wander [ hyunlix ]

08

"Look at us over there," he said, pointing at a couple of posters plastered against the brick wall.

Felix squinted, just able to make out the titles of two missing persons posters. His eyes widened as he recognized himself on one of them.

"Wow..." he trailed off, the feeling of what he'd done beginning to fully sink in. He knew he was being looked for, but for some reason, the sight of a poster for the first time really made the feeling hit home.

Next to his was stapled a rather familiar poster, one he'd seen hundreds of times. The exact same one that he'd been staring at a week ago in another store.
This was the poster of that missing kid; some short black haired, glasses wearing teen with the last name of Hwang.  

Felix's brain seemed to halt at this. He carefully read over the details on the poster, feeling as if he was missing something very important. Yet as his eyes landed on the boy's full name, it felt like his world came to a screeching halt.

Hwang Hyunjin.
Holy shit. How could he be so stupid?

Felix glanced at the tall boy who stood next to him, wondering how on earth he'd never made this connection before. The Hyunjin he knew now had long, gorgeous hair, wore no glasses, and apparently had lost his bangs a while ago. Felix felt incredibly dumb. Of course his appearance would chance over the span of a year.

Hyunjin seemed to notice the contemplative look on Felix's face, and gently asked him what was wrong.

"Oh, nothing," Felix responded as if his whole worldview wasn't crumbling.
"Just thinking that you look really different in that picture."

Hyunjin snickered at this.
"Yeah, it's a good thing. Besides, I like my hair better long anyway!" he said, dramatically flipping back some of his dark locks.

"It suits you," Felix complimented absentmindedly, making eye contact with the elder for a second. A small grin painted itself onto Hyunjin's face.

"Thanks," he mumbled, before turning and walking back in the direction of his car. Felix hurried to follow him, not wanting to trail too far behind.

"You know, Felix," the boy commented as they both climbed into the vehicle. "You might wanna change your appearance too, considering they've got cops out for you."

Felix pursed his lips, thinking over this suggestion as he locked the car door. In the poster, he looked rather average... he had dark hair, dark eyes, fair skin...

"Oh," he said, a thought popping into his mind. "Do you have any baby wipes? Or napkins?"

"Umm, I think so?" Hyunjin raised an eyebrow, before popping open the glove compartment of the car and digging around in it.
"Here," he said as he found a package, handing it off to Felix.

"Promise not to laugh after I do this," Felix warned as he reached up to angle the rearview mirror towards himself.

"Okay...?" was all that came from Hyunjin.

Felix quickly got to work as he pulled a wipe out of its package, bringing it up to rub his cheeks while the elder boy stared in confusion.
After a second or two, he hummed in satisfaction as he saw the color smudge off onto the cloth, a sign that his plan was working.

"You've been wearing makeup?" Hyunjin questioned briefly, but was quickly shushed.

Little dark specks of color began to show themselves as Felix wiped the concealer off of his cheeks, as if happy to be finally shown to the world.
His freckles had always been somewhat of an insecurity to him, as he quite literally didn't know anyone else that had them.
Therefore he was used to constantly covering them with foundation and the likes, and naturally he'd brought a bottle with him before leaving home.

Felix cleaned the remaining concealer off of his face as much as he could, his freckle dusted cheeks staring back at him in the mirror. He cringed just a tiny bit knowing that they were exposed, but for the sake of anonymity, he guessed it was worth it.

Yet he hesitated to speak as he turned and caught Hyunjin's gaze, who seemed to be staring at him quite openly.

"Yeah, you don't have to point them out," Felix spoke with a hint of embarrassment. "I already know it's weird."

"No!" Hyunjin immediately corrected him, waving his hands back and forth just to emphasize it. "It's not weird... actually I was gonna say they're pretty..."

Felix bit back a smile at this, yet shook his head in denial.
"It's okay, you don't have to lie about it. I'm fine."

"I would tell you if they were ugly, Felix, trust me," Hyunjin insisted, giving the boy a stern look.
"They're very cute. Truthfully."

If that didn't remind Felix of his best friend, he didn't know what would.
During countless nights he'd spent at Chan's house chatting away, the curly haired boy would always bring up how much he adored Felix's freckled cheeks, and how cute they were.

Felix had never believed him.

"Ahh, be quiet," Felix lightly swatted at Hyunjin's arm, now bashful. "Do you think this is enough to really change my appearance though?"

Hyunjin scanned over his face for a second.
"Honestly, probably not. I would dye my hair or get glasses if I were you."

Felix sighed at this, sinking back into his seat. There was no way he wanted to get glasses. He'd bought a pair for "fashion"before, and he'd lost them within a week because he was absolutely the worst at keeping track of things.

"Hair dye it is," he thought out loud, a little nervous at the idea. He'd never dyed his hair before. Not that he hadn't thought about it, but he always had figured his parents would say no if he asked in the first place.

"We can buy some bleach later," Hyunjin spoke as he turned on the car, readying to hit the road once again. "I don't really wanna go back in this store considering they've got posters of us."

"Yeah," Felix agreed. "Smart idea."

As the car started up, a Got7 song came on the radio, and Felix openly groaned at the sound.

"Oh my god, this was one of their best comebacks so far, right?" Hyunjin commented on it, hyped at his favorite group.

Felix only agreed to appease the elder, smiling more at his childish behavior than the song itself.

Maybe this road trip wouldn't be so insufferable after all, he thought.