“How was your date?”

Jongin casually asked while popping a peanut into his mouth. They were at the stylist’s apartment, drinking beers at the balcony, not a romantic scene though. Sehun just shrugged, taking a gulp of his drink.

“It was fine. And FYI it’s not a date.”

“So you were with him the whole day and didn’t do anything. How slow are you Sehun ah?”

The younger one winced for the third times that night.

“I told you, I’m not into him.”

“Oh, you say it now.” Jongin hit his shoulder “Ten bucks you want him in your bed at the end of the shooting.”

Sehun rolled his eyes, ignored his friend’s inappropriate bet on his personal life.

“Tell me why I be friend with you again.”

“Because you love me, dud.”

The stylist laughed loud and got back inside to get more beer. Sehun chuckled, sometimes he thought how he would be without Jongin by his side. He wouldn’t be a model for sure cuz Jongin was the first one who took him into this field. He wouldn’t survive by now if Jongin hadn’t stood by him through his hard life. Sehun realized he had taken granted for Jongin's presence and hadn't really paid back his friend after all the time the tan-skin boy helping him.

Something cold hit Sehun’s cheek snapped him back to reality.

“What were you thinking?” Jongin grinned big, handed the model another beer and opened his.

“You”

Sehun short answered, earning a smirk and a smack on his from the stylist.

*********

The second training day started quite well, Luhan let Sehun ride him around the city on his baby. They talked about the idea for the shooting over lunch, exchanged their opinions and came to agreement on how it would be. Sehun found pretty comfortable with Luhan’s company, they had so much common thoughts in art.

“So the shooting day will be on Sunday.” Luhan concluded as he put down his cup of coffee. “Don’t be late, okay. We only have three hours before they remove the barrier.”

Apparently, the client had some kind of underground connection with the Authorities, they had the allowance to put barrier one lane on the highway to reduce vehicles traffic in three hours, from 5a.m to 8a.m for the shooting. They insisted both Luhan and Sehun had to finish the job within the amount of time because there was no second chance.

“I won’t.” Sehun his lips nervously

The Chinese boy noticed the anxiety on Sehun’s face, he leaned in to grip the younger’s hand.

“Don’t worry, just follow my lead and everything will be fine.”

The sudden move sent electricity down to Sehun’s spine, the model quickly pulled out, sputtering

“Who…who said I’m worried.”

Luhan tilted his head in amusement, let out a small giggle. He observed the boy sitting in front of him. There was something on his face that Luhan couldn’t take his eyes off. Luhan had worked with many models in his career so far but no one made his heart beat faster like Sehun whenever the younger boy talked to him. Sehun was handsome, sure, you worked in this field you had to have the look first. But more than that, Luhan could see Sehun’s growth through his taken photos. The agency had sent him a collection of Sehun’s pictures before to catch the model’s style. Luhan was surprised by the emotion Sehun exposed in each picture. It’s a little strained at first, but eventually it seemed like the model could control it. What made this model put so much effort to be mature before his time, Luhan had wondered the whole time.

**********

“Are you kidding me?”

 Sehun groaned as he put down the basket. He was standing somewhere in the park, which was crowded with people on Saturday morning. He didn’t even know why he agreed to go with Luhan on the first place. It was his day-off before the shooting and he had planned to sleep past noon, then went shopping and ended up curling on the sofa watching some reality shows. However, when Luhan beamed brightly at his door, holding up a basket and an invitation for an out-door breakfast, Sehun couldn’t say no.

He wished he could but he didn’t want to.

What he didn’t expect was Luhan actually took him to the park, ran up the hill and stretched out blanket under the tree.

“Are you sure you’re twenty six?” Sehun looked sideways at Luhan, who was taking some jars of jam out of the basket.

The Chinese boy pushed the basket aside when he done fishing out everything.

“Phss, so what? I can’t have the joy of living?”

The younger one just shook his head in disbelief. To think about it, this was not bad. Sehun couldn’t remember the last time he went to the park. He took a far look of the view in front of him, it’s Saturday so there were many people went picnic there. Kids were playing around, laughter everywhere, the atmosphere Sehun never thought he would experience any time soon.

“Sehun, which one do you want?”

Luhan’s excited voice snapped Sehun back. There he went again with his jam.

“You brought them all?”

The photographer nodded his head proudly.

“I made them by myself. Besides I don’t know which flavor you like so..”

Sehun chuckled, reached out his hand to the pancake Luhan was holding.

“I’ll take this one.”

Luhan’s eyes popped open, helplessly looked at his empty hand.

“Huh…my…” he frowned “Fine, I’ll make a new one.”

They ate in silent until Sehun spoke up out of the blue.

“I heard that you’ll be leaving right after the shooting is finished.”

The Chinese boy startled at the sudden statement yet question, swallowed fast the leftover in his mouth.

“I don’t know you like gossiping.”

Sehun scratched his neck in embarrassment, silently thanked God that Luhan couldn’t see his face right now.

“Well…” he spoke with a halt “You’ll know everything if you have Jongin.”

Luhan swept the crumb out of the blanket, poured out the coffee for himself.

“Uhm…they offered me a job in America. I’m considering it.”

Sehun tried to keep his voice steady

“Why? Isn’t it better?”

There was a long silence before Luhan gave his answer, his voice was almost inaudible

“Yeah, it’s much better, but I have someone on my mind now.”

Sehun felt like something holding tight his heart. What was he expecting? Of course Luhan had chosen a perfect person for him, someone smart, funny and fabulous, someone not like him. Sehun let out a long sigh, curled up his legs to press against his chest and leaned forward to put his small chin on the knee.  They had their own road to walk and Sehun’s life was fine, well until now. Three days with Luhan would be just a memory, he had forced himself to think like that.

“Can I ask you a question?” Luhan leaned back on the tree, eyes dropped on the back of Sehun’s head.

“Sure.”

“What was with you that day?”

Luhan knew he brought up the wrong topic but that was something weighed on him since the day they met and more important, he wanted to know more about Sehun. The older watched Sehun shift constantly in front of him, mentally slapped himself for crossing the line.

“If you don’t want…”

“It was my mother’s funeral.”

Luhan gasped. He slowly sat up and mumbled a sorry. They went back to the stage where no one wanted to say anything until Sehun told the latter that he had an appointment with Jongin.

Luhan gave back to Sehun his vest when he dropped the younger at his house. He wanted to tell the Sehun that he kept his vest just in case he needed a reason for coming over, that he considered the offered job because he didn’t want to leave Seoul where there was a particular person he had feeling for who currently standing in front of him. But Sehun turned away too fast for him to say anything.