Echo ; minsung

Chapter eight

Chapter 08

"Hey– Uhm–" Jisung was the first to break the silence again, as usual. "Do you maybe want to hang out some time?" It was quite obvious that he was nervous by the way he smiled at the other. But Minho didn't mind.

He figured that he must be new to this as well, it sort of made him feel a little better about his own lack of experience with making friends. He couldn't deny that he was nervous as well. It was just less obvious because he was less talkative and used to hiding away his feelings.

Minho couldn't help but smile again and gently bumped his shoulder against the boy's arm and nodded in response. He was too nervous to look at him again and smiled at himself while staring down at the ground instead. In fact, he couldn't stop smiling.

"Cool" Jisung replied, trying to seem casual about the whole thing while he was indeed very excited. He didn't want to come over as desperate and remained calm instead. "How about Saturday? Same place?"

The younger one instantly nodded again, even though he wished to see him sooner again.  He wasn't going to admit that, though. He was already a little too excited to hang out with someone he just met. "Saturday is great, I can be there after lunch- or we can eat together. I'll make some for you."

"Perfect." The other male smiled in response and gently rubbed his thumb over the back of his hand.

It didn't take long before they arrived back at the house. Every minute he spent with Jisung only felt like a second. Time went by so fast. He wished that he could hold his hand forever.

They walked up to the front door and both stayed in a comfortable silence while using the opportunity to look at each other one last time. The eye contact lasted for a few seconds until they both couldn't handle it anymore and bursted into smiling.

"I guess I'll see you Saturday."

The younger nodded and glanced down at their hands as soon as he felt the other's hand slowly sliding away from his own.

"Take care, beautiful." Jisung winked and gave his hand a gentle squeeze until he, to Minho's disappointment, finally let him go. Minho's eyes stayed on him until he was completely out of his sight. Like he wanted to memorize every single detail about him before he left.

As soon as the elder was gone, he walked back into the house, still unable to stop smiling.

He was almost relieved that his mother wasn't home yet since she would most likely bombard him with questions about where he went and who he was with. And most definitely why he was in such a good mood.

It was sort of sad that it was so rare to see him like this, it never went unoticed.

Luckily he had some time to calm himself down and get everything together before she returned. Although he was still in a pretty good mood. He even took the time to clean up his room and do his laundry while he could.

Not that he had to do it himself, his mom would do it on most days but after the piles of dirty clothes he pulled out of his bedroom. He didn't want to overwhelm her with that, he would feel terrible for letting her take care of everything. Whenever he felt a little better, he always tried to step in.

"Sweetie, I'm home!" Sooyoung's soft voice replaced the silence, followed by the sound of the door clicking back into the lock.

She walked to the living room, where she threw her purse on the couch and looked around the room in the hopes of finding her son there. "Min?"

Sooyoung walked up the stairs and went straight to his room since she figured he must be in there. That room and the couch were the only places he spent time in so she didn't have to look for that long.

Due to the silence in the house, it didn't take long for Minho to detect her voice. He quickly pushed some of his clothes in the dryer and then ran to his room to meet his mom. "I'm here."

The boy smiled and gave her a quick hug. She was a little stunned by the sudden gesture but didn't say anything in case that would scare him away. She knew she had to take advantage of his good moments and wouldn't dare to do anything to ruin his mood.

"I missed you. I've had such a long day, I wish i could've stayed here with you." Sooyoung sighed softly and brushed Minho's messy hair out of his face. It was getting too long again but she figured he would tell her if he wanted a haircut. He looked nice either way.

"You cleaned your room?" She smiled as she glanced around in his room, smiling at how much cleaner it looked without the clothes scattered around the room.

"I did the laundry too." Minho responded with a soft smile on his face. Seeing how proud his mother looked made him feel so much better about himself.

Sooyoung placed her hands on his cheeks and gently squished them. "You did well, honey. You can go rest now. I'm going to order takeout and wash up real quick, hm?"

His mother left the room soon after and took a quick shower after she ordered from Minho's favourite sushi place. It was his favourite ever since she took him there for dinner on his birthday. The first birthday that actually felt like one.

Soon after she finished washing up, the doorbell rang. Sooyoung quickly opened the door and grabbed the paper bag from the delivery guy, which was soon brought to the kitchen table.

"Min, dinner is ready!" She yelled from the bottom of the stairs, followed by light footsteps.

The boy sat down at the table and instantly began to eat like he hasn't eaten in days. He couldn't help it, it was his favourite thing. It wouldn't be the first time his mom told him to calm down so he wouldn't choke on his food.

Sooyoung did most of the talking, as usual. It was so normal for Minho to listen to her complaining about her job and annoying colleagues. He couldn't deny that it was sort of entertaining to listen to all the drama. Although he didn't say much in response, he was still very invested in whatever she had to say. It worked well for them. Minutes passed by so fast again. He couldn't believe that the day was almost over already.

"Would you like to help me clean up? I'll buy you ice cream tomorrow." His mother smiled and got up with the plate in her hand before she brought it to the sink.

And her son didn't have to think twice about doing the same thing. The only thing he loved more than his favourite sushi was ice cream. He might've been a little too excited and accidentally let his glass of water slip through his hand when he picked it up.

Everything went quiet around them and time stopped for a moment.

"What the fuck did you just do?" His father yelled at the small boy, who had just dropped his glass of water after trying to pour his drink in by himself for the very first time. Minho's lip quivered as he forced himself to hold his tears back. "Are you stupid? Clean it up and stop crying before I give you something to cry about."

Those words never left his mind. Every single time he messed up, he would think about how angry his parents used to get whenever he made a mistake. How scared he used to be and had to prepare himself for whatever would come next.

He heard his mother's voice but couldn't tell what she was saying. His head felt heavy and every noise around him got muffled, his ears ringing while his breathing got heavier.

"I'm sorry." Minho kept mumbling the same words over and over again as tears rolled down his cheeks, although he wasn't completely aware of it.

It didn't take long for his body to give up and fall down the floor. Luckily his mom was there to break the fall and keep him away from the pieces of glass that were still scattered around the floor.

A.N I'm sort of on a writers block right now <\3 this took me so long to write.