Nightmare // chanlix

Sixteen

The movie was about thirty minutes in, and it was safe to say, no one was paying attention. Most of the time at least one person was mocking a character or a scene. 

Chan was watching a film about a girl in high school, so it was only natural that a specific question came to mind. 

"What were you guys like in school? You know, before." He queried, not sure if it was an appropriate question to ask. He had figured though, by now, half of his questions weren't. 

"Oh, I was such a loser." Hyunjin laughed, recalling the days. "I was pretty quiet, had a few friends, but kept to myself a lot. I had a horrible haircut because my parents didn't want it long enough to hide my face." The taller said the last sentence as if he had been known to hide behind his hair. 

"Makes sense as to why it's long now." Chan laughed.

"Oh, yeah. The second I left for college I grew it out." Hyunjin nodded. 

"What about you, mister confident?" Chan's head turned to Felix. 

"Oh, I was crazy popular." The blond laughed, earning a protest from Hyunjin. 

"Uh, no you weren't! When you started college you only had like one friend." Hyunjin laughed, earning a scowl from Felix. 

"Well, I'll have you know, back in Australia I had plenty of friends. Plus, I had the excuse of a language barrier." Felix huffed, slumping in his seat. 

"You didn't know Korean before you came here?" Chan asked, amused.

"Not much. I had to study it." Felix shrugged, thinking back to the days he first moved to the country. "My mom was so worried I'd struggle so she packed like three Korean textbooks in my suitcase." 

Chan nodded, noticing how Felix's expression changed when mentioning his mom. He wondered if she knew what happened. 

"My mom packed my case with ramen - she was worried I'd starve." Hyunjin laughed, recalling his shock when he opened his suitcase on the train to multiple flavours of ramen. 

"I remember when I left Australia my mom gave me a pat on the back and said 'don't shame your family'." Chan laughed in the comparison of their experiences. "I left pretty young though, so I don't blame her for being stern."

"How old were you?" Felix asked, curious.

"Fifteen. I moved in with my aunt, I wanted to go to a school for music. I did, for like a year, but then I transferred to a public school. My parents wanted me to get a solid education." Chan said the last part with finger quotes, as if music wasn't a solid education in itself. 

"Ah, it all makes sense now. You're the family disappointment." Felix teased, and Chan kicked him playfully.

"At least I didn't run off to become an idol. God, could you imagine?" Chan laughed, the other two following in suit. 

"I don't think I'd survive being an idol." Felix said, settling into the sofa once more.

He didn't know when, but somehow, during the film, Chan had fallen asleep. He hadn't even realised until he woke up to the sound of sniffling, and a dark room. He let his eyes adjust to the dark, his vision letting him know the sniffles belonged to a blond-haired boy sitting on the other end of the sofa. 

"Felix? You okay?" Chan rasped, reaching for the lamp on the coffee table beside him.

"Yeah, fine." The boy said, quickly wiping his tears before the light flooded the room.

It was too obvious, though; his watery eyes and puffy cheeks gave it away. 

"What happened?" Chan frowned, sitting upright on the sofa.