Chapter Text
The Victorian humidity was already suffocating by seven in the morning, sticking to the back of Felix’s neck like a warm, damp towel as he stared down at the absolute disaster zone currently occupying ninety percent of his bedroom floor.
His childhood bedroom—a room he had lived in for 23 years, painted a soft, peeling shade of pale blue that his mum insisted made the space look bigger—was currently stripped of all its dignity. The mattress was rolled up and stuffed into a corner, waiting for the new tenants or the landfill, leaving only the bare wooden slats exposed. The posters of indie bands and vintage video game art had all been peeled off the walls, leaving pale, rectangular ghosts where they used to hang.
"If you forget your favorite oversized knit, I am legally rescinding my status as your sister and selling all your photocards on Marketplace," Olivia called out from the hallway, her footsteps clacking loudly against the floorboards before she appeared in the doorway with a roll of clear packing tape clutched in her fist like a weapon.
Felix groaned, letting his head throb back against the edge of his open wardrobe. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by a mountain of clothes that defied all logic. "I didn't forget it, Olivia. It’s right here. See?" He dramatically fished a rumpled, oversized black hoodie out from the bottom of an open suitcase and waved it in the air like a white flag of surrender.
"Good. Because Seoul in September isn't Melbourne. It actually gets cold, you know. Not 'wear a light cardigan' cold. Proper freezing-your-ears-off-at-bus-stops cold." Olivia dropped the tape roll onto his bed frame and crossed her arms, leaning against the doorframe with a look that was half-amused, half-sympathetic. She looked around the chaotic room, her gaze lingering on the towering stack of CDs sitting neatly on his desk next to an embarrassingly large collection of photo cards organized by era and member. "Are you actually doing this? You're really moving halfway across the world?"
Felix’s hands paused over the pile of shirts he was folding. The bravado he’d been maintaining for the past week—the excited smiles he’d given his parents at dinner, the nonchalant emojis he’d sent in the group chat—frayed just a little bit at the edges.
"I have to," Felix muttered, his voice dropping an octave as he stared down at the fabric between his fingers. "Jisung’s already there, and Channie hyung keeps sending me voice notes about how great the city is. If I stay here another year working part-time at the local cafe and playing games in my bedroom until dawn, I’m going to go completely insane."
"Fair enough," Olivia sighed, walking over and dropping down onto the floor next to him, bumping her shoulder against his. "Just... don't forget to call us. And try not to get scammed by a taxi driver at Incheon. You have zero street smarts, Lix. You literally tried to pay a parking meter with a loyalty card last month."
"That was one time!" Felix laughed, a bright, bubbly sound that broke the heavy tension in the room. He leaned his head against her shoulder. "I'll be fine. I have the address written down, and Jisung said he and Minho hyung are picking me up at arrivals. I won't get lost."
"You couldn't navigate your way out of a paper bag if it had a glowing arrow pointing to the exit," she teased, but her hand came up to ruffle his bleached blond hair affectionately. "Come on. Finish packing this suitcase before Mum comes in here and starts crying again. She's already emotional about the house being too quiet."
With renewed determination, Felix dove back into the chaos. Packing for an international move was a psychological torture test. Every item he picked up seemed to carry a memory. There was the faded band tee he’d worn to his first local concert, the ridiculous plushie keychain Changbin had sent him in a care package last year, and the half-empty bottles of skincare that Jisung had aggressively recommended during a three-hour FaceTime call about Korean beauty standards.
His phone, resting face-down on the bare wooden floor, buzzed violently against the wood, sending a rattling vibration through the room. Felix snatched it up without looking, his thumb swiping to unlock it.
Jisungie: DO U HAVE UR PASSPORT? LIX ANSWER ME. DID U PACK SOCKS? YOU ALWAYS FORGET SOCKS. I swear to god if you miss your flight I am flying to Melbourne myself to drag you here by your ear. Minho hyung says hi and also im gonna make cookies for u lixxie.
A fond, watery smile tugged at the corners of Felix’s mouth. He immediately typed back, his thumbs flying across the screen with practiced speed.
Felix: I am packing socks right now, you absolute lunatic. My passport is in my hand. I am breathing. Please calm down before you burst a blood vessel.
Jisungie: good. because minho hyung made us watch three different youtube videos on how to navigate Incheon airport so you don't accidentally wander into a customs detention center, and if you waste that effort I will never let you live it down. also chan hyung is bringing us iced americanos in twenty minutes. hurry up and sleep, your flight is literally at dawn tomorrow.
Felix: Yes sir, Captain Jisung. Going to bed right after this. See you on the other side.
Felix tossed the phone onto his pillow and let out a long, shuddering breath. His carry-on backpack was already zipped and leaning against the wardrobe, looking like a stuffed cartoon character. It was heavy—dangerously heavy—partly because he had crammed his Nintendo Switch, all his noise-canceling headphones, chargers, and a frankly irresponsible amount of emotional support items into every available pocket, and partly because the entire exterior was practically armored in a dense, jangling forest of keychains. There were little yellow chicks, plush gaming mascots, and glowing acrylic charms that clicked softly against each other every time the bag moved.
He stood up, his joints popping in the quiet room, and stretched his arms toward the ceiling. The reality was setting in now. In less than twenty-four hours, he wouldn't be walking down these familiar suburban streets. He would be stepping out into the brisk, unfamiliar air of Seoul, plunging headfirst into an entirely new chapter of his life alongside friends who felt more like family than anyone else.
His eyes drifted over to his desk, where a framed photo of him and his siblings sat next to a half-packed jar of Vegemite that his dad insisted he take "just in case the Koreans don't know what real food is." Felix chuckled softly, shaking his head.
"Alright," he whispered to the empty room. "Let's go to Korea."
Downstairs, the faint clinking of cutlery and the low murmur of his parents talking in the kitchen drifted up through the floorboards. But for now, surrounded by half-zipped suitcases and the quiet ghosts of his childhood, Felix just stood still, letting the final moments of his old life sink into his skin before the morning alarm changed everything.
—
The screen of Felix’s phone lit up with an incoming FaceTime call just as he was wrestling the final, stubborn zipper of his main suitcase closed. He didn't even need to look at the caller ID; the familiar, chaotic notification chime was permanently burned into his brain.
He swiped the green icon, tossed the phone onto the unmade bed with the speakerphone blaring, and threw his entire body weight onto the top of the bulging canvas bag to get the metal teeth to cooperate.
"If you're calling to tell me to check my passport for the tenth time, I am going to throw this phone out the window and into the Yarra River," Felix wheezed, his face turning bright red as he strained against the zipper.
"First of all, don't threaten my lifeline like that, Lee Felix," Jisung’s voice crackled through the speaker, loud, breathless, and laced with an unmistakable undercurrent of caffeine-induced panic. "Second of all, did you check it? Because knowing you, you left it on the kitchen table next to the toaster or accidentally packed it inside a hollowed-out loaf of bread."
"It's in my carry-on. In the front pocket. Right next to my portable charger and my headphones, exactly where it has been since Tuesday," Felix huffed, finally managing to yank the zipper all the way around with a triumphant shhhk. He collapsed backward onto the floor, staring up at the popcorn ceiling of his bedroom while catching his breath. He reached over, grabbed the phone, and propped it up against a stack of unpacked textbooks so he could look at his best friend's face.
Jisung’s face dominated the screen, filling the frame with messy brown hair, wide, soft eyes, and cheeks that looked even rounder than usual because he was currently aggressively chewing on something. Behind him, the background was a blur of a dimly lit Seoul apartment studio, cluttered with audio gear, tangled cables, and an alarming number of empty iced coffee cups stacked like modern art.
"What are you eating?" Felix squinted, noticing the frantic motion of Jisung’s jaw. "Is that another one of your 3 AM stress snacks?"
"It's a rice cake, shut up," Jisung mumbled around a mouthful, aggressively swallowing before continuing his interrogation. "Minho hyung went to bed an hour ago because he has to be at Hyunjin’s corporate office by nine tomorrow to deal with some massive skincare line launch, which means I am unsupervised and entirely dependent on making sure you don't accidentally board a cargo ship to Vladivostok instead of getting on your flight."
Felix let out a soft, fond laugh, rolling onto his stomach and propping his chin in his hands. "You care about me so much, it's actually touching. Do you want me to text you every time I breathe tomorrow? Would that make your little producer brain feel secure?"
"Yes," Jisung said instantly, without a shred of irony. "I want hourly updates. Flight number, seat number, what movie you're watching, what kind of airplane food they give you—though let's be real, airplane chicken is a human rights violation and you shouldn't touch it. Just eat the little crackers."
"Alright, alright, Captain Jisung. Hourly updates," Felix promised, his gaze drifting away from the screen for a second as he looked around the half-empty room. The shadows were stretching long across the floorboards as the late afternoon sun began to dip outside. The reality that this was his last night sleeping in this room—in this country—suddenly hit him right behind the ribs, a sharp, heavy pang that made it a little hard to swallow.
Jisung must have noticed the shift in his expression because the frantic, fast-paced rambling on the other end abruptly sputtered out. The screen went quiet for a moment, save for the faint hum of computer fans in Jisung's studio.
"Hey," Jisung said softly, his voice dropping all the comedic panic and turning into that warm, steady tone he only ever used when Felix was getting quiet in his head. "You okay over there, Lix?"
"Yeah," Felix whispered, biting his lower lip as a stray lock of bleached blond hair fell across his eyes. He reached up, tucking it behind his ear with fingers that suddenly felt a bit clumsy. "Just... looking at my room. It's weird, Sungie. Everything is in boxes. All my posters are down, my desk is bare. It feels like I'm already a ghost living in my own house."
"It's terrifying," Jisung agreed quietly, his big eyes softening as he looked down at his own desk setup in Seoul. "When I moved out and came to live with Minho hyung full-time, I sat on the floor of my empty bedroom in Incheon for two hours just staring at a stain on the carpet. It feels like stepping off a cliff and hoping someone put a trampoline down at the bottom."
"Did someone put a trampoline down for you?" Felix asked, a small, vulnerable smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Minho hyung caught me," Jisung said, a fond, dopey grin breaking across his face despite his best efforts to look serious. "And Channie hyung and Binnie hyung dragged me out for Korean BBQ until I threw up half my body weight in pork belly. You're going to have that, too. The second you land, we're going straight to that late-night spot down the street from our building. The one with the cheesy corn and the spicy ramyeon."
"Promise?" Felix asked, his voice thick with a sudden rush of emotion.
"I swear on my entire unreleased hard drive," Jisung said fiercely, pointing a finger right at the camera lens. "And if the food isn't good, I'll let Minho hyung complain to the restaurant owner for twenty minutes straight while we sit there awkwardly."
Felix let out a watery chuckle, rubbing at his eyes with the back of his sleeve. "You're an idiot."
"I'm your favorite idiot, and don't you forget it," Jisung shot back, grinning. "Now, tell me you packed your favorite plushie. Because if you left that little yellow chick behind, I am turning around and driving back to the airport to intercept you."
"It's right here," Felix muttered, reaching over to pat the side pocket of his carry-on backpack, where a soft, slightly worn plush keychain bounced against the zipper. "Safe and sound. He's coming on the adventure, too."
"Good. Because he's the only voice of reason in your luggage." Jisung yawned loudly, covering his mouth with the back of his hand. Even through the phone screen, exhaustion was creeping into his features. Between late-night producing sessions with Chan and Changbin and worrying about Felix's impending cross-continental move, Jisung had barely slept in three days. "Fuck, I'm tired. Minho is going to kill me if he wakes up and finds out I'm still awake gossiping at four in the morning Seoul time."
"Then go to sleep, you absolute gremlin," Felix scolded gently, pushing himself up from the floor and walking over to his bed to switch on the small desk lamp. "I have to get up at four in the morning anyway. I'll text you when my cab pulls up to the Melbourne airport."
"You better," Jisung mumbled, his eyelids drooping visibly on the screen. "And Lix? Seriously... I'm really glad you're coming. Seoul's been way too quiet without you screaming at video games in my ear every night."
"I'll make sure to scream extra loud in person just to make up for lost time," Felix promised, his heart swelling until it felt a little too big for his chest. "Go to sleep, Sungie."
"Night, Lix. See you tomorrow. Real soon."
"See you tomorrow."
The screen went dark with a soft digital click, leaving Felix standing in the quiet pool of yellow lamplight in his half-dismantled bedroom. The silence of the house pressed in around him, heavy and profound, but for the first time all day, the knot of anxiety in his stomach had loosened just a fraction. He tossed his phone onto the mattress, kicked off his shoes, and crawled into the nest of blankets he had left out for his final night, staring up at the bare wall and waiting for the dawn that would change everything.