Secrets - Chanlix

Scene 9

Now playing: Applause - Lady Gaga

Opening night was just days away and they finally had the most important rehearsal they had (and the last, for that matter). The dress rehearsal. Every single person working on this musical begged for this to go well (considering the majority of the rehearsals went to shit and this was their last chance to perfect their performance). Changbin and Jisung quickly made up, despite Jisung still not understanding why he was so pissed by his question (he was going to find out soon, though). Hyunjin and Minho had decided to take on the 'boyfriends' label, but still kept the entire thing under wraps and Seungmin's stress may have only increased, but he hadn't had a bad meltdown since the last one. Jeongin and Seungmin had memorised the entire script from start to finish, able to perfectly act out any character if need be. And Chan and Felix? Well Chan had started appearing a little more but still was extremely distant and Felix, who, despite being worried about the elder, focused on his role as their present day Romeo and was prepared to give a perfect performance.

The dress rehearsal would've gone perfectly, that is, if the guy given the role as 'director' had shown up. Chan was missing again and he was kind of needed there that day. This did nothing but confuse and anger Felix (even more, that is) and he, despite Minho and Hyunjin's desperate refusal, went off in search for the elder. An hour before their final and most crucial rehearsal. Their lead was off prancing about the halls of their university in search of the director, barely an hour before the dress rehearsal and leaving everyone else to do nothing but panic. Who decided it'd be smart to leave Minho in charge? The poor guy was so stressed he was yelling shit in Scottish Gaelic at everyone in his near vicinity.

"Chris?" Felix called out, opening the door to Minho and Chan's dorm (he had been given a key to borrow) and looking around. Someone was definitely in there, Felix could sense it. He just silently begged it was who he was looking for.

Chris was in there. He was sat on his bed, staring off into space and lost in his daydreams. Well he wasn't just lost in his daydreams, he was in a daze for a list of reasons but still...

"Chris? Are you in here?" Felix spoke, slowly approaching Chan's bedroom door and pushing it open lightly. Just in case it was a ghost bird or something.

It was in fact, not a ghost bird. Just Christopher Bahng. "Oh, Felix?"

"What are you doing?"

"I... don't know?" He sounded so confused, like he had just woken up from a deep sleep. Or like he was unwell.

"It's the dress rehearsal today, we need you!" Felix exclaimed, assuming Chan had just forgotten judging by the shocked expression on the elder's face. "Are you, okay?"

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine." That was a lie.

"You sure? You aren't hurt? You feel okay?"

"I'm sure, I'm fine." Those were lies.

"Promise you aren't hurt?"

"Promise." A promise broken before you even made it.

"Okay, we've gotta get to the auditorium as quick as we can now!" Felix almost panicked, dashing out the door and Chris quickly re-collecting himself and doing the same. He didn't understand why Felix cared about him, especially after how he had treated the younger. He was gonna admit though, he liked seeing Felix care about him. He didn't deserve it, of course not. After all, he always shoved stupid homophobic comments into all his first conversations with the freckled male just to figure out he's probably gay himself because of said freckled male. One thing he wasn't going to admit though, was that he was actually gay. Denial is river in Egypt, Christopher.... just because you hide doesn't mean it goes away.

"Oh finally!" Jisung cheered, running over to Chan and whispering in his ear, "Minho was on the brink of committing murder."

Chan wanted to laugh but the fear in Jisung's voice and the look in Minho's eyes, made him realise Jisung was being completely serious.

"Well we're here now, aren't we?" Chan spoke, before clapping about 6 times and shocking everyone in the room. "Let's go!"

The dress rehearsal, thankfully, ran smoothly and they were ready for opening night (which was two days away). The songs were perfected and Felix and Yeji's voices perfectly complimented eachother. The script was sharp and the show was ready to go on. Every prop was perfect. Every note was beautiful. Every costume was amazing and their performance was going to be incredible.

Finally, the evening rolled around and the main eight planned on just going back to their dorms (or Hyunjin to Minho's, which at that point was his dorm too) but Changbin decided it was time to let his biggest secret out to them.

"Hey, you guys?" Changbin caught the attention of the seven males, just before they could leave the auditorium. Changbin was still stood by the stage. "Can we wait like five minutes? I need to talk to you, all of you."

"What's up?" Jeongin asked, as they all came walking back over to Changbin.

"Well..." Changbin thought about how to drop this bombshell on his friends. "To start, Jisung. I owe you another apology."

"You do?" The younger questioned.

"Yes. The reason I got so angry at you asking me that question, and the reason why I don't try dating is because..." He hesitated, before just letting it out. "I'm aroace."

The atmosphere barely changed, no-one gasped and nobody walked out. Everyone just looked at him, waiting for more.

Hyunjin caught on that he wasn't gonna say more unprompted. "Like aromantic and asexual?"

"Yeah." Changbin agreed, his hands literally shaking.

"Weren't you like really homophobic though?" Jeongin low-key wanted to punch his boyfriend for saying that (he didn't, of course. Why would he?) He understood that Seungmin didn't realise how rude that sounded and only had genuine intentions, so did the rest of the group.

"I was only acting that way because of Chris, I didn't wanna lose my friends." Changbin blurted, certainly not expecting Chan to gasp slightly and back out of the auditorium. "Great. He hates me." Changbin muttered, after Chan had left.

"No, he doesn't. He's probably finally realising homophobia is wrong." Hyunjin rolled his eyes, before being corrected by Minho.

"He understands that homophobia is wrong, he's just... misunderstood. That's just the way he is."

Someone clicked in Felix's mind, just the way he is. Minho just kept saying that about Chan, it was starting to get unbelievable.

Felix was snapped back to the main focus, however, when Changbin started speaking again.

"You guys aren't mad, are you?" Changbin asked Jisung and Minho.

"Of course not, it explains a lot anyhow." Jisung chuckled.

"No, I'll never be mad about that." Minho replied, Hyunjin gazing at him lovingly from the side. Jisung didn't let that go unnoticed.

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I live for the applause, applause, applause,
I live for the applause-plause, applause-plause,
Live for the-
Way that you cheer and scream for me,
The applause, applause, Applause

SCENE 9