↱SEMPITERNAL↲ ⇾seongjoong⇽

three

Present day, Seoul.

"Hyung, are you alright?" Hongjoong says.

"I'm great," Seonghwa slurs, stumbling into Hongjoong's arms. "I'm amazing. Do you know how amazing I feel right now?"

"Really, really amazing?" Hongjoong ventures, the sleep knocked right out of his skull by the weight of Seonghwa's body slumped against his, and the effort it's taking to keep them both standing.

"Yeah!" the older boy says, making no effort whatsoever to balance himself. "Exactly. You're amazing, Hongjoong, you just know everything."

"Like the fact that you're very drunk right now?"

"I'm not drunk," Seonghwa mumbles. "Who's drunk? Not me."

Hongjoong chuckles quietly.

They had all gone out to dinner, to celebrate the confirmation of their debut.

And after that, his poor tired ass was left behind when the other members decided they'd have to drink to their success.

Two hours passed and Hongjoong went to bed, more than a little regretful that he wasn't included.

Wishing he fought off his exhaustion to enjoy a night out.

An hour of sleeping like the dead, and he was startled awake by an ungodly knocking on his bedroom door.

Three seconds of confused blinking later, he realized it was Seonghwa knocking and demanding that he open the door immediately.

He groaned, rolled out of bed and shuffled over to let him in, and the moment the door swung open, Seonghwa's dead weight fell into his arms.

"Hongjoong," Seonghwa mumbles against his chest. "We're going to be amazing. The whole world's going to watch us and love us, you know that?"

Hongjoong smiles, walking Seonghwa backward so he could drop his weight onto the bed, because his arms are trembling a little trying to keep him upright.

The backs of Seonghwa's calves hit the edge, and Hongjoong tries to let him down gently, but Seonghwa gives in to gravity and falls hard, bouncing a little on his mattress, giggling at his own clumsiness.

Hongjoong watches, somewhere between amused and exasperated, and he wants to ask if he should leave him there and take Seonghwa's bed for the night, or if his dead weight ass could walk itself back to his own room.

But the words die on his tongue because Seonghwa's looking up at him, with these hazy eyes, with this dumb smile, and his mouth is forming words around his smile.

Come here, sit down, I need to tell you something, and Hongjoong moves as if compelled.

"What's up, hyung?" he asks, sitting down in the little space Seonghwa has left unoccupied.

"I don't know," Seonghwa says. "I just felt like I needed to tell you something."

"Tell me what?"