Love Contradiction

16. Grateful

In the practice room. Hyunjin and Seungmin asked for everyone to sit, so they could talk to them.

"Thank you so much for your support in there. It's a beautiful feeling to know and be reminded that we're each other's ride-or-die.  

This Ship Show, though, are we sure about this? I feel like we should talk to our families about this first. This will affect them too, you know?

They all shook their heads, knowing their families fully supported them. "Not a concern," said Han. "Everyone's family is fine."

"Yeah, mine knows I'm gay."

"Mine too," Changlix said.

Felix raised his hand with trepidation on his face. "May I ask something?"

"Sure!" Everyone nodded.

"Can Changbin and I come out, too? I know it's half the team, but..." He looked at Changbin. "Would that be okay, hyung?"

Changbin's face rivaled a ripened tomato. They hadn't had a chance to talk about their relationship yet, much less plan to come out. Day one hadn't even ended yet. Changbin's eyes weren't focused on a specific location and he seemed to be lost in thought.

Felix felt like maybe he had made a mistake by bringing it up before talking to Changbin.

"I'm sorry hyung, we've barely talked about us, and here I am trying to expose us to the world. Forget I said anything. Felix's face dropped with a fake smile that nobody would believe was genuine. "I'm going to get some water. I'll be right back."

As he walked past Changbin, the older grabbed his hand and asked him to wait.

"Hold on, Lixie." He now looked at the group. "Can we? Can all four of us come out?

"We should call it Two Kids Ship Show, and it should be with all combinations, like Two Kids Show, so Stay sees the difference in how we interact with each other. We can do four couples in each episode, fifteen minutes each, so it only takes..." He paused to think. "...seven days of one-hour episodes, and we can do everything during Stay Week in August. Then, we announce our coming out in the Stay birthday live event where Stay try to guess which ship is real, then we reveal the real ships at the end.

We can also do special duet songs with the real ships and release those at the start of Stay Week. Changlix/Hyungmin songs that signify our feelings for each other.

"But we already have Because I love you," Felix said in the sweetest voice possible. "I always sing that thinking about how I feel about you."

Changbin blushed again. He indeed had written that song about how he felt towards Felix, but he didn't know Felix felt the same way at the time.

"We do. We do have that song, but we didn't know we were talking about each other then. We do now, so now we can be open about it."

The members just kept staring at Changlix in complete astonishment. They still couldn't believe they were a couple.

"Are you guys sure you're not doing this just to protect us?"

Felix looked at Hyunjin with an offended expression on his face. "No. I..." he looked down. "This is hard... I actually have been in love with Changbin hyung for years now. I don't know why or how it started, but you know I am always near him."

Changbin's face looked like it was about to explode. He always liked expressing his feelings, but to hear Felix talk about him like that was new, and it made his heart flutter.

"Okay. Prove it. Kiss each other." Seungmin chuckled. Soon, everyone started chanting

"뽀뽀해 뽀뽀해!" (ppoppohae) prompting them to kiss each other.

Changbin stood up. "Absolutely not!" He exploded. "We haven't even had a first date, much less a first kiss. We're not doing that in front of you. That moment should be private and special.

"Yongbok deserves as much." As he said that, he grabbed Felix's hand and kissed it, making the younger blush. "Now back to the show. Do you like the idea or not?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Chan clapped. "Okay! I'll call management right now and explain the changes. Good job everyone, now let's stretch and practice for the comeback."

Chan did as he said, and management liked the idea. Everything was set, and they practiced well into the evening.

Back at their apartment, Seungmin and Hyunjin got ready for bed and went to sleep, thankful they had found each other and their members. "We're so lucky to be in this Stray Kids family. Can you imagine being in any other team? Chan in Got7?" Hyunjin shivered at the thought. "Eight is definitely fate!"