My Significant Bother - WooSan

Chapter 21

Hongjoong's question makes sense when Wooyoung goes to his room after being in the library all afternoon the next day. The first thing he notices, upon entering the room, is that their wastebasket is full of balled up papers, which is weird enough. But then his eyes fall on his bed, on the neat black envelope, sealed with a single chocolate. Wooyoung groans. He pops the chocolate into his mouth and breaks the seal on the envelope, pulling out the thick parchment inside. The writing on it is kind of sloppy, admittedly, but it looks like it'd been carefully written down, probably more than once, guessing by the state of their garbage bin.

Convinced myself to run around with someone else to forget about you,

Wooyoung reads, eyes skimming over the slanted words.

But I can't hold you responsible for the things I do
I said your name by mistake, played it off like I'm just confused
But I was frontin', lyin' to myself when I know the truth

He reads it over three times, eyebrows drawn together. And then he reads it once more, for good measure, before putting the 'poem' back in the envelope and pulling out his laptop. He types the words in, and he shakes his head. He knew it. They're song lyrics. It's not even a plagiarised poem, they're fucking song lyrics. Jesus Christ, really? He snorts to himself. And while he still has no idea what San's trying to do, he's not going to just ignore him this time.

It's almost an hour later when San comes into the room, once again sweaty after a workout. He shuts the door behind himself and bites his lip, eyes moving from the envelope on the desk to Wooyoung's face. "What the hell even was that?" Wooyoung asks him. San licks his lips. "Um." "Those were song lyrics," Wooyoung states. San rubs his neck, wincing. "I was hoping you wouldn't notice."

Wooyoung shuts his laptop and stands up. San takes a step back, moving away from him. "What are you trying to do, San? Putting cheesy song lyrics in envelopes and giving me chocolates and shit." "I tried writing poetry myself," San admits, stammering a bit. "Hongjoong said it'd be better than flowers, but I'm as shitty at writing as I am at drawing, apparently, and- it didn't work. So I thought maybe... but obviously you figured it out." "But why would you even bother?" Wooyoung demands. "I don't get it." "Like- like I said, I'm trying," San explains. "I'm trying to-" "Well cut it out," Wooyoung snaps. "It's creepy."

He leaves the room, but not before he sees the wounded look on San's face. But he closes the door on it, too confused to do anything else. Too confused by everything he feels, and everything San's doing. He lights up a cigarette on his way to the coffee shop, and he texts Yunho and Mingi, asking them where they are, begging them to come meet him. Only there's no consolatory party this time.

When he explains what happened this time, Mingi slaps his arm hard enough that it stings. "You're an asshole," he says. "You better not have actually said that to him." Wooyoung gapes at him for it. "What? But-" "No," Mingi says. "You know, through this entire thing you've been acting like San's the only one who's done wrong. And I'm not saying he hasn't, because he has. You've both fucked with each other a lot, and you've both done and said some pretty shitty things. But you don't own up to it, Wooyoung. You act like you're a victim, and San's here to make your life hell when, in reality, you've done as much as him."

Both Wooyoung and Yunho look at him in surprise. Wooyoung's mouth feels dry, and he's possibly going to throw up the sandwich he'd had for lunch. "Mingi-" "Dont," Mingi says, and Wooyoung has no idea where this side of him came from. He didn't know Mingi was capable of looking like that, fierce and angry. And he definitely didn't think Mingi would ever get like that with him. "You know what you both need to do? Before anything? You need to fucking opologize to each other." And with that he stomps away from the bench they were all sitting at, heading in the direction of their dorm. Wooyoung is too numb to call after him, or follow him. He feels sick and cold and tears are prickling his eyes. But he deserves it, doesn't he? Mingi's right, Wooyoung knows it. He's been a complete ass to San this whole time. And he's been aware of it, he has, but- maybe he does need to own up to it. And maybe, in some weird, confusing way, that's what San's trying to do. Maybe he's trying to apologize for all of this shit that's happened.

"I need to go," Wooyoung mutters. "Sorry, Yunho." Yunho looks up from his phone. "You really are a dick, you know." "Yeah." "San's with Hongjoong. You won't find him in the room." "How d'you know that?" Wooyoung asks. Yunho holds up the phone. "It's this wonderful new invention, texting. Hongjoong told me that San just got to his room, and apparently he's cursing your name to the heavens, babe. He's pissed at you."

Wooyoung chews his lip. The thing is, he knows himself too well to think that he'll still be willing to apologize later. Knows that he'll over think it, come up with excuses not to. Knows that he'll chicken out and run from this all like he's been trying to do for weeks now, ever since that night with the paint when he realized that he couldn't keep emotions out of it anymore. "Can you- can you ask him to send San to the room?" Wooyoung asks, soft and hesitant, not fully sure, even now, that he wants to do this. Yunho's fingers blur over the keys, and a second later his phone beeps with a new message. "Hongjoong says he likes you but right now you can go fuck yourself," Yunho relays. He types out another message. "Now Hongjoong says that San says that he doesn't want to talk to you." More typing. "Okay, now Hongjoong says that he's trying to convince San, but San is ignoring him. And he also-"

Wooyoung snatches the phone from his hand and presses call. He waits a beat, as it rings, wondering if Hongjoong will even answer, but Hongjoong picks up seconds later with a snapped, "San doesn't want to talk to him, okay?" Wooyoung sucks in a breath. "Can you put San on?" Silence. Then, "I'm not sure if that's a good idea. He doesn't want to talk to you, and I don't blame him." Wooyoung swallows his pride. "Please."

There's rustling on the other end, a heated conversation that he can't hear because Hongjoong must be covering the receiver. Silence falls for a moment, before more rustling and finally San's voice, thick and quiet, "What do you want?" "Can you meet me in the room?" Wooyoung asks. "To talk. Please." "Talk about what? What's there to talk about, at this point, Wooyoung? Really? Because I don't see any reason why I should anymore, and I don't see any reason why you'd even want to." "Please," Wooyoung says again. That's it, nothing else. "Okay," San sighs. "I'll be there in a minute." "And if you're an ass to him again Wooyoung I swear I'll-" The call ends, cutting off Hongjoong in the background. Wooyoung hands the phone back to Yunho.

"He's meeting you, then?" Yunho questions. Wooyoung nods. "He said he would, anyway. He might not. I wouldn't blame him if he didn't." Yunho stands up, resting his hand on Wooyoung's shoulder. "You're welcome to stay at ours if things go bad, okay? Even if Mingi yelled at you, we're here for you." "Yeah, I know," Wooyoung says. "Thanks." Yunho waves him off. "Anytime. Now I'm gonna go get some pizza. Your relationship drama is exhausting."