Chapter Text
Minho was slowly fading into the background
A month ago everything was fine
The rumors have gone too far
Just a month ago everything was fine… till it was not. Everything came crashing down on him like a wrecking ball, his mother died, she was his mental pillar she made him feel alive and loved, Soonie was dying… He loved his cats and treated them like they were his children, he was devastated words could not express how heartbreaking these events were for him. Rumors of Minsung had gone too far, people were convinced they were actually gay for each other, leading to conflict within the fandom and death threats directed towards Jisung and Minho.
The death threats and rumors were so bad that just like Hyunjin and Felix, Jisung and Minho had to stay away from each other and not show any attention to each other on camera.
Jisung and Minho were still friends off camera but there was something different about their friendship now. Jisung looked uncomfortable and uneasy around Minho. Everytime Minho would try to start a conversation Jisung would find a way to make it end quickly, everyone kind of distanced themselves from him.
When his mother died his members were there to comfort them but they did not sound genuine at all. Minho had no family except the members; his mom was his only real family, his dad died from alcohol and overdose. His father was never the perfect father figure, he was cruel, manipulating, conniving, and abusive. Although he was never physically abused much by his dad he verbally abused Minho. His father died when he was 6, his last words were “Minho don’t disappoint your mother like how you disappointed me.” He had spent his last dying breath to remind him that Minho was never enough for his father.
His father would often come home smelling heavily like alcohol. His mother would protect him from any physical harm his father would bring upon him. He looked up to his mother, cared for her, he would do anything. But now she is gone… Minho and his mother would take care of the kids whenever he had time to visit them, but now she was gone. Soonie was starting to get sickly looking and getting diarrhea more often, he did not eat as much and lost a lot of weight, he noticed that Soonie would often have difficulty breathing. He rushed Soonie to the Vet and was given the news that he had Feline Leukemia, and he only had about 2 years left to live.
This news devastated Minho.
One month ago
Minho had a couple days off so he went to his moms house to help her take care of Soonie, Doongie, and Dori. He caught up with his mother and played with the kids. His mom asked him to go to the market to pick up a couple of things while she worked on her garden. When Minho got back he called for his mom “엄마 나 식료품 있어요 (Mom I have the groceries).” He put down the groceries and went to the garden. To his horror he found his mom trembling, and sweating, gripping her chest as she gasped for air. He did not know what to do and called paramedics hopefully they would come in time. As the paramedics came they picked her up and put her on a stretcher. They rushed her to the hospital, only to find out she sadly did not survive. He remembered her last words “자신을 돌보고 행복하게 살아라.” Those were the last words she said before passing out.
Minho spent all his time with the cats and getting them ready to move out of the house because he had nowhere else to put them and no one could take care of them. He cried his heart out that night with his cats, and the other members.
They all comforted and helped take care of the cats except for Jisung, Hyunjin, Changbin, who were allergic to cats. They laid low for a while until the news spread online fast, faster than a wildfire. Minho was allowed to have a break for mental health reasons. Rumors about his mothers death had stays saying comforting and hurtful things. Minho could not resist not going on his phone and looking at what stays said. He opened his phone up and searched up on Facebook “Leeknow mom death”. He scrolled through the comments he saw comforting ones but his focus was drawn to the negative ones. “User143:Honestly Leeknow deserves his mom dead. That's what he gets for being so mean.” Ouch. “User093284:I hope Leeknow dies just like his mom. OT7 is so much better than OT8. They can afford to lose him, plus Hyunjin and Felix are much better than him.” The words stabbed daggers into his heart.
Two weeks pass by….
Leeknow woke up sore and drowsy. He woke up from his phone’s non-stop pinging. He opened his phone and checked his socials. To his horror he saw many articles with big flashy words that said “K-pop idol Lee Minho is dating Han Jisung” and “Famous K-pop idol Lee Minho is gay”. Being gay in Korea or lgbtq was not a very accepted idea and was quite controversial. Minho checked his messages and he had 100+ messages from random numbers, he recognized none of them. When he opened up one of the messages, there were multiple paragraph long messages threatening to kill Minho and to hurt everyone he cared for. Minho heard muffled cries that sounded like they were coming from Hyunjin’s room. Minho would go handle that soon but first he wanted to address the messages he became more invested in this new rumor. Minho was in bed feeling lazy and tired. He wanted nothing more but to stay in bed and escape from all of this drama and his emotions. Minho heard the booming voice of Bangchan’s come from the living room calling them all for a group meeting.