Sehun didn't expect Jongin to be waiting at the bus station on the night of his return. It was really late. Sehun had told him not to come. It was only slightly upsetting that he didn’t know Jongin well enough to know that he might have showed up anyways. Only slightly. After all, it was only the beginning of their relationship. The beginning of, them.

Sehun loved thinking of them as a them. As if they were one entity. With everything that had been going on around him he knew that maybe he had clung to the idea of Jongin being ideal, but he didn’t regret it, because as far as he was concerned, Jongin is ideal for him. He wanted to be ideal for Jongin too. He wanted to be everything Jongin could ever need. That way, there would be no reason for Jongin to want anyone but him.

But those kinds of thoughts he tried his best to reserve for dark and lonely hours of the night with nothing to distract him. Right now, he did have a distraction, in the form of a tall shaking frame huddled under a bus shelter away from the cold, late night drizzle the dark sky so kindly provided for them.

Jongin rushed towards him, seeming to recognize him immediately even though he was covered from head to toe in warm clothes courtesy of his mother, and visibility wasn’t that great. As Jongin grabbed Sehun's bag, Sehun ruffled the water out of his hair. Jongin laughed and nudged him gently.

“How long were you waiting? You didn’t even ask when the bus would get here.”

“Not too long. Just about ten minutes. I checked online. I figured you wouldn’t tell me anyways considering you explicitly asked me not to come.”

“It's cold.”

“It's not that bad.”

“You have class tomorrow morning.”

“So do you.”

“You really should have stayed home and rested, Jongin.”

“Are you upset that I did?”

“Quite the opposite.” Sehun didn’t know what Jongin expected his answer to be but it must not have been that because Jongin faltered a bit in his step. Either that or he must have slipped a little on the wet pavement. Either way, he recovered his composure quickly.

“Then shut up and hurry.”

They caught the last bus back to Jongin's apartment, neither having forgotten that Sehun had promised he'd stay with Jongin until he found a place.

“We have a lot to do tomorrow,” Jongin stated when they had settled in for the night. Sehun stayed quiet, and waited for him to continue. “We have to go to your uncle's place to get the rest of your stuff, and you have to talk to Yixing about getting an apartment here.”

“We’ll manage.” Sehun groaned as he turned to his side, chest still sore. He flung an arm over Jongin's torso and tucked his face comfortably into Jongin's shoulder. Then he raised his head for a moment. “Don’t forget we have to talk to our instructor about an extension on our routine. I mean, I’ll dance if I have to, but a little extra time to heal would be nice.”

Jongin nodded, his eyes closed, and Sehun became comfortable in his former position once again.

Sehun always believed that if one suffered through bad things in life and got through them, then they were rewarded with good things. If this situation with his uncle was his bad thing, then Jongin was his good thing. There was nothing bad when it came to Jongin.

However, when Jongin sneezed right into his hair, he cringed a bit.

“You know, you really didn't have to come to get me, now look, you might be getting sick,” Sehun said raising his head again. He glanced at Jongin's face, taking a good look at the dark circles surrounding his closed eyes. He didn't look very good.

“I wouldn't have been able to stand being alone here anyways,” Jongin replied softly.

“What's that supposed to mean?”

It was too late. The only sounds to be heard were the soft breaths coming through Jongin's parted lips. Sehun sighed. Jongin looked really tired. He lay back down, vowing to make sure Jongin would take better care of himself.

----

Harsh reality hit them when they went to class the next morning. Sehun couldn't possibly recover properly in time for their assignment and getting an extension was unlikely at this point. Since the hospital trip had happened well over a few days ago and the deadline was gaining on them, a doctor's note may not be enough to warrant extra time.

“I'm sure we'll figure it out. I mean we've pretty much gotten it down and I'll be feeling better by next week so it won't be such a big deal if our instructor can’t convince the department head to give us an extension.”

“So you can exert yourself while injured and get hurt even more?”

“It's really not that bad,” Sehun lied. Truthfully, he hadn't really been taking care of his injuries. He didn't ice his ribs as often as he should have been doing, and he picked at his scabs too much causing them to reopen and having to start the healing process over again.

He knew Jongin could see him wince every time he made a movement that disturbed his chest too much, but Jongin didn't say anything about it. Sehun felt bad. He wouldn't exactly mind Jongin fussing over him but he knew Jongin didn't want to nag him. Since they were living together for the time being and were in a difficult emotional situation, Jongin probably didn't want to overstep the boundaries of their barely formed relationship by constantly letting his worry be known.

At the same time Sehun also felt extremely frustrated, because they hadn't done anything very boyfriend-like in the time that he'd been back and he'd missed Jongin a lot while he was gone. If Jongin's excuse for keeping a respectable amount of distance between them (not counting the fact that they'd cuddled in bed the night before) was because of Sehun's injury, then Sehun felt that maybe if he played it up a bit, he could get Jongin to crack and maybe even score a little skinship out of it.

So he slyly dropped his water bottle, bending down immediately to pick it up. It didn't put too much strain on his sore bones but he let out an audible gasp and clutched his chest, hissing in fake pain.

“Are you okay?!” Jongin held him by the shoulders and Sehun pouted nodding.

“I'll be—ow—I'll be fine,” he choked out pathetically. “I have you looking after me, don’t I?”

Jongin ignored Sehun's slightly suggestive comment, and slid one of his palms from Sehun's shoulder down to his chest, not caring that they were in the middle of the hallway. Sehun was sure that Jongin was be able to feel his heartbeat speed up.

“Come with me.” Jongin pulled him gently by his arm in the direction of the campus nurse's office. Sehun caught on immediately.

“No!” Jongin looked back at him strangely. “I mean, uh, the pain passed, no reason to go to the nurse or anything.”

Jongin narrowed his eyes at Sehun. “Just a second ago you sounded like you were going to cry.”

“I wasn't gonna—ugh, nevermind, I'm fine now.” Sehun averted his gaze from Jongin’s. “Let's just go to class.”

“No, seriously what the hell?”

“I don't know! I don't need a nurse okay?”

“Then what do you need?”

“Nothing, I said nevermind.”

Jongin was still holding onto his arm and he stepped closer. “Tell me.”

“I was hoping for, I don't know, like a hug or something.”

“You want a hug?”

“Yeah, to make me feel better,” Sehun couldn't help but let a small smirk tug the corners of his lips up. “Or, you know, just go the extra mile and… kiss it better?”

Jongin grinned and shook his head in disbelief. “You're an idiot.”

They both pulled each other closer at the same time, not noticing how empty the hallways had become as they became reacquainted with each other's mouths.

Sehun pulled back after a bit, pouting again. “That's not where it hurts though.”

Jongin rolled his eyes. “Well you're going to have to wait. I can't exactly kiss you anywhere else right now can I?”

“Says who?”

Sehun tugged Jongin's arm to get him moving.

“Where are we going?” Jongin whined.

“You'll see.” Sehun smiled. He had been waiting to put this place to use. He had found a warehouse on campus in his first year that was extremely rarely used and always left unlocked since it was barely ever checked on. Most of the furniture kept in there was too rundown for use anyways so it was probably a dumping ground for old stuff.

They huddle behind a pile of old chairs, discarding their jackets and bags at their feet, and Sehun s the smallest pocket in his bag and pulls out a joint and a lighter.

“Smoking with any kind of chest injury increases chances of infections during the healing process”

“It's one joint not a pack of cigarettes or a Cuban cigar”

“Smoking with any kind of chest injury incre—”

“Okay! I get it! We won't smoke then.”

“Uh uh” Jongin snatches the joint and the lighter, “you won't smoke. I deserve this”

Sehun scowled as he watched Jongin light it and take a few puffs.

“This is so unfair.”

Jongin looked at him and Sehun couldn't decipher the strange expression that crossed his face. “Life is unfair. But so is death.”

“Huh?” He didn't have much time to put more thought into Jongin's statement because Jongin passed the joint to him. “Seriously?”

Jongin nodded.

“You're not going to start reciting things you read on WebMD about chest injuries?”

“Forgive me for worrying about you,” Jongin said frowning and turning away. “But yes, I won't lecture you. I figure you need it too.”

Sehun had been wondering if there was something wrong with Jongin and had boiled it down to no more than him being worried. From when he had noticed how Jongin seemed to be having sleepless nights if the way he looked was anything to go by, to his seemingly offhand comments about not wanting to be alone in his apartment and now life and death.

Now, looking at him, he thought that Jongin was more than worried. He was sad. His entire aura seemed sad, with downturned lips and a faraway look in his eyes, as if he wasn't entirely there with Sehun in the dark, dusty warehouse. With the only light coming from windows as high as the ceiling, his barely illuminated face showed a burden, and Sehun wanted to know what it was that had happened in the past few days while he was gone that had Jongin looking like he was done with everything around him.

“Are you alright?” He asked. Being straightforward was really the only way Sehun could communicate seriously.

Jongin looked at him again as he passed the joint back. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, did something happen? While I was gone?”

Jongin didn't reply for a moment but Sehun didn't break eye contact for a second. He had been told throughout his life that he had an intense gaze, and he guessed it must have been true, because even in the dark he could see Jongin's cheeks dusted with pink.

“Jongin.”

Jongin blinked at the sound of his name and as if coming out of a trance, he snapped his eyes away from Sehun's. “Nothing happened. Just the usual you know, classes, Baekhyun and Chanyeol being loud and extra. They kept trying to distract me but… I had other things on my mind.”

“What things?”

“You.”

“What else?”

“What makes you think there's something else?”

The joint was back with Sehun now and he took his time with his drags before answering. “Well, I know you say you're worried about me—”

“I am worried.”

“—but I'm sitting right here next to you. You can see me, you can see that I'm fine.”

“You're still hurt.”

“Deep down you know I'll heal quickly. You know it's not that bad. So what'sreally bothering you?”

Jongin smiled at him, before leaning in and leaving a sloppy kiss on the corner of Sehun's mouth. “Nothing's bothering me, I promise.”

Sehun grinned stupidly and leaned his head back against the wall they were sitting by as the high swirled around his head the same way the smoke swam in the air around them. He said nothing as Jongin's lips moved to his jaw and his hand slipped under Sehun's shirt, teasing the skin before pushing the fabric up his torso to his chest. Sehun shifted, allowing Jongin to carefully remove the shirt completely before he began doing as discussed earlier—kissing Sehun better.

Sehun tried not to laugh out loud at the tickling sensation of Jongin's lips against the ugly bruises littering his pale skin. He failed.

“Stop squirming.”

“I can't help it.”

“This is supposed to be y and you’re giggling.”

“I’m ticklish.”

Jongin looked up at him pupils blown to almost complete black, showing not only the effect of the drugs but his attraction as well. Sehun was sure his eyes were quite the same.

Jongin kisses up Sehun's chest and neck before claiming his lips. Sehun thinks he could stay here with Jongin on the dirty floor, tasting his mouth, forever. Nevermind the increasingly chilly weather and the fact that there was no heating in the warehouse. Nor that fact that they had class and a billion other responsibilities. Sehun's priorities were jumbled from the night that he'd taken the bravest step of his life and kissed Jongin's aching face after watching him get punched for no other reason than worrying about his neighbour.

They heard the heavy warehouse doors open and then slam shut. They froze as familiar voices drifted to where they were hidden behind the broken furniture.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun come in talking loudly.

“Why the hell would he tell you to meet him in this place?” Chanyeol said.

“How should I know? He said it was important though, I can't just say no to a professor. Especially not a cute professor.”

“Shut up Baek, he's not that cute.”

“Aw don't worry, you're still the cutest.”

“Stoooopp.”

“Anyways, thanks for coming with me. This is pretty sketchy to be honest.”

Only moments after him saying so, a door, on the opposite side of the building from where Chanyeol and Baekhyun, and before them Jongin and Sehun, had entered, opened giving rise to soft footsteps that grew louder as they approached. Chanyeol and Baekhyun were uncharacteristically quiet as they waited for whoever it was to come closer. Jongin and Sehun, if possible, were quieter.

“You brought someone,” yet another familiar voice said. The two greeted Professor Kim politely, Chanyeol’s greeting noticeably sounding more like a grumble than a coherent sentence. They seemed to be ignoring the fact that the Professor hadn’t greeted them properly and sounded pretty peeved at the fact that Baekhyun hadn’t come alone as he must have been expecting.

Sehun shivers and Jongin notices. He stealthily reaches out to where their jackets are discarded in front of them and pulls one of them over gently to cover Sehun’s bare torso.

Sehun stops listening as Professor Kim makes up some bull excuse for wanting to meet with Baekhyun. Something about him being a theater enthusiast and recruiting for the spring musical in the next semester that he had the honour of directing. Sehun was a firm believer of his own conclusive assumptions and he’d never let go of the assumption that Professor Kim was a total tool. He probably just wanted to get into Baekhyun's pants and was pissed that Baekhyun had brought Chanyeol who was probably clinging to Baekhyun like a possessive boyfriend.

“Why meet in here?” Chanyeol asked, butting into the conversation that had been between just the Professor and Baekhyun so far. It brought Sehun and Jongin's attention back to the situation, as they’d been concentrating mostly on staying quiet and not getting caught thus far. “Why not your office or, I don’t know, literally anywhere else.”

“Well, I was headed here to look for something anyways, thought I’d kill two birds with one stone.” It wasn’t exactly what the Professor said that sent chills through Sehun, since it was an old saying, but the way he said it. It wasn’t even menacing at all. Just… off. It kind of reminded Sehun of the way the Professor addressed him when he was with Jongin, that is, the very few times he paid any attention to Sehun’s existence at all when Jongin was around. Either way, he called bull.

Sehun thought it. Chanyeol said it.

Sehun wishes he could have seen the Professor's face when Chanyeol said it right to his face.

Even Jongin is stifling his laughter with his palm.

 “Well I haven’t joined anything for next semester just yet Professor Kim, but I’ll let you know when I decide what I want to do.”

A seriously embarrassing slap to the face. Metaphorically speaking of course, thought Sehun might have wanted it to be literal.

----

“It's stupid.”

“He's not lying about the musical Sehun. Sign up sheets for auditions are posted.”

Sehun grumbled slightly but nevertheless relented to Jongin's insistence.

“Hey maybe we should join. Musicals need dancers right?”

“Yeah, sure. We’ll join. When I grow horns and a tail.”

“So no way in hell?”

“No way in hell.”

Baekhyun and Chanyeol joined them at what had become their regular lunch table. But it was getting too cold to sit outdoors. They'd have to find a new spot.

They didn't mention anything about the encounter with Professor Kim. Which was probably a good thing, because Sehun tended to descend into very negative rants about the Professor whenever he was brought up and he had a feeling Jongin was kind of tired of it.

It's not that Sehun hated him for no reason. Just that his reason was kind of dumb. He didn't like that the Professor was giving attention to Jongin because of some of the rumours he had heard about these ‘internships’ that the Professor liked to hand out. He knew Jongin could probably handle a situation like that on his own but Sehun would rather not have Jongin go through it at all. And if the professor was really making inappropriate advances and Jongin rejected him, it could jeopardize his future in the field he's aiming for.

Even though the situation was a little different with Baekhyun, as he wasn't Professor Kim's student, nor was Sehun as close to Baekhyun as Jongin was, he was sort of glad that Baekhyun had Chanyeol watching out for him anyways, since Chanyeol seemed to have a distaste towards the Professor, similar to his own.

Jongin and Sehun don't mention the overheard conversation to the other two and they don't say anything about it either. Which was just as well, as it wasn't pleasant conversation topic anyways.

----

With classes finished and no reason to stick around, they had no choice but to sulk to Sehun's uncle's house to retrieve his remaining belongings. Sehun told Jongin that he didn't have to come, since Jongin had work later. He told Jongin to go home and rest before work but Jongin wouldn't listen. He insisted that he didn't want Sehun to be alone around his uncle, nor was he going to be able to carry all his things on his own while injured.

They were ignored the entire time they were there. Sehun's uncle told him he had half an hour to get everything and they made sure not to waste a single second. They were out in twenty minutes

There was still something about how Jongin acted that was a little concerning to Sehun. He wouldn't stop checking the time on his phone. He checked before entering the building and then pulled Sehun away from the doors and dragged him to the convenience store down the street. They milled around for ten minutes but all Jongin bought was something to drink. Then he checked the time again and told Sehun to hurry up on the way back to the apartment. He'd done the same thing before they left for class. Fussing over his hair for no reason for fifteen minutes before saying they could leave. Sehun had never seen Jongin even glance at himself in the mirror before that

Jongin went to work and Sehun went to talk to Yixing on his own.

“So you're friends with Jongin?”

“Uh, yeah I guess.”

“Well we've got a few vacancies on the seventh and eighth floors, but you'd have to give us a few weeks to get them fixed up and stuff since they've been empty for a while.” Yixing scanned a list for a few seconds. “411, the one next to Jongin's is empty but we don't really rent that one out. We could, I guess, if you would rather be closer to Jongin. But usually if we ever try to, people always end up choosing a different one.”

“411? That has to be a mistake. Jongin told me someone is already living in 411.” Not just that, but Sehun had seen Kyungsoo.

Yixing frowned and looked down. “No… no mistake. 409 is taken, Jongin started renting 410 at the end of August and 411 is empty. Has been for a while now.”

Sehun frowned. “How long exactly? If you don't mind me asking, that is.”

“Five years. 410 and 411 were both emptied due to, uh, unforeseeable circumstances at the same time five years ago and 410 has been rented out a few times before Jongin moved here but never for long and, well, 411 has just always been empty.”

“Um, can I have a couple of days to make my decision?”

“Of course.”

Sehun wonders how much Jongin would mind being bothered at work.

I have no excuse whatsoever as to why it's been over a month since I've updated.... but hey, I haven't given this up.

So it's been a long time and I figured people are probably confused because even I've forgotten most of what I've written but I'll try to summarize a bit.

Basically Junmyeon killed both Kyungsoo and Luhan five years prior and got away with it. Both their souls are lingering but in a different way. Kyungsoo relives the last week of his life over and over (basically from the time he confirmed that he was a side hoe to a married man to when he was killed) and no one has moved into his apartment since. He's able to break the routine at certain points but at other points, basically all his encounters with Junmyeon, he's doomed to relive everytime. Whoever moves into Luhan's apartment is affected over time by his paranormal residue or whatever you'd like to call it and they start experiencing what feels like auditory hallucinations. Jongin's really only one who hasn't moved out right away (because he's a broke college student with no where to go). He is trying to avoid his apartment in the times that he thinks he'll hear things, because it's more difficult to listen to now that he knows the truth.

If you think that there's anything else that needs explaining at this point let me know!

And let me know what you think of this special Sehun chapter dedicated to.... the very special Sehun himself (how u doin boi ily). I wanted to basically establish Sehun's character a little more because I felt he may have been coming off a little cold and distant but now you know he just says what he thinks and he becomes a dork when he wants affection and he is super into Jongin!!!

Or swear at me in the comments for being a ty updater and lying to yall about how soon the update was supposed to be.

Last sort of note: I especially want to apologize to everyone who has commented because you guys have given me feedback and I've let you down :(((

I also want to thank you guys because reading comments really makes my day and reminds me of why I love writing :D