“Nope. Nuh uh. Not that.” Luhan says. “Try this!” He chirps, shoving the piece of pink clothing to Sehun’s face.

“But-“

“Do I look like I want to give any other alternatives?” Luhan snaps.

And so that is how Sehun ends up wearing a pink EXO shirt, black EXO cap and a pair of EXO socks to the showcase.

Sehun rolls his eyes to the back of his head. “I look like a ing id--,”

He looks over to where Luhan, dressed in his KAI shirt and EXO pants, is adjusting the straps of his EXO backpack containing his Canon SLR and five of his KAI banners, and decides to shut up instead.

“Let’s go!!!!” Luhan beams, before tugging Sehun through the door

--

Sehun drives without much ado, scared that his best friend might pounce on him the moment he tries to slow down or pause momentarily. He’s always been used to Luhan giddy and excited and just downright bubbly, that’s just how he is. But he admits his favourite idol group always has this certain effect on him, and Sehun can’t quite put his finger on it. It’s like if Luhan’s eyes are normally the size of giant balloons reflecting an ocean of twinkling stars, when he’s talking about EXO it’s an endless abyss of glitter and gold, somewhere Sehun thinks he can easily get lost in. He doesn’t know how to articulate how he feels, but it feels eerily close to him feeling like he wants to swim in Luhan’s eyes forev—

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Luhan asks, tilting his head curiously to the side. “Ah, nothing,” Sehun says.

He gets Luhan’s iPod from his backpack side pocket and connects it to his stereo. A few seconds after, Two Moons blast from the speakers. “Oh! Oh! I love this song!!” Luhan cries excitedly. “Figured you should get warmed up and all,” Sehun says.

He pulls up in front of the showcase venue just as Luhan was finishing Kris’ part. “SELECTED VIP WOULDN’T IT BE MINDBLOWINGLY AWE-SOME,” Luhan half-raps, half-shouts, and Sehun thinks it’s the most ridiculous thing he’s ever seen when Luhan concludes with a gangster pose and a smug on his face. “How do I put up with this,” Sehun asks loudly, shaking his head.

“Let’s go, princess, you don’t want to be late” Sehun reminds his bestfriend. Luhan gets up from the car and joins Sehun from where he’s walking towards the long entrance line. “Ok! Let’s goooo!!!!” He prances, dashing past Sehun, arms flailing wildly about his thin frame.

They position themselves among the mosh pit in the nearest spot they can afford to get themselves, although it wasn’t after countless excuse me what the ’s and hey! stop pushing! that they got somewhere remotely acceptable to Luhan.

The opening act was a local indie alternative band which Sehun thought was decent, or at least decent along his line of music preference. He could swear he heard a couple of who are they I only came here for exo from his bestfriend. But just then, the lights go out andthe crowd goes crazy. Luhan jumps into the bandwagon, chanting EXO!!! EXOOOO!!!!  to hoarseness. He was jumping and screaming so hard Sehun genuinely feared Luhan might get spasms.

The performances got off without a hitch. Sehun could never understand Luhan’s obsession over seven guys who looked like they were taken straight out of a manga, but he has to admit they were pretty pro. That Kai guy was especially good at dancing. He could smirk his way to people’s pants, Sehun thinks, which is probably why Luhan favoured him the most.

“To those who have VIP backstage passes, please stay behind for the meet-and-greet.” The voice from the sound system claims, signalling the official end of the showcase. “AH!!!!!” Luhan made an action of resting the back of his wrist against his forehead and falling gracefully to his side like a princess, to which Sehun reaches out and catches him on his arm. Luhan’s eyes were dreamy, looking far. “Can you believe that! They were so good!!! Kai baby, oh Kai baby,” he purrs. Just then, a coordi noona steps in and calls the VIP backstage pass holders. Luhan stands up almost instantly.

They were led to a small room near the back of the building, There were only eight other fans going to the meet-and-greet with them, and all of them were talking to each other, filling the energetic air with excited chatter. Luhan was talking to the girl in front of him and practicing how he was going to talk to Kai when he finally meets him.

“Sehunnie! How does this look,” Luhan turns to the other, clears his throat and proceeds with, “Hey Kai,” finishing with a wink and an eerily y lip bite. “Jeezus, how many a fics have you been reading,” Sehun responds. “You’re gonna scare the poor guy off” he teases. Luhan smacks Sehun’s head with his palm at this. “What about this,” Luhan continues. He opens his eyes and they’re bulging too much it’s as if they’re ready to fall off “Hi Kai! My name is Luhan, and I love you so much I already planned the names of our adopted children – there are going to be three, one girl and two boys—“

“Ok stop, just stop,” Sehun interrupts. “If that isn’t the creepiest thing I’ve ever heard,” Sehun says. “You looked like Chuckie. The sasaeng fan kind of Chuckie. Straight out of anyone’s worst nightmare.” Luhan huffs and crosses his arms. “Look, just talk to him normally Lu, the same way you would introduce yourself to me. Try again.” This time, Luhan relaxes his demeanour, looks Sehun straight into the eyes, says, “Hi Kai, my name is Luhan, and I’m a huge fan,” and finishes with a big, sincere and natural grin. A gorgeous smile, Sehun thinks. “See, that wasn’t so hard” Sehun said. You don’t even need to try. Luhan looks up and Sehun knows there’s a thank you written somewhere in his eyes.

The creaking of the entrance door disrupts their moment, and there they were, filing into the room where they were going to meet their idols. EXO enters through the other door not long after, bowing their heads and greeting “Annyeong haseyo” to the group of stunned fans. Sehun sees everyone’s invisible jaws dropping to the floor. After the EXO guys introduce themselves one by one, the fans were given time to approach their idols, shake hands and maybe even take pictures. Luhan grabs Sehun’s hand and walks over to Kai. Sehun stands an awkward meter away, careful to give the two some space to talk.

“Hi, Kai, I’m Luhan, and I’m a huge fan,” Luhan greets, the kind of greeting that didn’t seem practiced nor forced. It was as natural as the way the lines along his eyes wrinkled when he gave his breath-taking smile.

“Wow. Luhan. It doesn’t sound Korean,” Kai says, inching a little closer to the small guy.

“I’m actually Chinese, I lived in China until middle school.” Luhan’s eyes were sparkling. He doesn’t look nervous at all, Sehun thinks. He looks like his normal self – cute, innocent, unassuming. He never knew how his bestfriend could transform from a delusional fanboy to a sweet cherubin when the situation called for it. Beautiful. Somehow, he could feel Kai seeing the same adorable thing, with the way his eyes were boring into Luhan’s like it was a piece of treasure he wanted for himself.

Luhan suddenly remembers something. “Oh, I have something for you,” he grapples his backpack’s side pockets for a few envelopes and holds them up to Kai. “Fan letters!” he chirps nervously. “I’m sorry I only prepared this, haha, you probably get plenty more fancy stuff from your other fans… I was just so nervous, that’s all,” He bit his lips nervously. “What?” Kai chuckles. “Haha, you’re so cute,” he says. “You didn’t need to give me anything else. These fan letters are fine. I love fan letters.” He grabs the letters and puts them in his pocket, and as he moves closer to Luhan he puts on dark lidded eyes and a subtle smile. “Tell you what, maybe you can watch some more of our other shows so you won’t have to be too awkward around me,” he says.

“Th—that would be great!” Luhan instantly beams. “I guess I’ll just get the schedule of your upcoming shows from your FaceBook page—“ “Is your number written here?” Kai interrupts, motioning to the fan letters inside his pocket. Luhan nods enthusiastically. “Then you won’t need to,” Kai smiles. “And call me Jongin,” he says.

Time runs out and their manager wraps up the meet and greet session. Kai his fingers on Luhan’s right cheek before he backs away. “See you later, Lulu.” He smirks his famous smirk.

They leave not long after. When the door closes, Luhan runs up to his bestfriend and fakes fainting. “What. Was. That.” Luhan asks the wind, eyes dreamy and smile wide. “I think that was you possibly scoring with your idol,” Sehun admits, ignoring the tinge of what was it, jealousy? nibbling at his insides.