~Chapter 24 – Winter Break~

            “Alriiiiiight! Winter Break!!!!!” exclaimed multiple occupants in the room excitedly. True to what everyone had said winter break arrived sooner than they expected and the occupants of the tea house dorm couldn’t be any happier for the long awaited break.

            “Plans! Plans! Plans! What are we going to do!?” said Tao excitedly.

            “Videogames!” cheered Chen.

            “Sleep!” exclaimed Kai.

            “Play in the snow!” shouted Chanyeol.

            “…Um did any of you guys forget that we’re supposed to also visit family since after all it is winter break?” mentioned Suho staring at the clearly overly hyper kids.

            Everyone in the dorm stopped what they were doing, it almost seemed like Suho had pushed the pause button as the others stood there for a moment before crashing down from their high.

            “Dang, I forgot my mom wanted me home for winter break!” groaned Baekhyun.

            “My parents too! They called a few days ago and said that it’s been so long since they saw me and were expecting me home this break,” whined Xiumin.

            “My parents were also nagging me to come home for a bit too,” added DO

            “Granny also wanted us to visit her too,” reminded Luhan.

            “Yeah but that’s something I don’t mind because Granny let’s us have fun but my parents are going to sit me down and speak to me about school and grades despite being on winter break,” complained Chanyeol pouting.

            “So what do we all do now?” asked Lay.

            “Alright here’s the plan,” said Kris “Everyone who has to visit family raise your hands.”

            Everyone in the room all raised their hands well except for Sehun “What the-? Sehun you aren’t being nagged to come home for winter break?” asked Suho.

            Sehun shook his head “I didn’t hear anything from them so I’m not bothering to come home.”

            “Ugh dude let take your place, please, I beg of you. Every time I go home my aunt has a tendency to pinch my cheeks whenever she sees me and it hurts dude, it freaking hurts,” said Kai as he began rubbing his cheeks as if reliving the horrific memory and pain.

            “Um no, I’d rather stay at the dorm, thanks,” replied Sehun blankly.

            Kai poked his tongue out at Sehun “Well forget you then.”

            “Okay, okay no arguing, anyways so all of us except Sehun has family to visit right?” confirming Kris as he saw everyone else nod their heads “Okay then we’ll spend the first three days or so of the break visiting our family members or whatever like they wanted to make them happy except Sehun who can do as he pleases and then we can all head over to visit Granny since she’s expecting us to be there. We’ll spend a few days with Granny like we usually do and then head back to the dorm where we can spend the rest of our winter break lazing our butts around since winter break is about two weeks anyways we should be able to do all we want by then, this plan sounds good enough?”

            “Yeah!” replied everyone simultaneously.

            “Good,” nodded Kris “Now we just gotta pack and get ready.”

            Everyone began chattering again as they headed off to their rooms discussing what they had to do with their families and any plans that they have for when they return to the dorm. Entering his room with Sehun following behind, Luhan walked towards his closet and pulled out a red backpack throwing it on his bed as Sehun layed down on his own bed.

            “Ugh packing is always a pain,” complained Luhan quietly as he looked from his drawers filled with his clothes to his red backpack that layed on his bed.

            Sehun having heard Luhan grumble turned over on to his stomach to face Luhan “Do you want help?”

            Luhan jumped a bit, slightly startled that Sehun had heard him and quickly replied while waving his hands around “No it’s okay, besides I’m just being lazy with packing.”

            “You sure?” asked Sehun.

            Luhan nodded his head “Yeah, it’s okay, you can just go back to napping or whatever you were planning on doing.”

            “Alright,” replied Sehun as he his side again facing the wall.

            Luhan stood still for a moment looking at the top of Sehun’s blonde head, debating whether he should bother to ask this question or not for a few moments but in the end decided it would be best to just ask while he still had the courage. “Um, Sehun…” Sehun hummed in response to show Luhan that he was listening ‘I hope this question doesn’t upset him…’ thought Luhan before asking “Are you really not going home for winter break?”

            Sehun didn’t do anything as the question just hung in the air for a while, ‘oh no I guess I really shouldn’t have asked that question,’ thought Luhan feeling guilty “Ah, you can just forget I asked and go back to napping! I’m sorry if the question upse-”

             Sehun cut in with his usual monotone voice “No, I’m not going home, my parents didn’t bother to tell me anything so it’s fine if I just stay here.”

            “Oh…” replied Luhan as he frowned a bit ‘But wouldn’t his parents have wanted to see after being gone for so long? He is their son after all. …It’s probably best not to ask anything more for now but won’t he be lonely just staying here waiting for the rest of us to come back to go see Granny?’

            “Yeah, it’s not like I wanted to see them or anything,” mumbled Sehun quietly but Luhan managed to hear it anyways.

            Luhan had felt saddened as he looked at Sehun lying on the bed and couldn’t help himself when he blurted “Why don’t you come with me to Granny’s house? Everyone is going to head there anyways and this can save them a trip from picking you up from the dorm and you won’t be lonely while we’re away.” Luhan’s eyes widened at what he just said ‘What did I just let out of my mouth!?’ holding his breath Luhan waited for a response from Sehun.

            The younger turned over on his stomach again to face Luhan “Won’t that inconvenience Granny?”

            Letting go of the breath he was holding Luhan shook his head “No, not at all she lives in a freaking mansion so I’m sure there’s more than enough room for not only us but all the guys too and she won’t mind seeing you again. Worst case scenario is she’ll probably tackle the both of us to the floor in a hug when we knock on the door.”

            Sehun gave a small laugh “Okay.”

            Luhan’s expression instantly perked up “Okay? So you’ll come along?”

            “Yeah I’ll come along with you to see Granny,” said Sehun pausing a moment as if thinking over what to say he added “Ah, I think I may be becoming attached to you and the guys, it’s been pretty fun with everyone around so it’ll be weird for me to suddenly have it all quiet in the dorm for a few days.”

            Luhan felt it once more, the warming of his cheeks and the flutters in his stomach as a hope filled his chest ‘Sehun is becoming attached to me?’ he began to stutter out “G-Gr-Great um l-let’s pack to-together then.”

            Sehun shot Luhan a sudden small smile that nearly stopped Luhan’s heart “I hate packing, I’ll do it later.”

            “What!? I thought you were indifferent! How could you actually hate something like packing!? Wait if you hated packing then why the heck did you offer me help earlier?” asked Luhan shocked that Sehun would actually admit something like that.

            “Okay maybe hate was the wrong word to use, I am indifferent it’s just I meant that packing for myself is tedious and I offered you help because it looked like you needed it,” answered Sehun burying his face back into his pillow as he yawned.

            ‘Oh he must be tired,’ thought Luhan as he took note of how Sehun’s eyes were beginning to fight to stay open ‘He looks cute when he’s sleepy, it must have been all those late nights he stayed up to study for the exams most of the teachers have been giving before we go on vacation.’ “Yeah, yeah, I’m not five I could pack by myself,” pouted Luhan as he turned towards his drawers again.

            Sehun lightly scoffed before mumbling sleepily “You look five.”

            “I do not!” retorted Luhan turning around to face Sehun only to see that the latter had his eyes closed and was now breathing slow and steadily ‘Ah, he fell asleep!’

            Sighing Luhan grabbed a blanket off his bed and approached Sehun covering the younger with it ‘You are so lucky I like you enough to make sure you won’t catch a cold or something especially since it’s freezing right now with all the snow we’re getting.’ Taking a moment to look at Sehun sleeping peacefully, Luhan felt his own expression softening ‘Sweet dreams Sehun…’

            Walking back towards his bed, Luhan stared at his still unpacked bag and grimaced ‘Ugh packing, I almost wish I was indifferent to this…’

            The next morning after everyone had finished with their packing and telling their family members that they were on their way, the twelve occupants of the tea house dorm stood at the front gates of their school to wait for their rides.

            “My car’s here, I guess I’m heading out first,” said Xiumin as he took note of the sleek black car approaching the school gates.

            “Alright, remember that after our family visits we’ll be meeting up at Granny’s place in Incheon, got it?” asked Kris as the others nodded in response “Good because my ride is also here I’ll see you in three days Suho,” leaning down Kris quickly placed a kiss on Suho’s lips which caused the shorter to turn a light pink and turned towards the others who were snickering “And I’ll see you dorks later too.”

            “YAH!” yelled out Chanyeol, Kai, and Tao as Kris chuckled and got into his car waving at them through the window with a smirk on his face.

            “Tch Kris as usual,” complained Baekhyun jokingly.

            Everyone eventually got picked up and headed to their locations including Luhan and Sehun who were the fifth ones to get picked up. The car ride wasn’t for very long since the two of them just slept for most of the way to Incheon. When the two finally arrived at Meili’s house, Luhan walked up to the door to knock but didn’t even get the chance to so much as lift his arm before the door just sprang open and Meili’s arms were flung around the two boys in a suffocating hug.

            “Xiao Lu! Hunnie! You’re both here!” squealed Meili happily with her arms still holding tight on to the two.

            Returning the hug Luhan squeaked out “Yeah great to see you Granny but you’re hugging us a little too tight.”

            Meili loosened her hold a bit and smiled widely “Sorry boys I was just excited at see you two again! Come inside and hand your bags to the maids, they’ll take it up to the room for you.”

            Walking into the large house, Sehun and Luhan both thanked the maids as they came to take their bags while Meili ushered the two to come sit down on the living room sofa where there were snacks and drinks placed on the coffee table.

            “So how’s everything so far? When can I expect your wedding?” asked Meili nonchalantly as if it was just any ordinary question.

            Luhan who was drinking some of the tea that had been placed on the table spit it out immediately and began coughing in surprise as Sehun patted Luhan’s back to prevent him from choking, “W-WH-WHAT THE HECK!?!?”

            “Aw Xiao Lu you made a mess,” pouted Meili a