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Friends can hold each other's hands

Summary:

There's pretty much everything in the tags but yes, Yuto and Wooseok are childhood friends and everything goes well until they both start catching feelings for each other.

Notes:

First of all: hiii! I’ve been into Pentagon music a lot since late march so… now it’s time to write about my fav duo, Yuto and Wooseok! I apologize for any mistakes I could do, English is not my first language.
Also, I introduced a one-year gap in Yuto and Wooseok age.
That said, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Childhood

Chapter Text

Wooseok’s mum was really surprised when he saw his little son, all ready and dressed up, running outside of the house, like someone was waiting for him. Maybe for little kids that was usual, but not for little Wooseok. He used to have some friends, or at least some kids to play with, and his mom was used to see him running outside to meet them and go play in the neighborhood. But then one day he come back home earlier than usual and he asked his mom to never open the door when his usual friends could’ve asked for him. He literally said “they’re not my friends anymore”. His mom didn’t say anything, but still she was worried since Wooseok was a really patient kid, he wasn’t the type to say such things. Wooseok had a shocked face so she realized it wasn’t the right time to ask about what happened. Days later, she tried to talk about it, but Wooseok decided to be stubborn about it and decided to say literally nothing. His mom’s heart was broken: it was the first time for her not knowing what was happening to his son.
So, when she saw the boy all happy and smiling, she was relieved. Finally his lonely days were coming to an end.
Wooseok went outside, and his mom couldn’t avoid to follow him with her eyes from the window. His mom wasn’t right, but wrong neither. Wooseok was playing with a little boy, but he wasn’t a kid from his previous group of friends. They weren’t talking much, but they were playing with a ball and smiling: that was enough for her.
What Wooseok’s mum didn’t know was how the two boys met. They literally lived near each other’s house but they didn’t know of each other existence. That was until a few days earlier. Wooseok was playing with his swing. His long legs allowed him to “fly” high, so he saw, at the end of the street, his old friends. He immediately stopped playing and ran to hide on the back of his garden. That was the plan, until he saw a little kid playing in the garden of the house near his. He was … small. Wooseok told himself he couldn’t leave the boy there. He was playing with a ball, those kids surely would’ve notice that.
“Ehi” he whispered. Wooseok was afraid of being heard, but the boys were still far from them, since they walked slowly, like they owned the place, and they were laughing so loud they couldn’t for sure hear him. The boy heard him though.
“Hide your ball… and yourself” Wooseok said. The boy looked at him without understanding.
“Run to hide!” Wooseok said again, then he left, running on the back of his house garden. The boys were almost near. After a few seconds, he saw the boy at the back of his own house too. Wooseok smiled and the kid smiled back: they were safe.
The loud voices were nearer, then stopped. Wooseok was sure they were searching for him.
“I’m sure he went to hide. Coward” he heard the older of the group say, then they started walking again. Wooseok was trembling, but he was relieved too: they didn’t found him.
The other boy was still looking at him.
“I told you to hide because they’re mean” he explained.
The other looked at him with a blank expression, like he couldn’t understand a word Wooseok was saying. He looked younger than Wooseok; he was shorter than him, so that was enough to Wooseok to judge.
Anyway, since the other one was still waiting for an explanation, Wooseok decided to go closer to the wooden fence between the two houses. The other kid did the same.
“Those kids… they’re mean, you should avoid them” he said again.
The other kid seemed like he didn’t still understand.
“Mean… Evil… Not good” he tried to explain himself.
“Oh… Not good” the other kid said, speaking for the first time, like he was “tasting” the word for the first time. He had a weird accent, and Wooseok noticed that.
“Where are you from?” he asked before he could stop himself.
“I’m Yuto and I’m from Japan” the other replied like he was repeating something he studied for a long time.
“Oh… I’m Wooseok”
They didn’t know what to say, until Yuto smiled.
“Do you… want to play… with me?” he said slowly, pointing at the ball behind him with his finger.
***
Every afternoon that summer, early at 5 p.m., the two kids were always playing together. Sometimes they were playing with Yuto’s ball, sometimes with Wooseok’ swing, but they were always together. They didn’t talk much, since Yuto wasn’t still that good with English, but Wooseok didn’t care. He liked to teach the older – yes, he finally found out he was the younger one – new words. Yuto was so grateful when he learned new things and always thanked him with a big smile.
“Do you remember those kids I told you they’re evil?” Wooseok asked one day. He was feeling like he was hiding something important to the other, so he just decided to tell him.
Yuto nodded, focusing at the ball Wooseok passed him. The wind was so strong that day, so the ball went in another direction. Yuto ran to take it before it went in the middle of the street.
“Do you want to know why they’re evil?”
Yuto nodded again and stopped playing. He knew it was something important, plus he was scared. What if Wooseok was going to use new words he couldn’t still understand?
“Well, we used to be friends. We were always together, since… one day”. His voice broke, so he stopped talking.
Yuto was looking at him, waiting. Wooseok avoided the other’s look.
“Well, do you know, when you love a friend so much and you want to hold his hand? I did it but… they told me boys can’t hold hands and … they said …”
Wooseok stopped talking and he didn’t try to explain better, since he was crying. His ears were earing again what they told him.
Yuto was scared. What a friend is supposed to do when someone is crying?
Finally, he had an idea.
He went to his side. Wooseok didn’t notice him, since he was covering his eyes with both hands.
Yuto took one of the younger’s hand in his.
Wooseok almost stopped crying. He was surprised and couldn’t understand what was happening.
“Oh, I think… Friends can hold each other’s hand” Yuto said, blushing.
Wooseok laughed. He was so relieved he laughed so loud Yuto was almost scared. Plus, Yuto’s accent was really weird.
***
Wooseok was sad. Summer was over.
“I don’t want to go to school!” he said again, mostly to himself since his mom was ignoring him while she was driving the family’s car.
“You’ll find other nice kids to play with” his mum said, smiling, trying to cheer him up “and sometimes you can play with Yuto too”
Wooseok crossed his arms and pressed them against his chest. He just knew other kids weren’t nice and kind as Yuto. Yuto never called him “crybaby”, like other kids used to do.
His mood rapidly changed when he arrived at school. The hallway was full of excited laughs and nervousness from the kids and their parents. Wooseok didn’t care. What changed his mood was seeing Yuto and his mom.
They were all alone. Yuto’s mom was probably scared, since she tried to occupy the less space she could. On the other hand, Yuto was just curious about that place. His gaze was wandering as if he was measuring everything: the stairs, the pictures on the wall, everything. Nobody was talking to them.
“Yuto!” Wooseok said, using a loud tone.
Yuto’s look finally focused on something – or better on someone.
“Seok!” he replied using the same tone. A big smile opened on his face. Probably he was relieved for not being all alone in that big school where every kids seemed to know each other. He didn’t realize that but Wooseok had the same fear. Until that moment, of course.
Yuto quickly said something in Japanese to his mom. She didn’t reply but smiled at Wooseok and his mom.
“You told me you are older than me, what are you doing here?”
“I can’t attend second grade… for my bad skills in… language” Yuto explained, embarrassed, blushing, looking at his feet.
“Don’t worry!” the younger’s mom quickly replied “Wooseok can help you with that!”
“Of course!”
Yuto smiled but didn’t reply. He was nervous. What if they weren’t in the same class and he had to deal with … that all alone?
Maybe Wooseok felt his friend’s fear, so he touched his hand just for a moment.
“We can do this. We are together” he said.