MANIAC 🕸️ MINSUNG

6

It's funny how one day you can hear someone lie and think nothing of it, and then months later you hear one leave their mouth and you just know that something is wrong. Jisung was surprised he never noticed how much Minho lied in a day. It hurt Jisung more than he would like to admit. He could only imagine what he would think if he ever found out about Jisung's hero identity. If they ended up as a couple, he'd have to tell him, wouldn't he? So Minho knew what he was getting into.

"From what we know so far, its called Klyntar. An extraterrestrial parasite that lives in symbiosis with its host. Apparently, they eat brains to stay alive. Its only known weakness is sound and it seems as of right now its host is unable to control it."

Jisung flipped his pen around with his fingers, eyes cast outside the Avengers' tour. He was allowed to help out with this alien thing now that he'd proven himself capable of putting a citizen before an enemy. Jisung didn't know how much he trusted himself. After all, Jeongin wasn't a regular citizen. He was his best friend. It was a very different situation. Mr. Park seemed confident in him, though, so he went with it.

Jisung's pen tapped on the paper in front of him as the picture of Minho popped inside his head. He still wasn't used to it; having his mind run around with thoughts of one person consecutively. Usually he thought of Jeongin one day, his aunt the next, and then whoever was annoying him the most. For the past week Minho had been at the top of his minds food chain. He ate away any other thought. Jisung was pretty sure he had missed a whole page on his calculus homework because of it.

He didn't like it. He hated how close he was getting to someone so quickly. It felt wrong. He was having a game of push and pull within himself. Sometimes it made him nauseous, other times it made him giddy. He felt like his own villain. He had told himself one date and to try it out. To take it slow and adjust to being a normal teenager. But then Minho's habits started attaching to Jisung and he kept watching him and he was unbelievably annoyed with himself and the older boy. Now he had another date with Minho and while he should be happy, he was terrified.

Jisung stood up and rushed out of the room as his stomach churned uncomfortably. He entered the bathroom and kneeled down by the toilet, his lunch coming up from his stomach with a bunch of acids and liquids. He coughed aggressively as he leaned closer to the rim, his guts spilling out as flashbacks passed through his mind. His parents death, his uncle's murder, and all the civilians he'd failed to protect so far; they punched him in the abs with each gag. Tears welled up in his eyes from the physical discomfort and the hot feeling traveling up from his chest.

He tugged at the buttons on his flannel and pulled it off of him, panting as he entered memory after another. He felt like he was boiling from the inside out. The self-hatred that his mind was poisoning him with wasn't helping, either. It was his fault. Every single thing from then till now, it happened because of him. Minho almost died, too. Jeongin could have if he had slipped up just a smidge. Jisung pulled away from the toilet after flushing it, hands finding toilet paper to wipe his mouth.

His eyes rolled a bit as his back slammed into the stall. A whimper escaped him, tears beginning to stream down his face. He was crying a lot more lately. That was normal but it felt strange. Normal didn't feel right to him. He was so broken he couldn't imagine him being normal helped anyone. Why did he have to feel things like everyone else, anyway? Canceling out his emotions was so much easier. It was safer. Maybe not for others, but for himself.

Although, if he was that selfish, he wouldn't be a hero. He pulled his knees into his chest and cried into his hands. He just wanted it to stop. Everything. All the thoughts, pain, and questions; he wanted them gone. Why did he have to get bit by the stupid spider? Who thought it was smart for an orphan to be a savior? His fingers pinched the skin of his arms as the screams of his parents filled his head. The smell of maturing flames and the suffocating scent of smoke felt so real as his mind transferred him back to the day his parents died in front of him.