Minho's mouth felt dry, all the things he wanted to say couldn't be expressed in one word, and he didn't know what to say first.
"J-Jisung?"
The boy looked up at him and the two made eye contact for the first time. It was so overwhelming that Minho felt his eyes sting, as he grabbed onto the bars of the cell.
"I've missed you so damn much." He murmured, before quickly gulping back a cry. His knuckles turned white as his grasp on the metal tightened. "I'm gonna get you out of here, come over here."
His answer was silence. The whole time Jisung seemed to be staring back at him with vague recognition. He looked confused, like he might've seen Minho's face before but he didn't know where.
Minho jumped when someone else approached him from inside the cell, Jisung's cellmate it seemed. He seemed younger than Jisung, but had defined cheekbones and looked slightly intimidating.
"...hello?" Minho asked.
"...hello." The person replied. Before Minho could think up a reply, the boy continued. "Who are you?"
"Minho. My name is Minho. I'm here to get you all out of this place."
Jisung's eyes seemed to widen slightly upon hearing the name of his former friend. But before anything else could be said, the alarm rang for all the guards to leave to do chores whilst the inmates got breakfast.
Minho reluctantly let go of his grip on the cell bars and took a step backwards. "I'll come back." He promised, before hurrying off to meet with the others in the cleaning room.
As soon as Hyunjin saw him, he asked "did you find him?" And Minho nodded vigorously. They were quickly forced to forget about him for a moment, as they had to do some work. But the plan was ready: at lunch time, they would stage their plot.
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The time came, and the boys nervously waited for the prisoner's to finish eating so they could go back to their cells. Minho and Hyunjin watched Jisung from afar, so they didn't seem suspicious.
Chan was very nervous about the looks the prisoners were giving Felix, but the younger boy wasn't afraid. He knew that they only despised him because they thought he was a real guard, one of those people who had to keep the inmates in this hellhole even though most of them hadn't done anything wrong. He understood their reasoning.
Again the signal rang, and everyone returned to their cells. Yoongi and the others watched the monotonous way they walked and realised that what Woojin told them was true: the prisoners had been brainwashed.
They were given the keys to lock all the cells, and while the rest of them did, Hyunjin, Minho and Changbin conversed in the room for a bit longer to go over their plan.
The other boys kept exchanging nervous glances as they waited for this thing to begin. They didn't know exactly when it would happen, so for now they just kept locking up the prisoners in the cells. Jimin jogged to catch up with Yoongi, who was finishing this row of cells.
"Is this really a good idea?" Jimin whispered.
Yoongi placed a hand on the top of the shorter boy's head. "I know you're scared, but I promise you, this is for the sake of these people's freedom. And also, we need the help of the guys if we want to stay safe here and help Jungkook. It'll be okay."
Jimin nodded nervously.
A few minutes later, the speakerphone suddenly made a loud interference noise.
"Hello everyone." The voice boomed. It was Hyunjin. "Listen up. I am not one of the guards here to trap you. You all deserve to be free. But I can only free you if you help me."
Yoongi noticed a few of the real guards making eye contact, and a few of them rushed towards the main office to see what was going on.
"You need to fight back against the people keeping you here. Fight back against this city!" He ordered, and a second later all of the cell doors flew open. They could be locked with keys of course, but in case of some sort of emergency there was a button in the control room that opened them all up since they were electronic - that was Changbin's doing.
The boys removed their guard uniforms as instructed, so that the prisoners knew they weren't the enemy. For a moment, everything was dead silent when the doors opened. A second later, it became rowdy. People flooded out their cells with an uproar, and began fighting back against the people trying to keep them under control.
Minho desperately pushed his way through the hoards of people and made his way towards Jisung's cell. When he arrived, the two cellmates were still in there. He grabbed his friend by the hand and pulled him up off his chair.
"Come on, let's go!" He encouraged.
But the boy stopped still, causing Minho to turn around in confusion. "What are you doing? We need to go!"
"We can't go." Jisung replied, deadpan.
Minho was confused. "Why?"
"I'm a criminal. Criminals need to stay in jail."
Minho grabbed his shoulders. "No you're not! You're in here because of me, it's my fault, you were standing up for me!"
A blank stare again.
"Jisung, don't you remember me?"
The boy shook his head; Minho's hands fell back to his sides.
The other boys suddenly rushed into the cell, with Hyunjin at the front of the pack. "Are you ready to go? Come on! What's the hold up?"
As soon as they came in, Jisung looked over to Jungkook, and stared. It made the younger boy feel intimidated. Why had he taken such interest in him?
Minho was quiet momentarily. "He...doesn't remember me."
"Don't be dumb, come on Jisung this isn't the time for joking around. You remember us, we were friends for years."
Jisung gently shook his head. "I don't know who you are."
"Yes you do! We went to school together, we're best friends of course you know me!"
Still no sign of affirmation.
"For god's sake stop looking at me like that!" Minho stepped forward and delivered a sharp slap to the side of his face, sending Jisung falling to the ground.
Changbin quickly grabbed Hyunjin's arm, with a yell of "what are you doing?!"
Minho quickly fell to his knees and placed his hand on Jisung's cheek, running his thumb across the mark left by Hyunjin.
Jisung looked down at Minho's hand when it stopped moving, and then looked back up when he saw a tear drop onto the stone floor.
"Jisung...please...you have to remember us. Please." He choked, as sobs began to fall from his mouth. His head fell down into his hands and even Hyunjin didn't know what do do anymore.
All of a sudden, Minho felt a tight pair of arms hugging him, and he looked up. Jisung's chin was rested on his shoulder so he couldn't see his expression, but it was one of realisation and slight shock.
"Jisung?" Minho asked.
"Minho..." Jisung said.
A/N: Noice
Sorry for all the focus on skz but the focus will be back mainly to bts from now on ^^; and I won't be introducing any more groups haha
And...about Woojin. I know he left jyp. I was devastated. I still am. But he's always a member of stray kids, so he's staying in the story. Ot9 always.
Both astro and stray kids are having a comeback soon, so make sure to support them ^^