𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐍 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐔𝐒𝐓 || skz

CHAPTER 9: MOONLIT FIELDS

"Are you the one behind Jisung's little stunt?" Chan asked as he joined Felix in the middle of the group. He glanced back over his shoulder, towards where Changbin and Jisung were walking. "Changbin has been looking flustered ever since."

"I only said Jisung should talk to him," Felix said, raising both his hands. "I did not tell him to go up and kiss Changbin in the middle of a conversation." He pouted. "I refuse to be accused of this."

"I didn't accuse you," Chan said, affection lacing his tone and a wide smile stretched on Felix's lips. "I was just curious."

"I only told him to talk to Changbin because he decided to be stupid and ask if Changbin disliked him," Felix said, rolling his eyes at the same time as Chan did.

"Am I surprised?" Chan asked, then shaking his head. "Not at all."

"He did go a bit extreme," Felix agreed and Chan laughed. "But I guess it worked out?" he continued with a shrug, looking towards Changbin and Jisung.

They weren't paying much attention to anything around them, as they only had eyes for each other. They weren't holding hands either, but they were walking close enough for their hands to be brushing together.

"I guess it did," Chan mused, suddenly turning serious. Before Felix could ask about it, he continued to speak. "How are you feeling after the training yesterday?"

"Doing okay," Felix replied, brows furrowed by the sudden shift in topic but he didn't mind asking about it. "I'm a bit sore but I think it could be worse. It might get worse." He scrunched his nose. "After all, yesterday was just the first training session and Seungmin said it's only going to get more intense."

"That makes sense I guess," Chan said, his voice strained. There was a short pause. "I'm sorry I didn't help you train."

"What?"

"Seungmin is right. With the threats, it would make sense to train you so you can be better prepared, should either Dongyul or Eunkyung catch up to us," Chan said, averting his eyes to avoid Felix's gaze. "I should have suggested training before. I should have thought about that and I'm sorry that I didn't."

"You don't have to think about everything, Chan," Felix said, reaching out to take Chan's hand. Chan stiffened for a second before relaxing when Felix gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "Anyone could have thought about it, so don't blame yourself for not thinking about it." He sighed and tightened his grasp of Chan's hand. "A lot of things happened very fast. I didn't think about training either."

"You're right," Chan said after a moment.

"It's been a lot," Felix said, looking ahead. "The past weeks have been... a lot."

"Yes," Chan said, chuckling to himself. "They sure have been something."

Felix opened his mouth, about to wonder about the curse but he promptly shut his mouth. He had to remind himself that the curse would be broken at the mansion. There was no use in speculating.

"How much further until we reach Mondum?" Felix asked instead, changing the subject once again. "Do you know?"

"I don't," Chan said, thinking for a moment. "But my guess is that we'll reach it by tonight or tomorrow morning." He paused, eyes fixing on Minho's back. "Minho or Hyunjin should know for sure. They're probably more used to traveling these paths by foot."

"You're right," Felix said, following Chan's line of sight. He looked at Minho's back for a moment before shifting to Hyunjin.

Hyunjin was walking in between Seungmin and Minho, seemingly trying to strike up a conversation but with little response from either. The only one who seemed to be interested in Hyunjin was Jeongin, who was walking beside Minho but he was looking towards Hyunjin every now and then, wide smile on his lips and a twinkle in his eyes. Felix couldn't help the somewhat fond smile that stretched on his lips as he watched Hyunjin trying to explain something with extreme enthusiasm.