Broken (MinSung 18+)

Chapter 14

TW: KINDA FUCKING ANGSTY

TW: Mentions of worry about self-harm (NO actions)

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Minho locked the door behind the last person to leave and sighed before turning to Jisung, who was back to rubbing his nails against his leg. Even with anxiety building up, he kept an entirely straight face.

"Awe, Bun Bun, if you wanted some time alone with me, all you had to do was-"

"Are you okay?" Minho asked, swallowing and looking the younger up and down for a moment.

Jisung's smile dropped, but not to show the panic that was still slowly pouring in. He was frustrated. Annoyed, even.

"If you know that I use humor as a coping mechanism, why do you continue to just ignore it and poke and prod for how I'm 'feeling', anyway?" He said, standing up. His hands fell to his sides as he glared at the older.

"You're self-aware, and open about it," Minho began, "but that doesn't mean I have to ignore the severity of your mental state just because you try to. And I'm worried that the second you're alone, you might try and do something harmful. So I would like assess your current state of mind and make sure-"

"Loving the communication, Bunny. For sure. But I don't like that it's directed at me. If I wanted to talk shit out, I'd do it, don't you think?" He didn't mean to sound harsh but... this is not what he wanted. "Is this about causing trouble? Because, I promise I understand. Last time, you said not to go off plan and make sure to communicate everything with you about contracts. I understood then, and that mistake won't happen again."

He took a deep breath before continuing. "This time, you say we need to not draw attention to ourselves, and we need to be smarter in handling real-time, unplanned situations. I understand that, too. I can adjust. Are we good? Can I go?"

Jisung was basically spitting out words at this point, but every other emotion in his body was replaced with an anger that was creating tension so thick, it was hard to breathe.

Minho, in turn, closed his eyes. Jisung knew he wanted to help, wanted to make sure that the younger was alright, and wasn't going to do anything stupid. It didn't matter, though. Minho wanted to be rational and helpful, and Jisung didn't want either. He just needed to push through these feelings the way he always did. He always came out okay, in his opinion.

"Can you give me five minutes, please? I promise. That's all I'm asking for. I know that things are a little tense right now, and I'm open to hearing if I'm handling this wrong. But I don't think I deserve this level of frustration from you. If you don't want me to care about you and your well-being, we can talk about that. But healthy communication goes both ways, right?"

The younger male looked down briefly, strands of hair hanging in front of his face as he nodded silently. Minho was still Minho. His boss, his friend, his family. Minho gave him everything, and all he was asking for was five minutes. He tried to will himself to just calm down, so he could put his frustration aside for five minutes.

"So.... do I need to like... set a timer? Or..?" He looked up at Minho, hoping to bring things down a bit and just move forward in the conversation. Minho smiled softly and sat back down on the floor.

"I genuinely just want you to be honest about how you're feeling right now... what's going on in your head, so I don't have to play a guessing game. No restrictions- even if you're pissed at me, personally. I want you to let it out so I can hear what you need to say, but then, in return, you have to be willing to let me respond."