Chapter Text
Felix didn’t expect the “healing period” as he was calling it to turn out like this. After the meeting, the boys were being extra clingy. They have to know one person is with him at all times, and that person is usually sticking by his side, literally. Felix tried to think of why they had this sudden change of attitude, and the ideas that flowed into his head scared him.
Are they trying to see if I will make any trouble? Are they going to stop me from doing any work? Do they not trust me with work anymore? Felix couldn’t help those questions flood his head. He wanted to ask one of them, but he didn’t want to upset them anymore than he thought he already did.
He did ask Chan when the older was around if he could continue looking at the files, but Chan refused Felix’s help. He tried asking Minho next, but the older refused as well. Everyone he asked denied his help in their information dive. He tried to do it secretly, but he was always stopped before he could even boot up a computer or turn on his phone. It was suffocating and annoying, but he felt that whatever hatred they seem to already have for him will only grow if he tried talking to them about it.
The most the others would let him do was watch tv, make brownies, and cuddle. Everything kept throwing him in for a loop. If they didn’t trust him with work and they were mad at him for ignoring them for grief, why would they let him enjoy himself and basically have a free vacation? The most they allowed him to do was recordings and uploading videos, but nothing else.
At the moment, he was with Changbin as they both sat on the couch. Changbin was on his phone doing God-knows-what while Felix was contemplating what to do for the day that won’t make him bored out of his mind. The best thing he could think of was to go on the internet and watch anything, but after 3 days of consistent internet-browsing, that also quickly became boring. He asked the others if he could try video games on the computer, but they didn’t want to take the chance of him secretly doing work, and it annoyed Felix to no end. Jisung was the only one allowed to edit the videos because of that to, but he always came and asked Felix for opinions on anything, which was a small help for the boredom.
About a week passed and Felix could barely hold his annoyance anymore. He asked Chan to have a group meeting, so everyone was gathered up in the living room, facing Felix, waiting to hear what he has to say. He looked at all the boys without holding back the annoyance he was feeling. “It’s been at least 2 weeks since we got news of the human trials. When are we meeting up with these informants?” he asked.
Minho let out a soft sigh. Felix couldn’t tell if it was out of annoyance or because he was tired. “Felix, the meeting won’t be for a while. We’re working our hardest to find anything on our own from what we got but we won’t get the full picture until we meet with them.”
“But won’t that be to late? The human trials could happen at any time!” Felix said, slight desperation in his voice.
“By what we’ve gathered, last time they updated their files, they weren’t that far along in prepping for the trials,” Seungmin said.
“And the more time we have, the more time we have to plan. If we plan this out correctly, we can even stop everything the Sori Gwemul group is doing,” Chan added in. Some of the other boys nodded along in agreement as Felix just stood in front of them.
“So if you want to hopefully finish off the Sori Gwemul people, why won’t you guys let me help in looking for information?” he asked with clear distress.
“Because we don’t want another 6-day hideaway from you,” Jeongin said from next to Hyunjin. The older nodded in agreement, as did everyone else, and Felix just stood there, confused once again.
“It’s just small research,” Felix tried to counter.
“You holed yourself up for 6 days without talking to anyone for 6 days. How is that small research?” Jisung asked with slight desperation.
“I promise I won’t be that into it! I’ll only be in the study room for at most 3 hours a day, okay?” Felix asked with equal desperation.
A silence overcame the room as some of them seemed to contemplate the decision. Chan let out a long sigh before standing up and walking over to Felix. “No more than 3 hours unless given permission by me, okay?” he said.
Felix immediately brightened up and nodded his head as quickly as possible. “I promise,” he said excitedly.
“You’re going to have someone with you any time in the study room,” Chan started. Felix nodded quickly. “And if we catch you in there after 3 hours, no baking privileges for the day following.” Everyone else groaned in protest at that, but Felix quickly nodded his head again. “Anything anyone else wants to add on?”
“No skin ship for the following day as well,” Jisung adds. A couple groans followed that as well, but Felix just silently nodded his head, slower this time.
He looked at all the boys in front of him and felt a small smile grow onto his lips as he watched them berate Jisung over the added punishment. But then his smiled fell, and those thoughts were coming back. They’re just jokingly mad at Jisung. They’re not actually upset with the idea. They really couldn’t care, would they? And they’re just disappointed about not having someone make them food. One less person to provide for them. Felix tried oh so hard to get those thoughts out of his head, but he couldn’t help it.
“Okay, because it’s almost time for everyone to go to bed, this starts tomorrow. Alrighty everyone, get ready for bed, we still have lots of work to do,” Chan said, pulling everyone out of the play fight (more like play assault) and into the action of getting ready for sleep.
Felix headed off to his room, which was completed about the fourth day he was with them, and laid down in his bed, squeezing one of the stuffed animals Seungmin got him. He looked up at the ceiling and after a while of staring, he felt a small tear roll down his cheek and onto the pillow. He quickly wiped it away and stared at his now slightly wet hand. One thought was all it took for the tears to start flowing. He kept it quiet. He knew how to and realizing that just pushed more tears out of his eyes.
Why did he have to learn how to silently cry? Why was he over the moon about 3 hours in a study room. Why was he used to the torment his life has always given him? He wanted his siters back and knowing he might never get their comfort again just increased the water works once again. His tears were now soaking the stuffed animal as he pulled it closer to himself to muffle the whimpers coming out of his mouth.
He got distracted from his self-pity moment when his bracelet lit up the whole room. He quickly discarded any previous thoughts and focus on breathing, his sister’s song playing in his head on instinct. The song not only helped with his breathing pattern but brought a sense of security that allowed him to fall asleep as soon as his heart rate was back to normal.
When he woke up, the discussion from last night made him forget about his small crying party and make him rush out his room. He quickly ate some breakfast and bounced in his seat for the remainder of the time. He could see Chan looking at him with something akin to amusement but ignored him as he urged everyone with his eyes to eat quicker. Jeongin was the first to finish and Felix looked at him with excitement and expectancy.
Jeongin just looked at him with confusion, then at everyone else around the table. Most of them just smirked. Minho let out a small snicker before saying, “I guess he found his first victim.”
Jeongin just looked even more confused until he looked back at Felix, who was now buzzing in his seat with excitement. Realization dawned on him, but he just let out an amused huff of air as he grabbed his dishes and set them in the sink, starting their wait for Changbin to go and clean. Felix was at his heel the whole time, ready to follow him into the study room, but both were stopped when Seungmin called them back to the table.
“I actually have something to tell you guys,” he said, looking almost ashamedly as he addressed the seven other boys at the table. They all waited expectantly for Seungmin to continue, and with a reassuring pat on the back from Changbin, he looked up at everyone and continued. “Once my parents found the video of our introductions, they said they would stop giving any money, which was expected, but they also said they wouldn’t give out where or exactly what we were doing. They basically cut me off and abandoned me, but did it in a way for protection, I guess. Like they “forgot” everything about me for the sake of not leading anyone to us. At least, that was their explanation.” Seungmin stopped his rambling and took a deep breath. “The government threatened to take away everything they own unless they tell them where we are, and either way, they’d be coming here. My parents told me, and I told them to give a vague answer, and they did, so it gives us time to gather everything we need and move out of here.”
“So we don’t have a place to go?” Hyunjin asked from the end of the table.
Felix looked at them all discussing with one another about living conditions and trying to plan how to carry out finding a new base when an idea popped into his head. “I may know somewhere we can go,” he spoke up. Everyone turned to look at him, ready to hear his suggestion. “The place I lived with my sisters. It was an abandoned apartment complex. I don’t think anyone else was living in the building, so it was just us, but it worked. It had running water and places like convenience stores were close by.”
Everyone’s face lightened up as he went on about how he thought the apartment complex would work for them. “That’s great! Changbin and Jisung can work on bringing in electricity but otherwise, I think it would provide everything else we would need,” Chan said excitedly. The others all nodded along, and Felix felt a warmth of pride bloom in his chest as he saw his idea be accepted. “Okay, everyone gather everything you think you need first. I’ll get into contact with Soobin’s gang to help with the move. Help wherever you can. We don’t know how long until the officials show up,” Chan said, getting up and placing his dishes into the sink as he headed off to the storage room.
Everyone else dumped their dishes in the sink and followed Chan. They all started grabbing boxes and heading off to their own rooms first. Felix did the same as them. When he got to his room however, he realized, he didn’t have anything he really needed from here. Sure, there were things he really wanted but nothing he absolutely needed. The only things he could think of were all the equipment and food being kept in the three bunkers, but even then, those didn’t belong to him. He dropped his box on the floor and went to Changbin’s room instead, guessing he probably had the most stuff to get packed.
He poked his head into Changbin’s room and was once again pleased with himself on guessing right. Changbin was fumbling around his room, small machines and tools piled into corners and thrown into boxes. He knocked on the door frame so as not to startle Changbin, but that seemed to do just the trick. The older dropped whatever was in his hands as he whipped around after basically jumping into the air from shock.
“Oh, hey Felix. Do you need something?” he asked as he picked up whatever it was he dropped before.
“Well, I don’t have anything I need to pack, so I was wondering if you needed help?” Felix asked.
Changbin brightened up and waved Felix over. “Sure! I have a lot of stuff in here and I need to start packing anything important from the lab. Can you just through anything technology-like into boxes while I go to the lab?” Changbin asked. Felix nodded his head, making Changbin beam and hug Felix was basically breathing out his “thank you” before running out of his room to the lab to start his packing.
Felix just grabbed the first thing he saw and started putting them in the boxes. He tried his best to organize things for an easier fit, but with the way things were jutting out, it was kind of hard. About an hour passed when he finished Changbin’s room. He wrote the older’s name on the box’s before putting them in front of the doorway.
Once he was done with moving the boxes, he decided to head over to the lab. With how full it was last time, he knew it was the room that probably needed the most attention for packing. He wondered about the workout gear but decided to ask about that later. When he got into the large unit, he heard some clanging off in the corner and immediately headed that way.
When he got there, he found Changbin and Hyunjin sorting through a pile of parts and throwing stuff into boxes. He called out to Changbin, who didn’t startle this time, and asked once again if he can help with anything. “Well I mean the most important stuff is technology the government and officials don’t have, then it’s all my tools, and I haven’t had the time to teach you anything about any of this, so I guess how you can help in the moment is by getting Jisung. Ask Chan or Seungmin if they need help though. Minho just has some books and movies to pack so ask him later if he needs you to do anything around the main base,” Changbin answered.
Felix nodded his head and walked away, waving to both Changbin and Hyunjin. He headed back into the main base and poked his head into Chan’s room. “Hey Chan. Do you need help with anything?” he asked.
Chan looked up from what he was doing. He gave a soft smile to the freckled boy before shaking his head. Felix felt a small frown start to make its way onto his face, and the fall of the smile on Chan’s face told him that the older noticed. “If anyone else is done or not doing anything, you can ask to start packing things into the cars,” the older suggested, an apologetic look on his face.
Felix nodded, said a quick thanks, then headed out around the base once again. He stood in the middle of the living room, trying to gather his thoughts on what’s suddenly going on. He had plenty of opportunities to make sense of everything that has happened in the past month. Felix looked around the empty space he was standing in.
A tear rolled down his cheek and he quickly squatted down, hugging his knees close to his face. The thoughts of everything came in. His sisters got taken from him. The people that always promised to stay with him were taken from him while he was basically thrown away. Then, a boy who supposedly was intrigued by him used him to break out of school grounds. He was kind of kidnapped, but they gave him consent to stay kidnapped? And he stayed. And then he was used to give them publicity by being their little poster boy. And then, when he actually felt like he could do something and feel useful, he wasn’t allowed to do anything. And now, nobody needs his help. When they’re rushing to clear out a space always used by them, he can’t help. Especially when this place was compromised because of him and his stupid ideas.
Felix tried to not let those thoughts become any darker. He tried to stay out of the headspace he learned to leave behind a few years ago, but it seemed to keep the invisible reigns on him. He felt another tear go down his tear, and that feeling only made more tears fall. He quickly got up and made it to his already baron room. All he had in there were the stuffed animals, his bed, and one box, which consisted of the camera and anything else for the videos.
He grabbed one of the plushies, then flopped onto his bed and silently let the tears fall down his cheek. He brushed away the tear in frustration. Why was he crying so much today? He doesn’t want to feel like a helpless kid. He doesn’t want to feel selfish either by wanting people to comfort him when they have more important things to do, like keeping them from being caught from officials.
A knock on the side of his doorway had him springing up to meet Jeongin’s eyes. “Jeongin, hey,” he said, hoping his face wasn’t red enough to show he had been crying.
The younger’s face fell a little as he took in the sight of Felix, and the older tried his best to not get angry. “Chan said to ask you to help start loading things in the vans, but if you need a moment, I can le-”
“No!” Felix said before Jeongin could finish his sentence. “I’ll help. I’ll be out in a minute,” Felix continues, redness starting to creep up his neck from embarrassment of the outburst.
Jeongin nodded his head and took in Felix’s state once more. “Okay. Uh, the vans will be in the warehouse. Just bring as many boxes as you can when you head over,” he said before giving one last glance, then leaving the entrance of Felix’s room.
Felix sighed as he pulled himself off his bed and tried to wipe his eyes again. He got up, leaving the stuffed animal on his bed, then walked towards the entrance of the warehouse. He picked up one of the bigger boxes and went to the trap door leading to the tunnels. Once he reached the other warehouse, he set the box down and went to find Jeongin.
When he got deeper into the warehouse, he found Jeongin and a group of unfamiliar boys loading up one of the many vans lining the wall. Felix was glad the first person to notice him was Jeongin. The younger gave a bright smile and waved him over, gaining the attention of the other boys.
“Hey Felix. This is Soobin’s crew Chan was talking about earlier. One of the few groups we work with and trust,” Jeongin said as Felix started heading over. All the boys gave a small nod of the head with a “hey” being voiced by all five at the same time.
“This one is Soobin, the leader,” Jeongin said as he pointed to the tall boy. He had black hair almost covering his eyes. The boy gave a smile before heading back off to load the van he was working on.
“The one in the truck over there is Yeonjun,” he said, nodding towards the boy who was placing one of the boxes down inside the truck. He looked up and nodded his head in greeting to Felix, who nodded back.
“That’s Kai, their youngest.” A boy with sharp but at the same time soft looking features looked up at the call of his name, and gave a bright smile to them, earning a smile in response from both Jeongin and Felix.
“And the two over there are Beomgyu and Taehyun,” Jeongin finished, pointing to two boys who were lifting one of the bigger boxes into the van Yeonjun was in. Once they pushed the box in, they turned to Felix and gave a small wave.
“How do you guys know each other?” Felix asked.
Jeongin had a bright smile on his face as he answered. “Before Changbin moved because of the attack, he was friends with Yeonjun and Wooyoung, someone from another group we really trust. I forgot how they met each other again, but when they did, they were both on the mission of taking down the Sori Gwemul. They’re one of our most trusted allies,” the younger answered.
Felix nodded along as he watched the five boys move around, working on putting boxes in the vans. “So do you need help with anything here?” he asked out to both Jeongin and the others.
Jeongin looked at Soobin, who just shrugged his shoulders before saying, “We could use someone in another van to start organizing and packing quicker,” he suggested. Felix nodded his head before heading to one of the empty vans and easily hoping in. Soobin grabbed a box and smiled at Felix as he handed it off to him. Felix smiled back before loading it into the van.
As the packing continued, the rest of the boys started bringing their boxes in, then helped with loading the vans once they brought everything they needed. Felix couldn’t see the sun going down as they continued to pack, but once they were finished loading the vans, they all headed towards the sides of the warehouse and looked out the windows, seeing the sky being an almost pitch black, filled with stars.
“Alright everyone, and think that’s enough work for today,” Chan started. He turned to the five other boys before saying, “you all are welcome to stay here, and thank you for coming on such short notice. You’ve helped us out a ton.”
“It’s what friends are for. We have so many debts to return anyways. This is the least we could do,” Soobin answered.
Chan just gave a grateful smile before turning to head towards the trap doors. “Okay everyone, according to Seungmin, we have about three or four days until the officials are on their way, so we need to get up early and head out by tomorrow night.” Everyone gave an affirmative cheer before following Chan to the main warehouse, and all snuggling up together in the living room, falling asleep after some light jokes and laughs.