Off Key

#4

Everyone looked at each other, all thinking the same thing.

"Nah"

"Sure"

"Eh why not"

"No thanks"

People let out different responses, making Chan drop his head. He took a big sigh and continued. "Okay, who said yes?"

Jisung, Jeongin, Changbin and Felix raised their hands. They all looked at each other and smiles grew on their faces, now feeling more excited.

Chan's now put his attention on the rest of the guys. "Okay, Seungmin, why aren't you joining?" Chan asked with his arms crossed. " I have to focus on my studies, I can't get busy doing some random stuff.." Seungmin said with a little disappointment in his tone of voice. He knows that his father won't let him, sing, let alone join a band, even if he desperately wanted to.

Chan sighed, now moving onto the next person. "Alright, Hyunjin, what's your excuse?"  Hyunjin just shrugged with his arms crossed. "I don't have time for a lame band." Hyunjin did like the idea of the band, also if that meant hearing Seungmin singing, but once he saw him not raising his hand when Chan asked the question, he gave up.

"Is that really all?" "Yes now next person CHAN!" Chan rolled his eyes at Hyunjin's defensive state, now moving onto Minho. "Alright, Minho, how about you?" Chan asked with pleading eyes. Minho looked at Chan giving zero fucks.

Minho was about to respond until his eyes wandered towards the person in front of him. He suddenly made eye contact with him but quickly averted his eyes from him. "Sorry, but I don't do music." Minho saying finally. Jisung noticed Minho's hesitation when giving his response. Interesting..

Suddenly the teacher walked in and announced that it was time to leave, leaving right after. Chan hadn't even noticed or looked at the time, he was too busy enjoying himself. He was getting his stuff ready when he spoke up.

"Guys, can you at least-" he heard the classroom door shut and looked up seeing Changbin, Felix, Jeongin and Jisung. "We should probably exchange numbers." Everyone looked at Jeongin curiously since his attention was only on Chan. He notice all eyes on him and quickly corrected himself. " I-I meant all of us, like a group chat."

"That's a great idea... what's your name cutie?" Chan said while taking his phone out of his pocket. "J-Jeongin.. Yang Jeongin." Jeongin didn't know why he was stuttering so much, he's usually never shy actually, but something with Chan made him a panicky mess.

"Jeongin, okay, put your number down, and pass it to the rest." He handed him his phone and saw him enter his number. "Okay and the rest of your names are?"Jisung now having the phone and being the last person to enter his number handed it back to Chan. "Jisung." "Changbin" "Felix" Chan looked at them and nodded his head.

"Okay, I'll be the one to make the group chat and... could any of you guys convince the rest?" "Well, I don't really know them that well.." Changbin said scratching the back of his neck. "Well, I could talk to Minho, he's my brother." Felix said shrugging his shoulders. Everyone looked at Felix in confusion and were surprised. "You guys are related?" Jeongin said thinking to himself how. "Oh well, yeah- uh it's a long story for another time." Felix said giving the rest a reassuring smile.

After that, they all headed their separate ways expecting a text from Chan soon.

~~~

Felix was on his way walking home, he heard someone call his name. "FELIX!" He stopped in his tracks and turned around to see Chan running after him. "Hey, Chan.. did you need something?" Chan looked at him a little embarrassed for what he was about to ask. "Well I was just curious... by any chance are you a foreigner... it's just cause I noticed you have an accent when speaking Korean.."

"Oh, yeah, I'm from Australia." Chan's eyes went wide and a big smile grew on his face. "Wait really?" Chan said responding in English. "Wait- are you Australian too?" "Yeah mate!" Felix couldn't contain his excitement and started jumping up and down holding onto Chan's arms.

The two started walking to Felix's house, chatting and switching back and forth to English and Korean. It seemed like they were in their own little world talking away and time going by slowly. They arrived to Felix's house, sadly, because Felix still wanted to talk with Chan and so did he. "Well, here's my house, you should head home now Chan, it's really late and your parents might get worried" Chan laughed a little shaking his head.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine." "Okay, if you insist." Felix turned around heading to his door but stopped. He turned around and looked at Chan and walked over to him, giving him a tight hug. This came as a shock to Chan but he didn't hesitate giving the younger a hug. He soon heard little sniffles coming from Felix. Chan took Felix's face into his hands. "Hey, hey, what's wrong?"

Felix nodded his head making Chan wipe the tears away with his thumbs. "I- just- thank you." Felix said while giving Chan another big hug. Chan looked up at the stars, eyes watering a little but he wouldn't let his tears be released. "Hey, I should be thanking you.." Chan said closing his eyes and enjoying the moment.

They said their goodbyes and Felix entered his house, hurried up the stairs and opened his window, waving to Chan goodbye. Chan found the younger adorable as he waved back.

Felix sighed closing his window and headed to Minho's room. He needed to have a talk with him, regarding the band and Chan. He knocked on his door quietly not wanting to wake up anybody else who was in the house. Minho heard the knock on the door and was surprised since when he got home, nobody was there.

He walked up from his desk and opened the door revealing, Felix. "Oh, when did you get home?" Felix entered Minho's room and plopped himself right in the center of Minho's big bed. "Just now." Minho closed his door and walked over to his bed. "Hey, Yongbok, move over." Felix moved over resulting in Minho jumping onto his bed and onto Felix. "Your heavy, get off me." Felix said laughing but coughing at the same time.

"No, you're very comfy, you're my new pillow." Minho said with his eyes closed. "No seriously get off I want to talk to you." Minho heard the seriousness in Felix's tone of voice and laid beside him. "Look, if this is about this morning, I don't want to talk about it.." Felix looked at him confused about what he was talking about.

"What, no.. I wanted to talk about detention and something else." Minho got up from the bed and laid his head on the headboard, patting the empty space next to him. Felix sat beside his brother, ready to listen.

"You know why I'm not doing the whole band thing..it's been years." "But Minho, I saw you in detention, I saw the Minho I once knew and loved, I saw him having the time of his life with people he had just met and music... the thing he once loved" Minho listened to Felix's words carefully, not wanting to miss a single word he said.

Minho sighed and rested his head on Felix's shoulder. "It just hurts too much." Felix put his arm around Minho and patting his hair. Felix knew exactly how much it hurt, since it happened to him too, he just had already gotten used to it the first time around. "I know, Minho, I know."

Minho and Felix's heads turned towards the direction of the door as it was slowly opening, revealing Chaeryeong. "Oh, what are you guys doing?" Chaeryeong asked dropping onto the bed as well. "Dad.." Minho said with a sad aura around him. Chaeryeong's mood suddenly dropped into a sad one as well. Felix noticed Chaeryeong's change of expression and signaled her to sit between him and Minho.

Both the boys moved slightly for Chaeryong. Chaeryeong sat in between them and held their hands. They sat there for a couple minutes in a silence, not an awkward one but a comforting one, until Felix spoke. "So, I found out Chan's Australian..." Minho and Chaeryeong's attention went immediately to Felix and looked at him in a panic. "Are you alright?" Minho said reaching for his hand. "I'm good, we had a heart to heart conversation.."

"But did you tell him about.." Chaeryeong said thinking about how to choose and say her next words carefully. "No, no I didn't mention that, it's too early..."Felix says pondering on his past. "You know that whatever you choose to do, we'll be okay.." Felix looked at Minho and gave him a reassuring smile, laying his head on Chaeryeong's shoulder.

That night they all fell asleep in Minho's bed hugging each other. What they didn't know was that someone else was watching them.