6

The hangover hit harder than expected.

Felix sat on the edge of the bed, face in his hands, groaning into the morning silence. His head throbbed, his stomach was queasy, and his legs felt like jelly.

He barely remembered falling asleep. Just some hazy images — the arcade, laughing too hard, too many drinks. After that?

Nothing.

And for some reason, that nothing nagged at him.

Still, despite feeling like a zombie, he forced himself up, brushed his teeth with his eyes closed, and stumbled downstairs. Maybe food would help.

He walked toward the kitchen, still wearing a huge hoodie and socks, his hair an absolute disaster. That’s when he heard voices.

“—I don’t care if it’s too early, he’s going to wake up with a migraine the size of a truck,” came Hyunjin’s voice.

Felix paused behind the wall, blinking through the fuzz in his brain.

“But sir, we’ve already prepared—”

“I’ll do it myself. Just give me a pan.”

The maid froze. “...You’ll what?”

Hyunjin’s tone was flat. “Are you deaf?”

Felix peeked around the corner.

Hyunjin stood there in a loose white shirt and black sweats, his hair messier than usual. He looked annoyingly perfect for someone who’d also been drinking.

But what really shocked Felix was the way Hyunjin turned at the sound of his footsteps.

“Oh. Morning,” Hyunjin said casually.

Felix mumbled, “Morning…” rubbing his eyes.

Hyunjin took one look at him, sighed, then grabbed a glass of water from the counter, dropped two hangover tablets into it, and walked over.

“You look like a dying cartoon character.”

Felix frowned. “Thanks.”

“Drink this.”

Felix took it, blinking. “What is it?”

“Magic potion. Or just electrolytes. Who knows?”

He chugged it down, grateful anyway.

When he looked back up, Hyunjin had already turned back to the stove.

Felix blinked. “...Are you cooking?”

The maids looked just as stunned as he felt.

“Apparently,” one of them whispered like it was national news.

Hyunjin ignored everyone and cracked two eggs into a pan.

“Sit down,” he said without looking. “Unless you want to pass out face-first into the counter.”

Felix sat. Dazed. Watching Hyunjin move around the kitchen like a half-grumpy, half-mysterious househusband.

He looked way too confident with a spatula in his hand. And yet — the omelet was not going well.

“Do you even know what you’re doing?”

“No,” Hyunjin said. “But I watched a video once.”

“That’s terrifying.”

“Shut up.”

The kitchen smelled like burnt butter and shame. But when Hyunjin finally slid a lopsided omelet onto a plate and dropped it in front of Felix, the maids were still watching from a distance like they were witnessing the second coming of Christ.

Felix looked down at the plate, then up at Hyunjin.

“You made this... for me?”

Hyunjin rolled his eyes. “Don’t die of shock. I just didn’t want to hear you vomiting around the house all day.”

But Felix smiled softly anyway. “Still. Thanks.”

Hyunjin paused. His expression faltered for just a split second.

Then he turned away.

“Don’t mention it.”

He didn’t say it — but he remembered everything.And watching Felix now, smiling at his half-burnt omelet like it meant something?

Yeah.It was going to be a lot harder pretending that it didn’t.

---

Felix was still sitting at the kitchen counter, poking at the lopsided omelet with a fork like it was sacred.

Hyunjin had already disappeared upstairs, leaving behind a kitchen full of stunned maids and the faint smell of burnt butter. Felix hadn’t touched the food yet — not because it looked bad, but because something about Hyunjin making it felt… strange.

Strange in a way he didn’t hate.

He shook the thought away just as footsteps approached.

“Good morning.”

Felix turned slightly, blinking at the figure that appeared beside him.

Minho, hair neatly styled and dressed in a slate gray button-down, leaned casually against the island counter. His voice was soft, concerned.

“You okay?” he asked, giving a small smile. “You were pretty out of it last night.”

Felix flushed a little. “Yeah… kinda pieced that together.”

Minho chuckled. “No shame. Chan brought like four different bottles, and Hyunjin never knows when to stop pouring.”

Felix looked up at him. “Did I do anything stupid?”

“Well…” Minho grinned. “You were a bit clingy.”

Felix groaned. “Ugh. Did I embarrass you?”

“No,” Minho said, voice gentler this time. “I thought it was cute.”

That made Felix pause. His ears burned just slightly as he looked back down at his plate.

He pushed the omelet with his fork. “Hyunjin made me breakfast.”

Minho raised an eyebrow. “He what?”

“Yup,” one of the maids piped up from the corner. “With his own hands. Even flipped it.”

Minho blinked like he’d heard a ghost story.

“Wow. Okay. Didn’t see that coming.”

Felix gave him a look. “Is that weird?”

Minho shook his head, still processing it. “Just… surprising. Hyunjin doesn’t even toast his own bread. He must really—”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Felix tilted his head. “He must really…?”

“Nothing.” Minho cleared his throat. “Maybe he was just being nice. You two are getting along better now, right?”

Felix nodded slowly, unsure.

“Yeah, I guess.”

But in the back of his mind, the thought lingered.Hyunjin doesn't even toast his own bread...So why cook for him?

---

The house was calm that evening — too calm.

Felix had tried everything to distract himself. He’d scrolled through his phone, walked around the garden, even attempted to sketch something on a blank notebook page.

But boredom clawed at him.

Or maybe… it wasn’t boredom.Maybe it was curiosity.Or maybe it was him again.

Felix sighed, slipping into the hallway and wandering aimlessly until a faint, unfamiliar sound pulled him from his thoughts — a voice. Low and warm. Followed by—

Laughter.

Not loud or dramatic, but genuine. Unfiltered.

His brows furrowed. That voice... was Hyunjin's?

He followed it, carefully, toward the east hallway. It wasn’t coming from Hyunjin’s studio, or his room. It was—

Grandma’s room?

The door was slightly open, just enough to let the light spill into the hallway.

Felix approached without a sound, gently peeking inside.And then he froze.

There he was.

Hyunjin.

Laid out across the bed, head resting peacefully in their grandma’s lap. His long legs dangled off the edge while his eyes were half-closed, a lazy smile tugging at his lips as she ran her fingers through his hair.

“You were such a moody child,” Grandma was saying, a teasing glint in her voice.

“I still am,” Hyunjin grinned.

“And dramatic—”

“Artistically passionate,” he corrected, laughing again.

Felix’s heart stuttered.

He’d never seen Hyunjin like this.

Soft. Safe. Home.

The way his smile curved gently, the way his eyes crinkled just slightly, the subtle dimples that only appeared when he truly let go — this wasn’t the man who insulted him in the kitchen, who rolled his eyes at everything, who smoked like the world annoyed him.

This was someone else.

Someone real.

“You can come in, dear,” Grandma’s voice called, her eyes already on him.

Felix flinched, caught red-handed.

Hyunjin turned, meeting his gaze, his smile fading into something more neutral — not cold, not warm, just… still.

Felix stepped in slowly, cheeks tinted red. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop—”

“Nonsense,” Grandma smiled. “It’s good you’re here. Come, sit.”

He walked over hesitantly and sat at the far end of the bed. He could still feel Hyunjin’s eyes on him.

“You alright?” Grandma asked kindly.

Felix nodded. “Yeah… just wandering.”

A brief silence settled. Not awkward, just unfamiliar.

Hyunjin turned his head away and exhaled softly through his nose, eyes now tracing the ceiling.

Grandma’s fingers never stopped brushing through his hair.

“You know,” she said, smiling at Felix, “he was such a stubborn boy. Always trying to grow up too fast. But he still sneaks into my room like this when he needs peace.”

Hyunjin gave a quiet groan. “Why are you telling him that?”

“Because you act like the whole world can’t touch you,” she said gently, “but we all know that’s not true.”

Felix looked at him quietly.

The Hyunjin he knew was full of edges. But here, for once, he looked... soft.

He smiled, just a little. Not at Hyunjin. Just to himself.

Because for the first time since moving into this house —Felix felt like he’d seen the real version of him.

-------

[Time skip]

The sky was fading into a deep, velvet blue, stars slowly poking through the dark as if testing the quiet of the night.

Felix and Hyunjin sat at the back of the house, legs dipped halfway into the pool, the water cool against their skin. The backyard lights cast a soft, golden glow around them. Behind the hedges, cicadas buzzed gently. Somewhere distant, a car passed on the road, its hum quickly swallowed by silence again.

They hadn’t spoken for a while.

Felix swirled his toes under the water, then glanced at Hyunjin — just a side glance, quick.

Hyunjin had his arms propped behind him, head slightly tilted back, face unreadable as usual.

He looked calm. But something about the set of his jaw felt tight. Like he wasn’t really calm at all.

Felix looked away, but not before Hyunjin's eyes flicked over to catch him. Their gazes locked for a beat —and then Felix chuckled softly to himself and shook his head.

“What?” Hyunjin asked.

“Nothing.”

“Don’t do that.”

Felix raised a brow. “Do what?”

“That thing where you act like you're not thinking something.”

Felix let out a breath. “Fine.” He glanced at him again. “I was just thinking... it’s weird how you’re actually tolerable when you’re quiet.”

Hyunjin scoffed, lips twitching. “You're lucky I don’t throw you into the pool right now.”

Felix smirked. “You’d have to catch me first.”

Hyunjin turned his head fully now, giving him a look. “Please. You’d trip over your own feet before I even tried.”

Felix laughed under his breath, and for a second, they both smiled at each other.

But something shifted then.

The air thickened — not in a heavy way, but in the kind of way that makes your heart beat faster without warning. The smiles faded slowly, but neither of them looked away.

Their knees brushed under the water. Neither moved.

Hyunjin’s gaze dropped.

To Felix’s mouth.

And when Felix noticed, his own breath hitched.

He should’ve said something. Teased him. Laughed it off.

But he didn’t.

Hyunjin leaned in first — just barely. Like he was giving him a chance to move, to say no.

Felix didn’t.

He leaned in too.

The kiss happened in the quietest second — not soft, not tentative — but warm, wet, and full of things neither of them could explain right now.

Hyunjin’s hand found the side of Felix’s jaw, thumb brushing damp skin as his mouth pressed harder, lips parting as if he needed more — more of this, more of him.

Felix responded without hesitation. One hand curled against Hyunjin’s shirt, still slightly damp from earlier. The world fell away with the first deep breath through their noses and the gentle sighs between every stolen second.

And when they finally pulled apart, barely an inch between them, both breathing hard —

Felix didn’t speak.Neither did Hyunjin.

They just stared at each other, caught in something that hadn’t even begun to make sense.

Then, Hyunjin cleared his throat, leaning back slightly and swiping his fingers through his wet hair.

Felix stared down at the water.

“That just…” he mumbled.

“Didn’t happen,” Hyunjin said flatly, already standing up, pulling himself out of the pool.

Felix looked up. “Right.”

Hyunjin grabbed a towel off the nearby bench, throwing another one toward him without looking.

“Dry off before you get sick,” he said, tone already back to that emotionless drawl as he walked away.

Felix stayed there, still half in the water, towel across his lap.

Fingers brushed his lips.

It was just a kiss.

It didn’t mean anything.

Right?

-------

The room was too quiet.

The kind of quiet that felt loud — like every breath echoed, like even the sheets made too much noise when he turned over.

Felix sighed, turning onto his side for the fifth time that night.

The moonlight spilled in through the sheer curtains, pale and silver across his floor. The digital clock on his nightstand blinked: 2:17 a.m.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying again to focus on anything else —on the hum of the ceiling fanon the faint chirping outsideon the fact that tomorrow he promised to help Ms. Hwang with the flower arrangements.

But none of it helped.

Because every time he blinked, it replayed —the kiss.

The way the water had made Hyunjin’s hair cling to his forehead.The way his hand had curled around Felix’s jaw like he’d done it before.The way his lips had tasted — sharp and warm and too real.

Felix rolled onto his back and groaned softly into the pillow.

“That wasn’t even a real kiss,” he mumbled to no one.

But his hand moved, almost on its own — brushing against his lips, gentle. Like his skin remembered more than he wanted it to.

He turned again, burying his face deeper into the sheets.

“It didn’t happen.”

That’s what Hyunjin said.

He didn’t look affected. Didn’t stutter or pause. Just stood up and walked away like it was nothing.

And maybe it was nothing.

Just heat.Just a moment.Just stupid tension in the dark.

But still…

Why couldn’t he stop thinking about it?

Felix let out a shaky breath and stared at the ceiling.

His heart hadn’t stopped racing since they got back.

He wasn’t even supposed to like Hyunjin.Hyunjin was… rude. Cold. Arrogant. Always moody. Always judging.

But tonight…

He looked happy.Genuine.Soft.

And maybe that was the worst part.

Because it made Felix want to see that version again.

It made him want to feel that again.

Even if it was a mistake.Even if it could ruin everything.

Even if it already had.

-------