coincidental | minsung

20

.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.

The bed was warm when Jisung woke up. His head hurt like hell and there was a horrible metallic taste in his mouth. He pushed his hair back from his forehead and groaned, turning round to face Minho and see if the older was awake.

The other side of the bed was empty. Little did Jisung know, it had been the whole night. It smelled like him, the whole room did, but Minho was nowhere to be seen. 

"He's not here." 

Jisung rolled quickly onto his other side, locked eyes with Hyunjin, who was watching him from where he laid on Seungmin's bed. 

"Where is he?" Jisung croaked. His throat felt like he'd spent the past 12 hours swallowing razors.

Hyunjin shrugged. "He'll come back eventually. He brought you here, right? And don't worry, I've texted Changbin. Him and your other friend... Chan? They're super worried, but they know you're safe."

There was a moment as Jisung gazed around the room. Similar to the times he'd been there before, but something felt... different. It took him a second to realise - the plants scattered throughout the room were starting to wilt. Leaves turning dull, petals curling and drying on the ground. 

"How did Minho find me?" Jisung mumbled, still looking at the plants, refusing to look at Hyunjin.

"You're lucky you called Felix." There was a faint smile on Hyunjin's face. "The resident alcoholic, he knows every bar in the city and all of their special drinks. Heard you order Cherry Blues, knew you were at a bar in Namguro. Called Minho, told him to go get you."

"I'm surprised Minho did," Jisung answered sulkily. Hyunjin laughed at this. 

"Of course he did. So naive, Jisung. Minho's never given anyone as much thought as he does you, not in the time I've known him." Hyunjin continued to stare at Jisung, even as the younger avoided his gaze.

Jisung paused. "How long have you known him?"

The question went unanswered for a couple of minutes. Hyunjin was weighing it up in his head. He knew exactly what Jisung was asking, but wasn't sure how much to say when he replied.

"Since..." 

Jisung finally met Hyunjin's eyes. 

"Fine. Since it happened. Felix told me what Chan said to you." 

The silence from Jisung made Hyunjin groan, roll his eyes, flip over onto his back so he could aim his words at the ceiling rather than Jisung's expectant face.

"I didn't know him, not really. I've always lived in Seoul, but I'd gone to Incheon for a dance competition. That's where he was before he came here. I met Minho maybe... a week before it happened? We didn't like each other much, not at first. He thought I was cocky, I thought he was annoyingly better than me."

This made Jisung's lips quirk up slightly. He and Hyunjin had a few things in common, at least.

"We got a little closer, exchanged numbers in case we were ever in the same area, even though I was going back to Seoul and he was staying in Incheon. But then I was waiting to get the night bus, and out of nowhere, he's there. He looked wrecked. Not crying, but these big black circles around his eyes, looked like he hadn't washed or changed his clothes in days. Had what seemed to be all of his belongings wrapped up in bundles in each hand."

"Wasn't sure where he came from. But when I got on the bus, he followed me. He was like a feral cat; he wouldn't speak to me, wouldn't let me ask him anything or try to comfort him, just followed me around. Kept his distance. It took me ages of being slow, cautious, pushing his boundaries, before he started to open up."