↱GREAT ESCAPE↲ ⇾seongjoong/yeonbin⇽

22

later in their room, hongjoong snored softly under his covers.

yeosang traipsed across their bedroom, sitting on the edge of his mattress. he watched the rise and fall of the comforters on the other bed as hongjoong slowly breathed.

despite the fear of disappointing his parents, he ached to be with hongjoong. he meant what he said, in the root of his heart and soul, but would he really potentially jeopardize...

what exactly?

there was an underlying fear that maybe they wouldn't make it, yeosang thought.

( but they would have had a chance. )

__

yunho raises his shot glass, and mingi attempts (keyword) to clink their glasses together, drunkenly missing by a long shot.

they're sharing their fourth bottle of soju, toasting - for the hundredth time - to broken hearts.

"i just don't get it, you know?" yunho rambles on, soju spilling over the edge of his brimming glass before he downs it. "we spend all this time together, sometimes he even looks like he wants to kiss me, and for what?"

mingi just nods his head, almost tipping over. "he doesn't owe you shit, man."

"is that what you keep telling yourself?" yunho slurs, pointing an accusatory finger at mingi.

"fuck off," mingi mutters, slamming his shot glass on the table. "you were too slow."

exhaling slowly, yunho settles his elbow on the table, palm against his forehead. "so were you," yunho retorts, other hand fiddling with his now-empty shot glass. "you win this round, though. you know why?"

mingi snorts, humoring the other. he pours himself another shot. "okay, why?"

"because you've had more chances than i did, literally more than a decade to tell him."

silence surrounds them for a moment, save for the sound of crashing waves and children laughing in the distance.

mingi stares at their table, plate of salted nuts between them untouched and forgotten.

"you know what?" mingi starts quietly, making yunho look up.

slowly, mingi takes one of their empty soju bottles by its glass neck, and raises it slightly. "i ought to smash this against your head."

yunho gulps, eyes shaking as he laughs nervously.

their little bubble is shattered, however, when yunho quickly straightens up and raises a hand.

he starts waving someone over, and mingi turns in his seat to see who it is.

"hongjoong!" yunho calls out when the passer-by doesn't see them.

mingi watches as hongjoong stops in his tracks, raising his head to look for the owner of the voice.

from where he's sitting, mingi could still clearly see the wet streaks down hongjoong's cheeks, and doesn't miss the way hongjoong quickly wipes at his eyes before hurrying away.