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Minseok likes to think that everything that looks perfect will continue to be perfect. If it was bad luck, then, it was bad luck but, when it changed to good, it would continue to be good. And, of course the goodness had lasted for three long years so, it would continue to be so. Right? But, what made him bitter was the thing he had always pinned his hopes on had turned out for the worst. His last two years of University life in Seoul was what he had been looking forward to since he had moved to Beijing. Those were the worst. It didn't happen suddenly. Oh no. It started so slow that he never noticed it. It festered like the poisonous air that you fail to notice because you have been breathing it in till it fails your lungs. To somebody else, Minseok's love for his best friend must be a childish thing and his feeling of being betrayed even more so. But, Minseok could not for the world make himself see it as anything else. He could only accept it with a resigned feeling.

Minseok left for Seoul a week before moving into SNU's dorms. Luhan had come with him. The whole holiday he had spent it with his family. He had not spent even a day with his friend who was God knows where. Luhan texted him once in a week asking how his Baozi was. He wouldn't reply to Minseok's replies. Minseok forgave him, of course, when he met him in the airport. He didn't know how to stay angry with him. He had chalked it up as "Luhan trying to avoid the obvious". Minseok had been way more than embarrassed. His alpha had given him a severe look. His noona, oh god, she had screamed on top of her lungs as to how he could let somebody scent him, even if it was a friend. She was going to rip his throat out for touching her dongsaeng. He had cringed and tried to explain but, she only seemed to go worse. Later that night, his omega father had come to his room and asked him if he was into alphas or, did he think if his friend was trying to take advantage of him. If it was the former then, Minseok needs to keep in mind he is yet to come off age for an alpha and he had wanted nothing more than to melt into the ground. He had spent nights thinking how he was going to demand Luhan for an answer but, his Chinese friend was so distant during the holidays, he was left at a loss. Some nights he got his hopes up thinking Luhan likes him and on other days he just fiddled with his phone wondering why Luhan never noticed him the way he wants. Soon, the day for leaving for Seoul came. They smile when they meet each other in the airport. They hug and proceed for boarding their flight and Minseok ignores the way light does not quite reach his friend's eyes. A few hours later they land in Seoul and he jumped around in excitement. He tells his appa to come pick him up later. He stayed the whole night outside, sitting in that famous area near River Han or, going to whatever stalls he can find in the middle of the night and relish the dishes. He moaned while eating; he derived pleasure just from the thought of being back at his place. He tugged Luhan around and dragged him along with him not minding that they were both dead tired and required sleep. He talked excitedly with strangers. He couldn't have been happier to talk in his mother tongue. They wander around aimlessly quite late in the night till he spots a bench in a garden near his house and slumps on it. He drifted off to sleep in seconds. Luhan had to call his father to pick them up. The next day goes away in catching up with sleep. The remaining five days went away in a blink. But, Minseok wasn't feeling bad. He is over here now. He could come visit them anytime he wished. Though the way his noona threw looks at his Chinese friend he wasn't sure if HE would be interested in coming along as much. He spends those days in the house, helping his father with cooking and in running errands or, in any way he could. Luhan just quietly stays beside him. He also discovered his soccer friend is a disaster when it comes to cooking. He teased Luhan about it who threatens to scent him again if he continues with it. The Korean alpha was caught off guard. But, it makes him promptly shut up. That is the only time his friend mentions it.

 *****

When they moved to the dorms, they were greeted by Suho, Jongdae’s cousin and Baekhyun and Chanyeol, Suho’s friends. They were in third year, a year behind Suho. Minseok, that afternoon, meets Wu Yifan, the Dorm Rep of the Hostel for International Alpha & Beta students. He was a Chinese too and Luhan and he quickly became friends. He also met Lay (as the other students called him), Luhan’s best friend Yixing who he had always heard about. Yixing was one sweet Beta whose Korean was worse than Luhan even after having stayed in Korea longer than his friend. It turned out, Baekhyun and Yixing new each other since they both were scholarship holders. And, there weren’t too many scholarship holders unfortunately. A few days later, they met Jongin, or Kai, as he liked to call himself, Jongdae’s other cousin and Suho’s younger brother, Sehun, the Kim brothers friend and the maknae of the group. The last two people he met and who became part of the group were Tao and Kyungsoo. Kyungsoo was the D.O Jongin always mentioned. He hadn’t known it was also a nickname Jongin had given to his friend. Tao was Sehun’s omega roommate. They were the only omegas in the group. Of course, when he had first met Baekhyun, he had thought him to be a prissy, no-filter mouth, diva attitude omega and Sehun, an alpha. Hah. He had been so wrong. Tao let everyone in ten mile radius of him know he was omega with his whining, snivelling. In those times, Minseok felt very grateful he wasn’t an omega. But, then he’d see Sehun and calm down that even in another universe, he’d be himself, alpha or, not. He met Kyungsoo in the library.

A lot of them joked Suho was the leader of their group. He was the only one with a modicum of decency. Though, Baekhyun informed them once during the mid of their semester that the other students called them Krisus & Gang. They saw Kris as the leader which even left poor YiFan confounded. Yes, even YiFan had been given a name. Minseok was called Umin (he rolled his eyes every time he had to hear that version). Of course, they had tried calling him Baozi. Luhan had fiercely shot it down saying it was only his right to call his Baozi Baozi. Minseok had just rolled his eyes that much harder, secretly very pleased. He couldn’t deny it to himself. He liked the possessive side of Luhan a little bit.

In the first few weeks of settling down, adjusting to his new college, classes, friends and readjusting to his home city, he met his family many times. He went out for shopping a lot on weekends. He went for sight seeing. Of course, he went around with Luhan and occasionally, also with Kris and Tao. Whenever he went for shopping, Tao would accompany him. Luhan went with him for all the trips. Within a month of their joining, they joined the Univ soccer team trials and the weekends got used up. But, Minseok didn’t want to stay in the campus when he could have been outside. He wanted to take the train rides, the bus rides etc. He wanted to meet his cousins who had already graduated and were either studying abroad, starting their career or, family. He tried to escape but, Luhan would find him and drag him back to the field. After they got selected, it was even worse. Minseok loved soccer. But, it had just been a month he had come back to his favourite place on earth and he failed to understand why he couldn’t just live that phase. The newness of it was going to fade out anyway. He’d complain to Luhan who’d try to give him an understanding look, pat his shoulders, ruffle his hair and go back to doing whatever he was doing. Minseok didn’t understand why Luhan wasn’t being his typical understanding self. He liked that Luhan more. This Luhan was turning more quite by the day and lesser sympathetic to his whines. Some days Luhan would give in, they’ll skip the practice and go to Hongdae or, somewhere else and Minseok would grin ear to ear in happiness. The days when Luhan wouldn’t listen to him, he’d curse but, he’d play irritated, kicking Luhan’s shin whenever he’d get the chance. Some days, he would storm off, Luhan not even trying to persuade him.

On one such time, when Minseok was feeling very pissed and Luhan was nagging him to turn up early for practice because he wanted to spend time with his Xiumin, the Korean alpha sent him a text asking him to wait for fifteen minutes, he was going to get ready in meet him on the field. Of course, pissy Kim Minseok went to Baekhyun’s room and bribed him with beef and ice-cream into going with him to one of his cousin’s place. The petit alpha quickly got ready and they both left. He had a great time with his cousins and thanked Baekhyun for accompanying him. He had reached his dorms just a few minutes before the gates were to shut. He had been that late. Time flew whenever he was with his family. He hadn’t expected to come back to a grim looking Luhan who just sat on a corner of his own bed doing nothing. Minseok felt a little bad. He had not received any of his friend’s calls and wondered if he had over-reacted again. As he changed into pajamas and slipped into the mattress and made himself comfortable on the bed, feeling sleepy, he chalked his irrational behaviour up to rut suppressed by meds. He snorted. His calm nature was slowly inching towards the irritable, aggressive stereotypical alpha. Though, of course, he was far from it, he could see it slowly trying to sneak up on him. And, the suppressants weren’t helping. He closed his eyes. Then, there was Luhan who constantly put him on edge with his presence. He had no idea how to control his hormones. With all those frustrating thoughts swirling in his head, he forgot to apologise to Luhan or, give some half-assed apology. He didn’t even hear Luhan go out of the room.

 *****

Everything was going great. His classes, his practice, his life. That was what he thought. The only thing that bothered him was Luhan didn’t pester him regarding practice anymore. If Minseok wanted to go somewhere, wanted to do something, he’d follow silently. The shorter boy could only frown in confusion. He could feel something was off, he just couldn’t say what. The blond haired alpha was laughing, joking with him. They’d often bicker over stupid things. Luhan would follow him to the library where he’d chat with Kyungsoo occasionally and the Chinese boy would be hovering somewhere in the background.

During the Halloween party, when he was trying to avoid the clowns and was ducking around into corners, he walked into Luhan with an Omega rubbing himself against his friend. Minseok stood transfixed. Luhan held the boys face in his hands and kissed him strong and hard and looked at Minseok. Minseok felt his stomach drop. Luhan was kissing the boy who was trying to stand straight, gripping his sleeved arms. Luhan’s eyes didn’t leave Minseok’s. Minseok was afraid of breathing. The whole world had submerged into silence. His heart was threatening to fall out and all he could do was look at the alpha who held him with his stare. Then, the omega whined loudly, bucking into the taller alpha and the moment was broken. Minseok turned slowly on his heels and walked to wherever his legs took him. He didn’t see the ghosts. He didn’t see the ghouls or, anything dancing and prancing trying to scare him. He went straight to his room and climbed into his bed. His ears ringed loudly with his own heartbeat. He closed his eyes, trying to calm himself. Instead, he saw those smoldering brown orbs and he feels hot. He struggles to take his trousers off. He feels his knot growing and his face heats up in embarrassment. He tugs at his knot forcefully and moans into his pillow, uncaring if he is loud. He drifts off to sleep in a sticky state. When he wakes up in the morning Luhan isn’t still there.

*****

Minseok should have been very mortified; would have blushed till the tips of his ears on seeing Luhan every time had it been some other situation. The uniqueness of the situation left him bewildered. Luhan avoided him. And, avoided him like the plague. He should have been the one doing the avoiding but, no, Luhan did it instead. Luhan spent more time with his new friends - Sehun, Kris, Tao. Most of the nights he was with Lay, he’d say the next day. He was roaming around with Chanyeol, playing guitar or, learning it or, something. He was with Tao or, Kris teaching them how to improve on their Korean. he was with Suho or, Baekhyun watching movies. He was basically with everyone but, Minseok and Minseok didn’t know how to ask him. He was pretty sure Luhan wouldn’t have known he had jerked off to the images of his friend in his mind. He couldn’t have known. Luhan didn’t look at him while talking. When Minseok would call him for those short weekend trips, he’d hesitate and would subtly ask if there was somebody else who could go instead. Minseok was beyond frustrated. He wanted to confront his best friend. Every time he decided to do so, he’d be discouraged because what was he going to confront him about? Luhan was talking to him, eating with him in the cafeteria, going to classes together. He was doing all that. He just wasn’t doing it in the Luhan-way and Minseok was worried. He had no idea how to set things right. He would text Luhan, he’d get a ‘what happened’ in reply. If he managed to call him on it, Luhan would simply shrug and say “you are reading too much into everything.” Minseok was stressed. He had exams, games finals approaching and Luhan was on top of his problem list. He tried talking to the younger male who’d just look at him blankly and go away. As the semester came to an end, Minseok could only hope, the next year would begin with them back to being like how they used to be. Luhan slowly went back into his former self by the end and Minseok felt himself shedding the extra ten years he had gained during the last few weeks.

That winter was also the first winter in three years when Luhan and Minseok would be spending it separately with absolutely no contact.

 *****

There were also some other incidents that Minseok remembers clearly. The clowns of the Krisus & his Gang. Baekhyun had discovered Tao’s fear of non-existent ghosts. Baekhyun being Baekhyun had to use it. Though Tao looked badass, he shrieked worse than a baby when scared and got scared very very easily. Nobody believed when he claimed he knew Wushu, a form of martial arts. Suho and Kyungsoo (the reluctant member of the group) laughed the hardest at his claim. It had been a few days before their exams were to begin and they all had sat huddled around a table in the Library. Tao had come screaming that there was a ghost in the toilets and somebody had to go with him. Luhan and Minseok looked at each other and rolled their eyes and went back to reading. Sehun made fun of his roommate, Kyungsoo didn’t even register what was happening. Kris asked him to man up and go alone. Just because he was an omega didn’t mean he had to flail at every given chance. Tao feeling his pride wounded, huffed and went back, stamping his feet. On the way, he stumbled into someone and quickened his steps as the Librarian had come doing her rounds. Chanyeol entered at that point, taking up the seat next to Kris.

“Where’s Baekhyun?”

“No idea, hyung.” Sehun replied. It had not even been a minute, Tao had come back rushing, on the verge of tears. He was gasping, his hand on his chest. Nobody was paying him any attention. Changing his tactics, he refocused his attention onto the Canadian-Chinese alpha who looked up at him with a face. “Tao, just go somewhere else. Don’t disturb me.” Tao incessantly pulled one of Kris’s arms but the strong alpha wouldn’t budge. Tao whined and whined and finally, his tears were spilling out. Others were just mercilessly laughing at him. Kris looked horrified for a second before getting up and patting the Chinese omega’s shoulder with a lame “it happens, it happens” and ushering him out before the Librarian threw them all out. As soon as they were gone, Baekhyun and Jongin came stumbling towards them, out of breath. Baekhyun took the seat Kris had just vacated. Jongin simply went to Kyungsoo, pushed his arms off the table and sat on his lap nonchalantly. The latter just flipped the page of his book nonplussed.

Chanyeol ruffled his best friend’s hair, “Tell us too! What happened?”

“The ghosts were us!” Baekhyun cackled. Jongin’s shoulder shook in silent laughter. Everyone looked at both of them with a “what?!” Suho lectured his brother first and then, laughed. “He made Kris-hyung stand outside. An omega asked if he was a ert!”  Kyungsoo’s lips quirked up and kept reading his book with such sincere ferocity that Minseok began to wonder if he was reading at all. Then, he noticed the second year alpha’s ear tips red and suddenly it clicked. He looked at the sun-kissed alpha who was obliviously using the other alpha’s lap like a wooden seat. He snickered. Poor Kyungsoo. The alpha looked up feeling Minseok’s stare who winked at him. Kyungsoo’s eyes widened and ducked his head. Minseok then turned his head back only to find a bemused looking Luhan’s eyes on him. It was the eldest member of their group’s turn to flush.

Around twenty minutes later, Tao and Kris returned. Tao looked extremely pleased with himself and Kris looked like he wanted to jump off a building. Baekhyun hurriedly got up and sat on Chanyeol following Jongin’s example who was now reading whatever Kyungsoo was reading. Yixing turned up five minutes later. “Ah! What are you guys doing here?” Apparently, he had confused the sections of the library again. Suho tried to explain him he was in the Business Administration section. Medical was in the other wing. Yixing blinked his eyes at him like he wasn’t sure why the soft-spoken alpha was talking to him. Yixing always forgot that Suho was also a member of their group and the “leader” (he was sure it was Kris) and his ex-roommate. He turned his head back to Kris. “Did I miss something?” Kris groaned loudly. Baekhyun let out a high-pitched screech, Jongin fell off Kyungsoo, Sehun started hitting Suho while guffawing. Every one howled with laughter and the Librarian finally came and kicked them out of the building. Luhan was laughing heartily with his shining eyes and crease lines and Minseok fell in love with him just a little more.