The boy they used to know

Chapter 5: Chamomile tea

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" Felix cursed as he parked his bike in the garage of his company.

Seriously how unlucky could he possibly be? This had to be a new record for him, and that was definitely saying something.

Not only did his former members follow him from the venue, he was fucking attacked in front of them.

He sent up a silent prayer that his boss wouldn't find out that there were any witnesses.

Especially since those witnesses were his old members whom he was explicitly told to stay away from.

He alerted the boss about the attack on his way here and was heading up to his office for a briefing.

To say he was nervous was an understatement. They had been preparing for this day for years and it was supposed to go perfectly but everything had gone so wrong.

Now he was going to be forced to lie about the events that unfolded tonight and the boss was known for sniffing out liars.

He took a deep breath and stepped into the office on the top floor of the building. He didn't dare look up until he was standing in front of the boss's desk after giving a deep bow.

"I want to know exactly what happened." his boss said immediately, staring Felix down with a disapproving look.

"I brought you some tea," Felix said with a sheepish smile, offered up the tin from his backpack. "It's chamomile. For your insomnia."

The man sighed before grabbing it from Felix's outstretched hand and taking a sip, scrunching up his face at the taste.

He glanced over Felix's right arm with a raised brow. Felix shifted it slightly behind his back but couldn't do anything about the blood dripping onto the pristine floor.

He gave a detailed summary of everything that happened tonight, from everyone he talked to at the event, to descriptions of each of the men who had targeted him along with their license plate numbers.

After finishing his brief, Felix waited for the man's response but he was silent as if waiting to hear more of the story, giving a pointed look at Felix's arm still dripping.

He knows... Felix thought to himself, starting to panic and admittedly getting a little dizzy from his open wound.

"If that is all, you are dismissed." the man said with an apathetic wave of his hand, though his eyes of steel were now trained on Felix's face.

Felix, although wary of the man's reaction, took his dismissal immediately, giving another deep bow before hurrying for the door.

"Oh Felix," the boss added just before he reached the door, "It's so rare that you get injured on the job..."

Felix held his breath waiting for him to ask about it.

"Have J show you to medical. You've probably forgotten where it is and you might be in need of it again soon." He finished, already turning back to the paperwork on his desk.

Felix exited without a word in response, trying to stifle the shaking in his hands. He couldn't tell if it was from blood loss or the subtle threat of the man who held his future in his hands.

—

The car ride back to the boys' dorm had been silent, except for the muffled tears coming from a few of the members.

As soon as someone dared to speak about it, they were promptly silenced by Chan until they had made their way inside.

"Chan you still have Felix's number right?" Changbin asked. "Try to call him."

"I mean I have his old number but we've tried many times to contact him and-"

"Just do it!" Hyunjin said with bleary eyes. "He took a bullet for us earlier, we have to make sure he's okay."

Chan searched through his contacts before finding him, still listed as "Aussie bro" with a dumb picture of them both from a Korean bbq place. He didn't let himself feel the hurt before dialing and putting it on speaker.

It went straight to an automated message, once again telling them that the number was not in service or had been disconnected.

"It was worth a shot." Seungmin said, placing his hand on Hyunjin's knee.

"What the hell happened to him." Lee Know said, staring down at the carpet where he was picking at the threads absentmindedly.

"He killed all of those people like it was nothing." Jeongin added with a weak voice.

"He must have some kind of experience or he would've been dead. What he did goes way beyond his taekwondo skills." Changbin added.

Chan sighed, "Listen I don't know what Felix has gotten himself into, but since we have no way of finding or contacting him, we need to focus on the next time we see him.

"He was at the awards show today and is supposed to make his debut soon so there's no doubt in my mind we will see him again. This time we'll be prepared."