--THIS IS SO ANGSTY OMG SORRY GUYS (3 more chapters to go)--

It’s finally December.

The weather turning colder as the brisk feather-like snowflakes fall gracefully around the city. In the city of Seoul, the town is buzzing as ever; people last minute shopping before the winter holidays as posters of end-of-year sales emerge around town.

There’s only one week before the winter break and Luhan can’t wait to get the hell out of this place. The reason being that the amount of couples seem to double this time of year. It doesn’t make him feel lonely at all. He’s fine!

Yeah keep telling yourself that.

At least there’s one couple that he was happy for; Kyungsoo and Jongin. After getting together, their strings untangled and started glowing, like really bright. Luhan couldn’t be anymore happier to tell his friend that his string was stronger than ever and that he had finally found the person at the end of his string.

When will it be my turn? Although the thought comes back to his head every now and then, he’s too busy avoiding someone to really think about something else.

Luhan’s been spending a lot of time with Minseok lately. The male’s been bringing him out a lot, although he’s too oblivious to see that the elder was obviously taking him on dates. He also notices the small things Minseok likes to do for him; hold his bag, ruffle his hair, or even wipe his mouth when they’re eating spaghetti together.

Luhan would like to think that Minseok might be the one at the end of his string, but why does it feel like the other’s string gets more and more tangled each time they’re together. It doesn’t glow and is way easier for Luhan to dismiss than others.

Minseok makes it easy to fall for him, and Luhan would be lying if he says that his heart doesn’t flutter from the actions the male does with him; his head is telling him to fall for him, that he would be happy with Minseok, but his heart keeps pulling him in the direction of someone he doesn’t want to want.

Someone he’s convinced himself is the past and will stay that way, forever.

The winter ball is also coming up; something most of the guys here are excited about since it is the only time they can invite the girls from Magic Arts High School (across the street) into their school. Luhan isn’t interested on going; he would probably feel twenty times worse for himself and his single life.

Surprisingly, there has been a couple of guys that has come up to him to ask him out to the dance, but he kindly rejected them by making the excuse of leaving earlier for the break.

“You read to go?” Luhan snaps out from his personal thought bubble and looks up to see a smiling Minseok.

He returns the smile before getting up and picking up his bag. “Yeah, you still owe me from last time.”

“I said I was sorry,” The smaller whines making them both laugh.

“It’s snowing how are you not freezing to death? Why didn’t you bring a coat?” Minseok adds, looking at Luhan with only a sweater on.

Luhan rubs his neck sheepishly. “Woke up late.”

The older male shakes his head and scolds Luhan for being careless and not caring for his own health. He takes off his coat and throws it over Luhan’s shoulder before the latter could reject.

“B-But you’re going to freeze!”

“It’s okay, I’m wearing extra layers because I’m not clumsy like someone around here.”

Luhan rolls his eyes and bumps into the shorter male with his shoulder. “Whatever.”

Minseok laughs and swings his arm around the other.

“Let’s go get us some hot waffles. I’m starving!”

~*~

“Ugh, can you guys not do that in front of me? I feel like puking,” Sehun groans as he sees the couple make out on the bleachers for the nth time that day.

Sehun and the rest of the basketball team (he joined a few weeks ago) were currently taking a break from practice. Kyungsoo was here as a supportive boyfriend, trying to attend most practice to give both Jongin and Sehun snacks he made the night prior. However, Sehun isn’t liking how this was turning out; his best friends tongue locking each other, while other students (including himself) were still around.

Kyungsoo pushes Jongin away, earning a whine from the younger but ignores it. “S-Sorry,” he mumbles shyly, a blush appearing on his cheeks.

“Don’t listen to what he says, he’s just being a whiny baby since his Lulu isn’t making out with him but some other senior-”

Kyungsoo flicks Jongin’s forehead. “Don’t say that! He’s sad enough,” he turns to Sehun. “Don’t listen to this idiot, I’m sorry for making you feel left out Hunnie, do you want hot chocolate? I’ll treat you after.”

Sehun sighs but gives the elder a small smile nonetheless. “That sounds good hyung.”

Jongin continues to glare at the younger before turning to his boyfriend and grabbing both of his hands. “Do I get hot chocolate too Kyungiepoo?”

“I only buy drinks for dongsaengs I like, so... No.”

“WHAT?”

Sehun chuckles at the couple before diverting his attention back to the court. When he sees the poster of the winter ball that’s about to come up next week, he turns to the other males next to him and asks if they were attending.

“What kind of stupid question is that? Of course we’re going,” Jongin scoffs.

“But not together,” Kyungsoo adds making Sehun give him a confused look. Jongin also gives the older a confused look as if he was speaking in a foreign language.

“Why won’t we be going together?” The younger finally asks.

The smaller grabs his water bottle and takes a sip. “Because you haven’t asked me yet.”

“I thought that was a given seeing that you are my boyfriend.”

The elder shrugs. “Still would be nice to ask. I mean Hyunsik had the guts to ask me-”

“He did what?” Jongin yells. “You said no right? RIGHT?”

“I gave him a maybe.”

Jongin whines and stomps his feet childishly. “Soo, this isn’t fair!”

“Life isn’t fair,” Sehun mutters from the sides.

“Shut up Oh,” Jongin snaps before sighing. “Fine, Do Kyungsoo would you go to the winter ball with me?”

Kyungsoo gives Jongin a bright smile before answering, “Of course silly, we are boyfriends after all.”

The younger males give him both a weird look making him tilt his head confusingly. “What?”  

Sehun leans in close to Jongin and whispers, “Dude, your boyfriend is so weird.”

Jongin only nods.

A whistle suddenly goes off and the two resume practice.

~*~

The next afternoon, Sehun spends in Chanyeol’s rooms, both studying for the upcoming chemistry exam. Baekhyun, who was currently sitting next to them, was playing a game on his phone.

“Oh !” Chanyeol suddenly curses.

“What?”

“What are the base pairs again?” The taller asks.

“Hyung, this is like, the first thing you learn in DNA replication,” Sehun replies.

“Yeah, well sorry for having a bad memory,” The taller pouts.

“Guanine, Cytosine, Adenine, Thymine,” The younger explains. “Hyung if you can’t even remember this, what are you going to do about the other concepts?”

“Gonna wing it,” Chanyeol says, giving Sehun his goofy smile.

“Of course, why didn’t I think of that.”

Baekhyun suddenly lets out a really loud sigh, grabbing the two male’s attention.

Chanyeol reaches out and ruffles his boyfriend’s hair. “What’s wrong Baekkie?”

“I’m bored and Luhan won’t hang out with me,” The brunette whines. “He’s too busy hanging out with Minseok hyung- Oops,” Baekhyun winces. “Sorry, I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

Sehun’s expression turns dark immediately. “So that’s why he’s never in our room.”

“D-Don’t worry Hunnie! Luhan already told me he doesn’t see Minseok hyung in that way,” Baekhyun nudges Chanyeol side.

“E-Eh, yeah! He told us that they were just friends,” Chanyeol helps out but Sehun doesn’t seem convinced.

“It’s okay hyungs, you guys don’t have to make me feel better,” Sehun says softly, giving them a reassuring smile. “I just wish he would just look at me. He makes me feel like a ghost whenever we’re in the room together.”

“Just be patient, he’ll be back to the way he was in no time.”

“No he won’t, he’ll just keep ignoring me until he graduates, then we’ll really never see each other again.”

Baekhyun can only sigh at the younger’s statement. Suddenly, he gets a notification on his phone which turns out to be a Facebook invite to the winter ball.

“I know what we have to do.”

Chanyeol’s eyes sparkle. “What?”

“Sehun-ah, are you going to the dance with anyone?” Baekhyun asks. Sehun shakes his head.

“I wasn’t planning on actually going.”

“That’s great! I mean, no it’s not, you’re going to come and we’re going to make Luhan be your date!”

Sehun raises his eyebrow at the elder’s statement. “Eh, you think that’s going to work? We aren’t exactly on talking terms or any terms really.”

“I am a hundred percent sure. He could never reject you if you found a way to impress him.”

“I’m in!”

“Shut up for a second Yeol.”

“Sorry, I love you.”

“Love you too, anyway, Sehun, we are going to need a plan,” Baekhyun announces, an evil smile forming on his face. “And I know exactly what we are going to do.”

~*~

Thursday. D-Day.

~*~

Luhan wakes up to feel surprisingly refreshed.

Well that was nice, I haven’t gotten a sleep that refreshing in a long time.

He grabs his phone and looks at the time.

Oh it’s only twelve I guess I still have time before- TWELVE? I’M FIVE HOURS LATE TO CLASS.

Once he jumps out of bed, he hears a small thud and sees that a box has fallen onto the ground.

He picks up the box and inspects it. “What is this,” Luhan mumbles.

He quietly jumps onto the sofa and looks up to the second floor to see an empty bed. “Of course he didn’t wake me up, stupid Sehun.”

He gets off the couch and finally opens the box. However there’s no object inside only a note that says:

Good morning, did you have a nice sleep?
I already told the teachers you weren’t feeling well
and you wanted to rest.  
If you look at your desk, you will notice that
your laptop is missing.
I know your password and all the files you have like your
song recordings and embarrassing pictures.
If you don’t want them exposed to the public, you will follow
this note and go to the gym at 12:30.
Look for the yellow box underneath the bleachers.

If you are late, there will be consequences.
Good luck Luhan.

“What the hell is this?” Luhan looks to his desk to see that his laptop was actually missing. He starts panicking.

“No, no, no, if those pictures get out I’m dead!”

He quickly changes and brushes his teeth before zooming out of the room and directly to the gym. He is careful however to avoid any teachers or staff in order to not get into any trouble.

Damn you who ever planned this, what are you trying to do?

It’s also snowing and freezing cold outside, who in their right minds would make someone go on a stupid treasure hunt in the middle of this season.

Once he gets to the gym, he notices that the lights were all out which was weird since there were classes throughout the day and even when there’s not, people are cleaning the place.

He opens the door as quietly as possible and sneaks in, trying not to make a sound that could attract attention from elsewhere. Since the heaters were off, Luhan could feel his teeth chattering from the cold air.  He quickly makes his way behind the bleachers and finds the yellow box (a little to easily in his opinion), he doesn’t stop to question anything since he just really wants to get his laptop back.  

This time when he opens it, it isn’t a note but a paintbrush.

Luhan isn’t that stupid to not understand what that meant.

“Are you doubting my skills?” Luhan scoffs.

Going to the art room is a painful experience for someone who isn’t an art student.

It’s the furthest place away from the gym, it’s placed on a small hill, and the main art studio is on the fourth floor.

Why am I even doing this? I have everything saved to the cloud!

It’s too late now he concludes as he reaches the doors to the art building. He looks inside before going in and see’s students in the hallways, but they probably wouldn’t say anything since they’re too busy getting ready for their next class.

He rushes to the fourth floor and before he goes into the studio, a note pasted on the door stops him.

Find the wise one in white.

“The wise one in white? How the hell am I supposed to know who the wise one in white is? I’ve never been in this goddamn building-” He complaining is cut short when he see’s something from the corner of his eye.

It was a painting that was placed inside the studio of a guy covered in white robes. Luhan goes in and examines that painting.

“But there’s nothing here,” He mumbles.

After looking at the painting for a whole minute, he notices that the painting was hung up crooked so he decides to lifts it up and finds a note pasted on the wall behind it.

Go back to your room, rest, then go to the auditorium at 8:30pm. Keys are on your desk.

Luhan’s face becomes blank.

If Luhan could kill someone with only his thoughts, this stranger would be dying on repeat.

Instead of going back to his room, he decides to stop by the senior lounge since it was too much of a task to walk all the way back to the dorms.

He meets Junmyeon who was probably doing some student council work. He greets the other male with a tired wave and plops himself done next to him.

“You look dead,” Junmyeon comments, looking up from his notes.

“That bad?” Luhan mutters, feeling more and more tired from running around the campus.

Junmyeon pats Luhan’s head once. “You actually look very pretty, have you ever considered crossdressing? You would totally be my type if you were a girl.”

To say the blonde was creeped out would be an understatement.

“Um, no.”

“Aw, well too bad I guess,” He says before turning back to his work.

The silence was so unbearable that Luhan had to get out of the place, so he bids farewell to the male and heads toward the cafeteria, hoping he can still get the last slice of strawberry cake. Luckily they did have a slice and he takes it to his usually table.

Thankfully, there was only a few other students in the cafeteria making the atmosphere peaceful and quiet. Until a very loud and obnoxious Kim Jongdae decides he wanted bread from the store.

Before Luhan could hide, Jongdae spots him and runs up to him yelling, “Yo Luhan hyung!” Proceeding to bump into the elder’s back, giving him a back hug that made Luhan very uncomfortable.

“Hey Jongdae,” The blonde male forces out.

Jongdae returns the greeting with his oh-so-famous grin and sits down across Luhan. “What are you up to hyung, heard you’ve been hanging out with my- I mean Minnie a lot lately,” He doesn’t really try to hide the sneer in his voice.

Luhan tries not to blush and looks down at his half eaten cake. “We’re good friends, d-don’t worry.”

“Oh, I wasn’t accusing you of anything, just wanted to know. He hasn’t been talking to me a lot.”

Suddenly, Jongdae’s string starts blinking red which scares Luhan. He has never seen anything like this before. The younger must has sensed something and asks him if something was wrong. Luhan diverts his attention back to Jongdae immediately, shaking his head.

“E-Eh, nothing just thought I saw someone.”

“Sehun?”

This grabbed Luhan’s attention.

“What about Sehun?”

“Well, you said you thought someone was here, I just assumed it was Sehun.”

“Why would you assume that?”

“I don’t know, there’s just this weird vibe around you guys,” Jongdae shrugs. “Welp, if you see Minnie can you tell him I miss him?”

“S-Sure,” Luhan manages to get out.

“See you at the ball hyung,” The younger says before walking away.

“Yeah, see you.”

~*~

“This is killing me can I please go out and ask him?”

“No! You have to stick with the plan!”

“But-”

“No buts! He’s moving, we better hurry and set up.”

~*~

Luhan sinks down onto his bed. He grabs a pillow and hugs it to his chest tight as the conversation from earlier keeps replaying in his head.

Weird vibe. What weird vibe? There’s nothing going on between me and him.

He ruffles his hair and wiggles around his bed frustratingly until he ends up faced down on his mattress. He lets out a scream before pushing up and going to clean his face in the bathroom. He hears his door open and peaks out to see Kyungsoo in his penguin pyjama pants.

“Soo, what are you doing here?” He asks his friend.

“I kinda dropped his CDs a awhile back, just got him new ones since I forgot,” Kyungsoo replies awkwardly. Luhan could sense that something was wrong right away, Kyungsoo was never this awkward.

“What’s wrong? You sound weird.”

Kyungsoo smiles nervously, rubbing his sweaty palms against his pants. “N-Nothing! Nothing at all, I’m just gonna leave this here, eh, make sure Sehun gets it, okay, bye!”

“Wai-”

The door is slammed shut.

He goes towards Sehun’s desk and picks up the CD Kyungsoo just left. He see’s that it was a Justin Timberlake album and notices a small posted note on it.

Don’t forget to bring a thick coat.

Luhan scoffs at the note and remembers about the keys on his desks. Going to retrieve it, he takes a peek at the clock and sees that it’s still six o’clock.

What am I going to do for the next two and a half hours?

~*~

“Hyung, what if he doesn’t come?”

“He’ll come, trust me.”

~*~

“It’s so freaking cold, why am I even doing this for a freaking laptop?”

Let’s be honest your only doing this because you think it’s Sehun who planned this out.

“Shut up brain. I just don't want any weird pictures of me spreading around school.”

Sure.

Reaching the door of the auditorium made Luhan’s heart beat a thousand time faster. What if it really was Sehun’s doing? He didn’t want to face the younger, he just wanted to live a peaceful and happy life, not a sad and gloomy one.

After unlocking the door, a gush of cold air hits Luhan making him shiver even more, pulling his jacket closer to his body. He gently closes the door behind him and all of the sudden, a trail of LED lights lit up, leading Luhan to his seat in the front row of the auditorium.

He follows it cautiously, looking around to see if he could catch a glimpse of anyone; anything.

This was starting to creep him out.

“H-Hello?” He calls out. “Is a-anyone there?”

The lights start to flicker and Luhan quickly rushes to his ‘assigned’ seat and sits down. All the lights turn off and a single spot light comes up on stage. He hears footsteps emerging from the stage and suddenly a male shadow appears. It seems like there is more than one person though since he sees another figure standing on edge of the stage.

The shadow finally reveals itself and is none other than the person Luhan wanted to see least (or most).

Oh Sehun, standing in his glorious form. He was wearing a classic suit with a black tie which made took the elder’s breath away from how handsome he looked.

“Hi hyung,” He waves shyly.

Luhan is too shocked to mutter anything when suddenly the lights turned off again and instead, the christmas lights hung around the hall lit up, appearing like tiny stars in the dark sky. He hears rustling but cannot take his eyes away from the light; they were mesmerising and something he has never seen before.

“I remember you mentioned you wanted to go to a planetarium once. I can’t really recreate that but this was the best I could do,” Luhan hears Sehun explain from the stage.

When he looks back at the younger, he sees the younger holding a bouquet of daisies.

“I know this is sudden, but I would really love it if you could go to the winter ball with me?”

Luhan is stunned. He really doesn’t know what to say or how to react to any of this. It was all too overwhelming. He started to feel his eyes sting, his vision going blurry; he keeps opening his mouth to say something but nothing comes out.

“Hyung?” Sehun calls out.  

“I-I-”

“You?”

“You made me go all the way around campus for t-this?”

Sehun looks apologetic. “It wasn’t exactly my plan. So what do you say?”

The elder is once again silent.

“Just say yes hyung.”

“I-I c-ca-”

Sehun is still looking at him; his eyes were filled with hope and warmth. Why couldn’t he just say ‘YES! I would love to go to the ball with you.’ Why couldn’t it be that easy?

Sehun’s string was glowing so bright it was making Luhan’s head spin. Yet he gathered all his strength to utter out.

“I-I can’t, I’m sorry.”

With that, Luhan runs out of the auditorium without a single glance at the boy who’s heart he just broke.

He doesn’t see the boy dropping the flowers, nor does he see the tears that escape the his eyes.

He keeps running, looking ahead, and never back.

“Sehun-ah,” Baekhyun calls out softly, bringing the younger into a tight hug. He feels his shoulder getting wet as Sehun continues to sob into his shoulder.

“It hurts hyung, it hurts so bad.”

“You’ll be fine, everything’s going to be fine,” Although the elder comforts him, they both know that he wasn’t going to be fine. Not any time soon.

~*~

It’s the day of the winter ball.

While his friends are getting all fancied up, Sehun remains in his sweatpants and on his phone listening to music.

“Do you really not want to go?” Kyungsoo asks. “This is the only time we can spend together before I graduate,” The elder pouts.

“I just, really don’t want to see him hyung.”

“He’s not even coming!”

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s Luhan.”

“But what if he does come?”

“Then you’re going to have to face him, if you get it over with now, you might move on faster ,” The elder says.

Sehun doesn’t respond and continues to listen to his music.

Jongin suddenly barges into the room and throws a garment bag onto the younger.

“What is this?” Sehun questions.

“Your suit idiot, now get change, I’m not going to see you sad like this for the next year. Seulgi’s also coming, it’ll be just like old times.”

Sehun perks up from the familiar name. “She is?” He grabs his phone and starts typing quickly.

Kyungsoo glances at the two male before pulling Jongin to the side. “Who's Seulgi?”

“Oh, we’re all childhood friends, went to the same middle school, danced together, same old same old,” Jongin explains. “They were really close, she’s actually in Magic High, that’s why she’s coming tonight.”

Kyungsoo nods slowly but understandingly. “You think Luhannie will be jealous to see him with her?”

Jongin shrugs.

Suddenly Sehun stands up and comes between the two of them. “Let me borrow the bathroom, I’ll get changed in five minutes.”

Jongin smirks and slaps the younger’s . “That’s ma boy!”

“Never do that again.”

“Sorry.”

~*~
 

“Oh my God Yeol, this is bad, this is really really bad,” Baekhyun says worriedly as he paces around the gym (which the ball was being held at).

“Calm down, Sehun knows how to control his feelings,” Chanyeol tries to reassure his boyfriend but it isn’t working, so he pulls him into a tight hug.

“Just relax, everything is going to be fine.”

“I really do hope so,” Baekhyun mutters, looking at the couple that had just arrived to the venue.

“Luhan has some explaining to do showing up with Minseok like this.”

~*~

“Move along peasants, the three princes have arrived!” Jongin exclaims loudly once he enters the gym with Kyungsoo in hand and Sehun by his side. The students around them gave them strange looks but continued their conversations.

The gym was jammed pack with students, both male and female, from the two schools. Most people already on the dance floor while some were chilling by the food table.

“I’m just going to go sit down over there, if you see Seulgi, tell her I’m over there,” Sehun says to the couple and leaves. Kyungsoo throws a worried glance towards the younger but Jongin reassures to him that everything fine.

Sehun grabs a drink before he makes his way to an unoccupied table, glancing around to see if he could find Seulgi anywhere.

“Flying solo tonight?” A voice suddenly asks.

Sehun turns to look at the owner of that voice and see’s Jongdae taking a seat next to him.

“Yeah, you?”

“Same. Man, I wish I had a date.”

“Why didn’t you ask someone?”

“Well, that person is with someone else right now, there was no chance since the start,” Jongdae explains as his eyes drifted towards the pair at the centre of the crowd. Sehun follows Jongdae’s gaze and spots the same couple dancing together.

The lights went down and the song slowed down. Luhan’s arms were wrapped around Minseok’s neck while the latter’s arm around Luhan’s waist. Sehun’s grip around his cup tightened as he continues to look at the dancing couple.

Jongdae notices the change of atmosphere and glances at Sehun. A small smile appears on his face as if he knew exactly what the younger was thinking. “It hurts doesn’t it? Seeing the person you love most happy with someone else?”

And even without Sehun’s response, they both knew the answer.