connected: chanlix

2 - He's Sunshine

The arrival of a new trainee from Sydney is the new talk of the town, as this news always brings excitement. Management has already informed Chan - they wanted him to help the new boy adjust, help him out if he struggles with the language or with fitting in.

Saving the files on his laptop, Christopher sighs as he mentally readies himself to greet his manager and the new boy. He checks his reflection in the mirror, and mindlessly walks through the corridor to take the lift. Chris hasn't made any effort to think of what he'll say to them when he gets there. The unfinished track weighs down at the back of his mind, and an unspoken reluctance to get attached too quickly persuades Chris to not think too much anyway. Experience has shown him that not everyone who walks through the company doors is lucky enough to stay.

Manager Jung appears first. He introduces Bang Chan as the trainee with the most years of experience currently, and tells Felix to greet him first.

“Hi, I'm Felix.” Chris' gaze lands on the boy, bright eyed with a delicate sprinkle of freckles on his face. It reminds Chris of his own less obvious freckles, perhaps signalling that the time Felix spent in the sunny island was way longer than him. Since he left home years prior, and has been cooped up in dance rooms and studios the past few years.

“Hi Felix, my name's Christopher, but you can call me Chris.” Felix's smile makes Chris return one of his own, and it occurs to Chris that this is the first time he's smiled all morning.

Chris shows him around the building, the main offices, and all the practice rooms he would need to know. They chat freely in English all along, and Chris can physically feel his guard dropping as the conversation progresses. He learns more about who Felix is, what dreams he has, and the kind of life he lived back in Australia.

The tour comes to an end at the usual last stop, the infamous JYP cafeteria. Routinely, Chris does what he has done for the past few introductory tours he was tasked to do, show them to the food area, and then leave to grab his own meal. It's lunch hour, and the trainees are already streaming in. Chris knows they'll pick up the new trainee to join them in no time, so he has no worries about eating alone.

Except this time, just as he's about to dig into his seaweed soup, another tray appears in front of him. Felix asks, in the deep Australian voice he has heard all morning, if he can sit there. Chris smiles again. Now he'd lost count of how many times he had smiled today, and nods at Felix.

The young boy definitely looked out of place, a shiny and chunky gold watch adorned on his too thin wrist. He's clumsy when he eats, fumbling his chopsticks with the different side dishes, as though finding the best combination to eat. But Chris knew there was one place he wanted the other boy to be - in his team. And he was going to do whatever it took to make that happen.

That night, when Felix moves his belongings into the dorm, Chris can almost feel that the place has become more homely. There’s Felix, sitting with Han and Jeongin in front of the sofa, watching TV and laughing about something. There are clothes from Australian brands hanging in the closet, gummies and snacks he has never seen being sold anywhere in Korea, and an almost worrying pile of plushies arranged neatly on his bed.

Felix brought a feeling of home to Chris. Not just with his deep Australian accent when he spoke, but also in the aura that surrounded him. Standing beside Felix, it was almost like Chris could see the bright Australian sun reflecting off of the boy, and if he took a whiff, he might have been able to smell the sandy beaches and cool ocean waves on him. Chris thinks it's a bit of a stretch when he even finds himself smelling the scent of his home in Australia on Felix.

And it's not just the familiar scents. It's how those scents make him feel. Like he's at home. Like he's still with his family.