𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐒 || 𝐉𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐇𝐀𝐍 ||🥀

11

Mina

“Great job sticking by me the whole time." I told Pip as we made our way upstairs to the apartment. She pranced confidently toward the door like it had been her home for more than three days.

It was a cold, quiet night in Riperia. The air was crisp and still.

I slid my key in the lock, opened the heavy door, and froze.

“Jeonghan?” I ushered Pip inside, let the door slam shut behind us, and raced to his side.

He sat on the floor, his back to the wall at the foot of the stairs, his knees drawn up to his chest, arms wrapped around them, hands fisted.

“Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

I ran my hands over his shoulders, down his arms. He caught my hand with one of his own and squeezed hard.

“Just…catching…my breath,” he managed.

I held on tight to his hand and used my free one to push his hair back from his forehead. He was sweating and shivering at the same time. Either the man was down with the flu or he was on the tail end of a panic attack.

"You okay?” he asked me.

“I’m fine. So are you,” I insisted. “You have enough air.”

Grimly, he clenched his jaw and nodded.

With a whimper, Pip shoved her face under Jeonghan’s arm and crawled into his lap.

“We were out for a walk. I thought I’d take her out one last time so you wouldn’t have to when you got back. She did her business and we took a stroll around the block. I think her limp is a little better. Did the vet say anything about PT? I read this article about acupuncture for cats.”

I was babbling. The man had scared the shit out of me again.

“Relax, Moon,” he rasped, his grip on my hand starting to loosen. “It’s okay.” His other hand came up and stroked down Pip's head.

Still holding his hand, I sat next to him on the floor. My shoulder and arm pressed against his. His body’s fading tremors rolled through mine and I absorbed them.

“I’ll relax when you stop scaring the hell out of me.” I bumped my shoulder into his. “Starting to fade?”

He nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

“Then let’s get you upstairs before you crash,” I said. I got to my feet, plucked Pip out of his lap, and set her on the ground. Then I held out a hand.

He stared at it, head cocked, thumb pressing into the spot between his eyebrows.

“Come on. You know as well as I do that the crash sucks almost as much. You can either lean on me or I’ll call your brother.”

“Mean,” he said before taking my hand. It took effort from both of us, but I managed to get him on his feet at the foot of the stairs.

“Kids in elementary school used to call me Meany Meana because I was so bossy,” I confessed. I ducked under his arm and wrapped my own around his waist.

“Kids are assholes,” he wheezed.

We tackled the first step together. Pip dashed ahead of us. Jeonghan was holding back, trying not to put too much of his weight on me. But there was a long flight of stairs between us and his apartment.

“It started with these twins in elementary school, Darla and Marla. Pretty, popular, and they wore matching, name-brand outfits,” I told him.

“They sound horrible,” Jeonghan joked. “Want me to do a run on them? See how many times they’ve been arrested?”