In the debate world, there are five unspoken rules. The first four are trivial; simple social laws that every sane person would understand.
But the last one. Now that's something.
Rule Number Five: Never, ever, under any circumstances, date your d...
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today's theme: unnoticeable
It should have stopped there.
A quiet night under the stars, an atmosphere so calming, anyone would have felt those things. A fleeting instance, a one-time epiphany that fluttered into the past as quickly as it came.
That was what he wanted to believe, at least. But he knew that would never be the case.
Whatever had caused the engraving, the solidification of that first rule, had set off a bigger cascade in Jisung. He wasn't racing to find more answers, to fill out the rest of it all just yet, but a part of him was certainly desperate.
The things he felt didn't just go away like that. It stuck in his stomach, his chest and his memories for hours after. It left him paralyzed in the aftermath, replaying scenes and pixels and fragments that blurred together into those few hours with Minho.
It came to him grudgingly, a slow process that eventually wore him into surrendering at the end. That lightbulb, or so Jumin called it back then. From its flickering spark point down to when it became blindingly bright and seared itself into permanence, everything about it declared exhaustion at all points.
Would the next four checkboxes drag out this long, harbour such gradual timelines? He certainly hoped not.
It probably wouldn't. Jumin did say the first one would always be the hardest one. Everything would come fast after that. An avalanche of desired realizations, he called it.
He was right. He needed to find out the others—he craved the feeling and demanded the answers of the four remaining rules.
Starting with the third one.
It had almost so subtly appeared for a split second yesterday. Yet, it came at such a glaringly obvious topic, he knew the exact—and only—way to get through to it.
He wouldn't be doing this alone, though. When it came to the contexts of the third rule...only one person knew his relation to it as well as he did.
"Wait, walk me through it again." Marcus got out of the driver's seat of his car, slamming it shut and waiting for him.
He sighed. "Jumin the Minho Bestie tells Jisung five rules. Jisung finds one rule yesterday—everybody say 'wow, Jisung!'—but Jisung wants four more. Sooo...Jisung plus Marcus the Bestie go on the amazing adventure search for the four others!"
"I said walk me through it, not hold my hand and teach me the alphabet."
"We went over this like, three times. I was beginning to doubt you had the brain capacity to handle any language more complicated than that."
They walked out of the parking lot, passing by a few people that were also headed in the same direction, duffel bags slung over their shoulder. Jisung glanced at each and every one of them, keeping his eyes peeled for a certain individual.
