Blue {DoTae} | complete

Jungwoo: Take my hand

The sun is already starting to set outside, the cold winter wind disturbing the bare branches of the trees, and Jungwoo is glad that he's inside on such an unforgiving evening. He burrows deeper into Jaehyun's embrace and curls his fingers into the fabric of the elder's jumper. The premium fabric is soft and never fails to settle his mind.

"Now I kind of wish we had the whole evening to ourselves, baby." Jaehyun sighs out as he nuzzles his nose over Jungwoo's mop of black hair, squeezing his waist a little tighter to savour the final moments of peace. "What do you reckon, my snowdrop?"

Jungwoo giggles and presses a kiss to his boyfriend's lips, then his nose, and laughs harder when Jaehyun goes cross-eyed and pouts down at him with the tips of his ears tinted pink. The doorbell rings before the younger gets a chance to respond, which is Jaehyun's cue to shift off the sofa and run to the door.

The house soon fills with Yuta's laughter and Johnny's jokes and Jaehyun reappears in the living room with the two guests trailing behind him. Jungwoo's lips tighten into a subtle grimace of disapproval at the sight of the beer bottles they line up on the table, as well as the unmistakeable vapes they like to pass round at hangouts.

"Have you two fucked on this yet?" Johnny furrows his eyebrows in suspicion and points at the closest loveseat, then collapses onto it when Jaehyun rolls his eyes and punches his shoulder.

"None of your business, you prick." Jaehyun complains. Johnny throws his head back with laughter. Yuta occupies the other sofa, leaving Jaehyun to rejoin Jungwoo.

"What game are we gonna play today?" Yuta grabs a controller off the coffee table and gets up again to turn on the console as though it were his own home.

Jungwoo remains silent as the other three bicker over what game to play, then which character is the best. He doesn't understand much about video games no matter how many times he's sat and watched one take control of his boyfriend's attention span. Which is often, these days. His eyes rove over his boyfriend's face. Dimples appear on Jaehyun's cheeks when he narrows his eyes to focus on the tv screen. His hair is getting long, hanging in thick, wavy locks that frame the perfect curve of his nose and depth of his eyes that glare at Johnny for stealing his favourite controller.

It took months for Jaehyun to show Jungwoo his softer side. The side of him that adores cliché romance movies and drinking hot chocolate in fluffy slippers, and curling up into bed with a good novel and glasses atop his nose. Jungwoo falls more in love each time Jaehyun calls him some sickly sweet nickname.

But as soon as their friends arrive those things always vanish. Jaehyun swears at the game when his character is knocked down and stuck crawling across the battlefield. He curses even harder when Yuta wins the game, only to pass the first bottle of beer to him as a reward.

"Want some?" Jaehyun offers Jungwoo a drink, but the younger declines with a small shake of his head. Jungwoo is content with resting his head on the arm of the sofa to watch the scene of the three bickering.

The drinks begin to disappear. Jaehyun's parents have fancy jobs and are both on business trips yet again, not that they care if their son drinks or not anyway, but it means that their friends have been coming to his grand house almost as frequently as Jungwoo. And Jungwoo is here most days of the week. On the days he's not, Jaehyun comes to his place instead.

The only person that hasn't come to participate in their meet-ups is Doyoung. Jungwoo's fingers curl into fists at the realisation. Bitter guilt and worry swirl through his stomach and rise up his throat, persisting even as he swallows, and his mouth turns dry.

Doyoung is never at any of their hangouts. Never at their birthday parties. Not even at their more innocent shopping trips or afternoons in the park. As far can he can recall, Doyoung wasn't even invited to most of them in the first place. He'd always decline to the point where the others must have given up inviting him.