"You're fired"

Wooyoung widens his eyes in shock "what? But I-"

"I'm not changing my mind Wooyoung, you've tainted the image of my company, everyone is demanding to have you gone" His boss lets out a frustrated sigh. "I'm sorry but it's out of my hands now, you should have thought twice before writing that article with no evidence whatsoever"

Wooyoung watches his boss leave the room, wincing as he slams the door, a clear order to quickly pack up his things and leave. He groans loudly, hitting his head on the desk and cursing himself for writing that article. He knew it was risky but he didn't think it would get him fired.

He blames himself for believing the call he got earlier in the week, he had gotten an anonymous tip from someone claiming to work at Crush, a world renowned make up company. They'd told him about a huge scandal the CEO had been involved in and Wooyoung bought it, and wrote that dammed article.

It got taken down as soon as it was uploaded though, staff from Crush were quick to call up his workplace and force him to take it down. His boss had been so embarrassed, forcing Wooyoung to apologise then firing him straight away, as requested by Crush and his colleagues, no one wants a careless writer on their team.

Wooyoung sulks as he clears his desk, leaving the room while trying to avoid the deadly glares directed at him.

What makes it worse is that he's fresh meat, straight out of university, they're no doubt reacting even worse because he's 'young and clueless'. He tries staying optimistic though, he can just get hired at a different news agency, this was just the practice round, there are plenty more opportunities to be the journalist he's been dreaming of since he was young.

He quickly exits without any goodbyes, knowing he's not welcome anymore so he leaves his first ever real job with a heavy heart.

~

As he's reaching out for his keys, a familiar voice calls his name. Wooyoung turns around to see his neighbour, who looks like he's about to leave in a rush. "Hey Hongjoong hyung, leaving for work?" Wooyoung smiles at him, but saying this makes him feel sad, since he's just come back from work after being fired.

He nods, but then looks at him in confusion "Shouldn't you be at work too? Did you leave something at home?" Wooyoung just smiles sadly, looking down and fiddling with his keys "No, I've been fired"

Hongjoong widens his eyes "What in the world happened?" He looks like he's ready to comfort Wooyoung, which he takes that as an indication that he looks like he's about to burst into tears.

Wooyoung just dismisses him, shaking his head "I'll tell you later, you should get to work otherwise you'll be late" he quickly shoos the reluctant man away before releasing a shaky breath.

Usually, he wouldn't have told Hongjoong that he'd been fired, they're only neighbours after all, he doesn't want everyone to know that his first ever job was a failure. But, he and Hongjoong were actually very close, ever since the older had moved in a year ago, Wooyoung was all too happy to have someone around his age living next door to him. They had quickly got along and now have a somewhat sibling-like relationship.

The emptiness of his apartment welcomes him as he walks in, going straight to the couch and plops himself down comfortably, he had a long day so he lets himself just relax and not think too much about being unemployed, he knows that if he thought about it too much then he'd drown himself in his sad emotions.

But, Wooyoung knows he shouldn't bottle up his emotions so he decides to deal with them in a responsible way... by ranting to his best friend.

"Hey Wooyoung what's up?" San answers the call with a cheerful tone, always happy to talk to his long time friend.

"Hey Sannie..."

"What's wrong? Shouldn't you be at work right now? How come you're calling at this hour?" San must have heard the unusual sad tone in his voice, since he becomes concerned why Wooyoung is calling when he should be at work.

"I'm not at work right now, I'm home" San gets more confused at this, why would he be home?

"Did something happen at work?"

"Yeah... I got fired"

Wooyoung checks his phone to see if San's still on the line, he frowns in confusion when he can't hear anything form the other end of the line, "San? Can you hear m-"

"Hold up, I'm coming over, and you're going to tell me everything, from what you did and why the hell did you get fired for it..." San pauses for a suspicious amount of time. "You didn't sleep with someone at work did you??" San gasps, pretending to be scandalised.

"No! It's nothing like that, just come over, and bring Yunho with you too." And with that, Wooyoung hangs up and sighs heavily, deciding to order pizza while he waits for his two friends.

~

San's loud knocking is heard from Wooyoung's bedroom and he quickly rushes to open it, not wanting any complaints from his neighbours. San enters with a concerned look while Yunho comes in with a confused smile. "San wont tell me what's going on or why we're at your apartment, he just dragged me here" he laughs.

They sit on the couch while Wooyoung offers them pizza, he doesn't know why he feels nervous about telling them why he got fired. To be completely honest, he's embarrassed.

Embarrassed for getting fired at his first ever job, as soon as he started working. He's embarrassed because he made a rookie mistake, he completely understands why they fired him, his friends would too... they'd probably think he's a humiliation to his workplace, that he deserved to be fired.

Wooyoung shakes his head, trying to get rid of his thoughts, there's no need to be hard on himself. You did well, it happens to the best of us, you worked hard for this job and you're not going to let one incident ruin your whole career. He calms himself before looking at his friends, who look up at him expectantly. It's not that big of a deal, stop making this into a huge crisis.

"Okay, so I got fired from my job". Yunho widens his eyes at this, clearly not expecting that confession, San frowns sadly and before any of them can as questions Wooyoung continues. "It's because I wrote an article about Crush"

"Crush? The make up company? What did you say about them that got you fired" Yunho asks.

"I wrote about the CEO who got into a scandal... which turned out to be fake news." San winces as he looks at his friends pout, he just knows Wooyoung is beating himself up about this. "I should have known, the only evidence I had was from a tip that called, I should have investigated more, found actual evidence. I just believed everything that person told me and wrote that damn article." He groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"My boss was so angry when he'd heard that Crush's staff had taken down the article straight away, they'd even threatened to sue."

San pouts at his friends unfortunate fate. "Don't blame yourself Wooyoung, it happens, take this as a sign that you weren't supposed to work in that company, you'll find a new company that would be more than happy to hire you"

"Yeah but I wrote about Crush! The most famous multi millionaire make up company, they're going to make sure I can never work again!"

Yunho smiles, dragging Wooyoung down to the couch, handing him a pizza slice "don't be so dramatic! why would crush care about that, they just took down one false article and that's that, they won't remember who you are. Luckily they took it down before it spread." Wooyoung sighs, he supposes Yunho is right, he should focus his energy on finding a new job instead of wallowing in self pity.

~

After a week, you could say that Wooyoung is... on a roll, he had applied to four different news agencies and was feeling pretty optimistic about them. They were all perfect and he didn't mind going to any of them. Now he just had to wait.

Wooyoung treats himself with a nice new laptop to write his articles and research on, he's proud of himself for not letting his previous failure get the better of him. Wooyoung likes to move on.

Except...

It's been a week now and still no replies from any of the places he'd applied to, not even any rejections. It makes him anxious, Yunho had told him not to worry and be reassured that there are no rejections at least.

But Wooyoung can't act that simply and patiently so he calls one of the places he'd applied to. They pick up quickly, giving him hope that things would work out. But it doesn't.

Wooyoung asks about his application and why he hasn't gotten a response when he was supposed to three days ago. The woman on the line sounds friendly, "Oh I'm so sorry about that, can I get your name?"

"Jung Wooyoung"

Wooyoung isn't sure if he was imagining things or not, but it sounded like a gasp coming from the other end of the call. He notices the woman stuttering "I- I'm sorry, but your application has been rejected". Hearing the uneasy tone of her voice, Wooyoung panics, she sounded like she was about to hang up abruptly.

"Wait! Can i ask why?" he asks, but there's no response.

He glances at his phone and she hasn't hung up yet, why was she acting so strangely? "Hello? Are y-"

"I apologise, but I am not aware of the reason why your application has been rejected by us, we wish you all the best with oth-"

"I think you do know, you sound like you do, why cant you tell m-"

"Jung Wooyoung, Sir, I can assure you that I do not know, w-why do you even want to know?" Wooyoung is getting annoyed with the way she keeps on interrupting him, he is so done with this.

"You're going to tell me not, or I'm going to go there myself and get the answer!"

"NO! Wait!" There we go. Wooyoung sighs frustratedly, why is this person making this more complicated than it should be?

"I'll tell you, please don't come here, I'll get fired." Now this confuses him, a lot, why the hell would she get fired? He waits patiently for her to continue, since it seems like she needs time to prepare herself or something, he wonders why she's being oddly suspenseful about this.

"It's because of who you are, you're Jung Wooyoung" he frowns in confusion, what's that supposed to mean... "you're the one in bad terms with Crush"

Ah. So that's what this is all about. Wooyoung tries to keep calm and collected, but he was right, they were out to get him, over that one mistake. He understands now.

Wooyoung doesn't want to hear anymore but she continues anyway.  "Every news agency knows about it, you're a notorious journalist now. No one wants to risk hiring you in case you make that mistake again, no ones ever made such a huge mistake with a powerful brand like crush, if i were you I-"

"Yeah I got it, thanks" Wooyoung hangs up on her, he doesn't want to hear any unwanted opinions. He had told himself that this wouldn't happen, not to worry, he should have listened to himself to avoid being disappointed. But it's not crush who is explicitly telling companies not to hire him, its his reputation that's scaring everyone now, deterring them from accepting him and instead identifying him as one mistake.

He takes deep and slow breaths in an attempt to collect his thoughts, which works thankfully so he gathers up the courage to call the rest of the jobs he'd applied to.

~

Wooyoung lies in bed, tapping mindlessly on his phone. He had been rejected from all of them, why? The same reason. No one can trust a rookie who got fired after writing his first ever article and has beef with a multi millionaire company. He doesn't let himself wallow in self pity though, he's stronger than that. Or so he thought.

He texts San, letting him know that he didn't get any of the jobs, and the reason of course. He thought he was indifferent about his unfortunate luck, that he didn't care, it was just how life is, but one text from San makes him break.

Sannie💕
Aww Wooyoung, it sucks that people could be so shallow and unprofessional :( It's ok to be sad
You did well, really
I'm so proud of you
You did your best and that's all that matters

Wooyoung lets out a choked sob. He really thought that he wouldn't cry over this but hearing such comforting words breaks his façade, and now, he just feels really. fucking. sad. He cries softly on his bed, letting himself just feel all the emotions in one go.

Sannie💕
You know we're always there for you right?
Do you want me and Yunho to come over? If you want to talk about it? Or just want some company?

Wooyoung does. He really wants some company right now. He feels alone, no one trusts him anymore and now he's reduced to an unemployed crying mess. Luckily, his friends are always there for him and they're knocking at his door within minutes.

He immediately pulls both of them into a hug, tears spilling out once again and they let him take all the time he needs and just embrace them. "I feel like my life is crumbling around me, I can't achieve my dream of being a journalist anymore" he confides in his best friends, they know him better than anyone, and he's more than comfortable with spilling out his emotions for them to pick up and tend to.

"I know it may feel that way, but this is not the end! You'll find a job where you can pursue your dream career" Yunho holds the crying boy's hand, gently squeezing it. San grabs his hand too, patting his back with his other hand.

"You may feel alone in the workplace, but there will be someone who wont identify you as your mistake, you deserve happiness Wooyoung, and I know you'll find it, you're not the same as anyone else, but that doesn't make you less worthy of success" Wooyoung cries louder, hearing is friends reasurre him makes him actually believe them, he cries of relief, letting himself adjust to their kind words after hours of blaming and cursing himself.

Yunho pulls him into a hug, wiping his tears "It's ok, you may wish you hadn't made mistakes, but you did your best." Wooyoung squeezes him tightly as his sobs quieten, maybe its not the end of the world.

~

Wooyoung has a plan.

After a week of relaxing and planning his next steps, he decides to move. He needs to gain everyone's trust again so he can carry out his dream life. Hours of discussions with Yunho, San and Hongjoong has led him searching for a house outside the city, away from all that hustle and bustle... but not too far away from the city because he still wants to see his friends as much as possible. Once he has finally found a decent house in the suburbs, Wooyoung starts preparing straight away.

He looks at the boxes in his living room, packing a house alone is tough. He doesn't plan to stay long there though, maybe a year or two?

All he needs to do is find his breakthrough. He needs to clear his mind away from the city and start fresh, and the suburbs are perfect, not too loud like the city, but not too quiet like the countryside. He's going to write such revolutionary articles that all the companies will be begging to hire him.

'Thanks hyung for helping me" he watches Hongjoong sort out the messy boxes on the floor as he waves a hand "its no problem Wooyoung, you know you can call me for anything." Wooyoung laughs as he struggles with a heavy box "I do, thank you"

He decides to only take the important furniture and leave things that would be too heavy and bothersome to move around on his own.

When its time to leave, San crushes him in a hug, Yunho doing the same from the back. "I cant believe you're going so suddenly, how will we come over randomly or have spontaneous brunch outings??"

Wooyoung chuckles, voice muffled because of San's chest. "Ey don't be so dramatic, I'm just an hour's drive away, plus I'm not staying there forever I just need a new start, some inspiration". San still doesn't seem impressed, but he respects his best friend's choice so he just pouts, staying silent.

"Ok, but call us everyday got it? And video call! I'll miss your cute face" Yunho kisses his forehead and Wooyoung smiles fondly at his best friends. "Of course I will! I don't want to miss out on anything." He says and the two just crush him in a group hug again, laughing.

Wooyoung looks over Yunho's shoulder to see Hongjoong waiting. He pulls away from his friends and walks over to him, hugging him tightly. "I know we're just neighbours, but it makes me sad that when you come back, we wont anymore, someone else will live there, I-"

"Hyung what nonsense are you saying! Is our relationship just neighbours? You're my one and only Hongjoong hyung, I'm going to call every single day and we'll meet up sometimes" Hongjoong seems to take comfort in his words as he loosens himself in the embrace, breathing a sigh of relief.

"It doesn't matter if someone moves into my apartment and if we're not neighbours anymore, because we're not just neighbours. And I promise that when I come back, we'll still be as close as we are now" Hongjoong nods, embracing him one last time before he leaves.

~

This new place is... big.

It's much bigger than his small one bedroom apartment even though they're the same price, houses are obviously way more expensive in cities. He looks around taking in the emptiness, even with his old furniture none of the rooms will be filled. It doesn't matter anyway, I'll only be living here for a year or two, he keeps reassuring himself.

Wooyoung doesn't know why he keeps needing to do that, it seems like he's made the wrong decision by moving. It's too late now anyway so he's going to have to put up with being all alone for a while. He shakes his head, this is not what's important now, his goal is to find some new inspiration and produce the best work this world has seen.

It's quite cold in the big house, but an eerie sort of cold which makes him shiver. Unpacking had taken a lot of time so he decides to try and sleep. His bed isn't even made yet, but Wooyoung is too tired to put on some sheets so he tucks himself in wearily.

Wooyoung isn't someone who's good at scary things and somehow he feels like he's in a horror movie. He considers calling San or someone,  just to feel safer, but he honestly feels like he could fall asleep within minutes so he swallows up his fears and hides under his unmade covers, drifting off to an uncomfortable sleep.

BANG

~~Here you go! The first chapter yaay! Honestly I wanted to keep writing but this was getting too long so I'll carry on in the next chapter, it kinda ruins the flow but this chapter has gone way over the 3k word mark.
Also I know this chapter was all about Wooyoung, don't worry, we'll definitely see Yeosang in the next one.