Happily Never After

2

After helping Jisung set up, Minho collapsed into a chair. He had forgotten that he had gotten cut earlier, causing him to whimper in pain. Jisung whipped his head over to look at Minho, who had a hand on his back and a look of discomfort on his face.

"Are you okay, hyung?"

Minho shook his head. "When I ran into you earlier, I fell on a small rock and got cut. But it's fine, I'll just let it heal."

"Wait, you're telling me that you decided to help me find my dorm instead of going to get your cut treated?"

"Well, yeah. You're new. I didn't know if anyone else would help you, so I did. Plus, you looked a little scared, if I'm being completely honest."

Jisung was confused, to say the least. "Aren't you supposed to be like, evil or something?"

Minho's eyes darkened and he started muttering to himself. Jisung couldn't hear so he moved closer. "I am not like my mother, I will never be like my mother, she is not worthy to be called my mother, she is evil."

Jisung cocked his head. "Isn't that the point? For her to be evil?"

Minho's head shot up. This time when Jisung looked into his eyes, he could see the pits of hell staring back at him. "That woman is one level of evil that no one should ever reach." Minho froze for a second and the purple fire in his eyes burned out, becoming those cocoa orbs Jisung adored so much. "I-- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lash out..." He wiped the small tears that had somehow leaked out of his eyes. "You're new and I'm your villain, which must already make you wary of me and here I am crying about my destiny. Pft, pathetic."

"You're not pathetic. And don't worry about me. It's okay. Minnie, how about when you feel better, we clean up the cut and go meet some friends, okay?"

Minho nodded. Having Jisung there was a new feeling, no one had ever been there for him before. Sure, it was new, but he liked it.

Jisung sat there as Minho calmed down, tracing delicate patterns onto his back. Minho found this comforting. Whenever his mother would explode in a fit of rage, his father would attempt to hide him. It never worked; he was always found. But when his mother calmed down, his father never did anything. He had the maids bring him soup. That was it. That was all his father could do. But Minho always wanted someone to tell him everything was going to be alright. Jisung did that.

After finally calming down, Minho stood up. He held his hand out for Jisung to grab. The latter grabbed his hand gently and pulled himself up. "Thank you," Minho whispered. Jisung smiled and nodded.

"Of course."

An awkward silence passed. "U-Uh, let's ta-take care of your cut, hm?" Jisung said. Minho nodded in agreement. "So where is it?"

"My mid-back."

Jisung nodded and began rummaging around in his smallest suitcase looking for his first-aid kit. "Where is it?" he mumbled to himself. "Aha! Found ya!" He beamed, proud of himself.

Minho smiled at Jisung. He couldn't help but think the younger was infinitely adorable. "Okay, so how are we gonna do this?"

"Well, first of all, you need to pull your shirt up to just past the cut. That way, there's room for me to treat it, but you don't have to, um, take your shirt completely o-off."

"Ah," Minho said. He pulled his shirt up to where Jisung had instructed him to. "Can you talk me through it? I want to know how to treat cuts too, in case this ever happens again."

The younger nodded. "Sure!" he exclaimed happily. Minho found himself smiling yet again.

"Okay, so first, you take an antibacterial wipe to clean the cut and the area around it. It may sting a bit, but I promise you'll be fine." Jisung went through the motions as he spoke, making sure to be extra gentle. "And then you take a Q-Tip soaked in hydrogen peroxide to dually clean and make sure it isn't infected. If it doesn't bubble, you're okay." He sighed in relief when the cut didn't bubble. "Next, take the Neosporin and put a small dollop on the band-aid. I suggest using the other end of the Q-Tip to spread it across the pad because that's what I do so the entire cut gets covered-- oh my god, am I rambling?"