the stars aligned for us | sunsun

10

song:  touchin'   –kang daniel

10|  sherlock– sim jaeyun– holmes

sunoo felt his neck slightly throb, his limbs felt slightly stiff. he felt the rays of the sun pierce him as he tried to shift around. he slowly regained his senses as his grogginess dissolved away. he blinked his eyes open, his heart momentarily stopping when he noticed how he was strapped in the passenger seat of a car.

the house. the rain. sunghoon.

his eyes flitted to the driver seat. sunghoon was sleeping peacefully, the morning sun highlighting his sculpted face perfectly. barely audible snores left sunghoon's slightly parted lips. his half-rimmed glasses sitting on his sharp nose.

sunoo looked at himself in the rearview camera, adjusting his messy hair until his eyes focused on his shirt. he tugged at the material, the slight musky scent making him sigh. the cold air that blew from the air-conditioner sent shivers down sunoo's spine.

his eyes darted to the coat lying on the backseat. sunoo gently picked it up and placed it on sunghoon watching the grown man hum in satisfaction in his sleep. sunoo slowly removed sunghoon's glasses, holding his breath, praying sunghoon doesn't wake up before placing them in the glove compartment box.

sunghoon scrunched his nose up slightly before his face relaxed once again.

sunoo gave into the desire to touch sunghoon's hair, his fingers lightly brushing the strands of hair falling the sleeping man's face away.

"i don't understand why my heart pounds when my eyes lay on you even when you've hurt me," sunoo mumbled under his breath.

it had been five years yet his heart raced for sunghoon like it always had. he thought he could be indifferent. he thought he could control himself but the itch to be closer was slowly resurfacing and that made him feel scared.

yet, when sunghoon had showed up yesterday, his body jumped into sunghoon's arms as the tears uncontrollably left his eyes. he felt safe and so reassured just listening to the sweet whispers escaping sunghoon's lips as his back burned from sunghoon's hands patting his back. he knew he shouldn't indulge in it yet in that moment, he had reverted back to the fifteen year old sunoo, unafraid of the consequences of bearing your heart to another.

"we can never be friends, hyung," sunoo whispered before he retracted his fingers which threaded through sunghoon's hair.

sunoo softly clicked the door close, walking away clutching his damp shirt that had laid on sunghoon's backseat in his hands.

sunghoon's eyes snapped open as he peered through the window to see if sunoo looked back.

he never did.

sunghoon's heart pounded erratically, his mind confused by sunoo. the disappointment and the sadness that were etched into his words were unmistakable yet whenever he came face to face with sunoo, the unending hatred and anger seemed to mask those feelings. sunoo seemed to always want to be two miles away from him yet his gentle fingers playing with his hair almost said otherwise.

"yah sunghoon you didn't go home last night?" jake asked. jake and jay had stopped their search and parted ways once the text from sunghoon came in, so jake had no idea what happened afterwards except that sunoo was safe.

"it rained so heavily so i just parked the car in the parking lot," sunghoon yawned.

"you never told me what happened between you and sunoo," jake whispered to sunghoon.

both of them were in the library, looking for resources for their respective assignments.

"neither do i. i don't know what i did to make him treat me like trash. believe it or not we were best friends once. i remember him stumbling up to me and waving excitedly handing me his cookies when we met for the first time and after that he stuck to me like glue. i grew to accept his presence and then he just was there, throughout, never faltering, always smiling cheerfully. though the time we parted remains hazy. i remember leaving a note in his mailbox since i couldn't find him that week. the week that i was moving into jungwon's place for my mum's wedding. my mother married jungwon's dad and we moved towns for them. he never called and i was in the hospital for a day after fainting. the moment i could get my phone i tried calling him but it went straight to voicemail. it went on for weeks until i stopped."

"are you sure? you seem like you're describing an entirely whole other person," jake mumbled as he processed sunghoon's words.

"i wish i was joking," sunghoon chuckled hollowly.

"yah jake! wait up! do you know where heeseung hyung is? i've been trying to find your boyfriend all morning!" jay jogged up to jake, hooking his arms around the latter's neck.

"aish, he's so forgetful. i think he forgot to tell you but he had to go out of town last minute. he'll come back tomorrow though. anything important you want me to tell him?"

"nah it's fine bro. just had to ask him something related to my project with sunoo."

"i know i shouldn't pry but do you know what happened between sunghoon and sunoo?"

jay's eyes narrowed with slight suspicion, "why?"

jake swallowed his saliva. jay is intimidating when the man wants to be.

"no i was with sunghoon and he was telling me about his...friendship with sunoo and some things just don't seem to be adding up," jake twiddled with his fingers.

jay's curiosity peaked but there was still a lingering doubt in his mind. "what's in it for you?"

"we hang out around each other and it's difficult when both of them resent each other. i just thought maybe i could help them." jake's sincere voice was all it took for the suspicion to dissolve. jay could feel the honesty in his eyes.

"there are some things that can't be helped. all i can say is sunghoon hurt sunoo and i know it's unfair for sunoo to be holding a grudge but he rightfully should."

jake's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, sunghoon never mentioned about doing any wrong to sunoo. it seemed like sunghoon was also confused why sunoo was mad at him. jake debated whether to spill about what sunghoon had told him.

jay clicked his tongue against his mouth, impatient.

jake snapped away from his thoughts. he wants to do something because sunghoon seems desperate to talk to sunoo yet based on sunoo's actions even if the latter says he hates sunghoon, last night's ordeal was enough confirmation to understand that he doesn't completely hate the man.

jake conceded to his mind.

for the greater good.

"jay, can you spare me five minutes?"

– L