~Chapter 23 – The Aftermath~

            It’s been a few days already since Luhan has made the realization that he has fallen for Sehun, although it wasn’t a smooth few days at all because he went through multiple stages of turmoil before finally accepting his realization of the feelings he had for the younger boy.

 Stage One – Denial :

Luhan was sitting at his desk in his and Sehun’s room thinking about the latter and his sudden new revelation ‘I do not like Sehun.  Because Sehun is Sehun and he’s indifferent and he’s quiet and he’s… really cute… wait! Not that last one!’ Luhan let out a frustrated sigh as he ruffled his hair ‘I meant I can’t be in love with Sehun. That’s not possible, I mean just because he’s good looking, reliable, and trustworthy doesn’t mean I’m in love with him… Although those pink lips of his look very kissable… WHAT THE HECK DID I JUST THINK!?!?’ Luhan gasped in horror at where his thoughts had taken a sudden turn ‘NO NO NO NO NO I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH SEHUN!’

Just then the door to the room opened and a voice called out “Luhan it’s dinner ti-”

Luhan whirled around in his seat to face the doorway thinking that it was probably Sehun and shouted out “I DON’T LIKE YOU!” but stopped short when he saw Tao standing in the doorway with a teary expression.

“Wh- What? You- you don’t like me Luhan?” sniffled Tao. Luhan froze in pure shock at what he just did with his mouth agape, only snapping out of it when Tao suddenly ran out of the room yelling “XIIUUUUUMIIIIIIIINNNNNNN!!!! LUHAAAAAAAN HAAAAAAAAATES MEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”

Luhan quickly gave chase yelling out to Tao who was already down the hall “NO! TAO I’M REALLY SORRY!!! I DIDN’T MEAN TO SAY THAT!!! I WOULD NEVER DISLIKE OR HATE YOU!!!!!”

But it apparently fell on deaf panda ears as an angry sounding Xiumin yelled out “LUHAN!!! WHY IS MY BABY PANDA UPSET!?!?!?”

Causing Luhan to make a hasty retreat while screaming out “IT’S A MISUNDERSTANDING, I SWEAR!!!”

Let’s just say this stage didn’t end well…

            Stage Two – Doubt :

‘There’s no way… right? How could it even be possible that I could have fallen for Sehun…’ Luhan was sitting on the living room couch this time by himself; almost everyone had gone out for breakfast this morning except for the ones who accidentally slept in. Still in his pajamas and contemplating, Luhan decided to turn on the television and saw that a drama was playing and the protagonist was apparently confessing to their love interest. ‘How do they even know if they really fell in love?’ thought Luhan as he continued watching the drama ‘I highly doubt that it’s even that simple, besides it not like these feelings magically appear out of the blue.’

The two characters on the screen suddenly embraced each other and kissed, causing Luhan to blush ‘If I did that with Sehun… NO! NOT AGAIN! I AM NOT THINKING OF THAT!’ Luhan picked up one of the couch cushions and pressed it against his face groaning into it ‘These feelings I have are just confusing, I don’t even know what I feel at that moment what if I’m confusing what love is with a weird rare illness? Since Granny did say love was like a sickness and I couldn’t possibly have really fallen in love with Sehun… right?’

A voice suddenly spoke out “Why are you making weird noises so early in the morning? And why in the world are you watching that overly sappy drama?” Luhan looked up from the pillow and saw that it was a sleepy looking Chen who was asking.

Seeing another person in the same room Luhan suddenly felt the need to blurt out everything that was on his mind “That character is completely irrational I mean who the heck does he think he is to just confess like that to the girl? How does he even know if his feelings are accurate? How could he possibly be so sure of himself? I don’t even know what to think anymore but I doubt what I’m feeling is correct you know what I mean? Like what if I’m just confused? I’m not even sure I mean sure the person I’m thinking about is very important to me but has my feelings reached that type of extent? I mean what if I just contracted a disease or something from all the sweets I’ve been eating? What do you think?” Luhan looked at Chen seriously expecting the other to have understood everything that had just spilled out of his mouth in a garble.

After a minute of silence between the two, Chen shouted out towards his room, “…LAY! DO YOU KNOW ANY GOOD HEALTH PROFESSIONALS ON CAMPUS?! LUHAN NEEDS TO SEE A DOCTOR OR SOMETHING! HE SOUNDS CRAZY!”

“YAH! I DO NOT!” retaliated Luhan chucking the pillow at Chen’s head which missed since the latter dodged it.

Although at that moment Lay walked out of the room with confusion written across his face “What’s wrong?” and got answered with a smack in the face by the couch cushion that had been aimed at Chen.

“LAY!” exclaimed Chen rushing over to check the other “Are you okay?”

“Lay I’m so sorry!” shouted out Luhan.

“It’s okay, it was only a pillow anyways, what’s wrong?” asked Lay kindly as he bent down to pick up the fallen pillow.

“Chen’s spouting nonsense and needs special help from you,” answered Luhan quickly as he escaped to his room to get ready for the day, hearing a “YAH! That’s full of lies!” shout from Chen downstairs.

This stage didn’t really end well either…

            Stage Three – Silence :

“Hasn’t Luhan been oddly… quiet?” asked Suho observing Luhan sitting across the room on the floor from his own seat on the couch next to Kris.

“He seems fine to me,” replied Kris looking over at Luhan as well.

Suho gave Kris a look “Seriously? He’s been just sitting there watching the really sappy drama as if it would give him all the answers in the world and it’s really weird...”

“What do you want him to do?” asked Kris.

“I don’t know maybe get out and get some fresh air? Or at least stop watching the TV,” replied Suho.

“Good point, I want to watch something other than romance dramas on the television screen,” said Kris as he moved to grab the remote off the coffee table to change the channel.

The second the channel was changed however Luhan tipped over sideways and layed there stiffly on the floor. “Uhhh, Kris I think you might want to change the channel back,” said Suho watching Luhan with concern.

Kris nodded and changed the channel back to the sappy drama, watching as Luhan somehow lifted himself back up into a sitting position and watched the screen again.

“Ummm Luhan are you okay?” asked Suho cautiously but received no reply from the other, Suho nudged Kris as a way of telling him to do something.

“Luhan why are you being all silent?” sighed Kris but he also received no answer.

“See, he has been acting weird,” said Suho as he got up and approached Luhan “Hey are you okay?”

Luhan didn’t even react as his eyes stayed focused on the screen, Suho looked over at Kris who was still on the sofa “I’m worried now, where’s Sehun? Shouldn’t he know what’s wrong with Luhan since the two of them usually hang out?”

At the mention of Sehun’s name Luhan became responsive once more as he stood up and announced “No need to bring Sehun into this, I’m perfectly fine! This drama was for research, that’s why I was so focused and silent! Bye!” as he got up and took off out the door thinking ‘Dramas are no help in sorting out my thoughts! I got to find answers somewhere else!’

“…Well at least he’s getting fresh air,” stated Kris as he stared at the door Luhan left ajar.

Suho shot Kris a look of exasperation as he got up to close their dorm door “That’s not what I meant when I wanted Luhan to get fresh air.”

This stage didn’t end well at all…

            Stage Four – Distractions :

“So what are you doing here again?” asked Kai as he stared at Luhan who followed along with him and DO to the arcade.

“To play?” answered Luhan nervously ‘To find a distraction from all my weird thoughts concerning Sehun…’

“I get that but why with us?” wondered Kai because let’s face it, it was beyond strange that Luhan would insist on spending time with just the Kai and DO couple alone.

“Friendship bonding?” replied Luhan smiling sheepishly.

“…Why was that phrased like a question?” asked Kai raising an eyebrow.

Luhan pouted and showed his puppy eyes “Why are you questioning me? Is it that you don’t want me to be here?”

“Kai, stop being mean to Luhan and let him play with us,” said DO instantly falling for Luhan’s pouty look.

“I wasn’t stopping Luhan from playing with us! I was just wondering why he suddenly wanted to come with us to the arcade,” replied Kai defending himself.

“What does it matter? Luhan just wants to spend time with us,” said DO as he pulled on Luhan’s hand to one of the claw machine prize games “Let’s play this one; I’ve been trying to win the wolf plushy in here for days already.”

Luhan looked through the glass window of the claw machine game, viewing the prizes as his eye landed on the wolf plushy that DO mentioned ‘That’s the same plushy that Sehun won for me the last time we were here together!’ Luhan remembered the way that Sehun noticed how he had been staring at the plushy through the glass window during that time they were here getting their revenge on Kris and without even saying a single word, Sehun just placed the tokens in the machine and tried to get the wolf plushy for him. ‘He tried for about three times before he actually managed to win the plushy for me… Sehun is so sweet for someone so indifferent…’ Luhan caught himself before he got too lost in memory lane ‘Ah, I’m here for distractions not to think of Sehun!’ Turning around Luhan told DO “I can give it a try maybe I can get it for you!”

Taking out tokens and placing it into the machine, the amount of credits lit up showing Luhan had one chance to win the plushy. Taking the joystick that controlled the metal claw, Luhan began moving the claw to the position he believed would be able to pick up the wolf plushy and then pushed the red button on top of the joystick to have the claw descend, but the positioning had been off by merely an inch causing the claw to miss the wolf plushy and miss the prize entirely. “Sorry DO I guess I really at this game,” apologized Luhan ‘Sehun made it look a lot easier…’

“Oh no it’s okay! I at this game too so don’t worry about it!” said DO shaking his hands back and forth to emphasize that he didn’t mind.

After watching the two shorter boys attempt the same game but ending up with the same results, Kai stepped forward “I got this, just watch!”

“Okay sweetie, go ahead,” giggled DO as he stepped aside with Luhan.

Kai put his tokens in the machine and began positioning the claw, once deeming that the claw was in a good spot, he pushed the red button on top of the joystick to have it descend, but the position was so off that the claw ended up landing beside the wolf plushy rather than on it as planned. As the claw closed and began lifting, it had apparently caught on to the arm of another plushy, a cute white bear, and began lifting it to the prize box at the corner of the machine. Kai retrieved it once the claw had released the plushy and held it up to DO with a shy smile “Um here you go?”

DO giggled a bit at seeing Kai acting so timid, it almost seemed as if he was afraid DO would have been upset for him winning the wrong plushy. DO took the white bear plushy out of Kai’s hands and gave him a kiss on the cheek “I like this bear plushy better than the wolf one anyways, thank you for winning it for me, you’re the best boyfriend ever.”

Kai grinned happily in response “No problem.”

Luhan saw the cute exchange between the couple and couldn’t help but compare it to the way he received his own plushy from Sehun. Luhan remembered how Sehun was barely able to get the plushy out of the prize drop as Luhan threw his arms around Sehun in a tight hug while telling him “You actually got the prize! That’s amazing I’ve been trying to get that for weeks but I’m really bad at this game!” Sehun stoo