Fine {DoTae} | complete

Three

TW: binge eating and ed thoughts

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

"Doyoung!"

He can't place the voice at first. Not until Jeno charges down the corridor and crushes him in a hug, and the fog clears. Doyoung gasps and hugs him back, mind racing as he tries to comprehend quite what is happening. One minute he was sweeping the dressing room floor, and the next his brother is here, at the concert, dressed in a bright green hoodie with green glitter on his cheeks. Then he spots Jaemin, too, carrying a lightstick with a wide grin as usual.

Doyoung makes sure to hug Jeno extra tight. "You've gotten taller, haven't you?" He narrows his eyes in mock suspicion and Jeno puffs his chest. His height reaches Doyoung's nose now, and he can't quite decipher the feeling that crawls through his insides. It rummages around, unsure of where to settle, but he doesn't shoot it down.

"Of course I have." Jeno grins. He may be taller, but he for sure hasn't changed.

And then there's Jungwoo.

"Woo..." Doyoung's hand flies to his mouth and everything pauses except his mind, which whirrs at a million miles per second because his best friend is here.

The best friend he hasn't seen in almost a year. The best friend he's missed so, so much.

"You... you came?" Doyoung asks. His words puncture the breath in his lungs, making him stutter, and he exhales happily when he's pulled into the hug he's been craving all these months.

Jungwoo is still just as gentle. Still just as attentive, because he checks it's okay before hugging Doyoung, and shushes Doyoung before the first tear even pulls.

"Hi," Jungwoo says into his ear. Then they're both giggling like teenage girls and pulling away to stare at each other, getting a good look as though making sure nothing is out of place. "How have things been?"

"I..." Doyoung still can't speak. His head is crammed full of a thousand different ways he wants to answer the question, but nothing breaches his lips. Jungwoo understands and keeps talking.

"I missed you so much. I've been driving Jaehyun up the walls." Doyoung finds that funny, the image sharp in his mind. "Then Jeno said he was coming to the concert, so I obviously had to come, too."

"I got them VIP seats."

"You knew?" Doyoung turns to his boyfriend. The world tilts a little, but uprights itself when Taeyong comes into his vision. "You knew they were coming?"

"He phoned Jeno and everything," Jaemin adds.

Doyoung's face circles from shock to indignation before scrunching up in a strange manifestation of relief, and he hugs Jungwoo again, this time circling his arms around his friend's waist, ignoring the staff that have to sidestep past them and the distant bustle of fans leaving the venue. The moment can't last forever, despite his best pouts in Sanghee's direction, but clearing the dressing room is less of a slog with Jungwoo making easy conversation with Taeyong and Jeno and Jaemin and even with Hyunseok, who visibly fights with the urge to grill Jungwoo about his background to make sure it's all safe.

Doyoung admires Jungwoo for his ability to win anyone over. He always just knows what to say. Where Doyoung's own tongue gets tied in knots he can't help but fall flat on his face as he clams up and crumbles under everyone's expectant stares, Jungwoo simply smiles bright and talks.

Like usual, Doyoung listens, all the way back to his and Taeyong's apartment. Jungwoo's engineering apprenticeship has been going well. He listens to stories about the rest of their friend group, and that's where he has to try harder to keep the smile on his face. The stadium disappears into the distance behind them and sucks Doyoung's energy with it, his soul trapped between two worlds. The high of dating a celebrity and going on tour against the low of scraping through college, the low that sculpted who he is today but is still no less bitter of a shadow.