Rise of a Star - a Minsung Story

Chapter 6

The next day passed in a blur. Too many things happened for Jisung to be able to take in and process them, so when he came back from practice at 9pm that night, he was basically a walking corpse. School wasn't anything new, he had managed to finish his homework in the morning and didn't have to get scolded by his tutor, which he was really thankful for. Around noon, he returned back home to find their old apartment empty and Felix found the anxious boy crying on the floor when he returned to make sure they had everything. Jisung had gotten quite attached to their place and the thought of moving to an apartment he didn't know with people he didn't know well seemed very overwhelming and scary to the young boy. After Felix had shown him the dorm, he was relatively happy again, finding all his little space items already carefully placed on a shelf in the living room for him to easily reach. Before his first ever vocal lesson, he had to go to therapy for an hour or so and he told his therapist about all the things that had happened since the audition two days before. Luckily, all his teachers at JYP were informed about his special circumstances and tried not to yell at him or scold him too much. The teachers were relatively friendly and nice yet strict and he liked that combination. After two hours of group vocal lessons, he had dance practice for a couple of hours and lastly, at 8pm, his solo rap lesson started. All in all, he enjoyed the day a lot but it was very stressful and he was extremely tired, just wanting to fall asleep in Minho's arms. Even in his big head space, he liked cuddling with the older, although he really didn't want to talk about last night's kiss with him.

When Jisung walked up to the door to his dorm, he saw two strangers fiddling with the key, standing in front of it. "M-May I help you?", he asked, instantly uncomfortable with meeting new people on his own. He hadn't seen either of them during practice today, so he didn't even know their names yet. "Oh, do you live here? I'm Seungmin and the boy next to me is Hyunjin. We are your new roommates", Seungmin friendly introduced himself and Jisung nodded. "N-Nice to meet you. Yes, I-I l-live here. The others should all b-be h-home by now", the young boy stuttered out and pulled out his own key to unlock the door.

Once the three stepped inside, they saw five boys unpacking their things between a lot of chaos. Chan, Changbin and Jeongin had unpacked most of their things yesterday night but definitely not everything and the whole dorm was a mess. "Oh, hi, Ji. Did you bring our new roommates with you?", Minho greeted the younger and Jisung nodded, immediately getting closer to his hyung.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you all. I'm Hyunjin and this is Seungmin. Would you mind showing us our beds, so we can unpack before we talk and properly get to know each other?", Hyunjin asked and Chan smiled nodding, already starting to like the two strangers. "Sure, come follow me. We already decided where everyone is sleeping, I hope you are okay with our choices. We can change beds in a few months or so to make it fair", Chan said, being the friendly person he was.

After another hour of everyone silently unpacking their belongings, the now eight boys, settled in their new kitchen. They didn't have a living room in the dorm, only three very old arm chairs, but at least they got a big kitchen table. Jisung didn't like the new place, it didn't feel like home at all, not even the bedroom he was sharing with Jeongin and Minho.

Chan spoke up and started the introduction round and after everyone got to know each other, the boys quickly found interests they were sharing with each other. When everyone decided to go to bed, it was already past 1am.

Jisung was turning in his bed, struggling with too many thoughts to be able to sleep. Eventually, he decided to give up on sleeping and turned on the lamp on his nightstand to study for school. He was so focused on studying, he didn't even notice Minho stir awake from his sleep . "Jisung? Why are you awake, it's not even four in the morning?", he asked tiredly, rubbing his eyes. "I couldn't sleep", Jisung simply stated and Minho sat up in his bed. Minho was on the bottom half of the bunk bed and Jeongin was sleeping on the top half. Jisung had the luck to get a single bed. "Why were you not able to sleep? You slept so well the last weeks", the older asked further and Jisung let out a frustrated sigh before closing his text book and turning towards his roommate. "I had nightmares. I don't like this place, it's not comfortable, it doesn't feel like a home", the younger finally said and Minho opened his arms for the younger to hug him. Jisung immediately took the offer, enjoying the feeling as Minho's calming scent hit his nose. "Do you want to sleep in my bed, Ji? We can cuddle just like we did at the old apartment. And tomorrow, we are going to buy some groceries for New Year's and perhaps some decorations to make the dorm feel more comfortable for you, okay? I know this is very new but we will get used to it over time. Because of the holiday, we don't have school tomorrow and can go outside all day. It's going to get better, Ji, I promise", Minho reassured the younger and Jisung felt himself relax, his eyes instantly growing heavy. The two laid down together and Minho held Jisung close to his chest, wanting him to feel as secure and comfortable as possible.