A smile slowly blossomed onto their faces, widely and discreetly. Felix clapped his hands together then, a hopeful expression on his face, "So we're still friends, right?"
You paused in speechlessness. The thought that you were friends with them has never crossed your mind. Your position was as miniscule as being a mutual friend, and you had expected things to remain that way. But seeing Felix's genuine smile, it seemed like these three have already roped you into the group without your knowledge, and you did not have the heart to refuse such an offer.
You nodded at them, and you felt warm, really warm on the inside. Like they just barged into your heart, bickering and laughing loudly, disregarding every aspect of you that you thought was unloveable and intolerable, and they lived with you. They just sat right next to Jisung, taking up the remaining space he couldn't occupy. You figured they would stay there, in your soul, for as long as you could handle it.
"Great! Now can we actually go eat something–oh no, wait." Seungmin frowned at you as he eyed your blood-stained figure. "Your shirt and your arm... we can't go outside like that."
"Hey, I have my jersey if you want to wear it! It can cover up most of the stain," Hyunjin suggested with a shrug. "It probably smells like sweat, though, since I haven't washed it in a week and I practiced in it every day."
Felix took off his bag and reached in for a bottle of water and a handkerchief. He looked at you and hummed, "We should try washing the blood off. We wouldn't get past the kids playing in the park so it's better if we wash it off here."
"Oh yeah, that's true." Seungmin nodded. "Or you should do an invisibility spell, if you know one."
The boys looked at you, waiting for your response. It felt like an opening to a question-and-answer segment, and it was debatable whether Seungmin had suggested the idea for the sole sake of offering a solution or if he wanted to watch you try out even more magic. You usually minded the curiosity, but you did not mind theirs.
"Don't be insane. They literally just went through tremendous pain because of using magic," Hyunjin said, piecing the puzzle together in his head. "I don't think it's a good idea to use magic for every little thing, or at least unnecessarily."
Everyone turned to him, shocked at his surprisingly keen observations. Seungmin pulled a face in dismay that Hyunjin of all people beat him to being intelligently considerate, then he shrugged. "That's fine. I have a body spray you can use, though. Hyunjin's sweat smells like literal garbage."
Jisung snorted, finally pulling away from you and looking up at Hyunjin who glared at Seungmin with a deadpan expression. "I thought you wanted to cover up the bloody smell." Jisung laughed. "But yeah, totally. Hyunjin smells worse than that."
Hyunjin rolled his eyes, ignoring the mindless insults thrown at him. "You know you only need three people to start a religion, right?" He urged suddenly. "There is Felix, me, and [Name]. I will literally build a Seungmin and Jisung hating religion."
Jisung laughed. "[Name] won't join you."
You shook your head as you sucked in a breath, inhaling your lips into mocking smirk. You playfully followed along with Hyunjin's ridiculous idea. "Yeah, I don't know about that."
Jisung widened his eyes at you then, but instead of calling you out for playing along, he turned to Hyunjin and began a string of bad trash talking. You watched as Seungmin attempted to resolve the argument, only to have his quick tongue spill something distasteful to their ears and got roped into the bickering as well. As Seungmin got dragged into the feud, mindless insults being thrown around the air like a plastic ball, Felix stepped close to you and linked his arm through yours.
"We better get going!" he exclaimed lowly, eyeing his three friends. "Or else we're gonna get involved in all of that."
You agreed with him silently by letting him drag you out the alleyway. You smelt of sweat and blood, but Felix did not mind. As you two turned a corner, he inched closer to you with anticipation, to which you responded with a faint retreat of your body.
"I just want to ask something," he said. "Soulmates are real, right?"
You blinked; how could you forget? Jisung told you about Felix and his fascination with love, thus leading to his yearning for the existence of soulmates. His innocent eyes blinked, waiting for an answer you would lie to him about if reality happened to be not up to par with his desire. Thankfully, you only had good news for him.
With lips slowly pursing into a smile, you nodded bashfully at him. His smile grew in miles, excited and grateful of the beauty this universe has allowed to happen to people. After a beat of a second, he looked toward you and faintly squeezed the corner of your inner-elbow by pulling toward his direction.
"Do you know who yours is?"
You told him, and he bursted into giggles when Jisung's struggling voice traveled through the walls to find you after he realized you had been stolen from him. Felix pulled you into a jog, loving nothing than to see his friend miserable. You couldn't help but mirror his joy, letting yourself smile.
Guess loveliness runs in the friend group as well.
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