It Began With a Text

Stories Exchanged

     Seungmin nervously entered the coffee shop. It was pretty crowded and Seungmin didn't have a clue on where to find Felix. After all, it was up to him, Felix didn't know what Seungmin looked like.

     As he went further in, his search became easy.

     There was only one table with a single person. That boy was a spitting image of the photo Felix had sent to the group chat. His head was down and his body... was it shaking? Seungmin took a deep breath and walked over.

     "You're Felix." It had meant to be a question, but there really was no doubt about it.

     Felix looked up and blinked twice. "M- Minnie?"

     "Yup, that's me."

     "Wow, uh... you... how do I put it..."

      "Have looks that don't match my evil personality? I know." Seungmin laughed and took a seat.

     That put Felix at ease. "Here's the smoothie." He pushed forward the drink.

     It was only when Seungmin properly sat down that he got a good look at Felix.

     He looked very pale. And seeing his hands on the table, Seungmin could tell they were definitely shaking. "What's wrong?" he asked.

     "Huh?" Felix asked.

     "You don't look good," Seungmin said. "You also looked pretty down when I walked in here."

     "Oh!" Felix was clearly caught off guard. "It's... it's nothing."

     Seungmin should have left it at that. But he didn't. His mind immediately zoomed back to Felix's desperate pleas when they were texting. He began to connect the dots.

     "You have autophobia," Seungmin blurted out.

     "Huh... what?" Felix said, very confused.

     "Ok, maybe not that extreme," Seungmin quickly said. "But... you have a fear of being alone, right? That's why you need company."

     Felix was silent for a few seconds. Great, for all Seungmin knew, he was completely wrong and was about to look like an idiot. Seungmin didn't know why he had blurted it out, he just always felt very sure about his hunches.

     Felix finally broke the silence with laughter. "Dang... I always try so hard to hide that from everyone and then you freaking guess it not even five seconds after meeting me."

     "Oh... sorry." Seungmin immediately felt guilty for exposing Felix like that.

     "Nah, it's fine, you're really smart, Seungmin." Felix then looked worried. "But... you don't think it's dumb?"

     Seungmin shrugged. "I mean, there are people who have a fear of spiders. Compared to that, your fear seems quite logical, whether it's being brought on by a traumatic event or not. But I won't pry any further, don't worry."

     Felix laughed again. "You just roasted most of the world with that sentence, you know that right?"

     "It's a gift," Seungmin said.

     "But don't tell anyone," Felix said, becoming serious again.

     "Don't really have anyone to tell," Seungmin assured. "So nobody else knows?"

     "I mean... Hyunjin was kind of at the scene once when I... got scared. But I don't think he's put it together." Felix then realized who he was talking to. "Oh, sorry!"

     "It's fine..." Yup, Hyunjin had probably told the gang what had happened in the past. Seungmin felt a lump in his throat. How exactly... had Hyunjin told the story?