ˏˋ°•*⁀ ➷ 𝗖𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡
─◌✰್ 𝗌𝖺𝗇𝖽
𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱（𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻）/𝘀𝗮𝗻𝗱/
❝𝖺 𝗅𝗈𝗈𝗌𝖾 𝗀𝗋𝖺𝗇𝗎𝗅𝖺𝗋 𝗌𝗎𝖻𝗌𝗍𝖺𝗇𝖼𝖾， 𝗍𝗒𝗉𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗅𝗅𝗒 𝗉𝖺𝗅𝖾 𝗒𝖾𝗅𝗅𝗈𝗐𝗂𝗌𝗁 𝖻𝗋𝗈𝗐𝗇， 𝗋𝖾𝗌𝗎𝗅𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖿𝗋𝗈𝗆 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝖾𝗋𝗈𝗌𝗂𝗈𝗇 𝗈𝖿 𝗌𝗂𝗅𝗂𝖼𝖾𝗈𝗎𝗌 𝖺𝗇𝖽 𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝗋𝗈𝖼𝗄𝗌．❞

Felix sat at his desk once more, clutching his head in his hands. He wasn't making any more progress than he was earlier, and now his inability to write was accompanied by a blazing headache. Great.

Maybe karma is real after all. He thought to himself bitterly. It couldn't be mere coincidence that only an hour after you left, he was cursed with his first real headache in years.

Not that he didn't deserve it, of course. Watching you storm out of the house looking so stunning he nearly choked on his own saliva (you'd been having that affect on him a lot recently) must have been the universe playing a cruel joke on him. He'd been trying to do the right thing, hadn't he? It wasn't his fault that you had gotten your feelings hurt.

Judging by the twisting in his stomach and the searing pain in his head, he couldn't even lie to himself.

He should apologize to you. Tell you that he didn't mean any of the words he said, and he was sorry for being a douchebag. That he felt guilty for how he felt, and wanted to convince Hyunjin - and himself in return - that he had no feelings for you.

Just the thought soothed the pounding in his head a bit.

But what were his feelings for you? He wasn't sure. Nor was he sure he wanted to figure it out. He'd lived his entire life seeing you as Hyunjin's crazy, weird little sister. You had always been sort of a burden on Felix and got in the way of his fun. Even though he was less than a year older than you, he'd never once thought of you as more than that.

But when you'd gone off to college, he hadn't seen you for years. In fact, even in high school you never came by his house, and when Felix had come over to your place, you were always out with one of your many groups of friends. When he thought about it, he really hadn't seen you properly since middle school.

And oh how you'd changed. You were much more confident, standing up to him and Hyunjin. Forging your own career path and apparently making a name for yourself. He'd seen your name in the news last year, going viral for your tasteful, modern designs of the popular music group, TXT's, new penthouse. Felix had to admit that he'd been proud. Proud to have known you, spent time with you, even for just a few years.

And yet, in a way, you were still that young girl. The girl that drove him crazy. The one that was afraid of heights, the control freak. The stubborn, rebellious girl who both admired her older brother, and wanted to do anything and everything he forbade her to do. The girl who Felix truly cared about.

Maybe his feelings ran deeper than he thought.

You've barely spoken to her the entire trip. He reminded himself. You don't know that she feels the same way. What if she just sees you as another older brother?

The thought alone brought a lump to rise in his throat. He tried to swallow it away, but it stuck.

It was true. Over the past day (had it really only been one day??), the two of you had barely talked. Yes, he'd held your hand when you were freaking out on the plane. Sure, he'd just saved your life, because you'd been reckless, as always. But outside of a few chance circumstances, had you two really connected at all over this trip? You probably connected more with Minho than with him.

Felix froze at the thought. At every turn, you'd chosen to spend time with Minho, not him. You'd paired up with Minho on the beach earlier, and you spent your time talking with him afterward. Even at the airport, you sat with Minho, and joked with him as you boarded. And what had Felix done? Just watched from afar, feeling inexplicably angry, as Minho made you laugh and smile. Felix wanted to be the one to make you do those things.

Maybe Felix's feelings were unrequited. Maybe you liked Minho. Maybe you saw Felix as an extension of Hyunjin, and he'd only made it worse by agreeing with Hyunjin instead of taking your side. It was a lost cause. The lump in his throat rose even higher, tears tempting to spring from his eyes. He tried to push them back down.

Before Felix could try to force himself to keep working despite those tears begging to escape, Changbin, followed by the rest of the guys, burst into his room.

"What's up?" Felix asked, quickly stashing the half-written lyrics under a potted plant sitting on his desk. So much for getting anything done tonight.

"We're all done with Mario Kart," Changbin said with a grin. "I actually won the last game! That means I'm the biggest winner, right?"

Felix raised an eyebrow. "Uhh, is that what the guys told you?"

From behind Changbin's back, Chan nodded vigorously.

Felix reached out and patted Changbin's shoulder. "Yeah, you were clearly the winner."

Changbin pumped his fist. "That means I'm definitely ready to see Lanhua tonight!"

"Because women really care about how many wins you've had at Mario Kart," Seungmin agreed dryly. Chan shot Seungmin a warning glare, but Seungmin just stuck out his tongue.

"We need to get ready!" Han persisted, tapping his feet on the carpeted floor impatiently. "It's getting late! What if all the pretty girls are already spoken for by the time we get there?"

Minho rolled his eyes. After his bath, he'd gone downstairs to watch the chaos unfold, and clearly hadn't been disappointed. He already looked tired.

"There's tons of beautiful women on Jeju," Minho responded.

"I agree with Han," Chan agreed. "We should probably get ready to go. The girls have already been at the club for at least an hour. Someone might have already asked them- I mean, they might want to see us."

Felix, along with the rest of the guys, turned confused faces on Chan, who didn't meet any of their eyes. Maybe it wasn't just Felix who was pining after a special girl tonight.

"Okay, okay we'll get ready," Seungmin sighed. "But you guys better not take forever to get dressed. Some of us don't have anyone specific to impress tonight, and we just want to go have fun."

"Agreed," Hyunjin said. "Now get out of our room!"

Hyunjin dramatically pushed the other guys out the door, leaving only him, Minho and Felix.

"Fifteen minutes, and we're leaving!" Changbin called from the hall. "I don't want to be late!"

"More like he doesn't want Lanhua to leave without him," Hyunjin commented, and Minho chuckled.

Felix sat quietly, already deep in thought.

Minho studied him carefully. "Yongbok?" He used Felix's Korean name, as he often did as a term of endearment.

"Huh?" Felix looked up into his friend's concerned face. "Oh, it's nothing, I'm good," he added before Minho could ask.

Hyunjin and Minho shared a look before grabbing some clothes from their suitcases.

"I call the bathroom," Minho announced before disappearing inside to change.

Felix opened his mouth to say he'd change in the closet, since Hyunjin was taller than him and had already complained about the lack of space earlier that night.

But Hyunjin beat him to it, saying, "You can change out here today, Lix. Least I can do, since you saved Laska and all," he nudged Felix before disappearing into the walk-in closet.

Felix stared at the closet door for a few seconds before sighing and grabbing his clothes. He wasn't entirely sure what to wear to a club, but ended up picking a white linen button-down with black jeans.

As he changed, he finally made a decision. A decision about what he wanted to do tonight, a decision about the feelings he had for you.

A few minutes after Felix, Hyunjin and Minho had finished getting ready, Changbin appeared at the bedroom door again.

"You guys ready to leave?" He asked, glancing at the three of them.

Hyunjin shrugged and nodded, looking at the other two for confirmation. Minho stood up in agreement as Hyunjin followed an excited Changbin out of the room.

As Minho was about to follow his friend, Felix paused, doubt coursing through him. Was this a good idea? This could ruin a lot of things, including a friendship.

But before he could overthink and ask himself why he was about to do this, he called out,

"Hey Minho, can I talk to you?"

Minho turned around and nodded. "What's up, Yongbok?" He stood a few feet in front of the doorway.

Felix swallowed, his throat all of a sudden dry, as if he had just swallowed a handful of sand.

"Ah, I just wanted to know," he stalled, unsure of exactly how to voice his thoughts. "Have you been enjoying vacation so far?"

Minho raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, it's been pretty good," he said slowly.

"That's good, really good," Felix nodded vigorously.

Minho sighed. "What's this about, Lix? If this is you telling me you don't want to go to the club..."

"A-and I see that you've been spending a lot of time with Alaska," Felix added, the words tumbling from his mouth before he could retract them.

"Ohh," Minho tried and failed to hide an understanding smile. "I see."

Felix didn't get what Minho thought he might be understanding.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He demanded. "It's not like I mind or anything, I'm just curious!"

"Right," Minho nodded his head, eyes full of amusement. "So you ready to go?"

"I really don't mind if you don't tell me," Felix added hurriedly. "Ya know, I don't have the right to know or anything."

"True," Minho agreed. Then, he walked out the door.

Felix stared after his friend, his heart thudding. What should he do? It wasn't like he particularly cared about Minho's feelings for Hyunjin's little sister. They'd all known you forever. You weren't anyone new.

Even at the thought, Felix felt his stomach flip. It was that sensation that forced him to follow Minho out the door and down the stairs.

Minho was putting his shoes on by the front door, seemingly nonplussed by their conversation moments before.

Before Felix could stop himself, the thought that had been festering in his mind for the entire day burst out.

"Do you like Alaska?"

Minho stopped, one shoe tied and the other half-way on his foot.

"I knew there was something else you wanted to say," he said with a smirk that made Felix want to stomp on his sock-clad toes. They had little Persian cats on them, which for some reason made Felix even angrier.

He glared, not saying anything.

"Why do you care so much if I do?" Minho crossed his arms and taking his foot out of the shoe he had half on his foot.

Felix shrugged. "I don't, I already told you."

Minho sighed. "Whatever. I thought you were one of the more self-aware guys in our group."

"What does that mean?" Felix exclaimed, angering again.

Minho raised his hands in surrender. "I'm not saying anything, Lix. I've just never seen you care about a girl like this before. Saving her from the ocean like that, taking care of her afterwards and shit. Asking how I feel for her, when you usually just let us guys do our own thing."

"Maybe I'm trying to be more interested in your love lives," Felix insisted, knowing it sounded stupid before the words were even out.

Minho chuckled. "Sure, we'll stick with that. If you really want to know, I do like Alaska. She's funny, smart, and keeps me on my toes. She's a cool girl. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

No. Felix thought, nausea rising in his throat. He immediately tamped down the impulse to throttle the cat sock-clad man standing before him.

Let it go, Felix.

Inwardly taking a deep breath, Felix said, "If you like her, why don't you ask her to dance tonight?"

"I dunno, I assume someone else will want to dance with her more," Minho shrugged. "She's probably a hot commodity, I'll find someone else."

Despite Minho's words making Felix's stomach churn in indignation, he replied, "I think she likes you. She might have waited for you."

Minho frowned. "You think so?"

"I guess we should go and see," Felix said. "But I think- I know you'd make her really happy."

"And you don't think... anyone else will want to dance with her?" Minho said in a pointed tone that made Felix blush.

"No," he said firmly. "She's all yours."

But as the two of them arrived at the club to find their friends dancing in the grass Felix saw you. You were sitting alone, and based off the way your face glowed bright red, he knew you were drunk off your mind.

But he didn't mind. No matter how crazy you looked, all he cared about was being there for you. All he wanted to do was to wrap his arms around you and sway with you in his arms all night.

But he couldn't. He'd made the decision to give you over to Minho, his own feelings be damned.

But as Minho walked over and offered his hand to you, Felix knew he had made the wrong one.

laska's note —
soo that sort of answers the question about where lix and minho have been! i know i keep leaving y'all on cliffhangers, and this chapter didn't have a lot of the other guys in it but omg it's so dramatic! what do you think felix will do now? how are laska and minho feeling about all this?? leave your thoughts and opinions in the comments because i LOVE reading them. ilysm! the next chapter is the final bar chapter, so get ready!

question of the day —
predictions for skz's new comeback 5-star???

my answer —
apparently there's going to be lots of different genres on this album so i'm expecting songs that sound different from one another but somehow fit really well 🤭

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