“No thanks.”

“Come on, bro.”

“I said no.”

“Sehun…”

“Let me reiterate: hell no.”

“Sehun,” Junhong says sharply, and it’s reiterated with a smack to the back of his roommate’s head since Sehun is currently facing the wall. “You’re the one that agreed to this. I’m sure as not going by myself.”

Sehun groans, whacking Junhong’s hand away without really looking. “Yeah, but I agreed to go on Friday, when I hadn’t stayed up all night playing video games with Yookwon.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” Junhong demands flatly. “Now get your lazy out of bed and let’s go. The others are going to be waiting for us.”

Sehun groans. They’d been invited out after dance club rehearsal Friday night and, because his brain usually seems to turn to mush whenever Luhan is around, he’d stumbled over his words and somehow agreed to going when Yixing, another member of the dance club, had asked.

“Come on,” Junhong repeats, and so Sehun has no choice but to get out of bed and search for something sort of clean to throw on so they can go out.

“Where are we going then?” he demands, tripping over a pile of dirty clothes on his way to the bathroom to brush his teeth. “If it’s someplace stupid, I’m definitely not going.”

“You’re the one that agreed to this in the first place,” Junhong repeats, definitely sounding exasperated now. “I only got dragged in because you said I’d go. Quit being such a ing baby and brush your damn teeth.”

Sehun stews over the mess he’s gotten himself into as he brushes his teeth in their tiny little bathroom, already messy since neither of them have really bothered to clean much since they moved in.

It’s that he doesn’t like Yixing; in fact, the kid is pretty cool. He’s a year older than them and one of the junior officers in the dance club, and he seems to delight in taking the younger students under his wing. But the fact is that he and Yookwon hadn’t called it quits until well past dawn and he’s got to get up and go to class in the morning and the last thing he wants is to leave his cozy room to make nice with other dance club dudes.

Junhong bangs on the bathroom door. “Hurry it up, bro. We were supposed to meet Yixing like five minutes ago.”

“ off,” Sehun grumbles, spitting his mouthful of toothpaste into the sink and rinsing out his mouth.

Eventually they head out of their room together, shrugging into their coats and pulling beanies down over their hair. “So where are we going again?” Sehun asks, a little bit more awake now.

Junhong shrugs. “I think Yixing said something about an arcade or a PC café or something.”

Sehun groans out loud. “So I stayed up all night playing video games and now I’m going to play video games again?”

Junhong smirks. “I guess it’s a good thing that you like video games.”

They find Yixing waiting for them in the entrance hall, wearing a coat several sizes too big and a dark red beanie pulled down low over his unevenly-cut hair. He’s not alone, however. There are three other guys with him. Though Sehun doesn’t recognize two of them, the third is someone whose face he knows very well, and he feels the familiar blush staining his cheeks.

“Hey guys,” Yixing greets them with his signature dimpled grin. “I invited a few other friends to go hang with us. Hope you don’t mind.”

“Nah, that’s cool,” Junhong says rather indifferently.

“You guys already know Luhan from the dance club,” Yixing says, gesturing to the light-haired guy beside him. “These are his roommates, Yifan and Minseok. Minseok is on the student council.”

“Ugh, don’t say it like it’s a bad thing,” Minseok grumbles, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his jeans. “I’m just the first year representative. It’s nothing special.”

Yixing grins and throws an arm around his friend’s shoulders. “Don’t sell yourself short, Minseokkie. You single-handedly run the council, right?”

Minseok shrugs the arm off his shoulders. “Shut up and let’s just go already, okay? I’m ready to kick your at that shooting game.”

“Yixing plays shooting games?” Sehun mutters to himself, eyeing the unicorn shirt their friend is wearing beneath his too-big jacket.

Luhan falls into step beside Sehun, walking so close that Sehun fancies he can feel the elder’s body heat even though their thick jackets. “He thinks he likes to play shooting games,” he chuckles. “He’ll shoot one thing and then put the gun down and say he doesn’t want to play. He’s much better at racing games.”

“He doesn’t crash?” Sehun asks, hands shoved deep in the pockets of his tight jeans.

Luhan shrugs with a wry little smile. “Well, he’s not exactly good at them. He crashes a lot. He’s more interested in driving along scenic routes than winning the race. But he’s still better at racing games than shooting games. He’s just…”

“Not very good at games in general?” Sehun suggests.

Luhan chuckles again, and Sehun is filled with a warm, fuzzy feeling at the fact that his crush is laughing at something he said. “Yeah, pretty much.” They’ve reached the bus stop by now, where a handful of other students are waiting for public transportation. “So how are you liking Peritia Academy so far? I know it’s only been a month, but how are you settling in?”

Sehun shrugs, leaning against the low wall behind them. “Okay, I guess. The school is pretty weird, you know? Like there are all these rules and nobody breaks them, but I never see any teachers or staff members enforcing them.”

“Ah, that’s because of Ms. Han,” Luhan says with a little smile that’s half grimace at the same time.

Sehun is having a difficult time focusing on anything because Luhan is currently leaning against the wall beside him, close enough that their shoulders are touching and there’s this weird tingly feeling racing through his veins. “Who is Ms. Han?” he finally manages to ask.

Luhan’s grimace becomes a little more pronounced. “She’s the headmistress at Peritia Academy. Everyone’s pretty scared of her. If she catches you breaking a rule, you’re done for.”

“What does she do to you if she catches you breaking a rule?” Sehun can’t help but ask.

Luhan shrugs. “Not really sure. I don’t know anyone who’s actually gotten caught.”

The bus arrives then, so they climb on after their friends. Somehow – and Sehun isn’t really sure how he’s so lucky – he ends up sitting with Luhan.

“I’m really excited about the first showcase for the dance club,” he says for lack of anything else to say as the bus hurtles along the highway towards the city.

Luhan’s face splits into a broad grin; it’s obvious that he really loves to dance. “Yeah, I’m pretty pumped for it, too. It’s going to be great.” He hesitates. “You know, if you want, I could give you some extra lessons some time. You know, just the two of us. It’s easier to learn when it’s one-on-one and since you, you know, don’t have any formal training or anything.”

Sehun tries not to sound too eager when he says, “Y-yeah, that would be really helpful. I’d like that a lot.”  

He’s too nervous to really make conversation after that, hyper-aware of Luhan’s close presence and the fact that he had actually asked Sehun to do something just the two of them, even if that something was dancing. It’s almost like a date. He finds himself blushing at the very thought.

They arrive at the arcade not long after and the six of them pile out. It’s a drizzly sort of day, and so they scurry through the light rain into the arcade. It’s crowded because it’s a Sunday and so they end up splitting up to play various games across the arcade. Sehun ends up at a zombie game with Junhong.

“So you and Luhan are getting close,” his curly-haired roommate says with a little smirk that speaks volumes.

Sehun tries not to blush but fails miserably. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mutters, shooting the zombie bird that’s flying towards them on the game’s screen.

Junhong barks out a laugh. “Yeah, sure. You’re so obvious, Sehun. You may as well jump him now. It’s only a matter of time until you do.”

“Ugh, I’m not going to be like Jonghyun and Key,” Sehun grumbles. “And anyway, I never said that I liked Luhan like that.”

“You don’t have to say it out loud,” Junhong assures him, taking out the cowboy ghosts now sauntering towards them. “You’re the most obvious guy in the world.”

Sehun’s little pink tongue darts out to wet his chapped lips, a nervous habit of his. “Shut up,” he says.

Junhong only laughs in response. 

Zhang Yixing (Lay): EXO

Wu Yifan (Kris): EXO