46: Ineffable.

Jisung was aware of the fact that the first few days in his world would be a bit overwhelming for him, but never to this extent and it's funny to see Minho whispering sweet words into his ears other than the other way around, considering it was his own world that they returned to, not the other way around.

Not that he never consoled the older. 

Minho was delighted, looking at the photos of a teenage Jisung and when he asked about his baby pictures, Jisung replied that he never remembered having one.

Minho would stop at every photo to inspect each one with care and what could be maybe described as loving eyes.

Photos were a thing Jisung hadn’t expected to be something significant and noteworthy of his world, but for Minho, who has no means of collecting memories through pictures, these photos were like a treasure to him.

He leaned on Minho’s shoulder while they looked through the album, content with narrating silly stories while Minho nodded gently.

Once Hyunjin got back from work, he gave him only a look, a ‘sorry’, and then a quick inspection to make sure Felix hadn’t inflicted any actual harm. Jisung had been so glad about seeing him again.

Later that day Hyunjin got a video call from Yeji, who at first called Jisung names, then cried like a baby the same as him. She promised to visit them on her next break.

After that was done, they had a long talk about Jisung’s plans for the next year, meanwhile Minho made them some tea and served it in a very traditional way. It was fun seeing his hand go to keep away the full sleeve that wasn’t there.

“Felix will get you a job,” Hyunjin said, in quite a matter-of-fact tone, once Jisung was done with his fumbling explanation. “And I’ll take care of the jewellery. Do you mind the money being dirty?”

“Please don’t make me support drug dealers and human traffickers,” Jisung replied. “And what do you mean Felix will get me a job? He hates me.”

“You’ll get less, then,” Hyunjin said, not replying to the comment about Felix. “My relatives can pay.”

“Nah, give it to someone else. ” Jisung replied, “If you’re sure that Felix can get me a job, then it doesn’t matter, right?” Hyunjin shrugged, and the conversation continued to other things, a little away from the topic of the next year and a little more to each other’s past year.

It was not exactly pleasant to hear the other side of the story. The growing worry, how he hadn’t showed up in days. How Hyunjin had slowly exhausted every avenue to find him. How Felix had apparently been there for the most of it, searching for him with vastly larger resources than Hyunjin, still finding nothing.

It made his guilt just that much worse.

Thankfully Hyunjin had happier stories and surprising ones too. Graduation, for one, and Yeji having gotten a girlfriend in Riga while he started dating Felix. 

This was great news to both Jisung, who felt happy to see his friends having partners especially Hyunjin and Minho, who had very clearly listened to Yeji and Jisung's phone conversation with a suspicious frown on his face.

Jisung had lots of funny stories to tell as well, although some of them were put into a full context. A context that was extremely embarrassing for both him and Minho.

“--and then Minho stormed off, and – oh no, hahaha, no way, Minho, you were jealous, then, too, weren’t you? I can’t believe it.” Jisung wiped his eyes, laughing again.

Minho didn’t dignify that with an answer, and instead just sipped his tea in a very collected manner. His ears were red, though.

“Such an attention seeker, aren't you?” Hyunjin said, the absolute bloodthirsty savage.

Jisung blushed. “W-well, I-it, it was funny! Minho never gives big reactions, and then he did!”

“I bet,” Hyunjin said, the voice was very dry.

“You know what, I don’t think you deserve our fun cultivating world stories. Minho, let’s order food and watch a romantic movie.”

“With whose money?” Hyunjin asked.

They did order food and watch a romantic movie, the three of them. With Hyunjin’s money, though Jisung did attempt to convince him that he was going to pay back, Hyunjin just waved him off.

Minho looked kind of dejected for not having the means to pay himself, which probably felt weird after a lifetime of being super-rich, so Jisung put the rest of his energy into trying to make him forget that.

And the movie was nice, though Minho looked uncomfortable for most of it, since it had scenes where the main character lady was in her underwear, and kissed the man of her dreams with tongue and all, and also one tasteful fade-to-black sex scene during which Minho just promptly stood up and disappeared into Jisung’s room to meditate.

“He’s going to have a nervous breakdown once you visit the mall and walk past a women’s lingerie boutique,” Hyunjin said.

“Bold of you to assume that we will make it to the mall before that,” Jisung replied, and then went to soothe his emotionally disturbed other-dimension boyfriend.

And he was right.