Chapter Text
“Regressing? What is this?” — Minho questioned, looking back at Jisung still sucking at his damn pacifier, and then back at Chan.
“Long story short, It's when someone mentally regresses to a younger age, it's therapy.” — Chan added as if sensing the judgement in Minho’s eyes even if they were only there for a second — “When things start to feel too much, the person in age regression may choose to regress, but as far as I know, most of the time they don't choose.. It's almost like an emergency mode.”
Bang Chan walked towards Jisung, kneeling in front of him and saying sweet words that Minho couldn't quite catch, cause his mind was still focused on understanding all of this. So this thing happening to Jisung, is therapy? How exactly does this work? Do you just cry all day until you feel better? Minho tried this once and it didn't exactly look like Jisung right now.
“So… For how much longer will Jisung act like this?” — Minho asked as he finally snapped out of his trance, he closed the door back again and walked quietly and sat down at the couch near Jisung and Chan.
“I don't know, there's no estimated time, until he feels better..” — Chan rolled his eyes when he thought Minho wasn't looking and then caressed Jisung’s hair, a little laugh coming out of his lips for the first time in a while.
“So he basically will be acting like a child for God knows how long? And we'll just have to, like, deal with it?” — Minho asked, feeling a strange flutter in his chest as he heard Jisung’ laugh, it was innocent, kinda childish, but it made sense, and of course Minho ignored the feeling.
“I don't mean to sound rude, I just, I’m an only child, I don't know how to take care of.. childrens” — Minho added when he noticed Chan looking at him, part mad and part.. disappointed, somehow.
“Yes, Minho, don't worry about it, I will take care of him just.. don't tell anybody” — Chan said, looking for something in his own backpack, until he turned around with a blankie in hands, Minho's brows furrowed but he didn't comment, he watched Chan give the blankie to Jisung and carry him over to the other couch.
“Nini-hyung, Jiji’s hungwy..” — Jisung spoke, in that mellow, kinda sleepy voice Minho wasn't quite used to, and he couldn't help but roll his eyes at it, before stopping himself and remembering himself this is supposed to be a good thing.
“Okay.. Hyung will get you something to eat… Just, can you tell me how old you are, Jiji?” — Chan asked, his voice as soft as cotton candy, Jisung raised his hand with three fingers up.
Okay he's three.
“Nini will get you food now, okay? Can you be a good boy and stay here with your other hyung?” — Chan looked back at Minho, who nodded reassuringly. Chan then stood up and walked back to the common room, leaving Minho and Jisung alone together again.
Minho took a deep breath
It's for his best
He thought as he sat where Chan was previously sitting, at the edge of the other couch while Jisung laid down, looking at him with confused eyes
“I'm sorry for being rude with you Jiji.. Minmin didn't know about your situation” — Minho bit the inside of his cheeks nervously, he thought about what Bang Chan said. It's like an emergency mode, an escape valve. And then he looked down at his own legs, remembering the countless nights he spent awake dancing, whether at the studio or at his own apartment, then he looked at Jisung again, smiling at the big look he was giving him. — “Guess we all have our own methods to cope, right?”
Minho scoffed, he had no right to judge Jisung, he was being quite a hypocrite, actually.
“Jiji fowgives Minmin, Jiji loves Minmin!” — Jisung said with his little mellowed voice that made Minho's heart melt, Minho smiled and kissed the top of his head.
“Thanks for forgiving me, Jiji” — Minho looked around, as if searching for something to entertain Jisung while Chan’s out grabbing him food.
When he looks at the floor he notices the Hello Kitty stuffed animal Jisung was carrying and when he bends to grab it Jisung’s sleepy eyes quickly jolt.
“Kitty! Hewwo Kitty!!” — Jisung points at the stuffed animal and the fact that he only remembered it when Minho grabbed it to return to him made Minho chuckle. — “Jiji wants Kitty”
“here you go, buddy”
Minho returned the stuffed animal to Jisung’s arms and looked around, Jisung looked like he was about to sleep, but Chan was probably returning with the food by now so he should keep Jisung awake as much as possible. He looked at Hyunjin's backpack, what's the possibility of him carrying drawing materials with him?
Minho decided to risk it, they owed him, and Jisung obviously, he got up and started rummaging through Hyunjin's backpack, Minho almost laughed at the stupid obviousness when he did find the materials.
Minho grabbed the sketchbook and the pencil case — “Hey, Jiji, look what I found here! Do you want to draw something?” — Minho called out while taking a look at Hyunjin’s drawings, they were mostly inanimate objects but some of them were humans, or so he thought. As Minho turned the pages, the humanoid figures became more distorted, simple black eyes turned into pits of void, always with lots of scribbles, as if Hyunjin had gone over that area with the pencil several times.
Okay, this is dark… And weird
Minho ignored it and walked back to the couch Jisung was lying on, except he wasn't there. Minho panicked, he couldn't possibly have lost Jisung in a closed space, could he??
No.
Because he didn't.
Jisung was on the floor, yapping happily and clapping his hand.
“Dwawing!! Jiji want dwawing!” — Those innocent eyes looked expectantly at Minho, unaware of the panic he just had because of those same eyes.
“Okay, let's draw” — Minho sat down next to Jisung, he tore two pages from Hyunjin's notebook, put one in front of Jisung and one in front of himself.
And just like that they spend the next 20 minutes, Jisung using and messing up every single one of Hyunjin's paints, while Minho drew his cats with a pencil, he really wasn't the artist type, until Bang Chan returned.
“Hey, I bought foo…d” — Chan stopped by the door, clearly taken aback by the scene in front of him. — “You handled him quite well I see”
“Meh, you said to treat him like a child, that's what I'm doing.” — Minho shrugged as he looked over at the food bags Chan brought. — “What is all that??”
“Well, I was going out to get food, then the kids asked me for food too, so I got each one what they wanted, I brought some sweets for the staff too, some not spicy Kalguksu and cheesecake for Jiji, some Kimchi with a lot of spice and pudding for you, and a sandwich for me” — Bang Chan said as he put the food bags on the table, taking the Kalguksu, the cheesecake, Kimchi and the pudding out and placing them on the table.
“ohh! Nini-hyung!!” — Jisung got up just as fast as he had sat down, his paper in hands as he sprinted towards Chan — “Nini, Nini!! look the dwawing Jiji made!”
He extended the paper, putting it on Chan's hands. There were eight figures named from left to right:
Innie, a stickman with fox ears.
Puppy, a literal dog with a microphone.
Bokkie, a stickman with yellow hair and a dress.
In the middle, Jiji, a shorter stickman with a pacifier.
Ji-Meanie, the tallest stickman with demon horns.
Binnie, a short stickman with what Chan thought was muscles.
Daddy, a stickman with three cats on top of its head
And then, Nini, a stickman with wolf ears and a blankie in hands
“Daddy?” — Chan looked at it, more awestruck than confused, he looked at Minho, who actually looked confused. Jisung, who was already sitting down at the table, looked at him with wide eyes, he quickly pressed his index finger against his lips, begging Chan to shush.
“What was that?” — Minho questioned, stepping closer to take a close look at the drawing, Chan quickly pulled it close, pressing the paper against his own chest — “Nothing!”
“I mean, Jiji will show you when he feels like, right Jiji?” — They both looked at Jisung, who were too busy trying to open the Kalguksu to notice. — “Anyway”
“Let me help you with that, Jiji” — Minho rolled his eyes and walked towards Jisung, opening the pot of instant Kalguksu then taking it to the microwave. — “So… Do you want to show me the drawing you made or not?”
Jisung looked back at Chan, still holding the paper against his chest, he nodded, then, with quick stomps of his feet, Jisung grabbed the drawing from Chan’s hands and slowly handed it to Minho.
For a moment Minho analyzed the drawing, stickmans of all the members, except for Seungmin, who was portrayed as a dog, and some nicknames for all of them.
Jeongin was Innie
Seungmin was Puppy
Felix was Bokkie
Jisung was Jiji, as expected
Hyunjin was Ji-Meanie, which is genius
Changbin was Binnie
And then his eyes froze, his heart stopped beating for a second. On top of the stickman with three cats was written “Daddy”.
He re-read all the names, Innie, Puppy, Bokkie, Jiji, Ji-Meanie, Binnie
..
Innie, Puppy, Bokkie, Jiji, Ji-Meanie, Binnie.
Daddy..
This version of Jisung saw Minho as a dad.
Minho doesn't know if he should cry at the cuteness or laugh at the irony.
So he does both.
Jisung and Chan watch, both confused as Minho starts laughing but there's tears prickling from his eyes, Jisung steps back, something akin to fear in his eyes, he looks back at Chan, who finally says something.
“Minho?” — His voice faltered but he stepped closer — “W..What are you doing?”
Minho’s eyes snap open, and he's suddenly self-conscious of his actions. — “I'm just…” — His eyes dart to Jisung, and then he notices, the fear, not because he thinks Minho is scary, but because he doesn't know if Minho accepts this title, and for a second, Minho thinks he shouldn't, that he's not worthy of this, but he refuses to listen to these voices in his head. — “I’m honored.. I mean, I don't think I did anything to deserve this title but, if that's what Jiji thinks of me, who am I to disagree?”
He opens his arms, inviting Jisung to hug him, and Jisung runs to hug him, even if the distance is not even that big. At the same time, Minho can see from the corner of his eyes, Chan smiling fondly as he takes Jisung’s Kalguksu out of the microwave and puts the Kimchi in, heating it.
Minho kisses the top of Jisung’s head and whispers in his ear. — “Thank you Jiji” — Then grabbed his hand, taking him to the table and sat him down while Chan brought their food over.
“Here you go, boys” — Chan put both the Kimchi and the Kalguksu on the table and sat facing the other two, taking his sandwich out of the bag
It all went almost perfectly, Minho ended up having to teach Jisung how to use chopsticks, before he gave up and handed him a spoon, which only helped to get soup all over Jisung’s face, But apart from that, it went all well, Chan brought wet wipes to clean Jisung from the soup and paint and then they were back at the couch.
Jisung was laying down, Chan’s blankie, that he swore were just for good luck (not that Minho actually bought that), in hands, sucking his pacifier and Minho and Chan’s jackets on top of him cause he swore he would freeze out if cold.
But before closing his eyes, Jisung looked at Chan and murmured
“Nini, do you have a daddy like Jiji?”