Take Me Home | CHANLIX

Live While We're Young

Okay, so maybe it was becoming obvious he hadn't paid as much attention to his mother's Hangul lessons as he thought he had.

It was embarrassing, and quickly becoming scary. Felix crouched on the floor of the shop, staring at the bottles of oil on the shelf with wide eyes. He could read Hangul, of course he could. He'd had to take a Korean exam a few weeks ago to get into school, but he'd revised for that. This was real life. And he couldn't read the oil labels.

How was he supposed to survive here if he couldn't read oil labels? What if it wasn't just oils labels, and he couldn't read at all? Felix sucked in a sharp breath. God, how could he possibly move here if he couldn't read? How had his parents thought sending him to Korea on his own for the summer was a good idea?

Felix bit his lip, blinking back tears. He looked at the other things on the shelves. There were sauces and tinned fish, spices and ramen. Felix could read all the labels. Felix squeezed his eyes shut. He knew how to say sesame oil in Korean. He knew the words. But he'd never seen it written down.

Felix sat back on his heels, wondering whether he should ask the Internet, phone his grandparents, or just grab a random bottle of oil and hope for the best. His eyes traced the shape of the Hangul characters, his lips shaping the sounds. So why couldn't his brain match the Hangul with its meaning?

'Fuck it,' Felix muttered, grabbing a random bottle with a blue lid.

'That's peanut oil.'

Felix whirled around, his knees hitting the floor to keep his balance. He looked up to see the owner of the voice standing behind him. The dark haired boy stood awkwardly, his shoulders hunched, looking like he was trying to make himself as small as possible.

Felix could only stare. The boy looked so out of place in this dimly lit corner shop, but he was cute. Really cute. Briefly, Felix wondered if his future boyfriend was stood in front of him, before quickly shoving the thought of his head head. God, Felix needed to stop wondering if every boy he met was his future boyfriend. It was getting pathetic, and only made Felix feel worse. He'd definitely have to watch how much fanfic he was reading.

The boy tugged at his baggy shirt, his fluffy hair falling into his dark eyes when he looked down. 'Hi. Sorry. Um--sorry, I'll just--just go. Sorry, I should've--'

The boy turned to leave, quickly walking down the aisle. Felix shot to his feet. 'Wait! Wait, wait, please!'

The boy stopped, glancing back at Felix.

'Could--could you help me, please?' Felix asked. He waved the bottle of oil. 'Which one's sesame oil? I've forgotten how to read, apparently. LOL,' Felix added, hoping to diffuse the awkward tension that seemed to hang heavily in the air. Felix stared down at the oil in his hand, internally cringing. Was he supposed to be using honorifics? The boy looked about his age, but he could never tell people's ages well. Why was he incapable of normal human interaction?

'Um, yeah, sure,' the boy said, walking back to Felix. 'The black lid is sesame oil. Um, sorry, I'm Jisung.'

'Felix. Thank you,' Felix said, putting the oil back to grab one with a black lid. 'I'm not, like, stupid, I swear. I've just moved here--well, in the process of moving here,' he blurted. He wasn't sure why he felt the need to explain himself to a stranger, but Felix still had the thoughts of Jisung as a potential boyfriend in the back of his mind, and he didn't want him to think he was a complete idiot.

'Oh. Where've you moved from?'

'Australia. I'm Korean, my parents were born here and everything, but I was born in Australia.'

'I have a friend from Australia,' Jisung said. 'Well, not really a proper friend, but I know him. Well, he's in my friend group but we aren't that close. Anyway.'