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Jisung found his safe haven.
For many people, their safe haven was a person. A person that would soothe any aches with kind words and gentle touches, with an embrace that could mend broken hearts and ease the struggles everyday life held ready.
But Jisung was alone.
He was alone when his parents started to fight, was alone when his siblings began to think that he was too young and embarrassing to be around, was alone when he cried over the societal pressures he endured in his classes and in his circle of friends.
And he most certainly was alone when his parents told him that they would get a divorce.
It had been the last straw for him really, the hope that his parents would at least stay together so their family wouldn’t completely break apart. So he wouldn’t completely break apart.
But no, that hope was also taken away from him. The only thing he could do in that moment was to run. To run and run and run. Far away.
Thankfully, they were living nearby a big forest and without even giving a second thought he headed outside and into the forest. He just needed to get away.
Tears were streaming down his face and sobs sounded in his throat, but he didn’t stop. And just as his lungs were aching so badly that he knew he had to stop running, he came upon a small and seemingly abandoned wooden house.
His curiosity let his tears run dry for a moment and he approached the house looking for any sign of life.
Nothing.
He rattled a little at the door and to his surprise it was unlocked.
Jisung hesitantly entered and looked around. Everything looked quite old-fashioned and dusty and he could detect a musty smell coming from the old furniture, but he didn’t mind.
He’d found himself a safe space.
For the following couple of weeks, this was where he went whenever the turmoil he felt inside was just about to burst out of him, whenever he needed some alone time to think and to cry and to vent his feelings in peace.
Jisung always had his notebook with him then and he would just start writing, writing poems, writing lyrics, writing down anything that creeped into his mind that hurt him. He wrote as much as it took for his tears to stop streaming down his cheeks and his staggered breathing to calm down again.
And afterwards he felt better, most of the times tucked in a blanket he took with him from home. He always sat in front of the house on a bench and gazed out into the calming greens of the forest, listening to the twittering of birds and the distant purling of a brook somewhere hidden between the trees.
He even hung up a string of lights around the porch and it was just dreamy. He felt safe.
And one day, when his day just couldn’t get any worse, with high school finals stressing him out and his mom yelling at him for no reason, he instantly smashed his backpack into the corner of his room and without even actively deciding to, went out into the forest, his fingers tightly gripping his notebook, trying to blink away the tears that were building up in his eyes.
It never was a long journey – after about ten minutes he could see the roof peeking out from the tress that stood in front. Jisung already felt calm creeping into his tensed limbs and he let out a thankful sign. Soon he’d feel better again.
Only that today everything was a little different. Jisung wasn’t alone.
When he reached the wooden house, he could hear soft sobs coming through to him and shortly after that he found someone sitting on the bench, wrapped in his blanket, their body shaking relentlessly.
After the initial shock, Jisung found the courage to approach them, whispering, so they wouldn’t get scared.
“Hey..um, is everything okay?”
He heard the person gasp and their sobs fell silent.
A boy turned around to him and Jisung was instantly captured by the sheer prettiness of his face. Dark hair framed his soft yet distinct features, warm brown, doe-like eyes were full of overflowing tears but nonetheless he looked at Jisung with an alert gaze. His cute button nose scrunched up from the uncomfortable situation he had found himself in and the lower part of his plump lips he hid behind his teeth.
He quickly wiped away his tears and cleared his throat before answering.
“H-Hi, yes, I’m okay. Um, is this all your stuff? I’m sorry that I just bursted in here, i-it just looked so comforting, and I needed a little comfort, to be honest.
Jisung shook his head and tried to smile. He still felt horrible, but he wanted to be kind, seeing that the other obviously was struggling as well.
“It’s okay, don’t worry. I feel like you need it more than me right now.” He awkwardly made his way towards the bench and sat down, fiddling with his fingers. This was a very odd situation. But something in Jisung felt the need to make conversation with the boy.
Maybe he wanted him to smile, to feel better again from the thing that had upset him so much.
“What’s your name?”
The boy gave him a shy smile, not quite meeting his eyes. “I’m Minho. And yours?”
Jisung couldn’t help but grin a little, he was very cute.
“Hi Minho, I’m Jisung.” He pulled his knees to his chest and lay down his head on top of them, facing Minho. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Minho looked at him with a sad smile, shaking his head. “I’m not sure if you should listen to me babbling about my sad life story.” He eyed Jisung’s tear-stained cheeks. “I feel like you’re not feeling well yourself.” Minho bumped into his shoulder, teasing him just a little. “Do you want to talk about it?”
That made Jisung laugh just a bit before turning serious again. “Oh, it’s a lot of things, don’t worry about it. I’m used to cope with it on my own.”
Minho’s voice turned so soft when he answered him.
“That’s not how it should go. You can tell me about it, if you like. I mean, since we’re already here.
Minho blushed but looked at him attentively and something in his eyes made Jisung relax, made him comfortable enough to start opening up. It was something he unlearned because he figured he could only trust in himself. Everybody else had let him down before.
But here he was, pouring out his heart to a complete stranger, talking about everything that only he was coping with for a long time. And Jisung would’ve lied if he said that it didn’t feel good to have somebody next to him who listened, who didn’t judge him, but gently patted his shoulder as he got overwhelmed and couldn’t hold back his tears.
And Jisung could help, too.
Minho opened up just the same, told Jisung that he’d just moved into this neighbourhood because his parents got a divorce and his mom decided to move away to leave everything behind. And Minho just felt so incredibly lonely and like he had fallen by the wayside, not being able to make friends as quickly as others, not being able to forget the life he had before all that mess.
Jisung held Minho close when his voice started to tremble and he stumbled over his words because all those sad emotions were bursting out of him. It felt good to be there for someone and Jisung was glad that Minho had strayed into the forest and stopped by the wooden house.
It felt as if they both had needed a shoulder to lean on and it was a miracle that they both met on this gloomy afternoon and found exactly what they were looking for.
The sun had already set and Minho and Jisung were surrounded by dusk when they decided that they had to go home to reassure their parents that they were still alive – they had completely forgotten the time as they talked for hours about anything and everything.
Their parting was a little awkward, both not knowing how to say goodbye, but they settled on a hug and it was sweet and filled with hope. A hope of seeing each other again.
They only met today, but Jisung already knew, well, he hoped that their paths would cross again soon.
And he was proven right.
On their first encounter they already exchanged their phone numbers and it quickly became their thing to text the other every time they didn’t feel well, when they wanted to share something exciting, or when they just wanted to see each other.
Jisung’s heart always made a little jump whenever the words he longed for the most flashed up on his phone screen.
“Meet me at our spot?”
It never took him more than a minute to send Minho an overly excited Yes!! and to pack some stuff before running out of the door and into the woods, no matter the weather or time of day.
They spent many, many happy hours together at the wooden house, at their spot, helped each other get through their last year of high school and studied together.
They even were each other’s biggest fan – whenever Jisung recited the poems and lyrics he had written and practiced his rapping skills in front of the other, Minho would watch him with a mesmerized gaze.
“Ji, you’re incredibly talented,” Minho admired once, giving him a sweet smile as he sat across from him, his chin resting on his knees. “I’m so happy that I can be part of that.”
Jisung would always blush at his praises, being unused to receiving compliments, but he praised Minho just the same whenever he showed him some of his new dance routines – a hobby Minho had picked up since he had moved here.
Getting closer felt so natural to them. Minho and Jisung became friends almost immediately and Jisung knew in his heart that his platonic, thankful feelings of finally having a true friend, soon turned into something more.
And Minho felt the same.
It didn’t take long for their fingers to shyly search for each other under the blanket, didn’t take long for them to hold hands, to exchange fond gazes, both of their hearts beating up their throats because this was all so new and so intense.
Soon they met every day, love-drunk on how they made each other feel, how much stability they gave each other.
And at one evening when they were once again cuddled up under their blanket, gazing into the dreamy forest with their fingers intertwined and Jisung’s thump gently stroking the back of Minho’s hand, it finally happened.
Minho’s head lay on Jisung’s shoulder and Jisung’s cheek rested on his soft hair, inhaling the sweet scent of Minho’s strawberry shampoo that made him feel at home.
Through Jisung’s comfort, he felt Minho squeezing their fingers and he coughed slightly. “Ji?” His voice rang softly in his ears, but he also sounded nervous.
“Hmm?” Jisung sat up just a little so he could look at him, smiling fondly. “Everything okay?”
Minho nodded and barely met his eyes, a sweet blush creeping into his cheeks.
“I- you know, I-I like you a lot…”
Jisung’s eyes just grew fonder. “I like you a lot, too.”
Though he was reassuring him, Minho was still squirming under his gaze and it seemed as if he had something on his mind that he couldn’t shuffle off. But before Jisung could worry about him, he saw that Minho’s gaze began shyly wandering back and forth between Jisung’s eyes and his lips, and Jisung got nervous just the same.
Oh.
He daydreamed so many times about kissing Minho and the mental image took his breath away every time. But whenever he thought about the feeling of Minho’s soft lips on his when they were together, he couldn’t help but shy away, too scared of rejection, too scared that he would ruin the only good thing he had in his life.
But in that instant, when Minho looked at him with his big, gentle eyes, breathless, his lips opened slightly and so completely into it, he knew that this was perfect timing.
He tried to ignore the million butterflies roaming around in his belly, and put a gentle hand on Minho’s cheek, his thumb stroking him and admiring how warm he felt under his touch.
They looked deeply into each other’s eyes, a comfortable silence between them as they realized that what they had anticipated so badly would happen now.
And then their lips touched, so softly, Jisung was floating on cloud 9. He pulled Minho a little closer and Minho sighed into their kiss and fisted his shirt, leaning even more into him.
Jisung took his chance to deepen the kiss, their tongues just slightly touching, but this slight connection already send shivers down his spine. He buried his hand into Minho’s silky hair, pressing his lips even further onto Minho’s because he couldn’t get enough of this feeling, of him.
The plump softness of Minho’s lips and the sweetness Jisung could taste on his tongue from his lip balm completely intoxicated him.
Minho entirely melted and slumped against him, his fist opening and running along Jisung’s chest to rest on his neck. He stroked along his skin with trembling fingertips and moved his lips in a way that drove Jisung completely crazy.
But their kiss stayed soft… it was the perfect first kiss, Jisung thought, his mind clouded with love.
Way too soon it seemed, they parted again, and Minho whined a little at the distance between them. He looked up to Jisung, completely flushed and with so much love in his eyes, Jisung had never thought that someone could make him feel so loved.
But there he was, with Minho in his arms, feeling as comfortable as he had never ever felt before in the presence of someone else.
Minho nestled closer and buried his face into Jisung’s chest, his arms tightly around his middle.
“Ji, I am so happy that we met.”
His voice was muffled by Jisung’s hoodie but he could still pick out the lovingness in his words.
Jisung looked down to him, the same infatuation in his eyes. He brushed Minho’s bangs out of his forehead and pressed a gentle kiss to it, making Minho hum slightly.
“Me too, Min.”
So much had changed in the span of just a couple of weeks and Jisung was so thankful for this hidden wooden house that revealed itself to Jisung in times of his greatest despair.
And it hadn’t just given him the opportunity to escape and find solace in nature whenever life was just too much to handle. It also gifted him someone special that made him realize that there were people in this world that he could truly trust and open up to.
Jisung wasn’t alone anymore, he found another safe haven.
And this time, it was a person.
A wonderful boy called Lee Minho.