Keeping a Distance >•Minsung•<

9

After everyone was done with their food and drinks, they decided to go to one of their dorms, they chose the one that Chan, Seungmin, Felix, and Hyunjin share. After a while of hanging out while watching a movie, Minho decided to leave. When asked why, he said the food he ate didn't sit right in his stomach and he didn't feel well. Jisung didn't believe a word of it. He just didn't know why he would lie. 'Why is he acting like this? It's like a switch flipped and he's a totally different person now.' But Jisung didn't know what to do about it. So after about an hour later, Jisung left a little early too.

The rain wasn't too bad, but it wasn't great either. Chan had lended him an umbrella but his shoes were soaked. His walk home was not as fun as he had hoped it would be. He wanted to go on a calming walk to think things over about Minho, about how he stoped his from self harming and then dropped him. He just couldn't rap his head around it. He was woken from his thoughts when he stepped into a particularly deep puddle. He groaned as he looked at his damp pants and shoe. He would have to change when he got home. He looked up and saw something completely unexpected. He thought Minho had gone home. But there he was, about three yards away from him, crouched down on the sidewalk. His hand was outstretched toward a small white kitten on the grass. He seemed to be feeding it a tube of cat food. The kitten was drenched and had brown spots of dirt along its coat. Jisung watched in disbelief as Minho moved his umbrella over to the cat sitting in front of him, immediately soaking him. Causing his white t-shirt and jeans to stick to his skin. He positioned the umbrella over the small furry creature and, after petting their head once, stood up and turned away from Jisung and began his walk home. After a moment, long enough for Minho to be almost out of sight, Jisung sprinted towards Minho.
"Minho!" Jisung yelled. Minho froze and slowly turned to see Jisung running at him. "Are you insane?" Jisung said once he caught up to him. He shoved his umbrella towards Minho, keeping himself mostly under it as well. "You could get sick!" Jisung wasn't happy with Minho. 'How could he be so reckless? I don't want to see him ill.' Minho found his unhappiness a little funny, almost enough to make him smile. Almost.
"You want me to take the umbrella from you?" Minho asked with a raised eyebrow.
"If you want," Jisung started. "At least I have a hood, you don't. But we could also share it." Minho contemplated it for a moment.
"Fine." Minho shrugged and began to walk, almost stepping out from under the umbrella and forcing Jisung to keep up with him. A short minute passed without a word, until Jisung broke the silence with a question.
"What were you doing?" Minho didn't look down at Jisung, he just kept walking.
"The cat was wet and was skin and bone." He said as if it was the most obvious thing. "So I gave it some good and shelter." Jisung took in his words.
"Where'd you get the cat food?"
"I carry cat food with me, in case I run into a stray cat." Minho stated, again, as if it was obvious. 'Why is that the sweetest and yet the hottest thing ever?'
"What were you even doing out though? I thought you went home?"
"I wanted to go out for a walk, that's all." Jisung nodded. 'Just a walk huh?' The rest of the walk was silent.
The air was moist, as were the two boys, walking silently down the path. Their shoes splashed in puddles no matter how gently they stepped. Socks began to dampen, Minho's shirt began to dry. In the end, it was a nice walk. Minho would never admit it, but he enjoyed the company, especially right now with what's got him so down. He sighs as he opens the door to the dorm, quickly shoving off his shoes.
"I'm going to change in the bathroom." Minho spoke as he made his way to the room they share.
"I'll just grab some clothes and do the same in the other bathroom." Jisung responded as he followed Minho into the room, both of them going straight to their bags for attire.

When Jisung returned to the room, he saw Minho in a black hoodie and grey sweatpants, sitting up in his bed with his laptop propped up in his knees. Jisung decided to do the same. He wanted to continue working on the song Jeongin and Changbin saw him making. He had a couple lyrics he wanted to get typed out. So they sat there in silence, typing away or watching videos. Jisung was a little unsettled by the silence, he never did well with it. He never knew when he was meant to fill it or when he was meant to let it drag out a little longer. It always made him unsure of himself. But slowly getting distracted by his work, he embraced it.

~•~

"I think it's really good." Chan complemented Jisung work. "The rhythm is beautiful and so are to vocals. I can tell you put a lot of work into it." Jisung fidgeted with his sleeve, he never really shared his songs with anyone. But since Chan was majoring in the same thing as him, and due to Chan being so welcoming and easy to approach, Jisung thought he would try and get some feedback for once.
"Anything I can improve on?" Jisung asked, looking up at him with big eyes. Chan just smiled and puts a hand on his shoulder. "You did really good, man." He reassured him. "Honestly the story of the song is beautiful. Do you really feel like that though? Different and alone?" Jisung smiled at him and got up from the couch. "Thanks for the feedback! It was really helpful. I'm glad you liked it too! I should go plug this in before it dies, I'll be right back." Jisung dodged the question and went to his room to plug in his computer. He hears Chan lean against the door frame and he turns around.
"You know you can talk to me, to us, right?" He seemed lighthearted but a little serious too. Jisung looked down as he pushed the plug into the wall.
"Yeah, I know." He lied. He didn't want to talk with them about this kind of thing. He thought it would just burden them with his problems when he knew they had their own. He felt a hand on his shoulder again.
"I'm serious." Chan was crouched down to Jisung level.
"So am I." Jisung smiled, trying to be convincing. He wasn't. Chan saw through it, and understood it. But he also knew he wouldn't be able to get through to him, not yet.

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