It was a gradual thing, this… crush Felix had on Changbin. After Chan (another Aussie!), Changbin had been the one to help Felix out the most, always willing to correct his Korean and write raps.

He was so patient and nice, completely unlike his strong image and ‘I love dark’ persona. Just a fluffy, cute guy, really!

The first time Felix felt his heart flutter had been a horribly alarming time resulting in him blissfully denying his feelings in panic.

Working on two hours of sleep and obsessively going over his rap again and again until his throat was dry and parched made for a very tired and wonky Felix.

He jumped after a cool water bottle pressed against his cheek, eyes shooting open and yelping in shock. “Who’s there?!” He slurred out loudly in English before hearing a familiarly low laugh.

“Oh,” Felix had said, looking up at Changbin with wide eyes, “Changbin-hyung?”

The older smiled at him, holding the water to him again and waiting until he took it to crouch down, reaching over to pick up Felix’s notebook.

“Wait, hyung!” Felix tried to stop him from reading it, but Changbin slapped his hand away softly, humming as he looked through the messily written Korean carefully.

Felix watched him in nervous silence, taking deep gulps of the refreshing water until Changbin nodded, looking up at the younger with an approving glint in his eyes.

“This is good, kid,” Changbin said and Felix flushed in pleasure at the praise. Changbin was rare to give it out and Felix always appreciated it.

“Thanks! I got Chan-hyung to read through some of it and help me, so it was mostly him,” Felix confessed sheepishly, wiping his sweat away.

“Don’t put yourself down so much,” Changbin scolded, “this was you, too.” He ruffled Felix’s hair and brushed it out of his face.

The Aussie felt his heart race, a flush spreading across his cheeks that wasn’t because of him working. What the , he whispered in his mind.

Changbin watched Felix’s expression turn from a smile to slight panic and frowned in concern.

“Felix?” He asked and the boy flinched, looking at him with wild eyes.

“Um, anyways,” he stuttered out, grabbing the notebook and scrambling to his feet, “thankyouforhelpingI’mjustgonnagonowbye!” He ran out of the practice room and slammed the door shut, leaving Changbin to stare at the door, completely bewildered.

“O..kay?” He said to an empty room.

On the other hand, Felix was in a bathroom stall, flipping out. “No way,” he whispered to himself in English, “nope. This is not happening, never, what my heart did was just a fluke. I don’t have a crush on Changbin-hyung. Nope.”

Yet, no matter how many times he whispered the denial to himself, there was no wiping away the truth. He had a huge, gay, Aussie crush on his teammate.

His Korean guy teammate. In conservative Korea.

He groaned and smacked himself on the forehead. “You’ve really outdone yourself now, Lix,” he muttered to himself.

What was he going to do? He had never had a crush before! He was too young to deal with these emotions, damn it!

A proverbial lightbulb lit over his head and he grinned. Chan! Chris! His fellow Aussie and all-knowing leader! He could help!

-

He slammed the door to Chan’s room open and his leader flinched from where he had been lying down on his bed. He watched Felix hurriedly lock the door and jump in next to him before flatly saying, “Hi, Felix, no I wasn’t doing anything, of course you can come in.”

The younger grinned at him brightly. “Thanks, Chris!” He crowed in English and Chan switched to their mother tongue.

“What’d you need?” Felix smile turned to a frown and he wiggled around on the bed until Chan sighed and tugged him close, immobilizing him by wrapping his arms around the squirming boy.

“I have a problem,” Felix said, voice muffled in Chan’s shirt.

“Yes, yes,” the leader replied benevolently, “tell Papa Chris your problems.”

Felix pulled back to stare at Chan with a weirded out expression. “Never say that again, please.”

Chan pouted. Why didn’t his children love him?! “Fine,” he sniffed. “What’s wrong?”

The drastic shift between playful to worried made Chan concerned. “Lix?” He prompted and Felix sighed.

“I like Changbin-hyung,” he confessed nervously, looking at Chan warily. Yeah, he might’ve been from Australia, where same- marriage was legal and homoual people were widely accepted, but that didn’t mean he was okay with it.

Chan looked confused about what the problem was. “I know,” he said and Felix looked at him with wide-eyes.

“You know?” He repeated incredulously, “How?! I just found out a few minutes ago!”

“Wait, you didn’t know?” Chan asked in shock and Felix shook his head. “It was so obvious to me, mate.”

“Seriously?” Felix whimpered, hiding his face in his hands.

Chan rushed to soothe him. “But I don’t think anyone else knows! I doubt they’ve ever even entertained the idea!”

Felix looked a little bit more comforted. “I don’t know what to do about it,” he sighed out miserably and Chan patted his head.

“You just have to learn to deal with it,” he said gently. “Tell him or keep it a secret.”

Felix sent him a flat look. “You want me to tell my Korean teammate that I like him.”

The are you an idiot? went unsaid, but was very prominent.

Chan huffed in mock-offense, “It was just a suggestion.”

“A pretty bad one, mate.” Felix replied, grinning as they bantered back and forth. It was a good choice to talk to Chan. He always helped out.

“Just don’t let it affect the team and it’s chill,” Chan warned and Felix nodded.

“That’s a given,” he said in a very duh tone. The disrepect was astounding.

Chan hesitated before adding, “If you ever need to talk, I’m here for you, okay, Lix?” Felix grinned at him fondly and nodded.

“I know. Thanks, Chris.” Chan nodded, glad he got his message across.

“So,” he started off mischievously, “how’d you discover your big, fat crush?” His younger Aussie groaned and tried to smother him with a pillow, much to the older’s amusement.

“Shush!”