nightfall || minsung

Chapter 2

I was sitting in a tree, face tipped up, staring into space. The stars were amazingly clear in Denali. Each of them glittered and pulsed and shone, singing to one another. It was beautiful, worth losing myself in a million times over.

So why was I thinking about Minho Lee? Why, why, why, why, why?

He was a guy, whose blood had sent me into hysterics, whom I hadn't spoken to and didn't know anything about, who shouldn't have much bearing on my life...

But every time I thought of him, a smile snuck onto my face. He had drawn the villain in me close to the surface — dangerously, unforgivably close... but he had brought out so much more. When he had fallen, I'd wanted to catch him. When I'd made him mad, I'd wanted to apologize. When I had listened to his mind, I'd been freed from the constant, grinding voices.

This boy had waltzed in, and unwittingly made me feel human again — even if just a little.

"Minho Lee," I whispered into the nothingness, "I'm sorry."

~ * ~

The phone only rang once.

"Jisung," Chan said, "are you okay?"

I spoke through my teeth. "I want to come home."

"Why don't you?"

"Felix says I'm gonna kill him. I can't do that." My finger curled around the cord. "God, Chan, this is so screwed up."

"Felix's futures keep changing — a good lot of them are positive."

"It's too risky. I can't put him in danger like that."

"It doesn't have to be dangerous." Chan was speaking in the flat voice he used when he was tired of my bellyaching. "What're you gonna do, Jisung?"

"I... don't know."

"Felix says you're coming back."

I rubbed the heel of my hand into my eye. "Yeah, I was gonna do that anyway."

~ * ~

I whipped through the trees. The wind fought with my wet clothes — I had swum from Alaska. It didn't take long to get home. I was barely over the threshold when Hyunjin barrelled into me and hugged me tight.

Lord thundering Jesus, I'm so happy you're back. He blubbered into my shoulder.

I patted his back. "You're okay, big bird, calm down."

"He's been crying for days." Seungmin leaned on the doorframe on the other side of the room.

Felix appeared next to him. "You cried, too."

Seungmin fake-laughed and gave him the finger.

"Hyunjin, share," Haseong said as he ran into the room. He scooped me up and spun me around. I wrapped my arms and legs around him. I didn't know why I felt safest in Haseong's arms. He'd always been my biggest brother, the only one who could successfully calm me down.

Chan ran over, too, and the rest of them. Deja vu. This was infinitely better than last time. Eight again.

Chan drew back and asked, "Why are you wet?"

"I swam here."

"Why didn't you take a bus?"

"Because he wanted time alone to brood," said Felix.

"Because buses are too mainstream," said Seungmin.

"All right, it was nice seeing Hyunjin and Seongie and nobody else, I'm going back to Alaska."