Not Afraid

One Night

[11:46pm]

It started with slow rumblings. Rain was pouring outside, making the living room feel much colder than before. Lightning struck and lit up the room. Minkyun shot his hands up to his ears as a reflex, bracing himself for the sound that would come next. He learned that there will always be thunder after lightning, for thunder is the result of lightning, and sound travels slower than light.

They say to fight fire with fire, and since Minkyun was afraid of the thunder, he decided to search up about it. However, it did nothing to help, he would still cower under his blanket during thunderstorms even though he knew that they would not hurt him.

Minkyun and Jaeyoung were watching a movie together at home, one person on each side of the couch. The rest of the members went home for the day off and Yuto had followed Seungjun home this time. Jaeyoung and Minkyun had schedules early the next day so they chose to stay in the dorms. From the corner of his eyes, Jaeyoung could see Minkyun flinching and covering his ears every time lightning struck. It seemed weird to Jaeyoung, but he didn't pry about the other's behaviour. Minkyun suddenly stood up, taking Jaeyoung by surprise.

"This movie's boring. I'm heading to bed first," he said as composed as he could.

The shaking in his voice didn't go unnoticed by Jaeyoung. "Are you afraid of the thunder?"

"Pft, who do you think I am? Who even is afraid of thunder nowadays?"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not a kid. Good night," Minkyun said as he walked to his bedroom and shut the door.

"He'll be alright..... Right?" Jaeyoung said to himself. The movie only had half an hour left so he decided to finish it alone before heading to bed.

He tried to cover his ears, he pulled the blankets up to his head, he tried to fall asleep, anything that would drown out the vicious sound of the thunder, the flashing of lightning. He wanted to just disappear and get away from all of those. He shut his eyes so tight that tears started to fall. Another flash of light, another clap of thunder. Minkyun couldn't take it anymore. He needed someone, but he didn't want to go to Jaeyoung, he didn't want Jaeyoung to think that he was childish, being afraid of such a harmless thing. He still wanted at least some comfort from the man, but his pride kept him from doing so. So he stayed in bed, praying that this would all be over soon.

[12:32am]

The movie ended and Jaeyoung switched the TV off. He headed to bed, thoughts of Minkyun still on his mind. He had been thinking about it the whole time after Minkyun left to go to bed, whether he would be alright alone. Minkyun might not seem like the kind to be scared of these, but he was afraid of horror movies, or anything horror-related actually. Thinking back to that haunted house they both went to during their debut days, Minkyun was terrified to the point where his legs were shaking. Jaeyoung couldn't help but be worried about him, so he left the comfort of his bed to go check up on Minkyun.

He knocked on the door softly, not wanting to wake the other up if he was asleep. "Minkyun ah, are you asleep?" After he opened the door, he could hear sniffles and uneven breathing over the pouring rain outside. He quickly walked over to Minkyun's bed and bent down, a hand caressing the other's head.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked softly.

Hearing Jaeyoung's voice, Minkyun quickly wiped his tears away and sat up to face him.

"Yeah, I'm f-fine."

"No, you aren't. You're crying. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. You can go back to sleep-"

A bright flash of lightning illuminated the room suddenly and Minkyun didn't even have time to react before a loud clap of thunder rang through the sky. He yelped and put his head in his hands, pulling his legs up to his chest. Jaeyoung could see that Minkyun was shaking.

"H-hey, can I hug you for a while?" Minkyun asked in a panicked voice before Jaeyoung could say anything.

"Yeah it's alright. Talk to me." Jaeyoung said in a low voice as he let Minkyun wrap his arms around him.

"I'm s-scared," Minkyun whimpered. He couldn't care about his pride anymore, he needed Jaeyoung. He started to cry, making Jaeyoung unsure of what to do. He could feel Minkyun shivering as he hugged him back tightly.

"Hey, it's alright, I'm here. Do you want to lie down together? You seem cold."

Minkyun hummed in response and Jaeyoung guided them to lie down, an arm under Minkyun's head, the other draped over his waist. He pulled up the blankets and ran his fingers through Minkyun's fluffy hair, in an attempt to calm the visibly shaken boy down, and whispered words of comfort into his ears. Minkyun snuggled into the other's neck, hands grabbing tightly onto Jaeyoung's shirt.

"P-please don't l-leave," Minkyun pleaded.

"I won't. I'll be here with you. Calm down okay? I'm right here and nothing can hurt you."

Jaeyoung started to rub circles on Minkyun's back and he could feel Minkyun trying to press his head into Jaeyoung more. After several moments of holding the younger in his embrace, he could hear snoring and decided to drift into dreamland himself.

[2:04am]

Minkyun woke up to the sound of thunder and started to breathe heavily. He realises that Jaeyoung is still here with him and he couldn't be anymore grateful for that. He quickly scuffled closer to Jaeyoung and hugged him tighter.

"Minkyun?" Jaeyoung said in a raspy voice. The younger's movements had awoken him.

"O-oh sorry for waking you, I got startled by another rumble of thunder." Minkyun pressed his head against Jaeyoung's chest once more.

"What are you doing?" Jaeyoung asked out of curiosity. "You did that before too."

"I was j-just trying to focus on your h-heartbeat..." Minkyun said in a small voice.

"Does it calm you down?"

"It's better than l-listening to the thunder. I a-always did this with my mum when I was y-younger. Hearing your heartbeat makes me feel s-safe."

Both stayed in that cuddling position in silence until Minkyun had calmed down a little. Jaeyoung was surprised to see this side of Minkyun.

"You're not gonna make fun of me?" Minkyun asked cautiously.

"Why would I? It's okay to be afraid of thunder. Do the rest know about this?"

"No... I never told them. It's too embarrassing. Promise me you won't tell them when they get back."

"Okay I won't, but you have to know that it isn't something to be embarrassed about, yeah? Everyone has their own fears," Jaeyoung comforted him. Both of them had always been a little awkward with each other, but now that Jaeyoung knows something that the other members do not know about Minkyun, he felt a little closer to him. They have their little secret now and that thought made Jaeyoung smile a little.

"Thank you for checking up on me, and for not making fun of me..." Minkyun mumbled and closed his eyes, falling asleep once again.

Jaeyoung smiled at the little mumbling. Even though the younger didn't seem scared anymore, he pulled Minkyun closer and let sleep take him away.

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Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.
Have a nice day <3