Ship/Member: wonwoo centric but wonwoo/seungcheol Major Tags: n/a Additional Tags: non-linear narrative, wonwoo yearns, office au (?) Permission to remix: please ask Word count: 667
***
wonwoo thinks of his heart as a candle. something changed when he was seventeen. soonyoung took him under his wings in school and soonyoung was as fiery as it can get. his heart was an open fire in the warmest cabin.
wonwoo’s heart feels like a candle.
quiet, gentle. the candle you light up to guide you in the middle of the night.
”careful,” comes seungcheol’s voice and his hand takes wonwoo’s jacket. pulls him further away from the bike lane and closer to him. he knew he was close to the bike lane, but he sticks closer to seungcheol. because now the invitation for proximity is explicit. wonwoo doesn’t have to be nervous about their shoulders touching.
in this moment, it feels like he’s allowed to be close. to seungcheol. seungcheol who sticks to wonwoo’s mind like glue. wonwoo could read the affection as brotherly. the same way seungcheol finds him in the copy room and tells him to come along for a coffee break. in those moments, wonwoo tells himself that he can do the same for seungcheol. he doesn’t of course. it scares him.
“thank you,” wonwoo says once he’s away from the bike lane and he wonders if seungcheol knows. he doubts he knows – it’s brotherly, it’s affectionate. it’s seungcheol taking him under his wing after he saw wonwoo lost in the copy room. it’s that and a few hang outs. it’s lingering as the only two behind at company dinners with wonwoo trying to subtly touch his cheeks and hope the redness on them isn’t evident to seungcheol.
seungcheol is a fire in the woods. he’s not sure when the metaphor started taking hold of his life. in his mind, seungcheol is a fire in the woods. to keep you warm after a long night. to stick to your mind as a warm memory.
even with their boss sitting next to him, wonwoo only saw seungcheol. it’s no wonder really, that now, on the walk, even with the sunset cascading the sky with yellows and pinks, wonwoo still sees seungcheol. it’s also no wonder wonwoo is eating up everything seungcheol says. when he takes the silence in the moment to bring back memories from his childhood where he would bike around their hometown with his family.
wonwoo doesn’t share as much. later that night he considers that it’s out of fear. of slipping up, of saying something so seungcheol finds out.
“is it that bad that he finds out?” minghao asks over a text one night and wonwoo contemplates. he contemplates long enough that he even forgets to reply.
the reply to minghao comes three days later. where wonwoo swipes the text out from the rest of their conversation and tells him that, yes, it would be that bad.
don’t burn yourself, wonwoo tells himself after he bids seungcheol a good night. they’re standing by the bus stop and seungcheol’s bus arrived before his. when wonwoo’s alone with his thoughts while he watches the bus drive away, he wonders if there will be more. more bravery. because there can’t be more yearning.
wonwoo thought that his feelings would ease soon enough. but it feels like someone lit another candle and told him to hold it until it dies.
now, months later, it hasn’t moved. the light stays on, swaying gently with not a centimeter of height lost. wonwoo’s stuck holding it. he wants to test if it’s real, if he touches the fire – will it burn him? he wants to reach over, swipe his palm over it and see if it does anything.
could he kill the fire himself?
or will he stay still, holding it as it continues to light his day?
nothing’s worked yet. so as the bus becomes smaller and smaller down the road, wonwoo tucks his hands into his jacket and contemplates just how long he will sit next to the fire in the woods and hold his candle.
[FILL] the candle and the fire
Major Tags: n/a
Additional Tags: non-linear narrative, wonwoo yearns, office au (?)
Permission to remix: please ask
Word count: 667
***
wonwoo thinks of his heart as a candle. something changed when he was seventeen. soonyoung took him under his wings in school and soonyoung was as fiery as it can get. his heart was an open fire in the warmest cabin.
wonwoo’s heart feels like a candle.
quiet, gentle. the candle you light up to guide you in the middle of the night.
”careful,” comes seungcheol’s voice and his hand takes wonwoo’s jacket. pulls him further away from the bike lane and closer to him. he knew he was close to the bike lane, but he sticks closer to seungcheol. because now the invitation for proximity is explicit. wonwoo doesn’t have to be nervous about their shoulders touching.
in this moment, it feels like he’s allowed to be close. to seungcheol. seungcheol who sticks to wonwoo’s mind like glue. wonwoo could read the affection as brotherly. the same way seungcheol finds him in the copy room and tells him to come along for a coffee break. in those moments, wonwoo tells himself that he can do the same for seungcheol. he doesn’t of course. it scares him.
“thank you,” wonwoo says once he’s away from the bike lane and he wonders if seungcheol knows. he doubts he knows – it’s brotherly, it’s affectionate. it’s seungcheol taking him under his wing after he saw wonwoo lost in the copy room. it’s that and a few hang outs. it’s lingering as the only two behind at company dinners with wonwoo trying to subtly touch his cheeks and hope the redness on them isn’t evident to seungcheol.
seungcheol is a fire in the woods. he’s not sure when the metaphor started taking hold of his life. in his mind, seungcheol is a fire in the woods. to keep you warm after a long night. to stick to your mind as a warm memory.
even with their boss sitting next to him, wonwoo only saw seungcheol. it’s no wonder really, that now, on the walk, even with the sunset cascading the sky with yellows and pinks, wonwoo still sees seungcheol. it’s also no wonder wonwoo is eating up everything seungcheol says. when he takes the silence in the moment to bring back memories from his childhood where he would bike around their hometown with his family.
wonwoo doesn’t share as much. later that night he considers that it’s out of fear. of slipping up, of saying something so seungcheol finds out.
“is it that bad that he finds out?” minghao asks over a text one night and wonwoo contemplates. he contemplates long enough that he even forgets to reply.
the reply to minghao comes three days later. where wonwoo swipes the text out from the rest of their conversation and tells him that, yes, it would be that bad.
don’t burn yourself, wonwoo tells himself after he bids seungcheol a good night. they’re standing by the bus stop and seungcheol’s bus arrived before his. when wonwoo’s alone with his thoughts while he watches the bus drive away, he wonders if there will be more. more bravery. because there can’t be more yearning.
wonwoo thought that his feelings would ease soon enough. but it feels like someone lit another candle and told him to hold it until it dies.
now, months later, it hasn’t moved. the light stays on, swaying gently with not a centimeter of height lost. wonwoo’s stuck holding it. he wants to test if it’s real, if he touches the fire – will it burn him? he wants to reach over, swipe his palm over it and see if it does anything.
could he kill the fire himself?
or will he stay still, holding it as it continues to light his day?
nothing’s worked yet. so as the bus becomes smaller and smaller down the road, wonwoo tucks his hands into his jacket and contemplates just how long he will sit next to the fire in the woods and hold his candle.
for a long time, he presumes.
and he sighs.