Chapter Text
Throwing open the roller door, Felix flung himself out into the dark street. Nothing in his head was comprehending a single thought of what he was doing, just that he needed to find him.
He didn’t care about how soaked his clothes or hair was, the sky plummeting water down as if it had never wept before.
He looked both ways, trying to decide which way to go. There were no cars, and Felix could barely see the shops on the opposite side of the road he stood on, the rain was so thick and heavy, dripping down his face and body.
Then, through the pouring rain and barely illuminated by the street lights, Felix spotted him.
And with only the racing of his heart and the light of some street lamps to guide him, Felix ran to him.
─── ⋆⋅Six months prior⋅⋆ ───
“Felix. Hey, Felix.”
Lee Felix lazily blinked his eyes open, hissing slightly at the bright light that hit his dark eyes. He shuffled in his seat a little, moving his neck with an accidental and rather painful crack, the neck pillow he had been wearing doing very little to support his neck while he slept. The seat he sat on had lost all cushioning in the foam, resulting in a numb butt, and the air was stuffy and stale, smelling of some repulsive microwaved meal; like all planes did.
He blinked again, looking to his left to see Bang Chan, orange hair illuminated by the light coming from the open window Felix sat beside.
“What?” Felix asked sleepily, readjusting in his seat to try and find a part of it that was still squishy.
“You have a double chin and you’re drooling,” Chan snickered.
That woke Felix up with a snort and he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, sitting up properly and glaring at his friend. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
“The photo opportunity was too good to pass up.”
“I hate you.”
“We’re also landing soon,” Chan said, gesturing to the window, where the bustling city of Seoul was coming into view through a thin layer of clouds.
“Oh, now I really hate you, ” Felix snapped, aggressively ripping off his neck pillow and tugging the elastic from his hair. “ I told you to wake me up at least an hour before we land!”
“Sorry,” Chan shrugged, going back to his book.
Felix grumbled as he bent over in his chair to pick up a bag from his carry on luggage. He pulled out a cordless hair straightener, flipping it on and pulling out the little mirror he carried in his bag. He huffed impatiently as he waited for the iron to heat up enough, and decided to check his light makeup while he waited. His eye makeup was smudged, of course, so instead of trying to fix the mess, he just added some more eyeshadow to try and save it.
He quickly sprayed a few squirts of his favourite orange and lemongrass perfume on before the button on his straightener turned green and he sectioned out part of his hair, running the iron down the messy stands. The long light blond extensions had become somewhat frizzy in the unusual atmosphere of the plane, and desperately needed his attention. He glanced out the window worriedly and started working faster as he could see the city clearly now. He settled a little as he finished with the front of his hair, gently curling it inwards.
“Beanie, yes or no?” Felix asked, adding and removing the accessory experimentally after turning off the straightener.
“Yes,” Chan said, though he wasn’t really watching.
“Chan, where’s my phone?” Felix asked, haphazardly moving the blanket off his lap in a desperate attempt to find his true love after he put on the black beanie.
“Right here, ” Chan sighed, handing the device over with a swing of his wrist and not a glance away from his book. “ Safe and sound.”
“Thanks.”
A ding echoed through the cabin as the pilot made an announcement. “Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing. Thank you for flying with QANTAS, and we hope you enjoyed your flight.”
Felix scoffed at the hardly audible announcement, the sound muffled and barely decipherable.
He leaned over to Chan after clicking his seatbelt into place. “Yeah, I enjoyed my 11 hour flight, Jesus, are they stupid?”
“Probably,” Chan said absently, still reading.
“Put your seatbelt on,” Felix ordered.
“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Chan grumbled, doggy ear-ing his page (a habit Felix could barely tolerate) and flipping the book shut to clip his seatbelt on.
“I’m nervous, hold my hand,” Felix demanded, watching the city draw closer through the window and holding his hand out to Chan.
“What, you’re scared of landing?” Chan teased, though he clasped onto Felix’s hand securely.
“No, I’m nervous about getting off, ” Felix admitted, giving Chan’s hand a little squeeze. “ There’s a difference between nerves and fear, you know.”
“Hey, it’ll be fine, ” Chan reassured, gently shoving Felix’s arm. “ Seungmin and Jisung texted me, they’re at the airport waiting for us right now.”
“Right, ” Felix nodded, taking a heavy breath of relief and leaning his head back on the headrest. “ Seungmin and Jisung.”
“Speaking of, Korean would probably be a good idea around them,” Chan added.
Felix groaned as the plane took a heavy drop. “But they understand English just fine, why should we talk in Korean around them?”
“Because it’s good practice. And you need practice,” Chan responded, switching to Korean.
“I hate you a lot.”
“What?” Chan asked, provocatively. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, I don’t know English.”
Felix rolled his eyes and switched languages. “I hate you a lot.”
“Very good,” Chan said as the plane dropped lower, and Felix could see tiny cars driving along miniscule roads.
“You don’t have to act like you’re my teacher and just taught me my first Korean word,” Felix said. “I can speak it just as well as you, you know.”
“Mmm,” Chan hummed doubtfully, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Not as well as me.”
“Whatever,” Felix huffed, turning to look out the window again, but not letting go of his friend. “Hey, Chan. Look at all the little humans. Wow, it’s so pretty down there. I wonder if I’ve seen our house yet?”
“Felix, calm down.”
“I am calm,” Felix remarked.
“No you’re not, you’re cutting off circulation to my hand,” Chan said, and Felix immediately loosened his grip.
“Sorry,” Felix apologised, then his attention got caught by something way below them. “Chan, look, we’re about to land.”
Almost as if Felix controlled the plane, the wheels touched down, the plane rumbling down the runway and slowed to a gentle stop after a few minutes.
“Oh man, I gotta stretch my legs,” Chan groaned, standing up, his knees cracking. “I feel like I’ve been in a coma for three months.”
“I feel you,” Felix said, standing up with the support of the chair in front of him, bringing his bag up over his shoulder. “How am I looking? Is it as awful as I feel?”
Chan scanned his friend for a minute before inching out into the crowded isle, Felix right behind him. “Nah, you look fine.”
“Good, I didn’t want anything to wrinkle,” Felix said, smoothing his black pants down and flattening his white singlet as he followed Chan down to the back of the plane and out through the jet bridge.
“I’m surprised that awful cropped thing didn’t get crinkled, though,” Chan said as they made their way towards the terminal, poking Felix’s chest where a cropped navy denim jacket sat. “It should have.”
“Hey, shut up, this looks awesome,” Felix retorted, squeaking his black boots along the floor to annoy Chan.
“Debatable.”
“I look a thousand times better than you any day,” Felix said snobbishly, pulling a pair of sunnies out of the pocket on his chest and putting them on dramatically.
“Sure,” Chan said, rolling his eyes.
They emerged from the ramp that led up to the terminal and glanced around the crowd in search of Jisung and Seungmin.
The foursome hadn’t seen each other face to face in the past 4 years, their only source of contact being through a chaotic group chat and awkwardly scheduled Facetimes. The four had been best friends in their Sydney primary school before Seungmin and Jisung moved with their families to Seoul before the group got to high school, resulting in inconvenient attempts to get in contact without the others needing to wake up at 6 in the morning or stay up until 11 at night. The two Seoul dwellers often came to visit the two Australians once a year or so during their Christmas break, until they finally finished highschool and started proper work, and free time and travel opportunities became few and far between.
The group was busy talking about their future plans one night, at more or less practical times, when Jisung suddenly suggested that Felix and Chan come live with them in Seoul. The idea seemed utterly ludicrous at first, neither Chan or Felix having anywhere near enough money to make the move at the time, but the longer they discussed it, the more tempting it became. Seungmin had inherited a small, four bedroomed house from his grandparents, with everything already paid off, so he and Jisung had moved in together, and started to make a living after Jisung got an extremely well paying job through his parents and Seungmin worked at the local bar. The housemates insisted that they had the space for Felix and Chan, as well as the needed furniture, and that all they needed was to bring their personal belongings and they'd be all set. And what's more, the racing opportunities in Seoul were 'a thousand times better than the ones in Sydney', as Jisung had put it.
Motocross racing was something all four men had a passion for, and had met through the primary schools Motor Club, clicking immediately despite the 3 year age gap between Chan and the rest.
Chan and Felix had been trying to pursue racing as a career for years, since before they graduated, but they had had little success on even finding places that were entirely dedicated to Motocross.
Felix and Chan had openly discussed it with each other, and, after very little deliberation, were sold, and broke out their savings to see how much more they needed. As it turns out, they had just enough to buy two one way tickets to Seoul and ship their bikes across, but after that, they’d need jobs immediately, or probably starve. The only real trick to Felix was learning Korean. Chan had picked it up in high school and already knew majority of the language; Felix, however, seriously disliked the thought of learning whole new alphabets, but with Chans motivational texts every morning (going along the lines of ‘wake the fuck up and learn Korean.') and Jisung and Seungmin's blatant refusal to talk to them in anything besides Korean since the decision was made, Felix pulled through and learnt enough of the language to live in Seoul, despite the difficulties he still had with reading it.
In the days leading up to the move, Felix had been nothing but a ball of nerves, taking up pacing as if it were a sport and getting less than an hour of sleep a night, until Chan had no choice but to practically drug the anxious 21 year old with a crushed up Phenergan tablet in his drink each night so the boy would just go sleep, and stay that way for at least 8 hours.
Besides his nerves of being in a new place at what his parents called ‘too young of an age’, Felix had to admit that he was ecstatic to see his friends after so long.
“Where are those two?” Felix demanded, standing on his toes to try and get a look over the slowly dispersing crowd.
“I dunno, they said they were here,” Chan said, carefully reading back over the texts he had with Jisung. “They should be right-”
“SEUNGMIN IN THE BUILDING!” a familiar voice called from somewhere in the area, and the two knew that Seungmin was, in fact, in the building.
Felix was jumping up and down much too fast for being as decaffeinated as he was as Jisung and Seungmin came into view.
“Stop, I think I'm gonna cry,” Felix said, fanning his eyes frantically as Seungmin squeezed him tightly. Once Seungmin let him go to greet Chan, Felix was basically trampled by Jisung, who aggressively threw himself at Felix, who hugged him back tighter. After a moment, Felix collected himself and detached a very clingy Jisung from him, holding him at an arm's length.
“Okay, hands off the merchandise,” Felix joked, flipping his hair over his shoulder.
“But I've missed you so much,” the honey brown haired man wailed. “Chan, can I hug you , at least?”
“Of course.”
“Man, it's so good to see you guys again,” Seungmin beamed as poor Chan was almost knocked off his feet. “I almost can't believe you're actually here.”
“Neither can I,” Felix grinned, hoisting his bag up his shoulder more. “Now let's go get our bags so I can go get myself a coffee or something .”
“Oh yeah, fuelling addiction,” Jisung said, letting go of Chan and the group started their way over to the conveyor belt to collect their bags.
“Shut the fuck up. There's a difference between addiction and passion.”
“How much stuff did you guys bring ?” Seungmin asked, looking mildly concerned as six large bags came dragging over.
“I brought just the essentials, like clothes and stuff, but Mr ‘Be Prepared’ over here decided to bring his entire wardrobe,” Chan said, picking up two of the large bags and gesturing his head to Felix. “And probably the kitchen sink.”
“Hey, I think I deserve as much luxury as my broke ass can get, and if that means bringing everything I own with me, so be it,” Felix snapped, dragging two of the suitcases off the conveyor belt and needing Seunmin’s help to get the last two.
“Great, now can we go?” Jisung asked, rocking on his feet. “I’m hungry.”
“You’re starting to sound like Changbin,” Seungmin remarked as the group made their way out of the airport and into the crisp air of Seoul.
“How dare you,” Jisung snickered.
“Wow, you guys have friends?” Felix asked, feigning shock.
“Shut up, we’re not antisocial pricks like you guys,” Seungmin snapped as the group got the dark blue car and started piling luggage onto the boot.
“Well, I’m offended,” Felix said sarcastically as the car started to pull out of the car park.
“Felix?” Chan asked from the passenger seat next to Seungmin.
“Yeah?” Felix asked from behind him.
“Shut up.”
The car ride wasn’t long, the group pulling up to the house in less than 30 minutes, but it was long enough for Felix and Chan to get proper looks at the new country they were living in.
Green trees lined most footpaths, and large buildings lined the roads, so similar, yet so different from the Australian suburbs they were used to.
“This is our house ?” Felix asked, basically falling out of the car the moment it came to a stop.
“Yep,” Jisung said, pushing Felix forward.
The house was modest, but beautiful, a traditional style front of white walls and brown doors and windows.
“C’mon, let’s go.” Seungmin ordered, helping to bring the suitcases up the front steps and into the house, the door already unlocked.
Felix and Chan followed them, and Felix could have cried, the familiar sensation making his hands tingle expectantly at the homey feel the house gave off.
“Your rooms are just down this hallway, opposite doors. They’re exactly the same, so take your pick.” Seungmin said. “We’ll let you get settled for a minute, and I need to go find Jisung and whichever one of our friends got in before they break something.”
Felix nodded and rolled his bags into the room on the left, and plonked down on his new bed, surveying the room. There was a built-in wardrobe that wrapped around the corner, a smaller dresser next to it, with a lamp and an oval mirror. The bed was in the left corner, a large window at it’s foot with a small bedside table next to it, denting the grey carpet, no doubt. That was all.
Felix’s eyes immediately started analysing the room and the possibilities it held. A poster here, a nice rug there. Of course, he’d need money for that, but he could worry about that later. He swung open the blue curtains with a bounce, hoping that he’d get a nice view, but just came face to face with a rather sad looking solid brick wall.
“Lovely,” he mumbled, closing the curtains again. “Chan?!”
“Yeah?” Chan asked from his room.
“What’s your view like?” Felix asked, swaggering into his friend’s room to find Chan already unpacking, his curtains wide open to show a stunning view of almost the entire city. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
Chan snickered. “Bad view?”
“Brick wall.”
“C’mon, I’m hungry,” Chan said, nodding his head as he swished past Felix. “Let’s go find the kitchen.”
The two wandered down the hallway until they came to a very wide open room, probably filling the majority of the house. The kitchen was against the wall closest to them, and a large dining room filled up the rest of the space. A table sat on half of the room, and the other half had brown leather couches facing a bookshelf. The left wall was entirely a glass sliding door to a small backyard, and the ceiling had a pleasant sky light.
“Hey, not too shabby,” Felix said, nodding.
“What do you mean, ‘not too shabby?” Jisung demanded from the couch. “It’s awesome.”
The fridge door slammed closed next to Chan and Felix, making them jump as a black haired man who wasn’t Seungmin appeared, nibbling on a piece of cheese.
“Be polite and introduce yourself,” Seungmin said to the man after picking up a plate off the table.
“I think politeness went out the window the second he decided to waltz in here uninvited and leave dirty dishes everywhere,” Jisung said, not looking away from his book. “ He eats anything he wants whenever he wants. He’s a leach”
“No kidding,” Seungmin said.
Felix did a double take at Jisung. “Sorry, say that again?”
“He’s a leach?”
“No, the bit before that.”
“He eats anything he wants whenever he wants,” Jisung repeated.
Felix squinted. “Bitch, since when did you have a British accent?”
Jisung's eyes widened a little. “I have no idea.”
“Felix is right, ” Chan nodded. “ You sound like you just left a tea party with the Royal Family.”
Seungmin snickered.
“Hey, don’t talk in English around me, you know I can’t understand it,” the man in the kitchen said. “And I was hungry.”
“You’re always hungry,” Seungmin sighed. “Introduce yourself.”
“I’m Changbin,” Changbin smiled, strolling up to Felix and Chan. “I’ve heard a lot about you… Felix,” he said, pointing to Felix then to Chan, “and Bang Chan.”
“Great to meet you,” Chan said, extending his hand for a hand shake, though Changbin went for a slight bow. “Oh, sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Changbin laughed. “Typical foreigners.”
“Jeez, Chan,” Felix tutted as he copied Changbin with a small bow. “Didn’t you study at all?”
“Shut it, Felix,” Chan snapped.
“Anyway, can we, like, go places?” Seungmin asked.
“Don’t we need to, like, unpack a little-”
“No, no, no,” Jisung said, standing up and discarding his book. “We’re going sightseeing and showing you all the important places.” He pointed at Changbin. “You’re not invited.”
“Aw, darn,” Changbin said, slapping his knee sarcastically. “I’ll meet you at the track tonight, though, right?”
Jisung gave him an aggressive thumbs up, then pointed to the hallway that led to the front door. “Yep, now get.”
“Alright, alright,” Changbin said, raising his hands a little in innocence as he tiptoed to the door. “I’m going. Oh, have you told them about Min-”
“ Go .”
Changbin sulked off down the hallway.
“Who’s he talking about?” Felix asked.
“C’mon, get your stuff, we’re going out for dinner,” Jisung said, picking up his keys and phone, ignoring Felix’s question all together.
Felix and Chan didn’t dare argue.
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───
“Well this is pleasant,” Felix said, twirling the ends of his extensions around his fingers.
The air in the BBQ shop was warm and thick, the smell of marinated meat and the happy chatter of other diners a heavy constant. It was a pleasant type of atmosphere that was usually hard to find in Australia; everyone usually just picked up their food and left, but around here, people stayed and chatted to the chefs as they cooked, or got into lengthy conversations with the waiters, though no one seemed to mind waiting to be served. Felix and Chan were told that not many places were like this and that most people there were regulars, but until they saw differently, the blond and red-head were convinced all of Seoul was like this.
“Why do you sound so deadpan?” Jisung demanded, jabbing a chicken bone at Felix’s plate. “Just shut up and eat your meat.”
“Okay, push- y ,” Felix mumbled, shoving his chicken in his mouth. “Why is this so good? Chan, why is food in Australia shit?”
“Cause we cook it ourselves,” Chan responded, licking the last of his beef off his fingers. “God, we’ve been missing so much.”
“Well, don’t stuff yourself too full, we still have dessert to get,” Seungmin warned.
“What are we getting?” Felix asked, looking up at him through his hair.
“Secret.”
“Tell me!” Felix demanded, switching to English and smacking the table with an open palm.
“Not if you keep using English like that !” Seungmin cackled, not caring his mouth was full of food.
“Close your mouth, Seungmin, no one wants to see that,” Chan said, wrinkling his nose in disgust.
“No one wants to see your face ,” Seungmin retorted back, receiving a roll of Chan’s eyes.
By the time everyone had finished their food, the sun was just below the horizon, painting the sky with pretty pastel colours of pink and orange, the city lighting up the roads, almost as if it were still daytime.
“But you see, he actually seemed to like her for her , before all the stuff with her make up, you can clearly tell it from the way he looks at her,” Felix explained, taking a bite of his corn shaped ice cream as the group lazily strolled down a footpath towards the car. “That other guy was just trying to get up close and personal with her because she's popular. He's a douche, though. I'm Team Su-ho all the way.”
“But then why are she and Seo-jun getting so much screen time together?” Jisung asked, diving deep into their conversation about True Beauty, the TV show they had recently been watching religiously. They hadn't even finished episode 5, and they were already completely divided on which boy Jugyeoug belonged with, just as they had been Team Jacob and Team Edward when Twilight was being published. Felix was over the moon when Bella ended up with Edward and he got $50 out of it. “If she doesn't like him at least a little, what's even the point of his character in the first place?”
“Dramatic tension?”
“But guys,” Chan said. “What if the two guys are made for each other ?”
Felix and Jisung ‘oo’d, not considering that option.
Seungmin tapped Jisung's shoulder, holding out his phone to him. “It's Minho.”
Jisung quickly swiped the phone from his friend's hand and Felix watched curiously as Jisung answered.
“Minho?... Yeah, hi, I'm fine, how about you?... Why didn't you just call me on my phone?... Oh, sorry, I must have put it on do not disturb… oh shit, I completely forgot, I'm so sorry. Chan and Felix arrived today, so we took them to dinner. We'll be there soon, I promise… Alright, you too, buh-bye.”
Jisung took the phone from his ear and Felix raised an eyebrow. “Who's Minho?”
“I'll tell you later,” Jisung said, handing the phone back to Seungmin. “Sorry to rush you guys, but are you okay with coming to the motocross track with us? We made plans with some people, and we're already an hour late.”
Felix and Chan didn't need to be asked twice, and immediately agreed, climbing into the car in their automatic seating plan - Seungmin as driver with Jisung seated behind him, and Chan in the passenger seat with Felix behind him - and started driving through the Seoul streets that had started bustling with nightlife. Seungmin wasn't exactly the most careful driver, and they almost hit multiple people on at least three different occasions on their way to the track.
Felix had to admit he was overly excited about seeing the track in person. Of course he had seen plenty of photos online, he had basically stalked the place, but he knew from experience that the difference between photos and the real thing was a significant one, and the experience of stepping onto a new track for the first time was one he liked to savour each and every time.
As much as he would like to, Felix wouldn't be racing for the next few days. His beautiful pride and joy of a bike was still being shipped across the ocean, and though the thought of his child being mere feet above salt water without him made his heart beat a little too loud and his stomach churn a little too fast, boat shipping was the most efficient and cheapest option to get it to him.
Felix decided that he could probably deal with standing on the sidelines and watching for the first few days of living in Seoul, and that's exactly what he planned on doing.
“Who are we meeting there?” Felix asked, running his hand over his hair absentmindedly.
“Well, you’ve already met Changbin, he’ll be there, Minho will be, as you could have guessed, then there’s Jeongin and Hyunjin, but I don’t think you’ve heard of them before,” Seungmin said, the car tires screeching around a corner.
“I think I’ve heard you bring them up one time,” Chan chimed in.
“Yeah, that’ll be it, I think,” Jisung nodded.
Felix hummed. “Nice.”
The car eventually pulled into a car park at the edge of a thin forest, and the moment Felix stepped out of the car, his ears were blessed with the familiar sound of revving motorbikes.
“Where is this track?” Chan asked.
“It’s just through the trees,” Jisung explained, leading the group into the forest, towards the sounds. “So, this track isn’t exactly… the legalist place, per se, but people just started using the area as a track and it got so worn down that it became the best practice spot, so people started adding lights and food.”
“How rebellious,” Felix mumbled as the group spotted lights ahead.
“But do know that all the races that happen here are logged into the system,” Seungmin explained. “So don’t enter a race unless you want it on your permanent record.”
“The system?” Chan asked.
Seungmin shrugged. “I don’t really understand it myself.”
Motorbikes jumped across the slopes right in front of their faces once they broke the tree line, heavy bass music wafting through the air, the domain lit brightly with tall floodlights. The area wasn’t organised as Felix was used to, but held a louder, more chaotic mood that Felix found he didn’t mind.
“This place is wicked,” Felix commented, following Jisung and Seungmin down a slope to a more open area, where people mingled and a small, clearly handmade shack sold drinks and small snacks.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Jisung said, scanning the crowd for those they were joining.
“Yeah, I like it,” Chan said.
“Hey! Jisung and Seungmin!” a voice called from somewhere, then a hand popped up from the crowd in a wave.
“Oh, there they are,” Seungmin said, and led the group towards the voice.
A group of three men came into view. Felix recognised one as Changbin from earlier, but he didn’t know who the other two were.
Both men were the same height, though one had dark brown, practically black hair, and the other was a pleasant dirty blond.
“Hey guys,” Seungmin greeted. “Sorry we’re late, we were showing Felix and Chan around and lost track of time.”
“Oh, hello,” the black haired man said, flinging his arms over Seungmin’s shoulders, in a half hug, half lean sort of situation.
Jisung turned to Felix and Chan, pointing to the black haired man hugging Seungmin. “This is Jeongin, he’s our youngest.”
Jeongin let go of Seungmin and gave a slight bow, and Felix copied, Chan thankfully doing the same this time.
“And I’m Minho,” the blond man said, slinging an arm around Jisung's shoulders. “Jisung's boyfriend.”
Felix’s jaw dropped and he felt it hit the floor. “ Boyfriend? ”
“Yeah, sorry I didn’t tell you guys,” Jisung laughed guiltily.
Felix and Chan automatically whipped their heads around to look at each other.
“Did you know?!” Felix demanded in English, pointing at him.
“No, did you?!” Chan asked.
“Not a clue! ” Felix said, looking back at Jisung and giving him the evil eye. “ Funny, huh.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” Jisung said, taking Minho’s hand that was slung around his shoulders. “We were waiting to make sure everything was ironed out before we went around telling everyone.”
“I beg your pardon?” Felix snapped, feeling highly offended and betrayed. “How long have you been together?”
Jisung and Minho glanced at each other, Jisung's face morphing into an even guiltier expression.
“It can't have been that long,” Chan asked cautiously, a nervous smile on his face, suddenly worried for Jisung's safety and ready to restrain Felix if it came down to it.
Jisung coughed out something incomprehensible.
“Speak up, fuckbag,” Felix snapped.
“A year and a half,” Minho said, hiding his giggle with his spare hand.
Felix hadn't been aware his eyebrows could have gone any higher, but Felix stood firmly by the philosophy 'you learn something new every day', which was currently proving correct. He slowly craned his head around to stare at Jisung intently. “A year and a half, huh?”
Jisung nodded in tiny, staring at the ground. “I'm sorry I didn't tell you.”
Felix and Chan glanced at each other. Felix nodded. “It’s okay. We forgive you.”
Jisung let out a breath he had clearly been holding. “Thank you.”
“If he hurts him, he’s dead,” Felix whispered to Chan, gesturing to Minho.
“Agreed,” Chan answered.
Felix noticed Minho spoke a little English, and he assumed the slight accent he heard was due to him picking it up off Jisung.
Their attention was shifted to the race that was taking place. One racer had a clear lead on the rest, his white and red bike splattered with dirt. The mysterious racer skidded across the finish line a good few seconds before anyone else, taking a sizable wad of cash from someone after fist bumping them.
Felix didn’t realise he had been staring until the racer turned in their direction and started walking over.
“Um, who’s that?” Felix asked.
“That’s Hwang Hyunjin,” Changbin said. “He’s one of the best racers we’ve got around here.”
Felix hummed as this Hyunjin fellow joined them.
“Nice job,” Jeongin smiled.
“Thanks,” Hyunjin said, taking off his helmet with a grunt.
Now, Lee Felix was confident with his sexuality, and he was reminded, quite aggressively if he did say so himself, that he liked men.
Hyunjin was simply stunning; he must have been a solid 10 centimetres or so taller than Felix. His black hair fell below his sharp jawline, and Felix automatically noticed the white streaks running through the bottom of it. Above sharp cheekbones and full lips with a piercing through the middle of the bottom one, his eyes had a piercing quality to them, and the mole under his left eye was a… nice accentuation to his face.
Felix awkwardly played with his extensions as his eyes found the dirt they stood on, wanting to look at the face longer, but being too afraid to seem creepy.
“Oh, my lovely, you did so good!” Jisung wailed, throwing himself onto Hyunjin.
“Oh, thank you, my lovely!” Hyunjin responded, matching very similar energy to Jisung.
Felix glanced at Minho to see his reaction to Jisung and Hyunjin, but he only found his covering his mouth to stop himself laughing.
“Who’re the new guys?” Hyunjin asked once Jisung let go, nodding his head over to Chan and Felix.
“This is Felix and Chan,” Seungmin said. “We told you about them, they’re living with us.”
“Hello,” Chan smiled.
“Hi,” Felix mumbled, still not looking up.
“What’re they doing here?” Hynjin asked, taking off his gloves. “Are you racers?”
“Yeah, we hope to be,” Chan explained, elbowing Felix to help him out.
“M-hm,” Felix tore his eyes away from the dirt, but still avoided eye contact.
Hyunjin hummed. “I can see you being a racer…” he said, nodding at Chan, then turning to Felix. “But you… I don’t know about you.”
Felix’s eyes immediately snapped up to look Hyunjin dead in the eyes. “Excuse me?”
“You’re too pretty to be a racer,” Hyunjin shrugged, barely paying any attention to him as he insulted the blond right to his face. “Why don’t you go be a model or something instead?”
Jeongin clearly smacked Hyunjin’s shoulder, as if telling him off, and Jisung tutted at him.
Chan went to stop Felix from getting involved, but Felix was not about to let this one go.
“I’m sorry, who do you think you are?” Felix demanded, Hyunjin hitting a nerve that Felix had been sure he buried long ago.
Hyunjin turned around lazily, his eyes brimming with boredom. “I think I’m a guy called Hyunjin, why do you ask?”
“Wow, you’re really fucking funny,” Felix snapped.
Hyunjin barely nodded. “I am.”
“You’re a dick,” Felix’s hands were curling into tight fists the longer this man talked.
“And you’ll never be a real racer, angel,” Hyunjin said back calmly, as if he wasn’t destroying every piece of confidence Felix had ever possessed.
“Don’t call me that.”
“Or what?”
“Should we be stopping this?” Jisung whispered to Jeongin.
“Nah, I wanna see how this goes,” Minho interjected, a bright, if not slightly evil smile on his face.
“If you’re so great that you can tell I’m not good enough to be a racer just by looking at me, what about you, huh?” Felix asked. “What are you doing here and not in the big leagues?”
Hyunjin’s expression darkened, and Felix suddenly felt his throat tighten. “You don’t know me.”
“You don’t know me ,” Felix retorted, taking a step closer to Hyunjin, glaring up at him.
Hyunjin took a slow step even closer, the two now close enough to touch foreheads if Hyunjin was to lean down. “Back up.”
“You first.”
Hyunjin’s eyes narrowed menacingly. “Make me.”
Felix was starting to crack under the bitter gaze, the need to step back twisting his stomach.
The two stood still for a few seconds, holding dangerous eye contact before Felix couldn’t take it anymore and broke eye contact, turning around and taking several steps to stand back next to Chan.
“Can we go?” Felix asked quietly.
“Sure,” Chan said. “We’re gonna head off, if that’s okay.”
“Sure, we’ll get a lift home from Minho,” Seungmin nodded.
Felix smiled slightly and gave a small wave.
Hyunjin smirked as they left. “That’s what I thought.”
Felix was going to kill him.