humanitys_cutest
Summary: Heechul throws a "party" and invites Yunho and Changmin. Changmin thinks this is a great opportunity to not have to talk to Yunho.
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Changmin looks up from the book he's reading when he hears the sound of scuffling shoes against the wooden floorboards outside his room. Yunho hyung is standing in his doorway, looking at Changmin. His face is unreadable, but then again, it's been that way for a while. Somewhere between the other three announcing the lawsuit and the two of them deciding to stay at SM, Yunho had become distant, colder. Changmin thinks about how they used to talk so much, communicate so well. Somehow, that ability had left with the other three.
Yunho still hasn't said anything.
"Do you need something, hyung? Are you hungry?" Changmin asks cautiously, already putting his book down and getting off the bed. It's a truce offering, an apology that neither of them could actually say. Yunho doesn't need him a lot nowadays, not in the way he had needed the other three, but Changmin still tries. Yunho hasn't complained about his cooking, nor has he refused to eat it, but Changmin is sure it's nothing like what their oldest member used to cook. Ex-member, Changmin corrects himself. Better to get used to it.
"No, no, not hungry," Yunho says, waving him back down. Changmin stills, crouched awkwardly in a half-standing, half-sitting position, hands still positioned to push himself off the bed. "Sit."
Changmin sits. He looks at Yunho, and he waits.
Yunho sticks one hand in his pocket, the other coming up to rub against the back of his neck. "Heechul hyung called. He said to come over for a party tonight."
"Party?" Changmin repeats. "What for?"
Yunho sighs, and drops his hand from his neck to his side. "I don't know. I told him we weren't in the mood, but...you know how he is."
We. Yunho still said we like it meant anything to him.
And yeah, Changmin knows. Heechul insisted on them coming, because Yunho is depressed and drinking and not talking much to anyone. Changmin would know; he's with Yunho 24/7, and they never exchange more than a few words a day. When they did talk, it was to fight, to argue about Yunho's drinking, about him disappearing for hours at a time, about not putting the cap back on the toothpaste.
It was ridiculous, it was childish, and it made Changmin's heart ache. He didn't want to argue, he didn't want to always be mad at Yunho, but it was like that was the only way they knew how to talk to each other now. They never talked about what happened, about why they were getting under each other's skin so much. They had always been polar opposites, but before there had been other members to diffuse the tension between them. Now that it was just the two of them, they could fight and not talk to each other for days, because there was no one to tell them to knock it off. The more days passed, the more doubtful Changmin became about a future with just him and Yunho. They didn't get along, and maybe they could pretend for the cameras, but eventually they would crack and their real relationship would be revealed. What little fans remained would never accept it. What then? Changmin didn't want to think about it.
What he did want to do was push Yunho up against the wall, kiss him until Yunho realized he still had Changmin, had always had Changmin, that Changmin would never leave him. He wanted to run his hands over Yunho's body, explore him and be explored in turn. He wanted Yunho to take comfort in Changmin the way Changmin always took comfort in him, even when they were fighting and not speaking.
He couldn't have that though, so he kept on cooking for Yunho and hiding the alcohol and hoping Yunho would finally notice him.
"Do you want to go?" Yunho asks.
