Chapter Text
When Jisung left for the States, he promised he’d only be gone for a semester. One semester of study abroad, and then he’d be back home. Jisung has never broken a promise in all their years of knowing each other, and Minho is certain he won’t start now.
Until he gets the call.
“Hey, Min.” Minho can instantly tell something’s wrong. Jisung’s voice sounds strained, almost like he’s holding back tears.
“Jisung,” Minho starts. They only ever use the other’s full name when they need to be serious. “What’s wrong?”
“Fuck,” Jisung mutters on the other line. Minho’s sure he wasn’t supposed to hear it, but Jisung also didn’t try very hard to hide it. “I’m not gonna drag it out, but there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
Minho’s heart is racing. Jisung’s voice is so… different from how it normally sounds. He usually sounds so bright, his happiness radiating from him as he spoke. But now, he sounds so gloomy. “You’re dragging it out saying that. Just tell me, I promise I can take it.”
“I’m gonna be here longer than I thought.”
Oh. Minho calms down a bit. That’s not… the worst thing he could think of.
“Okay,” he draws out the word as he says it. “How? I thought the scholarship only covered a semester?”
“They offered to extend it for the rest of the school year. They said my grades have been outstanding.”
Something still isn’t adding up. This sounds like good news to Minho, so why does Jisung sound so down?
Minho expresses his doubts to Jisung. “That’s good, right? Why do you sound so sad?”
There’s a pause, and Jisung takes an audible breath. “I just… I promised I’d be back soon, and now I won’t see you until the summer.” Minho can hear shuffling in the background, and then gasps from Jisung as he starts to cry.
“Ji, baby, it’s okay. I wanna see you, but this is a good experience! And if you’re doing so well over there, you probably don’t wanna come back here to your straight C average, yeah?” Minho jokes, trying to reassure the other.
Jisung chuckles, but between the tears and the static of the phone it’s hard to tell how genuine it is. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Sorry, I guess I just worked myself up for nothing.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m happy for you, baby. But it’s getting pretty late over there, right? You should get some rest,” Minho gently responds.
“Will do. Love you.” Jisung’s voice sounds clearer now.
“Love you too, Ji.”
♡
Their roles are reversed on their next call.
“Ji, I miss you so much. And it just gets worse every day,” Minho sobs. It’s only been a couple of days since their last call, and they still text daily, but he feels so lonely. Sure, he’s got other friends, and he loves them all to death, but Jisung is his other half. They’ve never been away from each other for this long before, and Minho just doesn’t know how to handle it.
“I know, Min. I’ll come back soon, I promise.” Jisung’s voice is so steady and firm that Minho has no choice but to believe him. Jisung has only ever broken one promise, and Minho is certain he won’t do it again.
For the next hour, Jisung comforts Minho. He wishes he could hold up as well as Jisung is.
When they’re finally forced to hang up, Jisung reassures Minho one last time. “Min, I love you so much. No matter what happens, I’ll always love you, and I’ll always be there for you.”
Minho thinks he’s being extra sappy today, but chalks it up to him trying to reassure Minho. Jisung’s never been too good at expressing his feelings, but he’s getting better and Minho has learned that Jisung has his own way of expressing himself. “I know, Ji. I love you, too, forever.”
♡
Three and a half weeks later, Minho gets the call. It’s 5:43 am, and his phone blares with the notification of an incoming call. The caller ID tells him it’s Jisung’s mother.
“Minho, I’m so sorry,” she starts. Her voice is completely devoid of any emotion.
Minho blinks away the bleariness, trying to force himself awake. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Jisung, he…” she trails off.
Minho is instantly awake. “Jisung? What about him? Did something happen?”
“He passed away a few hours ago. They said it was,” she chokes, the first sign of life from her during this conversation. “They told me it was complications from the accident.” Her voice is shaky through the sentence, and the dams finally burst.
Minho’s head is reeling. Accident? What accident? This is some sick dream, Minho thinks. But even as he thinks it, he knows it isn’t true. Somehow, he knows this is real. He feels a void inside him. His other half is gone.
He’s numb. His hand feels weightless as it drops his phone and falls to his side. Distantly, he can hear Jisung’s mother’s sobs, completely heart-wrenching and utterly devastated.
He’s not sure he’s breathing. His mind flashes to every memory he has of Jisung: their playdates as children, their first date when they were in high school, their last phone conversation. He screams.
♡
Over the next few days, Minho learns the truth. At first, it’s hard to cope; Jisung had lied to him so many times, all the while suffering. But his friends and family help him to realize that Jisung had good intentions; he was trying to save Minho the pain of worrying. Still, it’s hard to think about anything besides the fact that Jisung was suffering in silence.
The night Jisung called him to tell him about his extended stay in the States was a few nights after the crash. One of his friends had been driving, it was late, and the other car didn’t have its headlights on. Jisung’s side took the brunt of the force.
Jisung had only told his parents about the accident. They said he probably wouldn’t have even told them if he hadn’t been required to. He’d asked them not to tell his friends back home; the doctors had told him there was a chance he wouldn’t make it, but, up until the last couple weeks, he was sure he’d pull through. He didn’t want to worry anyone.
All Minho can process is how alone Jisung must’ve felt. How he spent the last weeks of his life cheering Minho up over stupid projects and essays. How he was dying, how he knew he was dying, yet he was still more focused on making sure no one worried about him. It tears Minho apart. He pulls at his hair as he cries, deaf to the world around him, numb to the arms holding him steady.