Chapter Text
Woojin begrudgingly remembered his days as a child in his neighbourhood being latched onto so tightly by Daniel and Seongwoo. As children, they had similar heights and stature, although Woojin did admit to being slightly more scrawny than Seongwoo. Daniel on the other hand, was chubbier than most kids in their class.
He didn't pay no mind to coming up short in muscle mass (no matter the hours he spent kicking about his worn-down soccer ball at the field and helping his mother carry the laundry basket up and down the flights of stairs of their abode). What he didn't have, he recompensed with enough skill in the art of taekwando to allow him to fend off the meaner kiddos from patronising innocents at the sandbox.
After an evening well-spent drilling sense into the thick skulls of a bunch of kids from 'round the block, Woojin found himself being tailed to his house by two teary-eyed pups.
This mostly ever happened when he found himself on the side of the playground with the younger kids. They looked up to him like he was some fictional superhero. Like Superman. Like an older brother, too and Woojin didn’t mind the attention. By the end of the day, he’d get an earful if any of his parents or his taekwando Master caught wind of him putting his knowledge of defence to brute use. That didn’t bother him much. He just genuinely liked being brave and setting an example. He had what it takes to help and he wasn’t one to turn a blind eye to petty bullying.
Surprisingly, the kids weren’t any much older than himself. He recognised Kang Daniel and his chubby fingers pushing up thick-rimmed glasses; shuffling back on instinct when Woojin whipped his head around to check. He also knew Ong Seongwoo; the lanky kid with rather long, thin limbs and spots of moles littering his face, who fell backwards and taking Daniel down with him to the ground behind the lamp post that posed as their refuge. Both were unsuspecting victims of the make-shift alpha pack of their class. Real piece of work, that lot. They poked fun of everything and everyone who didn’t fit their mould of “alpha perfection”. This time around, Woojin just happened to be walking right past the field with his soccer ball when he heard somebody howling, going off about labelling some kids. Telling what was what and who was above who; another disgusting hobby they partook in. It raised Woojin’s hackles. Damn, kids, we don’t even know how to do our laces right and you’re out here tripping all over yourselves because you have more pocket money to spend than others.
Naturally, Woojin jumped in. He left the turf with scratches to his knees and cheek, a missing soccer ball and a trophy to reminiscent about for when he brushes his teeth before bed later.
Oh, and two pups, too, Woojin lamented as he scanned the two gracelessly scrambling up from their fall.
Woojin only huffed and walked into his compound. The pups will stop waiting soon enough.
Except, they didn’t.
Day after day, Woojin found himself warily scanning himself and his whereabouts wherever he went.
Because wherever he went; they did too. The toilet? They followed. Sharpening his pencils at the back of the room? They followed. Buying wet food for Loco? They followed. And what bugged the living shit out of Woojin was the fact that they were bolder by the day, closer by the minute. Discretion was shed long ago when Woojin once invited them both in one rainy evening when Woojin went home after cram school; typically being stalked home by two shadows. Feigning ignorance, he left them outside like how he’s done for the last 6 days. What he didn’t expect was for the sky to decide that it was a perfect time to pour a huge ass amount of water all over the neighbourhood and by proxy, soaking his two poor classmates to the bone.
Woojin was weirded out, sure. But Woojin, to his own convenience, wasn't an asshole.
“Oh, come on,” Woojin’s eyebrows furrow as he huffed, beckoning Daniel and Seongwoo to come closer as he held his hands out with towels in each grasp, “Don’t just stand there! Take this and dry yourselves!”
Woojin, impatient as he was, had to manoeuvre both of them in from the foyer and into the living room where they stood dripping from their torsos down, “Now dry yourselves, alright. I’ll get my sister’s hair dryer or something. It’ll help. Give me a sec.”
He did come back only to see Daniel and Seongwoo still sheepishly standing around; like they didn’t know what to do, like they hadn't just been trotting along after Woojin with their noses in his hair and stars in their eyes for the past few days.
“Are you guys serious-,” Woojin threw his hands up in frustration; although mostly because he was at a loss. What was he supposed to do now? Was this normal? Why weren't they behaving like normal kids?
Woojin only whipped the towel out from Daniel’s grasp and brashly ran the towel through his soaked locks, “Like this! Can you do it yourself?”
Daniel was silent and Seongwoo was watching the motion with laser-concentration. His expression unrecognisable but there was a look. Like he had something to say and Woojin’s composure was ready to burst at the seams.
Before long, he noticed how Daniel was avoiding eye-contact but there was a small smile and a small squeak of, “Thank you.” And Woojin was just dumbfounded because what.
Woojin supposes that Daniel needed the help so he only silently continued.
When he surmised that Daniel’s hair was mostly dry and hadn’t worried Woojin half to death anymore if he'd catch a cold, he moved to put the towel into the laundry basket near the toilet when Seongwoo’s hand suddenly shot up and grabbed at him.
Woojin nearly missed it but there it was, Seongwoo’s thin lips moving to say, “What about me?”
“Um...? Uh... Well... What about you?”
A little bit louder now, Seongwoo stuttered a bit; maybe not just from the cold, “You dried his hair... what about mine?”
At this point, Woojin was just too dumbstruck he didn't know how he should react; what face he should put on. Because. Why was he being so clingy?
“Don't tell me you can’t do this yourself...? We’re 10!”
“So why couldn’t Daniel do it himself!”
“I don’t know! I just-,”
“You can just do mine, right? You can, right?”
“Wha-,” Woojin went to protest weakly but Seongwoo was already looking back at him with a face so lost, even Woojin could almost shiver. Like he was the one who stood out there in the rain, waiting on somebody he knew might never turn in his direction and very much less spare a second of his day. But Woojin shook it off; like a dog coming out cold and white after a stroll in a snowy December.
"Bu-,” Woojin tried again but this time Seongwoo had his eyes downcast and it totally left Woojin speechless.
He’s never had any close friends. Friends close enough for him to affect like this emotionally. And he wondered if this was what it would feel like in those moments.
There was a tug and Woojin turned to see Daniel hanging his head low and shyly latching his plump fingers onto Woojin's shirt; twisting the material. From where he was standing so close, Woojin can see that his glasses were slightly fogged up. And he was beckoning Woojin to do something.
Unbelievable.
Taking a big gulp, Woojin huffed then, carelessly discarding the already damp towel to a side before grabbing hold of the other dry towel, “Fine, fine. I get it. I’ll help. But I’m sitting down. I’m already tired from all that mathematics just now. You guys just had to do this to me now.”
Seongwoo instantly lit up like a firefly in a summer’s night. By his side, Daniel nodded profusely before taking hold of Woojin by the hand and guiding him to the sofa.
Just like that, Woojin found himself pressing a towel into Seongwoo’s drenched locks as Seongwoo had his hands folded. He was kneeling before him (when Woojin clearly told him to sit next to him. On the sofa.) and Daniel’s slightly damp head found it’s way on Woojin's lap, somehow.
If Woojin tried hard enough, he thought he might just see tails wagging in delight from both of them.
That was years ago when the matter of presenting and mating and their future was of little concern.
Those things were just at the back of Woojin’s mind like a damp waiting to crack. It finally did the day Woojin walked to school on his 18th birthday. He tried to ignore the sparks setting off all over his skin and pinpricks he felt every single time his bare elbow so much as brushed the cotton of Seongwoo’s uniform or if when his knuckles accidentally bumped with Daniel’s thigh; but it was just so hard not to. They’ve changed so much. Woojin looked up and he could see Daniel's sharp jaw and to his right, Seongwoo and his timbre when he laughed.
They’ve changed so much, much too fast and Woojin was scared.
He felt like he might just be walking off in the dark on a tightrope blindfolded with his hands held by none other than his own childhood friends.
He hated that it felt so right.