skin and bones | minsung

🫀we miss you🫀

Minho slashed the corpse back and forth, the feeling staying in the pit of his stomach and not once leaving his body.

He screamed in frustration, blood covering his whole flesh, but it wasn't enough. Something was wrong. He was usually excited when the blood on his arm was still warm, then slowly turned cold, it would send chills in his body and make the screams stop. But the screams weren't there, yet they weren't gone either.

"You just came out of the hospital, you shouldn't be working" Felix came inside the basement, making Minho stop what he was doing, scoffing.

"Why the hell do you care?"

"Because you should rest, now come on, dinner's ready" he insisted and walked up to him, cleaning his face with a warm towel.

"Why are you being nice to me?" Minho surprisingly let the younger one wash his face from all of the red stains, looking into his eyes.

"You don't remember, but we actually fixed things. Want me to give you a run down on what you missed?"

"Yeah..."

"I apologized to you, Hyunjin and you were practically best friends. Me, changbin and Hyunjin are in an opened relationship and you...well you finally got over the death of your mom, you got over all the screams echoing in your mind..." Minho was taking in all the information, trying to wrap his head around things but something was still bothering him.

"What about the boy...? Who is he?"

"He's not important, now come on we have to go eat" he hated acting like everything was fine when he saw how broken down he was.

"He feels important..." he mumbled under his breath, thinking back on it. How soft his eyes looked, how his lips shined, inviting him to be drawn to this mysterious boy.

"What's his name then?" He followed Felix and curiously asked, still keeping a distance between the two.

"It doesn't matter"

"But I want to know" Felix signed, looking into his curious eyes. He didn't know exactly how to read them, he just seemed interested in the boy, how ironic.

"Fine...his name is Jisung, now come on" Minho spun the name in his mind, he couldn't recall ever knowing one before, so he knew he had met him during that time period of a year. But who was he? His friend? A long lost family member? He had no clue.

They headed up for dinner and all sat down like they used to, but the air was different.

Chan was happily texting someone, which he never did. When he looked at his phone it would normally be for work and work only. Their was no more sexual tension between Hyunjin and Felix, no more deceived looks between changbin and them. They were all cuddly and happy to be in each other's presence.

Minho watched all of this unfold in front of him, not even picking up his fork to dig in.

No comments about him were made, no dirty looks from Felix...everything seemed better now then it previously was, so why did it feel so empty?

He looked beside him at the empty seat, feeling like what he was missing used to be there. Ben then walked up to him and looked at the chair in a saddened way, looking then at his master, both being just as confused about this.

"Minho?" Chan touched him shoulder, snapping back to reality.

"Jisung...who is he?" He spoke, not even letting room for arguing.

They all looked at each other guiltily, it was everywhere in the air and infecting his lungs.

"Why will no one tell me...? Why is everyone pretending like it's fine when it's not...?"

"You'll get your answer one day, but it's not our job to tell you that information"

"How long?" He was getting restless, he needed answers.

"We don't know..."

"And why are you all acting so nice to me?!" He got up and slammed his fists on the table, his emotions were all over the place, he needed this rush to go away, he couldn't handle it.

"Because we care about you" changbin replied, giving him a concerned look.

"This is bullshit, none of you are telling me the full truth! My heart hurts, I'm mourning over something I don't even recall, something I can't remember and it's killing me...I...Chan I don't say this often but I need help..." Minho teared up for the first time in front of them, at least from what he recalled.

Chan took his hand in his.

"I can get you with one of the best therapist in town, would that be something you like? She can help you. I know you've always refused but..."

"I can try..."

"Good, I'll give her a call as soon as I can"

Minho sat back down, looking at the table with an empty mind.

How long would this take?

How much time?

<3

A month.

A  whole month had passed now.

Nothing much had changed, it was the same routine it normally was. Minho had stopped working full time and was mainly focusing on regaining his strength, especially mentally. He was so broken down even before Jisung was there, so talking through it helped him.

Chan got on with the business as per usual, getting rid of rising gangs in the streets or buying new properties for various reasons.

"Tell me the last thing you remember?" His therapist asks him, flipping her notes.

"I remember I just had a shower, boiling hot, almost to make my skin melt off of me" Minho replied, looking outside at the birds flying around.

"And that was the last moment?"

"Yeah...after that it's blurry, fuzzy even, like if my life flashed before my eyes and there I was on a hospital bed plunged into three separate machines...with that boy"

"You've mentioned him a couple of times, what about him caught your eye?" She pushed the glasses back on her nose, looking at him with her deep brown eyes.

"I truly don't know, I guess it's like a feeling? Like maybe he will tell me something, he could explain to me what happened that year..."

"Is it really about information? Why not ask those two other boys that were there then?"

"He seemed different...he looked like he knew me? L-like he wasn't scared of me...he was scared for me"  

"That is particular..." she mumbled, flipping her sheets of paper, scrolling through them when he got a call.

"I've got to go, but thank you for your time" he headed out and picked up, not even giving her the chance to speak.

"Chan wasn't up?"

<3

.a few minutes earlier.

Chan was on his bed checking emails again, that's practically all he did. His attention was disturbed when his phone rang and an unknown number showed up on screen. He hesitantly took it and answered, not too bothered about it.

"Hello?"

A long silence filled the room as he listened carefully to what the voice was saying, his breath hitching as he tried to keep his composure.

Hyunjin walked in and stopped when he saw Chan being half tense half smiling.

"Jisung is coming back..." chan admitted.

"Holy shit..."

<3

A/n: I might do fun facts about this book while I'm re-writing it cause why not.

Fun fact #1 the title of this book was actually chosen after a song named 'skin and bones' by the foo fighters. It's what inspired me to write the book and create the iconic cover. It was a song from my childhood that I would often listen to. :)