merry christmas, meanie

Coming home

The motive of choosing a few snacks to last for the rest of the drive fades into oblivion ever since Wonwoo leaves the car. He aimlessly skims through the aisles, clearly flustered about what treats he should get. In the end, he goes for three whole boxes of Danishes - definitely filled with cookies, not needles and threads - and a ridiculous amount of Powerade and all the flavours of gummies his eyes land on.

Checking the items out by himself, Wonwoo dumps all of them in a huge plastic bag and trudges back to the car. He dreads the thought of facing Mingyu. To his relief, he finds the younger boy fast asleep once again, head resting uncomfortably against the window. Wonwoo feels bad, but doesn't want to wake him up, and possibly increase the chances of it being mentioned.

It feels like an eternity when Wonwoo finally pulls up on his parents' driveway in Changwon-si. The familiar, stone-y grey exterior of the house welcomes him warmly, as his eyes light up just at the sight. Though he immediately winces, when he's reminded of his younger brother - who's surely going to sulk for not visiting often.

"Mingyu, we're here." Wonwoo shakes the boy awake by the shoulder. By the time Mingyu properly registers his surroundings, Wonwoo has reeled all of the luggage by the door, and presses the doorbell, the familiar sound filling his ears with excitement. The door swings open soon enough, when he's engulfed in warm yellow fabric and a white polo he's seen throughout his childhood.

"Wonwoo!" His parents exclaim once they let him breathe. It's a task to register the age on his parents faces, which drops his mood for a fraction of a second, until a dramatic sigh announces its presence from the behind his parents. "Bohyuk don't be a dramatic ass," Wonwoo chides, going forward and wrapping his brother in a headlock. "Get off of me." Bohyuk grumbles, making his parents and Wonwoo chuckle.

While Wonwoo's busy roughhousing with his brother, Mr. and Mrs. Jeon greet another person with glee the moment their eyes land on him. "Mingyu dear! It's good to see you!" Mr. Jeon pats his back, Jieun squealing loudly before Mingyu could reply. The couple's attention immediately shifts to the little girl, as they coo and offer to take her inside. Bohyuk's mad façade melts right away, when he sees his niece comfortable in the house. He helps Mingyu and Wonwoo get the bags inside, dropping them inside the guest bedroom.

Wonwoo knows what this means. He glares at his brother, knowing very well the latter knows what's up. "Bohyuk," he asks calmly, although there's an underlying threat in his words. "What did you do to my room?"

His stupid brother answers with a cheeky grin, and dashes up the stairs without answering. Wonwoo turns to his parents, pleading for help, to which his mum simply shakes her head. "We told him to clean it up, he's made it his 'laboratory' or whatever." Mr. Jeon answers.

"He isn't even into science, dad." Wonwoo grumbles, though he really doesn't have a problem housing in the guest bedroom. He just wants to teach Bohyuk a lesson for trashing his rightful bedroom.

"BOHYUK YOU'RE SO DEAD!" Wonwoo yells at the top of his lungs, when he only gets maniacal laughter in reply.

He enters the bedroom, where Mingyu's busy unpacking a few things. Right, Mingyu's there too. Well shit, it's definitely going to be a few rocky days. Despite both of them having tried hard to bring things back to normal just yesterday, the incident earlier brought them back to square one.

Wonwoo hesitates to speak for a while, until Mingyu turns to him once he's done, and flashes him one of his signature canine-y grins. That's when Wonwoo knows, it's going to be okay.

But why's he lowkey disappointed?