Slow dancing in the dark| meanie

F o u r t e e n

"That's all?" Seungcheol questioned Mingyu on the following school day.

"Whats all?" Mingyu questioned back.

Seungcheol looked at him in disbelief for some reason. "Well I just thought this story would end with you and Wonwoo getting into a fist fight but-" he stopped for a second. "It ended with you walking him home instead."

"Mm." Mingyu nodded his head, pouting a little as he stared at his friend.

Seungcheol was silent for a little while before proceeding.

"So you and Wonwoo are-"

And on the other side of the hallway, Wonwoo and Jeonghan were having the same exact conversation.

"Friends." Wonwoo answered Jeonghan as they walked through the chatter filled hallways.

"Wah." Jeonghan put a hand over his mouth.

"What's so surprising?" Wonwoo shook his head at the dramatic reaction he was given.

"Repeat what you just said." The older boy asked.

"Hyung please-"

"Just do it." Jeonghan rolled his eyes.

And so Wonwoo did. "Me and Mingyu are friends." He smiled at the end.

"Never in a hundred years did I think I would hear such words come out of your mouth." Jeonghan looked happy saying those words. "I'm really glad." He patted Wonwoo on the back.

And Wonwoo was honest to god glad about it too, it was weird because there was something deep inside him that was trying so hard to tell him this was not something he should be happy about. That same force was also trying to pull him back as much as he could and as far away as he could.

Away from Mingyu.

But Wonwoo didn't want to do that, it was difficult for him to understand why he felt this way because normally he always listened to what his gut was saying but now after actually spending some time with the younger, he was happy they had decided to stop that childish train of unwanted bitter feelings towards one another.

"Sleepover." Hoshi exclaimed as they all sat down for lunch.

"My parents are going to daegu and I was thinking you guys could come over and we can have a bro's night." The tiger man went on to explain.

Wonwoo's ears perked up as he stopped pushing a piece of cantaloupe on his plate to look up. The first thing he saw was Mingyu, across from him and as usual staring right at him. So he tried his best not to be caught off guard by the sudden plans.

"Uh- I can't guys." He looked back down at his tray.

"Why?" Jun pouted as he continuously clung on to the youngers arm.

Mingyu rolled his tongue over the bottom of his lip to try and contain the anger he was feeling, seeing such a sight.

"I have things to do and-"

"What's things?" Seungkwan rolled his eyes.

"If you're not going then I'm not going either." Hansol, who had now become incredibly comfortable with the group leaned back in his chair.

"Now you gotta come." Seungkwan looked at wonwoo with pleading eyes.

"I really can't. Another time." Wonwoo nodded.

"We'll have it at your house then." Jeonghan chimed in.

"No." Wonwoo shook his head as everyone else furrowed their eyebrows, feeling offended for some reason. "Fine." He continued. "I'll come to your sleepover." He nodded over at hoshi before walking off to throw his untouched tray away.

"You really should eat more." Mingyu whispered as he caught up to Wonwoo outside by the basketball court.

The older didn't bother to respond as they both sat down on the dried up patch of grass under the cherry blossom tree, wonwoo and now mingyu's favorite spot.

"You don't have to go to the sleepover if you don't want to, you know that right-"

"I know. But they'll never let me live it down and they'll never stop asking me why I didn't go." Wonwoo cut him off.

"And why exactly is it that you don't wanna go?" Mingyu turned his head as he watched Wonwoo look up at the flowers the tree held.

"It's-its complicated." He answered after a sigh.

"I'll listen." Mingyu smiled even though Wonwoo couldn't see it.

"I know." Wonwoo let his eyes cast down from the tree as he turned to look at Mingyu. "But trust me, you don't wanna know."

"And how do you know?"

"It's not something I want to burden you with." Wonwoo scrunched his nose and Mingyu lost all sense of ability to function.

"I could never be burdened when it comes to you."

Mingyu sounded so genuine saying that and Wonwoo wanted nothing more than to believe the words that had managed to escape kim mingyu's mouth just a second ago, but he couldn't.

He couldn't because he had been raised to believe he was a burden when his insomnia kicked in and even now, he spent his time thinking up ways to make his presence small so that he would not be a bother to anyone, so even though mingyu's words meant the world to him, he just couldn't bring himself to believe them.

_
Ah I've been wanting to change the name of this story to 'cherry blossom after winter' because I feel like it fits the vibe more but I didn't want you guys to be confused when I updated and the name was different.

What do you think??