begin again | woosan

- fifty four -

a few days later, wooyoung, yeosang and seonghwa resumed their apartment hunting, this time a bit closer to where san and jongho lived. wooyoung was a bit confused, unsure of why they had all of a sudden started looking in this area, but it wasn't like he could complain. he was feeling much safer here than in the last area they had looked, partially because of san being just a few minutes away and partially because they were so far from their current apartment.

after their second apartment viewing, the three boys decided to stop for food, and it was there that wooyoung decided to bring it up.

"c-can i ask you guys something?"

"of course you can, honey," seonghwa said.

"why'd we start looking over here all of a sudden?"

"well, i noticed we weren't having too much luck over where we had been looking," yeosang started. "so i started talking to hwa about other areas we might be able to look. we decided that this area is pretty central for all of us, since joongie's not too far and san and jjong aren't either, so it would be a good idea to check it out."

wooyoung nodded a bit, biting his lip a bit and staring at the table.

"i-i have to tell you guys something..."

"what is it, youngie?"

"i-i think we need to find a place over here... i-i just... i need san close. a-and it feels so much safer over here already..."

"woo... why didn't you tell us sooner?" seonghwa asked softly, gently taking the boy's hand.

"i-i felt bad. i-i was worried you guys would be upset or annoyed b-because of me wanting to have san nearby. i-i don't want to upset you guys..."

"youngie... is it because of how we used to get annoyed when you wanted minhyung around?"

wooyoung nodded, his eyes welled with tears. yeosang gently took the boy's hand and gave it a soft squeeze before running his thumb across the back of it.

"wooyoung... i'm so sorry that you thought that we would get annoyed for wanting san close by. we only used to get annoyed when you wanted minhyung around because we wanted to protect you... i promise we'd never do that with san. he's so good to you, baby. okay?"

"r-really?"

seonghwa nodded this time, taking the boy's other hand.

"really, woo."

"i-i'm sorry for not telling you guys... i-i s-should've just—"

"youngie... baby, deep breaths..." yeosang whispered, giving the boy's hand a squeeze.

"s-sangie..."

"i'm here, youngie... you're okay," yeosang spoke calmly. "hwa and i are right here. can you try and tell me how you're feeling?"

"b-bad... g-guilty..."

"what? woo... you were afraid that we would be upset... it's okay to feel that way, yeah? you don't have to feel guilty for it. we understand, honey," seonghwa explained, gently brushing his free hand through wooyoung's hair.

"y-you do?"

"of course we do... and we'll do anything to show you that."

"i-i'm so sorry that i'm like this... y-you shouldn't have to d-deal with me panicking a-and g-getting so upset like this all the time," wooyoung muttered, starting to curl in on himself, as if to make himself take up as little space as possible.

"wooyoung, that's enough," yeosang said sternly, shaking his head.

wooyoung flinched a bit, despite yeosang not raising his voice at all. he was terrified of disappointing his best friend, and the tone of his voice worried wooyoung, thinking he did just that.