ℍ𝕠𝕝𝕕 𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕞𝕖𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕚𝕖𝕤, 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕪 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕙𝕠𝕝𝕕 𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕠 𝕪𝕠𝕦
𝒜𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝒹 𝑜𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊
@heehung
As soon as the six boys got back to the dorms after spending the weekend in Japan, Sunoo did exactly what he promised Heeseung he would do — take a nap, and make sure Niki took one too. Whether Niki actually slept once Sunoo knocked out was out of his control, but at the very least he had tried.
What was in his control, however, were the ten alarms lined up on his phone like increasingly desperate pleas from a future version of himself.
2:00 PM — you can hit snooze you still have time
2:30 PM — okay you can hit snooze just one more time
3:00 PM — you aren't going to finish your skincare if you snooze again
3:15 PM — okay really get up sunoo
3:30 PM — you better be in the shower
3:45 PM — wake up shower NOW
4:00 PM — he's gonna be here in TWO hours
4:30 PM — i know beauty sleep is your thing but WAKE UP
4:45 PM — you sir are gonna look like a hot mess and all of the boys are going to know it
5:00 PM — he's gonna be here in one hour please tell me you've been awake since your 2:30 alarm
Despite the dramatic schedule, the only alarm he actually snoozed was the first one. He needed the extra thirty minutes, even if he didn’t spend them sleeping.
Sunoo laid on his back staring at the ceiling instead, blankets tangled around his legs while his mind replayed Bali in fragments. Warm hands. Quiet conversations after everyone else had gone to bed. The way things between him and Heeseung had slipped frighteningly easily back into place, like muscle memory neither of them had managed to lose.
That was the dangerous part.
Nothing between them had ever been simple. They had broken up and found each other again so many times that eventually the lines blurred together into something impossible to count. Tiny fractures. Bigger ones. Long talks at three in the morning that solved everything for a week before it all cracked again. But Bali had felt… different. Softer somehow. Less desperate. Like neither of them were trying to force the pieces together this time.
Maybe this could actually be a second chance.
And maybe distance — time apart, separate dorms, less constant pressure — was exactly what they had needed for that fragile hope to finally grow into something stable.
The thought sat heavy and warm in his chest all at once.
When the 2:30 alarm buzzed across his nightstand, Sunoo finally pushed himself up with a groan. He left the rest of the alarms on intentionally, wanting the steady countdown to keep him moving. If he stopped for too long, he knew he'd start overthinking again.
Dragging his fingers through his sleep-mussed hair, he shuffled toward his dresser and pulled out clean socks and boxers before moving to his closet. Heeseung never told him where they were going tonight, which somehow only made choosing an outfit harder.
Too formal and he’d look ridiculous if they were just getting dinner somewhere casual. Too casual and he’d spend the entire night wondering if Heeseung noticed he didn’t try hard enough.
After staring for several minutes, he settled on a pair of dark washed jeans with a looser fit, something comfortable but nice enough to dress up with a belt and jewelry. Then he reached farther back into the closet and paused.
Folded beneath a hoodie was an old t-shirt.
Sunoo stared at it for a moment before pulling it free.
It wasn’t anything special — faded black fabric, slightly oversized on him, the collar softened from being washed too many times. He had stolen it years ago during one of their movie nights and never given it back. Just like the hoodies. The sweaters. Little pieces of Heeseung that had somehow survived every breakup because Sunoo could never quite bring himself to return them.
His fingers tightened around the fabric for a second before he exhaled softly and laid it out on the bed anyway.
Maybe Heeseung would notice.
Either way, Sunoo liked the way it felt on him.
After setting out his clothes and an old pair of Converse, he padded down the hallway toward the bathroom. Before turning on the shower, he glanced toward the soap dispenser automatically, snorting quietly to himself when he saw it was full. Ever since Heeseung moved out of the Enhypen dorms, the members had joked nonstop about the dorm somehow magically running out of soap and basic survival skills.
The shower helped calm him a little. Warm water steamed the mirrors while he stood beneath it longer than necessary, letting the nervous energy slowly melt from his shoulders. But the second he stepped back into his room with a towel around his waist, the nerves came creeping back.
Because tonight wasn’t just a date.
Tonight was the conversation.
The one they had been avoiding since Bali.
They needed to talk about what happened between them there — about the way Sunoo had let himself fall into Heeseung’s arms like no time had passed, about the lingering looks afterward, about the terrifying possibility that neither of them were actually over the other.
He dressed slowly after that, pulling on the jeans and Heeseung’s shirt before sitting at his vanity to work through his skincare routine. The familiar motions usually relaxed him, but today he kept catching himself staring at his own reflection too long.
By 4:30, he was completely ready.
Now he had time to think.
Sunoo wandered back to the closet twice, eyeing different jackets and shirts before deciding every other option somehow looked worse. Eventually he flopped dramatically onto his bed with a sigh, scrolling through TikTok mostly to distract himself from checking the time every thirty seconds.
The closer it got to six, the tighter his stomach twisted.
At 5:45, Sunoo finally sat up again. Fifteen minutes.
Heeseung would be here in fifteen minutes.
His heart started beating harder at the realization.
Standing quickly, he crossed to the mirror one last time to fix his hair, fingers fluffing through the strands until they sat right. Then he applied lip balm carefully, pressed his lips together, and took a slow breath.
The dorm felt unusually quiet as he stepped out into the living room.
Some of the boys were still around, scattered through the apartment, but Sunoo barely registered them. His attention stayed fixed on the front door instead, anticipation curling tighter and tighter in his chest with every passing second.
