Forget-me-not

Seungmin

Seungmin's bedroom door flying open caused him to groan. He shoved the blanket over his head and rolled over. "Get out I.N. I'm not getting up right now." 

"I'm not Innie." 

Seungmin slowly pulled off the blanket to reveal Hyunjin standing in his doorway with a vase of flowers. Sorrow filled Seungmin at the sight of fresh forget-me-nots spilling out amongst the other flowers. Seungmin let out a sigh and sat up. "What the hell do you want?" 

Hyunjin pushed the flowers towards him and stepped closer. "Cynthia sent these for you." He placed them in Seungmin's hands. The confusion was apparent on his face. 

"She found the flower shop she worked in and her boss made her that bouquet. Forget-me-nots for remembrance, snowdrops for hope, and sweet peas for gratitude. I found her while out on a walk again. She couldn't take the flowers home because of Flora." 

"Is she okay?" Seungmin asked. 

"Besides being trapped in an apartment by a huge bitch, she's perfectly fine." 

Seungmin cringed at Hyunjin's words, but Hyunjin didn't apologize. He said what he said and he meant it. What Cynthia was going through was bullshit and it made him angry. 

"You have to do something about it," Hyunjin continued. "She is trapped and alone. From the looks of it, she's miserable there. You can't let her stay there. You have to try to do something." 

"And what do you expect me to do?" Seungmin clutched the mouth of a vase with one hand and threw up another. 

"Talk to Flora!" 

"Oh, right," he scoffed, "because that'll be sure to fix the whole fucking situation." 

"Then give me her number and I'll call and give her a piece of my mind!" 

"Are you hearing yourself right now? Do you know what that'd do to me? That fall out that'd cause would be detrimental! Just leave it alone and I-" 

"Your girlfriend is miserable!" Hyunjin's voice raised. "She looked so happy, her face was all lit up, when I found her. She was staring at those flowers and on cloud-nine, but when she realized she couldn't take them home, she nearly bawled." 

"I can't fix this situation! There's nothing I can do."

"You can always attempt to do something, but you won't! You refuse because you're scared! You're allowed to be scared, but try to do things anyway! She's still your fucking girlfriend! Don't you care about her? Don't you care about her happiness?" 

"How fucking dare you come in here and try to tell me that I don't care about my own girlfriend!" Seungmin stood up from the bed. His hands clenched around the vase tighter. 

"You're refusing to fight for her!" Hyunjin yelled. He jerked his phone out of his pocket and pulled up the photo Cynthia took with the flowers. He shoved it towards Seungmin. "Look what you're letting go!" 

"Fuck you!" 

"Woah, woah, woah! What the hell is going on here?" Lee Know stepped into the room looking between Seungmin and Hyunjin bewildered. He glanced down at the flowers before he met Seungmin's eyes. 

"Hyunjin is being an asshole!" 

"Because Seungmin is being a coward!" 

"I'm not being a goddamn coward!" A lump began forming in the back of his throat. He stiffened in his spot and tried to focus on breathing instead of sobbing. 

"Then grow up and stop moping around! All you're doing is wasting time that you could be piecing your lives back together, but you refuse to try! It's like you've given up entirely! Fuck you, Cynthia deserves better than that!" 

"Hyunjin!" Lee Know snapped. He grabbed his wrist and tugged him to the door. "That'll be enough from both of you." 

Hyunjin glanced over his shoulder and continued to yell at Seungmin. "Just because she has memory loss, it doesn't mean she doesn't have feelings! You're being a dipshit by letting her slip through your goddamn fingers. Once you let her go, she's gone and she will never come back! Do you hear me, Kim fucking Seungmin? She'll never come back!" 

Lee Know jerked Hyunjin out of the room and slammed the door shut behind them. He shoved Hyunjin over to where Felix had been waiting outside the door. He began lecturing Hyunjin while Felix glanced between them confused. His hand went to Hyunjin's forearm in an attempt to comfort him. Further down the hall, I.N peered around the corner of his room to watch everything. 

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Lee Know hissed. "You can't just scream and yell at him! What were you thinking?" 

"Don't take his side, he's being a dick!" 

"And so are you!" 

The voices were faint outside Seungmin's door until they drifted away. He was left standing alone with the bouquet of purple, pink, blue, and white flowers. It wobbled in between his clammy palms. The first tear that trickled down his cheek caused him to snap. 

He chucked the glass vase over to the wall. The glass shattered on impact and rained down. The wet and now darkened shade of green paint encapsulated the feeling of a rotting tomb. The once perfectly posed petals scattered all over the hardwood floor. Water dripped off the stems and a water puddle pooled together. 

He ran a hand through his hair and fell back onto his bed. His bottom lip quivered and tears filled his eyes. He bit down on his bottom lip as hard as he could trying not to let the sobs escape, but they came out anyway. Loud torturous and harrowing sobs that scratched his throat raw. 

Anger and sadness mangled once more. Pain that came from the deepest depths of his soul and reverberated off the walls. His lungs heaved for air and the tears fell down faster. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Hyunjin was right. He was a coward and he was terrified that he'd never see Cynthia ever again. 

That thought kept him paralyzed and filled with anxiety. It filled him with dread. The more he ran from it and tried to ignore it, the more it breathed down the back of his neck. The anxiety, the fear, the dread; a torpedoing problem that only seemed to get bigger and bigger until, like a bubble, it had popped. 

 His bedroom door slowly crept open and I.N tiptoed in. He shut the door behind him and snuck over to the bed beside Seungmin. I.N who Seungmin was supposed to be brave for. I.N who Seungmin had adopted as a younger brother. He wasn't supposed to be showing him this much weakness. 

"G-Get," there was a gasp for air, "o-out." 

I.N ignored him and sat beside him. "I don't care how much you scream at me, hyung, I'm not leaving. You need someone right now." 

"I-I don't." 

I.N ignored him and wrapped his arms around his sides. The motion caused Seungmin to sob again. It wasn't supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be the other way around. Seungmin was supposed to be comforting I.N when it came to something like this. 

I.N wasn't dumb, he knew Seungmin wouldn't want to be seen like this, but he didn't care. He cared for Seungmin just as much as Seungmin cared for him. He wanted to be there to comfort Seungmin too. 

"You have to get out, Innie. You don't need t-" Another sob fell from Seungmin. He reached up and tried to brush away his tears. 

"I'm not going anywhere, hyung. This is what family is for. You don't have to be strong around me all the time. Whatever you're going through, I can handle it. I'm not that same kid I was when we first debuted, you know. I'm not in high school anymore."  

As much as Seungmin hated to admit it, I.N was right. The two of them had both grown up a lot since then. Multiple years had passed, they were still in the same band, but they grew into two different people. Different personalities, likes, and dislikes. Maybe the same passion for music, but everything else was different. 

They grew up, the whole band, they all grew up.