Gone With You || Minsung FF

Chapter 9

Once he stood at the gates of Minho’s residency, he already regretted being so impulsive.
It had taken him two minutes to look up the place and it didn’t take long to get there by Uber. None of the household staff had dared to ask him where he was going when he had stormed out of the house, though they might have already contacted Taeyeon by now.
But now he was here and he wasn’t really sure what to do. How should he explain to Minho that he fled from his husband and the first person he thought of going to was him? After not talking to him for almost three months? And before that, he first had to get in. Minho might not even be home right now.
Exactly at that moment someone stuck his head out of the gate house. Thankfully, he seemed to see on his clothes that he was not some beggar or something, though irritated by the travel bag on his side.
“Sir, can I help you?”
Jisung looked up, thoughts running through his head, before cramming out his wallet and pulling out his ID card.
“I’m Han Jisung. I need to see Mr. Lee. It’s urgent.”
Interestingly enough, the man didn’t ask any more questions after hearing his name, and just pressed the button that opened the gate. That was typical of Minho to be so careless with his security. Normally you would only let someone in if their visit was announced or after getting permission of the house owner.
Either way, this made things easier for him. He walked inside, taking a deep breath now that the first step of the whole ordeal was done.
Minho’s garden was huge. Like, their garden was big, but his was basically a park, full of small trees, tiny paths and benches and pavilions everywhere. He even spotted a couple of bird houses.
And behind that, barely visible from his point of view, a white villa protruded over the trees. It had golden touches on the windows and roof gables. And, just like Minho had proudly told him, the whole roof was covered in solar panels, apparently able to provide all needed energy for the house.
“Sir, do you need a ride?” The man pointed to a car parked by the gate house.
“No, thanks, I will walk.” He really didn’t want to sit in a car with a stranger that was wondering what he was even doing here right now. And maybe walking would help him get better ideas on how to explain his situation to Minho. Besides, the garden looked too beautiful to not walk through it.
“Alright”, the man said hesitantly. “Then please follow the main path right here.” He pointed to a small path that followed the route of the broader gravel path made for cars. “Someone will be waiting for you at the entrance.”
Jisung bowed to show his thanks and then started walking. Minho’s garden was really beautiful. He had always thought the other was joking when he said his garden was better than Central Park but, though not quite as big, at least in Jisung’s eyes it really was. He found a bunch of cute little fountains in Greek style, more bird houses and even some cats sleeping on benches. For a moment he forgot about all the worries buzzing through his head.
But only until he finally reached the veranda of the majestic house, where a maid was already waiting for him. He felt his anxiety rise.
“Good morning, Sir Jisung. How are you today? Please come in.” At least her voice was beyond friendly, and she didn’t call him by Taeyeon’s last name. He was starting to wonder if Minho had told his staff how to act if he ever came by.
“Please take these slippers”, the maid continued once he had stepped inside. “Sir Minho is already waiting for you in the lounge.”
So Minho was home. Jisung’s heart dropped into his stomach. He wasn’t sure if this fact made him relieved or nervous.
Once he had changed his shoes and put down his bag, the woman led him down the hall to a room with a large double door. She opened the door and announced: “Sir Minho, Sir Jisung is here.” Then she closed the door and Jisung was alone with Minho.
He had been looking down until the door was closed, but now he looked up and saw Minho sitting on a dark red sofa in the middle of the room, a light version of his characteristic smile on his face. He raised one eyebrow questioningly.
That was all it took for Jisung to break down. He threw himself on the floor right in front of Minho and started crying uncontrollably.
“Minho… Minho, I…” He couldn’t manage to get out a full sentence. It was like all the pain he had gone through the past few months was spilling out of him right now.
“I just… I can’t do this anymore.”
“Hey.” Minho gently put a hand on his shoulder. His voice was soft as velvet. “What happened?”
“Minho, I…” Jisung started grabbing onto the fabric of Minho’s brown pants to pull himself up and hug the other’s knees. He felt Minho move back instinctively, but he didn’t stop the younger from holding onto him as if his life depended on it while he continued sobbing.
After a short moment of hesitation, he started threading his fingers through Jisung’s hair with the hand that had originally held his shoulder. He stopped for a second when Jisung’s weeping got significantly louder at the first touch, but continued when he realized the other cried harder because he felt consoled, not because he didn’t like it.
It took a while until Jisung had cried it all out. He had probably never felt that much comfort ever since he had grown out of the age where parents show you open affection, so there was a lot he had to let go of.
Once he felt like he was done, he sat up, rubbing his eyes and hesitantly looking up at Minho, slowly starting to get embarrassed about his sudden outbreak.
The other had a soft smile on his face, and just waited for him to talk.
“I just can’t do this anymore, Minho.” Jisung started sobbing again, hiding his face in his hands. “Whatever I do, it’s always wrong, and everyone talks bad about me, I mean I did everything to make them stop believing these rumors but I don’t think they even want to. They all just hate me, and Taeyeon says it’s my fault but it’s not, I mean I never did anything wrong.” The words kept spilling out of his mouth. “And now they want me to have a child, and Taeyeon wants me to meet this horrible guy that spread rumors about me even though he knows how I feel and-“
“Jisung.” Minho put his hand back on Jisung’s shoulder to calm him down. “Relax. It’s okay. You’re here now.”
Jisung tried to take a few deep breaths, focusing on Minho’s hand on his shoulder, knowing the other was there. “You need to help me, Minho!”
“How?”
“Let me stay here!”
Minho’s expression hardened.
Jisung looked at him pleadingly. “Please.” Tears started brimming in his eyes again.
“And then?”
“What do you mean?”
“What happens then? I let you stay here and then? Will you get a divorce and turn your back on your family?” He looked at Jisung questioningly.
The other buried his face in his hands again. “I don’t know. I mean, I can’t do that. I don’t know what I should do. I just need someone to help me right now.”
“Jisung, you know this will affect me, too, right? People are already turning their backs on me, I can’t get business deals passed anymore because people think I have an affair with a married man. If I keep you here, you know what they will think.” Minho’s face was serious. “And you think they won’t look for you here? Let’s face the truth, this will be the first place they’ll go to, and if they find you here, we’ll both be fucked.”
Jisung looked at him with glassy eyes. “So you won’t help me?” He sniffed.
Minho’s expression got a bit softer when he looked at him, but hardened again quickly. “I will give you 3 days. 4 days max. Till then you’ll have to figure out what to do next. I think I can keep them away for that long.”
When Jisung didn’t say anything, and just kept staring at him pleadingly, he added: “Of course, I will help you after, if you have a plan. But you can’t just hide here forever. This is no solution, neither for you nor for me.”
He ignored the tears that started running down Jisung’s cheeks again and got up. “But first you need to rest. C’mon. I’ll have someone prepare a room for you and in about an hour we’ll have lunch. You still have a lot of time to think.”