PRISM | sunnew ✓

twelve

"do you always let them treat you like that?" sunwoo asked, chanhee immediately averting eye contact with him and instead directing all his attention onto the ground. "i'm assuming that's a yes."

sunwoo sighed, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he looked at the older boy beside him. and even without all the glitz and glamour (and perhaps filters), sunwoo was still shocked by how beautiful the boy truly was and a part of him felt guilty for judging him based on that beauty alone at first.

although his first impression of the boy was that he was merely a conceited influencer, the more he talked to him the more he realised that buried under all those high end brands and endless makeup was a boy that was just as vulnerable to the world as him and maybe, just maybe, even more so.

"why didn't you change out of your work clothes?" chanhee asked, still refusing to meet his eyes as they continued walking along the pavement. "aren't you cold?"

"i didn't bring another set of clothes and besides, it's nothing i can't handle nyu so don't worry about me," sunwoo replied, brushing his concerns aside as chanhee nodded. "if anything, i should be the one worried about you seeing as how you work with such pricks."

chanhee ran a hand through his hair. "in your words, it's nothing i can't handle-"

"well, that's a lie now isn't it?" chanhee stopped walking, sunwoo following suit. "you can continue lying to me but at the very least, don't lie to yourself."

chanhee turned around, eyes finally meeting sunwoo's and that was when sunwoo realised why chanhee refused to make eye contact.

he was crying.

based on his voice alone, sunwoo would've never been able to tell that the ulzzang was in tears but now that he had raised his head, he could see tears rolling down his face, staining his cheeks.

sunwoo had never been good with taking care of crying people, with him often just letting someone else handle it. but, there was no one else at the moment - it was just him and chanhee.

"lying to myself is a lot easier than acknowledging their shit isn't it?" chanhee said, his voice cracking as he let go of the facade he tried so hard to maintain. "and besides, why the fuck do you care? why..." sunwoo approached chanhee, tentatively putting his arm around him and awkwardly patting him on the back. "why do you care?" chanhee whispered, his head resting on sunwoo's shoulder.

sunwoo let his words hang in the air, unsure of how to respond and instead just letting chanhee cry it all out.

after a few minutes passed with them just standing at the side of the pavement, chanhee pulled himself away from sunwoo, wiping away his tears and taking out his phone to check his reflection. "fuck i look like a mess," chanhee murmured, hurrying to find his products in his bag.

sunwoo on the other hand looked through his own bag to find his hoodie and tossed it over to chanhee who was barely able to catch it. "wear this instead - you can pull the hood up to hide your face."

"if you had a hoodie, why didn't you wear it?" sunwoo shrugged, chanhee still staring at the piece of clothing in his hands before reluctantly wearing it over himself. despite the fact that they were a similar height, chanhee still looked as though he were wearing an oversized hoodie and since he was fumbling to put the hood over himself, sunwoo helped him, fixing the hood over his head. "i'm not an infant you know? i can wear shit on my own," chanhee huffed but nevertheless let sunwoo help him out.

"there's a convenience store nearby this area. if you want, we can get some food there since your dinner got disrupted," sunwoo suggested. "you can reject my offer by the way and uh sorry i can't offer more than convenience store food."