CHASING YOUTH. wsn ✓

014.

it was always the arcade we'd go to after school for fun.

—

not gonna lie, the arcade was fun. wooyoung never played in an arcade before and therefore, never realised how good he was at the dancing machine. fuck, he and san were smashing the dancing machine right now and the two had successfully attracted a crowd towards themselves. 

there were more people supporting san than wooyoung, and that only fulled wooyoung's huge desire to beat his friend's ass in front of everyone. the people on san's side was chanting and yelling to the beat, pumping the two teenagers with even more enthusiasm to win the other. 

finally, it was wooyoung who won, the younger slumping against the railing as people cheered and whooped for his victory. he was panting so hard that he could hardly hear anything else other than his breathing. wooyoung glanced over at san, who was glaring at the screen like it had just killed his family or something.

wooyoung chuckled. he pushed himself off of the machine and went to where san was standing, "hey, don't sulk. i won fair and square!"

san huffed and got off the machine, letting another person take his place. just before the person was going to insert two coins to start playing, wooyoung stopped them, apologising saying that he wouldn't be doing another round and pulled a random guy from the crowd onto his spot. wooyoung tried following san in the crowd of teenagers that either skipped after school tutoring or just came here after school, but it was impossible; there were simply so many people in such a tight space.

wooyoung eventually found san, who was sitting in one of those retro diner tables as he sipped on a can of coke. wooyoung grinned. he started walking towards san before someone slipped in, sitting next to him. based on their closeness, they probably knew each other. wooyoung stopped in his tracks. who were they? why were they so close to san?

then san put his arm around the person's shoulder, just like how he would put his arm around wooyoung's narrower shoulders. and afterwards, san started whispering in the person's ear, his lips stretching into a grin when he started to pull away. the person turned their head to san and from their side profile, wooyoung could tell it was someone from the school. plus, with their easily noticeable school uniform, it's always quite hard to not recognise someone from their school.

wooyoung started backing away from the booth, hitting a few people on the shoulders for a few times and a few of them yelling at him to tell him to 'watch his fucking step'. wooyoung filtered out all those noises, however, it was all too much. it was all too overwhelming.

wooyoung had to get down. he knew he had to before he collapsed before everyone's eyes. wooyoung staggered on his feet, swaying a little until he reached one of the high seats in the arcade. honestly, now that he's really focusing on anything except for the two people in the booth, why did the arcade have a bar in the middle of nowhere?

someone touched wooyoung's arm, and the boy jolted in his seat. even the touch felt impossibly hot; it felt like the person was burning him. wooyoung looked up and to his relief, it was mingi. mingi must've noticed wooyoung's disheveled appearance and sat down on the stool next to him, his hand still touching wooyoung's arm.

"are you alright?" wooyoung saw mingi's mouth move before hearing it through the ringing. he didn't know what was going on. the last time he felt like this was when he was with san. and with san, it felt easy to be grounded, easy to feel okay again. but here, with mingi, although he was a great guy, it didn't feel safe. it didn't feel okay now. 

wooyoung shook his head. he didn't know who or what he should ask for. should he ask where yunho is? or should he ask for san? or should he just go outside with mingi?

"yunho." wooyoung couldn't hear his own voice, but he was a hundred percent sure that he said that. he must've, or else why would his mouth move on its own accord? mingi nodded. he was looking for someone in the crowd and waved someone over.

yunho saw wooyoung and immediately took mingi's spot next to wooyoung. he sat down and smiled at the youngest boy, "hey, woo, you here with me?"

yunho's voice was starting to get clearer; the ringing in his ear started to fade away little by little, although it was still present. he nodded. he gulped and nodded again, this time firmer and more certain.

yunho chuckled, patting wooyoung's head and softly leading wooyoung's head down to his shoulder, "good. that's good, wooie. do you wanna go outside? or are you okay here?"

wooyoung turned his head towards yunho's ear and whispered, "san. he-he's with someone else."

yunho frowned. wooyoung and san had been stuck to each other's hips the moment they stepped into the arcade, so how was it possible for san to be with someone else? yunho looked around the arcade for san and indeed, san was sitting next to another person.

yunho looked over at mingi and tilted his head towards san's direction, asking silently for mingi to deal with his best friend who hurt yunho's best friend. mingi saw san and sighed, nodding and slowly heading towards the other boy. mingi didn't like this a single bit. the guy sitting next to san was one of san's many ex-hookups, and that one in particular was someone san swore to never get back to. 

"san?" mingi asked when he approached the two boys. san looked up at mingi and frowned, "mingi, hey. is something wrong?"

mingi scoffed, "is something wrong? yeah, something's super wrong. c'mon, let's talk."

mingi didn't wait for san's response. he forcibly pulled san away from the boy and outside of the booth, "you're the fucking problem. he saw you with jung-woong and he doesn't like that. why—why are you with him at the first place?"

san shrugged, "he slipped to sit next to me and i thought of catching up with him, y'know."

"no, i don't fucking know. he's someone you swore to never get back to, or just sparing a glance in the hallways! just because he threw yourself at you doesn't mean you have to be all nice and suddenly talk to him again. he's bad, san, there's a reason why i wanted you to dump him. he's so bad for you and for himself, he just doesn't realise. but, please, we'll talk about this another time. go comfort wooyoung first." mingi pushed san towards where yunho and wooyoung were sitting.

san glanced at wooyoung and saw the younger boy sitting quite closed-off to everyone else. his knees were touching each other and his shoulders were curled, all signs of him not actually wanting to be here. san sighed, nodding and started walking towards the best friends. 

when san reached them, yunho lifted his gaze on wooyoung to san and glared at him when he arrived. yunho reached out to hold wooyoung's hand in his, but san beat him to it, instinctively grabbing wooyoung's hand and pulling him towards his body.

wooyoung looked behind him and saw san, a bit surprised to see how quickly he reacted to yunho's advance, "sannie."

san looked at wooyoung and offered a soft smile, "you wanna go out for a bit?"