[SKZ Imprinted] Felix: Home is Where the Heart Is
a/n: i don’t have any of the og requests from when i first posted skz imprinted but just know all of these were requested a very long time ago, and i hope you still enjoy them now :]
Characters: Felix x female reader
Genre/warnings: werewolf au, barista au, sorta college au but nobody ever goes to class apparently lmao, fluff, angst, a lil humor, kinda a bit of everything ig
Word count: 4,302
Summary: You have to return back home after your semester of studying abroad is up, but you haven’t told anyone that. But when Felix finds out that you have to go, he knows there’s only one way to convince you to stay. However, his plan may backfire on him.
a/n: things in bold are in korean and things not in bold are in english. i know it’s usually the other way around but.....well you’ll get it when you read it lmao. also i would like to preface this by saying i’ve only ever been to an airport once so i have no idea what i’m talking about lmao
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You and Felix felt at home with each other, and you figured it was just because he spoke English like you did. Sure, he was from a different country than you, but you thought his accent was cute, and you loved when he’d gush about his home country. In return, he’d listen to your stories of white Christmases – as apposed to his that he spent on the beach – and poke fun at your American accent. When you two had conversations, it was always in English, since it was easier for both of you.
Making the move to Korea was a little difficult but you’d always wanted to visit the country. You were excited to study abroad for a semester, but you were scared to make friends because you knew that you’d be leaving them all. To avoid the heartbreak of telling any of them, you just chose to keep it to yourself. You’d cross that crumbling bridge when you got to it.
But you almost wanted to tell the newest coworker that you were working with, because you’d just gotten so much closer with him than anybody else you’d met. It happened so quickly, too, so you felt like maybe you kinda had a crush on the cute, freckle-faced Australian.
Maybe.
“If I eat the entire can of whipped cream, nobody will know,” Felix insisted for the umpteenth time, already having the silver can in one hand as he spurted some cream into his open mouth. “I can blame it on customers.”
“I think the security cameras will tell another story,” you chuckled, gesturing to the few behind the counter, aimed at the registers.
Felix looked up at them with a frown, licking his lips clean of extra cream before putting the can back in the fridge, “Stop being right.”
“Stop being dumb,” you giggled, tossing a dirty rag at his chest. “Get to cleaning the blenders, newbie.”
It didn’t matter what you said to Felix, he always complied without protest. He would do anything for you, no questions asked. He was so whipped, but you didn’t even realize it.
Felix immediately brightened just seeing your face, which was why he took up extra shifts immediately after being hired. You were a student, yes, but you spent all of your free time at the café because you didn’t really have anything else to do. Although, Felix always suggested he show you around Korea, and you didn’t mind that offer. Unfortunately, both of you were always too busy to do anything together.
As Felix went to the sink, the shop door dinged, and you turned toward the counter. You recognized the faces of his group of friends that frequented the shop often.
“Helloooo!” you grinned as Chan stepped up to the counter, a bright smile on his face. “What can I get you guys today?”
“If we order a slap to the back of Felix’s head, does she have to deliver?” you heard Seungmin whisper to Jisung, who just snorted in reply.
Felix turned hearing his friend’s voices, a wide grin taking over, “Hey! What’re you guys doing here?”
“We had a break between classes,” Chan shrugged. “Aeri is supposed to meet us here, but she’s busy with Aya right now.”
“Oh yeah, congrats on confessing, by the way,” Felix nodded as he approached the counter where you stood, drying off his hands on a cleaner rag. “Can’t wait for her to get here so I can completely embarrass you some more.”
You got back to taking their orders, putting them into the register one by one while Felix started working on them. Once his friends were taken care of and settled at a few tables that they’d pushed together, you and Felix went back to lounging and talking casually.
As much as you hated to admit it, you’d miss Felix when you left. You told yourself you’d never get feelings, but this boy had wormed his way into your heart quickly, and you already knew it would break when you had to leave. Would it be better to tell him or to just leave? You didn’t know yet.
But you only had two weeks.
“Remember how I said we should hang out so I can show you around?” Felix spoke up once he had finished cleaning the blenders.
You nodded with a hum, refilling the ice as you did so.
“What would you want to do first?” he wondered, turning to face you.
You pursed your lips in thought, trying to think of something you’d always wanted to do since arriving. Truthfully, you were just interested in the lights of the beautiful city, wanting nothing more than to walk the streets at night and see everything you could. It was cliché, and maybe a little too instagram-y, but you wanted to experience the aesthetic of the city that you’d always pictured in your head.
“I’d want to wander, and decide from there,” you finally told him with a sure nod, and a soft smile tugging at the corners of your lips as you imagined doing all of it with Felix. “Why, what would you recommend?”
The bell to the shop dinged, and Felix walked up to the counter, saying softly over his shoulder, “I prefer to follow your lead.”
-
The two of you were setting the chairs up on the tables for closing when Felix’s loud excited voice spoke up over the Cher song he was playing through the speakers in the café.
“Let’s go right now! I’ll show you the city!”
And what did you have to lose? You had two weeks left before you went home, and you had yet to spend time outside of work with your favorite friend and coworker. Why the hell not?
An hour later, you were in the heart of the city with Felix’s jacket around you as the cool night air nipped at you and made your cheeks and the tip of your nose cold. The city at night was everything you expected it would be, and it was even better thanks to Felix, you made sure to point out everything he thought you’d like. He didn’t disappoint.
“Here you go!” he grinned, spinning around from the food cart to hand you the food he had recommended to you. Even though he preferred to follow your lead, he still gave his input when he felt it was needed. “It’s on me.”
“Felix--”
“Ah, I don’t want to hear any backtalk!” he held a finger up to you, almost touching your lips, and making you go cross-eyed as you looked at it. He giggled at your expression and dropped his hand. “That was cute.”
You cheeks warmed as you bit into your food so you wouldn’t have to reply. Felix nodded for you to follow him before weaving through the crowded sidewalk, in search of something else to do or see. He ended up leading you to a long bench that had an old couple sitting at one end. He sat at the other end, letting you sit on the inside of the bench and away from the bustling traffic of people walking by.
“So, _____,” Felix began before he took a bite of his food.
You laughed softly, sitting crisscross on the bench, “So, Felix.”
“Can I ask you something?” he wondered, his hand ghosting over his mouth as he chewed.
“Sure,” you shrugged, not knowing what he would ask, but a little intrigued to find out.
“Do you get homesick?”
While people have asked you if you missed your home, Felix hardly ever asked. You didn’t know why he suddenly would, unless…maybe he was homesick? But he had Chan to talk about this stuff with, didn’t he?
You just shrugged again, “Sometimes. Why, do you?”
“Well, yeah, but…” he flashed you a worried look, “you’ve seemed kind of off recently, and I didn’t know if it was because you missed being home.”
‘Actually, it’s because I’m going home,’ you thought to yourself.
Instead, you just shook your head and put on your most convincing smile, trying to trick him into thinking everything was okay, “Nope! I’m fine, Felix. Promise.”
The sandy-haired boy eyed you warily, but didn’t push the subject. He knew if you didn’t want to talk about something, he shouldn’t try to force you. He just wished you’d trust him a little more. You were his mate after all, you just didn’t know it.
“You know,” he began again, his tone a lot more upbeat this time, “I visit home with my parents twice a year. I should take you sometime so you can actually experience Christmas on a beach. You can see my people: the kangaroos!”
You laughed, though it was bittersweet knowing that it would never happen. In two weeks, you’d be back home, and you didn’t think you’d ever see Felix again. However, you just went along with his fantasy, wishing it could be real.
“Definitely, Felix. I’d love that.”
-
The next two weeks were torture for your heart. The more you thought about never seeing Felix again, the worse you felt. You really didn’t think your feelings for him were this strong, but you cried almost every night thinking that Felix would be on the other side of the world from you.
To make matters worse, you still hadn’t told him.
That night that you hung out with Felix, he had won a pair of cheesy friendship bracelets from a claw machine that the two of you now wore every day. You wouldn’t admit it to him, but those bracelets held a lot more meaning to you than just a friendship you’d made studying abroad. He felt the same, but couldn’t admit that to you.
The last few days in Korea left you feeling depressed and empty. The only thing getting you out of bed was remembering you’d see Felix at the café, but you couldn’t even act cheery there. Felix asked if you were feeling okay – he’d never seen you act so depressed before – but you just told him that you were catching a cold and felt sluggish. He did everything to cheer you up, but knowing that his bright smile and warm laugh wouldn’t be there to help you soon just made you feel worse.
The night before you left for back home, you were closing up with a different coworker. You had left a note on the counter for Felix, who was opening in the morning. You couldn’t just leave him in the dark about you suddenly disappearing, so you had to tell him something. You just couldn’t bring yourself to even text or call him, let alone say it to his face.
Felix,
I was studying abroad here for a semester, but that semester is now over. I have to go back home to America, but I couldn’t find it in me to tell you. During my time here, I grew to care a lot about you – more than I cared about any of my other friends. Maybe more than platonically. I don’t even know how or why I like you so much already but I do… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, but I hope you can forgive me. I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again, but I promise I’ll never ever forget you.
With love,
_____
-
You were at the airport at 6am, but you stalled going through security to get to your gate. Instead, you found a place to grab breakfast by bag check so you could get your luggage in and force yourself through customs.
You cried all night and all morning. You wondered if Felix got your note. You wondered if he hated you for not telling him, or if he thought everything was fake since you kept the biggest secret from him. You actually kind of hated yourself.
Your self-loathing was interrupted by a tall, foreign-looking girl sitting down one stool away from you. She glanced in your direction and gave a friendly, polite smile as she stabbed a straw into her iced coffee. You couldn’t even muster that up.
The girl frowned, “You don’t seem too happy. Not excited to leave?”
“No,” you sighed, shaking your head, “not at all. Where are you going?”
“Oh, I’m from America,” she explained, making you perk up just a bit.
“Me too…”
When she spoke again, it was in your native tongue, holding her hand out to shake yours. “My name’s Lila, but everyone calls me Faye.”
“_____,” you told her, shaking her warm hand.
“Why aren’t you excited to go back home? Don’t you get homesick?”
“I came here to study abroad for a semester, but…” you paused, trying to decide if what you were about to say was how you actually felt. You decided it was, “I think home for me is here. I’m more upset leaving here than I was leaving home.”
“That’s how I am,” Faye laughed softly with a nod of her head. “I met someone here, and wherever he is, is home.”
You nodded slowly, mulling over her words, “Yeah… I think I know what you mean. Are you coming back to him?”
“I always do,” she stated proudly, her smile widening. “I’m only going to America to visit for a week. I haven’t seen my family in a year, so I figured now is the best time to do it since the semester is over. He’s not happy about it, but he knows I’ll come back.”
You wished you could come back for Felix, but you didn’t have the time or the money. You’d be going back to college where you originally went, and you spent all your money to study abroad. You just couldn’t see Felix again, it wasn’t in your cards.
Little did you know that fate had brought you together because you were made for Felix, and fate would bring you back together a lot sooner than you thought.
-
Felix was panicked as soon as he read your note. He frantically tried to call you, but you’d already shut your phone off. Instead, he called Chan and asked him to pick him up at the café.
“Dude, it’s like, six in the morning,” the alpha groaned.
“_____’s leaving!” he cried. “She’s going back home, Chan, I need to--”
When Chan spoke again, his voice was less groggy and more intense, “I’m on my way. We’ll stop her.”
So Felix ditched his coworker he was supposed to open with, but they promised to make up an excuse for him if anybody asked – everyone knew about his huge crush on you except for, well, you – and went with Chan, Changbin, and Minho to the airport.
Meanwhile, you’d managed to get yourself to bag check and get in line for customs after your talk with the tall American you’d met. Her talk didn’t necessarily give you hope that you’d see Felix again, but at least it killed time. Now, you were just sort of hoping you’d miss your flight and you’d have to stay here because you couldn’t afford another ticket back home. Your dual citizenship would actually come in handy for once.
You couldn’t take your mind off of Felix, constantly looking at the cheap bracelet around your wrist. You already promised yourself you’d never take it off, but you wondered if Felix would eventually. It was probably just some dumb joke thing to him, right?
‘God, why do I already feel so strongly about some boy?’ you kept asking yourself.
You were even hearing his voice in your head, begging you to not go. You’d really made yourself delusional over him.
“_____, stop!”
No, that wasn’t in your head…
You turned around and saw Felix standing on his toes in the crowd that was starting to form for the early morning flights. A few of his friends were running after him through the automatic door, but he kept running toward you, begging you to not go.
Did you really mean that much to him too?
It didn’t even matter. You got out of line and ran toward him, hardly noticing how upset and distressed he looked. He caught you as you crashed into him, flinging your arms around him, and he let out a sigh of relief as he held you.
“You’re not gone yet,” he breathed, one hand stroking your hair. “God, I was so scared.”
“I’m so sorry!” you sobbed, clinging to him desperately like he could fix this situation. “I wanted to tell you but I…I-I couldn’t!”
“Hey, it’s alright,” he chuckled, trying to calm you down as his friends caught up with him. “I’m just glad I could stop you.”
You pulled away a little to look at him, “Stop me…?”
He looked into your glassy eyes with a soft sigh. He let go of you and took both of your hands instead, “_____, the truth is…I’m in love with you. I know that sounds crazy because we’ve only known each other for a few months, but… Wow, this is going to sound so weird…”
Instead of continuing, Felix pulled you aside to a less populated corner. His friends stood in the area, but still tried to give you privacy. Your heart was beating out of your chest at the beginning of his confession, but you couldn’t understand why he could already love you. Sure, love didn’t have a time span but still.
“I know this’ll sound crazy, but just hear me out, okay?” Felix began again, his voice low and quiet. “I’m a...werewolf, _____. I imprinted on you as soon as a saw you, and...I will, quite literally...die without you. I need you in my life, _____, you can’t go.”
You just stared at him, not knowing what to do. A werewolf? Did those exist?
You didn’t even know when or why, but you started laughing. Not even hardy, warm laughter, but confused and crazy laughter. Felix looked so worried for you, but you just couldn’t stop laughing at him.
“That’s…” you finally got out, but you didn’t even know how to finish the sentence.
A werewolf? There wasn’t any way that was real.
“I…have to go,” you told him, slowly pulling your hands away from his.
Werewolf. Felix was crazy. You were crazy for falling for someone who would make something up like this.
Right?
“N-no!” Felix begged, looking more afraid than he had since he showed up. “_____, please, I know it sounds weird but--”
“Felix, I have a whole life back home!” you told him. “I have a family, and friends, and an education. I can’t drop everything for someone who makes some crazy confession to get me to stay. I wanted to stay but…a werewolf, Felix? Really?”
“_____, please--”
You shook your head, your voice lowering as you stared at him sadly, “I’m sorry, Felix. Goodbye.”
With that, you turned and jogged toward the custom’s line again, leaving Felix to fall to his knees as he watched you go.
-
The entire time waiting for the plane, being on the plane, and then the first week you were home, you wondered if Felix wouldn’t have made that story up if you had told him you were leaving beforehand. You wondered if Felix ever showed any red flags of being the lying kind of person, or even crazy, but he’d always seemed sweet and normal.
A werewolf? How dumb did he think you were?
But still, you could never bring yourself to take your bracelet off. And you still cried over the Australian boy that made you feel at home. You were physically home, and you didn’t even feel like you were.
After that first week of wallowing, you looked up werewolves. You found people on all sorts of blogs claiming they were the mate of a werewolf, but all their stories had some similarities. Imprinting as soon as they lay eyes on their mate, disappearing for a whole week twice a year -- in some cases with female werewolves, once a month -- and coming up with excuses, and sometimes catching a gleam of gold or red in their eyes.
It got even weirder when they described the imprinting pull. It perfectly described your feelings for Felix that had quickly grown as soon as you’d had a conversation with him. Sure, you always thought he was cute, but you were done for as soon as he grinned and you and laughed at something dumb you’d said.
It wasn’t possible he was telling the truth, was he? Because the blogs even said you’d hate being away from them, and god, did you hate not seeing Felix everyday. It hurt thinking you’d never see him again, and you just wanted to be with him.
What if he was telling the truth? Then…Felix really would die.
‘No, _____, you’re being crazy now,’ you told yourself.
But you couldn’t shake the feeling, even when a month of being home went by. Not a day went by you didn’t think about Felix, but you couldn’t bring yourself to contact him again. You were afraid it would open old wounds, and that would just hurt too much. So you just went to school, went to work, went straight home, sulked about Felix until you went to sleep, and repeated the process.
Until one night when your routine didn’t go as it usually did. You didn’t feel…depressed. You still didn’t feel good, but the emptiness didn’t feel as empty and you didn’t know why. Maybe you were getting over Felix. Maybe the werewolf thing was a hoax.
You were sitting on the couch, watching TV as you normally did, when there was a knock on your door. You didn’t know why your heart sped up, but you assumed it was the anxiety of having to open the door for a stranger. You undid the locks and opened the door, expecting the landlord or a neighbor to be standing in the hallway.
Not the boy you were missing from Korea.
“Hey, _____” Felix smiled shyly, his thick accent making your heart race. “I hope you kept your promise and didn’t forget about me.”
You were speechless, so you just wrapped your arms around his waist and buried your face in his chest. A content hum rumbled in his chest, vibrating against you, and you were sure you’d never heard anybody make a weird sound like that before.
“How…?” your question trailed off, muffled by Felix’s jacket.
“I couldn’t just lose you,” he chuckled pulling away to look at you and wipe the tears that were slipping out. “Plus, I had to prove to you that I wasn’t crazy. I wasn’t going to just lay down and die.”
Thought he looked like he was about to. He was definitely thinner now, and his eyes were much duller than you remembered them.
You took his hand and pulled him into your apartment before tightly shutting your door and locking it again, “How did you find me?”
“The imprinting pull,” he shrugged, as if it was no big deal. “I could track you anywhere if I needed to. …That sounded cuter in my head.”
You laughed softly and led him to sit on the couch beside you. You couldn’t help but notice the brightly-colored woven bracelet was still on his wrist, and you smiled to yourself, “I’ll give you a chance to explain, but only since you’re still wearing the bracelet.”
“So are you,” he noted with a soft blush in his face. “Alright… Well, I guess I should start with the eyes.”
You watched as Felix took a contact container out of his front pocket before he stuck his finger in his eye, taking out the brown from his eyes, and leaving him with a liquid gold color that you softly gasped at. It was so beautiful to look at, and he couldn’t help but chuckle at your reaction.
“This is already going better than I expected,” he noted as he took the second one out, closing the case before he set it on your coffee table. “I considered just shifting but…_____, your apartment is very small. Like, maybe smaller than Chan’s.”
“I’m just one person!” you huffed, slightly offended he’d insult your living space.
“Could be two people instead,” he said, using his toothy grin to try to convince you in his favor, as he used to do many time before.
And wow, did you miss that smile.
“Could be,” you nodded before your face fell, “but don’t you have to go home?”
“I am home!” he stated happily, poking the button of your nose. “You are home, _____; wherever you are is where my home is. That’s how imprinting works.”
It all definitely made sense now that it was confirmed that Felix wasn’t lying. It explained your feelings for him, and why you felt worse leaving Korea than you did leaving home. Felix was your home, and you had left him. But now you had him back, and things felt okay again.
“What about your pack?” you questioned, finding in your research that werewolves liked to stick together.
“Well, that depends on you...” he said sheepishly, gathering your hands in his. “I have a ticket to go back in two weeks. I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but--”
“I’ll do it,” you immediately told him.
Felix definitely seemed shocked to say the least, “You will?”
“I thought you were lying at the airport,” you laughed, “but now that I know you weren’t, how can I say no? I won’t be home unless I’m with you.”
His grin spread across his face, crinkling his eyes and scrunching his nose, “It’s even cuter when you say it.”
