Bed of Roses, Chapter Seven
Title Bed of Roses
Author: Aquariuslover
Pairings: SungGyu/WooHyun
Rating: R
Genre: Friendship, Love, Humor, Angst
Length: Chaptered
Beta: tahoeturquoise
Summary: WooHyun’s perfect life…his bed of roses is tossed into disarray when SungGyu makes a bold move changing their friendship forever.
Previous Chapters
A soft kiss to the lips awoke SungGyu from his restless sleep. He looked up to find WooHyun sitting beside him on the bed.
“Sorry for waking you up, but I couldn’t control myself,” WooHyun told him as he pulled SungGyu’s covers back, while staring down at him with an almost palpable desire emanating off of him.
SungGyu had waited a very long time to see such a look of lust in WooHyun’s eyes, but he couldn’t help but wonder…why was it happening now? WooHyun had left him alone in their hotel room earlier in the evening. WooHyun had gone out on a date with the translator. “When did you get back?”
“Just now,” WooHyun answered, licking his lips as his gaze traveled up and down SungGyu’s body. SungGyu was only wearing boxers, and felt extremely exposed.
“What about your date?” SungGyu asked with a whimper as WooHyun bent down and covered his stomach in soft kisses. “What are you doing?”
WooHyun lifted his head and smiled. “Getting a taste of what is mine.”
“What about your date?” SungGyu repeated, both alarmed and excited. He couldn’t understand why WooHyun was suddenly here with him, and acting like this.
WooHyun’s hand slid underneath SungGyu’s boxers, and he leaned down close to SungGyu’s ear and whispered heatedly, “I think I was wrong.”
“Wrong?” SungGyu gasped, instantly hard at WooHyun’s touch.
WooHyun blew into his ear, and told him, “She isn’t what I want…she isn’t what I need.”
“She isn’t?” SungGyu barely managed to get out as WooHyun’s hand encircled his cock.
“No, I don’t think I like girls at all,” WooHyun answered as he leaned in and kissed SungGyu on the lips, while slowly stroking him.
“No?” SungGyu asked though the wet kiss as he thrust into WooHyun’s hand.
“No, just you…I only like…love you, Hyung,” WooHyun mumbled into the leader’s mouth, refusing to break the kiss.
SungGyu could not believe what was happening. As much as his body was thrilled at the change in circumstances, his mind couldn’t grasp why it was happening now. WooHyun was not experienced…not like this, SungGyu told himself. He sat up in bed and pushed WooHyun back, breaking the kiss, and freeing himself from WooHyun’s hold. “Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
A now very naked WooHyun told him, “I think you know.”
SungGyu looked around, stunned to find himself in an entirely different environment. They were no longer in their hotel room, but instead they were back on the plane. He was sitting in the last row of the plane with WooHyun straddling him. “We can’t do this here. Somebody will see us,” SungGyu said, panicking, realizing they were out in public and that he was also naked.
“Let’s join the mile high club,” WooHyun said with a moan as he braced his hands on SungGyu’s shoulders, lifting up from the other’s lap and lowering himself back down. “That’s a club after my own heart.”
“That…that’s…let’s go to the bathroom,” SungGyu said, gulping nervously, realizing his greatest desire had come true…he was having sex with WooHyun. How could he get this far with WooHyun and not even remember it? Had he been drinking? Did somebody drug him? SungGyu thought his mind and body were going to explode. “We are having sex…how…when? We can’t do this out here,” SungGyu pleaded as WooHyun slid up and down on his cock, driving SungGyu dangerously close to the edge.
“Hyung, that wouldn’t be very nice. This is the only thrill they will get in their old age. We should give them a good show. We have to make our fans happy,” WooHyun scolded SungGyu, while continuing to fuck himself on the leader’s cock.
“They?” SungGyu questioned as he turned his head and noticed that in the row across from them sat the same elderly couple, who had been on the plane earlier. The elderly man gave him a thumb up, and the elderly woman mouthed, ‘fighting’ to him.
“It’s alright, they won’t tell,” WooHyun promised as he rolled his hips, making SungGyu gasp.
“They won’t tell,” SungGyu repeated with a whimper as the elderly couple winked at him.
“You want me so bad, I know you do. Just enjoy me. Please, Hyung…enjoy. Come inside me.”
“But…they are watching,” SungGyu cried torn between his lust and his embarrassment. “WooHyun, I can’t do this with them watching.”
“Shhhh…just enjoy, Hyung.”
SungGyu turned away from the elderly couple and focused on WooHyun. WooHyun, who was naked in his lap, covered in sweat, his perfect abs rippling, and lustful eyes staring back at him. “WooHyun, WooHyun, God, I want…want you…so much.”
“You have me,” WooHyun told him as both of his hands came up to cup SungGyu’s face. “I’ve always been yours. I love you, Hyung…like you love me.”
“Mine…you are really mine…I have waited so long. Mine, finally all mine,” SungGyu said ravenously as his good sense departed from him. He attacked the younger boy’s lips with his own, thrusting up in his seat, and forgetting about everything and everybody but the willing boy in his lap.
“HYUNG!” The loud, shrill voice of WooHyun and the feeling of ice landing on awoke SungGyu from his blissful dream. He opened his eyes to find a very angry WooHyun standing beside his bed, glaring down at him and holding an empty bucket.
SungGyu jumped out of the icy cold bed and yelled back at WooHyun, “What the hell!”
“Don’t yell at me! This is your fault!” WooHyun shouted back at him, full of accusation.
“When did you get back?”
“Get back? What are you talking about? I’ve been in here all night.”
SungGyu, who was dripping wet with icy water, looked at WooHyun, trying to separate dreams from reality. “Didn’t you go out with the translator?”
“What? No!” WooHyun denied, still clutching the empty ice bucket.
The older boy shook his head, trying to clear his hazy mind. Infinite was at a fan meet in Taiwan and he was sharing a room with WooHyun. SungGyu looked at the other bed in the room, that had been claimed by WooHyun and it was rumpled from being slept in. “Oh, I dreamed you went out with her.”
“That isn’t what you were dreaming, Hyung!”
SungGyu pulled off his cold, wet shirt, and explained, “Well, originally I was dreaming that.”
“Do not strip in front of me!” WooHyun screamed as he threw the empty ice bucket at SungGyu.
“Since when?” SungGyu questioned as he jumped out of the way of the flying bucket. “Since when do we not get dressed in front of each other?” SungGyu demanded as he pulled off his wet boxers too, and went to his bag to find dry clothes. The two of them had shared a room for years, and they had never been shy around each other. “Hell, we have showered a hundred times together.”
“Not anymore!”
“I am not running to the bathroom every time I have to change clothes,” SungGyu told WooHyun, trying his best to sound confident and not humiliated as he searched his bag for dry clothes.
“Are you not even embarrassed?” WooHyun asked, flabbergasted at the leader’s response. “Well, I am embarrassed enough for the both of us,” the younger man declared as he stormed into the bathroom.
SungGyu chased after him, but WooHyun was too quick for him, slamming the door in SungGyu’s face. The older man banged on the locked door and yelled, “Yes, I am embarrassed, for your information.” He waited for WooHyun’s response but all he heard was the shower being turned on. “Although, I’m not nearly as embarrassed as I was that time I blew you, and you called me a filthy faggot afterwards!”
SungGyu had been sure that would have gotten a response from the younger boy, but to his surprise WooHyun continued to ignore him. “Just great,” he grumbled as he walked back to his bed and stripped it of its wet sheets. “This is just great! Great! The mattress is all wet now! I can just see it in the news, Infinite wets the bed!”
He debated on flipping the mattress over, but decided that when the princess got out of the shower he would get the hairdryer and try to blow it dry. He grabbed for his phone that luckily had been on the bedside table and saw that it was only five am. He walked to the door that led to a small balcony. He opened the door and stepped outside; the sun had not yet started to make its climb for the sky. There were no chairs on the small balcony so he just leaned against the wall and slid slowly to the floor.
His mind was racing, and he felt strangely off balance…if WooHyun was going to start acting so awkwardly around him, what was he going to do? He had promised the CEO that the group would continue to run smoothly, but had it been wise to make such a promise? WooHyun was getting too difficult for him to predict. At one time he would have sworn he knew his friend better than he even knew himself, and now…now he felt like he didn’t know anything about him anymore.
He just sat there waiting for the sun to rise, trying to focus on finding a solution to the problem that would not go away. After what felt like endless hours but in all actuality was less than thirty minutes, the door to the balcony opened, and WooHyun stepped outside. SungGyu did not acknowledge him, even when the other man nudged him with his bare foot.
“Move over.”
“No.”
“I want to sit down, too.”
“Sit down somewhere else, preferably far away from me.”
“No, I want to sit with you.”
“Aren’t you afraid that I will jump you?”
“No.”
“Go away.”
“I’m not going away.”
“Go. I want to sit here and mope.”
“You can mope later.”
“I want to mope now.”
“You know what I want? I want you to stop saying I called you a FF, because I didn’t!” WooHyun said with such irritation, that SungGyu couldn’t help but smile. There was the denial he had been expecting earlier. He had always loved how WooHyun could always make him smile, even unintentionally, but now he hated it. WooHyun had too much control over him, and if he was smart he told himself, he would start working on lessening that control…but he loved him. No, matter what, he loved him. He loved him for being all the things he wasn’t.
“But you did say it.”
“I said I wasn’t one! At no time did I say you were one.”
“Semantics.”
“I am going to kick you so hard if you don’t scoot over,” WooHyun warned.
SungGyu scooted over and complained, “You are so violent and disrespectful. You never used to treat me like this.”
WooHyun ignored his hyung’s complaints and sat down beside him and admitted, “I might have overreacted earlier.”
The older boy slowly turned his head to face the younger man and said in a deadpan voice, “You think?”
“Maybe.”
“It isn’t like it was the first time you caught me having a dream like that about you.”
WooHyun sighed and explained, “Things are different now.”
SungGyu’s eyes darkened. “So true, because at the old dorm you wouldn’t have minded at all. You would have just rolled over and joined in!”
“Hyung, I was half asleep those times!”
“Bullshit!”
WooHyun scooted away from SungGyu and pleaded, “I don’t like it when you get like this.”
“You mean honest? You don’t like it when I’m honest with you? You like it better when I go along with your little world of fantasy?”
WooHyun closed his eyes, and begged, “Please, don’t.”
SungGyu jerked his head back, exasperated by the younger man, and whacked it against the wall accidentally. “Shit,” he cursed as he reached back and grabbed the back of his head.
WooHyun, who had been careful to put a foot of distance between the two of them, felt so torn. He knew they could not continue to have this same fight over and over, but he didn’t know how to end it without giving into feelings that might destroy everything. “Are you okay?”
“No, you are driving me insane,” SungGyu answered truthfully as he turned to face him, while still holding the back of his head.
“We can’t keep fighting about this. We just can’t. It’s not good for the group.”
SungGyu was immediately reminded of his promise to the CEO, and nodded his head. “It isn’t.”
“I don’t know what to do, though. For days we didn’t fight at all…it was great, and now here we are fighting again. I don’t want to fight with you.”
“I don’t want to fight with you either. I know it’s partly my fault, but I get so angry with you.”
“Because you think I’m lying. Hyung…Hyung, you have to respect my decision…even if you think I’m lying. You have to know that I would never hurt you purposely, unless I thought it was for the best,” WooHyun said, trying to sound as mature as he could muster.
“I think I could deal better…if you would give me some distance. I think when we get back to the dorms you and SungYeol should trade rooms for a little bit.”
WooHyun’s maturity instantly disappeared. “Why would I want to trade rooms with that sneaky rat?”
“He isn’t a sneaky rat, and he knows. Maybe I need to talk to somebody…who knows.”
“Why would you want to talk to him? He’s a jerk, and he’s been giving me such a hard time. SungJong told you that he told everybody you’d been rejected. Why would you ever-” WooHyun stopped, realizing what he had let slip out.
SungGyu closed his eyes and shook his head. “You were listening to me and SungJong?”
WooHyun had the decency to look abashed, and explained, “You just got up and left, then SungJong left, and I thought my flirting with the translator had upset you.”
“I was hurt.”
“I’m sorry.”
SungGyu felt a hundred times more embarrassed now than he had felt earlier when he had been awoken from his dream. WooHyun had heard everything he had told SungJong, and still he had not relented. He had seen him at his lowest, most heartbroken, and he had not tried to comfort him. All of SungGyu’s doubts that WooHyun didn’t share his feelings returned. “If you are going to be uncomfortable with me-“
“I’m not!” WooHyun instantly interrupted to deny.
“You are lying now. My dream made you angry, you felt guilty for flirting with that woman, and you didn’t want me getting undressed in front of you…roommates can’t be like that.”
“No,” the younger man denied vehemently. “I was just being stupid. It doesn’t bother me. I promise it doesn’t. The dream kinda threw me for a loop, but I’m fine now.”
SungGyu shook his head, not believing him and continued, “I think some distance between us will do us both good.”
“It won’t!”
“You are not going to have a choice in this matter. I will speak with the CEO myself if I have to,” SungGyu told him firmly, knowing for the first time in days what he had to do. What they had been doing wasn’t working. SungGyu knew they couldn’t continue on in this endless pattern; something had to change.
WooHyun flew to his feet and cried, “If you walked in on Hoya or L having a sex dream about you…wouldn’t you be uncomfortable? Am I not allowed to feel uncomfortable?”
SungGyu stared forward at the sun starting to break the horizon. “It isn’t just about that.”
“Is it because I flirted with the translator?”
“No.”
“You are lying! You are punishing me for showing interest in somebody else,” WooHyun accused as he knelt back down to reason with the older boy. “You even dreamed I went out with her. If it didn’t bother you…you would not have dreamed about it. You are punishing me.”
With his eyes fixed directly in front of him, SungGyu denied, “You know that isn’t true. I would never begrudge you any kind of happiness.”
WooHyun reached out and grabbed SungGyu’s arm firmly. “I am sick of your saintly act. You are not a saint! You have your faults too! Ever since I rejected you…you have been acting like some wounded bird. You are not fooling me! I know you are angry at me, and this is my punishment for making you feel jealous.”
“You are right…maybe I haven’t been myself. I was jealous, and I do get angry at times, so angry that I scare myself. I can’t afford to be angry at you, and you know it. I am doing my best to control my anger…you wouldn’t like my anger. The group will only suffer for it.”
“Well, you need to get over yourself!”
SungGyu turned away from the rising sun to face the younger boy, and exclaimed, “What do you think I’m trying to do? I can’t think with you always beside me. I can’t pretend like nothing has changed, because it has changed for me. I tried to appease you…I really did, but I am not that strong.”
“No, apparently you’re not!”
“No, I’m not. You are stronger than I am…maybe you always were the stronger one. I can’t just get over my feelings for you…if you are always here to remind me why I love you. I have to fall out of love with you before it affects the group.”
WooHyun stood back up as he took in the leader’s words. The group…the group was why he had rejected SungGyu in the first place, WooHyun reminded himself. The group had to be the first priority. “It can’t affect the group…we must not let it.”
“This is why…we have to pull away from each other. I need to get my head on straight. When we get back to Korea tomorrow, you and SungYeol will trade rooms…and that’s final.”
“No.”
“You don’t have a choice here,” SungGyu said harshly as he stood up to face the younger man. Now, that he knew what he had to do, he would not be swayed from his path. “I know you think we are equals but we are not.”
SungGyu’s words were like a slap to WooHyun’s face, causing him to say angrily, “No, you misunderstood me. I will move out of my room, but SungYeol doesn’t get to claim it, and neither does SungJong. You won’t replace me with a more receptive member.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You heard me. You can have L, Hoya, or DongWoo, but so help me if you put SungYeol or SungJong in our room I will tell all the members what is going on. We are a group; we shouldn’t have secrets, now should we? So unless you want the whole group knowing about your feelings for me, you will not replace me with SungJong or SungYeol.”
“Are you blackmailing me?”
Maybe it was because he was scared because he felt SungGyu slipping away from him; maybe because the morning’s events had angered him; or maybe just because he needed to lash out at SungGyu. Whatever the reason, hateful and hurtful words slipped from WooHyun’s mouth, “No, I just think if the leader of the group is so pathetically in love with me that he can’t get over himself to save our friendship…then all the members have a right to know how pitiful he is.”
SungGyu just stared at the boy he had loved for years, stunned by his words. He wanted to deny the truth of those words, but he couldn’t. They were words spoken in anger, but they were also truthful…painfully true. The anger he had been carefully controlling began to stir inside him. “You are right…I am pitiful,” SungGyu told WooHyun as he brushed past him leaving him alone on the balcony.
WooHyun fought the urge to chase after SungGyu and plead for forgiveness; knowing instantly that he had gone too far, knowing the power spoken words had over the leader. But instead of chasing after SungGyu, he sank down to the floor of the balcony, knowing SungGyu would not be back. He winced as he heard the door to their hotel room slam shut. He knew the leader’s pride would flare up, erase all the hurt, and replace it with anger. SungGyu had wanted to fall out of love with him, and WooHyun had made it easy for him. WooHyun sat on the balcony not fighting the tears that would not stop coming as the sun climbed toward its perch in the sky. Shining down, erasing the dawn, and lighting the way for a new day, a new day that WooHyun did not look forward to.
Author: Aquariuslover
Pairings: SungGyu/WooHyun
Rating: R
Genre: Friendship, Love, Humor, Angst
Length: Chaptered
Beta: tahoeturquoise
Summary: WooHyun’s perfect life…his bed of roses is tossed into disarray when SungGyu makes a bold move changing their friendship forever.
Previous Chapters
A soft kiss to the lips awoke SungGyu from his restless sleep. He looked up to find WooHyun sitting beside him on the bed.
“Sorry for waking you up, but I couldn’t control myself,” WooHyun told him as he pulled SungGyu’s covers back, while staring down at him with an almost palpable desire emanating off of him.
SungGyu had waited a very long time to see such a look of lust in WooHyun’s eyes, but he couldn’t help but wonder…why was it happening now? WooHyun had left him alone in their hotel room earlier in the evening. WooHyun had gone out on a date with the translator. “When did you get back?”
“Just now,” WooHyun answered, licking his lips as his gaze traveled up and down SungGyu’s body. SungGyu was only wearing boxers, and felt extremely exposed.
“What about your date?” SungGyu asked with a whimper as WooHyun bent down and covered his stomach in soft kisses. “What are you doing?”
WooHyun lifted his head and smiled. “Getting a taste of what is mine.”
“What about your date?” SungGyu repeated, both alarmed and excited. He couldn’t understand why WooHyun was suddenly here with him, and acting like this.
WooHyun’s hand slid underneath SungGyu’s boxers, and he leaned down close to SungGyu’s ear and whispered heatedly, “I think I was wrong.”
“Wrong?” SungGyu gasped, instantly hard at WooHyun’s touch.
WooHyun blew into his ear, and told him, “She isn’t what I want…she isn’t what I need.”
“She isn’t?” SungGyu barely managed to get out as WooHyun’s hand encircled his cock.
“No, I don’t think I like girls at all,” WooHyun answered as he leaned in and kissed SungGyu on the lips, while slowly stroking him.
“No?” SungGyu asked though the wet kiss as he thrust into WooHyun’s hand.
“No, just you…I only like…love you, Hyung,” WooHyun mumbled into the leader’s mouth, refusing to break the kiss.
SungGyu could not believe what was happening. As much as his body was thrilled at the change in circumstances, his mind couldn’t grasp why it was happening now. WooHyun was not experienced…not like this, SungGyu told himself. He sat up in bed and pushed WooHyun back, breaking the kiss, and freeing himself from WooHyun’s hold. “Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
A now very naked WooHyun told him, “I think you know.”
SungGyu looked around, stunned to find himself in an entirely different environment. They were no longer in their hotel room, but instead they were back on the plane. He was sitting in the last row of the plane with WooHyun straddling him. “We can’t do this here. Somebody will see us,” SungGyu said, panicking, realizing they were out in public and that he was also naked.
“Let’s join the mile high club,” WooHyun said with a moan as he braced his hands on SungGyu’s shoulders, lifting up from the other’s lap and lowering himself back down. “That’s a club after my own heart.”
“That…that’s…let’s go to the bathroom,” SungGyu said, gulping nervously, realizing his greatest desire had come true…he was having sex with WooHyun. How could he get this far with WooHyun and not even remember it? Had he been drinking? Did somebody drug him? SungGyu thought his mind and body were going to explode. “We are having sex…how…when? We can’t do this out here,” SungGyu pleaded as WooHyun slid up and down on his cock, driving SungGyu dangerously close to the edge.
“Hyung, that wouldn’t be very nice. This is the only thrill they will get in their old age. We should give them a good show. We have to make our fans happy,” WooHyun scolded SungGyu, while continuing to fuck himself on the leader’s cock.
“They?” SungGyu questioned as he turned his head and noticed that in the row across from them sat the same elderly couple, who had been on the plane earlier. The elderly man gave him a thumb up, and the elderly woman mouthed, ‘fighting’ to him.
“It’s alright, they won’t tell,” WooHyun promised as he rolled his hips, making SungGyu gasp.
“They won’t tell,” SungGyu repeated with a whimper as the elderly couple winked at him.
“You want me so bad, I know you do. Just enjoy me. Please, Hyung…enjoy. Come inside me.”
“But…they are watching,” SungGyu cried torn between his lust and his embarrassment. “WooHyun, I can’t do this with them watching.”
“Shhhh…just enjoy, Hyung.”
SungGyu turned away from the elderly couple and focused on WooHyun. WooHyun, who was naked in his lap, covered in sweat, his perfect abs rippling, and lustful eyes staring back at him. “WooHyun, WooHyun, God, I want…want you…so much.”
“You have me,” WooHyun told him as both of his hands came up to cup SungGyu’s face. “I’ve always been yours. I love you, Hyung…like you love me.”
“Mine…you are really mine…I have waited so long. Mine, finally all mine,” SungGyu said ravenously as his good sense departed from him. He attacked the younger boy’s lips with his own, thrusting up in his seat, and forgetting about everything and everybody but the willing boy in his lap.
“HYUNG!” The loud, shrill voice of WooHyun and the feeling of ice landing on awoke SungGyu from his blissful dream. He opened his eyes to find a very angry WooHyun standing beside his bed, glaring down at him and holding an empty bucket.
SungGyu jumped out of the icy cold bed and yelled back at WooHyun, “What the hell!”
“Don’t yell at me! This is your fault!” WooHyun shouted back at him, full of accusation.
“When did you get back?”
“Get back? What are you talking about? I’ve been in here all night.”
SungGyu, who was dripping wet with icy water, looked at WooHyun, trying to separate dreams from reality. “Didn’t you go out with the translator?”
“What? No!” WooHyun denied, still clutching the empty ice bucket.
The older boy shook his head, trying to clear his hazy mind. Infinite was at a fan meet in Taiwan and he was sharing a room with WooHyun. SungGyu looked at the other bed in the room, that had been claimed by WooHyun and it was rumpled from being slept in. “Oh, I dreamed you went out with her.”
“That isn’t what you were dreaming, Hyung!”
SungGyu pulled off his cold, wet shirt, and explained, “Well, originally I was dreaming that.”
“Do not strip in front of me!” WooHyun screamed as he threw the empty ice bucket at SungGyu.
“Since when?” SungGyu questioned as he jumped out of the way of the flying bucket. “Since when do we not get dressed in front of each other?” SungGyu demanded as he pulled off his wet boxers too, and went to his bag to find dry clothes. The two of them had shared a room for years, and they had never been shy around each other. “Hell, we have showered a hundred times together.”
“Not anymore!”
“I am not running to the bathroom every time I have to change clothes,” SungGyu told WooHyun, trying his best to sound confident and not humiliated as he searched his bag for dry clothes.
“Are you not even embarrassed?” WooHyun asked, flabbergasted at the leader’s response. “Well, I am embarrassed enough for the both of us,” the younger man declared as he stormed into the bathroom.
SungGyu chased after him, but WooHyun was too quick for him, slamming the door in SungGyu’s face. The older man banged on the locked door and yelled, “Yes, I am embarrassed, for your information.” He waited for WooHyun’s response but all he heard was the shower being turned on. “Although, I’m not nearly as embarrassed as I was that time I blew you, and you called me a filthy faggot afterwards!”
SungGyu had been sure that would have gotten a response from the younger boy, but to his surprise WooHyun continued to ignore him. “Just great,” he grumbled as he walked back to his bed and stripped it of its wet sheets. “This is just great! Great! The mattress is all wet now! I can just see it in the news, Infinite wets the bed!”
He debated on flipping the mattress over, but decided that when the princess got out of the shower he would get the hairdryer and try to blow it dry. He grabbed for his phone that luckily had been on the bedside table and saw that it was only five am. He walked to the door that led to a small balcony. He opened the door and stepped outside; the sun had not yet started to make its climb for the sky. There were no chairs on the small balcony so he just leaned against the wall and slid slowly to the floor.
His mind was racing, and he felt strangely off balance…if WooHyun was going to start acting so awkwardly around him, what was he going to do? He had promised the CEO that the group would continue to run smoothly, but had it been wise to make such a promise? WooHyun was getting too difficult for him to predict. At one time he would have sworn he knew his friend better than he even knew himself, and now…now he felt like he didn’t know anything about him anymore.
He just sat there waiting for the sun to rise, trying to focus on finding a solution to the problem that would not go away. After what felt like endless hours but in all actuality was less than thirty minutes, the door to the balcony opened, and WooHyun stepped outside. SungGyu did not acknowledge him, even when the other man nudged him with his bare foot.
“Move over.”
“No.”
“I want to sit down, too.”
“Sit down somewhere else, preferably far away from me.”
“No, I want to sit with you.”
“Aren’t you afraid that I will jump you?”
“No.”
“Go away.”
“I’m not going away.”
“Go. I want to sit here and mope.”
“You can mope later.”
“I want to mope now.”
“You know what I want? I want you to stop saying I called you a FF, because I didn’t!” WooHyun said with such irritation, that SungGyu couldn’t help but smile. There was the denial he had been expecting earlier. He had always loved how WooHyun could always make him smile, even unintentionally, but now he hated it. WooHyun had too much control over him, and if he was smart he told himself, he would start working on lessening that control…but he loved him. No, matter what, he loved him. He loved him for being all the things he wasn’t.
“But you did say it.”
“I said I wasn’t one! At no time did I say you were one.”
“Semantics.”
“I am going to kick you so hard if you don’t scoot over,” WooHyun warned.
SungGyu scooted over and complained, “You are so violent and disrespectful. You never used to treat me like this.”
WooHyun ignored his hyung’s complaints and sat down beside him and admitted, “I might have overreacted earlier.”
The older boy slowly turned his head to face the younger man and said in a deadpan voice, “You think?”
“Maybe.”
“It isn’t like it was the first time you caught me having a dream like that about you.”
WooHyun sighed and explained, “Things are different now.”
SungGyu’s eyes darkened. “So true, because at the old dorm you wouldn’t have minded at all. You would have just rolled over and joined in!”
“Hyung, I was half asleep those times!”
“Bullshit!”
WooHyun scooted away from SungGyu and pleaded, “I don’t like it when you get like this.”
“You mean honest? You don’t like it when I’m honest with you? You like it better when I go along with your little world of fantasy?”
WooHyun closed his eyes, and begged, “Please, don’t.”
SungGyu jerked his head back, exasperated by the younger man, and whacked it against the wall accidentally. “Shit,” he cursed as he reached back and grabbed the back of his head.
WooHyun, who had been careful to put a foot of distance between the two of them, felt so torn. He knew they could not continue to have this same fight over and over, but he didn’t know how to end it without giving into feelings that might destroy everything. “Are you okay?”
“No, you are driving me insane,” SungGyu answered truthfully as he turned to face him, while still holding the back of his head.
“We can’t keep fighting about this. We just can’t. It’s not good for the group.”
SungGyu was immediately reminded of his promise to the CEO, and nodded his head. “It isn’t.”
“I don’t know what to do, though. For days we didn’t fight at all…it was great, and now here we are fighting again. I don’t want to fight with you.”
“I don’t want to fight with you either. I know it’s partly my fault, but I get so angry with you.”
“Because you think I’m lying. Hyung…Hyung, you have to respect my decision…even if you think I’m lying. You have to know that I would never hurt you purposely, unless I thought it was for the best,” WooHyun said, trying to sound as mature as he could muster.
“I think I could deal better…if you would give me some distance. I think when we get back to the dorms you and SungYeol should trade rooms for a little bit.”
WooHyun’s maturity instantly disappeared. “Why would I want to trade rooms with that sneaky rat?”
“He isn’t a sneaky rat, and he knows. Maybe I need to talk to somebody…who knows.”
“Why would you want to talk to him? He’s a jerk, and he’s been giving me such a hard time. SungJong told you that he told everybody you’d been rejected. Why would you ever-” WooHyun stopped, realizing what he had let slip out.
SungGyu closed his eyes and shook his head. “You were listening to me and SungJong?”
WooHyun had the decency to look abashed, and explained, “You just got up and left, then SungJong left, and I thought my flirting with the translator had upset you.”
“I was hurt.”
“I’m sorry.”
SungGyu felt a hundred times more embarrassed now than he had felt earlier when he had been awoken from his dream. WooHyun had heard everything he had told SungJong, and still he had not relented. He had seen him at his lowest, most heartbroken, and he had not tried to comfort him. All of SungGyu’s doubts that WooHyun didn’t share his feelings returned. “If you are going to be uncomfortable with me-“
“I’m not!” WooHyun instantly interrupted to deny.
“You are lying now. My dream made you angry, you felt guilty for flirting with that woman, and you didn’t want me getting undressed in front of you…roommates can’t be like that.”
“No,” the younger man denied vehemently. “I was just being stupid. It doesn’t bother me. I promise it doesn’t. The dream kinda threw me for a loop, but I’m fine now.”
SungGyu shook his head, not believing him and continued, “I think some distance between us will do us both good.”
“It won’t!”
“You are not going to have a choice in this matter. I will speak with the CEO myself if I have to,” SungGyu told him firmly, knowing for the first time in days what he had to do. What they had been doing wasn’t working. SungGyu knew they couldn’t continue on in this endless pattern; something had to change.
WooHyun flew to his feet and cried, “If you walked in on Hoya or L having a sex dream about you…wouldn’t you be uncomfortable? Am I not allowed to feel uncomfortable?”
SungGyu stared forward at the sun starting to break the horizon. “It isn’t just about that.”
“Is it because I flirted with the translator?”
“No.”
“You are lying! You are punishing me for showing interest in somebody else,” WooHyun accused as he knelt back down to reason with the older boy. “You even dreamed I went out with her. If it didn’t bother you…you would not have dreamed about it. You are punishing me.”
With his eyes fixed directly in front of him, SungGyu denied, “You know that isn’t true. I would never begrudge you any kind of happiness.”
WooHyun reached out and grabbed SungGyu’s arm firmly. “I am sick of your saintly act. You are not a saint! You have your faults too! Ever since I rejected you…you have been acting like some wounded bird. You are not fooling me! I know you are angry at me, and this is my punishment for making you feel jealous.”
“You are right…maybe I haven’t been myself. I was jealous, and I do get angry at times, so angry that I scare myself. I can’t afford to be angry at you, and you know it. I am doing my best to control my anger…you wouldn’t like my anger. The group will only suffer for it.”
“Well, you need to get over yourself!”
SungGyu turned away from the rising sun to face the younger boy, and exclaimed, “What do you think I’m trying to do? I can’t think with you always beside me. I can’t pretend like nothing has changed, because it has changed for me. I tried to appease you…I really did, but I am not that strong.”
“No, apparently you’re not!”
“No, I’m not. You are stronger than I am…maybe you always were the stronger one. I can’t just get over my feelings for you…if you are always here to remind me why I love you. I have to fall out of love with you before it affects the group.”
WooHyun stood back up as he took in the leader’s words. The group…the group was why he had rejected SungGyu in the first place, WooHyun reminded himself. The group had to be the first priority. “It can’t affect the group…we must not let it.”
“This is why…we have to pull away from each other. I need to get my head on straight. When we get back to Korea tomorrow, you and SungYeol will trade rooms…and that’s final.”
“No.”
“You don’t have a choice here,” SungGyu said harshly as he stood up to face the younger man. Now, that he knew what he had to do, he would not be swayed from his path. “I know you think we are equals but we are not.”
SungGyu’s words were like a slap to WooHyun’s face, causing him to say angrily, “No, you misunderstood me. I will move out of my room, but SungYeol doesn’t get to claim it, and neither does SungJong. You won’t replace me with a more receptive member.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You heard me. You can have L, Hoya, or DongWoo, but so help me if you put SungYeol or SungJong in our room I will tell all the members what is going on. We are a group; we shouldn’t have secrets, now should we? So unless you want the whole group knowing about your feelings for me, you will not replace me with SungJong or SungYeol.”
“Are you blackmailing me?”
Maybe it was because he was scared because he felt SungGyu slipping away from him; maybe because the morning’s events had angered him; or maybe just because he needed to lash out at SungGyu. Whatever the reason, hateful and hurtful words slipped from WooHyun’s mouth, “No, I just think if the leader of the group is so pathetically in love with me that he can’t get over himself to save our friendship…then all the members have a right to know how pitiful he is.”
SungGyu just stared at the boy he had loved for years, stunned by his words. He wanted to deny the truth of those words, but he couldn’t. They were words spoken in anger, but they were also truthful…painfully true. The anger he had been carefully controlling began to stir inside him. “You are right…I am pitiful,” SungGyu told WooHyun as he brushed past him leaving him alone on the balcony.
WooHyun fought the urge to chase after SungGyu and plead for forgiveness; knowing instantly that he had gone too far, knowing the power spoken words had over the leader. But instead of chasing after SungGyu, he sank down to the floor of the balcony, knowing SungGyu would not be back. He winced as he heard the door to their hotel room slam shut. He knew the leader’s pride would flare up, erase all the hurt, and replace it with anger. SungGyu had wanted to fall out of love with him, and WooHyun had made it easy for him. WooHyun sat on the balcony not fighting the tears that would not stop coming as the sun climbed toward its perch in the sky. Shining down, erasing the dawn, and lighting the way for a new day, a new day that WooHyun did not look forward to.