Falling in love is easy. It should taste like vanilla and chocolate cupcakes (with extra frosting because extra frosting is always appreciated), made on a rainy Sunday morning when you don't feel like doing anything but sleep and watch crappy old fashioned tv series. Falling in love should smell like a huge bouquet of colorful flowers, the kind of bouquet that makes you feel like it's spring when it's fall. It should feel like a warm blanket worn on December nights, when it snows outside and the sky is a pretty shade of violet.

Falling in love is a beautiful thing, except it's not. For Luhan, falling in love tastes like bitter warm coffee on Monday mornings when they both are late and there's no time for words. For Luhan, falling in love smells like the same old jiaozi they eat for dinner, the ones that Haneul devours in half a second because soy sauce makes them ten times tastier. For Luhan, falling in love feels like pain in random parts of your body after having shower and cracking your head open in the meantime because ' Sehun it's too slippery' and ' is that blood on your forehead?'. 

But it's still love. It's clumsy, awkward and sometimes rushed, but it's love. 

Haneul stares at them both when he sees Luhan coming out from Sehun's bedroom, his father's arms wrapped tightly around his waist and lips ghosting on his neck. Sehun never did that with Yoobin. He stares at them again when Sehun unconsciously intertwines his fingers with Luhan's as he reads the newspaper, thumb slowly caressing the back of Luhan's small hand. Sehun never did that either.

Haneul finally gets it when, before heading off to university, Luhan stands on tiptoe to kiss Sehun square on the lips. 

"Get a room" Haneul blurts out at some point, rolling his eyes and stomping his way towards the bathroom. 

"I told you he's not comfortable" Luhan whispers as he slaps Sehun on his shoulder, maybe harsher then he intended to. Sehun giggles and kisses the younger some more, knowing deep down that Haneul isn't really bothered by that. He knows his son better than anybody else, and when he doesn't like something, well, Sehun just knows.

Among graduation exams, layouts to edit and aced tests, something starts to change. Luhan senses it for the first time when he accidentally says yes after the teacher asks him if he is Haneul's parent. He senses it again when he's at a random party with Sehun and he's being introduced as his partner to most of said man's colleagues (not everyone because some people are too cool to attend parties), who don't really care much because who are they to judge (or maybe because Luhan is wearing his nicest suit and the most expensive tie he owns, with his hair pushed back and a pair of useless glasses that makes him look twice his age)? He senses it for the third time when Kyungsoo just stops yelling at him that dating someone that old is not healthy. He notices it for the fourth time when Sehun pushes a delicate golden ring on his right ring finger.

And finally, when Sehun's bedroom is filled with a couple of boxes and random stuff on the floor, Luhan understands that whatever this is, it's serious.

He's really moving in with Sehun. 

Luhan tries to forget Kyungsoo's cold stare piercing his soul as he packs up his things; he tries to forget how dinner seemed to taste worse than usual, and he also tries to forget how his roommate said goodbye with a bone-crushing hug that made him feel ten times guiltier. 

"If that old man dares to hurt you, let me know" Kyungsoo whispers between gritted teeth, shoving the Chinese boy out of the apartment and slamming the door shut against his face. He probably can't really express his feelings well, but Luhan understands. 

He always does.

When Sehun doesn't talk after work but kisses his face senseless, he understands. When Haneul screams that he's not his real mother after a long day at school, he understands. When Kyungsoo calls him twenty times a day to check on him, he understands too.  

"Luhan hyung? What's wrong?" Haneul's small head appears behind the door, a soccer ball under his arm and furrowed eyebrows. 

Luhan looks up from the mess on the bedroom floor and simply smiles, replying that nothing's wrong and that he needs to unpack his thing as soon as possible. 

Seeing all those folded clothes on the bed makes him anxious because they remind him of the time when he left Beijing hoping to find a better life somewhere else. He remembers his mother's wet tears on his shoulder and how silent his dad was during the trip to the airport. He also remembers how his baby siblings begged him to stay while repeating hey, Beijing is huge, there must be a place for you too. And yeah, he remembers shoving his plane ticket inside his pocket along with his dreams and some bitter tears too, but it's ok. He belongs somewhere now.

Luhan is arranging some of his jeans inside the wardrobe when Haneul plops down on the floor to look around his hyung's belongings. He finds nothing particularly interesting; there are pics, pieces of paper, postcards, some candy and a Korean vocabulary. He unwraps a lemon lollipop and shoves it into his mouth. 

"I'm happy you're gonna live with us" he mumbles with the lollipop still in his left cheek, the hard candy occasionally hitting his front teeth. He watches as Luhan suddenly stops moving his hands and starts to wipe something away from his face.

"I'm happy too" the Chinese boy replies a couple of minutes later, voice unstable and head hung low, avoiding turning his face towards Haneul because there's no way he's going to show his red rimmed eyes. He is a very manly man, and very manly men don't cry like girls just because life happens and also because sometimes happiness bottles up inside one's chest and then explodes like an atomic bomb. The last time his eyes cried happy tears was on his tenth birthday, right when he received his first soccer video game as a gift from his parents. Actually, anything soccer-related would have made him cry. The fact that his gift was a video game didn't change things much. 

Luhan sniffles slightly and rubs his eyes once more, trying to focus on his clothes and not on his emotions that are like a big messy ball of chaos inside his mind. When he is done with his jeans, though, he notices that the room is way too quiet and that would only mean that Haneul got bored and left. Feeling a bit more relieved, he turns around to pick up his t-shirts and a second later they are scattered on the floor. Sehun is leaning on the door frame, arms crossed and a small smirk on his thin lips. With just a couple of steps he reaches Luhan until his hands find their way on each side of the younger's head, caging him.

"Haneul told me you were crying." Sehun manages to say, lips softly pressed against Luhan's wet cheek. 

"I'm just happy" Luhan sniffles again and moves his head, burying it into Sehun's chest to hide his oh so red face. 

They stay like that for what it seems to be an eternity. Sehun holds Luhan close and Luhan does the same, sniffling every now and then because when he starts to cry, well, there's no way he can stop. 

He only stops when Haneul yells from the kitchen that it's dinner time and my!! tummy!! hurts!! FOOD!!!

-- 

Being the graphic department manager gives you a few more zeros on your paychecks but also more hours in that small office that smells like burnt coffee. People bow to you and your name makes it on the last page of the magazine, but when it's seven pm on a Friday night, Sehun wishes he could go back in time and just choose another job because the stress is slowly turning his bones into dust. He's staring at his empty cup of coffee when he feels a slight pain in his head, that same old pain that haunts him on every weekend, and he instantly knows that a terrific headache is on his way to ruin his night. 

The layout for the fashion article is halfway done but he's still late (it's not his fault Baekhyun could not decide which brand of eyeliner would fit best into his June favorites), so he calls Luhan to apologize. He had promised to book a table for two at a nice italian restaurant but there's no way he can make it before nine o'clock. Luhan, on the other line, assures him that everything is ok and that there's always next time, but Sehun catches a hint of sadness in his voice. He clicks his tongue and gets back to work; the more he creates, the sooner he can go home. 

"Sehun hyung? I need help" Jongin calls softly, holding a couple of textbooks in his tanned arms. That trainee is so quiet that Sehun completely forgot about his existence. With a nod, Sehun tells him to sit next to him so they