Kris wakes up in the middle of the night, his throat feeling as parched as a waste land. He climbs out of bed sleepily and pads to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Noticing Luhan’s empty bed, he raises his eyebrows in surprise. But then he remembers Luhan telling him about his date with Sehun after the dance sabbatical. He must have crashed over at Sehun’s house again, that brat. The thought of Luhan staying over at Sehun’s house brings a frown to Kris’ face as he remembers the last time Luhan did so. He came back the next morning all grumpy, grouchy and whiney due to the lack of sleep. God knows what they had been doing the whole night. Kris shudders at the thought as he decides not to venture too far into his roommate’s love life.

Reaching the kitchen, Kris leans against the counter and pours himself a glass of water. He gives a little groan as he lifts the cup to his mouth. The dance sabbatical really tired him out, his muscles were aching and sore from all the stretching and prancing around he was forced to do. He really had no idea how he was going to survive the next two months like that, and he hoped that the new dance instructor would not be as much of a slave driver as Instructor Park had been.  Rubbing his sore muscles, Kris puts the now-empty cup back onto the counter and slowly walks back into his room.

Flickering lights from the living room table stops Kris in his tracks. For a moment he thinks that there is an intruder, and ventures forward nervously. But a closer look reveals a sleeping figure hunched over the table and an open laptop that is still switched on, with its screen already faded out. The sleeping figure turns out to be no other than Luhan.

“Luhan, wake up” Kris gently shakes him awake.

“Wha-” Luhan looks at Kris through sleep lidded eyes and it takes him a moment to register where he is at.

“You were using your laptop and I think you fell asleep” Kris explains, pointing to laptop.

“Oh” Luhan brushes the keypad with his fingers and the screen comes to life again. Staring at the screen, a look of disappointment is clearly etched onto his face. Curious, Kris looks over his shoulder and sees that Luhan is logged onto his Skype account, and his mouse is hovering over “Zhang YiXing”, who’s current status deems him offline.

“I miss my best friend” Luhan suddenly says softly and Kris looks down, surprised to see tears welling up in Luhan’s eyes, threatening to fall any moment.

“It’s been a month since I’ve spoken or seen him already, and I-” Luhan continues but stops, unable to speak anymore as his emotions choke up his throat and the tears rapidly fall. Kris feels a pang in his heart as he moves to Luhan’s side and puts a comforting arm around his shoulder. It is seldom that Luhan shows this side to him, he strongly believes in the motto “Big boys don’t cry”. But there are exceptions of course, Kris has always reminded him.  

Patting Luhan’s shoulders, Kris stares at the computer screen desperately, hoping that somehow the white icon beside “Zhang YiXing” will magically turn green. But no, it doesn’t happen at all and Kris does not know what to do except to stand beside Luhan and comfort him quietly. The light from the computer screen casts a faint glow on Luhan’s face, further outlining the sadness and worry that is written over Luhan’s face.

It is then that Kris realizes why Luhan has been going on dates more often with Sehun in the evenings or why his sleep is often interrupted by Luhan playing video games till the early hours of the morning. Luhan’s evenings which are usually occupied by his Skype sessions with Yixing are now empty, and this emptiness has clearly thrown Luhan’s life slightly off-balance such that he finds things to fill up that empty space. Kris mentally chides himself for not noticing earlier. Even though he constantly bickers with Luhan over the smallest and stupidest things, at the end of the day, the both of them still care for each other deeply and regard each other as brothers.

The next day, Kris feels the weariness in his body after having stayed up to console Luhan about Yixing. Luhan finally remembered that Yixing did tell him that he would be very busy due to an upcoming dance competition and work related matters. Kris uses this to reassure Luhan, telling the older boy that it is maybe due to these reasons such that Yixing is busy and unable to keep in contact with him. With this, Luhan grudgingly lets himself be led to bed at 3am in the morning.

Sehun notices the especially clingly Luhan that day, and it is hard not to notice a usually chirpy Luhan become a Luhan who doesn’t talk much. He looks questioningly at Kris who shrugs and sighs, “he misses his best friend”. Sehun nods understandingly and proceeds to pat his boyfriend’s head comfortingly, wrapping his arms around him after that. Sehun knows who Yixing is of course. He has been dragged and introduced to, in many of Luhan and Yixing’s Skype conversations. Kris wonders how Sehun doesn’t get jealous of Luhan and Yixing’s close relationship. If I was him, I would have been a jealous by now Kris thinks to himself. 

The trio proceed to dance sabbaticals as usual and Kris sighs in relief when he sees that the teacher is not here yet. Good, some time for him to rest before he enters into hell. He leans back against the wall, eyes half closed, the quiet chatter from the rest of the people in the room a peaceful hum in his head.

15 minutes pass and the teacher is still not here yet. Nobody seems to have minded or even noticed of course. They are all too immersed in their own conversations.

 Kris is about to go back to sleep when the door of the dance studio opens. An unfamiliar boy dressed in a hoodie and sweatpants enters the room. He has only one earphone plugged into his ear while the other is dangling off his shoulder. As he enters the room, he gives an apologetic bow and adds a  soft “sorry I am late” while walking to the front of the room. The boy’s fringe hides his face as he bows and Kris raises his eyebrows. Another kid? Wasn’t there supposed to be only eleven students in this sabbatical? Where did this boy come from? I haven’t seen him aroun-

Kris doesn’t see or hear Luhan sit up the moment the newcomer speaks. His eyes are suddenly shining with excitement as he calls out hesitantly, “Yixing??” The boy turns around at the sound of his own name and before he can respond, Luhan barrels into him, lifting him up by the waist and spinning him around. Kris’ gasps in shock and so do the other people in the room as they watch Luhan manhandle the new student.

An object flies out of the boy’s hands and lands at Kris’ feet. It is a blue ipod touch. Luhan must have had accidentally knocked it out of the startled boy’s hands. Kris picks up the shiny music player and examines it. The screen shows a Jay Chou song being paused midway. Hmm, this boy listens to Chinese music huh. Kris smiles to himself as he flips the ipod touch around. He sees a name inscripted on the back of the ipod touch- ZHANG YIXING and he looks up disbelievingly at the boy who is laughing and begging Luhan to put him down.  This is the Zhang Yixing whom Luhan was just crying over yesterday night?

It must be. Because Luhan is smiling and laughing so happily that his jaw is about to drop and Kris knows that, other than Sehun, there is only one other person who can cause a 360 degree mood change in Luhan.

And that person is no other than Luhan’s best friend, Zhang Yixing.  

Thankyou you all for subscribing to this story!! ^^ This is my first every fic and I am honestly really happy and encouraged. This chapter is mostly alot of word vomit and not alot of dialogue, im sorry orz. I had alot of ideas running through my head and I had some difficulty writing them all out. School just started for me but I will be able to update everyday or once every 2 days depending on the amount of work I have. But I promise I'll try to update frequently ok! ^^ Please do continue to comment and subscribe~