Strawberry Milk - Jeonglix

25

The doorbell sounding through the house woke Felix up on Thursday morning. He didn't want to get up, looking at his alarm clock it was only 9:45 am, but there was nobody else in the house to answer it. Felix ran a hand over his face, groaning as the doorbell rang again. "Wait," he mumbled to himself, throwing the covers off his body.

Looking down, he realised he was only wearing a white, over-sized band tee. There were shorts underneath but the t-shirt was so big they couldn't be seen. As far as the person at the door would know, he wasn't wearing anything else, but he didn't have time to change as the doorbell rang again. Felix ran down the stairs, figuring it was the postman or his elderly neighbour who had been looking for her missing cat all week.

"Hello?" he asked, pulling open the door and smoothing down his hair after catching a glimpse of it in the mirror on the wall. When he saw who was on the other side, he started brushing it down a lot quicker. "Oh, Jeongin, hey," he chuckled, embarrassed due to his current appearance. Meanwhile, Jeongin looked as good as he always did, in a white and red striped shirt and black shorts. "Wh-what are you doing here?"

"Didn't you miss me?" Jeongin asked, jutting out his bottom lip.

"No, of course I missed you!" Felix exclaimed, realisation of what was happening hitting him as the sleep began to fade. He was seeing Jeongin for the first time in weeks. He stepped onto the porch and wrapped his arms around him. Jeongin's arms curled around Felix who breathed in the scent of Jeongin's strawberry shampoo. "God, I missed you so much! I tried going to your house but someone always got in the way, I'm sorry."

"It's ok," Jeongin smiled, pulling away from Felix's embrace and leaning back against the porch's half-wall. "I wasn't ignoring you, I was just...not feeling so good."

"Yeah, I was told," Felix nodded, joining Jeongin and perching on the ledge, "what happened?"

He sighed, "it always happens around exam time, I don't know why. I guess the thought of exams stress me out so much I start...losing concentration and it makes me forget things but not just school stuff. I forget what happened the day before or what I've been doing for the past hour. I thought I would be ok after the exams but I just felt...depressed. I didn't want to get out of bed or see anyone and I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to abandon you."

"You don't need to apologise. I understand and I'm not upset with you or anything. I just missed you," he smiled at Jeongin who gave him a meek smile back. "Does the forgetting stuff happen often?"

"Yeah, but my therapist is helping me get better at dealing with stress so I can avoid it," Jeongin said before letting out a chuckle, "sorry, this was a depressing start to your day."

"I don't mind. You can talk about anything you want with me. I'll always listen."

Jeongin watched as Felix pushed himself off the wall, holding his hand out towards him, "but I need to get dressed so do you want to come inside?"

🍓🍓🍓

"No, you can't do that! That's illegal!" Jeongin shrieked as Felix killed one of the piglets Jeongin was looking after in the video game they were playing, sat in Felix's room with the curtains closed over the windows. It was the loudest Felix had ever heard him speak. "Fine then, I'll kill your horses!"

"No, don't kill my horses!" Felix begged, chasing after Jeongin's character who was swiftly making his way over to Felix's barn.

"Oh no, I can't kill your horses," Jeongin decided, "they're staring at me. I'd be a monster if I killed them."

"Exactly, that's why-" Felix began but cut himself off with a loud gasp when Jeongin's character killed him instead. Jeongin giggled as he stole all the property Felix's now dead character had left behind. "Yang Jeongin, you savage!"