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Sunwoo is nervous.
He twists his fingers every way he can and bites his lip to stop it from trembling.
“Are you okay hun?” his mother stops in her tracks and looks down at her son, brows furrowed in confusion and worry. “Do you not want to go?”
Sunwoo’s nervous habits momentarily stop and he shakes his head vigorously.
“No, I want to,” Sunwoo tries to put as much resolve as he can into the words. They aren't untrue, of course. It's normal to be nervous when you're excited, right?
There must be something in his tone that eases her worry because she sighs and smiles lightly.
“Then why were you trying to break your own fingers just now?”
Sunwoo looks to the side, his neck on fire for some reason. He doesn't quite understand his own body’s reaction or why exactly this whole thing makes him nervous despite this being just Changmin.
“Because,” he starts quietly. “This is the first time Chanhee isn't gonna be there too.”
His mother gives his shoulder a reassuring squeeze and when he turns back to her there’s a soft look in her eyes that tells Sunwoo she understands more than he does.
“I'm sure it'll be fine,” she assures him. “After all, isn't Changmin your best friend?”
Sunwoo nods enthusiastically.
He sure is.
And that's why it makes him so confused why he feels nervous at all.
“Then I'm sure it'll be fine.”
Sunwoo nods again.
They give each other one last look before Sunwoo starts walking again, taking the lead.
“Hurry up mom!” he yells back.
She laughs at him.
xxx
The Ji family's house is a place he considers almost his second home.
It's comfortable and big and it also helps that Changmin’s parents find him adorable.
So in short, they love him.
“I swear, you're their favorite son,” Changmin observes his mother taking out all of Sunwoo's favorite snacks from the fridge and arranging them on a tray so that they can take it to Changmin's room. There's amusement in Changmin’s eyes as he states his observation and it makes Sunwoo want to defend himself even though he knows it's pointless.
“Hyung,” he whines instead. It earns him Changmin’s attention and a soft smile. Maybe he's not only his mother’s favorite.
“Yes, yes you're my favorite too.”
It's like Changmin can read his mind.
Sunwoo can feel his neck burn again. He turns away in a poor attempt at hiding just how affected by the words he is for some reason.
God, this is really bad.
Not as bad as what he finds on the side table next to the couch.
Sunwoo furrows his brows as he struggles to understand what exactly he's looking at.
“Hyung,” he says again, this time however he must sound alarmed because Changmin immediately moves closer and leans over to see for himself. “What is this?”
“Oh that,” Changmin picks up the said object and looks at it with a half smile. “It's my new favorite. Chanhee was supposed to come by yesterday to see it but as you know he's sick.”
Right.
This was originally going to be a group sleepover but Chanhee, who they met a year before Changmin finished elementary school and who is also in Changmin's class in middle school, has fallen sick and couldn't make it.
Fortunately, it's nothing serious and he has promised to hang out with them next weekend.
It's not that Sunwoo is jealous, he knows that hanging out with Changmin on weekdays is hard considering their individual schedules and Chanhee often comes over to study, it's just…
He misses the time he was able to do it too.
Maybe that’s exactly why, despite how terrifying the movie looks at first glance he says:
“Watch it with me then.”
Silence.
And then, Changmin raises his eyebrows in surprise.
“Sunwoo we don't have to, you know,” he says, words coming out of his mouth so fast they're hard to understand. “I found that movie you talked about last month. I have it ready.”
Sunwoo shakes his head and looks at the box in Changmin's hands again.
“You said it's your favorite, right? I want to see it.”
Changmin laughs nervously.
“It's just a horror, not that important, really.”
Sunwoo shakes his head again. They both know he isn't a big fan of horrors, they’ve discovered that when Sunwoo clung to both Changmin and Chanhee when they watched a scary ad on YouTube once for a movie Changmin wanted to see.
Changmin has never suggested a horror for any of their sleepovers.
Well, as far as Sunwoo is aware Changmin hasn't actually watched a ton of them himself.
“Hyung, come on,” Sunwoo gets up and pulls on Changmin’s sleeve, successfully making him lose balance for a second.
It’s all the time he needs and as he snatches the box with the movie inside and races up the stairs while Changmin yells after him in that high-pitched scream of his Sunwoo can't help but laugh.
xxx
“Chucky” is quite frankly terrifying.
Well, okay, Sunwoo suspects that for most people it actually isn't that bad seeing how unbothered and excited Changmin is the whole time.
Still, for Sunwoo it's an almost out of body experience.
“Are you sure you're okay?” Changmin asks him for the first time about five minutes in and he doesn't stop till the last second. It's sweet, really, but Sunwoo isn't that scared.
He isn't ten after all.
“Mhm,” is Sunwoo's answer most of the time but he still gets that confused look from the other from time to time.
Like Changmin can't believe they're doing this.
“Okay then.”
Sunwoo doesn't mind any of it because Changmin lets him squeeze his hand when the scary music gets particularly loud or even squeeze him when there's a jumpscare.
By the end of the movie, Sunwoo can kind of see why Changmin likes it so much.
He observes the older as he puts away the leftover snacks they didn't finish and brings out the blankets for the night.
Sunwoo's heart is beating really fast and it's not because of the movie.
He finally, finally gets it.
“I'm assuming you're not going to add “Chucky” to the list of your favorites,” Changmin says with a laugh as he finally sets down again.
Sunwoo studies his best friend for a minute.
“No, on the contrary, I think it may just make the list.”