CHAEBEOL | minsung

twenty-one

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"Felix, do you have a question?" The teacher was glaring at him as she asked. 

If Felix was more like his friends, he might have bit back at her. Of course I have a question, idiot, he might've said. Why else would I have my hand in the air? 

But Felix wasn't like his friends, not really. "Yes, Miss, sorry. Is it okay for me to go to the toilet?" 

"During my lesson?" She was unimpressed. 

"Sorry, Miss. I don't feel well." 

She didn't want to let him go, but didn't have much choice. Felix felt fine, and he didn't need the toilet. He needed a break, just for a moment, to be unperceived and unseen and unnoticed. This wasn't always easy as a prefect. 

Thankfully, Felix was one of the few students who knew about the entrance to the rooftop. It was hidden behind a storage room and the stairways were boarded up but he was small enough and determined enough to angle himself around the wrought iron staircase, heading with his head hanging up to the roof.

He would just sit there for a moment or two, gather his thoughts, let the remaining summer sun bring his freckles back to life, and then he'd go back to class. 

Felix didn't mean to eavesdrop. 

But as he rounded the top of the staircase, right before the open doorway out to the roof, he heard a pair of voices. He was going to turn around and find another place to be alone, when one of the voices spoke. A voice he recognised.

"-I wouldn't have gotten into all this if I knew you'd be such a pain in my arse." It was Jisung, for definite, Felix could hear the distaste echoing in his voice even from so far away. 

"You're a pain in my arse, if we're being technical." And... Minho?

"God, I really do hate you." Jisung again.

"You really do, huh?" Minho.

"Mhm." 

"And what did I teach you to do with negative emotions, princess?" ...Minho?

A sigh from Jisung that Felix had only heard a handful of times. 

He turned before he could hear anymore. Flew back down the stairs, right on the borderline between being quick enough to make too much noise or being slow enough to be silent. 

Something was twinging in his chest, razor-sharp and smarting, a pain he wasn't particularly used to. 

Jisung and Minho? Princess? Alone, on the roof? 

Felix knew Jisung had changed, knew it was Minho's fault, knew that they had been spending time together and that Jisung had gotten meaner because of it. But he hadn't expected this. 

He didn't realise he was crying, not really, and not enough to be debilitated by it. If anything, the lump in his throat had grown comforting and he was scarily used to the salt in his eyes stinging his waterline with each blink. 

Not used to comfort. Not used to hands around his wrists, not used to soothing words. 

"Hey, calm down. You're okay. Felix, breathe, c'mon." Chan was wildly seeking a rational thought behind Felix's eyes, his grip on Felix's arm steady and reassuring. 

Felix tried to suck in a deep breath, but his lungs weren't co-operating. "Need-"

"Yeah? What do you need?" Chan used one thumb to graze the inside of Felix's wrist, soothing, repetitive. Felix felt his lungs swell with a stuttered breath.