fading red ¦ (ji?)chanlix

chapter IV

"What's going on!!?" I started full-on sobbing as I heard Minho's voice.

---

chan's pov

Serves him right. No way he thought he could actually talk to me like that.

And now my members getting concerned was seriously pissing me off. I motioned for Minho to come over, unfazed by the murderous look on his face. 

"Tell me you didn't?" He muttered under his breath.

"I did." Minho let out a loud groan, raking his hand through his hair. "Dumbass! I literally have inform-"

"Don't tell me you think you can badmouth me too now," I interrupted with little bite in my tone.

 I didn't really have a problem with my members playing around with each other and myself, but it felt like they were going against me.

They knew I didn't trust Felix, yet they exposed their soft sides to him almost instantly.

Minho sighed. "No, I'm not. But Chan Hyung, I think you need a break." He told me, eyeing Felix on the floor. Wait- was he sobbing? I didn't even hit him that hard.

There's no reason for him to be all melodramatic, now. "Jisung, get away from him!" I hissed, taking Jisung's arm and manoeuvering him away from the crying boy. 

Everyone froze, waiting for Jisung's reaction.

He yanked out of my grip, causing the tense air to grow even tenser.

 "Chan Hyung, stop! Look at him!" He pointed harshly at Felix, who wouldn't even care to look around and see the cause of the sudden change in the room.

"I see him crying. What else?" I asked flatly. Seungmin scoffed from where he was. "Chan, how does he even look guilty to you?"

"You must be seeing someone different than the rest of us." Changbin chimed in. I gazed at I.N now, confident he wouldn't question my actions.

But my confidence faltered as he edged closer to Hyunjin, who was looking reproachfully at me.

 Was Felix really tearing this group apart?

I glanced at every one of my friend's faces until swinging around to walk to my bedroom. "Wait, Hyung." It was Minho.

"I have the information. Look at it..please." I slowly took the cream-colored folder from his hand before continuing to go to my bedroom. 

I'd deal with this later.

---

felix's pov

I stayed kneeling on the ground for most of their conversation. Them backing me up didn't make me feel any better, though. In fact, it made me feel incredibly worse.

They didn't need to defend me, I could defend myself. There was no use, anyway. 

Chan wouldn't budge, and of course, because of my dumb luck, I had to be the victim of his horrible stubbornness.

I chuckled dryly, not bothering to wipe my tears away as I lifted my head. 

"You shouldn't have done that. Now he'll think I'm ruining your gang's bond. Which I could care less about." I narrowed my eyes specifically at Jisung.

"You thought you were helping me, but you made it worse."

Everyone in the room looked at the ground, and I shook my head. 

"I don't need your sympathy. Minho, I know you found information that could change Chan's view of me, and I need you to find a way for him to look at it as soon as possible."

Minho raised his eyebrows. Seeing his reaction, I rolled my eyes. 

"I just need to get on his good side so I can get out of here as soon as possible."

You guessed it by now, right? My defense mechanism. Acting like I don't care at all. It isn't the best, but sometimes it's all I can afford.

I wouldn't let them show kindness to me so openly from now on. Not unless it helped me get on Chan's preferred side.

I did feel sort of guilty for making them think I didn't care for them, but what if I really didn't? They hadn't thought to speak up until Chan struck me..

I had to be cold. Which wasn't so hard since I've done it for years.

I had to play smart, too.

---

jisung's pov

I frowned. What was with the sudden change in attitude? Before he would still be accepting of us, excluding Chan. 

But the look in his eyes now was..blank. I couldn't read him anymore.

Considering what he had gone through before this, it makes sense he's good at hiding his true feelings. 

I moved toward him, but Changbin put a hand on my shoulder. "No," he mouthed silently.

I obliged. Maybe Felix needed some time alone, too.

I flicked my gaze to Minho, not really surprised to see him staring back. He was thinking the same thing, wasn't he? 

Chan was acting on his gut feeling instead of his brain.

In the business we dealt with, sometimes that was necessary, but not in times like these.

Hyunjin sighed, and I saw him wrap an arm around I.N's shoulder. "Felix..if you want, I can take you to a room, then," Minho offered. 

Felix kept silent, and Minho took that as a sign to continue.

"We'll make him read that portfolio one way or another, okay? Don't worry about it." With that, he helped Felix up and they walked up the stairs together.

I watched them go, and once they were out of sight, I plopped down on the couch. Seungmin followed, landing next to me.

 "Chan's a big mess...and when he realizes, I don't think an apology is going to cut it for Felix," I told everyone, happy when they all nodded in obvious agreement.

"I ship them," Changbin blurted. All four heads spun to him.

"Hyung- what?"

notes : sorry, i had updated in ao3 but i took a little break bc something happened with my family