I'll Grow Tall For You - M I N S U N G

𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙚

"Who's Eric?" He'd had enough of Chan's persistence. Still, he could have eased into it.

The doll froze, stock still from his perch on the desk. He had his back to Minho and he would have preferred a face-to-face conversation, but Jisung refused to turn around most days.

He'd, at last, spun around when Minho confronted him, jaw dropped in shock.

"How did you- Who told you?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it does! I need to know how much you know."

"I don't know anything!" Somehow it felt like the year with Jisung went to nothing. He felt out-casted, unsure, uneasy. All because Jisung had left him in the dark about the only person that probably ever mattered to Jisung. "You never told me anything."

"I shared my life with you!"

"Did you? Because I know nothing about the only person you've ever loved." He didn't even have to ask. Minho was sure.

"That's not true!" he argued, but he fell back, clamping a hand over his mouth. Like he'd never meant to say it at all. "Forget it."

"Jisung-"

"Leave me alone!"

Minho shut the door behind him.

Jisung was gone when Minho went to look for him the next morning.

He wouldn't admit it, but he turned the backroom upside down looking for him. Calling for him and receiving no answer. He was crying when he dialed Chan's number.

"He's gone, Chan! I lost him."

His best friend arrived twenty minutes later, hurrying to the back of the store. The door had been left unlocked. Like it always was.

For the first time, Minho regretted it.

"He couldn't have just left," Chan reasoned. "He couldn't have opened the door on his own." What if someone else did? He wanted to ask, but the words got stuck in his throat.

The part of him that hadn't believed Jisung to be real told him he'd finally broke. The hallucination had finally left him alone.

"You checked everywhere?" Minho sat by the dollhouse, tracing it's corners with a stoic look in his eyes. Chan nudged him gently. "Minho?"

"Yes! I even searched upstairs." The mess in his studio was still there, taunting him, reminding him that Jisung had yet to be found. "He's really gone."

Chan tried, for Minho's sake, to do his own search. He wandered out into the shop, leaving the sign on closed. There was no way Minho could handle having the store open today. He checked under plates and inside vases. He moved furniture and opened drawers and as useless as it was, it made Minho feel less crazy. He had someone on his side.

He bumped into the table when he stood up and a sharp clank stopped him. His eyebrows furrowed as he glanced around the dollhouse, finding a box titled on it's side. The metal protruding had hit the table. He righted the box, smoothing out the slightly opened top. It latched and suddenly, Minho moved like his life depended on it.

Once opened, he saw him. Dozing like Minho hadn't spent half the day flipping everything in sight to find him.

"You!" he shouted, anger simmering and giving way to relief. "You're okay." he mumbled.

The light entering the box woke Jisung and he yawned loudly, obnoxiously. He spotted Minho's tear stained face.

"What happened?" He was wrestling to get out. Minho picked him up effortlessly, hugging him to his chest.