Mirror | Changlix

18. change

They entered the library. Not many people were there in the afternoon.

Felix sneaked around the shelves with history books and almost bumped into someone. The person was holding a tower of books. One could not even see him behind it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see... Felix?"

Felix first heard a strong australian accent which was very familiar and then Chan's surprised face peeked from behind the books.

"Chan?"

"Good thing that you're here. Would you mind helping me with these?" Chan sighed tiredly.

Felix blinked. "Oh, yeah sure." He took half of the pile and helped to carry it to the nearest table.

Chan moved the books and the hem of his sleeves went up a little. Felix noticed the traces of light scars on his wrists and bad memories stung his heart.

Memories of a young boy, pale as a ghost, dark circles under his eyes, wrists bandaged but still smiling through the tears. These memories were brought up from the back of his mind and two times, two places with the same person overlapped together.

Chan noticed his gaze and smiled. He causally rolled up his sleeve and looked at his wrists. "They're much less visible but I guess they'll never disappear completely." He shrugged and let the sleeve fall down again.

Felix blinked, the two images stopped overlapping. The small fragile boy disappeared. Sitting in front of him was now a completely different person.

Tall and proud, healthy and confident. His skin wasn't sickly fair and transparent, but now finally took some color. Dark circles almost disappeared.

Felix realized that this person had little in common with the Chan he knew.

"I see you have a heavy heart. If you want to say something, just say it." Chan glanced at him.

Felix opened his mouth. "...you have changed."

Two weeks ago he saw him for the first time after many years but he wasn't in a place to realize what was actually happening. He didn't pay attention that time but now he fully noticed all the changes.

Chan tilted his head and stared at the clock on the wall. "I changed, did I? You say I did. I actually think so too." He looked at him and smiled. "Felix, you have changed too. You've grown up."

Suddenly Chan furrowed his eyebrows. "There's a dark presence looming over you."

Both Felix's and Hyunjin's soul almost flew out of his body. He felt like Chan saw right through them. Just as he was about to defend himself Chan bursted out laughing.

"Ahahaha, just kidding. You should have seen your face, oh my god. As if you saw a ghost."

Felix smiled awkwardly, but he was still kind of uncomfortable. This joke might have been funny when he wouldn't actually have something to hide.

But seeing Chan doing better and joking around, he relaxed again.

It was good to know that some things never change.