When I checked my phone the first time in the morning I saw someone had started following me on Instagram. 'Not_yongbook'
Wait. That's Felix. No wonder I didn't find him when searching for Felix. And I didn't even think to search for his Korean name. Stupid me.
I opened up Instagram and went to his profile. It really was Felix.
I was speechless. He hadn't been posting for a while, probably since he was stuck in a game, but before that he'd been posting quite frequently.
A few seconds later I received a message from him.
'I found you' he wrote.
I should have known what Chan was up to. That little liar, but I wasn't complaining.
'You got my user from Chan didn't you?'
'That's why he asked me for my user yesterday' I wrote back my speculations.
'I'm offended Chan got your Instagram before me' he admitted.
'He asked for it, you didn't' I said because it was true. Felix had just left before he even had the thought to ask for any contact information.
'Besides I tried finding you, but who would have known your name on Instagram wasn't Felix' I admitted.
'You tried finding me?' He asked.
'Well of course, I tried finding you all' I said.
Then he didn't answer me. I was patiently waiting for a reply, but nothing came.
I went to Jaehwan and showed him the screen of my phone. "What did I do wrong?" I asked him.
He looked at me with a frown. "What?"
"He's not replying me, what did I do wrong?" I asked him in despair.
"Well chill, he's probably doing something else" he said with a shrug.
"Oh" I said when it occurred to me that could be the reason.
I went back to my room but was still waiting for him to write something. I didn't dare write first, what if he was busy and I disturbed him?
But the wait was killing me. I was trying to watch a drama while waiting but I kept checking my phone every other second in case I missed the notification.
Every time I heard my phone vibrate I looked at it immediately, and every time I was bummed when it wasn't from Felix.
***
It was first after dinner I received a notification that was actually from Felix.
My heart started pounding, but I still denied the reason for that.
I opened up Instagram to see what he'd written.
'Do you have Snapchat?' He asked.
'Yeah why?' I asked him.
'Why else? let me add you' he said and I felt stupid for asking.
'Sure' I sent him my username and soon a notification popped up that Lee Felix had added me on Snapchat.
Then I felt my phone being jerked out of my hand and an evil grin was heard by the door.
"Yah Jaehwan!" I cried after my brother as he ran away with my phone.
I couldn't even run after him because of my ankle. I stood up and grabbed my crutches. I jumped out of my room and towards the living room where Jaehwan was sitting on the sofa and my phone was in his hands.
"This Felix dude, he's the one who had a crush on you right?" He asked as he was doing something on my phone.
"What are you doing?" I asked and felt the panic hit me.
"Oh I'm just talking to him"
"About what?" I asked. He better not be scaring Felix away now.
"Oh he has discord, I'll be back, I'm just adding him on discord" he said and went to his room.
His room was upstairs. And I'm not walking up the stairs today. So I just sat there and waited for my brother to come back with my phone. I swear they'll either be enemies or besties tomorrow. If my brother wanted to add him on discord I guess besties. He's stealing my Felix.
When Jaehwan finally returned with my phone he had a grin on his face.
"I approve of your boyfriend, he's fun" he said and gave me back my phone.
"He's not my boyfriend"
"No, definitely not" he said before leaving.
I looked at my screen. 'My Aussie boyfriend😘'
I'm killing Jaehwan later.
'What did you two talk about?' I asked Felix in the chat.
'Your brother's cool, he just added me on discord' Felix said.
'You didn't talk about anything else?' I asked, worried my brother had spoken about something he shouldn't speak about without my consent.
'No, why?' He wondered.
'No reason' I said quickly.
'You're out of the hospital now right?' I then asked to get on a different subject.
'Yeah I was discharged yesterday, but I still need to be careful' he explained.
'That's good to hear' I said.
'I mean that you're discharged, not that you have to be careful' I added when I realized it sounded wrong.
Then he added me into a group chat. 'Stray kids' was the name of it.
I went to see who were in the chat and the names had me wheezing.
In it we had My Aussie boyfriend😘, bang the kangaroo🦘, Lee Know everything😎, baby bin👶, princess Sam👸, Peter Pan🧚♂️ the squirrel🐿, wonpil's keyboard🎵🎹 and maknae on 🔝top🔝. The fuck?
'Oi Felix you found her!' Peter Pan🧚♂️ the squirrel🐿 wrote.
'Wow, all 9 of us are reunited' maknae on 🔝top🔝 then typed.
'Did you miss us a lot?' Wonpil's keyboard🎵🎹 wondered.
Were they the boys from the game? It seemed like it. A smile spread over my face and I felt how a wave of happiness went through me. How could I not be happy at this moment?
'What's with all of your names?' I asked in the chat.
'We changed them to confuse you' baby bin👶 wrote.
'We should let her guess who is who' Lee know everything😎 suggested.
'Or we could switch back and start planning when we'll all meet in real life' bang the kangaroo🦘 gave another suggestion.
Meeting in real life? All of us? Yeah definitely. I've spent a whole game with them but I definitely wasn't tired of them yet.
'I have school though, like every day' maknae on 🔝top🔝 wrote.
'I beat you because I'm hospitalized' baby bin👶 said.
'At least you guys can do stuff, I need to work' princess sam👸 said.
'You didn't win that one Hyunjin' Peter Pan🧚♂️ the squirrel🐿 said.
'No hospital is still worse' Wonpil's keyboard🎵🎹 wrote.
***
The chat was chaos and people kept writing in it all the time. We hadn't come up with a day to meet up until a few weeks later when Changbin was discharged.
I had been tempted to meet up with only Felix many times in the meantime, but never had the courage to ask him. He didn't ask me either though. I kept thinking like 'what if he doesn't like me anymore? Like it was only because we were in the game together' then I was thinking 'and why do I even care about that? It's not like I like Felix... at least let's say I don't'
We'd been talking a lot over the phone though. We kept each other updated about everything going on, and every night when I went to bed we would talk about basically everything but also nothing in particular.
He felt like my best friend in some ways, but I was starting to realize I felt more for him than just best friend. It was awkward in a way, but you really wouldn't have noticed that by watching our conversations.
He hadn't gotten the chance to enroll in any university before he got stuck in the game, while as I'd managed to make it through half a term before getting stuck in the game. I was back now, but because of how much I'd missed I was pretty sure I'd have to retake all my classes. Bummer.
Felix kept saying we should match up and go to the same university. I didn't say no, but I also wanted to stay where I was, so he had to come to my uni then.
'So how's it going in school?' He asked me that evening when I'd gone to bed.
'It's fun, but I have so much to catch up on I'm starting to lose it' I complained.
'You can do it, you lead us through a life threatening game, I think you can manage some school work' he tried to encourage me.
'Please I'll do the game any day instead of all this' I joked.
'It sure can't be that bad' he said.
'No but almost'
'Don't you have any classes tomorrow? You should sleep now' he said.
'I should be studying, but I'm already starting to fall asleep'
'Then sleep'
'I'm going to'
'Good night then' he said
'Good night' I replied to him.
'Oh and don't forget we're meeting up with everybody tomorrow' he reminded me.
'I definitely won't forget that' I typed and then I put away my phone.
I was really looking forward to meeting them all tomorrow. I hadn't met any of them since my visit at the hospital, and I really missed them. It had only been a little over a month, but after what we'd been trough together, a month was a long time away from each other.
I didn't have any trouble sleeping though. I fell asleep right away and soon it was morning.
I was living in the university's dorm again but my two roommates were both already out. They had an early class this morning. And I was happy I didn't because I needed the sleep.
When I was getting dressed I was at first just picking a pair of jeans and a hoodie, then I remembered I was meeting Felix today. And the others of course... but I could still wear jeans and hoodie, why did I suddenly feel like I couldn't? I stuck to jeans and hoodie because I don't give a fuck, then left the room. Walking down the stairs to the entrance I was still sleepy and as I got out I didn't even realize I went straight into someone.
"Oh sorry, didn't see you" I said as I rubbed my eyes and was about to pass by.
Then the boy chuckled and I stopped. I recognized that chuckle.
I turned around and my jaw dropped. "Felix" I said with bright eyes as I looked at the boy.
"I was just passing by, so I thought I could come by and say hello" he said.
I ran to him, which was like seriously only two steps, but still, and hugged him.
He seemed to didn't know how to react to my hug because he was awkwardly first moving his arms towards my back to hug me back, but before they reached their destination he stopped and then moved them back so he was just holding them out of his body awkwardly.
"Why are you not hugging me back?" I asked him and then he was quick to put his arms around me.
He walked with me towards my class and his hand kept nudging mine, sending sparks through my body. I really wanted to hold his hand, but didn't dare.
"So everyone's coming later today" I said after a moment of silence.
"Yeah, seems like it" he replied.
"We haven't met in so long, it'll be really fun" I said.
"And we won't have to be looking out for life threatening stuff" Felix added with a smile.
"It'll be so nice being able to hang out with my favorite boys and not have to worry about surviving the next hour" I said. I could be jinxing stuff, because of course stuff happens in real life too, but sue me, I'm just happy to be able to meet those boys outside the game.
"But I'm your favorite favorite boy right?" Felix asked and gave me a smirk.
I shrugged. "Mm" I said casually.
Felix stared at me with wide open eyes after that, but didn't say anything.
Then we reached the building where I was having my class. "This is my stop, but I'll see you later" I said.
Felix was waving goodbye and I was about to enter. Then I stopped and turned around, only to run to Felix and give him another hug.
This time he wasn't awkward with hugging me back. "We'll meet soon again, don't worry" he said.
"Bye" I said and gave him a smile before running in.