The repetitive beeping of the alarm filled the room and only seconds later, Eunsung smacked the device to dismiss the alarm. With a wide yawn, she stretched her arms before blinking several times. Grabbing her phone, she decided to check if she had received any messages since last night.

Inbox: 3

The first two were, as expected, from Kai. 

"[11:36PM] hey sehun wont agree to it :("

"[12:07AM] are you sleeping?"

The girl paused at his message and wondered what she should say back. How was she to get Sehun to go if she wasn't able to see him today? She was really starting to doubt her ability to complete this favour. If Kai, who is one of his closest friends, couldn't even get him to go, how will I do it? 

"[8:02AM] i'm awake and i'll try asking him right now!"

After sending out that reply, she opened the last message she received from Sehun.

"[12:23AM] finally"

What? That's all he wrote?

Eunsung scrolled down the message, hoping that there was something more to it than just one word but unfortunately there wasn't. Biting her lip, she tried to think of a response or rather a method of convincing him to come. 

"[8:04AM] are you awake?"

That was the response that she deemed 'okay' enough to start off the conversation. Dragging herself out of bed, she went to the bathroom to clean up for the morning. Just as she was returning to her room, she heard a soft knock at her door.

"Come in," she called before reaching for a hairband to tie her hair up. When she turned around she was faced with her mother who held a gaze on the floor.

"Mum? Is something wrong?"

"Your dad got an offer at his job last week and he wanted me to join him," her mother explained while fiddling with her jumper sleeves.

"Really? That's great!" 

"Yes it is," she smiled before she continued, "But it's in Gangnam which is..."

"...quite far from here, I know mum," Eunsung finished before swallowing, "That's alright, I can look after myself, I'm not a child anymore."

"We know...I know..but I don't really feel like leaving you by yourself to look after the house alone - especially when there'll be people moving in and out-"

"People moving in and out?" Eunsung repeated, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Oh.. dad didn't tell you yet? The house is getting fixed whilst we're gone."

"But that's fine mum - at least I can check to see that they're not stealing our furniture right?" Eunsung joked to try and lighten up the mood. She understood how guilty her mother must have been feeling at that very moment because as a child, Eunsung's parents had always been busy trying to find money to make her life better and consequently barely had time to spend with her. She didn't blame them for it at all. That was life, right? You win some, you lose some.

Her mother's lips twitched at her daughter's odd sense of humour, "Silly, what's there to steal? But moving back onto the topic - at first we wanted to ask the old lady next door, Mrs Lee, to check up on you every now and then but then realised that it would be very impolite to ask that of the elderly. Then it so happened that when your father was talking to me about it over the phone at work, one of his colleagues overheard and offered a place for you to sleep in for the next week."

"That's really nice of him but honestly I'll be okay just by myself mum."

Her mother sighed before ruffling her daughter's hair, "You might be okay honey but I certainly won't be." With that said, she kissed her daughter's forehead and left the room, as if suggesting that it was the end of the discussion. 

Eunsung let out a breath before sitting on her bed once again. She shuffled back to the wall and hugged her knees closely to her chest, curling up into a ball. She wondered who it was that she would be staying with - she hoped they were nice. She guessed it would be some middle aged man with two young kids - just as she was picturing what the family looked like, her phone beeped and lit up - the girl scrunched up her face at being interrupted. But she did end up uncurling herself and reaching over for the device sitting on the bedside table.

"[8:32AM] just got up now"

She sat there staring at the message before clicking on the contact name and pressing the green phone call button. The phone rang a couple of times before she heard some rustling and then Sehun's voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Oh, Sehun! You picked up."

Sehun took his ear off the phone, looked at it before putting his ear back to it again, "This is my phone...who else would pick it up?"

"I didn't mean it like that," she replied raising her eyebrow, "Anyway what are you doing tonight?"

"Not much, why?"

Eunsung fiddled with the end of her jumper, "Well I was wondering if you wanted to go ice skating? I mean all your friends are going too so..."

"No thanks but you guys go and have fun," there was a slight pause before he added, "Kyungsoo hyung is calling me to have breakfast now, I'll talk to you later?" 

"Okay... bye Sehun."

"Bye." When Sehun ended the call, Eunsung sighed while looking at the contact name. What now?

"[8:40AM] i asked him but he declined...any ideas?"

On the other hand, Sehun put down his phone and stared at the cream wall of his room blankly. What now? It was funny that all Sehun wanted in life was to be normal - be like his hyungs, be someone who could do everyday people things and yet he was the one holding himself back from doing those things, being... normal. Sehun looked at the photoframe sitting on the bedside drawer and touched the smiling faces of the figures inside. 

"Honestly... I don't even know what I'm doing anymore..." he said quietly as he smiled a sad smile. After a few minutes of deep thoughts and silence, Sehun left his room and entered the kitchen. The kitchen was lively as usual - filled with the friendly chatter and the harmless bickering of his friends. 

"Cereal? Or beans, eggs and bacon?" Kyungsoo asked as Sehun seated himself, twirling his legs around the chair legs. 

"I'll go with cereal today," he said reaching for the box and pouring himself half a bowl. Kyungsoo nodded and continued frying his eggs.

"So..." Kai cleared his throat and nudged Suho with his elbow.

"Ah yes! Um it's been a busy month for us all and I had a talk with Kris the other day about how we should do something together as a group since it has been a while. And it's because of that, we're going ice skating today!" Suho clasped his hands together excitedly.

Sehun remained quiet throughout the whole thing and even after, when the rest of his friends were happily chatting - Baekhyun and Chanyeol were arguing about how well they could skate. 

Xiumin leaned over Sehun's arm to reach for the milk, "Sehun you're coming right?"

"Hmm..." Sehun swallowed a mouthful of cereal, "I'll think about it hyung." Suho made eyecontact with Luhan - everytime Sehun said that, it meant 'no.' The two knew what Sehun would spend his time doing instead: studying. 

The boy had developed a strange 'habit' of studying to fill in the time that the rest of his friends were out doing other stuff, having fun. They knew it was to waste time and stop him from feeling so lonely but there was a line they needed to draw. Sehun couldn't do this forever - he couldn't continue hiding forever. The saddest thing was that they also knew that Sehun had honestly always wanted to go with them every time - they had secretly seen him standing behind the front door for minutes after the group had left.

When Sehun had dismissed himself from the table, he shut his bedroom door closed and laid on his bed looking up at the ceiling aimlessly. There was a soft knock on his door. 

"Sehun...come with us, please? Let's all together, okay?" Luhan's voice could be heard from the other side.

"I don't know hyung.. I-I'm just really tired," he croaked out, feeling frustrated at himself for sounding so vulnerable. 

"Sehun..."

"I'm fine."

"Just... for one day, let it be. Just for once, live for yourself. Okay?" After Luhan pat the door and left, Sehun glanced at the photoframe once again as those three words etched in his mind: live for yourself. In the midst of this, his phone beeped and wiping his eyes with his sleeve, he fumbled for the buttons. 

"[9:11AM] turns out i can't go but you guys go and have fun!"

In the evening when the group had finally left to go for ice-skating, Sehun couldn't help but stiffen in the bus. It reminded him of how long it had been since he last went out to anywhere with his friends other than school. 

"Relax Sehun, we're not going to a prison or something," Chen joked, patting the latter's back.

"Go and take your non-humorous jokes to Yixing please Chen, thank you," Baekhyun rolled his eyes before turning to face Sehun, "Can you skate well?" 

"Uhh in my opinion I'm so-so." 

"So in other words, I skate better than you," Chanyeol piped up with a wide grin.

"I guess?" Sehun scratched his head, not really knowing where this conversation was going. 

"Shut up Chanyeol, no one asked for your input," Baekhyun kicked the other's foot (Ow! The hell was that for?!")

And the others could say that it was a long bus ride. 

When they arrived at the ice skating rink, they all put on their boots (after Baekhyun's endless complaints about the 'too bright' coloured laces) and began skating. Sehun was just holding onto the sides for support when his two friends surrounded him. 

"Sehun let's go!" Luhan and Kai both linked their arms with the younger.

"Wait wait! It's been a while since I did this," Sehun pointed out, gripping onto the other two tightly for his dear life.

"That's why we're helping you," Kai deadpanned whilst Sehun rolled his eyes.

"Sehun! Sehun! Let's race!" Chanyeol yelled, skating at an incredibly fast pace towards the said person. 

"I-I don't think I'm ready! I take back what I said! I'm really bad!" Sehun shouted back, clinging onto Luhan tighter.

"Go and play with Baekhyun!" Kai yelled, causing a loud eruption of laughter to come from the other members. 

From a distance, Eunsung watched the scene and smiled. Of course, she didn't really have an excuse for not being able to attend - she had told Kai that it was more important that Sehun went instead of her and since it was the group's first time in a long time that Sehun went out, she decided it would be better if she didn't go this time. She understood there were personal reasons behind Sehun's refusal to go and opting to stay out of a personal matter, she hoped that Sehun would be more likely to go. Sehun agreeing to go was enough - she did not need to be there. 

Taking her phone out, she snapped a picture of all of them, feeling somewhat proud that she had managed to witness this moment of the twelve friends. Full house, at last.

♥ AUTHOR'S NOTE;

So much angst >__> Can anyone guess Sehun's past by now? But good news: there will be more Eunsung & Sehun face-to-face moments in the next chapter, I promise ♥