moonlight shone through the window as a stroke landed directly on wonwoo's restless body. no matter how many times he turned or twisted on the comfortable mattress, he just couldn't find the right position to fall asleep. but despite the fact that he missed mingyu's warm arms around him and his overall presence, the room still felt cozy and homelike.
wonwoo reached over for his phone that faced down on his nightstand, checking the time for the nth time that night. it was exactly three minutes past two am, making him let out an annoyed groan for the fact that it was this late already.
until his thought were disturbed by a silent knock that echoed his room, the door slowly opening with a soft creak. in the doorframe appeared the figure of a sleepy seokmin, who was just like wonwoo fully clothed as the temperature dropped drastically that night.
"seokmin?" wonwoo whispered, carefully following every movement the messy haired boy made. even in the low light of the room he could clearly see something was off since he wasn't wearing his usual bright smile.
"i couldn't really fall asleep." the called boy spoke a little louder once he closed the door, shutting off the sound they made. "is it okay if i join you for a bit?"
"uh, yeah sure." wonwoo answered with slight hesitation wavering in his voice, eyeing seokmin who stepped in on mingyu's formal side and covered himself with the blanket.
without twisting too much seokmin was quick to find a good position, pulling the blanket up to his chin as he eyed wonwoo. "if you're uncomfortable with me staying here, please tell me. i can return to my own bedroom."
"i don't see why you can't stay here." yet again wonwoo noticed that something was clearly off, the expression his face held simply gave it away. "hey, is everything alright?"
wonwoo made sure to ask it with care, having absolutely no clue how to handle a situation like this. "i don't know." a sad smile appeared on his face as he avoided wonwoo's gaze. "i heard from my father that he told you a lot about me."
wonwoo swallowed away a lump of guilt, even when he couldn't do anything about the situation. "he did." was his answer, only coming out as a bare whisper.
"you're the first one to know, actually." seokmin admitted, still not able to face wonwoo. "why did they do that to you back in school?" wonwoo asked, having no idea if it worked reassuring on him in any way.
"i have absolutely no clue." seokmin let out a chuckle of sadness. "my mother used to tell me it was because i'm different. that they were just jealous of my happiness." wonwoo felt such a huge compassion towards seokmin, for everything he had been through.
"i wish she was still here to tell me that.." seokmin whispered, a stray tear leaving his eye. "please, if i'm a bother to you i can return to my own room-" "-shh, it's okay seokmin. you're absolutely being no bother to me."
wonwoo hesitated to say the next, although he knew perfectly that it would be the way to comfort someone. learned by none other than kim mingyu himself. "do you, maybe, want a hug?"
seokmin seemed to hesitate at first as well, but was quick to nod and shuffled closer to wonwoo, the two boys remaining silent as they shared a hug. even with wonwoo's entire body being tensed up as he still wasn't used to physical touch.
"come on relax wonwoo, we're just hugging. it's not like i'm stealing you away from mingyu." seokmin giggled, although wonwoo felt how tears wetted his clothed shoulder. his silent sobs were muffled by the fabric of wonwoo's shirt as the broken boy carefully clung onto him, not exactly being used to cuddles as well.
"seokmin?" wonwoo earned a hum in response, the usual happy boy not being able to say more. "are you okay?" between the sound of sniffles and sobs, a soft chuckle was heard. "of course i am."
wonwoo knew he was lying, but decided it was for the best to no get into it deeper, allowing the boy to continue crying on his shoulder. even his tensed body started loosening up once he found out a hug wasn't always meant to be romantic. this one was just a friendly gesture, one of reassurance and one needed by both.
it felt different than when it was mingyu who hugged him. seokmin for example didn't have his strong muscular arms, nor the safe scent that always lingered on mingyu. and although he preferred to be held by mingyu, calming someone down like this felt right as well.
"wonwoo?" seokmin asked this time, still not shifting postion, waiting for a hum of approval. "how does it feel like? you know, being in love with someone who unconditionally loves you back."
"it feels.. weird?" both boys couldn't help but to laugh about wonwoo's stupidly funny reply. "it's just an unexplainable feeling. it feels surreal, as if it could vanish any moment. it's a warm feeling, as in physically warm, it literally warms up your entire body." wonwoo let out a content sigh by simply thinking about mingyu. "it's like how they describe in in the novels."
"eh.. i don't read books wonwoo. please be a little more specific." seokmin giggled, his breathing pattern getting steadier the more he listened to wonwoo's soothing deep voice. "well.. i think everyone experiences it in a different way, but to me it's something beautiful. you just know you're with the right person. you feel comfortable around them, and safe of course. mostly safe."
a small pause fell between them, the only sounds filling the room being their breaths and the wind howling through the trees outside the opened window. "ah, i'm just rambling. i personally think everyone has a different opinion on this."
"i want to fall in love too like you and mingyu, it's so..so.." seokmin whispered, his sentence ending weakly and cutting of midway, gentle snores filling the atmosphere in a brief second.
"seokmin?" wonwoo asked worriedly as to why the boy suddenly had stopped talking, scared he ended up crying again. but when he leaned back to check his facial expression, the boy found out seokmin fell asleep with a small smile stuck on his lips.
the only thing wonwoo could do was chuckle and drop back in the position, allowing seokmin to use him as his human pillow. he fell asleep soon after, the thought of seeing mingyu the day after making him drift off to a world of dreams.
