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*the same day*
"Hi," Jungwoo said softly when he heard the phone line connect.
"Hey," Doyoung responded, "it's getting late, I thought you fell asleep."
A small smile formed on Jungwoo's lips as he be pulled his legs up onto the chair, sitting like an oversized lap dog. "I was waiting for my mom to go to bed, sorry for keeping you up."
"You didn't keep me up, darlin', it's okay."
He nodded as if the elder was sitting right in front of him. "So about today..." he started, his voice hardly above a whisper, "It's my dads birthday. And...I don't know I just get all weird every year—I just kinda want to hide until the days over."
Doyoung already knew about Jungwoo's dad getting sick and passing away years ago, but he didn't really know how to comfort the boy. He had never lost anybody that close to him, he had no idea how it felt. Instead of coming up with some random bullshit, he just decided on, "I'm sorry." The other side of the phone fell silent, so he continued, "I know some days have to be really hard...and I'll always be there for you if you need help getting through those days."
Jungwoo closed his eyes, trying to trap the tears behind his eyelids. Even though the elder was just merely offering support, it was such a big deal to him. The only people in his life who made him feel this safe was his parents. He'd never found this security he was looking for in his previous girlfriends or friends. "I'm really happy you're my boyfriend..." he whispered into the phone.
"I feel the same way," he responded, not even having to think about it.
"I wish we could sleep together—like cuddling," he quickly clarified, "I feel like I was mean to you today and now I want to see you."
"Jungwoo, in no way were you mean to me. I don't think your mom would be very happy if I just showed up at your house right now...but you can stay with me this weekend?"
After letting out a quiet yawn, the boy sleepily hummed, "Mhm, I should do that."
"Do you want to go to sleep, darlin?" Doyoung asked.
A small whine echoed through the phone as the boy shifted in his seat, "No..." he whimpered, feeling like his boyfriend was trying to get him to hang up.
Laughing at the boy, Doyoung could tell just how tired he was by the whiny tone he was using. "Ok, you don't have to." At this point, Jungwoo was half asleep on his dining room table, one of his hands gripping the phone and the cord in the other. "You should get a phone for your room." The elder knew he was basically talking to himself. If his boyfriend was awake, he was much to tired to comprehend anything he was saying.
"Doyoung?" Jungwoo whispered, the phone almost slipping out of his hand as he struggled to keep his eyes open.
"Yeah?"
"I don't know," he admitted as he finally gave into the weight pulling his eyelids shut. The phone slipped out of his hand a small thud making it to Doyoung's side of the phone.
The elder was quite tempted to drive to Jungwoo's house just to put the boy in his bed. He just hoped his neck wouldn't be sore in the morning. "Goodnight, Darlin," He whispered.
Ever so gently, Doyoung set the phone down on his own dining room table and turned to the math homework he had set out in front of him. "Do it for your boyfriend," he tried to speak words of encouragement over himself, but still had no motivation to equations of any sort.
After an hour or so of tedious work, he finally finished all of the bookwork he had. He glanced down at the phone still on the table next to him, wondering if he should finally hang up. He hadn't heard any sign of the younger waking up, but he didn't want to risk him waking up all alone.
"Doyoung." Jina spoke as she walked into the dining room, "It's past midnight, you need to go to sleep."
He let out a small sigh before reluctantly putting the phone back onto the wall. "I'm going," he said to his mom, putting his things into his backpack.
✨✨✨
Jungwoo's mom, walked into the kitchen to make some tea and was not at all expecting to see her son asleep at the table. A small smile rose to her lips when she saw the phone resting on the table next to his head. "My baby's in love," she whispered to herself before walking over to gently wake him.
"Jungwoo, honey, you have school." It only took a couple tries until he lifted his head, looking at the woman with a confused expression.
"Oh...I fell asleep," he mumbled, reaching up to rub at his eyes, "Sorry mom, I'll go get ready."
A nervous laugh slipped past his lips when he stood up and almost tripped over the phone cord. He quickly hung the phone up, hoping his mom wouldn't question who he was talking to.
But he didn't have to tell her as she already knew. And of course she would definitely change it if she could, she would want her husband to be able to see how happy their son was.
"Mom..." Jungwoo whined as he walked back into the kitchen, "Can you drive me to school please?"
She nodded, "Yes, Jungwoo, I'll drive you to school like I do everyday."
"That felt mean," he muttered as put his backpack on.
Walking over to the boy, she reached up and pinched his cheeks, trapping him in her hold, "I'm happy to drive my little baby to school!" She got up on her tippy toes and kissed his cheek.
A light blush tinted his cheeks before he whispered,
