SUBURBIA ━ hyunbinlix ✓

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Friday, October 4th

Seo Changbin was yet another mystery that had been thrown into Felix's life without much warning.

He found his mind wandering off to the elder boy more often than he would've anticipated for having just met him, however as he sat in the front seat of Chris' car, the raven haired boy was all he could think about.

"You're weirdly quiet today," Chris commented, stopping at a red light and turning down the soft music playing from the radio even more than it already was.

"More so than usual?" Felix grinned, turning to face him whilst taking a grateful sip of his coffee.

"Somethings on your mind," the blonde hummed, giving the younger a knowing look. "What's on your mind? Or should I say . . . who?"

Felix felt his face turn to a deep shade of crimson, the color in his cheeks only intensifying as Chris burst into laughter at his friends reaction.

"I'm only teasing," he insisted as they began to move again. "But really, what's going on up there?"

In all honesty, that wasn't a question that Felix had anticipated being directed at him. His mind seemed to be a labyrinth that he had constructed but still didn't know how to navigate. While he knew he had a fortunate life in comparison to others, his fear of being forgotten in the future tended to get in the way of things, resulting in him hardly even focusing on the present and more so on the future.

"I'm not sure," he decided to answer truthfully, finishing off his latte and turning to look out the window, almost like a personified period at the end of this conversation.

The car slowed to a stop in the student parking, and Felix said a quick thanks to Chris before practically throwing the door open and half run-half walking to the front door.

He was ready for yet another uninteresting school day, however a part of him was hoping he would get to spend time with Changbin throughout the day. The boy was interesting enough for Felix to be intrigued, and despite the fact that he didn't (or couldn't, he wasn't sure) speak, the short time they spent together the previous day was more of a comfortable one sided silence rather than an awkward one.

First period was a breeze, with Felix already being ahead in the class. He spent the entire class with his face practically pressed against his sketchbook, humming a random song under his breath as he sketched out a familiar emotionless face.

As soon as the bell had rung, the ginger boy walked as quickly as he could to the bathroom in the furthest hall of the school, hoping he would find a response from the two unknown strangers on the bathroom stall. His only concern was that he wouldn't make it to second period on time, but he tried to shove that thought into the back of his mind.

A smile began to form as he became face to face with new messages scrawled onto the wall, but it quickly faded as he saw what they contained.

In red ink, one of them had replied with 'life is hard, all the time'.

His heart ached for someone he didn't even know.

A smile did find its way back onto his face, however, when he saw what else they had written, regarding his doodles.

'also this is cute. i can't draw.'

His ears heated up a bit at the compliment, even though it wasn't an uncommon phrase directed towards him when it came to his art abilities.

Deciding to finally respond with words, he pulled out his sharpie and scribbled a response in the purple ink of his marker.

'thank you :) also, i hope things get better for you.'

After a slight pause, he decided to add yet another doodle in addition to his message. He hummed in satisfaction as he pulled his hand away, revealing a simple cheesy doodle of a sunflower, with a face added onto it.

The ginger spent a few moments more staring at their exchange of words on the wall, before the late bell pulled him from his thoughts. His eyes widened comically as the shock of being late for the first time set in, and he practically sprinted off to second period, hoping that the teacher would forgive him for his tardiness.

. . .

Hyunjin greeted Felix with a smile as the freshman took his seat in a hurry, unfazed by the boys tardiness due to how common he was late to his own classes.

"How much did I miss?" Felix whispered, not wanting to disturb the class any more than he already had by speaking in a loud voice.

"I wouldn't know," Hyunjin shrugged, scribbling in his notebook as per usual. "I haven't been paying attention in the class for the past few weeks."

Felix laughed at this, not sure if Hyunjins words were intended to be found comedic or not, however he decided to assume it was meant to provoke a laugh from him.

Hyunjin cracked a smile at this, maneuvering in his seat to engage in a conversation with Felix, who was more than happy to go along with it. The freshman wasn't going to complain about continuing to form a friendship, especially since Hyunjin was quite literally the only person he spoke to other than Chris.

Felix wasn't entirely sure as to what Hyunjins motives were when it came to talking to him, but he chose to ignore that creeping paranoia that tended to make him push people away. He seemed to entertain the elder, and if he could feel as if he belonged for even a few moments, then he would cherish it for as long as he possibly could.

The period seemed to fly by, Felix spending twenty percent of his time paying attention to the reading the class was doing and the other eighty percent drawing random things that Hyunjin came up with. These strange ideas consisted of pandas on skateboards, bears that enjoyed eating sushi, and a few aliens who wore flower crowns. As silly as the ideas were, Felix tried to make sure the drawings were as neat as he could make them, despite it ruining the theme of realism that the rest of the sketchbook contained.

Hyunjin seemed to be multi-dimensional, in Felix's eyes. In an outsiders view, he seemed to be the stereotypical rebelling teenager from a rich family, breaking the rules and relying on weed as much as the average human being relied on water to survive. But to Felix, however, Hyunjin acted unexplainably kind, and seemed to be quite invested in their now daily english class interactions. In Felix's opinion, he was the last person Hyunjins attention should've ever been drawn to, however he seemed to be tangled up in the elders boys mysterious forest of personality, and he was far too intoxicated by the thrill of the journey.

One thought in particular, however, seemed to circulate throughout his head the more he and Hyunjin became acquainted with one another.

Just who was Hwang Hyunjin really?