COLD ᝰ.ᐟ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐋𝐈𝐗

[ 12 ]

Chan rolled his eyes at the comment. Such words didn't fool him. But from the look in Seungmin's eye, it slowly dawned on him that maybe he wasn't kidding.

Chan really couldn't leave.

After all, Chan had messed up a business deal with another gang, and for all Felix knew, they might've taken it as an attack on their privacy. Thinking their security was compromised, Chan had now become a potential target, and that put him at risk.

Learning this, Chan's mouth fell open in disbelief, looking from Seungmin to Felix, who had now entered the room with wide eyes. Not only had he ended up in Korea with no money, got kidnapped and found his long-time MIA boyfriend, he was now on a gang's hit list.

"You're joking. There's no way. How'd they even see me?" Chan denied it with a nervous laugh.

Both Felix and Seungmin nodded with grim expressions.

"I'm afraid so." Felix looked at the older with sympathy. "They had access to cams in the area as well, they saw you snooping around."

"What am I supposed to do?!" Chan started to panic.

Though his rather lonesome life, he had much responsibility awaiting him in Australia. He had work, a hospital full of terminally ill people he had drawn quite close to over his years of employment, them no doubt also having a reliance on him.

He also hadn't contacted Yeji in a while, and she would be worried sick about him. She was always somewhat pessimistic, always looking towards the worst-case scenario.

Felix couldn't help but feel sorry, it was written all over his face. Chan had innocently come to Korea to look for him, only to find Felix shoulder-deep in illegal activity and accidentally get involved as well. He took a seat next to Chan on the bed, trying to offer some form of comfort.

"I don't know, maybe you can just stay here," Felix placed an arm around his shoulders.

Even with all the concentrated thinking he'd spent weighing up potential solutions, one still hadn't become clear.

"But-" Chan laid his head in his hands, struggling to collect his thoughts. "I have work, meaningful work. I really can't just up and leave."

"Well, it's not like you can drag Felix back, dude," Seungmin jumped in, not helping the situation one bit.

Felix gave him a dark look, as if to say 'shut up,' before quickly turning back to the issue at hand.

Chan still hadn't lifted his head, instead soft cries of anguish and stress could be heard. He was overwhelmed, to say the least. Not only had the jet lag caught up on him, but so had literally everything else.

"We'll clean it up, Chan. We can donate some money to the hospice and I can move your things over here."

At this point, it was the only thing he could think up.

"I don't know," responded Chan, words slightly quelled from having his head down.

Felix placed a palm on his back, rubbing in circular motions, attempting to calm and soothe.

The room was quiet, but for Chan's indistinct murmurs and sobs. Seungmin soon got sick of the silence. It was doing his head in, so he broke it.

"Just try it! Do you not realise that both you and the rest of us are under threat?" the two-tone haired boy said loudly, a hint of bitterness in his words, making him sound pissed. "You waltzed in, scared the dealers away, and now we don't have what they were supposed to give us."

Seungmin's words only made Chan feel worse, Felix sensing this told him to get out of the room. Seungmin rolled his eyes and groaned, this was something he brought upon himself, but the irritation he felt towards this new person didn't disperse. Rather than just leaving like he was told, he chose to linger outside the door. Ears perked up as he strained his hearing to listen to the conversation he no longer had a part in.

Clueless, Felix continued to chat with the older in a calming manner. "Chan, for your own safety, it really is best if you don't leave."

Chan nodded and looked at the younger with willful eyes.

"I know, just let me spend some time here first before I make any decisions like that?" he raised his eyebrows at Felix, to which he replied, "That sounds fair, okay."

Seungmin was beginning to get bored and was about to leave when he heard something that made him stay. And text the others.

"Felix, I was wondering..." Chan could feel more words on the tip of his tongue, but something hindered them from coming out.

Now he was doing the same thing Felix did him. A sentence left dangling. Felix watched the older with a warm expression, his cold composure long gone, the guilt finally surpassing any desire to remain distant and cruel towards Chan.

"Do you still see me the way you did before you left? Are we still together?"

Together? But they had been distanced for so long. How and why would Chan still see me as his boyfriend? Felix thought. Feelings of guilt, shame and remorse resurfacing as it plagued him yet again, that what he'd done should and would not ever be worthy of forgiveness.

"Chan, I think you should decide that," he responded in a small voice, you could hear it. How he blamed himself so severely.

The said man pondered the statement. Chan knew he still had feelings for Felix, but was it one-sided, had Felix's feelings diminished over the time they were not in each other's arms?

"I want to be with you. That's why I fought to get my ass over here. But, if we get back together, as such, we just gotta work on some things. We were apart for a long time."

Chan awaited the ginger's response, silently praying that he felt the same way.

"Okay."

The word came almost immediately, Chan was surprised but happy.

"We never really 'broke up', ya know?" Felix made apostrophe symbols in the air with his fingers.

It drew a light chuckle from the latter. "No, I guess not."

Just as Chan was about to offer Felix a hug, he drew back, placing a finger against his lips. A universal sign for be quiet. Chan stopped moving altogether, wondering what the problem was.

"Oi! What are you doing, asshats?!" Felix shouted, eyes squinting at the door.

Almost simultaneously, three heads popped out from the side of the door frame. Jisung, Hyunjin and Seungmin. "Hyung-nim has a boyfriend!" they screamed.