You Should Leave, Baby → ZUWOON

chapter eight

"Are we faking with the others?"

Shrugging, Juho mumbles out his answer. "Everyone except Chanhee."

Setting his bag down, Seokwoo sits on the edge of his bed, finally looking back to Juho. "We have about an hour," he smiles, leaning back on his hands. "Anything you want to do?"

Juho sighs, shaking his head. His fingers drum restlessly along his now still legs, and it's his turn to watch the ground. "Nothing."

"Disappointing," Seokwoo sighs. Juho pouts. "Let's go hang out with the others, we barely did this week."

Unprompted and completely unexpected, Juho grumbles out a quiet, muttered answer. "Well, I did, while you were off fucking Jackson..."

There's an edge to the other's voice with the last two words he mutters. Seokwoo pauses, scoffing. "Sorry, come again?"

"Nothing," shaking his head, Juho gets up, dusting off his jeans though they weren't dirty in the slightest, "let's go see the others."

Grabbing his wrist as he tries to walk past him, Seokwoo holds the other still. "No, we're going to talk first."

Ripping his hand away, Juho glowers at him, and Seokwoo feels everything he'd felt during their first days together emerge again, ugly emotions rearing an uglier head as they grab for each of the two in the room. "No, we're not."

"Fine, then we're just going to go back to fighting?"

Angrily, Juho sits down next to him, hands pressed tightly together in his lap. Seokwoo lays back, groaning.

"Seokwoo." Juho starts, voice low and cold, distant, even. Seokwoo recognizes what he's doing instantly. He'd done it when he had to keep himself from feeling anything when his manager had belittled him, made him feel absolutely worthless before going into shoots. It was a dark way of coping that Seokwoo hated, and he never wanted to see Juho become so cold and emotionless as he had done far too many times before. He feels sick, turning to watch the other with worried eyes. "It's fine, I'm sorry, can we go?"

"No, because what I did bothered you, right?" Letting his voice take on a gentler tone, Seokwoo sits back up and reaches for the other's hands, sighing in relief when Juho allows him to hold onto them. "Don't try and hide from me, I know all of the tricks."

"Yeah," Juho shrugs, "I guess it does bother me a bit. I don't know." He shakes his head. "It shouldn't."

Seokwoo wants to confess everything then and there, but still feels he's tongue tied. He'd already fucked himself over, allowing himself to fall for the person whose first words to him were that he practically hated him and everything he stood for.

But, he finds he doesn't have to when Juho lets himself fall to the other's side, leaning against him sadly. "Seokwoo, why are we doing this?"

"To get back at Yugyeom," he lies, and Juho smiles.

"We both know that's not the main reason," Juho looks up to him, gaze soft and wavering with what Seokwoo can't distinguish as sadness or fondness. He's assuming it's the former.

Seokwoo pulls his lips into a tight line, trying not to focus on the other. "Why do you think we're doing this, then?"

Juho's answer comes as a soft breath against Seokwoo's cheek as he leans forward, as a hesitant kiss placed haphazardly on his bottom lip. Seokwoo can't bring himself to move until Juho's pulling away, to which the younger responds with an eager, desperate motion forward to chase his lips. Juho brings a hand up to Seokwoo's face, stopping him before they can continue. "I don't want to be hurt again," he worries, and Seokwoo's eyes harden with determination.