begin again | woosan

- three -

it took san and jongho twenty minutes to get to the apartment that seonghwa, wooyoung and yeosang shared. for the entire twenty minutes, san was nearly silent, thinking over all of the possibilities of what could happen. he didn't want to be seen as a monster again, he couldn't. but what if they saw him as one?

"san... it's going to be okay, i promise. just be you, yeah?"

"but—"

"no. you're a great guy, sannie. you always have been. you didn't deserve to go through what happened in high school, okay? things are different now. we're not near any of those people anymore. they can't hurt you anymore, they can't frame you as such an awful person ever again. you trust me, right?"

"more than anyone," san muttered. "i just can't shake the feeling that something bad will happen."

"it'll be okay, sannie. and if anything happens that makes you feel uneasy or anything, you let me know."

san nodded as jongho pulled into the parking lot, then the two made their way upstairs and jongho knocked on the door. it felt wrong for san to show up empty handed, and he suddenly groaned before going to scold the younger boy.

"oh my god, jongho, we should have—"

the door opened, san quieting as an unknown boy appeared.

"jongho! it's so good to see you!" the boy said.

"hi, seonghwa-hyung! it's good to see you too, it's been a while."

seonghwa hummed in agreement, then looked at san.

"you must be san," he said, a gentle smile on his face.

san gulped, nodding.

"y-yeah, that's me. it's nice to meet you! i-i'm sorry we didn't bring anything with us, i would've liked to greet you better," san rambled.

seonghwa only laughed softly, shaking his head.

"ah, don't worry about that! that's much too formal of a greeting for my liking anyways. come on in, yeah?"

san and jongho both nodded, following seonghwa inside. moments later, hongjoong emerged from the kitchen bickering with mingi over something.

"hwa, he's hogging all the snacks!" he whined.

"joong-ah... you know this kid will always do that. let him live, yeah?"

"but—"

"don't worry, i have more of those. i bought extra since you like them so much."

hongjoong blushed slightly, and it was only then that he realized that jongho and san were behind the oldest.

"jongho! san! i'm glad you're both here!"

"hi hyung," jongho laughed.

"oh! san, this is mingi, i'm not sure if you guys know each other."

"hi san! wait, didn't we have a class together last year?" mingi questioned.

san nodded, smiling small. he was growing more comfortable by the minute.

"yeah, we did. jongho was in our class too."

"oh my god, how could i forget!"

the boys soon moved to the living room, making small talk. soon, a boy who quickly caught jongho's attention emerged from the hall, and within a matter of seconds, he was whispering something in seonghwa's ear. seonghwa quickly frowned and stood up, looking at the other boys.

"i'll be right back, but please, make yourselves at home. and mingi, when yunho gets here, can you tell him to keep it toned down?" seonghwa announced, looking at mingi with a pleading expression.