round 06, challenge five: entry #02
Title: time and time (again)
Fandom and Pairing: woohyun/sungyeol
Rating: PG
Word Count: 924
Prompt/s Used: The prompt.
Summary: They break up for the last time on a Monday, and Woohyun suffers from deja vu.
Warnings: n/a
"What if we did break up?"
The question hangs in the air, heavy with anticipation, buoyed by curiosity. You roll onto your back, pulling your hand away. Sungyeol whines, and you absentmindedly reach out to tease your fingers through his hair again. The question isn't that out of the blue-your last argument worries at the edges of both your minds, even tempered as is by a night's sleep.
"What if," you repeat.
"I'm asking you, you can't ask it back," he says. You imagine the childish pout on his face and you smile.
"I'm not," you say.
"So?"
"I don't know," you say honestly.
"You didn't think about it at all."
"So?"
"Why not?"
"I don't want to," you say.
"I know," he says. You're not sure what it is he knows.
-
You break up for the last time on a Monday. Maybe it's because you left the dishes a day too long or the laundry undone one too many times. Maybe it's because you forgot your phone in the car again or because if he calls you an asshole one more time you'll-
"You can really be a fucking asshole, you know?"
Maybe he shoves at your shoulder, maybe you stumble backwards and trip over a chair. Maybe you push him back. Maybe you yell a few too many profanities, until you're not even sure what you're fighting over. And then, and then maybe you notice him go frighteningly calm. "I'm-" sorry, you begin to say, as he helps you to your feet.
"I'm tired," he says. His back is towards you. You (make the wrong decision and) grab your keys and your jacket and head out the door.
The next morning, you swallow the deja vu and give yourself five days to forget him.
-
You fall in love one summer. You promise forevers while he counters with transience. Your eye is on the expiry date while he rides on dreams. You're friends of friends and you get off on the wrong foot; you're loud, he's abrasive, and you think maybe it's something you'd done.
"He's like that," Myungsoo says placidly. "But you're you."
"Hey now, what does that mean?" you say, but Myungsoo clams up and refuses to say anymore, settling by Sungyeol's side.
But then he calls you hyung one day, and you tease him about his sudden show of respect and you're still not sure, years later, how that ended with him kissing you on a summer evening.
"Love doesn't last," he scoffs.
I'd bring you the sky if you asked, you think. I'd give you the world.
-
You break up the first time before you've even started dating, really dating. You're still in university and he freaks out at you or he pushes you too far one too many times and that's it and you don't see each other for a month. It's childish and we're not speaking, you'd said to Sunggyu, and it's better this way, you'd told Myungsoo, and sometimes, I worry for you, Dongwoo'd said.
But silence is overrated and familiarity is easy, and so many years down the road you joke and say that it's because you don't know how to get used to someone else.
So you sit on the bed and breathe in his scent as if you'd done this a hundred times already. And you realise, two days too late, he'd even taken away the pictures on the table.
-
Hoya comes to drag you out of the apartment when you get back from work, and you wonder how he knows. But word gets around, and maybe Sungyeol told Myungsoo who didn't keep his mouth shut or maybe it was Sungjong, and this is why you're laughing over soju and fried chicken on a Thursday night, thinking of the time when Sungyeol's hands in your lap led to your tongue in his mouth, and you drown the taste with the slow burn of alcohol.
I don't know, you had said honestly, but suddenly, it occurs to you that maybe you had lied.
-
You finally do your laundry on Friday. It's dark by the time you collect your sheets from the dryer. They smell like chemical flowers.
You stand on the balcony and wonder if the night wind should remind you of his touch, if the stars in the sky should be a memory of loneliness. You laugh, because maybe, that's something he could've said.
-
"I think he's waiting for you."
Myungsoo calls you before you're awake, and it takes a moment before you understand what he means. You glance at the bare desk and roll onto your back. "I thought you liked him too," you say. Your voice is rough-you tell yourself it's rough from sleep.
"I did. I do. Please," he says, and when his voice cracks, you decide that today, you will forget Sungyeol.
You pull out a faded shirt and skinny jeans, toss on a hat and a pair of sunglasses, stop by the cafe on the way for lunch. His eyes open in surprise and then close in what you think is resignation before he lets you in.
"You can't turn back time," he says.
You kiss him anyway, the stale taste of coffee lingering on your tongue. You can't tell if it's you or him or-
"You taste like Sungyeol, you know?"
"I know," you say, and suddenly, in a fit of deja vu, you're not sure what you know.
-
You break up for the last time on a Monday.
Fandom and Pairing: woohyun/sungyeol
Rating: PG
Word Count: 924
Prompt/s Used: The prompt.
Summary: They break up for the last time on a Monday, and Woohyun suffers from deja vu.
Warnings: n/a
"What if we did break up?"
The question hangs in the air, heavy with anticipation, buoyed by curiosity. You roll onto your back, pulling your hand away. Sungyeol whines, and you absentmindedly reach out to tease your fingers through his hair again. The question isn't that out of the blue-your last argument worries at the edges of both your minds, even tempered as is by a night's sleep.
"What if," you repeat.
"I'm asking you, you can't ask it back," he says. You imagine the childish pout on his face and you smile.
"I'm not," you say.
"So?"
"I don't know," you say honestly.
"You didn't think about it at all."
"So?"
"Why not?"
"I don't want to," you say.
"I know," he says. You're not sure what it is he knows.
-
You break up for the last time on a Monday. Maybe it's because you left the dishes a day too long or the laundry undone one too many times. Maybe it's because you forgot your phone in the car again or because if he calls you an asshole one more time you'll-
"You can really be a fucking asshole, you know?"
Maybe he shoves at your shoulder, maybe you stumble backwards and trip over a chair. Maybe you push him back. Maybe you yell a few too many profanities, until you're not even sure what you're fighting over. And then, and then maybe you notice him go frighteningly calm. "I'm-" sorry, you begin to say, as he helps you to your feet.
"I'm tired," he says. His back is towards you. You (make the wrong decision and) grab your keys and your jacket and head out the door.
The next morning, you swallow the deja vu and give yourself five days to forget him.
-
You fall in love one summer. You promise forevers while he counters with transience. Your eye is on the expiry date while he rides on dreams. You're friends of friends and you get off on the wrong foot; you're loud, he's abrasive, and you think maybe it's something you'd done.
"He's like that," Myungsoo says placidly. "But you're you."
"Hey now, what does that mean?" you say, but Myungsoo clams up and refuses to say anymore, settling by Sungyeol's side.
But then he calls you hyung one day, and you tease him about his sudden show of respect and you're still not sure, years later, how that ended with him kissing you on a summer evening.
"Love doesn't last," he scoffs.
I'd bring you the sky if you asked, you think. I'd give you the world.
-
You break up the first time before you've even started dating, really dating. You're still in university and he freaks out at you or he pushes you too far one too many times and that's it and you don't see each other for a month. It's childish and we're not speaking, you'd said to Sunggyu, and it's better this way, you'd told Myungsoo, and sometimes, I worry for you, Dongwoo'd said.
But silence is overrated and familiarity is easy, and so many years down the road you joke and say that it's because you don't know how to get used to someone else.
So you sit on the bed and breathe in his scent as if you'd done this a hundred times already. And you realise, two days too late, he'd even taken away the pictures on the table.
-
Hoya comes to drag you out of the apartment when you get back from work, and you wonder how he knows. But word gets around, and maybe Sungyeol told Myungsoo who didn't keep his mouth shut or maybe it was Sungjong, and this is why you're laughing over soju and fried chicken on a Thursday night, thinking of the time when Sungyeol's hands in your lap led to your tongue in his mouth, and you drown the taste with the slow burn of alcohol.
I don't know, you had said honestly, but suddenly, it occurs to you that maybe you had lied.
-
You finally do your laundry on Friday. It's dark by the time you collect your sheets from the dryer. They smell like chemical flowers.
You stand on the balcony and wonder if the night wind should remind you of his touch, if the stars in the sky should be a memory of loneliness. You laugh, because maybe, that's something he could've said.
-
"I think he's waiting for you."
Myungsoo calls you before you're awake, and it takes a moment before you understand what he means. You glance at the bare desk and roll onto your back. "I thought you liked him too," you say. Your voice is rough-you tell yourself it's rough from sleep.
"I did. I do. Please," he says, and when his voice cracks, you decide that today, you will forget Sungyeol.
You pull out a faded shirt and skinny jeans, toss on a hat and a pair of sunglasses, stop by the cafe on the way for lunch. His eyes open in surprise and then close in what you think is resignation before he lets you in.
"You can't turn back time," he says.
You kiss him anyway, the stale taste of coffee lingering on your tongue. You can't tell if it's you or him or-
"You taste like Sungyeol, you know?"
"I know," you say, and suddenly, in a fit of deja vu, you're not sure what you know.
-
You break up for the last time on a Monday.