In His Arms - Wonheon ( Wonho x Jooheon )

Chapter 35 : Imagination

“I wanna go outside.”

Wonho looks up from his tablet and glances towards Jooheon, who’s sitting by the window curled up in his usual spot. Jooheon isn’t looking at him, has his head turned towards the window with his eyes settled on something beyond the tree line, and for a few seconds all Wonho can do is stare.

Jooheon’s wearing his own clothes. And honestly, it’s been taking some getting used to. Not because Jooheon looks weird or anything, but because he isn’t covered in something that’s Wonho’s, something that signifies Jooheon as belonging to him. So when Wonho looks towards the younger man and doesn’t find Jooheon getting swallowed up in one of Wonho’s t-shirts or pullovers, or doesn’t see the fabric of his sweatpants and pajama bottoms pool at Jooheon’s feet… it takes a lot out of him, something that almost feels wrong to look at. Now, everything fits Jooheon just right-- painfully right in the case of those black skinny jeans that hug every inch of those sinful thighs and ass to absolute perfection-- and ever since Wonho gave the younger man his clothing, Jooheon hasn’t once touched Wonho’s.

Now, all of Wonho’s clothes stay in their drawers and on their hangers in the closet, and he would be lying if he didn’t admit that everytime he sees Jooheon come out of the bathroom with clothes on his body that don’t belong to Wonho, Wonho’s smile gets tight around the edges, forced and almost painful, and he has to resist closing the space between them and stripping Jooheon bare only to cover him up seconds later with Wonho’s garments-- dressing Jooheon up like his own personal doll.  

Deep down, although not really that deep at all, there is a large part of Wonho that regrets giving Jooheon his belongings back. It’s almost hard to swallow the fact that even in this short span of time, something as insignificant as clothing has become such a huge issue for him. Dictating what clothes someone wears sounds awfully toxic and controlling but there’s no describing the sheer high that Wonho had got when Jooheon had been wrapped up in Wonho’s shirts and pants.

And now that the visual is gone, it stings and bothers him over and over again every time he lays eyes on Jooheon, like a swift punch to the gut. Each and every time.  

Wonho clears his throat and diverts his eyes to looks back at his tablet. He hasn’t even been reading off the damn thing but there’s only so much pacing around the house to waste time that he can do and really, this is the closest that he can get to Jooheon without making things too uncomfortable.

There’s still a fine line that Wonho is careful not to cross because the last thing he wants is for Jooheon to get frazzled again and go back to locking himself away in the bathroom for hours on end. God forbid Wonho having to pull out his medical kit again and start stashing syringes for quick grabs. Because that would suck and they’ve made so much progress that it would probably physically kill Wonho to start all the way over again.

“It’s really warm out,” Wonho answers back. Obviously , Wonho thinks to himself, wanting to mentally smack his forehead due to his sheer stupidity. It is summer time after all. “And the mosquitos are pretty bad this time of the year. You’ll get practically eaten alive,” he tries instead.

Jooheon pulls his gaze away from the window and settles it on Wonho, unblinking. “Then buy some bug spray.”

Wonho almosts laughs. He would have if it weren’t for the look on Jooheon’s face that says none of what he’s saying is a laughing matter. Jooheon is serious about this and for a full minute, Wonho doesn’t know what to say in return. Because Jooheon can’t go outside, he can’t leave this house-- can’t leave Wonho .

Wonho is far from dumb and he knows that the very second either door opens, Jooheon will shoot out and be fucking gone. It was evidence enough when he tried to run back in June and even still thinking about what could have happened sends Wonho into semi cardiac arrest.