Can I Borrow Your Pen? [Changlix]

A Skull and a Cute Boy

Some Years Ago

    It was like every other day when a young boy realized something rather.. interesting appeared on his forearm. It looked like a skull, or maybe it was just his imagination? He went to the bathroom to wash the mark off, but it didn't work.

Where did this come from?

I didn't do this..

I'm going to be in so much trouble... He thought as he frantically looked for something to hide it with. He quickly grabbed a sweatshirt and threw it over his head, the eight year old panicking. His mother hated when he drew on himself, because it scared her about what happened when a child reached a certain age.

The young boy, later that day, was told to show what he was hiding. It took some prying, but alas, he revealed the mark.. which had evolved. It was once just a skull, but now that skull had flowers and hearts around it. Colour too.

     "Oh, sweetheart.." The mother said as she pulled the eight year old on her lap. "You've found a soulmate.." A soulmate? What could that mean? "I won't explain it all now, but they should teach you about it in school.. I trust that you'll be careful after your lessons, my dear.."

"Yes, mum.."

     But this could all very well be a tale of some sort, or a child's story. Who knows?

The Present

     Felix held his breath as he walked past the game store for the last time. He looked back at the old place before continuing. He had spent the last year and a half helping around the place, since he lived above it.

Australia had done him good.. A ton of good.. Just not the highschool- or his first college.. So what was better than moving to Korea to find a new college? Nothing apparently.

It kind of helped that he had one friend who lived in Korea already, a friend he knew he could trust with anything; Chris- Bang Chan. He and Chan lived above the game store, so when they went to college, they could just get dorms.

And they did get dorms, or both of them applied at least. Chan said that Felix wasn't his roommate, and that only made Felix worry. Who will my roommate be then?

It sort of screwed Felix, you see, he wasn't the best at Korean.. speaking wise. If someone wrote on paper, he'd understand.. But if he heard someone speaking? That's a whole other story.

     So there Felix was, walking to the subway to get to the college. He hated taking taxi's or regular buses, he would always have to sit next to someone he didn't like, or he would have an obnoxious driver. But, on a subway train, he could always just stand up, if he wanted to.

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     "JYP Academy, please." Felix said to the lady handing out tickets. She only gave him a curt nod before exchanging his money for a ticket.

     "Good luck, sweetheart." She replied, in English. "If I were you, I'd take a language class." The older lady winked as Felix thanked her and left.

It was anxiety inducing for Felix to wait alone for the train. He had fixed his jacket and hair maybe a million times before the train soon arrived.

Finally, he could step on. And as expected, the Australian stood up and held the roof railing instead of sitting down.

As he stood, he observed the people around him. There were people wearing masks, like him, and people who were driven so far into their phones that the outside world didn't even matter.

But there were also people like Felix, who hid their faces and stood up without a second glance at any one person.

     "Pardon me, are you a freshman?" One kid had climbed over to Felix at some point, and in all honesty, he scared the Australian to death.

Felix opened his mouth to answer the slightly shorter kid, but nothing came out. So he tried again.

     "Y-Yes." Ah yes, the stutter Felix always got around new people.

     "Oh- me too! I technically should still be in highschool, but I'm just too good!" The adorableness of the shorter male was overwhelming to the older boy. "I'm Yang Jeongin, by the way."

     "I.. I'm Lee Felix." After speaking, he drew a shaky breath underneath his mask.

     "You don't have to be shy, I don't bite.. Unless I have to." The other boy, Jeongin, said with a sweet smile. Felix could see his braces ever so slightly from where he stood on the subway train. "I'm kidding,"

Jeongin must've realized how uneasy Felix had become on the topic, just by the small comment.

Felix nodded a little, forcing a slight laugh. Readjusting his bag, he looked at the ground once more.

     "You aren't from here, are you?" The younger asked, tilting his head just a fraction to the side.

     "No.. I'm actually from Australia." Felix replied with a soft smile. Maybe this boy wasn't as bad as he thought.

     "Chan! You know Chan!"

     "Y-yeah, yeah I do.. How'd you know?" Felix's cheeks heated up at the surprised male's comment.

     "You're both Australians in Korea, there's no way you don't know him." Jeongin said, as if it were obvious.

     "Well.. I actually live with Chr- Chan.." Felix mumbled, knowing that if Jeongin was really listening, he could hear it.

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     "Now, who can tell me the answer? Honestly, it's like I'm talking to the floor. You college kids are heartless." One of the professors had said to the class of dead-like college students.

Felix sat in the back, his pen in his hand and his journal open. He had to take notes on these things, or else he'd be prone to forget.

But right as Felix's pen touched the paper, a tingling sensation drew itself across his forearm. It made him wince, as he had not felt that same sensation since he was eight years old.

The Australian pulled up the sleeve of his red flannel to reveal something truly remarkable. An imaginary pen felt as if it danced across his skin, and when the light sensation stopped, there was one thing left;

A skull.

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Word Count: 1040

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