Chapter Text
"Bro, we should smoke together, I bet you're fun as fuck when you're high."
If Lee Felix was known for anything, it definitely wasn't for being bad, and it certainly wasn't for doing drugs.
He was quite intelligent combined with a calm attitude and people pleasing traits. He was not there to draw attention or make himself known, but he was someone you wanted to be around, and people generally liked. The Australian preferred to stay focused on his grades rather than get caught up in drama, but he also was not a total recluse. He enjoyed the spontaneity of the crazies and the quietness of the loners.
Frankly, Felix was in the middle, and he didn't really mind.
But someone of his status, and general aura, didn't really think he would ever hear what came out of Changbin's mouth today.
It was a casual statement, almost like it was a daily occurrence, like asking to grab lunch with someone.
And, of course, for Changbin, it was.
Felix met Changbin during his first year of high school. They had a few classes together even though he was in the grade above him, and yes, despite his outward appearance, he was quite smart. Now the whole 'applying his natural intelligence to learning and studying' thing, (which his teachers and classmates love to mention quite frequently) that was another story.
Felix and Changbin became fast friends upon discovering that they were both very close with the same Aussie, Bang Chan. But admittedly, Felix had very different relationships with the two boys.
The two Australians had been friends for years, they liked to laugh and tease each other but also have deep conversations late into the night. They were truly best friends.
Despite Chan being 2 grades above Felix, he never failed to upstage the younger when it came to being childish. There was also the common rant from Chan about whoever he was pining over at the time, which really could be anyone at this point. But when it came to the dark boy, the relationship was altogether more strange. Even Felix has a hard time describing their weird dynamic.
It didn't bother Felix, hell, Chan is a complete dumbass who was ready to risk it all for a new person each week, but, it was different with Changbin. Yes, Chan talked about people he was infatuated with a lot, but quite adversely, Changbin was the type to talk about the people he wanted to fuck a lot. Which definitely took some getting used to on Felix's end but honestly, it was good for the Australian.
Not often did he get to express his sexual frustrations and wishes, it just wasn't a part of his character, but with Changbin it was a normal topic they could relate on.
They also talked about stupid shit 95% of the time and Changbin wasn't the most up to date with how to deal with others emotions, so in other aspects they seemed like a weird pair, they seemed like definite opposites. Really, Changbin is goof, with both infectious happy qualities and a chill persona.
If you knew him, you loved him.
Felix was only mildly aware of the fact that Changbin was a major pothead, in his mind it had nothing to do with their relationship. So when Changbin thought mentioning that so early in the morning was a good idea, the Australian used all of his strength not to choke and yell out a confused "what?!". Because although Felix would never admit it, he always tried to seem cool in the eyes of his pothead friend.
That same Friday morning Felix is still leaning against his locker right where Changbin left him. Differing thoughts running through his head, spanning from how honored he was to finally be asked, to why the hell he was asking him. I mean, Felix wasn't exactly the first person you'd think of when considering a smoking buddy. At the same time it filled his heart with warmth knowing that he wanted to smoke with him and it proved how much Changbin valued their friendship. However, the number one thought eating away at him for the remainder of of the morning was why in God's name he agreed.
Across the hallway a swollen faced, nappy haired Bang Chan was approaching, not very quickly at that, clearly having rolled out of bed about 15 minutes ago. Felix straightened up seeing him near, trying to forget about Changbins proposition for now and move on with his day.
"Hey is that a zombie I see?" Felix says to the slow approaching, scowling Chan.
When he arrives he throws out a lazy, "Fuck off.", as he walks past him to get to his locker.
"When I said you should get to school earlier, I meant it more in a 'avoid being five minutes late everyday' way as opposed to a 'disregard all human hygiene in order to get to school early' kind of way." Felix teases, reaching up to tame one of Chan's many unruly bleached curls.
The scowling boy swats away his friends hand. "Well aren't you absolutely hilarious this morning." Chan sarcastically replies, taking his books out and shutting the locker with his minimal amount of energy.
Both Australians begin walking in the direction of their classes, "Aren't I?," The more cheery of the two responds, "Don't take offense, it's only how I cope with trauma." He adds with a smile.
"Oh really, and what has you all traumatized today, Lix?" Chan asks, starting to wake up.
Backpedaling Felix quickly responds,"I'm just stressed," he pauses, "with school 'n stuff." Even he was unconvinced with his own answer. If Chan was unsure of his excuse he didn't say anything. The last thing Felix wanted to do was discuss Changbin's offer with Chan, at least not right now. So he threw a reassuring smile Chan's way and the tired boy seemed to let it go.
"Okay, nerd."
—
Needless to say, the Australian's plan to not let the dark boys proposal effect him throughout the day, was futile. It managed to bother him in every class leading up to lunch, much to his dismay. Even now approaching his lunch table, the impending issue consumed his thoughts. What really bothered him was everything was still up in the air, there was no specific day or time or any sort of order to this event. Of course knowing Changbin, he was never one for commitment, which means the likelihood of the older boy just mentioning it out of nowhere is very high. Just like how this whole thing started. How very annoyingly Changbin of him.
Maybe he was overthinking it. Maybe.
"Hey Lix." Felix distantly heard from his friend Jisung between the loud thoughts in his brain.
"Hey blondie." Thats when Felix recognized Jisung's boyfriend, Minho, cuddled up (maybe a little too close) to said friend. They were always way too affectionate and laid the PDA on a little thick but, you got used to it. The Australian once asked the couple why they were so lovey-dovey all the time and Minho proceeded to look into his boyfriends eyes lovingly and say, "To show everyone that he's mine." It was almost cute until Minho slapped a hand over Jisungs ass making a point while walking away. Despite Minho's possessive qualities he was still a fun person to be around and when Minho came into Jisung's life he soon was welcomed into everyone's.
"Minho," Felix said, suddenly interested in talking, "you've smoked weed before right?"
Minho scoffed, "Well good afternoon to you too." Jisung laughing at the Australian's sudden bluntness by his boyfriends side. "Yes I have," Minho paused and looked at the innocent boy, "In fact on many occasions it's with your boyfriend,"
The Australian flushed, "He's not my boyfriend." He mumbled, seemingly annoyed, but mostly embarrassed.
Felix knew he could most likely never escape the comments made about him and Changbin "making a good couple" but that doesn't mean it didn't bother him.
Jisung rolls his eyes at the immature conversation, "Any particular reason your bringing this up over lunch?"
"I just-" Felix looks up at the ceiling searching for the courage to continue, "What's it like?"
He settles with this because of all the questions that are running through his head this is the safest option.
Minho hesitates, clearly not the best with words, "Well it's nice, I guess? Especially if you're stressed." Minho looks at Jisung silently asking if he has a better way to describe it.
Jisung looks away from his boyfriend to speak, "Yeah, when I first tried it-"
Felix stops him almost immediately, " Wait you've smoked before? Has everyone smoked before except me?"
"C'mon Lix it's a druggie mans world, keep up." Felix turns and glares at Minho's comment.
"I don't make the rules." Minho adds shrugging.
Jisung hits his boyfriend continuing, "The main part of the high is a little weird and I admit can seem scary at first, but the period after that, where everything is like," Jisung looks to Minho trailing off, because apparently they can't finish thoughts without each other.
"Peaceful?" Minho responds, smiling wide looking at his boyfriends curious face.
God they are so in love it's almost sickening.
Jisung then looks back to Felix, bright smile on his face, "Yeah, that's definitely my favorite part."
Felix fell silent as Jeongin and Seungmin sit beside him. His Mommy always told him drugs were bad, but here were two people, who he trusted very much, telling him it could actually be good for him. God knows he needed some of that. He feels like he's walking a tightrope these days, always worried about something. Juggling AP classes, dance classes and most presently Seo Changbin. But here comes his friend offering free weed which will allegedly take away this stress. It seems almost perfect, until you take in the factor that it's illegal.
Felix plops his head on Jeongin's shoulder tired of thinking about this. In fact, a nap seemed really good to the worried boy.
"What's wrong with him?" The youngest gestures to the Australian, pushing his head off his shoulder. Felix pouts and leans on his hand looking at Jisung waiting for his response.
Jisung swallows his food, "No clue, I think he's on crack, we may never know." Minho chuckles and Jeongin just accepts the joke, not really caring about anything except the school food sat in front of him. Felix is just happy Jisung didn't say anything about the weed, god knows what kind of ruckus that would cause.
Seungmin however, looks like he's dying to say something. "Well, as much as I'd love to sit around and mope all day, we have some planning to do Yongbok." Felix turns to Seungmin confused, in his 17 years of life never has he once committed to planing something that wasn't a group project.
"I'm gonna need some more context, please." Felix looks at him tiredly.
"Two weeks from today?" Seungmin looks at him incredulously, as if it should be obvious.
"Hm yes, let me just get out my calendar." The Australian says sarcastically, giving the excited boy an unimpressed look.
Seungmin slouches down and glares at the pessimistic boy sat next to him. "You seriously don't know what's happening two weeks from today?" His flat tone repeats as if this will suddenly trigger his memory.
"I don't know the end of the world? It certainly seems to be important by the way you're looking at me." Flicking the younger's forehead when he rolls his eyes.
"What is it 2012?" Minho interjects chuckling. Seungmin glares at him not appreciating his comment, while Felix looks pointing a finger and nodding his head as if this is a possible option.
"Okay anyways, clearly you're too dim witted to remember your own birthday but-" Seungmin is cut off by the Australian's loud groaning.
Felix has his head in his hands and rubbing his tired eyes, because he clearly doesn't like this topic. "Minnie, you know I don't do the birthday thing" He hadn't had a birthday party since he moved from Australia and frankly he wasn't planning on breaking that streak.
"I know, I know, but please hear me out."
Felix doesn't even look up while the younger leans over getting closer to him clearly planning on begging him for this.
"Felix, you're turning 18, this is a huge milestone! You're going to be an adult and I will be damned if I let you celebrate your birthday alone with the rat pack you call your friends." Felix looks up at him and pouts, "But I like my rat pack, my small rat pack, with limited people," Felix looks to Jeongin on is other side hoping the youngest would agree with him.
"I don't know Lix," he says with a mischievous smirk, "I think it's time we had a real party." Jisung looks pleased and high fives the youngest with a small "yeah".
The bell rings signaling freedom from these lunatics and Felix immediately gets up, grabbing his backpack. Seungmin is still looking at him with puppy eyes, begging him for a party that wasn't even his.
"Just think about it."
—
If Lee Felix was busy, you could almost always assume it was dance. It was actually a running joke that you shouldn't even bother inviting him places because he probably has dance anyway. It's a good thing he's damn good at it. However the Australian's dance studio was quite small and as a result finding an empty room was quite difficult. Normally Felix didn't have dance till 6, but earlier in the week he had finally squeezed out of Woojin that there was a sweet spot at 4:15 right between the beginner classes and the intermediate classes where there was an empty room. Albeit it was only for 30 minutes, but it was better than nothing. Felix and Hyunjin were tired of getting kicked out by Woojin at 10 pm.
Felix and Hyunjin had prepared a duet for their upcoming competition but hadn't anticipated how much more rehearsal time was needed in comparison to a solo due to the added factor of synchronization. Thankfully practice rooms weren't as hard to come by as the pair had become close to the owner's son, Woojin, due to the late nights spent practicing.
He was a Sophmore in college studying business in order to one day take over the studio for his mom. Woojin ran the place for the most part while his mom struggled with health issues. But don't be fooled, because that woman, as sweet and frail as she is, shes not afraid to show up unannounced and tear you to shreds. All in the name of constructive criticism of course.
Currently Felix is racing down the stairs of his school, he needed that practice room like his life depended on it and he was not about to lose precious minutes because of the walking zombies he calls his classmates.
He had almost made it to the front doors when a familiar Aussie voice called out to him.
Felix stops and turns to his friend who's speed walking over "Channie I don't have time for this, I gotta go."
Chan looks at him confused, "Where are you going?"
Felix looks like he's itching to leave but he stays for his friend. " I have dance mate."
The older pouts and grabs onto Felix's arm silently begging him to stay a little longer. "You always have dance," He sticks his lip out even farther if that's possible "can't you be a little late today? I really need to tell you something."
The younger sighs and checks his phone for the time, it was already 3:45 and he really wanted to go home before so he could change into more comfortable clothes. "Walk with me, and make it quick, if you can finish before we get to my car, it's bonus points."
Chan stands at attention and salutes, "Yes, sir!" Felix is already speed walking away by the time Chan realizes he's losing precious time.
When he is beside his friend again he starts, "So, you know Woojin, the one you introduced me to when I picked you up from dance that one time," Felix gives him a look and rolls his eyes, "Yes, I know Woojin," he looks up in realization, eyes widening, "Oh no, not Woojin," Chan stops along with Felix in the middle of the parking lot, hands raised in a calming motion, seeing the anger in the younger's eyes, "It's different this time, I swear."
The younger gives him a warning look, unsure of where this is going "Chan..."
"No listen, he gave me his number and we've been talking a lot," Felix glances at his phone, it's 3:49, he begins to walk again, "Mhm and what about Minjee which you talked a lot with last week." Chan jogged to keep up with him, "Minjee was different, she didn't want anything to do with me, it's in the past."
Chan grabs Felix's arm, stopping him and looking into his eyes. "Felix, I really like him, really." As much as the younger didn't want to admit it he could really see the sincerity in his eyes, "We have a date tonight." Felix's eyes widen.
He knew Chan, very well, but Woojin was his friend. Chan, as sweet as he was, isn't the best at keeping a relationship. Seeing either of them hurt would break his heart, truly.
Shit, he didn't have time for this.
"We'll talk about this later, Channie." Felix says detaching him from his arm. He continues as he walks backwards towards his car, "I promise! We have plenty to catch up on!"
The older yells back, "Hey you mind getting the stick out of you're ass while you're at dance?"
Instead of responding to his friends immature comment, he simply raises a middle finger in the air to show him how he really feels.