white night || minsung

- 7 - Wool -

In this moment when it's so bright

The plastic chair grated along the linoleum floorboards of the petrol station coffee shop as Minho sat down on the other side of the table. Jisung continued to stare blankly at the rough texture of the table top, not even responding when a paper cup of lukewarm coffee was pushed into his hands.

"Ji," Minho mumbled softly, reaching up to brush Jisung's hair out of his eyes. The younger boy winced slightly, pulling away from Minho. The older boy furrowed his brow slightly and leaned back in his chair, "We can wait here for as long as you want, okay?"

He nodded, the taste of sick seeming to rise up in his through as he parted his lips to reply. He quickly clamped his mouth shut and roughly brushed the tears from his cheeks. It had been so long since he had felt like this but the exact feeling was pinpointed in his mind. He could remember screaming in the streets and the tear tracks that had seemed permanently dried into his face. Every time Jisung thought of that time, he wanted to forget it immediately. He most certainly didn't want to associate it with Minho. The tears were coming down his face in sheets at this point.

"I-" he started, his voice barely rising above a whisper before it cracked horrifically. There was nobody else in the coffee shop, and the only other sound was the thrumming of the fridges. Minho was focused on him, with such intensity that it felt like the first time all over again.

"When I was eleven, I met my soulmate. We both loved our bond and would constantly talk to each other in school. He always checked up on me and made me feel safe." A choked sob fell from his lips, amplified by the way his body shook. "I think I loved him. I definitely told him that I did." The confusion in Minho's eyes was evident. "He, um, he always brought me gifts and teddies and stuff and always kissed my cheek, like, constantly. And then one day he just stopped. He was really interested in soul bonds and wanted to specialise in them when he was older, one day he bought me this massive book. It was all about soul bonds and the psychology of soulmates. It was kinda weird to read about, but I knew he loved that stuff so I let him read to me about it all. There was this one chapter that he really focused on, the destruction of soul bonds." He ignored the sharp intake of breath from the older boy, continuing on his rampage; now that the words were finally coming out he couldn't stop them, they were going to drown him from the inside. "He wanted to do some dumb experiment, he told me that he'd show me it when he was finished. I didn't see him for, like, three weeks after that. He never wrote to me and never replied to me. I think I gave up about two weeks in. When he came back, he kept on saying that he'd cracked it. And I was dumb and I was thirteen and I went with him to see his stupid experiment because I missed him. He pulled out this bottle and told me to drink it, so I did. It was like some dumb Alice in Wonderland shit; just do what you're told, I guess. All I remember about that was the pain I felt, he told me to get out and I couldn't move so he just picked me up and moved me into the street. I think I stayed there for a few hours, just crying and screaming and trying to rip myself apart. I guessed what he had done but I went to a soul bond specialist a few days later, after I'd found the ability to speak again. She told me that my bond had been actively destroyed. My soulmate destroyed our soul bond."

The silence that followed his speech almost choked Jisung. He blinked frantically, attempting to hold back the tears in his eyes. At this stage it was pointless, his cheeks were stained and his eyelashes were clinging to his face.

Minho reaches awkwardly over the table and pushed back the hair which had fallen over the younger boy's eyes. "I'm sorry, Ji, you're so brave, baby." The pause in his speech hung uncomfortably in the air, "I promise that I'll do everything I can to protect you. Especially from monsters like him."

"Yoonoh," Jisung mumbled, glancing towards Minho briefly, before averting his eyes once again.

"Sorry?"

"His name was Yoonoh."

A/N - I don't hate Jaehyun, okay, I just couldn't come up with a new name shdhdh. Also would it truly be a story without unjustified angst?