merry christmas, meanie

Silence

After that little disagreement, as Mingyu put it, Wonwoo hadn't talked to him for two whole days. Mingyu felt terrible, but his brain was still muddled with too much to organise. Everything made sense, but it was scribbled all over his brain.

Wonwoo avoided Mingyu like the plague, yet he showed no distaste whenever the younger boy was with Jieun; although the girl voluntarily wanted to spend more time with Wonwoo. Wonwoo attended all his classes under the pretext of 'catching up with any missed stuff'. Mingyu's sure as hell Wonwoo doesn't give a shit about his classes anymore, since he's always at par with the curriculum.

Wonwoo leaves early in the morning, returns by late afternoon, and immediately retires to his room, usually locking himself in. Mingyu shifted his important stuff to the couch -- where he intends to study and just do something to make up for his meaningless project. No matter how hard he tries, he ends up losing whatever motivation he had before he started his work.

Mingyu still does all the stuff around the house like he would normally, hoping the subtle, almost stupidly unnoticeable, actions get acknowledged by Wonwoo. Mingyu thinks him doing his things habitually would convey that he doesn't like the change between him and Wonwoo, and the latter would eventually come around.

What he worries about the most is Wonwoo skimping on his meals, despite being under recovery.

Unfortunately, after another two days, nothing changes. Wonwoo hasn't talked to him yet as he buries himself deeper and deeper into his studies. Even Jieun's scared of how stone-y and lifeless Wonwoo looks these days. She cries to Mingyu that night -- telling him how her Daddy doesn't seem like himself, when all she wanted was just to talk to him. Mingyu tries his best to explain just the part about the examinations coming soon, and doesn't mention anything about their argument, if you could even call it that.

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Wonwoo hopes Mingyu doesn't catch on to him anytime soon. Wonwoo drowns deeper into guilt, having gotten no clear answer from Mingyu, although somewhere at the back of his mind Wonwoo knows well enough the boy has done absolutely nothing, except be the most supporting, caring boyfriend and someone-to-Jieun ever.

Truth is, Wonwoo's ashamed to admit that he may have been the cause of Mingyu not being able to submit his project he'd worked so hard on, while he himself had nothing wrong with his academic record. Mingyu's grades are at stake, just because of Wonwoo.

Wonwoo wishes he had something in his hand to fix this. Fix the lack of communication between him and Jieun. Fix Mingyu's heart, which might have taken a blow through Wonwoo's behaviour towards the boy. But he feels incapable of doing so. He's scared of taking the first step.

Wonwoo feels worse than he did during his time in the hospital. His legs had been damaged the most, and they still haven't regained the strength they used to have before his accident. He feels weaker these days, as his cheeks look sunken and his eyes protrude from his face, along with dark eyebags. He doesn't even have the energy to hold up a pen in his hands for more than five minutes.

It's late in the night, Wonwoo's sure Mingyu and Jieun are asleep, when he quietly tiptoes into the kitchen for a glass of water. He's dumfounded by the way his hand trembles just bringing the glass to his mouth.

Wonwoo cries himself to sleep that night.