| XVI. the beauty in simplistic things |

 

 

The next day, Junmyeon takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes tiredly.

It's only Tuesday, but he was already feeling done with this week. It's been especially stressful lately; he's just been told that one of the supply trucks will be running later than usual. Not to mention that one of his most efficient workers called him the other night and said that they reluctantly made the decision to leave Moonlight for he was moving to another city, and now Junmyeon was trying to look for someone to fill that spot. So far, the recruits haven't been that promising.

Junmyeon buries his head in his hands. This was all so tiring. Why was there something that always needed to be done?

A light knock on the door of his office makes him snap out of his thoughts. Junmyeon hastily puts his glasses back on at the noise, straightening up a little before he finally says, "Come in."

Jongdae pokes his head inside the door, grinning widely. 

"Sup, Gramps. You doing okay?"

Junmyeon shakes his head dubiously, "Not really, no."

"Well, I think I know what will lighten you up," Jongdae says cheerfully, stepping inside the room.

He hands a large iced coffee to his manager with no hesitation whatsover. Junmyeon feels oddly touched by the gesture, smiling to himself slightly. 

Jongdae, despite his loud and extroverted personality, was admittedly a great friend.

"Wow... thanks."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about the coffee, but it's not a problem." Jongdae laughs lightly, but he looks pleased that Junmyeon seemed happier now. "I was thinking if we could all go somewhere on Saturday. The group chat's been buzzing with messages lately, have you checked? It's insane."

"Oh yeah, I've checked." Junmyeon wrinkles his nose. The influx of messages was incredibly distracting to him and he had jumped each time his phone vibrated, so he opted to put the group chat on mute. "But why Saturday? I was planning on doing some things to get ahead."

Junmyeon doesn't expect Jongdae to be happy with this news. As expected, the barista clicks his tongue in disapproval.

"Gramps, seriously. You need a break."

Junmyeon is too tired to argue and doesn't say anything in response for a while.

A few moments later, he asks, "Who's going to look after Moonlight if I leave?"

"I'm sure the business will run fine on its own." Jongdae crosses his arms. "We can take over some of your responsibilities, too. Plus, you've been ahead for months now, and you have Yixing with you, who clearly needs more than a few days off. Surely you two would want to go on vacation somewhere. I think that would be great for you guys."

Junmyeon smiles a little at the mention of Yixing's name.

Speaking of which, their relationship has been doing quite well. It seemed to be getting stronger and stronger despite the fact that their schedules conflicted a lot. But Junmyeon was more than happy to see Yixing's face, even if it was just for a few minutes before he had to leave for work later in the evening.

"Earth to Junmyeon." Jongdae snickers, and Junmyeon snaps out of his thoughts, his face slightly warm. "With things going as well as they are now, I won't be surprised if there's a wedding in the near future..."

He hums a wedding song after he stops talking, and Junmyeon flushes in embarrassment.

"Is this really why you're here?" The manager clears his throat, but his voice still comes out as a croak. "To embarrass me?"

"Partially," Jongdae smiles, but it's not mocking. "Anyway, I digress. So, will you be coming on Saturday?"

Junmyeon shrugs a little. 

"I guess I can. I mean, it will be nice seeing them all again..."

"Oh, yeah, it will." The barista muses. "I'm mainly just curious on how Sehun and Luhan will react. They can't stop avoiding each other forever, you know."

Junmyeon's eyes widen.

"So I was right, there is something going on!" He exclaims, swirling his drink with his straw. He feels a little satisfied that his guess was correct about those two. "Sehun likes Luhan, doesn't he? And I suspect that Luhan doesn't know how to feel about that, considering that it's Luhan we're talking about."

Jongdae's smile almost looks pitying, now. He shakes his head and stuffs his hands in his pockets.

"Ahhh, well. What can you do, huh?"

 

After that interaction with Jongdae, the week seemed to go by faster, which Junmyeon was grateful for.

Pretty soon, Saturday had arrived.

He's awoken by the sound of his faint alarm going off on the small nightstand next to his bed, and he grumbles a little, fumbling for his phone. Once he successfully turns it off, Junmyeon sighs and turns his phone facedown. He wasn't supposed to have set an alarm for he had given the employees at Moonlight a day off, but old habits die hard. He sits up in bed, smiling a little when he glances down to look at Yixing, who looked even more angelic in his slumber.

He doesn't wake Yixing yet and chooses to scroll through the messages in the group chat instead. Jongdae had asked everyone if they wanted to hang out at his place and go on a movie marathon, which everyone agreed to.

Junmyeon admits that he was excited against his will. He really liked hanging out with these people, for some reason.

Suddenly, Yixing stirs from besides him. Junmyeon watches silently as the bartender's eyes flutter open. Yixing then turns to face him, blinking the sleep from his eyes; his dark hair disheveled. Junmyeon's heart grows at the sight. Goodness gracious, Yixing was seriously beautiful.

"Hey." Yixing says, his voice soft.

Junmyeon ducks his head shyly. "M-Morning."

Yixing's dimple becomes more prominent as his smile grows. He scoots closer to Junmyeon and takes his hand in his gently before picking it up and planting a small kiss on his knuckles. He then proceeds to kiss along the surface at his arm before eventually stopping at his shoulder, looking up at him with a small smirk on his face, this time.

Junmyeon feels his face heating up even more.

Why is it, that even after the few months they've been together, that he still feels like a puddle of goo every time Yixing does something like this?

Yixing smiles at him serenely before cupping his face in his hands, leaning in to kiss him on the lips gently.

"Ready for today?" Yixing asks, pulling away to smile.

"I hope so," Junmyeon adjusts his position on the bed, sitting more upright. He runs a hand through his hair tiredly. "Usually whatever happens at these hangouts are very unpredictable."

Yixing laughs. "That's true."

They sit there for a couple of moments, not really doing anything in particular. A crazy idea then pops up into Junmyeon's mind—well, probably not that crazy, but still crazy, considering the fact that Junmyeon never has crazy ideas.

He looks at Yixing, thinking. The bartender looks back at him, head tilted slightly in mild confusion.

"What's up?"

Junmyeon looks away, nervousness rising in his chest. A few moments later, he sighs.

"Well... I was just wondering..." Junmyeon wrings his hands. "We've been spending as much time as we can together, and I, um. I feel seriously happy being with you, even if it's just for a few moments. My life hasn't been too exciting until we actually started talking, and I... I have something that I can look forward to all the time."

Yixing's eyebrows jump up, "Is this a proposal, Junmyeon?"

"A-A proposal?!" Junmyeon's eyes widen, and Yixing bursts out into loud laughter. He dimly realizes that Yixing was teasing him, and he flushes a shade darker. "I was just going to ask if you wanted to officially... um... move in together."

"Move in together," Yixing repeats.

"Erm... yeah."

"Aren't we already sort of doing that?" Yixing raises an eyebrow, amused. "I come over to your place a lot, and half of my things are already here too."

"Yes, but you're still paying the rent for your own apartment right now." Junmyeon protests, but he frowns uncertainly. "I don't know if we can yet, though. Even now, we're still pretty busy... and you have a lot of furniture at your place. An apartment might be too small for the both of us."

Yixing looks at him for a while, thinking. Then, he nods.

"I agree. As much as I would like to move in with you, it probably wouldn't be best to do it right now. Our schedules conflict too much; we might not be able to see more of each other in the future."

"Future, huh?" Junmyeon mutters.

The future was still far, far away. He thought that as a kid, he wouldn't have to worry about his future once he turned into an adult since he had his mind set on taking over Moonlight from the start. However, he wasn't entirely done worrying yet—things still could change, after all. Sometimes, it felt like his life was still just beginning.

Yixing seems to notice Junmyeon's silence, for he starts to massage the manager's hand gently.

"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to think about it yet. Just worry about what's happening now. I'm sure that you'll be able to figure everything out in the end, you always find a way."

Junmyeon turns to look at him, smiling slightly.

"What did I do to deserve you?"

Yixing chuckles at this, and the two fall into silence once more.

After a while, Junmyeon clears his throat.

"You know... what you said about a proposal."

Yixing's eyes widen in alarm.

"Junmyeon, I was just joking about that!"

"I know." Junmyeon grins, feeling a little bolder all of a sudden. "Well, I was just going to say... if I were going to propose to someone—", the manager purposely puts an emphasis on someone, while staring straight at Yixing as he continues to speak, "—I'm not just going to do it out of the blue like that. And... I'm not going to do it until I feel like I'm ready to settle down."

Junmyeon is more than satisfied to see a pretty blush spread throughout Yixing's cheeks.

"Sounds good to me." A few moments later, the bartender smirks slightly at him. "Though... who says that you'll be the one to propose?"

The manager beams brightly at him.

"We'll just have to wait and see, then."

 

 

---

 

 

"Hey, do y'all want pizza?" Jongdae asks hours later, shaking the phone in his hand as he stares at the congregation in his living room.

Luhan looks up from his phone temporarily, eyebrows raised slightly. 

"YES," Tao immediately shouts before anyone else says anything, tearing his eyes off the TV, where Iron Man was currently playing. He hesitates for a while, before adding, "Everyone's fine with that, right?"

"I'm good with pizza," says Jongin from the couch, arm around Kyungsoo. The police officer passes a hand through his newly dyed black hair ("I liked blonde, but a lot of people mistook me as Sehun. Also, I always liked dark hair better," Jongin had said when Luhan asked) before he moves to open a bag of chips.

"Same here," Chanyeol also adds. He's sitting comfortably on Jongdae's sectional with Baekhyun resting his head on the chef's chest, munching on snacks quietly.

Luhan feels a strange twinge of jealousy in his chest at the sight of the two couples, who looked so relaxed and comfortable with each other that it hurt a little on the inside. He forces the feeling away and continues scrolling through his Twitter.

"Cool." Jongdae grins before retreating into his bedroom. "Just give me a sec."

Luhan's gaze subtly flits over to Jongin's right, where Sehun was sitting at the end of the couch. He was hugging one of Jongdae's couch pillows to his chest, but his expression was as blank as ever even while watching the movie. It was honestly intriguing how Sehun acted like he was always disinterested.

He notices how there's a few strands of hair that Sehun missed when he gelled his hair this morning. Confused, Luhan wonders why he's thinking about that—Sehun's hair has always been like that. He also notices the way Sehun's nose crinkles in laughter whenever a comedic scene appeared on the film; it was admittedly adorable. 

Sehun looks mature today. Well, to be fair, his looks have always been mature compared to his dorky personality...

With a jolt, Luhan realizes that he hasn't seen that side of Sehun in a long time. Honestly, he misses the friendship they used to have; with them going out to lunch daily and cracking jokes that would soon become inside jokes... Luhan frantically shoves that thought out of his head, and he sulks in remembrance.

What is he doing, really?

Luhan doesn't realize how long he's been staring until Sehun's gaze meets his, and the florist jumps a little when their eyes meet, accidentally shoving Minseok and causing him to spill his popcorn all over himself.

"What the heck!" Minseok gasps, and Luhan immediately turns to face him, embarrassed. 

". I'm so sorry, Minseok, I'll get you a new one."

"No, it's okay, don't worry about it."

Frowning, Kris pauses the movie. "Luhan, seriously?"

Junmyeon looks at the police chief with a mildly stern expression on his face. "Hey, don't blame him for something that's clearly an accident."

"Sorry." Luhan blinks. "I was just... uh."

Everyone looks at him, waiting for a response. Luhan rubs his forehead awkwardly. 

"...Nevermind."

"It's not like you to shut up so quickly," Kris snorts, but he doesn't say anything else and presses the play button again.

Luhan watches the movie for a while before sighing despondently. 

Jeez, he needed a cold drink or something. 

He's about to stand up to get something from the refrigerator when Jongdae walks back into the living room, phone stuffed in his back pocket. The barista grabs another remote on the island and swiftly pauses the movie, earning a chorus of 'what the hell, Jongdae' and 'seriously, man' from the group sitting on his couches.

"Sorry, sorry." Jongdae waves his friends off. "I was just going to say that there are not much snacks left in the pantry because you guys are literally eating everything, so I was going to pick up the pizza and then do some grocery shopping. Anyone want to come with? I'd like some help."

"ME. I'LL COME." Luhan immediately shouts, desperate to get out of there. He climbs over the couch despite everyone's protests for him to get off the couch and walk around like a normal person would, and this time, he accidentally knocks Minseok's entire bowl of popcorn onto the floor.

Minseok looks up at the ceiling, exasperated.

"Maybe I should eat something else."

"Sorry, man." Luhan smiles gultily at him, patting the other barista's cheek in a friendly manner before turning back to Jongdae, beaming (not having noticed Sehun stiffen besides Jongin and Jongdae's smile falter slightly). "All right, let's go."

Luhan follows Jongdae out the door, and the moment the two step outside the room Jongdae looks at him with a strange expression on his face. Luhan pretends to not notice this and busies himself with zipping up his jacket.

"Are you all right?" Jongdae then asks, once Luhan looks up.

Luhan blinks slowly, unsure if he should tell the truth. He sighs, passing a hand through his hair.

"Errrrrrr... no."

"Hmm, this is about Sehun again, isn't it?" Jongdae raises an eyebrow, and Luhan doesn't say anything, so he takes that as a yes. "Take your mind off of him. If you don't like him like that, then just move on. You guys can still be friends."

Luhan half-shrugs, not wanting to think about it anymore. 

Jongdae rolls his eyes.

"Wow, this is really something. You've never been so hung up about an issue like this before."

"It's just..." Luhan shivers, unsure of what to say. "Guh."

"Talk to me."

"I don't know what to do, dude. I don't know what to say."

"Luhan, seriously... stop being in denial. It's just going to hurt you." Jongdae crosses his arms. "You like him, right? Then why don't you do something about it?"

The way Jongdae said it made it seem like all of this was so easy.

"...I don't want to hurt him."

"Come on, you've always took the risk." Jongdae frowns. "Sehun's an adult, too. He can handle it. Just go for it. If it doesn't work out, then whatever. You don't need to make this more complicated than you should."

Luhan doesn't say anything for a while.

"I'll think about it." He then says, his stomach still churning uncomfortably.

"Luhan, you've been thinking about this ever since Christmas—"

Luhan stops him with a look. He knows that Jongdae, although unhappy about his reaction, immediately understands. The barista exhales and tries for a smile.

"All right, then. Let's go get that pizza."

 

 

As soon as the door closes behind Jongdae, Kris reaches for the remote to resume the movie, but Tao swipes it before the police chief can get it (ignoring Kris's protests) and points it at no one in particular.

"Tell me that I'm not the only one who noticed that Luhan's been acting seriously weird recently."

Kris, Jongin, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, and Junmyeon share a mildly horrified glance with each other. Next to Jongin, Sehun sinks further into the couch, bringing Jongdae's pillow closer to his face to hide the embarrassed blush starting to spread on his cheeks.

Sehun honestly didn't care that four of them already knew what was happening to him and Luhan behind the scenes, but if everyone found out about it... well, Sehun might as well start digging himself a grave. 

Minseok scratches his head, "It's not just you. Knocking the same thing over twice? That's odd."

"He's just clumsy," Kris says, although his tone is far from confident.

The barista eyes him strangely.

"Hmm... for some reason, I don't know if I can believe that."

To Sehun's horror, that got the others thinking. Baekhyun's eyebrows were furrowed, as if he was thinking intently about something. Even Yixing, who usually didn't have much to say about these kinds of things, frowns a little. 

"He hasn't been visiting Exodus either. It's usually just Jongdae and Kris who stop by now, and it's obvious that Luhan's not there because it's much quieter." The bartender shifts his position on the couch before adding, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen him come ever since Christmas ended."

"Actually, that reminds me..." Baekhyun says thoughtfully. "The last time I visited We Are One, he had this faraway expression on his face a lot; it was really strange. Have you noticed that too, Kyungsoo?"

Kyungsoo doesn't say anything and grabs a handful of chips, chewing on them despondently. Baekhyun tilts his head in confusion.

"Uhhh, Kyungsoo?"

"Mmmrph," The florist points to his mouth, where he was still chewing. Besides Kyungsoo, Jongin covers his own mouth to hide his growing smile.

Baekhyun frowns.

"What is going on here?" Minseok blinks. "You guys are acting strange. Don't tell me you that you all know what happened to him."

Jongin looks at Sehun, a distressed expression on his face.

And that was when Sehun decided to just blurt it out. They were in dangerous waters anyway, so might as well get it out of the way so that they would stop their speculating. Forget it. He could just say goodbye to whatever pride that he had left, anyway—though, there was not much to begin with from the start.

"Um," Sehun speaks up, and everyone turns to look at him silently. "Well. Um."

Jongin whirls around, his eyes wide.

"Sehun," he mouths.

"They deserve to know." Sehun mouths back, frowning. Jongin looks at him in bewilderment, and Sehun turns back to the rest of his friends, who were looking at him.

"Yes?" Tao asks, making a 'go on' gesture with his hands.

"Um... I told him that I liked him. Romantically." Sehun mutters, and he hears a few gasps of surprise coming from his friends. He sinks even lower into the couch before adding, his voice even smaller now, "On Christmas."

He could not hide his blush behind the pillow any longer.

"Christmas—" Tao repeats, eyes as wide as saucers as he took out his phone to look at what month it currently was. "And you just tell us now, in February!"

"Well, I... forgot."

Jongin lets out a noise of disbelief and Kris snorts violently. "Forgot, my ."

"Okay, no." Sehun grumbles, rolling his eyes. "I just didn't want to remember. That, and I... uh, didn't want to get anyone else involved."

"Wait, who knew about this?" Tao asks, incredulous.

Junmyeon, Jongin, Kyungsoo, and Chanyeol all raised their hands tentatively. Kris raised his but made it seem as if he was scratching the back of his head. Tao's eyes widened even more at the sight.

"Traitors."

"We could've helped you!" Baekhyun exclaims, upset. "We could've set you guys up! Like a blind date or something..." He stops to pout at his boyfriend. "Chanyeol, you didn't even tell me anything!"

Chanyeol grins apologetically.

"I had other things on my mind at the time. Sorry, Baek."

Sehun facepalms, "And that is exactly why I didn't want to tell anyone else."

Yixing looks at him, a little sad. "He rejected you, didn't he?"

Sehun freezes, and everyone stops talking at once.

"Y-Yeah."

A series of 'ouch' and 'damn' was heard from the group. Sehun sighs and sits more upright, burying his head in his hands. "Well... yeah. He did. It . a lot, actually. Uh."

He stares at the pillow in his hands and stays quiet.

"Aww, it's okay, Sehun." Baekhyun says, tone sympathetic. "Though, why is Luhan still acting strange about it?"

This time, Kyungsoo sighs.

"If he finds out about this..." Kyungsoo first says, and everyone nods, not wanting to face the black haired florist's wrath. He relaxes a little, but he's still frowning. "He's having trouble on what to think, actually. He really doesn't know how he feels about this whole thing. Normally, he would forget about it and move on. This time, he keeps bringing up the fact that he can't be in a relationship, but I think he's just too afraid to admit that he likes Sehun back."

Sehun's eyes widen as silence falls upon the group.

"Well, there you go." Tao shrugs, leaning back into the couch. "So why isn't Luhan doing anything about it, then?"

Kyungsoo shakes his head. "Who even knows? Knowing him, though, I'm sure he's scared that he won't be able to commit to a relationship. He's had bad experiences in the past, and well... it took a toll on him. He doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore."

Everyone nods in understanding, and Sehun feels incredibly guilty, all of a sudden.

"I'm sorry about all of this," The police officer mumbles, breaking the somewhat tense silence. "If I ended up not saying anything..."

Immediately, all of his friends started speaking loudly at once, but Junmyeon shushes them.

"There's no need to apologize about how you feel towards something. If anything, I think it's a good thing that you told him. If not, then wouldn't it have eaten you up on the inside more? And according to Kyungsoo, it sounds like Luhan likes you back."

The gaze Junmyeon was giving him reminded Sehun strongly of his mother's. He had that aura radiating from him, and it almost made Sehun want to laugh.

"That's what I told him." Jongin says, looking at Sehun as if to say 'I-told-you-so'.

Sehun shrugs, dejected.

"Sehun." Kyungsoo then says, looking at him with a serious expression. "I'm sure he'll come around. He's just being stubborn. Jongdae and I have been talking to him about it for a long time."

"I don't know how to feel about that," Sehun admits, wrinkling his nose.

"Yeah, we told him how bad of a person you are and how he shouldn't date you."

"Thanks a lot."

"Just kidding," Kyungsoo smiles, and Sehun blinks at him in awe; seriously, Luhan and Jongdae were starting to rub off on the florist. "But really, don't give up."

Sehun is about to say something in reply when the door opens and Jongdae and Luhan trail in, clearly in the middle of a conversation. Jongdae's holding two bottles of soda while Luhan's lugging the boxes of pizza in his hands. Sehun freezes once more at the sight and slumps into the couch, heart pounding. Immediately, everyone shuts up, staring at each other with wide eyes.

Jongdae grins, oblivious to their odd behavior. "Hey, everyone. We got the pizza."

Nobody says anything, and Jongdae raises an eyebrow.

"Well, you're all unnaturally silent. Something the matter?"

"No. What pizzas did you get?" Kyungsoo says immediately before anyone else said something, and he stands up. Everyone then starts to follow suit, forming a line behind the florist. Sehun is one of the first ones to get in line, standing behind Jongin.

"Pepperoni, Cheese, Sausage, Hawaiian, and a Vegetable one." Jongdae blinks in confusion, but he smiles nonetheless.

Luhan sets the boxes on the counter quite ungracefully, and one of the boxes nearly topples over. Fortunately, Sehun was quick enough to catch the pizza with one of his hands, stabilizing it so that it didn't hit the ground. He smiles, satisfied with that close call.

He's still smiling when he looks up to meet Luhan's gaze.

There's a shocked expression on the florist's face. His expression then morphs into something more neutral, but Sehun can see the embarrassed blush forming on Luhan's cheeks. Seeing that makes him feel more pleased, all of a sudden.

"Thanks," Luhan mutters. Sehun hands the box back to him.

"Not a problem."

Behind him, Baekhyun coughs violently. Sehun ignores this.

Later, they're all sitting back on the couches, having resumed the movie. Sehun bites his slice of pizza thoughtfully, his mind not really focusing on the scene in front of him. Don't give up, Kyungsoo had said. Well, it was a good thing that Sehun was patient. He did tell Luhan that he'd wait, a long time ago.

"Chanyeol, can you pass me the chips, please?" Baekhyun then asks, smiling sweetly at the sous chef.

He complies, handing the doctor the bowl with an equally painstakingly sweet grin on his face. "Here you go."

"Thanks, babe. I love you." Baekhyun bats his eyelashes at him. On Chanyeol's right, Tao eyes the two of them with a 'oh-no-you-don't' expression on his face. Sehun groans inwardly; the two always did this to get on everyone else's nerves.

"I love you more."

Minseok looks at the ceiling, closing his eyes.

"No, I love you more!"

Kris mutters something his breath and takes the remote, trying to raise the volume on the TV. Unfortunately, Chanyeol and Baekhyun's voices continue to get louder and louder.

"Oh stop it, I love you the most!"

Kyungsoo's eye twitches slightly.

"No, I love y—"

"STOP." Luhan then yells, his eyes wide. He's holding a pillow dangerously above his head, ready to throw it at the couple. "STOP. Please. My ears are bleeding."

"Yeah, and there are children on the premises." Kris adds, pointing at Sehun and Jongin (who both shout in protest when the police chief addresses them). "Don't want to scar them."

"Not our fault that you two are forever alone," Chanyeol says in a sing-song voice, and Baekhyun high-fives him. Sehun represses the urge to roll his eyes; the two were truly made for each other.

"Seriously, stop." Luhan groans, his head in his hands. "My brain can't handle this any longer."

"You never had one to begin with." Sehun says automatically, surprised at his own statement.

He has never thought of making fun of Luhan once after the thing at Christmas ended in fear that the florist would actually take the insults seriously now. Luhan looks shocked by this as well, but the corners of his mouth twitch upwards into the faintest of smiles.

Before Sehun could take it back, Luhan throws the pillow; it hits Sehun's nose.

"Ow, what was that for?" Sehun asks, but he can't help but smile slightly.

"Don't pretend you don't know." Luhan retorts. He's definitely smiling now, though. "You insulted me, dickhead."

A beat of silence passes.

"Well," Tao makes a sound of utter disbelief. "Looks like you two are having a lover's quarrel again."

Sehun immediately turns red at this statement, and the tips of Luhan's ears turn a bright pink. "Aga—" the florist begins, and then he cuts himself off, his eyes wide, "SEHUN AND I ARE NOT DATING."

Everyone else watches the scene with their mouths open, unsure of how to react. Sehun desperately wishes that he could dig himself into the ground.

Tao raised his eyebrows. "You guys would be if you just admitted that you like Sehun back."

Luhan shuts his mouth, his whole face tinged red with embarrassment. Sehun, on the other hand, turns a shade darker and sinks further into the couch, burying his face deep inside the pillow he was now holding.

"Um," Jongdae then says, his voice small, in a attempt to break the awkward tension that was now in the room. "I don't know if you guys noticed, but Iron Man just ended. Do you guys want to watch another movie? I have the rest of the Marvel ones... unless you guys want to watch Star Wars, or something..."

"Let's watch The Notebook." Kris chortles, shaking with laughter. "Or even better, Titanic."

"Wu Yifan." Junmyeon glares at him, and the police chief shuts up. Sehun immediately understands why Kris hates being called by his real name—Junmyeon reminded him too much of his mother when she was pissed.

The credits of Iron Man continue to roll in the background. Nobody says anything.

"Star Wars sounds great," Jongin then says quickly.

Jongdae literally runs into his bedroom before coming back with a copy of The Empire Strikes Back in his hands ("I thought this was supposed to be a Marvel movie marathon," Minseok grumbles). As the movie begins, Sehun tries to focus on the opening scene and tries to ignore the fact that Luhan was looking at him.

 

---

 

Nothing remotely exciting after that happens (except the fact that Luhan knocked Minseok's bag of chips out of his hands a couple of times and Kris almost threw the remote at Jongdae's TV), and hours after the gathering, Jongin and Sehun arrived back home around 12 AM.

Jongin talked to him a little bit about Luhan ("Kyungsoo's right, you shouldn't give up. I mean, look at what happened earlier!"), and then the other police officer bid him a hasty goodnight, running into his bedroom with a stupid grin on his face when he received a text from Kyungsoo.

It was hilarious seeing Jongin act like an excited puppy each time Kyungsoo was around, honestly. It was one more thing that he could about.

Now in his room, Sehun lays on his bed, scrolling mindlessly on his phone. He opens his Instagram out of habit and glances at the photos on his feed—three of which had Luhan in the picture with him. The rest (as in, the other three photos) were of his dog.

Damn, he missed this.

He doesn't even realize he falls asleep until he wakes up to the sound of his phone buzzing.

Very confused, he lifts his head off the pillow and glances out of the window. Through the blinds, he could tell that it was still dark outside. That means... wait. He turns to his phone and squints when the bright light of his home screen hits his face—mouth falling open when he realizes it's almost 3 AM and he's just received two texts from none other than Luhan himself. What the hell?

-sent 2:56 AM
Luhan: hey, um, are you awake?

-sent 3:01 AM
Luhan: it's uhhh sort of important and I can't really wait any longer... I hope you're up

"What the hell?" Sehun says out loud this time, rubbing his eyes, wondering if he was imagining this. He wasn't; the unopened texts were glaring at him in the darkness.

-sent 3:03 AM
Sehun: i'm awake. what is it?

-sent 3:04 AM
Luhan: oh, thank goodness. quick question, will jongin wake up if I ring the doorbell?

-sent 3:04 AM
Sehun: no... he sleeps like a baby

-sent 3:04 AM
Sehun: wait why are you asking

-sent 3:05 AM
Luhan: umm I may or may not be outside your front door right now

"WHAT." He hears the doorbell ring faintly in the background, and gasps loudly, nearly dropping his phone in the process.

He shoves the device in his sweatpants pocket and attempts to flatten the bird's nest that is his hair before hastily throwing on a hoodie. He pulls on two mismatched socks (nearly screaming when he stubs his toe on the corner of his bedframe) before dashing out of his bedroom door, cursing under his breath. 

He counts to three silently before opening the door, revealing Luhan, who was smiling sheepishly at him. 

"Hi. Um, sorry that it's so late."

"Luhan... it's ing 3 AM. It's like, negative something degrees outside. What are you doing here?" Sehun asks, bewildered, shivering once he feels the cool breeze. He can't help but smile a little when he sees the other male's attire, though. "Love the color scheme, by the way."

From the looks of it, the florist seems like he just got out of bed as well. Luhan was wearing pajama bottoms and bunny slippers, but his hair was fine, just tousled slightly. He was also wearing a blue sweater and matching fuzzy socks.

"I'm sorry."

"For...?" Sehun asks, and then he realizes. He takes a deep breath before saying, "Luhan, I told you that there's no need to apologize."

The florist takes a deep breath before answering.

"Look, I just want you to know that I'm stupid."

"Uh—" Sehun says, but Luhan cuts him off.

"I'm stupid for not realizing my feelings for you sooner." Luhan mutters, embarrassed. Sehun's eyes widen and he shuts his mouth. "I've been oblivious to how I felt towards you, and because of that I hurt your feelings. I know I said I didn't want to be in a relationship—which is true—but I also didn't realize that I was wrong. I started to push you away, and I... I'm sorry. I just wanted to apologize for being such an . Kyungsoo told me that, by the way. That I was being an ."

"Luhan—"

"But honestly, I agree with him. Kyungsoo's usually right, anyway." Luhan sighs dejectedly. "And I'm really sorry for making you wait this long. I just... I was afraid that something bad was going to happen. God, I'm such a ty person. I bet I'll be an even tier boyfriend. But Jongdae told me that I should take the risk. And honestly, I'm willing to do that."

A few moments of silence pass, and Sehun stares at Luhan, his mouth open in surprise.

"You absolute idiot." Sehun says in disbelief, a smile starting to form on his lips. "Did you really have to tell me this at three in the morning?"

Luhan laughs nervously.

"Well... yeah. Or else I wouldn't have been able to sleep at all toni—" 

He is interrupted when Sehun pulls him in and kisses him softly, eliciting a surprised yelp from the florist. A few seconds later, Sehun moves back and smiles.

"Sorry, I've just always wanted to do that. I hope that takes care of it, then."

"Actually, I... uh." Luhan's cheeks turn pink, and Sehun knows (he smirks to himself) that it isn't from the cold. "Can I stay over? I'm really tired and I don't feel like driving back."

Sehun rolls his eyes, "Of course you can."

"Won't Jongin freak out when he finds out tomorrow?" Luhan whispers as they walk inside, but Sehun shrugs, not really caring at the moment.

"Nah. He'll be okay with it, I think."

"You think?"

 

 

The next morning, Jongin wakes up and stretches, almost tempted to fall back into slumber. He checks the time on his phone: 9:14 AM. Last night was probably one of the only times that he's had a good night's sleep. It was a little strange, though, because he could've sworn that he heard a doorbell ring. Maybe that was in his dream, or something...

He notices that there are bunny slippers outside of Sehun's door. Confused, he looks down at the slippers and bites back a loud laugh. Since when did Sehun have those? Jongin snaps a picture of the bunny slippers and sends them to the group chat (caption: wow sehun so cute). 

As he walks to the living room, he realizes that he hears not one, but two voices. Strange. Was Sehun talking to himself again?

Or worse, was it a robber?

Now that he thinks about it... Sehun is never up this early.

"Sehun?" Jongin asks tentatively, walking into the hallway, where there was a view of the living room. He's holding a pillow behind his back (which is not the best defense weapon, but it'll have to do). "Is that you?"

He freezes when he sees Sehun and Luhan sitting in the kitchen, the latter of the two grinning at him.

"Oh, hey, Jongin! I just got the message in the group chat—"

Jongin screams, throwing the pillow at Luhan and hitting him square in the face.

 

 

---

 

A/N: ahhh so sorry for the wait on this chapter! i've been seriously occupied due to school and I would have been free but I have homework over winter break... sigh. thank you guys so much for all the love you've been giving me this story—I have been seriously unmotivated to continue it but these are what rly keeps me going :) thank you guysss <3 but yay hunhan am I right!

too bad that exo's promotions for tempo and love shot were so short!! D: I love their album though, my friends got me their album for Christmas so i am really happy about that :,)

merry Christmas and happy new year everyone! i hope 2019 is THE year because 2018 was a mess lmao.

-seokminz x