genie [ woosan ]

14

San sat in his last period physics class, tapping his pencil on his desk impatiently.

The previous day had been uneventful for him besides the morning at the library. San ended up hanging with Mingi and Yunho all day— Wooyoung had to leave at lunch for a doctor's appointment.

Not that he was complaining about being with his best friends. He still loved them, obviously, yet it was hard for him to exactly miss the people who would show up to his house as if they lived there.

Today hadn't been San's cup of tea either, so far.

At lunch Wooyoung was called to retake an exam, and aside from minimal texting, a small exchange of greetings was the extent of their communication.

San felt extremely fidgety, for no reason he knew of. This class period, which he finally had Wooyoung in, had become dedicated to nervously glancing over at the boy.

Wooyoung wore a black turtleneck with a jacket over it. San questioned where he bought his clothes... he'd just have to ask him to take him sometime.

San looked at the time, seeing ten minutes left until the end of class.

Those ten minutes lasted an eternity.

San had never felt so desperate for a class to end, making each second feel as if it were a whole year of waiting. He must have been annoying, tapping his pen over and over again, yet thankfully no one complained.

The bell rung. San felt a weight being lifted off of him as he finally achieved freedom.

He found himself immediately scanning the room for a certain individual...

He locked eyes with Wooyoung, who broke out into a wide smile upon being noticed.

San began padding over to Wooyoung after slinging his backpack over his shoulder; Wooyoung did the same. The two came to a stop about midway.

The two, silent, merely looked at each other before beginning to burst into giggles. San didn't know why he felt so elated.

"So," San started as the two exited the classroom, "are you gonna be at lunch tomorrow or will you abandon me again?"

Wooyoung shrugged as he strolled into the hallway. "I'll try to be there," he said, throwing in a smile with it.

"You wanna take a walk?" Wooyoung offered, San raising an eyebrow in suspicion yet agreeing.

"My parents think I have a teacher meeting right now and I don't, so..." Wooyoung began explaining.

"Ooh, a liar~" San teased, Wooyoung laughing bashfully in response.

San, for some reason, couldn't stop paying attention to the younger's clothes, feeling something off about it.

He found himself scanning over the younger as they walked, Wooyoung rambling about whatever topic came to mind.

As they rounded a corner, San looked as Wooyoung pulled down his sweater slightly; as a result shifting the neck of the turtleneck a bit down. Wooyoung quickly reached up to pull the collar back up, but not soon enough for San to notice something off.

San swore he saw the edge of a small, circular mark peek out from the turtleneck. It was at this moment that San remembered the boy had just happened to be wearing one for two days in a row.

Wooyoung, freezing as he saw San stare at his now covered neck, seemed to save an expression of sudden nervousness appear. He knew San had seen.

"San, it's..." Wooyoung tried to dismiss, but San found himself instinctually reaching over and pulling down the collar of his sweater. Wooyoung let his hands fall, not attempting to stop him.

A million thoughts ran through San's mind as he took in the sight of a number of reddish bruises adorning the sides of Wooyoung's neck, a stark contrast to his light skin. One thing wouldn't leave San's mind... the fact that he hadn't had those the day before Seonghwa had stayed at his house, and now he clearly did.

San stepped back, feeling a bit hurt although he told himself not to be. He kept his gaze at the floor, Wooyoung looking over at him with a mix of concern and confusion.

The pair stayed quiet as they walked. San, much to his own chagrin, couldn't keep the negative thoughts out of his head, mostly berating himself for even feeling badly about the situation.

The image of Seonghwa and Wooyoung entered his mind, the thought of Seonghwa leaving those on him just unbearable to San. It may have been wrong, but he simply couldn't stop himself from picturing otherwise, instead getting high off of the sudden mental image of himself doing those things to Wooyoung, marking him as his own.

San took a deep breath, scolding himself for thinking that way. He felt overtly creepy for having those thoughts about somebody who clearly wasn't his.

"San-" Wooyoung tried to grab the other boy's attention, San simply putting on a mask of a smile.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me," San acted supportive, mentally dreading hearing Wooyoung say it himself. 

"Yeah, but I want to. Text me if you wanna talk about it," Wooyoung gave a half smile, grabbing San's hand and softly rubbing the back of it with his thumb, before letting go and walking away. A thousand unspoken words hung in the air between them. 

San only watched him as he walked off. Why would Wooyoung want to tell San about his affairs? 

A notification lit up his phone, grabbing his attention. As he gazed at it, he registered the notification was from his blog, a question for Genie.

Genie. That made San begin to think. 

Hadn't Wooyoung come to Genie asking for help with San? Nothing had ever been mentioned about Seonghwa... and although Wooyoung had claimed to only aim for being friends with San, he couldn't help but begin to feel something was amiss.

San took a shaky breath, trying to get himself into the right mindset for leaving campus.

He needed something to distract himself from his own emotions. With this in mind, he started searching for destinations; for something, anything, to do.

The address of a hair salon was the last thing shown on his screen before he shoved it in his pocket, heading out.