Chapter 21 Felix
Felix
“And then Professor Martinez said my interpretation of the piece was ‘refreshingly unconventional,’ which I think means good?” Lily paused, chopsticks hovering over her bibimbap. “Felix, are you even listening?”
I blinked, dragging my attention back to the dining room table. Eomma’s disapproving stare burned into the side of my head while Appa quietly worked through his rice.
“Sorry, yes. Unconventional is definitely good,” I managed, though I had absolutely no idea what piece she’d been discussing. Dance? Music? Drama?
Five days. It had been five days since the woods, since I’d kissed Kit under that canopy of trees and my world had shifted on its axis.
Five days of stolen glances across the basement, of Kit’s fingers finding excuses to brush mine, of my entire nervous system lighting up every time he walked into a room.
The day after the woods, we’d attempted to train in the ballroom again. Lasted maybe five minutes before Kit’s hand had found its way to my neck, thumb tracing the line of my throat while his nose pressed against my pulse point like he was drowning in my scent.
“There are two cameras in this room,” I’d whispered, even as my knees went weak.
Kit had groaned like I’d physically wounded him, pulling back with eyes that were more wolf than human.
I’d almost suggested we go for it, then wipe the footage afterwards. Almost.
Instead, Kit had asked for our first proper date to be that very night.
Apparently, he’d wanted to take me to that ice cream place near the station ever since it opened ages ago.
Even though it was cold out, we’d walked through the evening streets sharing vanilla and honeycomb scoops, and I’d discovered that ice cream tasted infinitely better when licked from Kit’s fingers.
That kissing could actually be quite nice.
Very nice, in fact. That it could be soft and sweet and desperate all at once.
That I loved the way my cheeks felt raw afterwards—a reminder that Kit had been there.
He’d walked me all the way home, and somehow, it wasn’t awkward at all. When the conversation occasionally lulled, Kit would naturally segue into something else before I had time to panic.
Plus, he made only two stalking jokes the entire time.
I’d tried to invite him in at my door—shyly, awkwardly, my hands fumbling with the keys while I mumbled something about tea. But Kit had smiled and shaken his head.
“I have promises to keep,” he’d said.
The shiver that had run down my spine had lasted until morning.
I’d woken up to a message from him, asking if I wanted to meet him before work, at the lime tree on Killigrew Street.
I’d blinked at my phone in disbelief, my heart doing something complicated in my chest. That tree had been my quiet spot for months—somewhere I’d duck under the low-hanging branches when the Tube felt too crowded, when work felt too much, when I needed thirty seconds of green and privacy in the middle of London.
I’d never mentioned it to anyone. Never thought anyone had noticed my weird little ritual of pausing there, tilting my face up through the waxy leaves like I could breathe better in that pocket of shadow.
But Kit had noticed.
Of course he had.
“Min-jun.” Eomma’s sharp voice cut through my wandering thoughts. “Now your sister has asked you a question.”
Lily was grinning at me now, clearly enjoying my obvious distraction. “I asked what you’re doing tonight. You keep glancing at your phone under the table.”
“No I don’t!” I said, though Kit’s last message burned into my brain:
Kit
I’m outside your parents’ house, waiting. But not in a creepy way ;)
“I’m just… thinking about work stuff,” I lied, pushing my food around my plate. I’d been trying not to eat too much. Once I finally escaped dinner, Kit had promised hot chocolate and pastries for tonight’s date, and I wanted to actually have room to enjoy them.
“On a Wednesday night?” Appa looked up from his rice, concerned. “You work too hard, Felix.”
Eomma snorted. “I’m sure Min-jun’s IT support work isn’t exhausting him. At QuByte, our junior developers—”
“Are probably miserable,” Lily interrupted cheerfully. “Good thing Felix likes his job.”
If only she knew exactly how much I’d grown to love certain aspects of my work. Specifically, the six-foot-two, bearded aspect that smelled like pine forests and looked at me like they wanted to protect me and eat me both at once.
My phone buzzed again, and I didn’t hesitate to check it despite Eomma’s strict rules about phones at dinner.
I’m starting to get strange looks from your neighbours. I’ve had to hide behind your wheelie bins.
I bit back a smile and shoved the phone into my pocket.
“Speaking of your work, Min-jun…” Eomma’s voice took on that particular tone that meant she was about to say something I wouldn’t like. “Appa and I had coffee with your aunt yesterday, and it came up in conversation.”
My chopsticks froze halfway to my mouth. “What came up?”
“Well, I was telling her how proud I am that you’re using your degree somewhere, even if it’s not quite what we hoped for.” She dabbed at her lips with a napkin. “Aunt Jemma had lots of questions, so I thought I’d look a bit more into this company of yours. Barcode and Beyond.”
Alert! Alert! Critical failure! Emergency shutdown required!
“Oh?” I managed, my voice coming out strangled.
“Yes. To be honest, I wondered if I could find some aspect of their infrastructure that you could offer to help with. To put your degree to even better use. And I discovered something fascinating. Their cybersecurity protocols are already impeccable—better than some Fortune 500 companies. It almost seems like overkill for selling old barcode scanners.”
Warning! Warning! SYSTEM FAILURE! Error 404: Excuse not found.
Panic clawed up my throat. Eomma was brilliant.
Frighteningly so. If she started digging too much into Barcode and Beyond, I was royally screwed.
Yes, I had failsafes built into the system—legitimate purchase orders for barcode scanners and office supplies that would actually deliver the products to your address, thanks to a very complex, digitally masked third-party logistics network that handled the physical shipping.
But my mother would go beyond that. She’d dissect our entire operation like she was reverse-engineering quantum code.
I needed a diversion. A big one.
Bomb-sized.
I set down my spoon carefully, the ceramic clinking against the bowl.
“Actually, I have some news,” I announced, my heart thundering painfully, dizzying me. “I’m seeing someone. Dating.”
The effect was immediate and devastating.
Lily released a full-blown teenage screech that could have shattered windows. Appa dropped his chopsticks, the metal clattering against the floor. Lily dove under the table to retrieve them, still making excited squealing noises.
Eomma blinked once, twice. “Oh?”
Right. Time to really rip the BandAid off. Better sooner rather than later.
“It’s a man,” I very cheerfully and very casually noted, forcing air into my lungs before I fainted from the stress of it.
The silence stretched for exactly three heartbeats.
Eomma’s face went through several complicated expressions before settling on something I couldn’t quite read. “Oh! I didn’t know you were…” She trailed off, clearly wrestling with vocabulary.
“Eomma, it’s twenty twenty-six,” Lily said, popping back up from under the table with Appa’s chopsticks. “Everyone should stop assuming straightness by default.”
Eomma coughed delicately. “Of course, of course. I was just… surprised. And how old is this… man?”
I cringed. “Um, a bit older. Like, thirty-two.”
“I see.”
The way she said it suggested she saw quite a lot, actually. None of it particularly encouraging.
“Can I see a picture?” Lily bounced in her chair, eyes bright with curiosity. “Please? I need to know if he’s worthy of my brother.”
Did I have a picture of Kit? I scrolled through my phone, then remembered the security cameras.
They recorded everything in HD. I pulled up today’s footage, found a clip from this morning in the kitchen.
Kit stood with his arms crossed, talking to Priya about something, his expression serious and focused.
I zoomed in and showed Lily the screen.
“OH MY GOD, HE’S SO HOT!” she shrieked. “Like, grumpy hot. The brooding type. Felix, well done! I’m seriously impressed. Does he have a brother?”
“He does, but sadly for you, his brother has his own hot, grumpy boyfriend.”
Lily pouted dramatically.
I glanced at Eomma, who was clearly swallowing down about seventeen thousand different comments and questions. Her face had gone carefully neutral—never a good sign.
“When do we get to meet him?” she asked finally.
Probably never, I thought, trying to imagine Kit sitting at this dinner table, making awkward small talk about my university achievements while Eomma interrogated him about his intentions.
I sighed. “He’s actually outside right now, waiting to take me out after dinner.”
Eomma choked on the sip of water she was taking.
“So he could wave at you from a distance or something. But you’re absolutely not talking to him,” I said, waving my chopsticks between Lily and Eomma like a tiny weapon. “Either of you.”
Appa chuckled quietly. “Am I allowed to meet him, at least? You know you can trust me to behave.”
I nodded gratefully. “Yes, you may, Appa. But not yet. We’ve only just started dating. It’s not serious yet.” Those words felt strange on my tongue. Probably because of the whole eternal soulmate thing. I was still trying to largely ignore that. “We met on an app,” I added, before anyone could ask.
Eomma pulled a face like she’d bitten into something rotten.
“You told me you wouldn’t let me set you up on an app!” Lily jumped in, pointing her knife at me accusingly. “When I offered to help you find someone nice through Hinge, you said that—”