LOSE MY BREATH

LMB 48

48: Minho wasn't the first.

There were many things Minho considered a mystery in their shared apartment in the modern world.

The ease of making yourself a meal with the appliances in the kitchen was unprecedented, yet Jisung still reached for the phone to order whenever he was hungry. He would often whine and groan when Minho gently pried the item from his hand. Jisung still ate the food Minho made with a smile on his face.

He did not like the way the walls were built thin enough that sometimes during their lovemaking, Minho had to kiss Jisung to muffle the sounds he made, lest it disturb the neighbours. He could hear music being played in the evenings, not loud enough to truly bother him, but enough that Jisung would hum and mouth the words without noticing.

He did not understand the number of useless things Jisung collected to their home, ranging from broken machines that ‘looked cool’ to unread books Jisung was certain he would read one day so they could not give them away just yet. Perhaps it was the availability of them.

He was mystified over the system of electricity, how clicking a switch on one side of the room would light up the lamp on the other side. How the fridge kept their food cold. How Jisung's  phone would become alive and die with the help of it.

Jisung tried to explain it to him, once. He spoke about electromagnetism and charged particles, and while Minho could barely understand half of it, he got to enjoy the way Jisung's eyes lit up like the lamps in the room, sudden and bright and his hands circled the air in the rhythm of the explanation, weaving an incomprehensible picture for Minho to enjoy.

It sounded like a form of spiritual energy to him. Jisung decided to tell him it was not.

Their bedroom, as the place that held most of Jisung's  personal possessions, was the den of mystery to Minho.

“Don’t touch that!” Jisung told him more often than not, and Minho would pull his hand from the object he had been about to inspect.

Electricity was dangerous, he’d learned. Small things in the house could hurt him, should he touch them in the wrong manner. He had gotten to know of Jisung's bad habit of leaving half-built electric machines lying around.

He did not want to restrict Jisung's brilliance, but he softly chastised him for things that seemed quite obvious in their danger. Fire risks and such. Jisung often joked about his carefulness, but still always quietly made the machines harmless and put them away in the boxes he kept in the closet.

The biggest mystery, however, was one of those boxes. The one that Jisung had once told him not to open, that had not been touched since.

Minho was not an overly curious person. It did not bother him that there were things in the world he did not know, nor was it a difficulty for him to restrain himself from prying. Jisung deserved to have his secrets.

It was, then, a mystery Minho could live with. Much like the one of electricity.

So it was most definitely not his intention for it to happen when he finally uncovered that particular mystery.

He was meditating by the window, Jisung to his side on the living room floor with his laptop. His love was lying on his stomach, fingers tapping a beat against the palm rest, legs crossed in the air. Lost in thought.

Too beautiful to look at. Minho’s meditation was a show of restraint nowadays.

Then something flashed on the screen, the laptop started whirring, and all of a sudden the whole thing shut down. The screen went black. Jisung groaned.

“No, no, what? Are you kidding me?” He pressed the button to try and turn the thing on again, but to no avail. “It’s plugged in! What do you mean the battery’s empty?”