diff --git a/Lib/test/test_io/test_general.py b/Lib/test/test_io/test_general.py
index 604b56cea21fac..3acae3d07b48f4 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_io/test_general.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_io/test_general.py
@@ -2287,6 +2287,10 @@ def test_readinto(self):
                 self.assertEqual(getattr(pair, method)(data), 5)
                 self.assertEqual(bytes(data), b"abcde")
 
+        # gh-138720: C BufferedRWPair would destruct in a bad order resulting in
+        # an unraisable exception.
+        support.gc_collect()
+
     def test_write(self):
         w = self.MockRawIO()
         pair = self.tp(self.MockRawIO(), w)
diff --git a/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-09-17-57-49.gh-issue-138720.hAtsm-.rst b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-09-17-57-49.gh-issue-138720.hAtsm-.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000000..4f3f54e1deb89f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Misc/NEWS.d/next/Library/2025-09-09-17-57-49.gh-issue-138720.hAtsm-.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+Fix an issue where :class:`io.BufferedWriter` and :class:`io.BufferedRandom`
+had different definitions of "closed" for :meth:`~io.IOBase.close` and
+:meth:`~io.IOBase.flush` which resulted in an exception when close called
+flush but flush thought the file was already closed.
diff --git a/Modules/_io/bufferedio.c b/Modules/_io/bufferedio.c
index 25be21111b95ee..e8765653bb43c2 100644
--- a/Modules/_io/bufferedio.c
+++ b/Modules/_io/bufferedio.c
@@ -553,8 +553,8 @@ _io__Buffered_close_impl(buffered *self)
     if (!ENTER_BUFFERED(self)) {
         return NULL;
     }
-
-    r = buffered_closed(self);
+    /* gh-138720: Use IS_CLOSED to match flush CHECK_CLOSED. */
+    r = IS_CLOSED(self);
     if (r < 0)
         goto end;
     if (r > 0) {