Red String | Minsung

스물네

Jisung approached their table. Chan, Felix and Jeongin looked at him, and the blonde could tell they wanted to know what happened. Surprisingly, Changbin was still there, in his spot. Jisung stood behind Changbin, crossing his arms. Chan elbowed the raven-haired male. He turned around, seeing Jisung. "What?"

"You're in my spot." He huffed. "What, you have assigned seats here or something?" Changbin snorted. "Shouldn't you be with Minho?" Jisung shot back. "Oh yeah, kinda forgot about him. Where did he go anyway? You didn't kill him, did you?" Jisung's face showed distaste. "Nope. And I thought maybe he'd be back here. After he talked to me he left." He explained. "Now, get out of my seat." 

Changbin reluctantly stood up. "Okay, okay. I'll go look for him. Bye, Felix." He smiled at the Aussie. Jisung raised an eyebrow. The older walked away, and Jisung slowly sat down. "So Felix, What's all that about, huh?" Jisung wiggled his eyebrows. Felix was flustered. "It doesn't matter, I'll tell you later. I wanna hear about what Minho said."

His three friends looked at him in anticipation. "Well, it was weird. He dragged me all the way to his locker to get me my clothes. I had to tell him to let go because he didn't realize he was still holding onto my wrist. He looked embarrassed." Jisung giggled. "After he gave me my clothes he started to apologize. It was really weird. I was definitely not used to him being decently nice to me. He was actually being sincere with his words, I could tell." He paused.

"That's great. I'm glad he actually listened." Chan chuckled. The blonde nodded. "I can tell there was more that happened. You were gone for like ten minutes." Jeongin spoke up. "Yeah. He started talking about something that happened between us when we were kids. I didn't remember that event until recently." Jisung replied. "Well, what was it?" Felix urged him to continue, he was very curious.

"He and I were friends, we snuck off of the school property. We wanted to go buy some candy from a store. It was Minho's idea, his mom had lent him some money for lunch at school but we wanted candy. So at recess, we crawled under the fence because it was broken. We ended up getting lost and there were a lot of people around. I started having a panic attack because I was afraid of getting in trouble and we were lost, not to mention there was a large number of people." He paused to breathe.

"Apparently there was a misunderstanding between us. I thought that he had just left me alone to deal with the panic attack, but it turns out that a teacher found him and brought him back to the school. He tried to tell the teacher to go back to get me but the teacher didn't listen to him until they got back. The teacher left Minho at the school and went to get me. I had fainted and they brought me to the nurse. When I woke up, I didn't see Minho, and I thought he had just abandoned me, but he had detention."

"The next day he tried to talk to me but I wouldn't listen to what he said. I was hurt. If I had listened to what he had to say then, we might've still been friends now." Jisung finished. The others were shocked. "So what you're saying is, you two were friends and you could've still been friends? That is almost impossible to believe. " Chris said, appalled. The blonde nodded.

"And there were multiple occasions where he really tried to get me to listen, but I always refused. I guess he eventually gave up and we became enemies." He added. "I never expected that." Felix piped. Jeongin nodded in agreement. "And then we kinda just sat there in peaceful silence, which never happens, like, ever. And then all of a sudden he looked mopey and as if he remembered something. Then he just said bye and left. I wonder what it was."

Chan had an unreadable expression on his face. "What is it, Hyung?" Jeongin asked the oldest. "It's nothing. I gotta go. I'm glad you two were able to work things out." He forced a smile and pat Jisung's shoulder before standing up and leaving. "What's with him?" Felix questioned. "Who knows. Now, Felix. I told you what happened, so now you can tell me what happened with your little crush." Jisung grinned.

Felix froze. "It wasn't anything really. He just talked to us." He lied. "Talked to us? More like talked to you, Hyung. He hardly even acknowledged my existence. He talked a little to Channie Hyung but most of his attention was directed towards you." Jeongin retorted. Jisung snickered. "Ooooo, sounds like he likes you too." He teased.

Felix shook his head furiously. "There's no way he'd like me. He's probably straight. And even if he did like guys, I doubt he'd like me like that." He denied. "Him? Straight? I highly doubt that. And from what Jeongin's saying, it sounds like he definitely likes you." The blonde deadpanned. "Also, I've seen Changbin glancing over here constantly before, looking at you. If you're not here, he always frowns." Jeongin stated.

"Really? And are you sure he was looking at me?" The Aussie's eyes were wide. "Uh, yeah. I noticed it too. We never said anything because we thought you knew. He'd sometimes stare for a few minutes until Minho or Hyunjin snapped him out of it. He's unbearably obvious." Jisung replied. Felix was still in denial. Jeongin and Jisung weren't too surprised.

"Jeongin, you don't have a crush, do you?" Felix suddenly said. Jeongin was taken aback from the sudden question. He looked down at his hands. "I do." He answered, surprising his friends. "But he doesn't like me back." He added. "How do you know that? Maybe he does, but he is just good at hiding it." Felix wrapped his arm around the younger in an attempt to cheer him up.

He shook his head. "No. He likes someone else. And that person doesn't treat him well. He is always so oblivious and ends up hurting Seungmin without realizing it. Ugh, sometimes I just want to smack some sense into Hyunjin." The youngest spoke, not realizing what he said. "Wait, so you're telling me you like Seungmin?" Jisung exclaimed. "W-what? When did I say- oh." 

Felix pulled Jeongin into a tight hug. "You were going through all that and you didn't tell us? You know you can trust us with anything." The Aussie frowned. "I didn't want to trouble you guys. I knew that you two were going through stuff so I didn't want to add to that. I wanted to be supportive and help you guys out and I didn't want my problems to get in the way of that."

"So you're telling me you've been all smiley around us even though you've been struggling?" Jisung spoke, his heart breaking thinking about Jeongin feeling like he needs to hide his problems. Jeongin nodded. "I didn't want to make you guys worry about me." His eyes watered as he spoke, and he desperately held his tears back.

"Innie, you don't have to do that. Your problems matter too. You shouldn't feel like you need to hide them because we're going through things. We want to help you too." Felix told the youngest. Jeongin couldn't hold his tears back anymore. Jisung stood up and sat next to Jeongin, hugging him as well. 

As the two were comforting Jeongin, Seungmin walked into the cafeteria. He spotted Jeongin, seeing him crying. He frowned, hating seeing his friend like that. He approached the three. "Jeongin, are you okay? What happened?" He spoke. Jisung and Felix glanced up at the said male. "He's just not feeling well right now." Felix lied. "Are you sure? Can I talk to him? I'm his friend as well." He asked, approaching the youngest.

Jisung lifted his arm to block Seungmin from getting any closer. "He doesn't want to see you right now." He stated. "What? Why?" he asked, confused. "Just go. You can talk to him later." Felix replied. Seungmin made eye contact with Jeongin before the younger quickly looked away. "O-okay." He bowed before leaving. "He still has no clue." Jeongin sobbed.

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Hi! What're your thoughts on this chapter?

STRAY KIDS' COMEBACK IS AMAZING!! I was so confused with the trailers, but the MV exceeded my expectations. Hyunjin will be the death of me, I swear. I'm kinda sad that Minho didn't get much lines or screentime. 

What's your favourite song from the album? I can't choose, the whole album is just so good.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!