ONE OF US :: stray kids oneshot ✔︎

𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐔𝐒.

"And after you add the... Felix, are you okay?"

Felix glanced up at Seungmin, who'd paused his textbook reading when he noticed the boy's frantic look. "My pen..."

"The glittery one?" Jisung asked. It was Felix's favorite, and everyone knew that. The pen was something fun Felix allowed himself while studying. "It's not in your pencil case?"

Felix shook his head, dumbfounded.

"I can't find it."

Uh-oh. Chan's eyes slowly scanned the seven faces around him, briefly making eye contact with Minho before his gaze settled back on Felix.

"I can't... where the heck did I put it?"

Seungmin gently placed his book down. "Look, Lix, it's just a pen. We have five more minutes of studying, then we're done for the day. I can buy you a new pen if you want, but later."

"No." Felix shook his head. "No, we have to find my pen."

And so it was decided.

They had to find Felix's pen.

Changbin searched the drawers; Hyunjin stuck his long arms under the cabinets; Seungmin found himself crawling on the desks to search under the ceiling boards; and Jeongin, Minho, and Chan all watched with pity as Jisung tried to calm Felix down.

The pen wasn't there.

It wasn't hiding somewhere in the room...

"One of you took it," Felix spat at them.

Jisung immediately placed reassuring hands on Felix's shoulders. "I'm sure whoever took it will be forgiven if they return it now," he said, pointedly glancing at the six boys gathered behind him. "Right?"

His only answer was Felix's dramatic sniffles. The boy's eyes were dry; he was making a scene. But it was his way of expressing himself. The pen meant something to Felix, because it was the last of its kind. Both hot-pink and glittery, it symbolized all the pens he'd lended out but never had returned to him.

No one came forward, but that did not come as a big shock. Felix, himself, found it hard to believe that one of his best friends had taken his pen. His precious pen. His last pen.

"Yeah."

And, still, no one confessed. Narrowing their eyes at one another, the boys circled their table as they slowly sat back down in their seats.

"So..." Hyunjin began, tapping his index finger against the table. "What now?"

Those words turned it from a silly misunderstanding into something deadly serious. The pen was stolen, and no one else was in the room to take it.

Chan, as the oldest, felt the need to take charge of the situation. Each boy would claim not to have taken it. So would he, obviously. Chan knew that whoever had it would not admit, not now. Not now that it was serious.

Minho folded his hands over the table, lacing his fingers together. His gaze was trained on Jisung and Seungmin, the boys who sat on Felix's left and right side, respectively. Well, Seungmin was around the corner, since it was a square table. But those two would be most likely, in his opinion.

Changbin's line of thinking was similar to Minho's. However, he could not fathom either of the two boys taking something that was so important to their friend. Given that, none of the boys seemed like thieves. But someone had taken it. And that someone still needed to fess up.

Hyunjin just felt really awkward. No one had responded to his question, causing a red, embarrassed blush to creep up his neck and spread over his face. It took everything in Hyunjin not to scream with the tension. He didn't like how conflicted the group was.