PLUGGED IN | minsung

part 6

.・。.・゜✭・.

That night, Jisung found himself alone in the flat again. He'd gone shopping with Felix and Seungmin, and then they'd kindly helped him bring his shopping back from the supermarket. They'd unpacked it together, too. Jisung suspected that this was so they could try and sneak a couple of his snacks home with them. He'd pretended not to notice when he saw Seungmin sneak a chocolate bar into his pocket.

But they couldn't stay forever. Seungmin had to go finish off some work for his lessons, and Felix was almost falling asleep on his feet. Jisung had sent them both on their way and turned back to have his evening meal alone.

He'd bought a few cool things from the store. The one that caught his eye tonight was a small black pot with a cute logo on the side; Samyang Buldak Topokki. It said 'HOT!' in bold on the top, but Jisung didn't think it could be that bad.

The water boiled slowly in the small electric kettle that had been provided with the dorm room, so Jisung found himself lost in a train of thought. He liked his new friends. Felix had grown on him immediately, cute and caring and sweet like a younger brother. Seungmin was clever and kind and understanding, a fully formed good friend. Jisung hoped that they would spend more time together, that they would really become friends. Not to mention they're both ridiculously pretty, murmured a new voice in the back of his mind.

"This city's seriously going to turn me gay," Jisung muttered to himself as he poured the boiled water into the open pot. It said he was supposed to microwave it, but he figured that just letting it stand for a few minutes would have to be enough. He had no urge at all to leave his room in search of a microwave.

He set a timer for 5 minutes and when it finally went off, he was ecstatic. He perched on the floor by his bed and opened the lid. It smelled incredible; sweet and spicy, the pinnacle tastes of his favourite dishes that his mum made at home. The thought made him so hungry that he loaded up several thick rice cakes onto the top of his chopsticks and forced them into his mouth.

For a moment, it was sweet.

And then it started to burn.

"Oh, fuck. Oh, what the fuck?" Jisung spluttered as he tried to chew through the mouthful of food that was so spicy he could already feel it searing a trail down his throat and up his nostrils.

"Oh my God I'm going to die. What the fuck. Shit, am I going to die?" Jisung had made a conscious effort not to swear when he moved to Seoul - in England, he swore after almost every word. But he couldn't censor himself in this moment, not when the skin on his tongue was threatening to blister and pop.

Jisung wasn't sure if anything could make this moment any worse as he tried to swallow back both the mouthful of food and the tears streaming down his cheeks. But then he heard the lock on the door click and turn.

"What- Why are you on the floor?" Minho was stood in the doorway, the harsh lighting from the corridor making the outline of his figure even more striking.

"I'm going to... Help, hyung, please fucking help me..." Jisung had decided to let go of his last remaining shred of dignity. He begged, the tteok that he was still unable to swallow thickening and slurring his words.

"What did you do?" Minho asked as he hurried to pick up the pot of food that was now sat on the floor in front of Jisung. "Oh, Buldak? Really? You definitely aren't from here, are you?"

As he spoke, Minho grabbed one of the empty shopping bags that Jisung had left on the desk next to his bed and kneeled down in front of the younger boy. "Spit."

Jisung looked up at Minho. Minho's eyes were clear and unblinking, whilst Jisung's were impossibly wide and glistening with tears. Minho just cocked an eyebrow, and Jisung buried his face in the bag and spat out the food.

He was gasping for breath when he scuttled backwards away from the bag. He rubbed at his face with the back of one hand, unsure if he was wiping away tears or sweat. Jisung was gulping down mouthfuls of sweet, cool air when Minho suddenly put down the bag in his hand and left. He didn't close the door behind him.

"What the fuck..." Jisung stuttered. His mouth was still painfully hot and it felt uncomfortable to move, so he stayed sat on the floor with his knees drawn up to his chest. He was trying to figure out what had just happened when Minho reappeared at the door. There was a small carton of milk in his hand.

"Drink this." Minho said simply. He put the milk down on the floor when Jisung didn't move and then shut the door to their dorm room, picking up the pot of tteokbokki sneakily and walking over to sit on his own bed. He watched Jisung coolly for a moment.

"Are you okay?" the older boy asked finally.

"I think so. Fuck, that was... That was brutal. I was not expecting it to be that spicy." Jisung dragged his eyes upwards to meet Minho's.

Minho didn't reply. Instead, he glanced pointedly between Jisung's face and the pot of uneaten tteokbokki in his hand. Jisung breathed a short laugh.

"Help yourself. I'm not going to eat it." With that, he picked up his milk and stuck the straw on the side through the foil lid.

Minho nodded, but before he tucked into the food, he pulled a small packet from the bag that hung around his waist and tossed it over to Jisung's side of the room.

"This is a lot milder. It's sesame flavour. Not spicy at all," Minho explained through a mouthful of tteok. Jisung noticed that the older boy didn't even flinch as he ate the spicy food.

Jisung felt a smile grow slowly across his face as he peered at the instant ramen that Minho had brought him. He opened up the lid and poured in the rest of the water that was left from before, and then sat back on his heels to wait for the ramen to fully cook. Jisung didn't have the heart to admit that his cupboard stocked with back-ups, instead choosing to be thankful for Minho's small kindness.

He decided to indulge and let himself look at Minho. Jisung had seen a lot of pretty boys since moving to Seoul, but Minho was... different. There was something about the soft angle of his eyes and the strong line of his lips that pulled Jisung in. And really, he must not be a bad guy... He didn't seem enthusiastic to be looking after Jisung, but he still did it. Jisung wouldn't say it aloud, but he was desperate to get to know Minho more.

Jisung was pulled out of his daze by both the timer going off on his phone and the smallest movement in Minho's face as the older boy glanced up and caught Jisung staring. Minho's eyes narrowed slightly and Jisung jumped up to get his ramen, suddenly flustered. Minho watched him, his eyes now slitted like a cat's, as Jisung fumbled around with his food.

"Where are you from?" Minho asked abruptly. "You said you were an international student, didn't you? And we don't swear like that here. Did you say England, when we met?"

Jisung turned to stare at Minho with unblinking owl eyes. He was startled by the sudden questions.

"Erm, yeah. I'm from England. My parents moved us there when I was really young. I'm really sorry about the swearing. It's such a common thing over there but I've been trying really hard not to here."

"Don't apologise," Minho said. He stood up to put his now empty pot of food in the bin. "Swear all you want. I don't care what you do."

Jisung's eyes were glued to him as Minho grabbed something from under his mattress and walked back over to the door of their dorm room. He paused at the threshold, almost as though he was going to say something more, before he left without a word.

"You don't care?" Jisung mumbled to himself, sad to be alone again. "You couldn't have made that any clearer..."

.・。.・゜✭・.

okay but are u minho or jisung in this scenario? i want to think im cool n mysterious like minho but i am 100% needy sorry jisung