Hate me. (Minsung)

//116//

after finishing their food, minho began collecting the dishes to bring them to the sink.

the three of them ate comfortably and continued to speak to each other of course, going into random topics and minho stealing glances of the person next to him.

however once minho stood up to gather the dishes, jisung looked over at ms. lee, who motioned with her head that he should go follow him.

"i'm going to head back to bed to rest some more." she then announced, still holding the blanket around her. "thank you boys." she smiled and went to head back upstairs.

she had more energy than the previous days, and her complexion didn't look deathly ill anymore.

this made both the boys very happy, although her cough did worry them still. it still sounded bad, but at least she was able to move around by herself now.

once she left, jisung turned his head to look over at minho, pushing his chair out to quickly follow him to the sink.

"so um- how did you sleep?" he suddenly questioned, hopping up on the counter so he could watch minho do his thing.

he kicked his legs as the water came on, looking at minho's side profile.

"i slept fine." he said, smiling softly as he put the dish sponge under the water and squeezed it. "after you woke up did you go back to sleep okay?"

jisung sheepishly smiled and looked at the counter to observe the marble patterns dancing in it. "i did." he hummed.

he then looked back up at minho. "i just wanted to thank you for everything. you didn't have to help me through that last night- and it made me realize that all this time my fears have been irrational."

minho paused his scrubbing and looked over.

"i became so dependent on having someone there that i realize it's.. unhealthy for me to depend on people that much. after last night i know now that even if i'm by myself i'm not isolated or trapped anywhere.." he trailed off, hearing minho lightly exhale through his nose as he placed a dish on the drying rack.

"you can still rely on me though." he said. "relying on someone doesn't always mean it's unhealthy. just as long as you really do know that you're not isolated or abandoned anymore. you can still rely on your friends."

minho briefly looked at him again. "on me." he went back to picking up the next cup to rinse under the water, and jisung felt his stomach flip from where he was sitting.

he couldn't help getting slightly flustered, so he settled on nodding his head and looked down at his socks.

"but uh- yeah. i think- i mean of course i still hate being home alone and prefer you there but.. don't feel like you can't ever go anywhere because of me. i'll be fine now. after last night." he hesitantly looked up at the older's profile again before looking back down.

why does he do that? why can't he ever keep his eyes still?

"like i said, i prefer being home anyway. i'm not a fan of leaving in the first place." minho said, taking the last dish and swirling the soapy sponge around it. "last night was actually my first night of real rest in a while."

jisung blinked, mouth falling slightly agape as he stared at minho. "..why haven't you been sleeping?" he questioned, a flame of hope burning deep inside him as he anticipated the answer.

minho gave a slight smile and put the final dish over to the drying rack, using a small hand towel to dry his hands and folding it up as he eyed jisung.

he started waking over which automatically had the blonde suddenly gulping.

it didn't help that minho was looking directly at him, which made jisung want to melt into the counter and swirl along with the marble.