Adore U

Things has become a routine and with the news that's circulating around, Irene is already expecting it when Lu Han disrupted the peace of the Voodoo Club and barged in with a bang.

Putting her tea cup down, she smiles at the boy who slumps on the chair opposite to hers.

"He hates me." Is what he says and gives her a look that's akin to a kicked puppy.

Irene thinks he looks cute like this, when he looks less of douche bag or a psychopath that's planning on killing you any time and more of a whimpering little animal that you just can't help but to spoil, he's really cute. But she is not about to voice that out. While she may be honest (not really), the girl knows when to shut . People may insist that 'Honesty is the best policy' but those people are not gonna lose their social standing and losing your social standing is bad because, you like, lose your social standing? Where the would you stand if so? Not knowing where to stand is simply sad, you know.

So instead of saying what's on her mind, she let him place his elbows on top of the table and do his routine of frustrated hair pulling.

Letting Lu Han do his usual break down, Irene looks up to the ceiling—where a replica of Leonardo Da Vinci's Annunciation was painted—and pats her index finger on her chin.

She thinks of the rumor that apparently happened this morning.

How an Omega of all people went against Lu Han and even demanded him to apologize. It wasn't hard to connect the dot, really. Especially upon hearing that Lu Han simply did nothing and seemed like he stopped functioning on his seat. (Kind of a big deal because Lu Han never ever let anyone disrespect him). She would be lying when she say she don't want to meet him. After all, her curiosity of who's doing this to an Alpha is gnawing her inside on a regular basis, but she is carefully planning their meeting just so Lu Han would not be able to see just how excited she is from meeting the courageous Omega who dare to bare his fangs to the great Han of the Lu.

Clearing , she neatly places her hand on her lap and gives Lu Han one of her famous smile.

"So first things first," She says and successfully makes Lu Han stop from picking on his scalp. "Why do you think he hates you?"

Lu Han first blinks his tears away and sniffs. Sitting straight, he gives the girl a look that clearly states he don't know himself. "I don't know!" he shrieks but Irene is already used to his antics and didn't flinch. "All I did was tell Jonghyun to move away and give him his seat! After that he frowned and told me to apologize! Why would I even apologize? I have all the right to kick Jonghyun out because he owe me money!" He exclaims. "Then you know what he did next?! He gave me a disappointed look and said 'I don't like you. You're mean' and went by pass me! What the actual ?! I'm not mean! I'm the kindest human to ever live!"

Putting Lu Han's last words aside (because we all know they're all bull and he obviously likes to pretend he isn't some spoiled brat who'd throw you on the Han river just because he can) Irene thinks she knows where it all went wrong.

Pouring an empty cup some Darjeeling's Makaibara tea her uncle bought from India, the girl offers it to the boy who accepted the drink without second thought. Irene waits for Lu Han to calm down before she lays out her theory to what really went wrong. When the boy drinks half of the cup, she brushes her bangs that barely reaches her eyebrows and smiles.

"I think there has been some major miscommunication." She says and watches Lu Han blink. "First!" She raises her index finger. "This boy that you like—" Lu Han flinches at the like word because a part of him is still not used to this entire ordeal. "—don't have any idea that Jonghan or whatever, owes you money and so, he misinterpreted your words and possibly thought that you're bullying him." Irene states without even batting a breath.

When Lu Han makes a motion of talking, Irene raises her free hand as an indication for him to shut the up.

"Second," Irene continues, this time raising her third digit. "With that, it's only natural for him to react that way. And base from what I hear—I mean, you said—not like I've been doing research h-hahaha! This boy has a huge chance to disapprove bullying and thus, that's where his statement possibly came from." She says.

When she sees realization flash on Lu Han's eyes, Irene thanks the heaven's above that he isn't some pea brained individual who needs a whole book just to properly learn how to open a can using a can opener.

"I don't think he hates you," At least not yet, anyway. She thinks but she is not about to voice that out because she'd rather not die, thank you very much. "I think that if you walk out of there, and clear the misunderstanding, everything would be fine." Or he could really hate you and you'd end up as a lonely old man that not even cats wanted to accompany.

Sometimes Irene is glad that Lu Han couldn't read mind. Her survival chance are low if he could do so because of the unnecessary (necessary) comments she has been adding by the end of her words.

Irene perfectly delivers her words—at least she think—and she highly doubts that the boy would not understand her last statement. So when Lu Han frowns, looking confused as , she sighs deeply and pours herself a cup of tea. She could almost feel her beautiful hair —that she pays a well known hair stylist to take good care of—turn gray and these moments simply makes her question why she's doing this.

But then again, the feeling of knowing who ed a tree last night, or who thought that it'd be a great idea commuting on a public transport, or who bought twenty rosaries and bathe in a drum of holy water because they think they're being possessed for the time where they wore unbranded clothes (you know, those cheap T-shirts that you can buy for less than two thousand won), is simply spectacular you know.

Also she shouldn't deny the world her amazing advice giving skills.

Bae Joohyun should get an award for being so helpful.

Actually, she should be a saint. She already looks like an angel so why not make things official? Somebody call the Vatican please.

Returning back to the real problem, Irene let Lu Han say a "I don't understand" before she moves her tea cup away and slap the out of the boy.

Not really.

But she's so close in doing so.

"Alpha," She starts. "What I'm trying to say is that you should go to him and apologize."

Scoffing in disbelief, Lu Han leans back on his chair and gives the girl an incredulous look. "Why should I be the one to apologize? I didn't do anything wrong! He's the one who made a huge deal out of everything and defied me! If there's anyone here who should apologize, it's him! Not me—"

"He's going to hate you for real if you don't."

"—like I said, I should apologize." Lu Han abruptly stands up from his seat and runs toward the door before Irene could say more. Just when she thought the boy had finally made up his mind, he halts—hand on the double door's golden handle—and turns around. The girl watches with pure confusion as Lu Han occupies his previous seat and intertwines his fingers on top of the marbled table.

"I have another problem." He says which makes Irene her head to the side.

"What is it?" She asks.

Gulping, Lu Han then lay out a more problematic situation. "I don't know how to apologize."

Oh boy.

Minseok understand that people gets mad for a reason. Like the time when Heechul screamed bloody murder because a sixteen years old Minseok bought Snow White home and ended with the cow ting all over the place. While the man eventually forgave him (Heechul just can't stay angry at his first born), the boy learned a valuable lesson:

He should've bought a cow diaper ahead of time.

But anyway, he hasn't brought Snow White back to the manor since then. He simply couldn't risk his precious child because Heechul swore he was going to make a cheeseburger out of her if he ever sees her again inside his manor.

Therefore Minseok understand that people gets mad for a reason.

What he don't understand is why Baekhyun wants to rip his head off. Why the boy look like possessed Emily Rose incarnate when he arrived at their usual lunch table. He blubbered about things Minseok failed to comprehend. He said that he shouldn't have done what he did this morning, that if he still value his life, he should run back to the king and "ing apologize" before it's too late and gets drowned in a pool of rip off bags. To who this king he is referring to? Minseok honestly don't know.

Even Joonmyun look extremely panicked but Minseok's as clueless as ever and can't honestly remember what he did wrong.

Even as he trudge in the hallway to get to his locker, with his mind set to getting to his destination and nothing more, he doesn't even notice the stares he's getting. Most of the students are whispering to one another and looking at him like he's some sort of a moron and some stares at him like Minseok's some God because , nobody did that to the great Han of the Lu before.

And especially didn't noticed the group of boys coming at him with revenge in mind. (You could call them the-pathetic--omegas-who-wanted-to-be-on-luhans-good-side-so-they-could--some-beta-es.)

Looking down, Minseok notices that a paper is left lying on the floor and being the good South Korean citizen that he is, he crouches down and picked it up.

With his abrupt movement, one of the boys who was planning on bumping on Minseok's shoulder (cheap bullying move) bump into nothing and falls forward, thus resulting to him face planting on the dirty floor of XSAB's hallway.

"Junhyuk!" One of the boy's friend exclaims and rushes to his aid.

Minseok, with a piece of paper in his hand, stands up straight and gives the boys a confused look. (He is quite baffled that one of them is on the floor and thought that maybe, he's one of those activist who promotes love for all and he's hugging the floor to prove that even floors have feelings.)

Shaking his head because people are ing weird (says the one who treats a cow as his own child and spoils her to no end), Minseok turns around and continues with his journey toward his locker.

Minseok continues to be clueless all throughout his walk and honestly, at this point, everyone is starting to think if he is deaf or he's simply just not aware of what he'd done. They all give him strange look and simply could not comprehend that someone is like this.

Finally arriving in front of his maroon locker, the boy presses his thumb on the finger print scanner and opens the iron door. He takes the pouch Zitao asked him to hide before replacing it with the candies his former classmates gave him. While he do indeed love food, there is a limit to just how much sugar he can take. He's thinking of giving it to his brothers and cousins but remembered Zitao saying something about going on a diet, Jongdae is mostly nowhere to be found nowadays, and he don't remember Joonmyun being a fan of sweets.

Cocking his head to the side, he is contemplating whether he should just send them to Dongwoo instead.

"Sugar puff honey bunch!" A high pitched voice calls out and successfully gathers the attention of those who are in ear shot. Minseok diverts his eyes from the inside of his locker and blinks at the incoming figure who is running toward him at full speed.

Shin Jimin, with her low twin-tail, short school pleated skirt, knee high socks and Prada Embellished velvet platform shoes, runs toward Minseok in full urgent speed. Behind him, Hani and a short haired blonde he doesn't know tries to catch up to the shorter girl as she ran to him like her life depended on it.

And when she finally reaches Minseok, the girl didn't waste any more time and throws herself to the unsuspecting boy.

"I'm so glad that you're still fine!" She cries to his ears while Hani and the still unknown girl wheezes as they finally caught up with the girl. Not really knowing what's going on, Minseok awkwardly pats the girl who had her arms wrapped around his neck on her back. (He remembered that's what his mom usually do when his dad does his usual hysterics and throws himself on the woman.)

"Man," Hani gasps as her eyes rolls back and she herself falls on her due to exhaustion. "For such a small girl, you run so fast!" the girl exclaims while her companion evens out her breathing and has her hands on her knees.

Ignoring them, Jimin let go of Minseok's neck and proceeds on inspecting the boy if he suffered some injuries. She heard some nasty news and she did not liked it a bit. After making sure that he has none, she let out a sigh of relief before cupping the boy's face with her hands.

"Are you okay?" She asks with worry evident on her face. "Lu Han and his minions didn't hurt you, did they? I'm sorry I wasn't able to come to you during lunch because you know, Betas are not supposed to sit with omegas but whatever. I hate this whole system!" Jimin cries as she once again wraps her arms around the boy.

"I'm fine." Minseok replies and let the girl rub her nose on his shoulder while whining how he shouldn't be so brash. He is kind of lost why she brought Lu Han up but then brushes it off when Jimin once again looks up, pouting.

"Are you sure? Because from what I heard, you did really something bad to him!" Jimin exclaims as she continues to worriedly squeeze Minseok's face. Said boy on the other hand simply frowns because he don't know where this girl is coming from. "Please don't endanger yourself too much, my love, we haven't married yet! I don't want to be a widow at such an early age!"

(Behind her, Hani stands up and interjects, saying "He hasn't agreed to your proposal just yet" but is blatantly ignored when Jimin once again clings to a very still confused Minseok like a koala.)

"Did I do something?" Minseok asks because everyone is acting so weird and come to think of it, his new homeroom would go unusually quiet whenever he's around.

"Oh you did something all right," Hani snickers and leans on the lockers, crossing her arms on her chest as she does so. "You, my cute as a hamster friend," She says and pokes Minseok's nose a couple of times. "Just choose the wrong person as your enemy and you're gonna die soon."

"What do you mean?" The boy frowns but whatever it is that Hani's about to say is thrown out of the window when Jimin huffs and tightens her grip around Minseok.

"My baby is not going to die!" The girl exclaims. "I am going to make sure of that and trust me, whoever idiot would dare lay a finger on my future husband is going to regret it!" Jimin announces loudly, challenging anyone who is in sight. Being a Beta with a net worth that is somewhat closer to the Lus, not to mention her dad and Lu Han's dad are known to be good friends, everyone diverts their eyes away and gulps nervously. All their plan of exacting revenge on Minseok is thrown out of the Earth's atmosphere by Jimin's threat and also knowing that she is not joking.

Shin Jimin is known to stick to her words like glue and if she says she's going to throw you to Mount Everest, she's definitely going to throw you to Mount Everest.

One could say that she's Lu Han's female counter part.

(And also his biggest rival but people are still not aware of that.)

Clinging onto Minseok, Jimin rests her head on the boy's chest and continues throw (adorable) glares to those who even dares to look at her—cough—future husband—not aware of the group that's coming their way until everyone halts on whatever they're doing and shuts up.

Lu Han, reciting Irene's instruction in his head, walks ahead of Yifan, Yixing, and Sehun with his chin held high. The blonde boy has his hands tucked in his pleated pants pocket and is set on finding Minseok. He didn't give anyone a single glance as he's only interested with a certain cute boy with equally cute cheeks. Why would he take interest in them in the first place? While he's going to admit that he slept with a couple of Betas before—no Omegas because eww—it was only and nothing more.

The world's probably biting him in the right now because of all people to like, it just had to be a freaking Omega.

'Okay, calm down Lu Han,' He thinks. 'There's nothing to be afraid of! ! You shouldn't be afraid in the first place! All you have to do is find him, approach him, preferably drag him away from the crowd because you don't want to ing embarrass yourself, and then just say sorry. Easy as that! You can do this!' he inwardly cheers because he's manly and he's not about to tarnish that reputation by voicing his thoughts out and cheering like a ing cheerleader.

But of course, nothing is going to be easy.

Not when Lu Han finally finds Minseok together with this annoying leech who—he could still remember like it was just yesterday—broke his pure gold rubik's cube back when he was eight and told the world that he peed on his pants when he was ten. He literally sees red as he takes in the skinny arms that's wrapped around Minseok then the obviously not intimidating glare he's receiving.

Oh hell ing no.

Feeling his right eye twitch, the hands inside his pockets forms into fist as he reciprocates the glare. What annoyed him more is that instead of backing down, Jimin hardens her glare and tightens her grip around Minseok. Lu Han usually ignores girls (because they're annoying and whines a lot) but with how she's practically wrapped around the boy he had decided to claim, there is no way in hell that's he's just going to turn around and leave.

Unless the said boy follows the girl's line of sight and locks eyes with Lu Han, that's a different and a more severe problem.

Whatever it is that Irene told him to do is drained down to oblivion because damn, Minseok's eyes does strange things and they literally take his breath away. It is like everything ceased to exist and there is only him and him and nothing ever mattered. Not Jimin who continues to cling on the boy or Yifan who is asking him why he stopped walking. All that mattered to Lu Han is Kim Minseok alone.

And it is scary just how much control the boy has on him.

And it is especially scary just how much he rendered him useless when Minseok merely gives him a glance—Lu Han could almost see the disappointment flash in those pretty eyes—and turns around to close his locker. Lu Han could only stand there as Minseok swings his back pack on his shoulder and much like what he did earlier or the day during open club recruitment, goes by pass him like he's just some irrelevant strangers on the streets.

Even when Jimin did the same—not forgetting to stick her tongue out at the boy—and follows Minseok, Lu Han is glued to his spot and unable to do anything.

Lu Han might as well be dead right now.

As he lament for his broken hopes and dreams in their garden that cost more than your one year salary, the boy have two reason for wanting to be dead.

One: he just plucked Rongjia's flowers (that she put a lot of time taking care of as her way of pretending she have her together) and scattered them around him while he sit on white tiled floor of their garden's pavilion, and two: what is life when Kim Minseok hates you?

With a dead look in his eyes, Lu Han let an unfamiliar beagle tug on his Louis Vuitton bomber jacket and possibly ruin it with his drool. Whoever his owner is is quite lucky because he don't feel like punishing people today. He is still not over from the rejection he got this morning and also from the fact that Jimin's out there stealing his future husband.

(Yes, Lu Han want to marry Minseok despite only meeting him for barely two months. Shut the up. This is true love.)

Remembering the words "I don't like you. You're mean" Lu Han's lower lip quivers and he wipes the incoming tears with the hem of his jacket. Sniffing his snot, he shifts his eyes to the puppy that is waggling his tail and is looking at him with wide doe eyes. Deciding that, maybe he should spare this cute boy a few of his time, he picks it up and places it on his lap. Lu Han proceeds on scratching the beagle's stomach.

Maybe it was his broken heart that rendered him so.

But he is in that position when Minseok finds him and he didn't even noticed it.

With his hair sticking all over the place, he was taking a nap—after going home early—when Jongdae rudely woke him up and request that he walk Chen around before disappearing to God knows where, Minseok blinks sleepily as he registers a very broken Lu Han who is scratching Chen on the stomach.

"You should apologize to Lu Han."

Of all people who kept on insisting that he should apologize to someone, it is Joonmyun who puts an end to his question of 'who?'. Apparently, he hurt Lu Han's feelings (Joonmyun fabricated the story a bit because there was no way Minseok was going to say sorry especially if he knows he's right and was completely oblivious to the fact that yes, Minseok really did trampled on Lu Han's feelings) and their mom always reminds them to apologize when they hurt someone. While he don't know what he did to make Lu Han sad, Minseok is raised to be a good person and a good person knows how to say sorry when he have to.

Taking careful steps toward the boy, Minseok then choose to sit beside him—stepping on the flowers on the floor as he did so—and hugs his knees.

Needless to say Lu Han had a mini heart attack once he finally processed Minseok's presence. His eyes widens as he stared at the boy whose cheeks are puffy from just waking up and hair tousled. Yet, upon remembering the disappointed look he had given him, Lu Han flushes red and looks away. He bites his lower lip and let the puppy on his lap waddles away to chase a butterfly.

An awkward silence engulfs them and Lu Han is so close in standing and running away because dammit, his heart could only take so much.

Again, he never expected when Minseok breaks the silence and mutters an "I'm sorry." before picking up the fallen flowers and fiddle with them.

The shock on Lu Han's face is priceless and Minseok must have noticed because he looks away and shrugs. "I... I shouldn't have told you that I don't like you." He says. "I mean, I would be sad too if someone tells me they don't like me." Minseok explains while Lu Han continues to look at him with wide eyes. "Mom always tells me to be careful with the things I say because words can hurt people, but I guess I got too careless? I simply didn't liked what you did to that boy but I shouldn't have let my emotions get the best of me."

"... Lu Han..." Minseok inhales a deep breath before, almost in slow motion, a timid smile formes on his lips and Lu Han swears that the gate of heaven opened up behind him. "I'm sorry."

Maybe it is the setting sun that did the thing or Kim Minseok is simply just magical and the orange hue that painted the garden made him even more magical than he already is, but Lu Han mindlessly blurts the thing that came to his mind.

"Can I kiss you?" He asks, still lost in the presence of this being named Kim Minseok.

And while a normal person would blush and gasp or maybe sputter a little, Minseok simply did his usual blinking and tilts his head to the side. "Why?" the boy questions and if someone would say that he's the definition of the word 'innocent' Lu Han is going to believe them.

"I-I don't know! I just want to! So can I?" Lu Han flushes red, just realizing what he said but it is too late to back down so he should just go with it.

Weighing down his options, Minseok thought that his mom kisses him all the time so it should be fine right? He mean, if it'll make Lu Han feel better, why not? Clearly him and Lu Han are not on the same page because the latter obviously wants more than an innocence peck on the cheek.

"Okay. You can. I guess." Minseok says at last and scoots closer to the opportunist named Lu Han.

Calming his nerves down, the blonde inhales a deep breath in order for him to not pounce on the boy and claim him there and then. Instead, he leans closer, eyes locked down on Minseok's pretty ones before it drifts down to a set of pinkish lips. He could hear his heart beating erratically on his chest and he prays to God that Minseok would not be able to hear it. His nerves are getting the best of him.

And then, finally, when their lips are not more than half an inch apart, their breaths mingling, Lu Han realizes something—

"— I can't do it." He says before backing away and ruffling his hair. He gives a confused Minseok a look and groans loudly because, , he simply couldn't kiss this boy, not when he obviously doesn't get what he's doing.

Just then, Lu Han thinks when had he become so soft? He is not the type to feel empathy and yet he simply couldn't grab an opportunity of a life time when Minseok's involved. Ruffling his already tousled hair, the boy stands up from his position on the floor.

"Y-you're forgiven!" He announces. "Just don't do that again, okay? Or you'll surely regret." He huffs before running away because he is feeling giddy and he felt like floating on air.

Yet, falling at the same time.

If that even makes sense.