CHAPTER 3:

« TRACK 1: REWIND

“Oh Sehun!” The shrill voice of his nanny echoes through the large house as the tall teen runs away after making a mess in the kitchen with his younger sister. He cackles, yelling his apologies while he has his arms wrapped around his sibling tightly as he runs and they find their way out onto the balcony where his older sister is seated on their wooden swing while reading a book.

She stares at him, disgusted for a few seconds before she finally speaks. “What in the world did you do again? You’re the literal definition of a mess and even Sejong is dirty!” Her voice turns a pitch higher when her eyes land on their youngest, a glare immediately being sent towards Sehun’s way. “Unnie.” Their youngest says, giggling and reaching out to their oldest and Sehun puts her down, smiling guiltily at his older sister as she realizes just how much mess is on Sejong’s dress. You’re dead. His sister mutters as she takes Sejong into her arms and tries to wipe off the abundance of flour on her face.

Sehun chuckles nervously, “Well she wanted to bake and I thought I could teach her but she started messing with some stuff and uhm we ended up having a flour fight and I really didn’t mean it I’m so sorry noona.” He rambles while dusting himself off from all the flour that has covered him from head to toe. His sister deadpans a look at him. “What made you think that baking with a child who’s barely five years old is going to be a great idea? You’re going to have your handed onto you by nana by the time she finishes cleaning the kitchen you fool.”

Sehun pouts imagining the fate that surely awaits him in the hands of their nanny. “Minyoung noona help me.” He whines but his older sister remains unfazed, wiping Sejong’s face with a smile and ignoring her younger brother’s pleas. Sehun stomps his way back onto their rest house, looking left and right for any signs of their nanny before he rushes and makes his way onto their second floor. He runs toward his room and immediately locks it before heading towards his bathroom where he finally begins to shower.  He starts brainstorming of ways to gain their nanny’s forgiveness when there’s suddenly a loud knock from his bedroom door that makes Sehun panic. Knowing the fact that he is going to be scolded, Sehun barely gets himself dry before his hastily putting on his clothes and grabbing his wallet as he escapes through the balcony of his room.

He ends up on their backyard before he starts running towards their gate, effectively escaping their nanny who would surely give him an earful. Once he’s reached a safe distance, Sehun leisurely walks towards the center of the small town where his father used to live. The hustle and bustle of the market begins to make itself present and Sehun’s eyes slowly forms a crescent shape, his heart finding comfort in the liveliness of the busy street. There are rows and rows of stalls selling all sorts of things from fresh produce up to random trinkets brought by foreign merchants passing by.

Sehun enjoys the way the sunlight warms up his skin a bit as he looks over the stalls selling flowers before a grin lights up his face upon seeing their nanny’s favorite flowers. This would be a good peace offering, the young teen mumbles to himself before his taking bills out of his wallet to buy at least four pieces of carnations. The owner of the stall, a kind looking grandma smiles and coos at Sehun as he takes his pick and grabs what he thinks are the most beautiful carnations of the bunch, he then hands her his money and just as the old lady was about to hand him his change a beautiful looking boy holding a pail of roses enters the stall and gathers Sehun’s attention.

“Halmeo!” The beautiful teen greets the old lady with a dazzling smile, brown hair falling gently against his brows and framing his small face. “These are the roses you ordered me to get, where do I have to put it?”

“Just on the stand beside the sunflowers.” The grandma instructs him and Sehun watches as the young boy goes out of the stall, making a beeline towards his direction before carefully arranging the bucket of roses beside the sunflowers. “Here’s your change dear.”  Says the old lady but Sehun is too busy paying attention to the other teen that the coins slip out of his grasp.

A surprised look is sent towards his way and before Sehun knows it, the other boy has crouched as well to help him pick his change. “Here you go.” The doe eyed teen smiles at Sehun and suddenly there is this weird sensation that’s tickling his insides and Sehun can’t help the fuzzy smile that is forming in his lips. He runs his fingers through the nest of a hair he has, staring at the other teen unabashedly. It feels like it has been hours, sweat forming on the lines across Sehun’s palms as he holds tight onto the carnations wrapped beautifully for him by the old lady, but it has only been a few seconds before the other boy’s laughter reels Sehun back into reality.

“You’re staring.” the boy teases, smiling bashfully regardless of the tone of his words. “I’m Luhan, do you like the flowers?” Luhan asks, thick eyelashes catching onto the stream of sunlight that filters through the open street.

“It’s uhm,” Sehun grapples for his words a little, unaccustomed to seeing someone so visually pleasing, “nice, uh, the flowers they’re nice yeah.” He concludes dumbly, trying not to smack himself for sounding so out of it. Fortunately, Luhan does not judge him and simply moves away – heading back inside the stall to help his grandma who has been fondly looking at their interaction. Sehun, uncharacteristically smitten, follows Luhan with his gaze and lets out an uncertain smile when the other looks back at him again.

“Here’s something for you,” Luhan reaches out, handing out a stem with yellow petals towards Sehun’s direction. “That’s a daffodil and it’s my favorite flowers. I really hope we could be friends, you seem like a nice person.”

Sehun chuckles, a little shy as he takes the flower from the latter. “I’m not really uh that nice.” Sehun responds, remembering his earlier stint with Sejong in the kitchen. “but I also think it’d be nice to be your friend, that’s if you don’t mind being friends with a hard headed person.”

“We can work on that,” Luhan teases once again, pausing a bit in the end as if curious about something and that’s when it clicks to Sehun that he has yet to introduce himself. He speaks in a rush, ears turning an obvious shade of red. “I’m so sorry my name is Sehun by the way, it’s nice meeting you. Uhm, I’ll see you around soon?”

“I’ll be just right here.” Luhan gives Sehun a dazzling smile before the latter bids him and his grandmother goodbye. And as Sehun walks away to head back to their home, he gives Luhan one last wave, heart thumping excitedly at the thought of meeting the brunette again soon.