The Mess We've Made | Minsung

chapter twenty-three

"You said to meet you here. What's up?" I asked Felix, looking up from my phone.

"Turn your phone off completely," Felix said to me.

"What? Why?"

"Minho's crazy smart, he's probably figured out some creepy way to put a microphone in your phone or something."

"Is this about him?" I huffed. "I'm not trying to get into any shit with him right now, I want things to go smoothly with Veronica's situation."

"You know I'm not trying to start anything with you guys," Felix rolled his eyes, sitting down on the grass. I sat down across from him and he continued, "We tell each other everything, right?"

"Well, of course."

Here we go.

"I've been playing it cool with him as you know. I don't think he knows we're onto him, I play dumb. We hung out last night and I accidentally left my phone unlocked around him, right? I come back and my phone is in the same place on the same tab so I'm not suspicious at first but then I go to switch apps and I notice that he has a tab open of our text messages. He wasn't slick at all," Felix laughed.

"Fucking dumbass," I mumbled to myself with a chuckle. "As if he thought he was gonna get away with that."

"I don't know why he's so suspicious of me, I'm not a threat to him," Felix said, shrugging his shoulders.

"He doesn't understand that I can have a platonic soulmate as well as what he and I have. I've called him my soulmate before but there's no word in any language I know that can describe the connection that we have," I rambled to him. "I don't care how it sounds but I truly believe that him and I were born to be together."

"That was corny but it was cute," Felix chuckled.

"I'm dead serious too. It's like him and I were meant to find each other," I said. "He's also fucking crazy. I keep him in check."

"I like how you've said in the past that you're not his keeper but you sure act like it."

"It's not like that," I rolled my eyes. "Minho deals with a lot of mental health problems. I take care of him because he's fragile. It's not my responsibility, of course. I just want to. He's do the same for me if I were in his shoes. I don't need assistance nearly as much as he does but when I do need it, he's always there. As much as I do think him and I should go to therapy because we're way too attached to each other, I'm not scared to admit that I need him and that he needs me too. I don't know what I'd do without him."

"I know you mean it, I like that cheesy shit too. He's still nuts."

"Oh, for sure," I said. "What all has he been saying to you lately? You said he was asking you weird questions but you only mentioned a few if I recall correctly. Go more in depth on that, now you've got me curious."

"He likes to rephrase the same questions in different ways to see if he can catch you or I in a lie. He asks the wrong questions. He's naive. He talks too much. This past week, though? He's been asking about your exes."

"And he told me he didn't want to hear about my exes, wow," I scoffed softly. "I can't believe I fell for that. What did you say to him?"

"Not shit. I kept it vague."

"Good," I chuckled. "Do you know how embarrassing it'd be for me to have to admit to him that I've never had a long-term partner? He's my longest relationship."

"It's not embarrassing, that's powerful," Felix said. "You didn't need a man and you still don't."

"That-," I paused with a laugh, "That is very true."