His head hurts. It used to be a small throbbing pain at the back of his head that he could easily ignore. But now, it feels like his brain is sitting in a pile of mush that is pressing incessantly at his skull. Sehun knows that he hasn't eaten for a while.

Even saying ‘a while’ is sugarcoating it. The most he's eaten in the past three days has been bread. Bread he shares with Luhan. He loves his brother to death, but some days the darker thoughts get the better of him.

“Oh my god food,” Taemin moans as he practically crawls over to where Baekhyun and Kyungsoo entered with boxes in there hands. “How much is it? I don't care, I'll pay. Just...food…”

Sehun's head thumps against the wall as he watches his group and the two exchange their things. A sandwich and a smoothie for money. Money for a sandwich and a smoothie.

His stomach makes an uncomfortable wet, gurgling sound. It doesn't stop even when he places a hand over it.

“Want one?” Sehun looks up and sees Baekhyun standing in his way, waving a sandwich cut into two triangles wrapped in plastic wrap. “You look like you need it.”

“I don't have money.”

“I don't need money.”

“I don't need your pity. We've already discussed this sunbae.” Sehun glares up at him, but Baekhyun isn't deterred. Instead he gets a deep scowl from the lighter haired boy.

“It's not pity if you look like you're gonna pass out.” Baekhyun kneels in front of him and takes Sehun's hand with surprisingly no protest and sticks a sandwich in it. Then he sifts through his pocket and shows a five dollar bill. It flutters into the box and Baekhyun gives him a look. “I have money to last me ten lifetimes. Just take the five dollar sandwich.”

Baekhyun doesn't wait for an answer from him when he stands up and walks back to where Kyungsoo is standing at the door with his back to the room. His eyes practically bulge out at the sight of Kyungsoo rummaging through a wallet that is obviously not his. There's no way Kyungsoo would have a Shinwha wallet.

“Is that your boyfriend's?” Baekhyun whispers almost comically loud. “That's messed up on so many levels.”

“Oh relax. He owes me twenty dollars because he took four of my smoothies.” Kyungsoo finds enough bills when they hear Jongin ask where his wallet went. That's when Kyungsoo uses this moment to leave immediately.

Sehun watches Kyungsoo drag Baekhyun out. Then his attention moves to the sandwich in his hand. It couldn't hurt to eat it. He's practically starved himself since the beginning of this week. He has half the mind to throw the sandwich into his backpack when Jongin calls for them to gather around and start practice again.

xXx

“Wait.” Baekhyun looks up from the script. Kyungsoo is holding up a Shinwha wallet in one hand with his script in another. “I stole this.”

“Wow, can't believe you would steal from your own boyfriend,” Baekhyun teases.

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and tosses his script on top of his backpack. “Come on. You're coming with me to return this.”

Baekhyun groans as Kyungsoo drags him by the wrist. Script long forgotten on their backpacks. “Why do I need to come with you? It's not like you need moral support. You've dating for a year. I'm sure you guys have gotten past the awkward ‘I accidentally stole your wallet’ phase.” His complaints carry no weight as he follows after Kyungsoo with no protest.

Kyungsoo just ignores him and opens the door to the classroom they were in ten minutes ago. Kyungsoo stops into the doorway causing Baekhyun to crash into him. “Yah, Kyungsoo what are you doing?” Baekhyun nudges the younger through and freezes as well when he sees only Taemin inside tidying up the classroom.

“Where's Jongin?” Kyungsoo asks as he glances around the room.

“Where's everyone else? Where'd they go?” Baekhyun praises himself in his head for showing concern about the others when Kyungsoo only asked about Jongin. He feels like he shouldn't feel so smug.

“Sehun passed out so the other two took him to the nurse,” Taemin explains with a huff at the chair he just set down. “If you're looking for them, check the infirmary.”

“Wait,” Baekhyun grabs Kyungsoo's arm as he walks by him. “Sehun passed out? As in fainted? Like literally collapsed on the floor unconscious?”

Taemin raises an eyebrow at him, but nods. “I mean that is the definition of passing out. I actually feel kinda bad. He didn't look too well when we started so it kind of feels like our fault. He looked all tired, but I just assumed that it was cause he didn't get any sleep like any other normal person. Guess it was kinda worse than that.”

“Oh um. We'll go see them then. Thanks Taemin. Don't feel bad, you couldn't have predicted this,” Baekhyun assures him. With a hand tight around Kyungsoo's wrist, Baekhyun drags Kyungsoo out of the classroom and down the hall and up a flight of stairs to where the infirmary would be.

Baekhyun stops right in front of the doors which confuses Kyungsoo. His friend seemed so anxious to get here. If his throbbing wrist was anything to go by, but now he was hesitating. Kyungsoo stops dwelling on it to push past Baekhyun to open the door. “Jongin?” He calls out when he opens the door. Someone shushes him and he shrinks in on himself in embarrassment.

“Come in, but just shut the door behind you.” Kyungsoo pulls Baekhyun inside and shuts the door with a quiet click. Jongin waves them over from his seat next to a bed with a sleeping Sehun. “What's up?” He and Kyungsoo share a kiss before Kyungsoo hands him his wallet. Which Jongin takes with a confused look on his face, but doesn't question it as he sticks into his back pocket. Where it should be.

“Heard what happened and Baekhyun got worried. I just needed to give you back your wallet. Where's Minho?” Kyungsoo glances around. “Thought he came up here with you.”

“He did, but he left a few minutes after we got Sehun into the bed. Said something came up with his family.” Jongin shrugs and watches the fall and rise of Sehun’s chest. “I wonder what's up with him though.”

“Didn't get enough sleep maybe,” Kyungsoo suggests as he leans against his boyfriend.

“People don't pass out like that from sleep deprivation,” Baekhyun speaks out. “Well they do, but like. Look at him!” Kyungsoo shushes him for raising his voice, so Baekhyun resorts to pointing and loudly whispers instead. “He's as pale as those bedsheets!”

“Then what do you think it is? It's probably sleep deprivation and something else. Care to enlighten us?” Kyungsoo nudges (kicks) Baekhyun’s ankle.

Holding back a pained groan, Baekhyun holds himself up on the table next to the bed as he rubs his pained ankle and glances at the sleeping face of Sehun. “He might be hungry.”

“Hungry?” The boyfriends say at the same time.

“Yeah. I mean. Like. Hunger.” Baekhyun makes a weird circle shape in the air with his hands. “He'd be more tired than usual. So add that with lack of sleep, it could end up the way it did right now. Right? I am right, right?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo assures him. “Then why don't we get him some food if you're so sure.”

“I gave him a sandwich when we did our selling rounds. I guess he didn't eat it.” Baekhyun looks dejectedly down at the youngest.

“It's not he'd be magically healed after eating a sandwich. He'd need more than that. It takes time doesn't it?” Jongin asks. “He'll need some water and some more healthier stuff. That would help, right?”

“I'll go buy some stuff from the vending machines then. Could I get some money?” Kyungsoo gets Jongin's wallet, again, before he heads out.

The moment Kyungsoo leaves, Baekhyun leans on the bed to get a closer look at Sehun's face. “Hey hyung.” Baekhyun hums. Jongin glances between the two other people in the room before getting the courage to say what he wants to say. “Is something going on? Like seriously, do you like him?”

Baekhyun in a breath. He slowly shakes his head. “No. It's just that. You know the housekeeper that my family hired a while back?” Jongin nods and checks with Baekhyun, the Chinese lady right? Which Baekhyun nods to. “I think Sehun is her son. But I don't know cause she said one of her son's name was Shixun? I think that what it was. And obviously Sehun is not Shixun.”

“It could be a Chinese name. You know like a second name,” Jongin suggests and Baekhyun wants to slap himself.

Of course, why didn't he think of that. It was simple. But then he thought of her second son. Luhan. Luhan was a Chinese name. So would he have a Korean name like his brother? That's what Baekhyun was thinking. Of course he'd like to know for sure since Ms. Lee kept on insisting that Shixun was the only name she gave her son. But then that doesn't explain the difference in last names. Jongin had said that Sehun's last name was Oh. Ms. Lee was Lee. The dots weren't connecting and Baekhyun wants to know.

“That doesn't explain why they have different last names. His is Oh and her's is Lee.”

“Maiden name. You said she wasn't married so maiden name. Dad might've left or something.” Jongin stops himself from talking. He thinks for a second. “Wait. No seriously, why are you so curious?”

A sad look crosses over Baekhyun’s face, but it disappears before Jongin can question it. “Jongin this is something that I want to figure out. I'll tell you in due time, but not now.”

With that, Kyungsoo comes back in with three bottles of green tea and a pack of crackers. Whole grain he says.

“What do we do now?”

“Wait.”

And so they do.

Jongin sits on a stool next to the bed while Kyungsoo has taken this time to look through the nurse's cabinets. Meanwhile Baekhyun is pacing throughout the room, staring intently at his phone. He bites his nails, as if contemplating something.

He takes a look at Sehun and sighs. With a few taps on his screen, he puts the phone to his ear.

“Byun residence.”

“Ms. Lee? This is Baekhyun.”

Silence fills the other line. Baekhyun bites down on his thumb nail as he waits for an answer. “Ah. Would you like me to get your father?”

“No,” Baekhyun practically shouts. He looks guilty when Kyungsoo gives him a pointed look. “No. I don't need my father. Just. Ms. Lee... What does your son look like? Shixun?”

Once again, Baekhyun is only able to hear static on the phone before he hears a click. He stares incredulously at his phone. The call screen disappears, showing him his home screen. He's not too sure what to make of that. Did his dad enter the room and she had to hang up to look like she was working? Or did she actually just hang up on him?

“Sehun? You okay?” Jongin's worried voice brings Kyungsoo and Baekhyun next to the bed. “Do you remember what happened?”

It's a struggle for Sehun to sit up, but he manages to do so without any help. “I'm fine.”

“What!?” Jongin shouts. He almost feels sorry when he sees Sehun flinch. “What do you mean ‘I'm fine’? You are not fine, you literally passed out on us. Now come on, explain.”

The bedsheets crumple in Sehun's fists. His line of vision stays down at his lap while each second of the clock ticks by. The silence becomes deafening as time passes by.

“How about we let him eat something?” Kyungsoo breaks the silence and holds up a bottle of green tea and the bag of whole grain crackers. “We'll eat and drink and  then talk. I'm pretty sure Sehun's blood sugar is tanked by now.”

“Yeah, have you eaten yet?” Jongin asks and everyone notices how Sehun tenses up ever so slightly. “Sehun…”

“I haven't been hungry,” he snaps. But the low growl of his stomach echoes, contradicting him. Red blossoms on his cheeks as he tucks his chin to his chest. “I'm not hungry,” he tries again with a murmur.

“Eat,” Kyungsoo sighs and places the drink and snack on his lap. They sit there idly until Sehun reluctantly pulls open the cracker packet. A collective sigh of relief is let out. Jongin and Kyungsoo share a bottle while Baekhyun drinks from his own.

Stupid couples, he thinks.

A/N: First things first, I’m so sorry that this chapter didn’t come out sooner. I’m actually going to place this story on like a semi-hiatus. I won’t update on a set schedule from this point on. Maybe it’ll update depending on life goes. I’m trying to fill out college apps, get rec letters, and all that jazz so. Just Between Us will not be updated on a regular basis. It should get back on track by at least December. I don’t know when in December, but just expect it to come back regularly by at least then, latest I would say January, but even that’s pushing I think. I really want to thank all my readers so far. I know it’s hard reading a fic that doesn’t update often and is now being put onto a semi-hiatus. But if you’ll be patient with me just a little while longer, I can say that I will finish this story. It’s one that I have been wanting to write for an extremely long time and there is no way I’m letting it go. I’ll try my best to write in my free time, aka my bus ride to and from school, and get something out. But really, thank you all for sticking by and waiting. Even though it doesn’t seem like many of you are, the few that are, thank you so so so much.

Until then!
 

P.S. If you haven’t noticed, I changed my username to alytse. I also made a tumblr under the same name to try and stay in touch. I may or may not put snippets of the next chapter or other writings I do on there. (Most likely I will though) Feel free to talk to me on there as well! About the story, life, or anything!