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Jisung sighs, scratching behind Dori’s ears. He sighs louder, longer, his brows furrowed and Dori starts purring in his lap. He waits a second, still not hearing any reaction from the kitchen, and sighs again.
Chan chuckles as he walks into the living room, making eye contact with a pouting Jisung. “Alright, tell me what’s wrong before the whole building hears you.”
The pout deepens, Dori purrs louder as Jisung continues scratching harder. “It’s not that something’s wrong…” He sighs again, but this one is light. It’s stressed, it's exasperated, it’s tired. “It’s just that something’s not right .”
“I’ll pretend like I understood that,” Chan says, “So tell me what’s going on.” He sits down on the opposite side of the couch, right next to Doongie, and the cat walks onto his lap. Chan looks up at Jisung, waiting for the other to speak as they both pet the cats in their lap.
It takes a minute, but Jisung looks up at him, and it’s written all over his face before he even starts speaking. Chan knows who this is about. “Well… Usually, Minho and I go to the grocery store every other week. But when I woke up, Jeongin texted me saying they’d already left.” He sniffles, bringing his hand up to wipe at his eyes. Dori meows, and he quickly brings his hand back down to scratch at her ears.
Nodding, Chan leans back into the cushions. “And why is this upsetting you?”
Jisung gives him a look, but Chan shrugs, waiting for him to spell it out for them both. With a groan, Jisung closes his eyes and leans back. “It’s our thing. We always go together. It’s… It’s our time together.” The words get quieter as he goes on, and if Chan wasn’t paying attention, the sound would’ve faded into the quiet of the room.
“You think he doesn’t want to spend time with you like you do with him.”
He nods, let’s out another sigh, and sits up again. “Hyung,” he says, not looking Chan in the eye. “What if I’ve been imagining it? What if he really-” He cuts himself off, not letting himself admit it to another person.
“What if he doesn’t feel the same way as you? What if he doesn’t reciprocate your feelings?” Jisung gives him a nod, staring down at Dori. “Jisungie, you realize how stupid that sounds, right?”
“Does it, though? Because we’ve never once told each other how we feel. And right now, it doesn’t seem like he feels anything for me.”
“You’re thinking this because he went to the grocery store once without you. He didn’t suddenly start dating someone else. Look,” Chan runs his free hand through his hair, wanting to word this correctly. “Minho has never looked at anyone the way he looks at you. You’re literally the only thing he talks about besides the cats. Just… just trust him, okay? Don’t get so lost in that big head of yours.”
“Fine, fine. I won’t- hey! My head isn’t big.” He’s back to pouting, but this time, Chan knows he’s just whining for the sake of whining.
The two sit for a while longer. Once Felix gets home, Chan abandons Jisung and the cats, but not before reminding Jisung to actually talk to Minho when they get home. Jisung moves out of the living room, the cats trailing behind him as they make their way into the room he and Minho share, and falls face first onto his bed. Usually, the cats would sit on Minho's bed as they wait for their dad to get back. But once Soonie hops up onto Jisung’s bed and sits himself on his back, the other two follow their brother and lay themselves out on either side of Jisung’s body. It’s comfortable, and the constant weight around him helps him to forget about thinking.
The time must pass quicker than he thought, because soon he hears the front door open. Muffled voices fill the air before there's footsteps approaching closer and closer, and then the door to the room opens and a body shuffles inside lightly.
“Are you asleep?” Jisung hears Minho whisper. He lets out a groan, enough to tell him that he’s awake, but doesn’t want to move. Minho laughs, quiet but genuine, and Jisung can hear the rustling of a paper bag moving around and Minho’s feet against the wood floor.
He stays there, face down on the bed, but the cats are all moving around him now. They stay on the bed though, somehow knowing he needs that grounding presence, needs their physical emotional support.
Time feels like it barely passes and drags on forever, until Minho finally stops moving around. He sits down next to Jisung, and one of the cats moves away from Jisung and onto Minho’s lap. Jisung sits up, sees it’s Soonie, and avoids Minho’s eyes. He doesn’t know what to say.
“Chan told me you were upset before.” So Minho’s started this. Well, at least Jisung doesn’t have to figure this out.
Still avoiding his eyes, Jisung brings the other two cats onto his lap, the two cuddling up to his stomach. “Yeah… I guess you could say so.”
Minho sighs, and Jisung can see out of the corner of his eye that he’s looking down at Soonie, brows furrowed and hunched over. “I’m sorry I made you feel like I didn’t want to spend time together. I never want you to feel like that. I just… needed Jeongin’s help for this.”
That has Jisung looking up, and Minho is still looking down at Soonie, but he has a blush high on his ears. “Help for what?”
Minho sighs, closes his eyes, moves Soonie off his lap, and walks over to his bed. Jisung watches his movements as he grabs the paper bag on his bed, turns around, and walks back over. He stops in front of him, his hands are slightly shaking as his arms extend, pushing the bag in front of Jisung’s face.
They both stay quiet as Jisung grabs it, placing it beside himself, the cats in his lap looking at the new object. Peaking into it, his hands reach in. They’re met with more bags, and he’s pulling out chips and cookies and candy bars. He’s confused, but takes out everything, setting it all down on the bed. Once again, he stays quiet, waiting for the other to speak up.
“This is kind of hard for me,” Minho says, scratching behind his ear as he makes eye contact with Jisungs knees. “I don’t really know love, but I know snacks.”
The message isn’t clear, but it’s there. It’s loud, shouting at both of them, and it’s Jisungs turn for his cheeks to heat up.
They’re both smiling, still not looking at each other, but Jisung lets out a giggle, and Minho knows they’re good. They’ll be okay. And they’ll always go grocery shopping together, the two of them, from now on.