His Precious

Six:

Week one without Minho:

Chan is worried. It's been a week since Danceracha got on a plane to go to LA, and he hasn't seen Jisung sleep once.

"Ji-"

"I don't want to hear it, Hyung. I'm fine. I need to finish this song and then I'll sleep." Jisung says, pushing passed the older boy,

"But Ji-"

"Gotta go!" He says, running through the door and down the hallway. Chan sighs, looking at his phone to see the text from Minho asking him to keep an eye on Jisung.

"Sorry, Min... he's stubborn." He mutters to himself. He replies that he'll do his absolute best before turning back to his own work.

Down the hall, Jisung is finished with his song... well, the fourth song in the last two days. He's been drowning himself in work, although he refuses to admit it.

He gathers his things, trying desperately to sneak passed Chan... to no avail.

"Jisung!"

"Chan, I really can't talk! I have a shift starting in a half hour and I really have to go!"

"But Jisung, that's a whole week now you've been doing both jobs."

"Really can't talk Chan. If I'm late today, I'll have to hear about it every day from my one coworker."

"Everyday? Ji how many shifts did you sign up for?"

"Shit, I really need to go! I'll see you tomorrow!" He says, running off.

"Take tomorrow off!" The older boy calls after him, only hoping he hears him.

Jisung runs all the way to work, glad that he can keep up a workout while also staying busy. The more he has to do, the more occupies his time... and the less he thinks about Minho.

He's talked to him a few times since he's left. Two short text conversations and a very rushed phone call. Each time, both have been busy.

It's not that Jisung wants to ignore the older boy, more that if he thinks about him too much, he'll crumble.

They haven't spoken about what they did before Minho left, but Jisung felt it for a few days, his back screaming at him every time he moved. He has no idea how Minho feels about it. Was it a heat of the moment thing or were there feelings underneath it all?

He doesn't let himself think about it more, instead dawning his apron and entering the restaurant to be met with rush hour.

The busiest time of day has become his favourite time, the thoughts having no room to creep in while he takes order upon order.

He feels exhaustion tugging at him, as he has for days. He pushes it away, continuing his work.

When he gets home for the night he crashes on the couch, having been too afraid to sleep in that bed again, utterly alone.

Week three without Minho:

The bags underneath the rapper's eyes seem to be permanent at this point. A fact he pretends not to know.

His latest calls with Minho have all been voice calls, Jisung not being able to show the older how badly he's doing without him. The calls are short and sweet, the younger not wanting to express how much he needs him home.

Despite Minho's reassurance that if he needs to slip, Chan is a safe space (the two having told Chan in confidence), Jisung can't bring himself to slip with the oldest boy. The first and only time they tried, at the beginning of week two, Hannie cried so much for his Minho hyung that Chan had to force him to drink water so he wouldn't dehydrate and then put him down for a nap.

Therefore, no slipping.

Every time someone tries to talk to him, expressing their concern, he pretends to have something to do, running away. He feels that if he dodges it, they'll eventually just believe that he's fine.

The fact that the days seem to be getting longer kills Jisung. Everyday it feels as if he has to work longer and harder in order to get through. It's only been three weeks and he's absolutely exhausted.

He's currently sitting in the studio, writing some lyrics, when his phone goes off. Without looking, he answers it.

"Hello?"

"Why am I looking at your ceiling? Show me your face." Comes the pouty voice of his best friend.

"Oh, hey Min. Can't do that, I have stuff all over and have no hands to hold my phone right now." He lies, looking at his absolutely empty desk. "You look cute today though." He compliments the boy, who is walking outside somewhere.

"Thanks! I'm on my way to practise but I miss your face so much!" He whines.

"Ugh, fine. You can look at my face for ten seconds." Jisung caves, showing the boy his face.

"There's my precious bubs! Have you been sleeping enough? Eating enough? Drinking enough water? Ah you're so cute!"

"Hyung~ stop! I'm fine. I should be worried about YOU!"

"No worries, precious, I'm okay." Jisung's heart skips a beat.

"Hyung.. I thought maybe we could talk about-"

"MINHO HYUNG HURRY UP OR WE'LL BE LATE!" He hears Felix's voice.

"Sure bubs. I'll call you later and we can talk about whatever you want, okay? Love you!" The call disconnects.

Jisung feels his heart drop. He desperately needs to slip, and Minho referring to him as "precious" only makes it worse. He takes a deep breath, trying once more to focus on his work. Feeling that he won't be getting anything else done today, he sighs, closing his laptop and packing up, deciding to take the long way to the restaurant today.

He puts his earbuds in, listening to a few of the tracks that Changbin sent him to look over, followed by a podcast to make him think about literally anything but his need for MInho.

The shop seems fairly dead today, so Jisung makes work of doing some of the deep cleaning tasks that nobody ever has time to do. He casually chats with his one coworker while doing so.

"Hey, Ji." She says shyly.

"What's up, Yu-na."

"Are you okay? You've been here twenty one days in a row... even the boss isn't here that much. I'm just worried about you." Jisung has to choke back a sob and nod.

"I'm fine, really. Just need to keep myself busy. Will you go make sure the ice machine is drained enough for me to clean it?"

"Sure thing, Ji." She says, sighing defeatedly. The truth is that everyone can see he isn't okay but they don't know how to help.

The shift goes by fairly quickly, and before Jisung can make it out of the door, Yu-na is calling his name."

"Jisung, Su-Ho and I were hoping to check out this new Ramen shop and we were wondering if you'd come with us? We understand if you're busy but we are kind of scared to go by ourselves."

"Oh, sure. I'm pretty hungry."

"Great. She said she'll meet us by the boba stand." Jisung smiles at her and she smiles back. She knows he misses Minho, how could she not? The boy talks about him like he put the stars in the sky. But until he gets back, she's just going to find healthy ways to keep his mind off of the pain.

Taking his arm, she leads them to the boba stand where they meet their classmate for tea. They get Jisung to laugh and, even just for a little while, he feels okay.