best of me | woosan (✓)

- fifty -

san and seonghwa arrived home to a panicked hongjoong arguing with an exhausted looking wooyoung. upon hearing the arguing, san and seonghwa looked at each other with worry and ran into the kitchen. hongjoong was close to tears, while wooyoung appeared to have no remorse.

"woo, hey, i'm home," san said softly, interrupting the two's argument.

"thank god," wooyoung snapped, getting up and pulling san upstairs, quietly whimpering every few steps.

as soon as the two had left the room, hongjoong broke down, his hands shaking as he went to lean against the counter.

"hey... what happened, baby?" seonghwa softly asked, going over and pulling hongjoong close.

"i-i was just trying t-to h-help..."

"you did your best, love... i'm proud of you."

"b-but—"

"shh... just take a couple of deep breaths, okay? wooyoung probably didn't mean it..."

hongjoong nodded and took a few deep breaths, clinging to seonghwa like his life depended on it.

"s-seongie?"

"yeah, baby?"

"i-i'm really glad you got home when you did... i-i almost panicked a-and—"

"don't finish that sentence... please?" seonghwa pleaded, knowing exactly what hongjoong was about to say. "how much time is left before the brownies are done?"

"h-how'd you know they were brownies?"

"because you're you, love. you'll always find an excuse to make them."

hongjoong giggled a bit, sniffling and wiping his eyes, causing a small smile on seonghwa's face.

"you're right, i do."

meanwhile upstairs, san and wooyoung were silently laying together, wooyoung tense from his argument with hongjoong.

"c-can you please say something?" wooyoung begged, the silence suffocating him.

"what happened? you and joongie never argue, so what happened?"

"he started it," wooyoung insisted.

"there's no way he started it. i love you, but i know joongie. he's literally incapable of starting anything, he hates confrontation. don't lie to me, woo."

wooyoung sighed, looking away.

"woo, baby... what happened?"

"i went down to get lunch, but i couldn't find anything i wanted... i was just sitting around and hongjoong offered to make me something but i said i was alright, and then a bit of time passed and joongie said if i wasn't going to eat that maybe i should take a nap or something so i'm ready for later and that's what started everything."

"he was just trying to help, bub... you know that you need to rest, why didn't you just accept his suggestion and move on?"

wooyoung chewed his lip and shrugged, avoiding eye contact.

"woo... do me a favor and apologize when we go back downstairs. i know you're upset and probably don't want to, i know you're tired of being told to rest and such... but it's going to mean a lot to joongie. seonghwa told me this while we were waiting, but joongie hasn't been doing too great recently. he may seem like he is, but he's doing his best to hide this from us and he's only told seonghwa about what's going on. being with us and being able to help us has really been helping him a lot..."

"now i feel bad..." wooyoung sighed.

"you didn't know, it's okay, love..."

"is he gonna be okay?"

"he's gonna get through this, i promise. hwa's gonna make sure of it."

wooyoung nodded, nuzzling his head into san's neck a bit.

"let's give it a few more minutes and then we can go down and you and hongjoong can work this out."

time passed slowly for wooyoung as he waited for san to tell him he thought it would be okay for them to go down. he felt horrible for starting a fight, he was just so sick of being told to rest. he didn't want to rest anymore. he just wanted to feel like himself again.

"alright, bub. let's go down, the other guys are gonna start showing up soon."

wooyoung nodded and followed san downstairs shyly, standing behind him a bit as they walked into the kitchen, where hongjoong was cutting the freshly-baked brownies and seonghwa was at the other end of the counter putting some chips in a bowl for when the others arrived.

"hey guys," san greeted. "the brownies smell great, joongie!"

"t-thank you.." hongjoong whispered, getting shy as he noticed wooyoung.

"j-joongie?" wooyoung started.

"yeah?"

"i-i'm sorry... i-i took my anger out on you a-and... i-i shouldn't have. i-i'm sorry, i'm really sorry."

"it's okay, w-wooyoung... i-i'm sorry if i upset you."

"you didn't!" wooyoung insisted. "i-i'm just tired of not feeling like myself and having to rest so much..."

hongjoong nodded and put down the knife he had been using to cut the brownies, coming around the counter and pulling wooyoung into a hug, causing a smile on the both boys' faces as the doorbell rang, causing san to jump a bit. wooyoung quickly grabbed onto his hand upon noticing and seonghwa went over to the door, opening it to be greeted by yunho, mingi and yeosang.

"hi guys!"

"hi! it's been so longggg," yunho complained, going and hugging san and wooyoung first, then going over to hongjoong and then seonghwa before looking around and smiling wide. "this place hasn't changed a bit!"

"it hasn't even been a year since you were last here, yuyu, of course it hasn't changed," wooyoung laughed.

yeosang quietly laughed along, making his way over to wooyoung and giving him a warm hug. just then, there was a knock at the door, signaling jongho's arrival, which yeosang was still unaware of.

seonghwa opened the door and greeted jongho, who then made his way inside, confusing yeosang.

"w-what's he doing here?"