Hope for Us (NEWT) [COMPLETED]

Ch 69 - Minho's Secret

*A/N: PLEASE READ

I want to get something straight.

I am not glorifying mental illness at all. I just want my story to be realistic, the characters to be realistic, and if you feel yourself getting triggered with certain topics, please do not feel forced to read on.

This chapter was made specifically to recognize that other people might be going through something, while most people won't even notice. That we're sometimes so busy worrying about ourselves that we forget about others.

Despite there being many forgotten characters, I think I only know Minho fully well to be able to create an untold story for him as opposed to some of the minor characters.

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~Sara~

She figured that Newt needed a longer time to relax and gather his thoughts, hence she went to visit Minho first.

She waited until at least Rachel, Chuck, and Thomas had fallen asleep during the travel while Rebecca relaxed on one of the beds in there. Brenda was still with Jorge up in the cockpit.

When Sara walked to the back of the berg, she found Minho sitting against a stack-full of boxes. There were boxes scattered all over the floor, and it was hard to tell whether Jorge was a messy person or if Minho had let out some anger by throwing them around.

He was facing the other way, so she couldn't see his face very well. She had expected to find him asleep, but he was just staring straight ahead, into space.

Sara cautiously approached him, a bit afraid that he would probably turn her away. Then she gently placed a hand on his shoulder as she took a seat next to him.

But then he turned to her, and to her utter shock and horror, she saw tears dripping from his eyes. Mighty Minho, the unbreakable one—the toughest shank she'd ever known—was crying right in front of her eyes.

She was faced with undiscovered territory at this point. What could she say to someone like Minho—someone fluid in the language of sarcasm and who always tossed his emotions aside in front of everyone?

"Don't come to rattle out your pity for me—I don't wanna hear it," he said with an irritated tone, so Sara retracted her hand from his shoulder.

He furiously wiped a tear away. It was like if it were a scandal for someone to see him crying. All because the assumption always was, 'well... it's Minho. He doesn't do that.'

What a great start.

"I'm not," she blurted out, quickly trying to come up with the best words to use with him. "I just came to apologize for... that back there."

Minho frowned at her. "Don't apologize for your boyfriend's actions."

"Okay, fine." Sara was shocked by his behavior. "But you know he didn't—"

"He didn't mean to—I know," he interrupted her harshly, his eyes softening at the look on her face. "I just... it's hard to see he's losing it so quickly. I mean, it'd only been minutes since his last outburst." Sara was nodding along to his words right up until he said the last part. At her reaction, he suddenly realized what he'd said, and quickly tried recovering from it. "Uh—you know... back at WICKED's. He was getting all snippy."

"Minho," Sara said in a warning tone. "Newt said we'd barely taken off when I woke up. What aren't you telling me?"

He looked at her for a couple of seconds until he seemed to realize that she wasn't gonna let him keep that information to himself. At the same time, Sara was scared to find out. What could be worse than that obvious demonstration of insanity eating away at Newt's mind?