begin again | woosan

- seventy one -

tw / talks about some family issues/trauma, including belittlement & slight emotional abuse

it was christmas eve and wooyoung and hongjoong had decided to have a sleepover at the apartment and get take out. for hongjoong, this was the kind of holiday he had gotten comfortable with over the past few years, staying in and eating take out, although he wasn't used to having someone with him. for wooyoung, anyone could tell the boy was having a hard time adjusting and getting used to not being with seonghwa, yeosang, or his family. but hongjoong made things feel comfortable, as comfortable as they could be, at least.

"thank you for coming over," wooyoung whispered as he picked up some noodles with his chopsticks, eyes on the tv as a movie played.

"of course, woo... thank you for spending christmas with me."

wooyoung hummed a bit as he took his next bite, then looked at hongjoong.

"why didn't you want to go home?"

"well... to put it simply, i don't have the best relationship with my family."

"oh... do you ever miss them?"

"not really, no... sometimes i miss my brother, but that's about it."

"were you two close?"

"when i was little... by the time he was in high school though, not so much. i still tried to follow him around, i mean... who wouldn't want to follow their big brother everywhere? he hated it. and he hated it more when a couple of friends laughed at him for just letting me follow."

"joongie..." wooyoung pouted, moving a bit closer to the boy.

"that was really when everything good started to really go bad for me, i guess. my brother was... the ideal child. i wanted to be just like him, because maybe then my parents would spare me more than disappointed glances. i remember him yelling at me to stop following him, to get some friends of my own and leave him alone... so i did, because i just wanted him to like me again."

"i'm sorry, joongie... i shouldn't have asked, you don't have to tell me all this," wooyoung spoke as calmly as he could, noticing the tears building in hongjoong's eyes.

"i needed to tell someone eventually..."

"wait... doesn't hwa know?"

"kind of... he knows about my parents, at least."

"but he doesn't know about your brother..."

"funny enough, when i met hwa freshman year, i was crying because of my brother... well... my parents too, but he was the one who started it. they told me to just not come home for chuseok, and that destroyed me."

wooyoung let out a gasp, tilting his head a bit.

"that's how you two met?"

"yeah... i was trying not to be seen, but he still saw me and came to make sure i was okay. i told him i would be and begged him to go away, but he wouldn't budge. he introduced himself and the second i finally looked at him, i knew he was going to turn out to be the love of my life."

"aww... joongie, that's so sweet."

"we were quick to become friends after that and i told him about my parents... and then not long after that he invited me over for chuseok, even though we had barely known each other for a week."

"and that's when sangie and i met you."

"yeah... and then i started going home with hwa more often to hang out with you guys."

"hwa adored how you would want to come to spend time with us. we're his babies," wooyoung laughed. "always have been."

"and now you guys are my babies too. you have been since that first year i met you. you were only in high school back then... oh, look at how much you've grown."