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When Jisung landed on the Heart Fluttering square in their SKZOO-themed, Monopoly-inspired game, Felix hoped to every higher power that was ever believed to exist that he wouldn’t have to put on those cat ears himself. For one, Felix already gets easily flustered. To have the rest of the members watch him get tickled or hugged or grabbed would surely not help matters. For another, he would have to try not to get flustered for a full minute. That is a long time for someone to shower him with undivided affection.
And perhaps the most important reason he never wants to endure the game: there is a chance that Changbin might be that person.
Felix hasn’t told any of the members that his feelings for Changbin have developed into something genuine. They were genuine for a long time, but for the sake of the group and he and Changbin’s friendship, he’s kept it a secret. Sure, the other members tease them about it all the time (Changbin did kiss him on the cheek, so the teasing is understandable), but the two involved have only really shared moments that Felix believed were for fanservice. He does not want this game to reveal his true feelings.
Felix glances at the other (he has been stealing glances for the past hour). Changbin looks really cute today. His yellow sweater coordinates nicely with his tan and yellow plaid pants (Felix thinks he should wear yellow more often). Changbin also seems much happier today since he is talking and commenting a lot. During Felix’s carbonated drink turn, he often heard Changbin’s voice, whether it be him teasing about the drinks or being concerned about Felix’s health. Overall, the day was going by smoothly.
But of course every higher power heard Felix’s prayer, laughed in his face, and had Seungmin and Felix roll a 4, their little blue flag ending up on a Heart Fluttering space.
Fuck.
“You should go,” Seungmin says.
Double fuck.
“Me?!”
Seungmin gives his teammate an encouraging pat on the back, clearly not picking up on Felix’s face of bewilderment.
“Felix is gonna do it?” Chan sounds amused, and for good reason: apart from Changbin, he knows Felix the best out of the group. “I think Felix’s heart is going to pound easily~,” the leader practically sings.
Felix rubs the back of his neck as he goes to the staff members to fit the ears on. When the ears are ready to go, Felix shuffles his way back to the set and stands in front of his members, nervously smiling.
His eyes shift to Changbin, who (excitedly?) rocks his body. “Wow, he’s really cute. He looks so different from when Han had those on.”
Felix blushes. He knows that Changbin is only saying these things for fanservice (and to tease him), but his comments make him more sheepish than he already is.
“I feel like all of you can flatter me so easily.” Felix scratches his ear (his real ear, not the cat ear) and tries to focus on the task at hand. All right, you can do this. Felix breathes deeply, repeating Jeongin’s words from Han’s Heart Fluttering turn: Just pick someone who doesn’t excite you. He eyes the row of potential competitors.
First, Hyunjin. Definitely a no. Especially with his long hair, Hyunjin can make even the Grinch’s heart flutter. Then there’s Han, who is a possible contender. Their closeness in age made it very easy for them to be friends, so he doesn't have a reason to be nervous around Jisung. Jeongin is too cute not to make Felix’s heart flutter, but he can imagine Jeongin being too awkward to do anything; in conclusion, a safe opponent. Definitely not Chan, who is smiling so teasingly at him right now from where he is sitting. Felix then looks at Minho. He contemplates for a bit—even though Minho can be very… grabby at times, he might not be too confident with something like this.
Felix keeps that in mind, as his eyes wander from Minho to Changbin (he doesn’t know how. His eyes naturally gravitate towards the older). Changbin seems like he’s in his own little world for a second before locking eyes with him. What used to be playfulness in his irises has changed to something more fond, and Felix has to stop himself from melting.
Nope.
He turns to Minho again.
“He looked at me! He looked right at me!” Minho exclaims, embarrassed. Felix starts feeling proud of himself—he might’ve just chosen the right person to be his contender. But then—
“Ah! Ah!” Minho yells, remembering something. He holds up the refusal chance card that he and Chan earned in their last turn. Felix totally forgot about that. “I refuse!” Minho says, defiant. Felix starts looking at the others to decide who he is going to choose instead when Chan interrupts his thoughts.
“Wait, wait, wait. It’s not only a refusal card.” Chan's eyes scan the card more thoroughly. “It’s refusal plus choice.”
One of the staff members nods. “Now that Minho has refused to participate, he gets to choose who is going to do the game with Felix.”
Bad choice bad choice bad choice.
Minho was probably the worst choice out of his members. At least when Felix was chosen to do the game, he could decide whom he thinks would give him a shot at winning. But now that choice is in Minho’s hands, and, knowing Minho, Felix feels very antsy about it.
Felix looks at Minho with the most pleading eyes he can muster. But Minho seems to have other ideas, his eyes glimmering with mischief.
With no hesitation, Minho proudly says, “I choose Changbin.”
Triple fuck.
The rest of the members start teasing, saying that Felix is practically done for, and Chan has the nerve to yell out “Changlix!” The chosen rapper gets up and stands in front of Felix, his eyes an emotion that the younger can’t decipher. Felix starts to think positively: maybe Changbin will go easy on him? But then the other smirks. And Felix decides then and there to close his eyes for his turn as the staff member finally announces the time has started.
“Uhhh Felix, I think you have to keep your eyes open,” Felix hears Hyunjin tease.
In front of him, Felix feels a warmth. He gulps, knowing that it’s Changbin in front of him, and he tentatively takes a few steps back. But Changbin’s hands hold him right above the elbows to keep him where he is, and that gentle yet sturdy hold has the cat ears turning.
“Oh! Oh!” Laughter from the group roars.
Felix’s face goes red. Okay, closing his eyes was a bad idea. He thought not being able to see Changbin would make the situation better, but not knowing what to anticipate is far worse. God, it’s only been a few seconds in.
“Lixie, open your eyes,” Changbin coos.
Felix’s heart lurches at the nickname (and the cat ears swivel as well). But then he feels Changbin pull away a bit (the older is probably puzzled as to what he should do), and Felix takes that time to breathe.
Okay Felix, calm down. To his relief, the ears stop twirling. The members start throwing out suggestions on what Changbin should do:
“Make cute noises!”
“Compliment him!”
“You can do more skinship.”
After a few moments, Felix feels Changbin getting closer to him again, making his breath hitch. Changbin’s thumb caresses where his hand is on Felix’s arm, and Changbin’s other hand loosens his hold completely. Felix’s breathing slows from Changbin’s soothing contact on his arm, but then he feels a hand tickling at his neck.
Felix’s eyes shoot open. He makes eye contact with Changbin, who looks at him, smug, as his fingers continue to tickle him under his chin and near his Adam’s apple. Felix balls his hands into fists to keep from laughing, but the cat ears start spinning full revolutions. The rest of the members excitedly react. Through the commotion, Felix swears that he hears Changbin mutter “cute,” but he can’t really focus with Changbin continuing to tickle him with both hands.
Defensively, Felix tries stepping back again, but as it was for the first time Felix tried to escape, Changbin stops him. This time, with a hand on his waist.
Felix jolts, surprised, balancing himself with one hand on Changbin’s bicep and the other hand catches the end of Changbin’s sweater. Underneath Felix’s palm, Changbin’s bicep flexes, and he immediately tries taking his hands off, but Changbin’s continuous attacks on his neck makes holding onto Changbin a necessity. The older continues to hold Felix, his hand on his hip now snaking to the middle of his lower back. The fact that Changbin can effortlessly steady him with one hand makes Felix’s head swirl.
Changbin looks pleased, as well as the other members (aside from Seungmin). But soon Changbin’s devilish smile turns into a sweet one. His aggressive tickling tones down, and the other stops tickling him completely; instead, Changbin brings his other hand down to Felix’s waist, holding him closer so that he can rub at his hips.
Felix’s eyes widen more. He doesn’t think that he heard the cat ears stop turning. But he feels himself calm down as Changbin continues to massage small circles on his hips. Felix looks at him, confused yet calm, and Changbin’s eyes crinkle. Then the staff member calls time.
Besides Seungmin, the group is cheering and hollering at how entertaining that was, but Changbin hasn’t let go of Felix yet. He leans in to ask, “Are you okay?”
Face still hot and eyes big, Felix nods. Somehow, Changbin asking if Felix was okay is more heart-pounding than everything that just happened. Reassured, Changbin draws one more circle on his hip and gives him another beautiful, sweet smile before joining the others. Felix mentally curses at the unfairness of Changbin’s beauty and, when the “evil” headband is off, he goes back to the group
The result: fail. A big fail. The ears turned for 49 out of the 60 seconds.
Felix buries his face in his knees. “Oh God.”
Scared of Changbin’s reaction, Felix turns towards the older to find Changbin already looking at him. But then he ducks his head down.
The rest of the shoot goes by without any more embarrassments for Felix. However, there was something odd that happened in the turn right after Felix’s Heart Fluttering fiasco: Jeongin had the cat ears on, and they were turning, so Changbin warned him to calm down.
But instead of Jeongin’s name, he said “Yongbok, calm down!” and was surprised that Felix’s Korean name came out of his mouth. Funny enough, this wasn’t the first time that this happened, and the misunderstanding coincidentally involved the same three people. Felix could only laugh at the mistake. Maybe Changbin made the error because Felix was the last one to wear the ears? Regardless, it was cute, especially when Felix noticed the older’s cheeks tinge pink.
After the game, Stray Kids settle in the car. Changbin and Felix end up sandwiching Chan in the very back of the van, and Felix is too flustered to look Changbin’s way (although if he did, he would’ve noticed the older shyly sparing glances at him). Out of the car, the leader walks between them and throws his arms around their shoulders.
“I think Stays will really enjoy what you did,” Chan teases.
Felix shrivels, completely embarrassed.
“All of us had fun during that game,” Changbin says. Then he jokes, “Maybe we should get a pair of those for our dorm.”
Felix snaps toward him, and Changbin playfully wiggles his eyebrows. Chan laughs and rushes ahead to their dorm building. Felix is about to catch up with Chan when Changbin stops him.
“Hey.”
Changbin’s hand is on Felix’s forearm when he stops him. Felix turns toward him, and the older rapper removes the hand, scratching the back of his head. He then tries to put his hands in his pockets, but he soon realizes he doesn’t have any pockets for these pants. So he settles with putting his hands behind his back. Felix eyes him curiously—Changbin almost looks, dare he say it, bashful.
“Don’t worry about, um, the Heart Fluttering thing,” Changbin finally says.
Felix’s cheeks start to burn, and he groans. Oh no, is he pitying me now? The younger puts his hands on his face to hide his blushing cheeks. Changbin chuckles at him.
Wait, why is Changbin talking to me about this? Felix thinks.
Then Changbin steps closer.
Felix’s eyes widen. His heart leaps. To try to stop himself from getting flustered, he takes a step backward. But Changbin doesn’t let him again, just as he has prevented Felix from doing twice during their Heart Fluttering game. Now, both of Changbin’s hands support the younger by his lower back, causing Felix’s hands to grab onto his shoulders. Both are a bit breathless as they look at each other. Felix can hear Changbin’s breaths go shallow, and Felix’s eyebrows wrinkle in confusion.
Changbin is not opposed to this? The older grins, as if he is reassuring Felix’s thoughts. Shyly, the younger smiles back. For once, Felix understands that he’s worrying too much about his feelings for the older. So, he relaxes into Changbin’s hold.
Lowering his voice, Changbin continues, “Cause if it was me with the cat ears, and you were the one I was up against, I would lose too.”
Felix giggles while Changbin’s cheeks dust pink again. The older releases Felix and heads inside, leaving Felix speechless. He smiles.
Maybe the Heart Fluttering game turned out to be less of a disaster after all.