SEQUEL TO HOLD ME
"it's only human."
those are words that stick in the minds of eight boys who have found themselves closer than ever because of a year spent at the same college.
minsung, seungin, changhyunlix... and chan :')
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Jeongin had been working too hard.
Contrary to their plans, the only way Seungmin and his parents were able to actually get Jeongin to agree to move in for the summer was to let him pay rent. As much as Seungmin's parents insisted they'd love for him to stay as a guest, he'd looked about ready to have a nervous breakdown when they kindly asked him to keep his money. Instead, they compromised, so Jeongin ended up paying them only half of what he'd been paying to stay in his last apartment. That way, Jeongin still kept his sanity while Seungmin's endeared family got the chance to show him hospitality.
Unlike Seungmin, who felt no need to go back to work for only three months (rather perfectly happy to spend his college summer vacation just as he'd spent his high school ones: carefree, without obligations), Jeongin immediately found himself a job (or a few) and worked quite a lot. He'd go in early and come home late and within less than a week he looked tired and stressed— almost as much as Chan always had— and it bothered Seungmin. But if he was asked about it, Jeongin would just smile and say he was doing fine; thank Seungmin for the concern.
It was annoying, to be honest, frustrating as heck, to know that he and his parents could easily take care of Jeongin's financial needs for him and would be more than willing to do so, just to see him take it easy— and to see him totally refuse any help even so.
Any little gift, any offer to help with anything seemed to make him uneasy. On the one day this week that Jeongin had been running late, so he was still in the house after sunrise, Seungmin (having just rolled out of bed) had noticed him rushing around and offered to make him breakfast. Jeongin had declined with the half-panicked answer: "Oh, no, hyung, you don't have to. I can do it."
Speaking of breakfast, most of the time when he used something from the fridge or pantry he'd be off to the store the same day to replace it. If he made eggs in the morning, as he stumbled inside at the end of his day to go to bed, he'd be pulling a carton out of a shopping bag to place into the fridge. He was always cleaning up after himself with a passion, sometimes ending up sprinting down the block to make up for lost time on his way to work, because he was determined to clean every dish he used. Always making sure no one was inconvenienced by him being there, in any sort of way.
Seungmin wasn't very experienced as an older brother, having only had that status for about half a year at this point. Caring for people, especially those that were tough to care for, didn't exactly come naturally to him, so he found himself anxiously watching Jeongin overwork himself, unsure of how to help him alleviate his stress when he refused to stop stressing himself out.
One night as Jeongin changed out of his jeans in the closet, Seungmin sat on the younger boy's bed and sighed, long and drawn-out; fed-up. It had quickly become nightly routine, for Seungmin to hang around while Jeongin got ready for bed, because with him working so much there was hardly any other time for them to spend together.
