The times it didn't work, and the one time it did.

"The what?"

"The Butterfly Project." Minho says as he looks for a crayon in his pencilcase. He finally chooses the blue one, Newt's favorite color.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Newt asks, frowning a little.

"Be patient and I'll explain it, you shuckface." Minho smiles as he takes Newt's sleeve and exposes the pale skin of his wrist.

When he sees the scars his smile fades a little, but he changes his expression quickly because he doesn't want Newt to be sad about it.

Carefully, he starts to draw a butterfly on his wrist.

"Ok, so here's a butterfly; I'm drawing this so whenever you feel bad and want to hurt yourself you'll see this, and it'll stop you." He doesn't say the last part of his sentence -'I hope.'- out loud.

Newt looks at the beautiful drawing, bitting his lip nervously.

"How can you be so sure that it'll stop me?" he whispers.

"Because it's your task to keep this beautiful thing alive; if you... cut yourself then the butterfly dies, if you try to scrub it off it dies, if you try to wash it off it dies.

It's your responsibility to keep the butterfly alive, also," Minho finishes the drawing and looks at Newt in the eye, "now that I've drawn it on you, it means this butterfly is extra special.

You should take good care of it, it's like a symbol; It means that no matter how hard it gets, you'll still have me, and that if there's something I can help you with, I would never hesitate.

It means that I'll stand by you through everything, stay with you until the end. You're not gonna deal with this alone."

Newt breaks the eye contact, blinks a few times to stop the tears, but in the end he just gives up.

Minho doesn't say anything like "Don't cry." or "Hey, it's OK." He just sits there and draws soothing circles on the back of Newt's hands with his fingers. And he waits until Newt calms down.

When Newt is done crying he wipes his tears away and looks at Minho. Minho manages to form a reassuring smile, he leans in to pat Newt's shoulder. Then he holds both of his hands tightly.

"So," He waits until he makes an eye contact with Newt. "we need a name for the butterfly. It must be a name of a loved one so it will be more effective. Any ideas?"

All of a sudden Newt's eyes brightens with a hint of joy and it surprises Minho. When he speaks his voice is cheerful and a little bit mocking but Minho could hear the gratefulness behind it.

"I don't even need to bloody think." Newt says with a giggle. "Let's call it Minho."

***

"You promised me."

Minho runs his finger across the wounded skin of Newt's wrist, following a ruined butterfly pattern.

He frowns with concern as he looks down at the new cuts.

"Yeah, I know. Sorry."

Newt's eyes are blank, his voice is emotionless and cold but Minho can hear the trembling in the last syllable. When he looks at him he sees Newt pressing his lips together, like he always does whenever he tries to hold back and hide his feelings.

Minho leans forward to plant a kiss on his wrist, exactly where his scars are and whispers against his skin, "Please."

Newt moves a little, tries to remove his wrist from Minho's touch but he doesn't let go. Instead, he holds the shaking hand tighter. The movement is firm but somehow comforting, it makes Newt's eyes tear up.