IDENTITY | minsung

40

"minho, it's chan. talk to me. please?" the aussie begged, sitting outside minho's dorm room, leaning against the door.

suddenly, the door creaked open and chan almost lost his balance, surprised. "min-minho..." he scrutinized the younger. he could tell that he had been struggling. he could tell that something was off. he just didn't know what.

"are you–" "come in," minho spoke in a faint voice so soft that you could even hear a pin drop, even chan almost missed what he had said.

chan followed the brunette into the dorm room, scanning his surroundings. as expected, it was a huge mess. there were cans of beer scattered around the room as well as used tissues. he spotted the bottle of pills on the dining table, gasping as he picked it up to read the label.

"you're having headaches? minho you shouldn't be drinking this much alcohol. it's not good for you," he worried but the younger simply shrugged it off.

minho sat down on his bed, picking up the half-empty can of beer on his bedside table and gulping it down. "stop drinking already, minho," chan walked over to minho, snatching the can away from him.

"drinking won't solve your problems, minho. now tell me what's going on, please?"

minho hesitated for a few seconds, not wanting to spill out anything. but he trusted him. he trusted chan enough to open up to him.

"sung."

chan raised an eyebrow, confused by the vague answer. "what about sung?" "he won't talk to me. he blocked me on all his socials, he thinks i'm only friends with him because he's j.one, my confession didn't even send to him," he let out everything at once, speaking so fast that the aussie could barely catch all of the information he gave. "i miss sungie. i don't wanna lose him."

"lose him? min–" "yeah, i have abandonment issues. all the people i loved as a child left me eventually. i didn't mean to open up this quick to all of you, sungie especially, but i did, and now that he's starting to distance himself from me i feel lonely as heck. no, i feel miserable. but sung's struggling too and i understand that. i-i'm sorry, it's selfish of me to say that i'm miserable when he has it much worse. the point is, i really don't wanna lose him, chan."

chan sighed, heartbroken to know what minho had been through. "i'm so sorry to hear about that, but i know for a fact that none of us will be leaving you, not anytime soon at least," he started.

"it's not your fault that you feel this way, stop calling yourself selfish for thinking that way. your feelings are as valid as jisung's are, okay? i'll try to get sungie to talk to you soon but right now he's not doing great," he added.

minho was puzzled. "not doing great? what happened to him?" he questioned worriedly. "he wants to quit making music."

"what?! but sung loves music!" "he doesn't like the hidden identities part though, he's been struggling with it for far too long and we barely even noticed as his family. we're trying to convince the agency to let us reveal our identities so that it might persuade sung to change his mind but right now, he's pretty fixed on quitting music."

"please try to persuade him, i know you will but please, chan?" chan nodded, patting minho on the back. "i'll try my best. for now, you need to get some rest."

"no, don't leave please. i don't wanna be alone tonight." "i won't. i'll be right here, just try to fall asleep okay? and stop drinking so much please? i'll grab some porridge from the restaurant nearby for you tomorrow morning."

"thanks, chan," he thanked the elder, getting comfortable under the covers of his bed as the elder settled down in the chair next to the bed.

"no problem."