~Chapter 38 – Approaching Storm~

            Luhan was awake; actually he was awake for quite some time already and with the Treats Festival going on, classes were cancelled for the time being so Luhan took his time in getting up and just lay curled up against Sehun clinging to the younger who was still asleep.

            The morning came much too soon for Luhan’s liking, but there was nothing he could do about it accept just make the most of it not knowing when Sehun’s parents were going to call him off. ‘Maybe we can just spend the rest of the day together and this time Sehun won’t act so strange as he did yesterday and maybe I won’t have to worry because Sehun wouldn’t lie to me about that. Maybe his parents only want to catch up with him to see how school has been, maybe they’ve changed their minds about being so controlling,’ these doubtful thoughts kept running through Luhan’s mind as he laid there with his head on Sehun’s chest.

            The sudden feeling of something pressing down on his hair startled Luhan a bit before looking up at Sehun’s face, seeing that the younger now had his eyes slightly open with a sleepy expression.

            “What’s wrong? Your face is all scrunched up,” said Sehun groggily as he pressed his lips on Luhan’s hair again.

            Luhan only shook his head, burying his face against Sehun’s chest to hide his face from the younger while mumbling out “You look sleepy, you should sleep some more.”

            Sehun gave a hum as he rubbed his eyes, trying to get out of his groggy state “No it’s fine, let’s go get ready don’t you want to see the rest of the Treats Festival since we only saw about half it yesterday? And the others wanted to explore it with us too.”

            Luhan shook his head again hugging Sehun tighter “I’m fine with just staying in bed if you’re tired.”

            “Mmm, I’m not tired, let’s go, you can get the bathroom first. Let’s spend the day with everyone and have fun like usual,” insisted Sehun as he brought Luhan and himself into a sitting position.

            “But don’t you have-” Luhan looked at Sehun’s blank expression.

            “Don’t worry about it, I’ll go when they call for me but for the time being I want to just enjoy the day,” said Sehun quietly.

             “Okay,” mumbled Luhan not really wanting to make things hard for Sehun by being stubborn. So he reluctantly extracted himself from Sehun and shuffled over to the bathroom to get himself presentable for the day. If Sehun wanted to spend time with him and the others Luhan was fine with it and since he’s not sure what will happen later, he wants to make sure Sehun will enjoy as much of his day as possible.

            After finishing their morning routine, the two headed downstairs only to find that the only ones around were Chen, Lay, Kris, Suho, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun.

            “Where did everyone else go?” asked Luhan confused.

            “They have their shift at the booth today,” answered Kris.

            “Oh, right, I almost forgot,” replied Luhan.

            “Yeah, anyways what are your plans for today?” asked Chanyeol.

            Luhan looked at Sehun who thankfully no longer had a fake smile on his face as he said “We were planning on exploring the second half of the Treats Festival since we only got through the first half the other day.”

            “What? But we already explored the second half, we were planning on exploring the first half today,” replied Baekhyun.

            “Who explores the second half before they explore the first half?” questioned Chen.

            “Apparently us,” muttered Suho “which was why we ended up running all the way back to the booth.”

            Chanyeol and Baekhyun grinned “It all worked out besides it was worth it, the pie that the student council always sells tasted so good and since we were already down in that area why not explore?”

            Kris and Suho only gave the two an exasperated look.

            “Okay then I guess that leaves you four to explore the first half of the festival while us four will explore the second half,” said Chen.

            “Oh and then we can all meet up at the booth when Kai, DO, Tao, and Xiumin finish their shift so we can all hang out together,” added Lay.

            “Sounds like a good plan then,” said Kris as the others nodded and began heading towards the door.

            When the eight of them spilt into two groups to explore their wanted area of the festival, the first booth that Chen, Lay, Luhan, and Sehun looked for was the student council’s pie booth because after hearing Chanyeol and Baekhyun talk about it, they couldn’t help but want some of the dessert for themselves.

            “Where is it?” wondered Chen as he scanned the different booths for any signs indicating it was the student council’s booth. The four of them had been walking for a while now.

            “You don’t think we passed it right?” asked Lay.

            “No way,” replied Chen before a slight pause “Well at least I don’t think so…”

            “Tch clueless as usual,” sneered a familiar voice.

            Luhan, Sehun, Chen, and Lay turned around only to be met with Minsoo and Taegyu.

            ‘Ugh why them!?’ Luhan glanced at Sehun and saw that he had a blank expression on again ‘I wanted Sehun to enjoy his day and these jerks just had to show up.’

            Chen narrowed his eyes at them “You two again? Haven’t you already learned your lesson?”

            Minsoo and Taegyu glared at Chen “At least we know our directions.”

            “Worst come back ever,” deadpanned Chen.

            Lay and Luhan gave a short laugh while Sehun continued eyeing the Minsoo and Taegyu with a blank expression.

            “Whatever! At least we know how to have a good time and don’t get lost while doing it!” exclaimed an embarrassed Minsoo.

            “Then go have your good time instead of bothering us,” shot back Chen with a smirk.

            “We will!” shouted out Taegyu stepping toward Chen.

            “Hey, this is our school’s festival don’t start anything with so many guests around,” said Lay stepping forward.

            Taegyu stopped in his tracks, a smirk spreading across his face “Then why don’t you join us then?” Reaching out Taegyu gripped on to Lay’s wrist, pulling Lay closer to him as Lay yelled out in protest.

            “Hey! Leave him out of this!” shouted Chen instantly grasping onto Lay’s other hand.

            Sehun was about to step in to help out Chen and Lay but Luhan beat him to it.

            “Knock it off!” joined in Luhan the same time Minsoo stepped closer to their squabble.

            Minsoo reached out to grab Luhan’s shirt sleeve to pull him aside “I don’t think so.”

            “Stop!” commanded Sehun his voice rising.

            The five jumped at the sudden command since they never heard Sehun talk louder than average.

            Sehun looked beyond angry at the moment as he said in a calmer voice “Stop. Hands off of them now.”

            “Who are you to tell us-” began Taegyu.

            Sehun’s expression darkened “Now. I’m already in a bad mood thanks to you two, do not make it worse.”

            Minsoo scoffed “Am I supposed to be afraid of you?”

            “No, you should be afraid of us,” said Chen as he took Taegyu’s distraction as a good time to pull Lay away as Sehun reached out to get Luhan.

            “Why should we? It’s not like you can do anything to us because you’ll get in trouble too,” said Minsoo.

            “Not if I tell them you just grabbed me and started the entire mess because you couldn’t control your temper,” retaliated Lay rubbing his wrist.

            “You’re only making things worse for yourselves,” stated Sehun.

            “Hey! Hey! What’s going on?” said one of the staff security approaching the group.

            “See? What did I say? If you’re smart I suggest you stop bothering us period,” said Sehun and Minsoo and Taegyu paled at the thought of getting in trouble.

            By now the security guard was standing in front of the group “Is there a problem?”

            Sehun glanced again at Minsoo and Taegyu who quickly shook their heads “N-No sir we just bumped into them and we were just apologizing! Sorry!”

            The security nodded his head accepting what he was told “Alright be careful from now on though.”

            “Y-Yes,” said Minsoo and Taegyu as they quickly scurried off.

            Once the security guard walked away as well, Chen took a look at Lay’s wrist that Taegyu had grabbed “Are you okay?”

            Lay nodded “It’s fine.”

            Chen was still inspecting Lay’s wrist and saw red spots blooming on the skin “It doesn’t look fine.” Worry was etched all over Chen’s expression.

            “Yeah it looks quite red,” noted Luhan with concern.

            “Chen why not take Lay to see the nurse really quick?” suggested Sehun gently as his eyes caught Lay’s wrist.

            Chen nodded “Okay, thanks Sehun for handling everything and Luhan for standing up against them too.”

            “Yeah thanks you guys,” said Lay.

            “It was nothing you guys tried stopping them too, just head to the nurse and make sure there’s no serious injury,” replied Sehun.

            Chen smiled “You’re really the best;