CHAEBEOL | minsung

forty-two

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚

Changbin's favourite period had always been lunchtime. 

Not so much because of the food- money might be able to buy quality ingredients, but good staff are hard to find- but more because it was the one hour where he was in his element, unleashed in a crowd of his friends. No rules, no expectations. Lunchtime felt freeing.

Even now, even when things felt strange, it was his favourite period. Today, he was on his own, but for the first time in almost a week, Felix was walking towards him. The look on his face wasn't exactly what Changbin was hoping for, but seeing Felix in a weird mood was better than not seeing him at all. 

"I'm only sitting here because I don't want to rock the boat. Don't worry, I'm not trying to flirt with you." 

Changbin felt his face screw up into a frown before his brain could stop it. "Didn't you get my messages?" 

"I got some of them." Felix had sat down and started to prod with a plastic fork at a tray of food, toying with it. A small mound of rice here, a fortress of veg there. It seemed like he was doing anything to keep his eyes averted from Changbin.

"I've missed you." What else could Changbin have said? When Felix didn't say anything back, he tilted his head. He moved closer, only slightly, shifting his weight so he was angled towards his friend. He spoke again, quieter this time: "Do I have to learn how to kiss boys?"

Felix couldn't stop himself from laughing, and his eyes creased for a split second into a grin before fixing themselves. Still, he glanced at Changbin from under his lashes, terse and critical. A feral cat gauging if the human trying to gain their trust might turn out to be just like every other scumbag they'd met before.

"I can learn to co-exist if you can," was all Felix offered back. 

The sound of huffed air before Changbin answered him. "I don't know why you think I care about you being gay, Lix. You think I don't know that Jisung takes it up the arse?" 

Felix had been building a potato tower, but a stutter of his wrist sent it toppling, a domino effect as it knocked into the vegetable turrets and down the side of the rice hill. "You knew?"

"He's not as good as hiding things as you are." Changbin learned with time that Jisung tried to act mysterious, but still wore everything he ever felt on his face. In the same way, Changbin had learned that Felix seemed open in the same way that an iceberg does. There was something deeper, an anchor that he didn't let others see. 

"Jisung doesn't, by the way." And then, when this made Changbin quirk an eyebrow: "Take it up the arse. He's more of a top." 

Changbin's turn to stutter. "You- a-... Jisung? You- huh?" 

"Mind out of the gutter," Felix tutted. "I haven't, and I wouldn't. But we've talked about that stuff before."

It wasn't ignorance, closer to naivety. Changbin was raised in an environment where being straight was the norm. He'd never met a non-straight person before he turned 14. He didn't disagree with it, he just didn't really get it. Something told him that admitting this to Felix in that moment probably wouldn't work out well. 

"You should've come to the party." Changing the topic seemed the easiest route to take. "Everything kicked off. Did you speak to Hyunjin? I thought Minho was going to kill him. It was pretty violent."

"I think you're underestimating Hyunjin. He'd take a few more chunks out of Minho before giving up." Changbin watched Felix's fork resume its prodding. The plastic tips slid easily through soft potato. "I spoke to him, though, yeah. After the party." The rice put up more of a fight, in that it fell to pieces around Felix's fork even as he tried to build it up higher. "I don't think things are good with him and Minho."