THE BABY MILL [[{SHINee}]]

THE BABY MILL [[25]] DIALATE

Minho wasn't sure whether the snow had fallen outside yet (or if they had missed the cold season altogether), but it felt like the temperature had dropped significantly recently. Deep down, he knew he was placing blame on the weather to ignore another reason why he shouldn't sleep on the floor. The tiles weren't warm, that was for sure, but he wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to share a bed with his roommate. And he wasn't going to kick him off either. He needed the bed - MinHo couldn't tell you why - but he did. Because.

JongHyun wasn't heartless, though. He'd given MinHo one of the pillows and the one blanket on the bed. At time she passed the blanket back, gently settling it over top his body when he was sleeping and he caught his bony body shivering later, when he awoke from a trouble sleep, though, he found the blanket back on his shoulders, trapping in heat that escaped from his exposed skin.

Tension still lingered in the room like a noxious gas when both boys were awake, but they'd come to a mutual agreement that they weren't going to kill each other or in any way hurt each other through conscious action. And physically at least. MinHo still thought that JongHyun was stung by the comment he'd made, though.

One thing he hated and liked about his rommate, however, was that he was completely, totally, one hundred percent silent. Not a sound passed his lips or gargled in the back of his throat. Even when he moved he was silent. At first, he hadn't understood why he had so little verbiose responses to his unusual habits, but as their time together grew permanent and unchanging he figured it out. 

The silence was eerie. MinHo had expected to be met with a boy desperate to socialize after being held in solitary confinement for so long. That was how all the scenarios in his head had played out. And in the showers he'd passed off the silence for him not wanting to draw attention from the workers, but obviously this was not the case. Every part of him detested how unnerving it was to actually be with someone who refused to speak. As admirable as this feat was, it came with a lot of loathing on MinHo's part.

But the silence wasn't always unwelcome. When he set into those fits of unrest and the tiger treid to claw at its cage again he was grateful to JongHyun for not commenting. He'd suffered from spontaneous fits all his life, though they'd never been so intense, and he'd learned with experience that he didn't take well to people speaking. Once he'd gotten himself all worked up over the silliest thing during a basketball practice and his teemmate had offered some advice to help him through it. He'd received a ball to the face and MinHo got a suspension from the next day's game. It wasn't his fault; he'd snapped. Sometimes he just... Snapped.

If JongHyun were to make one remark, even under his breath, their unofficial truce would break and MinHo would have earned himself a one way ticket to th eroom behind the locked doors. Torture of all kinds might be figted to him before hand, too, since JongHyun was a top five and his physical health was worth more than his.

How is it that MinHo always found himself pacing? The tiger wasn't even awake right now... It was peacefully snoozing in the shadow of its partner: his carrier.

"Do you know who your carrier is?" MinHo suddenly asked. He stared at JongHyun hopefully, wondering if he'd break his oath of silence to answer him. A jerk of the head would suffice as well but he couldn't stifle the shimmer of hope crackling in his chest.

For several moments he stood facing JongHyun's back. His hope at socialization disappearing with each blink of his eyes. Finally, it became clear that the other donor wanted nothing to affiliate himself with him which disheartened MinHo more than it should have. 

He would never make this mistake again.

Creeping back to his corner, MinHo maneuvered his way down to the floor and cuddled up to his pillow, back turned to JongHyun like he had done to him. If he wanted to play games then so be it. He would sit here forever then, concentrating on breathing in and out so that he could relax and fall into a deep, hard slumber that would tear him out of reality. When tendrils of sleep finally felt like they were going to float down to capture his mind he heard shuffling coming from the other side of the room.