Feathers and Carnations

Chapter Twenty-seven

*Two months later*

"This is literally the dumbest game to ever exist!" Hyunjin huffed, throwing his cards down."

Jisung laughed. "Looks like I picked the right name for it."

"The name only works for losers," Seungmin said smugly as he took his turn.

Jeongin glanced at Jisung. "What do you call it again?"

"Race Inducer."

"Oh yeah, Hyunjin should definitely not play this."

Chan was standing off to the side, looking on with his brow furrowed. "I still don't really get what's happening."

Seungmin glanced up at him. "Of course you wouldn't understand, old man."

Felix laughed. Changbin pointed at their leader with a loud, obnoxious 'Ha!'. Chan looked like he regretted life.

Jisung used the distraction to his advantage and made his move.

Hyunjin shoved to his feet. "That's it, I'm done. I'm gonna go train before I swing on one of you."

Eui popped to her feet from where she sat at the far end of the table. "I'll come with you, I need to spar with someone hardcore." She sent a pointed look at Seungmin, just to get him fired up.

Seungmin, like always, fell for it. Only Eui could get under his skin so easily. "Oh, is that a challenge, rookie?"

"With you? Never a challenge."

Jeongin suddenly held his hand up, the signal for everyone to quiet down as he looked down at something in his hand. As the room fell silent, the vibration of a phone could be heard. 

Chan stepped closer. "What is it?"

Jeongin slowly raised his head, his expression filled with shock and confusion. "Jaya is calling me."

The confusion spread through the room. Hyunjin was the first to speak on it. "Jaya? I thought she was dead or long gone from the country. How is she calling right now?"

Jeongin got to his feet. "I'll check this out. Wait here just in case." With those cryptic words, he left the room.

Jisung shared a glance with Changbin, but they could only shrug at one another. Nearly five months had passed since the destruction of Chimera, so hearing from Jaya out of the blue was unnerving. It was a tense few minutes before Jeongin came back.

Jeongin looked straight at Jisung. "Minho is alive."

⧫⧫⧫

Jisung didn't sleep for days.

Jaya found Minho and decided to save his life since he was the reason Chimera was gone for good. According to her, it was quite a process to revive him, and it was an even longer healing process. She didn't bother to let anyone know about Minho in case she failed to save him, and now that he was gaining his strength back, it was time for him to come back.

Jisung had never hated waiting so much in his life. Since Jaya had some things to arrange and take care of, he had to wait for nearly a week before she told them a meeting time and place, and he was beyond anxious to see Minho again. He constantly wondered if he was dreaming, despite not having slept in days, but at this point all he could think about was seeing Minho alive and well.

It was hard at first. He just started getting used to missing Minho and carrying the grief of losing him, and now he was back so suddenly. It sent Jisung into a spiral of confused and conflicting emotions. The strangest part was that he was... scared. Nerves and nausea were becoming constant companions, which only made it more difficult to sleep. He hoped that would all dissipate once he was with Minho again.