Deep End

Part 10

Changbin headed to his studio, buoyed by the conversation he'd had with Felix at breakfast. He couldn't wait to hear Lixie's new song, after hearing bits and pieces that morning and over the past couple of weeks. He was determined to finish Jinnie's song as quickly as he could. He really wanted to hear Felix's work.

Spending a few hours on Hyunjin's song, he finally felt satisfied with his production. Calling Jinnie, he played it for him over the phone. Hyunjin was thrilled with how the finished product sounded and was full of praises for Changbin's talents.

'You're amazing hyung. I don't know how you managed to make it sound so good!'

'Ahh, it's a great song and you sang it perfectly. It was a piece of cake to put it all together,' he demurred. 'I'll upload a copy to your dropbox and put a copy on a USB for you.'

Changbin hesitated 'Can I ask a favour though? Would you have any objections if I played it to Felix?'

After a beat of silence, Hyunjin asked 'Have you told him about Chan and I?'

'No, I wouldn't say anything unless you were ok with it,' Changbin assured his friend. 'I don't think he would have been ready to hear about it before, anyway. He seems like he's coming out the other side now though. He's so much more like his usual self lately.'

'I don't mind you telling him about us, if you think it would be helpful. And of course you can play him the song.' Hyunjin then giggled 'I mean I'm going to make all my friends listen to it multiple times anyway...'

Changbin thanked his friend and quickly uploaded it to Jinnie's dropbox and copied it over to a spare USB. Opening the studio door, he heard the bathtub being filled, so he headed down to the bathroom, hoping to use the toilet before Felix got into the tub.

As he reached the bathroom, he saw Felix about to enter. Changbin noticed a blank look on his face and red glossy eyes. Changbin's heart sank. Had he been crying again? Felix noticed Changbin walking towards him and quickly hid the box of his blades behind his back. Not quickly enough though.

Changbin frowned, recognising the box. 'Lix? Is that what I think it is?'

A numb Felix answered. 'It's nothing.'

Changbin drew a shaky breath. They'd been through this before. 'Lix, don't lie. I know what you keep in that box. You promised me that you weren't going to do that again. Have you been... cutting again? Give me the box. Now.' Changbin was annoyed, not so much with Felix but himself. He hadn't noticed that Felix had relapsed and wondered how long he'd been doing it again.

Felix dropped his head and stared at the floor. Tears started to drip to the hardwood planks lining the hallway. Wordlessly he held the box out to Changbin, who harshly grabbed it and angrily tossed the box into the living room, far away from the two.

'Aish,' Changbin exclaimed, 'you're going to flood the bathroom with the tub that full too.' He turned off the taps and walked out of the bathroom, noticing Felix hadn't moved at all. He presumed he was feeling guilty about falling back into old habits again.

Looking behind him, Changbin saw Felix's towel hanging in his room and commented that he'd forgotten to take that and his clean clothes with him into the bathroom. Oddly, Felix started sobbing at Changbin's words. The dark-haired boy stared at him with a confused expression. Felix was more upset than he was expecting. It didn't make sense to him. It wasn't like he was going to do something more drastic...

As that thought hit him, his eyes fell on the note on Felix's keyboard. He saw his name and quickly strode into the room, grabbing the note. Opening it and seeing the single word 'sorry', his eyes snapped to Felix. Horror dawned on his face. Felix had indeed intended to do something drastic.