Rise of a Star - a Minsung Story

Chapter 10

"Ji, wake up. We have to film with mnet in an hour", Felix softly said the next morning. After Jisung's breakdown last night, Felix and Changbin had helped him calm down and Jisung and Chan shared the truth about Minho's elimination with all the other members. To say they were shocked would be an understatement, nobody had expected mnet to go this far. As they had decided before, Felix and Jisung ended up cuddling in Felix' bed that night and it did comfort Jisung but not as good as Minho's touch would.

"I feel like dying", Jisung grumbled and cuddled closer to Felix. The freckled boy sighed and gently stroked his friend's head. "I know, Ji. We all do. But unfortunately, we can't change that for now. At least we get to go outside and play games today", Felix tried to motivate Jisung at least a little bit but he did not really succeed with that.

Eventually, after another ten minutes of motivational talks, Jisung and Felix joined the other members at the kitchen table. "Good morning, you two. Did you sleep well?", Chan asked, putting on a friendly smile. Everyone besides Felix and Jisung was already busy eating their food, but Jisung wasn't hungry. Usually, it had always been Minho who made meals for everyone, since he was the only member in the group to actually cook good. Now, they had simply made instant rice and Hyunjin had cut a few vegetables to go with it. 

"I would say we slept okay considering the current circumstances. Ji had a couple of nightmares and needed to be calmed down a few times but we did get some hours of sleep, so it should be fine for now", Felix answered while Jisung stayed quiet and sat down, avoiding everyone's gaze. "Ji? Will you please eat something? Maybe at least some vegetables?", Chan pleaded but Jisung just looked at him and shrugged. "I'm not hungry", he stated and the leader sighed. "Do you want to drink some milk or eat your formula?", he suggested and the younger bit his lip. He really wanted to say yes but he knew there was a really high chance of him slipping if he ate formula now and he had no time to do that today. "I-I can't, hyung. And we a-all know that", Jisung quietly stuttered and Changbin looked at him concerned. "Let him be, Chan-hyung. If he gets hungry later, he can always grab a snack from the fridge or buy something when we are outside", the shortest of the members stated and Jisung thankfully smiled at him. Chan didn't like the thought of allowing Jisung to skip breakfast, but he knew the younger was hurting, as they all were, and gave up for now.

Just as everyone was done getting ready, the filming team arrived and knocked on the door to Stray Kids' dorm. "Hello, it's nice to see you all again. Well, obviously not all of you, but you get what I mean", the director said, smiling mischievously. Jisung clenched his hands into fists and pressed his teeth together, he was unbelievably close to yelling at that man. "Calm down, Ji. You will only make it worse if you say something", Hyunjin put his hand on his member's shoulder in a soothing manner and Jisung slightly leaned into the touch, trying to relax himself.

"Now, we know you are all sad and disappointed and whatsoever, but we need you to be as happy and excited as you would normally be while playing games and joking around, alright? There is no real script for you today, just don't forget to be happy, loud, entertaining and not too clingy. Some of you tend to cling to each other a lot and that is too much affection to show on this program. If everyone is ready, please sit on the couch while our team sets up all the cameras", someone from the coordinating team told the boys and they all nodded and sat down. A few minutes later, Stray Kids' manager arrived and soon the filming for the new episode began.

The first few hours, while the members were still at their dorm, went rather well. Of course, they all had to act their happy emotions but once they started joking around, their laughter became sincere. Unfortunately, mnet had decided to continue filming outside – at a playground. Jisung immediately felt the urge to regress into his younger head space and all of the members noticed it. The young boy started fiddling around, giggled in a higher pitched voice than he would usually and his actions were a lot more chaotic. At first, the staff didn't notice any changes but they soon got bothered by an impatient Jisung, who actually wanted to just play on the playground. He hadn't fully slipped yet, but he was very close to doing so.