Split - Banginho/MinChan

Chapter Seventeen

⚠️⚠️This part contains some implications, mentions, and descriptions of child abuse and self-harm. Please be safe. ⚠️⚠️

"We're like... his family."

---

"Minho?"

Minho looked up from a book he was reading to see Hyunjin come into his bedroom. Minho raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

Hyunjin came into the room, sitting next to Minho on his bed. "I have some news."

Minho closed his book, eyebrows furrowed. "What? Is something wrong?"

Hyunjin scratched his neck. "Last time I was out, I talked to our friends, you know Jisung, Felix, Changbin, that gang. Also your boyfriend, Chan."

Minho felt a blush start to form on his face, but he quickly tried to wipe the feeling away. "And...?"

"They witnessed a new alter. He was the one that was fucking cutting the body."

Minho's jaw dropped. "Really? Who is he?"

Hyunjin was about to respond but at that moment, Jeongin burst into the room, smile wide. "H-hi. A-are y-you guys t-tellin secwets? B-because you t-talk to loud, I-I can h-hear all y-your secwets and th-thats bad."

Minho's head swiveled immediately towards Jeongin. "No. Innie, why are you here?"

Jeongin walked into the room and laid on the floor. Minho spotted that he was holding a coloring book and some crayons. Jeongin started coloring. "T-Taehyungie said I n-need to be s-super-v-vise."

Minho put a finger up to his lips, nodded, and whispered. "Okay, Innie. You can stay, just make sure you stay quiet."

Jeongin giggled and nodded.

Minho turned back to Hyunjin. "So, what were you saying?"

Hyunjin drummed his fingers against his thigh. "Uhh... what was I... shit... Oh yeah, His name is apparently Lino. I told almost everyone else in the system already, and they're all looking for him. He has to be somewhere in our inner world."

Minho nodded. "We should look for him. But... where could he be? He's not in the house is he?"

Hyunjin shook his head. "I don't think so. We would've seen him before if he was in the house."

"A-are y-you talking a-about the m-man i-in the cave b-behin the h-house?"

Minho and Hyunjin immediately turned their heads towards Jeongin, eyes wide. "What?"

Jeongin giggled. "Th-the man i-in the c-cave! He l-looks kinda like d-dad. H-he's b-black and w-white. His f-favowit c-color is b-black like h-his hair!"

Minho continued staring at Jeongin. "You went somewhere by yourself?"

Jeongin nodded before looking at the ground. "J-jinnie was s-sleeping, s-so I went e-explowing."

Minho looked at Hyunjin who had a sheepish look on his face. "Taehyung is going to be so mad at you."

Hyunjin chuckled nervously. "Yeah, uh. Should we check to see if there really is a cave?"

Minho nodded. "Yeah, go get the others."

---

Minho walked out of the back door into the backyard, his alters behind him. "Innie, where's the cave?"

Jeongin pointed enthusiastically towards a certain direction. "Th-there!"

Minho started walking towards the direction Jeongin pointed to and stopped when he saw the cave. "How have we not seen this before?"

Taehyung shrugged. "We just never go outside."

Hyunjin huffed and started walking in. "Just come on, guys. We don't know how much fucking time we have before the body wakes up. One of us will be whisked to the front."

Minho followed Hyunjin into the cave. 

---

Lino was laying down on the hard, stone floor when his ears picked up a certain sound.

The sound of footsteps.

Lino's eyes widened. No no no. 

Somebody was here. Somebody discovered his secret hiding spot and they were probably going to-

"Hello?"

Lino slowly moved his head up to see a group of people. Lino instinctively backed away. Were they here to hurt him? "p-please. don't hurt me. i'll do a-anything i-"

The man in the front stepped forward. "Are you Lino?"

Lino froze. How did they know his name? "...y-yeah."

The man kneeled down in front of Lino. "I'm Hyunjin."

Hyunjin gestured towards another man who came and sat next to him. "This is Minho. We want to help you."

Lino shivered. "y-you are?"

Minho nodded. "Yes, Lino. Can you tell us why you're cutting?"

Lino felt tears well up in his eyes. "n-no."

"We can't help you if you don't tell us. We can help you get better."

Tears rolled out of Lino's eyes. The realization that he needed to get help was burning through his thoughts.

He needed to trust somebody.

"...i've been l-living in such a n-nightmare for s-so long..."

Lino looked up to see Hyunjin and Minho looking at him, comfortingly. Lino shuddered, voice quivering. "...e-ever since i o-opened my eyes, i-i've been scared. i j-just have a m-memory of this m-man cutting m-my arms a-and legs over and o-over. the p-pain th-that i r-remember i-is so m-much, i c-can't stop. he just k-kept c-cutting so much. i just r-remember begging for h-him to s-stop..."

Lino wiped the tears off his face. "...h-he never d-did. i-it just k-keeps p-playing over and o-over. i c-can't stop reliving i-it. i-it always f-felt so real. i j-just th-thought that if i m-made the cuts m-myself, h-he won't h-hurt me anymore."

Lino hid his face in his hands. "i-i'm sorry."

Lino felt arms wrap around his body. It was Minho. "It's okay, Lino. It's okay. We'll help you get through this."

Hyunjin nodded. "I know how it feels to have trauma memories play over and over. I used to... do what you've done. Hurt myself just so the pain could stop. But I got through it... I know you could to."

Lino nodded.

"th-thank you."

A/N I feel like the quality of my writing is going down just like my grades and my sanity. ;) Like the pacing in this chapter is really really bad. I feel like it's kinda rushed. Also the amount of inconsistencies, big yike. Idk, tell me if you think so too.

I have been preparing my next two books, the first chapter for both will be released immediately after this book ends. I really hope you guys will be excited for them! (even though you guys literally don't know what they're about lol)

Also this is for you, you know who you are ;)

Have a good dayn't/nightn't!

unedited (and really bad)