How We Match // Hyunlix

Two

F E L I X

Things settle into an odd truce that Felix is aware might be mostly in his own head, but they're busy like they always are, and work makes things easier to pretend. Pretend everything is normal and Felix is not spiraling in fear of having ruined a friendship. His mind doesn't let him get far enough to reason that nothing actually happened.

Outside of it, nothing much changes. They talk and they joke and they sit in comfortable silence, and Felix is careful about how much he invades Hyunjin's personal space and how much he touches him because that's what he's always done.

Watch himself around Hyunjin. Make sure that he's not being too much.

And then sometimes, Felix catches Hyunjin looking, with a frown on his face, and Felix is sure that this at least is new. Hyunjin studying him.

Like he's doing now, hands on his knees as he's catching his breath just as Minho turns off the music. Rehearsal had been hard but the good kind of hard, the dancing leaving Felix with aches in his body and euphoria singing under his skin. Sweat runs down Hyunjin's face. Felix has said, to him and to Stay, how sexy he thinks Hyunjin looks when he's sweating. He never told anyone that sometimes the urge to put his hands on his face, to thread his fingers through Hyunjin's damp hair, gets so strong he has to force himself to think of something else.

"Good to go?" Minho asks and they both startle, Hyunjin who's staring and Felix who's looking back, and Felix hopes that the blush on his face is hiding under the exhaustion from rehearsal.

Minho claps his hands. "Come on, I'm hungry."

They scramble to get moving, cleaning up and collecting their things. It's the end of the day and they're going home and plan to shower there, so there's nothing left to do other than go up to Chan's room and collect their fellow members.

They walk in silence and Felix brushes his arm against Hyunjin's, and he wonders when that started to feel different, too. Significant.

Jisung is sprawled on the couch when they enter, both feet up in the air ("It helps me think!"), and Chan, in an image Felix has burned into his memory, just because of its familiarity, is hunched over his laptop, the concentration on his face barely breaking despite the newcomers in his space.

"Yes!" Jisung cheers and with one move jumps up and off the couch. "Freedom!"

Chan only grunts and wipes his face with both hands. A sign that he's tired but not yet ready to acknowledge it.

"Where's Changbin-hyung?" Felix asks.

"Bailed," Jisung quips. "Went to the gym to prevent a bloodbath. I swear they would have killed each other over this fucking last line if it wasn't for my sparkling and calming personality."

Minho scoffs and Hyunjin laughs and Felix catches that laugh and feels silly that he's so on edge that he keeps looking at him, maybe to determine his mood, maybe to make sure that they're indeed okay.

"So you've been doing nothing while we were working hard downstairs?" Minho teases, just because he can, and Jisung tilts his head and grins.

"Yeah, I can see how you've been working hard, all sweaty and pretty," Jisung keeps talking and Felix envies him a little for that, for being able to be so flirty. He even comes over and presses a loud kiss on Felix's cheek that makes Felix laugh and maybe blush a little. Hyunjin gets a kiss too, and he giggles and pushes Jisung away without any real heat behind it.

Felix is uneasy watching that too, the freedom of it. He's always been easy with his affection within the group, and the members let him get away with it, some of them are just as touchy. But he's not on Jisung's level. He could never be like that with Minho or Hyunjin.