Chapter Text
Lee Felix Yongbok was convinced the universe hated him.
He made sure Hyunjin knew that too, because the moment he barged into his best friend’s room, he threw himself face-first onto the bed with a sound that could only be described as the death wail of a Victorian child who lost his bread.
“I can’t believe it!” Felix muffled into Hyunjin’s blanket, limbs splayed like a crime scene outline. “Another one! Gone! Blocked me after ONE date!”
Hyunjin, sitting cross-legged on the floor and sketching in his notebook, barely flinched. This wasn’t the first time Felix showed up like this. In fact, the boy had a talent for being overdramatic before dinner.
“Good evening to you too,” Hyunjin said dryly, twirling his pencil. “What happened this time? Did you tell him you collect frog keychains again?”
Felix peeled his face off the blanket just enough to glare at him. “First of all, frog keychains are adorable. Second, no. He said I was ‘too clingy.’”
“After one date?”
“Yes! ONE DATE!” Felix rolled onto his back, hands flailing in the air like he was casting a curse. “What does that even MEAN, Hyune?! I literally just texted him good morning, good night, and sent a meme of a raccoon in a blanket. That’s normal human affection!”
Hyunjin bit back a laugh. He wanted to tell Felix that his idea of “normal affection” was what most people would call “relationship-level commitment.” But instead, he hummed and kept sketching, pretending his chest didn’t ache at the way Felix’s pout deepened.
God, he was doomed. He’d been doomed since they were kids. Since Felix waddled into his life with cookie crumbs on his cheeks and that ridiculous sunshine smile. And now here he was—Hyunjin, twenty-one years old, best friend to the boy of his dreams, forced to sit through another Felix heartbreak.
“I’m never gonna find someone,” Felix groaned, throwing an arm dramatically over his face like he was auditioning for a K-drama. “I’m gonna die alone, Hyunjinie. My funeral playlist is already ready. It’s just going to be lo-fi beats and rain sounds.”
Hyunjin snorted. “You’re so extra.”
“I’m serious!” Felix shot up suddenly, sitting cross-legged on the bed with fiery determination in his eyes. “That’s it. I’ve had enough of leaving it to fate. Starting tonight—” He paused for dramatic effect, pointing a finger to the ceiling. “—I’m downloading Tinder.”
Hyunjin froze mid-sketch. “…You’re what?”
“Tinder!” Felix whipped out his phone like he was announcing the invention of electricity. “I’m taking charge of my love life! If the universe won’t send me love, then fine—I’ll swipe my way to it.”
Hyunjin stared at him, deadpan. “Yongbokie. That app is literally 80% dudes looking for hookups.”
“Then I’ll find the 20% who aren’t!” Felix declared with the confidence of someone about to be catfished. “I believe in true love, Hyunjinnie.”
Hyunjin dropped his pencil and pinched the bridge of his nose. He wanted to laugh, he really did. But mostly, he wanted to scream. Or maybe confess right here and now that Felix didn’t need Tinder because the person who loved him most was sitting three feet away, trying not to combust every time Felix called him Hyune in that soft, sun-warmed voice.
But he didn’t say any of that. Because what was he supposed to do? Risk ruining twenty-one years of friendship on a gamble that Felix felt the same? No thanks.
“Yongbok-ah,” Hyunjin said carefully, “maybe just… wait? You don’t need to rush this whole dating thing.”
“Yes, I do!” Felix flopped back onto the bed dramatically, arms spread like a tragic painting. “Hyunjin, I’m twenty-one! My love life is a barren wasteland. A desert with no water. An empty K-drama set after the finale!”
Hyunjin rolled his eyes, but his chest ached anyway. If only Felix knew that someone had been loving him quietly all along.
Before Hyunjin could respond, the bedroom door creaked open, and in walked Lee Minho, Felix’s older brother, wearing pajama pants, holding a mug of tea, and wearing the permanent expression of I’m surrounded by idiots.
“What’s with all the shouting?” Minho asked lazily, leaning against the doorframe.
“Lix is trying to ruin his life,” Hyunjin muttered.
“I’m downloading Tinder,” Felix announced proudly, like he was running for office.
Minho blinked. Took a sip of tea. And then, in true Minho fashion, dropped a nuclear bomb in the calmest voice possible:
“You don’t need Tinder when the person you’re looking for is literally next door.”
Felix blinked. “Huh?”
Hyunjin nearly swallowed his own tongue. “WHAT?”
Minho shrugged, completely unbothered, and turned to leave. “Figure it out, dumbass.”
Felix shot up like a meerkat. “Wait—what does that mean?! Next door? Like… our neighbor? That old lady who gives us kimchi?!”
Hyunjin stared at him. Dead inside. Screaming internally.
“…Yeah,” Hyunjin said flatly, grabbing his pencil again like his life depended on it. “Totally her.”
Felix frowned. “That’s weird, hyung never says random stuff like that.”
Hyunjin forced a laugh. “You’d be surprised.”
Felix hummed, clearly confused, before suddenly brightening again as he opened the app store. “Anyway, back to what matters—swiping for my future husband!”
Hyunjin stared at him for three seconds, then dramatically face-planted into his sketchbook.
This was going to kill him.