Stray Kids POVs (collection)

misunderstanding - Chan (2)

You stand in the middle of your studio, staring at the door, listening to whether Chan has come home or not. You try to talk to him for two weeks now, but even when you have met him, he quickly left again. He hasn't given you a chance to speak with him, not even to ask him for a talk.

You hear some noises from the kitchen and decide to finally explain him about this misunderstanding. You left the room and follow the sounds, finding him indeed in the kitchen. He empties the cupboards, it seems due to the amount of tableware piled up on the kitchen counter.

He shrugs a little when he turns around and sees you standing in the door frame.

"Sorry" You say and walks closer to him. "What are you doing?"

"The boys wanted to come over and cook together." He explains and grab some bowls out of the cupboard.

"Oh, okay." You lean against the counter. "Can we talk for a moment?"

"The others are coming soon so if it's not urgent, then-"

"It is urgent." You interrupt him before you lose your courage. You hold his gaze, when he turns his head around and looks at you surprised about your serious tone.

He is nice enough to put the last bowl down on the counter and turns fully to you, giving you finally the attention that you wanted. "Okay, go on."

You take a deep breath, trying to reduce the nervousness. "I want to explain something about the day we first met. I think I have said something you might had misunderstood."

He raises his eyebrows in a silent question and cross his arms in front of his chest. You try to keep your composure with his now even more reserved attitude.

"Or to be more specific, about my conversation with my parent before I have met you." You see the surprise in his face and know immediately that your assumption was right. So you just keep talking.

"I haven't known you personally before and my parents have never demanded that I do anything as big as getting married for their company before. I felt pressured and stressed, because I wanted to tell them on this day about the study program I wanted to try even though I have known they wouldn't like it. But then they have told me about this agreement and suddenly I had to obey them to prevent the end of the company. It was not fair to judge you and your group before even met you. But I wasn't talking about you in special, just about the expectation to be together with someone famous, who likes to be out and about with people. You may have noticed but I don't leave the apartment very often. I found the idea of marrying someone who was apparently the exact opposite in that respect strange. I didn't mean to offend you or the others and I'm sorry that you have heard some of what I have said. But I think you have misunderstood me and I wanted to clarify it, because I think, we could maybe start-"

Your monologue gets interrupted by the doorbell and Chans gaze wanders a few times between you and the door to the hallway, deciding to open the guys or to keep talking about this.

"We can talk later." You say and try an understanding smile when it rings again. "I have said almost everything I wanted to say. Go and open them up."

You turn around, followed by him, but go in the direction of your studio while he opens the front door. You hear the loud noises when they greet each other and before you can disappear from the living room, Felix catches you.

"Oh, are we finally all cooking together?" He asks after greeting you, his smile as friendly as usually. You eye the faces the others, half of them friendly or curious, the others more neutrally.

"No, I don't think I want to bother you." You avoid them and feel regret because you would actually like to get to know them better.

"You wouldn't." Felix turns around to the others. "It would be fine when we cook all together, right? We could finally get to know each other better, right?"

You feel your heart pounding, when you meet Chans gaze, your monologue still in your head. If he would decline it now, it would feel like a rejection to you, knowing it would be already too late to save this relationship. But then he shrugs his shoulders, the smallest smile on his lips. "Yeah, sure."

You can't stop the relieved, happy smile to approach on your face with his answer, thinking as a success about it. Felix grabs your arm and pulls you back to the kitchen, followed by the others.

The following minutes, Felix is the main part of making everything more relaxed. All of you split up with the tasks and you end up with Changbin and Hyunjin to prepare the vegetables. It is Changbin who explains to you what they wanted to cook – a lot of dishes, but they are still eight grown men.

And it is Felix who blurt out about your studio, which leads to a really interesting, funny conversation with Hyunjin about painting materials, colors and exhibitions. The others slowly start to become more comfortably too, so after a while they chatter together fool around.

You feel relaxed between them, but every time you look at Chan, you meet his gaze and how he eyes you with the others. It leads you to a pounding heartbeat and reddened cheeks with his attention.

And it leads you to be unfocused while cutting some vegetables, so you just realize you have cut in your hand when you feel the sharp pain and see the red on your skin.

You freeze for a moment, feeling the light panic about the cut. Then you gather yourself together and put down the knife, turning around to grab the dishtowel next to the sink and wrap it around your hand.

"Are you alright?" Changbin and Hyunjin pauses to look at you, obviously worried.

"Yes, just a little cut." You calm it down because you don't want to worry them about it.

You are surprised when Chan suddenly steps besides you, grabbing your wrist and slowly unwrap your hand. He leads your hand under water tap and carefully cleans it. You stare up at him, the pain suddenly forgotten with his unexpected closeness and that he is apparently concerned.

He fully concentrates on the little wound and faster than expected, he pulled a big plaster from a drawer and completely treated the wound.

"Thank you." You mumble, finally finding the ability to speak again.

The next weeks something essential between you and Chan changes. It starts with him being more home than usual, starting to ask you about your days and telling you about his. Then he begins to sleep more at home, not in one bed with you, but in the guest room. The mornings are now together, eating breakfast and telling each other about the plans you have for the days. His days are more exciting and you start to like listening to him. He even learns how you drink your coffee and makes you some in the mornings, although he doesn't drink any himself.

After a few weeks, it feels like you two have built a friendship and you like this base of your relationship much more than the one before. He finally seems to like you, and you can't say that you don't like him too. To be honest, you like him a lot, maybe too much at this point of your relationship.

And you ask yourself more often if he thinks of you as a friend or as the same as you think of him.