Sehun didn’t want to read the flyer. He really didn’t.

But to be honest, it was hard to not read it, seeing as the paper taped to his front door was the most vibrant pink he had ever seen. And it didn’t help that the bold, black lettering spelling out the strangest advertisement he’d ever read was just strange enough to spark his curiosity.

Home Helpers Inc.!

Are you living alone and looking for assistance in your life? Need help keeping your house clean or want someone to do the tedious shopping trips? We’re here to solve all of your problems!

Home Helpers Inc. offers:

• Housekeeping
• Cooking skills (including home cooked meals!)
• Shopping and delivery services
• Companionship

For a low cost, you’ll have the assistance you’ve been dreaming of! Just call us at the number below and let Home Helpers Inc. help you today!

He clutches the grocery bags dangling from his sore fingertips with an unsteady grip and stares at the flyer. What was he supposed to do with it? He couldn’t exactly just leave it there, dangling from his door like that. He had to do something with the stupid, attention grabbing thing. His neighbors were already giving it strange glances.

He tugs on it lightly and the tape peels off with a smooth pop. He didn’t need help with his house, and he didn’t mind living by himself. Sure, it was a bit lonesome at times, but that didn’t mean he was unhappy.

Okay, so maybe he was a bit unhappy. But it was nothing serious.

He chews at his bottom lip and stares at the big black lettering. His thumbs traces idly over the last bullet reading Companionship in neat italics. Companionship? Did people really pay for other people to come to their house just to keep them company? He wasn’t that pathetic. He’d get a cat or something. That would be sufficient enough. He didn’t need help from that stupid company and its stupid advertisements, he could provide for himself. No matter how much he hated shopping, or how dirty his house had grown over the last few weeks of late night study sessions and all day classes at his university, or the fact that it was very very cold and very very lonely at night when he was curled up on the couch, too exhausted to drag himself to his bedroom.

Ridiculous. The whole idea was a scam.

But as he kicks off his shoes and heads to the kitchen to put away the groceries, abandoning the crumpled sheet of sickeningly pink paper on the kitchen counter, he can’t help but feel it distracting his ever thought. It’s not until he starts to put the ramyun in the dishwasher that he gets fed up and scrambles for the phone.

He’s already dialing the number before he can even consider the price of such an operation.

“Hello, Home Helpers Inc.! How can I help you today?” Sehun tries to count the amount of Hs that the much too peppy saleswoman spews on frantic fingers and settles on far too many.

“Well…um, you see, I got this flyer and-”

“You’d like to make a purchase! I know, I know, I’m psychic. People tell me all the time.” He doesn’t know what to say to that.  Was this girl crazy?

He opens his mouth to say something but then remembers the fact that he’s about to order a person and he figures that he has no right to call someone else crazy.

 “I can fill out your order right away, sir. We’re all about speed and efficiency in this place.” She giggles and the sound is sickeningly cute, so much that Sehun cringes. “Can I get your name?”

His name? Oh, right. This is where he was supposed to answer. “Sehun. Oh Sehun.” He curses himself for the slight lisp rolling off his tongue as the sound of a keyboard clicking echoes over the receiver.

“And how long were you planning on receiving our services?” He was supposed to choose a time limit? He figured they just came in and…did their stuff. “Our most popular package is the yearly edition, but we also provide monthly and-”

“A month. A month is fine.” There’s a peppy “okay!” and more clicking and before he knows it, the saleswoman is telling him to expecting a very enthusiastic Happy Home Helper at his door the next day.

He sets down the receiver, drums his fingertips against the counter, and wonders what he just got himself into.

He wakes up the next morning to a wonderful smell. The scent makes his stomach purr in want and he shoots up in bed almost instantly, stumbling out of his bed in yesterday’s t-shirt and a pair of blue boxers.

There’s someone at his stove. There’s a boy who is cooking at his stove. There’s a boy cooking something delicious in his house and he doesn’t even have a clue of who they might be.

“Um,” he says, clearing his throat. “Hi?”

The boy turns around and gives him a smile that only angels could muster up. “Oh, you’re awake!” He gestures towards the sizzling pan on the stove. “Hungry, Sehun? It is Sehun, right?”

Sehun can only stand there and drool.

The boy chuckles softly and dishes the food out into a bowl, sliding it across the countertop to Sehun. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Um,” Sehun says intelligently. “Who…what?”

The boy tilts his head to the side and pouts slightly, looking confused. It’s terribly cute.

Sehun swallows hard and makes a few scattered hand movements. “You…you.” He mentally slaps himself at he words spilling out of his mouth before he can even process them. “Who, ah, who are you?”

The boy’s eyes widen and he laughs suddenly, the sound like twinkling bells. “Oh, I’m Luhan. I’m your Home Helper for the next month.”

Oh. Oh.

“I hope you don’t mind that I let myself inside and picked up a little. You should probably lock your door more often; you might get robbed one day.” Not that Sehun particularly cared if anyone tried to break in; there wasn’t anything of value in his apartment anyway. Hey, he’d just invite them inside if they were as cute as Luhan.

Wait, was he supposed to be thinking that? He clucks his tongue softly against the roof of his mouth. No, probably not.

“What are you waiting for? Eat, I promise I didn’t poison it.” Sehun eyes the bowl warily but he can’t deny the fact that it smells incredible and his stomach is doing barrel rolls. He pokes at the meal with a pair of chopsticks and tries not to let out a moan of content when the first taste graces his tongue.

Yep, it was official. Luhan had to be some sort of angel.

That fact is only further confirmed when he comes home from school the next day to find his entire apartment spotless. He stands in the doorway as his backpack hits the floor and gapes. Luhan pokes his head out of the kitchen and gives him an eager smile.

“Do you like it?” He asks hopefully, his eyes shining. Sehun tries to nod but he thinks he’s been paralyzed by shock. “By the way, you didn’t lock the door again. I let myself in. You should really work on that, Sehunnie.”

Sehunnie.

“I’ll, uh, I’ll remember that next time.” He lets the door shut softly behind him and clears his throat. “You really didn’t have to clean all of this. That must have been a lot of work.”

Luhan laughs and for a moment, Sehun thinks he could listen to that sound for the rest of his life. “Don’t be silly,” Luhan says with a grin. “It’s my job.”

Sehun can’t argue with that.

Sehun finds that it’s much better to come home to an always smiling, always laughing, warm little bundle of energy than his stark and lonely apartment. Luhan manages to light up the room and coax little smiles and crimson blushes out of the normally stoic Sehun, and the latter doesn’t mind one bit.

Eight days pass with Luhan and Sehun doesn’t regret his decision in the least.

And then comes the shopping trip.

“Sehunnie, how do you even feed yourself? This fridge is empty.” Luhan pouts as he pokes his head out of the refrigerator.

“It’s not empty,” Sehun mumbles over his calculus textbook. “There’s…milk in there. I think.”

Luhan rolls his eyes and grips Sehun’s forearm, dragging him out of his chair. “That’s it, we’re going shopping.”

Luhan is a pro at grocery shopping; it’s as if he has the store mapped out completely in his brain. He speeds down the aisles and tosses item after item into the nearly overflowing cart without checking a single label or price. Sehun can only follow him like an obedient child and pray that he doesn’t get left behind in Luhan’s dust.

“Vegetables,” Luhan murmurs under his breath with a sour expression, hands planted on his hips. “We need vegetables.” Sehun likes the way his eyebrows furrow beneath the honey hue of his hair as if vegetables were one of life’s biggest feats to conquer. His fingers itch to reach out and run his fingers through that hair but he rocks backwards instead, cheeks flushing a fiery red.

He wasn’t supposed to be thinking like that.

He tries to think about something else, anything else, anything other than the way Luhan bites his lip when he’s feeling indecisive or the way he smiles at Sehun when he thinks the latter isn’t watching (which he most certainly is) or the way his eyes crinkle when he laughs a bit too hard at Sehun’s corny jokes.

“You okay, Sehunnie?” Luhan flashes him a bright smile and tugs softly on his arm. “Come on, we’ve got to find some vegetables.”

Sehun doesn’t want to admit that he thinks Luhan is absolutely beautiful, even in the dim fluorescent lighting of the supermarket. He pushes that thought to the very back of his mind and instead of speaking, simply gives Luhan a nod and allows himself to be dragged halfway across the store.

But it’s all worth it when Luhan’s face lights up and he shoves a wilting carrot in Sehun’s face, his smiles bright enough to give him an electric shock.

“Look, we found them! Vegetables!”

Fifteen days. Fifteen days have passes since the morning Sehun met Luhan and fifteen days is all it has taken to change his life forever.

He looks forward to six o’clock every morning, when Luhan comes barreling into Sehun’s room with a frustrated Sehunnie you didn’t lock the door again what if it wasn’t me what if it was a serial killer you’d really regret it then maybe that would teach you a lesson and he looks forward to the sun creeping through the blinds when Luhan twists them open with a flourish and god he just looks forward to Luhan in every which way possible. He looks forward to the things he shouldn’t and finds himself questioning that fact far too often.

He doesn’t mind school that much anymore when he’s got Luhan to look forward to when he returns home. Even calculus isn’t so bad when he’s got that one little reward at the end of every day, that source of motivation. He tells himself that he shouldn’t get so attached, that he only has sixteen more days of this bliss, but then Luhan feeds him a taste of his latest experimental dish and all of Sehun’s thoughts melt like butter in the frying pan.

Nineteen days pass and something changes.

Night has fallen and it’s late, far later than Luhan has ever stayed with Sehun before. He can tell Luhan is tired from the way his eyelids droop and his footsteps are haphazard and uncoordinated. Luhan struggles to tug on his jacket and yawns enormously, slurring a goodnight to Sehun as he fumbles with the doorknob. He almost tumbles out onto the front stoop and Sehun has to dive to catch him, Luhan nodding off in Sehun’s shaky grasp.

“Why don’t you just stay here tonight, Lu?” Sehun barely recognizes his own voice in the stillness of the night. “Is that…um, allowed with your work?”

If it isn’t, Luhan doesn’t mention it. Instead, he just lets Sehun drag his back to his bedroom and work him out of his jacket into a pair of comfortable pajamas before tucking him into the warm bed. Sehun swallows hard as he slips into the bed after him and tries to ignore the fact that Luhan is right there and god he’s so warm.

Luhan slings an arm over Sehun’s waist in his daze of sleep and buries his face into the other’s neck, sighing deeply. Sehun’s uneven breaths hitch in his throat and he freezes, spine rigid against the soft brush of Luhan’s fingertips. It had to be dangerous to be this close to Luhan because just the scent of his skin and the warmth of his steamy, heavy breaths had Sehun feeling drunk. This had to be illegal.

It takes hours to fall asleep, and when his eyes finally manage to shut, the image of an angelic, sleeping Luhan is burned into his dreams.

It’s been twenty five days and Sehun is ready to tear his hair out.

It’s four a.m. but he knows that it’s useless to even attempt sleep. He’s wired on his thoughts and an entire pot of coffee and he doesn’t even want to fathom the idea of class the next day. He knows that in two measly hours Luhan will come barreling in that door ready to wake Sehun up but he won’t need waking up because he’s been tossing and turning with burning thoughts of that stupid perfect boy for the past five hours.

Lately, time has been the bane of his existence.

He thinks about the fact that there are only six days left with Luhan for the fifth time is the past fifteen minutes and he thinks about how much he utterly hates numbers. That tidbit reminds him of how he was supposed to have finished his calculus homework already and that nearly pushes him over the edge.

It was all Luhan’s fault. It was his entire fault because he was the one with that addicting scent and a smile that turned Sehun into a puddle. His fault because he was so completely enticing and so dangerous to love.

Love.

The word itches underneath of Sehun’s skin.

He presses his face against the cold side of his pillow and buries his nose against it, sniffing the fabric for any hint of the musk of Luhan’s hair that seemed to cling to it. He sighs, the sound lost into the fluffy tomb of the pillow and squeezes his eyes shut. So maybe he did love Luhan.

But admitting it didn’t make it any easier.

On the twenty ninth day, Sehun takes a chance.

Luhan reaches for the measuring cup in the top shelf of the cabinet, the hem of his t-shirt rising up and displaying the smooth line of porcelain skin. Sehun steps behind him and his arms encircle Luhan as he easily reaches up and grabs the small container. He swears that Luhan flushes red and he can’t help but lean close, pressing his lips softly against the shell of his ear.

His own cheeks are stained pink afterwards as well but he’d never admit that.

And on the thirty first day, long after they’ve said unsteady goodbyes and Luhan leaves Sehun with a lingering hug that nearly squeezes the life out of him, he breaks.

He curls up in a misshapen ball on the bed where the two of them had slept, feeling lonelier than he ever thought possible. He tells himself that he doesn’t regret calling the number on that flyer but there’s a significant hole in his heart that he knows wasn’t there thirty one days ago and that has to mean something, right?

He also tells himself that he isn’t crying but there are salty tracks staining his cheeks that he can’t seem to fight. He presses the heels of his hands against his eyes as if that might stop the endless, stubborn flow of the tears that he doesn’t want.

And then suddenly there is a pair of warm, comforting arms wrapping around him and there’s a hoarse voice in his ear saying stupid Sehunnie how many times have I told you to lock the door is it really that hard and then their lips are tangled and it’s sweeter and softer and hotter than Sehun could have ever imagined.

He curls his fingers instinctively into Luhan’s hair, pressing them as close as he can and tugging the other boy down against the bed. They fit together perfectly, twining their limbs as if trying to get closer than physically possible. Sehun doesn’t pause for air because he’s been waiting thirty one days for this and hell he’s not going to let something as silly as air stand in his way.

Luhan finally breaks away and nuzzles his nose against Sehun’s neck, trailing soft kisses along the fine line of his jaw. Sehun lets his eyes flutter shut and his lips part, taking soft, shallow breaths.

“Please don’t leave me again,” he mumbles thickly. “I’ll pay for another hundred years to those ridiculous Home Helper people if that’s what it takes to keep you by my side.” Luhan chuckles, the sound vibrating against Sehun’s throat.

“Silly,” he murmurs, pressing a final kiss against the spot beneath Sehun’s ear. “You don’t have to pay a cent to keep me. I’m never going to leave you, not even if you want me gone.” He rests his forehead against the hollow of his neck and exhales, the soft breath tickling Sehun’s skin. “I love you, Sehun.”

Sehun’s pulse races and suddenly thirty one days are speeding by in his mind and all he can see is Luhan laughing, Luhan smiling, Luhan pouting, Luhan, Luhan, Luhan. He thinks back to that first day when he received the flyer and he thinks back to seeing Luhan in the kitchen with a spatula in his hand and a grin on his face.

When he answers, he knows that what he says is true.

“I love you too,” he whispers into Luhan’s hair. He tightens his grip around the boy tucked against him and shuts his eyes.

Sehun decides that it was worth it.

It was all so worth it.