A Piece Of Fallen Hope

Chapter 4

"Woah, the founder? That's cool." Minho exclaims a bit as the elevator arrives and they get on. "I get that a lot. My brother may be the founder but I got to work here because of my efforts. I refused to receive help from him." Euiyong chuckles a little as she reminisce her memories with Hoseok.

"Your room is on this floor so you go ahead. I have to go talk to my brother." Minho obliges. "See you later, then." He says. "Yeah, later, Minho." The elevator door closes after he steps out. He couldn't help but feel all bubbly on the inside when Euiyong said his name. Why is that? He asks himself. He snapped out of his thoughts once he enters his room to see the eight guys in there.

"How long have you guys been here?" Minho asks. "We left after you did to go to the children's ward and we came back here like half an hour ago. Come sit, we have something to share." Jisung gestures the spot on the floor next to him. They all look at each other and creepily have smiles on their faces for some reason. "So we decided to write something. Each of us wrote what we went through as patients here and we collected them all." Chan took out 8 sheets of neatly folded papers in his hands, each with their own initials. "And we saved you a paper as well. You can write your story whenever you're ready to tell us. For now, you can have ours and remember that you're not alone anymore." Woojin adds.

Chan handed Minho the papers and he looks at them individually. KWJ, BC, SCB, LF, HJS, HHJ, KS and YJI. All written in a unique style and handwriting. "You..." Minho was at loss of words. He could only stare at the papers containing their painful stories and hardships they went through before tears roll down his cheeks. "W-woah, what's wrong? Did we offend you or something?" This time, Felix spoke up with his cute broken korean. Minho shakes his head and wipes his tears with the sleeves of his shirt. "It's...I've never...had friends before...so...knowing these are personal to you guys...and you're sharing them with me...I don't know what to say..." No matter how hard he wipes his tears, they keep coming back. The feeling is so overwhelming for him and he's just speechless.

Minho felt a sudden surge of warmth coming through him. He looks up to see Jisung who had his hands around him. The others followed suit after Jisung and it became a big group hug. Minho felt loved, cared for, something he long had forgotten about. The feelings came to him making him cry even harder and quiet sobs were heard from him. Some of the others are even trying to hold in their tears. The heart-wrenching scene was interrupted by Euiyong suddenly entering the room carrying Minho's new charts. "So, Minho-" She stopped however, seeing the nine boys all huddled together. She soon realizes Minho was in the middle and decides to join them, making Minho know he's not alone anymore. No one is.

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After that tearful event, the boys had to leave because visiting hours are over. If you look very carefully, you could see some of them have tear stains on their cheeks and some eyes are still a bit red after crying. Still, it was meaningful because they understood each other.

The sun slowly fell and soon, nighttime took over. "MMMMMMMMMMM!" Minho suddenly screams into his pillow. "How am I supposed to face them again?" He asks to no one in particular. He felt a little bit embarrassed by the events earlier and couldn't help think about what they thought of him. A crybaby? A mess? A kid? Those thoughts circle around his head for what seemed like forever until Euiyong came in.

"Woah, what's with your hair?" Minho's hair had become messy after he kept ruffling it. "I don't know what I should do." He groans into his pillow as Euiyong sets his supper on the table next to his bed. "About that little crying session earlier? Relax, they literally do it every time they meet someone new in their circle of friends. Nothing to worry about." He removes the pillow on his face to look at Euiyong. "It's not just that. They shared a lot about themselves to me but I couldn't do the same to them. They even wrote these." He shows her the letters he got. "I feel guilty." Minho buries his face in his pillow again.

"First of all, stop, you look like a teenage girl worrying about her crush. Second of all, you need to relax and stop overthinking this. They never said you have to tell them right away, you can tell them when you're ready. You just have to go with your own pace." Minho takes a deep breath and looks at the letters he got before turning his vision towards Euiyong. Once he did, his breath stopped a little bit and he noticed details about her that he hadn't before. Her shoulder-length, dark brown, wavy hair that compliments her dark eyes, her small nose makes her look like a child and her cherry pink lips that formed a smile. He shook his head before agreeing to what she said earlier.

"Right, I need to calm down. Nothing to worry about. I just to do things in my pace." Minho assures himself. "Also, do you think we could go to my house tomorrow? I haven't got any clothes and I left my bag." His voice, sounding so angry at the thought of going home, came out smoother than he expected. "Sure, but is it okay?" Euiyong worries about Minho going to his home that he hated the most, even if it's just for a while. "Yeah, my parents will go to work in the morning and my sister has school. I know where they keep the spare keys so we'll be out in no time." He tries reasoning with himself that it shouldn't take long since he already has a backpack full of clothing in his room. He'll just have to grab that, his cheap phone and a charger. "Alright, we'll go at 9 tomorrow. See ya, cat boy." "Later, cupcake."

Minho looks down to where he placed the letters the guys gave him. I'll read it one by one, starting with Chan's who weirdly has labeled it as 1.

"Hey, Minho. By the time you read this, you'll know that we trust you so you can also trust us. You saw the numbers on the letters, right? Make sure to read them in a numerical order because there's a reason for it.

So everything started when I was in Korea for a vacation..."