BALANCE || Hyunlix

Chapter 23 - I'm not going anywhere like this

It was already the next morning when Felix and Chan got to the airport back in Korea. Unlike his friend, Felix gritted his teeth and tried to wrap himself in as many layers of clothing as possible. He had never experienced such a temperature shock. But Chan was known for always being warm, so even the Korean weather didn't faze him.

They had agreed to go to Chan's apartment first, since they were supposed to meet the boys there anyway to prepare for tomorrow's New Year's Eve party. They managed to catch a taxi, because they really didn't want to take public transport with their suitcases and set off on their journey.

Felix was reliving the enchantment of Seoul as he watched the passing landscape from the window. It felt like yesterday when he was nervously shaking in the back seat of a similar taxi with absolutely no idea what was in store for him on the exchange program. All he knew was that he'd try his best not to give up.

Now look at him, his Korean is incomparably better, he has a lot of friends around him, and he's not the worst academically either. He was even looking forward to going back to school and practice dancing regularly again.

Chan, on the other hand, had a strange feeling. After all, as always when he had to leave his entire family in Australia. He knew his place was here, yet it was always hard for him to leave them. The sadness slowly drained from his body as they approached their shared home with Changbin and he realized that he'd be just as sad to leave the family he had built here. In addition, this year the said family grew by Seungmin, I.N and Hyunjin with Felix. And he was very happy for that. All those morons are like his kids.

"CHANNIE!!!!" Changbin squealed excitedly as soon as the two walked in the door. He hung his full weight around Chan's neck, dragging him down. Chan tried to resist it for a moment, but his strength gave out and he slammed himself to the ground along with Changbin. Felix started to laugh at this, dropped his suitcases and laid down on top of the two of them to help Changbin torture Chan.

It was good to be back.

***

Hyunjin wasn't feeling well at all. Not only did he think his head was going to snap in half, but he had a physical reminder there that he had gone completely insane. What did he think? That his dark brown hair will turn out the most beautiful shade of blond without professional help? He didn't want to blame Jisung in any way because it wasn't his idea after all, but Hyunjin would've liked it if it was, at least he could vent his anger on someone. But he himself was to blame for this. Did he really have such a mental breakdown just because of Felix's stupid message? When he thought about it like that, it probably wasn't even that deep.

Hyunjin was already sitting in Jisung's father's car and every now and then without saying a word he facepalmed himself because of the shame he felt. He occasionally let out quiet "Oh my God." and "I'm just imagining it." as he remembered how stupid he'd been last night.

Jisung's dad preferred not to comment and rather tried to have conversation with his son. Jisung couldn't wait to get out of the car because from his point of view his dad was just lecturing him and asking him questions, he didn't want to answer.

"Why there was that empty soju bottle in the bathroom?" and "Why does Hyunjin have yellow hair?" and when he finally said, "You should finally start acting like a grown man and focus on your studies." Jisung crossed his arms on his chest in protest.

"That's why I'm going back to school early, dad!" He grunted at him, and the rest of the drive was silent.

Everyone in the car was relieved when they reached the school campus and were able to escape the tense atmosphere. Hyunjin politely thanked Jisung's father for the ride with a slight bow and they said their goodbyes.