Rose mark || Stray kids Vampire AU

11. The New Trainee part 2

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At lunch

Sitting around their usual table, the team eats their lunch in friendly bickering. Jisung, as usual, is making loud jokes and laughing for the entire JYP cafeteria to hear, only to turn red and pull himself back when Seungmin points it out to him. Jeongin starts laughing at him, and Hyunjin joins in. Felix however, has other things on his mind.
He notices a pair of eyes on him, and looks up to meet Changbin's look.

"Wanna have a taste my chicken?" he asks, and Felix is left processing his question several seconds later.

"Yeah? Is it good?" he finally asks, and notices the way Changbin's expression turns lighter as he engages in the conversation.

Felix, an empath, senses that Changbin is trying to lift his mood after noticing how quiet he was, which Felix is grateful for. He's always grateful for Changbin's naturally caring attitude, and the fact that he is only a year older than himself and the other 00' liners. Although he doesn't want to admit it out loud, Chan's overprotectiveness can often be suffocating, and in those cases, Changbin acts like a connecting led in between younger members and the oldest of the group.

"Yeah, it's one hundred percent organic, of course" he says as he transfers a piece of chicken into the younger's plate.

"Thanks-"

Felix's words are drowned in the sudden commotion towards the entrance of the cafeteria. All seven boys turn to look at the source of it.

It doesn't take long for Chan to stand up and make his way over to the loud group almost blocking the entrance. The others follow suit.

"-heard they're a dancer"

"-they're not gonna debut, they're too old"

"Why even accept a new male trainee now?"

"-but I heard they're really good-"

The bickering continues, especially among the girls.

"Yah, Chaeryoung-ah" Chan calls out to a young female trainee once he reaches the group.

"Yeah?" she says, turning to Chan and his group. Like many, she has always considered Chan to be the most intimidating trainee of them all, never mind him coming with the entirety of his self-made group behind him.

"What's going on?" he asks, and pints out "Everybody's being so loud."

"Ah, right. A new male trainee is apparently showing off in the practice rooms. The big one downstairs" she explains.

Not missing a second, the entire team take the stairs down to the room.

"A new trainee, huh?" Felix thinks to himself. It's common custom at the company that new trainees show off their skills to the staff and trainees. Dancers show off their moves in the practice rooms, singers show off their vocals, and rappers- although more rare- tend to do some freestyle rap or perform a famous rap song. So really, there's nothing unusual about the situation.

However, from what Felix managed to pick up on the conversation, this dancer trainee is already "old". "Old" in the sense that they're nearing the age of twenty, and considering it's very difficult in their company to debut after the age of 21, the situation seems intriguing. How good is that trainee for the company to accept him despite his age, especially since the new trainees usually range from the ages of 12 to 17? Maybe they're from another company, and is expected to debut soon anyway? If that's the case, then they must be going solo, as after their debut next year, there probably won't be another boy group for another 4 years, at least.