ice breakers ( with @guppysiren ) location: practice room in kh entertainment
it almost feels like a trick – like someone had snuck into the headquarters of the planning team, and made it so that wooju would be paired with none other than hyeongyu. their history together isn't completely unknown to the public; they'd gone to the same middle and high school, and for those that truly followed the idols, it wouldn't be too hard to find anecdotes or photos of the both of them together from back then ( though wooju had tried hard, years ago, to bury that memory ).
looking at hyeongyu back then was like looking at the sun, bright smile and warm personality, engulfing wooju into a tight hug. but now – now, looking at hyeongyu felt as though he was being burnt by the very thing that was supposed to be his solace. and the fact was that wooju would allow himself to burned by hyeongyu over and over again if kept within close proximity.
memories of their brief encounter on wooju's couch flood his mind. what was supposed to be a harmless ( mostly ) catch up between friends turned into something devious. and then again in his bed, a few nights later and then again – he sighs. his lips feel dry, being close to your ex does that, he guesses.
he'd thought that the answer to this was distance, that as long as he kept an emotional distance from hyeongyu that his heart would learn to settle again, the way it had been settling during the years they were apart. not forcefully, but because hyeongyu had asked for it, begged even in wooju's memory, to end things.
that of course, turned out to be the wrong answer – just like with everything else wooju had done in the course of his life. ( “we can… i think we can… be more mature now, right? i was being childish too… by being so cold.” he'd said, voice raspy and low on the other end of the line, his brain slowly digesting everything hyeongyu had shared ).
still, to be suddenly thrusted into something like this with hyeongyu, so soon after that conversation, makes it a little hard for wooju to focus. no matter how professional he was. "did you get enough rest?" he asks, "or were you too nervous because you're filming with a sunbae?" his voice is teasing, and he's suddenly hyperaware of the bangs in front of his face, his stylist had decided to style him as such – and for some reason the company thought that fans would like the contrasting visuals of hyeongyu and wooju side by side. i also like...d the contrasting visual of hyeongyu and i side by side, he'd thought to himself stubbornly.
"if you need any help, just let me know, okay?" he finally says, rubbing the back of his neck. the one that had lacked sleep is clearly wooju – but that was for a multitude of reasons. wooju hasn't had a good night's sleep in years, and he doubts he ever can again. "you have something in your hair," instinctively, he reaches out to tug at some dust on hyeongyu's hair. "were you hiding somewhere before this? trying to look at birds or an insect or something?" he asks, voice familiar. his heart stutters, he needs to pull back.
