↱TOUCH↲ ⇾seongjoong⇽

열넷

After Seonghwa left the dorm, Jongho was quick to excuse himself and head back to Jackson next door.

It left Hongjoong and Wooyoung alone in the dorm for the first time since the other had arrived that morning.

"Are you going to tell Jongho?" was Wooyoung's first question, as he cleared the counter of plates.

Seonghwa had rinsed his and placed it in the sink before he'd left, but Jongho and Hongjoong had simply left theirs.

Hongjoong sighed, staring down at the counter.

He felt drained – keeping up the illusion of a calm and easy-going exterior for Seonghwa that morning had been hard.

But he still knew the answer to Wooyoung's question without hesitating.

"Yeah," answered Hongjoong. "Of course."

He hadn't kept secrets from his friends in a long time, and Hongjoong wasn't going to head down that path again.

He knew better.

Wooyoung hummed, running water over the plates in the sink.

When Hongjoong stood to help him, he waved the other boy away with an impatient flap of his hand.

"Sit back down," he told him firmly.

"You're exhausted, Hongjoong. I can deal with this."

Grunting – and hoping the vague noise properly conveyed his gratitude – Hongjoong dropped back into the chair.

The silence stretched between them for a long moment, broken only by the sound of Wooyoung cleaning up breakfast, until Hongjoong spoke again.

"Do you think he remembers it?"

Wooyoung hesitated, and then turned to look at Hongjoong properly.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"He didn't seem confused about where he was when he came out of your room, so he probably remembers at least a little from last night. But he didn't mention anything... though, that could have been because I was here. I'm not sure, Hongjoong. I'd have a better idea if I'd seen how drunk he was last night, but I didn't, so... you'd have to ask Jongho."

"Ask me what?"

Hongjoong glanced up as his Jongho swept into the room, closing the front door behind him with a careless flick of his hand.

A small smile was playing around his mouth, so Hongjoong ignored his question for the moment in favor of asking his own.

"How's Jackson doing?"

Jongho laughed.

"Honestly? He's so fuckin' out of it, the dude's probably still a little drunk. It's kind of cute, actually."

The description didn't go unnoticed, and the two hyungs exchanged brief looks of amusement.

"Cute, huh?" teased Wooyoung.