I'm Also A We // Hyunlix

The Sum of Seven, Part V

Felix is still fully asleep, but he looks troubled even now, frowning, and his hand in Hyunjin's is squeezing, gripping. Holding on.

Hyunjin reaches for him to brush away that frown but then he notices the bandage around his hand, a stark reminder of the last days. He flexes his hand carefully. It's not pain exactly, what he feels, more a sensation, a dull throb, now that he has noticed.

Shouts filter in from the living room.

At first, Hyunjin thinks it's the TV but soon enough it becomes clear that it's Jisung's voice, and Minho trying to calm him. And then he hears Chan, not from inside the apartment, but so clearly in his head.

Felix blinks his eyes open and the frown is still there, and Hyunjin suspects that even sleeping he had heard them. Or felt them.

Felix stares at him for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. He looks like he's trying to convince himself that he's fully awake and that Hyunjin is not a figment of a dream.

"Hey." Hyunjin doesn't know what else to say but it does the trick and Felix snaps out of it.

Without exchanging any more words, they both get out of bed and shuffle into the living room.

Hyunjin normally doesn't interfere when his members fight, sure that they will talk and make up soon enough, but things have not been normal for a long time and part of the fight echoes through Hyunjin's mind instead of his ears.

"What's going on?" he asks, looking at the scene unfolding in front of him: Jisung, red-faced and clearly angry. Chan, who's standing opposite him, here but not here, his jaw clenched and nostrils flaring as if he's trying to hold back. Minho is behind them, actually in the room. And there's Changbin too, arms folded over his chest, his face dark but otherwise unreadable.

Felix, who walked in behind Hyunjin, places a hand on the small of Hyunjin's back, holding on to the shirt as if he's not ready to break contact yet, and Hyunjin pulls him close but still keeps him behind him, instinctively trying to protect Felix from whatever's going on.

There's no immediate answer to Hyunjin's question, and Jisung looks at Chan as if daring him to reply first. But Chan stays silent, breathing heavily, with his hands in fists.

"You know where he's been while we were breaking you out?" Jisung spits the words out. "Going off on his own, without telling any of us. Ready to give himself up like some fucking martyr to get Hyunjin back."

Chan doesn't reply to those words, doesn't try to deny any of it, and Felix twisting Hyunjin's shirt in his hand reminds Hyunjin to breathe.

"What?" Hyunjin asks weakly, but the word doesn't make it into the room.

"I've had it up to here with your goddamn secrets!" Jisung shouts, gesturing, and Hyunjin doesn't remember the last time he's seen him like that.

"Ji," Minho tries, his voice low, and there's a warning in that word.

Jisung swivels around. "Oh, I'm absolutely not done with you!" He throws the words at Minho, and Hyunjin remembers vaguely, emotions he thought were a dream flooding back now. They're familiar, the same emotions Jisung is bleeding now, the same confusing mixture of a thousand things running through him, but love most of all.

"Jisung-ah, it's enough," comes another voice, and it's Seungmin talking, who's not physically here, but who's now standing next to Changbin.

There's Jeongin too, all of them in the living room now, appearing from one moment to another like someone had called for a group meeting.

Jisung huffs, his anger giving away to what's underneath slowly, but eventually. "I'm just so fucking done with all these goddamn secrets! Our minds are literally connected and it's getting worse every fucking day!"