Stay ~ A Stray Kids Fanfic

Chan

Chan's POV
Ten minutes earlier

     "God, they're so cute," Felix says with a smile so warm I feel my insides melt. I nod in agreement, following him down the tight spiral of stairs until we were a safe distance.

     At the dining table, Felix's mom sits with her head over a mess of papers with nothing but her propped up elbow to support her. She looks up at the sound of us. A weak smile appears where a frown once was.

     "Hey, boys. Any sign of Seungmin, yet?" Her arms go up in a stretch as Felix leads me into the kitchen.

     "Not yet," is all he says. In the kitchen, he looks over the set up plates, name tags, and plastic wine glasses with a bottle of juice beside it all. We had set it all up beforehand. When Seungmin shows up, we'll all show him the cake, sing, then go to the kitchen to eat.

     Seeing Felix inspect our work was like seeing the sun see another day. He was beautiful even without trying. And those locks of golden hair framing his face so well he looked unreal.

     'Damn, I could look at him all day.'

     "Come on, Chris." I'm suddenly being taken by my hand and dragged to the screen door that lead out to the deck. "Let's go outside for a bit." His voice is ecstatic, I'm giddy just looking at him.

     "Don't rip his arm out of his socket now, Felix," his mom scolds from the kitchen. I can hear her smile as it's said it English, but we're gone before I could reassure her otherwise.

     His backyard isn't much bigger than mine, but that doesn't matter as he takes me down the deck, across the yard, and to a little seated area with chairs and a fire pit. The air is cold, but I can't seem to shiver when he's this excited and jumpy.

     "Close your eyes." I do as he says. I feel my heart pounding as I wait. He walks away a few feet, the rustling of grass being a dead giveaway.

     I find myself unable to stand still. Whatever surprise he has in store, I already know it'll be the best thing I'll ever receive. Anything from Lee Felix would warm my heart instantly. He's contagious that way. It's almost annoying.

Within a few more seconds, I hear him hurrying his way back. My vision is restored at the feeling of his hands placing a slim, rectangular object in them.

"It's a CD," he says just as I realize what it is. The clear case is covered in little stickers, all of them random and containing no particular theme. On the back was a torn piece of notebook paper with time stamps labeled with different titles.

"Is it a playlist?" I ask, turning it around and finally opening it.

"No, it's a movie." He all of a sudden goes shy as he clasps his hands behind his back. "Like how you always film us with that camcorder. I thought to give you what I've caught the past two months."

     The disk itself wasn't anything flashy. He added little star stickers from the dollar store and what looked like the attempt to draw a dog. It was all done to his creative limit, not a single part of it being that of artificial structure. It was unique...something that could never be repeated. And it was mine.

     The blob creature gets me to laugh. "What's with the dog?"

     His cheeks flush pink. A ember ignites a wildfire in my heart as I, too, feel my cheeks heat up. "It was supposed to be a wolf. It reminds me of you because you're like our leader." A beat passes and his face reads something more serious. "I read somewhere that the leader of a wolf pack doesn't lead in the front, but instead from the back. It's to make sure none of us are left behind, to push us and protect us when we're at our most vulnerable.