Jiho jolted himself awake, violently rolling over and gasping for air. He’d nearly head-butted Minhyuk in his actions, who, by now, was awake and peering over at Jiho. He had curled himself into himself, his hands gripping at his hair with white knuckles. Minhyuk could see his back heaving. You could just hear the faint wheezing in his chest as he tried to push oxygen into his lungs.

“Jiho?” Minhyuk called quietly, his voice echoing in the silent room. Carefully, he reached out his hand to touch Jiho’s shoulder. He flinched with the contact. “Jiho” he said again, “just wait. Stay here, I’ll be back in a moment”.

Minhyuk shuffled out of the bed and ran to grab Jiho’s inhaler and a glass of the weird pink milk that Jiho’s mother had recommended for him when he was upset. It had vitamins in it and a panda on the bottle. He came back to see Jiho still shivering with his arm wrapped around himself and his nails digging into his shoulders.

Minhyuk shifted over on the bed and carefully tried to pry Jiho’s hands from his back. “Open your eyes, Jiho. Whatever it is, it’s not here right now. OK? Jiho…” He slowly rubbed his hand across his arms in an attempt to soothe him. His hand moved to push back the hair that was sticking to his forehead.

Minhyuk was a patient person. He waited until Jiho had calmed down, until his breathing was steady and the colour returned to his cheeks. He didn’t want to push him. When he was ready to talk, he would. He continued to gently rub his hand over his back until the shivering had stopped.

“I’ll never unsee that, Minhyuk… I was so scared” his voiced was crackly. He gripped Minhyuk’s tshirt and moved to rest his head on his lap. He huddled his face into Minhyuk’s side and breathed in heavily.

“You don’t have to talk about it.” He said calmly, “I’m here for you, now”.  Jiho sniffled.

“Sometimes things just creep up on you, the things that you’ve suppressed for so long, and then you don’t know how to deal with them. They’ve clawed their way into your mind. But, they may not even be relevant anymore, right?” He spoke slowly as he tried to reassure Jiho. “You don’t need to hold onto your guilt anymore. You fought them when they came at you in the first place, and know you don’t need to drag along their coffins with you. The weight on your shoulders would be a lot lighter if you just let things go.”

Minhyuk knew Jiho well. He also knew just what to say and when to say it.

Jiho nodded his head and loosened his grip on Minhyuk’s shirt. “Thanks, Minhyuk” he mumbled quietly.

“Don’t worry about it.” He smiled. “Hey”. Jiho hummed. “I brought you pink milk”. His head perked up at the mention and Minhyuk smiled down at him.