Blown Up Love
reader x wonwoo
summary: gaming is all fun and... well, games, until you start crushing on the only person that takes pity on you and saves you from mobs.
genre: fluff, university au, gamer!wonwoo
warnings: swearing, death (but it's fake)
wc: 7.1k
a/n: i wrote this so long ago i forgot all my jokes - i haven't played minecraft in forever but i imagine playing with wonwoo would be so much fun - there will be a bonus eventually bc this somehow isn’t enough fluff for me
You run as fast as you can, hearing the groans behind you, a constant reminder of what followed not far behind you. You swerve to the side as another monster appears in front of you, a flash of white and the cracking of bones snapping against each other. You can’t help but scream as you hear a twang and realize that you’ve been shot.
“Are you really leaving me like this?” You cry, praying one of your friends will take pity on you.
“Don’t you have armor?” Jihoon asks. “Why didn’t you make a weapon?”
“I just wanted to hide underground, I didn’t realize it was night time already!” You scream as you take another hit, trying to dodge trees and what feels like hundreds of monsters converging on you. “I'm literally outside the base, can someone please come help me?”
“You’re so dramatic,” Seungcheol says. You don’t have to see him to know he’s rolling his eyes.
“I’m about to die!” Your hands are shaking. You know that one more hit means death.
You can see the light of the base, your last hope. If you can just make it a little bit farther, maybe you’ll make it. A figure moves toward you in the darkness and you instinctively turn away, though a moment later you’re sprinting toward it because you realize that it’s not a monster but one of your friends. Wonwoo.
“Wow, you were not kidding, there’s so many,” he says. He charges in front of you, practically glowing in diamond armor. No, literally glowing. When had he enchanted his armor?
You can hear him slaughter them behind you as you make a last ditch effort to make it inside. Just before you can open the door you hear another whizz, and something slams into. Everything turns red
Respawn or return to main menu.
You stare at the screen.
“I got your stuff,” Wonwoo says, voice as calm and even as ever. You sigh and click respawn.
“Thanks for trying,” you mumble as you return to the game, your character waking up deep inside the base.
“Sorry, I was in the middle of mining so I couldn’t really make it in time,” he says. You meet his character by the entrance to the base. You can’t help but smile at his skin, mostly covered by the glowing armor. You can still pick out the glasses he’d added to his skin, just like the ones he wore in real life, big and as round as he could make them in the pixelated game. You can almost see him in your mind, probably sitting in complete darkness in his room, wearing one of the three sweatshirts he cycled through.
He gives you your items, tossing them in front, then vanishes into the base, probably to return to mining.You thank him again and wander around the interior of the base until you end up in the room you made for yourself. You had spent the last couple days dedicatedly designing the base, carved into the side of a mountain with rooms for all five of your friends to return to and put their stuff in. It was hours of work that was nowhere near being done, but you were enjoying every second of the rather monotonous work.
What made you even happier was that your friends were actually using the rooms you set aside for them, each of them designing it a little to their own tastes. You might be absolutely terrible at fighting mobs, but you could at least build, and it felt nice that they weren’t totally disregarding that. Even if Wonwoo was the only one who would help you when you inevitably had to face the mobs.
“Yn, are you still in the base?” Wonwoo asks. When you say yes, he asks you to meet him in the main entrance.
You find him waiting, feeling inferior in your iron armor. He tosses you something. When you pick it up, you find out it’s an enchanted pickaxe, complete with unbreaking, mending, and fortune.
“I figured it might be easier to work on this if you have, like, actually good tools.”
“Thank you?” You can’t say you’re not surprised by Wonwoo’s generosity. You don’t know him very well. He’s Mingyu’s friend, and though you’ve hung out with all five of the guys many times this semester, he tended to be quieter and you weren’t convinced he didn’t hate you. Still, he was the only one on the server that didn’t bully you.
“When did you get enchants,” you ask as you both go your separate ways. It’s finally daytime outside, so you deem it safe to continue working on the farm you were trying to design along the edge of the base.
“It was pretty easy once I finished the villager farm,” he says. “Though I haven’t gotten around to reviving villagers to get cheap enchants. It’s on the list.”
You frown as you climb the side of the mountain halfway up and continue designing what would hopefully be a sprawling pumpkin patch. “How did you have the time for that?”
“I haven’t exactly logged off,” he says.
“We started the server two days ago!”
“It’s fall break,” he says. “I didn’t want to waste my time.”
“I fear you.”
“Hey, you guys are aware there are other people in this voice chat, right?” Mingyu says.
“Shut up,” you say.
“Get a room,” he says, pretending to cough.
You can feel the blush spreading across your cheeks. It wasn’t that you had a crush on Wonwoo. He was just tall, and objectively attractive, and really nice, and smart, and he had saved your life more than once. Okay, maybe it was a small crush.
“Can we set a time to kill the ender dragon,” Seungcheol asks. “I’m getting blaze rods right now.”
“Okay, I think I have enough ender pearls,” Wonwoo says. “Want to try tonight?”
“You are aware it’s already almost nine, right?” You say.
“It’ll take like two minutes with all of us,” Jihoon says.
“I’ll text Jeonghan and see if he wants to join,” Mingyu says.
“I’m guessing no one cares that I’m not ready at all,” you grumble.
“It’s not our fault you care more about picking flowers than playing the game,” Seungcheol says.
“Hey! I have not been playing with flowers! I am an integral part of this server, if it weren’t for me you all would be living in dirt shacks!”
“Yeah, but we’d still have diamond armor,” Jihoon says.
“Why don’t you just ask Wonwoo for some armor.” Mingyu snickers. “I’m sure he can afford to support you.”
You’re glad that it’s just a voice chat because otherwise you’d never hear the end of their teasing.
“I do have an extra set of armor,” Wonwoo says. “Also, I have a ton of leftover books from enchanting that you guys should use.”
“Maybe you have spent too much time on this,” Mingyu says.
“What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re an English major,” Mingyu says. “Don’t you have an essay or some books to read?”
He laughs. “If you can find an English major that actually reads, I’ll log off.”
“Do not log off until we’ve beaten the dragon!” Seungcheol says.
“We could do it without him,” Mingyu says.
“Sure you could,” Wonwoo says. “Yn, are you getting the armor or not?”
You’ve been working on the farm outside, but as the sun starts to set, you begin to go back inside the base, not wanting a repeat of the previous night. “I’ll just die if I go with. Can’t I just stay and work on the base?”
“Nope, you have to come,” Mingyu says. “Server rules.”
“You can’t just make up rules on the spot,” you say.
“ Jeonghan is coming, so no excuses.”
You groan, knowing there’s no way out of it now. Jeonghan had joined exactly once, decided he was bored because Jihoon wouldn’t make him a “god” and hadn’t been on since. But it seemed like Mingyu was going to dictate friendship rules through Minecraft, so you were stuck.
“Here,” Wonwoo says, appearing in the halfway-finished room that you made for yourself. He tosses you a full set of armor, and when you pick it up you find that it has full enchants. He must not have been lying about spending his entire break on this game.
“I owe you!” You say. “Pretty much all I own is cobblestone and seeds but I will return this armor with only, like, minimal damage.”
“Unless you fall into the void,” Seungcheol said.
“Don’t even joke about that!” You say.
Wonwoo laughs, his deep voice almost melodic. “You’re just scared because it’s a very real possibility.”
“Not you bullying me, too,” you say, switching out the armor. “I thought you were on my side.”
“I am,” he says. “And honestly if you really do fall into the void it’s fine, I can make a new set in probably ten minutes. Probably less.”
“Can we make a rule about flirting in the main voice chat?” Seungcheol asks.
“Fine, Wonwoo, join me in VC-2,” you say. Your heart is pounding a little as you pause the game and switch voice chats. It’s painfully quiet for two seconds as you wait but finally you hear the ding of someone joining you.
“I’ll pay you real money to kill Seungcheol,” you say.
Wonwoo is quiet for a moment. “Right now?”
“Okay my bank account is a little empty, but next week I can buy you lunch?” You say.
“Are you… hiring me as a hitman?” He asks.
“Yes?”
“Two lunches and it’s a deal.”
“Done.”
You switch back to the main voice chat, and hear the second half of Mingyu explaining that there is no way you are bold enough to actually be flirting. You hate that he’s right.
“Back so soon?” Mingyu asks, cutting himself off mid-sentence. “Seungcheol, you owe me five dollars.”
“I really just live in your head rent free, huh?” You say. “Making bets on me now?”
“Actually, the bet was about the enchants that Wonwoo just gave me,” Mingyu says. “None of us believed you were actually flirting, but feel free to keep that inflated ego of yours.”
You wonder if you’re going to be able to stop embarrassing yourself in front of Wonwoo. With Mingyu and Seungcheol around, probably not.
The voice chat is mostly quiet as everyone goes to their own individual tasks. You are back to developing the farm (during the day). Jihoon and Mingyu are mining together and chatting about their spring schedule, while Seungcheol says he’s still getting blaze rods because he wants to make potions. Wonwoo is silent.
You are starting to think he was giving up, when suddenly Seungcheol shouts. “Hey, what the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” Wonwoo asks.
“Something is shooting me.” He curses.
“A blaze?” You ask, hoping your voice doesn’t sound as giddy as you feel.
“No, what the fuck, it’s coming out of nowhere.”
You’re struggling to stifle your laughter.
“Oh my god, I’m gonna die,” Seungcheol says. “I’m actually gonna die what the fuck, I’m at two hearts, where is this coming from? I’m actually dying, I-”
kkakkamori was killed by VvWonwoovV.
“What the fuck, Wonwoo?”
“Nothing personal,” he says as you finally burst into laughter. “Just doing business.”
“You just killed me!”
“I got your stuff,” he says.
“Keep talking shit about me and I’ll make sure you never see a day of peace,” you say, cackling at Seungcheol’s curses. You can hear Mingyu and Jihoon laughing, too. You wonder how many lunches it would cost to take them out.
“I won’t forget this,” Seungcheol says. “I’ll get revenge.”
“Yeah, good luck with that,” Wonwoo says.
“I can’t believe you killed me,” he says again. “Were you invis?”
“Yeah, I used some arrows of harming and spectral arrows, too, just in case.”
“Dude, you killed me in like five shots.”
“Okay, Wonwoo is no longer allowed to be hired as a hitman,” Mingyu announces. “It’s not fair.”
“Hey! Can’t I choose how to sell my services?” Wonwoo asks.
“Was it worth betraying me?” Seungcheol pretends to be hurt. “How much did my life cost?”
“Two sandwiches,” you answer.
“I’ll never forgive you.”
You laugh, and then smile even more when you see Wonwoo has texted you a smiley face.
Me: Good job, partner, you send him.
Wonwoo: Just doing good business.
You turn back to your computer. There’s still another hour until Jeonghan could get on to beat the ender dragon, and it occurs to you that you’ve been playing for nearly four hours. You tell the guys you are going to come back later, signing off and getting out of your chair and stretching.
You check your phone as it dings.
Wonwoo: don’t forget to refill your water!
You frown. You must have mentioned it to him while playing. You grab your water bottle, trying not to overthink the fact that he remembered when even you forgot. The more time you spend around Wonwoo, the harder it is to deny how lovely he is.
.
.
You stare at the options. You wish Wonwoo hadn’t trusted you to get him something, or that you could have remembered to ask him what he likes, at least what he dislikes.
You finally choose a BLT and a chicken sandwich and pray he isn’t vegetarian. You scout a table out and snag it, laying your backpack across the seats opposite you to save them. A few minutes later, you see Wonwoo making his way through the crowd of people filling up the dining hall. As he gets closer, you see Jeonghan and Jihoon at his sides. You tell yourself you didn’t notice them because Wonwoo is so much taller. No other reason.
You wave them over, grabbing your backpack as they slide into the seats, Jeonghan next to you while Wonwoo sat directly across from you. You point to the sandwiches. He frowns but ends up picking the chicken sandwich.
You slap Jeonghan’s hand away from the BLT. “That’s my lunch!”
“Why does Wonwoo get one, then?”
“It’s his payment,” you say, picking up your sandwich.
“You’re telling me Seungcheol hasn’t whined about his murder to you yet?” Jihoon asks.
“You know, I sort of tune him out when he starts talking about Minecraft,” Jeonghan says.
“He is being a little dramatic about it,” you say.
“You can’t say anything, you're the one that ordered a hit on him,” Jihoon said. “I’d watch your back.”
“It’s a video game!” You say.
“You know Seungcheol,” Jeonghan says. “He can hold a grudge when he wants to.”
Seungcheol and Jeonghan were your first friends in college. Technically you went to high school with them, but you didn’t really become friends until last year, when the three of you somehow ended up at the same school.
That’s how you know Jeonghan was exactly right. You glance around, suddenly worried that he was going to appear and exact his revenge in the middle of the dining hall.
“Was it worth it?” Jeonghan asks Wonwoo, who is somehow almost finished with the sandwich.
Wonwoo shrugs. “I’m not going to lie, the sandwich was a little subpar.” He checks his watch, then nudges you with his foot. “We’re going to be late to lab.”
You groan. “Why did we let Mingyu convince us to take this horrible class with him?”
He laughs as you stand up and follow him, grabbing your half eaten sandwich and waving goodbye to Jihoon and Jeonghan. As you walk beside him, you realize this is the first time you’ve been alone with him since you realized your tiny crush. Trying to match pace with his long stride is even more difficult when you are also trying very hard not to think about the way his arms hang on his sides, the way his hands are so close to yours and how easy it would be to slip your fingers in with his. Luckily he seems to notice you struggling to keep up because he starts taking smaller steps. So sweet.
“So was the sandwich really that bad?” You ask.
“It’s campus food,” he says. “It’s never good.”
“That’s true.”
He glances at you, glasses glinting in the sunlight. “I’m not sure I can really count it as payment.”
You freeze. “This is extortion! I’ve paid you for your services, you can’t demand more!”
“I don’t think that’s what extortion means.” He says. “And I’m not saying the sandwich doesn’t count. Just, maybe, a better second payment.”
“You’re going to make me go broke,” you say. “Well, more broke.”
He laughs. “Nothing expensive.” He holds the door to the science building open for you and you try not to read into it.
“What about the café? It’s better than the dining hall,” you say, heading into the stairwell. You catch a glimpse of a grimace across his face as you turn up the stairs. “What is it?”
“Jihoon’s ex works there and apparently being friends with him means that I’m hated too.”
You snort.
“What is it?”
“I can’t believe Jihoon dated before I did.”
“It surprises us all,” Wonwoo says. “Though I’d barely call it dating. They broke up after a week because Jihoon is Jihoon and realized his feelings were just superficial and no one really takes it well but his ex… It’s safe to say we mostly just avoid the café on principle.”
“Noted,” you say. You’re in the hallway outside the classroom now. You really don’t want to go inside, because, seriously, why do three hour long classes exist? Chatting with Wonwoo was an added bonus to avoiding the torture. You idle outside a couple minutes longer but you really are in danger of being late and Wonwoo is starting to look antsy.
You finally step inside, waving at Mingyu who is already sitting at the table. He’s grinning, as he always is.
Mingyu was the reason you really had friends. Though you knew Seungcheol and Jeonghan in high school, it was only because of Mingyu that the friendship lasted past your first semester, hanging out with them throughout the spring semester, keeping in touch with them over the summer, and even taking a class with Mingyu.
Mingyu is the reason you ever met Wonwoo, and, sitting in class and definitely paying attention to the lab introduction and not staring at the back of Wonwoo’s head, you can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not.
.
.
You can’t remember who suggested it first, but it was Jihoon who ended up making the server, the first day of fall break. It practically belonged to Wonwoo now, since he was by far the person that played the most. You have no idea how he finds the time to play and do his work and sleep, but every time you log on, he has something shiny and new.
It has been two weeks since the server started. You spent too much of fall break playing and generally leeching off of Wonwoo, but have only logged on a couple times since then. It’s Friday, though, and you even did one of your readings, so you feel like you can afford to spend a few hours working on the base. You aren’t surprised when you log in and Wonwoo is on.
You’re prepared to play on your own, but Wonwoo asks if you want to join a voice chat and there’s no way you’ll say no.
“It’s been so lonely,” Wonwoo says as soon as you join. “No one ever plays.”
“It’s like we’re college students,” you say. You wander around the base, deciding you would keep working on designing the interior with the new types of wood that someone “anonymously” gifted you (you knew it was Wonwoo).
“The trick is to not do anything until the last possible second,” Wonwoo says.
“I can’t say that sounds appealing to me,” you say. “What are you doing right now, anyways?”
“Just prepping for my next project,” Wonwoo says.
“That sounds vaguely suspicious, should I be concerned?”
He’s quiet for a moment. Finally, he asks in a low voice, “Can you keep a secret?”
His voice is just serious enough that you can’t tell if he’s joking or not. “Is this real life or in game?”
Wonwoo laughs. “This is in game, though I guess the question technically applies to both.”
“Well, no one knows about the Incident, so at least Mingyu would say yes.”
“He made a fool of himself, didn’t he?”
“I’m sworn to secrecy.”
You decide if making Wonwoo laugh was all you did for the rest of your life it would be worth it. Something about the way his deep voice echoed in your ears made your heart skip a beat.
“Okay, come to Seungcheol’s base,” he says.
“The secret one?” You start heading there when Wonwoo says yes. The second day, Seungcheol decided he wanted to have a secret base, which meant in two minutes everyone had figured out where it was.
At least, where it used to exist. When you get there, Wonwoo is standing around the blown up remains of the Seungcheol’s base, a giant crater created by TNT in the middle of a flower field.
“What happened?”
“Jeonghan,” Wonwoo says.
“You know what, that actually makes sense,” you say. “Didn’t he say he’d only join if Jihoon let him play in creative?”
“Yeah, that was not happening,” he says.
“Is Seungcheol’s stuff still there?” You wander around the crater, seeing the remains of what Seungcheol had built, a few chests that remained.
“I can’t tell,” Wonwoo says. “I’m not really sure what he had to begin with or whether Jeonghan bothered to save his stuff, but the chests that survived seem to be pretty organized.”
“Wait, I still don’t get how he blew up Seungcheol’s house.” You emerge from the hole, standing at its edge beside Wonwoo’s character.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,” he says. “I’ve been on this server, like, almost twenty four-seven and I haven’t even seen him on, so I really have no idea how or when he did it.”
“Someone must have helped him,” you say. “Oh my god, there’s an entire conspiracy. We have to get to the bottom of this!”
“Conspiracy?”
“It’s obviously not Seungcheol,” you say. “He’s going to be so mad when he comes back on.” The sun is starting to set. “Can we sleep through the night? I really don’t want to hide for the next ten minutes.”
“Sure,” he says. You return to the base with him, mind still racing trying to figure out who was enabling Jeonghan.
“Obviously it’s not your or me, so that leaves Jihoon and Mingyu.” You think about your two friends. You could see Mingyu doing it, because he was bullied by Seungcheol at least once a day, but usually Jeonghan was also involved, and you know Mingyu’s too busy being a STEM major to really dedicate his time to the game.
So Jihoon? You don’t think he has much motivation, but he has been playing a lot and maybe he had some unknown score to settle with Seungcheol.
“We should set up a stakeout or something,” you say. “Figure out who his supplier is.” The iron door swings shut behind you as you and Wonwoo return to the base.
“A stakeout might be kind of intense,” Wonwoo says.
“Okay, less of a stakeout and more of ‘you keep playing all day every day and find out if anyone is suspicious’ kind of thing.”
“This sounds like I’m going to be doing all the work.”
“Do you not spend most of your time here anyways?” You say. You go into your room and lay in your bed. “Bed!”
“Okay true,” Wonwoo says as the screen fades. “But I actually have an essay due tomorrow and next week so I can’t really be on as much.”
“Wonwoo? Being responsible?” You pretend to be shocked but when he laughs and your heart pounds so loud you forget that you were teasing him.
“So how do we find out who’s helping him?” You ask. “It seems like we don’t have many options.” With the sun back in the sky, you decide you want to work on a tree farm with the generous saplings that had been donated to you.
“We'll investigate together,” Wonwoo says. “Maybe next time Mingyu or Jihoon will leave evidence.”
You nod in approval, though he can’t see you. “Sounds good. I’m going to grind resources for a little while if you want to go back to whatever you were doing.” He’s quiet as you both play, the silence between you not awkward but strangely peaceful. He doesn’t complain when you ask him to sleep every night, even reminding you to get back before the sun sets.
Though you know he’s not nearly as invested as you are, it’s also fun to be in on a conspiracy with him. Maybe it’s just the fact that you have a secret between the two of you, but it makes you feel a tiny bit closer to him. You are finding that everything you learn about him just makes you like him more.
.
.
“Should I be worried about how much time you’re playing on this server?” You ask as soon as you join the server.
“No time for that!” Wonwoo says. “I’ve been hit!”
“No way!” You sprint to his section of the base, and indeed, it’s been blown up. Wonwoo had spent hours personalizing what had initially just been a hole in the wall, designing a bunch of rooms with resources from the nether and the end and creating redstone machines that you didn’t even try to comprehend.
Most of that is gone now, a crater even larger than the remains of Seungcheol’s base.
“Oh my god,” you say. “You’ve been nuked.” You join Wonwoo and Seungcheol at the sidelines. It’s been a week since the last attack, and Seungcheol has joined your party of justice. You’re a bit sad that it’s no longer something you had just between you and Wonwoo, but looking at the remains, you couldn’t deny you needed the help.
You take a step forward and there’s an ominous click.
“Yn, run!” Wonwoo shouts. You try to run but you panic, pressing the W instead of the S. You hear hissing and it only worsens your panic.
The first explosion doesn’t kill you but it scares the crap out of you and you can’t help but scream. “Help, help, help!”
“You’re running the wrong direction!” Seungcheol says.
“Stop laughing at me!” You groan as you die in the third explosion. Seungcheol doesn’t stop laughing, but what pains you is you can hear Wonwoo chuckling, too.
“I guess not all of the TNT was blown up,” Seungcheol says through his laughter.
“Evidently,” you say. “I kind of hate this game.” You click on respawn, heading back to the remains of Wonwoo’s base. You stay as far back as possible.
“I’m sorry,” Wonwoo says. You can tell he’s still trying not to laugh. Traitor.
“It’s not your fault,” you say with a sigh. “Though Jeonghan better watch his back.”
“I’m sure he’s really scared,” Seungcheol says. He wanders carefully around the interior but there doesn’t seem to be any more traps.
“I have our high school yearbook from freshman year.”
“Have I mentioned how much I like you? Really, you’re one of my favorite people, ever,” he says.
“Very convincing,” you say. “Tell Jeonghan to watch his back.”
“Are the pictures really that bad?” Wonwoo asks.
You cackle. “I’ll send them to you.”
“Wait, why does he get them?” Seungcheol whines.
“We’re partners in… not crime,” you say. “Partners in solving crime? Justice?”
“That doesn’t sound right but I want to see the pictures, so, whatever you say.”
“Did you both forget I’m still here?” Seungcheol asks. “Third wheeling?”
“You’re not a third wheel, you’re a part of the team, too!” You say. “Partnership plus Seungcheol.”
“That’s literally a third wheel.”
Wonwoo bursts into laughter.
“Why am I even here?” Seungcheol sighs. He logs out of the game. “I’m going to do actual homework.” He leaves the voice chat.
“Did we just annoy him into doing actual homework?” You ask. You are still standing in the wreckage of Wonwoo’s base as he tries to fix it.
“I guess so,” Wonwoo says. “I don’t think we were actually excluding him or anything, were we?”
“I didn’t think so,” you say. The problem was, when you talked to Wonwoo, you didn’t exactly pay attention to what you were saying to anyone else. Maybe you should work on that.
“So, Mingyu or Jihoon?” You ask because it’s been quiet for too long.
“What?”
“Which one do you think did it? Or, helped Jeonghan, same difference.”
“Oh, right,” Wonwoo says. “I’m still not sure, I didn’t notice anything suspicious about either of them.”
“You aren’t the best at investigating, huh?”
Wonwoo laughs. “No, I’m really not.”
“I guess we could just interrogate them.” You wonder if you’re taking this too seriously, and maybe that’s why Wonwoo isn’t answering. “Or, I mean, it is your base that’s been blown up, so we don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to.”
Wonwoo is quiet a second too long.
“Sorry, I guess it’s really not that big of a deal,” you say.
“It’s not that-”
“It’s okay, I just thought it was funny, I didn’t mean to take it so seriously.”
“Yn-”
“I actually probably should go do some homework too.” You leave the voice chat as quickly as possible, logging out of the game immediately after. It was silly of you to think that Wonwoo wasn’t just entertaining you the entire time, but it still hurt to realize.
You sigh and turn away from your computer, despite the fact that the homework was not just an excuse and you really did have a lot of it. You just didn’t feel very motivated, instead thinking of how you had to somehow face Wonwoo tomorrow and pretend like you didn’t just get heartbroken over a video game.
.
.
There’s a gentle poke to your cheek. “You can’t sleep here.”
“Comfy,” you mumble, burying your face deeper into your arms.
“Come on, wouldn’t you rather sleep in your own bed?”
“Sleepy.”
“Come on.” The hand on your shoulder is gentle, but relentless, shaking you until you finally blink awake, sitting up. You instantly feel sore, stretching the arm that had been your pillow.
“How long was I out for?” You ask with a yawn.
“I’m not really sure.”
You freeze. You are 100% that when you fell asleep studying earlier you had been with Mingyu but that was definitely Wonwoo’s voice. You turn your head slowly, finding Wonwoo standing a couple steps behind you. Your heart does its usual gymnastic routine, though it’s worse because you’ve been awake for all of two seconds and Wonwoo looks picture perfect in his sweatshirt and perfectly combed hair.
“What are you doing here?” You try to smooth your hair, praying there’s no red marks on your face.
“Mingyu called because he had… actually he didn’t say what he had, he just said he had to go and that he didn’t want to wake you up, and he just told me to come here and study but the library closes in ten minutes, so we should probably go.” He folds his arm over his chest.
“Right,” you say. You stand up and stretch a little more, still blinking sleep away. You hate finals week. You stuff your computer into your backpack and try to organize the papers around you. Wonwoo steps beside you, trying to help.
“Is there an order to this?” He asks, trying to read your scribbled notes.
“There was once, it doesn’t really matter now,” you say. “The exam is tomorrow and I think I’ve stared at those as much as I can.” He doesn’t say anything else as he helps you gather them and shove them into a folder, sticking it all into your backpack. You turn to leave but he stops you, pointing to the outlet.
“Is that yours?”
“Yes, oh my god.” You grab the charger from the wall, tossing it into your backpack. “Thank you, I would have cried if I lost that.” You do a final sweep of the room, not seeing anything else that’s yours.
“Ready to go?” Wonwoo asks. You make the mistake of glancing at him, leaning against the doorframe with his backpack on his shoulders. He’s been so patient with you it doesn’t feel fair.
You nod, following him out of the room and falling into step beside him. The sleep is finally starting to wear off, and you are beginning to feel awake. The library is beginning to clear out, though you’re surprised at how many people there still are.
“How many tests do you have tomorrow?” Wonwoo asks.
“Just the one.” You sigh as you walk down the steps. “It’s a major requirement but it’s so dumb, it’s not helpful at all.”
“I’m just happy the science class is over,” he says. “No offense,” he adds quickly. “It was really fun to see you twice a week but I’m never letting Mingyu convince me to take a class with him again, that class was horrible.”
You shudder, remembering the final. You can only pray that you passed the test. Your memory is so bad you almost miss Wonwoo’s half compliment. “We should celebrate being free!” You stop in your tracks, just before the exit. “Oh my god, I forgot!”
“Did you leave something in the room?” He asks, turning to face you.
“No!” You grab his sleeve. “I forgot to pay you!”
He frowns. “For Seungcheol?”
You nod.
“That was just a joke,” he says with a laugh. He tugs your hand off of his arm, pulling you to the library doors. “I felt bad even taking the sandwich.”
“I can’t believe I forgot!” You say, ignoring his dismissal. The December air is chilly as you step outside and you pull your jacket tighter around your shoulders.
“You don’t actually owe me anything,” Wonwoo says. “Seriously, it was a joke.”
“No, but I feel bad, I promised you I would do something for you and I completely forgot about it!” You stop him under a streetlight, laying a hand on his wrist. Your breath makes little clouds in the air between you, dissipating quickly in the frigid air. Whatever you were going to say, you forget because Wonwoo is staring at you and he’s practically glowing in the bright light, and you are suddenly reminded of the day he tried to save your life. Knight in shining armor is the phrase that comes to your mind.
Your heart is pounding as you stare at him, unable to look away. His dark eyes, magnified just a little by his thick glasses lenses, stare back at you. Though he’s only a couple of feet away from you, the distance feels like miles.
His lips look a little chapped in the cold air, and you wonder what it would be like to step a little closer and press yours against his, whether they’d be rough or soft, whether he’d kiss you back.
You clear your throat. “I’m sorry anyway.” You’re not sure why you say it, but you finally tear your eyes from his, dropping your hand from his arm when you remember it’s there. You wish you could hold his hand. You stumble back for a couple steps before finally convincing your feet to work. You’re vaguely aware of Wonwoo mumbling, “Don’t worry about it,” and falling into step next to you.
He walks you to your car, neither of you daring to say anything after the strange moment. You’re struggling to think straight, especially with him still at your side. More than anything, you need your bed.
“I’ll see you later,” he says when you open the door. You force yourself to smile and wave goodnight to him before getting into your car. You lay your head against the wheel, wondering why you can’t just pretend like these feelings don’t exist.
There was no way Wonwoo didn’t think that was awkward, and you were now going to spend the rest of the night wondering just why you couldn’t stop staring at him when you should be studying for finals.
Maybe you should just drop out.
.
.
“It’s not what it looks like!” Wonwoo says. You join the voice chat before your game loads, but before you can say anything, he’s stammering. “I swear, it wasn’t supposed to happen like this!”
“What are you talking about?” You say, but a second later your game loads and you have no words. When you left a couple days ago, you had been in the middle of your base, logging off after spending a couple hours perfecting the hallway design (the trick was to mix and match the different types of stone).
It’s all gone now. You spawn in a crater of what you hand spent all your time on, barely recognizable amidst the remains. You see Wonwoo character appear and realize that the explosion had just happened, blocks littered around you.
“Wonwoo,” you say slowly, trying to understand what was happening around you. Everything you had worked on, gone.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” he says again.
You start to understand, though it doesn’t make sense. “It’s been you? All this time?”
He says nothing, character in front of you as frozen as you feel inside.
“I can explain,” he finally says.
“No, I get it,” you say. “Actually it makes way more sense, you’re the only one who spends enough time to really supply him.” You try not to let the hurt show in your voice. It made perfect sense, really. What you didn’t understand is why he lied, why he played along with you when it was him all along. How many times had you talked to him about thinking it was Jihoon today, or Mingyu the next? You feel embarrassed, now, knowing how stupid you sounded.
“Jeonghan wasn’t supposed to destroy everything,” he says softly.
“Is that why you think I’m upset?” You’re not being fair, but you don’t particularly care right now. It shouldn't hurt, but it does. “Because my shit got blown up?” You log out of the game, staring at the discord chat. You and Wonwoo are the only ones online, which is good because you really don’t want anyone walking in on this conversation.
“You spent the entire time on the server working on it,” he mumbles.
You laugh. “I spent my entire time on the server hanging out with you,” you say. It’s good you're behind a screen because otherwise you would never have the confidence to do this, even if that made you a coward. “I really don’t care about Minecraft, Wonwoo. I like you.”
It’s so quiet you can hear your heart pounding over your headphones. You’re frozen, unable to click out of the voice chat though you know the silence is your answer, and every second that he doesn’t say anything means is him trying to figure out how to say that your feelings are unrequited and you just ruined the friendship.
Okay, completely ruined might be an exaggeration but it won’t ever be the same and it made you sick to your stomach that you had just blurted it out because you were butthurt about a dumb game.
“Did you really just confess to me over discord?” Wonwoo says. It's always been impossible to decipher how he feels from his voice but you’re going crazy trying to figure out if he really doesn’t sound mad or it's just your wishful thinking.
“Um. I guess so?”
He laughs, that stupid laugh that makes your heart flip in spite of the fact that you’re terrified. “I’m sorry, this is just the worst way to do this, you seriously couldn’t wait one more week?”
“You really don’t have to make me feel any more stupid than I already do,” you say.
“Oh my god, no, that’s not what I mean!” He says quickly. “Yn, I like you, too.”
“Oh.” Oh.
“I just didn’t think it was the best idea to tell you over discord,” he says.
“Yeah, that would be really dumb,” you say, trying to get your brain to comprehend anything other than I like you, too.
“If you waited literally one week, I would have told you in person,” he says. “I had a plan and everything. Actually, I had a plan to do it after finals but I sort of chickened out and then we both went back home and I had to reschedule, but I swear I was actually going to do it.”
“Right,” you say. “Wait, what? I really have no idea what’s going on, I can’t believe you actually like me back.”
“You’re an idiot,” he says. “How could I not?”
You have no answer to that, realizing that any insecurity you tell him would be shot down.
“I can’t believe this is how I told you,” Wonwoo says.
“I can pretend I didn’t hear you?”
You smile at his laugh, his voice sending a shock straight to your heart. “Or we could just meet up the second you’re back?”
“Like a date?”
“If that’s what you want,” he says. “It’s what I want, if I’m not being clear,” he adds quickly.
You wonder if you’ll ever stop smiling. “Yeah, I definitely want.” Eventually your vocabulary will return. Hopefully.
“So it’s a date?” Wonwoo asks.
You open your mouth to answer but there’s a ding and someone else joins the voice chat.
“Hey, perfect!” Jeonghan says. “Yn, I’m supposed to apologize for blowing up your base, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Actually, that’s what Wonwoo told me to say but honestly I’m really tired of listening to the both of you flirt without actually doing anything and I blew it up on purpose so that I can now say this: yn, Wonwoo likes you. Wonwoo, yn likes you. Have fun!” There’s another ding and he’s gone.
“I don’t know if I’m more mad that he planned that or that it sort of worked,” Wonwoo says.
“Yeah, he actually makes no sense,” you say.
“And yet it worked,” Wonwoo says. You wish you could see the face he’s making now, wondering if he’s smiling like you are.
“So, it’s a date?” He asks again.
Yes,” you say. “It’s a date.”
