Jisung spent the next few days crying himself to sleep. He barely even had the motivation to go to school, but somehow he still went. Minho never showed up to school though and Jisung didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. He missed the boy immensely and just wanted to see him one more time, but at the same time if Minho did show up to school, it would be really awkward and Jisung would break down and cry the moment he saw him.

During lunch Jisung went up to the roof. He didn't have the mental strength to see Chan or anyone from the gang. Changbin and Hyunjin already tried to talk to Jisung, but the heartbroken boy just said the same thing, "I'm okay." and waved them off. Even though he was far from it.

Jisung payed attention in class and would work on the class work as much as he could. When he was finished, he would find some more worksheets to work on or he read a book. He never stopped working because if he did, then his mind would go right back to the person who sat on his right and he would most definitely cry.

At home he was doing his homework or he was studying. He did anything to distract his mind. Jisung barely ate anything, he was too sad. His appetite was non existent and only ate when Jihyo forced him to eat. Sleeping was the worst time for him because that was the only time his mind rested which meant he was able to actually think about that night and that resulted in him crying. Jisung was surprised he hadn't run out of tears yet.

Everyone around him was worried about him. His three best friends especially. They wanted to follow Jisung up to the roof during lunch, but the sad boy wouldn't allow them too.

"Go eat with them, I don't want to ruin your mood with my sadness. I'll be fine, I actually prefer to be alone right now." He would say before he pushed them away.

Lunch with the gang wasn't any better though. Everyone sat there worried for both Jisung and Minho. They didn't know what to do, how to help them.

Minho wasn't doing good either. He locked himself away in his room and for the first few days. After that, he gradually came out of him room more often, but he was never the same. He was never happy and he was never laughing with them. He never left the house unless it was gang stuff and even then he wasn't giving it his one hundred. Minho wasn't as strong as he used to be from the lack of energy and food he had. His mind was noticeably not in the right space and he couldn't focus.

The gang had never seen Minho like this. Not even when he first joined was he this quiet and shelled up. It was quite concerning and they didn't know how to help him.

-

"I have a plan." Seungmin said to Felix and Jeongin.

They both looked at each other before raising their eyebrows at Seungmin, "Plan for what?" Felix asked cautiously.

"On how we can cheer Jisung up."

"If your plan doesn't have anything to do with getting Minho back together with Jisung then I don't think it'll work." Jeongin said and Felix agreed.

"Just hear me out okay?" Seungmin said and the two boys hesitated at first but nonetheless agreed. They would try anything to cheer up Jisung.

"What if we went to the gang's house and asked Minho ourselves on why he broke up with Jisung." Seungmin shared.

Felix furrowed his eyebrows, "Why would that help Jisung in any way?"

"Because! We all know damn well that there was absolutely no way that Minho 'stopped loving' Jisung. There has to be a better reason on why he did what he did and maybe if we knew the reason then we could figure out a way to help Jisung feel better." The taller explained.

"Ohhh I see where you're going with this." Jeongin said, "But how do we even know that Minho hyung will talk to us and will actually tell us the truth?"

"Because we won't leave him alone until he does and if he really cared about Jisung then he would help us out a little bit."

"How do we know that he trusts us? What if he thinks we'll tell Jisung the truth?" Felix wondered.

Seungmin paused, thinking, "We don't, but if his reason is good enough to get him to break up with Jisung, then it must be good enough for us to not tell Jisung."

Jeongin sighed, "We have to at least try, for Jisung hyung. I really can't stand seeing him be sad any longer. I just want him to be happy again and to take care of his health because he's really not doing well." The others agreed with him.

"Okay, but how the hell are we gonna go to their house? None of us can drive and we don't even know where they live." Felix pointed out.

"I can call Chan hyung and ask him to pick us up." Seungmin said as he took out his phone and dialed the leader's phone number.

It rang a few times before Chan picked up, "Hello?"

"Hey Chan hyung."

"What's up Seungmin?"

"I have a quick question..."

"Mhm?"

"Can you pick me, Felix and Jeongin up from my house and take us to yours?"

"Uh yeah sure, but can I ask why?"

"Because we have no idea how to help Jisung and seeing him sad hurts us so we want to talk to Minho and ask him to explain everything because we know he didn't stop loving Jisung."

Chan stayed quiet for a few seconds, "I'm not sure if he'll even want to talk to you guys. He's barely talking to any of us."

"Yeah but we have to at least try because we're really worried for Jisung and hopefully if we find out the real reason then we'll know how to cheer him up."

Chan hesitated for a second before saying, "Okay send me your address, I'm leaving now."

"Thank you." Seungmin said before he hung up. He quickly texted Chan his address and looked up at his friends.

"Looks like we're going to interrogate Minho." Felix couldn't believe how easily this plan came about.

"How are we going to explain to our boyfriends why we're at their house randomly?" Jeongin pointed out and the two other boys just shrugged.

"We could just have Chan hyung explain to them while we're banging on Minho's bedroom door, demanding him to let us in." Seungmin said making Felix and Jeongin laugh out loud.

"I cannot believe we're actually doing this." The youngest said.

A moment later, there was a knock on Seungmin's door. "Well damn, Chan hyung got here quicker than I thought." He said as he stood up from his seated position and walked from the living room to the door.

Seungmin opened the door revealing a Chan, "You ready?" Chan said to the three boys.

They nodded, "Ready as ever." Felix said.

They walked to Chan's car and got in. The car ride wasn't short or long and it was mostly of Chan warning the three the state Minho was in. It didn't sound much better than Jisung's to be honest. It only made them wonder even more on why he broke up with Jisung.

Finally they got to the first gate, Chan rolled down his windows and the guards came up.

"Oh hey boss." One of them said.

"Hey Shownu." Chan replied.

"I'll open the gate up." Shownu said before he disappeared into the woods. The gates opened and Chan continued to drive to the second gate.

After getting his eye and fingerprint scanned, Chan continued to drive the car, finally to their castle. When he parked in front of the house, everyone got out and someone went inside the car and drove off.

Chan opened the front door and let the three boys in. "No matter how many times I visit your home, I don't think I'll ever get over how beautiful it is." Felix said.

"Yeah me neither." Jeongin agreed.

Chan chuckled, "Thanks I designed it."

"You did?" Seungmin said in surprise.

"Yep." Chan nodded, giving a fake hurt expression to Seungmin.

"Sorry no offense, but like I didn't know you have this good of a taste in interior and exterior designs."

"None taken." Chan laughed.

In the kitchen, Hyunjin, Changbin, Yedam, and Woojin were hanging out and eating some food. They were waiting for Chan to get back home from wherever he went. The leader never really gave a proper answer on why he was heading out again. He left the room real quick to answer a phone call and when he came back he just said, "I'll be right back." gave Woojin a kiss on the cheek and then left.

They heard the front door open and heard multiple people come in, confusing the four guys. "Who did he bring home?" Yedam asked out loud.

Soon they heard voices start talking and Hyunjin, Changbin and Yedam perked up. They didn't know if they heard correctly or not. They all looked at each other and had the same facial expression.

"Is that..?" Changbin asked.

"It can't be." Hyunjin said.

"What're they doing here?" Yedam asked before he walked to the entrance with the other three guys close behind him.

Sure enough when they arrived at the front of the house, they saw Chan with Felix, Seungmin, and Jeongin talking about who knows what. The boyfriends stopped in their tracks and stared at their significant other until they made eye contact.

"Babe? What're you doing here?" Hyunjin asked as he walked towards them. Yedam, Changbin and Woojin soon followed his steps.

Seungmin, Felix, and Jeongin gave a small smile towards their boyfriend. "Not right now, we have something to do." Seungmin said to Hyunjin before he turned to Chan.

"Where the hell is he?" Seungmin asked.

Chan pointed to the closest elevator, "Fifth floor. Take that elevator."

The three quickly marched towards the elevator, not giving their boyfriends another glance. They had a mission and didn't have time to explain to their boyfriends.

Changbin, Woojin, Yedam and Hyunjin stared at Chan with confused eyes. "Uh, why are they here and why are they going to Minho hyung's floor?" Yedam asked his older brother.

"Because, they want to grill out the truth on why Minho broke up with Jisung since they know he didn't break up with him for the reason he said he did and now they want to know the real reason because it might help them help Jisung." Chan explained.

"The real question is, is Minho going to tell them the truth though?" Changbin asked.

"I don't know, Seungmin's a little scary when it comes to helping the people he loves, I'm sure he'll grill it out of Minho one way or another." Woojin said.

Hyunjin chuckled, "Yeah I'm not too worried about them. They'll get the information they need."

"I really hope Jisung gets better though and maybe it'll help Minho to talk about it. It hurts knowing they're both in pain." Chan said and the rest agreed.

-

When the three boys arrived to the fifth floor, they walked down the hall. "How do we know which one is Minho's bedroom?" Felix asked.

"I'm guessing the one at the end of the hallway with double doors is his room?" Jeongin answered, pointing to the end.

They quickly ran down the hallway to the end and stop in front of Minho's door. Seungmin aggressively knocked on the door and waited for Minho to say something.

"Go away." He demanded.

Seungmin scoffed and reached to the door knock, turning it, but soon realized it was locked. He shook the doorknob, "Minho please open the door." Seungmin asked politely first.

There was no answer and Seungmin got impatient. He started banging on the door, "Minho if you don't open this goddamn door right now, I swear to god that I will tear this door down from it's hinges. We are coming into your room either way. I'm giving you three seconds."

"One. Two. Thre-" Seungmin was cut off from the sound of the door unlocking. The boy looked at his two friends before opening the door and walking inside.

Minho's room was a mess. There were clothes everywhere and trash on the floor. Tissues were scattered everywhere. Minho was sitting on his couch and he looked absolutely miserable. You can just tell from the energy exerting off of him, he was not happy, he was not himself. He wore sweats and a sweatshirt with the hood over his head.

Seungmin, Felix and Jeongin walked over to to where Minho was. They sat at the couch perpendicular to the couch that Minho was sitting at. They sat in silence for a few moments before Minho spoke up.

"What're you guys doing here?" He said.

"We want the truth." Seungmin demanded.

"About what?" Minho asked but he knew what they were asking about.

"Jisung." Felix said and once he said the name, Minho closed his eyes and lowered his head.

"We want to know why you broke up with him?" Jeongin said making sure that Minho had no room to ask dumb questions.

The gang member opened his eyes and looked at them, "You guys already know the reason. I broke up with him because I don't love him anymore." He said but everyone knew that it was a lie. Minho was a good liar, but you could tell that the lie he just told was so blatantly not the truth just by looking at his eyes. They were filled with grief and guilt.

Seungmin scoffed, "Minho shut the fuck up. You and everyone else in this room knows that that's bullshit. You might've fooled Jisung with that crap but you're not gonna fool us. We know you still love him because if you didn't, you wouldn't be moping around your room all sad and avoiding Jisung. Now tell us why you broke up with him."

Minho opened his mouth but quickly closed it and stayed quiet. Seungmin's patience was quickly fading and Felix could tell by the way his friend was glaring at the gang member.

"Minho please, just tell us. We aren't going to tell Jisung the truth, we promise. We just want to know because right now we don't know how to help him. Jisung's been keeping his mind busy by doing homework or studying because once he gets time to relax, his mind goes straight to the night you broke up with him and he starts crying non stop. He cries himself to sleep everyday, he doesn't eat and he's been distancing himself from us. We just want to help him and maybe if we know the real reason, then we could help him cope with his heartbreak." Felix begged.

Minho looked down. He knew what the outcomes were going to be after he broke up with Jisung, but there was a reason why he never showed up to school. He couldn't see Jisung, he couldn't see the damage he brought upon the boy he loved because he already saw it once and if he saw it again, he would break down and run back to him, apologizing for what he did and tell him the truth. Minho knew that he couldn't risk that so he stayed locked up in his house. Now actually hearing the damage he caused Jisung from the three closest people to him, just made Minho's heart shatter even more than it already was.

Seungmin was getting ready to grab Minho's collar and slap him for not answering, but he finally started speaking. "I didn't have a choice. Breaking Jisung's heart was something I never wanted to do, but it was the only choice I had, the only choice to keep him safe."

Seungmin furrowed his eyebrows, "How would keeping him away from you keep him safe?"

"I don't know how much Jisung or your boyfriends have told you about Moonjin and how we're affiliated with him. I know Jisung told you the bare minimum at least and you can ask them for the details later, but long story short, both my parents died by the time I was 7 and then I was put into an orphanage. In the orphanage I was abused by this other kid, his name was Moonjin."

"That carried on for a year until I was put in a foster home along with Moonjin but the torture never stopped. Moonjin had help from the son of the foster parents, his name was Jaewoo and they did things to me that I wouldn't want to wish on anyone. After that I learned how to fight from street fighters and I finally built strength to fight back."

"I ran away from the foster home and eventually joined Stray Kids. A few years later we found Moonjin and Jaewoo, they were in a gang called WPQO. Me and the gang visited them and I killed Jaewoo and kept Moonjin alive so he could feel pain as he watched his friend die. I did it for payback."

Minho paused and the three boys were confused as to what this has to do with Jisung. The gang member continued, "And now Moonjin's back. His adoptive mom is coworkers with Jisung's mom which gives him an advantage. He's using Jisung to hurt me cause he knows I love Jisung more than anything. The day before I broke up with Jisung, I talked to Moonjin and he told me he wasn't interested in hurting Jisung, he just wanted to see me in pain."

Minho sighed, "He told me he wouldn't do anything to Jisung if I broke up with him. If I didn't, then he was going to force his mom to talk with Jisung's mom to get Jisung and him to hang out alone and I knew the moment Moonjin was alone with him, he was going to take Jisung and torture him like he did with me. Or even worse, do the same thing I did to Jaewoo but with Jisung. I definitely couldn't risk that happening so I had to break up with him. I didn't do it because I didn't love him, I did it because I love him and didn't want him to get hurt."

Felix, Seungmin and Jeongin were stunned. They didn't know what they were expecting the reason to be, but they definitely weren't expecting that. They were speechless and didn't know what to say.

"Did you have to be so harsh when you broke up with Jisung though? You know you completely wrecked him right?" Seungmin spoke with an underline of anger.

Minho closed his eyes. "Jisung wasn't going to believe me unless I was as harsh as I was. He was already catching on that I was doing it to keep him safe. I had to make sure he had no doubt about it. I know how Moonjin is, he wasn't going to settle for anything less."

"But how do you know that Moonjin won't jump at the chance to take Jisung hyung now that you're not there to protect him. What if you're just making his job easier for him?" Jeongin asked.

"I don't. But there's a 100% chance of Jisung getting hurt while I was still with him and a slight chance of him not getting hurt while I'm not with him. The choice was obvious, even if I hate it. I don't trust Moonjin and I never will, but I had to do what he said for that small chance of Jisung being safe. I still have Chan hyung, Woojin hyung and your boyfriends watching over Jisung at school to just make sure he's safe." Minho paused for a second, "And I need you guys to promise me that if Jisung goes somewhere alone, that you'll tell me or your boyfriends or someone in the gang please."

The three boys all nodded.

It went quiet for a moment before Minho spoke up, "How is he doing?" His voice sounded weak and defeated.

Felix, Seungmin and Jeongin all have Minho a look of sympathy, they knew he was hurting just as much as Jisung. "Like I said, he's... not doing so well, but hopefully we can help him now." Felix said softly.

Minho nodded as he sighed and placed his head in his hands.

"How are you holding up?" Jeongin asked.

"I'm not." Minho answered. "I'm more worried about Jisung though."

"Don't be. We'll be taking care of him, you just take care of yourself okay? Jisung wouldn't want to see you like this. He still loves you, you know." Felix said.

That only made Minho feel even more guilty, "Dumbass, how can he still love me after I broke his heart."

"You would still love Jisung hyung even if he broke your heart, wouldn't you?"

"Yeah, I would... I miss him so much."

The three boys frowned, feeling bad for the boy, "What're you planning to do? Stay away from Jisung forever?" Seungmin asked.

Minho shook his head, "No, I definitely won't be able to do that."

"Then what?"

Minho didn't speak for a few moments, thinking about what next, "I need to find a way to get rid of Moonjin and his gang at the same time. If I kill Moonjin now then his gang will find a way to get a hold of Jisung and I can't risk that because I have no idea who's in his gang. A member of Moonjin's gang could become friends with Jisung and use that tactic to take him and I would have no idea about it."

The three friends chewed in their lips, not knowing that this whole situation was this complicated.

"I just hope Jisung will still want me by then." Minho mumbled.

"Oh trust me, he will." Felix answered.

»»————-　🍯　————-««

so many people thought that seungmin and hyunjin were gonna break up. do you guys have no faith in their relationship?😭 but i mean if y'all really want them to break up i can deliver...👀

anyways next chapter's gonna be fun so i hope you're excited :)))

in the next chapter:
- cancelled
- don't go
- lied to

tell me what you think is gonna happen in the next chapter :)