↱APHONIC↲ ⇾seongjoong⇽

ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴ

✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
ꜱᴇᴠᴇɴ
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

It's a phone call of all things that did it.

Hongjoong's parents called him the evening before a four hour practice that was going to stretch far into the night.

They were polite and supportive but worried of course, always so worried- and Hongjoong had spent the entire call wishing he hadn't picked up at all.

They didn't even say anything unusual.

Nothing that should have made Hongjoong feel nearly as scared as he did.

But hearing their voices again after months of rushed texts and promised reunions that never came true, Hongjoong was reminded of what exactly he was doing.

He was reminded that he'd gone and fallen in love with a boy.

He'd been having sex with a boy and his parents couldn't tell anything had changed just from the sound of his voice, but Hongjoong knew and somehow that was enough to send him spiraling, locking himself and his heart away again after working so hard to open up.

Hongjoong had ended the call and gone to practice like nothing happened, but it wasn't difficult to tell something was off.

He wasn't making as many jokes, laughing as loudly at the back of the room.

His mood had gone from determined but joyful to serious and focused, every ounce of his attention directed to dancing and nothing else.

He even had to brush Seonghwa off multiple times, the elder stepping too close or smiling too bright for Hongjoong to be able to take head on.

This went on for days, Hongjoong's mind on some other planet entirely, and soon enough Seonghwa just stopped bothering him.

His spirit died down and he chose Mingi instead of Hongjoong to be the one he clung to at the end of practices when they were all on the verge of collapsing.

It hurt something awful, but somehow the sting of being replaced wasn't as overwhelming as the fear he felt cement into his bones everytime Seonghwa's eyes met his.

Yeosang noticed the change in Hongjoong's behavior.

His sharp gaze seemed to float across the room during every practice, observing Hongjoong who never dared to look back at him, too scared he'd get caught screaming through his eyes.

In the end though, it didn't even matter.

Yeosang caught him the second he was alone, the younger slinking his way into the kitchen where he found Hongjoong tiredly pouring himself a bowl of cereal in the middle of the night, black hair curled into a pitiful tuft at the top of his head.

"Did you and Seonghwa-hyung get drunk and dry hump or something? You two got some serious tension going on, it's giving me a headache."

Hongjoong turned around with a mouthful of Cheerios stuffed in his cheeks, eyes panicked.

"You... shit, you can tell?"