dare # minsung

healing

cw // mention of domestic violence

A couple weeks had passed since the party. I had spoken to none of my friends since then.

Well, I did however make two new friends. Chan and Jeongin seemed to be quite the good company for a lost soul, a stray kid if you will, like me. Chan graduated high school already but we still managed to find the time to get to know each other.

Changbin on the other hand started hanging out with Wooyoung and Yeonjun again. The two were part of a crowd I personally did not feel the need to mess with. But that wasn't my problem, right? Because he wasn't my friend anymore.

Hyunjin was still, well, Hyunjin. Not particularly seen with the same people on the same day. However, when we crossed paths, he did not look me in the eyes and it made me feel some type of way. In a quite negative sense that was.

Minho on the other hand... I hadn't seen or heard from him ever since. It was like he fell off the earth.

And if I was being honest, that didn't necessarily feel like a good thing. It took me a long time to get over him, I still wasn't completely but I was healing.

I also started seeing my therapist more often again. We went from one session a week, back to three. The last time my parents laid hands on me was after Jeongin left our home because they thought I had passed out drunk. "Consuming alcohol is going to make you lose brain cells and you don't seem to be having enough of them anyway!" or something along these lines.

But they found my new friends to be just right for me and my grades were once again flawless. Studying was my coping mechanism after all. Burying my head in books was one of my favourite things to do - right after annoying Chan at the café his parents own.

Speaking of which, Chan had invited me to the café again today. He seemed to be very demanding over text. Something about me having to meet their new employee. I knew he wanted me to move on completely but I didn't even know if I wanted a relationship right now. Romance or literally love in any way was not working for me.

Before I could reject him, a message from Jeongin popped up.

"Get up, you little shit. I am waiting outside."

I groaned and buried my face into my pillow. Rotting away in my bed seemed good right now. I didn't want to have to get up and change. However, Jeongin who I thought was an angel - and honestly, I still thought so - seemed to be the reincarnation of the devil sometimes.

Maybe he was indeed a fallen angel but I wasn't going to test my luck today which was why I swung my legs over my bed and let myself fall onto the ground. It was my favourite way of getting up because it gave me the excuse of lying on the floor for a bit longer. With another groan I finally pulled myself up and quickly got ready. Wasn't a lot anyway, just washed my face, put on some lotion I found at a drug store for 2,000 Won and cried a little and then proceeded with my skincare routine.

I found that tears were an underrated and cheap moisturizer.

As I put on a hoodie and some skinny jeans, I still had thoughts of just cancelling on Chan and Jeongin. It was Saturday, I could use the time to study and actually do something interesting. Also, I didn't feel like I was the type to blind date. There was no way the person would be prettier than Lee Minho.

Objec-

I feared I was repeating myself. I still felt like I should say what I was going to say.

Objectively speaking.

Everyone knew anyway.

Before I left the house, I told my parents where I would be going, received their approved nods and left. To my surprise, Jeongin was nowhere near my house. I took my phone out to text him,"Where are you?".

It took him a few minutes before he started typing but when he sent the message I was once again convinced that he was not the nicest angel.

"LMAOOO DID YOU ACTUALLY MOVE YOUR ASS? I lied LOL but Channie told me to get you up."

His plan had worked but at what cost? I would definitely force him to pay his favourite Hyung a meal. That had to be me, there couldn't be anyone else who was as amazing as me. Chan was OK. Not too bad, just not The Han Jisung.

With a sigh, I started walking towards the just-OK Hyung's café. If this wasn't worth all the effort I had put into getting up today, I would go back to ghosting all my friends and binge watching 9-1-1. It was a good show. Chimney wouldn't betray me like this. Aside from the fact that we're from one big family. Han Howard. Han Peter. We were basically one and the same.

Got it? One. Han. One and the same.

Without even noticing, I had already reached my destination. I was glad his parents had stopped him from naming it "CB97's" because it was a cute café, not some ugly smelling bar.

As I entered his café named "ice.cream" (yes, with the dot), I immediately took in the calming atmosphere. It wasn't noisy, the kitchen was separated from the seating area and people were mostly studying, working on their devices or talking to each other. Not in an annoying way at all. I loved coming here but I just couldn't be arsed on most days.

Just like today.

So I made it my mission to find Chan as quickly as possible because I needed his company.

But apparently I didn't need to do that.

"Han, you really came."

Because, before I could find Chan, Lee Minho had found me.