like a volcano | minsung (and a hell lot of other ships) ✓

𝑠𝑖𝑥𝑡𝑦-𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒.

"Jay, please..." Seonghwa nervously began talking. "Please, eat something. It's been a whole 35 hours. You haven't done anything. Jay, please—"
"Leave me alone." Jay spoke in a brittle, broken voice.
"Jay, I understand that—"

"No. You don't understand. You never will. You've never known what it feels like. To lose your only one." Jay replied.
"Okay, I know I don't but, Jay, please, you can't starve yourself." Seonghwa whispered softly.

"Seonghwa's right, Jay. The world hasn't stopped, you know." Yeonjun tried convincing the younger in the same soft voice as Seonghwa.
"Mine has. Jungwon was my everything. When your everything is gone, nothing remains. He was my lifeline. Now my lifeline's cut, I'm a dead body."

Jisung quietly sat next to Jay. Everyone was speaking softly.
"I know how it feels. To lose your only one. Trust me, it's the worst thing in the world. But Jay..." He didn't speak further.

"Why are you all talking as if all hope is lost? I don't believe that. The doctors will succeed." Minho spoke defiantly, though he couldn't hide the doubt in his voice.

"We all know that's a lie. Didn't you see how badly his arteries were cut?" Jay sobbed and everybody got quiet. There was no arguing this point.

After a whole time of 35 hours, the doctors were outside. Sunghoon numbly got up to talk to him. His voice was audible when they heard.

"It was the most difficult case I have ever performed in my life time. I tried my very best..."

Jisung closed his eyes. He didn't want to hear any further. Minho leaned against the chair in sorrow, and Sunoo sobbed.

"...out of danger now. You may meet him a few minutes later."

Jisung's eyes snapped open. Was he hearing right? He looked around in shock. A whole miracle! The entire row of the waiting area cheered. Jungwon was alive!

Jay was staring open-mouthed at the doctor, who bowed graciously and left. He must have stared for at least a whole minute when Minho dragged him to stand up and meet Jungwon.

"We're going first, okay?" Minho announced to the others as he, Jisung, Jay, Sunoo, Sunghoon and Niki made their way to the operation theatre.

Minho knocked at the door outside, receiving a weak "come in" reply from Jungwon.
"Wonnie!" Sunoo cried and hugged Jungwon first. Niki went up to his other side and hugged him from there. They cried tears of joy, with Jungwon looking up at them weakly but with love and affection. Then Jisung and Minho hugged him and finally it was Jay's turn.

He barely choked as an attempt to control his sobbing and went up to Jungwon, the younger looking up at him with twinkling eyes.

"Jay-hyungie," Jungwon whispered and smiled, flashing his adorable dimple.
"Wonnie," Jay burst into tears again and hugged him as if he's seeing him after a million years.

"Don't worry about me, hyungie, they performed a CPR and I'm okay now. I just need to know, what happened after I passed out?"
Jisung, who had teared up slightly, cleared his throat and began.

"The window broke somehow? And suddenly there was this private jet that Minho brought. The police came in, they witnessed everything."

"Did Kim Hyojin die?" Jungwon asked.
"Keeho killed him. He... He said he wanted me and Sunoo to run. And he said.. that he was going home." Jisung's voice broke off, apparently remembering the event and hurting.

"By home, we didn't know he was actually going home and not metaphorically. Like, the next moment we look down from our jet, dude's blown up the place." Niki aided.

"Nah, he for real did that? What about all of Haejung's army? Doyoung and Jaehyun and Yuta and—"
"Dead. They're all dead now." Minho said and Sunoo broke into tears. Apparently, they were the people he grew up with.

"They were in the building. Keeho killed them all." Jisung said in a hollow voice. After a few moments when no one said anything, Jay went and kissed the bandages on Jungwon's previously cut wrist.

"Ew, Jay, that's so disgusting," Sunghoon groaned.
"Acting like you wouldn't do the same. I haven't forgotten that day in Chan-hyung's house, either." Jay said and Minho laughed.

The others came and went, telling all stories about how everything happened and how it was obvious from the start. Jungwon was shifted to a ward and a few of them went home, only those remained who were tied in that room. When they turned on the TV at night in Jungwon's ward, all of them were on the news.

The reporter went on and on about the heroism of those teenagers, and of Keeho who told them about the bomb, and how a whole country was saved by a bunch of teenage boys. When they showed them tied up, Minho ranted to the TV about the importance of angles while taking pictures and why adults were taking pictures when kids were tied up and about weird kinks that made the whole ward laugh.

After the news was over, the entire ward clapped for them and the hospital workers gave them standing ovations.

After a few days, everything was normal again — except for the dangers and weird stuff. They could finally enjoy life again. Everyone was the same.

Jisung planned to debut after graduation ("Kind of a pity that I'm still gonna become a musician after these amazing grades," "Oh, shut up, Jisung, just because you have good grades doesn't mean that you can't do what you like"), Minho had struck a lot of partnership deals, his company was speedily becoming more and more prosperous, Felix still laughed and smiled the same, Sunoo was happy with Sunghoon and Seungmin's family, Jeongin and Beomgyu were still the same pair of those insufferable best friends. ("He will never learn!" "They're cute, Seungmin, so shut up and stop being jealous! No one's taking your boyfriend from you!")

Everything was normal again. Minho and Jisung again became the family that they were, two boyfriends and three cats with a mansion. Jisung now had a huge fan base even before debuting with 3Racha as he had planned, and no one interrupted their lives now. Beomgyu was still silly, Sunghoon still zoned out, and Seungmin still hated tomatoes.

Though oddly it had felt like nothing has ever happened, Jisung couldn't help but think one night, when all of 27 of them had partied hard one night (skz, enha, ateez and txt) how different his life had become. The lonely boy who ran to the rooftop during break was no longer lonely, he had amazing friends that looked after him. He had loyal fans, and he had amazing best friends, Seungmin, Felix, Jeongin, Changbin, Chan and Hyunjin. And most importantly, he had Minho, which meant he had the universe.

He was so, so happy. Finally.

I've made it, Kyungie hyung and Yoonie. Everything's okay now. He whispered silently, in the room full of sleeping people.

Feeling hands on his waist, Jisung looked around and found Minho smiling sleepily. Hugging his Minho tightly, he heard a whisper in his ear.

"Remember what I used to say so often?"
Jisung chuckled. "Of course. How can I forget?"

Minho smiled at him. "Everything is gonna be okay."

And it did. As Jisung slowly fell asleep in Minho's arms, everything felt okay as it has always supposed to.

Everything will work out in the end. And here it was. The long-awaited end.
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I want to say thank you so much to all you LAVies. I wouldn't be able to do it without you. I love you so much, thank you for your motivation and interest on this story. The epilogue will be out soon. I can't believe this journey has come to an end. A story that I wrote as a source of escapism, has now come to an end. My first book ever. I'll write more about it when I post the epilogue, but again, I want to thank you. Here lies the mark of my first work. Goodnight loves <3
Until next time, then.
Blue.