REBOUND ✔️

🥥 forty seven

"he had... an addiction. and he did something to me... that he didn't mean to..."

minho sat on the couch with his legs hugged tightly to his chest, deep in thought about the tall blonde male. he thought more about what seungmin had told him the night before, and it all troubled him. it seemed he didn't understand hyunjin as much as he thought he did. he didn't realise how broken he really was.

"his dad was strict, and so was mine. hyunjin would always have new bruises everyday, especially after he came out to his parents."

he didn't understand it; his own parents were never around enough to care who and what he liked, so he didn't know what it felt like, but he just couldn't understand it. what was so wrong about liking boys? he wasn't hurting anyone, and minho was sure there would be more important things to worry about in the world.

"his parents sent him to the US for a year, and i never saw him again... until now that is."

it seemed there was so much more to hyunjin than he realised, or that he was even willing to find out in the beginning. he knew hyunjin was reserved, unlike himself, who was an open book. however he didn't realise how much hyunjin had actually gone through in his life, and a lot of things made sense now that minho was aware of them, especially about hyunjin's character.

"hey, minho?"

the aforementioned male was snatched out of his thoughts by his best friend chan, who had called out to him from his seat on the opposite couch. "oh sorry, did you say something?" minho asked, obviously confused seeing as he hadn't been listening to his two friends conversation at all, but you couldn't exactly blame him; he had a lot on his mind.

"have you not been listening this whole time?" chan questioned him with a slightly hurt look. minho just looked at chan, then to changbin, and back to chan, not saying a word. the oldest of the three simply rolled his eyes and sighed. "i was saying, that jeongin and i aren't on the best of terms at the moment. he says he wants to break up because he wants to 'focus on his studies'," chan remarked, making the 'he's full of it' finger movements (what do you even call those? yall know what i mean right?)

"well, that's not necessarily a bad thing. we are coming up to the last trimester, after all," changbin tried to reason, hoping that he could convince chan to drop the subject. all he did nowadays was talk about jeongin, and changbin didn't like it in the slightest. "he's a year below us too, so it may be a good idea for each of you to have some space and think of your futures."

chan sighed for the nth time, looking up at changbin with sad eyes. "i wanted him to be my future," he said, and minho was surprised to say the least. chan was a 'live in the moment' kinda guy, so he wasn't expecting him to have thought about his future, and especially not with someone else. this jeongin guy must be something. however, he also noticed changbin's face drop, his eyes no trained on the ground.

"how are things with hyunjin, anyway?" minho looked up at chan, a surprised look on his face. he hadn't expected chan to bring that up again, but he guessed the older was looking for some consolation for his own failing love life. minho cleared his throat, opening his lips to start talking, but was cut off by changbin giving him wide eyes.

"wait, are you seeing a guy and you didn't tell me?" he asked in disbelief, crossing his arms over his chest with a pout. "wow, and to think we were friends," he then remarked, huffing and looking away from the older male.

minho laughed lightly at him, pushing his arm lightly. "i didn't tell chan either, he just happened to find out through jeongin because him and hyunjin are roommates, and he came over to the dorm while i was there," minho explained, hoping that his friend didn't take it completely to heart. "besides, you've been hanging out with jisung more recently, and even though i've made up with chaeyoung, i still wanna hit him again for what he did."

changbin sighed. "you always resort to violence. maybe you should just talk to him calmly," the youngest suggested, chan nodding along with him as he reached into his pocket to answer his ringing phone. "anyways, don't try and change the subject; i wanna know more about this hyunjae dude," changbin then said with a wide grin.

minho rolled his eyes. "his name is hyunjin, and we are—"

"woah woah, slow down innie," chan said to the phone, obviously indicating that jeongin was on the other side of the call. although changbin and minho couldn't hear what he was saying, jeongin was loud over the phone, and it sounded like he was crying. then leaned closer to chan, who was sat on the opposite couch to both of them, trying to listen in on the conversation.

"okay, slow down... look, we'll come over, okay?... okay, bye," and with that, chan ended the call and jumped to his feet. "guys, i'm going over to jeongin's dorm. it sounds like something bad has happened over there but i don't know what. you guys can come if you want to." the eldest was already slipping on his shoes before he had even finished speaking, and had rushed out the door without waiting for the other two.

minho and changbin both looked over at each other, simultaneously getting up and putting their own shoes on before rushing out the door after chan.

it only took them just over five minutes to get to the other dorm building, seeing as they had pretty much ran the whole way there. once they were inside, they paused for a moment, chan urging them to hurry as he continued up the stares, hesitant to wait for the others, while changbin had bent over with his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

"keep going, i'll be up in a sec," he said between pants, waving his hand at them to shoo them off. minho continued up the stairs after chan, and they met the quick pace again and ran all the way up to the third floor. minho felt nostalgic as he ran up the stairs, remembering the time hyunjin had pulled him up to treat his cut knuckle. instinctively, he looked down at it, the scar not even visible now, but still he sighed as they reached the floor. it was then that a thought crossed minho's mind...

was it hyunjin that needed help?

minho took over chan as they reached the top, wanting to make sure that it was not hyunjin after all. he ran down the hall, sighting the door to jeongin and hyunjin's shared dorm room, noticing straight away that the door had been left slightly opened. he stepped forward, pushing the door open as his eyes laid upon hyunjin, unconscious on the floor, with jeongin shaking him, trying to wake him.

and minho froze.

"he passed out once at school, and that was his last day at our school."

he felt chan pushed past him, closely followed by changbin, who rushed to hyunjin's side. minho watched as he barked orders to everyone, but minho couldn't hear a word. he watched as everyone rushed around him, but he couldn't move a muscle. he only stared down at hyunjin helplessly, and his guilt was immense.

—
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