My Significant Bother - WooSan

Chapter 18

Things go back to normal. Not the way they had been before the holidays, but the way they'd been during the first couple weeks of school. Wooyoung goes back to hating San for every single thing he does, and San goes back to hating every single thing Wooyoung does. Every time one of them opens their mouth in the room, the other snaps at them for it. Every time San's stuff crosses the halfway line in their room, Wooyoung throws a fit. Every time Wooyoung is in the room when San gets there, San sneers and walks back out. And it's better this way.

"-see why he can't just clean up his fucking shit," Wooyoung grumbles. "Like, is it that hard to pick up a sock every once in a while?" "Ask Yunho." Mingi smirks. "If he didn't have me, his room would be trashed." "It's true," Yunho agrees. "Mingi's my guardian angel." "Do you think I'm being unreasonable, though?" Wooyoung asks, ignoring them. "Like, isn't it completely within the line to get pissed off because he's a slob?" "Depends," Yunho answers. "Are you naggy about it? Or do you politely ask him to maybe clean his stuff up once in a while?" Wooyoung makes a face at him, the answer to that pretty fucking obvious. "Then you can't really blame him. And you realize he probably does it just to piss you off, right?" "Yeah, I'm aware." San does a lot of shit just to piss him off. And vice versa. "You've really made a mess of things," Yunho tells him. "Haven't you?" "Yeah, I'm aware."

Suddenly, without warning, Wooyoung has two pairs of arms wrapping around him. Yunho squeezes him tightly, Mingi's hand rubs at his back, and it's nice, even if he can't breathe. Warm and comforting. What did he do to deserve these two? He's really not sure.

"Wooyoung." Both of them release him just as suddenly as they'd hugged him. Wooyoung looks up, frowning when he finds Hongjoong standing in front of the couch the three of them are occupying. "Yeah?" "Can I talk to you for a minute?" Hongjoong has his hands stuffed deeply in the pockets of a sweater, and he's got a pinched look on his face. It's such a contrast to how he normally looks, all sunny smiles and bright openness. Now he's cold and closed off. "Um." Wooyoung looks between Yunho and Mingi for a moment before shrugging. "Sure." "Alone," Hongjoong adds. Wooyoung shrugs again and gets off the couch, following Hongjoong through the common room, out into the stairwell. Hongjoong leans against the wall, arms crossed over his chest, and Wooyoung stands there a little awkwardly.

"I like you," Hongjoong says. "You know that, right? I think you're a good guy, Wooyoung." "Uh, thank you." Wooyoung frowns and shifts a little awkwardly on his feet. "I like you too." "So then maybe you could tell me what the fuck is going on with you and San," Hongjoong says angrily. "Maybe. Because I'm pretty damn confused, and I hate seeing him upset." Wooyoung takes a step back in surprise. "What?" "Don't play dumb, okay? I know you two were sleeping together." Wooyoung swallows. He told Yunho and Mingi, so it's no surprise that San told Hongjoong. He had every right to, right? As much of a right as Wooyoung had telling his friends. "We're not anymore, though," Wooyoung says quickly. "I know that." He can tell Hongjoong's patience is wearing thin; he's tapping his foot impatiently against the ground, arms tightening around his middle. "What I wanna know is why. And what you did, because he won't talk to me about it, but he's been pretty fucked up the last couple weeks. Ever since we got back from break."

"He's the one who called it off," Wooyoung says, more than a little defensive. Why does he get the feeling that Hongjoong blames him for this? And Hongjoong's wrong, too, because San's been fine the last couple of weeks. More than fine, really. Hell, every time San's in the room, he seems pretty freaking peachy to Wooyoung. Especially considering he's usually got his girlfriend with him. Which Wooyoung refuses to get jealous about. He's not jealous about it. Even those times when he walks in and San's got his shirt off and she's groping him and- Wooyoung doesn't care. Only he does. And what's even worse is that she's nice. She's sweet and polite to Wooyoung, and she always offers to leave when he comes into the room, because she respects that it's Wooyoung's room as much as it is San's. And Wooyoung honestly fucking likes her, but he wishes he didn't. He wishes he could hate her.