“The world is … big. And complicated.
And I wish we could explore it together”

– Once Upon A Marigold             

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The moment EXO-K arrives back to their dormitory, everyone’s exhausted. Chanyeol’s whining something about being hungry that he thinks he could eat a cow. Everyone just had to roll their eyes at him. Sehun, the maknae, decides to go to his room to take a shower and change out of his clothes. He feels icky and he needs to be refreshed. When he’s done and is sitting on the edge of his bed, he tries to crack his head for something very important that he needs to do. Failing on remembering what it was, he falls to the bed and sighs. And just as his head hits the pillows, it all suddenly comes back to him.

                Instead of closing his eyes to catch some hours of sleep and reserve his energy for the next day, Sehun chose to dial a number he memorizes all too well. After a long and tiring day of dancing, singing, of wearing makeup and of crazy outfits, the important thing that he failed to remember is to actually make a phone call. Sehun didn’t even mind on how much the call will cost him, what he needs right now, just like before when he was  a trainee and at every end of the day, is to hear the sound of his beloved best friends’ voice.

                When Luhan answers his call, his heart didn’t forget to skip a beat. That’s not rare for Sehun anymore but every time it happens, it never ceases to amaze him.

                “What are you doing now?” Sehun hears Luhan ask.

                Like Sehun, Luhan who’s miles and miles and an ocean away, was lying on his bed. Also dead tired from their promotions of being a newly debuted boy group and all.

                “Just staring at the ceiling. Trying to figure out how everything went like a blur” Sehun finally replies, looks to the wall clock on his left, 11:20 p.m, then back to the ceiling again.

                “Something wrong?” Luhan’s voice sounds so worried that Sehun had to bite his lip. Sehun, you stupid you.

                He forces a laugh, “No, nothing, hyung. You know, just a bit tired”

                The older man snickers on the other line, “A bit? Judging from the way you’re talking to me right now and by the sound of your voice, I can tell that you need to get some rest. Go sleep now, okay? You need to have some energy for tomorrow. Chanyeol told Kris that you’ll have a shoot or something”

So, I’m not the only one making phone calls, eh?

                Despite his new discovery, Sehun pouts at what his best friend said, “No, I don’t want to and I can’t sleep. Don’t force a person who can’t sleep to sleep, hyung. It’s not good for the health”

                Luhan tries his best to act as the nagging big brother he’s supposed to be, “Idiot! You’re even blabbing nonsense right now. What’s not good for the health is when a person can’t get some sleep. If you don’t go to sleep, Sehun, I’ll – I’ll …” But he just gradually fails, “Uhm yeah, just go to sleep now, okay?”

                And just what Sehun needs for that day to forget all his exhaustion, a good laugh and a dose of Luhan’s cuteness. He feels much better now.

                “I miss you, you know” Sehun confesses and he tries to picture out on how Luhan will blush at the comment. If Luhan ever will.

                On the other end, Luhan is as red as a tomato and is feeling lucky that Sehun can’t see him, “Yah … You do need to rest. You’re not only blabbing nonsense but you’re blurting things out of the blue”

                Sehun smiles realizing that his best friend’s embarrassed, he tries to more, “Well, it’s true. You know I can’t lie to you, right?”

                Luhan bites his lips and he’s a bit hesitant but he tells Sehun anyways, “I know. I miss you too”

                That sentence alone could make the maknae of EXO-K grin like a goof. It feels like, he’s confessing to me.

                “Sehun?” Luhan whispers that Sehun barely hears it.

                “Yeah?”

                “When do you think will be the time for us to promote as 12?” Sehun can hear the shaking of Luhan’s voice and along with it; he can tell that the older man’s grip on his phone tightens.

                The maknae doesn’t know how to respond but he doesn’t want to make Luhan sad. He manages to smile, even though Luhan can’t see it from the other line, and says, “Soon. I can’t promise anything but I know it will happen soon”

                Luhan’s eyes soften as he hears this, “Yes, I bet that too.”

                Silence took over them but it wasn’t awkward. Luhan was the first one to break it when he inhales and says, “Let’s take lots of pictures, okay?”

                Sehun got confused at first but he suddenly lets out an ‘OH’ of realization, “Yeah, sure. We will take lots and lots of them. Selcas, yes, and even Polaroid ones. And …” Sehun blabs away. He talks of this and that until he’s not sure if what he’s saying are even right anymore. And he doesn’t care. As long as he hears the laughter erupting from Luhan’s lips on the other end of the line, he’s pretty much happy and satisfied.

                By the time that Sehun looks at the wall clock to his left, it reads 1:50 a.m. Wow, time sure flies fast. And as if Luhan knows what he’s doing, the older says, “It’s really late or should I say, it’s really early in the morning?” Luhan laughs at this and Sehun snickers, “but we should go get some rest, yeah?”

                The maknae whines, “Awwww, but I was just having a great time describing to you on how we’re going to go about our adventure around the world”

                “Yeah, right” Luhan rolls his eyes hearing what Sehun said, “And you don’t even know where Rio de Janeiro is”

                “Of course, I do!” Sehun argues, “It’s in France, duh”

                Luhan laughs so hard hearing this that he had to clutch his stomach.

                “What? I’m wrong?” Luhan continues to laugh and Sehun fights the urge to pout, “Okay, if I’m wrong then tell me where Rio de Janeiro is”

                Luhan stops from laughing wiping a tear from the corner of his eye, “We’ll find out when we go on our adventure around the world” he teases with a small laugh.

                “Yah, I’m sure you don’t know where it is” Sehun tsk’s, pulling his phone away from his ear to look at the screen that displays his picture with Luhan. He stuck his tongue out and points at Luhan’s image. Then, he hears a, “Yah!” on the other side. Sehun scrambles to resume the position of his phone on his left ear.

                “We should go to sleep, I mean it. It’s really … “ Luhan yawns and Sehun hears it. He wishes that he could be at Luhan’s side right at that very moment to see his hyung yawn and rub that sleepiness of off his eyes. He misses him so much to the point that he fears he’ll forget how Luhan’s soft skin would feel against his.

                “Sehun-ah?”

                Sehun snaps back to reality, “Uhm yeah. You also need your rest, hyung. I’m sorry for making you stay this late”

                “Idiot” Luhan nags and he stifles another yawn, “Good night, Sehun-ah”

                “Good morning, hyung~” Sehun corrects him

                “Oh yeah, right. Good morning” Luhan giggles, “See you soon”

                “Yeah” the younger nods at this, “Really, soon”. And on the count of three, they hung up together.

                Sehun lies on his bed still wide awake. He hates the world for separating him from his Luhan hyung. And though he wants to have him by his side all the time, he must not be the one to stop the person he loves to achieve his dream. They all worked hard for their debut and Sehun’s not going to mess everything up just so he could fulfill his selfish desire to always be with Luhan.

“Distance makes the heart grow fonder” he muses and reminds himself.

Sehun closes his eyes and an image of his Luhan hyung’s smiling face pops in his mind.  

                Sehun said it himself that he never knew what true friendship was until he met Luhan. And well, he might as well say this now– that he will never know what love is it wasn’t for the same person. Sehun drifts off to sleep with a dream of promoting around the world with the rest of the members of EXO. And especially, with Luhan by his side.

He smiles in his sleep as he sees the image of him holding his hyung, his best friend’s hand, as they take on the world and explore it together. 

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A/N: Uhm well, you know, it can't be helped xD Hihihi. This is actually a new experience for me and I would really like to test it out. :) I ship any existing EXO pairings there are, as long as I find chemistry between the two. LOL. I was inspired to start writing this since I've read lots of wonderful EXO fics. I even cried at some to the point that every time I remember what happened in the story, I start going all "Huhuhuhu" and will ask, "Whyyyyy?". So yeah, that's got to be it! Thank you for taking your time in reading this..  ;)   And oh, I've been playing M-Flo's songs non-stop and I got the title of this from one of his works.