mistake!au

*

"there's no space for space between us."

in which dowoon keeps drawing closer and closer to his hyung, until wonpil can't possibly push him away

I may or may not have been listening to mino's "body" on repeat whilst writing this... So if you're wondering why it's so raunchy, there's your answer lol

Ps. I'm not sure if pil's sis is actually named yeeun, so I apologize if that's not her name *bows*

***

"noona!!" dowoonie yells, running down the street toward his alumni buddy. she had texted him to ask if he wanted to meet her here for some ice cream, and he'd happily obliged. "noona, did you get a haircut?! uwaaah, it looks so good!!" he runs up to the girl on high heels whose back is to him and gives her a huge close-eyed smile.

"uuuh..." meets his ears, and he thinks there's something weird about it.  What's with the strangely low voice? Is she sick?! Oh no!! "sorry, but you must have the wrong person..."

his eyes open wide once he registers that Oh, that's why she seemed taller than usual... and No, that's definitely not his noona's voice... "oh, i'm so sorry!" he frantically screams out with a large bow and burning ears.

just then, a young woman happily rounds the corner, skipping up to them with three ice cream cones balanced in her hands. "noona!" the stranger dowoon mistook for her laughs out. "why do we need three cones?! there's only two of us!"

dowoon joyfully claps his hands, yelling out a celebratory, "noona! hello!" he's relieved that she's here, because what just happened was so embarrassing.

"hey, woonie!" she happily yells in return, handing dowoon a cookie dough ice cream cone to answer the other guy's question. "this is my brother, wonpil. he's your senior at the college, so i thought it would be cool for you to meet!"

wonpil turns to his sister and immediately glares daggers at her. "and why did I not know about this?"

she nonchalantly shrugs and hands him a pistachio cone. "i thought you would say no, you introverted boy."

"oh," the brunette groans out, licking at his ice cream while sending a glare to the ground between his feet.

"well... hi, wonpil-hyung," dowoon says to hopefully appease his noona's brother and politely dips his head to the boy. "i'm yoon dowoon, and i'm a freshman in the computing department. your sister is my alumni buddy. oh, and it's very nice to meet you." he then bows, because anyone who yeeun introduces to him must be awesome, and also because he thinks this hyung is really cool and cute and he wants to get to know him better and he wants to squeeze his cheeks and bring his pouty lips into a smile--

"sorry, but i don't hang out with kids younger than me."

and with this, the wonpil guy stalks away, still licking at his dripping cone, with yeeun yelling after him, "oh, come on, pencil! at least give me a chance to PROPERLY introduce him before you run away!~"

dowoon bitterly thinks that he doesn't want this hyung in his life, anyway.

*

everything changes when dowoon sees wonpil at college the next day. the man is sitting alone in the cafeteria, eating one piece of rice at a time with his clinky metal chopsticks. he's reading a textbook about neanderthals, and a yawn escapes him every few seconds when he isn't chewing a lone piece of rice. dowoon instantly pities him.

the younger boy forgets about his rumbling stomach and instead slinks over to the brunette who's sitting alone in the corner. he stands behind the hunched-over man oblivious to his presence, twiddling his thumbs, then steps beside him and sends him a nervous wave. "h-hey, wonpil-hyung," he murmurs out, ears red, eyes squinty to match his smile.

the surprised brunette waves him away with his chopsticks. "i don't have time to talk, kid. i have to study this..."

dowoon feels hurt. he decides to make it his mission to pester this particular hyung until he loves him. he tells himself it's cuz he's yeeun-noona's brother. and cuz he seems nice. and cuz his voice sends flutters down his spine. dang it, that part didn't have to enter his head so conspicuously... so he ignores the older man's words and sits beside him on the bench, sliding closer until his side is pressed against wonpil's. "i can help you, hyung!"

wonpil slides away from him with an annoyed expression and hisses for him to leave him alone. "i know how to read, thanks," he states as an alibi, and slides his tray over so he can keep eating rice while he studies.

"that's not what i meant," dowoon presses. he sneakily snatches the chopsticks from his hyung's fingers, instantly earning protests and futile grabs from the older man, and picks up a proper amount of rice from the tray, dipping it in the sauce from the chicken on the side to give it some flavor. "now AaaaaaH!~" he happily sings out in his low voice, and wonpil opens his mouth to protest -- that he is the older man here, that he can take care of himself, that he doesn't even fucking know dowoon, much less W a N t to know him -- but he is cut off by the sensation of grainy rice and sesame seeds bathed in sweetish paste on his tongue. his mouth closes on instinct as he chews and warbles out angered yet unintelligible sounds which send dowoon into a fit of giggles. "hyung, you're really cute. i like you!~" wonpil chokes on his food and dowoon frantically hits his back. "oh my god, hyung! did i do something?!" his hyung just keeps choking and gulps for the air that is being blocked from entering his lungs by the rice and seeds. "hyuuuung!! don't die!!! please, jebal, i'll do anything!!!!" wonpil's arm springs up and he points a finger away from himself, signaling dowoon to leave him. "...except that," the younger man says, now patting the brunette's back more carefully. he wipes the pained tears from his hyung's eyes with his free hand.

wonpil finally manages to heave in a breath between his coughs and hisses out, "water, pabo!" COUGH --- COUGH -- "get me water!!!"

"AH!!!" dowoon finally understands the reason for the frantic pointing toward the lunch line and springs up after handing his hyung a napkin. he runs to the front of the line, politely yet urgently requesting a cup of water. he bows once the nice lady hands him one and rushes back to the table.

wonpil is nowhere to be found.

*

dowoon sits in his lecture hall, his head balanced on his arms, which are splayed over his desk. "aaaaggh... he hates me. he totally hates me."

"who hates you, dowoonie?" his friend, soonyoung, asks him.

dowoon answers with a sigh: "wonpil-hyung. my alumni buddy's younger brother."

"oh, him!" soonyoung smiles. "why would you think he hates you? i'm pretty sure he literally loves everyone!"

"he told me he doesn't hang out with kids younger than him. and ran away from me at lunch. and scowls every time he sees me..."

"really?" the silver-haired boy rubs his chin. "then you should probably just stay away from him and he won't cause you any trouble...."

dowoon's ears get red and he nods, then buries his nose in his arms. "maybe..." then the professor is walking in and dowoon is doing his best not to fall asleep.

Stay away from him, runs through his mind instead of the lesson. Just... Just stay away from him, and he won't bother you.

*

this proves to be more difficult than he expected. now that he knows who wonpil is, he notices the man literally everywhere -- in the cafeteria in the library, in the music practice rooms... wonpil is in everything, his reflection stirring a certain kind of desire in dowoonie's heart, fueling his need for his hyung's comfort and his hyung's attention. there's just something entrancing about the brunette... he makes dowoonie want to befriend him, want to make him LIKE him. he wants his hyung to love him, and he doesn't even know why. but the mystery only makes dowoon more intent on getting what he wants... more so, what he NEEDS.

so, for the next couple months, the boy pesters his senior with small gestures of kindness -- bringing him cookies and clementines at lunch, sneaking bright-colored highlighters into his study bag, sliding ornate piano music sheets between the cracks in his music locker... he even draws a keyboard for him once, making some pun about how 'Wonpillie-hyung is the best at playing the instrument, so maybe Dowoonie should just stick to the one on his computer,' and he sees the brunette smile a bit at it from his hiding place behind the water fountain.

but dowoon's favorite thing to do is sit close to his hyung and feel their bodies exchange heat from their proximity. these moments are rare -- they only last a second or so -- but dowoon's heart does a leap over a pile of ten thousand sunshine-flavored clementines before he is pushed away by an annoyed senior focusing on his anthropology assignment or his music theory notes or his text messages. and then he is skyrocketing down a treacherous path of 'Will he run away if I do this?' or 'If I try to hug him, will he push me away?' or, more rarely, once, to be exact... 'Does it mean he likes me when he lets me hold his hand under the table?'

he's having a pretty bad day, today. his writing assignment wouldn't print and his professor made him run to the dean's office to print it during an important lecture; his drum stand broke a bit and now he needs to find a replacement gear; his friends went out to a karaoke bar without him because he was late... basically, everything has gone to shit, and dowoon is sad. the redhead wants comfort, and the first person his eyes land on in the study hall is wonpil.

"pillie-hyung," he whines out, sliding over to the boy on a swively chair and resting his head on the man's shoulder. "i'm sad..."

wonpil shakes his dongsaeng's head off of his shoulder and continues to write out his endless chord progressions for music theory. "go cry, then," he mutters out, not breaking eye contact with his paper, his hand constantly scribbling down circles and numbers and roman numerals.

"but... i don't want to cry." the redhead sneaks his chair closer to his hyung's and rests his head on the man's shoulder once more.

"then leave me alone, or i'll make you cry!" wonpil hisses out in an annoyed tone and flicks the boy's forehead. "i'm trying to work. please leave me alone."

dowoon pouts and rubs his head. "that hurt, hyung..."

"geez... what do you want from me?!!" wonpil breathes out, his voice about to fail him from how tired he is of it all. from how much he wants it all to end. so dowoon does just that. he ends it.

"your attention! i want your attention, hyung, and... and your love."

wonpil stares at him with a cross expression, his eyebrows furrowed together. then he does something unexpected. his hands reach for dowoon's cheeks and gently cradle them and he harshly brings the surprised red-head's face forward and presses an elevator-button-push kiss to them. he lets go, he pulls back, he whispers out, "enough?"

and dowoon shakes his head. "that's not love, hyung. that's a moment's worth of physical contact."

and with this one phrase, wonpil is won over. he assertively grabs dowoon's hand and continues to work on his assignment while the younger man fondly watches his pencil scratch out figures and lines the music staff. when the redhead offers him a drink of his banana milk, the brunette takes the straw into his mouth and sips. when the junior wipes a droplet of the drink off the corner of his lip with a napkin, the senior does not flinch away. and, most importantly, when dowoonie smiles at him and asks how his day went, wonpil smiles back and tells him that it's much better "Now that you're here."