Stray Kids Imagines (ON HOLD)

chasing knots [2] ; lee felix

They stopped walking after a few minutes, and Felix found himself standing on a hill. Below is a tobacco plantation, and all is quiet except for the occasional chirping of the birds and the sound of the swaying of trees around them. Felix was mesmerized at the sight. Even though it was simple and looked slightly boring-more so than ever that there was no access to the internet or even electricity-but it was the perfect spot to calm down and get lost in the feeling.

After a while, (Y/N) spoke up.

"Pasensya ka na," she says. "Ganoon lamang talaga si Ina."

"I'm sorry. Mother is always like that."

Felix nodded and ran a hand through his hair, looking down at the workers who slaved away at the plantation. "It's okay," he says. "It's my fault. I did not want to be alone."

(Y/N) smiled at him, casting a sideward glance to his way before looking back ahead, "You don't have to apologize. Mother always lashes out ever since my Father died."

Felix had to do a double-take to check if his ears are working right. (Y/N) just replied to him in straight English. His eyes widened, not believing what he had just heard. The girl looked at him once again, and giggled softly.

"Are you surprised?" she asked.

"Yes," he nodded, blinking thrice. "You can speak English?"

"Yes, I can," (Y/N) clarified. "I've been sent to school in America, and I have lived there for two years. The least I can do is to learn the language there."

Felix nodded, "I thought girls weren't supposed to go to school." He had read this fact somewhere when they were studying the history of the world and the countries in Asia, and although he can be a bit of a noob, his memory is intact.

"That's absolute madness," she says and pulls her knees up to her chest, nestling her chin on her bones. "Girls are supposed to be on the same level as boys. We bring babies to the world."

Felix could not help but let out a laugh. "But girls couldn't bring babies to the world without us boys."

"That's the point," she says. "Boys have the right to be educated, to vote and to work for the country and for their families, that's why girls should have the same rights as well. We were not made to be stuck in homes doing laundry and cooking food all the time."

"But how did you get to study?" Felix did not like the sound of his question, as it seemed like an offensive remark. He quickly added, "I mean, seeing that schools only accept boys."

(Y/N) shrugged, "I sought help from my uncles and aunts. Most of them are living in America, so I begged them to let me study there. I do not want to be stuck in somewhere as suffocating as my 'home'."

"So you know what I'm asking you yesterday," Felix felt annoyed. Why did she have to lie to him? She could've just replied to him in English. "Why didn't you answer me and pretended to not have understood what I was saying?"

"I had to do it, Felix," she says softly, lowering the volume of her voice, and Felix took it as a sign for him to do the same. "Most of the people here in town had been gossiping about my family, saying that my aunts and uncles only escaped their duties here in the Philippines by migrating to America. I had to prove to them that they were wrong, but I couldn't let their opinions stop me from wanting to study." she bit the inside of her cheek and scooted closer to him, "You remember the two people who passed by us yesterday?"

Felix nodded wordlessly.

"They're some of the people who started the rumors. They hated my clan for decades, and have been trying things to cause my family absolute embarrassment," she mutters. "They're powerful people, and many fear them. My brother once told me that they kill people when they think they have done something to bring down Spain and the Filipino citizens who love Spain."

"Including you?"

"No," she shook her head. "That's why I've gone to America to study and show that I came back to the Philippines with more knowledge that the Spanish government failed to give to us. I'm just doing what I think is right. And what my family thinks is right."

Felix nods in agreement, "I think the same, too."

(Y/N) laughs, "I'm glad."

"Hey, that earring is pretty," Felix quips and points to the accessory on her left ear. "Is it real?"

(Y/N) reached up to touch the earring and smiled softly, "Perhaps. My great grandmother told me it was a gift from her husband before they got married."

"It's really pretty," he says. "I like it."

And, as he let his eyes settle on her carefree laugh, Felix could not help but feel a tingly feeling, right there at the left side of his chest.

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The more Felix stayed with the 1896 (Y/N), the more he realized that she and the present day (Y/N) are alike. They love the same hobby-which is reading (that he had noticed whenever he passes by her room and she always reads a book), they love being out in the open-as he heard from Chan, and that she can be cold but caring-a characteristic of her which he had been witnessing since the day he agreed to be her personal assistant.

And, the more he stayed with her, the more he felt attached to her.

"What if I'm from another dimension?" Felix suddenly asked her while they sat under the shade of a sturdy Narra tree, eating overly ripe bananas. "What if, just what if, I'm from somewhere far, far away from here? Like, my surroundings are very different from this setting?"

(Y/N) took a bite out of her banana and shrugged, "I'd say you have to go back to your time," she says. "I once read that if you don't go back, you'll be stuck in that time where you traveled to."

"But, what if I've stayed for too long in that place, long enough for me to feel an attachment to certain things, certain places, or certain people?"

"That is all up to you, Felix," she quips and puts down the fruit on the plate. "Whether you stay or leave is your decision. You can either stay, because you have grown to love whatever it is that you have grown to love, or you can leave, because you still have things in your time that are far more important than things in the time where you traveled to."

Felix could not make a decision. He'd be lying if he said he didn't want to stay, because in the span of a few days staying with (Y/N) in the home of one of her siblings, he had grown fond of her, and couldn't stay away. But he'd also be lying if he said he didn't want to leave, because he still has a life to live in the present-his family, his friends, and his job.

But is his life in the present still worth living for?

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- pealix_lee 💖