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

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Felix never felt so discouraged in his life but could not resign himself to give up. After Changbin left, he stayed still for a long time before his frozen brain started to work again.

Changbin was angry. He hadn't tried to hide he was holding a grudge against him. Felix didn't understand what suddenly irritated him so much.

He really wanted them to have a good, friendly relationship, but all his attempts to set up things failed miserably. It seemed to get worse every time he tried something. In the end, it would have been better to not do anything at all, he thought.

He knew Changbin was sweet and soft. Yet, his behaviour was still a mystery for him. He was talking as if he expected Felix to know things he was unaware of. Sometimes, he seemed to be nice, some other times hurt, but Felix couldn't understand why he was related to this all. His previous thoughts couldn't be true, could it?

He couldn't be so sharp -borderline insulting- only because of some rivalry. Of course, he was quite touchy and glued to his roommate (according to Hyunjin's saying), but no, it couldn't be... who would imagine such a thing? Nobody, of course, not even Changbin, no matter how eccentric he was.

It didn't match his character and everybody expected him and Chan to be close. All the more so as lately, Felix had been extra-careful to keep his distance a little bit with Chan – just in case. The matter was different, that much he knew.

It must have been a problem of communication, he thought. He tried to think about everything all over again, but nothing made sense.

The language barrier felt stronger than ever. He suddenly wished he studied harder when Seungmin told him to. Maybe it would have helped understand Changbin.

When he walked through the corridor, of course, Changbin was nowhere in sight. Instead, he met Hyunjin at the entrance of the building, right on time they agreed for their study session. Blindly following his friend, they walked to the library and started the assignment.

At first, Felix tried to keep his problem away for a few hours, just enough time to get his work done, but his mind kept wandering on other things: Changbin.

"Stop sighing and let me get this done, please~" Hyunjin gently brought him back on earth.

Felix apologized and sighed once more, making the younger roll his eyes.

"Listen to me, Lix," Hyunjin called firmly, and Felix could only listen attentively after being called hyung for the first time. "Stop thinking too much. Be natural: be happy and lovable, just as you usually are. Stop lying to yourself that you're not crushing on him anymore and woo him, follow your usual habits..."

"Follow my habits?"

"Give him chocolates, flowers, teddy bear or whatever, but don't think too much. Be your usual self."

"I don't do that," Felix pouted at the exaggeration.

"You understood the idea," Hyunjin smiled proudly.

Understanding hit him and he thought about it many times. It might not be a bad idea, after all. Of course, it wasn't as if he wanted to confess or something, he wanted to be understood. To do so, what would be better than letting him enter his little world?

"What if he finds it stupid and hates it?"

"First, it can't be worse than it already is," Hyunjin shrugged and unfortunately Felix had to agree. "And I might or might not have made my own enquiries and heard Changbin is soft-hearted despite his appearance," he paused and beamed at the surprise on his friend's face. "Looks like you have something in common."

His smile grew at the idea. He loved doing something for the ones he cared about. Showing the older he cared about him might be a good idea. He didn't want anything fancy or mushy, he just wanted to show he was sincere. Maybe, Changbin could understand. At least, he hoped he would.

Ten minutes later, Felix had taken a soft blue paper he used to work on his Korean grammar and started to draw little pattern he liked. He let his heart wander and some words ended up mixed in the design. It took him some time, despite the fact that it was really simple.

He looked at the result with the short English message that appeared without him noticing. It was dumb, how did he end up writing that? All it said was "can we forget and be friends?" but Felix felt it was too childish. He scraped the whole sentence and wrote "Would you show me your drawings someday?" right under the first part.

It was stupid, he couldn't give him that. It sounded like a date and they were not even close enough to talk properly. Maybe he should simply invite him to Seungmin's next baseball game, he noted, it was a neutral and easy to enjoy. For a non-confession, it was way too stressful.

"Excuse me," Hyunjin said as he stood in front of him, "Thanks"

Before Felix had time to understand the situation, Hyunjin had already caught the paper in his hand and walk out of the room. When he came back, long minutes later, he plopped on his chair with a smile and hit the table playfully.

"Done," the other boy smiled proudly.

"You didn't?!" Felix asked in horror, understanding what happened.

"I did, Changbin will read that quietly next time he opens his locker. Now let's get back to work. I don't want to hear you whine again for failing ancient literature because you suck at writing Hanja."

"Ah..." Felix whined with his head in his hand as if the world was coming to an end. It probably was. No need to say he focused even less on his work the following hours.

If he didn't manage to work one bit, at least, it gave him the time to plan everything for his next meeting with Changbin. Of course, he knew it wouldn't be easy, but he needed to do it. It had to be perfect.

Next time they meet, Felix would bare his heart and the older would have no choice but explain properly the reasons for his behaviour.