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To Felix, high school sucked in all aspects except one.
Shakespeare Club.
It was a year-long club that he had been a part of for three years, now in his fourth, and he had loved it more and more the longer he attended.
Each year, the club covered two different plays, one each semester; it may seem like a very long time to spend on simply one play, but with the extent and detail the club went into, including the activities and discussions they had, they barely covered it all in time for the mid-year holidays.
In Felix’s time in the club, they had covered Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice .
Now, in his 12th and final year of high school, they were finally covering Romeo and Juliet , Felix’s favourite play written by Shakespeare.
Felix hurried through the yard after the 4:15 bell rang, headed for the library classroom where the club was held every Friday afternoon from 4:20 to 5:30 pm. The end of day bell barely gave him enough time to get from his locker - which was on the third and top level of A Block at the front of the school - down the stairs, across to the very back of the school, up the stairs to the top level of H Block and get to the classroom they used.
Felix was panting and heaving when he eventually got himself up the H Block stairs after running all the way there in school uniform. Considering the uniform was a heavy blazer and tie with long grey pants and Clarks, definitely not the best running clothes, in hindsight, it was probably a bad idea to run.
Felix leaned down on his knees, his backpack almost sliding off his shoulder as he tried to catch his breath.
“Oh, fuck me dead,” he panted, still heaving deeply.
“I’d rather not, let’s go,” a voice said from behind him, smacking the back of his head as he passed.
Felix straightened up and pushed his turquoise hair back, heaving his backpack back up his arm. “Why so violent, Jisung?”
“You should appreciate me more,” Jisung sniffed. “I’m your best friend and have been for over 18 years.”
“Joy,” Felix said, still trying to catch his breath as he followed Jisung into the classroom.
The Shakespeare Club only had eight members, and while they were all in the same year level, Felix only really knew three others and only three others really knew him as far as he knew. Sure, everyone knew everyone’s names but people really tended to stick to their own groups.
The classroom was usually pretty empty of furniture - there were only two tables, four chairs around each, and a large space at the back of the room, a red and yellow circular rug of the floor, where the club usually did reenactments or other activities. There was a projector and a whiteboard at the front, where Mr Rodes, the faculty supervisor of the club, often delivered the sessions.
Almost everyone else was already there, and Felix made his way over to the table on the right, throwing his bag down and slumping into a seat, basically slamming his burning forehead into the cold table.
“Rough day?”
Felix looked up, his arms hanging down as he rested his chin on the tabletop. “I ran here.”
“Well, what did you do that for?” Chan asked teasingly. Chan was a cheery guy with curly brown hair and a diamond earring in his left ear he never took out. “I tell you every time; just show up a little late, you know Mr Rodes won’t mind.”
“No, I’m okay,” Felix panted, still trying to calm his breathing a little.
“Hey babes,” Jisung spoke, quickly pecking his boyfriend, Minho, on the lips as he sat down next to him.
“Get a room,” Felix groaned, tilting his head to press his cheek against the cool surface.
“You’re just bitter,” Minho said. “You’re going to be alone forever and you have to accept that.”
“Oh, shut up Mr ‘I can wear whatever uniform I want and I won’t get told off’,” Felix grumbled, eyeing the black-haired boy’s open button-up shirt, a black shirt underneath and the absence of a tie.
“Don’t hate me ‘cause you ain’t me!” Minho sang.
Before more banter could happen, Mr Rodes walked into the room, greeting everyone merrily. “Good afternoon, boys.”
“Afternoon,” a chorus of responses came from the boys present.
“And it looks like we’re missing someone,” Mr Rodes chuckled, fixing his tie. “ Again .”
“Don’t blame my bae, sir!” Changbin, a black-haired boy who sat on the other table with his tie loosened, called. “He has poor time management skills!”
“You need to stop calling him your bae,” Seungmin, another black-haired boy who also sat at the other table, said. “He’s told you not to.”
“What he doesn’t know won’t kill him,” Changbin sniffed back, making Jeongin, the brown-haired boy at their table, snicker.
“Well, either way, we can’t wait for him,” Mr Rodes said. “He knows-”
“I’m here, I’m here!” a voice yelled as the last member of the Shakespeare Club flew around the corner and catapulted himself inside the room. “Fuck, sorry I’m late.”
Felix watched as Hyunjin quickly jogged over to his seat at the other table, slumping down into his chair and fighting harder for breath than Felix had.
“It’s okay, Hyunjin,” Mr Rodes said. “And watch the language.”
Hyunjin nodded, fixing his glasses as he still struggled for air. “Sorry.”
Hyunjin had long dark hair half tied up, the bangs falling over full moon reading glasses that he wore as an accessory every second possible. Felix watched as he threw his blazer off, loosened his tie, undid the top two buttons of his shirt and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, likely in an attempt to cool down.
Felix quickly looked away when Hyunjin accidentally caught him staring.
“Okay, now that everyone is accounted for, let’s begin,” Mr Rodes said as the projector slowly started up, beginning to show the title slide of the PowerPoint he had created. “A play you all have begged and pleaded with me for, I finally present to you… Romeo and Juliet !”
The club cheered quietly and clapped as the PowerPoint finished showing up.
“Okay, as we always do, let’s have a quick brainstorm,” Mr Rodes instructed, flipping the slide. “Interpretation; what do we all think Romeo and Juliet is about?”
Felix quietly put his hand up, his elbow still resting on the table.
“Felix,” Mr Rodes called.
“I think it’s a beautiful romantic tragedy about a poisonous hatred conquered through love,” Felix responded, making Jisung giggle about how poetic he was.
He heard someone huff a little laugh from the other table. “Seriously?”
Felix looked over to find Hyunjin with a raised eyebrow. “What?”
“You can’t possibly think it’s a ‘beautiful tragedy’,” Hyunjin said, arms crossed. “It’s clearly a cautionary story about the dangers and stupidity of youth and shallow lust.”
Without breaking eye contact or unfolding his arms, Hyunjin held out a palm that Changbin easily slapped. “Nice one, Jinnie.”
Chan scoffed. “A cautionary tale? Romeo and Juliet is famous for its themes of love.”
“Sure, but riddle me this,” Jeongin asked. “Romeo and Juliet were so blinded by intense emotion that they completely disregarded rational thinking, and made reckless decisions that ended up resulting in their deaths . How is that not cautionary?”
“But the story has always been regarded as a love story,” Jisung debated. “They weren’t being reckless, they were in such love that they couldn’t imagine continuing to live if it wasn’t with the other. That is very clearly a beautiful tragedy because of the sacrifices they were willing to make for each other.”
“But their decision to marry before they even really knew each other and without the approval of their families was completely impulsive and stupid,” Seungmin said. “Surely that’s telling the readers to be careful about important decisions and considering the consequences of your actions.”
“But that only proves our point more,” Minho argued. “Their love for each other overpowered the hatred between their families and it showed through their decision to marry despite their family’s disapproval. It just displays the strength of their love and the power it holds.”
“Okay, boys, okay,” Mr Rodes said, holding his hands out a little upon sensing the tension growing. “Everyone can have their own interpretation of Shakespeare’s work, nothing is right or wrong in this room. Let’s just hear each other out, respect everyone's opinions and not become divided by this, okay?”
The boys all hummed in reluctant agreement, still eyeing each other warily across the room.
✒
The club was 100%, completely and utterly divided.
It had been three weeks since the introduction of Romeo and Juliet and the argument between the two tables and things had only gotten worse.
Every meeting almost always resulted in Jisung standing on top of his table and looking down at the other table as he argued with them, Chan usually ended up leaving the room before he grew violent, Changbin flipped a chair at some point, Jeongin broke down into tears once, fingers were pointed, names were called and mothers were insulted.
Mr Rodes had ended up just sitting at the front of the classroom, having no clue how to fix the problem and having given up trying. No one listened to him when he tried to stop arguments, so he just ended up sitting there while the club argued until it was time for everyone to leave.
“Romeo and Juliet’s unwavering devotion to each other is overly romanticised!” Hyunjin yelled. “It ended up killing them!”
“It’s fucking beautiful!” Jisung screamed back.
“Oh, would you look at that?” Mr Rodes called. “It’s 5:30, time to go!”
People abruptly stood up in huffs and stormed out, and it was rather awkward for everyone as they all thundered down the stairs together as they all needed to leave in the same direction.
Once they left the H Block doors, the two groups split in separate directions and Felix sighed.
He looked over to see where Jisung was, because they usually walked home together, being neighbours and all, but Felix watched as Jisung walked off beside Minho, the taller’s arm around him as they spoke quietly together, exchanging small kisses.
Felix remembered the text Jisung had sent him this morning, telling him he was leaving school with Minho to study, but Felix knew that was just code for other, less school-related things.
Felix rubbed his eyes as he started making his way back towards A Block - the fastest way back to his house was through the front of the school. About halfway there, large droplets of water started falling from the sky.
He blinked up at the sky and swore. He quickly looked around, knowing E Block would be closed so he quickly hurried over to the Stables. The Stables was the music centre, only called the Stables because that is exactly what the building was before it was renovated and became part of the school - stables for horses.
They were always open late because the music students of the school always stayed stupidly late, so Felix figured he could hang out there while he waited for the rain to ease up.
He winced as a roll of thunder shook the sky as he entered the Stables, dunking down to crawl past the lady at the front desk, who freaked the fuck out of him and didn’t let anyone but music students inside - she was blind as a bat, though, so it was easy to crawl behind her desk and towards to music rooms.
Felix got up once he managed to slip past her, climbed the stupidly narrow stairs and started looking for a room to wait in. It was quiet today, with not much music sounding from anywhere, but that also meant many of the rooms were locked. He finally found an open, empty room towards the back of the building and slipped inside, putting his back down as the rain started falling heavily outside.
He sighed again, pushing his hair back, only for it to fall back in his face stubbornly. He was starting to get annoyed at the turquoise strands when his peripheral vision spotted someone walk past his room through the long rectangular window in the door.
Felix furrowed his eyebrows. Was that who he thought it was?
He got up from the drum seat he had been swinging on and quietly opened the door to look down the hallway and sure enough saw Hyunjni walking away, checking a few doors to find an unlocked one.
Felix was more than confused - Hyunjin wasn’t a music student, so what was he doing here? Avoiding the rain, too?
Felix’s curiosity got the best of him as Hyunjin finally found a room and slipped inside, so he quietly tiptoed towards the door that was left slightly ajar and stood at an angle that he could see the taller boy make his way inside.
Felix played with his bottom lip as he watched Hyunjin pull the elastic from his hair and shake his head, small droplets of water flying off the dark strands.
He put his bag down and pulled out his phone as he sat on the stool that stood before the grand piano next to the large window, water trailing down it.
Felix furrowed his eyebrows again as Hyunjin set up his phone where sheet music would usually sit and tested a few keys.
Hyunjin slowly started pressing different notes, whistling a little with each key.
When he softly started singing, Felix almost passed out. “The sadness in your eyes, your voice so dry. When was the last time we walked side by side?”
Felix had never heard this song before, but it was beautiful and made his gut swirl crazily.
As Hyunjin continued playing and continued singing the beautiful song, Felix suddenly felt his eyes welling up.
“So I long for you,” the brunet sang. “And I long for you, and I'll long for you so I can keep loving you. So I could be loving you and morе.”
Felix backed away from the door as Hyunjin played the last key on the piano and ran back into the room he had claimed, hurriedly wiping his eyes. The song was so beautiful and so romantic it had brought Felix to tears, and he was shocked that Hyunjin could rant about Romeo and Juliet being reckless idiots and then sing a song like that not 15 minutes later.
Felix sat down on the stool, staring out at the pouring rain outside and he suddenly knew.
He was so screwed .
✒
“Felix.”
Felix didn’t hear.
“Felix!”
Felix jumped in his seat and sat up properly, looking to his left at Jisung who was squinting at him. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You were completely zoned out there, mate,” Jisung said. “I called you, like, three times.”
“Sorry, I’m just a little out of it today,” Felix sighed, leaning his head back on his hand.
It was the truth - kind of.
Felix was in his Science class where he was supposed to be focusing on his and Jisung’s Physics assignment that contributed over 20% of his overall grade, but he just couldn’t get himself to focus on the catapult he and Jisung were supposed to be building - Hyunjin sat across the other side of the room, chewing his lip as he busily typed away on his laptop and Felix couldn’t take his eyes off him.
Since that day in the Stables a week ago, Felix had been noticing Hyunjin around the yard and in the classes they shared more and more and Felix was certainly starting to realise that he had a big, fat crush on him.
“Come on , I can’t hold this catapult back by myself,” Jisung complained.
Felix sighed and turned to hold the catapult down for Jisung so he could tie it properly, but when Hyunjin simply took a sip from his water bottle, Felix accidentally let the catapult go and it flung the small pebble it held right into the side of his head.
✒
Felix wasn’t coping much better in his HaSS class. He didn’t have Jisung in that class with him to snap him out of his staring problems, so he got caught by the subject of his gaze many times, and he had to quickly busy himself with fixing his hair or looking anywhere else . He looked suspicious anyway.
“Okay, we only have 5 minutes left of the lesson, but I’d like you all to pair up,” Ms Keep said. “These will be your partners for your project on World War 2 and the Holocaust that puts 30% towards your grade, so make sure you pick wisely.”
The class stood up to start finding partners, but Felix wasn’t worried about that right now - he was rushing his ass off to finish writing down the notes that had been put up on the board that he had neglected to do until now, too busy staring at Hyunjin from across the room, like usual.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Felix muttered, hastily scrawling the notes down in his notepad.
He glanced up upon seeing a strong hand knock on his desk like a door. He panicked a little when he saw Hyunjin standing beside him, looking down at him with a soft smile.
“Hi,” Hyunjin smiled.
Felix felt his throat tighten a little. “Uh, hi.”
“I know we don’t exactly get along at Shakespeare Club, but wanna partner up?” Hyunjin asked.
Felix swallowed hard. “Uh…”
“And you can borrow my notes if you want,” Hyunjin added, holding up his HaSS book.
Felix looked up at the board to see Ms Keep had erased the notes from the board. “Fuck. Um… yeah, sure.”
Felix was internally panicking; how would he get any work done at all if Hyunjin was his partner? He was too beautiful to even hope to let Felix stay on task.
The bell rang loudly and Felix started gathering up his books and laptop, standing up.
“Where’s your locker?” Hyunjin asked. “We could go to the club together.”
Felix dug his thumbnail into his index finger behind his back. “Oh, just upstairs. You?”
“Downstairs. I’ll come up with you, we can go past mine on the way out,” Hyunjin said as they filed out of the classroom.
Felix nodded a little, trying not to blush too deeply. “Okay, sure.”
Hurrying up the stairs, Felix got to his locker quickly and grabbed his bag, Hyunjin waiting patiently behind him.
Slinging his bag over one shoulder, Felix then followed Hyunjin down to his locker so Hyunjin could get his bag, too.
“We only have five minutes,” Felix said, checking his watch as Hyunjin closed his locker.
Hyunjin snickered. “Nice, I’ll race you. Three-two-one-go!”
Felix gasped as Hyunjin took off down the hallway and out of the building and immediately sprinted off after him, yelling out that he was cheating.
“Hey, you’re cheating!” Felix yelled, running his absolute fastest to try and catch Hyunjin.
“Your reflexes must just be bad!” Hyunjin called over his shoulder as the two zigzagged through other students.
Felix almost caught Hyunjin in the final stretch but Hyunjin’s legs were long enough to go up the H Block stairs three at a time, ultimately beating Felix in the end.
“You totally cheated,” Felix huffed, trying to catch his breath.
“And yet you still raced me,” Hyunjin smiled, tapping the bottom of Felix’s chin before disappearing inside the classroom.
Felix felt his face go up in flames as he stood frozen. He couldn’t handle this.
Felix quickly hurried inside to sit at his usual table and Jisung chuckled at him from where he was draped across Minho. “Why are you so red?”
Felix waved his head. “I ran here again.”
“You’re never that red when you run places, did you have an interaction with a boy you like?” Minho asked.
Felix made offended sounds. “What??? No.”
“You’re lying,” Jisung sniffed, checking his nails.
“No I’m not,” Felix said.
“Do you take me for an idiot?” Jisung asked, squinting at his friend. “I have known you for over 18 years. I think I know when you’re lying.”
Felix groaned, rubbing his eyes. “Shut up.”
“Ha, so there is someone,” Minho said, pointing.
Felix groaned. “Maybe.”
“Oh, who is it?” Chan questioned, leaning his chin on his laced fingers.
“I’m not telling,” Felix sniffed, folding his arms. “You will all hate me for it.”
“Why would we hate you for it?” Jisung asked. “It’s not like we have a war going with anyone but them.” He gestured to the other table.
“Exactly,” Felix said, ignoring the others’ shocked expressions as Mr Rodes walked in.
“Good afternoon, my favourite fight club,” Mr Rodes joked, sitting down at the front. “I assume we’ve all read the last act of Romeo and Juliet like I asked?”
A chorus of ‘yes’s responded.
“And I hate to ask, but what did everyone think?” Mr Rodes asked.
“The ending only continued the cycle of violence and sorrow!” Jeongin called.
“But their deaths ended the fighting between the two families,” Chan argued.
“So? They still died because they’re stupid, young and in love,” Changbin retorted.
“Why are you so against love?!” Jisung demanded.
“That’s my opinion !” Changbin screamed.
“And it’s wrong!” Minho yelled.
“No one’s opinion is wrong!” Seungmin snapped. “Except yours !”
“It’s not opinion, it’s just plain fact ,” Felix debated.
“But they could have just taken a second and not killed themselves!” Hyunjin retorted. “Five minutes longer and Romeo could have had Juliet and they could have lived happily ever after!”
Felix bit his lip as the others on his table waited for him to shoot back a snippy remark. He had had no problem doing it a few weeks ago. And now he suddenly couldn’t.
Great .
✒
Felix lay face down on his bed, moaning and groaning into his pillow. He was probably ruining his uniform, but he didn’t care. Why could he suddenly not argue with Hyunjin? This was so stupid; he looked like a dumbass in front of everyone. He had really said ‘good point’. What the fuck was wrong with him?
“FELIX!”
Felix groaned and sat up, looking out his window to see Jisung with his own window open and demanding he open his.
Felix slid his window open. “WHAT?”
“WHAT WAS UP WITH YOU TODAY? WHY DIDN’T YOU ARGUE WITH HYUNJIN?” Jisung called over.
“I DON’T KNOW!” Felix called back. “HE MADE A GOOD POINT!”
“A G- A GOOD POINT?!” Jisung yelled. “WHAT HAVE THESE PAST FOUR WEEKS BEEN, A PRANCE IN THE MEADOW? WE HAVE DONE NOTHING BUT FIGHT WITH THOSE GUYS! YOU KNOW WHAT, I BET IT’S HYUNJIN THAT YOU LIKE.”
Felix turned into a tomato. “YEAH? WELL, SO WHAT IF IT IS?!”
“YOU’RE FALLING FOR SOMEONE ON THE OPPOSITE TEAM?!” Jisung yelled. “THEY THINK ROMEO AND JULIET IS ABOUT YOUNG IDIOTS! THEY ARE OUR SWORN ENEMIES! ”
“IRONIC, ISN’T IT?!” Felix called back. “BUT HE’S SWEET! AND HE ASKED ME TO BE HIS PARTNER FOR HaSS, SO THERE!”
“SURELY YOU SAID NO, RIGHT?!” Jisung asked.
“NOPE, I SAID YES!” Felix yelled, just as his phone buzzed with a text.
Unknown number: hey its hyunjin. wanna catch up at the city library tomorrow for our assignment
Felix turned red but looked back up at Jisung. “IN FACT, I’M GOING TO THE LIBRARY WITH HIM TOMORROW!”
“TRAITOR!” Jisung yelled back before ducking back into his room and closing his window.
Felix looked down at his phone when he got another text.
NotVirginBoy: im not actually mad - just gotta keep up appearances
NotVirginBoy: get that dick bby boy
Felix laughed, half amused and half grossed out.
TheOGVirginBoy: thats so gross
Felix quickly responded back to Hyunjin’s text, agreeing and not at all questioning how the taller got his number.
✒
“Hey, Felix!”
Felix turned to see Hyunjin jogging over to him. He felt his heart do a somersault. Hyunjin carried his laptop and a notebook and was in very casual clothes, some blue jeans and a white shirt accompanied by a cream crochet cardigan.
“Oh, hey Hyunjin.” Felix was glad he had decided to wear something casual, too, with baggy jeans and a hoodie with a bag with his things in it.
“You look great, let’s go,” Hyunjin said, nodding towards the library doors.
“Thanks, you, too,” Felix responded, but he was secretly dying.
The two headed inside and claimed a table by placing their bags down.
“Okay, I’ll go get some books on Hitler and will you find some on the Holocaust in general?” Hyunjin suggested, and Felix nodded.
Felix looked down a few aisles and, after searching alphabetically, he found the section he was looking for.
He gathered a few books up in the empty aisle and spotted one that would be perfect for their assignment question. He reached up for it and swore when he couldn’t reach it, even if he stood on his toes.
“Fuck,” he mumbled, still trying in vain to reach the book.
Suddenly, a large hand reached over his head and pulled the book down and Felix froze up when he recognised the cardigan sleeve that accompanied the hand. Felix slowly turned to see Hyunjin standing barely a few centimetres from him.
“Here,” Hyunjin said, handing Felix the book.
Felix glanced at the book, then to Hyunjin then back at the book. He slowly took it. “Um… thanks.”
He and Hyunjin stayed standing there for a moment before Felix panicked at the close proximity and hurried off, back to the desk they had claimed.
Hyunjin joined him soon after and sat down across from him.
Their study session went very smoothly from there on, staying mostly quiet and writing an abundance of notes they would later easily convert into paragraphs.
Felix was just finishing up his notes when he felt eyes on him. He looked up to find Hyunjin looking at him softly, leaning his cheek on his palm.
Felix chuckled nervously. “What?”
“Are you free tomorrow?”
Felix blinked. “Tomorrow? Uh, yeah I think so. Why, wanna smash this assignment out so we don’t have to work as much later?”
“No, I want to take you to a movie,” Hyunjin said, resting his elbows on the table.
Felix let out a small laugh, awkwardly trying to avoid and maintain eye contact at the same time. “What, like a study outing?”
“No, like a date,” Hyunjin said directly.
Felix looked at the taller for a long time, frozen in place. He eventually came to his senses. “Oh, um, y-yeah, sure. Wh… what movie?”
“Well, the cinema down the road is doing a rescreening of ‘10 Things I Hate About You’. We could go see that,” Hyunjin suggested.
Felix smiled, his cheeks burning. “I'd love to. That's one of my favourite movies.”
Hyunjin smiled. “Sweet. Pick you up at 6?”
Felix nodded with a grin. “I'll text you my address.”
“Alright,” Hyunjin winked, tapping under Felix’s chin and standing up, gathering his things. “See you then.”
✒
Felix, like he had been very often as of late, was in a state of panic.
What does one wear to a movie with their crush? Hyunjin had made it clear that it was a date but that only made it more difficult for Felix to choose.
At this point, it was almost 6 and Felix wasn’t even close to being ready. He had a white shirt and black pants with a flannel over the top, and he had let his little sister Olivia put a little make up on him, but was that enough? He supposed it would have to do because the doorbell rang and he was out of time.
He jumped down the stairs at least five at a time and jumped over the railing to get to the door before Olivia or Rachel got there first and tried to embarrass him, yet he still had to shove Rachel away from the door.
He hurriedly opened it to find Hyunjin standing with his hands in the pockets of baggy blue jeans with large white stars along them. The jeans were accompanied by a green and white shirt, the word Dartmouth over the block number 62.
“Hi,” Felix smiled.
Hyunjin smiled, his eyes seeming to soften significantly. “Hi.”
About then, Olivia catapulted herself onto Felix’s back. “Oh, is this him?? He’s cute, you did a good job, Lixxie.”
Felix burned bright red and forced Olivia to get off his back as Hyunjin chuckled. “Okay - Jesus - Olivia, go do your homework or something.”
Olivia winked and then scurried off.
“Sorry about her,” Felix laughed nervously.
“No, don’t worry about it,” Hyunjin smiled, pushing his thin-rimmed glasses up a little. “You look great, by the way.”
“Oh, uh, thanks, you too. Let me just grab my phone then we can go,” Felix said and Hyunjin nodded.
“Mum, Dad, I’m leaving!” Felix called as he grabbed his phone and slid it into his pocket.
“Alright, have fun!” his mother called out. “Be back by 11 at the latest!”
“Okay, thanks!” Felix called.
He quickly left through the door, closing it behind him and smiled at Hyunjin.
Hyunjin nodded over to his car. “Alright. Let’s go.”
When they arrived, Felix insisted he pay for his own ticket because he had a job and his own money but Hyunjin physically restrained the shorter from paying as he tapped his card on the EFTPOS machine, the poor employee looking rather worried.
“Come on, that’s so unfair,” Felix complained as they walked down the corridor in search of their cinema number.
“Your company is plenty payment within itself,” Hyunjin smiled, tapping under Felix’s chin and turning through the door into their cinema.
Felix was glad the cinema was dark enough that the blush on his cheeks wasn’t so noticeable.
✒
“I love that movie so much,” Felix sighed as they left the cinema. “It’s so romantic.”
“I’ll have to agree with you,” Hyunjin sighed. “Hey, there’s a Cha Time not too far from here - wanna get bubble tea?”
Felix quickly nodded and followed Hyunjin down the street and into the Cha Time. This time, Felix insisted on paying and fought tooth and nail to get to the EFTPOS machine first and luckily succeeded.
The two got their drinks and decided to walk around a little while they drank. They ended up finding a cute bench in a quiet park to sit on.
“So tell me,” Felix said, his knees curled up to his chest. “Why do you think Romeo and Juliet is stupid?”
Hyunjin chuckled, shaking his head. “I don’t think it’s stupid; it’s actually my favourite Shakespeare play. I just think the play should be a little less romanticised - they killed themselves rather than waiting five minutes. You know?”
“I suppose,” Felix said, taking a sip of his drink. “But… It is romantic. I understand that they were a little irrational, but they would have rather been dead than live without each other. Isn’t that so beautiful that they really couldn’t see a future without the other per-”
He was cut off by a pair of lips on his.
When Hyunjin pulled away, Felix was in a state of shock. He was completely frozen and staring at Hyunjin with wide eyes.
“Sorry,” Hyunjin chuckled. “You’re just so pretty when you talk about things you love.”
Felix shook his head, putting his drink down and moving his legs out of the way. “No, it’s okay.”
He leaned over again and connected their lips again, sliding his arms around Hyunjin’s shoulders as the taller pulled him closer, his own drink also abandoned.
“You taste like strawberry,” Hyunjin mumbled when the two pulled back for air.
“I wonder why that is,” Felix giggled, gesturing to his strawberry bubble tea.
“Either way, it’s nice,” Hyunjin smiled, dragging Felix closer by the waist so he was sitting between his legs. “ You're nice.”
“You’re pretty nice, too,” Felix hummed.
“Tragic, though, isn’t it?” Hyunjin asked, his arms still resting around Felix’s waist. “We’ve fallen for each other but alas, we are on the opposing sides of a warring club that can’t agree on who’s right about Romeo and Juliet. ”
“I guess it’s up to us to fix the club, then,” Felix smiled.
“I wouldn’t mind that,” Hyunjin grinned, leaning back in.
They sat there in each other's arms for a long time after that.
✒
“THEY FUCKED AND WERE BARELY TEENAGERS!” Seungmin yelled.
“SO WHAT?!” Chan yelled back. “IT WASN’T ILLEGAL!!”
Felix and Hyunjin had been glancing back and forth at each other the whole time and Felix was still feeling a little red when Hyunjin would send him a wink or something of the sort.
“IT’S FUCKING WEIRD!” Jeongin argued.
“Guys,” Felix said, suddenly standing up.
“What!” Everyone but Hyunjin yelled in unison.
“Do you realise how stupid this is?” he asked.
“Pardon?” Minho asked.
“No, he’s right,” Hyunjin said, standing from his seat, too. “We’re arguing over nothing.”
“You’re taking his side?!” Changbin demanded.
“Yes, I am,” Hyunjin said, placing his hands on the table.
“Yes!” Mr Rodes basically yelled. “Listen to them!”
“We’re not joking, this is getting out of hand,” Felix said. “This is dumb, and we should just try to respect everyone’s choices and move past this,” Felix said.
“Felix is right,” Hyunjin nodded. “This is getting stupid. Let’s just try to get along.”
“Why are you two suddenly teaming up against us??” Chan asked.
“Yeah, why?!” Jeongin demanded.
“Because they’re boyfriend-boyfriend,” Jisung said in a singsong voice.
“WHAT.”
“Fine, it’s true, Hyunjin and I are dating, but-” Felix started before he was cut off.
“Oh my God, this is exactly like Romeo and Juliet, this is crazy!” Changbin yelled.
“I ship it so hard!” Minho yelled.
“They’re right!” Chan said, standing up and walking over to the other table. “We shouldn’t fight over this.”
He held his hand out to Changbin who nodded and shook it. “I agree.”
Felix and Hyunjin blinked at each other.
“Did we just fix everything?” Felix asked.
“I think so…” Hyunjin said.
Mr Rodes looked like he was about to cry as the two tables got up and shook hands in a peaceful truce, apologies were said, hugs were given and mothers were complimented. “Oh, thank God.”