osh

SEHUN MET HIS SOON-TO-BE-GIRLFRIEND in one of his Anthropology classes he took as an elective in the first semester of his first year. 

“Hey, I think I’m with you guys?” a voice above Sehun said, light and cheerful, almost reminding him of some twinkling fairy. 

Sehun raised his head and was surprised at his imagination. He only thought that the voice would belong to a fairy, he’d never thought that the girl would look as pretty as one. If he remembered correctly, this girl was part of the student council and the cheerleading team. He remembered seeing her run around the track field around the football field with the rest of her teammates.

The two other teammates, Johnny (who was already acquaintances with her, apparently) and Taeyong, quickly introduced themselves to the girl, before the latter’s attention switched to him. Slowly, Sehun extended his hand to shake hers before finally introducing himself, almost breathlessly. Thankfully, the girl didn’t notice his slight bashfulness. 

After they exchanged email addresses, the girl immediately started to get to work. He was impressed at how organized and meticulous she was; easily explaining and separating the parts each of them was responsible for without any headache. Sehun was worried about this class because he didn’t have any background with the said subject. But luckily, he was teamed up with one of the smartest people of their year. Or at least, that was what Johnny told him.

Without a surprise, their team ended up with an A for their project. 

The second time Sehun saw her was also in one of his classes in his second semester of university. This time, it was an International Economics class. However, the girl did not seem to recognize or remember him. Though, he did recognize the person whom she waved over as soon as they crossed the door. She seemed to have saved a place for Kyungsoo, a friend he made in high school. He made a mental note to ask Kyungsoo to properly introduce her to him.

Sehun thought that the class was going to be a good opportunity to get close to her as soon as he read that there was going to be a final project in teams. However, as soon as that particular announcement was made, the girl immediately turned to Kyungsoo and the guy on her left; Jongdae, if he remembered correctly, a sunbaenim who was two years above him. There went his opportunity.

She looked so happy as she chatted about their team project with the two males. Sehun guessed that would be enough for him, right now. He would always have more opportunities in the near future to talk to her properly. 

“Wait, you’re telling me that you have a crush on who?” Chanyeol, one of his best friends and football teammates, asked with wide eyes during their lunch break. 

“You know who,” Sehun mumbled, almost shy. Despite his appearance and popularity with the opposite gender, he didn’t have much experience in the romance department. Sure, he had his fun, but he wouldn’t mind settling down for her. 

“Well, I heard that she’s taken,” his other friend and teammate, Baekhyun replied. “I heard that she is going out with someone in my grade.” 

Sehun frowned as he recalled the upperclassman who sat next to her in his Int. Econ class. “Is it Jongdae sunbaenim?” 

“She’s with Jongdae?” Baekhyun exclaimed and pouted. “No wonder he didn’t want to give me her number.”

Sehun refrained from commenting. Instead, he tried to deal with the disappointment of finding out about his crush’s relationship status. But as long as she was happy, he was, as well. After all, he didn’t even know her—why would he be depressed about it, anyway? He was going to be content with just observing from afar, he told himself. In a totally non-stalker way, of course, but his friends begged to differ.

But Sehun couldn’t trust Baekhyun’s words. So, he decided to ask Kyungsoo, who seemed to be close to her. 

“Do I know her?” Kyungsoo chortled. “Of course, I do—she’s my best friend.” He then frowned. “Why are you asking?” 

Sehun tried to shrug nonchalantly. “Just curious since she’s in a few of my classes, and I saw her with you in International Econ.” 

“Ah.” Kyungsoo nodded understandably. “Well, yeah, she is taken at the moment. I think it’s been three? Four? Years? Honestly, I don’t know. All I know is that the girl is crazy about her boyfriend. They’re practically ready to get married, at this point.”

Hence, Sehun spent his first year watching her in his classes and his football practices. But even then, he noticed that the girl rarely attended the school’s events such as frat parties and such, which was weird. But he didn’t think much of it. 

Then came the summer vacation of his first year. He found out during one of his practices that the cheerleading team was going to make use of the field as well; the coach even warned them that they shouldn’t get distracted, a piece of advice that Sehun clearly didn’t take. Hence, he always looked forward to his practices, even when her boyfriend came to pick her up after every one of her practice. 

Until the boyfriend stopped coming completely.

After that, the girl seemed to have lost a bit of her edge and seemed distraught whenever he was able to sneak a peek over at her during his practices. Sehun would always see her with a frown or a tired expression, but she would always force herself to perk up whenever one of her teammates seemed to have asked her whether she was doing okay or not. She would nod and tell the other person not to worry. Sehun did not know why, but he had the urge to go up to the girl and hug her tight, comfort her somehow.

There went his summer.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the new school year that he was able to see her again. 

Sehun noticed that the girl’s boyfriend wasn’t around anymore. The older guy applied for early graduation, according to Baekhyun and Chanyeol who were in Jongdae’s cohort. She seemed distraught, a bit lost even. But after the student council’s elections, she seemed to have regained a little bit of her vigour as she took over Jongdae’s position as student council President. But it still looked like she was burdened by something. Unhappy.

“I heard that they broke up,” Baekhyun whispered to Sehun as if it was some dramatic secret. “Jongdae went to the States for graduate school. I don’t know the details, though.”

Sehun shouldn’t be ecstatic that the couple broke up. Not when the breakup led to the girl looking like she was crushed for every single day of the semester. In fact, he was over the moon that they (finally) broke up. But he didn’t want to seem too eager and invested in a relationship that didn’t concern him (but he was).

“You okay?” Sehun asked as he took a seat next to Kyungsoo in their Physics class. “You don’t look too good.”

Kyungsoo grunted in response and didn’t even lift his head to greet Sehun back. “I’m exhausted. And we’re only midway through the semester.”

“Is being the council’s Vice-President that hard?”

Kyungsoo raised his head abruptly, surprising Sehun who jolted back a little and scoffed. “You think that I look like this,” he said as he circled his face with his hand, “because of council work? Oh, no, no, no. I’m like this because my damn best friend can’t get over her ex-boyfriend and she keeps calling me every night to whine or cry about it. I’m completely sick of it. The girl needs a man who can genuinely take care of her. Jongdae hyung was just too cruel.”

“Oh?” Sehun pretended to be surprised. He didn’t want Kyungsoo to know that he already heard everything from the grapevine. “Well, has your best friend found anyone, yet?”

“Are you kidding me? Not only is she stubborn as a mule, but she’s also a workaholic. She’s burying herself in work to avoid thinking about Jongdae hyung and to not have any time for dating.” Kyungsoo sighed. “And besides, she doesn’t seem to be ready to date, yet. I don’t want to force her and I don’t want her to date some random guy, either. But God, do I need to sleep.”

Sehun tilted his head. “How about me, then?”

His Vice-President blinked once, then twice. “Ha? What about you?”

“Set me up on a blind date with her!” Sehun then exclaimed, trying to keep his excitement in check. 

“Are you serious?” Kyungsoo almost barked in laughter. “What makes you think that you two are going to make a good couple? Nah,” he shook his head with a chortle, “you’re way too high-key for her.”

Sehun frowned. “And dating the council’s President wasn’t high-key?”

“Sehun, do you not realize your popularity?” Kyungsoo asked in all seriousness and then motioned the auditorium filled with students. “More than half of these students are probably taking this class because of you. Honestly, it’s surprising that we’re friends.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re exaggerating and changing the subject.” Sehun then raised a brow at his friend. “Is there any other reason why do you think she won’t like me?”

“Well, she does tend to avoid types like you…”

“Like me?”

“You know, a player,” Kyungsoo said in such a nonchalant way that Sehun didn’t even feel offended for the first three seconds.

“I am not a player!” Sehun almost burst out. “How long have you known me for and have you ever seen me with a different girl, every week?"

Kyungsoo shrugged. “I’m not the one you should try and convince.”

Sehun almost wanted to throw his hands up in defeat. “That’s why I’m asking you to set me up on a date with her first!”

“You think it’s that easy to set up a date with the busiest girl in the whole damn school?” Kyungsoo then rubbed his eyes and sighed through his nose. “Look, dating her is not going to be easy. Her and Jongdae lasted long because they shared the same interests and personalities. Both are too ambitious for their own good. Everyone on the council are ing nerds—myself included. You think she’s doing all of these extracurriculars because she likes them? I mean, some of them are because she likes them, but others are purely to benefit her and her future.”

“I’ll do your homework for the whole month,” Sehun offered. “And I’ll buy you lunch for the week.”

Kyungsoo looked like he wanted to bang his head against his head. “Did you not hear about what I just said? Are you certain that you wanna date a nerd with no life?” 

“Two weeks of lunch,” Sehun added.

His friend narrowed his eyes at him. “Three.”

“Two weeks, and coffee for every class we have together.”

“Until when?”

“Until she and I are official.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. “You’re that desperate for a date with her?”

“Desperate can’t even describe how I feel,” Sehun said, mentally pleading that his friend would agree. Here was an opportunity presented to him and he would be stupid to not take it. “Can’t hurt anyone, right?”

“Fine, but on one condition,” Kyungsoo agreed. “If she’s not interested, then I can’t do anything about it.”

Sehun didn’t even hesitate. “Deal.”

SEHUN SMILED AT THE TEXT NOTIFICATION he had just received. He set up a special ringtone for her whenever she would send him a text or reply. The sound would always bring his smile to his ears. He basically Pavlov’ed himself and had no regrets. 

Thankfully, she agreed to go on the blind date with Sehun, apparently with much difficulty according to Kyungsoo.

(He asked Kyungsoo how it went and he refused to tell him any details. Instead, he had forwarded her phone number and they had been texting each other ever since.)

Truth to be told, Sehun had been avoiding her ever since the new semester started. He wanted to get over his little crush soon and thought that by avoiding her, he would get over her. And he thought he was doing a great job so far, only really seeing her whenever the council had something to announce to the student body, but when he found out that she was single once again, it was like he had lost all his senses and rationality.

But instead of walking up to her and chatting her up, and perhaps reveal to her his real identity, Sehun resorted to just messaging her and continued avoiding her as much as possible. He even didn’t see Kyungsoo as much as before because he was scared of running into her. Luckily, they didn’t share any classes (a fact that Sehun is saddened by when they became official). He didn’t understand his behaviour, but he wanted to keep staying mysterious to her as long as possible. Perhaps, there was a part of him that was afraid of the girl’s rejection. Kyungsoo had a point—they were different. But Sehun considered that as a good thing.

[HER]: I'll see you soon, then! :)

Received at 3:04 PM

Both of them had agreed to meet at the café near their university campus. Sehun was so worried that morning that he was almost late because he was too busy trying to pick out an outfit that didn’t consist of his usual hoodies and sweatpants. He wanted to make an effort and make himself look presentable. He ended up wearing a grey cashmere cardigan with a lighter grey tee-shirt and a pair of black jeans (he even asked his mum for her opinion). 

He wanted everything to be perfect for their first date. He knew that she had to go volunteer later in the evening, which was why they had decided to meet up earlier. As classes ended, his professor called him back.

“Is there something wrong, Professor?” he asked, trying to keep his fidgeting in check. He glanced over at the clock behind his teacher that read 4:30 PM. Sehun had about half-an-hour before he had to go meet her.

“As a matter of fact, yes,” his professor answered and showed him his research project proposal. “Your research question doesn’t make any sense. You will have to rephrase it. As for your methodology–”

Sehun didn’t want to tell off his Professor for keeping him behind. As a matter of fact, the older man was the one who gave him a second chance for his paper and he didn’t want to waste that opportunity either. He would have to meet up with the girl, later than planned. He thought that maybe he would be able to join her ten minutes after their meeting time if he ran to the coffee shop. However, his prof still kept him behind for almost an hour.

He glanced at his watch anxiously and saw that it was already 5:30 PM, thirty minutes past the original meeting time. Sehun tried not to curse out loud. The girl didn’t even know who he was really, and he was already making a bad first impression. He told his teacher he was going to the bathroom and immediately took out his phone as he left the classroom to call the coffee shop.

“Amber? Hey! I need you to do a favour for me,” Sehun quickly said as his call was answered. “I need you to–”

After that was done, he quickly sent a message to the girl, hoping that she was still there and didn’t have the wrong idea.

[SH]: I'm sorry that I didn't warn you in advance that I was going to be late. I got held up by my prof because he wanted to talk about my thesis paper proposal. And I know no excuses could make up for my behaviour. But, I do hope that a slice of your favourite cake will make you forgive me a little. I will be there as soon as possible!

Sent at 5:37 PM

With that set, he went back into the classroom hoping that the teacher will be easier on him so that he could leave early.

But his prayers were left unanswered. 

Sehun quickly bowed to the teacher in thanks and ran towards the coffee shop. He let out a string of curses as he saw that it was already 6:30 PM. He couldn’t believe that he made her wait for more than an hour. It was pathetic. Sehun knew that she had no reason to still be waiting for him at the café, but he hoped that she was still there nonetheless.

His eyes quickly scanned the shop when he walked past through the doors. Sehun saw her in one of the booths, wearing a white sweater dress, getting ready to leave as she finished paying for her drinks. (Sehun slapped himself on the head mentally when he saw that she ordered two cups of lattes because she was waiting for him.) He immediately bolted towards her and accidentally made her bump into him. She let out a small sneeze from the collision, which made him chuckle at how cute she was, and steadied her with his hands around her waist.

Sehun was inwardly glad to see her openly stare at him up-and-down. At least he knew that she was somehow attracted to him physically. But before he could have apologized for being late, she beat him at it as she said, “Sorry.”

He shook his head with a small smile, liking the height difference between the two. “Don’t be. It was my fault, anyway.”

She seemed awkward in his presence and looked like she was about to leave when he stopped her as he abruptly asked, “So, how was your matcha cake?”

The girl blinked at him in confusion.

Sehun furrowed his brows. “You did tell me your favourite cake was a matcha mille-feuilles crêpe cake, right?”

She dropped her jaw in disbelief. “Oh, !” Sehun was amused by her language; he knew that she wasn’t the type to curse a lot unless she was surprised. He assumed that she must be more than shocked. “You’re the date that Kyungsoo set me up with?”

He tried not to be offended by the attitude behind her words (but he now understood why she and Kyungsoo were best friends). “Well, gee, you sure sound a lot more enthusiastic about me when we text than in real life, that’s for sure.”

She stuttered at his bluntness and took a deep breath as she explained to him, “I think there’s been a mistake. Kyungsoo couldn’t possibly have matched us two up.”

Kyungsoo did try to warn him that even she would be suspicious about the set-up, as the two of them probably had opposites personalities. He tried telling Sehun that she would want to date someone similar to her; someone who had the same schedule and vibe.

“Impossible?” he asked as he tilted his head. “How so?”

He could tell that the girl did not want to spend any more time with him. At first, he thought that it was because she didn’t like him and wanted to leave. But he then remembered the reason why they were supposed to meet at an earlier time than planned: because of her volunteering session. Sehun practically begged her to let him accompany her to the hospital where she was volunteering and didn’t regret asking her because it allowed him to see sides of her that were never shown to the public. (She asked him once when was the first time he started falling in love with her and Sehun was too shy to admit that it was on their first date when he saw her playing with the children.)

Well, he considered himself lucky to have been able to get a second date with her.

Luckier when she agreed to be his girlfriend.

Luckiest when she agreed to be his wife.

SEHUN CONSIDERED HIMSELF BLESSED to have a healthy and stable relationship with his girlfriend. Granted that they would argue once in a while, but they would always be able to talk and fix their problems. Until, one day, after spring break, he received his report card and was disappoint