Stray Kids Sickfic

Minho - Waiting for Us

Yeah. I'm sorry. These pre-debut stories are randomly popping into my head and then breaking me down.

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He was still wet when the members got home. Sure, he'd changed out of his cold, soaked clothes from the performance, but his hair was still dripping onto his new t-shirt (which actually wasn't new at all). He just didn't bother drying off after walking home in the rain. He wasn't sure why he even decided to walk all the way back from the company after he was eliminated. He wasn't sure why he didn't bother drying off and warming up. Maybe there was a reason, but his mind didn't unlock that section of consciousness for him yet. 

"Minho hyung?" Someone called out, maybe Changbin, when he heard their front door open and close. 

"Yah, don't shout!" Minho yelled back, smirking as he heard some of the members grumble. He'd miss that. He'd miss getting to scold them. He'd never had younger siblings before. He'd miss getting to teach them new things. Getting to cuddle them. Getting to be their big brother. He'd miss them. Would they miss him?

He looked up at the ceiling of his bedroom, blinking back the burning in his eyes. Not tonight. He'd cried enough for a lifetime in the rain which hid his tears well enough from on-lookers - though no one was dumb enough to be outside in the rain to even see him. But he couldn't cry now when he didn't have an excuse. Any moment Jisung would barge in and start making up a plan for how he'd hire a hitman to murder JYP. Or Felix would bound through the door and bear hug him. Maybe Jeongin to tell him how sorry he was that it was Minho and not him. Or maybe Seungmin would come just to stand there and cry harder. Woojin? Maybe he'd come say he was sorry about the outcome. Possibly even Hyunjin would come to try to sympathize. 

Minho didn't want any of that. He'd put up a face again for them. It's just sweat. Please, don't cry for me. But there was just a soft knock on the door and Chan's soft voice calling out, "Hey, Minho, can I come in?"

"It's your room too so..." Minho shrugged, hurriedly swiping out of the pictures he'd been looking at on his phone of him and his members... the members... the members of a group he wasn't a part of. He panicked when the door creaked open and pressed the weather app though he didn't need to be told twice that it was raining. "Hey." He greeted Chan when he entered. 

Chan didn't say anything, he carefully closed the door and stood there at the end of Minho's bed just looking at him like he'd done after Minho was eliminated, right before offering him a hug. Minho usually felt uncomfortable - like any normal person would - when the members, or really anyone, just openly stared at him, but it was like Chan wasn't looking at him physically. There was something in Chan's eyes that said he was looking deeper than what was on the surface. Looking for something more than what was visible to the naked eye. He'd seen it before with Chan. When he asked him to join his group, it was the same look. Only, now he wasn't a part of that group anymore. 

Eventually his leader - the leader - tore his eyes away and glanced out the window at the rain. "It's coming down pretty hard out there. Were you able to get a ride back alright?" 

"No." Minho answered honestly, looking back down at the weather app and scrolling through the five-day forecast to make it look like he was doing something. "I just walked back." 

There was silence for several seconds, Minho was waiting for the words to come, but the scolding didn't happen. Maybe because he wasn't Chan's member to scold anymore. Minho never liked the scolding... but this was worse. Woojin would have scolded him; Told him that he'd catch a cold and that he should have just gotten a driver. But Chan didn't. Maybe because he knew Minho understood the mistake. Minho did understand. But he didn't want a driver. He didn't need a driver. He didn't... he didn't know why he did it.