PIXELATED | Lee Felix

Chapter 33

An awkward silence fills the bright, hospital room in the morning.

The two males sit across each other, with one crossing his legs with his arms crossed, and the other one sitting politely with his legs closed and hands neatly resting on top of his thighs. On the other hand, the patient looks at them with an amused expression, sitting on his bed right in between the boys.

"Why does this look like a timeout?"

"Hyunjin..." Han heaves a sigh and tries to readjust his position to look more relaxed. He does notice how timid and nervous Felix acts, but he can tell that Felix's eyes have some sort of determination in them.

"The atmosphere does feel like that, no?" Hyunjin shrugs nonchalantly, making Han wonder why this man still has the audacity to treat the situation lightly. But Han recalls the time when he talked to Eugene at the park.

If he could talk to her calmly, and sort things out in his mind to understand other people's perspectives, he should be able to do the same with Felix.

Hyunjin and Eugene are right. I need to calm down. Han takes a deep breath, relaxing his facial muscles to face the person opposite of him with a tiny smile. "Felix. I heard that you revised our routine and added some pieces to it. Can I see it as well?"

The blonde-haired male is surprised to see Han speaking to him in a normal tone. His hostile behavior is slightly gone, and that gives him a sense of relief. 

"Right. I can send you a video of that if you'd like." Felix responds in a polite tone, then his face turns serious right after. "Han. I'm actually here to ask if we can find a way to practice together again and perform our recital with flying colors."

Hyunjin nods at Felix with satisfaction at his direct speech. "I have asked for an extension, and we were given 2 weeks due to the severity of my injury. So, I believe we have enough time to put everything together. I should be able to recover on time."

Hearing Hyunjin's optimism makes Felix smile softly—he admires that aspect of his friend. And just like what people always say; a good mind speeds up the body's recovery.

"... okay," Han mutters in a quiet tone, still feeling a little left out with the two planning things ahead of him. He reluctantly takes out his phone to turn on his airdrop, and this action alone makes the other 2 teammates smile at each other.

Felix sends the video to Han through his phone, waiting in his seat politely still. His expression hardens as he watches Han inspect the video of his choreography, unsure if he will be satisfied by his efforts.

Just a little later, Han's face turns into that of a grimace.

"Why is this part..." Han plays back to the choreography that he finds a little empty. "Looking incomplete? Why are we using 1 hand to create the illusion? It would've been better if we used 2."

"It's because... I made this while thinking of Hyunjin's injury." Felix looks at the patient, who gives him a faint smile. "Though, Hyunjin is confident that he'll recover. B-But I made the choreography this way just in case." The male increasingly gets nervous, not knowing if Han will understand his choice.

"Well if that's the case then, we should change this part if Hyunjin is so confident about recovering before the recital." Han closes his phone and crosses his arms out of habit, intimidating the leader.

"But it's still not 100% guaranteed." Despite feeling slightly intimidated, Felix stood his ground and didn't break eye contact with him. The moment Felix doesn't approve of Han's opinion, the air suddenly gets tense again, just like how it was before.