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Felix was nothing if not an opportunist.
Well, he was an opportunist by necessity. Orphaned at a young age by a drunk driver, he’d been sent off to live in Korea with his uncle, leaving his beloved Sydney behind. He’d lost his sisters, but gained a little brother in his cousin, Jeongin, and it became quickly obvious that his uncle shouldn’t have been allowed to be responsible for either of them.
A drunk and chronic gambler, his uncle barely left them enough money to survive, so that meant Felix needed to find ways to make cash fast. Struggling with broken Korean, he tried his best: he did odd jobs for people around the neighbourhood, had a stint as a delivery driver, and as he got older, he turned to bartending late into the night.
There was also the underground fighting ring, but Jeongin didn’t need to know about the underground fighting ring.
Except that was a lie, because his brother knew—and Jeongin may have been his cousin, but he was his little brother in all the ways that mattered—there was no way he didn’t know. But his brother had never mentioned anything, just looked concerned when Felix returned home with split lips, bruises and black eyes, and offered to patch him up. Jeongin never asked, and Felix would never tell, happy to continue their little game of pretending that neither one knew where his injuries came from.
Felix was a black belt, he put that knowledge to good use, which meant that he and Jeongin could eat, and not worry about whether they’d be able to keep a roof over their head.
He had tried, unsuccessfully, to get his uncle to stop gambling and drinking their limited funds away. Uncle Hae-bom would agree, vow never to do it again, then two days later he was in a drunken stupor and Felix was left to deal with the loan sharks breathing down their necks.
So he was an opportunist born out of necessity, willing to take any chance to make a dollar when it presented itself. Which meant that when a well-dressed, handsome stranger ran into the alley behind the bar while Felix was on his break, shouting for help, Felix did what any desperate for cash opportunist would.
“Give me five hundred thousand won.”
“Deal!”
Well, that was a very quick agreement for a lot of money, but Felix figured the guy was good for it. His suit looked designer, and his jewellery looked worth more than he could make in a year. Felix wasn’t an idiot, though. A suit, signet ring and being tailed by thugs with knives and guns? Plus the look of utter disdain and arrogance that had been directed at the thugs since they arrived?
This guy couldn’t be more mafia if he tried.
Still, he looked like an important and rich mafia guy, so that was worth getting into a tussle with guys that seemed like they wouldn’t last two minutes in the underground ring. He dove into the fray, mind going into autopilot as he kicked and punched his way through the goons. He saw the mafia guy take a hard hit and fall down, but he was still moving, so Felix ignored him and did his best to keep the others away from him.
Really, it wasn’t any different from the fighting ring. There, people called him the Luck Dragon. He was unbeatable, people said. He wondered if they’d say the same when they saw him struggle out of bed the morning after a particularly rough fight. But for this? This fight was easy.
Felix’s heart pounded, the adrenaline kicking in and staying, even after he’d knocked the final guy to the ground. He turned and saw the mafia guy struggling to stand, and darted over to help him.
“Come on!” he said urgently, holding his hand out and forgetting to use Korean. “Let’s go!”
The guy blinked at his English, but took his hand nonetheless. Felix dragged him out of the alley before any of the others could follow, pulling him into the bar and towards the front door, where he knew his motorcycle would be parked.
“Lix?” Hyunjin, his friend and boss, asked in concern as they passed him.
“Not now, Jinnie! I’ll be back!” he called over his shoulder.
They ran outside and Felix pulled the guy over to his bike. “Get on!”
The guy didn’t even hesitate, climbing on behind Felix as he started it, and immediately wrapping his arms around his waist and they rode off. He drove them far enough until he was certain they weren’t followed, then pulled over at a random service station.
Mafia Guy climbed off on the bike, took a minute to dust himself down, then turned to face Felix. “Thank you.”
Now that the adrenaline died down and they weren’t in any danger, Felix had a chance to actually look at the guy. Dark hair brushed away from his forehead, dark eyes, full lips, big nose—forget handsome; the guy was hot.
Felix had a sudden desire to drag the man to bed and have his way with him, but other things took priority.
“You’re welcome,” he said, then looked at the man expectantly.
The guy just stared back.
He fought the urge to roll his eyes; it wouldn’t be smart to piss off mafia members who had yet to pay him. “The five hundred thousand won?”
“Ah, right!” The guy reached into his suit jacket, paused, and checked the other pocket. “I don’t have my wallet on me.”
He actually looked sheepish. What kind of mafia guy was this? He seemed like someone you’d take home to meet your parents, not someone involved in gangs.
“Give me your phone,” the guys said. “I’ll have my people transfer the money to you.”
Felix raised an eyebrow. His people? Exactly who did he just rescue?
“I’m not giving you my phone.” Felix crossed his arms. “I’m not an idiot. What’s stopping you from just running off with it?”
The guy frowned. “I’m a man of my word.”
“Yeah,” he scoffed, finally getting off the bike to stand his ground. “Because that’s why you were being chased by a bunch of gang members. Cause you’re so trustworthy.”
Ah well, so much for not pissing off the mafia member. One day Felix would learn to watch his mouth, but it wasn’t today.
The guy smirked and—oh god, was that a dimple? The man was unfairly attractive, even if it seemed he wasn’t going to pay Felix for helping him.
“You don’t know who I am, do you?” the guy asked, looking amused, yet with something dark and calculating in his expression.
He froze. Felix wasn’t an idiot—he wasn’t. Even if he did tend to run his mouth, and he did go to underground fighting rings and make a bunch of otherwise stupid decisions in his desperate attempts to stay afloat and send Jeongin to university. But he wasn’t an idiot. He knew that when people said something like “You don’t know who I am, do you?” That usually meant they were someone of note.
It seems he might have saved someone a little higher in the mafia chain that he initially expected.
“Should I?” he asked, all false bravado, like he wasn’t considering just getting back on the motorbike and riding off before he turned up dead in a ditch somewhere.
The guy laughed, a low sound, and stepped forward. Gone was the sheepish expression of earlier, replaced by an intense focus and a smug smile that had Felix both tensed for danger and painfully attractive to him.
“Oh, you will,” Mafia Guy promised, soft and seductive, mere centimetres away and staring at Felix’s lips. “But for now, you can call me Chris.”
Felix blinked, pulled out of falling for his charms by the blatantly English-sounding name. “Chris?” he echoed.
“Mmm, I heard you earlier,” Chris leaned in to whisper in his ear and switched to English. “I recognised that accent.”
Felix’s mouth dropped open, because he recognised it too, hadn’t heard it in person for years, but it brought a rush of homesickness through him. “You’re—?”
“What a surprise to find another Aussie so far from home.”
Felix frowned in confusion. “Who are you?!”
Chris laughed again, leaning in to press kisses down his neck, and Felix had to bite his lip to let out a moan. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had someone this close. Sure, he flirted a lot, men and women would tip handsomely at the bar if he gave them a little attention, but he’d rarely gone any further than that. He didn’t have time for romance or relationships, or anything like that. He needed to make money. A quick fuck here and there was all he could manage, and even those were few and far between.
“I told you—I’m Chris,” he said, returning back to Korean.
Felix pulled away from him. “You know that wasn’t what I was asking.”
“You’ll find out,” Chris said, pulling him closer. “Lix, was it?”
How did Chris manage to catch his name? Hyunjin had mentioned it in a second, in a moment filled with rushing and adrenaline, and Chris heard it over the sounds of the bar?
What would even be the point of denying it? Chris knew his nickname, knew where he worked, and if he had as important mafia connections as Felix was beginning to think he did, then he’d be able to work out Felix’s real name in no time.
“It’s Felix. Lee Felix.”
“It suits you,” Chris murmured, before dragging him into a kiss.
Felix’s breath caught, but he soon kissed back in earnest. And he might not be an idiot, but he was sure this was another stupid decision on top of all the other stupid decisions that made up the life of Lee Felix. But it was hard to feel regretful when Chris was licking into his mouth, hard to feel anything but want when Chris buried his hand in Felix’s blond hair, hard to want anything more than to be closer, to kiss harder, to forget about everything and—
He pulled away, chest heaving. “I want my five hundred thousand won.”
Felix has responsibilities. Things he could never forget, no matter how good of a kisser Chris was.
Surprise flickered across Chris’s features, before his expression softened. “Alright,” he fiddled with the watch on his wrist and took it off. “Take this instead.”
Felix eyed it. That was—that was an expensive looking watch.
“It’s worth much more than five hundred thousand won, I assure you.”
He tentatively reached out and took the watch. “What’s the catch?”
Chris shook his head. “No catch. You potentially saved my life tonight; that’s not a debt I take lightly.” He sent Felix a look that was all heat and burning desire. “And as much as I would like to continue where we left off, you have priorities and I can respect that. Take the watch—sell it, keep it, I don’t care; it’s yours to do what you want with it.”
“If you’re fucking with me—”
“Well, I’d like to do that too—
“Chris.”
“Just take the watch, Felix.” Chris nodded to the bike. “You should go. My people will be here soon; it never takes them long to find me.”
Not for the first time, Felix wondered who exactly he decided to help in the alley behind the bar. But he nodded, pocketed the watch, and climbed back onto his bike.
“You’ve caught my attention, Lee Felix,” Chris said as the motorbike roared to life, he leant in to press a lingering kiss to Felix’s lips. “I hope I’ve caught yours.”
Oh he did, he really did, and that was probably a bad thing.
Felix nodded a goodbye, not trusting himself with words, and rode off. He’d go back to the bar, assure Hyunjin he was okay, then go home and hide the watch where Uncle Hae-bom couldn’t find it. If he was lucky, he might be able to get a few semesters for Jeongin out of it.
If it had stayed, he would have seen Chris staring after him, a thoughtful expression on his face as a plan came to mind.
If he had stayed, he would have seen a number of cars pull up behind Chris, full of henchmen in black suits, who bowed to him.
If he had stayed, he would have seen Lee Know, the infamous second in command of the Stray Kids mafia family, come to stand deferentially at Chris’s right hand.
“Hyung,” Minho said, all quiet concern under a mask of cold indifference. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine. I was saved by a civilian.”
“A civilian?”
“For now, but I think he’d make a good Kid. I need all the information we can get on Lee Felix.”
“I’ll have Seungmin look into him.”
“No one is to approach him directly until I give the word.”
Minho nodded. “Of course, Hyung.”
If Felix had stayed, he would have seen Chris order everyone to move out and be obeyed instantly.
If he had stayed, he would have seen Chris get into a car and be safely escorted back to his secure compound home.
If he had stayed, he would have realised that Chris was Bang Chan, leader of the most powerful mafia group in Seoul.
And he’d just caught his attention.