ANGEL ☾ winwin one shots.

only human. [allwin]

a/n: requested by @_nctpink_! hope it lives up to your expectation <3

uh supposed to be angst but I suck at angst so. romance is hinted, but there's no definite ship. I tried to throw in as many nct members as I can but not all are included sorry for that :/ take this with a basket of salt 'cause it's bland af–

~

taeil squints his eyes. at the other side of the room, donghyuck and mark are pestering sicheng (again) to play some mobile games with him. if one saw him, they would've thought he was jealous – but he's not. he's concerned. sicheng's been... different.

it's been two weeks and he can't pinpoint how exactly, but sicheng has changed in some ways. to begin with, he's matured now, with his snaggle-tooth gone and his cheeks no longer as chubby as they used to be. his jawline's sharp and his gaze is intimidating, in a way, lack of the innocence they used to have.

that's just looks-wise. sicheng also showed some changes from his personality aspect. when they promoted with the whole group, taeil hasn't noticed it as they were too busy to catch-up, but he could see it now that sicheng's back in 127. he became... closed.

like he still socialize with them but there's a line between them, one he doesn't want to cross. taeil has no idea why but it bugs him. when he asks if he's okay, sicheng will smile and try to leave the room.

" you look constipated, hyung ," taeyong comments as he plops down next to taeil with his phone in a hand. he dyed his hair back to black now that the promotions have ended. " you know, you can just join them if you want ."

taeil ignores him and asks, " do you notice sicheng's changed nowadays ?"

" what ?" taeyong blinks. " what do you mean ?"

" I can't put it into words... but he always tries to end a conversation as soon as he can and avoids us when we chat together as a group. like... he's hiding something ?"

a look of disbelief flashes across taeyong's face and he knits his brows like saying are-you-sure. taeil nods towards sicheng, and when taeyong stares at him in silence taeil knows he's considering his words. after a few moments pass taeyong turns back to him.

" I mean... I thought it was nothing at first ." taeyong confesses. " I noticed it when we greeted him back and even tried to bring him out to dinner, when he said no and spend the rest of the night in his room ..."

" so you noticed too ."

" it's hard not to. okay, sure, he's not the talkative type but winwin used to stay with us even if he doesn't say anything... it's just like that, you know? we're used to his presence ."

" and when he's not here everything feels wrong ."

" yup ," taeyong nods. " I certainly noticed. not sure about the other members. maybe jaehyun does? you know they're always the closest in the group ."

" maybe. did kun tell you anything ?"

taeyong recalls back to the day kun and the rest of wayv members drop sicheng at their dorm. they look happy, a bit sad maybe because they have to be apart from sicheng for a while – and kun had told taeyong to take care of sicheng. nothing significant, just don't let him get sick or I'll kill you and stuff like that.

" no. he told me to take care of him but didn't say anything else ."

" do you think jaehyun knows why ?"

the leader darts his focus to jaehyun, now joining the trio, whining for sicheng to pay attention to him. sicheng smiles (a bit forced) and lets jaehyun side-hug him, but doesn't reciprocate.