"Who's Eric?" He'd had enough of Chan's persistence. Still, he could have eased into it.

The doll froze, stock still from his perch on the desk. He had his back to Minho and he would have preferred a face-to-face conversation, but Jisung refused to turn around most days.

He'd, at last, spun around when Minho confronted him, jaw dropped in shock.

"How did you- Who told you?"

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it does! I need to know how much you know."

"I don't know anything!" Somehow it felt like the year with Jisung went to nothing. He felt out-casted, unsure, uneasy. All because Jisung had left him in the dark about the only person that probably ever mattered to Jisung. "You never told me anything."

"I shared my life with you!"

"Did you? Because I know nothing about the only person you've ever loved." He didn't even have to ask. Minho was sure.

"That's not true!" he argued, but he fell back, clamping a hand over his mouth. Like he'd never meant to say it at all. "Forget it."

"Jisung-"

"Leave me alone!"

Minho shut the door behind him.

Jisung was gone when Minho went to look for him the next morning.

He wouldn't admit it, but he turned the backroom upside down looking for him. Calling for him and receiving no answer. He was crying when he dialed Chan's number.

"He's gone, Chan! I lost him."

His best friend arrived twenty minutes later, hurrying to the back of the store. The door had been left unlocked. Like it always was.

For the first time, Minho regretted it.

"He couldn't have just left," Chan reasoned. "He couldn't have opened the door on his own." What if someone else did? He wanted to ask, but the words got stuck in his throat.

The part of him that hadn't believed Jisung to be real told him he'd finally broke. The hallucination had finally left him alone.

"You checked everywhere?" Minho sat by the dollhouse, tracing it's corners with a stoic look in his eyes. Chan nudged him gently. "Minho?"

"Yes! I even searched upstairs." The mess in his studio was still there, taunting him, reminding him that Jisung had yet to be found. "He's really gone."

Chan tried, for Minho's sake, to do his own search. He wandered out into the shop, leaving the sign on closed. There was no way Minho could handle having the store open today. He checked under plates and inside vases. He moved furniture and opened drawers and as useless as it was, it made Minho feel less crazy. He had someone on his side.

He bumped into the table when he stood up and a sharp clank stopped him. His eyebrows furrowed as he glanced around the dollhouse, finding a box titled on it's side. The metal protruding had hit the table. He righted the box, smoothing out the slightly opened top. It latched and suddenly, Minho moved like his life depended on it.

Once opened, he saw him. Dozing like Minho hadn't spent half the day flipping everything in sight to find him.

"You!" he shouted, anger simmering and giving way to relief. "You're okay." he mumbled.

The light entering the box woke Jisung and he yawned loudly, obnoxiously. He spotted Minho's tear stained face.

"What happened?" He was wrestling to get out. Minho picked him up effortlessly, hugging him to his chest.

"It's okay now." he whispered, smothering the doll closer to his heart. This time, he wanted Jisung to hear just how wild it was. It was all for him anyway.

Chan had a fond smile on. He'd stopped searching when Minho shouted.

"What were you doing in there?"

The tension that seemed to follow them had dissipated. Minho glad Jisung was talking to him again.

"I was trying to pull out a screw, but it was really stuck in there. I pulled to hard and fell forward when I lost my footing. The box shut behind me." He looked between Chan and Minho. "Sorry for worrying you."

"No, don't apologize. I overreacted." The mess still waited for him upstairs.

"I should get going." Chan pushed his chair out, going for the door. Minho chased after him.

"Thank you." Chan smiled.

"I'll always be here for your Minho." He was telling the truth.

Even after he couldn't accept Chan's feelings, Minho was still his best friend. He smiled back.

After he left, Minho saw Jisung with the box again.

"I think you should lay off the handiwork." he told him, hand outstretched when Jisung jumped at his voice.

"It was done anyway." he said, the lid opening fully. Words were engraved there. You are my sunshine.

"Are you- is that my music box?"

Instead of answering, Jisung walked to the side with the protruding metal. He wound it around a few times, struggling slightly at the end. When he let go, the metal moved on it's own.

A familiar tune reached his ears.

"Were you fixing this the whole time?"

"I was making it better." His hand met the lid, tracing over the carved words. "It was here, behind the house and I noticed it didn't work. So, I focused on getting the cursed thing to play. After, I thought it needed more... character."

The song ended. Jisung had his hands behind his back.

"What do you think?" I think I love you even more.

"It's beautiful." Just like you.

"It's ready to sell. Whenever you want to move it to the front." Minho shook his head.

"I got it for myself."

He remembered the day he bought it. Chan was with him, as was custom when Minho went to an estate sale. They were usually further from the city, further than he was. Chan's car was more than ready to carry whatever it was Minho decided to buy.

It was the second to last thing being auctioned.

"Do I hear $10. Ten dollars, folks!" No one raised their hand. The size of it, probably. No one really cared for stuff that small. it was broken too, Minho knew before buying it.

The price lowered until all Minho had to pay was two dollars.

"Sold to number forty-eight!" There were a few pity claps and the bidding started right up again while Minho claimed his prize. When he signed the necessary papers, he beckoned Chan over.

"Let's go."

"You don't want to finish? There's one item left."

"No. I've got all I need."

Minho inspected the box on the drive back. The grooves in the metal bumped along his fingers. He turned the crank. Nothing happened.

"Does it need batteries?"

"It needs more than that."

Minho had promised to look for someone to fix it.

That had been just about a week before Jisung came tumbling into his life.

"Oh well..." He was much more bashful all of a sudden. "Hope you like it."

"I love it." I love you, he wanted to say.

HIs feelings were so loud, they threatened to spill out. He fought hard not to burst, smiling tight lipped in an effort to keep everything contained.

Jisung didn't comment on it. Rather, reached for the crank and turned it again so the melody filled the space once more.

The doll made him happy, even when the skies were grey.

Tucked into bed, Minho ignored the past. He put his focus on the future. Well, until-

"Eric was someone I used to know." Jisung whispered, hardly audible had he not been nestled right by Minho's ear. "I cared for him. I tried to give him everything... failing to realize how destructive that could be."

Minho could feel the measured breaths he took.

"If you want to get technical, he was the closest thing to a boyfriend I'd ever had. He supported me, at least he told me he did." Minho turned to face him, seeing the doll on his pillow curled in on himself. "He told me a lot of things he didn't mean. And for what? Love?" Jisung scoffed. "They were all just words to him. Words that had me falling at his feet."

Minho scooped him closer, protective. Jisung sniffled.

"He told me the one thing he'd always wanted, but could never have growing up, was a dollhouse. His sister used to let him play with hers but his Father would always get mad.

"So I decided to build one for him, as a surprise. I wanted to thank him. For everything I thought he gave. For the promises we made.

"It was hard to work on it when he was around. He liked my attention, thrived on it. He always needed me there, tending to his every whim." Jisung exhaled. "For the first time, I realized how dependent he was of me and I of him. It shouldn't have to be that way. We needed space too."

The little light in the room casted shadows off Jisung's face and it was clear how much telling this story hurt him.

"Jisung-"

"I'm almost done." he breathed. Like he'd expected Minho to stop him. "Finally, I got my wish. He stopped bothering me. Said he was going out with friends. I didn't see the harm in it...

"It took a month for me to finish and when I did, he wasn't home. I set up dinner. I practiced what I would say. I was excited for his reaction.

"But he came home drunk, going on and on about how terrible I was, how he was only using me to get off." Minho winced. "He told me he didn't need me anymore. He'd found a girl to marry. I was useless now, and then he left.

"When I woke up again, I wasn't in my bed. I was in the hands of a little girl with big curious eyes and I screamed." There were tears running down Jisung's cheeks. Minho tried his best to wipe them away. "I yelled. I fought. I couldn't understand how I got there. One minute I was crying about the bed being too big for one person, the next I was too small for the world.

"Emma was a great girl. She was my learning curve. I taught myself to adapt and she was less resistant to my tantrums. We both grew up... she moved on."

It was hard to imagine Jisung so scared. Taking the beating he did from Minho, he didn't even flinch. Not from the unexpected. he'd taken it in stride and that was what Minho was used to.

Seeing him here, the shadow of doubt that never quite left him, Minho knew. He had to tell him. He had to reassure him. Not all people were like Eric. Not all people toyed with people's feelings.

"Jisung."

"Hmm."

"What Eric did to you is unforgivable. He played you, unfairly so, and he didn't deserve all that you gave him." Jisung's eyes found his in the dark and the tears that went unshed grew further. "You deserve so much better." Someone like... he couldn't even finish the thought.

"Who could love me? Especially now." he cried and Minho went to soothe him.

"I-" He couldn't get himself to say it. Jisung took it negatively.

"Don't bothering trying to lie to me. I've already accepted that this is my life now." Minho wanted to tell him he could fix this. His love would overpower. But it couldn't just be his love. It had to be their love.

He didn't bother correcting Jisung that night. He cuddled him closer, for his sanity and let himself have this. A moment in time where he didn't have overthink his own actions. Where it was okay to hold Jisung like this.

Morning came and went. It was all the same. And Minho started to wonder just how long it would last.