The Gifted Few (Minsung) ~Discontinued~

Chapter 27: Can't Be Alone

After the encounter with Beomgyu and Taehyun, Minho was reminded that he should probably also check in with Ryujin and Yuna, so he ended up looking for them after their afternoon class. Jisung had tagged along, saying that he was Minho's 'get out of jail free card' in case he got mobbed by students. Whatever the hell that means.

Luckily, they weren't mobbed and ended up finding the two of them, along with three other girls, sparring with each other by the large pond behind the academy. They stopped sparring as soon as they saw the two boys approach them.

"Jisung!" The girl with the high ponytail, whom Minho didn't recognize, called out. "Long time no see. You and Chan and everyone else have been so busy as a team, we hardly get to see you anymore." She walked up to the two of them, and after giving Jisung a hug, much to Minho's annoyance, she turned her attention to him.

"You must be Minho. My name is Yeji and I've heard a lot about you from Ryujin and Yuna as well as all the gossip going around," she said to him as she extended her hand for Minho to shake.

"What kind of rumors?" Minho asked as he shook her hand, interested to hear what was being said about him.

"How you're quiet and don't like to talk to other people other than the other Stray Kids members," Ryujin walked up with Yuna. "The quiet and distance part isn't new, but it is good to hear that you are opening up to some people. Cool team name, too."

"Yup, yup. How did you manage to do it?" Yuna asked Jisung. "We tried to get him to open up to us for months and he never did."

Jisung pretended to think about it for a bit, and then shrugged, saying, "I guess I just have a special charm."

Yeji just punched him in the arm. "Still as cocky as ever."

They continued to talk with the five girls for a bit, Jisung and Yeji introducing the other two girls that Minho didn't know as Chaeryeong and Lia. It turned out that they had been practicing for the tournament themselves just now, so Minho was beginning to understand how big of a deal this whole thing was.

After Jisung gave them the same statement as Chan did earlier about how Stray Kids wouldn't be going easy on anyone if they fought, the two of them decided to go back to their dorm and let the girls continue to practice.

*****

Later that night, after Minho had gone to sleep, he was suddenly woken up by someone crawling into his bed. He groggily opened his eyes and saw Jisung there for the second night in a row.

Jisung seemed to notice Minho wake up and hurriedly said, "I had another nightmare."

"Are you okay? It isn't even storming," Minho said back, still half asleep.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've just been thinking about my parents too much lately for some reason, and I figured since you were fine with it last night it would be okay... If you don't want me to, I can go back to my bed," Jisung mumbled as he started to slide back out of bed. Minho confirmed he was completely fine with it by grabbing the smaller boy around his waist and pulling back into the bed before falling back to sleep.

What Jisung hadn't wanted to say was that he was slowly starting to realize that Seungmin and Hyunjin had been right, much to his own annoyance. He was falling in love with Minho. And he also realized why he was so scared of that fact.

He now had a loved one he could lose. Just like how he lost his mom and dad.

*****

The week flew by, and suddenly it was the weekend again. Chan had proposed they should do something fun as a team since the next weekend would be the tournament and they wouldn't have another free day for a while as a result. Hyunjin happily recommended a swim day which they all agreed to, so they got ready and headed down to the pool.