~Chapter 25 – An Indifferent Approach~

            ‘Why does it feel so warm? Is the heater on extra high?’ thought Sehun as he began to awaken groggily, noticing that he felt oddly comfortable despite the dropping temperatures of winter. Opening his eyes gradually, Sehun groaned a bit at the bright morning light of the room, blinking a few times as his eyes began adjusting; his eyes eventually focused enough to allow him to see… Luhan’s face right in front of his own. Sehun’s heart almost stopped for a moment ‘What the-’but then yesterday night’s car ride came back to Sehun ‘Oh right, Granny put us into the same room since the other rooms were going to be used later, that explains why it’s so warm,’ thought Sehun as he peered at Luhan’s peaceful sleeping face ‘Luhan’s almost like a personal heater with all the warmth he’s giving off.’

            Luhan suddenly gave out a small whimper and a groan, scrunching his eyes as he shook off the sleep that was clinging to him, with his vision clearing Luhan rubbed at his eyes. ‘That’s cute,’ thought Sehun as he waited for Luhan to completely wake up. As Luhan opened his eyes and made eye contact with Sehun who was still lying directly in front of him, Luhan’s reaction was instantaneous as he squealed “Sehun!” and then shifted his body in the opposite direction away from Sehun by instinct with more momentum than he should have causing him to tumble off the bed and to the floor in a heap of blanket and bed sheets with a loud thud and a muffled “Owwwww.”

            Sehun sighed ‘How in the world did he even manage to do that?’ as he crawled over to the side of the bed that Luhan fell off of and peered over to ask “Are you okay?”

            Only Luhan’s hand which was in a thumbs up position emerged from the pile of blanket and bed sheets and a muffled groan of “Yeah” sounded out from it. Sehun reached down and grabbed the sheets off the floor, placing them back on the bed to reveal a curled up Luhan lying on the floor staring back at him.

            “You know I didn’t think my bed head would have been scary enough to cause you to practically jump off the bed,” said Sehun nonchalantly as he took notice of the pink that was starting to color Luhan’s cheeks.

            “Ugh, that’s not the problem. What were you doing staring at me!? It shocked me to wake up and suddenly see you with your eyes open and looking at me!” pouted Luhan looking away from Sehun as his cheeks reddened further.

            “I wasn’t staring I woke up about two seconds before you did,” replied Sehun sitting up on the bed as Luhan got up from the floor grumbling so low that Sehun couldn’t hear correctly. “What?” asked Sehun confused.

            “Nothing, let’s get ready for the day,” answered Luhan quickly as he started to shuffle through his drawers to get his change of clothes.

            “Hnn,” was Sehun’s response as he also began getting himself ready for the day ‘Luhan is weirder than usual this morning…’

            After the two finished with their morning routines, they headed downstairs towards the kitchen in search of breakfast. As they approached the two could hear someone was already moving about in the kitchen and upon walking in they saw it was Meili who had been cooking what seemed like breakfast for the three of them.

            “Good morning Granny,” chirped Luhan happily.

            “Morning,” said Sehun quietly.

            Meili turned around to face the two with a smile “Morning boys! Take a seat at the table for a second and I’ll call you to help bring down the food when I finish, I’m almost done.”

            “Okay,” replied Luhan as he took a seat along with Sehun.

            Meili continued with her task as she spoke “So how did you two sleep?”

            ‘There’s definitely going to be more teasing coming,’ thought Sehun as he observed the scene play out before him.

            “Fine,” answered Luhan with a faint coloring of his cheeks.

            ‘His cheeks have been oddly changing shades lately, is Luhan getting a fever?’ thought Sehun as he peered at Luhan.

            “I bet you did Xiao Lu especially since you were sleeping right next to your knight in shining armor Hunnie who could get rid of any nightmares you had,” giggled Meili.

            ‘In three… two… one…’ counted Sehun in his mind amusingly as Luhan let out an outburst of “GRANNY!”

            Meili only laughed more “Okay, okay, fine I’ll stop teasing for now. Come bring this down, I even made your favorite Xiao Lu.”

            “Really!?” asked Luhan as he stood up instantly.

            ‘Whoa that was a really fast reaction,’ thought Sehun.

            Meili nodded and ushered the two over “Yes, now start taking these down.”

            “Yay!” cheered Luhan happily as he rushed over to help.

            Sehun however calmly came over towards Meili and Luhan and helped the two with the food ‘Luhan must be feeling ecstatic right now since he’s going to be eating the dough stick pastry that he likes for breakfast.’

            The three eventually settled down at the table with the food and began eating, with Luhan and Sehun sitting next to each other across from Meili at the table. “Alright, eat as much as you want,” instructed Meili as she began eating.

            After a few moments into breakfast, Sehun couldn’t help but notice that Luhan literally only ate the dough sticks not even bothering with eating the rice or the side dishes and apparently Meili noticed this too.

            “Xiao Lu, eat some of the other things like the vegetables and meat,” said Meili as she picked some of the side dishes up and placed them in Luhan’s bowl.

            “I will, just later,” replied Luhan as he continued to munch on his sixth dough stick.

            “Put it down Xiao Lu, you’re going to get full before you eat your actual breakfast,” said Meili which earned a pout from Luhan “Don’t give me that look.”

            “Fine,” sighed Luhan as he picked up his chopsticks and began picking at his bowl filled with rice and different side dishes.

            “Good, now you’ll get this back after you finish that,” said Meili as she grabbed the plate with the dough sticks on it and placed them on the end of the table away from Luhan.

            ‘Luhan is not going to be happy about that at all,’ thought Sehun as he looked at the moved plate of dough sticks.

            Luhan’s jaw dropped “What!?”

            Meili only shot Luhan a look “Eat.”

            Luhan pouted even more and he continued picking at his food ‘Is he sulking?’ thought Sehun amused. Meili was about to comment about Luhan’s stubbornness but the house phone rang out causing her to instead say “I’ll be right back, eat your breakfast Xiao Lu.”

            The second Granny was out of the kitchen Luhan mumbled “But I don’t want to eat this right now.”

            Sehun looked at Luhan’s sulky expression ‘Ah, he looks so unhappy right now…’ quickly making sure that Granny really was out of the kitchen Sehun reached over to the edge of the table and picked up one of the dough sticks placing it on Luhan’s bowl which surprised the older quite a bit.

            Luhan faced Sehun with wide eyes “Sehun!”

            “Just eat it, I know you wanted another one anyways, stop being so sulky,” whispered Sehun as he observed Luhan’s surprised expression.

            Luhan gave a bright smile at Sehun as he whispered “Thanks Sehun, you’re the best!”

            ‘That bright smile of his, I swear it’s always on his face even if he was pouting just two seconds ago,’ thought Sehun as a flutter ran through his stomach ‘Ugh okay I gotta stop focusing on Luhan, my stomach has been acting up especially with that weird feeling maybe it’s similar to how stomachs growl when it’s hungry? Have I been weirdly hungry often?’

            Sehun began eating his food once again after seeing that Luhan was munching on the dough stick happily, quickly finishing it within a few bites.

            “Ugh,” was a sound that Luhan let out after finishing the dough stick and then gulping down a full cup of soy milk which he poured for himself earlier while they were all setting the table.

            Sehun looked over “What’s wrong?”

            “Um, I’m kind of full…” replied Luhan sheepishly.

            Sehun gave Luhan a blank look “Okay?”

            “Um, I don’t think I can finish the food Granny piled into my bowl…”

            “…Who was the one that wanted to eat about seven dough sticks and drink an entire cup of soy milk?” asked Sehun sarcastically in a monotone voice.

            Luhan pouted “But it was really really tasty Sehun and who knows when I’d be able to eat it again especially when it’s made by Granny and the dough sticks tastes even better with soy milk..”

            Sehun sighed and extended his bowl towards Luhan “Fine, just put your food in my bowl, I’ll finish it for you.” ‘So you can stop pouting already.’

            “What!? But that’s a lot of food! You’re going to get a stomach ache,” said Luhan alarmed at what Sehun suggested.

            “No I won’t, I’ve been hungry lately anyways,” reasoned Sehun ‘Eating should be able to get rid of that weird feeling in my stomach.’

            “But-” Luhan abruptly stopped his sentence when he heard his Granny’s voice from the living room area “Xiao Lu! You better be eating and not munching on more dough sticks!”

            Panicking a bit Luhan answered “Yes, Granny!”

            Sehun kept his usual blank expression on his face as he began scooping the food out of Luhan’s bowl into his own. “Sehun!” whispered Luhan adamantly pulling his bowl away from the younger “You’ll get a stomach ache!”

            Sehun only gave Luhan a blank look “So you’re going to finish that entire bowl before Granny comes back by yourself after ingesting seven dough sticks with a full cup of soy milk?”

            Luhan looked down at his bowl and stared as if contemplating “I can probably eat this since you already took most of it anyways.”

            “Okay, if you say so,” replied Sehun as he scooped food into his mouth, Luhan doing the same. The two eventually managed to finish their food just in time as Granny came walking back into the kitchen “Oh you two are finished?”

            Both Sehun and Luhan nodded, “Really? Xiao Lu you didn’t just shove all your food to Hunnie did you?” asked Meili suspiciously.

            ‘Well technically it would be the other way around since I was the one to volunteer to help Luhan finish it…’ thought Sehun keeping his blank expression on his face.

            Luhan shook his head “No of course not Granny, I finished the entire thing and I’m really full now.”

            ‘Yeah, I’m really full too, and I didn’t even get a chance to eat a dough stick,” thought Sehun already rethinking his decision on eating almost two portions.

            “Hmmmm, alright then,” replied Meili as she sat back down at the table to finish her own breakfast “Oh, Xiao Lu and Hunnie do you want to go to Deer’s Bakery for a little bit? That phone call was the company and the board members were saying there’s just a few more pages of paperwork to finish and turn in which should be quick and then we could spend the day together or do you already have plans already? Don’t let me interrupt your dates or anything,” said Meili grinning.

            “We are not dating!” blushed Luhan.

            ‘Granny really knows how to push Luhan’s buttons’ thought Sehun amusingly. He didn’t really mind the teasing because after all it was just t