~<*>~ Pain in me ~<*>~

Chapter 7

This is the voicemail of Dino Lee, please leave a message after the beep. *beep*

"Dino, please just pick up, I'm worried sick. Where are you?" Scoups sighs as he puts his phone down. It's already getting dark and Dino hasn't returned home yet since their argument, which happened a few hours ago. Scoups is worried, what if something happened to Dino? He can't help but remember the time his roommate got kidnapped. They were in a fight too back then, Scoups can't help but be worried that this might have happened again. Maybe Dino would be at Wonwoo's? Or at the dance room? Scoups has no idea and it's making him mad. After half an hour extra of being stressed out, Scoups decides it has been enough. The black-haired male puts on his jacket, gets his keys and leaves the house. When he gets to his car, Scoups notices Dino's motorcycle. An exhale of relief escapes his lips, Dino can't be that far if he didn't take his motorbike. Scoups gets in the car and immediatly drives to Wonwoo, it would make sense if Dino went to his best friend to complain about him. Even though Scoups is shaking in stress, he still chuckles. Every time again they fight, every time again they tell each other mean things, but every time again they are worried sick about each other. Scoups shakes his head in disbelief looking at himself. What kind of friendship is this? When Scoups arrives at the apartment, he rushes towards the door and bangs the wood. The black-haired male hears some sounds behind the door and a few seconds later, Mingyu opens the door and looks at Scoups surprised. Scoups feels the same, he is startled by the sight of his old friend, his hair is longer and curly, it seems like he has changed in some ways. Only now, Scoups realizes he hasn't seen them since he got out of jail. The two friends stare at each other in silence, just admiring the changes. Scoups is speechless, he even forgot why he came here in the first place. 
"Mingyu, who's there?" another voice comes from behind. 
"You're not fooling me now, are you?" Wonwoo jokes, but his smile soon drops when he sees Scoups. Now Scoups looks even more surprised, Wonwoo's hair is short, it almost dissapeared.
"Scoups", Wonwoo says with a smile and the male with glasses is quick to wrap his arms around the former leader. Now Mingyu joins too, they all stand there in silence, enjoying each other's presence. 
"You've changed", Mingyu mumbles when they break the hug.
"And you guys didn't?" Scoups asks chuckling, "I mean, look at you!" he adds while he ruffles his hand through Mingyu's hair and pats Wonwoo's shoulder.
"We missed you", Wonwoo says and Scoups nods.
"I missed you too, I'm sorry I didn't visit earlier", he apologizes, but Mingyu waves it off.
"We haven't visited you a lot either, so it's okay", he says calmly.
"How are you doing, by the way?" Scoups asks curiously. Wonwoo lifts his shoulders innocently.
"It could be better, but we're alive", he says unbothered.
"And that's what counts, isn't it?" Mingyu adds shrugging. Scoups nods, but he has a weird feeling. Why are they acting as if they're hiding something?
"Dino already told us you came back, but we have been busy so we coudn't stop by", Mingyu says, referring to the past topic. Dino. Scoups' mind gets activated again and he suddenly feels worry rush through his body again.
"Have you seen Dino today?" he suddenly asks and Wonwoo frowns confused.
"Uh, no, we haven't. Why?" he asks puzzled and Scoups curses underneath his breath.
"He has just been gone for too long, but I'm looking for him right now. Anyways, I got to get going then! Nice to see you again!" Scoups yells as he runs through the hallway again. He hears Wonwoo cough while Mingyu yells a goodbye back.
"Dino, where are you?" Scoups mumbles as he gets into his car again. Not knowing anything better, he drives towards the dance room. When he arrives, he tries to open the door, but it's locked. Which means Dino can't be here.
"Goddamnit, where are you?" Scoups curses while he gets in his car again. Devestated, Scoups starts to drive around the city. At a sudden moment, he passes a woman with long, blond hair and Scoups seems to know her from somewhere, but he drove by too fast to actually recognize her face. Sighing, Scoups focusses on the road again. 

After an hour and a half of searching, Scoups still hasn't found any sign of his roommate. Defeated, he decided to return to his own apartment. Now he's opening his front door, trying his best not to cry out of pure frustration. He switches on the light and he gets startled when he sees Dino sitting down on the ground, his back against the counter and his chin on his chest.
"Dino?" Scoups asks relieved. The brunette looks up, but it doesn't feel like he's actually looking at him.
"Where were you? I have been looking for you everywhere!" Scoups yells angry, but Dino only lifts his shoulders.
"My apologies, sir," he says to Scoups' surprise, "I was just having a drink. Or two. Maybe three. Or was it four?" It is obvious now that Dino is drunk and Scoups can't hold back a chuckle.
"I was worried, please don't do that again", Scoups says softly and Dino overly shakes his head.
"I won't, you have my word, sir!" he says while he lifts up two fingers, which he puts in his mouth right after. Scoups frowns confused, but he also finds it kind of funny.
"You know why I drank so much, sir?" Dino says after he put his fingers out of his mouth. Scoups shakes his head curiously.
"I have a friend, well I guess he's my friend. Our relationship is a bit complicated, you know", Dino starts to blur out and Scoups starts to suspect the brunette is talking about him. Curious, he keeps listening.
"I really like him. He feels like he's my soulmate. But he did something bad, really bad." Dino falls silent and Scoups stares at his roommate sitting on the ground. He wants to know more.
"You're supposed to ask what he did", Dino says dryly and dissapointed and Scoups needs to hold back his laughter.
"What did he do?" Scoups asks after he cleared his troath. 
"He killed someone. That's bad, isn't it? He went to jail for it too. I was really mad about it, but now I'm starting to doubt. He killed that man to save me. He also almost died in the proces. Can you believe how worried I was?" Dino stops for a brief moment to scratch his head and Scoups takes a deep breath. He feels hot tears starting to grow in his eyes.
"And then he woke up. And then I kidnapped him. I know it sounds weird when you hear it like that, but I had a good reason, I swear", Dino says as he puts up his hands in defense. Scoups smiles as one single tear rolls down his cheek. It's like his breath gets cut off. He remembers those days vividly, as if it was yesterday. 
"But then we started to fight and I don't really know what happened, but suddeny he got arrested for murder. I was mad, angry, hurt and dissapointed. I didn't want to see him, I thought he was a coward. But now I understand why he did it. He didn't want to involve the others in his bullshit. So he just acted like a true leader and took the blame. I regret the fact that I never visited him when he was in jail. Now he's free by the way, but things only got worse between us. I was mad at him for going to jail, but also for hurting me. But later on, I realized that I was the one hurting him. And how can I fix something like that? I don't know what to do. I started to avoid him even more because I was scared to hurt him. But obviously I hurt him even more while doing that. Why is friendship so complicated!?" Dino grunts defeated and tears stream down Scoups' face. He never knew his roommate felt like that and Scoups feels like they were both wrong on this one. Scoups tries to take deep breaths to calm down, but the emotions are overflowing.
"I just want him to know", Dino continues, "that our frienship never ended and that my love for him never faded. It's just like the sun, you may not see it at night, but it's still there." At those words, Scoups can't hold it back anymore and loud sobs fill the room as Scoups covers his face with his hands. If Dino only knew how much he helped Scoups get through jail, even though he wasn't there at all. Through his sobs, Scoups hears some sounds and soon after, two arms wrap themselves around Scoups' waist.
"Why are you crying? Was I too wise?" Dino asks, his soft voice is muffled by Scoups' shoulder.
"Thank you", Scoups answers as he wipes his tears.
"You're welcome! Let's get to bed now, I'm tired. See you later, sir!" Dino yells as he already makes his way towards his room.
"See you later", Scoups mumbles softly as he sits down on the couch. He's shocked but also moved from the whole situation. He's relieved to know that Dino really still cares about Scoups. Maybe their friendship could be saved after all.

~<*>~

Dino wakes up with an enormous headache the next morning. His clothes from the day before are still on and it seems like he didn't really tuck himself in properly, except for a blanket that is placed over him. Silently grunting, Dino starts to remember things from yesterday. He had showed Aylen the coffee shop and sticked around to drink with her, but he ended up being drunk. What happened after is just blurry in his head. He must have been pretty drunk. He only remembers talking to a man about Scoups, but maybe that just happened in his dreams. With a tired sigh, the brunette flicks on a small light and he almost screams when the light shows him the face of a man sitting down in his chair in a corner of his room. Breathing heavily, Dino notices that the man is in fact his roommate and it looks like he's sleeping. What could have happened last night? Why is Scoups in his room, sleeping on a chair? Did he tuck Dino in and fall asleep after? Did Dino tell Scoups everything that was on his mind? Was Scoups the man Dino was talking to last night, if he even talked to a man? Already hating his headache, Dino rubs his forehead and slowly gets up from bed. He quickly checks if Scoups has any nightmares, but the male is sleeping peacefully so Dino tiptoes outside. When he reaches the kitchen, he immediatly takes some medicine to cure his hangover and he sits down at the kitchen table. He has talked with Aylen yetserday and it made him think a lot about his friendship with Scoups. They hurt each other badly, but in the end, they both care too much for each other to let each other go. So maybe Dino has to quit being foolish and just accept Scoups in his life again. Just like the group and his other friends. He's not in Korea anymore, he's back in Boston, back where he was a few years ago. Even though a lot has changed, he just has to move on again and continue to work like back then. And now he can be at ease since Stray kids is gone. Dino shivers because it's a bit cold and puts his hands in his pockets. He's just about to zone out when his hand feels something, a piece of paper. When did he put that in his pocket? Confused, he takes it out and notices it's a letter. His eyes flash past the letters curiously while he reads the note:

Dear Dino,

If you got this letter, I'm probably already dead. You hated me and I get that. To be honest, I was cold towards you and I did help Felix kidnap you, but in the end, I always admired you. It's weird because you're just a stupid kid, but something keeps on impressing me. Is it your braveness? Your stubborness? Or maybe your young age? No, I believe it's your determination. You never back down, even if you're terrified. I saw the look on your face when we kidnapped you. You had been tortured for days, you should have gone mad or been broken. But instead, you still had some light inside of you. Hope, to get out of there. And when your team actually came, you still thought ahead, warning your crew first before thinking about yourself. You shot me too that day, I must admit it hurt like hell, but I actually admired that. You were in such a fucked up situation, and still you were able to harm us. To harm me. Do you know how little people have harmed me? But I didn't want to write this note to tell you how amazing you are, I'm still your enemy. I just want to clear my name a bit because if I'm dead, which is the case because you're reading this, I can't tell you the truth anymore. I want you to know that I had nothing to do with your first attack. It may sound as a stupid excuse, but I know you'll believe me. You know I'm a loner, and as a loner I make my own decisions. And I decided only to give information at that time. I only got in action from Hoshi's death, that was me. But I had nothing to do with the attack on you, or the death of that guy of your team or those ten innocent people at the party. I don't know why I'm telling you this or why I'm helping you, but just make sure that I didn't do this for nothing. You're clever enough to know what you have to do now.

Good luck,

Minho

Dino stares at the letter in shock. When did Minho put this in his pocket? How did he not find this yet in two years? But his biggest concern is what's inside of that letter. If Minho didn't attack him, how were there eight people? If Minho really told Dino the truth, does that mean a member from Stray kids is still running around, freely? Does this mean Scoups and the team are still in danger? Or is Minho just making this all up? Dino sighs, even if he's dead for two years, Minho is still able to make Dino's mind explode.