This contains spoilers for 'the summer I turned pretty'
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"Okay, I need to know more about this scare," Minho said.
Everything was cleaned up and it was only the adults around Juni, Viola, and Minjun were in the next room playing on the switch.
"There isn't much to say. It happened with a guy I had been seeing off and on. Yeji and Chan only found out because they were teaching a class together and I had been very nervous and accidentally let it slip. Changbin knows because he saw me buy the test, Liv knows because I told her, Rach knows because Changbin told her. Jeongin, Jisung, and Seungmin know because they are my friends and they were there just in case," Felix said.
"Wait, I have a question, isn't Jisung ask old as Felix?" Declan asked.
"I am older by a day, but yes," Jisung said.
"So the age difference between you and Minho would be about ten years and you guys got married whenever Jisung was 20 or so, meaning Minho was already in his 30s, the difference in age is a little big, no?"
Minho and Jisung looked down at the ground. They had heard similar things before, but this was a little more than that.
"Declan, no. Just no," Felix said.
"Look I'm just saying, because out of everyone here they have a big age difference," he said.
"Not necessarily, I'm dating someone a year younger than you and Felix," Yeji said.
"See that is a little odd, I mean 24 compared to 32 or 25 compared to 34,"
"Declan, stop, like seriously. I get it your fucking jealous and shit, but don't start talking crap regarding my best friend and my brother and Yeji and her significant other," Felix stated.
"How am I jealous, Lix?" Declan asked.
"Don't start, Dec, because I am still pissed at you for yesterday and this is adding onto it,"
"What happened yesterday?" Jeongin asked.
Felix had come over to Jeongin's place the previous day upset, but he never said why.
"Nothing important," Felix muttered.
"We had an argument," Declan said.
Felix rolled his eyes, "It wouldn't have been an argument if you let it go,"
Declan clicked his tongue, "I'm not the one in love with someone else,"
Almost everyone's eyes widened.
"Low hanging fruit, especially since you knew what I felt before we started," Felix said.
"Okay, but I didn't know it would affect us so much," Declan said.
"From day one, I told you that I had feelings for someone, I told you that it had been affecting my judgement and you still wanted to do this,"
"That doesn't mean I like it,"
"I'm done discussing this here," Felix stated.
"Then let's go somewhere else and discuss it because it is something we need to discuss," Declan said.
"I'm not leaving with you when you're upset,"
"Lix, what does that have to do with anything?"
Felix pursed his lips, "Declan, let's just drop for now,"
The softer tone Felix held made Declan pause for a minute then nodded.
However, it did nothing to ease the uneasiness everyone else was feeling.
♠
It was obvious that in the days approaching the recital Declan and Felix had made up and that Felix had begun to try to distance himself from Hyunjin which was doing next to nothing because of Viola, who sensed the rift.
"Hello?"
"Aunt Yeji, hey!" Viola greeted.
"Vi, what are you doing with your dad's phone?" Yeji asked.
"I'm tired of seeing him be all meh. Can you come over at 7:30?"
"Why?"
"So you can watch me while my dad goes to the recital to see Felix and maybe just maybe tell him how he feels!" Viola explained.
"Vi, we should be messing in his love life,"
"Aunt Yeji, have you ever seen him like this? I've seen photos on him and Julianna. The way he looks at Felix and the way he looked at Julianna is different. It is like the look you have when you look at aunt Ryujin, but maybe just more,"
Yeji took a breath, she knew what look Viola was talking about. The look that both Hyunjin and Felix got whenever they saw each other. One of pure adoration, like for them that was it, they were what each other needed.
"I will be there in an hour, make sure your dad is dressed and ready to go before I come, okay?"
"Okay, see you then!"
Viola hung up the phone and set it down.
"Vi, what are you doing?" Hyunjin asked as he walked into the living room.
"Nothing much, but you need to get ready to go," she said.
"Go? We're not going anywhere,"
"Correction, I'm not, you are. Aunt Yeji is coming to watch me in an hour so you can go to the recital,"
"I'm not going to the recital," he said.
Viola stood up and began to pull Hyunjin towards his bedroom, "Yes, you are, because I cannot and will not watch you be hurt because you long to be with Felix,"
"Vi, hunny, I told you that situation is complicated,"
Viola stopped look through the clothes and looked at her dad.
"It's not. You are making it like that, because you don't to be more hurt than you are if he rejects you, he hasn't rejected you. What he is doing is trying to ignore the fact that he has feelings for you, because he thinks you don't like him because you wanted to set limits.
It's not complicated unless you make it that way. It is like in 'the summer I turned pretty', the situation was only messy because they made it that way. Conrad wouldn't obviously show that he liked Belly. So Belly thought he didn't which led to a thing with Cam Cameron and later on Jeremiah.
Then when Belly and Conrad begun to date it was good until it wasn't. At the end of book 2 they don't end up together. Conrad hurts Belly's feelings and Belly and Jeremiah begin to date. Book 3, Conrad is in Stanford, Jeremiah and Belly are dating, then Jeremiah proposes to Belly and she accepts.
Then Conrad comes back and she tries to deny that she is still in love with him, and he tries to deny that he is in love with her, but they are in love with each other and it is something neither of them can change. Jeremiah realises on their wedding day that there is something between them," Viola stopped talking when she realised how confused Hyunjin looked.
Sighing she clasped her hands in front of her, "What I am trying to say is are you going to be Conrad Fisher who does show Belly Conklin how be feels until the day she is going to get married to another guy?"
"I think, I need to limit your screen time a check all the books you read,"
Viola groaned, "You know what here is a different one, are you going to be Mr. Darcy? Are you going to show up at Felix's home and confess or ask for his hand in marriage like Mr. Darcy did with Elizabeth? Are you going to be upset when he rejects you, like Mr. Darcy was with Elizabeth?"
"Vi," Hyunjin said softly.
"Well are you?" She asked.
