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Wooyoung’s joints never lied. Especially to him. When his knees were cracking, it was about to rain. When his ankles throbbed, it was going to be especially windy that day. And when he could feel his rib cage tingling, it was a sign that the solar eclipse would be happening within that week. Many people have told him that if his bones crack and tingle that much, he should just go to the doctor and get it checked out. But he knew that it was all just part of his immaculate gut feeling.
So it was safe to say that when his wrists started to feel nauseous, he began bracing himself for an impact.
He walked around the dorm on eggshells, searching for anything that could attack him. Even when his joints mostly predicted the weather, he knew that his wrists always meant something way worse.
The last two times they were feeling funny he first: got coerced into doing the dishes for three weeks straight, second: was the victim of an elaborate prank war started by Mingi, San and Jongho. By the second time he figured out that:
1. Knees mean rain.
2. Ankles mean wind.
3. Ribs mean eclipse.
4. Wrists mean a personal attack on his person.
So this time he decided to get himself ready.
He wasn’t avoiding the members though. Moreover, it could be said that he sat with them way more than before, trying to rat out any plots he could be a victim of. Hoping to pick up new signals between them. Monitoring all of the times they had looked at each other secretly.
Yet there was nothing out of the ordinary. Mingi and Yunho always had their little secrets, just like Seonghwa and Hongjoong, so nothing was amiss. Maybe apart from him, which didn’t go unnoticed.
“Are you paranoid or something?” Seonghwa asked one time, when they were all getting ready for a dorm movie night.
“What?”
“You’ve been acting really strange lately. I mean, you always watch us pretty closely, but the intense eye contact is getting a little too much,” he explained, setting a bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.
“What eye contact? There is no eye contact,” Wooyoung said quickly. Seonghwa just rolled his eyes and sent a look to Yeosang.
“That was it!” San joined in on the conversation. “You just did it again!”
“What again?”
“The monitoring thing you’ve been doing for the past two weeks!” he shouted running up to him and taking his head into his hands. “It’s like you’re looking us in the eyes, but you’re not. You’re more like… monitoring our eyeball movement,” he said, making big eyes and twirling them around. Then he let go of him and went back to his seat. “It’s really weird bro. You should find a different hobby.”
“The question is, why the hell are you doing that?” Seonghwa chimed back in. “It’s a pretty recent development. It’s not like you’ve been doing it at any point in the past.”
“To tell you the truth, not lie,” started Wooyoung, taking a moment to think about how to describe it, “it’s in my bones, you know?”
“In your bones?” Seonghwa asked, tilting his head a little.
“Yeah,” said Wooyoung. “You know, like when you feel that the rain is approaching. Bones.”
“What are you, 70? Why are you talking as if your bones predict the weather. I thought we left your old lady phase in the past,” San laughed at him.
“Hey!” Wooyoung screamed at him. “How dare you insult me!”
“I didn’t,” San smiled brightly. “Just saying the truth,” he said, earning a kick.
“So,” Seonghwa turned their attention back to him, “you’ve been monitoring us, our eyeballs, because your bones told you to do it?”
“Basically. I felt it in my gut that one of you is out to get me.”
“Out to-” Seonghwa sighed heavily. “You can be so dumb sometimes, you know that?”
“Shut up,” murmured Wooyoung.
Yet his wrists still tingled. Something was going to happen. He knew it. It didn’t really matter that the others didn’t believe him, he trusted his gut and he was not about to abandon his preparations just because the members told him it was stupid. They probably were cooking something up. He just had to find out what.
It wasn’t long before Wooyoung’s wrists proved to be right. Less than a week after the movie night, his peaceful days at the dorm came to an end. The one thing he didn’t predict was the fact that he was the one who had made his own life miserable.
It was on a Christmas Vlive they did with all the members. Wooyoung, sitting at the head of the table had no idea how the conversation shifted to this topic, but he was talking about food. A simple, safe topic. He decided to tell an anecdote from their dorm life to their fans, not knowing that he was slowly digging his own grave.
“About 30 minutes later, when I was going back to my room, Hongjoong hyung woke up. He just looked at me, smelled the meat and went “Go prepare my meal”, with total seriousness. He commanded me, just like that,” said Wooyoung. “Is it weird that my heart fluttered a bit?”
Seonghwa and Hongjoong laughed awkwardly.
“Is it?” he asked once again, noticing that the rest of the members weren’t paying attention to him anymore. He sulked a bit. Then, when he thought that no one was listening to him anymore and they all plunged into their separate conversations, he silently said, “Hongjoong hyung was rude to me and I was attracted to it,” he meant it as a comment more to himself and not for others, so it’s only reasonable that he didn’t notice someone’s watchful eyes were still on him.
That’s how he dug his own grave. Quickly and by himself.
Wooyoung felt uneasy. He had been under Seonghwa’s watchful eye for an hour now, not able to get away from his sight. He sometimes sent small smiles his way, to make this “interaction” less awkward, but nothing seemed to work. He was just staring, deep in thought.
“So this must be how they felt when I was watching them all the time,” thought Wooyoung. He shivered. This was definitely not a pleasant experience.
Yeosang was sitting between them for a while, playing games on his phone, before he went to his room, leaving them alone. There was silence, with Seonghwa just watching.
After some time he started shifting closer to Wooyoung on the couch. Step by step, he slowly slid towards him, never looking away.
“Hyung, is something wrong?” he asked when the other man was less than a meter away. He was normally not the one who considered his personal space as something necessary, but he had a weird feeling now.
“Is it true? What you said before?”
“Huh?”
“The thing about Hongjoong,” he asked, finally ceasing his advance on the couch. “Was that just PR, or did you tell the truth?”
“Oh,” Wooyoung got flustered a bit. “No, it was true. Just a funny story I wanted to tell,” he shrugged. “Why? Does it matter?”
“No, it’s just… curiosity I guess,” the older one moved back a bit with a small smile on his face.
“Oh, okay then,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. Seonghwa finally looked away from him. Although nothing seemed amiss, Wooyoung’s wrists throbbed a bit. He tensed up.
“Well, thanks for sharing. I must go now,” he stood up and just left the living room.
That was weird, suspicious even, if you had to ask Wooyoung. Seonghwa being secretive and interested in their lives always ended rather poorly. At least he was sure that his hyung wouldn’t use any information he acquired to truly screw him over. He made petty pranks, yes, but he never did serious damage. That meant that no matter how weird Seonghwa acted, Wooyoung was safe.
He was wrong. He had never been safe.
He had no idea when he missed it, but Seonghwa became menacing. And as the oldest that meant that now, he had all the power in the world. Knowing stuff as he did made him a threat and he decided to unleash that power on poor Wooyoung.
What did he do to deserve this?
The first two days after that were quiet. Or that’s what Wooyoung would like to say, but they were actually rather normal. Everything flowed as always, with a packed schedule and late nights at the studio. The beginning of his torment came when they all went back to the dorm on the second day.
He was just getting some leftovers from the fridge when his - at that time - still lovely hyung came into the kitchen. He had a small smirk on his lips when he came up straight to Wooyoung.
“You need something?” Wooyoung asked, closing the fridge after taking one of the plates with leftover chicken out of it. “There’s plenty of it left if you want some.”
He went in the direction of their dining table with his food, setting it down. He was preparing to sit down and start eating, when from behind him he heard a stern, “Wooyoung.”
“Yeah?” he asked, turning around to face Seonghwa. On his face still lingered that little smirk.
“Go get me food,” he gave a command.
Wooyoung’s heart skipped a beat. He froze in place. The older one was standing there, arms crossed on his chest, eyebrows raised expectantly.
“What?”
“Get me food,” he repeated. His tone gave no room for discussion.
Wooyoung flushed slightly and felt his heart beat faster. He obliged and went to the fridge to take something out.
Seonghwa was never really one to give commands, so this was something new on his side. He was more of a gentle asking kind of person. Wooyoung wouldn’t be himself if he said it didn’t suit him. It actually looked good on him. That stern look in his eyes.
He gave a prepared plate to the elder, “Here you go.”
“Good,” said Seonghwa shortly, placing his hand on Wooyoung’s head for a second. Then he just left the room leaving the younger one alone.
Despite his hyung being kind of rude, Wooyoung felt nice, with his heart still beating faster, aware of the slow blush covering his ears. He pulled on them, trying to get rid of it.
That was the start of many, many commands he had been given at various times throughout the week.
Whether it was getting food, preparing clothes, cleaning, doing the dishes, doing the laundry, Seonghwa was there with his “no funny business” tone, to order Wooyoung around. Every time he gave a command that menacing smirk grew, especially when seeing the younger’s reaction to it. He truly enjoyed seeing his dongsaeng blush and almost stutter every time he told him to do something.
Wooyoung was there with a furiously beating heart, listening to everything the older one had to say. Even if he didn’t want to, there was always something in Seonghwa that just told him he had to do it. So he obliged and fulfilled every request.
With time the commands were given to him more and more frequently, every time starting with a stern “Wooyoung”. At this point when he heard his name in the eldest’s mouth, he was just waiting in anticipation. Their interactions just looked like someone training their dog to behave. And despite how weird that sounded, Wooyoung had no objections. It made him feel all fluttery and needed.
Later it turned out that those interactions didn’t go unnoticed. Other members saw them, but at first decided not to say anything, even acting like they didn’t notice. They thought that Seonghwa and Wooyoung got into some kind of argument which resulted in the older one treating his dongsaeng harshly. They tried to wait out that phase, but that treatment only seemed to intensify.
Finally, Hongjoong decided to step in.
He cornered both members after dance practice, when they would be too tired to lie to him and would rather just get everything off of their shoulders. After all that stale air must have been exhausting for them.
“Hey, you two,” he called behind them, when they were getting ready to leave. “Come here for a minute.”
They came up to him, drinking their water, resting after the training. He looked around cautiously, waving at the other members to leave first.
Wooyoung was rather confused why the leader held them back. He couldn’t think of anything he did wrong during the practice.
“What is going on between you two?” he asked, trying to ease them into the topic.
“What do you mean?” Seonghwa and Wooyoung looked at each other confused.
“Don’t lie now. Everyone’s noticed that you two have been distancing themselves from each other. Just say it now so that we can find a solution. It has been taking a bit of a toll on others, seeing that you don’t get along,” said, waiting for them to spill.
They just stood there with furrowed brows, trying to figure out what he’s talking about.
“Seonghwa hyung, I know that you might be angry and I’m not here to undermine your reasons, but it’s not an excuse to be rude to Wooyoung,” he tried pushing them towards the topic. It seemed to work, because Seonghwa’s face lit up in understanding.
Then he just started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Hongjoong asked, annoyed. This was a serious matter, not some joke and he wanted them to take it as such.
“It’s just that,” Seonghwa gathered his works, looking at the still frowning Wooyoung, “we’re not arguing about anything.”
That confused Hongjoong, “What do you mean? I can see something is amiss between you two. You’ve been so mean to Wooyoung and he just obeyed your commands as if he’s guilty of something. You can’t tell me that this is how you act normally,” at this Wooyoung also seemed to finally understand what they were talking about and his ears turned red.
“Well, it’s not that it’s normal, but you could say that I’m.. testing the waters?” said Seonghwa.
“Testing the waters?”
“Yeah,” he shrugged as if it was the most trivial thing in the world. “When I first found out that Wooyoung was said to like being bossed around I was just testing how far I can take it. You know,” he shrugged once again, “it started as a joke, really. But then he seemed to be enjoying it, so I just decided to keep doing it. At this point it’s just something I do to make him happy,” he explained in full.
Hongjoong just stood there stunned. He turned his head to Wooyoung, “You’re enjoying it?” he asked.
At that Wooyoung’s face got completely red and he poked Seonghwa with his elbow.
“Shut up,” he said quietly. He was not one to get embarrassed easily, but getting exposed like that made him realize how weird it actually was.
“Well, I’m just telling it how it is,” he smiled at the younger one, and turned back to Hongjoong. “I hope that explains it. Sorry for making the others worried.”
“No problem,” the leader replied automatically. He shook his head and focused once again on the problem. “If you could just tone it down a bit, or tell the others what’s really going on that would be great. They are really getting anxious about you two having a big fight.”
“Will do, Captain,” said Wooyoung, after calming down a bit.
“That’s great.”
Then they waved at Hongjoong, as he left the dance studio.
“They will never let me live it down, will they?” asked Wooyoung, sighing.
“Definitely not,” Seonghwa snickered.
San and Mingi were hysterically laughing on the floor.
“It’s not that funny,” said Wooyoung, looking for support from other members, who also seemed especially amused at this whole situation.
“Oh, but it is,” said Jongho, who was sitting at the poor victim’s right side. “Our Wooyoung is a sub.”
“I’m not a..!!” he was scandalized.
“I mean, you like it when Seonghwa hyung orders you around. And you listen to him very well I might add. Being a submissive is pretty much that,” Yunho commented, also far too happy about this situation for Wooyoung’s liking.
“Do you think it’s a sex thing?” asked San, who finally calmed down, now simply laying on the floor.
“It’s not!”
“It is!”
Wooyoung and Jongho said at the same time.
“You know shit you stupid maknae!” Wooyoung shouted, trying to keep himself from tackling the youngest member to the ground.”It’s definitely not a sex thing.”
“We don’t kink shame here,” said San with the biggest grin on his face. He tried to pat Wooyoung’s head, but he just smacked his hand away, sulking.
“We do. Really harshly,” Jongho was enjoying it way too much.
“Leave my sex life and other life alone, will you?” Wooyoung’s had enough of his “friends”. He stood up suddenly. “Why do you care what it is?”
“Wooyoung,” said Seonghwa, “sit down.”
Wooyoung obliged at once. Then he felt his heart flutter. He put his head in his hands. Why the hell was obeying Seonghwa a habit by now, “It should be illegal to speak this way,” he thought.
“Wow,” Mingi whispered. “So much power.”
“If you dare to do something about this, I will make sure you can never show your face in public ever again,” said Wooyoung, standing up from the couch. The room fell silent. “Don’t forget that I also know things about you,” he pointed his finger at every member, “that you’d like to never see the light of day. Have a nice night,” and he left them alone, going back to his room.
There was a minute of silence between the members.
“We will use it, right?” San asked. Yeonsang snorted, like it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.
“Of course. Who do you take as for?” he smiled.
The wrists proved to be right. This was an attack.