hold me ♡ minsung

12. a can of whipped cream and a box of insomnia brownies

♡

NOVEMBER 7

   Economics was dragging on as usual, and class was particularly boring this morning. Today, Minho had been a bit late, and took a seat near the top of the classroom, where he could see the guys dispersed throughout. As usual, Felix and Jisung sat together, quietly drawing little notes for each other. Minho even saw them make a little airplane to send to Hyunjin, just like they used to do in high school.

   And then, something unusual happened. Minho caught the way Felix untangled his arm from Jisung's, and dug his buzzing phone out of his pocket. As he opened his phone, Minho saw him slowly shrink into his seat. Then, he stood, and hurried out of the row, rushing past the people who were still just starting to pull in their knees to let him out. Jisung was standing by then, too, looking after him and considering following him.

   And then all of the guys were staring at either the door Felix had just run out of, or at Jisung, who, after a moment of hesitation, headed for the door as well. Minho wondered, just as they all did, what was going on. What had made Felix look so pale, and pushed him to make a run for the door, his phone pressed to his ear?

   They wouldn't be able to find out until their next class was over. In a couple of minutes, Econ had wrapped up, but by that time both Felix and Jisung had disappeared. Jisung wasn't in Biology, and Felix wasn't in Chemistry, according to Chan and Changbin.

   There was no sign of them at lunch, either. Captivated by curiosity and worry, Chan mentioned that he was heading up to check on them, with the assumption they'd returned to their room, and all the others followed after him.

   "Felix?" Chan called, after a few taps on the door.

   Those closer to the door could hear a few whispers before Jisung's voice answered. "You can come in."

   The line of boys peeked into the room over Chan's shoulder. Minho was toward the back, so it took him longer to see what was going on. He first saw the suitcase on the floor, which sat with an armful of clothes messily thrown into it. Then, he looked up to see Felix, buried in Jisung's arms. The bed was littered with crumpled-up tissues.

   "Felix... What happened?" Chan's soft voice compelled Felix to lift his head from Jisung's shoulder, and look up at Chan with despairing, wet, red eyes. A few more of them stepped into the room, filling up the space behind Chan as he knelt by the bed and gave the half-hug Felix was asking for as soon as he unwrapped one of his arms from around Jisung's neck.

   Minho watched the scene unfold, frozen, standing out in the hall, with the two youngest in the same boat as him. Felix looked a mess, with tears continuously streaming down his cheeks, and his mouth pulled into a deep, open-mouthed frown. Jisung didn't look too much better.

   And Felix had allowed them all to see him this way. The fact that there were whispers before Jisung called out to let them in meant that Felix was alright with them coming inside, as he had probably asked for Jisung to call out the words since his voice was much stronger then. He didn't hide his damp, red face.

   Minho couldn't tell if the fact that he could hold up his head even as he sobbed made him look weak, or far, far stronger than Minho ever thought he could be, and that made him profoundly uncomfortable.

   Felix wasn't exactly the picture of strength, in Minho's mind. But... what was strength, really?

   Maybe it was that Felix allowed others to be his strength at times, and all of that piled up and became far more than any one of them had alone. Maybe Felix was strong because he wasn't afraid to let people see that he was human and had emotions.