Rumors.
Kai/LuHan


---

January 20, 2012

When LuHan first hears rumors about Kai having a girlfriend, it makes him furious. He doesn't know why though, so it makes him even more livid.

He walks around with a black cloud over his head, snapping at anything and everything that moved on two feet and generally avoiding Kai.

---

January 23, 2012

He drills a hole into the wall every time Kai asks permission for Suho to go out, disappearing the whole day and coming back late in the evenings, looking exhausted but smiling widely.

Like a cat that got the cream. LuHan thinks bitterly, slamming pans and kitchen utensils and chopping vegetables so harshly that D.O, very very slowly, asks,

"Hyung? Are you alright?"

LuHan grasps the knife so tightly his hand turns white with the effort. He takes a deep breath and, smiling widely enough to be convincing, holding the knife in his hand, says,

"Of course, why wouldn't I be alright?"

D.O is not convinced though, and he  backs away, slowly putting some distance between them, "...hyung? Why don’t you go and rest?... You, er, look a little, uhm, peaked."

LuHan growls and sniffs, making his expression both cute and intimidating at the same time. D.O is uncertain what expression to use in response, so he adopts his usual expression, looking much like a deer caught in the headlights anyway.

LuHan relents and drops the knife with a clatter, muttering harshly under his breath, and D.O hears the phrase, "...you bastard." before LuHan slams the door of his room shut with a loud bang.

--

January 25, 2012

LuHan teaches Chen Chinese words every day, testing his vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, and most of the time LuHan is a relentless teacher, making Chen repeat the word again and again until it becomes second nature and the word flows of his tongue fluidly.

Today though, LuHan is absentminded and he sits there, staring into space and tapping his fingers on the tabletop, in sync to an invisible beat. 

Chen does not know if he's going to feel irate or worried, because LuHan had been moody for several days already, seething in anger or depressingly staring into space.

Chen fears schizophrenia.

Chen offers LuHan the book he's translating into Chinese, and LuHan accepts it, reading the passage carefully.

And she's beautiful, with eyes as bright as the stars and lips as red as freshly picked blood; and as he looks upon her he thinks " I want her to be my girlfrie----

LuHan drops the book like he's burned and he looks at Chen , expression so hurt that Chen  tries to think about what he did wrong.

Chen can't think of anything, so gamely, he asks LuHan what's wrong.

LuHan just says, "I hope you're happy." before stalking off.

---

January 29, 2012

LuHan searches for Kai's girlfriend on the Internet, and what comes up are, "she's pretty", "I've seen her and Kai, they're so cute,", "they'll make wonderful babies together!"

LuHan comes up with mental images, and the thought makes him feel sick.

----

February 1, 2012

"Hyung, please pass the rice."

"...."

"Hyung."

"....."

"Hyung?"

"....."

"LuHan Hyung!" Kai says loudly amidst all the clatter of utensils in their dining room. 

Everyone stops eating and waits with bated breath.

LuHan turns his head slowly, smiling so sweetly Kai almost feels ants crawling up every crevice of his body In an unpleasant trickle of arms and legs.

LuHan looks deadly and poisonous.

"It's on the middle of the table, dongsaeng-ah."

Kai begins to feel very afraid, because when he's not Ka~i~ with a little trail at the end, or Jonginnie with a cute lilt in the pronunciation, he knows LuHan thinks he's done something wrong.

But Kai can't think of anything he's done wrong in the past few minutes, hours and days, so he stays silent, bewildered.

When LuHan abruptly stands up and announces, "I'm finished," and he promptly traipses out of the room, he leaves everyone in awkward silence.

Lay clears his throat.

"What's wrong with him?"

"....bad stomach?"BaekHyun suggests.

----


February 5, 2012

LuHan looks for ways to try and brew Veritaserum.

----

February 6, 2012

His efforts to brew the potion fail, so he tries to look for poison instead.

----

February 6, 2012

He abandons his efforts because clearly he can't try to poison Kai.

He spends the day thinking why.

----

February 7, 2012

After making multiple lists and adding, removing various reasons (and after he's littered his floor with crumples of paper), he is fed up with coming up exactly why Kai is important.

So in a fit of indignation he crosses out all answers and writes Kai is important because Kai is Kai.

Later, when he looks at the list again, he thinks the reason he wrote was apt enough.

---

February 12, 2012

XiuMin asks LuHan to play soccer with him, and LuHan agrees, because it was a free day anyway, and it seemed like a good idea to blow off some steam through the game.

Except that he's not playing as well as he should be, because his concentration is off, and when he runs, the ball in his field, his thoughts are filled with he must be with her right now, buying her flowers or going on dates and he pisses himself off. He misses goals completely.

XiuMin gets worried because between the two of them LuHan is the better player, but when LuHan kicks the ball so hard it springs off into the distance, XiuMin offers to get the ball, figuring LuHan must need time and space to get his game on.

He takes his time; he walks leisurely, thoughts filled with golden steamed buns they were sure to eat after. When he comes back, ball in hand now, he sees LuHan sitting on the field, head buried in his arms.

XiuMin sits beside him, and asks, "Do you want to talk about it?"

LuHan is silent for a few moments, and XiuMin waits in the silence, making himself comfortable, when LuHan's mumble of "I don't want to." reaches him.

He shrugs, and when he belatedly remembers LuHan can't see him, he pats his back instead and together, they wait for the setting sun.

----

February 16, 2012

LuHan does talk, but he does it with SuHo, because although he's older SuHo is leader, and perhaps he has gained some leadership qualities not bestowed upon mere mortals like him.

So he sits beside SuHo who's watching television, and conversationally, he asks, "SuHo-ah... Does Kai have a girlfriend?"

Except maybe it wasn't offhand enough, because SuHo actually stops staring at the screen and he's halfway to munching through a handful of popcorn.

"Why do you ask?"

LuHan shrugs, and says, "No reason."

He is silent for a few moments, but then SuHo starts to smile that little smile of someone who knows a secret, and LuHan is about to tear his hair out in frustration in waiting for his answer.

"...Go ask Kai."

LuHan screams silently in his head.

---

February 19, 2012

Since SuHo was no good, LuHan waits for the right time to ask Kris, instead. He figures EXO-M's leader would help him...

...if he can just tear Tao away from his side for a few minutes.

So LuHan thinks of a plan.

---

February 19, 2012

Except all the plans he think of will most probably end in Tao crying, and no one wanted that, so he waits for everyone to go asleep instead before tiptoeing into Kris's room.

He then furiously shakes the mound that is Kris, who grunts and mutters random words in many languages.

Kris looked a bit tired, LuHan thinks, staring at his face. But LuHan is stubborn, so he relentlessly continues to shake Kris until he receives a groggy response of "What?"

"Kris! I need you to answer me!" LuHan hisses. Kris blinks sleepily in response.

"Does Kai have a girlfriend?"

Despite being sleepy, Kris manages to look incredulous. "You're seriously asking me that at this time of the night? ...go ask him yourself."

He then swats LuHan's hand away and goes back to sleep.

---

February 26, 2012

They get busy in practices and when LuHan is so tired and bone weary he forgets to be mad at Kai. When they arrive in the dorm he collapses in the sofa, and he wakes only an hour later when he feels fingers running through his matted hair.

Kai is smiling at him, eyes soft, and he places a blanket over LuHan's body, shielding him from the cold.

"Night, hyung."

He's nearly asleep when he feels Kai's lips brush over his forehead lightly.

His body tingles.

The sensation follows him in his dreams.

---

February 28,  2012

When LuHan tries to settle to bed, plumping up pillows and patting the sheets to smoothen them out, he hears Lay clear his throat and cough.

Again.

And again.

LuHan wheels and asks, "Are you getting sick? Do you need cough drops? Do I need to tell manager?"

Lay waves his hand hastily to dispel LuHan of that notion. "I'm just trying to get your attention hyung."

"Well now you have it."

There is awkward silence.

Lay rubs the back of his head uncomfortably. He coughs again.

"Hyung...er. About the other night? Maybe, 2 -3 days ago?"

LuHan shrugs. "What?"

Lay blushes a beet red. "You were sleep talking, I guess? I could hear you, er, in your sleep. And uh, you were about, er, Kai?"

When LuHan settles into a shocked face Lay, panicking, rushes to get the word out.

"Not that there is anything wrong, Hyung! Of course not! You can dream whatever you want about Kai! It understandable really! So no need to get embarrassed about having those dreams! I have them too--well, not about Kai, but you get it right?"

LuHan does not respond.

Lay coughs again, beet red in the face.

"I'll just go to sleep then, uh...night Hyung."

----

March 1, 2012

LuHan avoids Lay for days.

Lay flushes everytime he sees LuHan.

Everyone else is confused.

----

March 2, 2012

LuHan lurks on the internet again.

He sees fan accounts saying that Kai goes shopping with his girlfriend!, they look so cute together!

LuHan forgets what Lay told him days ago. He grumbles and complains and Lay just listens, nodding sagely, trying to keep a smile off his face.

----

March 10, 2012

It's the only break they get for days, and BaekHyun gets the notion that he should practice piano for the duration of time. LuHan goes to BaekHyun anyway, who seems to be composing a melody, and complains why they don't go shopping anymore.

"Hyung, you're famous already. People will recognize you on the street."

LuHan snorts."So why does Kai get to go out?"

"Who knows what that boy does in his spare time?"

BaekHyun continues to caress the keys lovingly, while LuHan peruses his answer. 

After a few moments, LuHan realizes that BaekHyun didn't actually answer his question, so he wails instead, drawing it out longer than he should.

BaekHyun freezes.

"Hyung, do it again."

"Do what?"

"That dying sound, do it again."

LuHan does as he's suggested, except that he's even more confused now.

BaekHyun snaps his fingers excitedly and grabs LuHan for a hug. "That was a good part for the melody I'm working on! Thanks Hyung!"

He leaves in a flutter of excitement.

LuHan stares.

----

March 15, 2012

A rubix cube is pushed under his nose.

LuHan sees Kai's face swim into view.

"Fix it Hyung." 

With a huff, he grabs the cube. He moves to make some space for Kai, because he clearly cannot resist him, even when he's trying to be angry.

Kai plops beside him and nuzzles into him, fingers drumming on LuHan's lap. "Then, after, could you teach me, Hyung?"

LuHan just nods, thoughts filed with the warmth seeping into his side.

----

March 19, 2012

Tao pleads with LuHan to accompany him shopping because Kris isn't available. Shopping with Tao is exhausting, but he is a good Hyung, so he reluctantly agrees. 

So he walks with Tao to the mall, watching in wonder as Tao piles clothes upon clothes to try on and stares disbelievingly as Tao went to the counter with a bag he pulled off a shelf.

"Who else goes shipping with you?"LuHan demands, because he just can't seem to reconcile his mind to it.

Tao shrugs and says, "Well aside from Kris, I ask Kai."

Interest piqued, LuHan says, "Really?"

Tao nods vigorously. "Yeah, lately though i haven't asked him, he's busy with----" he cuts himself of abruptly, preoccupied with another bag near the counter.

LuHan elbows him, eager to finish conversation, but Tao just says, "hmmm?"

LuHan face palms.

----

March 22, 2012

They're told they're going to have their showcase in Korea and China. 

---

March 26, 2012

They resume practicing, harder now than ever, going through the complete line up of their songs and perfecting every single step, every single note.


They're EXO. As far as everyone else is concerned, there's no room for mistakes.


----

March 30, 2012

Morning finds LuHan and Chanyeol in the kitchen, LuHan brandishing a gold watch in front of Chanyeol's eyes, the latter swaying slowly with the motions of the golden chain.

"You're getting sleepy..."LuHan drawls out, still moving the chain back and forth Chanyeol's eyes, which flicker in tandem with the gold watch.

"...andddddd you're now hypnotized!"LuHan says triumphantly, flicking his fingers. 

Chanyeol snaps his head up...

Then slumps over the table, snoring.


LuHan groans.

When he passes BaekHyun  on the way to the kitchen, he points his finger at him accusingly.

"I knew I should have just taken you hostage!"


----

April 1, 2012


"You will tell me what you know." LuHan hisses. 

He grabs SeHun's hand and he drags him so they'll be unheard by the rest.

SeHun holds both his hands up in a I surrender fashion. "If this is about the ice cream in the fridge yesterday it wasn't me! I ate part of it, but really it was Lay-Hyung!"

"What?"LuHan shrieked.

 "You-I can't believe-okay I can, but still. You're going to pay, SeHun-ah." LuHan glares menacingly, creeping closer.

SeHun gulps.

"Tell me about Kai's girlfriend."

"Girlfriend? But he doesn’t--- oh! You must be talking about Hana." SeHun snaps his fingers excitedly.

"Hana?" LuHan repeats slowly.

"Uh, yes?" SeHun says meekly, trying to inch away from LuHan but he's kept within reach by LuHan's iron fist.

"Tell me what you know."LuHan smiles eerily, scaring SeHun out of his wits.

"I don't know much Hyung,  just that she can cook very well!" SeHun squeaks, waving his arms rapidly in front of LuHan's face, trying to dispel the notion that he had additional information for LuHan's perusing.

LuHan ignores him and stalks off, muttering to himself.

SeHun heaves a great breath of relief.

Safe.

LuHan wheels around and says, "SeHun-ah?...You still owe me that ice cream."

----

April 10, 2012

Days and days later, LuHan finally admits to himself that Hana is pretty.

Suddenly he's feeling dejected, like he can't compare. He abandons his efforts and mopes in a corner, stuffing himself with strawberries and chocolate.

The rest of EXO-M look at him in concern.

"What's wrong with him?" Chen asks worriedly. 

The others shrug in reply, and in unison, they grab the strawberries and chocolate from LuHan, admonishing him for trying to gorge himself.

LuHan sniffles. "I feel depressed."

"Why?" 

He shrugs. "I don’t know." he reaches out to grab a strawberry from XiuMin's stash, but his hands are slapped away. LuHan pouts.

Lay kept shaking with laughter from where he's standing, and Kris pokes him with a sharp elbow, prompting him into saying, "Maybe he just misses K."

That snaps everyone into attention. They run back and forth their rooms, grabbing pieces of electronic devices, intent on setting up a video conference with K.

When they finally pull through, K's faces swim into view, a little tired but certainly happy to see them.

LuHan feels his heart sink when he counts only 5 faces instead of 6.

"Where's Kai?"he croaks.

Almost at once, Suho becomes guilty, biting his lip and saying on a small voice,"Uh, he's not here, Hyung. If I knew you’d call, I wouldn’t have allowed him to go out today…" He trails off awkwardly.

LuHan just nods. Slowly, the conversation picks up volume once again, and for a while, LuHan just listens.

He walk off quietly to his room in a few moments, letting the silence lull him to sleep.

----

April 11, 2012

LuHan does not remember crying when he went to sleep, but there are tear tracks on his skin.

----

April 12, 2012

LuHan-Hyung? :)

Hyung! :)

...Hyung?

I'm sorry I missed you when you guys called the other day.

I'll make it up to you.

Be safe.

I miss you.

-Kai.

----

April 13,  2012

"Hyung, wake uppppppp!"

Kai's shout breaks the silence of the morning, and LuHan springs up, awake.

LuHan searches for Kai in his room, but there's no one. Instead, he sees Kai waving merrily from a laptop screen.

It's so early in the morning, and he's supposed to be pissed he's been woken up at this hour of the day, but it's Kai, and for Kai he'll always make an exception.

So he clambers over to where the laptop is situated and he greets Kai with a pleasant smile.

----

April 16,  2012

When LuHan is heard whistling as he grabbed random packets coffee and cream for his morning drink, he's interrupted by Lay who's holding a cup himself, smile gracing his lips.

"Kai must have called you again this morning, huh?"

"Yes he did...but why do you say that? " LuHan asks, genuinely perplexed.

Lay finishes his cup of coffee and brings it to the sink, washing it of residue.

"Only he can make you this happy and chipper so early in the morning."

He waves goodbye to LuHan who's staring at him open mouthed, flush high in his cheeks.

----

April 20, 2012

They're back in Korea, and LuHan is greeted with hugs and gifts and cries of Happy birthday, we miss you! From the other members, and he graciously welcomes it, letting their affection wash over him and making it a respite from the activities they had to do.

They celebrate loudly into the night, letting only the ticking of the clock signalling midnight stop their festivities. One by one, they shuffle off to bed.

LuHan is still fixing his things when he's approached by Kai, who's smiling shyly and hiding something in his back.

"Hyung...happy birthday."he says shyly, holding out a small cake.

 "I made this for you, hyung... Hana, a friend of mine, she’s good at making desserts, she taught me... Told her I was making this for you, and she helped me, because I wanted it to be special hyung...I tried looking through recipes, but they weren't any good... I had to beg Hana to teach me! I don't think I've done a very good job Hyung, but I really wanted to make you a cake, for your birthday. I practiced a lot, but I'm sorry it isn't much---" he starts blabbing nervously.

LuHan feels like he could fly (Hana is a friend of mine). Hiding his grin, he directs his attention to the cake instead.

It's chocolate, his favorite, but it's squashed a bit, icing not properly setting, and dripping slightly, the bits of almond very very slowly moving down the sides. LuHan has definitely seen better, received better, but he likes this the most, because Kai actually made it for him, and that was reason enough.

He smears his finger on the icing excitedly and lets the taste of chocolate overwhelm him. "This tastes really good!"

He smears his finger again on the icing, making it look even more lopsided, but LuHan ignores it because he's going to eat the whole lot anyway. He extends his finger to Kai, "Try it!"

Without breaking eye contact, Kai lowers his head and off the traces of icing on LuHan's finger.

"Good, right?"LuHan asks, breath hitching in his chest. Kai just nods shyly, face flushing.

LuHan clears his throat and starts looking for utensils to eat the cake with, when Kai grabs his hand and says, "I have a gift for you, Hyung."

Kai places the small box on LuHan's palm. LuHan loosened the ribbon holding it in place, and inside he saw that Kai's gift was a half part of the EXOhexagon, attached to a silver chain that enclosed around his neck. When LuHan placed it on his neck, Kai reached inside his own shirt to show LuHan the other half of the symbol. He places it next to LuHan's, each end fitting seamlessly together like pieces of a puzzle.

"It’s supposed to symbolize that we'll always be half complete when we're not together. I had really difficult time thinking about what symbol to use Hyung, when it suddenly hit me-- I had to use EXO because this is where it all started." Kai tells him, fiddling with his necklace.

LuHan presses their palms together, and he graces a fleeting kiss on the corner of Kai's mouth. Kai smiles.

"EXO is where we began."

---------

Like I said, fail! humor with bits of fluff.

Happy endings for LuKai <3

Please tell me what you think! :)

huggles everyone~