sixty-one

After a long silence between them, Jisung finally asked, "who do I remind you of?" when it became obvious that Minho wouldn't elaborate what he had said previously.

Minho let out a harsh sigh, but he still told Jisung despite not being happy about it."Dongmin."

"Who's that?" He asked curiously, never having heard of this name before. This person seemed important to Minho, so he wondered why he never mentioned him. Was he a relative, an old acquaintance, or maybe even his lover?

"He was... he was my second love—my boyfriend. He was a human just like you, but he died long ago," he answered and Jisung stared at him with wide eyes, somehow having trouble imagining the demon being in a serious relationship.

"He was killed by merciless demons... for fun. I left him alone for a few minutes and that was all it took. When I came back, he was already fighting for his life," he hissed, curling his hands into fists.

"I made them pay, but that didn't bring him back," he said apathetically, his eyes staring at the ground. Jisung was shocked as he had never heard of this before, and suddenly, so many things started to make sense to him. He now understood why Minho was so overprotective of him.

For a second, he wondered if Minho was still in love with Dongmin, but he threw his thoughts aside, telling himself that now wasn't the time to be jealous; especially not of someone who had died tragically.

"What was he like?" He asked, wishing to know more about this mysterious man.

"He wasn't like a normal human, he looked like an angel. His hair was silver-blonde and his eyes were icy blue," he stated hollowly. "He was curious about demons and wanted to visit hell no matter what."

"The day I took him here was the day he died. It was my fault." His voice trembled and he fell silent. Guilt flashed over his face, self-hate manifested in his gaze.

"After what happened to him, it seemed like a cruel joke to me to end up getting bonded with you, Jisung."

"I left you because I didn't want to be the cause of your demise too." The self-hate in his eyes was shockingly different from the arrogant attitude he usually displayed, and Jisung couldn't bear seeing it.

"It's understandable that the situation wasn't easy for you," he replied. "But I have to disagree with what you said.

"I think you've been doing a great job protecting me." He smiled and rested his head on the demon's shoulder. "And honestly, you're better than any guardian angel."

Minho stared at him in disbelief and didn't quite know what to say. "But I messed up in the past," he said apathetically.

"Stop saying that!" Jisung snapped. The sharp tone in his voice made Minho look at his face with wide eyes.

"You didn't do anything wrong and I'm sure that Dongmin would have agreed with me. I never met him, but I'm convinced that he would have wanted you to live a happy life, and not be bitter about his death."

His words shocked Minho, and he let out a breath. "Strange," he uttered. "That's what he said...before he died." He met Jisung's eyes, realizing that he seemed surprised. A mix of curiosity and concern swam in his eyes, so he decided to elaborate a bit more.

To be continued...

Btw can I just talk about how the 'ODDINARY' album is such a bop? It's scary how there are no bad songs in it lmao. I mean, what do we expect from Stray Kids though? Kings indeed. And I hope Changbin gets well soon :(