dive into you | jongsang (✓)

- sixty one -

over the next few weeks, yeosang grew more comfortable talking to san, and quickly got to the point where he could nearly speak without stuttering around the boy. jongho and wooyoung were extremely proud, which only helped to boost yeosang's confidence. he still had a long way to go until he was able to talk to every one of their friends, but this was progress.

jongho and yeosang had just gotten back from a double date with san and wooyoung when the older of the two went and laid down on the couch, yawning.

"tired, bub?"

"very."

"ice skating isn't easy, i told you!"

"i fell too much," yeosang pouted.

"you also insisted that i didn't help you, so that's on you, bub."

yeosang huffed and turned his back to jongho, causing a soft chuckle from the younger as he walked over to the boy and pulled him into his arms.

"i love you, yeo..."

"hmph."

"you're cute when you're angry... you know that?"

"i don't try to be!" yeosang whined.

"you don't have to. you're always cute to me."

"cheesy much?"

jongho laughed and sat down next to where yeosang laid, pulling the boy into his arms. yeosang was quick to get comfortable, then he gently pressed a kiss to jongho's neck.

"yeo, love?"

"hm?"

"i know you've at least seemed like it... but, have you been doing okay?"

yeosang nodded, gently taking jongho's hand.

"i have."

"promise?"

"jjong... i promise i'd tell you if i haven't been feeling okay. yes, a couple of times recently i've had some bad thoughts, but i just look at you and then they go away pretty quick. if they didn't, you'd know."

"okay... i just worry, y'know? and i want to follow through with my promise to your mom, but that's a whole other layer to it. i love you and i just want you to be okay."

"i'll always be okay if i have you."

"i love you."

"i love you too, jjong... hey, what did you promise my mom?"

"i promised her i'd take care of you."

"you've been taking care of me since the day we met. i'll forever be grateful for that, y'know..."

jongho gently pressed a kiss to yeosang's head, smiling a bit as he looked down at the boy.

"i-is it to early to go to bed?" yeosang asked quietly.

"mmm, it's kind of early. how about a nap and then we'll get dinner and relax before we really go to bed? does that sound okay?"

"okay..." yeosang yawned.

"you're sure you're doing okay?" jongho asked worriedly.

"d-didn't sleep well," yeosang muttered, a bit embarrassed.

"ahh... that's okay, baby. if you want to go to bed you can, i just want you to eat something first."

"we can do what you said... i-i don't want to be difficult."

jongho frowned a bit when he recognized yeosang's stutter reappearing. this hadn't happened very often, mostly when he was having an off day or was hiding something. as jongho thought about it, he realized that the boy must've had a nightmare or something if he was so tired and didn't want "to be difficult".

"yeosang... did you have a nightmare last night, bub?"

"i-i—" yeosang froze and bit his lip, nodding the slightest bit.

"baby... you know that you can tell me these things, yeah? how bad was it?"

"i-i got two hours of sleep... i-i kept trying a-and i-i couldn't do it..."

"yeo... love, you should've told me. we could've rescheduled our date with san and woo, you know they would've been okay with it."

"b-but i wanted to go," yeosang muttered, his eyes welling with tears.

"i know, baby... but remember that you need to take care of yourself, okay?"

yeosang sighed, finally letting his tears fall as he nodded. jongho gently kissed his head, then picked him up and carried him to their bed.

"if you want to talk about your nightmare we can, but if you don't want to, don't feel like you have to. just get comfy, and if you want to go to sleep, go ahead. i'm right here if you need me for anything, bug."

yeosang nodded a bit, hugging onto jongho and making himself comfortable, tears rolling down his cheeks as he let his eyes grow droopy, soon falling asleep. once he was, jongho carefully pulled out his phone and texted wooyoung.

jongho
hey woo?

wooyoung
what's up?

jongho
yeo had another nightmare
last night & didn't tell me :/
i'm not sure what you & san
we're planning on doing for
dinner, but i was wondering
if you could make his
favorite & bring it over?

he's sleeping right now but
i'm going to have to wake him
up later to eat something & i
know that always makes him
feel a little better

wooyoung
that explains why he seemed
a little tense today :( of course
i can, do you want me to use
our key and put it in the fridge
if he's not up when i bring it??

jongho
could you?? i don't want to
leave him right now

wooyoung
of course!! keep me in the
loop on how he's doing, yeah?

jongho
i will, thank you so much woo

wooyoung
anything for sangie

jongho sighed a bit and kissed yeosang's forehead, gently playing with his hair. he lightly hummed while looking at the boy, simply making sure he looked comfortable.

over the past couple of weeks, yeosang had been doing well for the most part, however, he seemed to be having nightmares about finding his mother or being left alone more often than not and it was worrying jongho a lot.

he was worried that these nightmares would set yeosang back and cause the older to become overly frustrated with himself again. an overly frustrated yeosang usually meant an anxious yeosang, and jongho didn't want him to feel like that at all. not only would it hurt yeosang mentally, but it typically meant he'd get back into habits of trying to scratch himself too.

"we're gonna get you through this, bub... it's all going to be okay," jongho whispered, gently rubbing yeosang's back.

instead of resting himself, jongho stayed awake in case yeosang woke up needing anything, nervous that if he fell asleep, yeosang wouldn't be able to wake him up. he played on his phone for a while, taking a couple of pictures of the sleeping boy to use for his background and scrolling through instagram, eventually getting bored. he began to play with yeosang's hair, making sure the boy was comfortable and watching him to make sure he didn't look anxious or anything.

after a while, yeosang let out a few soft whimpers, his body jolting slightly. jongho held him tightly, playing with his hair and shushing him, then kissing the boy's forehead when he was calm again.

"you're safe, yeo..." jongho whispered. "i promise you'll always be safe with me."

_________
a/n:
and then there was one chapter left... do i know where i'm going with this ending? not entirely but the writing juices are flowing rn 🔥

unrelated but i'm getting an ateez tattoo tmr!! very excited <3