Who cares about Romance anyway?! [ChangLix] (Shortfic/completed)

Struggles of a BabyBoy

Sat in front of the TV, in the middle of their small two-room apartment Felix was clearly brooding. The screen was dark, reflecting the young man's thoughts as he kept watching it with his sad gaze.

"Lix?" his best friend and roommate called as he stepped in the room.

Felix didn't bother answering, knowing he would be found soon enough. The two were close enough to not be bothered by little matters. Indeed, two minutes later, Chan was next to him patting his hair softly.

"What happened?" he asked, not needing more than a single glance to know something was wrong with Felix. "Shouldn't you be happy after spending the whole evening dancing with Minho and Hyunjin?"

Felix sighed and leaned into his brother's touch, letting his head rest on the other's shoulder. He was so disappointed, so hurt. He wasn't angry any more, just... sad, but he was glad to have his best friend with him. Chan was his comfort when he felt down. Chan always understood his feelings before he had to explain anything and never judge him. Why the others couldn't? Was it so complicated to let him in peace? Felix never imagined his soft spot for romance could be such a big deal to make fun of, but apparently, it was.

"I wish the others can understand me as you do," he said sadly and let Chan hug him once again.

Felix and Chan were both Australian, but above all they were friends. They were three years apart yet as close as two friends could be, loving each other as much as it was possible to platonically love someone. They knew each other from their childhood and met again years later. When Felix arrived to study in Korea at barely eighteen, Chan immediately helped him out of consideration for their old friendship and they started living together in the small apartment they still shared. Now, they barely spent a day without each other.

Despite their closeness, though, they were also very different.

Their age difference wasn't much of a problem, even if Chan was nothing but the older brother Felix always dreamed of. He always behaved like one without noticing always caring about his cute dongsaeng, spending a lot of time with him and doing his best to protect him as well.

The main difference between the two was probably their personalities. They could think in harmony and understand each other without saying a word, but they had almost opposite characters regarding their love lives. Chan was pretty normal, in every meaning of the word. He was quite popular but not outstandingly so. He went well with his peers, had a few good friends and dated a few times, like any other people his age.

Felix, on the other hand, was different.

He was queer, for sure, but he accepted it well, just like his close friends did and he didn't think it defined him as a whole. His incredible soft spot for romance, however, was another story.

Felix was an incredibly romantic guy, a 'softie' like his family was calling him. Some of his friends say he was naïve, some other people thought he was kind of an idiot and many girls thought it was cute, but despite all the criticism, Felix liked Romance. He didn't particularly like flowers, pink hearts or lovely chocolates, he wasn't a girl despite having some tendencies to like men more than women.

However, he liked confessions, love letters and other small presents. He also liked beautiful scenery, special dates and all little marks of care lovers had for each other. He couldn't imagine a relationship without it. It felt wrong for him. And beginning a relationship with romanticism always seemed the best start for him. The assurance that two people were meant to be and decided to make things work.

Around him, almost everybody knew his little obsession – it was hard to miss – but few could understand it.

In his family, love hadn't been much present. Of course, his parents loved him and he loved them just like he loved his brother, but that wasn't the type of love he dreamt about. His parents' wedding had been an arranged one and they never showed any sign of their affection toward each other. He never saw his parents particularly happy together even though they never seemed really sad either. They were just living along, used to each other's presence.

However, as he grew up, Felix wished he would have someday the life his parents hadn't had. He wanted love from someone he would care about, no matter if it was a boy or a girl. For him, romanticism was the illustration of the love a couple shared. That was also why he liked it so much. It was an effort made for the person you loved and he liked this idea. Since he was a teenager, he always hoped he would one day experienced it.

One after the other, his relationships hadn't brought him the sparkles he wanted to experience. His girlfriends liked his romanticism at first, but then when they noticed how strong his affection for Romance was, they all end up turning him down. Either thinking it was too much or they felt like it was not manly enough and finally broke up with him. The single boyfriend he had later on, back in high school, told him it was ridiculous. The boy ended up leaving him as well and Felix remained single up to now.

Despite all the criticism, Felix never changed his preferences and just became more convinced that only his true love would understand him. Someone who would understand him as Chan did and make efforts just for him.

He believed it would happen some time in his life, he just did not meet this person yet.

Not that he did not try. Felix was not shy in the matter of love, unlike he was about his skills. Once he was comfortable, he was outgoing, friendly and talkative. He didn't trust people so easily and he needed some time to be sure of his feelings before sharing them with someone and he expected the same from everybody else.

He liked to charm people, but it was never more than gentle flirting when he did. He despised the people who played with others' feelings. For him, there was a real distinction between both and this applied for both love and friendship.

Despite what some people thought, Felix wasn't naïve or innocent. Chan used to say he was just idealistic, his heart too pure for most of the people to understand.

Felix's romanticism started way before he was old enough to date, but even after he turned twenty, he was still true to himself and his conviction did not fade away. Many people around him knew about that, but the reactions were quite different from what Felix would have liked them to be.