Title: this endless song we're singing (2/2)
Author:
coaledPairing: mainly Woohyun/Sunggyu/Sungyeol
Rating: pg-13
Word Count: 2423 words
Summary: Woollim creates another sub-unit within Infinite | a continuation to
this part one it is almost midnight when they return from recording. the members are already asleep by the time sunggyu and woohyun stumble into the dorms, voices raw and eyes barely able to be kept open from hours and hours of practice. they hurry into their shared room, eager to rest their exhausted bodies. woohyun wishes the night lasts forever, he’s never wanted sleep that bad, that is how tired he is.
woohyun dreams:
he dreams of standing on stage, he cannot see the crowd before him, but he hears their loud cheers and on stage, there’s infinite, all seven of them and this inexplicable feeling of joy in woohyun’s chest. he’s holding a trophy, they have won something, and everyone is happily smiling and laughing and that is when sunggyu snatches the microphone from hoya, who seems to be thanking their fans, and announces that he is going solo. someone swears and someone else gasps because there are fans around and they’re on tv.
and then woohyun is falling, the swearwords ringing in his ears, and woohyun wonders if he’s the one swearing and -
woohyun is awaken by sunggyu’s voice - swearing, cursing, all kinds of expletives exploding from his mouth - at sungjong who apparently has awaken them for an interview that morning. woohyun slowly gets down from his bed, wincing slightly because his back feels like it will break into half right there and then. he offers sungjong a sleepy smile, trying to shake off the dream that he just had. it is just a dream, he knows it is not true.
“interview?” woohyun asks, sighing as sunggyu falls back asleep. sungjong nods and woohyun sighs, once more. the younger boy reaches for sunggyu and woohyun stops him, “i’ll wake him up, maknae. go wake the rest up?”
“uhm, we’re already awake,” sungjong says, looking at the floor. “since half an hour ago? dongwoo-hyung was the one who suggested to let you guys sleep for a while more... but if you don’t get up now we’ll be really -“
“okay, i get it,” woohyun cuts him off as he gently shakes sunggyu. “just - just wait outside. we’ll get ready.”
it takes another twenty minutes before sunggyu finally gets out of bed, dashing madly in and out of their room and preparing for the interview.
“the royal highnesses have finally gotten ready,” sungyeol says - when woohyun and sunggyu emerge from their room, all clean-shaven and looking all idol-like, ready for the interview - not at all hiding his annoyance. sunggyu looks at him sharply. hoya kicks him, from where they are sitting together, and sungyeol glares.
“while you were sleeping peacefully last night, some people were actually working, “ sunggyu snaps. he clenches a fist and woohyun feels his heart beats a little faster. this is not going to end well, and it is just the start of the day.
“yeah, i know that. we’re all just sleeping and you two were working, right?” sungyeol bites out, standing up and fixes sunggyu an angry look. he opens his mouth - probably to say something scalding - as he folds his arms stubbornly across his chest.
“sungyeol,” hoya and dongwoo say in unison, warning in their voices and sungyeol looks at them. hoya shakes his head slightly and sungyeol lets out a frustrated sigh . he turns to leave but sunggyu makes a grab for his arm.
“what,” sungyeol says, coldly, his eyes turning even colder as he looks sunggyu in the eye.
“what,” sunggyu says - woohyun hears confusion, hurt, anger, but he knows sunggyu is mostly confused - and woohyun can visibly see him take a shuddering breath, probably to calm himself down, “is your problem, lee sungyeol?”
“get your arm off me,” sungyeol growls and yanks his hand away before sunggyu can do anything. he looks at the rest of the members, “what are you waiting for? aren’t we late enough?” sungyeol stalks out of the dorm, slamming the door extra loud.
“i’m going to break his face,” sunggyu says through gritted teeth, walking away quickly towards sungyeol.
woohyun holds out an arm, stopping sunggyu, pleading, “hyung. please. let go?”
sunggyu stops and glares at woohyun, before turning to look at dongwoo, hoya, myungsoo and sungjong. there’s something in his eyes that woohyun can’t quite tell and for a moment, woohyun sees the old sunggyu - the shy, lisping sunggyu, afraid of speaking up in front of his own members, quietly singing to himself when he thinks no one’s listening - but the look disappears as soon as it comes and sunggyu is now holding a hardened expression, once more. he leaves the room, not waiting for the rest, and woohyun is sure by the way sunggyu’s shoulders are set in that straight line and by the heavy, thudding steps he takes, that sunggyu, kim sunggyu, is hurt.
(woohyun has seen sunggyu through all kinds of things but, hurt, is something relatively new because sunggyu is always the detached one; he never lets things get to him, he is always strong and reliable and he deflects all kinds of negativity because sunggyu believes that you can only keep going forward, no one can fall back. which is mostly why sunggyu is a very good leader because he is the one who pulls infinite back, he is the one who holds them and stops them from breaking to pieces at every negative comment, at every mocking words towards them. sunggyu is made of steel and titanium and he doesn’t hurt and yet.)
--
“you were way out of line, this morning,” woohyun hears myungsoo’s voice, low and angry. “what’s wrong?” woohyun slows down to a stop and presses himself against the wall, dividing the living room and the kitchen.
sungyeol scoffs, “you don’t see anything wrong with this?”
“infinite m?”
“you know how everyone is so competitive during trainee days?” sungyeol says. “feels like the competition isn’t over, myungsoo. and i think you know what i mean.
“i don’t,” myungsoo admits, slight confusion in his voice. angry voice again, “but we’re a team, and we don’t compete against each other. if that’s what you’re implying.”
“i’m not implying. it’s obvious,” sungyeol says, stubbornly, and woohyun hears him slamming something.
“i think,” myungsoo says slowly and woohyun holds his breath, “you’re just jealous and angry because sunggyu hyung, woohyun hyung is better at singing and they chide you the most about it.” sungyeol makes an indignant noise and woohyun listens to myungsoo continue in that slow manner, “we all feel like that, yeollie, sometimes. but that doesn’t mean we’re competing against each other. each time they scold you, especially sunggyu hyung, you must know that they want you to get better. for the group, for infinite.”
“you’re wrong,” sungyeol spits out, anger rising in his voice, the same kind of voice he has used against sunggyu in the morning. “it’s competition, through and through. you - “
“it’s not competition, sungyeol, when sunggyu hyung is turning and tossing in his bed right now, unable to sleep because you were an asshole to him,” woohyun emerges from behind the wall, glaring angrily at sungyeol. he ignores the shocked look on their faces and continues,“you hurt his feelings, did you know.”
myungsoo clears his throat and slowly sets his mug on the kitchen countertop, “i - i should get to bed.” his voice has softened considerably, no longer, cold, like moments ago when he was talking to sungyeol. awkwardly standing in between sungyeol and woohyun, myungsoo adds in a lower voice so only woohyun could hear him, “tree hyung... try not to go too hard on him, okay? he’s already gotten a punch from the seagull.” he casts a sympathetic look towards sungyeol and walks out of the kitchen.
woohyun stares at the dark spot slightly beneath sungyeol’s jaw - a bruise the size of a thumb - and makes a mental note to talk to hoya tomorrow. sungyeol can be a jerk but violence is never the answer to anything. woohyun tries not to think of his fighting members, how everyone is angry at sungyeol for being angry at sunggyu, and how this, is ripping infinite apart. infinite m is good for publicity and the likes but woohyun’s uncertain if it’s good for the harmony of his group. the harmony that has taken so long to establish because they’ve come from different backgrounds, sharing nothing but a common dream, and the friendships, he doesn’t want both of that to fall apart, especially the latter. bandmates or not, woohyun knows that, deep down, they’re all a bunch of good friends, after all that they’ve been through.
“i’ll apologise to him tomorrow,” sungyeol whispers, a finger on his jaw. “i - you’re right. i was an asshole. i shouldn’t have acted that way.
“we didn’t really want this, you know,” woohyun says, staring at the floor. the burning anger in his chest is gone, sungyeol is sorry and that is enough. “we’re infinite, remember? we’re - “
“seven,” sungyeol sighs, “yeah. seagull reminded me just now.” he lifts his chin towards woohyun, showing him the bruise. “sometimes, i think i need a punch or two. i keep forgetting.” pause. he adds, in a softer voice, guilt all over his face, “i didn’t mean to hurt sunggyu hyung, you know?” another pause. “it’s just that, sometimes, it’s hard to - it’s like, he’s always so unfazed about things. so single-minded on singing. and his dreams. it’s like he forgets that we have dreams too, like his.” sungyeol leans against the kitchen’s countertop and sighs, “i get this feeling like he regrets being here. because -“
woohyun shushes him, placing a finger on sungyeol’s jaw, at the spot where the bruise is and says, gently, “aren’t we all like that? we have a dream and we latch onto it so tight, we just push everything else away? even really important things like love or friendship?” he pauses for a second to let the words sink in. “sunggyu hyung never regrets being here. that much, i know and i can assure you that it’s true.”
“really?”
“i heard about this company offering you a solo contract, sunggyu,” their manager asked, when they are alone in the practice room and woohyun had gone out for a toilet break. woohyun, who had returned to get his wallet, had his hand on the doorknob, his ears straining to hear the conversation. “a solo. meaning you’re going to leave infinite?”
woohyun felt his head swim and he was certain he would throw up his breakfast. sungyeol and everyone had been right. sunggyu was just using this infinite m thing to make himself more discoverable to companies. sunggyu had never really wanted infinite, anyway, had he, because woohyun remembered the gleeful expression on his face when they first heard the news of the sub-group. sunggyu must be over the fucking moon right now because -
“i rejected it,” sunggyu replied and woohyun nearly toppled into the room in shock. he leaned in closer to the door, waiting with bated breath for his leader’s next words, “i rejected it, hyung. i don’t want it.”
“what?” their manager spluttered out in surprise and woohyun didn’t blame him; he was shocked too. “you - you rejected it-“
“yeah.”
“meaning -“
“meaning i will stay,” sunggyu replied and years of being with sunggyu had woohyun knowing that he was smiling as he said it. “i will stay. with infinite. be their leader, whatever that i need to be, whatever that i want to be. with infinite.”
“you won’t regret?” exactly what woohyun was thinking and he couldn’t help but feel a little creeped out that he and his manager were thinking the same things.
sunggyu laughed, loud and clear, “regret? when they’ve been the best friends i could ever have?” sunggyu chuckled, “those idiots leave me no room for regrets, hyung. not now, not ever.”
“woohyun hyung?” sungyeol’s voice brings woohyun back to the present. sungyeol worriedly peers down at him, “you okay?”
“yeah - yeah i know sunggyu hyung doesn’t regret,” woohyun says, smiling at sungyeol. grabbing sungyeol in a headlock, woohyun says, in a mock threatening voice, “you will regret it if you’re behave like that to him again.”
sungyeol laughs and grabs woohyun’s waist, tickling him, until he lets go. woohyun hasn’t laughed that hard in a long while (neither has sungyeol) and it feels good..
--
sungyeol tosses them a bottle of water - containing brownish-yellow liquid - each before they leave the dorm for vocal practice, a few days later. sunggyu misses it, though, and it lands on his foot. sungyeol guffaws, no malice in his laughter, as he picks it up for sunggyu and hands it to him. sunggyu smiles, his eyes turning into crescents and woohyun notices how sungyeol is also smiling a little wider (and definitely more genuine).
“what’s this?” sunggyu asks, eyeing the bottle with mock suspicion, “trying to poison us?”
sungyeol’s smile slips off his face and he looks at sunggyu, alarmed. “i’m joking, yeollie,” sunggyu laughs, winding an arm around sungyeol’s waist and giving him a hug, “thanks for this... but, really, what is it? some special herbs?”
“just honey, with lemon and water?” sungyeol replies, scratching his head, “supposed to be soothing for your throat. according to dongwoo hyung.”
“ah, thanks,” sunggyu says once more and in a lower voice, this time, “thank you, sungyeol.”
sungyeol flushes and gives sunggyu a quick hug, before thumping woohyun on the back. “be sure to drink it, okay! i woke up really early to boil the water for you!”
sunggyu sips on his honey and lemon water on the way to the van, praising sungyeol for being such a good dongsaeng. woohyun takes a swig of his and chokes. his is definitely not honey and lemon. whipping out his mobile, woohyun scrolls down his contacts list and jabs at sungyeol’s name.
“LEE SUNGYEOL WHY IS MINE VINEGAR AND LEMON I WILL KILL YOU!!!” woohyun barks into the phone, as he fixes sunggyu - who is paralysed with laughter, his eyes completely disappearing - a murderous glare, “you are so dead, lee sungyeol.”
sungyeol snickers into the phone and woohyun irritatedly hangs up on him, strangling sunggyu who hasn’t stopped laughing.
he carefully drops his bottle of vinegar into sunggyu’s bag later that day before casually taking sunggyu’s bottle and placing it in his. .their vocal instructor hands them a new piece of music, another ballad, endless, before waving them off for their breaks.
woohyun tries not to laugh when sunggyu makes a face after drinking the water from his bag.
--
end
a/n: OH FINALLY AN ENDING. woohyun is obviously a shameless eavesdropper and sungyeol is just an idiot, okay? and i have no idea why i even attempted this, just that i wanted it to end as i re-read (and hating the fact that it is endless -- title lololololol -- and ta-daa! here you have this. i hope you'll enjoy reading this, anyway, as much as i've enjoyed writing this :-) thank you so much for reading and your comments will be deeply appreciated!! have a nice day y'all ♥