Title: Nobody Seemed to Notice
Pairing: Leo/Hyuk
The familiar scenery blurred past into one that wasn’t familiar to Taekwoon. The greens and the browns all mixed into a grotesque mix of colours with names that were probably too complicated to be remembered. They had a schedule in some place where Taekwoon knew that if he thought hard enough, he would remember the name of. His thoughts now were distracted by the familiar sound of tiny sniffles that came from the back seat of the van.
Taekwoon was wearing headphones (He never actually played any music though, it was a protective mechanism from the verbal attack that could come from an overly-excited Hakyeon and the boys who would play along with him until their soft snores would echo throughout the van.) Taekwoon used to fall asleep with them, his own worn out body needing the extra minutes of sleep.
He started noticing how Hyuk would come out of the van looking exhausted, his eyes slightly swollen. (And if you looked closely enough, tear stains that trailed from his eyes right down to his chin would be obvious when the sunlight hit his face in a certain angle) Taekwoon tried to approach the boy, his silent gazes piercing into Hyuk’s eyes whenever Taekwoon saw the familiar hunch of disappointment he would have when he made a tiny mistake on stage or when he didn’t get enough air time on a certain show. All he received in return was a painful twinge in his heart when Hyuk gave him a heartbreaking smile (that everyone else saw as happiness instead of a strong front being put up by a stressed teenager who thought of himself as insufficent when all Taekwoon felt when he saw him was perfection in it’s adolescent form)
He didn’t know whether it was a good or bad thing that he no longer slept now that he’d found out that Hyuk never did sleep on the way to schedules. That all Hyuk ever did on those journeys was to blame himself and tear himself down for all the minuscule mistakes he did during performances and shows. Hyuk never let it show though, a bright eye smile always covering the deeply trenched feelings of worthlessness the young boy would feel whenever he found out that he wouldn’t be having any solo lines in their songs.
Taekwoon looked out the window as the scenery slowed down and became colours of blue and brown. They were near the ocean. (He remembered that day when they had a photoshoot by the beach and he had his arm on Hyuk’s shoulder and all he could think of was how see-through Hyuk’s white shirt was) Taekwoon clenched his fist tightly, trying not to let his feelings overwhelm him. Closing his eyes, he decided to do something different and listen to music (instead of the noises that kept him awake, even when he couldn’t hear them)
The sniffles began to get drowned out by the music but all he heard was the own pain in his chest as he tried to stop thinking about how much it ached that he couldn’t make the sniffles end.