Still A_Stray: Living With Stray Kids (ot8 fanfic)

Chapter 28

TW: mild swearing

Tuesday~

Come on, everybody look at me

"Someone help me!" Hyunjin shouted. He skidded into the room on socks, sliding a couple extra feet than he'd expected and barely avoiding spilling the coffee in his hand all over the sofa. The hand not holding his coffee was holding his phone upside down as if it were a glass of wine; half of his bangs were falling over his face, the other half pinned back with a Hello Kitty hair band, and there was a third sock hanging from his collar.

I took in all of this with accustomed normalcy, looking him over once and turning back to the eggs in the frying pan; Changbin, who was setting the table across from me, didn't even look up. "Give me two minutes," I called over my shoulder. "I'm making breakfast."

"This cannot wait," he declared, loudly enough that Jisung poked his head out of his room in curiosity. "I—" he paused for dramatic effect— "lost my Airpods!"

"Hey, that's mine," said Jisung, walking over and taking the sock off of Hyunjin's shoulder. "I've been looking for this one. Thanks, hyung."

Hyunjin frowned at him. "Did you hear me? I need my Airpods for practice today, but they've disappeared."

"You lose your Airpods every three days," Jisung said with a shrug. "It's practically a skill at this point."

"You've cost the company a million won on Airpods prices alone," Chan added, emerging from his room last.

"Maybe one day when we move out of here they'll remove all the furniture and find a graveyard of lost Airpods under the bed in your room," said Changbin, fighting a yawn.

"Fuck each and every one of you," said Hyunjin, pointing his coffee aggressively at the three members.

I sighed, finishing serving the eggs and handing them off to Changbin to place on the table. "I'll help you look, Hyunjin. Go eat—you guys have fifteen minutes until you have to leave."

Hyunjin beamed. "Thanks, noona. You're always helpful—unlike some lazy little shits who can't be bothered."

"Did someone say my name?" Jisung called, pretending to look around. Hyunjin flipped him off. Jisung chucked the sock he'd been holding in retaliation; it landed on Hyunjin's other shoulder. Hyunjin glared at him but did nothing to remove it, instead going over to the table to eat.

I sighed and turned off the stove, heading down to Hyunjin's room as the sounds of their still-waking-up bickering began to fill the air. How Hyunjin managed to be so dramatic this early in the morning, I would never know, but at least the days weren't boring here.

Hyunjin's Airpods weren't in his room, which left only a few other places where they could be. I quietly opened the door and slipped into his studio, letting out a soft breath. I hadn't been here in a while, but it still felt like stepping into another world: compared to the noise and chaos in the rest of the dorm, this room was always peaceful and undisturbed, and I always felt like an intrusion on it—like one wrong step would send something crashing to the ground and ruin that peace. So I tiptoed over to Hyunjin's main easel, and sure enough, his Airpods lay half-hidden under a few sheets of sketching paper. He'd probably been listening to music while he was drawing last night.

I gently lifted the papers, slipping the Airpods out from underneath, and paused as I caught sight of Hyunjin's drawing.

Felix stared up at me, his body angled towards his phone but his face looking towards the sketcher. He was sitting on the floor of what I recognized to be the dorm's living room, sunlight streaming through a window and brightening his shirt and hands. From the way that Hyunjin had shaded it, it looked like he was glowing.