Lu Han’s POV

“Lu Han! Lu Han!” A very giddy Minseok shouted as Sehun and I were about to go out and get our daily bubble tea.

“Oh, Minseok. What is it?” I asked.

“Can you tutor me in Chinese right now?” Minseok suddenly grabbed my hand, startling me.

“W-What? But Sehun and I have to go out right now. I’ll help you when we get back.” I smiled apologetically.

“No. I need you to teach me now.” Minseok’s eyes were pleading so much that it hurts me to see such an expression from a 22-year-old guy.

I heaved a sigh before saying, “Fine. I’ll teach---”

“But hyung!” Sehun cut me off and whined.

“Sehun-ah. Let’s go buy bu---”

“Minseok hyung, can’t you just ask Kris hyung or Yixing hyung to help you?” Sehun asked with a tone laced in bitterness.

“Kris is busy teaching Tao Korean while Yixing is busy composing songs. Lu Han is my only hope.” Minseok blinked his eyes for effect.

“Sehun-ah. I promise to go with you later. It won’t take long.” I flashed a smile at Sehun only to be reduced to a frown as Sehun’s face turned dark.

“No, don’t mind it. I will just ask Kai to come with me.” Sehun said coldly and before I had the time to object his idea, he was already gone.

I sighed loudly before turning back to Minseok and forcing a smile on my face as if nothing happened.

“I’m sorry about Sehun.” Minseok said the moment we got to our shared room.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. He’s just upset. He’ll get over it once he gets home.” I forced another smile though I knew it failed.

It was hard teaching Minseok Chinese when my mind is completely floating elsewhere. I was thinking if Kai agreed to accompany Sehun and what they were doing right now. Was Sehun still upset with me? Or was he having a good time with Kai? As Sehun’s laughing expression with Kai around drifted in my mind, I could not help but have a tingling feeling inside my heart. The feeling was unexplainable but it made me feel hurt and deprived like something was taken from me. I did not notice that I was already fuming to the point that I broke the pencil I was currently holding.

“Lu Han! What are you doing?” Minseok shrieked, making me jump from the chair out of surprise.

“W-What? Why?”

“You broke your pencil in two. What are you thinking?” Minseok nervously asked, resting his hand on my shoulder.

“N-Nothing. Let’s just go back to the tutorial. Where were we? Dates, right?” I quickly said and grabbed the book from Minseok’s hold. I continuously spoke without looking at Minseok, afraid that he might see through me. He’s been my roommate for almost half a year so he knows when something is on my mind.

I heard the front door of our dorm open and Kai announcing that they got back. It was a bad thing that I had our room’s door open because the moment Sehun and Kai’s linked arms and laughing faces were in vision, my heart dropped to the ground. I felt like my heart was stabbed deeply and blood was gushing out nonstop, resulting to its death. I did not know what this feeling was but it hurts like hell. And to top it all off, as soon as Sehun’s gaze caught mine, his bright face turned to a poker face before walking to the kitchen with Kai. It took all my guts to turn my head and look back at Minseok without giving away anything.

“So, family, right? “Ge” is for older brother and “Jie” is for older sist---”

“Lu Han, we already did that. We’re now at the extended family part.” Minseok commented.

“Oh, were we? I forgot.” I laughed weakly and looked back at the book.

“Lu Han, don’t force yourself.” I was taken aback as Minseok suddenly hugged me from the side. I smiled a little before letting myself burst into tears. I could feel Minseok’s hand patting my back as I let more tears fall.

After releasing all the frustrations I felt, I wiped away all the tears that were still able to escape. I smiled weakly at Minseok.

“Thank you, Minseok. I don’t know what I would have done without you.” I hugged him tightly.

“It was nothing. Although I don’t know what your problem is, I’m glad that I could comfort you.” Minseok hugged back and chuckled.

“I’m sorry for breaking out sudde---”

Bam. Our heads snapped to the direction of the noise. Outside our room stood Sehun with an perplexing  look on his face and bubble tea scattered on the floor making a huge mess. Before I had time to register what was happening, Sehun was out the door at light speed. All I could do was sit there with my mouth open. Minseok, on the other hand, stood up from the chair and went outside to clean the mess Sehun made. If it was out of pity for me or out of his habit, I did not know but I was very thankful to him.

After the surprising and depressing moments today, no one spoke about it and dinner was silent. Everyone could probably feel the tension between Sehun and me because Kai sat at my usual seat beside Sehun and I sat in between Minseok and Jongdae.

“So we were told that we have practice tomorrow.” Joonmyun broke the silence, hoping to lighten up the mood.

“Hyung, we know that. It’s Monday tomorrow, there’s always practice after weekends.” Sehun answered in a harsh tone.

“Sehun-ah. Don’t speak like that to our leader.” Kyungsoo nagged.

“Sorry.” Sehun slumped in his chair.

“I’m full. I’ll be sleeping early today so don’t bother.” Sehun looked at me as he said those last words and stood up to drag himself to his room.

My mind was filled with Sehun the moment my back hit the supposedly warm mattress of my bed. I twisted and curled around my bed, trying to get some sleep but unfortunately, sleep came to me when I had only two hours left before our wakeup time. The moment I open my eyes, my head was spinning and my vision was blurry. I shook my head in hopes of clearing my mind and my vision. It eventually helped and I got off the bed successfully without tripping on my own feet.

I woke up a few minutes before our wakeup call so I was guessing I would be the only one awake but when I got to the living room, I could hear talking from the kitchen. I peeked around the kitchen, curious as to who was actually up this early, only to have my heart once again stabbed painfully by the sight of Kai and Sehun cooking in the kitchen. It was very unusual of Sehun and Kai to wake up so early in the morning and it was more bizarre to see them cooking. I was going to sneak my way back into my room to sulk when I hit the table beside me and both boys looked at me.

“Hyung! You’re unusually up early today.” Kai greeted me brightly.

“Uhh… Yeah.” I simply answered, my eyes fixed on the table instead of them.

“Want to eat with us? Sehun and I made bacon and eggs today.” I heard plates being placed on the table and footsteps approaching me. I looked up, secretly hoping it was Sehun, and Kai’s smiling was only inches from me. “Come on, let’s eat.”

“So hyung. Want to come with Sehun and me after practice today?” Kai asked me as soon as I sat. I saw Sehun froze from his seat and I was about to decline when Sehun spoke. “Kai, the date is between you and me, right? We have things to do alone.”

It took all my might to not cry there and then when Sehun coldly refused to let me join their so-called date. I focused on carefully munching on my bacon to push back the tears threatening to fall.

“Oh yeah. I forgot. Let’s just get out next time, hyung. We have some important things to do.” Kai smiled sheepishly.

Breakfast was then filled with silence as neither Sehun nor I refused to speak. Kai who felt the tension growing, zipped his mouth and ate silently. I excused myself once I was done eating and carefully stood up to place my plate on the kitchen sink. I walked back to my room fast and dropped on my bed to soak my favorite pillow with my tears. I heard Minseok and Kris shuffle on their beds and slowly getting up so I tried to breathe slowly and wiped the tears away.

“Lu Han, get up. The manager will get mad if you oversleep again.” Kris shook me and I nodded in response, afraid my voice would crack from all the crying I did early in the morning.

Thank god it was still dark and they did not bother turning on the lights. I got clothes from my drawer, took the towel lying beside my bed and headed directly to the bathroom without doing any eye contact with the members I passed by.

After the comforting shower I had, I was able to show a smile in front of the members and act like I was okay. We headed to the company to practice and the seating arrangement in the van was different from usual. Kai was seated with Sehun again but with Jongdae beside them. I was seated at the back of the van, between Kris and Minseok. Joonmyun was seated with Lay and Kyungsoo. Tao was together with the lovey-dovey couple Baekhyun and Chanyeol instead of Kris. Everything seemed normal. Everyone was talking at the same time, filling the van with incoherent noise. Everything was normal, Kai and Sehun were whispering and laughing with each other like there was no tomorrow while I was teaching Minseok Chinese again and Kris and I would laugh whenever Minseok could not pronounce a syllable correctly or whenever he would mix the words he was taught. Everything was normal… that was what I was telling myself but I knew in my heart that it was nonetheless false.

“Lu Han! Will you please get a grip of yourself? You’ve been making the same mistake for five times now. Look at how tired your members are.” The choreographer scolded me as I danced my solo part incorrectly again. I could see the pitied look on the members’ face and sighed.

“Hyung, let the others rest and I will practice a bit more.” I requested to the choreographer which he eventually allowed.

“Okay, the others may leave. Lu Han, stay here and focus your mind. I’ll be out for a while but I’ll get back to you later.” The choreographer clapped his hands to signal the practice break.

Everyone patted my back in encouragement and started to fix their things. Almost everyone. Sehun was at the corner fixing his bag when everyone comforted me. He did not even give me a look when the choreographer signaled the break.

How could our friendship change so much in just a day? I thought. I found it so amazing yet depressing how Sehun had the will to avoid me for one whole day. Was my tutoring Minseok really that agonizing for him to shun me like I was the meanest person in the world?

My thoughts filled with Sehun’s cold expression and slowly, I felt my consciousness slip away. My mind blanked out and all I could remember was Sehun’s worried voice from afar, “Hyung!”

A/N: Because I've been out for so long, here's an update~ A double update, to be precise! ^.^
So read on to the next chapter~ It's Sehun's POV!