Chapter Text
New Group Stray Kids On the Rise
The newest boy group under JYP Entertainment debuted March 25th, 2018 with their album “I Am Not.” Since then, the eight boys, ranging from ‘01 to ‘97 liners, have only grown in popularity. They’re racking in the awards and expanding their fanbase with their most recent album titled “I am You.”
November 14th, 2018
“There is literally no way you can convince me to eat that.”
“Oh come on. It’s not going to kill you.”
“I don’t know. It smells like it could.”
“Stop being dramatic, Felix. I followed the recipe perfectly.”
Felix raised an eyebrow, disbelief evident on his face.
Chan sighed and lowered the pot of food, giving his arms a break. He pouted like a child, and Felix had a hard time taking him seriously with his pink apron and polka-dot oven mitts.
“I’ll try it later,” the younger sighed. He brushed his strawberry blonde hair out of his eyes and smiled. “I’ll be super hungry when I get back.”
“Where you going?” Jisung piped up from behind the fridge door. He slammed it shut and nearly dropped the tower of containers he was trying to balance in one hand. Felix rolled his eyes with a laugh, stepping around Chan in order to help his friend set the food down on the counter.
“I wanted to practice the choreo a little more. I’ll probably be gone a few hours.”
Chan brushed by with the pot held over his head. He almost dropped it back onto the stove but caught it at the last moment, sending a sheepish smile over his shoulder. He took off his mitts and frowned.
“I thought you had it down. The choreographer said you looked good earlier today.”
Felix shrugged and crossed his arms. Beside him, Jisung hopped up to sit on the counter, the carton of blueberries in his lap.
“I just want it to be perfect. One less thing JYP can get on my ass about.”
The blonde mumbled the last part in english, hoping Jisung wouldn’t understand. Chan did, however, and his gaze softened. He took a deep breath.
“Okay. Just be back before one. You really shouldn’t be out this late, but as long as you’re careful you should be fine.”
Jisung squawked in protest, exposing the chewed blueberries tucked into his cheeks. Felix grimaced and used a hand to shut the boy’s mouth. He might look like a squirrel when he ate, but his manners were way worse than those of the tiny bushy-tailed mammals.
“Hyung! You never let me go out this late!” Squirrel boy huffed. Chan rolled his eyes.
“Felix is more responsible. I can trust him to go straight to the JYP building and back. You, on the other hand, would take a detour through a nightclub … ‘by accident.’”
Jisung opened his mouth to defend himself only to snap it shut a moment later. He pouted, evidently failing to think of a good comeback.
“Alright,” Felix chuckled, the low sound originating from deep in his throat. “Well I’m gonna go. I promise I’ll be back by---” a quick glance at the clock on the wall told him it was almost 9:45 pm. “---11:30? Maybe midnight. Is that okay Hyung?”
Chan nodded and waved him off, already turning around to stir whatever was in the pot. “Don’t wear yourself out.”
“Don’t do something I wouldn’t do!” Jisung grinned, shooting Felix a quick finger heart.
“Don’t do something Jisung would do is better advice in my opinion,” Hyunjin shouted from where he was relaxing on the couch. Apparently he had heard their entire conversation and only just now decided to speak up.
Seungmin grunted in agreement, his head sitting comfortably in Hyunjin’s lap. Jeongin was laying on the floor at their feet, and his laughter could be heard throughout the dorms.
Jisung started shrieking something about betrayal and disloyalty, but everyone completely ignored him. So, he resorted to chucking blueberries at his friends.
It took all of ten seconds for the dorms to be ravaged by a food war, with the blueberries being accompanied by strawberries and raspberries and Chan joining the fight on Jisung’s side. The boys in the living room area propped up several large pillows and cushions in an attempt to block the projectile fruit, and Jeongin was army crawling across the floor to pick up any stray berries so they could return fire. Minho appeared out of nowhere, bringing a couple blankets from his room to set up in the kitchen as shields. The urge to pelt his friends with fruit was tempting, but Felix couldn’t join the fight; he had to leave. The blonde boy could only hope Changbin would take his place and grace the kitchen warriors with his help in the war.
Felix snuck away from the battle and towards the front door. He found a pair of worn sneakers and a comfortable jacket---which probably wasn’t his---and slipped them on. He opened the door and stepped outside, shouting a quick goodbye over his shoulder.
The boys still inside paused their food war long enough to return his farewell with vigor, shouting it loud enough to wake the whole block. Felix’s laugh was cut off as the door swung shut.
Jisung broke the temporary truce with a dramatic screech as he catapulted a dollop of yoghurt across the room. It landed with a splat on Seungmin’s forehead.
“You heathen,” Seungmin gasped.
And just like that, the battle continued.
Changbin walked into the kitchen a few minutes later, innocently looking for a quick snack. Instead, he was yanked behind a blanket by Chan. The Australian boy shoved a spoon and a bottle of ketchup into his hands.
“Fight for your life kid. It’s the only way we’ll get back to our families.”
Changbin looked down at the ketchup in his hand. At this point, he knew better than to question his bandmates. It usually only resulted in more confusion.
So, the raven haired man sighed as he squirted some of the red condiment into his spoon. He flicked it over the blanket without looking. A dolphin scream sounded out from somewhere in the living area, and Jisung patted Changbin’s shoulder.
“Way to go, Private!”
Changbin closed his eyes and sighed through his nose.
“I hate all of you.”
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An hour and a half passed quicker than Felix realized, and soon it was 11:30. The blonde idol gathered his things, making sure to turn all of the studio lights off before shutting the door behind him. The walk back to the dorms was only ten minutes long, and there was a nice breeze that would feel great on Felix’s sweaty skin.
Chan was known to get worried easier and more often than normal people, and Felix was definitely aware of this. He decided he would reassure the older Australian native before he even had a chance to get concerned, sending a quick text informing him that he had just left the building.
The blonde placed his phone in his coat pocket and began his walk home.
Life as an idol was all that Felix had hoped it would be: adoring fans, incredible on-stage performances, songs that he helped write playing on popular radio stations, and so much more. He felt so lucky to be where he was, laden with hundreds of exciting opportunities to get their name out there. The world had only seen a fraction of what Stray Kids had to offer, and all of the members were excited to turn that potential into reality. Together, they wanted to make an impact on the k-pop industry. They wanted to become as well-known and influential as groups such as BTS, EXO, SHINee, and Super Junior.
Felix loved it, no doubt, and he was just as fervent as his members, but the idol life had many hidden aspects that weren’t quite as fabulous.
He experienced many nights where he couldn’t sleep due to the stress and busy schedules. There were times when he was so exhausted he nearly passed out, and he took more trips to the nurse than he ever had in his entire life before Korea. Occasionally, the blonde skipped meals in order to fit more practice or korean lessons into his day. He missed his family and friends back in Australia, but he refused to talk about it with his members. He knew he was lucky to get the chance to be an idol, and he didn’t want to sound ungrateful. Plus, JYP seemed to enjoy picking on the poor boy. He pointed out the smallest mistakes during dance practices and scolded him every time he mispronounced or forgot a word. Felix looked up to JYP; he saw him as an experienced mentor and tried to take his advice to heart, but he was at a major disadvantage: he was one of only two foreign members. Chan knew the language better than Felix because he had trained for several years under JYP. He was a trainee back when the GOT7 members were first recruited and had much more time to learn. The record executive just didn’t seem to understand that, and he always acted as if keeping Felix in the group was a mistake.
The constant negativity got to him no matter how hard he tried to block it out, and the Australian boy struggled with self-confidence on a daily basis. Sometimes he wished JYP actually had chosen to debut Stray Kids as a seven member group---for everyone’s sake.
Felix was startled out of his internal monologue by a loud scuffling noise behind him. He made to turn around to see what had caused the sound, but before he could, he felt a hand slap across his mouth and an arm wrap around his chest, subsequently trapping his own arms to his sides.
Felix immediately began to struggle. He wiggled and shouted, but the hand over his mouth muffled his calls for help. He kicked outwards and whipped his head from side to side. The attacker let out a string of curses that Felix couldn’t really understand and gripped his jaw tight enough to bruise. The boy used all of his strength to fight, but the man behind him held on.
Suddenly, there was a sharp, stinging pain in the side of Felix’s neck. He cried out and thrashed around, one of his heels connecting with something solid. Felix heard a grunt of pain and felt the arms holding him loosen slightly.
The boy saw it as a chance to escape, throwing his shoulders forward until he could no longer feel his attacker’s strong grip. He hit the ground but shot to his feet half a second later, and sprinted away as fast as his legs could carry him, nearly tripping several times in his haste. There was a clattering sound followed by the unmistakable crack of a glass screen breaking, and Felix knew it was his phone falling from his pocket.
The Australian native had seen enough detective movies to guess that the prick he had felt in his neck was most likely some type of sedative or drug. He had to get as far away from his attacker as possible before he blacked out. He was only five minutes from the dorms, and he knew he could make it if he ran fast enough.
Unfortunately, the sedative worked quickly. Felix realized it was becoming increasingly more difficult to run, and his vision had started to become slightly distorted. His brain was muddled, making it tough to remember the way back to the dorms.
Felix let his feet guide him, and he had just managed to turn onto the final street---now struggling to put one foot in front of the other---when a dark van pulled up beside him. It hadn’t even come to a complete stop before a pair of men in black hoodies and mouth masks hopped out. Felix’s vision was so blurry at that point, that he couldn’t even see what was five feet in front of him. He had resorted to using the closest building as a support in order to keep his body upright and moving. The two men in black each grabbed one of his arms, and the boy tried with all of the strength he had left to shake them off, but it was useless. They dragged him towards the van like one would with a sack of potatoes, where another person in dark clothes was waiting.
The last thing Felix saw before he slipped into unconsciousness was a window---six buildings down, three stories up; the only one with a light on.
Then everything went dark.