“What took you so long, Luhannie?” Luhan comes home to a full house. Not only are Yixing, Tao, and Kris lounging in the main room of the small apartment, but so are Jongin, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun.

“Hi guys,” he’s a little surprised to see everyone, but it’s a relatively normal occurrence and doesn’t bother him that much “I had a…lot of school work, sorry.” There is no way that he’s going to tell them that he spent the past hour staring at someone. No way.

Kris puts up a hand “Well sit down, won’t you? It’s Friday for god’s sake. What’re you doing spending so much time on homework, man?”

Luhan shrugs and comes over to the double couch, Chanyeol scooting over so Luhan has room to sit between him and Kris.

Everyone is pretty chilled out for a Friday night. Kyungsoo has his head in Jongin’s lap, and next to him Baekhyun is absentmindedly Chanyeol’s thigh. Chanyeol doesn’t look like he minds very much. Tao has his feet in Kris’s face, who is lying practically on top of Yixing, who is cuddling his guitar. In general, they look like a group of restless but exhausted four year olds.

Once Luhan is settled Baek breaks the silence “Okay Luhannie, we all know that you didn’t spend that much time studying. What were you doing?”

“Well…” He thinks about the crumbled cookie in his pocket, the message that was written on it, watching Minseok make the latte, the closeness of the moment behind the counter, and decides to tell some of the story “I was with a guy.”

This stirs up some excitement among the group of young men “Seriously?” “Aw, I didn’t know you had it in you!” “Was it hot?” “How old is he?” “Do we know him? I bet it was Sehun.” “Does that mean you’re gay? I mean, that’s okay. Homouality is okay. Yeah.”

Luhan is cracking up “No, no…it wasn’t like that. We just sat and…talked. Drank coffee. You know? It wasn’t very gay.”

“Aw.” Everyone is disappointed.

Jongin sighs “And here I thought we were in the presence of a real homoual…” Kris snorts and Baekhyun grins at Chanyeol. Kyungsoo jabs Jongin in the armpit with a pale finger “I know that I’m in the presence of a real homoual. I’m lying in the lap of a real homoual.” The group hoots and Kyungsoo grins darkly, staring at Jongin who says sheepishly “Shh…guys…”

Kris imitates him, raising his voice two octaves higher than normal “Shhh…guyyyyyyyys!” and Tao kicks him in the face “You’re annoying, BenBen.”

“Guys, guys, guys!” Luhan waves his arms to call attention “I was telling a story!”

“Oops. Sorry Luhan. Go on…”

“So anyway. We’re just friends, okay? Just friends.” As he says this, something in the back of his mind is screaming at him. No! It says.Don’t lie to yourself. You’re both into each other and you know it. He ignores it and smiles widely at everyone until Chanyeol says “Dude, you have crumbs coming out of your pocket.”

Luhan had almost forgotten about the cookie. He extracts the broken mess from his pocket, feeling a little bad that this was how Minseok’s gift to him had ended up, and takes a bite. Despite the crumpled appearance it actually tastes pretty great.

“Hey, why do you get a cookie and I don’t?” Baekhyun, always the sarcastic whiner, is pouting at him. Tao joins in, pretending to look hurt and Luhan laughs at them, tossing them each a tiny chunk of the treat “You guys are like pigeons.”

"Why pigeons?”

“Yeah, gathering around me and whining at me until I give you food.”

“Oh. That sure is kind of you, comparing us to pigeons, Luhannie.”

“You took my cookie.”

“If it’s that good a cookie I want some too,” This time it’s Jongin, watching the whole conversation from a reclined position “Come on, you can’t just give some to them and not to meeeeeeee.”

“Do you see this?” Luhan holds up still-crumbling chunk of cookie “I don’t have enough cookie for eight people.”

“Well you could just give it all to me.”

“Oh my god, guys. This cookie is going away.” Luhan gives up and shoves the entire thing into his mouth, accidentally showering Chanyeol’s lap with crumbs. “Gross,” Chan laughs and quickly brushes off his long legs “I asked for cookie, not spitty crumbs.”

“Shush up chadyeor.” Luhan says, mouth full of sugar cookie, getting more crumbs on the couch “I shware to god I lib wish a buch ob kidergartedersh.” He wipes his mouth and swallows his mouthful. Everyone is laughing at him and, once his mouth is empty, he laughs too. But he’s kind of