Color of My Pain

25| Endurance

Minhyuk clicked his car locked, striding confidently up the walk to the semi familiar house. Having only visited once, he couldn't say he was perfectly comfortable, but his nephew and nephew's soulmate were here, so it felt just as homey as Minhyuk could get.

Namjoon opened the door, broad shoulders filling the space. He was alnost as tall as Minhyuk, who was tall as it was. But it seemed a common thing with the young people around Jin. Height. It made them stand out as a group. 

"Uncle Min," Joon smiled, ever the gracious host, "come in."

Jin stepped into his path, enveloping him in a hug.

"You keep growing," Minhyuk laughed. "I might have to catch up with you."

"Can we get you anything to drink? Hungry?"

"Ah, I'm fine for now." He thanked them, following the pair into the living room.

"Do you have any plans for your stay?"

Minhyuk leaned back, "Relax, not think about anything." He smiled brightly.

"We should-"

"Kim Namjoon, please tell my wonderful boyfriend Min Yoongi that he is in fact the best boy. He won't believe me today."

Namjoon's close friend, who Minhyuk recognized as Hoseok, walked in with his arms spread wide, smile evident in his eyes as he was apparently teasing the boy who followed him timidly inside.

There was a thrum of tension beneath their playfulness, but Minhyuk smiled respectfully in false ignorance. If the others noticed, they hid it as well, faking shock at the statement.

"Yoongi!" Joon gasped, "But you are!"

Yoongi giggled, latching onto Hoseok's arm when he noticed Minhyuk in the room. Jin took a moment to introduce them and he voiced a simple greeting.

"I'm Lee Minhyuk, nice to meet you Yoongi."

"Min Yoongi, nice to meet you too." His careful smile faltered, "Oh, we aren't interrupting anything are we?"

Something about this boy compelled Minhyuk. A familiarity. A gut feeling.

"Not at all, we were just deciding what to do today. Would you boys like to join us?"

Yoongi looked to Hoseok and they shared a quiet look, "We'd love to."

Maybe it was the way he tapped his fingers together, or the set of his shoulders, maybe even the slope of his cat-like eyes, but something in the young Min Yoongi kicked up memories in the murk of Minhyuk's innermost thoughts.

Grabbing his keys, he led them to his car, still generally unsure of what they could do.

Being one of the youngest in his family, and still feeling young at 36, Minhyuk had a general advantage at spending time with his older nephew, played more than "uncled." But now he wasn't completely sure what he should do, especially with more of Jin's friends.

But there was an odd decisiveness in his choice to turn the wheel in the direction of an almost forgotten place in his head. An old library he used to spend a lot of time in. Memories close to forgotten swirled through his head and he pulled up next to the gated off parking lot.

"Let's go inside!"

"But, this is all locked up," Jin frowned.

"It'll be fun, I used to come here all the time. I might even still have my library card." Minhyuk laughed.

The group followed him up the discolored concrete steps, sharing looks of suspicion, worry, and anticipation. Leave it to Hoseok to be excited about this.

Minhyuk poked around, finding a window that wasnt so tightly boarded up, and he kicked it in.

Jin jumped behind Joon, fingers digging into his boyfriend's sleeves. Yoongi studied Minhyuk intently, searching for signs of aggravation. He was not about to be ax murdered before Hoseok had taken him stargazing. It was on his secret list of wishes.

Hoseok ducked through the window first, letting out a yelp as he landed with a thud on the floor a few feet further than he'd expected. He helped the rest of his friends get down safely.

Minhyuk looked around breathless at the dust covered space. It was much the same as it was when he was in high school, it'd been a little over 15 years since this was his regular space.

Shelves lined the floor, broken up by tables that still held lamps. There were some books on the shelves and all of it was covered in thick layers of dust. The computers were gone, except for one, who's screen was smashed in due to vandals. Everything had a hush of stillness over it. He blamed the dust for the lump in his throat, stubbornly pushing away memories of promises whispered through the bookshelves. 

Yoongi was frowning, staring, he walked away from the group, hand still holding tight to Hoseok. The younger followed, albeit confused. 

"Yoongs?"

"My dad..." He was still frowning, looking for the right words. "He talked about this library. I think. He said it had footprint stickers, and one set was backwards. Right to left instead of left to right."

His eyes were scanning the floor, the sounds of their friends growing distant as Yoongi led them down a path of faded green footprint stickers through the shelves until he stopped and pointed. It was a dark corner. Two shelves met unevenly by the wall, tattered cushions were thrown carelessly across the floor. The mislaid footprints stood out in the dark. A stain on a white cloth. The edges were peeled as though grubby fingers had tried to pry them up, to fix them. Yoongi bit the inside of his cheek, an odd feeling in his chest.

"I want to talk to Minhyuk."