If the house was decorated with small lovely items and art work, Sehun’s room was just plain, literally.

It had an average wardrobe and a table that placed some frames of photo. The only thing that caught Luhan’s eyes was the huge glass window where you could see the garden in a full view.

The Chinese boy didn’t know it was him or the emptiness of the room fitted its owner very well.

Sehun opened the wardrobe and fished out futon and blanket but then stopped in the middle when noticed the older one still stood stony at the door. Sometimes he couldn’t believe that boy was older than him. He was easily amused by everything.

“Are you going to stand there all night?”

Luhan was taken back, he blinked several times, stepped inside and closed the door. To up now he realized that this would just be him and Sehun alone for the whole night and suddenly felt anxious.

“This is for you.”

The younger boy handed him a pajamas with little Donald Duck pattern on it. Luhan covered his mouth while giggling as the image of Sehun wearing these clothes popped in his mind, earning a what-was-it look from the other. He quickly washed it away by clearing his throat, pretended to be serious.

“Uhmm, thanks…” he looked around “Where is the bathroom?”

“The second door to the left.”

Sehun short answered, went back to his arranging their place to sleep.

When the Chinese boy came back, Sehun was already in the blanket with both arms under his head, nodded his chin toward the futon next to his own. Luhan silently lifted the blanket and slid under it. The empty space around gave him a strange feeling and made him shift constantly. Still in his position, the younger male finally spoke up, his voice seemed lower than usual.

“What’s wrong?”

Being surprised by sudden concern from Sehun, the smaller one sniffed, stopped moving around.

“Er…nothing, it’s a little hard to sleep.” he scratched his nose, tried to change the topic “Does your room originally look like this?”

“Like what?”

“This” the Chinese boy stressed “with no furniture.”

There was no instant response. Sehun took a scan of his room, now that he noticed it was quite bigger than it used to be. He tried to picture the old room.

“There was a piano on your right, a bookshelf beside the wardrobe, a LCD TV in front of us and a tea table with two chairs right there, near the left half door to the balcony. I gave them all to the orphanage after I moved to Seoul.”

So he did have a normal room before, Luhan thought, unconsciously smiling to himself. He secretly took mental photos of the younger boy playing piano or reading a book beside the window in the morning. Those babies definitely went into his final design next year when he successfully convinced his model. Speaking of that, Luhan wondered when would be the right time to ask Sehun and after today whether the relationship between them was close enough for the Korean boy to accept his proposal.

Moreover, it was a little sad for him that he knew so much about Sehun so far but the other didn’t have any clue who he was. His first attention was just get the more info the better, but now the desire to let Sehun more involve in his life was urging him inside. And one thing he knew for sure that the younger one would never ask him for it. So if he wanted to be someone special, he had to stepped up.

 “Do you want to hear bedtime story?”

Luhan all of a sudden his side to face Sehun’s direction, whispering. Silence was all he got in response but he couldn’t wish for more, at least Sehun didn’t say anything sarcastic like he usually did. With his melodious voice, the Chinese boy started to reveal his secret.

“There was a young little boy who lived in a big mansion in the middle of Beijing city. He had everything he wanted and his parents loved him so much they never said no to him. People thought his family was perfect. Well, it was perfect except for one thing, his parents didn’t love each other, but they didn’t want to break the family, for his god sake.

He blamed himself for the fact that his mother had to endure to live with a man without love or his father had to stay in the hotel for a week or more after their big fight. For a fifteen year old boy, it was so much for him to take as he loved and hated his own parents at the same time.

Then one day, a stranger from a strange country changed his life. That person didn’t even know his presence or what he did to the little boy but the little boy wished someday he would have the chance to say a proper thank to him.

Now, the boy of yesteryear has become a man, living on his own and has many good friends that care about him. He finally found the joy of life and couldn’t wait to go on his journey to brighter future. End of story!”

 Luhan beamed brightly even though he knew that he couldn't be seen in the dark. It was not the first time he talked about his family, but he never told anyone about the mysterious person that had given him a different look of life. The feeling of letting it go was strange, a good one.

Sehun was stony under his blanket. Normally, this would be an uncomfortable social situation for him when people started sharing their inside story because that was when they wanted to approach him closer, but he wasn’t mind listening to the Chinese boy at all.

“You don’t like him?” the conversation with his mother suddenly popped up like a bell ring, giving him a knot in stomach. He didn’t know that he was silent for a long time until Luhan hesitantly whispered

“Are you sleeping Sehun?”

The younger male was going to pretend sleeping to refuse continuing the talking but his mouth again betrayed him.

“No…I was thinking.”

He mentally slapped himself for being so-not-him lately, especially whenever he was with Luhan. The older one was some kind of a disease that sent him anxiety, sometime even heat to his body.

And Sehun hated heat.

“I thought my story was so boring that you fell asleep in the middle.” Luhan giggled.

Even his laughter was sparkled. Ugrrr…. what’s wrong with you Oh Sehun?

Sehun groaned, he turned his back to the other to shake off whatever thought in his mind, shut his eyes tightly and commented.

“That was the worst bedtime story I’ve heard. Now go to sleep.”

That earned another giggle. Stop messing with me!

“Good night Sehun ah.”

Luhan mumbled before taking off to his dreamland, a smile still cursed on his lips.

**********

The moment he woke up as the sunray spotted right to his face, Sehun wished he never had asked the other boy to come with him in the first place.

Somehow the Chinese boy had moved closer to him in his sleep, almost sleeping on the same futon with him and now his baby face was just few inches away. Sehun had to admit that the Luhan’s sleeping face was the most peaceful thing in the world he has seen. He unconsciously reached out to caress that beautiful one in front of him when Luhan out of nowhere stirred, some incoherent words came out of his parted lips.

“Sehun ah…”

And Sehun went frozen. He stared at the sleeping beauty next to him with a hard-to-explain expression until Luhan finally opened his eyes, literally screamed and rolled back to his previous place, covered his face in embarrassment.

“So..rry. I..was..”

His face couldn’t get any redder from the awkward moment and he was afraid of hearing few harsh words from the younger male, but uncannily Sehun didn’t say anything. The Korean boy just simply got up, folded his blanket and futon, put it back to the wardrobe and made his way out of room in front of dazing Luhan. He stopped at the door, turned back and pointed his thumb backward.

“You could use this bathroom to fresh up.”

Luhan was snapped back, nodding his head repeatedly. The picture of Sehun staring at him once again sent electricity through his body. He hit his head to the pillow while tearing out his hair and only stopped when the voice of Sehun’s mom was heard from the downstairs.

“Breakfast is ready!”

The rest of that day, Luhan was taken to the Chinatown in Seonlin-dong, the only China town still existed in Korea. Every corner of the street there had strong images of traditional China.

Incheon's Chinatown which was small and not wealthy might disappoint those who had been to the rich ones in other countries. But because of its small size and not mish-mash like, both the seller and the buyer could bargain in a relaxed and peaceful atmosphere.

To Luhan, this was the whole new experience. Even though being a Chinese, he was born and brought up in Beijing, a city with modern lifestyle so this place was like a wonderland for him. He tried everything sold on the street, had the amazed facial expression all the way around and even bought souvenirs for his friends.

Sehun on the other hand just followed, not showing much enthusiasm. What’s new, he had been there countless times with Chaerim when she needed ingredients for her dishes or with Jongin when the tan skin boy wanted to eat dimsum so bad.

They were in a small gift shop. While the Chinese boy skipped around looking for cute desktop items, something caught Sehun’s eyes. It was a baseball cap with the S relief printing. He examined carefully before decided to buy it. But before heading to the cashier, he noticed there was another one with the L in the front. Hesitating for a long minute, he grabbed that hat and went straight to the counter near the entrance.

Right when the elder woman handed him his stuff, Luhan out of nowhere poked his head in with a biggest grin he has ever seen. The older male placed his basket on the table, panting hard.

“This is so much fun Sehun. What did you buy?”

Sehun hid the bag behind his back, suddenly felt stupid at the fact that he had bought for the other a present.

“Nothing special…. Just stuffs.”

The Chinese boy frowned a little bit but he quickly regained his mood, pointed his basket and smiled proudly.

“I bought everyone gift. I had one thing for you too but you have to wait until then.”

He winked mischievously and turned his back to the younger one to pay for his stuff.

Sehun chuckled, stood on his tiptoe looking over the smaller one’s shoulder, pretended to be curious about what he was gonna to receive, earning a smack and laughter from the other. What they didn’t know was that there were two elder women watching the whole scene from afar, sending an allusive look to each other with an uneasy expression. They were running out of time and still didn’t have the courage to tell their son what was weighing them down lately.

Sora grabbed her life partner’s hand, squeezed her hand slightly.

“I’ll talk to them. We can set up a meeting on his semester break next month.”