A+, meanie

Tissues

Mingyu

Mingyu can't believe the way Wonwoo's being so childish right now. First, he did that in the bathrooms last week, and then he goes ghost for an entire week, leaving Mingyu hanging just like that. It's utterly disgusting, Mingyu thinks, he needs to have a talk with Wonwoo.

Hence, early on Monday morning, after an entire week of waiting for Wonwoo to show up, Mingyu spots him subtly make his way to a classroom — which happens to be Mingyu's first one too. Before anyone could notice the famous Jeon Wonwoo's presence, Mingyu enters the classroom as well, and makes sure to lock the door behind him. Seems like Wonwoo noticed him already.

"Speak." Wonwoo says, not even looking in the taller boy's way.

"I'm supposed to speak?"

"I guess not." And he picks his bag to go to the back of the class. Mingyu grabs him tightly by the wrist, demanding him to stay put right where he's standing. Wonwoo shows no sign of heeding him, making Mingyu grip tighter on his wrist.

Wonwoo winces, grunting a bit when the grip tightens, and immediately pulls his hand back, softly palming it. Mingyu scoffs, "Stop being so dramatic, Jeon."

He doesn't expect tears forming in the boy's eyes as he says that. He immediately feels bad, for he realises he might have done something to actually hurt him. Jeon Wonwoo isn't one to cry, at least not in front of Mingyu.

He notices Wonwoo hasn't let go of the wrist he'd held a few moments ago. Huh, something feels off about the action. Just to be sure if he's right or not, Mingyu, suddenly, pokes at Wonwoo's wrist again. "Can you fucking stop!" Wonwoo barks.

Glaring at the boy, Mingyu speaks. "Let me see your hand, Jeon."

"Why?"

"Let. Me. See. It."

"No."

Without waiting for another second, Mingyu pulls the hem of Wonwoo's blazer, and gently takes his wrists in his hands, rolling the blazer sleeves up. He's horrified at what he sees: several deep cuts with dried blood smeared around them. "What have you been doing, Jeon?"

"What the fuck does it look like?" There's venom in his voice, but his actions say otherwise, as he hasn't shown any signs of backing away.

"Why?"

"I don't know, just felt like it."

"You don't just feel like harming yourself this way."

"Well, I do."

"Can you fucking talk normally for a while! This is serious, Wonwoo."

Another shock of the day, is when Wonwoo actually starts crying. He tries to turn his head away, but Mingyu doesn't let him.

"Look, I'm sorry for what I did last week, but please let me go." Wonwoo begs, shakes his hands out of Mingyu's, and runs outside the classroom.

He doesn't return even when class starts.

Mingyu's been restless about the interaction in the morning, especially when he hasn't seen Wonwoo ever since. At lunch, Chaeyeon even asks him about what's wrong, but Mingyu doesn't have the heart to speak about something like what he'd seen earlier. "I- I have to go, I'll see you later." Mingyu finally says, while getting off his chair and leaving Chaeyeon confused.

While aimlessly walking in the scarcely populated hallway, Mingyu sends in a text to Wonwoo — which on the exterior seems like a normal "Are we doing Calculus today?", but he's sure Wonwoo knows what he meant when he sees an "Okay" appear immediately.

∿

"Hey."

Mingyu softly greets when his eyes land on Wonwoo already sitting at their usual table. The boy clearly hadn't expected to be greeted, but he acknowledges Mingyu with a small nod anyway.

"How are you doing?"

"Stop pretending that you care, and just get on with this." Wonwoo scoffs and points to the books on the table.

Gods, he's so insufferable at times, Mingyu thinks, yet he doesn't react openly. "It's just- It seems things are pretty bad, if you do that." Mingyu nods towards his hands, making Wonwoo subconsciously hide them under the table, although they're covered.

"Why do you care?"

"It's not healthy, Wonwoo."

"Wow, I totally didn't know."

"I'm being serious Wonwoo, and I hope you wouldn't take this lightly either."

"It doesn't matter, I'm used to this."

Mingyu's eyes widen. So that means...

"Yes, I've done this before." Wonwoo answers his realisation.

"Wonwoo I-"

"We're here to do Calculus, in case you forgot."

"Okay." It dawns upon Mingyu a bit late that Wonwoo might not want to talk about it.

Several minutes pass by in silence, until Wonwoo accidentally bangs his hand against the edge of the table, and his pained groan is what gets Mingyu's attention. "The fuck-"

His eyes flick towards the red seeping through the sleeve of Wonwoo's white shirt, probably result of the hit with the table. Wonwoo doesn't seem to care the least bit, shrugging and returning to his work anyway.

Mingyu, on the other hand, can't bear to watch the blood take over his hand. "Wonwoo your hand-"

"I can fucking see, Kim."

"That needs to get cleaned up."

"No."

"Are you fucking stupid?"

"No."

"Get up."

"No."

Pulling him by the shoulder, Mingyu leaves all their things at the table and drags Wonwoo outside the library, towards the bathrooms.

"Roll your sleeves up." Mingyu orders once they're in front of the row of sinks.

"Let me go-"

"Fucking do it, Jeon, I don't have all day."

"Go away, then."

Mingyu grunts and forcefully rolls Wonwoo's sleeves up, and turns the sink tap, placing Wonwoo's bleeding wrists under the running water. "See, I have no clue about what I'm supposed to do, but I'm doing what I can." Mingyu mutters, eyes fixated on the bloody water that flows from the shorter boy's hands.

He turns and gets several sheets of tissues from the dispenser, and wraps thick layers around the tiny trickles of blood on Wonwoo's wet wrists, until the tissues are caked on them.

"I think that should do it, no?"

And for the first time ever, Mingyu sees a slight, yet genuine smile make its way to Wonwoo's lips, as he stares at his wrists first, and then at Mingyu.