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Despite what Changbin might say, Felix is not freaking out. She’s not.
She’s just…mildly perturbed. Jittery. Slightly anxious.
She’s just never dated anyone with a kid before, okay, and she wants Jisung to like her. Her entire relationship with Chan rests on winning the approval of Chan’s six-year-old, and Felix’s experiences with children are limited to her own siblings which does not provide her any confidence.
Felix just- she really likes Chan. Loves Chan, she thinks, even though she’s not yet worked up the courage to say those three big words, and she just wants this to go right.
It’s not like this is a surprise to her. She’s known about Jisung the entire time. Chan had been open about being a single mom on her profile. On their first date, Chan had spent half the time talking about Jisung, and Felix had been so enraptured by her charm and passion that she hadn’t minded- encouraged it, even, because when Chan talked about Jisung she absolutely lit up.
Felix was so down bad for Chan that the elder leaving only twenty minutes into their second date because Jisung’s school had called hadn’t even discouraged her.
So yeah. Jisung isn’t a surprise, and at six months together Felix knew this was coming, but still. Meeting Jisung is serious.
Okay, so maybe she is freaking out, just a little. Changbin certainly isn’t helping either.
“Unnie , ” Felix whines, turning away from her closet to stare at her best friend in distress. Said best friend has stopped even paying attention to her, attention drawn to something on her phone. Changbin is horrifically bad at multitasking, attention span notoriously single-minded; Felix tries to call her name three separate times before she just throws the sequined top she’s holding and relishes in Changbin’s deer-in-headlights look. “This is serious, unnie. How am I supposed to win Jisung over and prove I’m functional enough to have a girlfriend with a kid if I can’t even dress myself to meet him?”
They’ve been here for what feels like forever, Felix digging through her closet, trying to find something that screams “put together adult” and not “twenty-something that never invested in a new wardrobe after college”. Somehow, she feels that her Leon Kennedy shirt does not fit the vibe of meeting her girlfriend's kid.
“Yongbok-ah,” Changbin starts, voice soft and steady in the way she always uses with Felix when she gets too in her own head. “I'm sure that after six months Chan is well aware of the state of your wardrobe. I think as long as you don’t go to meet the kid in your clubbing outfits then it’s going to be fine.”
It’s not the most helpful advice. Felix had been hoping that Changbin would look into her closet and perform a miracle, or maybe offer Felix something of her own, but alas. There are no miracles to be found, and Changbin wears an F cup and most days you can’t even tell that Felix has boobs. Felix doesn’t deem Changbin with a response, instead turning back to her closet with only a slightly exaggerated huff, hands on her hips. She has to have something she can make work- she’ll just have to get really creative with it, that’s all.
Chan picks her up at six on-the-dot, dressed in her usual all-black date night outfit, looking like something straight out of Felix’s wet dreams. She kisses Felix sweet and slow over the center console, her favorite way of saying hello to the younger. Chan drives with one hand on the wheel and the other clasped around Felix’s thigh, fingers lightly drumming against her skin in beat with the music. It’s more grounding than any of the breathing exercises Felix has coached herself through, the warmth of Chan’s hand pulling her mind away from her anxieties and instead focusing on the swoop of warmth in her gut that Chan’s touch always brings.
They’re supposed to pick Jisung up from Chan’s parents house and go out for dinner, and when Chan pulls up to their house Felix waits anxiously in the car. She doesn’t want to overwhelm Jisung, and she’s admittedly afraid to see Chan’s parents again after their initial meeting two weeks ago.
(“I don’t think they liked me,” Felix had pouted that evening, wrapped up in Chan’s nice silk sheets, their legs tangled together. She’d never been as hyper aware of their age gap until she had mentioned her school and their eyes had gone wide at her graduation year, because yeah, Felix had only graduated college in the past few years and Chan was a full-fledged professional adult. Felix had gone to the bathroom at one point and had come back just in time to overhear Chan being teased about being a cradle-robber.
Chan had laughed at her, eyes crinkled together and cheeks dimpled. “Felix, baby, they loved you. My mom invited you to cook with her and asked for your cheesecake recipe- that’s like the highest praise from her that someone can get.”)
Felix sits and resists the urge to pick at her nails, lost in her own mind until the backseat door opening snaps her out of it. She watches in the rear view mirror as Chan gets Jisung into his car seat. Felix watches until the boy's eyes meet her own in the reflection and- well, Felix has never really paid children much mind but Jisung is cute, big brown eyes and ruffled hair.
Chan comes back around the driver's seat and slides in, bracing an arm on the center console to look between Felix and her son. Felix does her best to mirror her body language, turned towards Jisung so she can look at him properly.
“Sung-ah,” Chan starts, voice sweet. “This is Felix. Remember how momma told you she’d be going to dinner with us? Can you say hello to her?”
Jisung eyes her up for a moment and Felix waits with bated breath until the boy shyly smiles at her, front tooth missing, and says, “Hi Felix.”
Jisung, it turns out, is incredibly shy until all of a sudden he’s not. Felix isn’t sure what she does that gets him to open up to her but he does, going from steadfastly drawing on the children’s menu with the provided crayons to rambling on about his favorite movie- Cars , as he very seriously informs her- regardless of any food that may or may not be in his mouth. And Felix knows that she’s not helping, not really, when she giggles every time Chan tries to remind the boy to not speak with his mouth full. Chan doesn’t look too put out by it though- she can only hold a serious face for so long when her two favorite people in the world are getting along.
They’re waiting on the check when Jisung turns to his mother and asks, “Can we go get ice cream with Felix?”
Felix can hardly help the way her heart nearly bursts in her chest. Clearly, she’s doing something right if Jisung wants her to keep spending time with them, right? Felix would never say no to ice cream, not to that adorable face.
It’s a good thing that Chan is his mom and not Felix, though, because six years has gotten Chan used to saying no.
“Sung-ah, you know the rule, sweetheart. Not on school nights baby.”
Jisung sighs in that loud, dramatic way the children natural excel at. “Fine,” he pouts. “But what about this weekend?” He turns towards Felix, lips downturned and eyes shining. “Can you get ice cream with us this weekend?”
Chan is smiling at her across the both, one hand stretched across the table to clasp with Felix’s and the other arm around her son. Felix is grinning when she replies, “Of course, Jisung-ah.”
"Good," the child says. "We'll have to make it a sleepover- I love sleepovers."
Jisung has gone quiet by the time Chan pulls into the lot of Felix’s apartment. A look in the rear view mirrors tells her that the boy has fallen asleep, clearly worn out from the excitement of the night. Chan is already looking at Felix when she pulls her eyes away from the mirror, mouth quirked in a soft smile, undeniably fond. It has a flush rising to her cheeks; she’s seen it a hundred times, directed at herself, when Chan reminisces about Jisung, but it feels different.
Chan smiles at her and Felix can practically see her future, a future full of Felix&Chan&Jisung, the boy already wormed into her heart, not likely to go anywhere.
“He’s a sweet kid,” Felix says, voice light so as not to wake him. “I’m excited to get to know him more.”
Chan’s smile grows, eyes flicking to the backseat and back again. “He was right, you know- you’ll have to come have a sleepover soon. We’ll binge all of the Cars movies.”
“Mmhm, peak cinema, of course.” Felix giggles. “I’ll bring ice cream?”
“Obviously,” Chan’s voice tapers off at the end, face close enough to Felix’s own to feel Chan’s breath against her lips.
The kiss is just as soft as it was at the beginning of the night, sweet and chaste in concession of the child in the back seat. Chan presses multiple fleeting kisses to her lips before finally pulling away, cheeks flushed and smile endearing in a way that makes Felix want to stay in this moment forever.
“Goodnight, sweet girl,” Chan says. “I’ll text you in the morning?”
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” Felix responds. “Goodnight.”
Felix practically floats to her apartment door, heart pounding in her chest. Chan’s car idles in the lot until she slips inside, and Felix pulls the curtains aside to watch her drive away. It’s a miracle that Changbin is out, likely holed up in her studio, because there’s nothing Felix can do about the stupid, dopey smile that refuses to leave her face.
Chan doesn’t wait for morning to text her. Felix has just settled in to watch Warm Bodies when her phone lights up with a notification.
Chan unnie <3
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he’s upset that he didn’t get to say goodbye
i think we’ll have to make it up to him soon, don’t you?
It’s a photo of Jisung, sleep ruffled and glaring at the camera- or as close as a six-year-old can get to glaring, really. It’s adorable.
Chan unnie <3
of course <3