escape call | minsung

xxiv

as friday rolled around like an unwelcome tide, jisung felt himself get worse and worse.

"they say that time's supposed to heal ya, but i ain't done much healing," true words from the slay queen adele herself.

seungmin had come to check on him throughout the week like some sort of over-protective parent and jisung wasn't sure whether it was something he liked. it was definitely different, that's for sure. seungmin had his own subtle ways to show his love and care to his friends, so to suddenly be in a direct spotlight of his affections, constantly making him food, asking him how he was, taking him out, jisung was getting whiplash.

sometimes hyunjin came over after work, placed a peck on seungmin's cheek before coming to his room and sitting with him. sometimes they watched dramas together. other times they ate ice cream and gossiped. one time hyunjin held him throughout the night as he sobbed into his shoulder.

when the end of the week came, jisung dreaded it. he dreaded the friday night that he would waste away on too many glasses of alcohol and forget his worries, only to have them crashing back onto him the next morning.

seungmin said go out. he didn't specify where or how he should spend his time.

it wasn't the best decision he'd be making, and he knew he would regret it, but jisung needed it. he needed the hazy pleasure and momentary slowing of time. he needed to forget. to live and pretend that nothing was out of the ordinary, even if just for a few hours.

jisung had made both seungmin and hyunjin swear not to tell minho anything that was happening. he was already busy enough with his work, and probably new girlfriend, and he'd rather not see him right now. maybe after a week. or a month. or however long it took for jisung to get off his mopey ass and slap himself in the face.

maybe it would take a while.

seungmin was against it at first, preaching about "communication" this and "mutual understanding" that. hyunjin tried to add on to his boyfriend's words, but stopped himself when jisung burst into tears.

he felt like an idiot. like a child who can't stop throwing a tantrum about not buying his favorite candy.

but he really really wanted that candy.

now, hyunjin scanned him up and down in the full length mirror in his room. "hmm..." he brought his hand to his chin in thought. "i feel like it's missing something."

jisung sighed. "maybe a belt?" he murmured, trying to cinch the long shirt to exaggerate his waist.

"oh! yes yes yes." his friend clapped in delight as he scrambled to scavenge through jisung's large belt collection. "this one might look good."

as soon as jisung's outfit was done, hyunjin sighed in contentment, looking at him proudly like a mother whose kid was going to prom. "you look stunning!"

"why do i need to, though?" jisung asked, annoyed but relieved that the dress-up doll scene was over. "i'm just going there to drink away my problems and stumble back shit-faced."

hyunjin's lips turned down into a perturbed frown. "just..." he took a step forwards and fixed a smudge of makeup from his eye with his thumb. "just try and have some fun, okay?"

as much as he wanted to shout and refuse and shake his knees like a toddler, he nodded stiffly, straightening his back and patting his hair. he looked good, but he was not necessarily looking for any action tonight. if he did, his heart might explode for sure.

as he made his way to the front of the house, he caught seungmin reading on the couch. "i'm going, seung." he mumbled, catching the boy's attention. seungmin snapped his head towards them and immediately stood up, abandoning his book and walking towards the pair.

"you look nice." he said with a smile. "have fun."

jisung could only nod.

"let's go. i'll drop you off." hyunjin said.

not edited but more updates soon because i hate making jisung sad

cover me is living in my head rent free rn.. which rockstar song is your favorite?