Still A_Stray: Living With Stray Kids (ot8 fanfic)

Chapter 45

Sunday~

I wanna STAY with you 

"Alright, looks like we're done," I said, pinning up the last corner of the blanket with a grin.

I stood back, admiring our handiwork: Chan and I had cleaned up the mess of notes and Post-its in his room and fixed the wall, hanging the blanket back over it once more.

I hadn't known what Chan had wanted from me when he asked me to come into his room to help him with something half an hour ago, but now I understood. This was a repair in more ways than one: righting the things that had been knocked down, clearing the rubble and the ashes from that day that had broken all of them. I doubted Chan would ever forgive himself for failing the members—even though none of us thought of it as a failure. But, like all things, this was a start.

"You know I will never be able to thank you enough, right?" Chan asked in English, his gaze still surveying the wall above his desk.

I ducked my head, feeling a smile tug at my lips. "I know."

"Not just for that night," Chan added, turning to face me. "For everything."

I nodded, holding his gaze. "I'm the one who should be thanking you. You were the ones who let me stay in the first place."

The side of his mouth quirked. "Don't worry. You'll be a STAY long after you leave Korea."

"That's not what I meant," I said, but warmth spread through me at his words all the same. "I'm still not a STAY."

"You sure about that?" Chan asked me with a grin. "You know what the meaning of Stray Kids is, right? 'Stray Kids everywhere around the world; you make Stray Kids STAY'." His smile shifted, becoming sad. "You're the reason why we stayed, Yeji. If that doesn't make you a STAY, we're going to need to change our slogan."

I chuckled. "Then you're a STAY too, you know. Stray Kids wouldn't be here without you either."

He smiled, looking back at the wall. "Maybe we all are."

He frowned, suddenly, and stepped forward. Before I could ask him what he was doing, he'd grabbed the blanket and pulled it clean off the wall, baring the mess of post-it notes and sharpies for the world to see.

Chan looked down at the blanket in his hands, then let it go. "I think it looks better this way," he said to me, grinning. "Don't you?"

A laugh burst from my lips, and pride for him bubbled inside me. "Way better."

"Last thing," said Chan, grabbing a new post-it note. He uncapped a pen with his teeth, scribbling something down before slapping the note in the center of the wall, surrounded by all his other words and thoughts and pieces of his mind.

I blinked at it, confused.

1-4-3 I love you.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

His smile widened. "You don't know?"

I frowned. "Should I?"

"I guess not." He seemed ignorant of my confusion, smiling wider than I'd ever seen, his eyes twinkling like stars. "It's alright. You'll understand soon enough."

My frown deepened, but before I could ask if he'd had some of Felix's brownies, he engulfed me in a hug. I was a bit thrown off, but I didn't complain; I was leaving in an hour, after all.