After Dark 》Minsung

24 》Twisted Up

Forewarning: Mentions of PAST self harm. No active descriptions of such.

Minho smiled to himself, quickly typing back a response to Jisung's text on his phone. Occupying himself with that conversation, some eclectic mess of four different topics all sprouting at once, trying to keep up with all threads of replies without losing on any of the responses; One conversation about what Jisung should wear in his next stream, debating heavily, complete with pictures of the outfits from Jisung, quick videos of him spinning around in the silk and chains to show off what their arrangement looked like on him, and Minho's fashion advice coming next; Another about the cute cat videos Minho kept sending him instead of doing what he was supposed to be doing, which was... What was it again?; The next conversation thread being about the economy, completely serious in the worries or concerns they shared with one another; The last replies being a string of emojis, a never-ending story with the pictograms creating their own plots, cheese, police car, devil face, skull emoji skull emoji, protractor.

A shadow loomed over him.

Minho looked up from his phone. Tossed a glance to Changbin, strumming on his typical acoustic guitar, switching between those wide frets and the serenity their calm plucking entranced the room with, then turning to write scribbles Minho didn't understand down to the lines of that mess the rock drummer's notebook was. Watching for a moment, the diligent work that soon to be lawyer put in to his song writing, before looking up to the figure lurking above him.

Chan, at the edge of the hammock, staring blankly at the hacker who occupied it. Yeah, Minho got lucky enough to abscond the hammock before anyone else could, so what? And if his 'got lucky' was the reason Changbin had a melted ice pack sitting next to him, who cares? He earned rights to the hammock!

He stared back to the rock drummer.

Quietly.

Waiting as he felt his phone vibrate with notifications from Jisung spamming his chat.

Another beat.

Taking in the Eldrich horror of that drummer, staring blankly back to him.

They stared.

And stared.

Waiting.

Minho could've convinced himself that Chan wasn't a human at that moment. He was a cardboard cutout Changbin had printed, polished, to near realism, in order to coax the hacker out of the swinging fabric of the hammock. He was a mannequin. Painted up with uncanny make-up and airbrushed shadows to match the cascading lights of the rat cave, the blond bleached hair on his head a wig stolen from elsewhere to bring that figure to life. A wax figure, maybe. A wax figurine seemed the most likely, the most realistic.

Wax figurine Bang Chan blinked at him. Yes! A sign! A signal he was alive! Eyelids slowly dropping, opening again, his head moving to stare the hacker down. From the hole in his socks where the horrors of his toe stuck out from, to the relaxed cargo pants he totally paid for with a fair and equal exchange of monetary value for crafted assets from a totally legitimate department store, lingering on the tumbled mess of car keys Minho set on his chest purely to show off the crochet white rabbit keychain Jisung gave him the day before after they ate the dinner Minho made for him together. Then trailed up to the hacker's eyes. Staring him down with a strange expression. A strange unease as he asked vacantly, "What do you think about that... that Seungmin guy?"

"Seungmin? Felix's guy? Uhhhh, he's cool as fuck. He's really hard working, he works construction like crazy and still runs real estate assets for his family, so rich too. He bought me fruit snacks because I hit my head on Felix's counter and let me watch Cocomelon with Eunwoo while he was helping Shithead with a broken pipe," Minho sent a fast text to Hiding, announcing he had to talk with a friend, before he clicked his phone off. Setting it down on his stomach as he continued to feel those vibrations. One after another, words to come back to when he returned from cutting out of the conversation to deal with the falling look on Chan's expression. He made a mental note to either visit Jisung or call with him later to make up for the absence. Especially considering the sudden solemnness taking his friend over while he continued his evaluation, "I like him, I think he's a good guy. Not only would I go get beers with him, I would let him watch my cat."