Bed of Roses, Chapter Thirteen
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.
Author’s Note: Comments are always appreciated, loved, counted, inspiring, celebrated, collected, and hoarded forever.
Thieves will be shot.
Previous Chapters
“And I, the illegitimate son, was forced to live in squalor while my older brother was given everything and every opportunity. I have come here today to inform my brother of my existence. To let him know how our father cast me aside into nothingness while lavishing him with untold riches. I know that a hard working woman like you will understand my desire for justice! To right the great wrong that was committed against me!”
WooHyun covered his eyes and leaned back against DongWoo and whimpered, “We are never going to get in.”
DongWoo just shook his head as he watched SungYeol try to talk an elderly maid into allowing them to enter the back entrance to the luxury apartments.
“My dear woman, did I tell you that after my father abandoned me and my mother, that my poor mother succumbed to a broken heart? They say it was tuberculosis but I know her real aliment was unending sorrow. She had been used and cast away by an unscrupulous man, but still the last word from her dying lips was his name. Her love was true, even if it was wasted on that uncouth dog! Do you see why I must talk to my brother? How important it is that I confront him?”
The old woman gave SungYeol a very suspicious look and informed him, “It isn’t your brother’s fault that he lives in the lap of luxury. He didn’t pick his mother. Perhaps your mother should not have been messing around with married men!”
“But dear woman, my mother did not know he was married. He promised her so many things. My poor mother was so innocent and pure of heart that she believed his lies. She believed all his lies.”
The woman shook her head, unmoved by SungYeol’s declarations. “She still spread her legs for him.”
WooHyun groaned in the background.
SungYeol struggled to keep a straight face and concurred, “That she did. She was a young thing of fifteen, and he an evil man of thirty. She was perfectly played by him, but yes, I must confess…I was not conceived in a virtuous manner. I carry the sins of both my parents, but I must plead with you to let me confront my brother.”
“It sounds to me like you need to confront your lousy excuse for a father and leave your poor brother out of it,” the stern maid told SungYeol.
SungYeol placed his hand over his heart and fearfully told her, “My father is a member of the mafia…he would have me killed. I will seek to acquire my brother’s assistance in exacting my revenge.”
“Oh, Lord,” WooHyun groaned and sat down on the pavement. “We are never going to get in. He’s too much!”
The elderly woman sighed and told SungYeol, “That’s terrible, but you are still not getting in.”
“My dear woman-”
The old woman slammed the backdoor in SungYeol’s face, putting an end to their conversation.
“Now what?” DongWoo asked.
SungYeol turned around to face WooHyun and DongWoo, obviously disappointed in his failed attempts to get the maid to allow them to enter the building. “Maybe if you two had been a little more supportive, it would have worked. You were supposed to be my good friends.”
“It would never have worked. You told her you lived in a cardboard box!” WooHyun shrieked at SungYeol.
“To gain her sympathy…which she apparently is in very short supply of,” SungYeol explained.
“You are dressed in expensive clothes!” WooHyun exclaimed.
DongWoo sat down next to WooHyun, unable to keep from laughing. “Yeah, you look like a million bucks.”
SungYeol placed both of his hands on his hips and snottily corrected them, “I said I had once lived in a cardboard box! I didn’t say I was living in one now! If you two had listened more carefully and helped out, we would be in there right now!”
“The hell we would be! You were overacting big time!” WooHyun spat back at the tallest member. “She wasn’t going to risk her job, and we shouldn’t have even asked her to!”
“This is not the time to be noble, WooHyun! SungGyu is probably fucking-”
“Shut up!” WooHyun shouted as he stood up. “Do you think I don’t know that? I want in there more than anything. We have to find another way.”
“Well, I am all out of ideas, unless…” SungYeol paused as another idea took root in his brain.
DongWoo groaned, still sitting on the ground.
“What?” WooHyun asked as he dusted off his pants.
“We could disguise ourselves as repairmen,” SungYeol quickly told them.
WooHyun nodded his head eagerly. “That’s a great idea.”
“Where are we going to find repairmen clothes?” DongWoo asked, grinning now. “I love disguises!”
SungYeol headed off toward the car motioning for the other two to follow him. “We will have to go buy some, or better yet we could borrow some.”
DongWoo frowned as he got up. “By borrow, do you mean steal?”
“No, I really mean borrow this time. I have an uncle who works for the electric company. I am sure he will help us out. He’s always been very fond of-”
WooHyun’s phone rang interrupting SungYeol. WooHyun pulled the phone out of his pocket and answered, “Where are you…you are here…what…how…you got away…but how…they just let you in…really…have you seen him…no, don’t…we are on our way.”
SungYeol, who had leaned over WooHyun to see who he was talking to, questioned, “How did they get in?”
“Who was that?” a clueless DongWoo asked.
“It was L,” WooHyun explained as he put his phone back in his pocket. “They got away from the fans took the train here and just walked up to the desk and asked for Flower’s room.”
SungYeol shook his head in disbelief. “No way was it that easy.”
“Apparently it was. They are waiting for us at the elevator,” WooHyun explained, but instead of hurrying for the front entrance his feet stayed firmly planted to the ground.
“We should have tried that,” DongWoo told them.
SungYeol stopped shaking his head and explained, “It was L. L looks like old money, and even men find him handsome. Hell, he could probably get in anywhere.”
“SungJong and Hoya aren’t bad looking either,” DongWoo pointed out as he and SungYeol started walking away.
SungYeol rolled his eyes at DongWoo as they headed for the entrance. “It’s not about being good looking or bad looking it’s about having a certain air about you. Believe me; SungJong and Hoya don’t have the proper air to get into a place like this. It was all L.”
“I suppose you also have this air about you-hey! WooHyun, why aren’t you coming with us?” DongWoo asked, turning around after noticing the main vocal wasn’t with them.
“I swear if you are about to chicken out, I will beat you with a baseball bat!” SungYeol snapped. “Or better yet, I will sic that old, mean maid on you.”
WooHyun looked at them with wide, tearful eyes and asked, “How do I face him?”
“You just do it,” DongWoo told WooHyun as he approached him. “It’s just SungGyu, don’t be afraid. He needs to know.”
“But how? I have lied to him. I have denied him. I have made him so sad. I haven’t heard him laugh in ages. When was the last time you hear SungGyu really laugh?” WooHyun asked. “You know, that perfect laugh of his? That amazing laugh that just fills up all the spaces in the room, and makes everything better?”
DongWoo took WooHyun’s hand and squeezed it. “I don’t remember, but you can change all of that.”
“You can,” SungYeol confirmed from WooHyun’s other side. “As sickening as this may sound…you are his joy. You are his reason for laughing most of the time. When the rest of us want to gag on your greasiness…he just laughs. You make him laugh. You make him happy.”
WooHyun squeezed his eyes shut. “I also make him miserable.”
“Only because he loves you so much,” DongWoo reminded the main vocal. “I know you are afraid. I know you have lied to him, and I know you are embarrassed to face him. It probably won’t be as easy as some of us imagine, but it won’t be as hard as you are imagining, either.”
“He will be so angry,” WooHyun told them, his eyes still firmly shut as if he was imagining the encounter.
“Yes, but you are the answer to his anger. He needs you,” SungYeol told Woohyun. “You can reach him when nobody else can. You soothe him.”
WooHyun pulled away from them and asked aghast, “Soothe him? Have you seen how angry he has been with me?”
“Only because you allowed his anger to grow,” SungYeol explained.
DongWoo reached over, patted WooHyun’s arm and clarified, “If you had confronted him at the start, it would never have reached this point. I think he was waiting for you to go after him, but you never did; so his anger just grew and grew. Even from the very beginning, that first terrible morning in my room when he confessed all, he had to fight to be angry with you. It isn’t easy for him to be mad at you.”
“His anger is no match for his love for you. I know those ten days were awful for you, but he blocked you out of his mind. That was the only way for him to stay angry at you. Once he opened his eyes and really saw you, there was no way he could be angry with you. I have a feeling SungGyu will always forgive you,” SungYeol told WooHyun. “Poor guy.”
DongWoo nudged SungYeol, who was standing by him, and warned, “Don’t start.”
“Even if he does forgive…what is he going to say when I burst in there declaring my love? Do you know how many times he begged for me to be honest with him?”
“A lot,” DongWoo answered. “But still, you have to do it. You can’t back out now.”
“Unless it doesn’t bother you that he is at this moment fucking-”
“Stop!” WooHyun ordered.
“Well, he is! If he wanted to talk, he would have talked to DongWoo or me. I mean, he didn’t arrange this trip so he could talk to him,” SungYeol pointed out, flaming WooHyun’s anger. “They weren’t talking at the studio today.”
“So, was this flower man good looking?” DongWoo asked, catching on to SungYeol’s game.
SungYeol nodded his head quickly. “Very, he was most striking, and he had that air I was talking about. You know, the air of old money. I bet Flower is great in bed too. SungGyu is probably enjoying himself immensely.”
“Just stop it! I don’t want to hear about what they are doing! I don’t want to think about that. I am not going to let it continue, though. It’s wrong! I am going to put a stop to it! Even if he kills me! He can only kill me once! I’m not backing out,” WooHyun declared with a huff and took off toward the entrance.
SungYeol and DongWoo grinned at each other and followed the now determined WooHyun. SungYeol looked down at DongWoo and confessed, “It isn’t only WooHyun’s life that is going to be in danger. SungGyu will most likely attempt to kill us all.”
DongWoo nodded his head in agreement. “Or nag us to death, but we can’t let WooHyun go alone to face him. We have to be a team. Plus, I am not going anywhere near a bedroom. I don’t have any desire to see any of that.”
“Bedroom?” SungYeol snorted. “WooHyun has SungGyu so sexually frustrated I doubt they made it past the entry way.”
“Shut up!” WooHyun hollered from in front of them.
*******************
WooHyun, DongWoo, and SungYeol made it past security with ease. They greeted L, Hoya, and SungJong, who were waiting at the elevators for them.
“That was too easy,” SungYeol insisted. “Way too easy.”
WooHyun hissed as he stepped into the elevator, “He probably has a standing order to allow all young men free access to his room. Fucking pervert.”
“Yeah, the home-wrecker!” SungJong declared, having already decided to hate the flower man on WooHyun’s behalf.
L punched the button to the top floor. “It was amazingly easy.”
“All you had to do was wink?” SungYeol teased.
“I didn’t have to wink-Hoya did,” L answered as the elevator started moving up.
Hoya shook his head. “I didn’t wink.”
“I thought you said L’s looks were what got us in?” DongWoo reminded SungYeol.
SungYeol sighed and told DongWoo, “L already has a big enough head without us complimenting him in his presence.”
DongWoo smacked his forehead. “Darn, I forgot.”
Hoya leaned against the back of the elevator and asked, “We don’t all have to go in there, do we?”
“Yes! We must support WooHyun!” SungJong answered immediately as the door to the elevator opened. “How dare that man try to destroy our family-I mean, group!”
“But why? Why can’t we offer our moral support from the hallway?” Hoya questioned, also not wanting to catch an eyeful of something he would rather not see. Ever.
“You know I am totally supportive, but I am okay with waiting in the hallway, too,” L agreed as he held the elevator door open for the others to exit.
“You boys act like you have never seen SungGyu naked before,” SungYeol told L and Hoya, but his eyes were glued to WooHyun, who was standing still in the elevator.
Hoya shivered and offered uncomfortably, “There is a difference between seeing him naked and seeing him-umm, you know.”
“You mean naked while making hot, passionate love-Ouch!” SungYeol yelped as WooHyun stormed out of the elevator making sure to elbow SungYeol in the gut on his way out.
“Well, I am going!” SungJong announced, taking off after WooHyun. “I am going to give that flower man a piece of my mind!”
********************
A determined WooHyun reached the penthouse door and started banging on it as loud as he could. The time for hesitation had passed. He would not be swayed from his path. He was going to get in there and he was going to make SungGyu listen to him. SungGyu had begged him for the truth, and now he was going to hear it.
“Hyung, they are not answering,” SungJong said, pointing out the obvious to WooHyun, who he stood beside.
WooHyun kept banging on the door. “Really? Did you notice that, too?”
“They are probably engaged in…” SungYeol paused, leaping back as WooHyun turned around to take another swing at him. “I was just saying!”
“I am not an idiot! I know what they are doing! We all know what they are doing, but they better fucking stop and answer the damn door!” WooHyun cursed, now kicking at the door.
DongWoo, who had slowly approached the door with Hoya and L, asked, “But what are you going to do if they don’t?”
A fuming WooHyun looked around the hall for ideas, before his eyes came to sudden stop. A slow smile spread out across his face. “I am going to pull the fire alarm if they don’t hurry and open the door.”
SungYeol’s hand reached up and covered his heart. “Oh, you are a man after my own beating heart, now! How clever!”
WooHyun went back to banging on the door and told the others, “If they don’t answer in one minute I’m going to pull it.”
“We are going to end up in jail,” Hoya moaned.
SungJong stepped away from the door, horrified. “I can’t go to jail! I’m too pretty!”
“Then you better hurry and leave, because I am going to get in there, one way or another,” WooHyun promised them, never stopping his assault on the door.
“No, we are staying,” DongWoo told them all. “It’s all or none.”
SungYeol rolled his eyes. “We are not the musketeers; there are too many of us.”
“No, but we are going to follow their creed,” L insisted. “We can’t back out now. We have come too far.”
WooHyun stopped banging on the door, the minute was up. He had turned to go pull the fire alarm when the door swung open. WooHyun gasped as the man from earlier at the studio stood in the doorway. He was wearing a pink fluffy robe with a matching pink fluffy towel wrapped around his head. “Can I help you?”
“Where is he?” WooHyun demanded as he barged into the penthouse.
The man in pink ignored the other boys in the hall and turned and asked WooHyun, “Whoever do you mean?”
“SungGyu!”
The man smiled at WooHyun and pointed to his right. “Last room on the right, but be gentle…he’s very tired.”
WooHyun didn’t even take the time to glare at the other man as he took off for SungGyu. He wouldn’t be stopped now. He forced his jealousy down, reminding himself that this was his, and only his, fault. Plus, he could always come back later and punch the asshole in the face, but right now he had to see SungGyu
He made it across the huge penthouse to the last room on the right. He paused for only a second before he pushed the door open and walked inside.
He found a room of white, furnished with roses of every color. It had white walls, white carpet, white furniture, white curtains, and a huge four poster bed with white bedding. Decorating the room were multiple crystal vases filled with roses, sitting on every flat surface of the furniture.
Completely covered up except for his hair was SungGyu, who was sleeping soundly in the middle of the bed. WooHyun struggled to keep his nerve as he shut the door gently behind him. His gaze drifted from SungGyu to the roses…roses that mocked him. His bed of roses had turned into the bed from hell. Unwilling feet slowly made their way to the bed. A sharp pang jabbed his heart as he took note of SungGyu’s clothes that were on the bedside table, neatly folded.
He picked up the clothes and clutched them tightly to his chest. He tried to push away the thoughts that were running rampant in his mind. This was his own doing, he reminded himself. His fear, his terrible crippling fear, had pushed SungGyu into the arms of another. It didn’t have to be this way.
He let the clothes fall from his hands as his cruel mind whispered that Flower had probably removed them from SungGyu. His anger flared as he imagined hands that were not his touching SungGyu, but he controlled it quickly. This was not the time for jealousy. This was about finally telling SungGyu the truth. The truth he had begged for. WooHyun was not fool enough to think the truth would fix everything. Perhaps the truth would come too late, like it so often does, but still WooHyun wouldn’t deny SungGyu the truth any longer.
WooHyun sat down on the bed and stared down at the man. He had always known he loved SungGyu but now he accepted it. Accepted that he loved him in ways his parents would never approve of. SungGyu lay on his side facing away from him. With courage that he had been lacking for weeks, WooHyun reached out and gently squeezed SungGyu’s arm.
“Five more minutes…five…longer sleep.” The familiar mumbling protest of SungGyu pierced the deafening silence in the room, bringing a smile to WooHyun’s face. Countless times he had heard SungGyu beg for just five minutes more, and it never failed to bring a smile to his face.
“Hyung, wake up.”
“No, just five minutes.”
“Hyung, please wake up.”
“No, just five minutes…” SungGyu paused.
WooHyun could almost hear the other man’s brain starting to awaken. WooHyun’s voice waking him up was not something he had not heard a hundred times in the past, but circumstances had changed. WooHyun watched as SungGyu slowly become aware of their current predicament. SungGyu flipped over on his back and stared up at a ceiling that was not his. When SungGyu slowly turned to face WooHyun the younger man swallowed nervously. “Hyung, there is something I have to tell you.”
SungGyu bolted up in bed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“You have clothes on,” WooHyun responded, unable to hide his relief at seeing SungGyu in a white t-shirt and briefs. Perhaps, he had been wrong. Maybe they had not done anything. “Well, at least some.”
“What!”
“I am just glad you have some clothes on.”
SungGyu’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of stripping in front of you. Ever again!”
WooHyun’s eyes widened instantly, knowing that SungGyu was referring to the prior incident in the hotel room. “No, not like that,” WooHyun exclaimed, reaching across the bed and grabbing SungGyu by the arm. “I didn’t mean it like that…I just…”
“You just what? Why are you here? How did you find me?” SungGyu shouted as he jumped out of bed, totally unprepared to find WooHyun in his friend’s penthouse.
WooHyun scooted off the bed. “I have to tell you something.”
“It couldn’t wait till tomorrow?” SungGyu demanded as he reached down and grabbed his jeans. “You are crazy!”
“I know I am, and no, it couldn’t wait till tomorrow. I had…I have to tell you the truth. It couldn’t wait. It’s been too long already,” WooHyun explained as he pulled SungGyu’s jeans from him before the other man could put them on.
“The truth,” SungGyu repeated as he eyed the younger man. “What truth do you have to tell me, WooHyun?”
“Ummm,” WooHyun was lost for words. The old fear crept back as he faced SungGyu. His bravado from earlier vanished as he looked his irritated hyung in the eyes.
“I asked you what truth,” SungGyu demanded and pushed WooHyun back against the wall. “I mean, if you found me here, it has to be an important truth. Spill your guts!”
“It is important,” WooHyun agreed.
“It must be if you went to all the trouble to find me here.” SungGyu hands reached up and took WooHyun by his shoulders. “Tell me.”
“I…I…I…ummm…well, I need…ugh.”
“Tell me,” SungGyu ordered as WooHyun’s eyes flew around the room, looking at anything to keep from looking at those eyes that were so annoyed with him.
“It’s…it’s…”
“Look at me,” SungGyu ordered, and WooHyun reluctantly followed the leader’s orders and met his gaze. “Tell me.”
“It’s…hard to tell. I…I…I know…I…”
“Tell me,” SungGyu ordered more firmly, his grip tightening on the other man’s shoulders. “I have to hear you say it. Don’t you see what lies have done to us? Tell me, now!”
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.
Author’s Note: Comments are always appreciated, loved, counted, inspiring, celebrated, collected, and hoarded forever.
Thieves will be shot.
Previous Chapters
“And I, the illegitimate son, was forced to live in squalor while my older brother was given everything and every opportunity. I have come here today to inform my brother of my existence. To let him know how our father cast me aside into nothingness while lavishing him with untold riches. I know that a hard working woman like you will understand my desire for justice! To right the great wrong that was committed against me!”
WooHyun covered his eyes and leaned back against DongWoo and whimpered, “We are never going to get in.”
DongWoo just shook his head as he watched SungYeol try to talk an elderly maid into allowing them to enter the back entrance to the luxury apartments.
“My dear woman, did I tell you that after my father abandoned me and my mother, that my poor mother succumbed to a broken heart? They say it was tuberculosis but I know her real aliment was unending sorrow. She had been used and cast away by an unscrupulous man, but still the last word from her dying lips was his name. Her love was true, even if it was wasted on that uncouth dog! Do you see why I must talk to my brother? How important it is that I confront him?”
The old woman gave SungYeol a very suspicious look and informed him, “It isn’t your brother’s fault that he lives in the lap of luxury. He didn’t pick his mother. Perhaps your mother should not have been messing around with married men!”
“But dear woman, my mother did not know he was married. He promised her so many things. My poor mother was so innocent and pure of heart that she believed his lies. She believed all his lies.”
The woman shook her head, unmoved by SungYeol’s declarations. “She still spread her legs for him.”
WooHyun groaned in the background.
SungYeol struggled to keep a straight face and concurred, “That she did. She was a young thing of fifteen, and he an evil man of thirty. She was perfectly played by him, but yes, I must confess…I was not conceived in a virtuous manner. I carry the sins of both my parents, but I must plead with you to let me confront my brother.”
“It sounds to me like you need to confront your lousy excuse for a father and leave your poor brother out of it,” the stern maid told SungYeol.
SungYeol placed his hand over his heart and fearfully told her, “My father is a member of the mafia…he would have me killed. I will seek to acquire my brother’s assistance in exacting my revenge.”
“Oh, Lord,” WooHyun groaned and sat down on the pavement. “We are never going to get in. He’s too much!”
The elderly woman sighed and told SungYeol, “That’s terrible, but you are still not getting in.”
“My dear woman-”
The old woman slammed the backdoor in SungYeol’s face, putting an end to their conversation.
“Now what?” DongWoo asked.
SungYeol turned around to face WooHyun and DongWoo, obviously disappointed in his failed attempts to get the maid to allow them to enter the building. “Maybe if you two had been a little more supportive, it would have worked. You were supposed to be my good friends.”
“It would never have worked. You told her you lived in a cardboard box!” WooHyun shrieked at SungYeol.
“To gain her sympathy…which she apparently is in very short supply of,” SungYeol explained.
“You are dressed in expensive clothes!” WooHyun exclaimed.
DongWoo sat down next to WooHyun, unable to keep from laughing. “Yeah, you look like a million bucks.”
SungYeol placed both of his hands on his hips and snottily corrected them, “I said I had once lived in a cardboard box! I didn’t say I was living in one now! If you two had listened more carefully and helped out, we would be in there right now!”
“The hell we would be! You were overacting big time!” WooHyun spat back at the tallest member. “She wasn’t going to risk her job, and we shouldn’t have even asked her to!”
“This is not the time to be noble, WooHyun! SungGyu is probably fucking-”
“Shut up!” WooHyun shouted as he stood up. “Do you think I don’t know that? I want in there more than anything. We have to find another way.”
“Well, I am all out of ideas, unless…” SungYeol paused as another idea took root in his brain.
DongWoo groaned, still sitting on the ground.
“What?” WooHyun asked as he dusted off his pants.
“We could disguise ourselves as repairmen,” SungYeol quickly told them.
WooHyun nodded his head eagerly. “That’s a great idea.”
“Where are we going to find repairmen clothes?” DongWoo asked, grinning now. “I love disguises!”
SungYeol headed off toward the car motioning for the other two to follow him. “We will have to go buy some, or better yet we could borrow some.”
DongWoo frowned as he got up. “By borrow, do you mean steal?”
“No, I really mean borrow this time. I have an uncle who works for the electric company. I am sure he will help us out. He’s always been very fond of-”
WooHyun’s phone rang interrupting SungYeol. WooHyun pulled the phone out of his pocket and answered, “Where are you…you are here…what…how…you got away…but how…they just let you in…really…have you seen him…no, don’t…we are on our way.”
SungYeol, who had leaned over WooHyun to see who he was talking to, questioned, “How did they get in?”
“Who was that?” a clueless DongWoo asked.
“It was L,” WooHyun explained as he put his phone back in his pocket. “They got away from the fans took the train here and just walked up to the desk and asked for Flower’s room.”
SungYeol shook his head in disbelief. “No way was it that easy.”
“Apparently it was. They are waiting for us at the elevator,” WooHyun explained, but instead of hurrying for the front entrance his feet stayed firmly planted to the ground.
“We should have tried that,” DongWoo told them.
SungYeol stopped shaking his head and explained, “It was L. L looks like old money, and even men find him handsome. Hell, he could probably get in anywhere.”
“SungJong and Hoya aren’t bad looking either,” DongWoo pointed out as he and SungYeol started walking away.
SungYeol rolled his eyes at DongWoo as they headed for the entrance. “It’s not about being good looking or bad looking it’s about having a certain air about you. Believe me; SungJong and Hoya don’t have the proper air to get into a place like this. It was all L.”
“I suppose you also have this air about you-hey! WooHyun, why aren’t you coming with us?” DongWoo asked, turning around after noticing the main vocal wasn’t with them.
“I swear if you are about to chicken out, I will beat you with a baseball bat!” SungYeol snapped. “Or better yet, I will sic that old, mean maid on you.”
WooHyun looked at them with wide, tearful eyes and asked, “How do I face him?”
“You just do it,” DongWoo told WooHyun as he approached him. “It’s just SungGyu, don’t be afraid. He needs to know.”
“But how? I have lied to him. I have denied him. I have made him so sad. I haven’t heard him laugh in ages. When was the last time you hear SungGyu really laugh?” WooHyun asked. “You know, that perfect laugh of his? That amazing laugh that just fills up all the spaces in the room, and makes everything better?”
DongWoo took WooHyun’s hand and squeezed it. “I don’t remember, but you can change all of that.”
“You can,” SungYeol confirmed from WooHyun’s other side. “As sickening as this may sound…you are his joy. You are his reason for laughing most of the time. When the rest of us want to gag on your greasiness…he just laughs. You make him laugh. You make him happy.”
WooHyun squeezed his eyes shut. “I also make him miserable.”
“Only because he loves you so much,” DongWoo reminded the main vocal. “I know you are afraid. I know you have lied to him, and I know you are embarrassed to face him. It probably won’t be as easy as some of us imagine, but it won’t be as hard as you are imagining, either.”
“He will be so angry,” WooHyun told them, his eyes still firmly shut as if he was imagining the encounter.
“Yes, but you are the answer to his anger. He needs you,” SungYeol told Woohyun. “You can reach him when nobody else can. You soothe him.”
WooHyun pulled away from them and asked aghast, “Soothe him? Have you seen how angry he has been with me?”
“Only because you allowed his anger to grow,” SungYeol explained.
DongWoo reached over, patted WooHyun’s arm and clarified, “If you had confronted him at the start, it would never have reached this point. I think he was waiting for you to go after him, but you never did; so his anger just grew and grew. Even from the very beginning, that first terrible morning in my room when he confessed all, he had to fight to be angry with you. It isn’t easy for him to be mad at you.”
“His anger is no match for his love for you. I know those ten days were awful for you, but he blocked you out of his mind. That was the only way for him to stay angry at you. Once he opened his eyes and really saw you, there was no way he could be angry with you. I have a feeling SungGyu will always forgive you,” SungYeol told WooHyun. “Poor guy.”
DongWoo nudged SungYeol, who was standing by him, and warned, “Don’t start.”
“Even if he does forgive…what is he going to say when I burst in there declaring my love? Do you know how many times he begged for me to be honest with him?”
“A lot,” DongWoo answered. “But still, you have to do it. You can’t back out now.”
“Unless it doesn’t bother you that he is at this moment fucking-”
“Stop!” WooHyun ordered.
“Well, he is! If he wanted to talk, he would have talked to DongWoo or me. I mean, he didn’t arrange this trip so he could talk to him,” SungYeol pointed out, flaming WooHyun’s anger. “They weren’t talking at the studio today.”
“So, was this flower man good looking?” DongWoo asked, catching on to SungYeol’s game.
SungYeol nodded his head quickly. “Very, he was most striking, and he had that air I was talking about. You know, the air of old money. I bet Flower is great in bed too. SungGyu is probably enjoying himself immensely.”
“Just stop it! I don’t want to hear about what they are doing! I don’t want to think about that. I am not going to let it continue, though. It’s wrong! I am going to put a stop to it! Even if he kills me! He can only kill me once! I’m not backing out,” WooHyun declared with a huff and took off toward the entrance.
SungYeol and DongWoo grinned at each other and followed the now determined WooHyun. SungYeol looked down at DongWoo and confessed, “It isn’t only WooHyun’s life that is going to be in danger. SungGyu will most likely attempt to kill us all.”
DongWoo nodded his head in agreement. “Or nag us to death, but we can’t let WooHyun go alone to face him. We have to be a team. Plus, I am not going anywhere near a bedroom. I don’t have any desire to see any of that.”
“Bedroom?” SungYeol snorted. “WooHyun has SungGyu so sexually frustrated I doubt they made it past the entry way.”
“Shut up!” WooHyun hollered from in front of them.
*******************
WooHyun, DongWoo, and SungYeol made it past security with ease. They greeted L, Hoya, and SungJong, who were waiting at the elevators for them.
“That was too easy,” SungYeol insisted. “Way too easy.”
WooHyun hissed as he stepped into the elevator, “He probably has a standing order to allow all young men free access to his room. Fucking pervert.”
“Yeah, the home-wrecker!” SungJong declared, having already decided to hate the flower man on WooHyun’s behalf.
L punched the button to the top floor. “It was amazingly easy.”
“All you had to do was wink?” SungYeol teased.
“I didn’t have to wink-Hoya did,” L answered as the elevator started moving up.
Hoya shook his head. “I didn’t wink.”
“I thought you said L’s looks were what got us in?” DongWoo reminded SungYeol.
SungYeol sighed and told DongWoo, “L already has a big enough head without us complimenting him in his presence.”
DongWoo smacked his forehead. “Darn, I forgot.”
Hoya leaned against the back of the elevator and asked, “We don’t all have to go in there, do we?”
“Yes! We must support WooHyun!” SungJong answered immediately as the door to the elevator opened. “How dare that man try to destroy our family-I mean, group!”
“But why? Why can’t we offer our moral support from the hallway?” Hoya questioned, also not wanting to catch an eyeful of something he would rather not see. Ever.
“You know I am totally supportive, but I am okay with waiting in the hallway, too,” L agreed as he held the elevator door open for the others to exit.
“You boys act like you have never seen SungGyu naked before,” SungYeol told L and Hoya, but his eyes were glued to WooHyun, who was standing still in the elevator.
Hoya shivered and offered uncomfortably, “There is a difference between seeing him naked and seeing him-umm, you know.”
“You mean naked while making hot, passionate love-Ouch!” SungYeol yelped as WooHyun stormed out of the elevator making sure to elbow SungYeol in the gut on his way out.
“Well, I am going!” SungJong announced, taking off after WooHyun. “I am going to give that flower man a piece of my mind!”
********************
A determined WooHyun reached the penthouse door and started banging on it as loud as he could. The time for hesitation had passed. He would not be swayed from his path. He was going to get in there and he was going to make SungGyu listen to him. SungGyu had begged him for the truth, and now he was going to hear it.
“Hyung, they are not answering,” SungJong said, pointing out the obvious to WooHyun, who he stood beside.
WooHyun kept banging on the door. “Really? Did you notice that, too?”
“They are probably engaged in…” SungYeol paused, leaping back as WooHyun turned around to take another swing at him. “I was just saying!”
“I am not an idiot! I know what they are doing! We all know what they are doing, but they better fucking stop and answer the damn door!” WooHyun cursed, now kicking at the door.
DongWoo, who had slowly approached the door with Hoya and L, asked, “But what are you going to do if they don’t?”
A fuming WooHyun looked around the hall for ideas, before his eyes came to sudden stop. A slow smile spread out across his face. “I am going to pull the fire alarm if they don’t hurry and open the door.”
SungYeol’s hand reached up and covered his heart. “Oh, you are a man after my own beating heart, now! How clever!”
WooHyun went back to banging on the door and told the others, “If they don’t answer in one minute I’m going to pull it.”
“We are going to end up in jail,” Hoya moaned.
SungJong stepped away from the door, horrified. “I can’t go to jail! I’m too pretty!”
“Then you better hurry and leave, because I am going to get in there, one way or another,” WooHyun promised them, never stopping his assault on the door.
“No, we are staying,” DongWoo told them all. “It’s all or none.”
SungYeol rolled his eyes. “We are not the musketeers; there are too many of us.”
“No, but we are going to follow their creed,” L insisted. “We can’t back out now. We have come too far.”
WooHyun stopped banging on the door, the minute was up. He had turned to go pull the fire alarm when the door swung open. WooHyun gasped as the man from earlier at the studio stood in the doorway. He was wearing a pink fluffy robe with a matching pink fluffy towel wrapped around his head. “Can I help you?”
“Where is he?” WooHyun demanded as he barged into the penthouse.
The man in pink ignored the other boys in the hall and turned and asked WooHyun, “Whoever do you mean?”
“SungGyu!”
The man smiled at WooHyun and pointed to his right. “Last room on the right, but be gentle…he’s very tired.”
WooHyun didn’t even take the time to glare at the other man as he took off for SungGyu. He wouldn’t be stopped now. He forced his jealousy down, reminding himself that this was his, and only his, fault. Plus, he could always come back later and punch the asshole in the face, but right now he had to see SungGyu
He made it across the huge penthouse to the last room on the right. He paused for only a second before he pushed the door open and walked inside.
He found a room of white, furnished with roses of every color. It had white walls, white carpet, white furniture, white curtains, and a huge four poster bed with white bedding. Decorating the room were multiple crystal vases filled with roses, sitting on every flat surface of the furniture.
Completely covered up except for his hair was SungGyu, who was sleeping soundly in the middle of the bed. WooHyun struggled to keep his nerve as he shut the door gently behind him. His gaze drifted from SungGyu to the roses…roses that mocked him. His bed of roses had turned into the bed from hell. Unwilling feet slowly made their way to the bed. A sharp pang jabbed his heart as he took note of SungGyu’s clothes that were on the bedside table, neatly folded.
He picked up the clothes and clutched them tightly to his chest. He tried to push away the thoughts that were running rampant in his mind. This was his own doing, he reminded himself. His fear, his terrible crippling fear, had pushed SungGyu into the arms of another. It didn’t have to be this way.
He let the clothes fall from his hands as his cruel mind whispered that Flower had probably removed them from SungGyu. His anger flared as he imagined hands that were not his touching SungGyu, but he controlled it quickly. This was not the time for jealousy. This was about finally telling SungGyu the truth. The truth he had begged for. WooHyun was not fool enough to think the truth would fix everything. Perhaps the truth would come too late, like it so often does, but still WooHyun wouldn’t deny SungGyu the truth any longer.
WooHyun sat down on the bed and stared down at the man. He had always known he loved SungGyu but now he accepted it. Accepted that he loved him in ways his parents would never approve of. SungGyu lay on his side facing away from him. With courage that he had been lacking for weeks, WooHyun reached out and gently squeezed SungGyu’s arm.
“Five more minutes…five…longer sleep.” The familiar mumbling protest of SungGyu pierced the deafening silence in the room, bringing a smile to WooHyun’s face. Countless times he had heard SungGyu beg for just five minutes more, and it never failed to bring a smile to his face.
“Hyung, wake up.”
“No, just five minutes.”
“Hyung, please wake up.”
“No, just five minutes…” SungGyu paused.
WooHyun could almost hear the other man’s brain starting to awaken. WooHyun’s voice waking him up was not something he had not heard a hundred times in the past, but circumstances had changed. WooHyun watched as SungGyu slowly become aware of their current predicament. SungGyu flipped over on his back and stared up at a ceiling that was not his. When SungGyu slowly turned to face WooHyun the younger man swallowed nervously. “Hyung, there is something I have to tell you.”
SungGyu bolted up in bed. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“You have clothes on,” WooHyun responded, unable to hide his relief at seeing SungGyu in a white t-shirt and briefs. Perhaps, he had been wrong. Maybe they had not done anything. “Well, at least some.”
“What!”
“I am just glad you have some clothes on.”
SungGyu’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t worry, I have no intention of stripping in front of you. Ever again!”
WooHyun’s eyes widened instantly, knowing that SungGyu was referring to the prior incident in the hotel room. “No, not like that,” WooHyun exclaimed, reaching across the bed and grabbing SungGyu by the arm. “I didn’t mean it like that…I just…”
“You just what? Why are you here? How did you find me?” SungGyu shouted as he jumped out of bed, totally unprepared to find WooHyun in his friend’s penthouse.
WooHyun scooted off the bed. “I have to tell you something.”
“It couldn’t wait till tomorrow?” SungGyu demanded as he reached down and grabbed his jeans. “You are crazy!”
“I know I am, and no, it couldn’t wait till tomorrow. I had…I have to tell you the truth. It couldn’t wait. It’s been too long already,” WooHyun explained as he pulled SungGyu’s jeans from him before the other man could put them on.
“The truth,” SungGyu repeated as he eyed the younger man. “What truth do you have to tell me, WooHyun?”
“Ummm,” WooHyun was lost for words. The old fear crept back as he faced SungGyu. His bravado from earlier vanished as he looked his irritated hyung in the eyes.
“I asked you what truth,” SungGyu demanded and pushed WooHyun back against the wall. “I mean, if you found me here, it has to be an important truth. Spill your guts!”
“It is important,” WooHyun agreed.
“It must be if you went to all the trouble to find me here.” SungGyu hands reached up and took WooHyun by his shoulders. “Tell me.”
“I…I…I…ummm…well, I need…ugh.”
“Tell me,” SungGyu ordered as WooHyun’s eyes flew around the room, looking at anything to keep from looking at those eyes that were so annoyed with him.
“It’s…it’s…”
“Look at me,” SungGyu ordered, and WooHyun reluctantly followed the leader’s orders and met his gaze. “Tell me.”
“It’s…hard to tell. I…I…I know…I…”
“Tell me,” SungGyu ordered more firmly, his grip tightening on the other man’s shoulders. “I have to hear you say it. Don’t you see what lies have done to us? Tell me, now!”