𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 ✦ ʟ.ᴍʜ

Chapter: 43

XLIII: Wilted Flower

Unseen, Yet Here | The sense of being physically present, yet emotionally distant.

The air outside the hospital was colder than Minho expected. Even though the sun had broken through the clouds, its warmth barely reached the earth.

The breeze carried a chill that sank deep into his bones, making him feel even smaller than usual.

Sitting in the wheelchair, he could feel the weight of the world pressing down on him, not with force, but with a slow, suffocating insistence.

Kai pushed him through the quiet streets, his hands steady on the handles, guiding the chair with a calmness Minho couldn't understand.

He felt distant, like he was fading with every breath, every movement. The world moved around him, but he felt so far away from it.

His heart was heavy, as if it no longer quite belonged to him, and each beat was a reminder of everything he had lost, of everything slipping through his fingers.

He looked out at the distant horizon, where the city seemed to stretch endlessly. The buildings, the people, the noise, it was all so distant. So unreal.
Like something he'd seen once in a dream, but now it was all fading, a pale reflection in the distance.

"Feels like I'm just... here," Minho muttered, more to himself than to Kai, his voice barely above a whisper, lost in the wind. "Like I don't really matter anymore."

Kai, walking behind him, said nothing for a long moment, his footsteps slow and steady against the sidewalk.

The silence between them was thick, heavy like the fog that hung in the distance. Neither of them rushed to fill the emptiness.

There was no need. The words were too heavy to speak.

Minho's fingers gripped the armrests of the chair, but the motion felt robotic, disconnected from his body.

He felt like a passenger in his own life, drifting through moments that didn't hold any meaning anymore.

He wasn't sure when he'd stopped being a part of the world around him. It felt like it had been a slow erosion, a quiet fade, until one day he woke up and realized he was nothing more than a ghost.

"Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever come back," Minho said, the words slipping from him, soft and ragged. "Not back to what I was... but back to something real."

Kai glanced at him briefly, his gaze unreadable. He was used to Minho's silences by now.

To the heaviness of his thoughts, the way they weighed down on him. But it still hurt to hear it

He had watched Minho slowly unravel, piece by piece, until there was little left to hold onto.

"You don't have to come back," Kai said quietly. "You don't have to be who you were. You just have to be... here. Now."

Minho shook his head slowly, staring at the ground.

"It's not enough to just be here. It's like I'm just a shadow of myself." He let out a shallow breath, his chest tight. "Like I don't fit in anywhere anymore. Not with you, not with anyone. And I don't know if I ever will again."

The cold breeze brushed across his skin, but it didn't feel real. Nothing felt real anymore.

His body was tired, too tired for the life he used to lead, the life that used to have meaning. Even the smallest things felt like too much to bear.

Kai stopped pushing the chair for a moment, his hands resting on the handles as he looked down at Minho.

"We're all shadows, man. We're all trying to find the light. But you can't do that by just hiding in the dark. Not forever."

Minho's eyes narrowed slightly, though he didn't look up at Kai. "I don't know how to find the light anymore. I don't know if I even care."

Kai sighed, the sound heavy with the weight of understanding. "It's okay to not know. It's okay to not have all the answers. You don't have to fix everything right away."

Minho looked up then, his eyes tired, dark rings under them, his soul as hollow as ever.

"But how long do I stay like this? How long do I keep pretending I'm okay when I'm not? How long can I keep walking around, feeling like I'm just... nothing?"

Kai didn't answer right away. He simply pushed the chair forward, slow and deliberate, as they continued down the empty street.

The world around them was quiet, as if it, too, was waiting for something. For a change. A shift. A break in the endless loop of pain.

"You don't have to pretend," Kai finally said, his voice soft but firm. "You just have to take it one step at a time. You don't have to be perfect. You just have to keep going."

Minho's hands clenched on the armrests again, but it wasn't with the same detached coldness as before.

He felt the pressure of his own emotions building, but for once, he didn't want to run from them. He didn't want to hide.

"Sometimes I wish I could go back to when I didn't feel like this. When I wasn't so... empty," Minho confessed, his voice raw. "I used to think I had it all figured out. But now... I don't even know who I am anymore."

"You're still you, Minho. Even if it doesn't feel like it. Even if you don't recognize yourself right now. You're still you. And you're still here."

Minho felt the cold touch of tears at the corners of his eyes, but he didn't let them fall. Not yet. He wasn't sure if he had the strength for that.

"Why do I feel like this?" he whispered, his voice breaking as if asking the question aloud would somehow change everything. "Why does it feel like there's a hole inside me that I can't fill?"

Kai glanced down at him, his face a mixture of sadness and quiet resolve.

"Because life isn't always going to be the way we want it. And sometimes, the hole is just something we have to learn to live with. It's not easy, but... you're not the only one who feels this way, Minho."

Minho's chest tightened, the weight of Kai's words settling over him like a fog. "I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can just... keep going like this."

"You don't have to do it alone," Kai said quietly, "We're all here for you. And you'll find your way, even if you can't see it right now."

They kept moving forward, the chair rolling steadily along the quiet street, the sounds of the world distant in the cold air.

Minho was tired, too tired to keep pretending, too tired to keep running. He let the silence wash over him, but it wasn't as suffocating as it had been before.

The stillness felt like a breath. A pause.
Not a final one. But a pause, before the next step.

"Thanks," Minho said quietly after a while. "For not letting me fall too far."

Kai's response was simple, but it carried the weight of a lifetime of unspoken words.

"Always, man. Always."

The chair rolled on, and the world around them continued to turn, even if Minho didn't feel like it was moving with him. He couldn't shake the void inside, but for now, he didn't feel quite so alone.

End of chapter 43