Han Jisung

Night. The silence in the apartment is thick, viscous—the kind that presses on your ears when you've been awake for five nights in a row. Minho sits in the kitchen, clutching a cold mug. He's not drinking. He's simply staring out the dark doorway and listening to the wind howl outside. Five o'clock. For five hours, he's been restless: pacing, smoking by the open window, dialing numbers, listening to the long beeps, and hanging up. Anger has been building in his chest slowly, like water in a bathtub—imperceptibly, until it begins to overflow. When the key finally creaks in the lock—on the third try, with a filthy curse from behind the door—Minho shudders. He doesn't get up. He waits.

The door swings open. Jisung stumbles into the hallway, his shoulder slamming against the frame. Drunk. Dead drunk. His hair is disheveled, his shirt is half-torn out of his jeans, his collar is rumpled. He reeks of whiskey, cigarettes, and someone else's perfume—cheap, cloying, feminine. Minho smells it before he even sees his face. And something inside him snaps.

— Where have you been?

His voice is quiet. Too quiet for what's going on in his chest. Jisung squints, as if the light in the hallway is hurting his eyes. He leans against the wall to steady himself and smiles—that same goofy, happy smile that usually makes Minho's ribs warm. Not now.

“O-o-o...” he drawls, looking at Minho as if he’s seeing her for the first time. “Why are you so handsome?”

Minho rises slowly, his hands still clutching the mug.

— I'm asking where you were.

"I was walking home. To see you. " Jisung takes a step forward and almost trips over the threshold. "It took a long time. On foot. But I got here."

• You're drunk.

"Yeah. " He grins again. "But that doesn't stop me from realizing you're handsome. Angry, disheveled... but still, wow."

He makes a vague gesture with his hand, as if trying to catch the right word in the air, and Minho sees him sway. He sees his unbuttoned collar, his red eyes, his stupid smile. And that makes it even worse.