𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐋. ☐

SEVENTEEN.

Jisung and Minho both fell asleep at some time during their talk. Jisung wasn't sure how long he'd been sleeping when Chan finally decided to wake them up, although based on Chan's tired eyes and disheveled hair, it'd been quite some time.

The blond seemed rather stressed about something, from the way his foot subtly tapped and the way he ran his fingers through his dirty curls, but he seemed positive otherwise.

"Good morning, lovebirds," Chan smiled.

Jisung rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, mumbling, "G'mornin.'"

Minho grumbled something unintelligible, and he felt the older lean a bit more on him. He smiled at the action, and he rested his head on top of Minho's. He yawned, and resisted the urge to fall back asleep as Chan spoke.

"I'm glad you two are getting rest, so I hate to wake you," Chan fidgeted with his hands as he spoke, and Jisung assumed he was about to say something rather important because of it. "Felix had another vision, so we were about to start looking for Jeongin."

Minho quickly sat up, accidentally shoving Jisung as he did so, "He had a vision about Jeongin?"

"Yes-" Chan said, and that was enough for the two of them to wake up, both standing up. Jisung wiped the dirt off his jeans as Minho pushed his bangs out of his eyes, and Jisung could hear shaky breaths falling from the student.

"I don't know what we're waiting for, then," Minho said hastily, "Are the others ready? Tell them to be."

"Hold on, Minho," Chan stepped in front of him, "We're letting everyone rest before we go."

"When Jeongin's out there?" Minho hissed, and Jisung could see him beginning to get irritated. He reached out for him and softly grabbed his hand. Minho whipped around to look at him, but Jisung held his ground. Minho's glare quickly faded, and he tightened his hold on Jisung's hand. He took a deep breath and looked back at Chan.

"We want everyone to be healthy for the journey," Chan said, cautiously, "You know what happened last time."

Minho stared at him for a long moment before nodding. "You're right."

"Thank you," Chan said. He turned to look at Jisung and mouthed another thanks, before turning around and walking to the others.

Seungmin was still asleep, and the group of awake students was all conversing rather anxiously. Felix clearly seemed the most frustrated, and Jisung knew better than to question why. He was aware that anything was better than death, but he was beginning to doubt himself at everyone's expressions.

"Felix," Jisung said, giving him a slight nod. Felix made eye contact with him, and his gaze nearly immediately brimmed with tears.

Jisung quickly stepped forward and wrapped his arms around him, embracing him rather tightly. He wasn't sure he'd ever hugged Felix before, and the thought brought forward a hint of awkwardness, to which he quickly buried under his concern.

"Jeongin." Felix simply whispered.

"I know, 'Lix," Jisung kept his voice low. He attempted to imitate Minho's calming voice, and could only hope that he did a good job for the freckled male, "It's okay."

"I wish we could go home."

Felix's voice wavered, threatening to break with every word.

Jisung only buried his head deeper into Felix's shoulder, saying, "Me too."

They held the embrace for a while longer until Felix stopped trembling so intensely. He was the first to pull back, quickly wiping the tears off his face before looking at Jisung again. Jisung hadn't even realized he'd been crying as well until the cold air hit his eyes, and he could feel them sting.