22 days | felix lee

XVIII | faith

━━☆⌒*.

FELIX SIGHED, putting his money into the vending machine as a soda popped out. The small sprite rolled into the slot and he grabbed it, not wasting a moment to flick the opening as it hissed in front of him. He didn't feel like spending his lunch period with his friends for today, which they were understanding about.

Jisung was the one that originally texted him to see if he was coming, but he instantly declined and said he'd spend his lunch period wandering the halls. If he got hungry, there were always vending machines. He didn't know why he was so keen on avoiding the lunch table today, maybe it was because Y/n usually wasn't in the cafeteria?

He wasn't exactly sure, but a part of him hoped that he'd run into her in the halls.

Felix kept walking, subconsciously following the path to the library. He swallowed harshly, glancing once at the sign hung above the door before slickly hiding the soda can in his pocket. It's been a while since I read for leisure. . . The boy thought to himself, distracting himself as soon as he walked in with one of the nearby shelves.

He smiled fondly at the sight of Harry Potter but quickly moved onto look at more novels. He glanced at nostalgic manga, flicked through old comic books, and even passed a few textbooks that made him recoil. From afar, he could hear the distant clicks and pencil tapping from students.

Taking a peek, he recognized most of them to be underclassmen that seemed to still be readjusting with the stress of the academy. Felix chuckled lightly, about to go back to stalking the shelves when he paused at the sound of some familiar voices. He blinked wildly, realizing one of them was Y/n's voice while the other was. . . Chan.

Felix let his feet inch him forward as he ducked behind other shelves, brows furrowed as he listened intently. He wasn't the type to eavesdrop or try to blackmail someone, but he was definitely intrigued. Never in his life had he ever seen his hyung interact with the h/c-haired girl, so what was the rush?

It especially didn't help when he took into consideration Chan's sudden b-day request.

Swallowing harshly, he must've been a little too loud with his next step. Y/n took one look at him, her eyes widening as her jaw clenched. She quickly waved at Chan, whispering goodbye to him before scurrying out of the library. Chan followed her previous line of sight, already feeling Felix's need to question him as he chewed on the inside of his cheek.

"Let's talk outside," He ushered his friend into the hallway, the two heading out a separate set of library doors. Felix leaned against a wall, lips pursed shut as he waited for his friend to start talking. Chan seemed to have a different idea, eventually caving into talking first once he heard Felix's incessant foot tapping.

"I noticed you two have been avoiding each other," Chan smoothly switched to English, an Australian accent popping out as he spoke softly. It was a safe thing to speak English about topics like this considering their popularity as well as how most of the academy didn't understand English that well; those that did either went abroad or studied hard.

Chan crossed his arms, leaning on the wall opposite of Felix. "I tried talking to her about it, but she refused. She just. . . she wants to act like you two aren't close. I mean, you are paying her for tutoring so she's all good with that but she doesn't want to be friends." He swallowed, his mouth going dry as soon as he spilled the truth to Felix.

Felix wanted to throw up at that.

He held his arms close to his chest, already feeling nauseous at the thought. The girl that he had pined over, literally scraped his courage for, was pushing him away because of a misunderstanding. One, he wasn't sure he had the balls to deliver the truth. That, and even if he did, would she be okay with him again?

He ran his tongue over his lips, feeling his eyes glaze over with unshed tears as Chan's eyes softened at the sight of his sad figure. "Lix," He mumbled quietly, feeling bad now. He never meant to come between their business like that; maybe he shouldn't have said anything in the first place? Then again, Felix deserved to know. It's not like Y/n was going to tell him.

"She said something about opening up," Chan said, eyes darting up to Felix's face as he shoved his hands into his pockets. "Does that have something to do about it?" Felix had hardly told his friends anything, resorting to summarize it as a 'misunderstanding'. The only one that fully knew was Minho, but that's because he'd questioned him at his most vulnerable.

"No, it doesn't. I don't think so, anyway. I don't know, Chan hyung." His voice was light, nearly cracking as he spoke softly. His words echoed in the hallway briefly and Chan chewed on his bottom lip, casting a glance at his phone as he muttered under his breath. "We have ten minutes until our next class starts."

Felix bit his bottom lip, "I might be late then."

Chan didn't question it. He didn't share any classes with the freckled boy, but he wasn't going to ask any stupid questions either. "You're with Jeongin-ah in your next class, right?" Chan questioned as Felix nodded slowly. He was about to walk away and let the younger boy know so he could cover up for Felix, but he was stopped by the latter.

"Chan hyung?"

"Hm?"

"What would you do if you were in my situation?"

Chan chewed on his lip. "You fought tooth and nail for this girl and letting a misunderstanding end it all. . . it would be all for nothing. None of this is your fault and she's made you so much happier; I've seen it and so have the others. I don't want you to let her go, Felix-ah; promise or no promise. I want you to do this for yourself."

Felix let out a sigh of relief, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Thank you, Chan hyung."