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Ever since Soonyoung can remember, Wonwoo’s had a camera around his neck. When he first met Wonwoo – with knobby knees and glasses that were broken, and a tooth missing when he smiled without talking – he held up a disposable camera as he took picture after picture of Soonyoung at the summer camp they met. He made a comment that he enjoys seeing people happy, that he enjoys capturing the moments of when people are smiling the most. Soonyoung calls him weird, immediately grabbing the camera to take a picture of the two of them as best he could.
The picture turns out blurry and unfocused, with Soonyoung’s face halfway covered up by his thumb. But Wonwoo has kept it throughout the years they’ve known each other, framed it and always kept it in sight.
And one thing about Wonwoo is that he continues to love the camera, continues to shine it throughout the day at a cat or random passersby when they walk arm in arm to some place that Soonyoung recommended. He followed his heart, kept the camera close by to him that when they finally decided their college career the first thing Wonwoo chose was film and photography.
📹📹📹
“Happy birthday,” is the first thing Wonwoo says the moment Soonyoung steps into their shared living room, scratching at his eye with a yawn as he turns around from where he sits on the couch to stare at Soonyoung. “Can’t believe you’re old now. Yeonjun will need to take over the dance studio from you,” he teases and Soonyoung glares back despite the way his lips pull into a smile.
“Yeonjun can’t step away from his boyfriend long enough to do that,” he sighs with a shake of his head, immediately reaching over to lean against the back of the couch to stare at Wonwoo’s computer. He immediately closes the laptop, tilting his face up to stare directly at Soonyoung with a grin. “What are you working on?”
“A project,” is the first thing he says but Soonyoung’s lips turn into a pout as he stares down at Wonwoo. A project he says . Most of the time, Wonwoo wouldn’t mind Soonyoung peeking over his shoulder to stare as he edits clips together.
Why now?
Wonwoo just smiles, reaching up to pat the back of Soonyoung’s head. “You’ll see tonight,” he teases and Soonyoung feels his cheeks heat up. “Don’t forget about your coffee date with Seungkwan.”
“I know,” he sighs, immediately turning away from Wonwoo as he stands up straight. “You promise to tell me what you’re working on?” He challenges and Wonwoo nods immediately. “You swear.” His eyes set in a glare, staring down at Wonwoo like he can catch his best friend on fire. Wonwoo nods again. “I don’t believe you.”
“You’ll see it at your party, I promise,” he huffs, moving the mouse around on the armrest of the couch as if it would do anything. Soonyoung flicks him in the back of the head.
📹📹📹
At the party he only receives a small flash drive with a smiley face written on some masking tape. He stares at it for all of ten seconds before immediately glaring at Wonwoo and asking him to explain what it was. Wonwoo shrugs like the smug bastard he is, pushing up his glasses with a hum, and taking a sip of beer that Seungcheol hands him. Soonyoung wants to fight him, feels his stomach boiling, but instead turns away. “I can’t believe it,” he mumbles, staring down at the small little drive in his hand, “Twelve years and all I get is a dumb flashdrive.”
“I don’t think you would want people to see it,” He admits, and Soonyoung immediately turns to him scandalized.
“Is this a…homemade,” he wiggles his eyebrows for emphasis, the heat on his cheeks burning even hotter than with the alcohol in his system, “video?”
It’s enough to make Wonwoo choke on his drink, immediately doubling over as he coughs and sputters and reaches out to try and grab Soonyoung’s shirt. He moves away with ease, laughing as Wonwoo wipes the tears from his eyes and continues to cough. “No!” He yells, cheeks bright red and Soonyoung only sticks out his tongue towards him.
He moves away when he hears Jeonghan announce there is another guest, but he’s not quite sure who it would be. The flash drive feels like it burns in his pocket, but when he sees Yeonjun – fumbling dorky Yeonjun who reminds him so much of himself when he was younger – standing awkwardly to the side with a present in his hand, he immediately forgets about it to introduce his favorite student to the rest of his friends.
After his fourth glass of beer that he’s been handed, everyone starts filtering out of his apartment. Jun lays his head on Soonyoung’s shoulder as he falls asleep, and Jihoon shakes his head in fondness when staring at his boyfriend. Soonyoung feels like he’s going to be sick as he watches Jihoon help Jun up to his feet, being the only sober one at the party as he claimed he’d be designated driver for their friends, and whispers another quiet, “Happy birthday, Soonyoungie,” towards him. Soonyoung nods in return, waiting until they leave with the door shutting behind them, before he returns back to the flashdrive that’s been on his mind all day.
He pulls it out of his pocket, staring down at it until his vision unfocuses and blurs around it, thoughts staying on it. He knows Wonwoo well enough, he doesn’t mind showing his relationship with anyone. He’s always been quiet in his emotions, but he still shows his love loudly. He’s the exact opposite of Soonyoung – loud in his emotions, quiet in his outward appearance.
He thinks about it for longer than he should, flipping the flashdrive around his hand as he sits in front of his laptop, staring at it to wonder what could Wonwoo possibly been working on for so long. Working on something that he doesn’t want anyone else to see at Soonyoung’s party.
He finally plugs it in, clicking on the little pop up that shows up to play the video. His eyebrows knit together. Video ? A video for Soonyoung’s birthday?
He clicks it.
Soonyoung shows up on the screen, a wide smile from when he was younger – before he got his braces taken off in high school and scrunched up face from playing around. He says something, baby Soonyoung’s head thrown back in a laugh as his hand moves to cover his face, but Soonyoung can’t understand it. His mind goes through different emotions and he can’t focus on what happens.
The music plays just as the screen fades, a montage of Soonyoung moving around. A video when he won his first taekwondo national meetings, cheering and yelling on top of his coach’s shoulders, to the small moment of him finding a flower and handing it to Wonwoo. They fade perfectly into each other, small moments and big moments alike that flow in a wave. Soonyoung watches the way his own life passes by in such small moments that he knows Wonwoo captured, moments where he remembers being with Wonwoo.
He doesn’t remember opening twitter when it finishes playing, the montage still going through his mind of Wonwoo made this for me? along with his drunken haze. He doesn’t remember typing out look what my best friend made for my birthday [heart emoji] [heart emoji] [tiger emoji] [heart emoji] before dragging the video into the compose tweet portion.
He doesn’t remember clicking tweet or going to bed.
He’s barely able to wake up when his phone goes off throughout the night. Rolling over throughout the night as his head pounds to shut it off until it glitches too much and shuts down itself. He doesn’t open his eyes until Wonwoo is shaking him on a phone call and mumbles about something before the phone is shoved to his ear.
“Soonyoung? Soonyoungie?” he barely registers Jihoon’s voice coming through the line, a groan leaving his mouth as he rolls away from it. He mumbles something along the lines of too early , but Jihoon’s voice echoes around him. “Soonyoung this is important!”
A headache brews behind his eye, his face is all puffy, and when he stares up at Wonwoo he sees his best friend smiling. It makes him pout, eyes shift into a glare, and he snatches the phone away. “What ?” He hisses and he’s sure Jihoon is rolling his eyes.
Asshole.
“Have you checked your twitter account?” He questions. Soonyoung barely looks at him before rolling back under the covers. Jihoon sighs, immediately reaching over to shake him. “This is important!”
“My head is pounding,” he slurs out and he waits for Jihoon to sigh. He hears a glass set down beside him, Wonwoo’s fingers in his hair. He places two pills into his hand as he takes the phone away from him. Soonyoung takes them quickly, ignoring Wonwoo’s calming voice as he talks to Jihoon.
Soonyoung falls asleep once more, not able to hide the smile that crosses his lips.
📹📹📹
He’s woken up three hours later with a phone buzzing more consistently that makes him realize that no , there was definitely not a bee in his apartment or his dream. He sits up, scrubbing at his eyes despite the headache that still brews and his limbs feeling like jello, reaching over to his phone.
The moment he tries to click unlock , using the facial recognition ID system, it freaks out and shuts down. He frowns at it, trying to get it to start up again.
When the screen flashes of a tiger lockscreen, he sees notifications popping up. They multiple, one by one, and his phone does the same thing. Glitches, freezes, and then shuts down once more.
“Wonwoo!” He hears himself yelling before he even knows it, jumping up to head to his best friend’s room. The door opens almost immediately, Wonwoo scrubbing at his eyes as he pushes his glasses to the top of his head. “I need your help!”
He’s begging, he can recognize it in his voice already as he collapses in Wonwoo’s arms. He feels the after affects of the alcohol, can feel himself choking up. He can’t buy a new phone, there’s no way he can! He already broke one too many and he can’t do it again. He chokes on his words, and Wonwoo’s hands are immediately holding his face.
“What’s wrong?” He asks, voice calm and collected. If Soonyoung was less hungover, he would notice the way Wonwoo’s eyes shift and how his nervousness shows when he taps his foot. Or the way his fingers shake pressed against Soonyoung’s heated skin. But now, all he can think about is leaning into the cool palm of his best friend, the way it feels like ice against a fire that is his skin and swaying to his deep voice that makes him feel hazy again. “Soonyoungie, I need you to pay attention.”
Soonyoung is knocked out of his stupor, taking a step back that makes him realize he misses Wonwoo and his always-too-cold hands against him. But instead, he hands him his phone and immediately bites at his thumbnail. “It’s broken,” he croaks, feeling tears pool at his eyes once more. “I-I don’t know what I did! It’s just…,” he trails off, and he knows he can trust Wonwoo.
He can always trust Wonwoo.
“I need to call Jeonghan-hyung. Can I see your phone?”
Wonwoo nods, immediately handing it over. Soonyoung puts in the passcode of 1517 and unlocks it. A twitter notification comes up and Soonyoung doesn’t mean to click it, his fingers are too dumb to cooperate, and he goes to the homepage where he sees his own post.
The attention startles him. Seeing the amount of retweets and likes and replies. His brain tries to catch up, but there’s another reply that gains just as much attention. It makes him want to shut down, to run away. He’ll move to America, start a new life. Figure out something later.
Oh my god he’s in love with you. The words runs through his head as he immediately exits out of twitter and calls Jeonghan.
Jeonghan picks up in no time.
“Wonwoo?”
“Hyung!” Soonyoung cries, glancing back into his room as he sees Wonwoo fiddling with his phone. “My phone is broken and I-I–”
“Is this about your post on twitter?” He’s never been one to beat around the bush. Soonyoung both hates and loves that about his hyung – his favorite hyung. He lets out a small hiccup in reply and god, he doesn’t want to cry.
This can’t be real. This can’t be real. But his chest feels like it’s caving in and he’s only able to choke out a Hyung that Jeonghan coos at.
“It’ll be okay, Soonyoungie. Let’s talk about it. I’ll stay on the phone until I’m there.”
📹📹📹
“He loves me? What do they mean he loves me?” Soonyoung asks as he paces Jeonghan’s apartment, pulling at his hair as he turns to his Hyung who barely takes his eyes off his computer screen. “Hyung! Please, they’re lying aren’t they?”
“Our poor Soonyoungie,” Jisoo says as he twirls a pen in his hand. He watches Jeonghan’s face, the way it twitches and his fingers stop typing on the keyboard. The way he keeps his mouth in a fine line compared to when he’s usually screaming his head off at a rage game he plays with Jihoon. “Tell him, Hannie.”
“Shua,” he warns, but Jisoo just shows his typical cat like grin as Soonyoung glances from one to the other. Something nags at his heart, pulling at it as he folds into himself against the arm of the couch. Wonwoo loves him? His Wonwoo? His Nonu? The one he’s been friends with since elementary school?
That couldn’t possibly be right. Wonwoo couldn’t love him. And he’d never play with Soonyoung’s heart that way. Besides, Wonwoo’s told him he’s straight! When they would stay up too late talking about people they liked and their ideal types. How he had a thing for boobs like the anime girls he fell in love with and collected. How he started dating his ex-girlfriend Yujin, but later broke up with her for some unknown reason.
No, Wonwoo couldn’t like him.
“Earth to Soonyoungie,” Jisoo says above him and when Soonyoung breaks out of his daze he realizes he’s hyperventilating. Jeonghan is by his side, hands placed on his knees as he stares at his best friend. He stares from Jisoo, to then look at Jeonghan – his eyes are wide and cautious, staring at Soonyoung with the kindness and worry he always does. He doesn’t need to say anything, doesn’t need to offer anything as he opens his arms immediately.
Soonyoung dives right into them, feeling like a child. The thoughts spiral and he’s not sure what to think. They could just be lies on the internet. Lies that they don’t know, they don’t know him and they don’t know Wonwoo. Wonwoo just likes to have his camera, likes to record his day. It’s part of his final assignment, the one Wonwoo’s been stressing on for so long.
“He doesn’t love me,” He whispers, and for once the thought he’s always had that he tried to bury for so long breaks him. It feels like a knife is twisted and forced out of his heart after being stabbed. The tears form just as quickly, wrapping his arms around Jeonghan to hide his face and sobbing into his shirt. The broken words of, “He doesn’t love me,” leave his lips and Jeonghan just shushes him, but there are no other words.
“Just talk to him, Soonyoungie,” he coos in his ear, rubbing his hand along the length of Soonyoung’s back. “You won’t know unless you talk to him.”
Soonyoung knows he’s right, but it’s easier to run away from the affection rather than acknowledge it. He doesn’t want to look at Jeonghan, instead staying in the embrace as he shifts to scroll through his own phone. Turning off the notifications helped, but the hundreds of people who suddenly followed him that have never looked at his dance covers don’t help. The tweet sits at the top of his feed, wanting to pretend he’s offline.
But he knows Wonwoo has seen it by now. Wonwoo who only follows their small friend group and some E-sport players.
He lets out a sigh.
“Do I have to?”
“Yes,” Jisoo shoots in, and Soonyoung looks up to pout at him. “Wonwoo’s going just as crazy. Be crazy together.”
“You sound like Jihoonie.”
“Maybe he has a point,” Jeonghan teases, pinching at Soonyoung’s cheek. “C’mon little tiger. You’re brave.”
“I’m not a baby, Hyung.”
“Maybe not, but you’re my baby,” he coos, arms wrapped around Soonyoung’s middle that makes him laugh. Still sad and teary eyed, but a small hehe leaves him anyway as he nods.
📹📹📹
Just talk to him, Soonyoungie Jeonghan’s voice rings through his mind. Jihoon’s teasing that Wonwoo has been in love with him since they met comes through, a comment that he’s made multiple times throughout their friendship. Soonyoung always told him that that wasn’t possible, Wonwoo’s his friend. Wonwoo’s been the glue in his friendship ever since they met.
He wonders why the teasing moments kick him in the gut, why he collapsed in Jeonghan’s arms in tears at the very mention of Wonwoo possibly wanting to be with him. Of Wonwoo wanting him the same way the female protagonist of a K-Drama gets the lead male.
He thinks about everything Wonwoo means to him, the staple of their friendship. How he’s able to lean on his best friend and enjoy the moments together. How if he could only choose one person to be around it’d be Jeon Wonwoo.
“Oh god,” he says to no one in particular, staring down the street with wide eyes. “I’m in love with him.”
It’s enough to make Soonyoung rush to the apartment, knowing that he had left Wonwoo in a blind panic.
It takes less time than he thought it would to throw open the door, seeing a startled Wonwoo jump from the couch when he slams the door behind him. Soonyoung has enough thought to kick off his shoes haphazardly before jumping over the couch to collapse against Wonwoo’s side. “Hi,” he whispers, suddenly shy.
Wonwoo smiles back at him. “Hi,” he says back, calm and collected and not like he saw thousands upon thousands of people say that he was in love with Soonyoung on the internet. “I saw your post by the way.”
Soonyoung feels his cheeks heat up. “Hyung said that was why my phone was glitching out so badly. We had to turn off all notifications to let it cool down.” Wonwoo nods in understanding, before he turns to face Soonyoung.
Soonyoung has always appreciated how handsome Wonwoo was. He remembers the amount of chocolate he would receive during high school on Valentine’s Day, though he never reciprocated those feelings on White Day.
He’s grown from the anxious dork who holds a camera every time and glasses too big for his face into someone more handsome. Shy and caring and funny and wow Soonyoung has never seen him so close before.
“It’s true, by the way,” He whispers, like it’s a secret. Soonyoung blinks up at him owlishly. “Everything.”
“What?”
But he smiles, letting his hand brush across Soonyoung’s cheek for just a moment. Soonyoung feels his heart skip a beat and he can’t help himself from being drawn closer to Wonwoo like he’s a magnet.
He doesn’t realize their lips brush together, feeling the electricity of the kiss seeping into his bones that only spurs him on to press themselves closer. It’s not enough, needing to breath Wonwoo like he needs air, wanting to keep him close.
He takes a deep breath when they part, chest heaving but ultimately it feels lighter. Lighter than it’s ever been when seeing the dorky smile that crosses Wonwoo’s face.
“I love you too,” he whispers, the words he never thought he would say to his best friend but ultimately brings it back in to kiss him again.
Wonwoo doesn’t hesitate to bring out his camera to take a picture of them. It doesn’t surprise Soonyoung, not when he always has his camera wrapped around his neck.