The Arcade || Lee Felix

[17 || ten]

"Don't jump!" I cried after Jisung as I threw myself after him. I managed to grab his arm and pull him backward. He fell down in the car, but at least he was still in it.

He winced in pain as he rose from the floor to stand up again. "Yah, what are you doing?" Jisung turned to me to say and glared at me.

"You're hallucinating" I told him. "Whatever it was you saw, it wasn't real"

"I'm not hallucinating just look over there" he said and turned around to point at whatever it was he'd seen, but his face changed when he realized there was nothing there. "I swear I saw something there before" he tried defending himself.

"It was a hallucination, just like the city you saw in the sky before" I tried convincing him.

"It can't be, it looked so real" he continued denying what was facts.

"This level is named side effects, and your side effect is hallucinations" I said.

Jisung really didn't want to believe he was hallucinating, I could tell by the denying look on his face, but he kept quiet after what I'd said. However I saw how Felix was staring at me from the other side.

"How could she know exactly what I was thinking? Is she really reading my mind?" I heard Felix say, but I guessed that wasn't him actually speaking.

"Seems like I can" I said with low voice so only he heard me.

"Wait, you heard that too?" He asked and seemed flustered.

"I did, so I'm hearing your thoughts, aren't I?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Seems like it" he said and seemed slightly in panic. "Fuck" I then heard him think.

"Can still hear you" I said gave him a look of disbelief.

He looked to be in pain, and I felt bad for him. I didn't want to hear everything he thought, it was annoying and it felt like I was intruding his mind. I would have hated it if someone could hear everything I thought.

"I think we know your side effect now at least" I said.

"What kind of side effect even is that?" He asked in annoyance. "Nothing should be able to give a side effect that means another person can read their mind" he continued ranting about the game.

"Maybe the creator of the game ran out of ideas after coming up with 9 different side effects" I suggested.

"I hate whoever created this game" he grunted and crossed his arms over the chest.

"Yeah me too" I said and sighed.

We sat in silence when I suddenly remembered something. 'Why does she hate me so much? can't she just like me, just a little bit, back?' That was what I heard Felix think before Jisung was about to jump. So those really were Felix's thoughts. Did that mean Felix liked me? It couldn't, right? But he said 'like me back'. I can't like him back if he doesn't like me to begin with. Maybe he meant it like a friend. He's really showing no signs of liking me, all he does is nagging about how stupid I am.

I was so confused, but I also really wanted to know what he'd meant by that. How did he really think about me? I had no idea at all at this point.

"Can I just ask, have you heard me think anything, you know, that you shouldn't have heard?" Felix asked me after what felt like an eternity of confusion and frustration because of what Felix has said before.

What should I say? That I think he fought against me in the last level and that I think he might possibly like me? Nah, not gonna happen.

"I don't think so, unless you wanted to keep it a secret that you think I'm stupid" I said with a forced smile at the end that was obvious that it was bitter.