to pull him even closer. It was unfair after all that only the others got to cuddle.
So Mingyu decided to be the most cliché person ever and lift his arms above his head, pretending to stretch. When he lowered them again, one was casually draped at the back of the couch, over Wonwoo's shoulders. And this time, Wonwoo turned to look at him.
"What?" Mingyu whispered.
"What did the man just say?" he nodded towards the tv.
Mingyu was caught. How did Wonwoo dare to expose him like that?
"Uhhh something in Italian?" he replied anyway.
"No, he definitely didn't say something in Italian during an Albanian mafia movie," Wonwoo said.
"Oh, so you had time to watch what is happening as you moved closer to me didn't you?" Mingyu couldn't help but jibe at him.
Wonwoo's ears started reddening and Mingyu fully enjoyed his victory. He chuckled and just pulled Wonwoo all the remaining way to his chest. No need to make their lives more difficult. It took Wonwoo a moment, but eventually he threw his arm over Mingyu's torso and tucked his head beneath his chin, like he had probably been meaning to do from the beginning. Mingyu softly run his fingers down his other arm, making the hair rise on it.
Wonwoo let out a small, satisfied sigh and Mingyu forgot what the movie was even about. He could only focus on the armful of Wonwoo that was suddenly on his lap. He kept caressing him because Wonwoo clearly enjoyed it, judging by how quickly he seemed to relax.
One hour into the movie, Wonwoo was practically melting against him. It was a great accomplishment to have him like this in a public space, with their group mates literally next to them. Bless them too for not making a comment about it.
Wonwoo's eyes were drooping lower and lower. He probably wasn't paying attention to the movie anymore either. His glasses were digging into the side of his face. It shouldn't have been very comfortable like this. Mingyu carefully removed them without hurting him further and placed them on the armrest next to him.
Wonwoo sighed again and nuzzled his face on the other's shirt, now that there were no glasses to stop him. Mingyu found the chance to run his fingers through his hair, pulling lightly at some strands. Wonwoo groaned at that, and he immediately covered his mouth with his hand out of embarrassment, some of his tension returning.
Not even Seungkwan made a peep though. This wasn't natural anymore. Had their friends talked about not reacting to whatever they saw? Did they even talk behind their backs? And why would they even do something like this in the first place?
Well, if that was the case, Mingyu was going to make the most out of it. He let his hands drop to Wonwoo's shoulder and massage gently, trying to get him all soft and compliant like he was before.
"You're not watching the movie anymore, hm?" he whispered to his forehead.
"Someone took my glasses off," Wonwoo hummed.
"It's too bad. Now you can only sit comfortably while I work my magic with you," Mingyu whispered.
Wonwoo opened his eyes to look at his own and gave him a tiny smile. Mingyu booped his nose before he started massaging his nape, making him let out another sharp sigh.
Mingyu liked cuddly Wonwoo so much, probably because he was getting rarer and rarer. His reactions were so natural, he had trouble holding them back like he instinctively did during most days. If someone saw him like this, he would have no idea why people called him cold.
"You're so warm," Mingyu whispered.
Mingyu had figured the effect of calling Wonwoo that a few years back. Because people usually only saw his cool persona, it sometimes made Wonwoo insecure about his personality. He was scared that he wasn't good for his friends and loved ones, that they thought he didn't care enough, that he didn't feel for them. Which was entirely untrue, and thankfully everyone in seventeen knew that.
But still, insecurities were insecurities, and one of Mingyu's favourite hobbies was squishing Wonwoo's ones to extinction.
Being called warm never failed to make Wonwoo even warmer. He wrapped his leg around Mingyu's hugging him in a more secure way. This way their bodies were getting as much contact as possible. He opened his eyes again, but didn't look at Mingyu this time. His eyes settled on a neutral spot on the wall, almost unfocused.
The film played on, and Wonwoo was starting to get lost in thought. Mingyu tapped his cheek to get his attention and throw him a questioning smile about what he was thinking. Wonwoo looked at his eyes, then away again.
"Mingyu, I-" he tried to say but stopped himself.
Ah, this was familiar. Mingyu knew what to do. He lifted Wonwoo's chin with his fingers and leaned down to press a kiss on his lips.
Wonwoo expected it. Mingyu felt him smile into the kiss and it was one of the most beautiful feelings ever. He wanted to keep kissing him but there was nothing platonic about that like he had been meaning it to be. It was much harder to pull away than the last time this happened.
"Ok, oh my god, I can't do this anymore!" Seungkwan paused the movie and Wonwoo immediately pulled back.
"Seungkwan," Jisoo calmly warned.
"If you want to kiss, get a room or something! There's only so much I can pretend I don't see!" Seungkwan pointed an accusing finger at Mingyu and Wonwoo.
"Imma back this one up. Kissing is the limit. We can't silently ignore any more than that," Soonyoung agreed. "Can we go back to the movie now?"
"Wait, it's not-" Wonwoo tried to explain.
But honestly, how do you even explain a platonic kiss? How do you explain that you feel so much for your friend that words won't do it justice and an innocent kiss is the only solution to properly convey your emotions? Mingyu couldn't explain it. Mainly because he didn't want it to be platonic, and that thought scared him the most.
But if Wonwoo needed it like this, then that was exactly what he was going to offer.
"If you say you haven't had the hots for Mingyu ever since you were like sixteen, then you're cancelled, blocked, reported and not invited to my wedding," Seungkwan sat back on the couch and crossed his legs. "Press play, Channie dear," he motioned towards the younger to continue their movie.
"First the fans and now you? Can y’all let him be comfortable for once?" Mingyu said, starting to feel a bit irritated.
He had lost a lot of precious time with Wonwoo trying to make him realize that whatever he felt was fine with him. He didn't need any more obstacles, especially in the form of their close friends.
"Mingyu, it's not like that. We don't assume that you're together or something, that was the whole point of not acknowledging what you do," Jisoo tried to explain.
"Seungkwan said it, not me. I just find it annoying that-" he began saying but he felt a very familiar hand on top of his so he stopped.
"Next time I kiss Mingyu, it will be in private. Chan play the movie please," Wonwoo put an abrupt end to the blooming argument and Mingyu had to put actual effort in not letting his jaw drop.
Chan smiled at him and hastily did as told. The others too went back to their previous position, like this conversation never happened.
But there was no way Mingyu could pretend the same. He turned to look at Wonwoo, only to find him tucking himself to his side and pulling his arm over his shoulders again. He put on his glasses again too, so that meant he would be focusing back on the movie. Maybe that conversation would be put on hold then.
Wonwoo didn't look as cute as before, when he was wholly wrapped around him, but like Mingyu had established, he was weak and in love, and he would take anything Wonwoo was willing to give.
~~
Remember friends, cats are very clever animals and will know if you love them and treat them right! Always have food and water in their bowls, let them run around your house freely and they will come to love you like any other animal!
Thanks for reading my article, I hope I helped you! xx
Mingyu lowered his phone and glanced at Wonwoo. He was sitting at the very end of the couch with a book in his hand. Mingyu looked at him for a second longer, then back at the article, then back at Wonwoo.
He couldn't believe it. Minghao had made an amazing discovery. Mingyu was honestly shook. He opened his chat with Minghao and began typing furiously.
Me: You are monster
Me: delete this
Me: why did you send that
Me: now I can't unsee
Me: how could you say something so controversial yet so brave
Ni hao: lmao
Me: no you heathen don't laugh you have to fix this
Me: why would you do this to me
Ni hao: whatevs, check this out too
Ni hao sent a link
[article][Some valuable information about puppies for first time dog owners]
Ni hao: that's you lol