𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 ~𝐡𝐲𝐮𝐧𝐡𝐨

|9|

Trying to wrench myself out of his death grip, I looked down at him. Felix's cheek was squished against my chest, his black beanie bunched up like a new condom ready to be rolled down. A laugh tickled the corner of my lips. But when he gazed up through his lashes I coughed sideways and pushed him off me, planting my palms against his shoulders. 

"First culturally inappropriate lesson." His doe eyes studied my serious expression. "No random hugs. Or skinship whatsoever."

"Skinship?"

"Touching someone. It makes people uncomfortable and can be seen as rude." 

"Rude? How's affection rude.." 

"It just is." I rounded my car and opened the door. As I glanced over the roof of the car I noticed Felix taking in my jagiya. His eyes rounded and bent through the knees to touch her curves. Felix peeked back over the roof; his wavy orange hair partly covering his sight. But the gleam in his eyes was unmistakable. 

"Fark me dead.. you have an Equus?!" I suppressed the surprise bubbling to the surface. "What a beauty." 

"You know cars?" We slid into the car, Felix still touching everything. At least it was not me. I started the engine and turned back towards the apartment where Felix was going to live for an indefinite period.

As we exited the airport, I kept my eyes busy shooting back and forth between the road ahead and everything that happened in the corner of my eye. Felix was petting the dashboard, then plucking on the switch buttons, and after that randomly rubbing his palms over the leather of his chair.

"I don't know cars. Just happen to know this one. She is really pretty, hyung," he finally answered. I could see him chew on the inside of his bottom lip, eyes darting over the interior. But I was more hung on the whole "hyung" he just blurted out, than asking him why he was acting so strange all of the sudden.

Nobody called me hyung.

Felix's Korean was pretty bad, but he understood the Korean family titles. Just not the social aspect of it. Yes, we were family, but we hadn't seen each other. . . I started counting fingers in my head. Shit, that was already fifteen years ago. Felix was turning twenty-five this year. I was the shittiest cousin because I couldn't remember exactly when his birthday was. 

Anyway, this whole internal dialogue was already explaining everything; we didn't know each other at all that he could address me with hyung. It triggered this feeling of a spider crawling over my spine. 

"I'm sorry you got saddled up with me." Just as we arrived at the building where Felix will be living, a few blocks away from me, he spoke those words in the tiniest whisper. "I heard you're going skiing tomorrow. I've never done that," he then confesses.

"Snowboarding," I corrected him. The engine got shut down and I shifted to my side to look at my cousin. He was fumbling with the hem of his burgundy sweater, eyes downcast and shoulders slumped. This kid had a weird way of pulling at my emotional cords. "And it's fine, I know how demanding my father can be." Well, that was an understatement. 

"You don't have to tag me along, I'll manage here." And that was a definite no. My father would literally pull my head off. 

We got out of the car, the keys to Felix's new apartment jingling on my crooked finger. As we walked silently to the main entrance I thought about tomorrow; the snow, the fresh air, and the feeling of ultimate freedom. And it dawned on me that none of that was something Felix knew about. I was an absolute asshole to many people, and it wasn't something I gave two shit about, but it squeezed at my heart that he would be all alone in an unfamiliar city. Hell, unfamiliar country. So I scraped my throat, nudging the glass door open with my shoulder to let Felix pass first, and offered, "My friend owns a boxing gym nearby, maybe after freshening up we can go visit him. I have some stuff to do before I go to the mountains, so I can ask him to help you get some snow gear. Because I'm thinking you got none of that." I eyed his black jeans shorts and the modest duffel bag clammed in his tiny fist.